Only backup what is important to you
Tales of migrating an archive system Over the years I’ve trusted Archiware P5 to protect large storage systems by copying to tape archives. It really is the best system for my clients. It works. I’ve used it to restore entire failed storage. Backups are great. Restores are better! And Archiware have been great to entertain [ ]
This week I built a sort of munki-pkg replacement app called PKGBuilder. Drag a file or folder and make an Apple package (pkg) installer for the destination you want. I wanted a Mac app version, and the original project required python and that s not installed by default any more on macOS (though Mac Ports or [ ]
While all my post production and media colleagues from around the world gather for NAB to discuss cool new storage hardware, and awesome backup and archive software (shout out to Archiware !!) I have been coding steadily at home working on my Media Trust Tools. Today I m releasing v2.2. build 2 with many new features [ ]
Why I stopped worrying and built my own MHL verification apps If you work in post-production long enough, you learn a simple truth: Copying files is easy. Trusting those copies is the hard part. That is a big part of why I have been building tools at code.matx.ca for archive, verification, and post-production workflows. A [ ]
Make apps, solve problems A future blog post about using AI tools in production is coming up soon, but in the meantime building apps to solve everyday problems continues in my post-production video creation creative world. I m the storage, workflow, backups, Mac management, techno healer. My clients are the creatives. They make cool stuff, so [ ]
DiskEncrypter a shared shell script helps the world A Community Code Evolution Story: From Simple Utility to Security Tool Introduction What started as a straightforward 515-line bash script in October 2022 has evolved into a, uh, slightly more complicated, 1,125-line enterprise-grade encryption enforcement system. This is the story of how a simple external drive [ ]
SetDefaultAppsX A Community-Driven Evolution From Enterprise Lock-In to Universal macOS Tool When Scott Kendall released his SetDefaultApps script in December 2025, it solved a real problem: giving users a friendly GUI with swiftDialog to set their default applications using scriptingOSX s utiluti for file types, URLs, and protocols on macOS. It worked beautifully—but only if [ ]
Why build an app to check macOS updates? Managing a fleet of macOS devices through SimpleMDM often requires constant vigilance over security updates, encryption status, and OS versions. What started as a practical shell script for checking device security status evolved into a full-featured native macOS application. This is the cold/flu season inspired adventure of [ ]
Using a REST API to code a bunch of useful apps Background: I released some scripts to help users manage Archiware P5 servers on code.matx.ca with a first blog post as a background to the scripting approaches of cli vs REST API and then I discussed my cute Platypus built apps and my first swift/swiftUI [ ]
This is a blog post about an app, there are many of them but this is mine. How I made a swift app in Xcode but took the long way round to get there. And an even longer post to tell the story. I recently posted about some scripts I released on github to help [ ]