XYMer's Home away from Home

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4504160?tstart=0

I assume that's what they used...

Don't have time to check the link (General strike tomorrow and I have to take the early train into Barcelona) but I don't remember any umbrella icon in Tiger. I suppose he could try running SL through a virtual machine, load the software that way (if it runs) and rescue the files.

_________________
VILA: They missed us! Avon's gadget works!
BLAKE: [to Avon] Is something wrong?
AVON: It just occurred to me, that as the description of a highly sophisticated technological achievement, 'Avon's gadget works' seems to lack a certain style.

Ah, thanks for the suggestion.

He could pull the SATA HD out of the G5 and plug it in - via USB to SATA bridge - to the Mini, then use the Migration Assistant to move files & accounts and everything else over.

Thanks, I was wondering if MA would recognize whatever they used with Backup.app.

I don't believe so. In fact I don't remember Backup.app at all.

MA can handle the iMac's HD, if he can get it cracked open and connected externally.

The backup application was supported until last year as part of...oh God whatever Apple was calling their online services until most recently. I didn't realize the application backed up in a proprietary format (I never used it). That sucks. I absolutely would not use Apple software to back up my data, nor to do anything with data I might ever care about in the arbitrarily distant future, if it involved an undocumented proprietary format. Apple's attention span isn't long enough to guarantee data will be recognizable in the future. (And yes, this applies to iWork applications and software like Aperture -- at least with the latter some of the raw data are stored in a partially accessible package).

- Anonymous

Indeed, can anybody reach me on my dot mac addy for life???

I think Apple did something similar with its OS9 Security Tool which allowed you to encrypt files. AFAIK they never produced an OSX native application to decrypt those files later. I have big issues with file formats and hope that some day governments get around to introducing legislation to keep documents accessible 'forever'.

_________________
VILA: They missed us! Avon's gadget works!
BLAKE: [to Avon] Is something wrong?
AVON: It just occurred to me, that as the description of a highly sophisticated technological achievement, 'Avon's gadget works' seems to lack a certain style.

They could at the very least release specification for the file format. It's not like they need it anymore. It's abandoned, so release the spec.

Another positive upside of that approach would be that developers might be slightly more likely to design a file format specification, a task it seems they sometimes approach rather haphazardly (brow furrowed in Microsoft's direction circa 1995).

As for decrypting those files, I can't help you, but if you wan to encrypt files on OS X it's pretty easy with OpenSSL:
openssl <cipher> -salt -in <path to file to encrypt> -out <path specifying where file should be saved>

Where <cipher> is one of: aes-128-cbc, aes-128-ecb, aes-192-cbc, aes-192-ecb, aes-256-cbc, aes-256-ecb, base64, bf, bf-cbc, bf-cfb, bf-ecb, bf-ofb, camellia-128-cbc, camellia-128-ecb, camellia-192-cbc, camellia-192-ecb, camellia-256-cbc, camellia-256-ecb, cast, cast-cbc, cast5-cbc, cast5-cfb, cast5-ecb, cast5-ofb, des, des-cbc, des-cfb, des-ecb, des-ede, des-ede-cbc, des-ede-cfb, des-ede-ofb, des-ede3, des-ede3-cbc, des-ede3-cfb, des-ede3-ofb, des-ofb, des3, desx, idea, idea-cbc, idea-cfb, idea-ecb, idea-ofb, rc2, rc2-40-cbc, rc2-64-cbc, rc2-cbc, rc2-cfb, rc2-ecb, rc2-ofb, rc4, rc4-40, seed, seed-cbc, seed-cfb, seed-ecb, seed-ofb, or zlib, although some of those will do neither what you expect nor anything useful in this context. I recommend aes-128-cbc.

To decrypt:
openssl <cipher> -d -in <path to file to decrypt> -out <path specifying where the decrypted file should be saved>

NOTE: I suspect but cannot immediately prove that openssl generates the AES encryption key using the sha1 hashing algorithm. Your mileage may vary.

- Anonymous