And like any craptastic method of making sure one has an easy time of making an article/blog post/etc. a set of pros and cons as to what I like and dislike about Chrome/Chromium)

Pros:

• Super fast, uses a newer version of WebKit than Safari. (If you like Safari but want the new versions of WebKit - use nightly.webkit.org - will never use Vanilla Safari again)
• Automatically updates itself silently (Chrome only, Chromium must be manually updated
• Updates often so new features and bug fixes in WebKit show up quite quickly.
• Bookmark Sync (this came online last week). Awesome.
• If one tab crashes the entire program doesn’t crash. Huge. Not as huge since Safari started sandboxing Flash but huge none the less.

Cons:

• Silently installs an auto updater that is hard to remove and impossible to control in a managed environment.
• Extension support not easily accessible
• Bookmark Management is near non-existent. It’s a completely broken feature at this time.
• No Click To Flash yet. Flash Blocker is a poor substitute.
• Tabs just become a set of mountains when too many are open.
• Top Sites look alike feature isn’t as customizable. Oddly I use Chrome’s Top Site feature but not Safari’s.

I like it a lot but I believe calling it a beta is disingenuous. A beta usually refers to something feature complete and in bug testing. My usage however says that it’s very solid but that new features are being added all the time. The reality is that Google Chrome is being treated like a web application - iterated fast and often and there is no real distinction between alpha, beta or a final “1.0” version number. Just a stable and unstable branch and the version number to correspond to where development is at.

It’s a bit more chaotic but represents a change in how developers can approach development, after all there are no instances of a user using a version 3 or 4 versions old when you make sure everyone is using the latest version all the time.

When a network share is mounted in Leopard it does not appear in the Finder sidebar on it’s own - it is accessible via the server it is on if you have Connected Servers checked off in the Finder preferences. At work we have Back to My Mac, Connected Servers, and Bonjour Servers all hidden by default because they do little to assist anyone in finding anything. (Not to mention Back to My Mac isn’t used and Bonjour Servers lists every computer in the building). Your one alternative was to navigate back to the Computer (Command-Shift-C) and find your Volume there - instead what you can do is drag a Network share to your sidebar (or press Command-T when it is selected) where if mounted it will appear.

What I wanted to do was make it so they would automatically appear no matter what was connected - making the change more future proof. I ultimately failed to do so but I did learn the following tidbits about com.apple.sidebarlists.plist:

Under :systemitems:VolumesList (PlistBuddy syntax in use) you have a list of different hard drives and such that have been plugged into your computer - and if you happen to add a share to your sidebar this portion is what is changed.

Each Item consists of:

• An Alias (Data) - This is the base64 decoded form of a _CFULRAlias (identical to as seen in com.apple.dock.plist)
• EntryType (Integer) - I found the codes for several different types:
  16: Special Access (Computer, iDisk, Network)
  261: Hard Drive (and ZFS Pool)
  517: Time Machine
  515: USB Drive
• Icon (Data) - Again this is Hex but if you have a hex editor (such as Hex Fiend) but is the form “ImgR? SYSL fldr” (Default Finder Folder icon) with two fields separating each section. The default for a server icon is: 496d6752 0000001c 00000000 5359534c 00000010 00000000 73727672
• Visibility (string)(optional) - Can be NeverVisible or AlwaysVisible. In this case we want AlwaysVisible.

My big issue in not being able to figure it out was that I couldn’t figure out through research how to write the necessary alias data that is being looked for by com.apple.sidebarlists.plist . James Reynolds created the dockit.c program. Tweaking the program so it’s start and end points only included the CFURLAlias data (329 and 326 respectively) gave me the base64 encoded information that you see when editing an XML version of the Dock or Sidebarlists plists - but using PlistBuddy to input the information did no good.

So what I ended up doing instead was to use one computer to mount all the possible shares put them in the sidebar (since they’re hidden when not mounted it’s fine having shares that wouldn’t even be mounted) and then push out the changes via MCX. It’s not perfect but it works and it will make finding the shares much easier. I’m hoping this entry helps someone else on their search for getting such a script created.

Thanks to the following places for information:
CocoaDev (note: The Alias data when viewed in an xml plist is base64 encoded - but not in Property List Editor)
JeremyForPresident
MacOSXHints

I had been expecting it to either ignore or dump the downloads as a user interaction flaw but it stepped up and made it feel seemless - at least to the point that I forgot to sync the iPhone again after the downloads finished meaning I had to download the updates again on the iPhone today after I’d left the house.