quotas

Restrict printer usage in OS X

The default configuration for printers in OS X is relatively basic and offers you options to essentially add or remove a printer and then set some driver-specific features such as the amount of RAM or duplexing details; however, you may wish to have more options for managing access to your printer, such as limiting access to one printer and not another, or requiring a password to print.

The easiest way to administer these options for printers is via network access, where if you share the printer you can limit which users will have access to it over the network. Doing … Read more

How to limit user disk space with partitions and quotas in OS X

One drawback to having multiple users on OS X is there is no easy way to limit the amount of disk space used by that user. If a user has write access to a file system, then they can fill the drive until there is no space left for others. For the most part this just takes some chatting with the other members of a household or workplace, but to avoid confrontations you can set up the system in various ways to limit a user's disk space use.

Partitions

If you know exactly how many people will be using … Read more

Stupid hybrid tax incentive quotas

I already own a hybrid (a Ford Escape) but am toying with the idea of going for the gusto by trading in the old Ford for a gas-sipping Honda Civic or Toyota Prius hybrid. When I bought my Ford, Uncle Sam sweetened the deal by giving me a tax credit of around $2,000, so my expectation was a similar financial incentive if I went for a more economical model. Not so fast! In its infinite wisdom, the federal government created one of the dumber set of guidelines you could ever imagine.

Once a manufacturer (for instance, Ford, Honda, Toyota, … Read more