devlogic.org » 2005 » September

software mini-review: Cisco VPN client 4.7 (Mac)

devlogic — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:05:25 +0000

Specifically, version 4.7.00 (0510), which I believe is the newest release.

Bottom line: it works.Â

Previous versions, up to and including the release immediately prior to this one, had trouble with split-tunnel traffic routing.Â Those problems are resolved, as far as I can tell.Â It worked like it was supposed to yesterday evening when I connected to the VPN at work (which uses some pretty complicated split tunnels), in order to reboot something.

That's all...

Screenshot

devlogic — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 08:29:55 +0000

I was bored, so here's a screenshot of my current desktop. It's kinda boring, but there's a nice long list of apps in the Dock.

Click for full-size version.
Application list (i.e., what all those pretty pictures do) after the bump.

Finder
Dashboard
Safari
Firefox (1.5 beta 1)
Opera
Thunderbird
Mail.app
NetNewsWire
ecto
Cyberduck
Unison
Skype
Cisco VPN Client
Address Book
iCal
Terminal
iTunes
iPhoto
System Preferences
AdiumX
TextWrangler
TextEdit
Stickies
Preview
Adobe Bridge
Photoshop
ImageReady
Illustrator
DVD Studio Pro
GarageBand
Megaseg (I'm just trying this one out; might do a podcast)
Excel
Word

Plus, in the menubar on the right, Quicksilver, SlimBatteryMonitor, and MenuCalendarClock.

Nifty, eh?

like “Welcome Back, Kotter”, only good

devlogic — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:24:22 +0000

I'd like to give a big shout out to rabidchild, back from his foray to the dark continent (that's Africa, ya know).

AppleCare Rocks!

devlogic — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 20:05:21 +0000

For the last week or two, I've been getting double-strikes on my iBook G4's keyboard.Â (Double-strike: hit a key, get two letters).Â I decided to go into my local Apple store (the one at Barton Creek Square Mall) and have on of the "geniuses" take a look at it.Â I was initially disappointed because of the long projected wait (I put my name on the list around 2:00, and it said my expected service time would be at 4:30), but it's 3:00 now, and I've been home, chilling and reading through my email, for about the last 10 minutes.Â It was amazing how quickly my problem was addressed, diagnosed, and scheduled to fix.Â If they'd had spare keyboards in stock, the problem would have been fixed in about 10 minutes; as it is, I'll probably swing by either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon and have the new one installed.Â And the best part is, with the 1-year manufacturer's warranty, I pay nothing.Â Well, I have to pay for my gas to get to the mall, but hey... at least I'm not paying for the $54 replacement keyboard.Â Maybe I will sign up for that extra 2 years.

(Leaf?) Blowers

devlogic — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 10:14:47 +0000

I can understand why it's necessary to use a leaf blower to clean sidewalks off after mowing.Â It's irritating, and who ever cared about a few hundred tiny pieces of cut grass, but whatever.Â

What I don't understand is why the landscaping company that handles the grass at my apartment complex felt it necessary yesterday to use those damn noisemakers twice.Â The first time was around 9:15, just after they finish edging (ya know, weedwhackers?). That's cool, I'd just gotten out of the shower and was about to go to bed.Â That lasted for a while, and I settled down to fall asleep.Â Then the mowers start in, and that keeps me up.Â OK, now it's 10:30 and I really want to fall asleep.Â Mowers finally turn off, great.Â And then the leaf blowers start up again?Â Couldn't they have saved themselves 30 minutes (or more) of work by waiting to get rid of the clippings until the very end?Â Don't even get me started on the fact that there's not really any grass within 20 or 30 feet of my bedroom window, but they apparently still felt it necessary to blow gravel around or something, right outside of said window.Â As it was, I didn't really manage to get to sleep until well after noon (mild insomnia, plus all the noise, plus the fact that I didn't fall asleep fast enough so I got hungry again, etc etc etc).Â OK, so it was actually some time between 2:30 and 3 before the glorious attack of the Z's.Â I got about 8 hours of sleep (more or less), but now my body clock is going to be fucked up for the rest of the week.

Thanks, landscaping guys.Â You really brightened my life.Â Can we do this again next Tuesday, when I'll get maybe 6 hours of sleep (if I'm lucky) before my weekly conference call at 3 (which is also always on Tuesday)?Â I mean, I managed to get out of it this week, but it makes me look bad if I miss it too often...

TLAP Day

devlogic — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:07:01 +0000

Hey, you! Don't forget that today is September 19th, Talk Like A Pirate Day! [link]

Final Fantasy: Advent Children

devlogic — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 08:54:19 +0000

I just finished watching Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, and . . . wow. It's like a 90-minute-long cutscene, only in a good way. Square-Enix really outdid themselves with this one. Voice acting (so far as I could tell, since it's in Japanese) was superb, the action scenes were amazing, and at one point what started running through my head was Belushi's line from The Blues Brothers - "We're getting the band back together!"

Even if you never played Final Fantasy VII, and shame on you for that, you should definitely check this movie out. Think "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", only way less crappy (and with 100% less Ben Affleck). I have no idea when it'll be out in the States, but there's always the Internet. Or a region-free DVD player; it's definitely out in Japan. Only trick there is that I'm pretty sure it's not subtitled in English on the Region 2 disc, and it's definitely not dubbed. So if you don't speak Japanese, the Internet is the way to go; fansubbers are even crazier than most people.

Correction: OK, so while I've been saying this for the last couple of days, IMDB has proven me wrong. Advent Children has 100% of the Ben Affleck that Spirits Within had (i.e., none at all), but it has 100% less Alec Baldwin (not sure if that's a good thing or not).

Quick link - Google Blog Search: devlogic

devlogic — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 09:11:31 +0000

Google Blog Search: devlogic:
Woohoo!Â Of the 18 results for the search string "devlogic" on the new Google Blog Search, I have the top 18 spots.Â That's right, all of them.

I guess nobody else has a weblog with "devlogic" involved.

Now that’s marketing!

devlogic — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 05:54:29 +0000

Sun recently came out with some ads, which the WSJ is refusing to run, that are some of the funniest advertising I've seen in a while.Â Jeff Powell's website, nosce te ipsum, was where I found them originally, but Slashdot had a link to the originals on Sun's website.Â I'm having a hard time choosing my favorite, but "Benchmark studies prove that Dell sucks" is winning so far.

Compiling Evidence

devlogic — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:33:02 +0000

I'm sure there's a better solution, but since my compiles of the CVS version of Evidence kept failing, here's the solution I used:

First, keep in mind that I've installed all of my e17 binaries, libs, includes, etc. in /opt/e17. If you have put your e17 binaries in a different location, you'll need to modify these directions. But if you're compiling the CVS version of Evidence (or anything else, for that matter), you should already know that.

Anyway, in the Makefile of each of the following directories, add "-I/opt/e17/include" to the end of the DEFAULT_INCLUDES line. The directories:

src/thumbnailer/epeg
src/thumbnailer/xine
src/gui/common
src/gui/efl/common
src/gui/efl/icon_view
src/gui/gtk2/common
src/gui/gtk2/icon_view
src/providers/image
src/actions/backdrop
src/actions/tile
src

Now, keep in mind that this step was necessary for me to even finish compiling Evidence; I have no idea if it runs yet (still at work). I'll know more in the morning, and an update (hopefully a one-liner) will follow shortly after testing.

Update: it appears to work.