Archive for the 'Technical' Category

Post more often, eh? Well, here’s a three-fer.

I decided yesterday that I needed more delineation between work and home, so I set up an additional user on my iBook. Now, when I’m at work, I can log in as “pleonard”, and when I’m at home, I can log in as “devlogic”.

The trouble is, there’s a lot of files that I think I need access to in both accounts. And sorting through everything is kind of a pain in the neck.

It’s only been a day or so (and I’ve got a cold, so I’m actually moving more slowly than usual), but I think that by and large I’ve got most of it sorted out. I still have to wade through the “Documents” folder, as well as my local source code repository (I should really set up a SVN repository for that).

I found out how to share an iTunes library between both accounts (because I do listen to music at work, and don’t want to limit myself to only what fits on my new iPod touch). I took those directions one step further, though, and chgrp’d the whole directory to “staff” (since both accounts are administrator accounts, that should work), and chmod’d the whole mess g+w as well, so that I can update tags and add new stuff from both accounts.

All of the old iPhoto library moved across to the new username, and I copied all of the ssh settings, because I don’t want to keep track of two separate private keys. My old terminal custom settings decided not to agree with what I wanted, but I decided that the “Pro” profile looked better anyway, so that was a pretty easy adaptation to make.

Ecto moved entirely over to the “home” account, since I shouldn’t be blogging while I’m at work anyway, and since NetNewsWire syncs with NewsGator online, it was really easy to get that working on both accounts as well.

Adium was a bit of a decision to make, because having it in two places means I’ll have two different accounts to sort through if I ever want to search through my message logs. I went ahead & copied everything I had as of Friday into both the “home” and “work” accounts, and I think I’ll just deal with the disparity. That, and the fact that I don’t really chat that much when I’m at home (at least, I haven’t for a good long while). I did delete my work-related IM accounts from the “home” Adium’s settings, though; no sense in tempting myself.

I’m not, however, looking forward to getting my calendar working properly. I think I’ll start by looking for a caldav solution; that way I can just sync both accounts (and the multiple calendars on each) via the calendar server, so updates from either end should show up on both calendars.

Hopefully, when I finally have enough to buy a new MacBook, I’ll have gotten used to this, and will be able to transition well enough without too much hassle. So far, I’m really liking it. I don’t use my bluetooth devices at home (they’re locked in my desk at work when I’m not there), and SynergyKM, while cool, isn’t much use when I don’t actually sit at my workstation. That, and switching between its profiles was tedious, because I’d frequently forget and then start wondering why it wasn’t working.

In other news, I have a beard again. It’s not out of some desire to have one, just more that I’ve been too lazy (or otherwise occupied) to shave. I’m trying to decide if I want to keep it around. I’m pretty sure Heather doesn’t like it, but I remember liking the way the beard made my face look back before I shaved it off a few years ago. Plus there’s the fact that I’m (still) overweight, and the beard draws attention away from my developing double-chin. Oh, well.

I made Pad Thai on Thursday evening. It turned out very good, although the soup that I made to go with it ended up nigh-inedible. Saltier than those liquorices that are on my desk at the office, and not really what I was going for at all. I’ll have to keep looking, because I know I can find a good recipe for a coconut curry soup that doesn’t taste like ass. Anyway, the Pad Thai was very good, although I think next time I’ll just take a few extra minutes to make each portion separately, rather than both at once. It took a little too long to make two servings at once, and the noodles turned out mushier than I like. They were also clumping together pretty badly. But with some (i.e., a lot) extra paprika, it was pretty close to some of the restaurant pad thais that I’ve had in the past. Definitely more flavorful than what I get at Java Noodles, but a lot of work. I think the more often I make it, the more seasoned my wok will get, though, so that’s a big argument in its favor. But fish sauce is both expensive and pretty horrid-smelling, so I may try to find another ingredient to take its place. I’ve got enough tamarind paste to last me until next year, though; one block of tamarind pulp makes a LOT of paste; I filled up a full quart mason jar, and that’s after I pulled half of a cup out to make the pad thai sauce. No pictures of anything, unfortunately. But that’s a good thing; I neglected to clean the kitchen before I started cooking, so it looked like a restaurant supply store had collided with a compost heap by the time I was done. It took 2 loads in the dishwasher plus about an hour of hand-washing before things looked reasonable again.

Bah, back to basics

I upgraded to Wordpress 2.3 a few moments ago, and as a result all of the themes I like seem to have broken. So it’s back to the Kubrick variant until I find time to write and/or steal a different theme.

IPP and mDNS via avahi on Debian

I tried to set up a remote printer at home this morning. It was easier than last time, but still a bit of a pain in the neck. So I’m posting this in the hopes that someone else will benefit from my work.
Continue reading ‘IPP and mDNS via avahi on Debian’

Test of CricketMoods

I installed a plugin that gives me those silly “Current Mood:” lines on posts. So I’m testing it out. I’ll probably try it for a couple days and decide that this isn’t livejournal, and turn it back off…

Ah, hard drives

So the nice 120-GB drive that I installed a back in February has started clicking. This is a bad thing. It probably means that the drive head is snapping to one extent or the other of its travel distance. If it happens enough, the drive will permanently fail. As it is, it’s sometimes enough of an error that my laptop will stop recognizing the drive altogether, and I get the nice “no hard drive detected” logo when I reboot.

Needless to say, I am not pleased with this situation.

Luckily, WD has already approved my RMA, and is shipping me an advance replacement. New drive should be here in a week or so (I estimate), and I’ll buy a UPS Ground label (about 6 bucks) and ship the bad drive back to them. I’ll be doing a full random-wipe before I ship it, of course.

There are two irritating parts about all of this.

First (and, I think, the more time-consuming of the two), I need to do a full backup of the old drive, and restore onto the new one. Hopefully this won’t be too bad; I should be able to do it all without too much heartache. The bad part is just waiting for the stupid backup to finish; last time I tried, it ran for about 5 hours before I killed it (and came to work). I think I’ll start the new backup when I get home in this morning, and then do a “catch-up” run when the new drive arrives. Of course, the alternative is to just wait until the drive arrives, then hook it up in the USB enclosure and do the backup straight to that drive instead of using an interim device. Yeah, that’s a great idea. I’ll obviously still be doing a full backup anyway onto the other 120 that I’ve got in the enclosure right now, but I like this other idea; it’ll save me boatloads of headache.

Oh, yeah: second - I have to open my laptop again. And since I don’t have a MacBook, it means about 40 bazillion tiny screws and other pieces instead of just 4 screws and a small memory shield. But this is relatively inexpensive (I just have to pay for return shipping), so I’m willing to accept the hassle. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t done it several times before:

1. I installed the new hard drive
2. When installing the new HD, I forgot to reconnect the mouse. Took laptop apart again to fix that.
3. I installed the new bluetooth module
4. I installed the new SuperDrive
5. When installing the new SuperDrive, I again forgot to reconnect the mouse cable. Grr.

So this will only make the sixth time I’ve had to open it up, and this time I actually have a “black stick” (it arrived the day after the SuperDrive did).

What do I think of MacWorld SF ‘06?

So Apple announced a lot of new stuff on Tuesday at MacWorld San Francisco; am I impressed?  Let’s see:

Steve Jobs started off with the usual crap about Apple sales and revenue; that doesn’t really mean anything to me.  I guess it’s nice that Apple is making money, but it’s not all so exciting to someone who isn’t a stockholder.

And then the new product announcements (AKA the stuff I actually wanted to hear about):
iPhoto 6:  OK, so it’s iPhoto, but they added “photo casting”.  Way to take a meme and expand it, Apple.  So this is really just a way to subscribe to an iPhoto collection that’s been shared.  It’s nice that it’s not permanently linked to .mac, but I’m not sure how useful it’ll be, until 3rd-party applications (like, for example, the popular “Gallery” PHP photo-gallery) reverse-engineer the protocol to add support, so that you can view these “photo casts” online before you subscribe to ‘em.  And apparently there’s new photo-editing features, like a full-screen mode and “instant edits” (or whatever terminology Apple uses).  Nifty.  But I’ve got Photoshop.  And Adobe’s new Lightroom (the free public beta is only for the Mac right now) seems to be a replacement for both iPhoto and Aperture, so iPhoto may take a back seat once Adobe pushes Lightroom out of beta.  Pass.
GarageBand 3: Hm.  Let’s see:  all that really changed in GarageBand this time was the addition of the podcast creator.  Granted, it’s way easier to use than Mega Seg or CastBlaster.  But I don’t make podcasts (yet); what’s the point for me?  Pass, until I decide to start writing music or recording a podcast.
iWeb:  This is apparently the “new thing” from Apple’s software division.  OK, it’s a nice web page editor.  The templates are kinda neat, but I’m limited to only using the templates; there’s not an easy way (that I’ve seen so far) of creating my own templates (or, for that matter, starting with a blank page).  Yeah, I can take X random template and modify it to fit my needs, but that’s not really the same thing, ya know?  Maybe Apple will sell “iWeb Theme Packs” just like they sell “Jam Packs” for GarageBand.  Ooh, they could call them “Memory Packs” or something saccharine like that.  The integration with the rest of the iLife suite is nice, but I’m not a big fan of the giant .mac advertisement every time I open iWeb.  And where’s SFTP (or even FTP) publishing to an arbitrary server?  If I have to publish to a folder every time I make a change, and re-upload the entire thing to my hosting provider, it’s probably not something I’m gonna plan on using all the time, you know?  Especially if I create a media-rich site like Apple wants me to, full of pictures and movies.  And if my “podcast” page gets to be more than one or two episodes long, it’d take hours to re-upload the site.  Pass (for now).
iMovie HD 6:  Hm.  I haven’t used iMovie that much, since most of the movies I acquire are already perfectly edited.  But I guess it’s nice that I can now open multiple projects at the same time; the lack of an MDI in previous versions of iMovie was something about which I read a lot of unfavorable reviews on teh Intarwebs. Pass, until I start editing the raw files from my ReplayTV on my laptop.
iDVD 6:  Yeah.  I’ve got DVD Studio Pro.  I didn’t even bother installing iDVD.  Pass.
iTunes 6.0.2: Hm.  I was irritated by the “mini store” when I launched the newest version of iTunes yesterday, especially given the measly 768 vertical pixels on my laptop’s display.  But it was easy enough for me to click the “hide” button and go on with life.  And to all of the privacy nuts out there who are freaking out because Apple is being sent information about what tracks they’ve got selected in iTunes:  I’m concerned about privacy myself, but come on; it’s easy enough to turn off and ignore.  Go after someone who actually means to do evil with your data for a change.  Or stop using the product altogether; sometimes the self-proclaimed “protectors of privacy” on the internet are worse than Jesus’ fan club.  No, I don’t want to be “saved” on this particular issue.  Yes, I’m OK with that.

And that’s iLife ‘06. Now, for…
iWork ‘06:  Hm.  Let’s see.  I’ve already got Microsoft Office, I don’t produce a newsletter (which is pretty much all Pages seems to do), and I don’t make presentations (which really is all Keynote does).  Pass.

Pro Application “Crossgrades”:  Sweet.  Apple gets an extra $49 from their customers, so that they can run (what appears to be) the exact same software on the new Intel-based Macs.  Hm.  I think that if I were a “Pro”, I’d wait for the next version of these big titles, just so I’d get more for my money than a version of the software title that didn’t require the emulation layer to run.  Pass.

And, the new systems:

iMac:  Hm.  Who would’a guessed that the imac would be the first intel mac?  Let’s see:  lower-end system (although not as low-end as the mini), great for people who don’t care about expansion (and, conveniently, perfect hardware control for Apple).  I like that the systems are supposed to be twice as fast (although of course, having two processor cores probably helps that a bit).  Of course, they used a benchmark program that was optimized for the Intel processor (you know, the opposite of what they did when they spec’d the G5 against Intel chips a few years ago?).  Keeping the price points the same was a nice touch, though.

MacBook:  No, it’s not a piece of bookkeeping software, no matter what the product name might indicate.  It’s a shame the first new Intel-based Mac laptops are “pro” edition laptops rather than iBook reworks; I think I’d have much rather preferred that a lower-cost version was coming out first, like the mini or iBook instead of this new “macbook” product.  It’s nice to see that Apple didn’t strip out the Firewire ports like had been rumored, although I’m a bit saddened to see that they went to a Firewire 400 port instead of the Firewire 800 port that was previously on the PowerBook G4; I guess those pros don’t really need the high-speed Firewire to pull data off of their HD cameras, eh?  Well, OK.  2005 was the year of HD; since it’s 2006 now, I guess we can stop worrying about actually using those nifty new HD products that we bought last year.  The new power cord is a nifty idea, I’ll admit.  I know I’ve come close to knocking my system off of a table (or bed, or desk, or chair, etc) when the cord got tangled on my shoe.  I’ll also mirror the thoughts of a few other Internet people in saying “um, why do I need a remote control for my portable computer?” and “how many professionals need a built-in webcam on their laptop?”

The new Apple/Intel ad was a nice finish.  Shame Intel’s backpedaling now, saying that PCs aren’t boring.

Update:
OK, I really don’t like iPhoto at all, any more; this miraculous new “photocasting” that Apple loves so much is only available for the suckers who shell out for a .mac account.  I guess the $79 I paid for iLife ‘06 was a complete waste.  They should mention that on the box: “iLife ‘06 is $79, but in order to actually use the niftiest features, it’s actually $178.”

Thunderbird and iCal integration?

Warning: This is a very tech-heavy post. So look out.

I get calendar events from my co-workers from time to time, and since they all use Outlook (and I refuse to use Entourage), it’s really more of an irritation than anything else; if I want to put those events into my iCal, I have to save the text of the message to a file, then drag it into iCal. And easy as that is, it’s more effort than I want to go to.

So I thought, “this might be a great thing to use Automator for”. Especially since I hadn’t found anything useful for Automator to do up to that point. Trouble is, there’s no actions to add iCal events (that’s .ics files ya know) from arbitrary files into iCal. Luckily, so long as iCal is your default handler for .ics files, simply opening them (the ics files) will create new events in iCal.

So: Continue reading ‘Thunderbird and iCal integration?’