2013-03-10 21:00:00
A few days ago I was discussing various models of Apple computers with one of the other consultants at the office. It didn't take me long to wax lyrically about the iMac G4, which in my opinion is the most beautiful PC ever produced by Apple. It combined good specs with a revolutionary design: the sunflower / lampshade design was really new. In my opinion the flexing arm for the screen really is one of the best inventions ever and I'm sad that the only way to get one with normal monitors, is to buy an expensive extra mount.
Anyway, my colleague Peter overheard us talking and wondered whether I'd be interested in owning an iMac G4. DO I?! Haha, of course! It's been a dream of mine for a damn long time. The above paragraph should have made it clear that I love the design of the machine and that I consider it a timeless classic. Which is why he offhandedly remarked that his girlfriend has one at home, one they've considered sending to the scrapheap for a while now. Holy carp! ( O_o)
So here I am! Giddy and gleeful! Because what I now own, with many thanks to Peter and Ellen, is an iMac G4/1.25 17-Inch "FP" (USB 2.0). Or to put it in human words: the latest model of the iMac G4 series, with the improved TFT screen as well as USB2/FW400. It's from the same era when I bought my first Macintosh, the venerable Powermac G5 (aka, the first "cheese grater"). And it's in pristine condition, because they hardly ever used it. It's beautiful! It's complete (no parts missing) and it's now mine :9
The setup above is just about exactly how you'd expect to see it in 2003, with the exception of the speakers. The Apple Pro speakers look great, but they really don't sound too great. So I've replaced those with the LaCie Firewire Speakers that I bought years ago. These really sound awesome and come with a minimum of cable fuss as they are also bus-powered.
The iMac came with OS 10.4.11 installed, which is pretty old already. Unfortunately I don't have my 10.5 DVD anymore (returned to Snow when i left their company), so I'm borrowing a friend's install disk. When it's upgraded to 10.5 I'm sure it'll make a heck of a nice machine. Heck, even at 10.4 it's already very nice and completely usable. I'm actually surprised at the performance! The 1.25GHz G4 and the 768MB RAM work very nicely.
kilala.nl tags: apple, geeky, awesome,
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2012-11-13 21:46:00
I've always been pretty "okay" about making backups. For years now I've been pulling drive images of both our Macbooks every month or two and both our systems run hourly backups to our NAS. Huzzah for Time Machine! Well, this weekend I got the chance to test our backups!
Having been bitten by the MMORPG bug after watching to much of SAO, I decided to save a lot of time (and money?) by closing the tab with worldofwarcraft.com and by reinstalling Warcraft 3. A few years back my brother-in-law Hans had given me the game for Christmas, so I still had the discs lying around. But! They're for PPC Macs only and obviously my Macbook has an Intel processor. Luckily you can download a Univerisal Binary version of the game through Battle.net (Blizzard's online store etc), after entering your CD keys. Which i promptly did.
Turns out that the whole Warcraft 3 game is a Universal Binary, except the bloody installer! WTF Blizzard?!
The solution is easy, yet stupid: install Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) onto an external USB drive, which still has Rosetta (OS X's way to run PPC code on an Intel system). Everything went fine and I got the game installed. But when I tried to reboot to my Macbook's internal drive, I was greeted by the dreaded blinking question mark. Fudge! ( =_=)
The boot drive had gotten corrupted along the way. I have no clue whatsoever why, but it did. The only course of action, after I couldn't get the full disk encryption to open up, was to re-image the drive and restore from backups. The first part was easy: hook up my backup drive, boot from USB install stick and use Disk Utility to re-image. But then came the restore from Time Machine.
As a Unix admin I was over thinking the whole process! I was afraid that, if I were to simply reconnect the Time Machine backup drive, the TM software would erase everything and overwrite it all. So instead I tried to use the good old Migration Assistant, which usually is a great idea. But no matter what I tried, it failed: MA wouldn't see my backups over the network and they wouldn't show up when connected locally over USB either. Turns out there are two good reasons for this:
Turns out that what I was afraid of, really is the right way. So here's the course of action that works:
It could be that your restore borks once or twice, because a file is being locked by a running process. Most likely this is a cache in Library, or a plist locked by iCloud syncing. You could temporarily turn off all syncs and remove the offending files.
In my case, over 126.000 files were restored ringing in over 32GB.
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2012-11-04 11:12:00
I've fought with iPhoto before and by now I'm not nearly as happy with it as I used to be. Could be that it's getting wonky now that we have 16.000+ photos in there, but who knows. The screenshot above was just the latest bout of craziness :)
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2012-07-04 21:51:00
Recently we've been having issues with our iPad2: it would refuse to play any sound, the volume rocker didn't do anything and when it did play it would flip the sound on and off frequently. Basically, the dock port was screwed in such a way that the iPad constantly thinks it's hooked up to a speaker dock.
Time to get it fixed! I went home a bit earlier to visit the Apple Store in Amsterdam. I hadn't visited yet since it's opening, so this was going to be my first look. Beforehand I'd reserved a timeslot at the Genius Bar (as it's called) using the Apple Store iOS app. That was a joy! The simplicity and user friendliness of quickly booking a tech :)
Despite having reserved a timeslot they still had me wait an additional fifteen minutes. After that things went quickly: the tech agreed with my theory that the issue was with the dock port. He took it out back, to check for foreign matter, but he didn't find any. After a quick reset, just to be sure it wasn't the software, he said we'd swap it for a completely new iPad 2. Glad that we got that Applecare, so we're basically covered like this until fall of 2013. :)
So! Happy to have a new and fixed iPad I went home.
Then Marli went for her second run this week (proud!) and came home with a broken iPhone (;=_=)
The tip to keep her phone in her bra while running turned out to be a bad one: moisture damage. When she came home the digitizer of the touchscreen had flunked out completely. So! We quickly made a 19:50 appointment with the Bar again, went to Amsterdam and bought her a new phone. This really couldn't have been covered by warranty (our own mess up) and it would have been a huge hassle to go through the mobile telco. Honestly, I think the deal was pretty good! Apple don't do repairs on out-of-warranty phones, they simply replace them for €150. Brand new phone, done within ten minutes. Unlike this afternoon we were met by a tech immediately upon entering the building. Great!
Marli's iPhone's already back to normal again. Now I need to restore the iPad.
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2012-06-22 20:38:00
Finally! I have finally figured out how to restart the PhotoStream agent, after waking my Macbook from it's sleep!
After figuring out how to access the PhotoStream data through Finder, I now needed a way to trigger a synchronization in the Stream. Normally, after setting up PhotoStream in OS X system preferences, the agent software will be started when you login to your desktop. However, this says nothing about potential restarts after sleeping your Mac.
First I dug around in launchd / launchctl and quickly discovered the full name of the agent: com.apple.photostream-agent
After that, things got difficult as I couldn't find any configuration file to load the agent with once it had been kicked out of launchd. So you can launchctl [stop|start] all you want, but once you launchctl unload I cannot load the agent back in.
I found that the actual agent appears to be an application in /Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems. There you will find PhotoStreamAgent.app, which can be ran and which will in fact load com.apple.photostream-agent. However, this will not be the vanilla one, but one with an extra label in front of it.
Mmm, this doesn't seem to work properly yet. I'll need to do some more researching.
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2012-05-31 19:21:00
Sadly, not all things Apple are awesome.
While I love the idea of the iTunes Match service, it's wrought with problems. One of the most commonly seen problems is when Match creates dozens if not hundreds of duplicates of a playlist. In my case there are over 500 copies of a "On the go" playlist. This kills performance on iTunes and occasionally also on your iPod / Music iOS application.
Luckily it's easy to clean up these copies using an Applescript:
with timeout of (45 * 60) seconds
tell application "iTunes"
delete (every playlist whose name is "NAME OF PLAYLIST")
end tell
end timeout
With many thanks to Apple Support Forum member TRujder who explained the script here.
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2012-05-19 17:22:00
Finally! I've been searching for this for quite a while now and I finally found the solution!
Question: "How can I access iCloud Photostream without using iPhoto?"
Answer: "By accessing ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/ and searching for all images."
Here is the source for this information. The best thing: you can obviously store this procedure as a Saved Search in the sidebar, so you'll always have a shortcut to your Photostream.
kilala.nl tags: apple, awesome,
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2012-05-16 09:57:00
Apparently, there are plenty people who experience problems with their iPad2 pertaining to the internal speaker. Specifically: the iPad refuses to play audio and the volume slider does not work. Thanks to some troubleshooting and help from the Apple support fora I've fixed our iPad.
Symptoms:
A lot of people hypothesized that the problems are linked to the upgrade to iOS 5, or that you need to flip the hardware switch settings between "mute" and "rotation lock" a few times.
It's none of that. As forum member Val E Um notes, it's the dock connector: something is causing glitches, causing the iPad to think that it's dock-connected to external speakers. By wiggling a dock cable in the iPad I could make the volume slider appear and disappear. If I wedged the dock connector in at just the right angle, sound kept on working.
The solution: take an alcohol wipe, wrap it around a stiff piece of cardboard and scrape the dock connector on the iPad. Of course, first power down the iPad! After cleaning the dock connector, my sound problems are over :)
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2012-05-07 17:55:00
Tonight, it seems that UPC are having DNS issues. I was startled that we even noticed it, because I thought we were using OpenDNS. Not so apparently. When I went to change the configuration of our Airport Extreme I found the DNS IP boxes to be greyed out. WTF?
Turns out that, in the new Airport Utility one needs to do the following:
And presto! It works. No idea why the DNS boxes work that way, but they do. Oh well. At least our DNS problems are over :p
kilala.nl tags: apple, meh, internet,
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2012-01-29 10:17:00
Over the past week Marli's Macbook had been performing worse than usual. Time Machine kept on hanging, Spotlight kept on using 100% CPU on one core and Safari and iPhoto were very slow. What with TM and SL being hard drive intensive software I reckoned I'd better check out the hard drive using Disk Utility (which does an fsck). Bingo: plenty of problems detected! To a point where DU informed me I needed to boot from another drive, because the laptop's drive was too broken. :(
Booting from the recovery partition using CMD-R quickly quickly gave me access to DU again, which after a while of running puked the following error: "Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.". Basically it's telling me to grab what you can and run to the hills! Oy vey!
Luckily we regularly make full hard drive images of our laptops, using asr (the command line access to Disk Utility). Booting from Marli's drive image was a cinch, as was making an extra copy of her home directory from the laptop. Sure, Time Machine makes hourly backups, but it never hurts to have an extra copy! The course of action was:
Making the extra backup took the most time because Marli's 42GB was turned into 120GB because the "cp -rp" made symlinks into actual files; took four hours in all! The restoration was a snap: 1.5 hours for the drive image, 2 hours for the OS upgrade and software updates, 1 hour for the homedir restore. And most of that time was spent waiting, not actually doing anything.
While waiting for Marli's laptop to do her thing I took it upon myself to give our NAS a once-over as well. The file systems had some minor problems which were fixed easily. I then performed maintenance on the iPhoto database using the built-in tools and by doing a sqlite vacuum. That made a huge difference! Finally, because our iPhoto resides on an AFP share on our NAS I tweaked the AFP kernel settings on both our laptops.
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2012-01-21 21:54:00
I was pretty happy when I got my hands on iTunes Match. Still am by the way. But Marli? Not so much! You see, when at least one of the people using the account actually care about things like play counts and star ratings, you need to take a really good approach in switching to Match. Case in point, the rather pissed off voice mail left during kendo practice this morning ^_^;
What'd happened? Thursday I'd immediately set my Mac to syncing with iCloud and yesterday morning it was done. It all works swimmingly and I was playing music from the cloud all day at the office. Great stuff! So in the afternoon I told Marli to enable it on her Macbook as well. Clickety-click and you're done. Until this morning when she was rather unpleasantly surprised to find that all of her playlists and her meticulously kept database had been fscked up. Because my Macbook was the first to sync, iCloud assumed that it was also -my- ratings and playcounts that mattered most. She also had now gone from a library listing of ~3300 songs, to ~9000 songs. And she really doesn't want to see all my music :D
So! Here's my tips when sharing an iTunes Match account between two people, hoping that one of them (like me) does not care about play count and star ratings.
The main library of the caring user will still show -all- of the music in iCloud, but at least the ratings and such will be retained.
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2012-01-20 07:46:00
When we moved into our Almere house we made a plan for the rollout of our home's IT infra. Since then we've realized most of the plan, axed a few parts and are now only left with the media center setup. It's a given that, once our CRT TV dies on us (it's been with us since 2003) it'll be replaced with a modest LCD TV. But when it comes to playing media in the living room I've always been a bit conflicted. It's a typical #firstworldproblems:
The bottom line was that we'd be "stuck" running a Mac Mini next to our TV if we wanted to access all of our media from one central location. The downside being that it's a waste of energy to keep a Mini running all day and it's also an expensive workaround.
Boo. Hoo. Hoo.
Anyway. With the advent of iTunes Match in the Netherlands our music "problem" is instantly solved! For the princely sum of 25 euros a year, iTunes Match will store all of your music 'in the cloud', making it accessible to all your devices 24x7. For our Macs the music can still be stored locally, but our iPad, iPhones and the future ATV will all be able to access all of our music through the Internet.
Did I mention that the Match fee also allows you to redownload the music in your library from Apple in high quality? Say that you once "stole" an album at a low bitrate years ago. Add it to Match, delete locally and download again. Presto, instant upgrade!
The final "issue", playback of ripped movies, is easily solved using aTV Flash. By jailbreaking the aTV and installing Flash (not the Adobe/Macromedia product) one adds a whole wad of new capabilities to a device which didn't have too many alluring features to begin with.
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2011-10-13 15:37:00
Of course, now that I'm not within reach of our NAS with the full iTunes library on it, I decided to still update my iPhone to iOS 5. And of course I ran into a few problems. And of course iTunes decided to overwrite tonight's original backup with a useless backup without any real data. And of course I'm now SOL until I get home and actually have access to the full library again. *grr*
Remember kids: only do OS upgrades at those times that you can actually afford to lose functionality on your computer / phone. Don't do it on the road, or a day before going on a trip... I feel stupid :)
EDIT:
Well, thank fsck for luck, because somehow, I have no clue how, iTunes managed to pull all my stuff together again. Don't know where it pulled it from, don't particularly care. I'm happy that I have my apps back and that Dana can be amused using her regular games. I even got most of my music back, despite my NAS being back home. And thank $DEITY that all of my photos are still there! Even my Evernote stuff is back! L.U.C.K.Y.!
EDIT 2:
I never learn, do I? After having iPhoto updates bork on me not once, not twice, but three times, I still go ahead and do an upgrade during a time when I need iPhoto the most. So yes, iPhoto 9.0.2 borked things again, though this time things got fixed pretty quickly. I think there was something with the new Photo Stream features that was screwing things up.
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2011-08-12 20:40:00
You can view the original sized image here on the blog of the original poster, who I can only guess is called Justin and works at Tumblr.
I simply love the photograph, that is all. What the guy's done isn't exceptional and basically the inverse of what I used to do with my iBook: use a Keyspan USB-to-DB9 to use my Mac as a serial terminal. He's done it the other way around: use a serial terminal to connect to the Mac, which is of course simply a Unix system :)
Justin's blog has a bunch of other, very cool images. Well worth a browse.
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2011-08-04 10:58:00
So... Final Fantasy Tactics is out for iPhone / iOS (more background at IGN). I loved FFT Advance on my GBA, so I'd really like to play the original on my iPhone. But yeah, 13 euros for a game?! SquEnix, I've always know you were a money grubbing **** on the iOS platform, but this is really bad :( Meh...
EDIT:
Our friend Jasper rightly points out the following, followed by my reply:
Thomas Sluyter - Hahaha, you're of course right Jasper. I need to hang my head in shame. Then again, FFTA:WotL is a re-release of a re-release of a game from 1997. But yes, you're right of course. It's a great game, it has great gameplay value, so 13 euros is entirely do-able. It's just that the psychological barrier of the ten euro price point is a pretty strong one for many people on iOS.
kilala.nl tags: games, meh, apple,
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2011-06-15 21:10:00
... at least for now.
The past few months my iPhone4's been displaying a recurrent problem, where the home button fails to register any clicks. Seeing how that button is used for switching between applications it's a drag to use the phone like that. So I'm sending it in for repairs at T-Mobile. Of course, with my luck the phone will be 100% operational while they're testing it, only to return to me faulty.
In the meantime I've pulled Marli's old Samsung u600 from our cabinet, put my contacts on it and put the microSIM into its SIM-sized converter. At least I can make and receive phone calls using my normal number.
I just hope I'll get that iPhone back quickly! I'm waaaay too reliant on it for my day-to-day stuff. Now, to erase that thing and get all my stuff off there.
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2011-05-18 20:37:00
My $DEITY, it took me a few times in trying different fonts. ಠ_ಠ
But finally it works! The look of disapproval is displayed correctly on my Macbook. Stupidly my iPhone's been doing it properly since day one. The instructions I used on Mac OS X:
Make sure that you pick the "computer" level in step 3, because else the font will only work for the admin account.
Of course it's a silly thing to be happy about, but it irked me to no end that I couldn't see many of the emoticons used on a daily basis on the Reddit fora.
kilala.nl tags: geeky, internet, apple,
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2011-04-12 18:03:00
I know stuff like this has been done for ages, but you have to admit: the video looks awesome!
And yes, of course I'm well aware that this is something entirely different than having a full game run in stereoscopic 3D. Also, Reddit discussion! Also, something similar: HoloToy for iOS.
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2011-02-28 11:52:00
This morning I read about a new feature in Lion, which made me think. Lion allows virtual desktop login.
Of course OS X has always had Remote Desktop / RDP, but with this new feature OS X now finally supports something akin to Terminal Services or Citrix: multiple accounts using the same hardware to run their own applications and sessions simultaneously. At home this could of course be fun and sometimes even handy. But where it would really shine is in a corporate environment with a VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure).
It makes little sense to run your VDI on Mac Minis and Mac Pros which are strapped into a 19" rack, so it'd be more logical for Apple to beef up their XServe line. But... Wait? Didn't Apple recently -kill- their XServe line of products?
Have Apple made an oversight for a cool product? Do they believe that VDI has no future? Or are they up to something more devious? :D
Imagine a nice, fat HP blade server with oodles of RAM and CPUs, running OS X terminal services. Data access could be provided on the SAN, through fiber. Wouldn't that be nice for production houses etc who might want big, noisy machines cluttering up their offices and would like to have them tucked away into a server room? Or what about offices moving most of their employees from to cheaper thin clients, instead of putting them on full-featured "expensive" Macs.
So could it be that, under the philosophy that "others can do servers and SAN better than us" Apple could be opening up licensing of OS X to other vendors' hardware?
The fact that they've rid themselves of the two OS X versions (desktop vs server) and merged them into one could also be interpreted as further evidence. One OS X to run on desktops, laptops, servers, blades and virtual machines.
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2011-01-04 19:03:00
*shakes fist* Damn you iPhoto, damn you to heck!
Yup. Our iPhoto library has crapped out again. It's showing up either as empty, or saying there's a version conflict. Of course I can't install iPhoto 09 (I'm running 08) because those disks are only licensed for Marli's laptop. And because she recently opened the library using her Mac, the whole library was upgraded to version 09, meaning that my 08 can't read it anymore.
*sigh* I've ordered iLife 11 to get it over with and synchronize the versions of iLife on both of our Macs.
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2010-11-08 23:59:00
Well this doesn't happen very often: I've been forced to re-install my Macbook after two years of trusty service. The laptop was still functioning normally, but had begun to show glitches in file saving dialogs. A quick check with Disk Utility showed that there was corruption in the file systems's inode table and that (sadly) a format and restore were needed.
Took me four hours in total to run a full backup, then perform a clean install, then return all my files to their original locations. Not too shabby, but I would've preferred to spend those four hours programming. Oh well...
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2010-10-24 09:42:00
A month or so ago I started using Evernote, which could be described as a digital scrapbook-meets-notebook-meets-filestorage. The application and its basic use are free and available cross-platform, with a very nice web interface and client software for Mac OS X, Windows, iPhone OS, Blackberry and a few others. Anything that you add to your Evernote storage gets synchronized to all of your devices automatically. This means that the notes I took during my CISSP class were synced to my iPhone and that the web clippings I made at home can also be read online. And so on. It really is a nice service and there's no beating the price!
Evernote also have a paid service, which adds extra functionality to your account. Your file storage space gets increased, the search function indexes any PDFs you store and your mobile Evernote client will be able to store all of your notebooks locally (instead of accessing them through Wifi or 3G). At $45 a year I wouldn't say the value's bad. So far Evernote's been very, very helpful to me.
Helpful how? Well, currently I have two distinct workflows I rely on heavily. On the one hand there's my studies for my CISSP exam and my security research. On the other hand there's my preparations for the BoKS course I will be teaching in a week. Since Evernote allows me to create multiple scrapbooks, it's a cinch to grab any Wiki pages I like, as well as any security PDFs and store them together with my CISSP class notes and my ToDo list. Similarly, for the training I have an easy ToDo list, many notes from teleconf phone calls and suggestions for new exam questions. All neatly taggable, searchable and editable.
Speaking of ToDo lists: I have combined my Evernote account with the stunningly beautiful EgretList iPhone app. EgretList logs into your Evernote account and searches all your notes for any and all (un)finished ToDo items. These ToDo items are sorted by their Evernote categories and notebooks and presented as a faux Moleskine notebook. So instead of having to search through many different Evernote notes to check/unckeck a ToDo item, you can easily do it through EgretList. Lovely :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, work, sysadmin,
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2010-10-22 20:28:00
Oh dear.
This afternoon, while helping my sister out with her new website, I grabbed a few photos from our iPhoto library without any issues. This evening, wanting to order a print of Dana's second photo book, iPhoto kept on crashing. Oh no. A completely new library worked perfectly, so it seems that our library is broken. Our library, with photographs reaching back ten years. Of course I have backups and we will probably lose 0 photos. But it still sucks if we were to lose our photo books and albums.
*fingers crossed* Hopefully we can still repair the library with a few tricks :/
EDIT:
Well cock :( iPhoto could not under any condition repair the library database. That sucks. I'm now manually restoring all of the original photographs from our old library, but this means that we've lost all metadata (like tags and such). It also means that we've either lost all of the modified photographs (clean up, colour restoration and such), unless I would import them as duplicates. I'm still hopeful about restoring the album files, based on the old iPhoto library.
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2010-10-21 09:23:00
As the title says it took my iPhone4 three months to arrive. That's quite a bit more than the originally advertised 6-8 weeks. Thanks T-Mobile :( But now it's here and I'm happy :)
Marli already got her phone a few weeks back and since then I've been marveling at the beautiful screen. It really is very, very good. When it comes to daily use not much will change for me. Just a few small things like the fact that it's a lot faster, that it has working Wifi (my iPhon3G's wifi's busted) and that I can use iOS 4's multitasking features. Yep, a great phone that I'll very happily use for at least the next two years.
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2010-10-20 20:48:00
Wow. Just, wow.
Tonight Steve Jobs got on stage and, among many other nice things, announced the new Macbook Air range for 2010. I was going "Nice, nice..." while he was going down the spec list, then I went "WHOA HOLY SH!T!!!" when he announced the price point: $999 for the base model which has an 11.6" screen and weighs in at -literally- one kilogram.
Yeah. The next business laptop I'm getting? It's -that- one. If I ever need on-the-road virtualization I'll just run the VMs at home and access them through remote desktop.
EDIT:
Ah! And here is the iFixit tear-down of the new MBA.
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2010-10-19 22:49:00
While preparing for a course I will be teaching in two weeks time I need to set up some virtual machines for the practice labs. All of these run on Sun's VirtualBox and FoxT has provided me with a USB disk filled with the appropriate disk images. I bought two extra USB drives, so we could set up the student's computers faster (three drives instead of one to pass around the files).
But that's where the crap starts. You see, if I'm not mistaken all the students will use Windows boxen. I have a Mac. All the virtual machine disk images are big, between 10GB and 22GB.
Now, the only file system that is 100% read+write out of the box between Windows and Mac OS X is the aged FAT32. And no, FAT32 does not support any files over 4GB in size. Crap :(
This means that:
Because USB is CPU-bound and because the NTFS-3G driver is experimental this ordeal constantly takes up 27% of my 200% CPU time (dual core) and the actual copy will take roughly four hours. Damn!
I think I'll quit the copy and be more selective about the disk images that I copy. :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, sysadmin, meh,
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2010-07-19 09:05:00
DANG! We missed out on our two iPhone 4s by -> <- this much.
My boss+friend Dick and his girlfriend spent a week in the UK and during their holiday planned on picking up two times two iPhones. Two for them, two for us. And -just- as they were sailing out of Harwhich harbour on Saturday they got the email telling them that the second pair had arrived at the store. DANG! ^_^
Oh well, we'll have to wait a few weeks for the dutch, SIM-locked version from T-Mobile.
EDIT:
Three pre-orders have been made at T-Mobile, two through my employer (for my boss and I) and one private (for Marli). Let's see when we get our hands on them!
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2010-06-11 18:25:00
I sincerely have the utmost faith in digital content delivery. Over the past year we've seen a huge rise in sales of e-readers, which is a great step forward. But we're not there yet! Call me an Apple fanboy if you will, but I do believe the iPad is the next step and who knows what the future will bring after that?! I hear good things about e-ink color screens!
Either way, those things are simply used to carry and present the important bit: content. And how does it get on there? Delivery through the Internet! So far it's working wonderfully on my iPhone.
I've been using Comixology's Comics to both purchase and consume comic books. The buying process couldn't be simpler and IMO pricing is very fair. Most comics ring in at 0.79 euros, with the more popular Marvel comics running 1.59 euros. Choose comic, enter password, download, read. It's wonderfully easy and the Comics app has opened my eyes to a lot of new comics. One of my new favorites is Fearless Dawn.
On a more serious note I'm loving PressReader, which gives you access to 1000+ international news papers. And I don't mean an aggregation of their online content, but the actual full PDFs of each news paper. The application itself is free and comes with seven free issues of any paper of your choosing. The economy subscription to PressReader runs $9.95 and gives you access to 31 issues each month, allowing you to mix and match any papers you would like. There are also more expensive subs, or you can pay as you go at $0.99 per paper.
The economy sub is actually cheaper than most of the online-only subscriptions to dutch news papers. PR gives access to the Volkskrant and the NRC, both of which have a more expensive online-only sub. Only NRC runs cheaper, but only if you pay per-year instead of per-month. Either way, I love reading the paper through PR and assume that it'll only be nicer on the much bigger iPad screen.
Personally I'm sold on on-demand content delivery through the Internet.
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2010-05-19 23:13:00
Glee! Recently Valve have made their Steam gaming platform available for Mac OS X. While there's still plenty room for improvement it -does- let me play many great games which were only available on Windows. Case in point: I have -finally- played Portal, the Half Life puzzler spinoff. I have to say that most of the game was much easier than I expected it to be, but now I'm stuck in the second-to-last level. Not because it's too hard, but because I can't be bothered ^_^;
Either way... I did get something else from Steam which has thoroughly gripped me: Torchlight. Call it a modern-day Diablo if you will. It's great and I could play this all night! Actually, yesterday I almost did ^_^;
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2010-02-14 13:59:00
Three years ago I waxed reminiscent about playing Command & Conquer as a teenager. All of us loved the original C&C to bits, as did we love the Red Alert spin off. They were absolutely marvelous games. Now, fifteen years after the first C&C game was published the final installment of (part four) will get published. While I won't be getting that particular game, I -am- reaping the benefits of its publication.
EA Games have made three classic Command and Conquer games available for free! The original C&C, the original RA and C&C2 (Tiberian Sun) can all be downloaded and played for free. How awesome is that?! Because they were made for Win95/Win98 I think you'll need WinXP. I don't know if there's a way to make them work in Vista or Win7.
Luckily, there's stuff like Parallels Desktop, VirtualBox (free!) and other virtualization tools. I still had a WinXP virtual machine that I'd built when I was in college in 2007. After upgrading to PD5 the VM has virtual graphical acceleration hardware, meaning that WinXP can now use DirectX/DirectDraw, which is what you need for C&C. Nice!
So there you go! Command & Conquer classic, running on Mac OS X. In the clip below you'll see me run C&C in 800x600 full screen mode on one of my OS X Spaces. It's great being able to switch back and forth from the game to OS X and the rest of my apps.
kilala.nl tags: apple, games, childhood,
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2010-01-31 17:32:00
I've finally broken down and decided to give Apple's MobileMe (Wiki) service a try. The first two months are free anyway.
The syncing of contacts, bookmarks and calendar items between my Macbook and iPhone works very well. I haven't given the mail syncing a try, because I have a lot of mail and I need to figure out a proper strategy first.
About the iDisk online file storage: it's a nice competitor to Dropbox, which I've been using for a while now. One big problem with MobileMe: the upload speeds from Finder are -awful-. Seriously! As many people on the web have remarked: it's like you're back on dialup :(
For the upload of many or big files I've decided to give Transmit a try, which apparently has much better WebDAV support than Finder. I sure do hope that Apple will FTFF, as they say.
So far I wouldn't give MobileMe more than a 6/10. I wouldn't spend the 99 euros per year on it, though I'm tempted to pick up one of the 50 euro licenses on eBay. I could always charge it to my employer ;)
EDIT:
Yuck! The iDisk app for the iPhone will not let me flick through JPGs stored remotely like the Dropbox app does. This kills reading manga and comics. Next to that the performance of the iDisk itself is enough for me to stop using MobileMe on the day I started. As they say in the mobster movies: Fuggedaboudit!.
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2010-01-31 06:57:00
A little over a year ago I made a list of iPhone apps that I found particularly good, just to share the love. These applications are much better than most of the 140k apps available and, though all of them are paid-for apps, they are well worth getting!
AirVideo, stream video from your Mac/PC to your iPhone/iPad. It supports -ALL-video formats, by performing live conversion, so you can watch -anything- on the go!
Comics, buy and read comic books. Reading is made a very nice experience, because the app takes things one image at a time instead of dumping the whole page on screen.
Dropbox, I've written about this before. It allows me access to my onion file storage, which is synced to all my Macs/PCs. I read comics with the above Comics, watch anime with AirVideo and I read manga and PDFs using Dropbox. What a team!
Zombieville USA and OMG Pirates!, both great side-scrolling fighters by MikaMobile. Zombies, ninjas and pirates, what else do you need?!
Minigore, a frantic, top-down shooter. Easy to pick up, difficult to master.
Orbital, a relaxing and great looking puzzler. Again, easy to play, yet very hard to master.
Sudoku unlimited, for all I care the -best- sudoku app because of its "Newspaper" theme. Looks great, plays great.
So, from the list it should be apparent that I play a lot of games on my iPhone. These games are great for a short pickup-and-play during small "cigarette breaks" at the office and during my daily commute.
Mind you, now that Apple have introduced their new iPad I imagine some great productivity tools to come out as well!
kilala.nl tags: iphone, apple, other tech,
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2010-01-24 09:11:00
Obviously, by R. Stevens.
kilala.nl tags: apple, iphone,
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2009-12-26 07:06:00
(Image is clickable for more detail)
Recently I'd complained that I was oversleeping systematically. Fed up with that and getting woken brusquely by buzzing alarms I decided to try something different. Just at the right time, this thread at GoT came by, so the past week or so I've been using the Sleep Cycle iPhone app to wake me up in the morning. What the app does is look for an opportune window in the half hour before you absolutely must get up, to wake you up in a gentler fashion. The theory goes that you'll feel much better when you get woken at a time that your body was already trying to wake up.
So far the app's worked pretty well, though I needed to battle Marli in order to get her to change her alarm clock times a bit ^_^ Once that was settled I have to say it's nice to get woken up by Sleep Cycle as it usually -does- figure out the right time to wake me.
One nice side effect of the app is that it lets you track your sleeping patterns with a nifty graph. The image below clearly shows that my nights aren't always as restful as they should be ^_^;
Everything labeled as a "D" is Dana, waking me up by crying. Usually she just needs to be tucket in again, but Thursday's graph clearly shows the fuss she made that night. Everything labeled "M" is Marli and me talking, while all the "T"s are usually me waking up by myself.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2009-11-02 17:02:00
Seriously, this was waiting to happen: Teenager "hacks" jail broken iPhones. The security hole is glaringly obvious and has been proven and verified by some of my security-expert acquaintances. And now, obviously, it's out in the open. Personally I wonder how the heck it took so long for this to happen.
The hole: jail broken iPhones often run an SSH daemon, allowing their owners access to the phone's operating system. Most of these owners unfortunately never change the default root password, thus giving anyone 100% access to their phones. I really don't understand why nobody has ever pushed this issue before.
The steps are painfully easy.
1. Do a port scan on T-Mobile's 3G IP range, looking for SSH servers.
2. Try to login as root using the default alpine password.
3. Install your root kit / malware / hostage message.
4. Ask that people send you five euros for the free "fix".
5. PROFIT!
The fix in question is also plainly, fscking obvious: change your root password (asshole)! The "hacker" in question says it's safe to just remove two files he installed and to change your password, but personally I'd do a completely clean wipe. There's no telling if anyone's left anything else as a present.
Some links:
* The topic at GoT that started it all.
* The original hostage website
EDIT:
My pessimistic prediction for this week: the mainstream press will pick up on the story, misunderstand the issue and put the blame on Apple. Many geeks will try to diffuse the situation and explain that the fault lies with people who were mucking with things they don't understand, but their pleas will fall on deaf ears.
EDIT 2:
So I was wrong in one regard: this exploit -has- both been abused and reported before. How about December 2008 and July 2008? So, the only thing all of this really proves is that people in general don't listen and they don't learn.
kilala.nl tags: apple, sysadmin,
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2009-10-29 07:49:00
I recently upgraded my Macbook with OS X 10.6 without a hitch. However, I soon discovered that Parallels Desktop 3.x does work work with Snow Leopard so I was kind of forced to upgrade Parallels as well. *shrug* Oh well...
The installation process of Parallels 4 requires that all virtual machines are shut down. They cannot be running, or suspended. Funny thing: how are you going to do that if you've already upgraded the OS and thus PD 3.x doesn't work anymore? Yeah ^_^;
I scoured the web to see if there was a command line trick to stop a suspended VM, but couldn't find one. In the end I had to boot from my backup hard drive, start PD3 from there and use it to shutdown the VMs on my Macbook's drive. At least PD4 looks pretty sweet :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, sysadmin,
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2009-10-28 22:23:00
A bit over half a year after putting my Powermac G5 to bed I've actually gone and sold her. A new member at the MacFreak fora was interested in buying a cheap Mac to get his feet wet after living on Windows all his life. He'd tried Linux which wasn't "it" and now was curious about OS X. While the G5 is no powerhouse by today's standards it's still a very nice box for a beginner. G5 @1.6GHz with 1.5GB RAM and 200GB of hard drive space. I sold it for 220, which is a bit under the market price but it's definitely fair money for a six years old box.
Ah! I'll miss her a little bit. She was my very first Macintosh and she was definitely a woman after my tastes: reliable, gentle, nice to look at and built sturdily ^_^
kilala.nl tags: powermac, apple,
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2009-10-25 08:41:00
I've been thinking of solutions to reading manga on the road, usually opting to just bring a pocket book or two. However, now that I've started using Dropbox life's gotten a bit easier. No more need for one of those eBook readers with electronic ink and such, because my iPhone screen is -just- big enough to comfortably read comics. Hooray for the Dropbox iPhone app which gives me access to my DB share everywhere I can have 3G Internet access.
For those unaware what Dropbox is: it gives you 2GB of free online storage space which you can access from a web browser, an iPhone app, or using software for Mac, Windows or Linux. On the PC side of things your Dropbox will appear as a normal directory in your homedir. However, everything you put in that directory will automatically get synchronized to your online storage. This ensures that your files are accessible from all your computers and even when you're someplace else with a browser. Nice.
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2009-10-25 07:46:00
(Clickable)
Last week I finally got my mits on our OS X Snow Leopard install disc. After properly backing up my Macbook and disabling the guest acount (to ward off the horrible bug) the install went without a cinch. I fell asleep on the couch while it was running, but I reckon it didn't take more than half an hour. Anywho, afterwards (as expected) everything seemed exactly the same because just about all the changes took place under the hood.
Inspired by some fellow Arsians I went and tinkered some more with Geektool. On my desktop I now have:
* Output from top for the six heaviest processes running.
* SMART status LED for my internal hard drive
* IP address info for Ethernet, Wif and my Internet connection.
* The time and date :)
* In Iron Man's hand:
** Status LED for charger cable
** Current charge percentage of the battery
** Status LED for charging process of battery
Also, here's the original file for the Iron Man background.
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2009-09-02 09:30:00
Wow... A few days after OS X Snow Leopard's release the Ars Technica review has become available. As always it's a very impressive document, this time ringing in at 23 pages. The great thing about AT's reviews of OS X is that they always go rather in-depth on the technical aspect, this time starting off on page 3 with an analysis of home file system compression (implemented through a few new hacks) is not only saving space, but is also speeding up your computer.
Good stuff! Now all I have to do is find an hour or three to read through it all :D
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2009-06-30 17:39:00
As described earlier I got one of those new Airport Extreme base stations for our new IT setup at home. I have to say, it's really something!
Of course the setup was a snap and I easily set it up like our old AExpress. Connecting to the new 5GHz network was a snap as well, and the old Kilala network's still there for my iPhone and Kaijuu's laptop. But what's astonishing is the range of the new 5 gig net! I'm typing this up in the attic, where (according to Speedtest.net I'm getting a 12.2 / 1.7 Mbps connection. One floor down in the bedroom we're at 27.3 / 2.5, just like downstairs. That's pretty damn good! The old 2.4 Ghz net would not have reached up into the attic.
Now all I need to do is worm the cat5e cable through the house, to get full 1 Gbps upstairs for backups, file sharing and printing.
kilala.nl tags: other tech, geeky, apple,
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2009-06-15 17:59:00
Now that we're actually -this- close to moving into our new house I've taken to planning ahead on its IT infrastructure. We've been fantasizing about what we'd like for a few months now and now I've drawn up a little "planning". Things actually look feasible, assuming that my bonus stays unchanged for Q3/4-2009 and Q1/2-2010. Of course, the costs in the table below are only estimates.
So... Here we go!
Starting point:
* Airport Express
* Our two Macbooks
Asap:
* Airport Extreme (replaces Express)
* Samsung LCP-610nd printer
* CAT5 cabling + switch
-> E 600
Q3/4 2009:
* GDB Design Vegas Evolution desk
* Two office chairs, probably Ikea
* Dell 20" monitor
* Belkin Firewire + USB hub
* LCD monitor swivel arm (desk mount)
-> E1400
Q2/3 2010:
* Samsung LCD television
* Home cinema set
* Mac Mini (living room media center)
* Logitech DiNovo Edge
-> E 2000
The plan is to quickly move in there and to get the basic infrastructure in place. 802.11n networking on the ground and first floor, with UTP snaking its way into the attic. There we'll install the switch to hook up my desk, the printer and the hobby table. Once that's done and we're actually settled in, we'll set up my home office.
Next year we'll focus on modernising the living room. The clunky TV will move upstairs, along with the DVD player (putting the VHS into storage). A new Mac Mini along with a nice receiver+speakers will take care of all of our music needs, DVD playing, slideshows and such. Following one of Digitist's suggestions we'll get a wireless keyboard+trackpad from Logitech for the controls.
Later on, possibly in 2011, I'd like to look into -real- backups for our systems. Now everything's done using my LaCie external hard drive, but that's both cumbersome and not reliable enough for my liking. Instead, I'd like to set up a second Mini in the office, with an LTO4 library attached. The bi-weekly backup tapes can then be stored offsite, as opposed to inside the house. But that's just way, way, way into the future (and would set us back an estimated 2500 euros).
kilala.nl tags: house, geeky, apple,
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2009-04-24 21:22:00
The past few days I've been tweaking and poking my Macbook, trying to make it just a bit better. Aside from the usual maintenance (cleaning unused files, installing updates, securing my WinXP image for Parallels) I've also put my hands on some cool, new pieces of software.
* Dropbox, 2GB of auto-synced online storage integrated into the OS.
* Cord, a somewhat nicer replacement for Microsoft's Remote Desktop.
* Geektool, which is too handy and cool to describe on one line.
* iPartition and iDefrag, two handy-dandy system maintenance tools.
iPartition came in very handy today because it let me repartition my Firewire laCie drive without having to move the data elsewhere. The drive's used for backups of our computers (plus some additional temporary storage) and I needed to remove three parts and add two new ones, all the while maintaining a forth. It worked a charm :) iDefrag might seem a bit of a waste, but it did help me save 4 gigs of space on my FileVault homedir.
Now... Any use for the aforementioned Geektool might not be immediately apparent. What it does is create an additional transparent layer across your desktop that allows you to "project" text or images. If you search the web for the term "geektool" you'll find loads of examples, including MRTG and Cacti graphs, or Nagios status buttons embedded on the desktop. In my case all I've got running are "top" and an overview of my current IPs, but I certainly see future use for this!
I've also ordered a 4GB RAM kit from Kingston Shop, which rang in at 56 euros. Would you believe today's RAM prices?! They're so low! <3 Moving from 2 to 4 GB will surely improve the 'book's performance when running one or more Parallels virtual machines.
I'm also thinking of getting a new hard drive for the Macbook, since I'm down to 15/160GB. I've got all my music on here right now, though technically speaking I could simply move that to a NAS for access through the home network. Hmmm... *ponders* 90 euro hard disk versus 200 euro NAS versus 500 euro Mac Mini... Hmmm...
kilala.nl tags: apple, macbook,
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2009-03-14 13:50:00
Today Marli's shiny, new Macbook arrive. It's an absolute beauty! The new anumilumlum housing feels very slick and the keyboard's just a touch heavier than the previous model. Very nice.
I had the laptop installed and set up with all of her data within an hour or two, so now she's happily surfing away on her lappy. It'll probably last her for four to five years, so that's good value for money.
Unfortunately I did my RSI no favours because after finishing her Macbook I went on to reinstall my own, white one. Unfortunately I made a wrong choice in file systems somewhere along the way which made it impossible to run File Vault. So basically I reinstalled twice and then I fiddled, I fiddled and I dabbled some more. Basically I spent yet another whole weekend behind the computer, which will probably come back to bite me in the ass.
On the up side of things we now both have wonderfully working laptops ^_^ I've also decommissioned the Powermac that I mentioned earlier. For now it'll just go into storage. Speaking of, would you believe that Marli herself actually suggested getting a Mini for file serving purposes? o_O
kilala.nl tags: macbook, powermac, apple, health,
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2009-03-03 10:36:00
$DEITY! All I'm trying to do is to hook up my Lacie Firewire speakers to my Powermac. The Lacie's come with a non-detachable 1m FW cable, while my Mac is about 3m away.
This should of course be easily fixable with an extension cord or a hub. Right? Were it not that this is not USB, which is the VHS to Firewire's Betamax and thus there is next to nearly nothing usable out there for Firewire. Oh sure, Belkin has a USB/FW hub, but it rings in around 40 euros. And there's -one- extension cord available in the Netherlands, but it's a whopping 27 euros o_O
I'll go trawl eBay/Marktplaats now... See what I can come up with on the secondhand market. *sigh*
EDIT: Thank $DEITY for Kleinspul.nl who have a 6P F-F adapter which will let me hook up two cables. At about five bob apiece, that's pretty good...
kilala.nl tags: other tech, annoying, apple,
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2009-02-04 08:38:00
Hooray for Japanese silliness! For years now (I've no clue when this got started) emoji have been a staple of Japanese cellphone culture. Combining cuteness with typing efficiency, the Japanese implemented a system involving smileys and dozens of other icons in their keitai. One can cut down on the amount of words tremendously by simply stringing together a few of these symbols to form a semi-sentence.
Or as Ars Technica member Palad1 puts it:
I'm 0.59 GBP poorer but about 12.2315% hipper now that I can text the wife ":metro: :home: :cat: :sushi: :hotmonkeysex: ?". Thanks Ars, for helping me in my eternal quest for marital nooky!
There are multiple ways of getting emoji to work on your iPhone, though all of them require firmware version 2.2 or higher. Unfortunately the emoji keyboard is invisible per default outside Japan, but using apps like Typing Genius - Get emoji ($0.99) one can enable the option in System Preferences.
kilala.nl tags: iphone, japan, apple,
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2009-01-07 18:07:00
I've had my iPhone for a few months now and can seriously say that I do not ever want to part with it! To me it's a phone, web browser and games platform in one, with a big bunch of very handy applications thrown in. I've got about fifty apps loaded, but there's only a few that see daily use. I thought I'd highlight them over here, because they deserve some extra credit :)
In no particular order, they are (where possible links go to dev site, not appstore):
* NetNewsWire, all my RSS feeds on the go.
* Trein, trip advisor the dutch railways.
* TapTap Revenge, a free rhythm game.
* WhiteNoise, loads of soothing background sounds.
* Maps, Google Maps on the go.
* BeeTagg, clean and fast QR Code reader.
* SHOUTcast, >25.000 Internet radio stations on 3G.
* Kana, training me on kana.
* YouTube, duh :p
* World Subway Maps, photos of subway maps (like Tokyo).
The past few weeks my iPhone has really proven itself as my awesome assistant at home, at the office and on the road. I never liked full fledged PDAs or "smart phones", but for me iPhone is the perfect mix of "dumb and smart phone" :)
kilala.nl tags: iphone, apple, other tech,
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2008-11-28 18:03:00
I've been using my Parrot CK3100 bluetooth carkit to my utmost satisfaction for a few years now. It worked a charm with my old Nokia handset. Once I switched to my iPhone I started having weird problems though. After half an hour driving, or maybe after a phone call or two, I wouldn't get any audio on the carkit anymore. I could make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls, but there simply wouldn't be any sound. Then after a few seconds the radio would cut back to the CD or whatever I was listening to.
I decided that the best course of action would be to re-flash my CK3100 with a newer software version. Lo and behold, the release notes for version 4.18b of the Parrot OS make specific notice of the known iPhone bug in version 4.17! Goodie!
Unfortunately Parrot's updating software is only available for the Windows platform and thus, as a fervent Mac addict, I had to find a solution. Luckily I still had a Windows XP disk image for Parallels, which was working nicely. In order to get Bluetooth working under Parallels, there's a few hoops to jump through. Below you'll find the quick & dirty guide to updating your Parrot using Windows in Parallels under Mac OS X.
1. Make sure your Windows install in Parallels is working nicely. Boot it up.
2. Take the installation DVD that came with your Mac and insert it into the drive. Connect Parallels to the drive so you can read the DVD. This automatically opens an install windows which you can close.
3. Browse the contents of the DVD, going into "Boot Camp -> Drivers -> Apple".
4. Run these two installers using an admin account: AppleBluetoothInstaller and AppleBluetoothEnablerInstaller.
5. Reboot Windows. It will now automatically detect the Bluetooth hardware.
6. Go to the Parrot downloads site and download the Parrot software update tool.
7. Go the the Parrot manuals site and read the upgrading manual for your model Parrot.
8. You'll need to install the software updater under Windows. The default location is under C:Program FilesParrot Software Update Tool.
9. Run the ParrotFlashWiz application as an admin user. You'll need to download new firmware versions into the prog-files directory and this requires admin rights.
10. Take it from there using the manual from step 7.
Presto!
kilala.nl tags: other tech, apple, sysadmin,
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2008-10-10 16:22:00
I've been using Apple computers and software for almost five years now. Since then the OS X operating systems has gone through a lot of changes, becoming nicer and nicer along the way. All kinds of nifty features were added, most of them without becoming bloatware. The fact that I've seen five years of this stuff has had its effect though and I find it hard to become enthused by most of the new stuff. It's great and all, but you won't catch me dancing down the street.
But sometimes, sometimes a little nugget of gold comes out of Apple and I'm completely in love with their software again.
Case in point: the Genius function that was added to iTunes recently and the Remote application for the iPhone.
Genius will take any song in your library and, given a few circumstances, will create a new playlist containing 25 songs that ought to go nicely with the selected song. This selection of tunes is based on data gathered from the iTunes libraries from thousands of users world wide. This doesn't work out perfectly each time, but usually it gives me great results.
Let's say that I pick the Beastie Boys' Sabotage. iTunes will almost instantaneously suggest songs that go with it. In this case I got (among others):
* Wu-Tang Clan, Gravelpit
* Black Eyed Peas, Pump it
* Outkast, Roses
And so on. I reckon that the quality of iTunes' selection depends wholly on the amount of songs you have from a given genre. I can imagine that a Genius playlist for German Schlager music would be quite impossible on my computer ^_^; The great thing about all of this though, is the fact that I am constantly re-discovering songs that I'd even forgotten I had!
Combine this with the Remote application which runs on my iPhone and I can have a very nice evening on the couch. Using the app I can control all of iTunes' operations without ever touching my Mac. And because I'm re-discovering music I can immediately assign rankings to these "new" songs, or just skip past them if I really hate them.
kilala.nl tags: apple, iphone, awesome,
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2008-09-13 10:49:00
( I really ought to add a photo to this post )
I've had my iPhone for about a week now and I'm loving it to bits. Phone calls, SMS, e-mail and web browsing all work like a dream! Then today, after putting the phone down while getting out of the car I noticed something weird about the front of the phone.
Next to the earpiece there are three purple / reddish / bordeaux dots, about 3mm in diameter. They were staring me in the face as if they'd always been there, though I'd never seen them before. Not in bright sunlight, not under incandescent light, not under CFC light and now all of a sudden, on a dreary and grey day, they show up! Weird! :D
Anywho, it turns out that these are the proximity sensors used to turn off the touchscreen when you're making a phone call. Mystery solved :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, iphone,
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2008-08-27 21:57:00
It's an obvious fact that I love Apple's Mac OS X. There's one feature though that's missing from OS X that I'd love to see implemented properly. So far, the guys who made App Fresh are doing great work in achieving this feature!
The feature in question: centralised updates for all the installed applications and prefpanes.
On my Macbook I have at least fifty different apps installed, each of which has its own way of getting updates. Some software, like Adium and iTerm, do automatic checks on their webservers and allow you to immediately install an update. Others, like Transmit and Unison, check for updates but require you to manually download and install a new version. It's all a bit hodge-podge. So how about we vie for a unified method of upgrading our software?
Enter the aforementioned AppFresh. After a brief configuration, AppFresh will search your hard drive for applications. Then, using the IUseThis.com database, it checks for new versions of your software and where to download them. Give AppFresh the order and he'll download and install all the updates in one fell swoop! Great!
Of course, such a course of action should only be used in production environments after testing all the new software versions. I also haven't checked yet, but I'm curious to see if you can point AppFresh at your own software repository. That way you could build your own, centralised software repo for your company. Possibilities!
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, sysadmin,
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2008-08-23 07:42:00
Last week my colleague Albert mentioned that he had some old Apple hardware lying around that he needed to get rid of. Since the thing was still working, he though it a shame to just throw it away and so he was looking for a good home for the thing. Loving Apple classics I naturally obliged :)
I'm saying "classic" here, because the Powerbook 540c in question is supposedly one of the best laptops Apple's ever made. At the time (1994) it was nigh on revolutionary, with all kinds of features that'd never been seen before in a laptop. The 540c was even voted #2 Best Powerbook, right after the venerable Pismo G3.
As Albert promised, the Powerbook still runs perfectly well. It's got OS 7.5 on it and Word and Excel are even installed. Unfortunately one of the batteries is shot to pieces, while the other will still hold a nominal charge. I reckon this laptop will make a nice, first computer for our daughter to play games on in a few years. I'll just have to hope that the SCSI drive in it will hold out.
There's all kinds of improvements that I'm thinking of for this beasty. For one, I'm thinking of recelling the working battery with new NiMH batteries. I'm also looking for a way to get the laptop to work with Compact Flash cards. On the one hand this will make file exchange a lot easier and on the other it will make a perfect replacement for the SCSI drive. Apparently the 540 is perfectly capable of booting from a CF card. Unfortunately both of these improvements will cost at least a bunch of bucks apiece and for now I'm not at liberty to just spend money on old hardware.
Thanks Albert! You gave us a nice little plaything. We'll take good care of your old laptop :)
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2008-02-13 06:55:00
Well carp! It seems that going from 10.4.11 to 10.5.2 in one go has broken a few things on my Macbook. Most notably, my FileVault home directory refuses to mount D:
Checking things out with fsck and Disk Utility Provides the following:
Checking catalog file.
Invalid key length.
Volume check failed.
Disk verification failed.
Ouch. Luckily the encrypted sparseimage will still mount, so I'm using rsync to copy all of my data out of the home directory. Thank Dog I have an external FW disk lying around. Also thank Dog that I make a backup recently :)
Remember kids! Always make backups!
Also, it seems that the tablet driver for my Wacom Graphire4 is incompatible with 10.5.2 as well. It was working nicely with 10.5.1, but not it's borked out :( I guess I'll have to wait for an updated version.
Oh well... While my Macbook is copying all of my data, I'll go have breakfast.
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem, sysadmin,
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2008-01-21 12:04:00
Ever since I upgraded my Powermac to Leopard it'd been having problems with my Wacom Graphire4 tablet. The tablet would work, but only in its very basic mode. I suspected driver issues, but couldn't figure out which driver to use.
I finally got it to work though. Here's how:
1. If you have a directory called "Pen Tablet" or "Wacom" in /Applications, go in there and run the uninstaller. Remove both the prefs and the software.
2. Go into /Library/Preferences and remove all mentions of "Wacom" or "Pen Tablet".
3. Go into /Library/Application Support and do the same.
4. Go into ~/Library/Preferences and do the same.
5. For good measure, use the Find function in Finder to search for other mentions of Wacom.
6. Download the proper driver over here.
7. Install the new driver.
It should work now :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem, sysadmin,
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2008-01-14 09:56:00
Meh... iPhoto is not without its bugs, unfortunately. I'm busy copying a few gigs of pics from Japan to my Powermac. iPhoto keeps borking up the exports, saying that a number of files are locked due to activity. This lock appears to be taken away, once I give iPhoto the command to "revert to original" for the pics in question. It seems that the editing process in iPhoto doesn't always clean up its crap :/
This bug's changed a process that should've taken fifteen minutes into an hour's endeavour.
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem,
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2008-01-14 08:52:00
Well, this is creeping me out... Kinda...
I have my Powermac booted in Firewire Target Disk Mode, meaning that it acts as if it were a dumb firewire disk. I've done this to copy over a few gigs of photos from my Macbook, since doing that over Wifi will take ages.
Well, the fans on my Powermac started out at a low hum, but over the course of two to three minutes their pace has been steadily rising. It's kind of creepy to hear their pitch go up for more than a minute. It makes me wonder how far they can go before breaking ^_^;
So now there's a -very- noisy hairdryer sitting beneath my desk, while I'm waiting for the copy to finish. I'm still waiting for a *SNAP!*, followed by an awful racket from one of the broken fans bouncing around the case. >_>
kilala.nl tags: apple, powermac, weird,
View or add comments (curr. 2)
2007-11-18 15:24:00
I've always been quite happy about most of the stuff Apple does. A lot of their solutions to problems are elegant and pretty. However, there are also some cases in which they do awful stuff under the hood. Stuff that makes me cringe in disgust.
Case in point, the new path_helper command.
I've been an avid user of LaTexIT, a LaTex helper programme, for a few months now. It's great how easy it makes the creation of mathematical equations in LaTex.
Unfortunately LaTexIT doesn't yet work flawlessly on Leopard. One of the things that goes wrong is the fact that it just won't start :D After trying to start the app a few times, I noticed a run-away process called path_helper.
I asked Pierre whether path_helper might be tied to the problems he's having, because we don't often get run-away processes. Pierre confirmed that others have hinted at path_helper as well, but that he isn't quite sure yet. Unfortunately he doesn't have a Leopard license yet, so he can't debug the problems yet (hint: make a donation if you use LaTexIt! Pierre could use a Leopard license!).
To help him out, I dug around a little bit. What follows is what I e-mailed Pierre. If you don't want to read through the whole bit, here's the summary:
Apple wants to make it easy to expand the $PATH variable for every user on the system automatically. Instead of tagging on new PATH= lines onto the end of /etc/profile, they've created the path_helper command that gets called by /etc/profile. Path_helper reads directory paths from the text files in /etc/paths.d and appends these paths to $PATH.
So because the want to make it just a -little- easier to add to $PATH, they've:
* Created a new directory structure under /etc/paths.d
* Allow new apps or environments to add text files to /etc/paths.d
* Created a new command which simply reads text files and barfs out shell commands.
* Thus broken the Unix standard way of globally setting $PATH.
Good going Apple! You bunch of schmucks!
======================================================
Hmm, this seems to be a weird little, extra tool that Apple has tagged onto the OS. I'm not sure if it's the most elegant solution to the problem. I see what they want to do though: they want to be able to easily make adjustments to the $PATH variable for all users on the system.
Personally I'd just use the global profile in /etc, but apparently Apple have chosen a roundabout way.
Each user's .profile calls that path_helper process. The only thing that path_helper does is generate the requisite sh/csh commands to adjust the $PATH variable.
From the manpage:
=====================
ath_helper(8) BSD System Manager's Manual path_helper(8)
NAME
path_helper -- helper for constructing PATH environment variable
SYNOPSIS
path_helper [-c | -s]
DESCRIPTION
The path_helper utility reads the contents of the files in the directories
/etc/paths.d and /etc/manpaths.d and appends their contents to the PATH and
MANPATH environment variables respectively.
Files in these directories should contain one path element per line.
Prior to reading these directories, default PATH and MANPATH values are
obtained from the files /etc/paths and /etc/manpaths respectively.
Options:
-c Generate C-shell commands on stdout. This is the default if SHELL
ends with "csh".
-s Generate Bourne shell commands on stdout. This is the default if
SHELL does not end with "csh".
NOTE
The path_helper utility should not be invoked directly. It is intended only
for use by the shell profile.
Mac OS X
END
=====================
So instead of putting PATH=$PATH:/usr/whatever/bin in /etc/profile, Apple have decided to make a new config file: /etc/paths.d. This config file will list all directories that need to be appended to the default $PATH.
/me looks at /etc/paths.d
Actually... It's a directory, containing text files with directory paths. For example:
=====================
Kilala:~ thomas$ cd /etc
Kilala:etc thomas$ cd paths.d
Kilala:paths.d thomas$ ls
X11
Kilala:paths.d thomas$ ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 24 sep 05:53 .
drwxr-xr-x 91 root wheel 3094 13 nov 21:11 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 13 24 sep 05:53 X11
Kilala:paths.d thomas$ file X11
X11: ASCII text
Kilala:paths.d thomas$ cat X11
/usr/X11/bin
=====================
I guess Apple's reasoning is that it's easier to add extra text files to /etc/paths.d, than it is to add a new PATH= line to /etc/profile. Personally, I think it an in-elegant (and rather wasteful) way of doing things :/
Wait, it's even worse! The path_helper gets called from /etc/profile! Ugh! :(
=====================
Kilala:~ thomas$ cd /etc
Kilala:etc thomas$ cat profile
# System-wide .profile for sh(1)
if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
fi
if [ "${BASH-no}" != "no" ]; then
[ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
fi
=====================
Let's see what happens when I run the command...
=====================
Kilala:etc thomas$ /usr/libexec/path_helper -s
PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin"; export PATH
MANPATH="/usr/share/man:/usr/local/share/man:/usr/X11/man"; export MANPATH
=====================
What a totally stupid and annoying way of doing this. What's worse, I'm quite sure it also breaks the Unix-compliancy of Leopard when it comes to standards for setting $PATH.
Hmm :/
kilala.nl tags: apple, meh, sysadmin,
View or add comments (curr. 12)
2007-11-15 19:09:00
Darn... Fighting this little bit of trouble just cost me half an hour and a good chunk of my mood.
After installing the OS X 10.4.11 update, the MS Word 2004 FontCacheTool problems I had back in 2006 arose again. Apparently this part of MS Office regularly gets into trouble with OS X's fonts and caches *grr*
I tried to get rid of the problem in a nice way by disabling any duplicate fonts and by removing the font cache. But that didn't help me any. So instead I reckoned I'd play it dirty; I didn't have time to play with Word.
$ cd /Applications/Microsoft*/Office/Support*
$ sudo mv FontCacheTool FontCacheTool.orig
Screw that piece of kit... If it doesn't want to play nicely, it won't get to play at all. Of course, that's not the proper solution. On the upside of things, Word does boot up very quickly now! ^_^;
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem,
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2007-11-04 10:49:00
A small forum discussion at Ars Technica alerted me to one of the new features in OS X Leopard. Apple'd been working on a more lifelike voice-over, which resulted in the voice Alex. I have to say that it's pretty damn impressive, the way they make Alex sound rather lifelike.
What's even scarier is the fact that somehow Apple worked in little breathing-effects as well. There's something weird about hearing your computer draw breath before it starts to speak a sentence.
EDIT:
You can use the voice-over utilities to create audio files as well. Cheap audio-books anyone? Of course, Alex doesn't speak as vividly as any other narrator, but still.
Here's how to do it:
1. Open Terminal.app to get to the command line.
2. Type "say -f ".
3. Drag a plain text file from Finder into the Terminal window.
4. Type " -o ~/Desktop/Spoken.aiff"
5. Press enter.
The say command will read the text input file (-f flag stands for "file") and will output the audio as .AIFF file (-o stands for "output"). The resulting file will appear on your desktop. Once it's done you can convert the .AIFF file to .MP3 using Amadeus.
EDIT2:
Of course, another neat use for this command is to tell you when a huge task is done. For example, I run the "TEC-analysis.sh" script from the command line to analyse a weeks worth of Tivoli alarms. It'd be very easy to do the following:
$ ./TEC-analysis.sh; say TEC Analysis complete!
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2007-11-03 15:44:00
Last night I upgraded the first of our three Macintoshes to the new Mac OS X Leopard. I'd decided to start out with the Powermac, since that one's the least crucial of our Macs. Before upgrading her iBook, Marli wants to see the new OS work on my Powermac. And of course I'm saving the all-important work-Macbook for last.
The installation was -not- without problems. I'd forgotten that I'd installed APE (Application Enhancer), which royally screws up any new Leopard install. This isn't that farfetched, since it's a rather hackish piece of software.
After doing a completely fresh, reformatted, install I found another unpleasant surprise: the Migration Assistant software cannot import users whose homedirectory has been File Vaulted. Crap. This meant that I had to transfer all my files and preferences by hand.
So far I like the new OS well enough (haven't noticed much difference), though there's one thing that I already loathe: Spaces. I -love- having a virtual desktop manager built into OS X. Absolutely. I just hate two of the "features" of Spaces.
1. You cannot move windows from one desktop to another using a key combo.
2. Spaces automatically switches to the desktop containing the -main- window of the application you select.
Why is number 2 so bad? Well, let's say that I'm typing up a report on desktop 4. Now a friend pops up on MSN, through Adium. The new Adium window appears on my current desktop: 4. I switch to Adium, to type a reply, and "zing!" I'm moved to desktop 2 because that's where Adium's main window resides.
That fscking sucks!
More Leopard gripes later :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, powermac,
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2007-09-05 21:45:00
Please let the record state that Canon are a bunch of f-ing toolboxes when it comes to their scanners. More specifically, when it comes to using their scanners in Mac OS X. Some of their older models are completely unusable, although there are tricks, rituals and voodoo that may get you varying results.
I've fought a few times to get my N650u to work.
I need to scan some stuff for school. Since I cannot drag along my Powermac (which runs the Classic Canon tools) I've fought my Macbook for an hour or so tonight. I tried all the crap that's out there, but Canon's software's crap. So I caved in and bought Vue Scan. Thankfully it's come down in price since the last time I wrote about it.
At least I can use the bill for VueScan to get a tax write-off, since it was a purchase made for school. *sigh*
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2007-08-24 08:38:00
A long long time ago I installed Qemu and Windows on my Powermac G5 so I could run some old games of mine. Most notable the Magic: the Gathering game from the late nineties.
This morning I installed Windows XP in a Parallels VM. I may heartily dislike Windows, but there's still something cool about running a Windows VM on Mac OS :D Dance puppet, dance!.
Again I plan to use Windows for Magic, but the main purpose is to run some Windows-only software from School.
Ah, the miracles of modern-day science :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, windows,
View or add comments (curr. 4)
2007-08-23 21:11:00
As a student, especially as a freshman, things can become very chaotic. You will need to juggle your courses, your projects, your work and your social life. There's teachers and fellow students and there are all kinds of things you need to do.
In order to survive you'll need to keep a clear head and get your act together. Keeping track of all your work and having it all at your fingertips is crucial.
There are all kinds of tools and tricks that will help you get along. There's methodologies like PEP and GTD. And there's online tools like Gmail/Gcalender and MyQuire.
A lot of the modern operating systems also help you out by providing useful features. Mac OS X for example, features software like Spotlight, Time Machine, Address Book and iCal. I'm sure Windows comes with useful stuff too, but I'm just not familiar with that stuff ~_^
Recently I read an article on Life Hacker (a productivity blog) about Schoolhouse 2. The author lauded Schoolhouse as an innovative piece of software that has great potential.
SH lets you organize all your notes, files, project, tasks and assignments. The interface is quite similar to that of iTunes, so one should get quickly used to it. On the left hand side we can create folders and subfolders to symbolize years, terms and courses. (Smart) notebooks are the analogue of playlists, allowing you to sort assignments irrespective of their course.
Courses can be assigned a number of credits, so you'll know exactly what you're up against. Each course may also contain any number of notes, assignments, labs, midterms, exams, etc. All of these can be assigned grades, so you can track your progress throughout the term. In a nice twist of things, you can also assign each course teachers, project members, attachments and To Do lists.
The interface sports a number of useful buttons, like Ask teacher which automatically opens a new e-mail to your teach. The grade and calendar views are also pretty damn useful.
I've discovered a few downsides to Schoolhouse 2. For one the interface is still far from consistent and knows its instabilities. Also, all your notes and SH objects are stored in a proprietary database. The only exception being your attachments. As far as I know, the database doesn't hook into Spotlight, so you can't search SH from the operating system. Shame.
One of the most clamoured over features for SH is integration with iCal. Apparently the developer is looking into this, but he's only a student himself. Finding time to make a new version of Schoolhouse can be hard :)
Also, please don't be stingy. Good software deserves a bit of a reward. If you find yourself using Schoolhouse for your daily work, please consider making a donation to Logan Collins. I'm sure he can use the dough for his software development.
kilala.nl tags: apple, school, software,
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2007-08-23 08:49:00
The design and code behind the new site is about 98% done, but there's still one thing that irks me. Apparently fonts are rendered very differently when you compare OS X and Windows.
The new design looks wonderful in Safari and Firefox on OS X, but some of the DIVs are not wide enough on Windows. Why the heck is it that "verdana 10pt" isn't the same size everywhere?! On OS X the menus look neat and tidy. On Windows the characters get huge and start wrapping around to a new line. Meh...
I'll have to bang on that a little bit more :/
kilala.nl tags: apple, website, windows,
View or add comments (curr. 17)
2007-07-26 22:51:00
While my colleagues can't stop praising Mac OS X for its cleverness and ease of use, I'm thanking the $DEITIES on my knees for iLife. iLife and the Core2 Duo processor.
Back in 2004 I edited our wedding film using Final Cut Express on my Powermac G5. I was rather pleased with how it all went and I was well impressed by all the features FCE came with. I will not claim that I knew what everything did and I'll admit that I was just bolocksing about a bit. Still, things came out rather nicely, although it took me quite some time.
When I was asked to compose the wedding DVD for my in-laws I gladly accepted, although I wasn't looking forward to all the waiting and the crunching and the schlepping.
Well, I needn't have worried! Enter my Macbook! Hero of the day, andsoforth.
I can't believe how incredibly speedy all of iLife runs on the Core2 Duo, though I'm sure the 2GB of RAM also helps ;) Switching from FCE to iMovie '06 I may have lost a few features, but I gained a lot of comfort. Things were just so damn easy! Frying everything into a DVD with nice menus was also damn easy with iDVD. Finish everything off with a slideshow from iPhoto and we're all set.
I'm quite happy with the end result! I hope Elke and Peter will enjoy their DVD.
kilala.nl tags: apple, family,
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2007-07-26 17:41:00
This afternoon my buddy Edmond came up to me with an interesting predicament. He runs Mac OS X on his Macbook and would like to:
A) have a password-less screen saver
B) have the ability to lock his screen with a password
Usually one simply uses screen saver passwords to achieve goal B, but Ed was adamant that he wanted A as well. Not something you often see, right? Initially I thought it wouldn't be possible, but then I had a flash of insight. It's possible! Here's how...
1. Open "System Preferences". Go into "Security".
2. Uncheck the box marked "Require password to wake...".
3. Open "Keychain Access". Open its preferences window.
4. Check the box marked "Show status in menu bar".
5. A padlock appears in your menu bar.
From now on you can lock your screen by clicking on the padlock and selecting "Lock screen". And you can still use your screen saver and go back into the OS without a password. The only downside to this is that one can also wake up your system from sleep without a password. Not something I'd like to have if my laptop was ever stolen.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, sysadmin,
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2007-07-19 18:38:00
One of the added benefits of migrating our web hosting to DreamHost is the fact that they allow secured WebDAV. Using this feature, I've created what will soon become our iCal repository, which will contain all of our shared calendars. Both Marli's and my copy of iCal have been configured to share our personal .ICS files and to subscribe to updates from the other. It's a snap to set up and will allow us to remain up to date on the other's coming and going.
For those new to all of this, here's the quick list:
1. Create a special WebDAV directory with your hosting provider.
2. Create an iCal calendar, or use another tool that allows you to share through WebDAV.
3. Publish your personal calendar using the WebDAV settings for your website.
4. Subscribe to your SO's calendar's by opening the URL to their .ICS file in the same WebDAV space.
Once all of that is set up you can configure each calendar to either push or fetch updates automatically.
EDIT:
Running Windows or Linux? You may want to take a look at Mozilla's calendar projects Sunbird and Lighting. These also support .ICS and WebDAV.
EDIT2:
To explain things just a -little- bit more for the non-techy readers...
This is not about making our calendars available to the general public. They'll be password protected to only me and Marli can read and update the calendars. It would be really dumb to just tell everyone when we're away on our holidays :/
Also, this is not about making appointments with each other :D Yes, miss... I would like to schedule dinner at eight, some kissing at night and we'd go to sleep around 2300. Is that alright?. ^_^ It's my intention to keep each other posted on all of the appointments we have. I often forget to tell Marli about planned overtime, dinner dates or stand-by duty. This is my way of making sure she can always know what I'm up to :)
Of course, as Menno pointed out in the comments, all of this is no substitute for a nice, long talk ^_^
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
View or add comments (curr. 15)
2007-06-11 16:47:00
Now that I've gotten my mits on an Intel Macbook I've also started dabbling with Parallels Desktop, a piece of software that'll let you run a whole bunch of virtual machines inside Mac OS X. For my work it's rather handy to have a spare Solaris system lying around, so I went with the Solaris Express image that I mentioned a few weeks ago. And now that it's about time for me to get started on my LPIC-2 exam it's also handy to have at least one Linux at hand.
Enter a pre-installed and configured Fedora Core 6 image for Parallels. At only ~730MB in size that really isn't that bad. Saves me a lot of trouble as well.
Just be sure to set your RAM at 512 MB. Any higher is supposed to crash FC, according to this OS X hint.
EDIT:
Tried it with my last day of the Parallels demo. It works like a charm :)
kilala.nl tags: unix, apple, sysadmin,
View or add comments (curr. 6)
2007-05-27 08:07:00
This month I'd saved up enough money in my individual IT budget at Snow to buy me a new laptop. I've been using my iBook for two years now and it's been great, but it's about time to get a faster piece of hardware. Luckily, the iBook is still covered by one more year of Applecare so I'll have it looked over and then it goes on to Marli.
So far I like the Macbook and I -love- it's glossy screen. The colours it displays are so vibrant! The only thing I already hate (really, I do) are the sharp edges on the bottom-front of the casing. These tend to scratch my wrists when I'm typing :(
And it has to be said that because Mac OS X is such an "easy" operating system, it takes all the fun out of installing a new computer. I hooked up my iBook using a Firewire cable and within the hour all my files and settings had been transferred to the Macbook. Thus it was set up in exactly the same way my old computer was and I didn't have to do a thing about it. Oh well *shrug* ^_^
kilala.nl tags: apple, macbook, toys,
View or add comments (curr. 3)
2007-05-21 11:07:00
For the past three years we've been using Macintosh computers provided by Mac Rent for the Anime 200x Internet Corner. We started out with the pretty G4 iMacs, upgraded to Mac Mini's with Cinema displays and now we've moved up to C2d iMacs.
Since I'm the only Mac-head on our staff the task befalls me to install each Mac and to secure it against the prodding hands of our visitors. In the first year I did everything by hand, modding and configing four Macs at the same time. That was hell. So last year I prepared a disk image at home that I could spool onto each Mac. Unfortunately last year's image was made for PPC Macs, so I can't reuse it.
The upside of this story? We rented one of the four iMacs for an additional week, during which it's stationed at my place for me to tinker with ^_^
Once the Mac is set up in the way I want it I will create a disk image again, which will allow me to install two Macs at the same time. Remember: the already installed iMac can be booted in Firewire Taget Mode, in which it'll work as just another external hard disk. This means that I'll start out with two source disks, instead of just one as I did last year.
For now I have to say I rather like the iMac. I love its screen and would love to have one at home. Not in the least because my 20" CRT seems to be dying on me :(
kilala.nl tags: anime 200x, anime 2007, apple,
View or add comments (curr. 10)
2007-05-09 17:22:00
You know those evenings when you're tired and you want nothing more but a cozy night with your wife, a nice drink, some snacks and a movie or two? Don't you love them? Well, so do we! But there's one thing that could always ruin such an evening for us.
Digging through six rows of DVDs, coming up with what we want to see and then finding it... x_x
Fed up with the mess that we call our DVD collection I decided to clear out the whole cabinet and then to sort them all by alphabet. Later, I'll print out a neat little booklet containing a full listing of our movies, sorted by genre to keep on the coffee table. That should ensure that most of our troubles belong to the past.
While sorting all the DVDs I gathered some "interesting" statistics.
* In our collection, movie titles starting with letters C and S rule supreme. You can see their piles sticking above the rest in the photo. The letter C's stack is particularly large, which is probably due to our collection of CSI seasons.
* There is no love for the letters K and Z. Not one movie starting with either of those.
* Letters Q and U both get one movie. Surprisingly both movies are trashy horror flicks: Queen of the dead and Urban Legend.
For now I'll just use my own crappy DVD database, but I'm literally lusting for a copy of Delicious Library. Unfortunately the current version doesn't support any of the dutch databases out on the web, so I'll have to wait and see whether version 2 does.
kilala.nl tags: movies, apple, other tech, problem,
View or add comments (curr. 6)
2007-05-05 09:32:00
A little over a year ago I modded my iBooks in a simple way: I put different colours of crepe papier behind the Apple logo lens, making it the rainbow apple (Apple's original logo from the eighties). Now that I've ordered my Macbook I was looking forward to doing the same with this new piece of kit.
Until I saw iFixIt guide for disassembling the lid and the LCD panel. Basically it boils down to the fact that you'll be taking apart the complete laptop (as in "everything"!), just to get to the lens. I guess I won't be doing that ;)
Instead I'll be getting a GelaSkin which is a piece of art, printed on vinyl, that adheres to the lid of your laptop. In my case, I really love the pieces called Nevermind, The great wave and Starry night
kilala.nl tags: macbook, apple, creative,
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2007-04-27 21:57:00
Ever since Apple introduced the iPhone I've been lukewarm about the device. It's a wonderful piece of engineering, sure enough, and of course it's pure eye candy. But it didn't really manage to make me feel all gooey inside.
That is, until I exposed myself to Steve's RDF (Reality Distortion Field). A few colleagues at the office told me about a few of the funny details of Steve's iPhone presentation (like prank-calling Starbucks to order 4000 cafe lattes to go), so I decided to spend part of my Friday evening watching the presentation through its online Quicktime stream.
If you happen to have a spare ninety minutes and you're curious about the presentation genius that is Steve Jobs, go have a look.
Seriously, it's a good thing these presentations aren't broadcast nation-wide 'cause that'd just be a danger to the public. People'd be scrambling like maniacs to get the products Steve's talking about. ^_^
I have no clue how he does it, but Steve really -is- the best public speaker I know. The imagery is polished, the story is clean and well rehearsed and (in my book) most importantly: they have backups! If something goes wrong, Steve just flips a switch and on goes the show! Take that Bill Gates!
kilala.nl tags: apple, iphone,
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2007-04-27 14:32:00
Ever since Apple switched to Intel processors in their systems and Parallels came out with their Parallels Desktop software it's been possible to run Windows, Linux and other Unices inside virtual machines on your Mac. That's totally great, since it allows you to run various test systems without needing additional hardware!
A lot of people also got Solaris 10 to run in PD, although some ran into a little bit of trouble. Well, not anymore! Sun has created a pre-installed Solaris Express image for use with Parallels Desktop. This allows you to immediately get up and running with Solaris, without even having to go through any of the normal installation hoops.
I know what I'll be doing when I get my Macbook in ;)
Thanks to Ben Rockwood for pointing out this little gem.
kilala.nl tags: unix, apple, sysadmin,
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2007-03-15 12:51:00
The MacFreak team has decided to close down the forum section of their website. They were moved to make this decission because of a slander campaign directed at their lead man that's been going on for years.
Quite recently a few of the bastards had taken up the challenge of creating as much ruckus on the MF fora as possible, thus overloading the team of mods with work. Combine this with the negative effects that their lead man has been experiencing in his professional career* and you've got a rather nasty mix :(
I mean sure, Ars Technica and other fora have problems these as well with people who were banned ragging on Caesar and the likes. But I don't think it's every gotten as far as this. Shame really...
Should be an interesting case for psych-students: figure out what the heck it is that makes people obsessive-compulsive about harassing someone who, in their eyes, has wronged them.
*: MacFreak is the Netherlands' largest Apple-related forum. Just about everyone in the business who uses Macs visits the website and will thus pick up one or two things from the slander directed at Leon. This in turn affects his own business, since these people are obviously affected by what they hear about the guy, wether it's false or not.
kilala.nl tags: apple, internet, annoying,
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2007-03-13 08:11:00
Well, It works, I can use my iBook at home from my desktop PC at work. I'd tested the whole setup at home, using both my Powermac and the Thinkpad $CLIENT gave me and VNC worked properly and rather smooth.
Unfortunately the Internet connection at $CLIENT isn't too great, so the VNC connection is a bit sluggish. Changing desktops (I run Desktop Manager to sort my apps across four desktops) takes a second or three and building a completely new screen takes about two. So it's not great, but it's doable at least.
I'll try this out for a few days, see how it pans out. If I don't get stuck in any way I'll leave my iBook at home from now on.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2007-03-12 22:08:00
For weeks on end I've been dragging my iBook along to the office at $CLIENT, even though I'm not allowed to connect it to their network. My iBook is indispensable to me, because it contains all of my archives and past projects, all my e-mail and my address book and calendar. I even use my iBook to keep track of my working hours (thank you TimeLog 3!).
Unfortunately, dragging my laptop around can get tiresome, especially if I ride my bike to work. Which is why I'm very grateful to one of my colleagues for suggesting the use of VNC or another remote desktop solution. Seriously, the suggestion was so obvious that I'm really ashamed that I didn't think of it. I guess I was just clinging -too- much to my dear, sweet iBook.
Anywho... What I'm about to describe is only one of many ways to implement a remote desktop solution for your Mac. A few other options exist, but this is the one I'm using. What we're going to be building is the following:
* I'm at my desk at work, using one of the PCs over there.
* My iBook, running Mac OS 10.4 is at home, connected to my wifi network.
* I will be using my iBook, from my desk at work :)
What you'll need:
* A VNC server. I chose to use Vine Server, which came recommended.
* A VNC client. For Windows and Linux I chose to use Tight VNC and for OS X I use Chicken of the VNC.
* An SSH server. This comes built in, as part of Mac OS X.
* An SSH client. For Windows I use PuTTY, while Linux and OS X come built in with a client.
* Your home IP address. You can find this by browsing to What is my IP address? at home.
Setting up SSH at home
You can use the basic SSH configuration that comes with OS X, but it's not rock solid. If you'd like to be extra secure, please make the following changes. This will disable remote root access and will force each user to make use of SSH keys. If you didn't, you could log in using your normal password which opens you up to brute force password attacks.
* Open Terminal.app and enter the following commands.
cd /private/etc
sudo vi sshd_config
* Change the following lines, so they read as follows. The last two lines a
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
UsePAM no
* (Re)start SSH
Open System Preferences.
Go to "Sharing".
(Re)start the "Remote access" server.
Setting up the VNC server at home
Vine Server comes in a .DMG and you can simply copy the binary to its desired location. By starting the application you're presented with the applications configuration options, which has buttons at the bottom to stop and start the VNC server.
* You can leave most settings at their default values, but it's extra safe to change the following:
Connection -> set a password
Sharing -> only allow local connections
This secures your VNC server with a password and prevents people on your local network from connecting to your desktop. You'll only be able to login to VNC after logging in to your system through SSH.
* Press the "Start server" button.
Setting up your router
You will need to make your SSH server accessible from the Internet. Configure your router in such a way that it forwards incoming traffic on port 22, to port 22 on your Mac.
Setting up your SSH client at work
If you forced your SSH server to use public/private keypairs earlier, then you'll need to configure your SSH client to do the same. You can use ssh-keygen (OS X and Linux) or PuTTYGen (Windows) to generate a key pair. Please Google around for instructions on how to use SSH keys.
You will need to tell your SSH client to connect to your SSH server at home and to set up port forwarding for VNC. In both examples $HOME-IP is the IP address of your Internet connection at home.
* On Linux and OS X (from the command line): ssh -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5900 $HOME-IP.
* On Windows (in PuTTY): SSH -> Tunnel -> local port = 5900, remote port = 127:0.0.1:5900
What you're doing here is rerouting any traffic that's coming in at your work PC at port 5900 to port 5900 at your home box.
Setting up your VNC client at work
All of the real work is being done by the SSH session, so you can instruct your VNC client to simply connect to desktop 0 at localhost, or at 127.0.0.1. Enter the password that you set up earlier.
Adding more security
Unfortunately Hot Corners don't work through VNC and FUS kills your VNC session, so we'll need to find another way to lock your OS X desktop. Luckily I've found a way in this article. You can use Keychain Access to add a small button to your menu that will allow you to lock your screen.
And there you have it! A fully working VNC setup that will allow you to use your Mac at home, from work.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, writing, sysadmin,
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2007-01-10 20:17:00
Most of you guys've already heard about the iPhone dozens of times by now. Many websites have taken to posting specs, expectations and glorifications of Apple's newest shiny object.
So instead of boring you with more of the same I thought I'd link to two very enthused reactions from a corner not often heard from when it comes to IT: web comic authors.
Tycho feels very foolish after buying the Zune just a few weeks ago. He's even proclaiming the product as a whole to be dead in the water now that the iPhone's on its way. And here's the comic that goes with it.
Then there's Scott Kurtz who proclaims the iPhone to be the second coming of Christ.. Personally I wouldn't go that far, but I can understand his enthusiasm.
Personally I doubt that I'll ever go and get the iPhone. I like my cell phones as simple as they can be: a single purpose device for calling, SMS and modem. If I want PIM functions I'll use my iBook and if I want music I'll grab my iPod. Still, I'm very curious where this product'll go in the near future! I'm just hoping it doesn't bomb.
kilala.nl tags: iphone, apple, comics,
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2007-01-06 19:17:00
Even though we don't really have the money to spare I just spent around twenty-five dollars on a piece of software called VisualHub. This software takes any conceivable video format and converts it for whichever use you choose. In this case it allows me to finally watch the six episodes of The IT Crowd that I still have lying around on the TV, instead of on my PC/laptop.
Aside from the fact that VisualHub excels in ease of use, the authors of the software also show a huge sense of geeky humor. I mean, it's the first time _ever_ that I've seen a manual where the appendix actually contains just that: a photograph of an appendix! ^_^
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2006-12-22 22:41:00
Thanks to a link on the MacFreak fora I stumbled onto a great blog post explaining why ZFS is actually a big deal. The article approaches ZFS from the normal user's angle and actually did a good job explaining to me why I should care about ZFS.
Real nice stuff and I'm greatly looking forward to Mac OS X.5 which includes ZFS.
kilala.nl tags: apple, unix, other tech, sysadmin,
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2006-10-29 22:03:00
Wow... I never had a very high opinion of the dutch national ombudsman organisation Consumenten Bond (Consumer's Union), but this takes the cake. A member of the Mac Freak fora had sent them an e-mail to complain about their negative and one-sided reporting on the Apple Mac platform. Corthom tells us about this experience in this thread
The editor in chief e-mailed him back to tell him that most of their members use Microsoft Windows, but that they consider OS X and Linux as "interesting alternatives". However, he also tells him the following.
U heeft gelijk dat onze bladen nog worden opgemaakt op Apples, maar binnenkort stappen wij daarvoor over op pc's. Ik vrees dat de Mac zijn hoogtijdagen in de grafische wereld heeft gehad.
This translates as:
You are right about our magazines insofar that they are still made on Apples, but we will soon be making the transition to PCs. I'm afraid that the Mac's heydays in the graphical industry are over.
So aside from reporting quite negatively on the Mac, they also seem to think that they know it all :) Idjits...
kilala.nl tags: annoying, apple,
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2006-09-14 21:18:00
Creating my own, custom icon set for Mac OS X will be quite large a job I've learned so far :)
Basically what it boils down to, is that you:
* Create a nice icon using something like Gimp of Paintshop.
* Create an icon template using IconoGrapher.
* Size your icon down to 128x128, 48x48, 32x32 and 16x16. These four images will be used in Iconographer.
* Each "size" also requires that the mask you need is of the appropriate size.
* All of this rolled together makes a "new style" OS X icon, that can be used all through the OS.
Shit loads of work, but very interesting!
Here's the first six I've created so far. What you cannot see in this image (due to the lack of Alpha stuff), is that each icon has nice rounded corners.
From left to right: Chicken of the VNC, Adium, Adium offline, Adium away, Adium idle, Adium alert. The five Adium icons are bundled into an icon package that can be installed in Adium. The first Adium icon is used in the IconoGrapher template.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2006-09-14 09:14:00
Great. Now that I've started tweaking the look and feel of my iBook I'm sorely tempted to start making my own icons using IconoGrapher. That black/white icon set was quite limited and I'd love to make my own custom set to fit all the apps I run on my laptop.
Right now I have a beatiful b/w dock, with a few of those fugly MS Office icons scattered through it. Yuck...
But I must resist temptation. I doubt whether my client would be pleased if I wasted their time on this :p
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2006-09-13 22:46:00
Well, it took me a few hours of tweaking, twisting, turning and hacking, but now I really love the whole look and feel of my iBook.
The past two days I'd been complaining about how Apple has introduced -yet-another- GUI look to OS X with iTunes 7. Mind you, I love the way it looks but it's the fact that it's the sixth GUI look in OS X! That makes for one big mess! So instead of sulking about it, I spent a bunch of hours perfecting my iBook.
* Uno, to unify all OS X apps to one window style.
* Candy Bar, to change all the app and system icons.
* A clean black/white set of icons.
* A clean light blue set of icons.
* I switched as many apps as I could to a greyish theme.
All in all, I love the clean black and white look of everything. Gone is the colourful mess of icons in my dock! This feels so much better ^_^
kilala.nl tags: ibook, apple, other tech,
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2006-07-27 13:03:00
Fo' shizzle! Do I love the community that is Ars Technica. In the Mac Achaia we were discussing the various odd places where we have put the Apple stickers we got with our hardware.
Just yesterday Durf pops in and mentions that he's found a whole wad of the classic "rainbow" stickers. And that he's giving them away! O_O That's fscking awesome! So all the way from Tokyo, a sheet of rainbowy goodness will be coming my way <3. I'm so excited!
kilala.nl tags: apple, awesome, friends,
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2006-07-25 10:42:00
Sweet! I've finally gotten my Nokia cell phone to work as a Bluetooth modem for my GPRS connection.
Vodafone had already sent me a manual describing how to set up the connection, but unfortunately it wasn't working for me. Turns out that Vodafone skipped a few steps. The life saver in this matter turns out to be Ross Barkman's website which has GPRS modem scripts for leading brand cell phones.
If you would like to get your OS X system connected to the Internet through GPRS, do the following:
* Download the appropriate scripts for your phone from Ross' website and install them in "/Library/Modem scripts".
* Add your phone as a BT device (refer to your GSM provider's manual for details).
* Tell OS X to use the phone for a high speed Internet connection (refer to your GSM provider's manual for details).
Up to now I've been working according to Vodafone's manual. These are the changes I had to make (all of them in System Preferences -> Network -> Bluetooth modem)...
PPP tab:
* Instead of "*99#", use "office.vodafone.nl" as your telephone number (depending on your subscription it could also be "web." or "live.".
* Username and password are still "vodafone" and "vodafone".
* Turn off "Send PPP echo packets" and "Use TCP header compression" under PPP Options.
Bluetooth modem tab:
* Instead of "Nokia infra-red", use "Nokia GPRS CID1" as the modem script.
* Turn off "Wait for dialtone".
Now your connection should work. Try dialing in using Internet Connect or the Dial Now button in Network preferences.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, sysadmin,
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2006-06-21 12:34:00
There's an interesting discussion going on over here: what would you do if you, as a Mac Freak, were forced to work with Windows PCs for a living?
Many of the people in the discussion voice opinions like "I'd look for another job if they wouldn't allow me to work on a Mac!" or "The boss who doesn't buy proper equipment for his people is not a good boss!". While I agree with their sentiments (I really wouldn't want to work on anything but my iBook), I don't agree with their message and their choices. IMHO, if you're not flexible you're not being professional. This kind of prima donna behaviour is only tolerated if that really is what you are: the company's saviour, God and top money maker. In all other cases you'll just have to put up with it.
kilala.nl tags: apple, windows, internet, geeky,
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2006-06-14 22:14:00
Phew... I can breathe again... Luckily our home insurance (which includes separate coverage for PC's) covers the damage I inflicted upon my iBook. So instead of coughing up 900 Euros or scrounging the web for a second hand LCD panel, I will now forward the bill for Apple's repairs (the aforementioned 900 euri) to my insurer. o/ I knew I had a good reason for getting that insurance!
kilala.nl tags: ibook, apple, money,
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2006-06-14 10:06:00
Sometimes I just really want to kick myself... Hard... In the nads... x_x
I had a -very- bad night with only about an hour of sleep. Starting work at 0400 by my own volition and then dozing off around 0800 I was startled and woke again around 0830... What did I do then? I stood up... Right on top of my sweet, little iBook! So now the glass in the LCD's cracked, although the screen's still working. Hopefully Apple can fix the damage -quickly- since I rely on this laptop 100% for both my work and the Anime 2006 festival. ;_;
kilala.nl tags: ibook, apple, snafu,
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2006-05-06 11:15:00
Well shucks, I can really tell that I'm completely out of the Windows loop. I'm having all kinds of troubles backing up Marli's HP laptop (running XP) to that new LaCie hard drive. Fiddling with partitions (both the creation and the order thereof), mucking about in the BIOS and kicking around Norton Ghost (so it'll even recognize the fscking things). And now it seems I can't even boot the laptop from the dang USB interface! -_-; Sure reminds me why I made the switch to OS X in the first place!
Which brings me to how things went with my Powermac and iBook... I was done in half an hour maybe. Plug in the printer to our Airport Express base station, install the driver on OS X (since I had only installed Epson drivers originally) and click -three- times to add the printer. It was working perfectly. Same thing for the LaCie: just plug it in and it worked. Just had to partition the thing (which I ended up having to redo three times because of fscking Windows!) and start the backup software. *sigh* Bloody Windows...
I'll readily admit that I had to play around with Disk Utility for about half an hour to get my OS X backup to work, but still... Nothing should be worth the hassle I'm going through with Windows.
For the curious few out there: it's much easier to clone your drive from the command line, than it is using Disk Utility. Just run the following: sudo asr -source /Volumes/Powermac/ -target /Volumes/PMAC/ -erase. In this case "Powermac" is the name for my Mac's boot drive and "PMAC" is the name for the backup slice on the LaCie.
kilala.nl tags: apple, windows, meh,
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2006-04-02 11:23:00
I don't know why, but Opera and some versions of IE keep fscking up the table layout for this news post. Sorry guys.
Jimminy Cricket! Almost a whole month has gone by without any form of updates! o_O You guys must think I'm slacking off! Well, rest assured that I'm not, but that I'm very, very busy! Work+festival+private_life+finishing_the_house=lots of work and right now that leaves me with too little time to work on the site. For now though, here's a mega-update :3
As I mentioned near the end of February I went to see 7 Seconds of love play live in Amsterdam. I loved their music as MP3's (which they offer for free download on their website), but their concerts are on a completely different level! The energy these guys generate is awesome! The second act on stage that night, The Shenanigans (from Utrecht), was also very good! Their line-up was more like the classic-style ska and was executed -very- well.
Honesty drives me to confess that this was my first concert in more than ten years, but now I understand what I've been missing! It's a rare thing indeed when I'm compelled to "dance" in public by music.
EDIT:
Holy shiznit! Thanks to the 7SoL forums I just found out that one of the band members has put three videos of the concert online! You can find them at YouTube here, here and here. Awesome! Also I just learned about a website called KeepVid which will let you download movies from YouTube (something which isn't normally possible).
I seriously want these two bands to start putting out CDs. They really deserve some recognition and could very do well with some extra income.
Last Friday I took it upon myself to -finally- do something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time: mod my iBook! It really wasn't as a big a mod as the ones I did with my old Linux box (which I've recently sold off by the way), and it was very easy to execute... But I love it nonetheless.
So, what did I do? I modified the white, glowing Apple logo in the lid to have the colours of the original nineteen-eighties Apple logo. I.e. the rainbow Apple.
As I said: this was -very- easy to do. Just get a hex-key which fits the four screw in the iBook's lid and undo them. Then snap the white part of the lid loose (don't worry, the insides are very tidy and nothing will fall out). You can now simply tape some coloured plastic or silk paper (which is what I used) behind the clear Apple logo. Presto!
I love the way it turned out (a few bright colours against the sleek white of the iBook) and will be modding a colleague's iBook at the office on Monday. She's been wanting a pink Apple logo for quite a while now :3
Yesterday was the fourth annual Dataman ISP Kart competition. Around 800 people from all manner of companies delivering Internet services come together to compete in kart races. My employer Snow was there with about twelve people. We didn't win anything, but it was a nice day nonetheless. I just loved playing with the slotrace track.
Also, I did get to meet a few new people, which is always good. *waves at Kirsten and Marjolein*. I was genuinly surprised to hear a girl giggle when I was cussing at a colleague in Japanese. That made my day Marjolein ^_^
kilala.nl tags: music, apple, ibook, snow,
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2006-01-27 06:36:00
We all know I love just about anything Apple Computers makes. There's no secret in that. However, I myself was very much amazed at the ease of setup when it comes to an Airport Wifi network. Yesterday I received the Airport Express base station and the Airport Extreme Card that I'd ordered trough the Apple Store. Looking forward to an evening filled with tweaking and fiddling, I was pleasantly surprised that all it took was fifteen minutes! And that includes installing the AE Card into my Powermac. It really is just as easy as plugging it in :)
I also had expected to have loads of problems to get Windows XP to work with Wifi, after hearing horror stories. And like I had feared Marli's laptop refused to talk to our newly built Wifi network "Kilala" ( original name, ain't it? :P ). However, that was easily fixed by completely reconfiguring the base station using the Windows software. Now the laptop had no qualms in connecting to the network and my Apple computers still attached flawlessly.
I'm one happy camper! Now all we need to do is to wait for Casema to deliver the cable modem, so we can get hooked up to the Internet again. The parcel gets delivered on Valentine's Day :D Awesome!
kilala.nl tags: apple, windows, other tech,
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2005-10-08 08:05:00
Luckily things at $CLIENT seem to better than they appeared at first. Or maybe I'm just getting over the initial shock. Any-which-way: I talked out my worries with some of my colleagues and we found out that most of my fears were based on misunderstandings (and that most of their doubts about me were as well!). So that's good.
Also, on Ars Technica I found this wonderful quote by Chuckstar that is a nice characterization of why I Apple as a company.
This is the part I like about being an Apple fan. Its like playing the lottery ... the anticipation of what might happen is more fun than the actual result. At least with Apple, occasionally we actually win.
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2005-09-22 07:26:00
I thought I'd be clever... I thought I'd save some money... I thought I could simply convert my iPod's file system from HFS+ (OS X) to Windows (FAT) and still keep using it like I always have. Well, I can't! I'd forgotten how sucky the FAT fs is when compared to HFS+ (or most other UNIX file systems), so while I _can_ now use the iPod as a USB drive to transfer files at the office (which uses Windows), I now cannot use the drive for my own backups!
Well, fuck that :) I'm going back! I guess I'll just have to spend the twenty-something euro on an USB stick.
kilala.nl tags: ipod, apple, other tech,
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2005-08-28 20:42:00
Sacrilege!
In order to play two of my favourite windows-only games from Yester-year, I've decided to run Windows on my beautiful, unsullied Powermac. Thankfully, I'm keeping the infection contained to a secluded space on my hard drive, thanks to the wonders of disk images and emulation software.
Earlier today I tried my hand at Bochs which was like the typical open source software: pretty good, but needlessly complicated in its setup. After fighting with that for a few hours I decided to give Qemu a try. I was pleasantly surprised! Not only is it very much faster than Bochs, but it was quite easy to get things up and running using the QemuX graphical interface. Within an hour and a half I was happily, yet slowly, running Windows 98.
The downside for me right now is that any CD-ROMs I wish to install need to be imaged to my hard drive and then loaded through Qemu. But it's workable and I will only use it to play "Settlers of Catan" and "Magic: the Gathering" anywho.
kilala.nl tags: windows, powermac, apple,
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2005-08-05 13:27:00
Meh... For some stupid reason I lose all my wifi signal when I move outside the apartment, onto the balcony. Today's weather is seriously wonderful and I'd like nothing more than to sit on my balcony (in the shade) and to code away at my website. The odd thing is that in the kitchen I still have about 70% reception, but when I move three meters further and out the door the whole signal drops. There are no metal constructions in the way, except for a piece of safety glass at leg height, but that's it.
I hate it :(
Now there's two possibilities:
1. Move the wifi AP closer to the kitchen, which would mean rolling out a long network cable.
2. Sit in front of the apartment building, in the sun.
I think I'll go for number 1.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, annoying,
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2005-04-06 17:50:00
Currently listening to "Voi kuinka me sinua kaivataan" a cover of the Eppu Normaali song, performed by Canto Finlandia
Gah! *cough* All this running around in trousers and thin shirts is getting me under the weather. Last week everything was nice and comfy, with a lot of sun shine. But luck would have it that this week, now that I have to travel a lot by public transport to get to interviews, the weahter's abysmall. Wet and dreary.. *achoo*
/me bites down on another piece of licorice. It helps smoothen the throat, you know?
Anywho. They guys from A-Mac with whom I had a meeting yesterday were a blast. Genuinly nice people and very enthousiastic about their plans. I sincerely hope their shop succeeds in attracting shoppers. Their location really is A-grade, so it shouldn't pose too big a probem. When you're in Utrecht, look them up after they've opened on the 15th.
kilala.nl tags: career, apple, health,
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2005-03-29 10:38:00
Currently listening to One-of-my-colleagues giving "A Tivoli lecture".
Wahay! Remember how I bitched a long time ago about not knowing how to make bulleted lists in Ragtime? Well, I found it out :) You need to add them manually to the text, using the Character Selection app of Mac OS X. Finally, the mystery's been solved.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2005-03-26 15:24:00
Had a small success with my Mac this weekend. Or rather "a flash of insight". I bought my scanner years and years ago, think back to the time of Win98 and MacOS 8. Back then it was a pretty nice scanner and it wasn't that expensive either. I used it to scan all my drawings, some photographs and all my iTunes album covers.
However, up till a couple of weeks ago I'd always hooked it up to Marli's PC since I could only get it to work with Windows. Mac OS X apparently thought the scanner to be ancient and/or seriously crippled, so it didn't have any drivers for it. Vuescan worked perfectly with it, but cost a bundle. One bundle too many for my budget. And then we sold Marli's Win98 box and I was left without a PC for scanning.
Then this weekend I gave it another try. Couldn't get it to workin MacOS X. Couldn't get it to work in WinXP. And finally it hit me ^_^ Classic... yah.. Really makes you wonder why I hadn't thought of _that_ earlier! I still had the original CD-ROM that came with the scanner, so I gave it a try... And lo and behold! Now my Canon n650u comes to life when connected to my Powermac! In all of its 1999 interface glory ^_^;;
But hey! It works and I don't have to buy a new scanner now. I used it immediately to update the logo for the frontpage. So there it its... *points upwards*
Completely unrelated: a week or two ago the belt clip on my iPod holster came off :( Since then I've been carrying my iPod around in my pockets, which literally makes me cringe. I decided to give the Belkin leather-flips-open-with-handy-suction-cup-holster a try. I can tell you: I don't like it :[ It's fat. Way too fat to keep on our belt. It's also not very handy when you take your iPod out of the holster every night to put it in your inMotion speaker-set (you need to fidget with the suction cup every time). So I'll probably get one of those fugly iSkin thingies now. Yes, they're horibly ugly, but they also are a lot more useful.
Speaking of iPod... It seems the Shuffle's catching on in the Netherlands. I've seen two people wearing one so far and they didn't seem like the typical Mac lovers either. So it's spreading :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2005-03-23 07:57:00
Currently trying to wake up -_-;
So yesterday I _did_ visit the "Making music on a Mac" seminar in Hilversum :) The write-up's available in the Apple Switch section, under the "Making music" general impression. Which reminds me that I really do need to rebuild that section of my site... *mutter*
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2005-03-21 18:21:00
Currently listening to "NŠin kulutan aikaa" by Eppu Normaali.
I'll be overjoyed on the day that I learn to pay atention when I'm reading something! Instead of going to Studio 22 on the 21st of March, I should be visiting Studio 21 on the 22nd :[ It's that I'm sure that I'm not, but else I'd be thinking I'm a bit lysdexic.
What I was supposed to be going to was the "Music on Mac" seminar by Apple which will be held in the Hilversum Media Park tomorrow [mojo-jojo]and thus not today and because it is not held today it will be there tomorrow. Going there today will be useless! [/mojo-jojo]. Apple will be there to do a two hour showcase of their Pro apps and afterwards there's supposed to be some sort of a fair or exhibit with a number of companies from the industry. Anywho, I'll be sure to type up a little summary. Tomorrow. Not today. :[
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, snafu,
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2005-03-14 07:27:00
I've always fancied Andy Ihnatko's writings, but this month he really takes the cake! This guy's hilarious! How does he come up with this stuff? On the Shuffle he writes:
There's no screen, just an LED. It blinks green to acknowledge that we've pressed one of the navigation buttons, orange to tell us that we've locked the keypad against accidental presses, and when it blinks red, it means that it's time for us to turn and face towards Cupertino California, bite down on the end of the shuffle to crack open the cyanide compartment and then await the magical spaceship that will take us to a new and better place.
kilala.nl tags: apple, geeky, ipod,
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2005-02-14 18:34:00
It worked! Remember how I told you about that hybrid Warcraft 3 CD-ROM that wasn't very hybrid? Meaning that it wouldn't run on my Mac. Well, as I wrote about a week ago I sent an e-mail to their techies, they told me to fax them my receipt and since then I had not heard a thing from them.
Well, today a small package came in the mail, over from Germany and it contained a replacement CD-ROM! And it works! :) Strange though that it had to come from Germany instead of the UK, but I'm not bothered :)
Also, OS X 10.3.8 installed without a hitch. That's always nice :) So even-though I was feeling under the weather today (I even went home early, 'cause I was feeling really crappy), I'm all smiles now.
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2005-02-14 06:49:00
Currently listening to "Bella" by Ricky Martin.
Kind of a fitting start ot Valentine's day, isn't it? And also quite fitting to how I feel about Marli, who's my beauty :) Now I just wish I knew what that Martin guy's singing about.
/me runs off to learn Spanish
Aniway... FINALLY! After two months of moping about how slow my Powermac was booting to the desktop I figured out what the problem was. Ever since I installed 10.3.6 getting to my desktop from the login prompt would take something like 1.5 to 2 minutes. That's of course horribly long. I'd heard many things suggested at Mac Freak and the Apple fora, ranging from caches to fonts. I however _never_ suspected that the problem lay with my fonts, since I always took care to install them in the OS repository.
Not! Apparently I'd fucked up a long while ago, because in ~/thomas/Library/fonts were 512 fonts!! And 90% of those I'd already removed from Font Book.. Deleting those fonts solved my problem perfectly! Nowit only takes 1'05" going from power-on to desktop. Now _that's_ the way I like it!
On a completely unrelated subject: I've been having some trouble editing the "Naze nani, japanese pop music" DVD. The music tracks for the video contain all sorts of horrible artifacts, which I can't seem to get rid of :( I've asked a number of people for advise, so I hope we can still get this part of the show on the road.
kilala.nl tags: apple, problem,
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2005-02-07 22:56:00
Currently keeping half an eye on some modern rendition of "Hamlet". Not a very good one at that.
Here's some news regarding Warcraft 3 for the Mac.
There were rumours going around that the Battle Chest set available in shops contains a working hybrid CD-ROM, and I was quite happy to find one of the last remaining boxes at Media Markt in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, when I came home I found out that, alas, even this CD-ROM was broken :( Checking the disc using "diskutil list" and comparing it to the Frozen Throne CD enclosed in the set shows that the WC3 CD is missing the full HFS+ partition. Hence, it is lacking the native Mac OS code.
So I set out to contact Vivendi, the European distributor for Blizzard. Unfortunately they seem to be having some weird issues with their e-mail system, since address A bounces, and e-mails sent to address B are replied with e-mails coming from address A. ^_^ Anywho, the bottom line is that I was asked to fax my receipt from Media Markt to Vivendi, so they can send me a replacement CD-ROM. More information will follow as soon as possible.
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2005-01-17 17:05:00
I just had to rant a little bit :) God! I love having this eMate at my disposal! I can work on stuff for which I would usually not have any time. Just now I typed out some notes from our last meeting and I'l work on some stuff for the Anime Con now. I know the eMate is no match for a normal laptop, but for my goals and wishes it's bloody awesome!
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2005-01-12 08:19:00
Wow! It finally happened! Apple unveiled a sub $500 Macintosh computer: the Mac mini. The system is basically the same hardware as the previous generation of the iMac, but packed into a _very_ small housing and without a built-in screen. We're _so_ going to get one :)
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2005-01-10 17:25:00
Currently listening to 25 random never-before played songs by iTunes Smart Playlist.
Figures... Standing-room only on the train home, right on the worst day of my flu. I'm looking forward to tomorrow evening: hooking up with a number of people from the Macfreak forums to see Steve's keynote @ MWSF. The way things look right now there won't be any live coverage, so we'll have to dig through various other sites to get our info.
Also, yet again, we're going through the final steps of preparing for the major NIS+ master server switch at the bank.They always say that the third time's the charm, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
kilala.nl tags: apple, awesome,
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2005-01-08 12:20:00
Wow! Talk about disappointment...
For Christmass my step-brother-in-law got me a copy of Warcraft 3 which is a PC/Mac hybrid game. Unfortunately at some point in time Blizzard printed a number of CD's which only contained the PC version of the game. Go ahead and guess which version I got? Exactly...
Now, getting a refund for the faulty CD was no problem. However, finding the proper version provided to be a lot more difficult. Two hours, three toy stores, four game shops and three music stores later I have given up for today. I guess I'm going to have to resort to mail order ;_;
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2004-12-20 16:43:00
Currently listening to "lnterstella 55555" by Daft Punk
finally! Just one more day before the holidays :3 I'm really happy to get a few weeks off and the chance to relax and fiddle with my new eMate.
I can highly recommend the following two websites to any newcommers to the Newton platform: UNNA and Newton Talk.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2004-12-20 07:15:00
Currently listening to the album "Balance" by Kim Lian.
Well. I have to admit that it feels kind of strange to finally be able to write blog update and work on my articles while on the way. It also feels strange to finally have my wish for a nice portable serial terminal fulfilled. And the weirdest of all has to be the feeling of finally owning that most wondrous of Apple PDAs: the eMate300.
I'm not quite sure in which section of my website I'm going to file all of the eMate stuff since it covers two of the categories I write about:
1. Apple is of course the manufacturer of this pretty little device and I also make use of Mac OS X (and Classic) for managing and syncing the device. Hence it be logical to include it in the Apple section.
2. Of course the Newton is a product range by its own right, which would warrant a section of its own.
3. I will be using the eMate for System Administration at least 40% of the time. Which makes it ogical to include it in that section of the website.
I guess I'll modify the Apple section in such a way that its focus moves from the "Windows to Mac OSX switch" to "Apple in general" and then split off any Sysadmin specific parts (like a tutorial on linking the eMate with our Sun Microsystems servers).
Right. Now that that's out of the way. Other updates! ^_^
My work for the Anime Con has been a bit slow the last two weeks, due to some family troubles. I won't go too deep into it, but let's say that Christmas 2004 almost went down the crapper. Unfortunately I foresee that I won't be able to get any work for the Con done until halway January. This is of course partially due to the holiday season.
Also, those sysadmins out there keeping an eye on my NIS+ antics may have noticd the severe lack of any updates in the matter. The truth is that we were forced to move back theNIS+ Maser Switch until halfway January (a pattern is forming!), so it'll be a while.
Finally, Marlijne is doing well at school. She's still enjoying herself, so that's all good. She also decide to make the switch to another major within the same faculty. Instead of "Management, Economy and Legal" she will start in "Business economics and IT" in the next semester.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech, website,
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2004-10-26 05:31:00
Luckily I got my latest tutorial fixed. The PDF export function of OpenOffice.org 1.0 didn't work alltogether that well, so yesterday I downloaded version 1.1.2 of the software at OpenOffice.org. This time around the export function _does_ work, but not in the way I'm used to it from OS X. You cannot "print to PDF". Instead you have to do "File -> Export to PDF".
Aniway... A working PDF tutorial on writing technical proposals can be found in the SysAdmin section.
kilala.nl tags: apple, other tech,
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2004-04-03 00:00:00
It's only been a couple of months since I switched to Apple OS X, but since then I've learnt many a thing about the OS. It was only recently though that I found the need to configure the built in firewall. This little HOWTO'll explain all of the steps I took.
The built in firewall software is one of the many OS X features that Apple likes to tote around, claiming a higher level of security out of the box when compared to other OSes. And yes indeed the firewall software does appear to do its job properly. With one exception...
Before we begin I would like to point out a couple of conventions I will be using in this document. Whenever you encounter any text written in courier new bold, this means that you're either reading commands which need to be entered into the UNIX command line of OS X or a list of packages or menu names. You will also encounter lines starting with the text "kilala:~ thomas$". This is merely the command prompt as displayed on my system and I include it in these texts to indicate the commands to be entered.
First off I can imagine that some of the people reading this can't even begin to imagine what a firewall is or does. They might've heard the word before on the web or in Apple's (or Microsoft's) PR spiel. I won't go into any technical details, but I'll give a short explanation on the ideas behind a firewall. If you would like more detailed information I recommend a website like http://computer.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm.
Firewalls are a sort of security measure which work by separating your computer or network from a possibly hostile network, like the Internet. This separation usually takes place by disallowing any and all network traffic to and from your systems, while only allowing a certain number of protocols in and/or out. For instance, a home user may setup his firewall to block everything except outgoing e-mail and browser traffic. On the other hand some companies could be allowing incoming browser requests to their own webserver, next to the already mentioned outgoing e-mail and browser traffic.
One of the most important things to remember though is the fact that a firewall is not the be-all-end-all security measure that fixes all of your problems. It could still be that the software serving the protocols that you do allow through the firewall is buggy with security flaws. Think of Microsoft's ISS webserver software which was famous for security holes in the past.
As I said it was only recently that I found the need to manually configure OS X's built in firewall software. I'd always kind of expected the software to work straight out of the box, which it kind of did.
You see, usually with firewall software you'll say "I want to block any and all traffic to and from my box, except this, this and that protocol". Basically you do the same with OS X's firewall, but with a small snake in the grass: the protocols you allow to go in and out of your systems get permission on all of your network interfaces! So if you're hooked up onto the Internet (which I assume since you found my little article) and if you decide to turn on that Windows file sharing, remember that you're sharing your files with the rest of the Internet! You can imagine I was less than pleased with this and I can't even begin to imagine why it took me two months to start thinking about this. Usually I'm more security minded! Anywho, the damage was done and I decided to quickly learn enough about the OS X firewall, so I could configure it properly.
I quickly found out that OS X uses the BSD UNIX default firewall ipfw, which can be configured in many different ways. There's Apple's custom window in the System Preferences panes. Then there are GUI's like Brickhouse and Firewalker which are available through the Internet. And finally you can take the manual approach and enter ipfw firewall rules one by one, by hand.
I chose to use the manual approach, since that is what I'm most familiar with; I've been entering firewall rules since my internship at Spherion when I was still running a firewall on Suse Linux 6.0. An added bonus to entering the rules by hand is that you know 100% sure what the firewall will do, as opposed to rules created or generated by a GUI.
I wouldn't expect Joe and Little Timmy from across the street to use to approach, so I would recommend people who're less technically involved to give software like Brickhouse a try. I hear it's supposed to be pretty good!
People who don't like typing big files by hand can download the file Firewall-config.tar from my website. This file contains all files which are to be placed in /Library/StartupItems/Firewall.
In a minute we'll start looking at how we create rules for our firewall. But as the title says: "First things first"! Because we want our own set of rules to bypass the OS X default rules we'll need to make sure that our configuration gets loaded right after the systems comes up. This is done by adding a new boot configuration for the firewall. I'll just show you all the steps I took, along with some explanations; that should make things clear enough.
First off, make sure that you're in a user account which is allowed to use the sudo command. This could be the Administrator account, but you could also modify your own account for this purpose. Then open up a Terminal.app window.
Last login: Sun Apr 4 09:46:44 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
kilala:~ thomas$ cd /Library
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo mkdir -p StartupItems/Firewall
Password:
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo chown -R root:wheel StartupItems
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo chmod -R 755 StartupItems
kilala:~ thomas$ cd StartupItems/Firewall
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo cp -rp /Systems/Library/StartupItems/NFS/* .
The previous commands created a new boot configuration directory for the service we will call Firewall. You setup the directories to have the proper ownerships and access permissions. Finally you copied over the startup configuration for the service called NFS as a basis for our own service.
Now I'm hoping that you are already familiar with the vi text editor, because we are going to make heavy use of it. If you have no clue how to use vi, please look up some tips on the Internet first!
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo vi StartupParameters.list
Modify the file to read as follows:
{
Description = "Firewall";
Provides = ("Firewall");
Requires = ("Resolver", "NetworkExtensions");
OrderPreference = "Late";
Messages =
{
start = "Starting custom firewall";
stop = "Stopping custom firewall";
};
}
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo mv NFS Firewall
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo vi Firewall
Modify the file to read as follows:
#!/bin/sh
##
# Setting up the Firewall rules at boot time
##
# Please note: added "FIREWALL=-YES-" entry to /etc/hostconfig
. /etc/rc.common
StartService ()
{
if [ "${FIREWALL:=-NO-}" = "-YES-" ]; then
ConsoleMessage "Adding Firewall Rules"
ipfw -f flush
exec /Library/StartupItems/Firewall/Ruleset
fi
}
StopService ()
{
ConsoleMessage "Removing all Firewall Rules"
ipfw -f flush
}
RestartService ()
{
ConsoleMessage "Removing all Firewall Rules"
ipfw -f flush
if [ "${FIREWALL:=-NO-}" = "-YES-" ]; then
ConsoleMessage "Adding Firewall Rules"
ipfw -f flush
exec /Library/StartupItems/Firewall/Ruleset
fi
}
RunService "$1"
We're almost there :) Only one more file to edit to set up the automatic booting.
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo vi /etc/hostconfig
Modify the file and add the following line at the bottom of the page:
FIREWALL=-YES-
Now we'll get to the brunt of setting up our firewall. Most of the things discussed in this document are things that I had to learn in the course of a day, so please don't expect me to explain everything in detail ^_^; I was lucky enough to have enough past experience with iptables and ipchains, so that helped me in understanding the rules in the following chapter.
Unfortunately the rules below will only apply to people who have one network card in their system and who use a dial-up connection to the Internet. In my system the primary network card, which is used for my home network, is designated as en0. My Internet connection on the other hand is designated as ppp0. You can check your own settings by running the following command while you're connected to the Internet:
kilala:~ thomas$ ifconfig -a | grep UP
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ppp0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
The interface lo0 is your loopback interface, which is a virtual network interface not actively used on the network itself. It is mainly used for communications within your system itself. You can recognise your network card by running the command ifconfig for each of the remaining interfaces (for instance ifconfig en0); your network card will have the IP address which is also set in the System Preferences pane.
My whole point is that, if you do not have the exact same situation as I have, you will have to modify the rules below insofar that you exchange each instance of "en0" with your network card name and each instance of "ppp0" with your Internet connection name. Also, if you have more than one network card, be sure to add additional rules for those interfaces as well.
Anyway. On with the show!
Now you'll have to edit the final file in this whole setup. Make sure that you're still in the /Library/StartupItems/Firewall directory before going on.
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo vi Ruleset
This will also create a new file, which you will have to fill out completely as below. Once you're more familiar with how these rules work you could start adding rules for additional services. You may notice for example that I don't open up ports for IRC or AIM, since those are both services that I make no use of.
#!/bin/sh
# Firewall ruleset for T. Sluyter (Kilala.valhalla.org)
# Ver 1.00 3rd of April 2004
#
# Allows any and all network traffic on the "inside" network.
# Blocks almost all network traffic to and from the internet.
# Allows only a limited amount of network traffic to and from the internet.
#
# Allow a number in default traffic settings
ipfw add allow ip from any to any via lo0
ipfw add allow tcp from any to any established
ipfw add allow ip from any to any frag
ipfw add allow icmp from any to any icmptype 3,4,11,12
ipfw add deny log ip from 127.0.0.0/8 to any in
ipfw add deny log ip from any to 127.0.0.0/8 in
ipfw add deny log ip from 224.0.0.0/3 to any in
ipfw add deny log tcp from any to 224.0.0.0/3 in
# Allow any and all traffic coming through en0, from local network
ipfw add allow ip from 192.168.0.0/24 to any in recv en0
ipfw add allow ip from any to 192.168.0.0/24 out xmit en0
ipfw add allow tcp from 192.168.0.0/24 to any in recv en0
ipfw add allow tcp from any to 192.168.0.0/24 out xmit en0
ipfw add allow udp from 192.168.0.0/24 to any in recv en0
ipfw add allow udp from any to 192.168.0.0/24 out xmit en0
ipfw add allow icmp from any to any in recv en0
ipfw add allow icmp from any to any out xmit en0
# Allow FTP (File transfer) to the outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 20-21 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 20-21 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow DNS lookups to outside
ipfw add allow udp from any 1024-65535 to any 53 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow udp from any 53 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow SSH (Secure shell) to outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 22 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 22 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow HTTP (Web browsing) to outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 80 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 80 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 8080 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 8080 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow HTTPS (Secure web browsing) to outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any to any 443 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow POP (Retrieving e-mail) to outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 110 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 110 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow SMTP (Sending e-mail) to outside
ipfw add allow tcp from any 1024-65535 to any 25 out xmit ppp0
ipfw add allow tcp from any 25 to any 1024-65535 in recv ppp0
# Allow ICMP to and from outside
ipfw add allow icmp from any to any in recv ppp0
ipfw add allow icmp from any to any out xmit ppp0
# Block all of the rest, along with logging
ipfw add deny log tcp from any to any in recv ppp0
ipfw add deny log udp from any to any in recv ppp0
ipfw add deny log ip from any to any in recv ppp0
ipfw add deny log tcp from any to any out xmit ppp0
ipfw add deny log udp from any to any out xmit ppp0
ipfw add deny log ip from any to any out xmit ppp0
Before we start rebooting our systems it might be wise to first check if our startup scripts are in full working order. You never know what happens if things aren't written a hundred percent correctly ;)
Luckily Apple has provided us with a command which can be used to run a startup script as if the system was rebooting just now. Running the following command should give you a properly configured firewall.
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo SystemStarter start Firewall
Now don't worry if running this command gives you loads of errors about the ppp0 interface not being unavailable. This is of course normal if you're starting the firewall without being logged into the Internet. Like I said: don't worry! The firewall will work properly. You may check if the firewall rules are properly loaded by running:
kilala:~ thomas$ sudo ipfw list
This command should return a list of 41 rules if you followed my example to the letter. You can count them by running sudo ipfw list | wc -l. If all of this seems to work properly, you should reboot your system. Once it's restarted, run the ipfw list command again to see if the firewall came up properly.
And that's about it! ^_^ Congratulate yourself on a job well done and rest assured that you're surfing the web a little bit safer.
kilala.nl tags: tutorial, writing, apple, security,
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2004-03-28 08:30:00
Well then! Lately I've been getting to know my new PowerMac more and more and I'm still very happy that I ever made the switch to Apple. The last couple of days I've been trying to get iBank to work for me so I can better manage our accounting. Unfortunately it still doesn't work fool proof for me, so I hope the people at their support forums can help me solve all of my problems.
It's also been a while since I put some work into it, but a month or two back I started on my first AMV (Anime Music Video). I'm still coming to grips with Final Cut Express and I can tell you that lip synching can be a real bitch, but hopefully I'll someday finish that little project. Unfortunately I've kind of lost my wind on this one for a while, so maybe I'll get back to it in a week or so. At least the video will _not_ be finished for the 1st of April deadline for the AMV competition at the A2k4 convention.
kilala.nl tags: powermac, apple, other tech,
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2004-03-28 08:12:00
Well, Apple has finally gotten rid of the overheating hard disk problems. Unfortunately the did not choose to relocate the thermo sensors for free, but they issued an update for Fan Control, which apparently is part of OS X. Jaguar users can download this pa tch seperately at Apple's Support pages, while Panther users get this update as a part of the 'jumbo patch' 10.3.3.
kilala.nl tags: powermac, apple,
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2003-11-29 00:00:00
Another couple of small updates in the Apple Switch section: I've found software that will let me scan using my budget Canon scanner and I've also stumbled upon a couple of multimedia goodies :)
I'm also currently working on a drawing for our wedding cards. Keeping in spirit with our anime/manga hobby it'll be sickeningly sweet ^_^
kilala.nl tags: apple, family,
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2003-11-23 15:12:00
I can see from my webstats that the Apple part of my site's been getting a couple of hits, so I'm happy that you guys're really reading this :) Though, according to one of my colleagues, apparently my little reviews aren't very clear on the outcome and my final opinion on the switch. Where I thought I was sounding rather positive, Sjon actually thought I was saying stuff like "It's kind of meh, but I'll accept it because it's the Apple Way".
It has to be said: not everything works as fine as I expected it would, but I'm nowhere near as negative about my switch as that would make you think. So to provide for a better impression on my opinion I've included a form of grading at the bottom of each review, just to make clear _how happy_ I really am (or am not in some cases).
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2003-11-12 22:53:00
Wow! Update-a-madness!
For all of you would-be switchers who're debating whether to switch from Windows/Linux to OS X I've added a completely new section to my website. While I have no pretentions about knowing a lot about OS X I'll be making small write ups about how my switch to OS X has gone. Mostly this'll touch on topics like alternatives for your current applications as well as on interface differences. I'm actually convinced that my lack of knowledge of OS X will help me write these little bits, since this way I'll have to learn along with you guys :P
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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2003-11-11 21:32:00
Another day, another update :)
Last week I went out and bought my lovely Apple G5 tower... It's the basic single 1.6 GHz processor model and I've gone for all of the vanilla options. Later on, when/if I get more money, I'll upgrade the RAM with 512 MB extra and I'll add a second S-ATA hard drive for all of our home videos (which as of yet we still have to start making :P). Anyway: I'm quite pleased with the comuter! It simply oozes sex and the OS, while it takes getting used to, is quite pleasent in daily use. Right now I'm waiting for my back order on Final Cut Express (w00t on the e250+ discount when buying an Apple) and on OS X 10.3 (aka Panther). The only thing missing right now is the GIMP, which is my favourite imaging tool. For all of you fellow amateurs out there who'd like a cheap/free alternative to Photoshop, check out http://www.gimp.org.
Work's still interesting/fun, although quite busy: currently I'm juggling about seven projects, trying to spread them all out evenly over my four day work weak (don't you just love working at a bank?!) which is quite a hassle, since oftentimes people'll jump in with extra work that needs to be done yesterday. Anyway, eventhough I may sometimes complain or bitch a little, I'm still quite happy at ING ^_^
On a final note, about two weeks ago Marli and me visited 'het Spellen Spektakel', which is the Netherlands' largest game show. Once a year the city of Eindhoven is flooded by kids, parents and gaming geeks who all trud into the trade show building. Now, when I say "game" in this case I mean "board games" and "table top games" etc. We bought a _lot_ of stuff over there (among others over five booster displays for the Harry Potter CCG and two displays of Card Captor Sakura CCG), but overall we found the show to be a bit boring so we left quite early.
The two days after buying my new computer were filled with ups and downs, making for a couple of very hectic days with mood swings that quite contrasted each other. Not too good as you can image -_-' Anyway: check out the comic!
As you can see I've switched to another form of layout and story telling. I'm still getting used to it and might switch back to my original form in the future, but right now I'm quite pleased with how much this layout lets me tell. :)
kilala.nl tags: apple, work, games,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
At some point in time you're going to screw up your OS in such a horrible way that you just _have_ to reinstall your box. Or, in case of the regular updates that Apple provides, you'll be able to upgrade your OS to a newer version.
On the first day that I had my G5 I already screwed up the installation of OS X. I had no clue where I was and what I was doing, so I deleted a couple of important binaries :D What a dumbass! Luckily I had the 10.2 installation DVD handy and a reinstall was done in less than an hour. Completely painless! I'm quite pleased.
Now today (about two weeks after owning the G5) I received my copy of Panther (10.3) in the mail. There isn't much to say! I _love_ it! The upgrade over 10.2 was done in about 45 minutes and so far nothing seems to be broken :) If I do find any apps that go haywire I'll be sure to come back and tell about it...
10 - 01 - 2004
A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my OS from Jag to Panther. I enjoyed the upgrade and all of the stuff I was doing so much that I never noticed that this upgrade had deleted iDVD from my hard disk. But now that I was going to make a nice homevideo of our holiday I desperately needed that piece of software again. Many, _many_ attempts to find the installation source failed horribly and I had to trek through a couple of discussion forums on the web to find the answer (please note: Apple's website did _not_ provide the correct answer for my situation).
This website provided me with the tips that I needed, but I'll lay'em out for you just as well (to make sure that Google will find more pages with the answer for people who encounter the same problem).
THE FOLLOWING WAS QUOTED FROM WWW.MACOSXHINTS.COM...
I was wondering today how I would restore just iDVD if I were to delete it. Looking at the PowerMac G4 restore DVD that I got with my PowerMac, I couldn't find just the iDVD installer, and Apple's restore guidedoesn't give a clear indication to if it would be installed if I ran the AdditionalApplications.pkg installer. It looks like that reinstalls iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, and Acrobat Reader. I only want to reinstall iDVD.
Taking a look through the Restore DVD, I found a folder in the root called .images (/Volumes -> PowerMac G4 Software -> .images to be more exact). In there was a disk image called iDVD1.dmg. Mouting that disk image reveals two folders - Applications and Library. To restore, you'll need to install the contents of each folder to their respective folders on the root of the boot drive; put Applications -> iDVD 3 in /Applications, and put Library -> Receipts -> iDVD.pkg in /Library -> Receipts. It might be a good idea to repair permissions after doing this, just to make sure your restored iDVD will work properly.
[robg adds: The other option here is to use something like Pacifist, a package extractor.]
Grade (how happy am I?): B (was an A)
kilala.nl tags: apple,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
One of the main reasons to have networks is to trade information, files and ideas between people and computers across various locations.
So it's only natural that I'd include my new and shiny G5 into our home network which includes a dedicated Windows box, a hybrid Linux/Windows box and two UNIX boxen (one Solaris and one Linux). Figuring that NFS and SMB filesharing would be a breeze I counted on being able to transfer all of my files from my previous desktop to the new one without much trouble.
Unfortunately it was not to be... I have no clue what's going wrong, but OS X can't mount my NFS shares, nor can it even see my SMB shares across the network. I'm guessing that I'm doing something horribly wrong, so I'll continue to look into it.
So... Another thing found that doesn't "just work"... It's a shame :[
26 - 03 - 2005
With the advent of Panther things changed a little bit for the better, but not by much. Since the early months of my switch I have not tried to use NFS mounts anymore, so I can't tell you about those. However, I've been using SMB mounts back and forth with Marli's laptop and those seem to work fine enough. Network browsing on the Apple side of things still doesn't work for me, but luckily it does on the Windows box. I'm crossing my fingers for big improvements in Tiger.
Grade (how happy am I?): D-
kilala.nl tags: apple, windows,
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For years now, Apple has been known to make stylish (or even sexy) hardware which has been designed with an eye for detail.
To me the G5 tower is no different. A sleek and simple exterior, with all of the required connectors neatly layed out. This time around the eye for detail's mostly apparent in the case locking mechanism (with it's fold-away lock loop) and the sliding Super Drive door. The cooling has also been perfectly executed and in such a way that the box almost seems to whisper (as opposed to my blow dryer Athlon system).
What else is there to say? I just _love_ the interior of the system! It's so neat and tidy!
The only bad side to this G5 is the fact that I had to take it back to the shop within two weeks for a replacement: the sound port at the back of the system wasn't properly sending out the right (as opposed to "left") sound channel. Basically I was listening to music on _one_ speaker :/
Coming back from our holiday I had about an hours worth of DV to edit in Final Cut Express. Since I knew my 256MB of RAM wouldn't cut it I went out and bought two additional sticks of 256MB, bringing me up to about 760MB. The installation was dead easy and now my G5's a bit more Snappy (tm). The second upgraded I performed was also a piece of cake, but afterwards I'm running into some nasty trouble. What did I do? I added a second hard drive...
Honestly... You'd think that just by addin a second drive you wouldn't be making any horrific changes to your system, right? Unfortunately you are! You see, for some stupid reason Apple decided to stick the thermal sensor which controls the hard disk enclosure fan up against the top of the systems case instead of right inbetween the disks. So right about now my second hard drive is running dangerously close to 60C or 70C whereas the sensor is happily reporting an enclosure temp of 30C. In other words: dangerous! Read more about these problems on this website where they've come up with their own sollution. I'd like to perform this mod myself as well, but I'll call Apple first to see if this breaks my guarantee.
So a few weeks after my initial problems with the hard drives over heating Apple issued a firmware fix for the G5 Powermac which solved the problem... Kinda: now the fans just spin a bit faster. So that's not a problem anymore.
So while Apple hardware is almost perfect they do sometimes make weird mistakes that make you go: "WTF?!". Just look at their video card selection these days. I'm just happy they've finally decided to up the default amount of RAM for most systems!
Grade (how happy am I?): B
kilala.nl tags: apple, powermac,
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On the 22nd of March 2005 Apple organised the "Making Music on a Mac" seminar at Studio 22 in Hilversum. I visited and made a small writeup. Most of it covers the two hour presentation, although there are a few general impressions of the evening as well.
Basic turn up seems to be very nice... About two to three hundred people. Welcome with the usual refreshments and the small exhibit. Number of freebies available at the exhibit: free magazine issues (Interface and MacFreak) and free Motion demo CDs. All in all, a few interesting things for the layman, but more targeted at the Pro audience (duh!).
Around 1830 the main hall opened, as promised, comfortably seating al attendees. Nice decoration, with people sitting by the sevens at round tables (nice if you brought a laptop!). The stage itself is nicely decorated with two tables full of silver/white Apple equipment, lit by blue spotlights. The main screen was occupied by the iTunes Visualizer.
Ton van Garderen (Klokhuis Dag!) opens the evening. Apparently they usually have sessions like these during the day at a completely different venue. Ton goes into the usual spiel about why one would prefer Apple above the PC, when it comes to music (iTunes, iPod). People are only now discovering Apple computers. When asked to run your cellphones off, even people on stage had to check ^_^ Ton remarks that the rest of evening will be English only and suggests that we open with a nice piece of music: the U2 iPod/Vertigo video. Which was very nice to see on a big screen :)
Guys giving the demo are bloody funny, even in the first minute! "And the Oscar for the best beard goes to..." as a remark about the amazing venue. Martin Gisborne and Gorden Keppel are the presenters (Martin's the somewhat older guy).
Topics
* Making music as a pro
* Making music for pleasure
But we start with inspiration :) It can hit you at anytime, so it's nice if you can take care of things on the road. Martin tucks into iLife 5. He likes the fact that, because of its simplicity, Garageband allows you to put your ideas down as quick as possible. He'll demo making a quick song, followed by all kinds of tweaks and perfections during the evening.
He demoes drum loops first. These are not simply samples of an instrument, but real loops of a full beat track :) Loops can be dragged into your project and extended and modified to your hearts content. You can put an overall loop across all of the loops. Looping around back to the start seems to put a bit of stress on the Powerbook. Martin now adds a nice little bass-line to the project.
Of course these loops aren't enough to make real music, so you can use soft instruments to add a real tune :) These can be controlled using either a real keyboard, a mouse (with an on-screen keyb), or using your laptop/pc's keyboard! Garageband lets you record your tune while the other loops are playing. You can fix your recording afterwards. You can also view the notes you played as musical notation.
Very nicely demonstrated was the fact that you can modify all of your instruments, while playing :) That way you'll have instant feedback on your changes. GB also has nice tricks like volume mixing and L/R fading. Gives some nice effects. Martin by the way seems to be a genuinely funny orator. They've been doing this tour since November.
Switching over to Gordon for an Inspiration-summary puts us into a sales pitch for Apple Powerbooks and the iLife and Garageband package. He also quickly covers the Mac Mini. Gordon also covers Mac OS X and some of the nicer audio features, like Core Audio which gives you very low latency recording and HD audio (without additional drivers). CA also allows for plugins called Audio Units, which can then plug into any OS X application. OS X also has native MIDI support.
Martin comes back to demo Tom Robins' remix of his original hits in GB, which is actually a quite impressive file! While the song's (power in the darkness) playing Martin fiddles around a bit with the screen and the controls. And back to Gordon we go..
Refining your work with Logic Express 7. He mentions that you might want to consider stepping up hardware-wise for this software, using a G5 processor. And back to Martin for LE7.
He's imported the GB file he demoed earlier into LE, which works seamlessly. LE allows you way more control when editing your project. The interface itself is also very adjustable, in the same way that FCE and FCP are. You can switch between different views, like the Track view, or the Mixer view. There's a whole bunch of other GUI features, like auto-zoom for your tracks and colouring of your tracks so you can group them together easily.
The use of loops in LE goes a lot further than in GB. He demoes the loop browser which allows you to try out new loops for your project while its playing. Then you can simply drag and drop the additional loop. A very neat way to work! In LE you can convert recorded audio into a loop so, if you change your tempo, the tempo of your recording changes along with it. GB2 by the way does this _by_default_.
Which brings us to additional loops which can be bought, like the Garageband Jam Packs. Currently there are four different JPs available. The come at E99 a-piece.
LE gives you a lot more control on recorded MIDI tracks. In the detailed MIDI view you can let each MIDI event follow the same colour it has in the main GUI. If you turn this feature off each note has a particular colour which changes with the velocity at which it's played.
Nice enough LE has more musical score features when compared to GB. It even allows you to drag and drop _ANY_ musical notational characters onto a score. This way you can manually tweak all of the notes :) By the way: pressing Caps Lock brings up a keyboard which allows you to play using your kb, just like in GB2.
While the software instruments in GB are quite good, LE actually has even better ones! It also allows you to change the software instruments from GB over to Logic instruments through software like the EXSP24 plugin. The plugin allows you to do all kinds of nice things with filters and stuff like that. The ES1 plugin functions like a classic synthesizer. The EMF1 works like an FM synth. Logic Express only comes with the EMF1, while Logic Pro comes with a lot of other plugins, which allow other very interesting things (like a perfect Hammond impression)... At least.. According to my table partner ^_^
After this came another demo of some other filters and effects. Of course all like very nice to the eye, but the GUI design does seem a bit haphazard... None of them really look alike. Although that might be because they're made by different companies. The point is: I don't know :) I'm not sure which parts come with LE/LP and which parts you need to purchase separately. Anywho, LE does indeed allow you to put in bunches of third party plugins.
A nice feature of LE is the fact that it allows you to record up to 12 tracks when using hardware like the M-Audio interfaces.
Using the Bounce option you'll export your project as a shareable file, like PCM, WAV, MP3 or whatever. You can of course tweak a few other settings for the file. It even allows you to add the song directly as an AAC file into iTunes :)
I'm afraid my battery will die sometime soon :( It's at 40% now.
At this point they quickly jumped into an iPod sales pitch, with an emphasis on the new Shuffle. Followed by a pricing spiel on LE7.
Finally they jump into a discussion on Logic Pro. But of course they need to slip in a promo for the Powermac G5 before digging in :). They had a nice graph which compared the maximum amount of plugins between the G5 and the P4, and the G5 and the G4.
Gordon now shows a demo for Logic Pro and he'll start with some automation features which are also included into LE. Track automation allows you to do stuff like "drawing" the desired modifications for an effect onto the track.
Logic Pro comes with a reverb filter called Space Designer which works with samples of real rooms and reverb devices, instead of calculating them. This reverb really impresses me with its options and the effect it has on the recorded audio, like the demoed vocal track. It even includes a reverb measurement of Steve Jobs' office! ROTFLMAO.
One of the additional features LP has over LE is a project manager which is comparable to the media browser in FCE/FCP. The manager also gives you the option to save _as_ a project, which is then easily shared or moved to another computer.
Another nice feature of LP is the fact that you can "freeze" tracks in your project. What this does is render all of the tracks and their effects and save them to disk. This way your computer can more easily handle recording your audio by freeing up resources. Goodie!
While recording you can directly plug your guitar into your Powerbook for example and the use the built-in guitar amp of LP to modify your recording and EVEN your LIVE playing :D Considering that this is all handled by a Powerbook on stage it sounds bloody amazing!
Martin took his time demoing rock kinds of music and now Gordon will take over and demo dance music... The demo song is quite impressive! I realise now that with Logic you really do have a virtual recording studio at your finger tips. Bloody amazing!..
LP comes with an option where you can use "channel strips" which are factory configured sets of effects which you can add to your tracks. They are tuned to things like "Female voice", "Male voice" and whatever.
Gordon now tucks into a demo of different software instruments, like Sculpture. It really is a kind of funny tool which allows you to create sounds with a virtual string which can be excited in many different ways. It gives you some really strange results! Only a few minutes into the demo I realised that Gordon was playing a keyboard while showing the options of Sculpture, so you use the Sculpture software to modify the sounds you're producing yourself. Gordon finally demoes a song which was solely created using Sculpture (with EXS for a beat line). It sounds pretty good :) Really James Bond alike.. Bit of funk, bit of dance, bit of suspense..
One thing I did notice though is the fact that the crowd seems _very_ dutch: very little applause and very little enthusiasm showing. Strange :/
Another nice demo was Ultrabeat, which basically is a drum synth which can be controlled using a connected keyboard. Each of the 25 channels is assigned to one of the keys. So basically you can play Ultrabeat like it was a real instrument.
You can overload a system by having too many tracks and effects active in one project. LP comes with a Performance Viewer which shows the load on various parts of your system. Martin now shows a bloody nice demo: LOGIC NODES. Nodes allow you to outsource certain parts of your project to another system! This simply works using Rendezvous over Ethernet! This is FUCKING SWEET! Distributed computing for your audio! The standard edition of LP7 comes at a whopping 1069 euros or an 329 upgrade.
In light of the distributed computing Martin also touches on the G5 Xserve system. Which of course is something that gets me excited, being a Sysadmin in daily life.
And finally, the last section of the evening: producing the final product. This will feature both Apple tools and other tools around it. Like Multimeter, which gives you tools that show whether your phasing is good and provides a good stereo image. Another one's MatchEQ which learns the EQ of your track. This is _very_ important if you want all songs on your album to have the same colour and vibe. So MatchEQ allows you to match one song to the previous song you made :) Quite nice!
So, how do you get your songs onto CD? That's where Waveburner comes in, which is included with LP7. It's all about CD mastering. It allows for easy cross fading and track length adjustment. Quick fixes for your volume.. Stuff like that. It of course also allows you to edit track markers. And wow! With each track marker you can put in additional text info which can be displayed on equipped CD players and through RDS on the radio.
One impression I'm getting though is that one can get _horrible_ lost while working with all of these apps. Every apps has a shit load of plugins that can be used and some plugins can be used in more than one app. This means that you will ABSOLUTELY need a strict workflow to ensure that you don't get lost and that you don't start screwing things up :)
Martin now cuts into a bit regarding the way Logic can be used in combo with software like Final Cut Pro. If you export an FCP XML file and send it to someone using LP, LP adds additional tracks for the recorded audio from FC. Sweet :) Logic can also display the video in the project view and scrolling across the time line also scrolls through the video. This way you can match transitions to events in your LP project... It seems a bit backwards to me, but I guess it has its possibilities.
Coming onto DVDs and their features, Martin explains that LP actually allows you to edit the Surround Sound attributes of your song. This way you can assign instruments and so on to various spots in the SS signature.. Nice :) The resulting AIFF files (one for each channel) need to be packed for DVD SS usage, using A.Pack which comes along with DVD Studio Pro. A.Pack gives you a nice drag and drop interface where you can place each SS file. Finally Gordon demoes the use of DVD Studio Pro.
They close of with a spiel on the Production Suite (Motion, FCP and DVD SP). Martin concludes that while we naturally strive for excellence in our instruments we should also demand the highest possible from our tools: We believe Apple computers are up to your demands. This was actually Martin's final run of this show and they're going to close off by showing the final video of "Ausgang".
I must say that this was quite a fun night out ^_^. While currently I do absolutely nothing related to music (except for the listening thereof) the presentation had me spell bound. The exhibit in the main hall really didn't do much for me though, since I'm not busy with stuff like this on a day to day basis. I did stick around 'till 2200 of course, for the raffle :)
The diversity in the audience itself was quite interesting though. I noticed mostly dutch people, mixed in with a few Belgians and Brits. More diverse though were the walks of life, so to speak: people ranging from twenty-something to people in their fifties. There were metal-heads and decent house makers, skater boys and weathered producers :) A nice mishmash if you ask me.
Well... My battery's down to about 28%, so I'd better sign off for now :) I'll do some basic editing of this text sometime later. See ya!
kilala.nl tags: apple, software,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
Isn't e-mail wonderful? It allows us to have conversations with friends, family and colleagues on the other side of the world...
Going from Eudora on Windows to K-Mail on Linux wasn't very smooth. Okay, so K-Mail dealt with all my folders and subfolders pretty well, but my attachments all got lost in some way or another (given the fact that Eudora has a tendency to store its attachments in a seperate directory instead of with the e-mail itself). On the other hand I was quite pleased to see that I could use PGP with K-Mail, like I had with Eudora.
Now, moving from K-Mail to Mail on OS X looked to be completely the other way around: both used the standard .mbox format so, apart from having to fiddle a slight bit with (sub)folders the import of all of my e-mail went quite painless. With the exception of about a dozen three year old e-mails everything went off without a hitch. But now it looks like I'm left without PGP :[ I'm going to have a look-see around the web sometime soon to see if I can find something like the PGP implementation that I used in Windows: that one integrated into Eudora and Outlook without any trouble. Once I have more information I'll get back to you guys :)
Oh yeah! One more thing: I love the whole "rules" thing that Mail has going for it... This way I can tell the software where to put my incoming mails even before I receive them :)
16 - 11 - 2003
Well... After upgrading to Panther I found out that Mail.App has encryption hidden away somewhere, but it wasn't very clear. The help file itself didn't mention anything about PGP or GPG. So no native GPG/PGP support for me :( So I proceeded to download both MacGPG and GPGMail which is the plugin for GPG into Mail.App.
Installing both apps seperately is a breeze. Unfortunately the current version of GPGMail requires the use of version 1.2.2 of MacPGP, whereas the version I downloaded from versiontracker.com is only version 1.2.1. Stupidly, erasing the GPGMail plugin and using the version provided inside the MacPGP package, locks up my Mail.App in such a way that I can no longer access any of the menus :[ *grr* So I'm going to have to either download another 6.5 MB to get a newer version of MacPGP or I'm going to have to hunt down a previous version of GPGMail. Either one's a shame :(
Grade (how happy am I?): B Grade for PGP integration: C-
kilala.nl tags: apple, software,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
Photos allow us to go back into time, reminding us of events that made a great impact on our lives. Also: taking pictures can just be plain old fun when you've got a lot of loopy friends! :P
As with my transition to iTunes (see the related article), I was quite horrified after I saw what iPhoto did to my neatly sorted /home/thomas/Photographs! I'd made a total of maybe twenty subdirectories, neatly categorising all of the photos I'd ever taken with my digicam. And now _every_ picture was strewn about in weirdly named directories which only have digits to identify them!
But luckily the advise I got at Ars regarding iTunes also went for iPhoto: "Don't worry about it and let iPhoto use its own database!". But how could I?! I had this big window full of photos (900+) and no way of sorting them except for manually sorting them into albums! That's when I discovered that somehow iPhoto had saved my original directory structure; I just had to find it again! If you look in the View-menu you'll see that there's an option called "View by film rolls". This shows a list of virtual film rolls, containing all photographs as they were sorted in their original directories!
So all photos stored in "/home/thomas/Photograpsh/Anime 2002" were completely mangled into iPhotos directory structure, but could easily be refound viewing the "Anime 2002" film roll :) I was quite pleased!
Now, I haven't tried importing photographs from my digicam yet (for which I used GTKam on Linux, which did the trick but not perfectly), but I'm hoping that each time I import photos from it iPhoto will create a new film roll for them... Or something like that. We'll see really :) Once I've done a few imports I'll be sure to update this article.
For now things look okay and I'm fairly neutral towards iPhoto
12 - 11 - 2003
Well... yesterday I tried using my Canon Powershot A10 to import a couple of photos into iPhoto. For some reason it just wouldn't work! Apart from another glitch this is the first thing that, as opposed to just about everything else, would not "just work".
It went as follows: A) hook up camera B) turn on camera in view mode C) nothing...
Usually iPhoto needs to pop up out of its own or, if it's already running, you should be taken to the import window. But nothing happened. Now I got to thinking that this was a User Capabilities issue because my Admin account wasn't having any of these problems. I'm saying "these problems" since there were multiple. Whenever I wanted to use Mac Help for some application using my own account it would always come back with "There is no help available for *application*". So after fidgetting with all of the possible capabilities I decided to switch off the "Use only these applications" option from the User Account preferences panel and all of a sudden things started working again.
I'm quite puzzled by this actually, since all of the required capabilities looked to be in place: iPhoto, Image Capture, etc. Very weird indeed.
Grade (how happy am I?): B-
kilala.nl tags: apple, software,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
Listening to music while working really makes time fly. Listening to music while busy with your hobbies makes the event even more enjoyable. Too bad there's so many different formats!
Now it has to be said that I don't have that many music stored on my hard drive. Mostly it's just my own CD's ripped to MP3 and AAC. But that still amounts to a list of about 800MB worth of files. I never listened to any of my tunes in Windows (except for a couple of years back when I used WinAMP) since I only use that for gaming, but Marli has MusicMatch installed on her box. On Linux however I'd ordered all of my files into neatly categorised directories. That way I wouldn't have to bother with making playlists etc which always seemed very convoluted to me. I was using the console MP3Blaster there by the way.
So when I imported all of my files into iTunes I was horrified to see that they were all bunched into one big pile in the "Song Library"! Let alone the fact that iTunes sorts all of the files on the hard drive by artist. Luckily a little chat on the Mac Achaia got me sorted out: "Let iTunes do the sorting for you and don't worry about it!"... Makes it sound easy, but I got used to it :) Sure, it takes a little effort to create the first initial playlists, but after that adding them's a breeze.
I must admit though that I did get a bit worried about burning and ripping CD's though: how was I going to find all of my files? I was going to have to dig through all kinds of directories, just so I could make an audio CD of them. *BZZZT* Wrong! iTunes even lets you compile your own audio CD's using its database! Just select the songs you want and click on the "burn to cd" button.
I'm really quite pleased with this transition.
29 - 11 - 2003
After reading this month's MacWorld+ Geniuses I decided to add a couple of extra multimedia tools to my install. First off there's xTunes (available from http://www.pol-online.net) which allows you to control iTunes without opening the real iTunes window. Instead you press a key combination like Command-Space which gives you a semi-transparent popup with all of the basic iTunes controls. I also added a new media player called VLC (available from http://www.videolan.org and yes, I'm aware that this doesn't have anything to do with iTunes, but I didn't feel like opening a whole new review :P), which allows me to play Divx, MP4 and other video formats. It works pretty well, although I'm not very pleased with how grainy everything looks.
Grade (how happy am I?): A
kilala.nl tags: apple, software,
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0000-00-00 00:00:00
After moving over to the Mac there were two apps I was still using my Linux box for: the Gimp and StarOffice (although I had switched over to Ragtime for most of my DTP needs). A couple of weeks ago I ordered the "Office Applications for Mac OS X" CD-ROM from BSD Mall which would let me run the Gimp and OpenOffice.org (OOo) on my Mac box.
These two applications still require the use of X11 on Mac though, since they have not been re-built for use with Aqua (although I do hear rumours that there's work going on at OOo to do just that) so you'll have to install the X11 components from your OS X CD/DVD. All of this is quite easy and setting up the apps was a snap. The big problem arose with my following question...
"How do I use Mac fonts in X11 apps? Especially in the Gimp.."
Well, as I found out the hard way there is no documented way to do this, although the CD-ROM from BSD Mall does come with a couple of useful tools. I've found out a lot of things along the way, although I've no complete written procedure yet. The following text describes the steps you're going to have to take to get new fonts imported into X11. Beware that most of these commands require the use of sudo. You also need to add a couple of new directories to your $PATH, namely: /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin and /usr/X11R6/bin.
1. Install X11 from the Mac OS CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
2. Install Office Applications for Mac OS X 2.0
Choose to install the following packages: OOo, English, Fondu, Gimp and libdl.
3. Create a directory called "my-ttf" in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/Fonts.
4. Go into your newly created directory.
5. Run: fondu /Users/thomas/Library/fonts/* (or whichever font directory you like).
6. Remove all added files, with the exception of files with the .ttf extension.
7. Check the permissions on the files: fonts should be 644, the directory itself should be 755.
8. Run: ttmkfdir -c -p > fonts.scale [PROBLEM 1! See below].
9. Run: mkfontdir [PROBLEM 2! See below].
10. Edit /etc/X11/fs/config (make a backup first!) and add /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/Fonts/my-ttf to the Catalogue path.
11. Start the XFSFT font server manually. Run: sudo xfs. Then type <ctrl><z> which returns you to the CLI. Run: bg.
12. Make sure that the font server start automatically each reboot. [WILL ADD THIS LATER]
13. Add the font server to the X11 font path [PROBLEM 3! See below].
As you can see it ain't that straight forward and I've run into a couple of problems. I'll handle'm one at a time...
[PROBLEM 1]
ttmkfdir Is a tool which is not delivered along with the OpenOffice CD-ROM. While fondu is good at creating TTF fonts out of Mac fonts, it doesn't create the fonts.scale information file X11 needs (and that's what you need ttmkfdir for). You can easily download the source package for ttmkfdir by hopping throughthis page, but you'll still need to compile it. Unfortunately there's a nasty problem: Mac OS X 10.3 comes with FreeType2, whereas ttmkfdir requires FreeType1.1 to compile. :( This means that I'll have to find a way in which I can install two parallel versions of FreeType (or that I'm going to have to hassle the authors about support for FT2).
[PROBLEM 2]
AFAIK you can't make a proper fonts.dir (which is what mkfontdir does) without having fonts.scale in place.
[PROBLEM 3]
I haven't found out where the X11 implementation of OS X keeps this configuration. OS X uses XF86 version 4 so usually this config gets stored in /etc/XF86Config, but that file doesn't exist on my box :( I'll keep on digging in the hopes of finding something...
26 - 03 - 2005
I've heard rumours on some websites that the new installer software for OpenOffice.org automatically converts your Mac OS X fonts for use with its software. That's certainly good news! I've no clue whether that lets you use the fonts with GIMP though.
kilala.nl tags: apple, software, unix,
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Virtual desktops allow the user to keep open and organise a greater amount of applications at the same time.
Linux and UNIX users almost know no better. If you want to organise a great amount of GUI apps so that you can easily switch between them, or if you have apps running on multiple systems and want to keep them neatly organised into groups: use a virtual desktop manager. KDE and Gnome both come with one, as well as CDE and many many other Desktop environments. Even Windows 98 can have one if you download the appropriate software.
Before making the switch to OS X I was kind of worried about clutter on my desktop, what with all kinds of applications being opened on the same desktop. I had really gotten used to the UNIX way of doing things and I wasn't about to go back to the way Windows handles it! So I went trecking through the web and found the following tidbit: CodeTek Virtual Desktop. This little program (a 4.8 MB download) allows you to have two seperate desktops in the trial version and up to 100 desktops if you pay the $30 reg. fee. Right now the trial version does the trick for me, so I'll stick with it, although I still kind of miss having four seperate desktops.
26 - 03 - 2005
A long time ago I switched from Codetek's offering to a piece of software called Desktop Manager, by Rich Warhem. Search for it on Versiontracker.com. I find it friendlier to use and it has nice keyboard shortcuts which you can use to switch desktops.
Grade (how happy am I?): A-
kilala.nl tags: apple, software, unix,
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As you can see from the looks of my website and the contents of some of these sections I like to draw... A lot :)
Through the years I started using computers to aid me in drawing. In college I used a scanner for the very first time, so I could put my drawings up on a website, followed by learning how to properly use a scanner (my first scans were 1.5 MB .jpg files!) to submit drawings to some magazine. Then followed the use of a pirated copy of Photoshop in Windows, along with a nice Canon scanner of my own... That setup worked pretty nicely, but then I switched to Linux as my desktop OS.
During my move to Linux one of the first things I noticed was the fact that my scanner would not work. It's some rather simple model from Canon where the driver does most of the work. As I gather people are hard at work making these models work in Linux, but I've not the patience to wait for it. So, while I did image manipulation using the GIMP in Linux I still had to boot into Windows just to make my scans :[
AFAIK my scanner should work in Mac OS (at least there were OS8 drivers for it when I bought it) so that should be the least of my worries. I'd like to get the GIMP running on my G5, but that requires the use of X server software which comes with OS X 10.3 and not with 10.2. Technically I could download an X server, but I'm in dial-up hell so the 50MB download would be a bit steep :/
So right now I'm holding out for two things:
1. My copy of OS X 10.3, which I ordered from Apple a couple of days ago. This'll at least allow me to run GIMP on Linux and then redirecting the output to my G5.
2. Enough money to buy a CD-ROM distribution of GIMP for the Mac, which'll set me back about $40,-.
Until either of those two come through I've not much else to say about this topic...
29 - 11 - 2003
I found out two things about scanning on Mac OS X when it comes to using my Canon N650u: A) Canon's drivers suck (or I'm completely at a loss how to use them), and B) VueScan (available from http://www.hamrick.com) is an impressive tool that lets you scan in OS X using just about _any_ scanner you can think of! Right now I'm still waiting for a copy of the GIMP for OS X so I will keep on using GIMP on Linux and scanning in Windows for now. Once I _do_ get the GIMP for Mac I'll seriously consider coughing up the sixty dollars (!!!) registration fee for VueScan. I think it'll be worth it since this software will work with my current and any possible future scanners I might purchase.
26 - 03 - 2005
It's been way to long since my last update for this page!
A long while ago I purchased that CD-ROM with GIMP on it, which allowed me to do all my drawing and colouring on the Mac. That all worked pretty well, untill I downloaded and installed GIMP 2: that made things even easier!
A few weeks after our wedding (which would place it somewhere in June 2004) I also bought Graphic Converter (search for it on Version Tracker) to do batch resizes and other modifications on our wedding photos. That piece of software was worth its money! It took so much work out of my hands!
Only a couple of weeks ago did I remember that with my N650u came a driver CD-ROM for Mac OS 9. So I installed the Classic environment, followed by the drivers and the scanning software. And presto! It works! So now every time I want to make a scan I need to startup Classic, but that's not a big problem for me. Shame on me for using an outdated scanner ~_^.
You can consider this application switch to be completed! Now I've a fully working imaging environment and I've everything I could need.
Grade (how happy am I?): B
kilala.nl tags: apple, software,
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Although they may have little entertaining value office suites are a necessary evil on most home computers.
And that very same goes for our household. We occasionaly need to write letters or reports and we like to keep a couple of spreadsheets handy to do our accounting. Both in Windows and in Linux I used Star Office (available from Sun Microsystems), which has performed admirably in my book.
Unfortunately I'm not aware of any version of Star Office that'll run on Mac OS, so I'm stuck here since all of my files are stored in SDx format, meaning that not even MS Office can open them (I guess storing them in Star Office format was my way of being strong headed).
Anyway. I did hear on Ars that there's a version of OpenOffice going around that runs on Mac OS, so I reckon that I should give that a try. With a little bit of luck it'll be able to open SO files and if it can't I can always just go back and convert all of my files to MS Office standards... Unfortunately OpenOffice is another piece of kit that needs to be downloaded and there's my bottle neck again: I'm in dial-up hell.
16 - 11 - 2003
Wow! To say that Ragtime Solo is a world of difference from Star Office and MS Office wouldn't be an exageration!
Last week I bought December's issue of MacWorld-UK, which AFAIK always includes two cover CD's. This month CD1 contained a free full version of Ragtime Solo 5.6.4, which is a "Business Publishing Suite". I was happy to see that it could import MS Office files, so at least I could retain copies of my important files, but that's where the comparison with SO/MSO ends!
Of course you can use Ragtime to just quickly write a short letter or whatnot, but if you want to get serious and create documents with graphs, pictures and text things get quite interesting! Apparently (I haven't fiddled with the app just yet) you divide pages into various cells which will contain all of the data you want in the document. So not only do you get to make the content, but you can also define the document's layout in detail...
Like I said: I haven't tried the app just yet, but I will get going in the following couple of hours. Unfortunately I've already found one small problem: Ragtime doesn't know how to deal with transparencies in PNG images. Instead of showing the document's background it fills the transparent parts with black. Now if it were white I could deal with it, but black?!
Second update of the day
Well, I toyed around with Ragtime a bit and must say that it's a fun app to work with. Unfortunately I can't really show the results of my hour of toying, except for this screenshot, because Ragtime can't export to MS Word and I don't have Adobe Distiller which is required to export to PDF.
Just a couple of more observations. First off working with Ragtime will take a lot of getting used to if you've only worked with Word or Star Office; that's for sure. Second off, it can be a bit hard to find standard text layout options like bullet points. I for one am still looking :[
17 - 11 - 2003
Boy do I look dumb! ^_^;
Not only does Ragtime allow you to save to HTML, but OS X itself allows you to _print_ to PDF! So now I can use Ragtime to make pretty documents and then export them to a format that just about _everyone_ on this fricking planet can open! I'm definately happy about this!
26 - 03 - 2005
Quite a few months back I purchased a CD-ROM with pre-compiled versions of GIMP and OpenOffice.org. Both of them worked nicely, although OO.o didn't allow me to print, for some strange reason. Shortly after that I downloaded OO.o 1.1 for Mac OS and since then I've been in business! OO.o allows you a way better integration with an MS Office environment than Ragtime can provide.
On the other hand I still do use Ragtime from time to time. Especially when I need to do some sweet tricks regarding to page lay-out. Ragtime handles stuff like that so much nicer than Word and OO.o.
Grade (how happy am I?): B-
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As soon as DVDs became main-stream people've been trying to 'rip' their contents to their computers so they could distribute them in various nefarious ways.
Now, the reason why I rip DVD's has nothing to do with distributing movies illegaly. Moreover I actually frown upon said distribution since that way less money goes to the people who put hard effort into making these movies. Now in the case of Hollywood films I couldn't care less, since I don't really enjoy most of those anyway, but when it comes to anime I'd rather see people dish out the bucks (which in turn gives out a signal to the movie companies that there really _is_ an interest in anime in Europe).
But enough of this Holier-than-thou crap ^_^ Let's get on with the important stuff...
The reason why I rip contents from DVDs is because I want to get into the hobby of creating AMV's (Anime Music Videos). This of course requires the use of piles and piles of movie source material which needs to be sorted, cut, edited, put together, and so on. Currently I'm trying to dabble in iMovie a bit, but in a couple of days I expect to get Final Cut Express in the mail. Once I've started using that I'll make a seperate article on how that works :)
After some rummaging about the web using Google I found "AppleGuru's quick but very usable DVD Rip Tutorial" which describes all of the required software and how to get started quickly. All of the tools required to make the actual rip were quite easy to use, so I'm happy with those. The only problem is that I currently lack Quicktime Pro which is used in the tutorial to mix audio and video together again. But that shouldn't be too much of a problem since I'll be adding my own audio to make the AMV's anyway!
The tools suggested by AppleGuru:
+ OSeX, to rip the raw contents of the DVD to your hard drive. Splits into seperate files for video and audio.
+ 3ivX, a Quicktime codec used by Diva to encode video into MPEG-4.
+ Diva, the software that encodes the raw DVD rip into MPEG-4.
+ mAC3DEC, to encode the seperate audio into AIFF, MP3 or one of about four other formats.
All download locations for these tools are included in the tutorial...
I actually found that I got quite decent results with mAC3DEC, so I'll be using that one to make MP3's of the intro and ending tunes of my favourite anime series. That should be a nice addition to my playlist :)
Grade (how happy am I?): C+
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All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Thomas Sluyter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.
