June 30, 2004

Sick train is coming...

You know that feeling of impending doom sickness? Those few days you become fully aware of the idea that you are about to get sick? Yeah, those days are mine, now. Walking around in a daze, with my inner ear deciding not to work from time to time, is not a nice feeling. But when all that comes out is Yellow Dye no. 5, even if I drink a liter of water every 2-4 hours, I know the impending doom is upon me.

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June 29, 2004

June 28, 2004

June 27, 2004

June 25, 2004

Cruft

What is cruft? Cruft is the accumulation of features, ideas, and crap that at one point in time had a purpose; but now this crap has no purpose - it was blown away by the sands of time; its context no longer apparent. My computer had fully morphed into a cruft-laden pile of silicon this year after six years of architecture school, and a year of semi-inactivity. Multiple copies of files, redundant directories, and cryptic file naming structures which, at some point had a meaning, but now were rendered useless. My Rosetta Stone was awaiting to decipher late night naming conventions into usable English.

The Rosetta Stone never arrived. In its place, came the great computer blow out of Summer '04. Boot sectors would not boot; emergency disks did not quench the emergency. All of my years of breaking Windows based computers, then fixing them, were to no avail. The box was fully and seriously toast. Windows 2000 and Xp would not resurrect it; in fact, the last straw the the inability of the box to even Post. Signs of impending doom, and deeper system problems aborted the repair.

Repair was not achievable.

I was resigned that it was time to buy a new computer. For some time i was interested in making the big switch to Apple. I am no evangelist, yet I knew that if I was going to spend the money, Microsoft Windows was not high on the priority of products that deserved my money. I think I would rather bankroll a Republican candidate for local office, than buy Windows. After being burned multiple times by the Blue Screen of Death, I wanted out of this asylum.

There was no single event, no "smoking gun" that I could point to in order to show you my great displeasure with Windows. Yet, after fixing my mother's computer this weekend, I am more than happy that I made the switch. Her windows installation had been hit by the Netsky virus, through an Internet Explorer defect. It wasn't her fault; there are larger forces then her in the world, all allied against users who don't have time (or the geeky-ness) to keep up with the exploit du-jour.

The usual front line defenses were deployed: hardware firewall, software firewall, Ad-Aware set to scan weekly, and Norton used to catch the errant virus. IE and Outlook unfortunately were the chosen programs, which in the end, was the chink in the armor. At the time the machine was set up, Thunderbird was immature, and Firebird didn't exist. The urge to migrate to Firefox was harped upon, but user inertia is greater than nagging from 1000 miles away.

What really broke the camel's back, was the buying of Norton Ghost and a new hard drive. Ghost was billed, both by Norton and googled pages, as a great tool to clone data from an old disk to a new (better) one. Ghost did in fact clone the disk successfully. Yet, everything was not ice creme and puppy dogs. No, Windows 2000 dashed any hopes of ice creme, not to mention puppy dogs. No, Windows did not like the move; the disk environment did not match the former environment. Worse, the computer failed to post again - a replay of my former problem.

Using the original disk as the operating system disk (which Windows 2000 used about 75% disk space out of a 3 gig hard drive), and another disk as environmental disk solved this. All swap space, user data, temp space - any setting which could be switched to the alternate drive, was switched. Virus images were updated, browser was switched to Firebird, mail was switched to Thunderbird.

Netsky obliterated. Outgoing packets cut back to normal levels. Now, ice creme and puppy dogs were free to descended on the house from above. Simple computer use was restored, and the user (my mom) was happy. Problem, solved. Yet the new hard drive, with its large capacity, was not used. Windows 2000 didn't like it, and so it wouldn't work.

Now, I know that I am no guru - I admit to struggling with the command line. But when all diagnostic tools were used to no avail to to a finicky operating system, something has to be wrong. I know I am not alone with Windows problems - I can safely state that the problem has reached endemic levels. Users are not dumb, but their software makes their computer do stupid things. Releasing software with settings dictated by the marketing department, not under the aegis of user safety has rendered Microsoft Windows the most insecure platform on the market.

I am happy with the switch to Apple. My Powerbook hums along nicely, and when I can afford it, she will get another meg of memory. The software design is top notch, and I hope to write about my experiences in upcoming postings, because, I think it is important to share.

So that we all can get ice creme, and perhaps, puppy dogs, too.

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June 24, 2004

Bar-B-Que

20040624.jpg

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The 2nd Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party was a success, with many ribs consumed in the name of taste testing.

iTunes 4.6 Party Shuffle Error

I just upgraded iTunes to iTunes 4.6 on my OS.X 10.3.4 Powerbook, and Party Shuffle neither parties, nor shuffles. Instead, it lists nearly all (except about 200 tracks) of my Library no matter what source or display options are selected, with no regard to the refresh button. I figure there is something wrong with a configuration file somewhere. Help LazyWeb!

UPDATE
This update is more for google, than for myself. The solution, is as follows:

  1. Select all (apple-a) songs in the Party Shuffle window
  2. Press delete (this removes them from the queue, but not from your library)
  3. Press Refresh (top right corner)

Now the list will refresh and actually shuffle. Now iTunes parties (along with the aforementioned shuffling). Why I didn't think of this in the beginning is beyond me. Why this happened after an upgrade is also beyond me. I don't know if this is a wide spread problem when upgrading, but since Party Shuffle is a new feature (it appeared in v4.5), I figure not all of the bugs have been fully worked out. Google was of no help either, mostly the returns for itunes os.x party.shuffle error were for AppleScript errors.

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June 23, 2004

June 22, 2004

June 20, 2004

June 18, 2004

Swing State bound

Going back home for a bit, see you all in a few days.

UPDATE
So LaGuardia has wireless in the concourse for $7 for 24 hours of use. This seems to be about at the top end price point wise. It was very easy to enroll, but being wireless and all, you have to do it without the ability to use a VPN
(I use HotSpot VPN by the way). So that when you sign up for the concourse WiFi, your username and pass are in clear text, but more importantly, your credit card information is sent also in clear text. There are a few laptops around, and there is even an AirPort based computer not far from me) and decode my information. Suffice to say, I went to the land-line kiosk to input my info.

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June 17, 2004

June 16, 2004

June 15, 2004

June 14, 2004

June 11, 2004

June 6, 2004

Operation Overlord

Today is the sixtieth anniversary of Operation Overlord, D-Day. The largest assembled fleet of ships, men, and material ever assembled crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy. On a stormy foggy day, the last great allied coalition fought against what then was called Evil, and what we know know very much was, Evil. From June 6th 1944 through August 29th, 31 days, 237,000 Allied Soldiers died. We owe these men who fought and died that day, and during the duration of World War II a debt of gratitude.

My two grandfathers were not part of that invasion force. I count myself lucky - 1 out of every 10 soldier died taking, and retaking the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gold and Sword and Juno. My maternal grandfather was an artilleryman and infantryman in the 398th of the 100th Infantry Division. He received the Purple Heart due to shrapnel, went back into service, and finishing out the war as a Staff Sergeant. His most notable, and talked about, campaign was for the Battle of Bitche along the French and German border. My paternal grandfather, was an airplane mechanic serving in England. After the war he settled in his hometown of Cleveland, and worked at the Railroad. The war was never discussed, here, and so I have only fragmentary knowledge of what transpired. Unfortunately, by the time I became aware enough of history, they had both passed away before I could sit down and transcribe their experience.

We should stop and think today, about the sacrifices they made for us, so that true Evil would not take over the world. Those who so quickly raise their sword in anger, or rush nation to War, must first remember the men and women who went before them on this day, sixty years ago. This nation is not without problems, or which has not erred; yet, it is a nation wholly composed of citizens who truly feel that America is a guiding light. This is why our leaders must put America upon the path which fulfills our hopes and dreams. Not the path of unilateral premption and finding ways to circumvent the law to torture people.

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June 4, 2004

Proof that /. is still worth reading

This exchange is from a thread about Hotmail not backing up user data. Bad spelling and punctuation has nothing on Geek humor.

The only way to truely secure your data is to hire a team of tibetan monks to each remember 1/5th of it. Then they can sing it back to you

Better still, hire half a dozen and RAID them.

Would that be a MONK-5 array or a Beowolf Cloister?

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June 3, 2004

If you've seen me, please call...

Has anyone heard of where Saddam Hussein is? The only news is from the New Zeland based The Star which reports that Saddam is now in Qatar.

Hello! Media!? Why aren't you asking the questions? Or is it that we don't really care/didn't really care about Saddam in the first place? I wonder if there will be a September Surprise tour with Osama and Saddam. I wouldn't put it past this Administration.

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