utilware : margin notes

Ahh, no signal (in the jungle)

2008-06-22T02:34:00.001-07:00

Ahh, no signal (in the jungle),
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Too damn tall, Florida edition

2007-12-28T09:14:00.001-08:00

Too damn tall, Florida edition,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

More Apple woes ... Asus, anyone?

2007-12-27T20:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to copy some files from an external HD onto my MBP. However, the drive appears to be corrupted, and won't mount under 10.4. However, it will mount under 10.5. So, I use my PB12 (with 10.5) to mount the drive, and get ready to copy the files off of it. However, soon realize that I don't have enough free space on any other drives to accommodate the files I'm trying to copy. Decide to use my MBP as another external drive for the PB12, to copy the files directly from one to the other. But, somehow the MBP drive becomes corrupted during the copy. Leopard? Not sure.
Can no longer boot the MBP, although not completely despondent yet because I have a backup via JungleDisk (set to do hourly backups - sweet). Poke around a bit and manage to mount it on the PB12 and run Disk Utility against it. No dice. Then reboot it and get into command line, running fdsk against it. No dice. Reboot again and it actually boots. Everything works, have access to my files, happy briefly. However, Disk Utility still reports failures, and ... oh wait ... my Desktop and Dock settings aren't saved between logins. Something's corrupted in there. And my Preferences folder alternatively shows 12 files and 50+ files, depending on when I open it.
So I decide to use my MBP install disks to rebuild it, but don't have space on an external drive to back everything up. (Would use JungleDisk, but it'd be too slow to download.) So I take the MBP, boot it into target disk mode, and then attach it to Rachel's laptop as an external HD. Copy all of the files onto her machine, but there isn't enough space. So pull some of the files onto my iPod, freeing up a bit of space, and then pull the rest of the files over. Then format my MBP HD, and try to do the install. But the MBP disks are for Ilana's MBP, not mine.
Remembering this from a previous incident, I decide to do what worked last time: keep my MBP in target mode, and use Ilana's laptop to do the install (onto my MBP as an external HD, rather than onto her internal HD). However, this time, it says that it can't install onto that external HD.
Deep breath.
Currently working on Plan C, which is to mount my MBP as an external drive to Ilana's MBP, and then doing a restore of her HD onto my HD. Assuming this works, will reboot my machine once the copy is complete, and then delete her profile and add one for me. After that? Figure out how to relicense Adobe Creative Suite without de-licensing it first (which I couldn't do, once my machine decided to stop booting), as well as iTunes (within which I recently did the once-a-year-relicense-all-my-machines).
Wish me luck. Meanwhile, all my bets are on the Asus EEE PC (which I'm currently using).

Second choice

2007-12-25T08:41:00.001-08:00

Second choice,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

So when Magic Kingdom is full, they redirect people to other places
within the complex. Wonder if the people working at Epcot feel like
second-choice employees.

Next time she packs, I'm renting a U-Haul

2007-12-24T20:12:00.001-08:00

Next time she packs, I'm renting a U-Haul,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Vacation baggage woes

When technology fails

2007-12-23T23:47:00.001-08:00

When technology fails,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Man, oh man. Connected the MBP 10.4 in target disk mode to my PB12
10.5. The PB12 proceeded to corrupt the MBP HD, to where Disk Utility
and fdsk can't even hope to figure out what happened. Lucky me, I back
up hourly (really) via JungleDisk. Phew.

Happy 16th anniversary to us!

2007-12-21T18:13:00.001-08:00

Happy 16th anniversary to us!,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Yay!

So many Mac problems this week

2007-12-14T00:14:00.001-08:00

Man, Apple-land is not my friend right now.

Had to replace the battery in my MacBook Pro 15" because it wouldn't charge, and would randomly shut down. Microsoft Word just disappeared right in the middle of working on a document. No crash report, nothing. Couldn't connect to the WiFi at the airport, while someone with Windows XP next to me hopped right on. iDisk is reporting that it's almost full, but it isn't. Apple Mail suddenly forgot all of its UI settings, so I had to re-configure all my columns again. PowerBook 12 at home running 10.5 stopped responding to keyboard. Wife's MacBook Pro has Safari crash about 7 times a day. Can't access my iDisk from PowerBook 12, get a some error number. Parallels had problems with the network. Closed the lid on the MBP and set it on the seat next to me on the plane. Picked it up and it had turned itself off. Lost work. PowerPoint wouldn't present properly earlier this week, crashed every time I put it into presentation mode. iDisk sync gave spurious error messages to Ilana. HP printer installer appears every time I boot, can't get rid of it (and it's not in my startup items).

"It just works"?

Bullsh-t.

J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids, MI gets it

2007-12-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a company hits the target dead-on - like the J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids, MI. Wow. Just a short list of the things that they do right:
- Fantastic restaurant
- Big, gigantic flat-screen TV in the room
- Ability to plug your PC, S-Video, or DVI source into the TV; I watched TV on iTunes all last night
- Free low-bandwidth WiFi, low-cost upgrade to higher-bandwidth WiFi
- Big, spacious, modern rooms
- Four power plugs at desk height
- Two more power plugs at table top height beside the bed for your cellphone charger or whatever
- Starbucks in the lobby ... mmm
- Great soaps (did I just say that?)
- Twistable-neck reading lights next to the bed

That said, I'm also still swooning over the Hotel Monaco in Chicago where they gave me a "tall person" bed ... I swear, it's the longest bed I've seen in my life ... at least 7' long, maybe even 7'6". Crazy goodness.

Impressions of Chicago

2007-12-09T20:10:00.001-08:00

Impressions of Chicago,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Late night, on the way to downtown

Too damn tall

2007-12-04T23:23:00.001-08:00

Too damn tall,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Doorway at school, cotter pin holding door closer elbow together

Always working... SOHO, NYC

2007-11-30T09:09:00.001-08:00

Always working... SOHO, NYC,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Arriving ... New York City

2007-11-29T19:47:00.001-08:00

Arriving ... New York City,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

The exact bday moment

2007-11-28T12:01:00.001-08:00

The exact bday moment,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Exact minute of the day, with Ilana, at the Apple store in Vegas. Can
it get any better than this? Well, if the kids were here.

CAPTCHA gone bad

2007-11-20T18:10:00.001-08:00

CAPTCHA gone bad,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Waiting for Taxi

2007-11-19T16:20:00.003-08:00

Waiting for Taxi,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

I'm starting to see a theme here...

Automatic update has been completed

2007-11-19T16:20:00.001-08:00

Automatic update has been completed,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Now you can get back to losing luggage with me. Grand Rapids, MI.

Waiting for Godot

2007-11-19T16:19:00.001-08:00

Waiting for Godot,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Well, my luggage, actually. Chicago O'Hare tarmac, light drizzle but
pleasant.

Floorplanning in the Miquelrius

2007-11-18T07:50:00.001-08:00

Floorplanning in the Miquelrius,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

IMG00214.JPG

2007-11-18T07:48:00.001-08:00

IMG00214.JPG,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Waiting on the Red Carpet to board. Ooh, so impressive. How long until
the airlines stop using trinkets to try to cover for bad service? Oh,
right, as soon as passengers are willing to go with someone other than
the lowest provider.

Waiting for his boys

2007-11-13T16:47:00.001-08:00

Waiting for his boys,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

OS X 10.5 kicked my ass

2007-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

There's common sense, and then there's technolust. Common sense dictates that you don't upgrade your production laptop to a relatively untested operating system, but technolust says "ooooh, yea, heh huh huh, do it!" And so began the journey into darkness, so innocently begun with the simple act of slipping a DVD into the drive.

A list of the problems encountered, in case I get the urge to reinstall anytime soon:
• Blue screen upon install - yes, the Haxie kind, and yes, I thought I had deleted all the right things. Solved.
• Forgot my printers when upgrading. Reinstalled.
• Periodically dropping WiFi connection with my 2wire DSL modem. Never solved.
• Frequent broadband link errors with 2wire DSL, which then eats the URL, and requires restarting the browser. Never solved.
• iDisk didn't sync right, needed to delete and re-sync. But then iDisk (incorrectly) expands to fill every last byte of my HD ... with an honest-to-goodness 0 bytes free ... and then takes five or six attempts to get it to stop trying to sync.
• Back to My Mac didn't work outside of my house, more or less rendering it useless except for playing pranks on my kids
• New menubar has deleted the rounded corners, one of my favorite things about the whole OS X experience. Yes, there are third-party apps to put them back, but see Haxie above.
• New dock is shiny, shiny, shiny. And annoying. Fixed with the SoftGlass app from VersionTracker.
• Stacks can only show a few icons before they switch to a less-interesting grid mode.
• Sudden, overwhelming nostalgia for the all-white menu bar.

And the kicker? The whole reason I installed it (other than that pesky technolust thing) was to check out how CalDAV would work for syncing iCal with a mail server. Which didn't work with three flavors of mail server that we tried out.

So I grabbed my 10.4 install disks that came with the MacBook Pro, and started the reinstall. And then found out that they were actually the 10.4 install disks for my wife's MacBook Pro, and wouldn't work on my laptop. Panic set in. Was I destined to stay in Leopardland forever? I tore apart the house ... it was a grueling, nasty whirlwind through the place, white fluffy puppy sensing my panic and follwing me around, 6 inches from my heels, panting and whining. Found a long-lost video camera, a couple of dust bunnies, but no CDs.

Screwed?

Never! I eventually ended up getting 10.4 reinstalled, through the following scary scenario:
• Back up entire Home folder onto FireWire 800 drive
• Boot my laptop in FireWire target mode
• Plug my laptop into my wife's laptop, as an external FireWire drive
• Boot wife's laptop using her 10.4 install disks
• Very, very, very carefully choose the external FireWire drive as the target for an Erase & Install
• Have visitor check that I did, indeed, choose the right drive
• Double-check the drive onto which the install was going to be happening
• Kick off the install, which included a heart-stopping reboot and DVD-change halfway through
• Shut down and disconnect everything
• Hold breath and boot wife's laptop ... to find everything just like she left it (woot!)
• Boot my laptop, download updates, restore everything off of FireWire 800 drive
• Reinstall several dozen apps, re-enter serial numbers, and generally tidy up

Phew. Back to where I was five days ago. What a ride.

Sidekick convert?

2007-11-11T21:13:00.001-08:00

Sidekick convert?,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

She's seriously considering it ... will I have created a convert?

Too damn tall

2007-11-10T08:31:00.001-08:00

Too damn tall,
originally uploaded by billwesterman.

Apple and grammar

2007-11-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, something about grammar will just pop out at you. Testing OS X 10.5 Leopard recently, a window popped up with the statement "none of your preferred networks are available". Now, as I understand it, the word none is equivalent to "no one" or "no single instance of", which is a singular term - and should therefore be paired with "is", as in "none is". So wouldn't that be "none of your preferred networks is available" instead?

Doubting myself, I turned to Google and found this document, which says that "conservative speakers insist that it should always be singular" but the other 99.95% of the population uses both singular and plural depending on the circumstance. I love their use of the term "insist", by the way. Adds a bit of color to their true feelings about the matter.

The upshot? I would have copped out with "none of your preferred networks can be found".