Tag: Apple

Reading Around on September 15th through September 18th

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A few interesting links collected September 15th through September 18th:

  • Author of Time ‘s Beck profile digs a deeper hole | Media Matters for America – Pretty embarrassing admission for a so-called journalist: “David Von Drehle doesn’t watch Olbermann or Maddow, you see, because he already knows their opinions are “based on nothing.” The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping”

  • t.tex’s hexes: Creative Thievery – “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.” – Jim Jarmusch
  • RealityStudio » Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, and the Computer – On Christmas Day, 1990, Charles Bukowski received a Macintosh IIsi computer and a laser printer from his wife, Linda. The computer utilized the 6.0.7 operating system and was installed with the MacWrite II word processing program. By January 18 of the next year, the computer was up and running and so, after a brief period of fumbling and stumbling, was Bukowski. His output of poems doubled in 1991.

Reading Around on September 11th through September 14th

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A few interesting links collected September 11th through September 14th:

  • Sprouting 101: How do you sprout seeds, nuts and grains? – Sprouting seeds, nuts and grains is a way of greatly increasing their nutritional value and makes them easier to digest. For example, most sprouts double their protein content and have highly increased levels of vitamins! Sprouting seeds is simple and you don't need a lot of fancy equipment. Here's how:
  • Mac OS X Automation: Services Downloads – These services and Automator actions are provided as examples of the design and use of Mac OS X automation technologies. All service workflows are fully editable and can be customized as need requires.
  • Daily Photo Archive – Photo taken by Seth Anderson

    Featured as our daily photo on 9/11/2009.

Snow Leopard doesn’t include AppleTalk

Seth Anderson2 Comments


“Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User)” (Apple)

I successfully installed Snow Leopard on all the Macs in our office1 with no real problems to report. Well, one minor issue with an older HP LaserJet printer.

Snow Leopard has dropped support for the networking protocols collectively called AppleTalk. Since I am not a developer, I had not heard of AppleTalk being left behind. I don’t blame Apple, AppleTalk was first introduced in 1984, and it probably wasn’t a trivial task to include it in new OS releases. I wish the news had been more publicly discussed – I was a bit blind-sided by it.

However, although we have three networked printers in our office,23 the one I use the most is the HP Laserjet 4000, probably because it is closest to me. That, and it is an awesome workhorse, having printed hundreds of thousands of pages over the 12 years or so we’ve had it, with barely a peep of trouble.

I hate disposing of working machinery; since the printer worked this morning, I wanted it to work this afternoon too. Turned out, there is a printing protocol called HP Jetdirect – Socket, and it was supposed to work with this printer. I printed the Configuration Page – input the IP address listed as the JetSend address in the appropriate spot, but the computer still could not connect successfully. Looking a little deeper, I figured out that4 the printer was on a different subnet mask than the rest of our network. I’ve used and supported computers for a long time, but to be honest, I don’t know that much about networking, yet I know enough that devices that you want to communicate have to be on the same subnet mask.

From there, and a bit of trial and error, I figured out how to change the assigned IP address of the HP Laserjet via a semi-hidden menu option.

Apple Forums user Strolls5 provided the key bit of information:

The LaserJet’s network section is hidden as the “EIO Menu”, which is covered in appendix page B-21 of the manual (page 221 in your PDF reading software). Changing “CFG Network=Yes”, then saving the option (the “select” button?), enables the sub-menu for editing the options to show up when you press the “next” button (the “item” button?). Same with “CFG TCP/IP”, but first disable Ethertalk & IPX/SPX because you’re not going to use them.

…

Try navigating the LaserJet’s menus as discussed previously to the “EIO Menu” (on mine it says “EIO 2 Jetdirect Menu”, then press “item” so that it says “CFG Network=No” and then the “value” button so it now says “CFG Network=Yes”, then “select” so a little star appears next to the “yes” (the star means the value has been saved”. Now when you press “item” again (immediately) you get to the next level of menus. Now you want “CFG TCP/IP=Yes*” and set DHCP (might also be called BOOTP – that’s the same thing) to yes. Make sure you set the little star before pressing item.

[From Apple – Support – Discussions – HP LaserJet and Snow Leopard …]

except in my case, I set the printer’s IP address manually, with the very primitive three button interface that might have been state of the art in 1997, but now seems worse than texting on a non-smart phone.

Yayy, I can print to the LaserJet again! Snow Leopard even had the correct printer drivers, once it could connect.

Can other printers use this new print protocol? Not sure. Anyone know?

The only other items to report, at least so far:

Helvetica - Screen shot 2009-08-31 at 6.30.34 PM

I got a message that three fonts were duplicates: Helvetica, Geneva, and Monaco – the Snow Leopard installer asked if I wanted to delete the old fonts, or live with conflict. I opted to remove the old fonts.

Install Rosetta - Screen shot 2009-08-31 at 6.30.25 PM

I also knew I had to add Rosetta: the binary translation software that translates code compiled for PowerPC chips so that the code can run on Intel chips. Since we still limp along running Eudora on some of our machines, I knew I would need this optional install. A simple process though, and Eudora6 seems to run fine.

Oh and this:

System Extension Cannot be used

no idea what this even is, or from what application, if any, but I removed the extension anyway.

The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/CDSDAudioCaptureSupport.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.

—

Update: if you need some help figuring out all the details that I glossed over, check out Dave Greenbaum’s post How-To: Resurrect Your AppleTalk Printer in Snow Leopard

Footnotes:
  1. well, all the ones that I’m going to install it on: have three other PowerPC Macs that won’t get upgraded [↩]
  2. a wonderful Xerox Phaser 8560DN and a Samsung SCX-4500 that is ok [↩]
  3. update: the Samsung SCX-4500 didn’t work either, but Samsung has a 10.6 driver listed at their website [↩]
  4. for some reason, I didn’t do this, I don’t think [↩]
  5. aka Joe Stroller [↩]
  6. and whatever else [↩]

Reading Around on August 27th through August 28th

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A few interesting links collected August 27th through August 28th:

  • Solipsism « Earthpages.ca – Think Free – This is the philosophical position that only the subject exists and all impressions of others and the outside world are illusory.

    While many dismiss solipsism as an extreme or strange view, others say it is logically impossible to prove or disprove

  • d r i f t g l a s s: Da Mare Would Like To Apologize – "If you've never been to a public meeting where Da Mare or one of his goofs are having their political pipes rodded, let me tell you right off the bat, you should go. Over the years I’ve been to several, and it really is about as purely little-“d”-democratic an exercise as any big city could hope for: In front of Da Mare and the assembled heads of his every office and department, any citizen can step up to the microphone and “Cry Harold”"

    Awesome description: I have to go to one of these sometimes

  • Review: Snow Leopard Review | Mac OS X – Page 1 | Macworld – if you later try to launch a PowerPC app, Snow Leopard will pop up a window to explain that you need Rosetta and offer to install it for you (via Apple’s Software Update utility). I can only assume that making Rosetta optional is an attempt by Apple to goad users to upgrade their apps and to shame developers who still haven’t recompiled their apps to run on Intel chips. But given that most everyday users have no idea which of their apps are Intel-native and which are PowerPC, this seems unnecessarily harsh.

Snow Leopard available for Pre-order

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Apple’s new OS, Snow Leopard, is now available for pre-order.


“Mac OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack (5-User)” (Apple)

I always get the family pack, the cost is only slightly more, and realistically, I am going to install this on multiple machines.


“Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard” (Apple)
the single user version


“Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual” (David Pogue)

David Pogue’s Missing Manual is also available for pre-order. I don’t always buy these, but usually every second OS release, I do pick one up. Good resource to have around, usually find some good tips contained therein.

Reading Around on July 30th through July 31st

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A few interesting links collected July 30th through July 31st:

George Bush and his micropenis.jpg

  • Here’s the truth: ‘Birther’ claims are just plain nuts | McClatchy – “Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America,” the translator says after talking to the woman.

    “I thought he was born in Kenya,” McRae asks again.

    “He was born in America, not in Mombasa,” says the response. Another response later says, “Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii.”

    Still, the charge has spread despite no evidence that Obama was born in Kenya and compelling evidence that he was born in Hawaii.

  • Vestigial Organs Not So Useless After All, Studies Find – Appendix, tonsils, various redundant veins—they’re all vestigial body parts once considered expendable, if not downright useless.

    But as technology has advanced, researchers have found that, more often than not, some of these “junk parts” are actually hard at work.
    Case in point: the spleen, which a new study shows may be critical in healing damaged hearts

  • Daring Fireball: Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline – Microsoft is no longer ignoring Apple’s market share gains and successful “Get a Mac” ad campaign. But the crux of these ads from Apple is that Macs are better; Microsoft’s response is a message that everyone already knows — that Windows PCs are cheaper. Their marketing and retail executives publicly espouse the opinion that, now that everyone sees Apple computers as cool, Microsoft has Apple right where they want them.

    They’re a software company whose primary platform no longer appeals to people who like computers the most. Their executives are either in denial of, or do not perceive, that there has emerged a consensus — not just among nerds but among a growing number of regular just-plain users — that Windows PCs are second-rate.

    philly univac.jpg

Danger! X-Rated grocery stores and Gas Stations! Oh my!

swanksalot0 comment

so, one of these seemingly innocuous Apple iPhone applications could lead to adult material, and now requires a warning. Wonder which one?

View On Black

Let us speculate.

1. AroundMe? a mapping program? are there porno theaters nearby? Bathhouses? Congress?

2. Cheap Gas!? maybe there are some perverted gas station restrooms. Or maybe the magazine section has nudie rags?

3.Grocery IQ -a grocery list application? There are *adult* things one can do with produce, or whipped cream.

4. Instapaper Free? a program that transfers webpages from Safari (you know, that web-browser program on your iPhone)

5. RN Dining? – a dining rewards /restaurant reservation app? Maybe certain restaurants haven’t paid their Apple tax recently?

[if you really want to know, the answer is answer number 4. Instapaper allows you to transfer John Yoo’s torture memos to your phone, and thus qualifies as objectionable content]

more Apple Store foolishness, in other words.

Albert Hofmann fundraising letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs

Seth Anderson0 comment

Strangely, I had never heard of this before

Steve Jobs has never been shy about his use of psychedelics, famously calling his LSD experience “one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” So, toward the end of his life, LSD inventor Albert Hofmann decided to write to the iPhone creator to see if he’d be interested in putting some money where the tip of his tongue had been.

Hofmann penned a never-before-disclosed letter in 2007 to Jobs at the behest of his friend Rick Doblin, who runs an organization dedicated to studying the medical and psychiatric benefits of psychedelic drugs. Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, died in April 2008 at the age of 102.

See the letter here.

[From Ryan Grim: Read the Never-Before-Published Letter From LSD-Inventor Albert Hofmann to Apple CEO Steve Jobs]

Steve Jobs and Albert Hofmann

Steve Jobs and Albert Hofmann

and for lack of a better place: the Google Voice message left, presumedly by Google executives:

Reading Around on July 6th

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Some additional reading July 6th from 08:35 to 14:46:

  • Boston to debut ‘killer app’ for municipal complaints – The Boston Globe – “they think they’ve hit on something big: a “killer app’’ that marries 21st-century technology with Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s old-school devotion to pothole politics.

    City officials will soon debut Boston’s first official iPhone application, which will allow residents to snap photos of neighborhood nuisances – nasty potholes, graffiti-stained walls, blown street lights – and e-mail them to City Hall to be fixed.”

  • President Obama’s first 167 days – The Big Picture – Boston.com – “U.S. President Barack Obama has now been in office for 167 days, and it’s time for a look back. Why 167 days? Why not – it’s just as arbitrary a number as the usual “100 days”. In that time, President Obama has contended with stimulating the U.S. economy, reshaping U.S. policy abroad, and starting work on domestic issues such as health care reform. As he and his family arrive in Moscow today for an official visit, find here a look back at some of the first 167 days of the Obama administration. (38 photos total)”

    Barack Obama is the centrist Democrat we thought he was, and I have several policy disagreements with his administration already, that said, still am charmed by the man. So many of these photos make me smile.

  • The Brick Testament – “Ever performed a magic trick for your friends? Committed adultery? Worshipped an idol? Are you cowardly? How about filthy? Have you ever told a lie? If so, bad news. You are going to be ceaselessly tortured for all eternity.Good news, though, if you are a male Jewish virgin. A lucky 144,000 of you are going to get to live on the New Improved Earth with Yahweh”

Steve Jobs Had Liver Transplant

Seth Anderson0 comment

Speculation still at this point, but probably true

Topic of the Day

Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave from Apple Inc. since January to treat an undisclosed medical condition, received a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago. The chief executive has been recovering well and is expected to return to work on schedule later this month, though he may work part-time initially.

…

William Hawkins, a doctor specializing in pancreatic and gastrointestinal surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., said that the type of slow-growing pancreatic tumor Mr. Jobs had will commonly metastasize in another organ during a patient’s lifetime, and that the organ is usually the liver. “All total, 75% of patients are going to have the disease spread over the course of their life,” said Dr. Hawkins, who has not treated Mr. Jobs.

Getting a liver transplant to treat a metastasized neuroendocrine tumor is controversial because livers are scarce and the surgery’s efficacy as a cure hasn’t been proved, Dr. Hawkins added. He said that patients whose tumors have metastasized can live for as many as 10 years without any treatment so it is hard to determine how successful a transplant has been in curing the disease.

[From Jobs Had Liver Transplant – WSJ.com]

Wish Mr. Jobs well

iPhone 3.x Install Fail

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iPhone 3.x Install Fail

iPhone 3.x Install Fail, originally uploaded by swanksalot.

Boo, hiss. I blame AT&T

after finally downloading the iPhone 3.0 software update, I still cannot actually use it, yet. You would think they would have scaled up all resources needed to successfully launch the 3.0 upgrade, but apparently not.

updated iPhone

eventually got through to Apple/AT&T’s servers

Find my iphone

Gmail IMAP and iPhone Deleting Options

Seth Anderson0 comment

For some reason, I never realized that when I deleted an Gmail email message off of my iPhone, that Google actually deleted the message1. Not the behavior I wanted (I swear that deleting an email used to just remove the message from the iPhone, and leave in my Gmail inbox, but maybe that was on my BlackBerry which I used up until April of this year.).

Changing the preference was fairly easy: I logged on to my Gmail page, created a new label (which is the same as a folder) called iPhone read for lack of a snazzier title. Hopping over to my iPhone, under settings / Mail / Gmail account / Advanced Settings/ Deleted Mailbox I chose my newly created label//folder iPhone read. Simple solution, but I had to think about it for a second. Google hints at the solution at their IMAP tutorial page, but they don’t have all the relevant details, nor a strategic solution.

I lost any email that I deleted off my iPhone longer than 30 days ago, but I don’t think I lost anything extremely important. Most work-related email also is downloaded via POP3 to Eudora running on my Mac Pro, I lost Twitter-related messages, Google news alerts, Flickr alerts, and the like. No big loss that I’m aware of. Perhaps this will teach me to pay closer attention to details.

Update: as clever as my strategy is (or isn’t), it doesn’t apparently work. Items deleted off of my iPhone still end up in the Gmail trash. Hmmm. Let me noodle on this for a second.

Seems as if the setting changed itself back on the iPhone, defaulting to its original behavior of moving deleted mail to the Gmail trash folder. Weird. I see that the correct folder is checked on the iPhone, but when I go back, it has reverted. The preference won’t stick for some reason. Irritating.

—

Another update:

apparently, Apple in its wisdom has somehow altered the iPhone IMAP behavior so it acts illogical. In order to be able to specify which folder messages are moved to, you have to delete the supplied Gmail setup options, and use “Other” to manually add Gmail as an account. The main difference I see is that you have to manually type in your SMTP information and so on, as described on this Google Help page. Seems to work, though I find it irritating that Apple forces iPhone users to do extra hoop-jumping to make this minor change.

Footnotes:
  1. well, put it in a folder that keeps the message for another 30 days before finally deleting it forever [↩]

Rumors Vs. Press Releases

Seth Anderson0 comment

Tech Crunch and the Gawker empire have a pretty cynical view of journalism. Damon Darlin reports on the sites that promulgated the Apple is about to purchase Twitter rumor, and other allegations that later turned out to be false.

Topic of the Day

A few days later, Mr. Lam1 could claim vindication when Apple announced that Mr. Jobs was taking a leave of absence because of his health. To this day, it is unclear how much his health figured in Apple’s decision to withdraw from the MacWorld show. Nevertheless, Nick Denton, Mr. Lam’s boss and the founder of the Gawker blog network, crowed, “This is why access is overrated.”

Mr. Lam says it taught him a lesson. “If we don’t have rumors, what do we have as journalists?” he asks. “You have press releases. So maybe there is some honor in printing rumors.”

[Click to read more: Ping – Get the Tech Scuttlebutt! It Might Even Be True – NYTimes.com]

Really? These are the only two choices? Reprinting rumors or reprinting press releases? What about doing a little research of your own? What about fact-checking? Making some inquiries into interested parties? Even using critical thinking? The yellow journalism aspirations of both Tech Crunch and Gizmodo are why those web sites are visits of last resort: I don’t trust much of what I read there, so why waste my time rolling my eyes reading thinly-sourced rumors?

There’s even the time tested yet still reprehensible journalistic technique of “he said, she said”, as throughly and thoughtfully explained by Jay Rose:

Quick definition: “He said, she said” journalism means…

There’s a public dispute.
The dispute makes news.
No real attempt is made to assess clashing truth claims in the story, even though they are in some sense the reason for the story. (Under the “conflict makes news” test.)
The means for assessment do exist, so it’s possible to exert a factual check on some of the claims, but for whatever reason the report declines to make use of them.
The symmetry of two sides making opposite claims puts the reporter in the middle between polarized extremes

[Click to continue reading the discussion of PressThink: He Said, She Said Journalism: Lame Formula in the Land of the Active User ]

At least this shortcut forces the reporter to attempt to include multiple points of view, and not just rely upon rumor.

Footnotes:
  1. Brian Lam built Gizmodo, owned by Gawker [↩]

EveryTrail test

Seth Anderson0 comment

Tested out a GPS iPhone application called EveryTrail. Merits further tests.

The application seems pretty accurate: I didn’t follow this exact path, but 95% is close enough. All you do (once you have set up an account) is launch the program, give your trip a name, and then start walking. Every nth seconds, EveryTrail checks in, logs your location via GPS until you tell it to stop.

West Loop photostroll at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Urban Abstraction 0576

and

found this New Yorker cartoon from a few years ago. More funn... on Twitpic —

update: Couldn’t stand being in the office, ended up here somehow.

Caldwell woods

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Reading Around on March 28th through March 29th

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A few interesting links collected March 28th through March 29th:

  • The Washington Independent » After the Laughter, Grim GOP Numbers – While reporters hooted at the comically simplistic charts and lack of details in the House Republican leadership’s budget plan, the green eyeshade types at Citizen’s for Tax Justice crunched the numbers (PDF). They conclude that a quarter of all households, most of them poor, would pay more taxes under the GOP plan, while the richest one percent would pay $100,000 less.

  • TidBITS Media Creation: iMovie ’09 8.0.1 Update Brings More than Just Bug Fixes – “I understand that Apple isn’t creating its products for writers, and it can (and does) change features whenever it wants. The updates here are great for iMovie users. But since the development teams must keep internal lists of what’s changed anyway, is it really so hard to spend an hour and turn those into useful release notes?”

    Amen to that. Maybe make a preference toggled in Software Update: terse details as the default, but have the ability to set a preference and get more detailed release notes. Please Apple, it shouldn’t be so difficult to say what’s new.

  • Mady Comfort – Biography – Mady (or Mattie) Comfort was a jazz and lounge singer, dancer, and model. She was married to bassist Joe Comfort, who worked with Lionel Hampton and Nat King Cole, and who played on many of the Frank Sinatra/Nelson Riddle Capitol recordings. Gene Santoro, in his biography of Charlie Mingus (Myself When I Am Real), says that she was also a girlfriend of Duke Ellington, and that she is the “Satin Doll” about whom Ellington, Strayhorn, and Mercer wrote the song “Satin Doll.”

    Also sang the hell out of a Nat King Cole song, I’d Rather Have The Blues (aka Blues From A Kiss Me Deadly) in the 1956 noir film, “Kiss Me Deadly”“. Whoa.