Category Archives: Log

Premature Refugee

Posted on by
Reply

Perhaps in all the fleeing Google I just assumed that apps like Flipboard are just going to roll over and play dead. Turns out, they aren’t. They state that we’ll be able to sync our Google Reader in the Flipboard infrastructure without Google. There is some vague “Everything will be ok, don’t run away” coming out of Flipboard, but users like me really would like the nitty gritty details. In what way will the July 1st outage actually do for Flipboard users? I suppose I can wait a few months while Flipboard figures it out. The feedHopper app is still quite good, but Flipboard does beat it out visually for me. I wish the Flipboard app devs would post something geekier than “Don’t Panic”, it would really help me, uh, not panic.

feedHopper To The Rescue

Posted on by
Reply

My abandonment of Google Reader is complete now. I have found an app that is independent of Google Reader, it’s called feedHopper and it’s available on the iOS App Store. It means that I’ll only be able to handle my RSS feeds on my iPad, but that’s okay, since that was where I wanted them to be anyways. The app is quite handy, you can set up Google Reader as a sync service, hoover in your feeds and then disconnect. Kicking Google Reader to the curb as it were. It comes feature complete with lots of sharing options including my beloved Pocket service.

I don’t think I’ll ever go back to Google Reader. I’m happy with what I’ve got. I recommend this app to anyone who used to use Google Reader. Now it’s time to dump all the apps that only work with Google Reader. In a way, Google dropping reader put a bunch of iOS devs out of business. Poof. Like that. That’s what happens when you hitch your horse to Google. You’ll need a 55 gallon drum of lubrication for what is coming. HA HA Dangly Bits.

Google Reader RIP

Posted on by
1

Google just announced that their RSS Service, Google Reader is slated to be shutdown on July 1st, 2013. This upsets me greatly but I’m not really surprised. There was never any real traction for the service and they let the web component of it languish in the past. There was some noise that they were going to integrate the social features into Google Plus. Good luck with that.

What does this mean for the majority of users out there? Nothing really. I would say that if Google is going to pull the plug, essentially pull the rug out from under their customers by surprise like this, is that you get exactly what you pay for. Google Reader was great, and it was free and now it’s a dead service walking.

I can’t really see Google Plus succeeding against Facebook. That’s the battle to come. So they are reorganizing their infrastructure and pointing it to failtown. Okay. I would say that if you use any other Google product, like Picasa or Blogger, that you should migrate to something else like Flickr or WordPress as soon as you can, because if they kill Reader, who’s to say what’s next? The only thing I am planning to use now is Google Mail, which may be the last refuge for these scoundrels. It’s best to leave of your own volition than to be unceremoniously tossed out on your ass by surprise.

God I Wish… Ah!

Posted on by
Reply

Apple Inc.At work I’ve been thinking about a particular system administration subject on and off for a few days now. When Mac is first installed all the “Optional Sharing Services” are all shipped defaulted to off, which makes sense and is fine. Generally speaking I’ve been fine with using Apple Remote Desktop to share the workstation, open System Preferences, and turning on whatever sharing bits I need to have on for the client workstations and that’s that. However that’s not really that elegant and I’ve been looking for a way to programmatically do it on the command line. As it is, Apple Remote Desktop can send Unix commands to connected workstations. All my client workstations are assembled in a neat little pile on my Apple Remote Desktop screen, as easy as you please. How can I turn on or off these Sharing services without having to upset the user. Ideally I want to turn these on without even sharing their workstation, to in a way, do it under the covers.

Enter the command systemsetup. G’duh. There’s even a handy-dandy template in Apple Remote Desktop that I’ve overlooked all these years that even has the details of the options laid out. So, in Apple Remote Desktop, select the stations you want to change, click the UNIX button, in there select the right template, change the user to root and send the command. Moments later, and in this case, SSH is up and running on the client workstation as easy as you please. Boom. No futzing with sharing workstations, no mucking about with System Preferences. Just simple, easy, like I knew had to exist. Now I know how.

This is actually the way I prefer to learn these things. This was something I sussed out, so it’s worth more than if I just spotted it in some bit of documentation. It took time and energy and it’s mine. The solution is worth something to me, and so I blog about it so I can celebrate Mac OSX and keep a little log in case I forget in the future. It’ll always be here.

Hooray for Mac OSX!

photo by: marcopako 

Installing a HP LaserJet 1505 printer on Apple OSX Mountain Lion

Posted on by
2

What a problem this was! We had a user with a MacBook Pro that had a new copy of Macintosh OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.2 running on it. Plugged in a rinky-dink HP LaserJet 1505 and nothing. Even though there was the exact same printer installed before, from the user’s home, the system refused to reuse the connection for the printer at work. Obviously that has to be because the system notices it’s a different device and refuses to play along, which I find stupid.

Plug in the printer, try to add it, and the Add Printer function goes out to Apple Software Update to look for the driver and then comes back and tells us that nothing is available. Then commence zombie debugging via muzzle flare, wandering around in the dark trying to fix what shouldn’t be happening but apparently is beyond all logic and reason.

So how you do diagnose a Mac? Here’s a handy-dandy guide which anyone can use to fix their Macs. I seriously doubt any issues ever survive this particular procedure:

  1. Clear PRAM – Turn off computer, turn on computer while holding down  Command-Option-P-R. The computer will restart and you’ll hear the startup chime twice. Let go of the keys. ~ For this, just do it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think doing this will fix your problem, it will. Just shut your pie hole and do this. If you don’t do it, I don’t want to hear about your problems. It’s magical. I don’t care if Apple says it won’t do anything. This thing DOES EVERYTHING IN CREATION – apparently. That and it cannot hurt. Lots of fluids and plenty of bed-rest. 
  2. Repair Disk Permissions – Start Disk Utility, find your “Macintosh HD” and click “Repair Disk Permissions” and wait. Do this. Often. Regularly. Lots. Weekly. Now.
  3. Download Onyx. Pick which version of OSX you are using, download it, install it and use it. I recommend skipping everything it wants to do and going right for the Automation button. Uncheck “Repair Permissions” and “Display of folders content” and check the rest. Click Execute and wait. When the system asks for a reboot. Reboot. Everyone should do this weekly. Think of it like vitamins for your Mac. Plus, it can’t hurt.

At this point your system should be all spic and span and whatever niggling bit was bothering you should be dealt with. Of course, for the problem I had to deal with at work, there is one little thing extra, one thing more. Open Finder, click Go on the Menubar, then Go to Folder… and type in /Library/Printers and click Ok. You’ll see a list of folders. In this list find the folder named “hp” and KILL IT WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE. Y’arr! This !@#$ folder is at the very center of my hatred for all that is Hewlett-Packard. I’ve started to unceremoniously refer to them as Fudge Packard. Bastards. Anyways, killing the folder does the trick, it clears everything up and Mountain Lion can download software from Apple again for the HP Drivers – blah blah blah. I’d rather just get a sledgehammer and pound the HP LaserJet 1505 into foil, but hey, you have to cope or have some sort of attack. I regret buying HP. I regret the LaserJet 1505. What a piece of crap. Steaming.

Pretty As A Picture

Posted on by
1

While screwing around with my blog today I did notice something missing that I used to enjoy from the Plinky site that I used to use for blog prompts for interesting things to write about. WIthin Plinky you could put a word down and search Flickr for images you could use in your blog. That was a really cool feature and it made including pictures in my blog very easy. I didn’t have to worry about stealing photography from someone else as it only used pictures that were released under the Creative Commons licensing model. Since I don’t make any money from this blog, the Creative Commons has really helped out.

051 of 365 - Droste Effect [Explored]

So I went looking. I could still futz around with Google Image search which is annoying as you can’t define a default (only Creative Commons licensed) search that I could find – yes, you can go in afterwards and mark up an Advanced Search, but it’s annoying. In fact, I don’t want to ever leave the WordPress interface at all! So, thanks, perhaps, to PhotoDropper Plugin I won’t have to. I’ve seen some people complain about it but so far I haven’t seen any of the damage they have noticed on my blog. If the plugin behaves itself, I’ll enjoy it. Let’s see how it works with this post. 🙂

photo by: Yogesh Mhatre

Tent Flapping

Posted on by
Reply

Spam wall
Went back and forth just now on IntenseDebate plugin for WordPress.org. I thought it might be useful and add some features to my blog that would be nice to have, like After-The-Deadline plugin for comments and such. Everything was going well until I noticed that my Akismet Spam queue was at 74 comments. I tried to open the queue and couldn’t as IntenseDebate had replaced that part of my blog with its own controls. So, with no way to look at my Akismet Spam queue I decided that the pros for the IntenseDebate plugin couldn’t compensate for the way it broke my blog when it came to Akismet Spam queue access. So, there was for a brief time a new comment system, and then there wasn’t.

Which doesn’t mean a lot because people aren’t actually commenting on my blog, they are commenting on Facebook. I do get the one-off Twitter retweet or favorite, but that’s it.

Encrypted Time Machine Drive Botch in Mac OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion

Posted on by
Reply

We had a Firewire 800 drive botch when it came to whole-volume encryption in Mac OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion. We lost the password and couldn’t recover it. The drive refused to erase, all the options were grayed out. I refuse to believe that a software change can render hardware junk, so there had to be a way, and I found it. Here’s the procedure:

  • Attach botched drive to computer, since the password won’t work, cancel the unlock dialog box
  • Open Terminal
  • Enter command: diskutil CoreStorage list
  • You will get a long list, you are looking for the UUID of the “Logical Volume Group” at the very top of the list, for the drive that is affected.
  • Enter command: diskutil CoreStorage delete [UUID]
  • The system will eject the volumes, destroy the grouping, erase the disk, then initialize the disk, mount it and finish.
  • Done!

PAD March 10, 2013 – Playlist

Posted on by
Reply

*Tell us how your week went by putting together a playlist of five songs that represent it.*

Thanks to Last.fm, this is going to be a cakewalk. Sometimes I think that my workplace is ruled over by “Lux Aeterna” from Requiem for a Dream. That was definitely a good theme for last week. After that, “Eye In The Sky” by the Alan Parsons Project. Next, “Lets Have A Kiki” by the Scissor Sisters and then rounded out by Billy Joel’s “Allentown” and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue”.

While I’ve been on my blogging bender this weekend I’ve been writing on my iPad and it’s been playing Spotify’s Classical Radio station. I find writing to classical to be the best experience when I am writing. Plus the iPad (with Drafts!) makes the entire experience all that easier since it’s so light and portable and the bluetooth connected keyboard helps me bridge that gap. I can set up my iPad and type along, listening to music all from one device. No laptop to haul around, just a slim neat iPad with nearly all the tools I need to write. The only thing that the iPad lacks and this is something that irks me, is an “After The Deadline” spell and grammar checking app. I looked and couldn’t find anything so I just spend that much more time in WordPress because they’ve got a working implementation of After The Deadline in the WordPress editor online. It’s not elegant, not by a longshot, but there it is.

PAD March 9 2013 – VIP

Posted on by
Reply

*Who’s the most important person in your life — and how would your day-to-day existence be different without them?*

Scott is the most important person in my life. Being my life partner means exactly that. Life. Partner. Best lived together. Where would I be without him? I can’t say. I definitely would be lonelier and sadder and probably less passionate about things in general without him. I look across the way at our two valentines day cards standing on the coffee table in the living room and seeing them together in a way is how I see us together. We belong together, we’re in love, what’s more to say?