Category: Blog

My meager collection of photos is now online. Working on the write-up.

I’ve noticed that the latest Windows update appears to have changed something that’s annoyed me since…forever.

When you install software or Windows patches, the computer will often need to restart (for no apparent reason, doesn’t happen on Linux, but that’s a different rant). It used to come up and ask,

Do you want to restart the computer now?

No, as a matter of fact, I don’t WANT to restart the computer now – but apparently I have to, eh? I know, it’s supposed to mean “do you want to restart NOW?” but I always found it annoying, since I’d really rather not restart if you’re asking my personal preference. I think I even wrote to M$ at some point to complain about it.

Well, now it’s been changed to:

Restart the computer now?

I guess I should send them another letter:

“Repairs that you’ve made to the operating system have mollified the annoying message asking for a restart. Repairs will not be complete until you stop requiring users to restart after every minor update. Do you want to work on making life easier for users now? (Yes/No)”

On Saturday (I hope!) I head off to Burning Man for my sixth year. Am really excited about it once again, and I’m in the midst of getting all my camping gear ready. Mmph, five different flavors of MRE!

The theme this year is “The Floating World” ie ocean, nautical, etc. So I’m building two “theme” projects: I’m turning the Trailmate (see below) into a stingray (see below also) with PVC and cloth wings and electroluminescent lights so it’ll light up purple at night.

And…the surf-scooter!!!

That’s my gas-powered scooter, with a surfboard mounted on top. I still need to finish it – attach some blue/silver fringe along the bottom, and reglass where I cut the hole for the handlebar – both of which may wait till I get out to the desert. Then I’ll be surfin’ in style! I’ll even be sitting waiting for waves in style!

Of course, pictures will be posted online when I get back, assuming I end up taking any pictures. For now you can use the link to the left to look at my 1999 pictures. Or you can hop in the woody and head out there now!

By the way, notice the hanging “Archived entries” below? And the long, long list of entries on the main page here?

I intend to move some of the earlier entries down there – maybe all but the most recent few – and I’ve even got a mechanism in the database to do it; but I haven’t gotten around to writing the PHP that brings up the entries one at a time.

Yeah, I’ll get to that sometime. Keep holding your breath.

I’m using Mac OSX as the server for Obtainium, and it works great for websites, php, mysql, all that cool stuff.

Then there’s email. Oi. Seems to me like every setting in the email server/client software is designed to prevent me from sending or receiving email, on the grounds that I may not be who I say I am, I might be a spam bandit just pretending to be me. This is all thanks to spammers who use other people’s email servers to send massive quantities of junk mail. Or used to – I can’t believe most of them don’t just set up their own email servers these days. So anyway, even if my email client logs on to the server with an encrypted password (I yam who I yam, to paraphrase Popeye) sometimes the settings won’t allow it to pass my mail. And since there are several settings, determining which setting is causing the problem (without breaking something else) is nearly impossible. And woe to me if I try to respond to email, from a different address than it was sent to, especially for mailing lists.

Then there are the the net cops, companies like ordb who have taken it upon themselves to determine which servers are “open relays” allowing just anyone to send mail – and then somehow other people don’t send mail to you, or accept mail from you, if you’re on the ordb list.

It gets worse. Sometimes the mail gets rejected; sometimes it just vanishes into a black hole of electrons.

Worst of all, I’m the email administrator, so I can’t complain to me if I have problems, because I really don’t give a damn about petty user problems.

Part of the problem is I just have too many email addresses. There’s the classic justfred&netcom.com (addresses obscured to prevent yet more spam) which I’ve had forever, which doesn’t even exist anymore, but it still redirects to fheald&earthlink.net, so I go ahead and check that even tho it’s mostly spam. justfred&sideshowfreak.com vanished when sideshowfreak was stolen from me by a “domain name squatter” (who happened to be a jackass, besides). Then there’s justfred&obtainium.org (as well as aliases fred&, fheald&, webmaster&, postmaster&, admin&, and several others which should all redirect to me) – I’m trying to consolidate all the others to that as my “main” address. Fortunately, I take no responsibility for administering fheald&cybertelcorp.com aside from checking it, from a different machine. And there’s justfred&mac.com and fheald&cox.net neither of which I use but who occasionally send me important service notices so I’ve got to check them, too.

Why do people have such attachments to email, anyway – checking it manically every five minutes, wanting to have it pop up on their phone, saving it forever. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. But…most email can wait! One of the funnny things about Burning Man is seeing how many emails I’ve gotten when I get back – and you know that’s one of the first things I do (after I’ve showered, of course!). Maybe this time I’ll get over it and just delete them all without reading.

Or let the server bounce them as spam, which is most likely what it’s doing now.

Just discovered an interesting thing in the OSX Terminal application (the one that lets you get to UNIX).

Already knew that “tab” autocompletes whatever you might be typing. But if you drag a folder from the desktop onto the terminal application, it pastes the path to that app into the terminal window. For example, I do:

[obtainium:~] justfred# cd

…then grab one of the disks from the desktop and drop it on the terminal, it puts in

[obtainium:~] justfred# cd /Volumes/Backups/Backup_Folder

Have I mentioned I really dig OSX?

(later) Well, Bill be damned – it works in Windows, too. ‘Course it uses those ridiculous backslashes.

In my Apple developer newsletter today, there’s a request for suggestions for Apple’s Powerbook/iBook division. Here’s the email I sent them.

To: powerbook marketing
Subject: Powerbook Suggestions

Smaller, lighter, more durable.

I like to take my iBook everywhere. I’d like a tinybook to combine my iPod, Palm, and iBook; and maybe eventually my GPS, digital camera and cellphone.

The Sony PCG-U1 (http://www.dynamism.com/u1/index.shtml) or the Sony Picturebook (C1 series) are good examples of what I’d like to see. If you could get Sony to OEM you one of these, with OSX, that would be perfect.

Fantasy specs: OSX, 40GB HD, 256 MB ram, 6″ 800×600 screen (or so). Single USB and Firewire ports (or extras in an expansion port connector). Airport, of course, could even be non-optional. Don’t even offer an optical drive (or if you do, make a detachable firewire one that attaches to the bottom of the unit). 10-hour battery. Compactflash card for expansion. Build a solar charging panel into the lid! Camera lens, if that’s easy enough to do. GPS receiver antenna/chip (license from Garmin). Even a cellphone would be possible, with either strategically placed speaker/mic or external headphone/mic. Now – to really go out on a ledge – make it durable as heck and at least a little bit water resistant. Sell it for $1000-$1500; or a stripped down model for under $1000.

I’ve owned every “subnote” Apple has made: the Powerbook 100; every model of Newton; the Powerbook 2400; and now the iBook is as close as I can get. Notice how all of these have been “legendary” models of Powerbook that all still have an enthusiast following.

You’d get the annoying PDA rumor people off your case (well, a little), and I’m sure it would sell amazingly well in Japan. In fact, you could sell it only in Japan so far as I’m concerned – as long as I can order one for a reasonable price from the Apple store.

I’m a Mac user (since 1983) and a Select developer. Was a Newton developer. Now a PHP/mysql developer on OSX!

Thanks for your attention!

Last weekend’s San Diego beach burn (local Burning Man gathering) was stormed by government-sponsored
terrorists.

At Cybertel, our servers are all Microsoft. That’s what we bought into when we first bought them, that’s what we’re stuck with at the moment.

Now, we have the (old) 4.0 version of Windows Server, and Microsoft Exchange email server (…why it’s not Outlook server, I don’t know, that’s a whole other rant…) and that’s what our “intranet” is running on. This is bundled into a package called Small Business Server, which also includes SQL server. Now, separately we’ve bought Windows 2000 server and SQL Server 2000, and that’s what our Web and Database servers are running on.

We need a new copy of the intranet software. Windows NT 4.0 seems to run okay, but user management is bizarre in that got-to-love-Microsoft way that’s gotten only somewhat better in 2000; and figuring out the old version of Exchange…oi vey. So we’re here, cash in hand despite the fact that we’re broke, to upgrade to Windows 2000/Exchange 2000.

Good luck trying to buy this. There are about a dozen part numbers, none of which with a reasonable explanation of what you’re buying.

The upgrade to SBS appears to be the cheapest way to go at about $700, or $900, depending on whether you want to get screwed a little, now or a lot, later. You get to choose between standard (over-)priced software, but next time you want an upgrade you have to pay full (over-)price AGAIN; and “upgrade advantage” where you pay MORE now but you actually get upgrades for the next year or two. And of course you’re never buying Microsoft upgrades for the new features, but for the bug fixes. I swear it’s a lot easier to steal Microsoft software than it is to purchase it legitimately.

Why not just move to Linux, or (as I’d rather) Mac OSX Server? Linux is free, Mac OSX server is $500 for a 10-user licence, $899 with an unlimited licence, and reasonable upgrade prices. Sounds like a good idea to me – but then it would become my responsibility. Like the “Moose turd pie” story – whoever complains, they get to be the cook.

Is there really any point in resisting the government anymore? Or by extension, the mighty corporations that now “own” the government? I don’t know, but John Gilmore seems to think so; he’s challenging the “secret” legislation which requires you to present ID before boarding an aircraft. Makes a good case for it too, I think – I’ve run into problems when Telenomics bought a ticket for Rick, then decided at the last minute that I should go instead – it cost far more to change the name, than the ticket cost – for no valid security reason, only to protect the airlines’ profit. And despite how I love gathering and analyzing data, I think the government is doing quite enough of that as it is. But I’m starting to think there’s hardly any point in fighting it anymore.

Speaking of which, did you read that John Poindexter is going to be in charge of the Information Awareness Office?? Gotta love that logo.