Technology

Bad? You keep using that word….

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

…. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Apparently an Apple Store in Chula Vista, California was being broken into. The mall security guard noticed (it was 7 AM, before the mall opened), gunfire was exchanged. Apparently one criminal is dead, two others in custody, one of them also wounded.

And this “journalist” says the holdup went bad?

Uh… no. I think the holdup went pretty good. And actually, this sounds like burglary, not robbery. Furthermore, how do you hold-up a store with no people in it? And to have the crime foiled… to prevent bad people from doing bad things… that’s… “going bad”? that’s “going sour”? Whose side are you on?

In other news…. since when did mall security carry guns?

Another article:

Despite some media reports, there were no AK-47s involved in the incident, police said.

Ah, the media and their love of those Glock ultra-automagic AK-47 semi-assault revolvers with extended high-capacity dethklok clips.

“That’s crazy. That’s so scary. This is supposed to be a really upscale, comfortable neighborhood and for stuff like this to happen is just scary,” said resident Janae Sergio.

Bad things can and do happen anywhere and everywhere. Upscale, comfortable neighborhoods full of rich white people aren’t immune from anything. Welcome to the real world where there aren’t protective bubbles or… since we’re talking Apple here…. reality distortion fields to protect you.

Is your iPhone data fully encrypted?

/ hsoi

I subscribe to TidBITS, and in issue #1068 (21-Mar-2011) was an article about ensuring your iOS device is really encrypted.

I fell into that situation. iPhone 3GS, started with iOS 3, upgraded to iOS 4, but while I used a passcode my data wasn’t fully encrypted. Or at least, as encrypted as it can be.

Apple has an article that explains it all.

It was time-consuming to perform on my part because I have a lot of data and almost full iPhone. But it’s a one-time operation. I just started things before I went to bed and let it roll.

If you have a recent iOS-device, you’d do well to check to ensure your data is fully encrypted (the articles explain how to check), and if not, take the time and trouble to remedy it.

She loves texting

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Daughter loves texting.

Wife and I have been conservative in our mobile phone use, which parlays into our choice of service plans. Once Wife got her own iPhone (instead of the old crappy phone we once had), then her friends learned about it, Wife started to receive and thus send lots of text messages. The same happened to me, I blame Jay. 🙂  Originally we did AT&T’s minimum 200 msg/month plan, but I quickly realized that as each month passed we got closer and closer to our limit.

I caved and went for the Unlimited plan. It was only $5/month more, so why not.

I’m glad I did.

Daughter LOVES texting.

My father-in-law had a triple bypass surgery a couple of weeks ago. Wife and Kiddos have travelled up to be there, help out, etc.. I would go, but there’s work and well… Sasha is still a high-maintenance dog (we’re working on this, another topic for another time). So since they are gone and I am home, Daughter misses her Daddy.

She makes up for it by texting.

She uses Wife’s iPhone and folks… I’ll tell you this girl can type. I think texting is improving her spelling, her typing speed, everything. Plus, I think it’s great that she finds it a fun way to be close to Dad even when she can’t be close to Dad.

At this point what I want is an iPhone service plan that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg. 😉

HsoiContextualServices 3.0 – now available

/ hsoi

HsoiContextualServices 3.0 is released.

It’s a long-overdue update to my old Finder contextual menu plugins, now updated for Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” compatibility.

Certificate of Destruction

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Just say that a few times: “Certificate of Destruction”

Sounds cool. Or at least, me and my kids think so. 🙂

I have (well, had) a bunch of old computers lying around: an old PowerMac 850/150 (that was the shiznit back in the day), a IIvx with a Daystar 040 upgrade card in it, and a few other things. I kept them around because I thought I could repurpose them somehow, like install NetBSD and have a little server or something. But the reality is they are so old, may not work, or to bring them into serviceable condition would be more expensive than just building a cheap Unix box or even buying a MacMini. So, then it became a matter of overcoming inertia to get rid of them, mostly because I was worried about data on the hard drive and was just not in the mood to dismantle everything and deal with it myself.

But worry no more.

I found a place in Austin called Electronic Recycling and Trading. They took my stuff, they will ensure the drives are either truly wiped or shredded, and they’ll resell things then either in whole or in part. Easiest solution for me.

And for my troubles? I was given a “Certificate of Destruction” which is their guarantee that it was done. So of course, if any information gets out that was on those drives, I’ll get to have happy fun suing them (good luck with that).

In the end, I’m just glad to be free of the clutter and that it was disposed of in a responsible manner. I did love that 8500… oh it was so cool. And the IIvx was my (personally) first Mac… should have gotten the Centris 650, but live and learn.

Magpul iPhone case… not so impressed

/ hsoi

The rest of my Magpul goodies arrived yesterday, including that which I was most excited about: the iPhone case.

And… I’m disappointed.

I’m not really sure how much protection the case can give the phone, and no I wasn’t going to fling my phone around just to find out.

I’ve had one case that I can’t remember who made, a Speck ToughSkin, an xGear Nitrous Oxide, and now the Magpul case. Wife uses an OtterBox Defender. There’s no question the Defender is the toughest case giving an amazing amount of protection; my only gripes are the fact the screen protector is slightly above the screen so sometimes taps don’t take or you have to tap harder, and the little plastic part for the earpiece is uncomfortable to hold against my ear, but those are the tradeoffs for that high level of protection. The first case I had? I don’t remember who made it and that’s fine… it didn’t last long. The ToughSkin was certainly that; good protection, good grip, a little too rubbery so it was hard to slip in and out of a pocket, and eventually the little plastic frame cracked. The xGear has been alright… rather slippery and I’ve dropped my phone because of that more times that I care to count, but certainly it lands just fine and is protected. So far it’s really been the best case for the way I use and carry my phone.

And that’s the problem I’m feeling with the Magpul case. It’s just like a thin layer of their semi-flexible polymer that’s tightly stuck to the phone case. Sure, it’s going to protect from scratches and so on, but dropping on a hard surface? How much impact will it absorb? Furthermore, there’s no ridge around the frame of the phone’s screen to protect that in case it lands screen-down. Furthermore, I use those “film” screen protectors, and without any sort of case-lip over the edge of the screen, the protector’s edges are exposed and more likely to get pulled up. I do like the feel of the case: slick enough to slide in and out of a pocket, but still grippy enough to hold onto. The form factor is also extremely slim, barely changing the phone’s profile. And of course, it looks damn cool. 🙂

I guess I had it in my head that, being a Magpul, it was going to be a tough case. Maybe I like PMAG’s too much and figured it might be as tough as one of those. Maybe I slipped into fan-boi mode and went more for the cool factor than truly ensuring it was a solid case. Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m not upset I spent the money on it, and I am going to try it out for a bit to see how it works out. But I’m not getting rid of my xGear case yet.

RSS-ing

/ hsoi

I ebb and flow when it comes to RSS. Oh sure it’s great in a lot of ways, but I also found that because I can keep up with a zillion websites that I do… and it becomes a huge time sink out of my day. Addicted to information, I guess.

So I’ll use RSS, then go away for a while, then come back, then go away… and now I’m thinking about coming back again for my daily “catch up on everything I care about” -fare.  So as I plod my way through NetNewsWire I see how many feeds I need to manually massage to get back on track. I notice that just about every Blogspot-based blog needs a manual re-subscription to get things back on track. WordPress.com-hosted and sites hosted by individuals seem to still be working just fine.

Another reason I’m happy I avoided Blogspot. 🙂

The interesting thing? Most of the sites of true merit I checked manually anyways. As I sift through most of the other blogs and news sites I subscribe to… gosh… if there isn’t just a lot of noise to sort through. Much use of the “Mark Everything as Read” command.

Of course, my little blog here contributes to the mess…. be it signal or be it noise, you can decide for yourself.

The Ghosts of Pac-Man

/ hsoi

I figure most readers should know what Pac-Man is and what it means in its place not just in video game history but computing and cultural history as well.

The thing about the game was how simple yet how challenging it was to play.

Over the weekend I found a cool article that talked about the “programming logic” of how the ghosts behaved. Don’t worry, it’s not all programmer-geeky to read; in fact, it’s just like the ghosts: simple. When you read how simple the ghost’s “behavior logic” was you almost want to smack yourself on the forehead for all those quarters you spent on the game yet were so easily defeated by such simple logic. But it really shows the beauty in simplicity and how often that is the better solution.

That article links to The Pac-Mac Dossier, which is an amazing in-depth analysis of the game. Crazy how even after all these years the game still draws us in. It’s not always about flashy fancy graphics. Oh sure that’s nice, but gameplay (and in movies, story) are king.

How did we manage before Google?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

I’ve been working on a new programming project that’s new in every way. It’s a new project, it involves new API’s, new platforms, new paradigms, new things to explore… just about everything with this project is new.

When I get stuck and wonder how to get something done, first I turn to documentation. The docs are useful but generally are straight API docs. I need more conceptual docs, I need more HOWTO docs. So I look for sample code, and while some code is linked to from the docs, it many times hasn’t been enough to satisfy my question. So I do what has become natural in this day and age: turn to Google. Within a few keystrokes and clicks, I tend to find what I’ve been looking for. I can implement a solution in my code, get back to work and get on with things. Progress is quite rapid, all things considered.

What did we used to do?

I recall having to walk down the hallway to talk to other engineers at the company and ask for their help. Working from home for the day job and then having my own side gig, I just don’t have that luxury any more. Oh sure there are people I can turn to when I need it via IM or email or phone, but the world is growing so diverse in languages, technologies, platforms, APIs, and then the depth of what’s within those areas that often I ask someone a question and their response is “never used that before… never did that before… I don’t know”. 😦   While that isn’t solely a problem of today, in the old days we’d then turn to things like Usenet newsgroups or ad-hoc mailing lists; today we’d use web forums and official mailing lists But no matter whether we walked down the hallway or posted online, those all took one thing: time. If you walked down the hall you had to keep asking until you found someone who had a clue about the problem set, then you’d talk at great length, you’d get sidetracked, and eventually get back to your desk and work. If you posted online, you had to wait for a response with netiquette saying you should give it at least a day or two for people to respond. That sort of lag time isn’t always acceptable.

Now with so much content being online and Google’s amazing search capabilities, it takes almost no time. Chances are your problem isn’t unique, thus someone has asked about it before. And if you’re lucky, someone has responded with a useful solution… and Google was there to index it. Just craft your search string well and hopefully you’ll dig up what you need and be back on track within a few minutes of typing, clicking, and reading. The only thing we need is for people to keep their data online: websites can’t go away, blogs can’t close up, else that knowledge and information goes with it.

I’m quite impressed with how much I’ve gotten done this past week. With everything so new and having to wrap my head around so many things it’d normally take me a few weeks to get done what I’ve accomplished this week. The immediacy of the giant collaborative network that is The Internet is becoming a more awesome thing and powerful tool each day.

Hard Drive Upgrade

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

It appears the hard drive upgrade for my MacBook Pro is mostly complete and successful.

I’ve had the stock hard drive in the machine and space was running tight. As a developer you can quickly fill up your hard drive with all sorts of things, especially artifacts from the compile process. Since the MacBook Pro still has a lot of life left, why not just upgrade the drive? Looking at Other World Computing‘s prices, I am amazed at how much you can get for so little money.

I settled on a Hitachi Travelstar 7K500, which is a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive. It’s one of the biggest and fastest 2.5″ hard drives you can get today. It’s not the fastest nor the biggest, but when I looked at all factors it ended up being the best all around. If this was going into a desktop machine I might be able to accept a little more vibration, a little more power consumption, a little more heat generation, but since this is a laptop, sorry, no.

The upgrade process was fairly smooth. I purchased the drive with OWC’s upgrade bundle, which includes their “On The Go” enclosure kit with the FireWire 800 interface. I thought it was also cool that their little upgrade toolkit was included. I didn’t really need most of the tools within it, but the nylon pry tool was useful. I installed the new drive into the enclosure, plugged it into the MacBook Pro, and used Disk Utility to format and partition the drive. I then used a Mac OS X 10.6 OS install DVD to reboot the machine (boot from the DVD). Once rebooted, I launched Disk Utility, selected a drive, selected the Restore panel and restored my internal drive (source) to the new external drive (destination). I let that run overnight.

Waking up this morning, I shut the machine down and went about taking the MacBook Pro apart. It’s actually pretty easy to do, so long as you have the right tools (e.g. anti-static wrist-strap). Plus, OWC makes a series of videos that show you exactly what to do. It’s mostly unscrewing a lot of little screws, the details once you get inside are where the videos helped most, but even then it’s pretty painless… just a matter of figuring out what to do.

So the old drive comes out, new drive goes in, reassemble the MacBook Pro, put the old drive into the external enclosure, and restart the machine. She started right back up, no fuss, no muss!

Performance? I can tell there’s an improvement. Going from a 5400 RPM to a 7200 RPM drive, plus whatever other advances are in the drive yeah, you can tell things are peppier. Any sort of read from disk is going faster, even just basic things like browsing in the Finder and listing the contents of a folder. I have noticed web browsing is faster, since web browsing can be very disk intensive as it reads to and writes from cache files. A good test will be later on when I start running Xcode and compiling, pushing real memory to the limits and involving a lot more virtual memory… how will swapping improve? I figure some, but just how much remains to be seen.

So far so good. There’s a lot of work still yet to be done, but that’s just a matter of time. I’m shifting around some files since I was able to make a better partitioning scheme. Spotlight is doing a full reindex and that’s going to take a while. I’ll suspend Time Machine backups during the day today and let it run overnight tonight since I’m sure it’ll have to do quite and extensive backup.

All in all, a good upgrade. Went smooth. More storage space. Better all around performance of the machine.

Now if I really wanted to see a performance upgrade, those solid state hard drives would be cool, but the price tag is scary! (OWC’s Mercury Extreme Pro SSD, 480 GB, $1579.99!!!). But OH the performance is wicked. 🙂

Updated: Now that I’ve been using it a bit longer, a few things to add.

It’s quiet. In fact, I think it’s quieter than my OEM drive (which was also a Hitachi). When I was working with the old drive in the external enclosure, I could hear it, clicking, whirring… not loud, but noticeable. But the new drive never made noise that I could hear above the rest of the din of whirring drives in my office.

Speaking of whirring, I don’t feel any vibration through the case of my MacBook. And maybe it’s just me, but it actually feels like there might be less. It’s hard to say. My body, specifically my left hand, is having a feeling of “something’s missing”. Like any vibration before was slight so the loss of it is barely noticeable. So maybe I’m imagining it, maybe I’m wanting to feel less vibration, but I can’t even say it’s vibration I am or am not feeling… just there’s a sense in my left hand (which rests over where the drive is located) that something is missing.

Heat generation doesn’t seem to be any different, at least that I’ve noticed so far. In terms of just what I feel through my hands on the machine, and smcFanControl’s temperature readout. That’s good.

Power consumption? Just have to wait and see. Not going to be using my battery any time soon.

The machine is still the machine. I can’t go faster than the CPU and video lets me go. But without question anything needing disk i/o is faster. Not some giant leap faster, but you can tell things are peppier.

I’m happy! All around good upgrade.