Tech Debug

Some friends and I were discussing the benefits of using Open Source software which is low cost or free (as in beer) versus the equivalent Commercial and close source products. Examples of comparison were Photoshop vs. Gimp Apache HTTPD vs. IIS Windows vs. Open Solaris/OpenBSD/Linux etc. It seems like we are not the only ones thinking about this topic. Slashdot today posted that CNET has a feature promoting Open Source application alternatives for the average home user, if only to reduce software costs to the end user.

Chris blogged on PhatBoyG about the Web Inspector included in Safari 3. Previously this tool was a simple content inspector, but now it looks to be so much more. If you are using Safari V3 and you are a web developer, have a look at this useful tool. You can gain access to it by enabling the debug menu. Open Terminal and type this defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1 then restart Safari.

For a long time I used google maps over the local provider, WhereiS (a Telstra/Sensis product). Even though google maps had less local content, WhereiS was so 1999 in its web design that it was unusable. Basic dragging of the maps which is now a staple of so many online map providers, was one of the basic missing pieces of functionality. But recently they have updated their online maps, which can now be accessed as a Beta version.

With the 10.4.11 upgrade came Safari V3. It looks neat, but I started having issues with closing Windows. It turns out the SIMBL input manager that I was using on Safari was conflicting with it. By deleting ~/Library/InputManagers/SIMBL it fixed the issue. On the same theme, here has been a lot of talk lately about Input Managers and whether they will be completely removed in Leopard. Just recently David Watanabe blogged about the uncertain future of Inquisitor.

Recently Gmail activated IMAP for selected accounts, and I appeared to not be one of them. However was it really for selected accounts or was it for ‘selected languages’?! Reading about gmail on digg led me to an un-dug comment (I gave him a thumbs up!) saying that for IMAP to appear your language in gmail had to be set to ‘English (US)’. So I gave it a try, as I had mine on ‘English (UK)’ for the spelling.

Those of you who read this, and also use wordpress for your own blogs, will appreciate this one. WordPress has no native way of moving comments that are incorrectly posted under another post. You can have a hack at the database yourself, or you can use a plugin that recently (in the last few months) went to Version 1. I came across it while trolling google for a decent solution to a mis posted comment.

Did you ever have too many RSS feeds you are subscribed to? Wasting your time posting updates to Flickr, Twitter, facebook, and so on? This guy thinks he has the answers. Cut out the IM and stop reading your email so often. Me? I just removed 70% of my news feeds in my reader, turned my phone off, and I’m going to bed to read a book (and get away from this blog for now).

I have my Powerbook G4 back now. Woooot! It has a fresh install of 10.4.6 on it from the Mac repair shop. The question is, what do I do with my CCC backup firewire HDD? Clone it back? Migrate it back? Having watched others roll into 10.5 aka Leopard, I thought it would be time for me to roll into a fresh computer as well. Sans postgresql, custom php install, CVS repository and the last 2 years of installed junk.

After I read this macosxhints.com post, I decided to have a go at something slightly different. The orginal hint showed how to set up an AppleScript droplet to modify the creation date of a file. But what if you want to sync the modified date and Creation dates instead? This script has been created to do just that. It has evolved from one Daniel A. Shockley provided in a macosxhints comment to the previous hint, and has been extended to fit this purpose.

I’m messing around with the updated Snap Shots code. It enhances the links you see on this page with visual previews of the other sites{.snap_shots}, interactive excerpts of things like: Wikipedia articles{.snap_shots} IMDb titles{.snap_shots} Amazon products like the book I am currently reading{.snap_shots} inline videos RSS feeds{.Snap_Shot_RSS} from a site MP3s like this La Primavera track{.snap_shots} photos{.snap_shots} stock charts{.snap_shots} …you get the idea… They say the “Snap Shots” can bring you the information you need, without having to leave a site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

I am coming back to earth with my posts, and thinking about Google. They are growing by acquiring technology and companies. They release new products like the Java/Linux based Android (Is linking to google news about Google considered irony?!). How long before Google exceed Microsoft? I remember when their shares where $100. Then months ago I was discussing with friends that $600 was an amazing price to reach. Then weeks ago was amazed that each share had grown from $600 to $670.

So the footage from my previous post was is not a new occurrence. zorgon; a member of AboveTopSecret.com mentions in the NASA UFO STS-120 External Fuel Tank thread that there is similar footage shot during the same maneuver of STS-115. As I previously posted, NASA uses handheld cams to capture this footage for analysis of the tank for damage. Once again it is a spiny like object, similar in colour to the previous crystalline structure seen on STS-120.

Departing from my tech theme, I had to share this. This footage is so clear, and not just some blurry dot in the sky. This footage was captured by crew members on board the current Shuttle Mission, STS-120, after jettisoning the External Fuel tank. They use handheld cams to capture this footage for analysis of the tank, probably after previous well known incidents of damage. If you dont want to watch the whole thing, fast forward to 2 mins 20 seconds to see what the talk is about!

With my recent loss, I had thought about, and seen other people, decentralising data. Luckily I’ve already got an email and RSS feed backup in place. As soon as my Laptop was out of order, I jumped onto my pobox.com account and redirected email to Gmail. Gmail will keep my mail flow going for a week or two. Next I went over to Google reader and reset all my feeds. Previously I had exported all my subscribed Newsfire RSS subscriptions to OPML format, and imported it into google reader.

Last Friday at work my Mac (OS X 10.4) laptop HDD died. After the purchase of an extra external HDD and some custom recovery software, Data Rescue II, I tried to recover as much as I could. The bad news is the Hard drive had not just gotten corrupted, but failed. After an attempt to clone it to a second drive for analysis, and during my recovery attempt it developed the click of death.

The official OpenBSD announcement states: We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.2. We remain proud of OpenBSD’s record of more than ten years with only two remote holes in the default install. We dedicate this release to the memory of long-time developer Jun-ichiro “itojun” Itoh Hagino, who focused his life on IPv6 deployment for everyone. So get to it people, buy a CD and support the project.