Light goes on, light goes off March 23, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentRecently, we’ve been having connection problems with our cable. A few weeks ago there was a “known problem” with the network. I figured it might be the same thing. Actually, I thought it might be a virus/trojan doing the rounds (saturating the local loop).
So today, we finally had enough. The connection seemed to be ok during the day but it wasn’t working at night. I rang up Optus and spent 25 minutes on the phone going through their questions to try and figure out what was going on. At one point, I plugged a different ethernet cable into the cable modem and it started working. However, the symptoms weren’t consistent with a dodgy cable so I had a bit more of a look at it.
To explain the problem I’ll have to explain my setup.
After moving my computer to the garage, the cable modem and wireless router were placed into a small cabinet (because they’re in Isaac’s room). The cable modem is “designed” to stand vertically (as evidenced by the flared base) but it didn’t fit in the cabinet this way so I had it lying on it’s side. When I changed ethernet cables, one of the things I did was take the modem out of the cabinet and stand it up on the floor.
I realised what was going on when I went to put the modem back in the cupboard. I put it in and almost straight away the connection was lost again. Taking it out and reconnecting the ethernet cable made it work again. It seems that my cable modem has a loose connection. It’s so pronounced I can make the connection go up and down by holding the modem in my hand and rotating it. Rotated right, light goes on. Rotated left, light goes off. A hardware fault in our modem was what the Optus person had figured was going on. They said we should get someone out if we continued having connection problems. However, the solution was as simple as putting the modem on it’s other side in the cabinet.
Of course, this all begs the question, “why now and not before”? As far as I can tell the answer has to do with the cooler temperatures. The cable modem was put into the cupboard in November when Isaac was born and it’s been hot here until very recently, when it’s been cooling down at night. I think the cooler temperatures are causing a connection in the modem to become flaky. Rotating the modem works for now but I’m sure it won’t be too long before it needs to be fixed properly.
Waiting for a MacBook Pro (still) March 16, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentFinally, some official confirmation from Apple! They claim that the MacBook Pro will arrive 30 March. That’s just in time for my 2 week post-release holiday.
Thanks to that crazy competition over at http://onmac.net/ it looks like I’ll be able to run Windows XP on it too (wOOt). There is a downside to this. I’ll have to buy Windows XP. I have a Windows 98 install CD which has been sufficient till now (some Virtual PC work when I first got a Mac + old games on an old PC). With a new, powerful machine I’ll want to play new games (eg. DOOM 3, Half-Life 2) so I’ll need a newer OS.
In case you’re wondering why I’ve listed DOOM 3, I purchased DOOM 3 for Windows. My reasoning was that my Mac would not able to play the Mac version anyway (it couldn’t), I could borrow a PC to play it on (I did) and it would be fairly likely that the Windows datafiles could be used with a Mac point release (they can, with some caveats). I only got to borrow a PC for 2 days so I never got to finish the game. I did get it to launch on my Mac after getting the datafiles thing going. I had to fool the point release installer into thinking I already had the Mac version (trivial stuff) but it wants a Mac edition CD and I don’t have one of those. I have some ideas about how to bypass that check. I found a “nocd” crack but it was PPC only (and it didn’t have source code).
It looks like the winning solution to the competition is not so simple. Similar to running Mac OS X on a PC, you have to take an install CD, modify it and burn the modified version. I’m thinking that something like BAMBIOS is going to be a better long-term solution (it already boots Linux), simply because it’s not relying of hacks and binary file replacement. I also found rEFIt which is probably a nicer way to develop for EFI that the Intel or tianocore stuff, which seem to be hosted in Visual Studio. I guess the thing is that BAMBIOS isn’t ready yet whereas the winning solution is. I’ve heard rumblings of an open source project to hold the winning solution but I’m not sure how nice it’ll be to play with.
Emily turns 2 March 10, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentEmily turned 2 today. Just to be nice to me, she did a poo in the pool at swimming. It’s not very nice when everyone thinks of your child as “the one that poos in the pool all the time”.
Emily's first day in kindy March 9, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentEmily went to kindy today. She’s going to do 1 day a week. It gives Bree a bit of a break and gets Emily socialising with other kids. Emily took all of 2 seconds to settle in. I introduced her to the carer and off she went. The staff said she had a good time and didn’t stop going all day. When I arrived it was as if I wasn’t there. I finally convinced her to come home with me. It’s strange because she gets more excited when she’s at home and I arrive from work.
Update: Monday, March 13, 2006
It looks like Emily picked up a gastro thing on her first day at kindy. Lovely :(
Print from Classic March 6, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : programs , add a commentThis has been done several times already but Bree has been using Word 2001 to edit some files from School. I’m going to get her a new (native) version of Office but I want to wait until there’s a Universal version around since I’m not too keen on purchasing new versions of Office all the time and I don’t know if the UB version of Office will be a paid upgrade or a free upgrade.
Anyway, there’s a problem because you can’t print from Classic apps to Mac OS X printers. Or at least, not if you’re running Panther (I never purchased Tiger because I didn’t need any of it’s features). It seems the solution involves a few steps.
1) Create a folder to hold .ps files from Classic (eg. ~/Classic/Print Jobs)
2) Use “Desktop Printer Utility” to setup the LaserWriter 8 printer to translate into .ps and save into this location
3) Create a Folder Action Script (eg. ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/Handle Classic Print Jobs.scpt) and assign it to the folder created in step 1
The script used in step 3 is what differs most between the various methods for printing from Classic. I didn’t like any of the scripts I could see, mostly because they all assumed that whatever print settings you could set from Classic were ok. I modified one of the scripts I found to come up with this.
Emily vs Super Nanny March 6, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farEmily is starting to ignore smacks. I think it is the emotional side of the discipline that is affecting her more than the physical side. Sometimes she’ll just shrug off a smack. Putting her on her bed seems more effective but there isn’t always a bed handy. Just the other day I figured I’d try the naughty corner idea. It’s something I saw on the Super Nanny show. I didn’t think it would work on a child as young as Emily (I think the show recommends it for 6+ years) but then I don’t think most kids have the discipline that Emily has.
Not only does the naughty corner work, it works better than both smacks and bed. Emily will sit there howling away but she’ll stay in the corner without looking around until we get her.
I think this is just another manifestation of the “red line” principle. Most kids Emily’s age (almost 2) understand that physical things stop them getting to what they want but they are missing the concept of a virtual boundary. By using red lines to mark where Emily is not allowed to go, she has learned the concept of a virtual boundary. The concept is so strong that it works even in places where there are no red lines. I think the naughty corner is just a very small virtual boundary to Emily.
My monitor is dying March 6, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentMy monitor is dying. Something is really screwy with the color. This is an ancient monitor anyway so I’m not that surprised by it.
It’s a good thing I bought that MacBook Pro. Now if it’ll just arrive…