tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197147872024-03-07T23:20:21.173+00:00Mac OSX TipsRandom Tips for Mac Users. <br/>A rambling Blog to help others avoid pitfalls I have stumbled in.Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-16391900211452431342012-04-22T20:31:00.001+01:002012-04-22T20:33:25.422+01:00Airport Utility 6.0 WDS broken?My WDS setup (a wireless daisy-chain to extend the range of my WiFi network) stopped working with the Airport Utility 6.0 update. Airport Utility 6.0 only has options to "Create a Wireless Network" and "Extend a Wireless Network", and my 3-node daisy chain was no longer working, however many times I tried resetting and restarting.<br />
<br />
Finally, I found that Airport Utility 5.6 still has the manual WDS option, hidden from view. To configure an Airport for your WDS network in Airport Utility 5.6, open (double-click) the base station(s) you want to configure, select the Airport icon (top left) and click on the "wireless" tab. Now, <b>while holding down the option key,</b> select "Participate in a WDS network" Wireless Mode (this option only appears when you hold down the option key).<br />
<br />
A "WDS" tab now appears, and you can follow <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AirPortUtility/5.1/en/ap2045.html">Apple's instructions</a> for setting up a WDS (if you haven't done this before, read these first).Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-80347745164056962352010-08-26T15:13:00.000+01:002010-08-26T15:13:16.984+01:00SPSS 17 on Snow LeopardFollow the <a href="http://www.linus-neumann.de/2009/12/09/fixed-spss-17-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-issues/">suggestions at the this link</a> – but then also create a symbolic link <code>CurrentJDK -> 1.5
</code> in directory <code>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions</code>
<br />
By running <code>sudo rm CurrentJDK</code>, then <code>sudo ln -s 1.5 CurrentJDK</code>
<br />
Clearly this leaves your Java installation broken for anything requiring <code>1.6</code>!Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-62517957868951800222010-07-27T22:36:00.000+01:002010-07-27T22:36:09.740+01:00iOS 4 Sync Videos<b>Summary:</b> Import videos taken on your iPhone into iPhoto just as you import photos. To include the videos when you sync the iPhone, check <i>Include Videos</i> in the <i>Photos</i> tab of the iTunes Device page.
<br />
It took me ages to find this as I was looking for iTunes to sync videos taken on the phone – so I looked under the <i>Films</i> tab of the Devices page on iTunes (I guess this will be Movies if you set en-US as your language; I have en-gb). (Connect your iPhone and select it in iTunes under <i>Devices</i> to see this page.)
<br />
When you sync, iPhoto asks whether to import photos – and will import videos also if you've taken any. Just as with photos, you can then delete them from the camera roll. To get them to reappear on your phone, you just need to check <i>Include Videos</i> in the <i>Photos</i> tab of the Device page, then sync.
<br />
So, photos are dealt with by iPhoto; tunes are dealt with by iTunes.<br />—and videos?
<br />Some videos are dealt with by iTunes; others are dealt with by iPhoto.Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-86817786386471237252010-01-06T09:46:00.017+00:002010-01-06T10:23:32.853+00:00Python and UTF-8 on OSX: UnicodeEncodeError<h2>
an acute problem</h2>
<p>
<code>UnicodeEncodeError:<br /> 'ascii' codec can't encode character <code>u'\xe9'</code></code>
</p>
<p>
I'm on a Mac Air with the latest Snow Leopard (10.6.2). I'm using Python 2.6.4 with unicode strings. I can't print <i>appliqué</i> !?</p><p>
I tried adding<br />
<code># -*- coding: utf-8 -*-</code><br />
at the head of my Python script, but I still get this complaint.
</p>
<h2>Solution</h2>
<p>The encoding used for standard input, output, and standard error can be specified by setting the <code>PYTHONIOENCODING</code> environment variable before running the interpreter.
</p><p>
The value should be a string in the form <code><encoding></code> or <code><encoding>:<errorhandler></code>. The <code>encoding</code> part specifies the encoding’s name, e.g. utf-8 or latin-1; the optional <code>errorhandler</code> part specifies what to do with characters that can’t be handled by the encoding, and should be one of “error”, “ignore”, or “replace”.
</p>
<p><code>export PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8</code></p><p>
does the trick.</p>
<p>– or you could just <a href="http://www.blogger.com/2004/04/setting-environment-variables.html">add this setting</a> to your environment file: <code>~/.MacOSX/environment.plist</code></p>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPVNs7vaShzRFOGr8FmOCzs2i7qU1fOdrXIwE6fXZvOLFIf65P5ZJB7_5oIEKpaxqvUpg54u_GIxlJteC9eBeCaiDKdXqXwuv62tqBEitDag9gDVVbiRTLNq2_OQB3iDMi4dAQw/s1600-h/environment.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; display: block;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPVNs7vaShzRFOGr8FmOCzs2i7qU1fOdrXIwE6fXZvOLFIf65P5ZJB7_5oIEKpaxqvUpg54u_GIxlJteC9eBeCaiDKdXqXwuv62tqBEitDag9gDVVbiRTLNq2_OQB3iDMi4dAQw/s320/environment.png" /></a>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-78560671810459998152009-10-05T08:52:00.007+01:002009-10-05T09:51:41.017+01:00MacPorts on Snow<h2>MacPorts on Ice?</h2>
<p>the move from Leopard to Snow Leopard can be slippery</p>
<quotation>... <code>emacs-app</code> won't compile; different versions of <code>python</code> fall over each other; NLTK won't build ...</quotation>
<p>Here are some tips others have found helpful:</p>
<h3>try</h3>
<pre>
% sudo port selfupdate
% port installed
% sudo port uninstall installed
</pre>
<dl>
<dt><code>sudo port selfupdate</code></dt> <dd>brings your MacPorts installation up to date. If this fails you should <a href="#over">just start over</a></dd>
<dt><code>port installed</code></dt><dd>shows you what you currently have installed.<br />
Much of what you see you won't recognise as this also lists the
prerequisites installed to support the things you asked for explicitly.</dd>
<dt><code>sudo port uninstall installed</code></dt> <dd>removes all your installed ports</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="over">or just start over</h3>
<p>I had some problems when I moved to snow leopard, so I also removed
all trace of macports</p>
<pre>
sudo rm -rf /opt/local \
/Applications/MacPorts \
/Applications/DarwinPorts \
/Library/Tcl/macports1.0 \
/Library/Tcl/darwinports1.0 \
/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.* \
/Library/StartupItems/DarwinPortsStartup \
/Library/Receipts/MacPorts*.pkg \
/Library/Receipts/DarwinPorts*.pkg \
~/.macports
</pre>
<h4>then reinstall MacPorts</h4>
<p>
use the <a href="http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-1.8.1-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg">Snow Leopard MacPorts disk image</a></p>
<h4>then do</h4>
<pre>
% sudo port selfupdate
</pre>
<h3>check</h3>
<p><a href="http://trac.macports.org/wiki/snc/snowleopard">which ports are available for snow-leopard</a>? before you decide which ports to install.</p>
<pre>
% sudo port install <????>
</pre>
<dl>
<dt><code>sudo port install <i><????></i></code></dt><dd>will install whatever you specify<br /><code><i><????></i></code> should be a space-
separated list of <a href="http://www.macports.org/ports.php">port names</a>,<br />with no <i><code>< ></code></i></dd>
</dl>
<p>There is a problem with <code>emacs-app</code>—and we can't work without emacs...</p>
<h4>install <code>emacs-app</code></h4>
<p>
To install emacs-app, first download
<code><a href="http://trac.macports.org/attachment/ticket/20936/emacs-app-Portfile-snow-leopard.patch">emacs-app-Portfile-snow-leopard.patch</a></code><br />
and<br />
<code><a href="">emacs-23.1-snow-leopard.patch</a></code>
</p>
<pre>
% sudo port clean emacs-app
% sudo port install emacs-app
% cd $(port dir emacs-app)
% sudo patch -p0 < ~/Downloads/emacs-app-Portfile-snow-leopard.patch
% sudo cp ~/Downloads/emacs-23.1-snow-leopard.patch ./files/
% sudo port -D . install
</pre>
<p>
Works for me, but your mileage may vary ....</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-88625853303611935762009-08-02T23:44:00.004+01:002009-08-03T00:04:08.281+01:00iPhone overheating<p>If the sun gets too hot, treat your iPhone to a moist towel and a hat.</p>
<p>The Tech Specs say: Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C). Summers in Greece are long and dry, with temperatures often exceeding extremes of 37°C (99°F).</p>
<p>Sailing in Greece the temperature went high, the iPhone overheated, and defensively stopped charging—it said it was charged, which was confusing, as it wasn't. When it got really hot it just gave up altogether and shut down. Our Humminbird Fishfinder GPS unit also shut down from overheating—even before the iPhone did.</p>
<p>How to keep your iPhone cool? Take a moist paper towel, folded to the size of the back of the phone. Put it on the back of the phone and ensure that the air can get to it so that the moisture evaporates gradually. You'll need to take the paper towel off from time to time to moisten it again.</p>
<p>I also used a hat to keep the phone in the shade.</p>
<p>This enabled me to keep navigating with <a href="http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%3A%2F%2Fsearch.itunes.apple.com%2FWebObjects%2FMZSearch.woa%2Fwa%2Fsearch%3Fentity%3Dsoftware%26media%3Dall%26submit%3DseeAllLockups%26term%3Dnavion">Navionics GPS software</a> in the relentless Greek sun.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-75278594901810589692009-06-17T18:27:00.008+01:002009-06-18T08:27:55.447+01:00iPhone 3.0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnYPX-LUO7k05vi3znDW1Imt7AGcrCt8RMr873ZEV7IN2BPb5ATEiawY4JdMRZKe5mbf42Nk14KfAikuWhzRyvM5_Qh5de4pP1kSXXGtCZWVf_IUoH-RBC3sC6aaonHw-9v5krg/s1600-h/iPhone+update.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 41px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnYPX-LUO7k05vi3znDW1Imt7AGcrCt8RMr873ZEV7IN2BPb5ATEiawY4JdMRZKe5mbf42Nk14KfAikuWhzRyvM5_Qh5de4pP1kSXXGtCZWVf_IUoH-RBC3sC6aaonHw-9v5krg/s400/iPhone+update.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348351421239924306" /></a>
<p>released at 17:25 GMT 230.1MB</p>
<p>17:28 GMT still downloading ...</p>
<p>17:45 GMT up and running—it feels faster</p>
<p>Apple don't make it easy to find the <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3g/">instructions for using new features</a>.</p>
<p>You can test MMS by sending a picture to yourself (the interface in messages, which was SMS, lets you take and send a picture, or send one from your photo album). If MMS doesn't work, prompt O2 to direct your MMS messages to your phone (instead of to a web page as before) by texting the message "MMS" to 1010.</p>
<p>To see Google StreetView on maps, drop a pin on the street you want to view. The StreetView icon appears on the pin label; click it. (This isn't new to 3.0, but it's new to me.)</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-4564740447713732802009-06-10T20:26:00.007+01:002009-06-11T08:08:31.280+01:00MacBook Air freeze: reset SMC<p>Daily, I take my MBA to work, and connect it to my 30" cinema display. At the end of the day I disconnect and take it home. Once back home, I plug into the 24" LED display and keep on working. The MBA sleeps while I'm cycling to and fro — and wakes up when I plug it in.</p>
<p>Today, I got home, plugged in, and found a blank screen. I waited; nothing happened. I waited some more. Eventually I gave up waiting and did a forced shut-down, by pressing and holding the power button.</p>
<p>To restart, I pressed the power button. The chimes, and the apple came up just as usual; then the little wheel thing came up, but it didn't move. I waited — nothing. I plugged in, unplugged, opened. closed, shut-down (again) etc. I tried all of this again, and again, in various permutations, and with plenty of waiting — nothing. Frozen as a dead parrot!</p>
<p>So, I reset the System Management Controller — that worked :-)</p>
<p><b>To reset the SMC:</b> Shutdown; plug in to mains power; hold down shift-ctrl-alt (alt is aka option) <i>on the left side of the keyboard</i>, and press the power key once; then release the keys, wait 5 seconds, and press the power key to restart. <b>Effective magic!</b></p>
<p>The SMC includes the Power Management Unit (PMU) you may be familiar with from other devices.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-62425691220028723862009-06-04T23:35:00.004+01:002009-06-05T00:16:15.816+01:00Pipex > Tiscali >TalkTalk<p>I've been with Pipex for years. Tiscali took over in March. A couple of weeks ago my internet service went crazy.</p>
<p>Some sites worked: for example, Google seemed OK.</p>
<p>Some sites didn't: Facebook wouldn't load.</p>
<p>Others were erratic. The Guardian front page loaded fine — but none of the links. FirstDirect <i>almost</i> worked — I could look at my balances, and set up a transfer, but the final step of confirmation would hang, and hang, and never complete.</p>
<p><b>The solution:</b> the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) on my Speedtouch 510 was set to 1500. Tiscali (or maybe its already TalkTalk) don't do 1500 — they do 1492 (familiar as the year Columbus set sail).</p>
<p>My configuration file now says (in <code>ip.ini</code>)</p>
<pre>
ifconfig intf=loop mtu=1492 group=local
ifconfig intf=eth0 mtu=1492 group=lan
ifconfig intf=pppoa mtu=16384 group=wan
</pre>
<p>and everything appears to be back in working order.</p>
<p>There's a lot of discussion of different values on the web. The 16384 above is 16K, the actual MTU used by the pppoa interface (which links me to my ISP) is negotiated down from this value by the Speedtouch 510. The <code>ip iflist</code> command (use this via the telnet interface to the Speedtouch 510) tells you this negotiated MTU value for the pppoa interface (and also the values you have specified for the loop and eth0 interfaces). The MTU for loop and eth0 should be set to the same value as is negotiated for pppoa.</p>
<pre>
=>ip iflist
Interface GRP MTU RX TX TX-DROP STATUS
0 loop 1 1492 2147 0 0 UP
1 eth0 2 1492 12453866 234402217 0 UP
2 pppoa 0 1492 234257958 12256628 0 UP
</pre>
<p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-73480455876024181402009-04-28T10:13:00.018+01:002009-08-03T09:35:11.660+01:00802.1X on iPhone<h2><a href="http://images.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/docs/iPhone_Device_Configuration_Overview.pdf">iPhone Device Configuration</a></h2>
<p>This post can also be accessed from <code>http://tinyurl.com/8021xiphone</code></p>
<p>You can download a configuration for the University of Edinburgh central-wpa wifi, eduroam and IPsec (Cisco) VPN from <small><code><a href="http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/UoE.mobileconfig">http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/UoE.mobileconfig</a></code></small><br />or <code><a href="http://tinyurl.com/uoecfg">http://tinyurl.com/uoecfg</a></code></p>
<p>This is signed by me with the self-signed certificate at <small><code><a href="http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/MichaelFourmanCA.cer">http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mfourman/iphone/MichaelFourmanCA.cer</a></code></small><br />or <code><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ouosp5">http://tinyurl.com/ouosp5</a></code></p>
<p>You can first download and accept the certificate, and then install the profile, or just install the profile and accept the profile on a one-off <i>ad hoc</i> basis when asked.</p>
<p>When you install the profile, you'll be asked to provide your UUN and passwords for the UoE systems. For the VPN use your UUN and EASE password; for central-wpa use your UUN and EASE password; for eduroam use an extension of your UUN as follows: <UUN>@ed.ac.uk and your EASE password.</p>
<p>Once installed you won't need to enter these again!</p>
<p>Let me know if this also works for iPod Touch!</p>
<p>If you want to check my certificate, you may need these:</p>
<pre>
SHA1 fingerprint 8F 89 CF 00 78 C8 31 B8 6A 56 93 99
13 A6 8F 2B 3B C7 2A 29
MD5 fingerprint 95 80 D6 9C C4 60 4B 86 A0 8A 6F BA
22 42 38 8D
Public Key signature 52 2C 64 BC DD 9B 55 F6 A4 96 36 02
6D EE 3C DC CE B0 58 A5 C3 8C 9E 25 D3 DD 48 94 B3 3A
48 05 A7 26 47 5F C7 03 29 0A 2F B0 A8 1D 7C C4 9B 20
23 57 AA 42 06 3E 9B 94 E6 B2 9D 3D BA 33 39 FC BB 5D
4C EC 5A B7 5F B0 B2 12 1F A2 8E 93 39 C1 C0 A2 3A F8
3A 86 24 0C AC 16 A4 36 A7 B6 B1 A5 7D 55 AB 88 DE
3F 2E 19 AC B3 BC E4 21 44 14 01 91 FF BD 6F D6 18 07
4A E2 BE 8E E0 A8 57 4C F3 E9 62 5A 34 63 AE BC 84 6D
DC 19 CF D8 4B 60 67 A1 D8 40 47 59 92 88 02 86 0B 89
C0 A8 79 22 57 FF E7 77 5B BF 9C 49 FF A9 43 70 92 07
10 A1 0C D6 67 73 5F 95 3F AE 5D 49 40 FC 0F 49 C1 9A
5F C4 EC 9D 7A 5D 30 2B 5F F7 2A 26 CB 4C BE 96 3D A2
0C 81 E3 44 D4 D6 70 31 D5 E1 37 C4 41 13 49 AD 5D F4
2B A8 60 D5 EC 69 57 0F AB 7F 03 A1 75 85 55 75 F3 C4
D7 2A 67 E8 66
</pre>
<p>The <a href="http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/">iPhone Configuration Utility</a> allows you to set up and install profiles that give access to 802.1X authenticated WPA wifi. It also gives you access to the iPhone console log, so you have some chance of debugging your configurations when things go wrong.</p>
<p>To see the console log connect to your iPhone via USB cable, your phone appears as a DEVICE—select it and the Console tab.</p>
<p>A profile can include a number of sections: General, Passcode, Wi-Fi, VPN, Email, Exchange, Credentials, and Advanced. It is recommended to create a number of specific profiles for different tasks, rather than one mega profile including everthing, as a modular approach is easier to manage. In particular, if you change a profile and reinstall it, you have to enter all the passwords it requires anew, so the modular approach goes faster.</p>
<p>After some experimentation I now have three profiles: one for WiFi+VPN, and two more for IMAP configurations for staffmail and gmail.</p>
<p> The first (WiFi + VPN), includes the University certificate(s), configuration for our IPSec (Cisco) VPN, and two WiFi profiles. These are University of Edinburgh service <b>central-wpa</b>, and the confederated EDUcation ROAming service, <b><a href="http://www.eduroam.org/">eduroam</a></b> which should allow me connect back to the same UoE service from almost any academic institution in Europe, Japan or Australia.</p>
<p>It's all a bit confusing, as the documentation for our 802.1 setup is sketchy. For example, I found that I had to install not just the self-signed University of Edinburgh CA root certificate authority, for the VPN, but also the intermediate certificate authority Cybertrust Educational CA, which is the issuer for the certificates presented by the WiFi servers, and is not in the standard Apple list of System Roots. Looking at the log helps.</p>
<p>To add a certificate, make sure it is in the System keychain (so not tied to your administrator account on the Mac) and is trusted. Then use Keychain Access to export it as a <code>.cer</code> file and then import this .cer file into a profile, under the Credentials tab. Note that, even if using multiple modular profiles, you cannot install the same certificate twice.</p>
<p>For the VPN use your UUN and EASE password; for central-wpa use your UUN and WiFi password; for eduroam use <UUN>@ed.ac.uk and your EASE password.</p>
<p>To test eduroam, I switch between the two WiFi profiles. Switching doesn't work properly: each time I have to make (3) repeated attempts, leaving and returning to the Settings App between attempts. Nevertheless, at least this behaviour is repeatable. I look forward to trying eduroam on the road.</p>
<p>Once you've done this, setting up the two Email profiles seems easy. Just set up the account, working from a tried and tested setup, by looking at the account settings for Mail on your Mac - except the Mac doesn't tell you which port it uses for SMTP. On my University account I use <code>imap.staffmail.ed.ac.uk:993</code> for incoming, and the authenticated <code>smtp.inf.ed.ac.uk:465</code> for outgoing. For Gmail it's <code>imap.gmail.com:993</code> and <code>smtp.gmail.com:587</code>. Note the <b>small twist:</b> secure SMTP on Gmail uses port 587, whereas the Informatics authenticated SMTP uses 465. It seems Google does the right thing and 465 is non-standard legacy stuff!</p>
<p>I can't get my Pipex mail set up this way because the Tiscali certificate presented doesn't match the server address. I can override this error if I install the setting by sync with the Mac in iTunes, or enter it manually, but if I set up a profile, it just fails—and the console log says, "an SSL error occurred".</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-57910398796543240802009-04-14T22:30:00.012+01:002009-05-03T23:02:24.460+01:00Wireless Keyboard lost?<h2>How to make a bluetooth device a favorite</h2><div style="float:right">
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggo8aNfDBQdkUjRVPh9Z25ryC4m_CdLwSaX__5viDaa6SiqXQnD-j3fJ-h8NnQUYjQkVuf5Y-zHCQ9ZwbMal3iN5d-htXzOtWFobg2_0U2WrzZI5dhhjEnAmETJ-MfhUkJV3JqJA/s1600-h/Picture+5.png"><img style="margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 167px; height: 78px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggo8aNfDBQdkUjRVPh9Z25ryC4m_CdLwSaX__5viDaa6SiqXQnD-j3fJ-h8NnQUYjQkVuf5Y-zHCQ9ZwbMal3iN5d-htXzOtWFobg2_0U2WrzZI5dhhjEnAmETJ-MfhUkJV3JqJA/s400/Picture+5.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324666172829485474" /></a>
<br />
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</div>
<p>My MacBook Air has problems finding my wireless keyboard. It is paired, but not seen. I have to go through the whole rigmarole of adding a new device to make it visible. Why?</p>
<p>Sometimes Bluetooth preferences lets me connect; sometimes not.</p>
<p>My Keyboard isn't a favourite! Solving this should be easy—just use Bluetooth panel in System Preferences.</p><p>There's an obvious button to press in Tiger; but on Leopard it's hidden.</p>
<h3>Solution</h3>
<p>Open Bluetooth Preferences ...</p>
<p>Select your device (Keyboard or whatever).</p>
<p>For an immediate fix select <i>Connect</i> from the settings menu.</p>
<p>For something longer-lasting, select <i>Show More Info</i></p><p><b>The trick:</b> From the settings menu (which has now changed) select <i>Add to Favorites</i>. You're done.</p>
<p>Sometimes it shows connected but still no keystrokes appear: <i>Disconnect</i> and then <i>Connect</i> using the settings menu.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-48231859504796962122009-04-01T06:29:00.007+01:002009-04-01T09:58:22.884+01:00MacTex<p>Finally, I found the solution for LaTeX on the Mac. I've been using <a href="http://www.tug.org/mactex/">MacTex</a> for a month or so and it seems really solid. It has its own updater, the TeXLive utility, which allows you to keep your installation up to date. Your own local styles can be installed in <code>~/Library/texmf/tex/latex</code>. BibTeX <code>.bib</code> files go in
<code> ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib</code>
or subfolders of this directory, and <code>.bst</code> files go in
<code> ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bst </code>
or subfolders of this directory. </p>
<p>A system local texmf tree, which can be accessed
by all users on a machine, can supposedly (untested by me) be placed in
<code>/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local</code>.</p>
<p>This installation includes <a href="http://ktd.club.fr/programmation/latexit_en.php">LaTeXiT</a>, a utility I've <a href="http://mactip.blogspot.com/2007/01/latex-equation-editor.html">mentioned before</a>, that lets you easily produce PDF, EPS, TIFF, PNG, or JPEG files from LaTeX snippets. It can produce fully scalable PDFs with stroked fonts, for inclusin in presentations and posters. LaTeXiT also includes a LaTeX palette that allows you to select AMS symbols, operators, arrows, etc. from a graphical display.</p>
<p>LaTeXiT stores the LaTeX source within the PDF document it produces—if you want to edit your presentation later, just paste the PDF back into LaTeXiT and you can edit the source. Unfortunately, Keynote 5.0.1 doesn't seem able to access the LaTeXiT services, and LinkBack doesn't seem to work—but cut-and-paste isn't so hard.</p>
<p>The Grapher utility (in Applications/Utilities) also integrates with LaTex. Type a formula into Grapher, which provides a fairly intelligent wysiwyg interface (use ^ for exponents, / for fractions, "log" for log, "pi" for π, etc.). The arrow keys (all four of them) allow you to move around. Ctrl-(or right-)click on the selected equation will allow you to copy the LaTeX source for this equation (and it normally makes a better job of the latexography than I do).</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-77489809246271954372009-03-31T06:02:00.004+01:002009-03-31T07:31:46.267+01:00Skype on iPhone–iChat next?<p>VoIP on iPhone. Find free Skype for iPhone on the App Store.</p>
<p>It works–Skype calls over WiFi–and the quality seems better than Fring or TruPhone.</p>
<p>Why hasn't Apple got an iPhone version of iChat yet–or <a href="http://gizmo5.com/pc/products/mobile/">Gizmo5</a> to give us a free SIP phone?</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-38827869795891578372009-03-25T21:38:00.006+00:002009-04-14T23:27:59.386+01:00USB Ethernet "not connected"?<h2>Oh, yes it is!</h2>
<p>"Oh, no it isn't," says System Preferences.</p>
<p> Physically it <i>is</i> connected. The ethernet works fine when I try it with another laptop. But my MacBook Air has no network connection.</p>
<h2>Solution</h2>
<p>Not sure what causes this, but it seems to arise when moving from one network to another — work to home. Until Apple fix their bug, one workaround is as follows:</p>
<ul><li>Open System Preferences >> Network</li>
<li>Select <i>USB Ethernet</i> in the ports list.</li>
<li>Click the <b>-</b> sign at the bottom of the ports list to delete your existing <i>USB Ethernet</i> port</li>
<li>Click the <b>+</b> sign, to add a new one; select the new one click <i>Apply</i>.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you're lucky (it's worked for me a couple of times already) you will find that, after a short pause, the <i>USB Ethernet n</i> port you just created now works as normal.</p>
<p>If the option to create a <i>USB Ethernet</i> port doesn't appear, check that you have the ethernet adapter dongle plugged in. This seems to be neccessary.</p>
<p>If it still doesn't appear (sometimes it doesn't), restart and try again. This has always worked for me (so far).</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-44380704226715691582009-03-14T11:52:00.007+00:002009-03-14T13:16:36.145+00:00Wireless again<p>As long-time readers of this blog will know, I have an extended wireless network. It now includes two daisy-chains and one spur: a daisy-chain on 802.11n (5GHz) with a TimeCapsule (which has internet connection from my ADSL modem/router) and two Extremes; a daisy-chain on 802.11g (2.5GHz) with older kit — two Extremes (one connected by ethernet to the remote end of the 802.11n chain) and three Expresses.</p>
<p>Autoconfigure was a welcome feature of the 802.11n Express. It was great — when it worked — but it was always flakey.</p>
<p>With the 7.4.1 firmware update my setup became completely unstable. In particular, whenever Time Machine started a backup the network would auto-reconfigure, and break. I had to use an ethernet connection direct to the Time Capsule to make a backup. I've now reverted to a manual setup of the WDS with explicit MAC numbers. All appears stable, my iPhone is back on WiFi and backup over wireless is working again.<p>
<p>If you're having problems with an autoconfigured wireless network, try going back to manually configured WDS. Use Airport Utility. First make a note of the Airport ID (MAC number) for each of your devices. Then, one-by-one switch from <i>Create a Wireless Network</i> or <i>Extend a Wireless Network</i> to <i>Participate in a WDS Network</i>. A WDS tab will appear. Under this tab you can see (and manually adjust) the autoconfigured setup. In my case I found that two Extremes were trying to act as WDS main.</p>
<p>As usual, be careful to update the various access points in an order that doesn't leave you unable to access some device over wireless. If you do get into that sorry state, a direct ethernet connection can be used to reconfigure the lost device.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-78345701993154496412009-03-09T07:45:00.014+00:002009-03-14T13:28:54.487+00:00Google Base encoding woes<p><a href="http://base.google.com/">Google Base</a> lets you upload descriptions of goods, services, publications—or whatever—to enable the world to find your stuff.</p>
<p>You can do this item-by-item, using a web form, or in bulk by submitting an RSS or Atom feed as an xml file.</p>
<p>So far, so good ...</p>
<h2>But ...</h2>
<p>If you want to use extended character sets (eg. characters, ξ € я þ ø æ œ and accents, å ç ê ñ ü ) you will naturally use utf-8 or unicode encoding.</p>
<p>So, I set up the feed for utf-8 encoding, and uploaded the xml using <b>Direct Upload via Google Base</b>, Google's file upload interface ...</p>
<p>Once my feed was processed, Google said, <b><i>Your data feed contains an invalid character for the current encoding setting. </i></b></p>
<p>I tried <b>File Transfer Protocol</b>, uploading via ftp to <code>google.uploads.com</code>. Google still didn't get the right encoding (I think Google was at fault here).</p>
<p>I tried <b>Automatic upload via scheduling</b>. This probably failed because my ISP's server insists on sending a content header saying it is serving everything in ascii—Google did the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_encodings_in_HTML">right thing</a>" and believed this travesty.</p>
<p>So, nothing worked: <b><i>Your data feed contains an invalid character for the current encoding setting. </i></b></p>
<h2>Solution: use <code>xsl:output</code> to encode your feed in ascii</h2>
<p>Here is a simple xsl transform to copy an xml file and change its encoding. The important line is the attribute <code>encoding="us-ascii"</code>, in the <code>xsl:output</code> element.</p>
<p><b><code>toascii.xsl</code></b>
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:transform version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output
method="xml"
version="1.0"
encoding="us-ascii"
/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template
match="*|@*|comment()
|processing-instruction()|text()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates
select="*|@*|comment()
|processing-instruction()|text()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:transform>
</pre>
</p>
<p><b><code>utf8.xml</code></b>
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sample>
characters, ξ € я þ ø æ œ
and accents, å ç ê ñ ü
</sample>
</pre>
</p>
<p>Executing the command
<pre>
xsltproc -o ascii.xml toascii.xsl utf8.xml
</pre>
produces an ascii-encoded version:</p>
<p><b><code> ascii.xml</code></b>
<pre>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
<sample>
characters, &#958; &#8364; &#1103; &#254; &#248; &#230; &#339;
and accents, &#229; &#231; &#234; &#241; &#252;
</sample>
</pre>
</p>
<p>If you are already using xsl to produce your feed, just add <code>encoding="us-ascii"</code> to the <code>xsl:output</code> element. If you have it by some other means you can use the identity transform given above.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-22432807945556395432009-03-07T12:24:00.003+00:002009-03-07T12:33:49.456+00:00Adjust brightness for 24 inch LED Cinema Display?<p>I <b>think</b> that the F1/F2 keys on my MacBook Air <b>used to</b> adjust brightness of the <i>primary</i> display. In any event, they certainly don't now (10.5.6) allow me to adjust the brightness of my 24" LED display—they adjust the brightness of the MacBook Air screen, whichever display is selected as Primary.</p>
<p>However, the <i>Display</i> tabs of the <i>Display</i> panels of <i>System Preferences</i> allow you to adjust the brightness of each display independently.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-79868027147230163312009-02-16T21:27:00.010+00:002012-04-06T10:22:27.558+01:00ant ftp task libraries: jakarta-oro; commons-net<h2>A problem</h2><p><b>Update: 6 April 2012</b> This stopped working again. Adding <a href="http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/maven2/org/apache/ant/ant-commons-net/1.7.1/"><code>ant-commons-net-1.7.1.jar</code></a> to <code>~/.ant/lib</code> resolved the problem. <br />
<p>My installed version of ant (I presume from Developer Tools) doesn't support the <b>ftp</b> task:</p><small><pre>$ which ant
/usr/bin/ant
$ ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.7.0 compiled on August 25 2008
$ ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Available
ftp : Not Available (the implementation class is not present)
$</pre></small> <p><a href="http://ant.apache.org/manual/install.html#librarydependencies">The manual says</a> <i>To use the FTP task, you need <code>jakarta-oro 2.0.8</code> or later, and <code>commons-net</code></i><p><p>Sounds simple—just find the right <code>.jar</code> files and put them in <code>~/.ant/lib</code></p><p><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/site/downloads/downloads_oro.cgi">jakarta-oro-2.0.8.jar</a> is easy to find.</p><p><a href="http://apache.mirror.rbftpnetworks.com/commons/net/commons-net-current.jar"><code>commons-net-2.0.jar</code></a> is also easy to find, as is <code>commons-net-ftp-2.0.jar</code> —but they don't work. For example:</p><pre>$ ls ~/.ant/lib
commons-net-2.0.jar jakarta-oro-2.0.8.jar
$ /usr/bin/ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Avail
ftp : Not Available (the implementation class is not present)
$
</pre><p><code>ant-commons-net-1.7.1.jar</code> does work with Ant version 1.7.0 — and you can find it if you look.</p><p>But there is an easier way...</p><h2>The solution</h2><p>Update to Ant version 1.7.1 (I did this from MacPorts with Porticus; Fink also has this version):</p><pre>$ which ant
/opt/local/bin/ant
$ ant -version
Apache Ant version 1.7.1 compiled on June 27 2008
$ant -diagnostics | grep ftp.*Available
$ ls ~/.ant/lib
$
</pre><p>The MacPorts installation includes the requisite java archives. (I haven't tested the Fink install.)</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-77644865433204538812008-12-27T11:17:00.029+00:002009-02-16T21:27:11.717+00:00Starting over (again)<p>Lovely new MacBook Air — light as a feather pillow.</p>
<dl>
<dt>Power up.</dt>
<dt>Switch on.</dt>
<dd>My Air arrived with zero charge. I had a nervous few minutes with no response from the power button. I had time to read the FAQ, try again, and panic briefly before it eventually had enough charge to start up.</dd>
<dt>Setup admin account</dt>
<dd>
<dt>Setup wireless</dt>
<dt>Software update</dt>
<dd>This may take some time (for me this was an 870MB download). While waiting you can <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.5&os=osx&lang=en-US">Install Firefox</a></dd>
<dt>Software update again</dt>
<dd>Repeat until there are no further updates</dd>
<dt>Migrate user data from your TimeCapsule backup</dt>
<dd>Do this over ethernet, unless you want a long wait (I had 40GB to migrate. I get 2-3GB/h over a wire connected to my remote Express — 1.5GB/h with two wireless hops, and 7-8GB/h when wired directly to the Time Capsule.)</dd>
<dt>Setup user accounts</dt>
<dd>Include a working account for yourself</dd>
<dt>Configure Time Machine Backup for your new machine. <br />Start the initial backup.</dt>
<dd>This will take even more time (my initial backup is requires transfer of 55GB of data).</dd>
<dd>You can carry on with other tasks meanwhile. You can interrupt the process ("Stop Backing Up" in the Time Machine Menu), and resume later. Again, do as much of this as possible over a wired connection, to speed things up.</dd>
<dt>Use <a href="http://code.google.com/p/calaboration/">Calaboration</a> to sync your Google calendars with iCal</dt>
<dt><a href="http://www.finkproject.org/download/">Install Fink and Fink Commander</a></dt>
<dd>This allows you to install and manage various Unix utilities. I start with emacs-carbon.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://mactip.blogspot.com/2008/04/starting-over-macports.html">Install MacPorts and Porticus</a></dt>
<dd>This also allows you to install and manage various Unix utilities and for many has more up-to-date versions. It also has a port of <code>polyml</code>. I start with polyml, tetex, bibtex2html and hevea. Porticus doesn't have carbon-emacs.</dd>
<dt>Install <a href="http://web.mit.edu/macdev/KfM/Common/Documentation/osx-kerberos-extras.html">Kerberos Extras</a></dt>
<dd>Our "staffmail" imap server supports Kerberos authentication - just use the realm EASE.ED.AC.UK and your EASE user name and password. Unfortunately Apple haven't yet implemented this fundtionality on the iPhone — so syncing broke my email on the iPhone. </dd>
<dd>Change back to password authentication; sync again, so mail on the iPhone is back to normal; turn off sync; turn on Kerberos authentication on the Mac.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://developer.apple.com/">Install Developer Tools</a></dt>
<dd>Apart from anything else, this is probably the easiest way to get CVS installed.</dd>
<dt><a href="http://developer.apple.com/iPhone/program/download.html">Download iPhone SDK</a></dt>
<dd>Useful for the iPhone emulator which lets you see how your web pages will look on the iPhone. Maybe someday I'll write some code too!</dd>
<dt>Turn on the Safari Develop menu</dt>
<dd>To display the Develop menu in Safari 3.1 or higher, select the checkbox labeled "Show Develop menu in menu bar" in Safari's Advanced Preferences panel.</dd>
</dl>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-48731387016281387442008-12-12T20:41:00.006+00:002009-03-09T10:03:40.522+00:00Channel 13: Leopard Wireless Card Locale<p>Channel 13 is legal in the UK and many other locales, but not in the US<i>of</i>A.
</p><p>
Since most default setups use channel 6 or channel 1, those of us looking for uncrowded channels often find 13 is uncluttered.
</p><p>
When I did a recently clean install of Leopard, I found that my channel 13 network disappeared — invisible!
</p>
<p><b>Update (2009-03-09)</b> It seems that the 10.5.6 update (I installed it on 2008-12-27) has changed something so this tip no longer works!
</p>
<p>
Although my MacBook Time Zone was set to Edinburgh - Scotland (you can set this in System Preferences, under Date&Time), I found that my Wireless Card Locale was set to US (which disables channel 13).</p><p>You can check your Wireless Card Locale by going to "About This Mac" > "More Info ..." > "Network; Airport Card".
</p><p>
The solution was to set the Time Zone to Tokyo then restart. Wireless Card Locale is then "Worldwide" and channel 13 is enabled.
</p><p>
Setting the Time Zone back to "Edinburgh - Scotland" and restarting again gives me "Worldwide" — but setting Time Zone to "Los Angeles - USA", and restarting, sets it back to "US".
</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-17691963716366935752008-11-18T04:27:00.010+00:002008-11-18T20:54:48.442+00:00iPhone Google Voice Search Arrives!<p class="mobile-photo" style="float:left;margin-right:1em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKjLYApSFlkvl20Ywe_GPzCxQYBHyDJDRGoYbpAO4Mjojh2e0djRgM64PhD4Y_4bTTalWBxPcYRtt25kyLwsN40eKA8rSk7ec2EZ27OjiUgEdKF4Uty87JJvSpxcJw2PTLj2NkEQ/s1600-h/IMG_0007.PNG"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 73px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKjLYApSFlkvl20Ywe_GPzCxQYBHyDJDRGoYbpAO4Mjojh2e0djRgM64PhD4Y_4bTTalWBxPcYRtt25kyLwsN40eKA8rSk7ec2EZ27OjiUgEdKF4Uty87JJvSpxcJw2PTLj2NkEQ/s200/IMG_0007.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269856394398291634" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzRcqe1Q8WxkbV0q4G3paxZPK0pixMpaDOR_VG5jR65FRwY4pf-4YmwUy1NBYC-zMel4bHh9zTRQdyXUDAaMa5BlJKtIAOEm7v6aACUhFc4J5sJ4MioP1OkoxRciLXZuctz6dQA/s1600-h/photo-701371.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVzRcqe1Q8WxkbV0q4G3paxZPK0pixMpaDOR_VG5jR65FRwY4pf-4YmwUy1NBYC-zMel4bHh9zTRQdyXUDAaMa5BlJKtIAOEm7v6aACUhFc4J5sJ4MioP1OkoxRciLXZuctz6dQA/s320/photo-701371.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269849717742902514" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAlkylQA6TYC_g9nkxMLYpfnpBYQiw_mm1ij9hjsZE4QXsv8HtcpKEYgBGH909PUn9saRWQi6Tt8zCzZ1UJbPvce5eyVcdsPGekg9xD3Gy3Ba0NXDae9A1yvzVZFW1U5RgnTFXiA/s1600-h/newApp.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAlkylQA6TYC_g9nkxMLYpfnpBYQiw_mm1ij9hjsZE4QXsv8HtcpKEYgBGH909PUn9saRWQi6Tt8zCzZ1UJbPvce5eyVcdsPGekg9xD3Gy3Ba0NXDae9A1yvzVZFW1U5RgnTFXiA/s200/newApp.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270103677761540946" /></a></p>
<h2>Google Mobile App</h2>
<h3>Out with the old; in with the new.</h3>
<p><strike>It doesn't appear as an update, in the iTunes store, the post date and version number appear unchanged (see the image) — ignore that! Just delete the old one then get the Google Mobile App again from the AppStore. Apple will tell you the update is free since you already bought this App. The packaging is still old, but</strike> <b>Now the update appears and the packaging is updated too</b> the app inside is new (version 0.3.142.951) and it does do voice search.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17000169939227289460noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-61774432647847082972008-10-26T21:42:00.008+00:002009-03-26T21:05:44.612+00:00Time Machine hangs? Spotlight responsible?<h2>Time Machine and Spotlight run slowly over wireless...</h2>
<p>So slowly, that it appears that the system has hung.</p>
<p>Time Machine is great — <i>but</i> ...</p>
<p>Making the first backup of a 60GB of data takes a very long time over wireless.</p>
<p>Making a large incremental backup, after being away for a week, or more takes a very long time over wireless. Even over 802.11n I find Time Machine, backing up over my WDS, manages about 1MB/sec. Say 1GB takes 16 minutes, then 60GB takes 16 hours!</p>
<p>If Spotlight is indexing the backup while the backup is changing, things go even slower.</p>
<p><b>Solution:</b> For the first backup, or for an incremental backup after you've been on the road, first turn of Spotlight indexing for the backup. Then connect your Mac by ethernet cable directly to the LAN port on the Time Capsule, and leave it to chunter away overnight. Finally, turn indexing on to let Spotlight digest the backup.</p>
<p>To see what Time machine and Spotlight are up to, use the console to inspect the logs. Set the filter so you see messages from <code>backupd</code>. You should see a sequence of messages appear slowly (but no longer <i>very</i> slowly), like this:
<small><pre>
Starting standard backup
Network volume mounted at: /Volumes/Data
Disk image /Volumes/Data/myMacBook0016cb896cb9.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook
Backing up to: /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook/Backups.backupdb
No pre-backup thinning needed: 2.21 GB requested (including padding), 801.41 GB available
Copied 22 files (24.4 MB) from volume Macintosh HD.
Starting post-backup thinning
No post-back up thinning needed: no expired backups exist
Backup completed successfully.
</pre></small>
<p>Each line starts with date and time and the label <code>/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd[22205] </code></p>
<h2>Note:</h2>
<p>Spotlight should be allowed to index your backup — so that you can find valuable nuggets of information lost in the past. Spotlight is also very slow if it has to index 60GB over wireless — if you do this, your log may also include lines like:</p>
<small><pre>
Waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing /Volumes/Backup of myMacBook/Backups.backupdb </pre></small>
<p>The solution is the same — when Spotlight has lots of changed stuff to index in the backup, let it work over ethernet. If you unplug and go wireless immediately your big backup is done, Spotlight will spend a long time catching up — and it won't let the next hourly backup begin until it has caught up.</p>
<h2>Spotlight crashes</h2>
<p><i>In addition,</i> spotlight crashes: <code>mdworker</code> does the Spotlight indexing — you may find messages like this:</p>
<small><pre>
Formulating crash report for process mdworker[22921]
(0x10c720.mdworker[22921]) Exited abnormally: Bus error
</pre></small>
<p>When this happens, it slows things down even more. It's a bug — every crash is a bug. Some discussions suggest that it may by triggered when Spotlight attempts to index ill-formatted emails.</p>
<p>You <i>can</i> tell Spotlight not to index emails — and it <i>may</i> have some effect. Waiting patiently also seems to work — and I <i>need</i> to be able to search for mail by content, so I <i>have to</i> let Spotlight index my mail.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-59217289920162401362008-10-03T22:39:00.005+01:002008-10-09T06:12:59.113+01:00iPhone ... cannot be synced (error 13014)<h3>The iPhone ... cannot be synced.<br />An unknown error occurred (13014).</h3>
<p>This occurred after the iTunes 8.01 (11) update. Restarting the Mac seems to cure it.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-11320038854502506002008-09-30T06:14:00.004+01:002008-09-30T08:26:49.594+01:00iPhone Screen Capture<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZGu4FusaQALUGJtALZVTRRr82zZHLRu05vLrNc5O3HSrOxgv4aNgR_OHGbMu2S32krJb2w1WXAXITljU_9_xsTjYv9Dbt0bODZqqfZDKDdPJZZ-s1eEzQbcuyoRpBs-9VZU6/s1600-h/IMG_0001.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZGu4FusaQALUGJtALZVTRRr82zZHLRu05vLrNc5O3HSrOxgv4aNgR_OHGbMu2S32krJb2w1WXAXITljU_9_xsTjYv9Dbt0bODZqqfZDKDdPJZZ-s1eEzQbcuyoRpBs-9VZU6/s400/IMG_0001.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251712488237323554" /></a>
<p><b>To screen grab: </b> While holding the Home button, click the on/off/lock button.</p>
<p>You will find an image file among your photos. Download it to iPhoto. Export as PNG, TIFF or JPEG.</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19714787.post-53218981404365003292008-09-30T05:17:00.020+01:002008-09-30T08:21:39.883+01:00VPN on iPhone L2TP/IPsec<h2>Settings > VPN > Add VPN configuration...</h2>
<h3>To connect to <code>vpn2.net.ed.ac.uk</code> ...</h3>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgboPwggDd5__PozgFyQeaSiMEPPxNuDCnsr8dhjZFaEd7uroswctTOCIFQGOOla1knC73-_1I_0m4GIKD1LWl8BlcH8n5dxlj-Cx8CTpdWqWaniBZzExa_2p62Kcwj0s-4BpgS/s1600-h/IMG_0002.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgboPwggDd5__PozgFyQeaSiMEPPxNuDCnsr8dhjZFaEd7uroswctTOCIFQGOOla1knC73-_1I_0m4GIKD1LWl8BlcH8n5dxlj-Cx8CTpdWqWaniBZzExa_2p62Kcwj0s-4BpgS/s400/IMG_0002.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251678149190893250" /></a>
<dl style="padding-top:220px">
<dt>Account</dt> <dd><your UUN></dd><br />
<dt>Password</dt> <dd><your EASE password></dd><br />
<dt>Secret</dt> <dd><<a href="http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/nsd/vpnclients/l2tpmac.html">find it here</a>><br/>No cheating in the library!</dd>
</dl>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBtFjGAHgOMFysIUXip1PerJKxULh-wNyl3kJ8RH7aMWqYvmxkPVzbvQ5GVroCf8FRKykFV01gr-kcF56bCiGgwxl42w-EIf4yN58yVgqOvxQOgmcos06Sy4tzJWJKE7Xv1o4/s1600-h/IMG_0003.png"><img style="clear:all;float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBtFjGAHgOMFysIUXip1PerJKxULh-wNyl3kJ8RH7aMWqYvmxkPVzbvQ5GVroCf8FRKykFV01gr-kcF56bCiGgwxl42w-EIf4yN58yVgqOvxQOgmcos06Sy4tzJWJKE7Xv1o4/s400/IMG_0003.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251671935810640322" /></a>
<p style="padding-top:70px">Save</p>Michael Fourmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09922003883586518458noreply@blogger.com1