Sparcitecture

Googling for an XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant way to post a YouTube video to my blog, I found my answer.

If you use Textpander (as I do) you can create a shortcut (I use <you) to call the following macro:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/%|"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/" /></object>


The new Last.fm OSX client is teh sux0r. Why? Well let me tell you:

1. I don’t need an application to fetch artist and track info for a song I already have in my iTunes library.
2. iScrobbler sat in the menubar and did its job quietly. The new client requires me to have a window on my desktop just to submit tracks.
3. The new client constantly restarts the Finder, even though I am using Path Finder instead. Killing the Finder just causes a relaunch.

Apple introduced a slight change with the latest security release that I found really annoying. You must now remove group or other permissions for your .ssh/config file (i.e. chmod 600) or any connections that are defined in your config will fail.

[tags]apple,security,bugs,tech,osx[/tags]

After installing the 10.4.7 update to OSX and installing the newest versions of PithHelmet, SafariStand, and Saft, I have been seeing a recurring problem with Safari. Periodically, after a download completes or when switching application focus, Safari becomes completely unresponsive - I am forced to switch to another application and do a “Force Quit” to kill Safari. Removing all of the above extensions seems to stop the problem - I will have to add them back one at a time to see which one is the culprit.

Update: Removing SafariStand seems to eliminate the freezes for now.

[tags]apple,osx,safari,bugs[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]

Later patch levels of Solaris 8 break ipfilter installations. You cannot trust ipfstat in this case - it will still show a running ruleset even though it is not in effect.

Symptoms to look for include:

• The message “pfil not configured for firewall/NAT operation” when issuing a ipfboot stop/start/reload.
• A “/kernel/drv/sparcv9/pfil symbol miocpullup multiply defined” message when booting.
• The pfil module not listed when you do an ifconfig modlist.

If you have this problem download new copies of pfil and ip_filter (or do a “make clean” if you still have the old sources) and then remove the definition of miocpullup() at the end of pfil/SunOS/pfildrv.c (remove the entire if clause) and recompile pfil and ip_filter.

[tags]solaris,ipfilter,howto[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]

Does anyone want to start a company selling “security audits” to gullible organizations and then just run some freely available open-source applications? Apparently you can make good money doing it.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Yesterday I followed the ifixit hard drive replacement guide to upgrade the drive in my Powerbook to a 5400rpm 100GB unit. I have to say their instructions were dead-simple to follow, although I was distracted while dealing with a work crisis. It only took about an hour and a half. Then I found out that I left off two rubber bumpers on the drive to isolate it from shock and had to do it again today. Time to disassemble and reassemble — 30 minutes.

Make sure you print out their handy screw guide before you start. I used double-sided tape to make sure none of the microscopic screws roamed off. Having the right tools really helps as well.

[tags]mac,hardware,tech,howto[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]

RadTech (finally) has three new rechargeable bluetooth mice:

RadTech intros new Bluetooth Mice:
RadTech has just added three new Bluetooth mice to their line up. The BT100 and the BT300 are both designed for the mouser on the go, whilst the five button BT600 is designed to roam your desktop. The interesting thing about all three of these mice is that they have internal batteries that recharge via an included USB cable. Now that’s clever.

I checked with RadTech and their older model with a USB cable will slowly trickle charge NiMH batteries if you use those. Regular batteries could swell and leak.

[tags]mac,hardware,bluetooth[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]

Type the following into a terminal when the Tivo server is not running.

defaults write com.tivo.desktop FileVideo -dict-add VideoUIEnabled -bool true

Start the server and you can share movies from the Mac to your Tivo.

[tags]mac,osx,tivo,dvr,hacks[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]

If you don’t live near me and you have a Linksys WRT-54G, I cannot recommend the HyperWRT firmware highly enough. It allowed me to turn up the gain on my router, increasing the signal-to-noise ratio enough that my neighbors wireless networks no longer cause interference.

Take that, puny neighbor’s wireless network.

[tags]tech,networking,wireless,linux[/tags]

[composed and posted with ecto]