Rage Against the Museum

Installing Silverlight on OS X

2008-11-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

So I have to use M$ silverlight to get access to course material.
The installer doesn't recognize intel macs as intel macs, so you have to do a little jiggery-pokery to get the plugin working.

Download Silverlight.2.0.pkg
Open Terminal.app
cd ~/Downloads/Silverlight.2.0.pkg/Contents/Resources
./preflight
cd ..
open .

This will open a finder window. Then double click on the archive Archive.pax.gz, this will produce a folder Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/. Open this directory and drag the file Silverlight.plugin to the directory ~/Library/Internet\ Plugin-Ins/.

then in Terminal
cd Resources
./postflight

I don't know if you even need to run the pre- and postflight scripts, but I figured they were there for a reason and that I might as well wave a dead chicken at it.

Recursion

2007-11-25T10:19:00.001-08:00

noun. See Recursion

DARPA Urban Challenge

2007-11-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

Hoo-ray!

Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing team has won the DARPA Urban Challenge. On the first try too.
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp

The Future

2007-10-13T09:04:00.001-07:00

In the future will people look back on us today and our quaint ways? Will going to the cinema be an outmoded extravagance that the upper crust affect? If so, it serves them right, having to sit through 16 hours of William Shatner's "The Tempest".

Tastes Like Chicken

2007-09-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Apple Problems Resolved!

2007-05-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've finally fixed my problem with the AirPort card. I'm returning my computer. Richard, the Apple customer service rep who I spoke with was very accomodating and he understood my problem, namely I need the computer to work, and this one wasn't working, nor was the previous MacBook I had. Hopefully Apple has fixed this problem in the new laptops they have just recently produced, but I don't care any more. Apple, as an institution, is not prepared to admit it has a problem to me, a loyal customer, and did very little to make me feel assured that they were doing anything to fix the problem. So I've left Apple in favour of a Lenovo 12.1" thinkpad. I'll be installing linux on it as soon as I get my Windows Tax Refund

On a side note, Richard the Customer Service rep was very helpful and patient, and he went and got a "one time exception" from the powers that be to allow me to return my laptop. This is in fact not the first time that Richard helped me out like that. The other time was when I was returning the first power adapter that came with my second MacBook. It wasn't properly grounded, so I had it replaced. I returned it too late, and between the jigs and the reels, Richard got me my money back. Richard should be promoted, or get some kind of a bonus. In fact, if all the people who worked at Apple computers were as concerned for the interests of the customers as Richard was, I'd probably still be using Apple computers.

So the moral of the story is: Don't buy Apple products, they seem to be dropping quality in favour of attracting a hipper customer base, and some one give Richard in the customer service department at Apple Canada some more money and a promotion.

Continuing Apple Problems (Part 3)

2007-05-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

I found this forum on Apple's website.

Here the "solution" was to replace the airport card.
Don't know if it solve the problem or not, but if it did, that would give creedence to the theory that Apple is trying to avoid a recall.

Still no word from Atheros.

Continuing Apple Problems (Part 2)

2007-05-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

I called back Apple today and spent an hour on the phone with them. During the course of this call I verfied disk permissions, verified the disk itself (no problems with either) and performed the Apple Hardware Test. Nothing negative came back.

The panic.log file states that the problem is with the AirPortAtheros driver (com.apple.driver.AirPortAtheros(223.47.4)) as per usual. The people I spoke with at Apple did not seem to know that this bug is endemic in the MacBook line, dispite the mumblings that is going on about it on the interweb.

I've contacted Atheros, the supplier of the chips, to see if they know anything about it. While I suspect they won't (because it seems to be a driver problem) I figured it was worth a try anyway. If nothing else it may eliminate unknowns as to where the glitch lies.

Continuing Apple Problems

2007-05-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had my second mac book (Core 2 Duo) for about two months now, and I've had some where in the neighbourhood of eleven kernel panics. I'm definitely not the only person still having this problem:

Click here

Still the same kernel panic message: problems in the Airport Atheros driver.

There have been about three updates to OS 10.4.9 and I'm still having the problem, even after installing AirPort Extreme Update 2007-003. I guess the security who specified in the Month of Kernel Bugs is still open. The best Apple can suggest is to re-install the operating system.

Apple: Please stop playing silly buggers and fix my computer.

Things More Important than Shane Doan

2007-05-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

It may please people to know that our highly paid elected officials have struck a parliamentry committee to investigate alleged racial slurs that the Captian of the Phoenix Coyotes is said to have uttered during a game. In any case the matter was resolved, I'm told, in the framework of the National Hockey League and Doan received disciplinary action for said offenses. More information can be found here.

I have included below a list of some pressing Canadian issues that deserve more of the Parliament's time than who is the captain of the Canadian hockey team. They include but are not limited to:

The war in Afghanistan.

The treatment of detainees from said war in Afghanistan.

The on going problems with health care.

The cost of pharamceuticals.

The lack of action on our committment to the Kyoto protocol.

The pollution caused by the harvesting of crude oil from the Alberta Oil Sands.

The perceived problems with the equalization formula.

Abuse of non-renewable resources.

Homelessness.

Unemployment.

Poverty and the working poor.

Student debt.

The quality of education.

A national science policy.

The tax regime.

How to most effectively screw over Conrad Black.

If the assault by Tod Bertruzzi does not warrant any kind of investigation out side of the NHL, I can't see how people can excuse this gross waste of taxpayers dollars on an issue already resolved by the NHL's disciplinary system.

Boo Hiss Apple

2007-02-26T11:18:00.001-08:00

This is my second negative Apple post. Which is funny, since I've always been a very faithful fan of Apple. I like the way they design things. Unfortunately my brand new MacBook has suffered eight Kernel Panics in the month since I received it. I am not amused. I'm going to be calling Apple to request a replacement. I guess we'll see how it goes. If I get the replacement and it works, I'll be happy, but if not, I suspect I'll be switching to linux.

Boo Hiss Apple

2007-02-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Garlic

2007-02-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

Just this week, for my birthday, I went out to a place in town called Antonio's Garlic Clove. They specialize in garlic. This was very lucky, as I enjoy garlic very much and cook it in most of my food. Do your worst, Antonio.

He did.

To tide us over until the appetizer arrived, we had bread and minced roasted garlic in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was very nice. The appetizer was toasted bread stuffed with brie cheese and roasted garlic cloves. The main course, for me, was the stinking steak. It came in a garlic-cream sauce and was stuffed with garlic, accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes. I enjoyed every bite of it, until the next morning. I think, all-in-all, I must have eaten about four bulbs of garlic. Every pore leaked garlic. Every breath I took reeked of garlic. I could barely move, having this large garlic infused lump in my stomach.

It was worse than the time I drank a Big Tim. Thankfully my I rejected what remained of my meal the next morning. At least the vomit got the taste of garlic out of my mouth.

Shame on you, Apple

2007-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just last night I was going to watch a DVD in my brand spanking new MacBook, when a dialog box popped up. It asked me to select to which DVD region I wanted to set my DVD drive. It also informed me that I had five more opportunities to change this setting. Five. So if I had six DVDs, say three from one DVD region and three from another, and I wanted to watching them in alternating order, i.e. Region 1, Region 2, Region 1, Region 2, Region 1, Region 2, I would then be stuck with a region 2 disc drive.

So my question is: Why? I paid for all those dvds. It is not difficult to make multi-region DVD players, as evidenced by the inexpensive region free dvd drives. It certainly isn't to discourage piracy, because right now, the only thing that will prevent me from using up all my region settings on my dvd player is to download pirated videos. I guess when I buy something it really isn't mine.

The other option is to go mucking about in the guts of my computer, voiding the warranty and possibly irreparably damaging my computador. If this sort of blundering keeps up, I'm switching to linux.

DRM, making the honest people dishonest.

Returning Books

2007-01-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

The other day I was returning text books to the university bookstore. I was asked to present some form of photo ID. Out of my wallet I produced my Newfoundland (& Labrador) driver's licence. Upon seeing this, the lady at the bookstore initiated the following dialog:

Book Store Lady (BSL): C'mon, I want to hear your accent.
Me: My accent?
BSL: Yes.
Me: This is my accent.
BSL:
Me: Most people I know talk like I do.
BSL: I can't hear it.
Me: Well then, what should I sound like?
BSL: I don't know, just funny or something.
Me: <grunts>
BSL: I was just teasing.
Me: Hmmm.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I bought all my text books from Amazon.ca, saved about $40.00, even with expidited shipping. Including the book I returned to the bookstore, which itself cost more because I ordered the expidited shipping. But it was worth it to deprive them of money.

Rage Against the Museum

Installing Silverlight on OS X

Recursion

DARPA Urban Challenge

The Future

Tastes Like Chicken

Apple Problems Resolved!

Continuing Apple Problems (Part 3)

Continuing Apple Problems (Part 2)

Continuing Apple Problems

Things More Important than Shane Doan

More Airport Problems

More People having Apple Problems

Boo Hiss Apple

Boo Hiss Apple

Garlic

Shame on you, Apple

Returning Books