It’s time to give Twitter. I see that it’s too focused for my uses and too few people I know use it. For my usage it’s redundant to the status updates of Facebook and Myspace. I’ve heard of people carrying on long daily group conversations. I’m glad they found each other. Go have fun. I canceled my account.
April 6, 2009
January 30, 2009
local software update
It took a little digging but I got it to work and shared here to be sure working information is out there. The command-line command to be given to unmanaged Macs on a local network so they will look to a local OS X 10.5 Server for software updates is:
> defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://[local_domain_name]:8088/index.sucatalog
or
> defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://10.1.1.9:8088/index.sucatalog.
It didn’t need root access. It needs the “index.sucatalog”. It may or may not need the full path to “com.apple.SoftwareUpdate”, I didn’t test that combination. And the full path never hurts. It doesn’t need quotes around the URL. It needs the port number, in this case the default “8088″ was used. Either an IP address or a fully qualified domain name may be used.
We have an internal DNS server so we’re using a local domain name, just in case the IP address needs to be changed. That way the individual workstations don’t need to be changed.
Don’t you love it when the manual is wrong?
—-
2009-03-04 Another addition: I -really- do want good info out there… I found this explanation and it makes sense:
There are three options, depending on exactly how you want the preference saved:
1. defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL “http://update.server.address:8088/”
This writes the pref only for the user that runs the command, and only affects the GUI Software Update tool.
2. defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL…
Writes the pref system-wide, so any user who runs the GUI tool will get the specified server.
3. sudo defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL…
Writes the pref for the root user, so the command line ’softwareupdate’ tool will use the specified server.
The “index.sucatalog” is not needed.
This would explain my confusion about whether or not to use the full path. To be fair about the manual, it may have said elsewhere that the “defaults” command can effect the individual user or be system wide.
January 8, 2009
IE7 DOM bug
What started today’s examination of Explorer 7 was a coworker pointing out that any activity in one of the search text fields on one page would cause the page to refresh. This only happened in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows. Turns out this is (another) bug in IE7, at least to my understanding of the HTML DOM. It’s my understanding, and other browsers seem to work this way, that an input field’s name and id are separate lists, or namespace, and form input fields can have names and ids. It seems IE7 combines these lists.
On this page we have a search form input field of type “text” with the name “ssn” and a column head cell with the id “ssn”. Some CSS is attached with Javascript to indicate that this table cell is active and clicking on it will refresh the page with items sorted by Social Security number. The table cell object is dereferenced with the Javascript var ssn = document.getElementById(”ssn”); and the sort function (which accepts the data to sort, determines the sort direction, and submits it) is attached with ssn.onclick = function() {DoSort(’ssn’)};. IE7 picks up the earlier occurrence of the form input field with the name “ssn” instead of the table cell element with the id of “ssn”. A text field in a form would be dereferenced with var deref = document.form_name.input_name;.
Microsoft has done enough “unique” things in all of it’s versions of Explorer that I feel pretty confident that this is an error in IE7 and not my misunderstanding of the HTML DOM.
Again: Thanks Microsoft.
oh yeah… the name of one was change to solve the conflict.
OverLib 4.21 is a very good Javascript utility for adding pop-up boxes to a web page. But I discovered today that it wouldn’t display any text in a box that included the italic (<i>) tag in Explorer 7. The box would come up properly proportioned but empty. HTML <span> tags seem to work fine… sort of. One box I have has 15 words. Two sets of two words have the italic open and close tags around them. If the first tag pair is changed to a span with, say, a style of text-decoration:underline the first pair is underlined, as expected, and the second pair is now italic.
For clarity, this HTML show up blank in IE7 in an OverLib pop-up box:
This column shows the <i>source code</i> for Inquiries and <i>service level</i> for all other types.
And this displays:
This column shows the <span style=”text-decoration:underline”>source code</span> for Inquiries and <i>service level</i> for all other types.
It’s fine in other browsers. A better suggestion for a work around is welcome.
Thank you Microsoft.
December 2, 2008
It boots!
Finally I had time to get back to the Gentoo install on that HP Proliant DL360. I guessed at using the i686 stage and portage. I’ve studied way more about the PPC. As far as I can tell from research the Xeon 3.06 512k/1M processor has a 32-bit architecture so I didn’t want the ia64. It seems to be the Gallatin chip. This streaches my expertise on processor architecture!
Last time I stalled out working with Grub. This time I started from scratch thinking I’d use more than the typical three partitions, then decided I’d do a full install using the basic three-partition scheme and see what sizes the directories end up being. This server (my toy) and a new workplace development server will be configured similarly so the work needs to be done anyway. But getting Grub to work with a RAID is a trick. Research took hours. No one site had a complete solution. And one web site suggested it’s too much trouble and to just use a single drive on another bus for the boot partition. They’re cheap enough. At one point I thought of creating a CD image for a boot partition since there’s no space for another drive in this system. Phooey.
So here’s what worked for an HP Proliant DL360 G3 with two Xeon 3.06s and a 5i RAID card with two 36gig SCSI drives partitioned in the standard three partitions and booting from a partition on the hardware RAID.
The file /boot/grub/device.map contains:
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/cciss/c0d0
The file /boot/grub/grub.conf contains:
# This is a sample grub.conf for use with Genkernel, per the Gentoo handbook
# http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10#doc_chap2
# If you are not using Genkernel and you need help creating this file, you
# should consult the handbook. Alternatively, consult the grub.conf.sample that
# is included with the Grub documentation.
default 0
timeout 5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Gentoo Linux 2.6.26-r3
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/cciss!c0d0p3
#initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.24-gentoo-r5
# vim:ft=conf:
Starting grub required this command:
/sbin/grub --batch --device-map=/boot/grub/device.map --config-file=/boot/grub/grub.conf --no-floppy
and running these commands in grub:
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
What a relief. A prompt. Notice some details: the exclamation point in grub.conf in the line containing root=/dev/cciss!c0d0p3 which is different from the way it’s written in device.map. Also be sure to use the command option --batch.
Go for it.
November 25, 2008
Pairing with a car
Gotta love modern technology, like internet search engines… I bought an ‘07 Toyota RAV4 over the weekend to replace an ailing ‘94 Dodge Caravan. I found a used one with nice features that includes built-in handsfree Bluetooth support. But my Palm Treo 755p wouldn’t pair with the RAV4. I tried several times. I took it to the dealer and the salesman couldn’t get it to pair with his iPhone either. The female voice kept saying “Searching…” and times out. I told him I’d try ‘googling’ for more info before making an appointment with the service department. I used the phrase “bluetooth rav4 treo” and found the solution on the first line. It works great: http://rav4world.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14319&sid=8fd590d9de14b98bd29a31754f1d8164
October 31, 2008
no luck
I found this site for helping to configure grub and it got me much further along, but still no luck booting the HP.
http://www.alunduil.com/linux-guides/compaq-smart-array-raid-grub-configuration
The single RAID volume is in the basic 3 partitions: boot, swap, and root; 1, 2, and 3. So what numbers go where in grub.config and manually running grub? The device is seen as /dev/cciss/c0d0 and is mapped into grub’s system which is a little different… and I don’t follow right now.
It’s past time to go home.
This makes me appreciate Apple’s tight control over hardware and software.
October 23, 2008
hp ProLiant DL360 G3
To set the record straight, the proper version for the hp SmartStart CD is 7.20. One site insists that the proper version is 5.50 and it didn’t work. They do did say they were using the same version of the hardware. I’m only venting my frustration here because hp linked me to version 7.20 and I canceled the (long) download to hunt down and download version 5.50 the other user mentioned, only needing to restart 7.20.
And it turns out it doesn’t look like I needed the SmartStart CD right away. It’s got some useful diagnostic utilities, but I was looking for the RAID setup software. The RAID setup command is shown as part of the start up routine and the F-key to start it flashes by very quickly after the 5i initialization is completed. I hadn’t noticed it go by on the first few restarts. By the way, the Gentoo 2008.0 install CD boots just fine.
I’ve decided I’ll be doing tests using both RAID 0 and RAID 1 on the drives. Having only 30gig of available space probably won’t be a limitation for my uses so the safety of RAID 1 looks like the smart thing to do. But the speed increase of interleaved drives looks worth doing some testing. The idea is to tune this system into the snappiest Gentoo server possible. I’ll look into a way to copy everything off so I don’t need to reinstall from scratch after reconfiguring the RAID type.
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new toy
I purchased a used HP ProLiant DL360 (G3) from ebay. It’s got two Xeon 3.06 GHz processors, 2 gig of RAM, and two 36 gig parallel SCSI hard drives with a 5i RAID controller. I figure I can make a super fast web server for a small data set. It only cost $425, including shipping. I’ll configure the two drives in a mirrored array for safety. Any large data sets can be kept on the xserve. This machine will be worth taking the time to tweak the gentoo kernel. I’ve seen on many sites that this is a particularly difficult server to configure. We’ll see how it goes.
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September 29, 2008
Eee PC
I’m trying out my SO’s Eee PC (http://www.asus.com/). I must say the features and size are compelling, along with the price, for the simple portable I’m looking for. The Linux version even has an interactive spell checker, which is pretty much required for me. But this model 900’s keyboard may be too small to get get used to. My fingers are touching each other to stay on the keyboard and the keys need a very firm touch. My hands are large but narrow. The 1000 model with the 10″ screen with 95% full size keyboard rather than 8.9″ might be more appropriate. The screen is bright and clear and both the 900 and 1000 screens are 1024×600. I’d love to have a 10″ screen with maybe 1280×720 resolution.