Ultranormal

Category: computing

  • Note To Self: Read

    When not on vacation, go read Web Design Practices.

  • I Think I Screwed Up

    I decided to give Scoop a try on my laptop. I figured the install would be relatively Movable Type-like. Guess again. It comes with this little install script that’s now been running for over an hour compiling and installing thing, asking me question after question, and… I hope I didn’t just make a very large mistake. But, if I did just hose everything, at least I’ll have a good reason to wipe the hard drive and install Panther fresh with it comes out next week.

    I don’t know what it is with me and beta software. I’ve come to realize over the years that I’m a compulsive installer/updater. I run Software Update on all my systems (Mac, XP, RedHat) at least once a week, and am almost always willing to install crazy beta/alpha software for no good reason. I think maybe I need help.

    UPDATE: Still compiling… That’s two hours. I think we’re up to compiling the kitchen sink and a new mach kernel. I compiled Mozilla several times on my old G3 Powerbook running YellowDog, and I thought that took forever. Scoop takes the cake… really. I know it’s compiling a lot of Perl stuff, but this is insane.

  • Great Freakin Wallpaper

    Oh yeah, it’s time to beautify your desktop with some gorgeous wallpaper via the fine folks at Veer. Ultra-swank and incredibly varied for one little place. You will like it, I promise.

  • Another OS X Tip

    Have trouble with your Mac hanging up during boot, or have weird application problems you’re not quite sure how to fix (like jEdit all of a sudden stops working)? Try booting into single-user mode!

    1. Reboot, and hold down the Apple key and S.

    2. When you finally get a command prompt, type: fsck -y and hit Enter.

    3. When it finishes, type: reboot and hit Enter

    If that doesn’t fix, then you’re in real trouble and need to seek professional help.

  • I Am Geek Yenta!

    I just found out that a girl I used to sit next to four years ago is getting married in December to a guy that used to work in our Unix help desk. It turns out that I introduced them over four and a half years ago!

    First, he gave her an IP address and a login, then he stole her heart. I freakin’ love geek love stories! And I’m a part of this one! I am the Geek Yenta!!

  • Validate While It Lasts

    The front page of this site officially validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional!! The layout’s been fine for a while, but the posts usually broke the validator in the past. Now, the posts (at least the ones on the front page) are fine, and I think will be in the future. Ahhhh, bask in the glory of my geekiness with me. Doesn’t it feel nice?

  • Keep Your Mac Happy

    It’s the Mac Maintenance Post! Working where I do, us Mac users are outnumbered big time, so calling our internal help group for Mac help is practically futile. So, my boss, my pal and I (all in the same group and all Mac users – go figure) troubleshoot most of our own problems. Here’s a list of indispensible Mac utilities and sites that make our lives easier, and if you’ve got a Powerbook or a computer that’s not on 24/7, will makes your’s better too:

    • MacJanitor: Runs all the maintenance scripts that are supposed to run in the middle of the night. If you turn your machine off at night, they never run, which will make your Mac crawl like mine did until I ran this.

    • RebuildDesktopX: Takes you back to the good ol’ days of Apple+Option booting, doesn’t it? Nope, this is just a little application and does some magical cache deleting and really helped me get some speed back.

    • OS X Troubleshooting: A great site for OS X tips and tricks to keep your Mac happy.

  • Happy in Many Languages

    Hey look, I may be sick, but I can make people happy in many different languages. I think I comprehended most of it, and Beto’s very happy to have Movable Type installed on his iMac… and so am I.

    Yes, I’m still sick. Not sick enough to stay home (that’s a pretty high threshold for me), but sick enough that I can’t do much else besides work. I’m not keeping up with my blog reading, e-mail or anything else outside of work and home. I don’t have anything to say except my freakin’ head hurts. Why won’t this snot leave? Get out of my sinuses!!

  • Painted Photos

    Thanks to Dawn’s great post on photographic paintings, I’ve had an hour’s worth of fun tweaking some of the pics from today’s farmer’s market outing. Here’s one of them. I like the photo, the peppers in the photo, and this thing:

  • Great Idea – A Better Browser