1. Software Update runs…
2. You are forced to reboot or shutdown…
3. You select reboot…
4. After the chime, you get only a white screen; no Apple logo even appears.
Solution: Disconnect your iPod from the Mac.
This has happened to me twice, and I never remember to eject the damned thing before clicking “Reboot”.
Duh.
This is what the Firefox browser displays when you accidentally introduce recursion into the web application you’re developing, resulting in an infinite loop.
For example: When the pages you plan to use for user authentication… um… require the user to have already been authenticated to view them… and so redirects back to itself infinitely.
(emphasis mine) For the user, it means “someone did something wrong”.
For the developer, it means “you fucked up, buddy!”
In the comments of that post, Gregg points out a bit of handy shell scripting, but it’s not quite complete.
The real command (at least on OS X) is:
find /path/to/dir -name "*" -exec md5 '{}' > /path/to/outputfile \;
The only variables above are /path/to/dir where you specify the path from root for the directory you want to investigate, and /path/to/outputfile where you specify the path from root and filename where you want the results of your MD5 checksums to be saved. Of course, you could change the * part of the command to filter the results to certain file types or names e.g., “*.txt”.
So… you’d run that on 2 different directory trees (say, a live filesystem and its backup), then run diff on the 2 output files to compare their contents. I will use the diff that’s built into BBEdit; I find it easier to understand.
Although Gregg already conveyed that this was neither original nor amusing, a quick Google search indicates that it has the potential to be both. It’s a thought I had today at work while smoking outside.
You know you’re getting old when you ignore the subversive qualities inherent in the number 666, and wonder why anyone in their right mind would make the Antichrist world-writable.
In my WordPress dashboard, I see “Top Posts from around WordPress.com”. I notice a post titled “Facebook Games: Scrabulous Is Fabulous“, which links to another titled, “Facebook’s Viral Hit Game: The Brains Behind the Brain Eaters“. This last story mentions, “Cameron Ring (co-founder of Plaxo)”.
I’d never heard of Plaxo, but it looks kinda cool. Anyway, Cameron Ring interned for us at work a number of years ago; even back then… before he headed off to Stanford… he was one helluva smart kid. He’s the one who taught me how to do octal permission bits in Linux back when I was learning the basics of system administration.
Huzzah to you, Mr. Ring.
I hold down multiple roles at work. Because I have nothing else to ‘blog about today, I figured I’d give you (few) regular readers a glimpse into the hell, hubris, and humor I experience via email Monday through Friday.
Yesterday - Internal Website Admin.
Auto Notifier: (to me) Error - The site is having technical difficulties with this page. An error has been logged, and the problem will be fixed as soon as possible. Sorry!
Me: (to Sec’y) This should be fixed now.
Her: wow… you’re like the wizard of oz
Me: Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Today - Product Development
Bug Tracker: (to me) Reset / Power buttons broken. Reporter: newkid. Owner: me. Type: defect. Priority: critical.
Me: (to newkid) Running from trunk SVN on my machine — cannot replicate this problem. Let me know when you’re around so you can demonstrate.
Bug Tracker: (to me) Changes (by newkid): Status: new => closed. Resolution: => invalid. Comment: After more testing, found the problem doesn’t lie in the buttons, but with some underlying networking issue on my machine.
Today - Marketing
Me: Yo [Engineer], how about a big glitzy press release for the [huge contract] award, eh?
Him: That’s a great idea!
Me: I’m glad you think so! I patiently await your first draft.
——————
Am I a dick, or what?!
This is a fairly basic how-to, if you’re already familiar with Linux and/or OS X.
There are many different ways to empty the “Trash” in OS X; there are keyboard shortcuts, menu options, right-clicking magic, etcetera.
All of these methods, however, will permanently delete trashed files on all the mounted volumes (disks). E.g., the standard “Empty Trash” will kill everything in Trash from your standard Mac’s hard drive (Macintosh HD), as well as things you’ve trashed off your iPod, and everything in Trash from that USB thumb drive… if you happen to have them connected to the machine.
But…
What if you want to kill only the trashed files from the iPod to free up some disk space?
The only way I know how to do it is to launch the Terminal.app (inside Applications>Utilities) and manually delete the files directly from the command line. For example, let’s say your iPod is named “My iPod”. You’d navigate to:
/Volumes/My\ iPod/.Trashes/
… and tell it to delete the files therein.
I’ve purposefully excluded the actual commands that you’d issue in Terminal to do this… to save some poor n00b from accidentally nuking their shit and complaining to me that I fucked ‘em over.
Anyway, every mounted volume has its own “.Trashes” directory. Do what you need to do, and free up the disk space on that other device, and save the trashed files on your main HDD that you just might need tomorrow.
There’s a new guy at work who insists that the use of “to whom” is archaic. His incorrect opinion, therefore, earns him the traditional MMH pseudonym of “The Unlettered Python Expert”, or TUPE for short.
So, TUPE comes into my office yesterday with a problem: He cannot connect to our shared file server (which runs Mac OS X Server 10.4.x) from his Linux box using SMB. He experienced the same problem a couple of weeks ago, but during my troubleshooting efforts the Server Admin utility stopped responding altogether. I had to reboot the whole thing anyway, and dismissed his inability to connect as some fux0r’d daemons and whatnot.
That wasn’t the case yesterday (and probably wasn’t the first time).
To make sure the SMB server was handling shit properly, I connected to it from my Mac using the traditional Apple+k keystroke, standard “smb://” server address, and my username & password. Success.
Next, I tried it from the Terminal application (command line) using smbclient, as he had tried from his box, again using my login credentials:
~ $ smbclient -U myname //1.1.1.1/SHARENAME Password: (entered the right one) Domain=[XSERVE] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.0.10] smb: />
Success.
Aside: The above command will implicitly attempt to connect to the remote server (1.1.1.1) on port 445, which is the canonical SMB Domain Server port. If you wish to connect directly to port 139 (the “pure” SMB port), you must specify “-p 139″ somewhere in the command (as I’ve done below). Add “-d 3″ to the command to turn on debugging level 3, which will display IPs, ports, etc. if you want to see stuff like that.
Then, I tried it again from my box, but this time using TUPE’s username and password:
~ $ smbclient -U username -p 139 //1.1.1.1/SHARENAME Password: (entered one) session setup failed: NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE
Failure? Agony!
This pointed to something wrong with his user account on the server. Naturally, I assumed that I’d supplied an incorrect password, and exhausted that possibility.
By this time, the Workgroup Manager app had been launched, and I was fucking around with his user account in an unholy manner. Going through it all, I noticed that my (working) user account was using a “Shadow” password, whereas his (b0rk’d) account was using a “Crypto” password.
Conclusion #1: The SMB server on OS X Server 10.4.x requires an account use shadow passwords.
Aha! Time to fix it. Go in, change his account to use shadow, re-enter his password a couple of times, and save it. Refresh the page…
“Crypto” Goddamnit!
Attempt the same procedure 4 to 23 more times. Utter “goddamnit!” 4 to 23 more times. The stupid GUI won’t let me change it!
Time to read up on some Apple Support docs, eh? I finally found one that says:
Only users whose accounts reside in the local directory domain can have a shadow password.
Huh? WTF is a “local directory domain”? As the “administrator”, am I supposed to know? Cuz fuck if I do! Further down:
Click the small globe icon above the list of users and choose from the pop-up menu to open the local directory domain where the user’s account resides.
“Small globe icon”? WTF? I can’t see any small globe…
Yeah, so there it is. Note also that the line of text next to that elusive little prick of an icon reads, “Authenticated as xxxxxxxx to directory: /NetInfo/root”. Could this be the problem? Click the little bastard…
Oh, shit… I can change that! I still don’t know WTF a “local directory domain” is, but that fuckin’ pulldown has a “Local” option! Select that.
Now the line of text reads, “Authenticated as xxxxxxxx to local directory: /NetInfo/DefaultLocalNode”.
Go back to his user account, change it to use shadow, do the password dance, and save it. Refresh the page…
“Shadow” w00t!
Conclusion #2: Make sure that you have “Local” selected in that crappy little pulldown menu if you experience problems doing shit to the user accounts on the server.
Try the connection again:
~ $ smbclient -U username -p 139 //1.1.1.1/SHARENAME Password: (entered the right one) smb: />
Success.
Sure, the title and sub aren’t all that original (and probably redundant). Either way, this is only my latest attempt at catching up after an unintended posting hiatus.
In roughly chronological order:
1. Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup. Congratulations to them and all their fans. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that Ottawa would have at least tried to put up some semblance of a fight by way of competition in the Finals. And, yes, all of us were proven rubes. You should be ashamed of yourselves, Ottawa Senators… you got beat down worse than Chuck Liddell, and that’s saying a hell of a fuckin’ lot. You were all my collective heroes (you’re in there, too, Chuck), and you ended up on your backs. Despite my disappointment–and Erin’s trying to assuage said–I vetoed her channel change to watch the Ducks accept and enjoy the Cup. There is no more goosebump-inducing (read: thrilling) ceremony than that.
2. Given the obvious lack of interest in our townhouse, we lowered the asking price from $409,900 to $399,900. It may not elicit more interest, but at least it will put the place closer to the top of people’s real estate website search results.
3. After lowering the price, our realtor was verbally assaulted by some rude fuck in an orange Kia (Erin hawked him) who called her (the realtor, not Erin) from in front of the place. According to him, this is a blue-collar neighborhood, and we will never sell the townhouse for the price we’re asking. Had I been on the phone with that particular asshole, I would have told him to consult my next-door, blue-collar neighbor who paid $440k for his home less than 6 months ago. Aside from my neighbor’s being despondent at our asking price, he would have told DickHead that he’s been working, fixing up the place for almost as long as he’s owned it. It’s only KiaBoy’s fault that he can’t secure financing to land some shit he wants… and maybe his Dad’s fault for calling him a dumbfuck every day… or giving him the belt for spying on his mother in the shower… or making him touch some manwhore’s cock. Either way, it’s not the goddamned realtor’s fault. Lay off the smack, and put some change in the piggy bank, Fuck-O.
4. We had our second showing… and it wasn’t FuckoKiaAngryBoyWhoLovesTheCock.
5. We watched the final episode of “Sopranos”. Immediately after cut-to-black, I felt gyped… Journey-rockin’ notwithstanding. But after reading all the press surrounding the “please make it end like I want it to” and “immediate gratification” and “we hate our day-to-day lives, so please dear god allow us to enjoy some closure by way of a bloodbath” bullshit… I’m cool with the way it all ended. Plus, there was Journey!
6. Steve Jobs’ Apple WWDC keynote speech. BFD. For those who aren’t playing along at home, that stands for “big fucking deal”. Everyone’s bitching about the iPhone developer announcement. Basically, The Steve said: “Make a cool web app, and then hit it using iPhone’s Safari web browser… bickity-bam, iPhone application! No SDK! These aren’t the droids you’re looking for!” The Jedi mind trick doesn’t work here, Steve. You’re full of shit. It’s not an iPhone application if it’s not… hrm… native to the iPhone itself? Cockbag.
7. At work we had yet another PowerBook death, and a resurrection of the one-in-house-Windows-box drama-slash-hatred. Resolution? Undetermined.
8. Our third “open house” is coming up this weekend. Hopefully, a single person will show up to check out the place during the realtor-scheduled-viewing-window. That would beat the first two “open houses” by… infinity. You can’t divide by zero, folks.
9. We’re going to Virginia Beach for my sister-in-law’s wedding. That’s Erin’s sister… not the chick who married my brother. Jesus… are you even trying to follow me here? Also happening on Saturday: Sean & Michelle’s wedding in Toronto. Congratulations all around!
10. Chris Gratton back in Tampa?! WTFAYFKMHBANTCOTLF? (what the fuck are you fucking kidding me he’s back and not the cornerstone of this lightning franchise)? He is “the ideal third-line center” nowadays… and that is some sweet, sweet irony-slash-karma-slash-fuck-you-chris-gratton action right there.
Nice to talk to you; hope to do it again soon.
|
