File this under I’ll get to it at some point: Stream Your iTunes Library To your iPhone Over The Web. Eventually, when the new room is done and we upgrade our ancient TV to a modern model, I’m going to set the home server up as a combination file/AV server, and it will be able to stream music and movies. Or, I’ll spring for a $100 MacTV and have that handle all the work (as well as stream on demand from Netflix).
Here’s a great article on how to wake up a sleeping Mac (provided you’ve set it up correctly): Wake on LAN: don’t let sleeping Macs lie.
I entered a month and a half’s worth of 2003 posts from the old weblog over the last couple of days, and it seems like it’s going a bit quicker than the last batch I entered a few months ago. I think my webhost must have finally listened to the survey results I sent in and got me a faster server.
Meanwhile, I’m zeroing out and reformatting the drive on my old 17″ MacBook Pro; every attempt to fix the video issue has met with failure, so I’m going to unload it on Craigslist and see if I can get some money for it.
And, no word yet from the electrician, which means I have to call and reschedule the drywall today (grr).
I just found this very interesting link on the Apple discussion forums regarding my MacBook and its video card. An excerpt:
“…someone mentioned that Apple knows internally that it is an issue with the solder connection between BGA packages and the main board. These machines came out right around when manufacturers were just starting to become ROHS compliant, (the standard that forbids the use of solder containing lead in electronics,) and so it is not surprising to me, (having dealt with some similar issues from the point of view of the manufacturer at work,) that these problems are happening. The lead-free solder is much more brittle than the old kind and solder joints that crack after many thermal cycles are a common problem that everyone trying to use the lead-free solder has had to confront.”
There’s some suggestions about deleting some of the video drivers that basically disable the video card; I’m going to run and get my machine to see if the quick fix works.
After several attempts over the last eight years, I finally sorted out and set up remote login to our home server here at IdiotCentral. To begin, I set up rules for AFP (Apple File Protocol) port forwarding on our FIOS router and created an account at DYNDNS.org. Back in the day their setup was ridiculously obtuse and there was no real good way to confirm things were correctly configured, but things have gotten a little easier. Now, they provide a couple of handy tools to test connectivity and open ports from outside one’s local network, which is a huge help. Once I’d set up the account and tested the open ports, I used a VNC account on a client’s machine to test the connection, and presto! I mounted my drive from their machine.
The next step was to shut down all open ports except for SSH (secure shell) to tunnel AFP and VNC using a method I found here. On first test from work this morning, It didn’t work, but that was because I’d set up one of the port forwarding rules up incorrectly. It’s now working correctly, and I’m connected remotely via SSH, which makes me very happy. Welcome to the new century!
In the future, what I’d really like is a copy of Leopard Server so I could set up proper share points and define users and groups, all of which would add layers of security to the existing setup. For now, what I may do is use the router’s built-in scheduling to close everything down after business hours so the port is only open for a short while.
My colleague Aaron let me know about a recall program for some MacBook Pro models, which may or may not be the source of my video woes. I’m going to make an appointment at the Apple Store early next week to bring it in and have it tested, in the hopes that the video card issue is the root of the problem. If it is, and we can get it fixed, I can give it to Jen for use as a utility laptop and backup machine, which would be fantastic.
Update: My video card isn’t the Nvidia model covered under the program; it’s an ATI 1600. Oh, well.
File this under “Duh”: AT&T is now the worst carrier, according to Consumer Reports. Seriously, Verizon, I hope you get the iPhone early next year like I’ve heard.
Recently I’ve been researching the process of archiving my ancient email from the turn of the millenium. The whole process got started when I decided to cull my collection of old Mac hardware, including 4 old laptops from the basement which don’t work anymore. The day I’ll need to resurrect another Pismo is long since gone, so I’m ditching three carcasses as well as a Titanium shell.
So, what I’ve got is a CD with an Outlook Express 5 (Mac) database, and I’d like to (in the best possible outcome) convert the email to text so that it’s out of a proprietary format. I got a version of OE5 running on a spare laptop (my venerable old Powerbook 1400) and found a script that converts an OE mailbox into individual .EML files. I should be able to crack open an .EML file into text to at least read the headers and message data.
The other method I found was to set up a spare IMAP mailbox and point OE5 at it; uploading mailboxes and messages to the IMAP folder converts them, and then they can be pulled down by a newer email client which can save them out as something else.
In the meantime, with all of the spare time I’ve got, I’m gonna re-burn the CD with the database, the converted files, a copy of the script linked above, and an install of OE5 for the future, when I’ve forgotten what I did with the text archive and I need to do this all over again.
I’m filing this one away under Future Upgrades: Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It, from Daring Fireball. I’ve finally belatedly made the switch from Safari to Firefox after multiple crashes and worry about unencrypted HTTP headers, and I think another timely upgrade would be disabling Flash in my browser altogether. There are things I like about Safari (most importantly the RSS subscription counter) that I’m purposely giving up for added security, given the amount of logging in I do on a daily basis. I’ve noticed that when I boot up Safari on my G5 server at the house the fan spins up and the hard drive starts spinning almost immediately—this on a system with 2GB of RAM.
I purchased a used display inverter off eBay a week ago, figuring I’d give IdiotCentral (My 17″ MacBook Pro) one last shot at usefulness before putting her up for sale. This morning at work I took 15 minutes to crack the case and drop the part in, and closed everything back up with my fingers crossed. Upon first boot, the lower half of the screen was still obscured, but after about thirty seconds all the lines disappeared and I was looking at my Dock for the first time in eight months. I just ran some updates and plugged it in to charge the battery, and now I’m wondering what I should do with this thing. The lines might come back, which makes me a little hesitant to try and sell it, but I don’t want it crapping out on us again. I’d love to hand it off to Jen to use as a backup machine for presentations and travel, which is what I’m leaning towards right now, but I’m afraid it’ll start acting up on her right when she needs it the most. What to do?
(I’m also realizing how much I like the new keyboard style better than the old. What a difference!)