The Sect of Rama

Since I was due for a Leopard upgrade, and the opportunity presented itself for a hardware refresh as well- I've upgraded from my first MBP Pro (2.33GHz core 2 duo, 2GB ram) to this 2.6GHz core 2 duo, 4GB ram). [Yes, its good to have a boss that loves hardware even more than I do. :)] The transition has- thus far- turned me into an ever bigger Apple fan.

When first powering on new Mac, it asks you if you want to transfer data from another Mac. Matthew reminded me of this option before I made the jump, so I borrowed Igor's firewire-to-firewire cable (which apparently is the only supported mode of data transfer) and gave it a shot. Worst case, I'd just blow it all away with another fresh install and I'd be none the worse.

About two hours later, all of my user data and applications were migrated to the new machine. Easiest. Upgrade. EVAR. It looks like just my old box, only running fanshy smanshy Leopard now, and on snappier hardware. Lightroom photos looked brighter than before (I really need to get my displays calibrated...), the Cisco VPN didn't work (but I found a fix on a Sun blog. Nice!), and the annoying "BONG!" startup sound returned, even though I confirmed Startup Sound was still enabled and supposedly muting it (reinstalling the app fixed it. too bad apps can't include version dependencies like Firefox extensions.)

So far so good. I'm leaving the obnoxious Leopard background image in place for now until I had over my old laptop- thats how much they look a like! Time will show if I made the jump to Leopard too soon-- but the OSX upgrade option was a total cakewalk!


UPDATE: It seems Parallels is totally fubared by the upgrade. I'll be curious to see if reinstalling the Parallels app resurrects my XP instance, or that needs to be reinstalled as well. Also, the new MBP and/or Leopard means it takes a significantly longer time for the laptop to suspend when I close it. No idea why, but its kinda annoying.

After receiving another thermometer this Christmas, it seemed time to take inventory. In rough order of most to least used:

• The latest to join the collection is the Super-Fast Thermapen 5. Spendy, but really worth it. Its the closest thing to instant read for a probe style thermometer I've ever seen. I'll never use another meter when grilling.
• Stoker (really a PID with a NIC). I've blogged about it lots before.
• Craftsman 82327 Infrared. My first infrared and still my favorite. (I've got a 2nd one not pictured- a ThermoHAWK 400- but I just don't like it, as cute as it it.)
• Pyrex remote probe. It saw some use when BBQ'ing before I got the Stoker, but most of its time it sits in the kettle when brewing beer.
• Fischer Scientific (NIST calibrated). Roy gave me this I'm guessing 8 years ago. At the time, I was using a dial thermometer that took a good couple minutes to reach temp. I used it for grilling, brewing, and just about everything before I got the infrared (for surface temps only), then even longer until I got the Thermapen. Now I can't believe I waited so long before getting the Thermapen-- this thing will be relegated to the drawer graveyard from now on. Besides taking maybe 10-12 seconds to finalize the temp, the probe is so thick that whatever piece of meat you wedge it into is sure to release copious fluids.
• Not pictured, a KitchenAid oven thermometer-- to keep the oven thermostat honest. Remarkably both the oven and the KitchenAid report the same temps, so this doesn't see much action-- but highly recommended if you've never checked out your oven.

There were a few others that didn't make the list, but they've long been donated away to the less well equipped. The only outstanding "thermometer" on my wishlist now is a PID controller for my espresso machine-- but I keep holding out for that Silvia upgrade first. Someday...

No need for a HOWTO, because its very simple, but I still feel like a kid in a candy store when you can ssh into something. The commands available however are much more extensive that the SLUG, without the need to install additional packages- see below. This did make me think to enable JFFS2, hang a thumbdrive off the router, and use that as a DMZ for remote file transfer rather than NATing my NAS and the associate risk of it being exposed on the raw interwebs.

$ ssh -l root *******.ath.cx
DD-WRT v24 mini (c) 2007 NewMedia-NET GmbH
Release: 10/10/07 (SVN revision: 8151)
root@*******.ath.cx's password: 
==========================================================
 
 ____  ___    __        ______ _____         ____  _  _ 
 | _ \| _ \   \ \      / /  _ \_   _| __   _|___ \| || | 
 || | || ||____\ \ /\ / /| |_) || |   \ \ / / __) | || |_ 
 ||_| ||_||_____\ V  V / |  _ < | |    \ V / / __/|__   _| 
 |___/|___/      \_/\_/  |_| \_\|_|     \_/ |_____|  |_| 
 
                       DD-WRT v24
                   http://www.dd-wrt.com
 
==========================================================


BusyBox v1.4.2 (2007-10-10 00:47:21 CEST) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

~ # uptime
 17:43:11 up 22 days, 20:52, load average: 0.01, 0.00, 0.00
~ # ls /usr/bin
[           du          id          nohup       tail        uniq
[[          env         install     nslookup    tee         uptime
awk         expr        killall     printf      telnet      uudecode
basename    find        less        reset       test        uuencode
clear       free        logger      rx          time        wget
cmp         ftpget      md5sum      scp         top         which
cut         ftpput      mesg        sort        tr          whoami
dc          head        mkfifo      ssh         traceroute  xargs
dirname     hexdump     nc          strings     tty         yes
~ # ls /usr/sbin
bcrelay           dropbearkey       mtd               svqos
bird              dropbearmulti     nas               svqos2
bpalogin          dumpleases        nas4not           tc
brctl             ebtables          nas4wds           telnetd
chroot            epi_ttcp          ntpclient         udhcpc
cron              httpd             nvram             udhcpd
dbclient          igmprt            pppd              upnp
dhcp_lease_time   inadyn            pptp              wiviz
dhcp_release      ip                pptpctrl          wl
dhcpfwd           iptables          pptpd             wlconf
dnsmasq           iptables-restore  radius-client     wol
dropbear          l2tp-control      radiusallow       wrt-radauth
dropbearconvert   l2tpd             radiusdisallow
~ # top
Mem: 15220K used, 15096K free, 0K shrd, 1684K buff, 5432K cached
Load average: 0.00 0.01 0.00
  PID USER     STATUS   RSS  PPID %CPU %MEM COMMAND
18362 root     R        340 18356  0.9  1.1 top
 2222 root     S        872     1  0.0  2.8 httpd
18354 root     S        596 17669  0.0  1.9 dropbear
    1 root     S        472     0  0.0  1.5 init
18356 root     S        436 18354  0.0  1.4 sh
17572 root     S        408     1  0.0  1.3 wland
17669 root     S        372     1  0.0  1.2 dropbear
17569 root     S        368     1  0.0  1.2 dnsmasq
17900 root     S        360     1  0.0  1.1 upnp
17802 root     S        332     1  0.0  1.0 igmprt
17804 root     S        316     1  0.0  1.0 process_monitor
   11 root     S        304     1  0.0  1.0 watchdog
17539 root     S        304     1  0.0  1.0 resetbutton
17807 root     S        296     1  0.0  0.9 inadyn
17662 root     S        276     1  0.0  0.9 cron
17993 root     S        252     1  0.0  0.8 udhcpc
    3 root     SWN        0     1  0.0  0.0 ksoftirqd_CPU0
    8 root     SW         0     1  0.0  0.0 mtdblockd
    2 root     SW         0     1  0.0  0.0 keventd
    6 root     SW         0     1  0.0  0.0 kupdated
    4 root     SW         0     1  0.0  0.0 kswapd

Between my evangelizing Macs as replacements for Windows laptop users- and later getting the "what should I install?" question, and wanting to finally pull the trigger on an OS 10.5.1 upgrade and fearing I'll have to do a fresh re-install should it go wrong, I thought now would be a good time to document the applications I feel are worth going with from the start, in no particular order. Perhaps my Mac guru friends can do the same and I'll realize I'm going about it all wrong...

• Firefox
• Thunderbird
• Adium
• Chicken of the VNC
• Netbeans 6 with Glassfish v2
• Lightroom
• Twitterific
• LittleSnitch
• MenuMeters
• Xcode
• N
• SkeyCalc
• iTerm (Leopard belatedly brings tabs to the stock Terminal app, so I may end up punting this)
• DarwinPorts
• Cisco VPN
• Parallels
• QuickSilver (installed but never became a power user)
• Flip4Mac
• Flickr Uploadr
• Gallery Remote
• Startup Sound to disable that annoying BONG!
  
  
  

Inspired by Skrocki's list, I thought I'd post one of my own. I'm not sharing this in hopes someone will play Santa- most of these are quite expensive- more so y'all know what kinda of stuff I'm interested in.

• SteriPEN Adventurer Handheld Water Purifier. I like backpacking, and the idea of surviving major catastrophes. :) I don't like chemicals or filters that can expire. Not sure what the shelf life of the Steripen is, but I suspect its much better than the alternatives. Plus its so easy and cool lookin.
• Old World style cast iron grinder. Ever since watching an episode of Good Eats, I've meant to get into making my own sausage.
• Audi S5. Its hawt.
• A Harris bipod, Leupold Mark 4 scope and a versatile, all-around hunting rifle equally capable of bringing down wild boar or deer. [ahem, homemade sausage] Any suggestions?
• A Honda HRR216K3VXA rear-bagging mower. I'm actually pleased with my econo mulching mower for the price point, but this time of year, there are so many leaves on the ground I would love to just roll over them with a mower and have then mulched and bagged 'for free'. Plus I see myself mowing lawns for some time to come, so getting a nice mower makes sense.
• Nikon 18-200VR. Allen is showing this really is a versatile all-around single lens (although the nighttime shots are curiously missing from his Flickr contributions?) Paired with one of my wide aperture lens however, this might be the only 2 lens I really need.
• Aprilia SMV 750 Dorsoduro. Perhaps the first motard I like, but the maintenance schedule will likely scare me away, just like the other Aprilias.
• A much larger burner and kettle for beer making. (Seriously tempted to get natural gas plumbed out to the backyard so I can quit dorking around with propane tanks too.) My 7.5 gallon turkey fryer setup is nice and portable, but the 6 gallon batch capacity means I'm brewing more often than I'd like to be. The flip side is the beer is always fresh, but at least with more capacity I have options.
• Dr Suess Blue Green Abelard. Spied this in a gallery in Denver about 10 years ago and regret not getting it. Now they're selling for insane amounts I wouldn't consider paying, but it doesn't mean I still don't want it.
• NEW:Rancilio Rocky doserless burr grinder.

After spending way too much time debugging my router issues earlier, I postponed the upgrade to DD-WRT. Just didn't want to deal anymore, and even if it went totally smoothly, I'd still have to re-enter my DDNS, MAC address filters, etc once the firmware was replaced... or so I thought.

Tonight I bit the bullet and installed v24 RC4, expecting some pain (ahem, without RTFM first.) It was ridiculously simple! After the upgrade, the first thing I did was Google for the default admin user/pass then go to change it. After applying the changes, most of the text went to gibberish (ex: "??????Xs?/??"). Sonofa-- I knew it was too easy. Well it turns out the same page that allows you to change your user/pass also has a language selection dropdown that defaults to Chinese for some reason. Luckily, the guys who wrote it didn't do a proper job, and the drop-downs and mouse-overs on the menus were still in English, and I was able to find and revert this. Phew. Crisis averted.

So I start poking around, digging out my MAC address list from the personal wiki, and realize the MAC address list in the router is already populated with my earlier list-- they didn't get clobbered in the upgrade! Seems my DDNS settings survived also (good thing too, I never remember my password for dydns.org). Woot! I'll definitely be first in line to jump on future release candidates, now that I've learned it really is a painless process. The interface is much more intuitive, and is way more feature rich. I had no idea you could crank up the TX power so high (Default: 28, Range: 0 - 251mW). I wonder if that puts out more radiation than an old CRT. ;)

I'm a gadget and a speed freak, so this article [via Roy] on the quest to set the new cross-country speed record was a fun read:

White lines scroll through the windshield and mile markers tick past the tires as Roy flips a series of toggles on the center console, killing the brake lights (to prevent telltale flashes if he needs to slow for sudden radar), then flips a few more to illuminate the cockpit with night-vision-friendly red LEDs. The cockpit glows like a submarine at battle stations. Now Roy punches up the digital codes corresponding to the New Jersey State Police on the police scanner. The car fills with the coded squawk of emergency dispatchers, speeding motorcycles, and domestic quarrels.

A bit long, but if you hang in for the first page, you're sure to be hooked to finish it. Apparently this video inspired the driver some time ago.

I'm running OSX 10.4.10 on a Macbook Pro that sits behind the same router as several other machines. However only the MBP exhibits delays on DNS lookups- I'm talking 5+ seconds. Whats the deal?

I picked up a TomTom GO 510 GPS last week, here are my early thoughts:

• Apple-like packaging/setup: drop in the memory card, power it on. done.
• setup asks for your language choice first, then asks if you want left or right handed. woohoo! go southpaws!
• it didn't know the correct time automagically- is this not via the GPS satellites?
• type-ahead suggestions for selecting cities/streets is fast- decent CPU and/or software.
• route planing includes walking and bicycling routes, however the unit is fairly bulky to consider carrying in your hand.
• includes a real-time traffic update *option*. you need a BT phone and paid service, or an external antenna to use it however. This wasn't a selling point for me, but it seems a bit sketchy to sell it as a feature but require additional services and/or hardware.
• you can add "buddies" so you can see where each other is. makes me wonder what else it might be sending to "big brother".
• it acquired 7 satellites indoors. i don't think my garmin etrex vista can lock on to more than 2 at that location.
• it managed to get me to my destination and back home on its maiden voyage, but its street selections were pretty lame. in fact it sent me up a street i've driven by for over 3 years but never turned on- for a reason.
• on power up, it acquires satellites again in less than 30 seconds. the etrex vista would take minutes.

So far so good, although I haven't played with the software yet, and hear its somewhat limited...

I've got a barely used Leatherman Wave, but after reading the review of the new Leatherman Skeletool, I obviously coveted the new tool (I'm a gadget and tool junky.) Is it worth it? Well- its 2.9 ounces lighter, and looks way cooler! I have no idea why, but my favorite camera shop is selling them too. I don't think I'll be looking to replace my Wave quite yet, but the weight different is compelling.

Matthew informed me there's an Airport Extreme update released today: This update is recommended for all Intel-based MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini computers and improves the reliability of AirPort connections. Given the 802.11N problems I've had with the Linksys WRT350N, I was anxious to give it a shot. (See Matthew, Igor- I don't run everything 5 revs out of date!)

Well I could be jumping the gun, but I think the update fixed the problem. I've been connected for close to three hours now with no hangs. It wouldn't last much longer than 30 minutes before the update. Looking promising!

Re: my recent Macbook wireless woes, Matthew passed on this entry: Is your MacBook Pro giving you kernel panics when you use wifi?

[Igor: maybe all these Mac entries will steal away your informal title of the Mac Blog King. ;)]