Noiz Waves

So this problem has had me complete perplexed for almost a year now. After logging in to my MBP, Leopard would sit there for minutes, not doing anything spectacular… and then resume booting when it felt like it. I figured it was some pesky application’s handy work. HIGHLY IRRITATING!!!

The other day it was time to format the MBP. It had been over a year since the last format, and has accumulated loads of junk from University and the like. Whilst installing applications again, I kept a close watch on my Leopard loading times. I totally figured it out…

Upon rebooting post-installing the RAID Manager software for my Western Digital Premium Edition 1TB RAID, I was immediately hit with the pause!! Solved. The process actually causing the pause is ‘WDNotifier’, which is launched at start up. Da da da!! The problem is easily fixed by removing the app entirely via

sudo rm -R /Library/StartupItems/WDNotifer.app

For those who are concerned about deleting system-like files, I can confirm my RAID still works perfectly (currently using Time Machine on it too). So, a simple problem now has a simple solution. Its amazing how quickly the MBP boots up now; its super fast

So I decided it was time to begin the long haul task of watching Lost from the beginning. Recently I’ve been watching the latest episode with some friends, and really getting into the analysis of each episode, nutting out theories, and asking and answering questions. There is such a wealth of hidden detail in each episode, its very easy to miss first time around. Last night I watched the first 3 episodes, and it reminded me just how good the show is.

A couple of things I picked up on during the first 3 episodes (potential spoiler alert ahead):

1. In season 1 episode 3, 6 survivors hike into the jungle to get a better signal on the transceiver, but lie upon returning to camp about what happened. In season 4, we learn that 6 survivors (The Oceanic Six) make it off the island and decide to lie about what happened. Strange, but worth noting.
2. The pilot of the plane is played by Greg Grunberg (who plays Matt Parkman in Heroes). Pity he didn’t use his telepathy to get them rescued
   

I use VLC to play all of the TV I watch. Because of this, I’ve been missing out on a lot of the shine that Front Row has to offer. One of the mean reasons for not using Front Row is it’s inability to play DivX/XviD encoded .avi files…

Enter Perian. Perian is a free, open source plug-in for QuickTime that enables Divx/Xvid/many more encoded videos to be played in QuickTime and Front row.
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In addition to adding DivX support to Front Row/QuickTime, installing Perian came with some unexpected surprises:

1. OS X can produce thumbnails for .avi files in Finder. No more ugly icons!
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2. Cover Flow uses these thumbnails too, and looks awesome.
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3. Quick Look now plays the .avi files.
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Much better. Now all thats required is a big HD LCD TV to really show off Front Row.

This is some stupid thing that cost me several hours of tinkering tonight. By default, URLs and last access time/date are not part of any style in LaTeX. How freaking ancient is that?!!?!

So heres a fix. Its been tested under OS X 10.5, so it should work for anyone running Linux too.

1. Download urlbst from http://nxg.me.uk/dist/urlbst/. For me the current version is 0.6.
2. Extract the archive anywhere, just so happened to be my Downloads folder.
3. Open a terminal window, and navigate to the newly created directly. For me it was ~/Downloads/urlbst-0.6/
4. Run ‘./configure’ without the ‘ and ‘
5. I have to use the acm bibliography style, so i will be playing around with acm.bst
6. Run ’sudo mv /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/oldacm.bst’. This moves the original style file to a safe place.
7. Run ‘./urlbst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst newacm.bst’. This adds the URL information to the style.
8. Run ’sudo cp newacm.bst /usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/base/acm.bst. This moves the new style file to a directly where LaTeX can find it.

Now all your webpages and sources with online references & cite dates will look right! Woot! Sleepy time now!!!

It’s been so long since my last blog post, so this one will be full of the general happenings of the last few months. So much has changed; computers have died, laptops purchased, uni degrees have been changed, exams have been and gone, and a few gadgets have been purchased Thats the topic of this post

Continue reading ‘Recent Acquisitions’ »

By default, OS X is configured to use the special functions (ie. adjust keyboard illumination) on the F1-F10 buttons on the MacBook Pro instead of the regular function (ie. expose). How awkward! 2 keys to access expose instead of 1. And they are on opposing sides of the keyboard. There has to be a fix for this.

Continue reading ‘OS X Hints: Disable Function Lock’ »

Yesterday my MacBook Pro finally came. Expect some pictures and a full review soon.

During the set up of the wireless network connection, I ran in to some trouble. My PC-exclusive wireless lan is configured to be non-SSID broadcast, MAC access controlled and encrypted with 64bit WEP. To set it up it should be as easy as typing in the network name and key. But noooo…

Continue reading ‘OS X Hints: 64bit WEP WiFi + Slow Internet’ »

For those of you who know me personally, you’ll be aware I’ve been wanting a shiney new laptop for a while now. But no actual need for one, the purchase of a new computer was completely unjustified. So for the last few months I’ve been wishing death upon my computers, and last Sunday that wish came true…

Continue reading ‘Be careful what you wish for…’ »