Archives for September 2006
Maybe there *is* hope for wireless linux on my pb??
30 September 2006 | tech, mac | 2 Responses
So, it turns out I hadn’t quite fully given up on running Ubuntu after all. I found this thread on the Ubuntu support forums that discusses how to get the broadcom chipset (the brains behind Airport Extreme) to speak friendly-like with linux.
Here’s what’s happening, according to the thread:
The reason the card shows up but doesn’t work is because ubuntu is only distributed with its driver (so it can recognize it) not with its firmware (so it can USE it) for legal reasons. However you can take the firmware out of the windows drivers and put them into ubuntu and make the card work!
This inspired me to use the Ubuntu .iso I’d already burned (back when I was still excited) to boot as a live cd & see what I could get up to. It’s pretty cool to see my pb boot into linux again. Yee-Haw!
Most of the instructions for enabling my wireless card seemed to work, right up to the part where I have to reboot to see if I can connect. Because I’m using a live cd to boot, all changes I make get wiped on shutdown 
So now I’m left with a decision to make: Do I keep going and re-partition my drive to install Ubuntu (which involves re-installing OSX, too) on the chance that my wireless card will work? Or do I stay quit and spend some quality time with, um, a book or something? What’s this worth to me?
I guess, now that the live cd is working, I’ll play around and see how Ubuntu stacks up. Then I’ll know if it’s worth the probable hassle.
Oh, and by the way, I’ve been writing this from firefox in Ubuntu (via an old ethernet cable). Yippee!
Ubuntu update: no wireless for my powerbook.
30 September 2006 | tech, mac | 2 Responses
Yerg again.
At least this time I didn’t get very far into my fantasy before I had to give up. One of the first articles I found about installing Ubuntu warned me that Airport Extreme (built into my powerbook) wouldn’t work, so I’d have no wireless access. Still, that article was a year and a half old, so things might have changed, right? No such luck. I checked out the Ubuntu user forums and confirmed that, as of 12 hours ago, the situation hasn’t changed.
The linux install is pretty useless to me without wireless (how could I maintain my café-going lifestyle?), so I’ve decided not to go ahead. Hopefully Airport Extreme support will get figured out at some point & I can join the fun. Until then, I guess it’s single boot for me…
Update: It does work after all. See this thread on the ubuntu forums for info on getting Ubuntu & Airport extreme to talk nicely.
technorati tags:ubuntu, wireless, powerbook
Ruby update: I’m giving up.
30 September 2006 | tech, mac | 1 Response
Yerg! I’ve been trying so hard to begin learning RoR, but I’m embarassed to say that I can’t even get it to install properly on my machine. It’s so bloody complicated & poorly documented (read: agile) that I’ve now fullly given up. I’m pretty used to frustratingly complex installation procedures — I am a drupal wonk, after all (yuk yuk). I’m patient, and I’m very comfortable with the command line, I swear I am. But this is just too much. I’ve spent at least 12 hours just installing Ruby, and it still doesn’t work.
Locomotive, the supposed RoR wonder-kid is no help (blasted SQLite & lightttpd, whatever you are!). Neither is the book “Agile Web Development with Rails”, which I, in my haste and desperate excitement, shelled out $60 to buy. Neither are the two articles I found for installing Rails piece by piece: this one & this one (the latter of which uses MacPorts, née DarwinPorts, which was at least kinda fun to revisit). In fact, nothing at all has helped, not even one bit. So I quit.
It’s sad — I really wanted to be one of those cool cool RoR guys that you see in the nice Vancouver cafés, sipping fancy whipped drinks & designing super-neat whizbang custom ajaxy CMSes and such. I really did. But alas, I guess I just won’t ever be one of them (or at least not until OSX 10.5 is released, with Rails included). Oh well. I’ll have to content myself to continue admiring them from afar.
It could be worse, I guess… I could be this guy.
Plus, there is a secret silver lining: while I was waiting for some piece of source code to compile fail, I looked up Ubuntu & discovered that there’s now (and maybe always was?) a PPC version of this most hallowed of linuxes. So I’m downloading that presently, with an eye toward converting my powerbook to a linux box (I have to do something to fight the urge to trade up to a macbook). I used to use linux, and I loved it. I think it’s time to give it a shot again. I only hope there’s fancy whipped drinks somewhere out there for linux kids, too. I really want some fancy whipped drinks right about now.
Web of Change 2006
29 September 2006 | tech, conferences | No Responses
Yay Hollyhock!
Last week I had the great fortune to attend Web of Change, an annual conference of socially progressive techy-types that takes place at the lovely Hollyhock Centre. Pretty awesome! The conversations spinning around that place were amazing. Plus, it’s hard to imagine a smarter, more attractive (!), more dedicated group of people than those who were there.
I swear I’d write more if I wasn’t still reeling from a cold I picked up there on the last night. (Maybe swimming in the ocean at 3am isn’t such a great idea… but I gotta tell you, it sure was worth it.)
technorati tags:woc2006, webofchange
Apple Announces iTV (and a bunch of other stuff)
12 September 2006 | tech, mac | No Responses
Apple held a special press event today, announcing a bunch of new toys: redesigned (aluminum) iPod nanos (up to 8GB!), 80GB iPods (now with crappy games!), iTunes Video (a movie download service for mac!!), and, my favorite, a multi-media center called iTV. Here’s the specs from CrunchGear:
# Similar to Mac Mini, but 1/2 the size
# Features USB, ethernet, 802.11b/g, component video, optical audio and HDMI
# Uses apple remote
# Intended as a sort of ultimate media center, allows users to play movies, music, photos, etc. on TV
# Works with PC or Mac
# Price is $299 available in Q1 2007
CrunchGear » Blog Archive » It’s Showtime!
While this is all great news (and I love the aluminum redesigns!), the arrival of the iTV seriously complicates my quest to build a new media center in my home. Yerg!
technorati tags:Apple, iPod, iTV
Blogged with Flock
iPod gets a touch-screen?
5 September 2006 | tech, mac | No Responses
I stumbled upon this story on technorati today, suggesting that a touch-sensitive ipod is in the works. While I think that’s fun & neat & all, I didn’t get really excited until I watched this video of ‘multi-touch interaction experiments’ from Jeff Han.
I’ve often dreamed of touch-screen computing, particularly multi-touch video editing, but it’s always seemed a long way off. I know it’s been used a little — palm & treo make good use of it, as do POS systems in hoity-toity grocery stores, but it still hasn’t really been used creatively or to any great advantage in the normal everyday world of desktop computing.
Here’s my wishful thinking for the day: maybe (just maybe?) Apple’s new iPod, however small its ambitions, will help to usher in a new era of touchscreen technology that will tidy all our desktops & put more information at our fingertips.
Realistically, this stuff’s probably still a long way off. But a guy can dream, right?
