Dr. Chuck's Web Log

Going to Linkin Park

Off to a concert with 8 inches of snow on the ground. Hee hee. Luckily we are in a Subaru.

Life without a Blog App

Well I upgraded to 10.3 and my blog app stopped working. Fooey.

I would write one if I had some time. I wonder how Mac can break something in a minor release as simple as a blog program - ah well.

Back to web forms - ick!

Writing a bookWell - I

Writing a book

Well - I had 20 hours in planes and airports and had a chance to go back after Rich and my on-again off-again book. This time (the fifth try) I want to call the book "Building and Maintaining a Home or Small Office Network".

It was not so hard because all through the different directions that we have taken the book, at its heart the book that we wanted to write was a step above the rest of the books. I just eliminated all the "using stuff" and focused on the building, understanding, and maintaining.

One cool idea is to get www.homenetworkguys.com up and running. And then turn any chapter that did not fit into the new book into a standalone tutorial - as such we end up with three tutorials plus some tutorials from the first version of the book from 1999.

So after I got off the plane in Detroit, the first draft was done and ready for close-in read-through - very-cool.

What is even cooler is that I did part of the writing white watching under the Tuscan Sun - A chick flick about writer who gets divorced and moves to Italy on a whim - OK as chick flicks go - pretty formulaic.

Review of the Boeing 777

Review of the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330

On my recent trip to South Africa, I was able to fly on both an A330 on Northwest and a Boeing 777 from KLM. Wow wow wow. Compared to any other planes in the sky - these are a cut above. Coach on these planes is almost as restful as the (one time) I flew in Business class on a 747.

It is kind of crazy when an american carrier like NWA with along tradition in the Northwest purchases and European built Airbus while the Dutch carrier KLM pick the pride of the Boeing fleet. And NWA and KLM are completely partners.

Bummer how the KLM dudes don't let elite frequent fliers board first - I think they have figured out that mass boarding in random order is just as good as the structured "15 rows at a time" approach used by US carriers - but that is not what this column is about.

Good News about both planes

Both planes have a personal video system which is free - it has lots of movies, video games, music channels, etc. Wow. Both have really cool headrests. It seems as though they use the same base technology from Panasonic but configure it quite differently. The 330 has a 2-4-2 sitting arrangement while the 777 has a 3-3-3 arrangement - both work pretty well. The 777 has the biggest engines I have ever seen - I am guessing it help s in the fuel efficiency.

Places where the Northwest A330 wins

• Power Outlets under the seats - that handle both 110 and 220V - this is money in the bank. Big. This is enough to win my vote on its own, As a matter of fact I am typing this while plugged in on a 330 over the Atlantic.
• The 330 has a handicapped bathroom - this is also big enough for people to change clothes without ending up in the toilet.
• The music and map software works better on the 330 - you can watch the music and play music at the same time. Also the maps on the 330 are far more interactive and fun to play with - but they seemed buggy - the estimated time to arrival was always way wrong - which made it less fun. Also the data display seemed to be up too long when I really want to see the map more.
• The 330 has personal air conditioner vents - like older planes.
• The 330 claims to have in seat E-Mail - but it does not work - and there is no mechanism to pay via credit card. Cool idea if it worked.
• The 330 has less luggage space but it is easier to get stuff into and out of the storage space.

Places where the KLM 777 wins

• The wide range of movies - the KLM 777 had about 60 movies while the NWA had about 15. The KLM includes classics like Casablanca and Some Like it Hot so I could watch things that I would never had time for on a 12 hour flight.
• The LKM has better headphones although you have to put on the foam ear padding.
• The KLM has a drinking fountain by the bathroom that you can go up and get a drink at any time.
• The video screen must be adjusted when the person in the seat in front of you leans back. The 330 allows a wider range of adjustment for a six foot person. On the 330 you have to hunch down.
• The KLM has much more storage space - Interestingly - the design seems to be stolen from the 747 with clamshell doors that use the empty space in the top of the plane. But the material on the inside of the storage makes it hard to get the bags in and out - they make a scratching sound.
• The interior of the 777 is swooping and has a relatively high ceiling - and given that it has more storage space - this is quite a trick. But you don't get a personal air conditioner vent because the ceilings are so high.
• The 777 has a better console for the personal video control - it seemed like I hit the wrong button less often than in the 330. The navigation was more natural - the 330 (NWA) navigation kept making you click rather than just cursor movement.
• The 777 has a cell phone at every seat as the back part of the console. You can pay by credit card - I did not try it cause I was having too much fun.
• The 777 maps are like the old DC-10 - not very sexy - but rock solid reliable with almost perfect time estimates.
• The 777 had less music, but a better selection - I particularly liked the ambient mood music (like the stuff at Target) - that is perfect background for working on the plane (at least for me).

Conclusion

If you have a chance fly on either of these planes - jump at it - especially if you have kids. They will totally love the personal entertainment system. The KLM has the edge but the NWA is completely adequate. Too bad they could both have all of the nifty features. If I really had to pick it would be the 330 for the power outlet. But if they added a power outlet to the 777 (hint hint) then it would be an unqualified engineering achievement.

In a way, it seems as though the 777 was trying be a "better plane" than the 747 - it is a smaller but better plane - and I think that Boeing accomplished that. The A330 is a better, upgraded, intercontinental A320 - and they accomplished that as well. All in all, both companies were quite successful and can be very proud of the planes.

But again, both of these airplanes are an absolute delight - it is just that geek-engineer-types over analyze things :)

P.S. Movies I watched

• The Battle of Shaker Heights (NWA)
• Radio (NWA)
• Anger Management (KLM) (I quit after 30 minutes - I love both Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler - but the movie was lame).
• Tomb Raider 2 (KLM) - I thouht that it was pretty good for a sequel - the romance added a dimension.
• The Fighting Temptations (NWA)
• Under the Tuscan Sun (NWA) (Yes - I was running out of options)
• Casablanca (KLM)
• Out of Time (NWA) - I watched this twice - I did not like it the first time - but stuck it through the second time and liked it. At the beginning it looked kind of fomrmulaic, but with some patience it had some neat aspects.
• Runaway Jury (NWA)
• Some Like it Hot (KLM) - But I quit half way through
• The Fugitive (KLM)
• Matrix Reloaded (KLM) (for the sixth time)
• Daddy Day Care (KLM)
• Good Boy (NWA) - A really lame kids show about dogs from space - (I tried to like it for 40 minutes and then gave up)

And a few more on the KLM flights that I forgot. On NWA they have an annoying thing from Kristi Yamaguchi - She is the coolest but becomes annoying when you are on a four movie marathon and she pops up every time.

GPL - I am going

GPL - I am going to do some posting about GPL

There are a bunch of folks that are very pro-GPL - with great fervor.

I am very anti-GPL but talking to the folks in South Africa, I am trying to find some middle ground. I will be doing some Blogging on it Pro and con. I have some stuff that I have not yet posted that is very "anti-GPL" but before I post it, I want to think it through a bit.

Hey - I am back

Hey - I am back in Amsterdam

I had very little connectivity while in South Africa - at night all the dial-ups got clogged.

All in all it was a wonderful experience - Capetown is a must see for your basic DINC couples - it is so cool. My favorite things were Table Rock and the Moyo at the Spier Winery.

The people were very nice.

My first post from South

My first post from South Africa!

Connected at 28.8 - it is good to make sure that things still work at the "real-world" speeds. Stuff works great.

Off to Cape town I

Off to Cape town

I hope that I have internet access while there.

A test post on my

A test post on my new account

I just realized that I am posting from admin - so I switched.

Why can X.11 on Mac

Why can X.11 on Mac OS/X only run on Mac 10.3???

They finally have X-Windows on Mac OS/X - it is free but when you download it it demands to run on Mac OS 10.3 (which everyone ha to buy). Great marketing on the part of Apple :)

But there is a version at http://sourceforge.net/projects/xonx/ that was an earlier release that I downloaded at the Amsterdam airport - ha ha!

When I get back, I

When I get back, I am planning on trying a merlin in my Macintosh
Thanks to Paul H.
When I get back, I am planning on trying a merlin in my Macintosh

Check this out :)

Thanks to Paul H.

Here I am in SchipolI

Here I am in Schipol

I flew on a 777 for the first time. The personal video stuff is very cool - ruined my sleep and my productivity - but it made a trip to Europe feel like a trip to the west coast. I sat next to some servicemen going back to Kuwait after a Christmas leave.

They have wireless for 10.00 EUR per day. Tres cool.

I need to sleep - but unlimited free coffee and convenient wireless beckons.

Mac OS 9 after a

Mac OS 9 after a clean install of OS / X
I learned of a really cool thing - PSYNC for Mac OS from my buddy Nestor and borrowed a firewire drive from my buddy Paul with the intent to move from my beat up Mac G3 portable to a shiny G3 with a working PCMCIA slot (to test the Aircard of course).

So I am cruising along with the psync - cool enough after fixing a bug in the Perl file libraries... I seem to be cursed...

I had my backup made and was about to blast the new destination computer when I saw that it had the MAC OS/9 stuff on it. I have searched and searched how to add Mac OS/9 to a system after the OS/X was installed with an extended partition and NO ONE knew how to do it.

No one knows because apparently I am the only idiot who like to completely format their disk when putting a new OS on. Once the partition is extended OS/9 install cannot write to is - fooey.

But I saw two folders on the new computer the OS/9 Applications and System Folder - I figured - what would happen if I just copied those two folders to my nice firewire drive and moved them to my old PC. Viola Mac OS/9 worked.

So word up - it works OK.

Experiences with Aircard 750I really

Experiences with Aircard 750

I really tried very hard to make the Aircard 750/Tmobile work with my macintosh over the last few hours.

There is a free driver at http://www.xochi.com/aircard/ and a pay driver at http://www.stretchedout.com/products/products.htm

Both released new versions in December which hang in an infinite loop when you dial with them. Cheeze.

So I went through the code and recompiled a bunch of variants, making tiny changes to the code for about 3 hours and the result was always the same - some changes made it so the card could not be found and other changes allowed the card to be found but it hung instantly once it was used.

So close and so far. The Aircard goes back to T-Mobile. Fooey. It looked so cool.

Back home

Back home

Well this week was very busy. How busy you ask - well here is a little story.

I got 4 hours of sleep on Tuesday night, 2 hours Wednesday night and was scheduled for 4 hours Thursday night. But at 3AM someone pulled a fire alarm and the alarm went off - of course they cannot just turn it off - the firedudes must come and turn it off. So I joined my other hotel guests in the lobby watching the firemen go and re-check for the fire that was not there for about 45 minutes before turning off the alarm. So I got back to sleep about 4:30.

I got my 7AM wakeup call and closed my eyes and it was 7:45 - so I rushed to take a shower and threw on my suit and got to my 8:00 meeting 10 minutes late. Meeting went smoothly - then after that meeting there were three non-stop meetings at different locations 9-10, 10-12, and then I took some people to the airport just in time to use my cell to join a 1:00 meeting in progress that I had planned to attend while driving home.

Happily involved in the meeting I began the drive home (pretty clever huh??). The meeting went well and took about an hour - all the while the Illinois country side was slipping by at 70 mph.

I hung up the phone at the end of the meeting and quickly went to my next mental list of people to call and things to think about for the rest of the trip home. Within about 30 seconds I realized that I had never packed or checked out of the hotel. I leave tomorrow for South Africa.

What to do. Simple. Turn around and drive 70 more miles back to the hotel to pack and check out. Then turn around again for the 325 mile trip home.

Ah well. The business end of the meetings went well - so I guess that was cool.

Don't get me started about

Don't get me started about Certificate support on Mac OS/X
It is 3AM and I just killed myself trying to figure out where to get various browsers/JVM's to trust a simple certificate. Here are some notes.

Mac OS/X does JVM 1.4 but has 1.3 installed as well. There are three places that you need to get certs trusted:

/System/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors is where much of the mainstream tools look for certs - there is a tool called certtool - just Google X590Anchors to see how to do it. Follow the einstructions exactly - the X509Anchors file must be in ~/Library/Keychains/X509Anchors or the certtool won't work.

The JVMs have their own little places to trust certificates:

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.3.1/Home/lib/security/cacerts
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.1/Home/lib/security/cacerts

Here are some commands that I found useful:

keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias NCSA -file /tmp/4a6cd8b1.0 -keystore cacerts

keytool -import -trustcacerts -alias cee-nees -file /tmp/hostcert.der -keystore cacerts

The password is changeit

Here is a useful command (with variants)

openssl x509 -in histcert.pem -inform pem -out hostcert.der -outform der

This allows you to convert certs.

Hanging out at NCSAThis week

Hanging out at NCSA
This week I will be hanging out at UIUC (Illionis) getting ready for the NEES site visit on Thursday and Friday.

But since it is the first of the year there are a lot of other things that need to be done on Sakai etc etc etc.

Here we go for 2004 - it will be a crazy ride.

BUG in NWA.COMI was trying

BUG in NWA.COM
I was trying to look at fares on January 30, 2004 throuth February 7, 2004 and the nwa.com insisted that January 30, 2004 was in the past.

I assume the problem was that I was running the code on January 1, 2004 at 1:54 AM Eastern time and so we have a situation where it is not clear exactly what year it is. The code in NWA was probably in a later time zone and thought it was still 2003. That is very very cool.

Happy New Year Well it

Happy New Year
Well it is the first post of the new year. I have a lot to get done between now and January fourth when all hell breaks loose until about the 24 of January. I will be running like crazy - so this is the calm before the storm.

I am so agonizing about the purchase of T-Mobile data service - will it work with my Mac? How much should I pay. I pretty much have decided to give it a go and return it if it fails. My guide posts will be this site. I think that I will go and pick it up on Saturday when the sales dude who has a clue will be in the store.

It is strange how it all comes down to knowing that you are dealing with a talented person.