Category: Blog

(only of interest to people I’ve emailed or Mac App geeks)

Do you remember the cool quotes that used to appear below my emails? I had a lot of them, and they were set to cycle randomly. These are “signatures” and in OSX standard email application mail.app they’re (or more to the point, were) stored in a file called “signatures.plist” (in Users/you/Library/Mail/Signatures).

Somewhere around 10.3 the format of these files changed, and because I did a new install and not a convert, I managed to lose them. D’oh. As of 10.4 (or so) there was a new format (allowing different signatures for different email addresses). 10.5 may even be a little different. This is a “property list” file, which is sort of like an xml file but somehow different. Within the file, each signature is encoded rich text. No matter that my signatures were all plain text, they’re garbages up so they’re unreadable, even in Apple’s Property List Manager app. And there doesn’t appear to be any application that’s capable of extracting the signatures from the plist file.

I’ve got the original files, and I’d like to pull the .sigs out of them. I used to put all the cool quotes I came across here, and nowhere else. What I’m going to have to do is install an old version of OSX on a spare iBook and then try to get the file to open.

 

Update: Yep, that did it. Leaves me wondering whether I need to keep an old machine around to convert old straggler files.

On Linux I would expect this file would be editable in a text editor; modern versions would be simple xml. Not sure how Thunderbird (the Mozilla/Firefox email reader) handles them, but I bet they’re editable.

In other news, I’ve got OSX 10.5 installed on three machines (including a G4/800 iBook that’s “too slow” via target disk mode). Yawn. It’s pretty and all, and the autobackup is great, but otherwise no big whoop. Looking forward to mobile Home directories (on iPod?) and of course to future laptops/handhelds. Sometime this month would be fine.

I don’t watch much TV, but I do tend to watch more if A) I have a cable connection, B1) I’m sitting around icing my foot so I can’t get up and do much and/or B2) there’s too much smoke and ash in the air to want to go outside.

But I’ve decided that I will never watch another show that features a panel of contestants who are eliminated one by one, either by each other, or by an equally or in some cases far more insipid group of panelists (or worse, by an audience or phone-in poll). I will make an exception only when those eliminated are immediately and graphically executed by their fellow contestants. Bonus points if any of the judges and/or audience members or people who called the 900 numbers are executed, either on purpose or accidentally; I assume most of them would be fragged with “friendly fire”.

What I’d really like is an easier way to eliminate television channels that either I haven’t subscribed to, or that I know I will never watch. Most of them can be removed by entire class of channel: I can live without seeing any of the Spanish or foreign-language channels. Eliminate the home shopping channels (again, preferably by execution). Remove the pay-per-view, HBO, Showtime, etc. Get rid of all the sports channels (despite my futile desire to someday see sumo, rally car racing, or gladiator battles). Then there’s a bunch that I’d want to remove one-by-one. I can do this at the moment, through a bizarre clicker incantation that appears to also summon demons that leave dirty dishes in the sink and dirty socks on the floor. Or maybe that’s just Elvis. In any case, I can create “favorites” then painstakingly and laboriously delete every unwanted channel – but then every time I turn the cable box on I apparently have to put it back in Mode Favorites A or something.

That, and I’d like to have on-the-fly favorites that I can tag shows that I want to “surf between”, similar to the “last” button that flips between two shows. With the number of commercials and/or junk content, it should be possible to watch three or four shows at once.

I drive an SUV; the smallest I could get that would still tow a trailer. If I could have bought or converted to biodiesel and filled up with used french-fry grease, I would; and I still may someday. My wife drives a 10-year old Taurus; she'd really like to replace it with a hybrid but they're expensive and of dubious environmental benefit.

I'd like to consume less, and I'm trying. I recycled two computers this weekend that were headed for the landfill – they're being used again. And I resisted buying another one (so far). I'd also like to be able to buy products with less packaging and clearer information about content and recycling.

My local trash company, Waste Management, still makes us separate glass, aluminum, and paper products and isn't really clear about what is and isn't reprocessed. Until we get matter disintegrators, we should at least have aggregated recycling – everything dry goes in one big bucket, the processing facility sorts it out. This would also (somewhat) discourage homeless people digging through the recycling bins, “cherry picking” the aluminum to the recycling company loses money on the operation.

I watched Who Killed the Electric Car, and An Inconvenient Truth, and was convinced by both of them. I still feel that as individuals we're becoming less and less powerful against the government, multinational corporations, and PACs (as well as the Bavarian Illuminati) – so knowing about these problems and being able to force change to solve them may take a lot of inertia.

“May I take your order?”
“Yes, I’d like a chicken sandwich…”
     “Do you want the combo?”

Why do they insist on interrupting me to ask me if I want the combo? (A: because that’s what management has instructed them to do). If I want the combo, I’ll order the damned combo. Otherwise don’t interrupt me, just take my order.

At the very least, wait until I’ve completed my order, to suggest the combo – if I haven’t ordered it already. If I order sandwich, potatoes and a drink – don’t ask me if I want the combo – the computer should just add it up – why do I care how my order is entered into the computer – if you want to give me a discount for carbs, why ask for my permission? I’m certain the computer is smart enough to figure it out. But even Carl’s new automated ordering systems (or as I like to call them, auto-servitrons) interrupt you with the combo question.

Maybe they’re just trying to wear me down so I’ll always order the combo. I know they hate it whenever someone asks for something removed or changed – which people seem to be more likely to do lately. Ever seen a menu with “no substitutions”? I think that’s what they’re working towards – you get the fries whether you want them or not, don’t ask us for no pickle no onion haf caf double mocha with a twist. Special orders don’t upset us, because we just ignore them anyway.

Thing is, I don’t eat the potatoes (or rings or fried cheese or even zucchini) anymore. Yes, I could improve my health by not eating in these places at all. But I know from experience that I will just make junk food at home, take longer, and leave a mess in the sink – so I might as well ask for it from a clown instead.

A keyboard enhancement I'd like to see: make the spacebar out of conductive metal, and allow no more than two consecutive spaces before delivering a progressively more intense shock to the user. If you're hitting space more than twice, something is wrong. Use tab – set up a tab stop if necessary.

Got a Treo (or any of several other species of smart phones) with web service? Got iPhone envy? Get Google Maps Mobile.

Lets you look up standard or satellite maps just like Google Maps. Click on a business to see info – including phone number, with a click to call or add to contacts! Traffic as well. Move the maps with click and drag; zoom the maps with the volume buttons.

It doesn't handle map pins the way I'd like (I want to have it look up all my contact addresses, and add pins for them, as well as pins for any place I look up, but be able to edit and delete those pins). And it doesn't work with GPS yet, and when it does it'll require an external Bluetooth GPS.

From today's email spam bucket:

“Girls always whizgiggled at me and even gars did in the municipal comfort station!”

I didn't even know we had a municipal comfort station.

It all started with a gift certificate from Circuit City that I got for my birthday back in December.

I don't tend to shop at CC much, most of the time if I want that sort of thing I go to Fry's because there's more selection, more other products, less intrusive (and somewhat less clueless) employees, and the occasional nonsensical art piece on the walls.

Finally made it in to CC. It looked as if the place was going out of business but it turned out they were only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, that is, reorganizing the store. After a frustrating search, misdirected by about four of the red shirts, we eventually found a set of walkie talkies (for Burning Man, of course). They work fine (tho there were three different models on the shelf to choose from, Fry's has about 50). This left about $30 on the card. I wandered around the wasteland, er, store several times but couldn't come up with anything I wanted; either it was severely overpriced audio and video equipment, or…no, that was pretty much it. We gave up.

Last night I was back in the area (Michael's is next door) so I took up the challenge to spend the rest of it. I vaguely need an mp3 player for my art project, something that I don't mind if it gets destroyed and hopefully has a long battery life. It'd be a shame to destroy an iPod, and I haven't ever given any of the other players a chance. The iRiver T10 looked like it fit the bill – 45 hour battery life, audio recording (another part of my project). But no information on the box as to whether it will work with a Mac. It should – most mp3 players should just mount as a “key” drive, no software required. If I had had a web terminal, I could have looked it up; I looked what I could on my phone and it seemed there were issues but it should be doable.

One clueless employee interaction later (“thank you for turning an ordinary transaction into a bizzare ritual”), and I'm on my way home with the product. Before opening the box I looked it up at home, and indeed it looked a lot more difficult than it should be – required using Windows to run the firmware update – twice – updating the software to the European version so it would mount as a simple drive rather than requiring Windows PlaysForSure Media Mangler (or whatever junk crapware they chose to ruin it with). After reading CC's generous return policy, I decided to dive in and give it a shot.

But, not so fast. First I had to get the package open. The plastic security cry-o-wrap packaging defeated even my custom cryowrap packaging opener ($3.95 Fry's), I finally hacked at it with a sharp pocketknife, utterly ruining the container but fortunately and surprisingly not spilling any of my own precious bodily fluids.

Hooked it up with a standard USB cable, ran Parallels, got the “new hardware found” warning and – d'oh – it doesn't install in this version of Windows (2000). And it won't work trying to bypass that and run the software updater directly, since then it can't even find the device. Apparently it “needs” Windows XP “or better” (rolling on the floor laughing, because that should include Windows 2000, Linux, and MacOS, but it doesn't). So – last ditch effort – I took it to work to try it on the machine there.

Installed fine, found the device without needing driver install, tried to run the firmware update. And it won't work without a live internet connection over a nonstandard firewall port.

My only remaining futile hope is that when I return it (I'd like to throw it through their window, but CC doesn't have any windows) some of this idiocy will be revenged and CC or iRiver or someone will learn a tiny little lesson about product compatibility. Sure, wish me luck with that.

• If you can't run a better store than this, just give up. Let the big box stores and the internet win.
• Hire employees who can find products that you stock in your store, even in the aisle they happen to be standing in.
• Put internet terminals somewhere prominent in the store so I can look up this crap before wasting my money and both of our time.
• Hire employees who can operate a cash register without having to ask a manager for assistance.
• Devise some way of allowing me to open the package without destroying it, the product, or my fingers.
• Design products to use standard drivers so all you do is plug them in (to any least-common-denominator system) and they run.
• There are these things called Firewalls. If your product doesn't need to connect to the internet, don't. Otherwise, use standard open ports.
• Point me to the suggestion box.

My latest phone number and mailing address are now on my Contact page.

The other day, a friend of mine was cleaning out his closet (A la Eminem? Not so much.) and dumped all of his old obsolete failing computer hardware on me. Ouch.

Included in the swag was a circa-2001 iBook “dual usb icebook”. This was the first of the square white iThings, with a 500mhz G3 (about the speed of a 1.0ghz Intel), 10GB hard drive, 64MG of memory, a fine 12″ screen, and an Airport card (that happens to be worth more than the rest of the machine, apparently). Oh, and a broken power connector so it only charged the battery when you wiggle and hold it properly; as well as the associated dead battery.

So I priced it out, and decided to ressurect it. “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. […] Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster…”.

120GB hard drive	$79 special	Bigger than the stock drive in my MacBook, just enough room for all my mp3s.
512MB memory	$120 not-so-special	The cheapest chip I could find.
New battery	$120	Gave my wife the new one, took hers.
Dissasamble Repair power connector Install new components	$0