David Pierron – Page 2 – DavidPierron.Com

Not waiting for Mac OSX Mountain Lion 10.8

I just upgraded to Mac OSX Lion 3 months ago after waiting for whatever reason to upgrade. I decided this time that I was gonna be one of those people that upgraded as soon as the new version was released.

I didn’t camp out in line or anything to get the new OSX Operating System, I simply downloaded it and ran it.

The only weird thing about the upgrade was that when the machine rebooted into doing the installation, the brightness on my 17″ MacBook Pro was turned what seemed to be all the way up. The brightness keys didn’t turn it down, so the whole time the screen was really really bright. Other than that, everything smooth as the Lion upgrade. Only thing required was the waiting. Waiting for the download of the 4+ gigabyte installer and then the time it took to install.

The install itself got to one point and said 5 minutes left and then jumped back up to 20 minutes left. I thought it hit a snag and was re-installing Lion or something as I have an Early 2008 MacBook Pro which is supposed to be compatible with Mountain Lion but FUD said otherwise.

My other concern was running Avid Pro Tools 10.2 under Mountain Lion and I’ve fired it up and ran some sessions through it and all seems to be fine.

I did this on my secondary system which I hardly boot into, but will have to see how it works out and then install on my main HD. To be honest, the only thing I’ve noticed is the Notifications in the top menu bar (of which I’ve had none) and the addition of Reminders and Notes in the dock.

proftpd borked after portupgrade with mysql option

My gosh! Try to stay current but shoot yourself in the foot much?

portaudit does the wondrous job of letting me know port vulnerabilities each and every day … We like “0 problems found” to be returned in our daily email, yes? So when there is ports that need to be updated, I usually give it the ol’ portupgrade -aRr to cover everything.

In this last update, proftpd went and modularized everything. I noticed this because I have one server utilizing the MySQL version so as to easily handle virtual users and provide temporary accounts to transfer music files for the studio. So I figure how I have to update the conf file with the proper settings to get proftpd running. Finally when it is happy, logins are failing and I don’t know why. I find in /var/log/messages that there’s a chroot problem … Tracking this down shows that I need to update my FreeBSD version due to this security vulnerability that proftpd is detecting.

Now off to the make buildworld and some hours of compiling. Can’t just build the kernel. Blast!

Rails 3.2.6

~$ rvm install 1.9.3-head

No bison!

~$ rvm requirements

I was on XCode 3 (from Snow Leopard) – Need minimum 4.1 for Lion – NO 4.3!

XCode 4.3.3 from App Store June 12, 2012
XCode Command Line Tools (Pref->Downloads)

rvm says DOWNGRADE XCode 4.3! (If problems)

~$ rvm install 1.9.3-head

No autoreconf!

install homebrew (because of autoconf)
brew install automake

~$ rvm install 1.9.3-head – worked!

rvm use 1.9.3-head –default

gem install rails

Upgraded to Mac OS X Lion finally …

Finally upgraded to Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 from the App Store. Conflicting reviews and horror stories. My main concern was that Pro Tools 10.1.2 would work with it and that’s sort of the reasons for the Pro Tools updates was Lion compatibility …

I found that I really wanted the ability to share iCal with my wife, computer and iPhone so I needed Lion’s iCloud integration for that to keep it simple … Right off the bat I found this to work flawlessly and I also haven’t had any problems with Lion to speak of until … now …

This is why I decided to update my bLog here since there hasn’t been an update in a while and that I am having this problem right now with Lion. Things do seem to have slowed down. It’s not completely clear as to why and there could be several theories … A plugin I used with Pro Tools called muteTone decided to hang Pro Tools when trying to remove the plugin … I only need it for tracking and then I can remove it … This is used for 3rd party interfaces and Pro Tools inability to control input monitoring via their software (which every other DAW has and always had).

To attempt to fix the muteTone issue, it’s possible that I messed with some MIDI settings that had been moved out to the “Incompatible Software” folder when Lion installed. I followed Avid’s advice to install the Pro Tools 9 drivers for all hardware … I have since removed it, but I also used the MIDI driver update from Avid, and I think that may not have been necessary … Regardless, all MIDI stuff works, just not muteTone … (I had been working with the author of the plugin to try to fix) … The current state is that muteTone can be removed if it’s deactivated first … He suggested I live with that until the AAX release. “AAX” is Avid’s new plugin format. muteTone is free …

Also, NeoOffice needs to be upgraded for Lion … The only upgrade for Lion requires that I pay … I don’t want to pay for NeoOffice … I have Pages … I use NeoOffice to open files sent to me by those that are not keen to Mac … I have been Microsoft Windows free since 2008 and have NEVER looked back … Simply the worst form of software ever ruined by many individuals … That poor guy that stopped when Bill Gates handed him $50K should have continued to develop his own system … Anyway, NeoOffice informs me that if I continue to use the current version that I should save often in anticipation of the program crashing … Since I don’t care if it crashes, I’m good … But, maybe loading it adversely affects my pleasantly running system? Only time can tell …

So in conclusion, it’s just like any other computer issue … The person running it has a lot to do with how well it runs … Decisions by the operator affect how system stability is maintained … I do think I need to get a beefier system … I’m typing this entry via the first Mac I bought … Running the latest software and chugging along just fine, but I think maybe I deserve a little zippier Pro Tools and graphics stuffs …

Apple iPhone 4 IOS5 Update failing and App Ugrades failing

Wednesday October 12th, 2011 marks the release of Apple’s IOS5 for the iPhone and iPad. Searches on the web show failing upgrades and I also am experiencing this failure.

Apps: I upgraded iTunes to the latest and greatest and updated my OS X 10.6.8 with all the latest and greatest. Still, no joy. Before upgrading the iPhone’s OS I like to get all my apps up to date and have a successful Sync. Even when I try to upgrade the apps, I am stymied. I click on the Apps tab in iTunes with a 17 next to it to bring up the Apps screen. At the bottom it reports “17 Updates Available” I click on that and get to the next screen. The “Download all free updates” button is at the top and when I click on that I get a new “Terms and Conditions” that I guess is the result of the new version of iTunes. I click on the “I have read…” check box and click on the Agree button. Your request could not be completed. It says something about my clock being correct or something … and the resulting web help page refers me to Windows iTunes problems.

IOS5: So, maybe in order to upgrade these apps I need to have the new IOS5 software installed on my phone since these apps have surely been updated due to the new IOS5 release. I tried 3 times and each time I get the message that my iPhone cannot be restored at this time, there was an internal error.

Web searching, and I read others woes in the same boat as me. I’m also having intermittent iTunes password problems. I even went through the process of changing my password. Hassle.

I don’t waste any time and call AppleCare: I paid for it, I use it. After 10-15 minutes on hold, I get a guy that doesn’t handle this particular issue and he has to transfer me to the iTunes people. It’s announced that my wait time is now 5 minutes or less and after about a minute I get a guy. I explain the issues and basically I’m told that the Apple servers are overloaded and that if I wait 3 hours it should work fine. That isn’t stopping me from trying to upgrade the apps, but the IOS5 update is a long process that wants to backup the iPhone each time and that takes a long time to complete …

Here’s hoping that that’s all it is. Mass upgrading resulting in overloaded iTunes servers.

Current Events: Playing catch up …

Okay, I haven’t posted in a very very long time. (My English teacher said never to use “very very”, choose extremely or some other word). Not that I haven’t wanted to, but I don’t always have the time and I am easily distracted. I get a topic in my head and decide that’s what I’m going to post, but I forget about it when I get home or whatever, it just never gets done. So! Here are the current events and hopefully I don’t forget anything.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO): I went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to do a New Year’s Eve show with Fosterchild. This was to perform for the troops at GTMO, the world’s oldest Naval base … It’s beautiful down there. It was more like a vacation than a job. What I bring back the most was snorkeling … I enjoyed that very much as I’d never done it before. The water was so salty that it was effortless to float, but nearly impossible to dive. Coral was very sharp, but I saw fishies! We played two shows, one New Year’s Eve and another two days later … We toured the entire facility – yes, the entire facility and they were clear that they wanted the things we saw be shared with everyone when we came back. They showed us “Camp X-ray” (which was only open for 70-90 days) where the detainees were held in 2003 and all the media photographs depict when referring to GTMO. This camp is grown over with grass and weeds and hasn’t been used since. They showed us Camps 4, 5, and 6 which become more restrictive as you go. We saw what the detainees were provided in the way of clothing and things to pass their time. How theirs customs are respected and attended to. It was certainly an experience all in itself.

Bo Bice: On a lighter note (whew!) … American Idol’s fourth season runner up to Carrie Underwood was also performing at Guantanamo Bay as well. We even shared the 30 seat plane ride with him to the island. There was a problem with his sound guy’s passport, so he was left at the airport in Florida. Because of this fact, I performed double duty on New Year’s Eve day by sound checking Bo Bice at their venue and then going to the venue where Fosterchild was playing and complete that sound check. Bo Bice played that night with Tony, the electrician who is assigned to setup and break down PA systems at GTMO and his crew. I also had a monitor guy who worked with Tony’s department. It was a Venue system, and the next day, New Year’s Day they moved that entire show to another part of the base that is their outdoor movie theater and I was able to sound check and come back and mix that show. So, on New Year’s Day 2011 (1/1/11), I mixed Bo Bice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – and I got his autograph.

I better get this posted now, more later …

Problems Update

Regarding Verizon.Net :: A change on the PF firewall’s rule set. Forever the bridge was never in the ruleset and everything seemed to work just fine. Finally, because of the proper testing environment, found out it was my own problem all along. Added rules to address the bridge interface directly. Those rules never seemed to have been needed before … or were they?

Regarding the Wireless Router :: I gave up on it as the MBP17 acted flaky since I unplugged the hard wire … The MBP15 seemed okay with it and remained logged in to IRC room on #pf (which is where I was seeking firewall help) and I guessed at the bridge rule … It happened to work … Anyway, I plugged the cables back in and I think I’m going to try the router that I originally bought that fixed all the problems before … Last resort is to buy Apple’s wireless router.

Now digging through all old email, etc and finding email addresses that I need to send an update to … It seems I haven’t sent a newsletter since 2007 .. Hmpf! Well, no new is good news, right?

Sometimes I cause my own problems … really!

A quick update to let you know how Andy Reid and I are alike … I’ve goofed.

Number 1: I thought the Internet was slow from the new connection and called service to have it diagnosed. All the while placing the blame on them, it was I who had coded in the firewall rules the throttling for the old T1. After I changed the values to reflect the much higher speed that is now available, lo and behold it smokes now.

Number 2: While poking in the firewall I started thinking about my Verizon woes again and decided to try to tackle this once again since this problem of not being able to connect has plagued me through 3 or 4 Internet connections. For the first time I was able to connect through my connection, but not through my firewall. With my firewall “opened up” for the mail server, it still will not work over the bridge. I can telnet to hotmail perfectly fine and then in the very next command watch telnet time-out to Verizon.net. I feel that I’m closer to a solution though as I now have something to go by and it’s been my fault all along. So I should take down my “Verizon Sucks” post?

Number 3: The post that’s gotten the most comments here was about the Mac and the Self Assigned IP. While not everyone has used my solution, they’re thanking me for the posting of someone else’s solution. That’s fine. Since my solution was a Belkin router, when I started to move things over to the new location I bought the very same router. Shortly into my Internet usage, the wireless signal would be lost after a certain amount of time. Not the IP problem, just connectivity. Weird. I made sure that the configurations were the same with original router and this new one. They were. I couldn’t figure it out, so I hard-wired and it’s been that way ever since. For some reason I went in the router recently and noticed the Firmware Update. It was two releases behind. I upgraded the firmware, popped out the network cables and have been wireless ever since. Did the newer router come purchased with an older firmware? I won’t know until I check the old router, but if I were a betting man …

You learn something new everyday. I’m not entirely opposed to admitting when I’ve done something wrong, but I sure thought in the first two cases that I was right. The last here is an honest mistake I think … What say you?

Rails is off track without Ruby …

So I’ve been doing my thing. Trying to get the gist of it all and get things in place, working, etc … and then they start with this Rails 3.0 stuff that it doesn’t seem I can run …

What I mean is, developers seemed to have moved on to Rails 3 but I don’t understand how. I decided, okay, it’s an RC (Release Candidate) so I’ll take the plunge and install it on a public server and start developing. Welp, Rails 3 requires ruby 1.9.2 far as I know and I can’t get that installed successfully in a FreeBSD environment when the latest ruby is 1.8.7 (2009-12-24 patchlevel 248) (which currently has a UTF-7 encoding XSS vulnerability in WEBrick.) … sure 1.9.2 will install, but it doesn’t install a “ruby” binary, it’s called ruby19 and you have to symlink or copy it to “ruby” … Why?

Can you run rvm on a production server? Would you? Why?

In Rails defense, their website isn’t advocating a new release nor to install it, yet touts how many people are running it in production already … Bah! Cutting edge.

In other words, I think there’s just still too much stuff up in the air to actually try to massage Rails 3 into place before the rest of the world is ready for it. I mean, Rails isn’t the only thing in my servers that use ruby …

… A couple hours later UPDATE: Ruby 1.9.2 Released

If you’re a Mac, you’re a PC …

A PC is defined literally as a Personal Computer. If you’re using a Mac, you’re using a personal computer. The Mac vs. PC commercials are obviously Microsoft vs. Apple commercials, and they’re spot on when put in that context. But why confuse everyone thinking that “PC” is a bad thing? Or “PC” is the derogatory term that has opposite connotations than “Mac” … I mean, don’t get me wrong, as a computer professional since the mid eighties, I have found my place in the Mac world. I find myself utterly and completely more productive and enjoying my environment and experience 100 times more. I was in misery at the hands of Microsoft products.

Probably many people don’t know that before Microsoft, it was an IBM world and the PC had become known as an “IBM Compatible.” At that time we also had the Commodore, Apple ][ and Franklin. Franklin was an Apple ][ clone and were sued by Apple. Result being, you don’t see any Franklins around, do you?

People also probably don’t know that the CPUs in the first IBM computers were AMDs. Seems that AMD came late to the game to most people, but my IBM XT had a 4.77Mhz AMD chip installed in it, and I used the “Tiny Turbo” to up that baby to a whopping 8Mhz. I imagine Intel struck a deal early on with IBM and that’s how they cornered the CPU market as well as Microsoft pushing IBM’s PC-DOS out of existence with MS-DOS.

But, is it just me? Someone like me that knows all the history of the little boxes and where they all came from and how they started? (Of course I skipped over the earlier Apples and Tandy’s attempt at PC greatness, the 5.25 floppies and 3.5s that don’t exist anymore, etc). Is it just a simple fact that “PC” now means IBM Compatible running Microsoft Windows and “Mac” means awesome computer that puts PCs (in this context) to shame?

I write this post on my 800MHz PowerPC G4 iMac with 768MB SDRAM that I bought used off of eBay and received January 14th, 2004. It’s running 10.4.11 Tiger Mac OS X … It shipped with Jaguar (10.2) but the previous owner gave me Panther (10.3) which I had also purchased separately.

I now run 2 MacBook Pros, a 17 and a 15 both with Snow Leopard (10.6) and a Dell Mini running Leopard (10.5). I bought 10.5 for the Dell (Family version) and tried to install it on the G4 PPC and that was a no go for processors under 866MHz and Snow is Intel only. It took the Intel version of the Mac (and OSX) before I was able to lose Microsoft completely. Whatever the mixture of technologies came together, that’s the case for me. The iMac didn’t get me there in 2004, it took the MacBook Pro in 2008, 4 and a half years later.

I don’t run any emulation software to run MS-Windows virtually, and I don’t utilize BootCamp. There is absolutely nothing Microsoft on my Macs at all. It’s wonderful. The 15″ came with Microsoft Office and I figured I would check it out. When I loaded Word, it said it wanted to update and I said sure. The words “Running Microsoft Update” came up on my screen and I freaked, I blew away the HD and installed my purchased Leopard from DVD. I wanted no remnant of a Microsoft product on my Mac.

So! Once you go Mac, you never go back. I think this is the case for anyone that seriously uses a computer for computing and not just web browsing and email. What do you think?