Thursday, June 30, 2005

I guess not...

Okay. Adding the missing line did not work. So, I booted from my firewire backup and removed the edits from /etc/authorization.

Back to the drawing board...

Did you know...

that if you attempt to enable kerberos login in 10.4.1, and merely follow old instructions, half-hoping that they would just work, just because, you totally deserve to get dropped into console mode when you logout.

Yes, this was an experiment, and this is probably why the AIT doesn't have instructions out yet for 10.4.x, but I really, really just want to be able to get my new G5s, with Tiger, into the labs... You see, /etc/authorization changed a bit, and a certain line is missing that used to be present. I am going to add in that line and see if this works. If not, back to the drawing board. Right now, I don't care about getting a ticket on login; I just want to use kerberos to authorize login period.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

You know, it helps to check the version number...

Tell me how I managed to install the old version of Radmind on my new G5 image. You know, the one that used to take 6 hours to upload a 2.3 GB image? I just thought that the reason I didn't get the dialog asking if it was a new install was because it might not have been quite compatible with Tiger yet. I thought that the reason why it wasn't making much progress in uploading after 5 hours (yes, I starting before lunch), was because the new basic image is 9 GB (shock!).

I am now happily and speedily uploading with the newer verion. I am already to /Library/Audio after only an hour. Of course, I did pull out GarageBand and iDVD, to speed things up a bit (yesterday, before the initial upload attempt). But yes, things are progressing much faster with 0.9.5 Beta, than with 0.8.1.

Needless to say, I deleted the old from the archives.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Orientation Tomorrow

I was all excited about getting to play with the laser cutter again tomorrow, when I suddenly remembered that we have new student registration tomorrow morning in my labs. I'll be way too busy to do any more testing until tomorrow afternoon. But, on the plus side, new student registration is fun! Everything went pretty smoothly on Tuesday - no one forgot their password, although a few forgot to sign up for email on day one, and so could not login to the machines when they went to register (but that always happens, so no biggie).

I think I will revive my tradition of showing movies for the waiting parents and students... Napoleon Dynamite would be fun...

Laser cutter-y goodness!

I spent today working on the laser cutter area of the resource site, and after proofreading, uploaded it, tested it, and called it done (for the moment anyway). As I was listing future tutorials and tips that I wanted to add, I suddenly was struck by an idea.

You see, we've pretty much been limited to just using the cut and engrave settings for each material. We've been using two of the default 16 colors for settings. Black is engrave, red is cut. Well, I thought, why not create more complex designs in Illustrator using the 16 colors, which could then be cut or engraved with different powers and depths to acheive a more interesting effect on the material?

I spent the next two hours testing, playing, and taking notes. I used a simple design modified from one of the patterns supplied in Illustrator, enlarged it, changed the colors and lineweights, and came up with some interesting final cuts and engraves. The possibilities are endless! I am going to work on more complex patterns tonight or tomorrow morning, and really see what the different settings can do...

(yes, I am a geek!)

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Ahh, the difficulties of coming up with a second post...

I have about 5 million things to blog about right now, but as this is now a "public" blog, most of it will have to be shunted off into my anon-blog. But, I can tell you a few things of interest:

1. MacOS X 10.4.2 is supposed to fix that kerberos issue where tickets are not issued on login (for those of you interested in that type of thing :)) Sweet.

2. My new G5s have been ordered for the lab. Very sweet config: dual 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 250GB hard drives, 20 in. Apple display (huge in person!). Working on software right now, figuring out what needs to be updated and what can be quietly retired... I won't start working on the lab image until they get in, or 10.4.2 comes out.

3. I am finally adding a laser cutter section to the main resource site for the labs. I am just about done writing the preliminary info. I may try to round up some photo examples, too.

4. I went shopping tonight, meaning to buy something to wear for my class reunion on Saturday, but ended up buying more material and stuff for my next ren faire dress.

5. My modem keeps hanging up, for some unknown reason. Sucks. I am going to try v.32 instead of v.34, but really, I haven't had any problems with this before...

6. The Kleptones rule!

7. Tried watching the movie, "Epoch" tonight. Quit after less than an hour. Not worth it. Maybe some other time.

8. Listening to a mash-up right now of "Ice, Ice, Baby" and several other songs, by the Kleptones. Very sweet.

That's it for tonight.

On this blog, anyway... :)

Monday, June 13, 2005

First Post!!!

On a blog with my RealName™ on it, anyway...

First posts are usually meant to introduce the writer, give an opportunity to describe the aims of a blog, and what general topic will be covered.

You have no idea what it took to write that without laughing...

Anyway, right now, within arm's reach of my desk, I have the following:

1. My iPod Shuffle (of course, this is around my neck, so does it really count?), playing the Star Wars Episode III soundtrack,
2. A Mac Classic,
3. A PowerMac 6100,
4. My iBook,
5. Six books on renaissance costuming and chivalry in the middle ages,
6. two boxes containing more sewing machine attachments than a reasonable person needs (I even like to hack my sewing machine! expansions, baby!),
7. A copy of "The Hacker Ethic" by Pekka Himanen, with prologue by Linus Torvalds,
8. one package of heavy duty cable ties (3/8", 36" long),
9. a digital camera,
10. and a copy of my master's thesis, on my bookshelf, which I have not opened since I graduated (five years ago).
11. the original Star Wars Trilogy, on VHS: more action, less ego :)

Not to mention, the invitation for my 15 year class reunion...