Protonville

The Software of Space Exploration

2006-04-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

O'Reilly's ONLamp.com Web site has an interesting (but too short) article about open source and/or free software being used in space exploration, some of which is available for personal research.

Boot Camp: Macs to run Windows XP Natively With OS 10.5

2006-04-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

Nope, it's not a delayed April Fool's joke. Apple's really allowing Windows to boot and run natively on Intel-based Macs via a setup program called Bootcamp. Check out the beta. This is like the holy grail of Mac geekdom to me -- I get to keep my OS X for 95% of what I do, and then boot into Windows for specific, non-Mac applications. Now I just need to get that new Intel MacBook at home...

Cautions on Mac OS 10.4.6 Update

2006-04-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

MacSlash notes that Apple has unusual cautionary instructions for installing the Mac OS X 10.4.6 update. From Apple's Web site:

If you use iSync, you should perform a full sync with your devices before installing this update. Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update includes a later version of iSync with several improvements. For more information and before-you-install steps, see iSync 2.2: Read before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, or before first sync.

With the Mac OS X 10.4.6 system software update, PowerPC-based Macs will restart twice, instead of once, after the initial installation.

You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you've modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update.

If issues occur during installation--for example, Software Update quits unexpectedly, please see this article.

I can't remember seeing this sort of warning before, which is all the more reason to be doubly paranoid about installing this update. I'll be watching MacInTouch for a few days to see how things shake out before running the install (but then again, that's what I usually do).

Boot Intel Macs from iPods and FireWire drives

2006-04-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

MacOSXHints explains how you too can boot your Intel Mac from an external drive with just a few Terminal commands (and some time to copy over the boot files).

LOST: The Map

2006-04-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

SPOILER WARNING: If you didn't see Wednesday's episode of Lost ("Lockdown") don't read on. And for the love of the Island, don't click on the link. You have been warned...

If you need to take your brain off the hook for a while on this beautiful Friday (or rather, just need to put it on a different hook) check out this annotated rendering of the map discovered in "Lockdown". For LOST addicts, it's got enough clues and red herrings to fuel a year's worth of speculations.

LEGO Lie Detector

2006-04-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Engadget has an article about a LEGO Lie Detector built by Michael Gasperi using a Mindstorms brick. The article explains: "Basically a set of foil-lined velcro strips attached by 9V wire to an RCX control brick, Gasperi's lie detector works on the principal that people sweat more when they're fibbing, so his device measures the skin's electrical resistance of whomever's getting grilled."

Mets Geek

2006-03-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

They're geeks. They like the Mets. Clearly these are my kind of people.

Web Development Widgets for Dashboard

2006-03-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

I came across two cool Web development-related Widgets for Mac OS X Dashboard this weekend: SeeSS Widget, a browseable CSS reference that contains all of the CSS 2.1 properties and methods and PHPQuickReference Widget, a searchable PHP reference. Both are great for quick lookups, and are particularly handy if you're working offline.

Adventure (Colossal Cave) as a Mac Widget

2006-03-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

A few months ago John and I were talking about the classic text adventures like Zork, Hitchiker's Guide to the Galxy and the original Colossal Cave (later known as Adventure).

There are a bunch of places on the Web were you can play these games, but now you can get lost in a maze of tiny, twisting passages (all alike) through Mac OS X's Dashboard via the Advent widget. This brings the game full circle for me, as I originally played it on my parents' Apple II+.

Quicksilver

2006-03-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

I posted earlier about how I've started using Quicksilver as an alternative to Mac OS X's built in Spotlight search. Spotlight is ok for simple document or media searches, but sometimes it doesn't dig as deeply or as thoroughly as I'd like.

At its most basic, Quicksilver is an application launcher for Mac OS X. You hit a hot key, type what you're looking for and it opens/executes it.

It can do a lot more than that though, including finding specific files and then allowing you to execute actions based on them. For example, I know that I have a file called "LDAP Notes" somewhere on my computer, so I fire up Quicksilver, do a search and it finds the Word doc with those notes. I can then immediately launch Word from that Window. You can also use it to say, launch a playlist -- I want to listen to The Cult, so I do a search on that, get the iTunes playlist list containing those songs and it launches. Through Quicksilver, or its various plugins, you can find a tremendous amount of information on your Mac, perhaps more than you might like. It can index keychains, command line history, recent items (from the Apple menu), Del.ico.us bookmarks, your Safari history and much more, increasingly geeky stuff.

I should note, however, that Quicksilver is beta software. I haven't had any problems with it, but as with any beta software, you need to keep an eye on it. Fortunately, Quicksilver has a "stable mode" which allows you to turn off a lot of the bleeding edge stuff. The software isn't particularly well documented, and I found this tutorial useful for understanding exactly what Quicksilver is good for.

Scientific Widgets Roundup

2006-03-16T18:24:00.000-08:00

The Scientific Widgets Roundup links to a bunch of useful Mac OS X Dashboard widgets for physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and math. Unfortunately a few of the links are broken, but most are functional, including the Clear Sky Clock (or evaluating sky conditions), the Sunlit Moon (which reveals the true phase of the moon) and The Periodic Table (which gives you quick access to information about elements).

Failing to Spotlight History

2006-03-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

I discovered today, much to my annoyance, that under OS 10.4.x, Spotlight won't search Safari's history, though it will search your bookmarks, and within Safari itself, you can search the history as if it were another set of bookmarks.

Fortunately, it turns out that Quicksilver -- which I'm finding more and more useful -- can search my Safari historyand my Del.ico.us bookmarks, which makes me a happy little geek. Just not happy with Spotlight.

Pushing the Internet Into Space

2006-03-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

Wired.com's got a cool (but too short) article about efforts to create an interplanetary 'internet' designed to make communicating with spacecraft easier and more reliable as they travel through space or orbit other worlds.