So today I started it a tad rough, woke up feeling a lot better, but a little queasy, got up at 6:45, got in the shower, and warm water relaxed my shoulders and back which have been hurting, and then - whammo - puke city. Not a fun thing by any means, but at least it wasn’t at the new job So I showered, brushed the teeth, got dressed, headed out and got to the office a whole 5 minutes late - which still beat most folks in it seemed.
A full day though, been a while, at FHS when I was working with Ray Juhl I started early, rode my bike into the office, and changed, and got to work, not going home till sometimes 5pm after the last student finished a project, and the same with Masscom, sometimes we’d be there all night - though granted sometimes that was to play Quake 3 with the boss - but the bottom line is, I survived. I got my app filled out, copy of my resume in, a copy of my drivers license, have to bring in my social security card too - but it was not too shabby - even one of the guys who interviewed me walked by and saw the MacBook Pro and said “A MAC!? What?” - thinking I was going to get some fan boy speech either for or against, he said “I’ll have to have a look at that, I’ve been considering getting a mac for my office” - he uses PC, but is getting tired of M$ licensing fees, so he may have me help him make the leap if we can keep his access to some apps (ala Parallels) - in other words, the equation must be balanced.
So after work I took my usual quick route home, however, tonight everyone else, their cousin, their pet hamster, and their friend Joey who lived down the street from your cousin Ted in 3rd grade, ALSO took that route, and in turn I played the “Alternate Street!” game, which let me test my knowledge of the roads, and find myself a round-about, backwards way to get to the right freeway to wait another hour to get to my bank to only beat the manager from locking the door by 3 minutes, to put money in the bank to help combat the overcharge issues, so I was excited that I really had gotten there but I didn’t know *breath* - that my bank was fine. The two credits cleared this morning at the same time as the initial transaction from them, so I was ahead, and then some, adding an extra $400 from PayPal.
But anywhoo - I think it’s time to find food, and I might just be ordering a pizza, or cooking one, or thinking about cooking one - something though, as I realized around 3pm that I didn’t goto lunch, and I really didn’t feel like walking / driving anywhere except home, so it didn’t seem wise to tempt fate. So for now I’ll say farewell, may put down more thoughts later tonight, but I fear once the full belly hits, there will be little stopping me from the pillow. Thanks for the continued prayers and well wishes via IM - I’ll keep ya all updated!
So I posted to a fewsites about the common problem of the instructions for 802.1x auth over WPA2 Enterprise at Starbucks Hotspots (Provided by T-Mobile) - there were instructions but as of 10.5.1 it seems they were broken - so the other day I fiddled around and found the proper path - I’m posting parts of jayrcole’s instructions from MacOSX Hints and seeding in my tweaks:
1. Open Network Preferences, select AirPort, click Advanced.
2. In the Advanced section, click on the 802.1X pane, then click the “Domain” dropdown and choose “User”
3. Click the + and add in “T-Mobile” - really it can be anything.
4. In the username traditionally it’s your phone number, so fill that in and your password, on Network put in “tmobile1x”.
5. Under Authentication, check these: TTLS, PEAP, EAP-FAST, LEAP, and MD5.
6. Now click on TTLS, and choose “Configure…” and choose “PAP” and under Identity put in “anonymous”.
7. Under Network name, select Join Other Network; in Network Name enter tmobile1x, and under Security, select WPA2 Enterprise.
8. Finally, for 802.1X, select T-Mobile. And you’ll most likely need to re-enter your password (Didn’t save on my MBP).
9. Enjoy Hotspot goodness, and no more login pages, plus your browsing a tad more secure over WPA2, firewall is still a good idea.
So there you have it, if I get really energetic later I’ll install Skitch on the MBP and do some screen shots to go with the walk thru, but all in all this should get you rolling, I used it again today, just did “Join Network” and the tmobile1x was there put in my password and I was off on WPA2 Enterprise fun YMMV, who knows what 10.5.2 will do to us, but if it does change anything I’ll see what I can come up with.
So today is a long one, I have some final bits of code to make, the image manipulation stuff is bugging me, but I’ll get it sooner or later - it’s not a “MUST” but I wanted to simplify it for the customer, if that doesn’t work, in the browse for local file to upload section it’ll simply list sizes that can be uploaded - and I’ll have a fixed size for the listing - but none the less that’s only part of the day, I have a 2pm and a 4pm, both are tech related, so it should be fun to a point, a nice time away from a console would be nice.
Server wise, DNS flipped today, by Thursday I need to cancel the old hardware to avoid further billing - going to try and do it tomorrow so I can FOR SURE be off and not run any risk of pre-auth’s and such against my card and run into stupid issues like that, but I don’t foresee any problems, it is funny though to watch the old hardware - it’s all at a 0.00 load now, the average loads of 2-5 were always fun to watch, but now each server is running good, the drive array is running smooth - and so far spam is down! So tonight I’ll probably roll over FH/TN and get them live on their new server - but all in all it’s looking good.
As per the first thing I talked about above, the code is to be wrapped up tonight and probably some tid-bits in the AM, but at 2pm tomorrow I have a meeting at Starbucks to go over code, and get some cash, and also hopefully snag some more for a server, so pretty jazzed about that - so today I am heading to Starbucks to make sure my T-Mobile HotSpot access still works, I did the tip from MacOSXHints [the tip] - so I am hoping to go in, order my Hot White Chocolate Venti, maybe get crazy and snag a cinnamon roll, and sit down and test it out and have it work no issue, if not of course I’ll have the cell, see what I can do to get it rolling via support.
Anywhoo - there it is, the status of things, busy busy, I have a lot to do, hoping today too to get a new credit card from a few customers, been happy to see a lot paying the last 2 days as TN customers were just finally all migrated to the new billing system - so a good start, and more to come! Have a great Tuesday Folks!
So today I gathered $585 dollars in total, $580 in checks, and $5 for installing MacBook ram for a guy, so quite a complete day, but it’s nice to have funds fixing up nicely, and getting back on track, and not only that, being blessed to get a buffer back, which I figured would take some time, some php, and strange side jobs.
I also got the last of the smaller servers setup, while smaller, still 8cores, less ram, less storage, but mainly for some side projects and smaller customers, so pretty happy that in servers alone I am saving some decent coinage, but still getting great hardware, performance on my blog alone has been wonderful, tonight after Denny’s (yes 3rd night in a row) I plan to migrate friend websites over, so friends, be-ware!
Okay - so Apple, while I may use a iMac day in / day out - and have a MacBook Pro, at heart I am a PC user, not a “WINDOWS” user, but a Personal Computer user, so anything that runs on a PC, be it Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, Solaris, whateva! I am there, in the house alone I have XP, Vista, 10.4, 10.5, Ubuntu, and a small appliance running Gentoo - but that’s a secret - so when MacWorld comes around, the Stevenote while cool sometimes comes off a little “high and mighty”, and this year really was a bit much for my tastes.
The new stuff “eh” - while I will admit out of EVERYTHING shown today, the only thing which really makes half my eyebrow perk up is the 2nd Gen AppleTV - while it’s not the first time it’s been done, and nor is it something I couldn’t do with a off the shelf unit with some Linux magic, the idea I no longer need a system tied to it, a nice thought, but the price still keeps me away for now, maybe when I am rich and famous.
I kept hoping Air would have more redeeming qualities than a multi-touch trackpad, for me that was it, that was the only feature I found cool, the form factor to me seemed more like someone who needed a ultra portable word processor / email rig - something like Palm tried to make with the Foleo but in the end even it ultimately died before it began - but the unit didn’t preach to me and say “Covert unbeliever!!!” it screamed “I AM OVERPRICED, BUT THIN!” I could see it coming in at around $1,000, but knowing Apple’s pricing structure the idea of $1,200 was what came to mind, but nearly 2k, no thanks, I’ll just share my CD-ROM to my MBP and feel like I’m getting the same thing, but play WOW.
Watch the keynote, and once Steve starts talking about the iPhone, note the level of applause, then lead into the iPod Touch, did you hear the crickets? $20 for early adopters? Did we learn nothing after changing the price on the iPhone? Come on Steve, launch it if anything as a $0.99-$2 fee, something small, simple, get your customer base on board, because lord knows at the end of the day these new “adjustments” are going to lead to more Apple buying options for add-on software, iWork for Touch etc. so give the loyal subjects a break.
Other than Rentals which might be nice (but rumor is HD only on the AppleTV) - nothing that said “Chuck Save the Money!” so I doubt other than my hopeful Mac Pro to replace the iMac, nothing jumped out and grabbed me - nothing was “NEW and EXCITING”, a iPhone for non-ATT without jailbreak and such would of been nice, but nope, apparently AT&T still has a while longer.
Anywhoo - there it is, my day goes forward, coming up at 9pm for my evening hang-out with the guys, we are going to brave Denny’s another time, and I pray we walk away alive. Till next time, have a Good Tuesday, a Great Wednesday! Take Care!
I have some great friends (of which also happens to be a client) - this morning I got the note from my good friend BdG that he had snagged me a copy of the MacHeist Bundle - so this morning I have 8 (9 soon, all 11 within a week I’d imagine)! Very cool thing to do, gave me some great tools like TaskPaper which I’d been wanting to get ahold of, and if, but more like when the other apps get unlocked, it also gives me some great tools for the business as well adding in Snapz Pro and Pixelmator - so very jazzed indeed.
BdG if I could hug you in person, I would, and I wouldn’t care who saw it. Thank you my friend, a very awesome gesture indeed, and a nice pick me up to my day! Let’s hope it all flows as well! Happy Friday Folks!
So it begins another year of MacHeist, I am in #macheist right now watching the slow release of all the apps in this year’s bundle - and obvious some folks are impatient, not everyone is hip to the whole “Web Events” - I remember when Greg did his awards show via IRC, some loved it, some hated it - but in the end, I think it went off well.
Now each time a bundle like this goes out, there is a crowd on both side of the tracks, that see the good, and then the other side see’s the bad, honestly I think it’s good and good some more, some developers may not want to get on the bargain bandwagon, but so be-it, it is their code, their time, their choice - but this is a fun yearly even, and so far some decent apps, out of the 3 announced thus far I own Cha-Ching, but the version 2 looks good for Leopard, and with job options / rent / etc. all about to go nuts, a finances app sounds good.
The big perk I think to MH each year is the donation, granted it’s not the places folks would choose, but I think it’s some decent places and it’s well rounded, trying to get some from each area things like hunger, disease, and the big hitter lately “Earth” type options, MH sums it up as such:
Last year, our members were offered a choice of charities to have 25% of their purchase donated to. This initiative became a spectacular success, with $200,000 raised by the end of the event. This year, we’re hoping to shatter last year’s record numbers, and show how generous the Mac community can be.
Granted I know not all my readers are Mac users, and I myself am no 100% sold to any one OS (though Mac is 90% range) this is a great deal, and to any Mac Convert it’s a great way to get the ball rolling with some already wonderful apps for Mac.
So today I went to check on my AppleCare warranty status, having bought the MacBook Pro last year - I knew I had only days before I had to get the AppleCare extention, and after missing the iMac’s I wasn’t going to miss this one, however according to Apple, I bought the laptop on the 19th (aka Today) one year ago, which by my post, is 2 days off from the truth.
So finding out the horror of many regarding AppleCare “lateness”, and not having a Apple Store (that’s another Dear Apple for another day) I zipped across town to CompUSA (Bleh) to snag a box, even though their site claims not to stock it, thankfully they did, and $349 later I walked out with a box and a worthless piece of software.
My note to apple is simply this - MAKE APPLECARE RENEWAL BE ONLINE! - for a company that made a fancy phone, and various things which key strength is the internet, you’d think they’d want to make it easy to protect their devices by buying, and renewing AppleCare online, no worry, no fuss, no mildly annoying CompUSA sales people - I mean they did it with iWork, you can buy the code online, why not do the same for AppleCare? Seriously Apple - do that, unlock the iPhone for use on other networks, a SDK for the iPhone, and a lower priced MacPro - I’d be happy and poor at the same time.
So I showered, brushed the teeth, got dressed, headed out and got to the office a whole 5 minutes late - which still beat most folks in it seemed.
YMMV, who knows what 10.5.2 will do to us, but if it does change anything I’ll see what I can come up with.
