 The
iMini: Owen
Whines
First
I relented
on Microsoft,
no doubt the cause of endless rejoicing at that dark principality; and
now
I’ve turned to Apple — and the darkness truly gathers! ...
Actually,
after the initial
shock
and awe, well, it’s not so bad. ... I’ve seen worse, as the
poor fellow
reiterates in Slaughterhouse
5. ... Really for several days I thought it was an imac
— a much more expensive all-in-one unit including screen
/
keyboard / mouse; it was disappointing when I realized my error. ... I
mean, why couldn’t they call it an “iMini”?! ... I want
an “i”
something! ... Maybe I’ll just call it that, between ourselves,
and ignore their heartless discrimination.... ... It
certainly boots faster than Windows! ... As the
beautiful illustration
should convey, the laboratories generally make-do with lower-rent stuff
than the estimable iMini, which is a totally unprovoked gift of the
dangerous
but
irrationally-generous LOL.
... As shown, the single antique CRT serves (or did, until it was scorned)
one-at-a-time the mini, the
broken laptop, and even today the dos/win 3.1 machine.... ...
So
this user did not
perceive the storied Mac interface as friendly. ... At least
during setup,
I found it extremely annoying — in part, no doubt, because Apple
is the
last bastion of the screw-the-customer business strategy. ... For
example,
the separate
power supply — which I have cleverly hidden under
the thing,
using part of the packing material — has weird
connectors
all-round, i.e. even the AC side, so you can’t use a standard
three-pronged
AC plug like everything else but instead if you have to replace it pay
Apple the $200 or whatever it wants for the part. ... Surely this is
one
of
the last of the breed; the only other like that at
OwenLabs
is probably
an antique Windows 95 Compaq laptop! ... Speaking of
the
power supply, the unit has a hidden on/off switch! Just like an HP
printer! ... Obviously Apple believes in imitating the best! ... Yes
it’s
hidden in the back with
the
connectors and is very tiny. This because you’ll just put your mac
to
“sleep” and avoid all that nasty on/off stuff entirely —
and of course
leave the power idling (even pressing the “power” button when
the unit is on just puts it to sleep) — But I thought that was
anti-green!?
—
and anyway,
computers are powered-off
in the Computer Attic, and I did that before
the article
in the defunct Midnight
Engineering years ago, about how some guy managed to burn
his house down when a monitor — all these IT
guys leave their computers on constantly — set itself on fire in
the
night.... ... Of course another source of my
seemingly
limitless ire might be that I am,
for better but mostly worse, a Windows user — and the Mac works
different!... ... Resolution
and
Registration ...Well let’s see. ...
Like a
Linux box, the thing started-up in standard issue stupid computer
800x600 resolution. ... Which was particularly amusing, because when I
tried like a good robot to register, the registration form didn’t
fit
on the screen! — which, you understand, was completely unnecessary,
there was hardly anything on it, just some idiot programmer with his
giant flat screen. ... The buttons were stuck way down on the bottom,
and when I tried to click “continue”, I started Garage Band!
... Hey
hey hey the fun never stops! ... So without that
much trouble, I
located
“system preferences” and managed to set the screen to 1024x576
— which
is still too small, barely fitting the registration form. ... But the
positive news is that, unlike
Linux, it doesn’t scramble the screen forever if you pick the
wrong resolution (but then it turns-out it does something far
worse).
... Sadly, it was all for naught because I then
discovered my friendly helpful iMini didn’t
automatically hook up my wireless; I mean I don’t expect it to know
the
password, but at least it could’ve tried and offered me
a chance to
connect. ... So, back to System Preferences — which is
the program I’ve
run most so far — and after considerable effort I persuaded it to
connect. ... Around that time I decided I needed a real
computer, and
got a laptop over there — so at least I could type in the wireless
hex
password while reading the screen, you see? ... Because of course my
network
couldn’t see the mini, until I devoted the
inevitably
requisite hours of suffering and supplication.... ...
But then I could register! Oh joy! ... Then,
I believe,
they offered an
exclusive $100/year opportunity to become a “.MAC”
member —
which I
declined, unwilling to believe I met their lofty standards. ...
 Then they
offered me a 60-day free trial, which I took, although I’m completely
unclear about what the benefits are supposed to be. ... And after a
few
days and seriously trying to figure it out — well there’s their
excuses in the picture, and compared to ISP monthly fees it’s not
so expensive. ... Of course, that would be modem
fees. ... But you get all that fabulous integration with your mac
programs.... ...
Hey just now, the random screen saver started randomly running Apple
advertising! . ... Now that’s random!
... Ad Astra:
The NetworkThen
I
challenged the stars; I tried to connect the mini to the Computer Attic
network. ... And I did succeed, after 4 or five hours. ... And I can’t
really blame Apple — well, really, I will anyway, apparently the
piffle about
user-friendliness doesn’t include the ethernet. ... But
sadly Microsoft, the caring feeling Linux community, and
Apple — all assume
you’re connected to a corporate- or university-style network,
particularly
one
with a DHCP server
and all that entails — or worse — probably including  wandering
herds of
IT savants to “fix you
up”. ... I’m not and they don’t; my computers have primitive
fixed addresses,
like “10.1.1.17”, and I
am the inept
wandering savant. ... Both Apple and Windows computers let me set-up
machines
in this simple-minded way, probably because the world is filled
with hopeless heretics
like
me
who insist on it, usually for far better reasons than mine. ... But
it’s
not going to be easy! ... No sirree, you want those stupid numbers, you
figure it
out.... ... And then of course, your network must
have
passwords; you can’t live, civilization itself will perish, your
flesh
will boil off without passwords. ... But not me. ... And there’s
something screwed about pre-XP Windows passwords — actually I
just read that somewhere, it may be Linux/Mac propaganda;
maybe someday I’ll
figure it out — but the upshot is, my precious Windows 98 machines
— an
ever-dwindling tribe, to be sure — cannot talk to the mini. ... But
I should note that I can print
from the mac on the one Windows 98 machine it’ll connect to! (But
not anymore...) ...
But on my XP units, I could use my pitiful command-line batch file
low-rent stuff to
reliably map
drive G: to “gregor” the user (see the Leopard
rendition) (and
then of course scan the drive in my precious OwenShow,
which, oddly, does it in a jiffy — well at least until I installed
CrossOver Mac). ...
I must’ve somehow typoed the
“OWENS”
— my last name is normally singular — during the dramatic start-up
procedure — did I mention it seemed to do it twice, for no reason
I
could figure? — but I like to imagine the little critter figured
out
the “owens” all by itself, like a stupid payroll clerk! ...
I
tried at
various junctures to give the unit a more plausible name, all which
efforts it silently ignored.... ... So the first
time, or
randomly or something, it’ll ask for a user name and password. ...
The
mini
strongly advised I should have a “user” password when we were
first
acquainted, and so I went along and did like my Linux machines and
supplied the “gregor” user with the password “gregor”.
... During the
agony of attempted networking (it’s probably a felony in California)
I
offed it, so when I’m asked by my XP machine, I just type “gregor”
and
then press Enter
for the password, and we’re all happy. ... For a while, it
would print some weird stuff that looked like “S__” —
a
letter followed
by some base-line rules, or maybe the other way round — but it seems
to
have settled-down and didn’t do that just now. ... No no it was the
Windows “net view” command-line display, where it says 
I
suspect somewhere in the toils of the Mini, I entered “__”
when
they
insisted I complete some form — yeah probably the registration. ...
Oh
who knows.... ...
But now (Thursday, July 12, 2007) for the last few days the mini has
taken to automagically showing one of my XP drives on its desktop! I
eject it from time to time, but it always comes back. ... The drive is
the one where I develop the C++ side of my IPW
Macintosh program, and I suspect I’ve somehow linked a file on the
Mac to it — or who knows? Offing
the Password ...Oh
yes, I’d forgotten: I offed my password on the occasion of trying
to
persuade the adorable little gadget to “share” my files with
Windows:
it required that I specify which
user’s files to share — there are so many of us! — and
then it demanded
a password. ... I was supposed to supply that user’s password, i.e.
“gregor”. ... But it didn’t say
that; because, after all, if you’re so stupid as to have a network
and
no IT wizard to set you
up, you’d better know everything! ... And at this point I was so
frazzled I didn’t make the necessary intuitive leap, and just started
screaming and cursing at the computer, a technique I often adopt but
which rarely achieves a positive result. ... When I finally recovered,
drooling and panting, I figured-out the secret knowledge and promptly
went and offed the password, punishing the cheeky little wretch.... ...
Well I just went back, and after the mini stopped showing me the help
for Safari — their web browser, which I had used half an hour ago
— and
instead showed me the “mac” help — oh I
see, in the ez
friendly Mac, any program I ran
is still running
until I tell it to stop, even ’though
I clicked the close button and the window disappeared!; right because
they’re all so integrated,
see? — I managed to start their screen capture utility “grab”4,
and
after some mystification, figured-out what was going on, and then I
went to the offending “sharing” screen — and it’s
all so clear! ...
Says right there I should enter the “account password” for
“James
Owen”! ... Like most typical users, I have the distinct impression
it
said something else yesterday — but that’s users for you! ...
Probably
I’ll
be trying to put my coffee cup on the CD tray next! ... Well really it
may have said that, but in the context I probably had no idea what
“account” they were talking about — actually I still
don’t,
weren’t we
talking about the user
“gregor”?; that’s the user XP demands when I have to
give
it my
non-existent password! ... Oh I see; they referred to the “account”
by
the “full” name, which I did indeed supply them at some point
(although
here it’s a singular
“Owen”; maybe it is
like a stupid payroll clerk!).
... Oh whatever; it wasn’t
the easy-does-it Macintosh experience told-of in song and legend! ...
You know, this is so weird, it’s a lot like the impenetrable surprises
of Linux — oh wait! ... The Macintosh is
Unix-based these
days! ... Whadda ya know, eh! Enter
the Leopard ... Exit the NetworkAka
OS X 10.5. ... Which casually destroyed all my networkery, leaving
a shattered smoking ruin. ... I did a “dirty” install —
I didn’t wipe
everything that was there already and then restore stuff from removable
media, a practice the cogniscenti seem to favor. ... I don’t think
that
made a big difference, at least judging by (other) complaints on
the web. ... Whatever, the
windows/mac network — at least the Windows side — was
still
and without life. ... And here’s what I had to do to
get my Window machine to see the imini again: 0.
You might want to make sure and create another extra user first, in
“system preferences / accounts” — I usually name it “other”
— with
admin
privileges! (you check a box). Actually, when I felt
things were
getting dicey, I made another
extra
user (named “another” of course), just in case I managed to
screw-up
“other”. ... This all because after my merry mutilations as
follows,
I
can no longer “su” or “sudo” (i.e. on a command-line;
it just spits at
me), and it occurred to me — it could be intentional! ... The
thoughtful Leopard protecting me from myself, after I foolishly shared
all those directories! ... Of course in my entire illustrious imini
career I never even had the inclination
to su until these very adventures, and in the event it didn’t seem
to
help any — but in case I want to, I can still do so effortlessly
in the
“other” user — what is still incommunicado over the untrustworthy
attic
network. ... The “su” command, incidentally, has to be specifically
enabled, in “/Applications/ Utilities/ Directory Utility” —
in the edit
menu!8 1.
Anyway, I altered my
Windows “imini.bat”
file
thusly: :
net use m:
\\JAMES-OWENS-COM\gregor
net use m:
\\10.1.1.24\gregor i.e.,
I
stopped using the mac’s name and instead used the absolute address
I
gave it in previous struggles.
... Apparently the Leoparded imini has become nameless in my pitiful
attic
network; the Windows command “net view” no longer sees any
trace;
it’s entirely disappeared. ... But of course the numbers still seem
to
work. Don’t know what you do if you’ve got one of those fancy
DHCP thingeys.5
 2.
In “System Preferences / Sharing”, I
clicked the options
button and made sure “SMB”
was checked; Leopard turned it off for some reason.
3.
In the same place, as shown in the beautiful illustration, I kept adding
directories (the leftmost
“+”) and then going through them laboriously and
setting everything to “Read
Write”
— that is, there was no way to add a single directory — the
user
directory “gregor” for instance — and specify that all
the
subdirectories should also be shared the same way. The best strategy
seemed to be to “disclose” as many directories as you can with
the
little triangles, then  -A to select “all”
and click OK —
and
wait half-an-hour while the merry Leopard alters the permissions one by
one.... 4.
This got things more-or-less working, but from time to time I seem to
have to “chmod a+r invisible_file”
(on the sacred command-line of
course) to make something readable from Windows; or “chmod a+rw
hackable_file” for read/write — presumably for the “other”
group, which
probably includes “nobody” aka “Unknown User”?
It seems
to accomplish
pretty-much the same thing as step #3 I think and is
probably easier — i.e. “chmod a+rw *” to do a whole directory?.
... Or
who knows? ... Anything I
write
(i.e., edit or otherwise
mutilate) from the Windows machine gets “nobody” ownership
— but, thankfully, leaves
the file in the
“gregor” group (i.e., me, the ostensible user of this amazing
machine) so it’s still accessible from the mac. ... Well
then again,
I had to write a complicated procedure for
when I have problems with windows-tainted files on the mini side (by
copying the errant file around) — because I couldn’t sudo!
...
But then I discovered if
I give my user account a password, then for some bizarre reason I can
go “sudo su”, provide the thing with the user password, and
I’m
root! ... At least, “echo $UID” says “0”. ... But
adding
the user password
still didn’t make the unit visible in Windows’ “net view”,
or make
Windows require a password. ... Anyway, now I can fix Windows-tainted files
and directories with a “fix”
proc like #!/bin/bash
chown gregor:gregor
$@
chmod u+rw,g+rw,o+rw
$@
maybe. ... So if you enjoy playing with chmod
and such, you can
have a lot of fun!...
Bad
Apple!!...
I
guess Apple figgered it’d be cool to kick their Windows users in
the
teeth — since Apple’s been so successful lately, what with
iphones
and pods
and what not. ... This is also suggested by the “Blue Screen of Death”
graphic for the Windows computers that
show-up in the Macintosh browser — which I thought was pretty funny
until I noticed how Leopard had totally p---ed on my network.... Leopard’s View of Windows...
On
the other hand, Leopard’s view of my Windows computers improved —
although, sadly,
it forgot
about that single Windows 98
printer it used to connect-with. ... However it even saw the Vista
machine nicely — but not for long! — after a few days Leopard
stopped seeing the Windows machines;
no vista, no xp, nothing; it
just forgot them entirely, winking out like candles in the night. ...
Well wait, one of them came back by itself, and
then helpful web
chit-chat revealed that I should click “go / connect to server”
(in the
finder menu) and then type-in “smb://carol” which would revive,
in that
case, my carol XP machine; there’s a “+” button in the
window
that lets
you add the server to a list, so the next time you won’t have to
remember. You would find these names in the first place by going “net
view” on a Windows command-line. ... And
I could use this procedure to connect
to Windows 98 machines! Which the imini never never used to do!
... And, as I found earlier in the stumbling chaos, my new numeric
imini command
also works from Windows 98!
... Is
that cool or what? ... No user, no password, no nothin’!... ...
And then a day or two passed, and the XP/Vista machines reappeared back
under the “shared” heading right where they belonged! I guess
the imini
just forgot. ... I noticed this when my screen
saver slide show always
stalled on a blankish greenish screen; I’d wave the mouse and I could
see a little dialog momentarily and then it’d disappear! But then
I
stuck around for awhile, and the dialog popped-up again, and wanted
me to sign-in to a particular windows machine — which of course has
no
password. But this was just like old home week, reviving a habit the
previous Tiger-era imini used to indulge in.
... I suppose it does this because I’ve set that Windows machine
to
automatically map the imini to drive m: at startup — which is hardly
a good
reason, but I suppose I’ll
just have to let it have its way. ... But the next day, the Windows
machines disappeared again — but not the hide-and-seek game with
the
screen saver and the login dialog; so I’m reduced to explicitly
using
the “go” procedure to mount the Windows
machine the imini pines for, if I want to enjoy the beautiful “Ken
Burns”-style screen saver.... ... Days passed, and I’m
guessing at this moment that if
my Windows machine maps the mini at startup, then
the mini won’t show its precious list of “shared” Windows
machines;
because this morning, when I deliberately avoided that circumstance as
a cunning way to see the beautiful screen saver without
logging into the windows drive the mini seems to so consistently yearn
for — why Voila! ... A wonderful
list of shared machines — including
the Windows 98 machines!
... Ah life is good. ... Oh well, not that good; I went back and the
W98 machines had disappeared from the list. And the stupid mac was
playing it’s old hide ’n’ seek
game.
...
Now I will tempt fate beyond endurance and restart ... (tension
tension) ... and the shared list is entirely absent! ... Forgotten,
wanders on and off in fits of whim and whimsy, whither it wist, when it
will. ... But the “go connect” thing
still works.... Obiter
Dictum: Not So BadSo when the dust settled, the odd Windows 98
improvements — an operating system to which I have a deep and irrational
attachment —
made the
convulsions almost worthwhile! ... But I somehow doubt others will
share my sentiments.... — Friday,
November 30, 2007 3:19 pm  The
Darkness Came
...
Ooops
I went to Northern Thrift to buy the mini a tasty new monitor capable
of the resolution it was so obviously accustomed to but, before
installing, I naturally turned the unit on to make sure it was still
working with the old monitor ... and it wasn’t! — as if it
sensed the impending replacement,
the old screen was spitefully dark without
life; the
little orange light on the ancient monitor would not turn to green! ...
To be sure, the temperamental EZ-to-use iMini eventually condescended
to
light-up when I plugged-in the latest $39.95 technology, but if I
hadn’t been a great and powerful computerist, wily and knowledgeable
—
i.e. if I were a normal person with one monitor, the supposed intended
user of this paragon of simplicity — I would’ve been up the
proverbial creek!
... The
Mac may have the “safe boot” feature of the Windows machines,
where by
pressing the right magic keys at boot time one can get the machine back
to 640x480 resolution — but it wasn’t in the pitiful cute little
so-tiny documentation. ... Well google says there’s a is
a mac safe mode,
but brief investigation doesn’t suggest it provides a “safe”
resolution —
which of course makes sense; it’s only relatively recently that Apple
let you use
a monitor other than
theirs, and I’m sure they still don’t like
it. ... And I must
emphasize I
have never had a
Windows machine
do this ... even Linux! ... This is a special unique Macintosh failure
mode.... ... Pontifications
......
So as I pontificated to the LOL,
who
I insisted was responsible for fixing the bad machine1
... (1.) possibly the Mac looks at the signals on the VGA interface,
there’s some kind of feedback maybe it can see, and it decides the
screen will set itself on fire if it continues, so it just forgets.2
(2.) Possibly the monitor
forgot it could tolerate that
high resolution. ... (3.) More likely,
the mini
decided on its own, perhaps based on erroneous noise from the VGA
interface, that it should use a new different perhaps higher-resolution
display — and the old monitor reacted by shutting down — that
is
how they react, that is the green light goes yellow, and they are
quiet, until you provide a resolution it can stand. ... And when we
fixed
it with the new $39 monitor, the mini did
in fact set itself to a new resolution, all on its own. ... But
actually perhaps most likely, (4.) the mini’s VGA output isn’t
so
stable — years of building for their own monitors, you know —
and
sometimes it hiccups and the signal comes out just a little too fast,
as opposed to how it was yesterday. ... Anyway, the monitor was
in fact shining its tiny yellow light, and it definitely worked before
for many happy hours and green lights — and indeed still
worked, at least with the ancient boat-anchor.... ...
and Then Low
ContrastI
should note that the washed-out look in my wretched picture up
there
is not the amateur photographer, but the mini —
as I realized after noticing the monitor’s
menus
were perfectly contrasty. ... No doubt some pitiful artifact of the
mini’s endless struggle with the dangerous old monitor; I’ll
grovel
around
in there and see if I can make it behave itself. ... Well apparently
not; I’d guess with the old tired monitor which the mini apparently
did
not know, it had to give it the benefit of the doubt and crank up
the contrast. ... But with my $39 Northern Thrift emachine
CRT which
the mini claims to know well, it probably thinks we sensitive Macintosh
types want a wimpy restful calm sensitive screen. ... Although the
contrast
got a little
better when in the
gamma setup whatever procedure I requested a “TV/Windows” screen.
... Maybe I’ll go back and lie to it some more.... And
Now — Mini (Non-)Sound!?...
I’m
impressed! First I concluded there was no way to make the built-in
speaker louder than a whisper — inaudible in the Laboratories, where
we
often have the radio blaring 30s music. This achievement is not simple
— the softness of the speaker, not the 30s music. ... Apple probably
had to spend extra to make sure their built-in audio was that soft;
even my cheapo-est (Windows) laptop makes more noise! ... So score one
for
the Apple design team! ... But my hat’s really off after careful
testing with numerous sound systems and headphones — they
are all
soft! ... How did
they
do that?! ...
The carefully-selected sound systems were from the junk box,
but
the headphones are genuine cheap Tower records etc. standard issue;
with headphones (and also a cassette adapter + boom box!) the
audio was
loud-enough to hear over the 30s
background music — but just!
... Someone
probably realized if headphones were actually softer
than their inaudible built-in speaker — well even those less cranky
than the OwenLabs standard might get
cranky.... ...
Now
you understand, you get a tremendous benefit along with inaudible
sound: the output is digital
with
the proper connector. ... And
according to various unreliable sources on the web when I googled “mini
digital output” you can actually plug this into something digital
and
hear stuff, although apparently not exactly in the format the mini
pilgrims wanted.... ...
Me,
I’m content
to admire the incredible creativity of the Apple team, to thus
avoid anyone using standard PC sound equipment! ... Remember, the mini
includes
a DVD player!
... It’s a
feature!
... There’s even
a tiny remote control
to make
it EZ to
watch inaudible DVDs!... ...
Well then I googled
for “mini too soft” and found confirmation, but also innocent
pilgrims
who claimed you could attach sound systems which would make the sound
OK. ... But these are Macintosh users; I assume their hands would
fall-off if they were to try PC sound junk. (Eventually I fixed
it.) I
spent a few days puzzling why the mini refused to at least try
to run my
OwenShow binary, before appreciating what an idiot I was. ... I mean,
MSDOS/Windows’ll run a naked binary file so long as it has the .COM
extension, but your more refined kind of operating systems insist
files have known formats before execution, and the OwenShow/Linux “elf”
style
is not
Macintosh-ready. ... And
I don’t think
Kylix the Kompiler is
coming to the Macintosh any time soon3.
... Well it has a sort-of latter-day
zombie-like existence.... ...
But Wait ....But
then I managed to download/install something called “fink”
which
is an
update thingey for your Mac Darwin Unix system, with its own GUI
“FinkCommander” with which I could actually get the great  character-based
Linux file browser “Midnight Commander” and — Ta Da!
—
the
fabulous also-character-based “Joe’s Own
Editor”, so
I can run the “jstar” version of Joe and use the WordStar
diamond
— in Unix! ... on the Mac!
... I copied my own modified “.jstarrc”
configuration file over from a Linux system, mapping the mac drive
through
the network
and reading the Linux file in Windows with explore2fs!
... Handy Hints:
many of Midnight Commander’s function keys must be “squiggle-fied”
so, for
instance, to exit the program (or menus etc.) you must go -F10; to get
to the tasty
menu functions across the top of the display, use -F9
and then arrow
keys. (Until recently, I somehow thought I had used alt
combinations to get these things although apparently I couldn’t’ve;
can’t imagine how I made such a weird error, must’ve been before
the
new keyboard) ... And oh
yes Control+O (letter
“O”) alternates between
Midnight
Commander and the shell command-line, so you can actually see
stuff you do there — I’ve been using MC for years and never
knew that!
... And shift+page up/down does that. ...
See a touching screen shot below.... ...
Oh gosh this is so stupid! ... I should note that previously
I managed to install the FireFox internet browser, so I
didn’t
have to use the idiosyncratic Mac “Safari” thing — and
that made
getting fink so
much easier, if still harrowing. ... I had to install FireFox twice,
because the first time I didn’t understand their cryptic sign language
meant I was
supposed to drag
the dopey FireFox icon to my “Applications” folder, and I had
comparable
puzzlements with fink, but heck ... I mean, the WordStar diamond!
... Go go
ridiculous but
amusing universe! —
Friday, January 5, 2007 4:00 pm iGraphics
for the iMini: The GimpLater I was
able to “fink”
Gimp,
the powerful open-source graphics program — strangely, as far as
I can
figure the iMini
comes
without graphics software comparable to even Windows’ mspaint. ...
Tip: you must
run Gimp
from within
the X11 terminal that you must
open by clicking the “X11”
icon in your Applications directory. ... I.e., - Go
into the “utility” directory in “Applications”.
Double-click
“X11”. If you don’t have
an X11 icon there, you may have to install X11, from the original media
or someplace. I think it just came-up with the iMini, but I could
easily be wrong, what with all the sturm und drang....
- This
should open a terminal window. In this window, you must type
“/sw/bin/gimp-1.2” (which is where fink installed the program),
followed by the ever-popular Enter.
Incidentally,
Fink maintainer Alexander Strange provided this info via actual Apple .mac
email after I clicked the “whine” button or something inside
Fink. ... A good sign for Fink users — the button and
the response!... ...
Alternately, once you’ve become a Unix expert you can concoct a script
to run the thing like “/usr/bin/open-x11
/sw/bin/gimp-1.2” which’ll
work in any
terminal window you
lucky user! — and you don’t even have to click the X11 icon!
... Then
when/if you’re an Apple expert,
you can tell me
how to make the script run when I double-click an OS X icon — which
of
course is relatively easy in Windows, but I am without clue in the
glorious imini — oh wait guru on the way! — Go
into the Applications
directory, find the ApppleScript
directory, and in there double-click
the “Script Editor” Type
do
shell
script
"/usr/bin/open-x11 /sw/bin/gimp-1.2"
(Leopard
version: do
shell
script
"/sw/bin/gimp-1.2")6 “Save
As Application” to /Applications/agimp or something. Of
course if you make
the slightest mistake in the text, the thing’ll complain (?) and
you’ll
have to figure it out.
But
otherwise, there you go! You
have an official clickable icon that’ll run the
Gimp
in all it’s glory untouched
by
human
hands!
... I mean, assuming you
installed the Gimp exactly as I did. ... So I dragged my new icon to
copy
it to
the tray or whatever that thing on the bottom of the screen is called,
and now it’s instantly available! ... Someday maybe I’ll learn
how to
give it an attractive new icon7.
... + after careful
testing, I can
still use this thing from the command-line, i.e., open a terminal and
type “/Applications/agimp.app &” and away it goes! ...
And I see I’ve failed to mention
“GIMP” stands for “GNU Image Manipulation Program”
program, of
course.... —
Thursday, April 19,
2007 4:55 pm  A
Genuine Mac Keyboard for the iMini!
But
Lo!
... At MicroCenter a $19.99 “iKEYSLIM” keyboard for the mac!
... I had
no idea! ... The wonders of this device can hardly be exaggerated: - Numeric keypad has
no
arrows
engraved on key tops, so foolish Windows/XT bigots like myself won’t
be
tempted beyond endurance, typing accidental 444s etc into text!
- “Alt”
and “Windows” key positions say “Options”
and “incomprehensible 4-leaf clover logo” (aka ) —
so
that’s
clear at last! ... I won’t have to remember whether “option”
means Windows or Alt!
- The exciting F13,
F14, and F15 keys! (Wandering in the basement, I
noticed an
antique mac knew not the function key in any numeration!)
- I
can
plug
the mouse into the back of the keyboard!
- And
as if all
that weren’t enough, there are special “media”
keys for the inaudible
iMini sound, CD
eject — and bringing up the shutdown dialog!
...
Oh
brave
new etc. ... And there on the store shelf beside the ikeyslim was a
genuine
Apple™ branded keyboard — for
a mere $30! ... These almost-Windows™-prices are
the final outcome of that fateful decision only a few  years back when
Jobs was forced by competitive pressures to equip his Macs with
compatible USB ports, which resulted in the inevitable cheap stuff
flooding the market — + existing Windows keyboards, with which Macs
were probably already
compatible (i.e. because it was cheaper for Apple to third-party
manufacture such keyboards) except for deliberately-incompatible
interface details Apple was forced to abandon....  The Past
is Future
But then the world turned, and I found a beautiful
actual (?) imac keyboard at Northern Thrift for $3 (cheaper than the original
compaq from
the same tech-supply outlet); the “S” key required a little
funtak
and
a piece of a plastic 6x32 screw, and it still doesn’t work quite
right,
and I have to use ^Eject instead of the dedicated shutdown key on the
Macally keyboard. ... I may have to put it on the shelf if the “S”
key
becomes more sickly, but for now — it’s
so cute! ... At last, my imini has a genuine imac keyboard!... ...
What It All Means ...The
mac fanatics don’t know it yet, but it’s over already; it’s
finito. ...
It is finished. ... It’s only a matter of time until the Macintosh
becomes just another Wintel flavor with, perhaps, a few
product-diversification features — like still running the
steadily-dwindling
mac software. ... Today:
Intel
processors, compatible accessories, “bootcamp” dual-booting
Windows/Mac
machines. ... Tomorrow:
Macs running
native Windows titles — and who knows what other hideous perversions!... ...
And just to make the point, tomorrow Jobs is supposed to announce a
fantastic new computer/phone gadget — demonstrating his intense
interest in the future of desktop/laptop computers.... —
Monday, January 8, 2007 1:30 pm
 The
iDynaco: The Ultimate iMini iPreamp
But
now we get to the
really important stuff: making the iMini’s
inaudible
output audible — with the latest in ’60s technology, that
gleaming gadget to the right of the screen there, the iDynaco
PAT-4
genuine transistorized preamplifier! ... Many of us in the geezer
community will be familiar with the Dynaco company and their works,
which included tube amps and preamps, and this
transistorized device. ... Into the low-level microphone input
of
which I’ve
plugged the mini’s output, and upon which I played a passable rendition
of the OwenLabs official test record
The Wizard of Oz
soundtrack, with the output of the iDynaco plugged into a PC audio
gadget — once I persuaded the frolicsome itunes to play the stupid
CD
and stop trying to help
me.... I
suppose the iDynaco might be overkill, with its numerous controls and
switches. ... But it’s just been sitting on a shelf since 1994, so
it
may be time. ... I almost lost it, ’though, when the headphone output
of the venerable gadget (the easy way to the PC audio) had a dud
channel and I all but abandoned it back to decades of shelf-ridden
oblivion. ... Then I gathered my wits, and realized it was probably
just the headphone circuitry and
a golden opportunity to fire up the soldering
iron yet one more time
and
fabricate a custom cable (i.e. to connect the normal RCA outputs of the
preamp to
a mini stereo jack which the PC sound system wants), which worked fine.
... And then of course the
equipment mish-mosh expands, and I’ve started plugging-in the other
computers in the vicinity into the iDynaco’s various inputs, so I
can
switch between them so conveniently — of course only the iMac needs
a
microphone input.... The iMini’s
Slightly-Audible Inaudible Speaker OutputBut
then things convulsed and reformed, and I moved the iMini to the music
room — the better to integrate it into my antique recording system
(see
an antique picture) — and,
sadly, I’ve left the Dynaco behind. ... Now I plan to preamplify
the
glorious iMini with a $35 Behringer mixer. ... After
conducting preliminary
testing on this daring scheme, I left iTunes playing away (forgetting,
as usual, that Macintosh programs, because they are so superior, don’t actually close when you
click
them off),
and left the iMini
output unplugged. As I worked at a neighboring Windows computer I kept
hearing strange noises — a dreaded geezer moment! ...
But
then I discovered that the iMini does
play music — very very softly
— even with nothing
plugged-in, through its built-in speaker. Whose other job is to play the
“Ta-Da” when the thing boots up. That noise is
played at a
ridiculously distorted level — i.e. so those of us with human ears
can
hear it — but apparently the guileless little machine plays “normal”
music at an almost totally inaudible level which I could still hear if
I stuck my head right next to the iMini, so close I could feel its
surprisingly hot breath emitted from its vents. ... So I squiggle-Qed
(closed) itunes.... — Tuesday, July
29, 2008 2:40 pm  A
Genuine Owen Mac Tip/Trick: Deleting
Individual Trash Files
Yes
indeed! ... Unlike the proud functional never-buggy Windows recycle
bin, the mac os X trash has to be emptied all or nothing! ... Which can
be a bad plan — i.e. the obvious occasions when you want to be sure
your scurrilous email/resumé is really gone, so you empty the trash,
inadvertently throwing-away something really useful. ... The lovely
illustration shows the trash as seen by Midnight
Commander
(MC), where you can off individual files with impunity (that’s “F8
Delete” right down there on the bottom of the screen). ... You can
do
the same thing on the terminal command line without MC — but if you’re
deleting stuff in the trash, you probably want a little protection like
the MC display provides.... ... So another handy
attraction of Midnight
Commander not noted above
is a readily-available Windows version — not to mention the original
Linux — so your MC expertise might be transferable. ... I
of
course
use OwenShow for
Windows/Linux but not,
as I’ve already whimpered,
on the iMini. ... Well then again, since I have my
iMini
accessible from a Windows machine, I can
use OwenShow for pruning the trash where it’s so much fun ’cause
I can
easily sort the stuff by size and off the offensively big useless junk
in a hurry. You can actually see
the trash on the Mac with the “Go / Goto” in the finder, and
then typing “.Trash”
— assuming you’re in your home directory — and sort it
that way too. Unfortunately (or maybe not) you can just look
at what’s in there (no deletes allowed)....  Password
Gadgets: theirs
and mine
There’s
a free “isafe” at www.codefuzion.com,
for saving your valuable iMini passwords
in an
encrypted form, but really it needs work. ... And a much
better alternative is my very own Macintosh password program IPW,
available on this web site only! ... One of the annoying things about
isafe is there was no way to copy the secret hiding password into the
web page without exposing it in the program! ... Of course IPW has a
special
button with a tiny invisible graphic to do
that! ... And IPW saves its files in your Documents directory, as
opposed to the application directory or who knows where. ... And
then after some time I realized I’m supposed to use the Mac’s
built-in
“keychain” feature. which’ll fill-in your passwords and
forms and write
your resumé and who knows what else — but I’m scared of those
kind of
things.... +
Gmail for the iMini!And oh yes, you can make the
free free gmail
your Macintosh email service! ... After your free 60-day trial .MAC
thing gives-up. ... Apparently anyone can sign-up at www.gmail.com
— I had to
go through an
exclusive cellphone dance when I
signed-up in the old days sonny — and you can google for “macintosh
gmail”
to
find-out how to Macintosh it; it wasn’t hard.... ...
But
Don’t You Dare Import Those Foreign Addresses!No
sirree; the Macintosh mail program isn’t going to tolerate that kind
of
thing! ... It was just like old Windows software at its best —
everything is hidden,
everything
secret, why
do you need
to know,
eh little man!?!?! ...
Apparently, if you want to import addresses you’re supposed to have
installed an official
Macintosh version
of the other email program on your Macintosh, so the Mac
mail program,
in its infinite wisdom, will know exactly
where and how to import the files. ... I stuck yahoo.csv + ndbase.txt
(Eudora)
files on the Mac, but no dice; I could see
the files in the import dialog, but the program grays them out
because
it knows
what kind of file it’s
looking for and, of course, it won’t tell
me! ... Ah, goodness! I’d forgotten about really
really stupid
software,
it’s been so long.... ... Oh look I just didn’t try
hard
enough! ... You can
import them
into the address
book, a different program! ... You gotta fight with the thing, and
persuade it to put the right fields in the right places — hardly
the
user-friendly EZ-Macintosh style. ... But I could
do it, and the resulting addresses were available in the email
program.... —
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
2:14 pm  CrossOver
Mac and OwenShow on the iMini!
This is
definitely in the
dancing cat department; poor OwenShow
isn’t much use for anything on the mac, since CrossOver
Mac
— for very good reason! — confines it to a little subset of
directories
and an imaginary Windows system which doesn’t include CMD.EXE. —
oh
Owen how you malign them! As I discovered (while researching linked
directories) CrossOver links “drive Z:” to the Macintosh
root /! ...
But
anyway, it’s all definitely in the wonders-never-cease department.
... CrossOver lets me
try the product for 60 days, and if you have to run Windows software on
the Mac that sounds like a pretty reasonable possibility — i.e.,
try
before you buy. ... Myself, I don’t run Windows software on Windows, so I’ll
not be paying
the $60 to get the real thing, but it’s still awful cute.... ...
After I installed CrossOver, OwenShow
running
on a Windows machine went
berserk trying to scan the Macintosh networked drive — well, it scanned
forever until I clicked a lot and told it stop that — which it managed
to do in every case! ... But apparently CrossOver installs some
circular-linked directories, and one of the perils of OwenShow-style
full-scan is looping forever in such things. ... In Linux, OwenShow
avoids linked directories unless unwisely forced into it, but all bets
are off on network drives. ... And then as I delved, it appears I don’t
understand linked
directories on the Mac, i.e. as opposed to my perfect knowledge in
Linux.. .. But even then, after judicious
application of OwenShow’s “exclude” option in the offending
area, I
returned to speedy scans of the iMini.... DarwineFriday,
September 5, 2008 11:16 am. This just in! The free “darwine”
version 1
managed to run OwenShow on the imini! Not terribly well; the imaginary
little windows drive it presented was boring, but there it is. ... OwenShow
is essentially a program organizer, and since none of the stuff I had
laboriously convinced it to organize in Windows works in the mac, it’s
kind of helpless, but if I had a Mac project I wanted to fight with, I
could probably beat it into useful submission.... Typing
the Squiggle Along
my weary way, I wanted to type the
and, to make a ridiculously long story short, it’s the WingDings
font,
lower case “z”. ... It was particularly irksome in OpenOffice
on
the Mac
because that program, in its perverse wisdom, uses
the squiggle as an icon
in the menu for
special keys
— where of course the itself was not to
be found! ... But the WingDings font
was, and it may be on your Mac too; or maybe it was installed with
OpenOffice. ... Anyway, in this text, I use a graphic for the ,
and despite my hard-won knowledge, I will continue to do so — for
those
pitiful Solaris browsers etc. ... And, as I just discovered, because
despite my Kompozer
offering
the WingDings font, it can’t actually use
it, apparently....  Use the Palette, Owen!
And
then in the fullness of time I discovered how to use the character
palette (in TextEdit it’s “edit / special characters”).
... In previous
attempts, I have foolishly been enticed by the scroll controls, which
only lead to madness and sorrow and a thousand strange characters. ...
No, no, the way to go is the nonsense on the top, with the helpful
captions, in Unicode order. In this case, “2300 Miscellaneous
Technical” was the ticket. Of course the little “View”
thing
on the top
has to be set to “Code Tables” which is the way it came or
who
knows.
... But most importantly, the palette resizes
— so it’s not just a blob of cryptic chicken tracks.... ... An
Amusing NoteThe LOL
contributed
to the Computer Attic — and to the Geezer’s Car — an
ipod
shuffle,
which of course I connect to the imini to itune it and recharge. ...
And today, for the second
time,
I unplugged the power connector on the back of the iMini, thinking it
was
the shuffle’s USB connection! ... They look exactly
the same! ... White white white!
... It’s all so pure!.... ... And then, just when I
was having
so much fun, the “Katt” column in eweek
(6/4/07 p. 51) claims “production of the Mac mini may soon cease”!
...
But apparently that’s a persistent rumor in the Apple world.... Screensaver “Connection Failure”Wednesday,
December 3, 2008 4:01 pm. I actually googled for this and found a guy
in 2007 having what sounded like the same problem; no solution,
’though. ... My screensaver with beautiful pictures was dark, so I’d
go
into the screensaver preferences and select the “pictures” folder
there, and after the usual endless delay while I toiled away at various
tasks in the Computer Attic, produce the message “Connection failure”
—
without of course telling me which
connection or anything like that; I guess they’ve studied at the feet
of Gates. ... Along the way, both iphoto, the screensaver panel, and
system preferences itself crashed, and supposedly sent messages off to
Apple with details of these sad events, which I’m sure they’re
perusing
with intense interest. ... Solution: reboot — and make sure the (local
network) router is powered-up. I had left the router off as I often do,
but usually, I guess, I remember soon-enough so the poor iMini is not
terminally-insulted. ... Why the screensaver requires access to the
local network — who knows? ... The feet of Gates.... Then again,
a USB flatbed scanner went into a fit, making pitiful recalibration
“clack clack clack” noises endlessly, probably from the same
cause; the
power-strip for the router also powers the usb hub for the scanner,
although why that made it have a fit.... Second
Thoughts, Owen?Yes
we forgive and forget, and I must say after some months, the thing
almost works. ... I got hold of a “terminal here” plug-in (it
wasn’t
easy) and between that and the Mac’s “disclosure triangle”
Finder mode
— it’s so good, I hardly ever use Midnight
Commander anymore! ... It’s still infuriating compared to
OwenShow
where I can leap multiple directories in a single bound. ... But still
... I’m almost used to it! ... And, of course ... It’s
still
better than Vista!No
matter what I wrote in hostile haste above, Microsoft has
pulled-ahead dramatically, snatching defeat from market stagnation, and
I can report conclusively that Vista
definitely
sux worse than the Mac. ... Even the Leopard
update! —
the ever-enthusiastic programmer
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 4:10 pm
1.
She did in fact fix the bad machine, by the obvious expedient of
connecting to it another more-recent CRT on the table — the leftmost
screen above;
actually
it was a 17“ Sony we found for
free
abandoned on a curb! — which of course the mini was perfectly
happy-with.... 2.
It turns-out there are
three “monitor ID” bits which the interface presumably gets
to
read and
there might be timing/noise issues or something. ... And of
course obviously somehow it figures-out the identity of more-recent
monitors, perhaps using these bits and/or who knows.... 3.
Actually, the Linux ELF format was closer than I knew — but still
no cigar. .... Apparently there’s a BSD
ELF loader, and the imini’s X10 is a BSDish operating system but,
apparently, with no such loader. ... The Mac missed the boat when it
diverged a few years ago and/or the kernel is also based on some other
software somehow whatever. ... But no ELF.... 4.
The better way to capture the screen is -shift-4
— in the vernacular, “squiggle-shift-4” — after
which
you use the mouse
to select part of the screen and click, or press space and then click
for the selected window. The image is saved on the desktop. 5.
Leopard’s invisibility from Windows might have something to do with
my
inability to persuade the mac to adopt my Windows Workgroup name; the
only suspect I could find was “System Preferences / network / advanced
/ WINS tab” where I repeatedly selected the correct “oemworkgroup”
from
a drop-down list to no effect — returning later, the workgroup field
would always be blank. But that could be the wrong place anyway; the
“help” claims it’s about Windows NT or 2000 servers,
and
maybe that’s not what I got (?) in the chewing-gum ’n’
string attic
network. 6.
Leopard improved
X11 support, in that one doesn’t have to “launch” the
thing;
the clever
operating system notices when someone wants X11, and sets it off itself
— and does it faster! ...
Of course they didn’t tell anyone,
so the thousands of broken scripts across the fruited plains will,
in many cases, go wandering off into the darkness, never to be heard
from again — I saw more than one pilgrim who offed
Leopard
and reinstalled the previous X 10.4 so he could use his X11 programs.
... I went through about 20 or thirty “google open-x11” hits
before I
found the inner truth. ... And of course, they could’ve just left
the “open-x11” script (i.e. edited so it contains “$a”
or something
i.e. just execute the arguments), if it were not for the seemingly
super-human strength of stupidity. ... On the other hand, my
installation of OpenOffice.org seemed to figure things out on its own,
and worked without alteration.... 7.
To give your script an attractive icon, you have to save it as an “Application
bundle”
instead of just Application. ... Then you right click-on the resulting
application, “Show Package Contents”, and in the new finder
window,
click the disclosure triangles until you can see “/Contents/ Resources/
applet.icns”. Your mission: replace this file with your own version,
presumably containing exciting graphics. I use the “/Development/
Applications/ Utilities/ Icon Composer” program (you have of course
installed the Xcode junk?). ... Get hold of a suitable graphic
somewhere; it should be (at least?) 512 pixels on the longest
dimension. ... Then you might open “Icon Composer” on applet.icns,
drag
your image to the largest box in Icon Composer, and when it asks, tell
it use the image for everything, and then save the result as
applet.icns, overwriting the existing file. Of course it would be smart
to make a copy of your application bundle first somewhere, like
“YourApp_old”, before following these ridiculously vague instructions,
which will infallibly reduce your program and possibly computer to a
glowing radioactive sludge.... 8.
So I just noticed I can sudo if
I give the account a password. That’s the account I mutilated so
I
could see it on the network; in the other accounts, which have no
passwords, I can still sudo — and su, which I still can’t do
in the
mutilated account. ... And adding the password still didn’t make
the
unit visible in Windows “net view”. Nor, amazingly, did it
make
connecting to it from Windows
require
a password! ... Cool ... I think. ... Whoa wait! I can go “sudo su”
and, apparently, wind-up in the su environment — or at least, “echo
$UID” says “0”....
|
in the top toolbar) and try again.
regulator in my exercise
schematic was
Anyway, I was able to name
the net connected to
the 5 volt regulator to “+5V” which made it OK, or I suppose
I could’ve
just connected it to the 5 volt supply “part” — although
who knows....