Post-Migrated Mac Taking too Long to Shutdown?
I ran Migration Assistant to copy the account on my MacBook Pro to a desktop Mac (as in an iMac, Mac Pro, or perhaps even a home-spun concoction if you are so willing?)
After doing so, I found that restarting, shutting down, or logging-out took way longer than expected.
Running console, I found the following message shortly after the shutdown log that looked suspicious:
5/3/08 11:04:20 AM com.apple.launchctl.System[2] launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist
Turns out I needed to remove an incompatible dashboard extension (in my case it was iStat Pro). Shutdowns, reboots, and logouts are now back to normal again 
Topics: Technology, OS X | No Comments »
Uninstalling RazerPro Mouse Drivers on OS X Leopard (SteerMouse FTW)
I was already using SteerMouse, but wanted to try out the RazerPro 1.6.x drivers for my Razer Diamondback on my OS X Leopard system, only to find out that I should have just stayed with the tried-and-true SteerMouse.
The Razer website provides the following instructions for removing the RazerPro drivers from one’s machine:
There are 2 methods to uninstall the drivers. Note that the below does not remove the SystemLoginItem entry in the system preference.
- Run the uninstall.sh file that is included in the driver package.
- Launch the Terminal Application. Copy and paste the below commands one at a time.
sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/RazerPRODriver.kext
sudo rm -r "/Library/Application Support/Razer/RazerPRODaemon.app"
sudo rm -r /Library/PreferencePanes/RazerPRO.prefPane
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.razer.PRO.plist
sudo rm -r /Library/Receipts/Razer\ PRO.pkg
While that cleaned up the important stuff, and allowed me to use SteerMouse again, I noticed that the RazerPRODaemon was still running…
2055 ?? 0:00.05 /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/RazerPRODaemon.app/Contents/MacOS/RazerPRODaemon
Killing the process won’t work (the daemon will launch again). I needed to remove a lingering .plist file:
sudo rm -r /Library/LaunchAgents/com.razer.PRO.RazerPRODaemon.plist
After killing the daemon, I removed the whole app:
sudo rm -r /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/RazerPRODaemon.app
That did the trick. Perhaps someone out there will find this teensy tidbit of information useful!
Topics: Technology, OS X | No Comments »
Schweet…
Ran xbench, and got a respectable score: 157.16
RAID0 Performance is good, with the exception of a big performance drop with random 4K block writes. This is because it’s running on a non-configurable hardware only SATA RAID controller (Silicon Image 4723… Asus calls this “Easy Backup”), and I think the stripe sizes are a bit large.
I’m pretty happy here since I was able to also use 4GB worth of DIMMs (and have the OS access all of it). Performs much better than my 1st-gen MacBook Pro (circa 2006).
One BIOS setting that helped me with allowing my iPod and USB drives to mount is to set the “EHCI Hand-Off” to “enable.”
Topics: Technology | No Comments »
TextDrive (Joyent) Dissapointments
Last April, after one too many dissapointing experiences with Dreamhost, I switched my hosting provider to TextDrive. They were recommended by several highly-respected folks who were also their customers. Unfortunately, the service — now officially under an obscurely named product owned by Joyent — has taken a quick turn for the worse.
If you’re shopping around for a hosting provider, I strongly discourage TextDrive (or whatever Joyent calls it).
I try not to complain openly, but my experience was bad enough to warrant sharing this information with those who are shopping for a web hosting provider.
So… why did I cancel my Joyent/TextDrive account?
- My Server Settings Changed Without Notice: Without any warning, my email settings were changed, and not by me. They were also changed in a way that did not bounce these misdirected emails. I am certain that account security was not compromised; my conclusion is that an internal process on their end caused the problem.
- Very Slow Administrator Tools: When I wanted to diagnose/fix my email problem, running my account and server management tools were terribly slow. How slow? On average, it took 1.5 minutes to load any web admin page, and three to five minutes for form posts to complete, not including several page timeouts.
- Difficulty Finding Administrator Tools: Joyent purchased TextDrive well over a year ago, and their web interface has yet to clearly present their web hosting services. It seemed like they were obscuring this information by design. Visting www.texdrive.com redirected me to www.joyent.com, with no clear delineation of “web hosting.” This resulted in navigating a confusing maze of links and using Google search to find the correct area, which turned up as a sub-product of “Connector for Teams.”
- I Lost Important Correspondence: This downtime has led to at least one lost business transaction.
Granted, my tech support person was cordial, but I got the impression that he was as much out of control of the situation as I was, and so I decided to switch my hosting provider.
A few more minutes of digging around showed that I am not alone, and that Joyent’s problems go beyond their web hosting services:
- Data Center Knowledge: Joyent Backup Services Down for Three Days
- Robbie Allen: Joyent’s problems continue.
- The much more famous Twitter also dumped Joyent as their hosting provider back in January, however from what I’ve read, it seems that they have other problems of their own.
Topics: Technology, WTF | No Comments »
Great Book Idea
Great ideas are often spawned over impromptu IM conversations.
During a recent conversation with former Yahoo! colleague, fellow raconteur, and soon-to-be author Dustin, we discussed the awesomeness of the idea for a technical pop-up book.
Said popup book would need to have at least one pop-up of… pop-up windows. It’s the kind of keen self-referential metaphysical reference one finds in Cosmo Kramer’s Coffee Table Book about Coffee Tables..
Sa-weet.
Topics: Technology, WTF | No Comments »
Quick Tip: SVN over SSH using TortoisePlink
This place is as good as any to jot down the following tip…
TortoiseSVN kicks ass. Of course, there are times when it’s more practical to use svn in the command line, but if your repository only talks to you over ssh, instead of going through hoops to configure OpenSSH, just use TortoisePlink. It’s part of the TortoiseSVN install.
Your Subversion config file is buried in
C:\Documents and Settings\<your usrname>\Application Data\Subversion\config
Using your favorite text editor, find the definition of ssh. It’ll probably be something like
ssh = $SVN_SSH
Change it to
ssh = TortoisePlink.exe
Painless!
Topics: Software Development, Technology | No Comments »
An Explosion in JavaScript
At my new job, I had the pleasure of writing my first two games. What made this especially fun is that they are games written in JavaScript.
Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to write a videogame. Sure, I wrote one in BASIC (didn’t we all?), and a few lame attempts in C written while in school on a Mac (to the youngins: this was the pre-OSX days). We’re now testing the games in limited production release, and so far the feedback has been pretty good.
Web browser technology has made things soooo easy that I can now quickly throw together a demo of one of the features of the games without looking too much like an idiot.
The demo is here: JavaScript PNG Sprite Animations.
Topics: Programming, Stupid Web Tricks, Technology | 2 Comments »
Fixed Muh Blog Software
After three weeks of being overly preoccupied with some coding at work, I finally found some time to fix this Wordpress stuff. I also slapped together a new blog design. At the top there, if you refresh the page a few times, you’ll notice that it will show a new image at random. I’m trying to come up with a good set of photos that show all our travels. So far, there are only three four.
Comments are also fixed, and I haven’t seen any spams since I put in my very stupid antispam thingy.
Topics: Janitorial | No Comments »
Friggin Wordpress
Currently wrestling with Wordpress issues (the software behind this blog). The different look and feel is the result of having to use a temporary template.
I think comments work now, though. Thanks to those who emailed me about it. I’m also testing out a simple captcha to see if it reduces comment spam.
Topics: Technology, Janitorial | 1 Comment »
Switched Hosting Provider
If you’re reading this, that means you’re reading from my new hosting provider.
For the last year, my old hosting provider’s been having some real downtime problems. This, of course, took me right back to the “you get what you pay for” model of life. Fortunately, the free-market model makes it easier to find a better service that’s only moderately more expensive.
Update: TextDrive now sucks. I’m on yet another provider now.
Topics: Technology | No Comments »