Category: 2004 US Election

I have been having some issues with darwinports, the open source package/port management system for Darwin/OS X. I am more familiar with the FreeBSD ports system and have worked out some coping strategies for when things don’t go well (thankfully, it doesn’t happen often).

So I had a port get stuck in such way that it built and was usable (the .so or .dylib files were installed) but the port wasn’t registered. That means that ports depending on it would break since they couldn’t install without it.

Here’s an example of what I was seeing:

—> Installing gettext 0.14.1_1

Error: Target com.apple.install returned: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_1 already registered as installed. Please uninstall it first.

Warning: the following items did not execute (for gettext): com.apple.activate com.apple.install

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf uninstall gettext

port uninstall failed: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_0 not registered as installed.

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf install gettext

—> Installing gettext 0.14.1_1

Error: Target com.apple.install returned: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_1 already registered as installed. Please uninstall it first.

Warning: the following items did not execute (for gettext): com.apple.activate com.apple.install

white:/opt/local paul$ port -vf activate gettext

—> Activating gettext

port activate failed: Registry error: gettext 0.14.1_0 not registered as installed.

I had to find a little more about how the registration process works.

As it turns out, in /opt/local/var/db/dports is where all the action is.

Continue reading “beating the system”

Do you have any favorite children’s gifts your children have received or been given? Any timeless ideas you’d like to share?

If you have come across something really good, please leave it a comment on this page. Please tell us the name, a description, where you found it, and what age child it would be best suited for. And if you need some ideas, I hope there are a few here to inspire you.

Thanks!

well, it didn’t take long to find the information I wanted. How read this chart:

1. find your state
2. see if it’s red or blue (you probably know)
3. check to see if the final column is a positive or negative number.

If it’s a negative number, you lose: you’re giving away more than your get, in California’s case, $58 billion. But if you’re in Alabama, say, you win: you collected $10 billion more than you contributed. And hey, look at Virginia with almost $22 billion in federal funds: you’d think one of the oldest states would have figured out how to generate a surplus by now.

Unfair? Perhaps. The federal system is supposed to benefit everyone without quibbling about who generates a surplus or a deficit. But the divisions aren’t my invention: again, if people can speak for the president and his party and deprecate the ones who generate the tax revenues that subsidize their base without fear of correction, why should we put up with it?

OK, I can see why there’s some indignation here . . . .

iPod Download is back!:

Cory Doctorow:
iPod Download is an iTunes plugin for moving music off your iPod onto your Mac that Apple had removed from the Internet by means of a series of lawyer letters. Then Apple shipped a disingenous “update” to iTunes that contained a blacklist of disallowed plugins, including iPod Download, because apparently Apple knows better than you which software you should use with your iPod after you’ve bought it and paid for it.

iPod Download has been updated to version 1.1, and it works with iTunes again. Get it before Apple uses the law to take away your rights again.

1.4MB DMG Link

(via Engadget)

but if you follow the links and see how trivial it was to re-enable the plugin and regain access to the files, I have to wonder if Apple is doing just a little more than playing along. Consider that “breaking” the DRM is as simple as burning a CD from iTunes and ripping it. Does that sound like a draconian regime or is it more like someone playing “wink wink nudge nudge” with clueless RIAA cartel?

I admit the whole idea of copy protection/DRM is nasty and has proven to be technically unworkable: the idea of the RIAA getting into an intellectual arms race with hackers isn’t worth betting on — unless you bet with the RIAA on them winning.

Now playing:The Bottom Line by Big Audio Dynamite from the album “This Is Big Audio Dynamite”

A friend and former colleague at CNN.com writes:

Peak hits/min: 3 million

Peak page views/min: 1 million

4 million hits/min peak (sustained for 15 min, 23:05-23:20)

Max response time for cnn.com: 0.6 second

Dunno yet what total page views for the day wound up at. I picked 275M in the pool but we blew past that shortly after 10pm.

346,416,000 page views

3372 words out of 50,000.

So far, so . . . .

This is harder than it looks, unless you think it’s really hard. In which case, it’s just as hard as it looks.

I should have seen this coming . . .

Record a solo album in “NaNoWriMo for musicians”:

Cory Doctorow:
The fifth NaNoWriMo — the national novel writing month that challenges individuals to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days — has just kicked off, and good luck to the NaNovelists!

But what of the musically creative? They need not suffer in silence any longer: Lacunae has just floated “NaSoAlMo” — the national solo album month, for “brave souls who are up for it will write and record an entire solo album in the course of its 30 days.”

Q. So, for the purposes of NaSoAlMo, what exactly is a solo album?

A. An album of music you have written, played and recorded entirely by yourself*. The shortest inarguably awesome album I can think of offhand that a lot of people have heard is the first Ramones album, which is 29:09 long, so your solo album must be at least that long. Beyond that, its form and content are up to you.

*Since Ramones includes a cover of “Let’s Dance,” your NaSoAlMo album may, if you wish, include one cover of somebody else’s song.

Link

(Thanks, Lalitree!)

Jeez, you’d think they could have picked a different month, though. What if you wanna do both?

[via]

National Novel Writing Month – National Novel Writing Month:

And we’re off! Write like the wind! Soar like a laptop-wielding eagle! Our time has come, and it’s a beautifully wordy time indeed.

So far, so good. I have 1870 words in, against my 1500 word target. Only 29 days to go, but I’ll take it one day at a time.