Ölbaum’s Delirium

Today at the US Open (tennis), Roger Federer defeated Ivo Minar 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in 61 minutes. Coincidence? Hey, that's joincidence with a C!

# Posted by Ölbaum, the wee hours | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Federer, Tennis, US Open

Technical Note TN2137: Building Universal Binaries from "configure"-based Open Source Projects

An interesting read. My favourite part:

While the GNU Hello program is one of the most complicated "Hello, World" programs ever written, it is still a relatively simple program…

# Posted by Ölbaum, the wee hours | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apple, Hello World, Intel, Mac, Mac OS X, Tiger

Something funny happened when decompressing the Myst V: End of Ages demo:

# Posted by Ölbaum, late afternoon | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Mac OS X, Myst, Myst V, StuffIt

Sander and Grzegorz managed to understand how the La Crosse WS-3600¹ weather station communicates over its serial port. They launched the Open3600 project and have a program for Linux and Windows (with source code) that dumps the contents of the memory.

Hat tip to them, it looks like the protocol is quite unorthodox.

Open3600 – Serial communication with the La Crosse WS-3600 weather station

• dump3600: a program that reads the memory of the WS-3600;
• Available as source code and binary for Linux and Window. Compiles on Mac OS X 10.4 (but not tested yet);
• Communicates over the serial port²;
• Works without requiring the Heavy Weather program or its history.dat file;
• They now need help with the investigation of the memory map.

# Posted by Ölbaum, late morning | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

COM Port, La Crosse, Linux, Mac OS X, RS-232, Serial Port, WS3600, Weather Station, Windows

1. Launch Adobe Reader;

   Adobe Reader displays a dialogue where four updates are available: versions 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3 and some useless additional languages.

2. Select the three useful updates;

3. Click "Update;"

   The Adobe Updater downloads all three updates and requires you to quit Adobe Reader and Safari.

4. Quit Adobe Reader and Safari;

   The Adobe Updater installs version 7.0.1, tries to install a second update (probably 7.0.3 given the following error message) but fails because "The application version is not in the range the selected updater can update."

5. Tell the updater to cancel this update but process the remaining one;

   The updater indeed cancels the update but doesn't process any remainder.

6. Re-launch Adobe Reader;

7. Check for updates;

8. Notice that version 7.0.1 is still in the list of available updates. Notice that clicking on it reveals that it has been installed. Wonder what the Shell it's doing in the list of available updates then;

9. Select the 7.0.2 update;

10. Click "Update;"

    The Adobe Updater re-downloads the 7.0.2 updater and re-requires you to quit Adobe Reader.

11. Re-quit Adobe Reader;

    The Adobe Updater installs version 7.0.2.

12. Re-re-launch Adobe Reader;

13. Re-check for updates;

14. Notice that versions 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 are still in the list of available updates, both marked as installed when clicked. Re-wonder what the Shell they're doing in the list of available updates then;

15. Select the 7.0.3 update;

16. Click "Update;"

    The Adobe Updater re-downloads the 7.0.3 updater and re-re-requires you to quit Adobe Reader.

17. Re-re-quit Adobe Reader;

    The Adobe Updater installs version 7.0.3.

18. There is no step 18… yet.

    Looks like there is after all: Trash the pathetically slow Adobe PDF Viewer Internet plug-in.

# Posted by Ölbaum, mid-afternoon | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adobe, Adobe Reader, Automatic Update

Question to my reader(s): what Mac news site do you read?

I'm looking for a good news sites about the Mac but I have difficulty finding one. I ditched MacNN because they constantly mix up the words announce and release and don't give much information in their articles. I ditched MacWorld because of the high volume but low SNR; most news are Zzzzz-class. Finally, the people at MacBidouille are starting to get on my nerves with their constant whining that paused only for a few weeks after the Intel switch announcement.

I'm not looking for a rumours site, I need an RSS or Atom feed with at least a summary of the articles (full text even better) and English would be better than French (German is out of the picture¹).

Any pointers are very welcome.

# Posted by Ölbaum, late evening | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apple, Mac, Mac OS X

AppleInsider:

As first predicted by AppleInsider in March, Apple today introduced Mighty Mouse, its next generation mouse with multiple buttons and a scroll ball.

What did they predict in March, exactly?

According to sources who have so far filed accurate reports on Apple's future hardware plans, the company is feverishly working on a two-button wireless optical mouse that it intends to release.

Well, at least they got the optical part right.

What I predicted in January, on the other hand, is a lot more accurate:

In August, Apple will introduce a programmable optical mouse with multiple touch-sensitive buttons and multi-directional scrolling. It will be named after a cartoon character.

Don't search the archives, though. I didn't want to get into trouble by posting rumours about Apple so I removed the post before I wrote it.

I would have liked to see a mouse with an iPod-like scroll-wheel, as hinted by a patent a while ago, though. The idea of scrolling long documents with a continuous movement of the finger was quite seductive.

# Posted by Ölbaum, evening time | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Apple, Mac, Mighty Mouse