Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James
Computer
2006, June 25
Kernel Panic
The first kernel panic in OS X yesterday, another today.
I have experienced my first kernel panic on OS X, once yesterday and once today. A very scary thing, the first time that gray shade comes down over the monitor screen, then the black dialog box appears with “You must restart your computer now, hold down the power button for several seconds” in four languages.
Both times I was working in iTunes, renaming files. The first time the iPod was connected, so I thought maybe there was a hardware problem, but the second time it wasn’t. Both times I sent the undecipherable report to Apple. Only they know what is going on. And they might not.
So I don’t know what the problem is. So now to housekeeping. Back up. Reformat. Fresh system, fresh software, rebuild the files. Put no unnecessary stuff on the drive.
This will keep me busy for about 2 days, plus. So even the posts that were rolling around in my head aren’t going to see the light of day for longer than I thought.
I hope that this problem, whatever it is, will be solved. This is the first time I have had any problem with OS X. Though I have noticed that iTunes crashes a lot.
Well, to work, now I have a to-do list. A long one.
2006, March 22
Library Thing
LibraryThing - addictive
Go to LibraryThing.com and start cataloging. It is fun, an interesting way to compare collections, and a way to meet (virtually) other owners of favorite books.
Tim Spalding has put together a very attractive site, with a database that works with only occasional glitches, and a fairly intuitive interface. One thing that would be better would be a way to make the back-up option less hidden. In case the server crashes, which I take it did happen once, you should download your library as a text file, and keep it on your computer.
Then, to reconstitute the library online, you can just upload the books.csv file. To make the books.csv file, you go to the Extras tab at the top of the page, then Export Data. Click the "Export all data as text" link, and you will have a comma separated text file. It did not work for me in Excel as he suggests, but did load easily into FileMaker.
So far I have cataloged 300 books and am now taking a break to make graphics of covers not available, and perhaps to do some reviews. Tim says he is preparing to add a CD database; that will be at least as addictive.
2006, January 20
Tiger DeskTop Screen Shots
Karan at Flummel posted a screenshot of her desktop, so I am doing the same.
Here is the Tiger desktop without Dashboard.
And here is the desktop with Dashboard.
Click the picture for a larger image.
2005, June 14
Zoomify your photo
A photo presentation web application for all.
My daughter sent me a link to an article about a new-found Bach aria; in the article was a link to the Bach Archiv foundation.
Being interested in all things Bach and all things digital, I naturally went to the link to Bach digital under the Library menu.
There were links to the individual parts of a section of the Cantata BWV 2 in Bach's manuscript presented with the application Zoomify.
On the Zoomify site, there are links to highlighted users' sites, one of which is the University of Wyoming's Digital Initiative. A large set of maps of Western Trails have been digitized and are presented with Zoomify.
Naturally, I was fascinated with the presentation. I immediately downloaded the free software for the Mac and tomorrow I will put up the results of my experiment.
2005, May 22
Folding at Home
Thanks to Kate at Cider Press Hill, I am now folding proteins.
The original deadline for completion of my first work unit was in July. But in 11 hours I am at 11%.
Current Work Unit
-----------------
Name: p1416_polyQ_beta-helix
Download time: May 22 14:40:04
Due time: July 26 14:40:04
Progress: 11% [|_________]
Now I don't feel guilty for having this beautiful expensive machine that I love so much, with more power and memory than I will ever use in my whole life, sitting around sleeping about 100 hours a week. Now I can feel justified.
Noah Johnson is folding and hosting a team website.2005, May 12
Web color tools
Having trouble deciding which color you should use on that web page?
Here are three web sites that, combined, will give you all the information you need for web color.
Color sliders for text, background
2005, May 03
New Mac for college
A friend needed a recommendation for a Mac for a college student who has always lived in the PC world. I thought an iBook would fill the bill, giving enough size, power and still be portable for those trips to the lab, home, to friends’ rooms, etc.
This was my recommendation.
M9623LL/A
1.2 GHz G4 processor
FireWire 400
USB 2.0 2 ports
Ethernet 10/100, 56K modem
Airport Extreme
Combo drive (reads and writes CDs, reads DVDs)
Audio
Built-in speakers, stereo headphone jack, built-in microphone
Video
VGA video output for external display or projector, adapter included
S-video and composite video output to TV or projector (needs Video Adapter)
Battery
50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery provides up to 6 hours (not really, that’s if it’s not doing anything)
Size and weight
Height: 1.35 inches
Width: 11.2 inches
Depth: 9.06 inches
Weight: 4.9 pounds
Options:
bluetooth yes
256 SDRAM
80GB ATA HD
AppleCare
Total $1425 plus tax ($120.00)
RAMM from Apple 1GB is $500.00
RAMM from DMS 1 GB is $162.00 including shipping.
$1700.00 Total for the iBook, tax, RAMM, AppleCare
Well, this morning I found out they went to the Apple Store and got a G5 iMac, not portable, but oh so beautiful.
We’ll see if she is happy with her choice.
What do you think?
