1. September 10, 2009

      ACM Code Poetry + Pizza Night…

      … has been postponed.

      However, do not loose faith, it is happening. Unfortunately we just couldn’t do it in the first week back.

      Watch this space!

    2. August 31, 2009

      Soundflower + 10.6 == …. Works (now anyway)

      So, I’m procrastinating from writing my Java app. And when procrastinating, I like to listen to music. Except my laptop speakers suck, and as I’m home alone I would like to listen comfortably without headphones. Long story short; I need to hijack music form my laptop’s iTunes, and stream it to my desktop’s VLC or Windows Media Player.

      Instantly I turn to an old favorite; Soundflower, which provides virtual inputs and outputs for MacOS. Except, it stopped working in Snow Leopard, the dialog: System extension cannot be used The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. appears. Thankfully, it’s actually a simple problem and a simpler fix.

      If you go:

      $ sudo kextutil /System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext
/System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext has problems:
Authentication Failures:
    File owner/permissions are incorrect (must be root:wheel, nonwritable by group/other):
        /System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext/Contents/Info.plist
        /System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext/Contents/MacOS/Soundflower
       /System/Library/Extensions/Soundflower.kext/Contents/Resources/Soundflower.xcconfig

      See, simple permissions problem! Running chown and chgrp cleans it up nicely. I’ve submitted the fix in the bug report, and hopefully soon a fix will be officially released.

      Now, back to streaming my music…

    3. August 30, 2009

      iPhone 3GS WiFi Speed Issues

      So, since buying my iPhone 3GS, it’s been plauged with speed issues over WiFi. Not the awesome Lightwire service on campus, but my home, with my Cisco Aironet 123AG access point, the last place in the world I expect to have problems.

      For those lucky enough not to experience slack WiFi, the problem is that is some applications are completely unusable. Using the http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html website, my iPhone (on good days) gets ~4000ms pings and I~50kbps. But there should be no reason for this; The speedtest.net app works fine, showing speeds of ~14Mbps… Curious…

      So, I did some packet captures (the capture point being on wired ethernet, directly after the AP); the iPhone takes seconds to ACK the TCP packets when running Mail or Safari (didn’t bother testing any other applications).

      My logic may be failed, but if I run the test and get 256ms and 3500kbps on my MacBook, there should be no reason why this isn’t possible on my iPhone. My MacBook uses .11a, while the iPhone 3GS seems to only use .11b/g (which is very odd, because the chipset is there to support 802.11a), so each device isn’t sharing radio space with the other.

      So I tried screwing with the settings, and the thing which had the most profound effect was the Beacon Interval. By changing it from 4000 Kusec to 40 Kusec, instantly I went from having ~4000ms pings to ~330ms pings, and a usable data rate of 864kbps! I then lowered it to the absolutely lowest time possible, 20 Kusec, and now have ~285ms pings and ~1500kbps to http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html.

      This does, however, bring one very pressing question; Why does this only affect my 3GS? Beverley’s original iPhone worked fine before changing the settings, as well as our 2 laptops, and various visitor’s laptops. In fact, I used this and 4 other identical APs at the NZ WCG, providing internets to ~25 different laptops and PDAs of various descriptions, all roaming around the event, with the exact same configuration I started with, and not a single complaint. It obviously can’t be the fault of the AP… can it?

    4. August 23, 2009

      jlaundry.com 6.0!

      Oops, I did it again.

      So, I bought an iThing 3GS. I went app crazy, and found out about the WordPress app. I realised I hadnt posted to my blog in months, mostly because theres too much work involved in posting. So, I decided it was time for a freshup.

      So, bye bye custom CodeIgniter blog engine, hello (again) WordPress (and all the other social media integrations I have to integrate).

    5. January 26, 2009

      Now a Red Hat Certified Engineer!

      So I was in Melbourne last week (I was going to blog about it, I swear) doing the RH300 rapid track course. I learnt a lot, especially to do with troubleshooting. The instructor, Rohan Sathe, was excellent. And now, I’m a Red Hat Certified Engineer!

      I strongly recommend the course to anyone who wants to take the exam; there are things in the exam that you simply won’t have experienced. If you do the course, provided you pay attention and complete all the lab work, there should be no reason why you can’t pass the exam. Which is important, if your employer is paying a lot of money to fly you from New Zealand to Australia, and repeating the journey might take a bit of convincing.

      Just on a side note, when did the Australian government start requiring ID to purchase prepaid SIM cards? The form I had to sign appeared more concerned with how many prepaid services I already had, and not at all with the actual phone number (I could have missed something though).

    6. December 11, 2008

      Australia: Day 7

      Ok, so given as how I haven’t actually posted these as of writing, I don’t think anyone can blame me for skipping out a few days, yes?

      I’ve come to the conclusion that Australians, at least [Melbourneites,Melbourneians]? are the worst drivers in the world. They drive recklessly and never slow down, I swear most would rather crash then give you a break. I compare them to driving in Auckland, which is reality is pseudo-chaotic. Everyone thinks it’s this giant disorganised mess, but in reality, if you have confidence driving you’ll love Auckland drivers. They will hold up 3 lanes of rush-hour traffic just to let you turn right down a small side street! In can even compare them to Seoul drivers, who are far more reckless, but everyone will let everyone in and will slow down when necessary.

      Rant out of the way, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and bought an Elgato eyeTV DTT. After purchasing it I immediately tried it out in the car, and it picked up SBS no problem. However, reception in the suburb I’m staying in is very poor; at most I’ve been able to get 40% signal strength with a proper UHF antenna, although the small one that comes with it isn’t far off. Once back in NZ, I plan to get myself a Mac Mini (preferably a used one off TradeMe) and set up a recording system / file share / backup server.

      On a final note, don’t forget to check out Global Game Jam, which will be happening all over the world (and in particular at Waikato University) very shortly. The idea? 48 hours to create a game based on a predefined theme. I’m not talking super 3d immersive graphics level, just something fun and playable.

    7. December 7, 2008

      Australia: Day 3

      Yesterday was full of driving. Sam rented us a car, he doesn’t drive, and I can clearly see why. Traffic isn’t as chaotic as Seoul, but I keep thinking we’re going to have a crash every 30 odd min. Completely different to traffic back home.

      Now, being the geek I am, before we left I upgraded my Okta Touch to Windows Mobile 6.1, and hence unlocked the GPS. I then proceeded to load it with some software, and a map of Australia. This is probably the best thing I brought on holiday. Unless you’ve had a GPS, you hae no idea just how much stress it alleviates. When Telecom turns off it’s CDMA network or I get an iPhone (whichever comes first), I plan to mount it in my car for those times that I can’t avoid Auckland.

    8. December 6, 2008

      Australia: Day 2

      What, so I didn’t tell anyone I was going to Australia?

      Sorry, between work, sleep and play, I forget to update things on the internets, such as my blog, Facebook etc. Anyway, I’m in Melbourne on holiday from the 5th till the 13th (next Saturday)!

      Myself, Beverley and her family are visiting Beverley’s brother Sam. Beverley’s parents Bill and Louise are attending a conference in Cairns on Tuesday, and so will be leaving for that early. Beverley’s sisters Jenny and Nicky have things on, and so will be joining us Monday.

      Pacific Blue is a really good airline. Sure, you don’t get any of the niceties that Air New Zealand gives you like… … a blanket. It is a nice, cheap flight, and the cabin crew is friendly and energetic. Kinda reminds me of Mile High. The only thing that concerns me was the lack of water handouts. Yes, they offered for you to buy some, but I thought they were required by some air safety something?

      Landed in Melbourne safely, where we encountered new ePassport booths, a “quicker” way of clearing customs. Being the digital natives we are, we had to try them. Insert your passport and answer 4 questions; have you had tuberculosis, are you a criminal, have you been to a place with yellow fever, and have you lied. Afterwards, it prints out a little ticket. You then take this ticket to a gate, look into a camera (facial recognition stuff), and proceed. Now that we know what we’re doing (it took a second to figure out the order of operations), I reckon it’ll be much quicker. One disadvantage though:

      I don’t have an Australian stamp in my passport!

      Upon leaving the airport, the heat struck us. Not as bad as entering Seoul, but still very noticeable. Also, Australians seem to have an interesting sense of art, as the “artworks” along the motorway just seemed to be rectangular pillars arranged in some weird fashion. Except the huge concrete ones on the bridge, which didn’t actually support the bridge…

      Was mostly uninteresting after that. Went to TGI Fridays, went to Borders, went home and slept. More as I encounter it.

    9. September 25, 2008

      Time for some updates

      For those of you out there disappointed at the lack of content lately, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my little site. I’ve just been busy with work (seriously cool stuff which I hope to share soon) and getting the backend working. Now that it is, you’ll start to see some changes around here.

      For example, you can now see my latest Twitter up at the top of the main page. Nifty eh? Next up, I’m almost done my admin interface, so I’ll be able to tell if people are writing comments, and actually respond to them in a reasonable timeframe. You know, like I should have done in the first place, instead of relying on phpMyAdmin.

      Watch this space.

    10. August 7, 2008

      Yay for backups!

      About 15 mins ago, I managed to do something utterly stupid (it involved VMware snapshots) and reverted my server to the state it was in as of 31 March. Notice how it only took me 15 mins to get this post out?

      Before you start thinking it, no, this post doesn’t just exist to boost my ego (I already know I rock). As I keep telling the masses; everyone needs backups. Drives are cheap these days. Storage on Amazon S3 is dirt cheap. Whatever solution floats your boat, make sure you’re taking regular dumps of your data.

    « Older Entries
    Newer Entries »