A clue to the panics

I think the kernel panics I see every day at around 6:50 PM may be related to network time synchronization (I also find that my machine won’t wake up in the morning & I have to reboot it).

The last entries I see in /var/log/system.out just before the panic is always:

Dec 29 18:50:00 Mike-Cohens-G4 ntpd[322]: time reset -0.346454 s
Dec 29 18:50:00 Mike-Cohens-G4 ntpd[322]: synchronisation lost

That’s also the last thing I see in the log before I reboot when I find it unable to wake up in the morning.

Dynamic Ornamental Appearance

Is this what we can expect from Apple next month?

The invention pertains to electronic devices capable of dynamically changing their ornamental or decorative appearance, i.e., the outer appearance as seen by a user. The electronic devices generally include an illuminable housing. The illuminable housing, which includes at least one wall configured for the passage of light, is configured to enclose, cover and protect a light arrangement as well as functional components of the electronic device. The light arrangement, which generally includes one or more light sources, is configured to produce light for transmission through the light passing wall(s) of the illuminable housing. The transmitted light illuminates the wall(s) thus giving the wall a new appearance. That is, the transmitted light effectively alters the ornamental or decorative appearance of the electronic device. In most cases, the light is controlled so as to produce a light effect having specific characteristics or attributes. As such, the electronic device may be configured to provide additional feedback to the user of the electronic device and to give users the ability to personalize or change the look of their electronic device on an on-going basis. That is, a housing of the electronic device is active rather than passive, i.e., the housing has the ability to adapt and change. For example, the light may be used to exhibit a housing behavior that reflects the desires or moods of the user, that reflects inputs or outputs for the electronic device, or that reacts to tasks or events associated with operation of the electronic device.

VERY INTERESTING!

I just had another kernel panic. The TriMedia Reader driver has been removed so it’s definitely not causing it.

I notice that I have a kernel panic almost every day at approximately 6:50PM. I wonder what’s running at that time? I haven’t set up any cron tasks. iCal maybe?

When good interfaces go crufty

When good interfaces go crufty

In Vernor Vinge’s sci-fi novel A fire upon the deep, he presents the idea of “software archeology”. Vinge’s future has software engineers spending large amounts of time digging through layers of decades-old code in a computer system — like layers of dirt and rubbish in real-world archeology — to find out how, or why, something works.

So far, in 2002, this problem isn’t so bad. We call such electronic garbage “cruft”, and promise to get rid of it someday. But it’s not really important right now, we tell ourselves, because computers keep getting faster, and we haven’t quite got to the point where single programs are too large for highly coordinated teams to understand.

But what if cruft makes its way into the human-computer interface? Then you have problems, because human brains aren’t getting noticably faster. (At least, not in the time period we’re concerned with here.) So the more cruft there is in an interface, the more difficult it will be to use.

Kernel Panic

I just had a kernel panic. It happened pretty much at random as I was reading MacSurfer in Chimera. I’ve seen a few similar kernel panics in the last few weeks and it never writes a panic log to /Library/Logs.

Most likely it was caused by a KEXT rather than an application. The only third-party kernel extensions I have installed are Griffin Technology PowerMate, Kensington MouseWorks, and SmartDisk Tri Media Reader.

I suspect the Tri Media Reader driver, since it pre-dates Jaguar, while the other two are recent versions. As an experiment, I removed that extension and I’m now using my Lexar CF reader, which doesn’t require a driver.

Kernel Panics

Has anyone else seen a lot of kernel panics since updating to 10.2.3? I’ve been seeing them about once a day, pretty much at random. It also isn’t writing anything to /Library/Logs so I can’t see what’s going on.

Fresh Start

My G4’s internal drive had serious errors that Disk First Aid couldn’t fix which sometimes made it freeze at startup. If I start it up in single user or verbose mode, I see fsck hanging while attempting to repair.

Using Carbon Copy Cloner, I backed up the entire drive to my LaCie external, erased the internal drive, and restored it.

It’s running nice and fast now. After running for a few years, it’s a good way to get rid of all of the fragmentation.

What disk utility are most people using now? I haven’t trusted Norton Utilities since their HFS+ fiasco, so I guess the choice is between Drive 10 & TechTools Pro.

The 2003 Mac rumors begin

The Scobleizer Weblog

Oh, several of my friends have started whispering: if you’re looking for an Apple desktop system, start saving your pennies for mid-2003. I can’t tell you what I’ve learned (it’s all hush-hush secret NDA kinda stuff), but there’s some hot systems coming. Maybe it’ll be time for me to try OSX.

TiBook Airport Range

bbum’s rants, code & references : bbum’s rants, code & references

When leaving CodeFab’s office this evening, we [Ben, Jerry and I] took a cab to grand central. I have a TiBook with an Airport card and Jerry has a Pismo [G3 @ 500mhz — the last all black model, I believe].

We decided to compare the relative sensitivity of the two machine’s 802.11b implementations by wardriving using MacStumbler.

Jerry happened to be in the front seat and I was in the back, so we weren’t directly blocking each other. I had the slight disadvantage of being the backseat with others, but not enough to make a huge difference.

We wardrove from 23rd Street & 6th Ave uptown on 6th ave to 42nd street [Brandt park– more on that in a second] and then across 42nd to Grand Central.

Results:

The TiBook found 12 (3 in Bryant Park) networks. The maximum signal strength was 36 (Bryant Park), but the maximum for non-built-for-public-use networks was 15.

The Pismo found 48 (3 in Bryant Park) networks. The maximum signal strength was 45 (Bryant Park), but the maximum for non-built-for-public-use networks was 26.

Bryant park is mentioned specifically because it is wired as an open public use 802.11b hub. All three stations that were detected in Bryant park– same ones for both of us– gave the highest signal readings of any of the stations detected.

Of the 48 networks detected by the Pismo, 36 (3 in Bryant Park) were not using WEP encryption.

The Pismo also detected another 15-20 networks on the Metro North New Haven line.

Clearly, the Pismo has a far superior 802.11 antenna than the TiBook…


I’ve been debating whether to get a top-of-the-line TiBook, which could become my primary system to replace my G4/500 minitower, or replace my old 500 MHz iBook with a new 800Mhz model (and maybe keep the old one for software testing). Although I really like the speed of a G4, there are a lot of things I don’t like about the TiBook, especially the airport range.