/dev/random

Salon: Americans’ fear of a terrorist attack is at its lowest since 9/11.
Any predictions when the terror alert level will be raised?

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Father’s Day feels weird for me. I used to have Father’s Day, my father’s birthday, and my parent’s anniversary in June and now nothing.
My father died in January 1991 (while I was at MacWorld San Francisco). I got a call that morning at the hotel from my friend telling me my father died. I spent [...]

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Apple has registered the name Mactel for the new x86 Macs, which sounds too much like a Mac clone. The name reminds me of the Mactell XB 203/DT, a clone based on the Tanzania motherboard, very similar to a Motorola Starmax 3000. I had one before my B&W G3.

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After using Blosxom to render static archive pages for MacMegasite, I’m now falling in love with it. I like that Blosxom is simple, lightweight, and consists of only a single file. I’ll probably use it for other things in the future.

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As part of my plan to reduce MacMegasite’s hefty resource usage, I’m reducing the size of the database by archiving all stories from 2004 or earlier as static pages. Using a simple Perl script, I exported each node as a text file, which I then rendered statically using Blosxom.

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I got a warning from DreamHost that my account is using way too much CPU time. The problem seems to be with Drupal, especially at MacMegasite, which is getting heavy traffic. If that continues I may be forced to switch to a dedicated server. In that case I will most likely shut down macmegasite or [...]

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I have an application that consists of a background process which launches another tool at certain times to do some work. I was doing this the standard Unix way:

if ((pid = fork()) == 0) {
    exec(”/some/application”);
} else {
    wait(&status);
}

I’ve been attempting to convert it to a single binary rather than two separate files. I figured I could [...]

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Via Mac Net Journal: The Shape Of Days reports that the Intel version of Mac OS X will run on any standard PC.
This can be a very good thing. A lot of people are fed up with Windows and hungry for something better. If Mac OS X can compete with Windows on the same hardware, [...]

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Although I don’t have the x86 development system, I’ve been using XCode 2.1. For one of my projects, I was able to convert to x86 in less than 15 minutes. I simply opened the project in XCode 2.1, selected the 10.4 universal SDK, chose intel & ppc architectures, and made sure it was using GCC [...]

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Oliver Willis: If we had a real media in this country, every time one of these guys opened his yap, they’d be asked why they funneled money to our nation’s worst group of domestic terrorists.
The Family Research Council’s executive director, Tony Perkins, reportedly paid former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke over $80,000 for his who’s-who-of-racist-America [...]

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Greg Anrig, Jr. proposes four goals at TPM Cafe that would make the country better off in meaningful ways while appealing to a broad spectrum of the population (and really, really angering highly vocal groups, mainly but not exclusively on the right).

Extend health insurance to all citizens.

Restore order to the immigration system – for our [...]

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The

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My street has been torn up for several months while the city is putting in new drainage & sewer lines. It’s been closed to through traffic for over a month and it’s very difficult to get in or out of my condo. The unpaved street is messing up everyone’s cars with mud & dust, and [...]

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Hell froze over today. The Apple/Intel rumors were true after all and this is the beginning of the end for Apple. They’re on a roll now with Mac sales increasing and their market share up. With this announcement, everyone will immediately stop buying Macs since the new x86 systems won’t be available until next year [...]

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I’m willing to bet WSJ & CNet will have egg on their face tomorrow. Both are convinced that Apple will announce tomorrow that they’re switching to Intel.
Here’s why I think they’re wrong: It would be suicidal for Apple. Apple is on the upswing now, the PPC architecture is gaining support with Sony’s Cell processor and [...]

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The Right is still trying to trivialize Nixon’s crimes. This handy table from Media Matters compares the misdeeds of Clinton & Nixon:

 
Nixon
Clinton

Offenses

Presiding over most corrupt administration in history; bugging opponents’ offices; breaking into opposition headquarters; breaking into psychiatrist’s office; forgery; using the IRS and the Justice Department to harass political opponents and reporters, and much [...]

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An update on the LinkSynergy issue:
Later that day I received an email from Apple saying it was a mistake & she didn’t know why it was sent and would reactivate my account. I had already deactivated my LinkSynergy account and I don’t plan to re-activate it. If the program was administered directly by Apple, I [...]

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From Village Voice:
Supporters of 21-year-old O’Neil Walker label his predicament a disgraceful case of racial profiling. Just before graduation this spring from Middlebury College in Vermont, the African American senior from the Bronx was thrown out of school for allegedly entering a classmate’s dorm room last winter without permission.
Nothing was taken, and nobody was hurt—except [...]

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Sorry I haven’t had time to write lately, but here’s what’s been going on:

I’m making a major architectural change to my software product. I can’t say too much about it, but it’s becoming more Unix-like and moving further away from old Carbon APIs.

We’ve been busy working on installation & compatibility issues for a large customer [...]

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