Rachele hates her new Macbook

VPN connection on Office iMac

2012-01-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

http://www.bu.edu/tech/accounts/remote/vpn/use/mac/

So easy!

Need to fix Java heap space

2011-08-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

to increase available memory in eclipse go to:

Eclipse->Preferences->Java->installed JREs

select the appropiate JRE and select edit.

default VM arguments should be:

-Xms128M -Xmx1024M

Eclipse and Subversion

2011-08-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Eclipse install seemed to go well. Now moving onto subversion- using the directions from the Klein Gould Blog and making notes here.

The new version is called Indigo. Some minor changes. I'll copy, paste and edit the directions here:

Done on my new iMac:

1. Install Eclipse

Installed the new (Indigo) Classic Eclipse 3.7 package from here.
The new beta version of Eclipse is Ganymede: http://www.eclipse.org/epp/ganymede.php

(I don't think I installed the IDE version: Eclipse IDE for Java Developers.)

Eclipse opens properly from quicksilver.

I have Java 1.6 preinstalled and I'm hoping that will work.

2. Install Subversive plugin

The relevant links are on this site:

http://www.eclipse.org/subversive/downloads.php

Here is some helpful info from that site:

"Subversive distribution consists of two parts - Subversive plug-in and Subversive SVN Connectors. Both parts are required in order to work with Subversive. Subversive plug-in is provided under the terms and conditions of the Eclipse Public License Version 1.0 ("EPL"). A copy of the EPL is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html. Subversive SVN Connectors are external libraries with their own licenses, which are distributed from an external location at www.polarion.com. "

So Eclipse already knows about the Plug In update site and you just need to find and install it:

Go to eclipse.

Go to Help ->Install New Software

Click on the blue "Available Software Sites" Link and find the Subversive update site which should be this:

http://download.eclipse.org/technology/subversive/0.7/update-site/

Edit this to name it something like "Subversive" and click OK. Then make sure that it is checked on the list.

(Don't know if this is necessary, but I highlighted it and clicked "Reload.")

Now click OK to go back to the install dialogue. Select the Subversive link on the drop down box labeled "Work With."

Three choices should pop up. I'm installing all three, though I think the most important (maybe the only important) choice is the "Subversive SVN Team Provider Plugin." Click at least this option and click Next, Next, Accept Terms, then Finish.

Takes a few minutes to install. Requires restart. Upon restart, an SVN connections installation dialogue will pop up.

3. Install Subversion Connectors

More info from above site:

"In order to install Subversive you should install Subversive plug-in and at least one Subversive SVN connector, such as native (win32 only) JavaHL connector or pure Java SVNKit connector. Subversive plug-in and Subversive SVN Connectors are distributed from different update sites on different locations, so you should point two update sites in Eclipse update manager. "

Not sure which connector to install (though you definitely need the Connectors and a KIT), so I installed them all directly from the pop-up box. (Click next, next, agree, next or finish.) Agree to the security check.

Requires restart.

Could also paste a new link under the Help-> Install New Software box. The update site is

http://community.polarion.com/projects/subversive/download/eclipse/2.0/update-site/

which is located on the polarion site:

http://www.polarion.com/products/svn/subversive/download.php?utm_source=eclipse.org&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=subversive

(This step should probably be done (or checked) anyways so that Eclipse knows where the website is to look for updates.)

4. Import SciKit from the repositories

In Eclipse, go to File -> Import.

Expand SVN and select "Projects from SVN"

Enter the URL for SciKit which is this:

http://scikit.googlecode.com/svn/

(The project homepage for SciKit is here: http://code.google.com/p/scikit/

You can go there and click on Source to find the URL. This is a public project, so you shouldn't need a password.)

Click on browse.

Highlight "trunk" and click finish.

Click Next and Finish until finished.

Some kind of message that a new master password was created. Created new questions and answers. Not sure what that was about?

5. Import Klein-Gould code from the repositories.

Pretty much the same thing:

Go to File -> Import.

Expand SVN and select "Projects from SVN"

Click on "Create a new repositiory location".

Enter the URL for the Klein Gould code which is this:

https://klein-gould.googlecode.com/svn

(The project homepage for SciKit is here: http://code.google.com/p/klein-gould/
You can go there and click on Source to find the URL. This is a NOT a public project, so you do need a password which you can get from this site under source and regenrate it if needed. You must be a member to access this.)

Expand "trunk" and only highlight "JavaSims" (not Kip's code.)

Click Next and Finish until finished.

You might want to fix things up a bit by clicking on Package Explorer Menu (the little white down arrow in the upper right corner of the Package Explorer) and clicking Package Presentation -> Heirerchical.

You can also change the keyboard bindings by clicking Eclipse -> Preferences -> General -> Keys and then changing Scheme to Emacs.

Now, everything should be perfect!

Aquaterm

2011-08-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Aquaterm install says successful

Eclipse Install

2011-08-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

Eclipse install seems fine. Put in my local applications directory. But Java on iMac is version 1.6.0 JRE and I would like to have JDK, but I can't find downloads on the usual oracle website:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/system-configurations-135212.html

So I'm leaving this as is for now. Not updating my code yet because I think I haven't updated on my laptop in a while.

macports installs fail

2011-08-01T09:38:00.001-07:00

I get a similar error when trying to install gnuplot using MacPorts:

Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: could not read "/tmp/mpextractcQi0GNq7/opt/local/share/man/man3/bn_print.3ssl.gz": no such file or directory
Error: Failed to install openssl
Log for openssl is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_openssl/openssl/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: gd2 xpm xorg-libXext xorg-libX11 xorg-libxcb python27 openssl python_select readline sqlite3 python27 xorg-libpthread-stubs xorg-xcb-proto libxml2 xorg-util-macros xorg-xcmiscproto xorg-xextproto xorg-xf86bigfontproto xorg-xtrans xorg-libXt xorg-libsm xorg-libice pdflib
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

May try homebrew and see how that works.

Installing mactex and diversions

2011-08-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

Readme for mactex install includes:

A custom install option is provided for users who want only part of the package. In particular, the package contains Ghostscript and the "convert" utility from Image Magick; users who already have Ghostscript and the full Image Magick may want to use custom install to avoid the versions provided here. The Latin Modern and TeX Gyre fonts are part of TeX Live and automatically available in TeX; by using custom install you can also install them in the system font folder and make them available to all Macintosh applications.

So I think I may try to install ghostscript and imagemagic separately. I want to try to put everything in the right places from the beginning so I don't have too much clutter.

Here's an article on why you should install into usr/local instead of usr/bin.

http://hivelogic.com/articles/using_usr_local/

I'm going to go ahead and choose MacPorts over Fink, based on the impression that I get from the blogs that it is more up to date. Looks like Homebrew is a good option too. We'll see...

Using this site.

Had to register as a mac developer to get access to Xcode which is needed for MacPorts. Don't remember having to do this for Fink. But it looks like homebrew requires this too.

Install successful (not tested)

Macports install successful (not tested)

Used MacPorts to install ImageMagick and got the following errors:

Error: Target org.macports.activate returned: could not read "/tmp/mpextractZQRpVIRz/opt/local/share/man/man3/bn_print.3ssl.gz": no such file or directory
Error: Failed to install openssl
Log for openssl is at: /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_devel_openssl/openssl/main.log
Error: The following dependencies were not installed: ghostscript xorg-libXext xorg-libX11 xorg-libxcb python27 openssl python_select readline sqlite3 python27 xorg-libpthread-stubs xorg-xcb-proto libxml2 libxml2 xorg-util-macros xorg-xcmiscproto xorg-xextproto xorg-xf86bigfontproto xorg-xtrans xorg-libXt xorg-libsm xorg-libice lcms liblzma p7zip urw-fonts
Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

-convert command not found in bash.... will look into this later.

Installing MacTex (small convert package, I think). Successful install it seems.

Zotero

2011-07-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

Added zotero add on to firefox. Will still use zotero for now, though I'm going to check out the new projects eventually.

Starting with latex

2011-07-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Installing texshop- should be a complete tex install from here:
http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/obtaining.html

Also,
Here's a nice online tool that makes images from latex:
http://maru.bonyari.jp/texclip/texclip.php

Rachele loves her new iMac

2011-07-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

New positive attitude this time. Brand new iMac for my brand new job with a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and giant 27 inch screen. OS X 10.6.8.

So far, I've got standard Mac software (including the iWork programs) and the word package that I need for teaching. Here's what I need to add:

Programing:

compilers (esp fortran)
Newest version of eclipse
Gimp
Mathematica or Maple- whatever they have
Terminal (?)
Aquamacs(?)
Texmacs
Latexit

I want to set up everything that I can that has a direct mac install before I try working on Fink or equivalent. Will post updates on how everything goes.

Time Machine Dead Again

2011-01-05T20:37:00.000-08:00

Don't know how long it's been since I've backed up. Whenever TM tries to back up, I get the error

"Time Machine Error
The backup disk image could not be mounted."

I have had this problem before, and I think I may have totally started over (built a new sparse bundle) which I don't want to have to keep doing. LAME.

Keynote problem

2009-06-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

When I open some document that I totally created with iWork09, it tells me that I need a newer version of keynote. I tried a few things a few weeks ago to try to fix it (don't remember what exactly now) and it seemed to work, but now I have the same problem. I seem to only be able to open it if I go to Open With and then navigate to iWork 09.

Time machine dead

2009-06-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

Seems not to recognize the disk i set up for it a long time ago. I guess I'll try making a new one. Annoying. Haven't backed up in 22 days.

spaces stopped working

2009-05-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Can still use spaces by clicking on top menu bar, but none of the keyboard shortcuts work and hot corners also does not work. Doesn't work on external keyboard or on macbook keyboard. This happened after the screen saver activated once. May have something to do with it:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:-rZ7xMNSZRoJ:forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D514794+hotcorners+stopped+working&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

keyboard messed up in xournal

2009-05-29T08:56:00.003-07:00

Keyboard produces garbage in xournal when I try to write in the margins of a paper. Makes xournal completely unusable.

Crash

2009-05-29T08:55:00.003-07:00

Computer froze after I plugged in monitor extension, external mouse and external keyboard.

Partial crash?

2009-05-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

I feel like my mac crashes a lot. I'm not really sure how often it actually happens, so I'm gonna start to take note when it does. Just now, spaces stopped working and I although I could still use the internet, could not move abut to other spaces. So I had to restart and loose the simulation that I was running. Also, it took like 4 tries to restart- the apple screen would come up and the little spinner below the apple would freeze, and I would have to restart again. Finally it restarted and seems to be OK. Annoying.

Switching spaces when opening a new app

2009-05-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

If I want to, for example, open a PDF from the internet, it will open in another window which already has preview running. This is really annoying. Especially since I am using 16 windows right now to juggle my dissertation and computer simulations. I didn finally realize that I can assign certain applications to open in certain spaces, which is quite helpful- I usually move firefox to space 4, itunes to space 8, etc. But i haven't figured out how to fix this other issue, even though I have unchecked the box in system preferences that says "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application."

Time machine stopped working unexpectedly

2009-05-26T05:54:00.001-07:00

Was working great for a while. Then it stopped. I think that was because of the server computer- it just couldn't read the drive. Then it worked again. Now it has stopped again with an error saying that the drive is not writable. I don't know what this is about- since I spent all that time making it writable and then it worked for like 5 months. Haven't had time to work on this because I've been too busy writing my dissertation which really really needs to be regularly backed up.

iWork09 is lame...

2009-03-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

because it won't let me save as anything older than the the '08 version. Like, what if I need to send a slide to someone who only has a version of iWork that is older than 08? Actually, i just did. and i ended up having to save it as a static pdf and loose the animations.

Gnuplot does not work as well

2009-03-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

Gnuplot does not have the functionality that it did in linux. Lots of display windows for graphs pop up and never go away (aquaterm) when gnuplot is closed. The terminal does not indicate when the plotting is done (by giving a new prompt.) And no buttons for instant autoscale and no dragging to zoom. Fairly annoying since this is one of the apps I use most. Locked in aspect ratio on graphs.

Sluggish performance

2009-02-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

I've been running a lot of simulations and plotting large amounts of data. This is making the performance really sluggish. Hangs a lot and I'm not always sure what is responsible. I would like to find an app that tells me what apps are using what, so I can decide if i want to close something. There were several ways to do this in linux, but I'm not sure how to do it on a mac.

Apple remote

2009-02-21T08:37:00.000-08:00

I bought an apple remote which seems to work fine. It has limited functionality though. For example, I would like to be able to move the mouse cursor around and click on things from afar. I hear there is shareware that will increase the functionality of this, so I will have to look into it.

Projector problems

2009-02-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

I tried to hook up my macbook to a dell projector and it just didn't work. I think the macbook recognized the projector, but the projector just kept saying "searching for signal". The adapter I was using works to hook up the macbook to a monitor just fine.

Time Machine Working... I think

2009-02-02T18:50:00.000-08:00

Created disk image and copied over to the remote (backup) location.

Seems to be working- it's backing up now, but will take a long time the first go around.

Used the following posts:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:ZiA5l_H_OhEJ:www.macosxhints.com/article.php%3Fstory%3D20080420211034137+Time+machine+create+disk+image&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=firefox-a

and

http://adamcohenrose.blogspot.com/2008/02/time-machine-wireless-backup-without.html.

Can't setup time machine to work over network

2009-01-28T08:09:00.001-08:00

I enabled unsupported volumes, but I get an error that Time machine can't set up the disk image.

ABC full episode viewer

2009-01-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

ABC full episode viewer seems to suck on a mac. All I have to compare it to is Windows- where I've really never had any problems with it. They do not support linux. BOOOO! It crashes on a Mac quite often in both Firefox and Safari.

Online community and hot corners

2009-01-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

One never ceases to be amazed at the lack of a helpful online community. My hot corners stopped working and in looking for some help online, all I found was: call the apple care and take it to a genius bar. Great. Thanks.

Anyways- my mysterious hot corners problem was fixed for some reason by turning all the hot corners off in system preferences and then turning them back on again.

Stupid.

A good app for album artwork fetching

2009-01-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

http://fetchartblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19933#feedback

Photo booth

2009-01-17T18:25:00.001-08:00

So photo booth is pretty fun. But can one turn off the pseudo-flash?

Faster

2009-01-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

New macbook is about 3 times faster than old office liux machine (measured on java app with and without graphics.)

Complaint: Screen

2009-01-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

I agree with everyone else: this screen is way too glossy.

Seriously annoying.

Problem: key bindings

2009-01-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Don't know how to enable emacs key bindings on any programs. Wouldn't mind having emacs bindings all the time. On my linux machine, I just used them in eclipse by setting the keyboard preferences. Can't seem to do that on my macbook.

Problem: netork times out

2009-01-16T06:37:00.001-08:00

After my macbook has gone to sleep and then wakes up, it's no longer connected to my wireless network (but can connect to other networks. I have to go to another machine and change the encryption of our network from one type to another. But my eee laptop does not seem to have at problem like this.

Problem: xournal and my pdf reading system

2009-01-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

Can't seem to do all the things in xournal that I could do in linux. Can't access preferences to make my pen default.

Also- I can't seem to open a pdf in xournal from the file location itself. This is especially annoying when retrieving pdf files locations from zotero (which is the only way I do it.) I actually have to open xournal first and then search for the pdf file which is literally in embedded within 8 folders (that is how zotero automatically does it.)

the facebook thread

2009-01-16T06:25:00.000-08:00

Rachele hates her new macbook! 11:16am - Comment

A at 11:18am January 12

oh no!

M at 11:26am January 12 via Facebook Mobile

How come?

Ai at 11:30am January 12

oh no!!! if you dont come to love it and need to get rid of it, definitely let Jessee know! he's been wanting one

Me at 11:34am January 12

Let me count the ways...

1. it is too small to work on for any length of time.
2. It is not intuitive (to me).
3. It would not read my hard drive (wrong formatting, but still.)
4. Installation of open source software is NOT going smoothly (fink <<>

Ai at 11:38am January 12

...you'll never sell it with that advertisement!!! seriously tho, so sorry you spent a lot of $ on something you're not happy with.

A at 11:40am January 12

lmao...it is small...that's why its so great.

Intuitive macs are not to PC users...took me a week to figure out how to do the most basic things.

I saved everything on my hard drive to my network, then dumped it on to my mac that way...

no idea about open source

YOU told me about papers so no idea

YOU also told me about annotations lol

CREDIT CARD?? Now that is WTF!

Me at 11:41am January 12

Oh well- better than windows, not better than linux.

D at 12:14pm January 12

No argument about Fink, it's been giving me headaches for months now. I think the strongest reason for people like us to own a mac is that (1) it's almost sort of like Linux, and (2) you can walk into a seminar or a conference talk, plug your laptop into the projector, and go. At this point I've given talks using all 3 platforms, and the Mac is the only one that hasn't led to me starting a talk late and sweaty. Or with my math fonts all messed up. Etc.

I don't know a thing about Papers. Have you looked at BibDesk?
http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/

Also, I'm really getting to like Keynote way, way better than the OpenOffice alternative.

F at 12:21pm January 12

get quicksliver, an external screen for work in your office (you probably already have one), acrobat reader, and it should already be a bit better... You'll get used to mac quickly though, and hopefully it will be intuitive soon.

Me at 12:22pm January 12

Really? So what do you like about keynote? You say it is worth paying money for?

I'll check out bibdesk. Actually I finally got a good system on linux using a combo of zotero (lives entirely on mozilla) and xournal (pdf annotator). I can still use zotero on mac, but xournal- I'll have to figure out how to get it. I can't find anything on fink although it seems like i should have the unstable repositories (or whatever mac calls them) enabled. Can't find Kile, can't find xournal, can't find pyxplot. The only thing I have successfully installed using fink is gnuplot. Even Open Office is screwy.

Me at 12:25pm January 12

Thanks, F. I'll check out quicksilver. Can you annotate in acrobat reader? Or do you just like it better?

F at 12:27pm January 12

I just like acrobat reader better. Quicksilver is very useful to start program quickly

F at 12:29pm January 12

for openoffice, there is something called neoffice which is kind of ok. If you want Keynote 08, you can come and copy mine, it is in my office.

F at 12:30pm January 12

anyway, stop by this afternoon (I will go have lunch now) and I can show you a few things which might help.

Me at 12:35pm January 12

Thanks, Fanny! Actually I'm not in until late today cause I have to go out to Sommerville to help a friend move in a few minutes. Are you around tomorrow of Wed?

A at 12:39pm January 12

I bought keynote, but I don't use it. If you decide you want it, you are welcome to my copy. But I am learning more things through your comments lol.

Me at 12:43pm January 12

Thanks, A! Wow- the response to my status is overwhelming! Funny esp because previously I was also going to add to my list of complaints that the online MAC community is not as good as Ubuntu. But I guess I just needed to look closer to home :)

D at 1:04pm January 12

What I like about Keynote is that it's really smart about helping you line up text/figure boxes, either w.r.t. the whole page or w.r.t. other text/figure boxes. It does this without being Microsoft-style overbearing, and the end result is lovely-looking slides. Here's the thing about Keynote: Last I checked, you can only buy it bundled with Pages + Numbers, and those are meh. If you can get Keynote by itself, definitely do that.

For all that other software you mentioned (and now I have to look at it all myself because you've got me curious) you could look at MacPorts instead of Fink. Though I don't know whether they have any of that software either, and running two package managers is the desperate act of a cornered wild beast.

This is my favorite solution to the article-management problem:
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/06/one_dead_media.php

P.S. This is the longest thread I've ever seen on FB and it's all because you publicly stated you hate your Mac. HA!

A at 1:23pm January 12

LMAO, this thread should be posted in someone's blog so its internet-accessible to non-FB members...I think it's informative (making mental note to check out all programs listed to see if I can learn something new with my Mac).

I'm really powerpoint capable and just didn't want to learn ANOTHER new software and my keynote, pages, and numbers were given to me as a gift. But I LOVE giving presentations with my Mac (the next slide, notes, and timer features are awesome).

R at 1:35pm January 12

What's going wrong with Papers for you? For annotation of pdf's you could use Skim.

K at 2:15pm January 12

I primarily just want to be a part of this massive thread, very impressive. (Also, Quicksilver is awesome.)

M at 2:35pm January 12 via Facebook Mobile

NeoOffice works better than OpenOffice. Slow on my old G4 but should do well on a new MacBook. I've heard that DarwinPorts is better than Fink on OS X 10.4+... I think I have both installed.

Me at 2:41pm January 12

Whew... OK:

D: I will check out macports although I agree with you about the wild beast thing. I honestly thought that installing stuff would be easier on a mac, but i guess that is only for official mac stuff.

Faceted navigation: interesting.

Yes- an interesting response to my public statement.

A: Good idea. So those presentation features are mac specific or PP specific?

R: Papers is fine for organizing, but I really find is no better than the free Zotero. (Kip tried to convince me of this earlier.) If a program costs money, i think it should be better than the free version. Plus, I was under the impression that papers itself had some sort annotation program. I checked out skim- didn't install it but looked at its features: does it do a better job than preview in selecting the text to underline? Cause preview seems to suck at it. I really like xournal now for annotations: it lets me draw whatever I want and the underlining is really like drawing a line...

Me at 2:46pm January 12

under the text. It's much more like just taking notes on an actual paper. The good thing about preview annotation is that you notes can be as long as you want (instead of just writing them on the paper.)

K: word. And quicksilver does look good. Haven't installed it yet.

M: Yeah- OO seems really messed up (seems to be installed, but doesn't open.) Actually I tried installing neoOffice first, but it didn't work. Don't know why I have so many problems with this as it seems to be a pretty standard thing to install. I think OO is always slow, but I use it minimally, so its worth it to be just to have a decent free program. OK- I will check out both darwin ports and macports... double desperate cornered wild beast.

A at 2:57pm January 12

aren't you supposed to be helping someone move? lol

Me at 2:58pm January 12

FYI macports is an updated version of darwin ports, so we're back to just singular desperation.