The short version goes something like: worth it in the end, but shouldn’uh hadtuh…

Longer version

Reinstalling Leopard using Erase and Install fixed every problem I listed a few weeks ago with the exception of vhosts which I had to recreate because of an architectural change in Leopard:

1. Airport connects on wake.
2. Mail.app syncs on wake.
3. VPN is working again.
4. Video artefacts have gone.
5. Safari has chilled out.
6. Command + Tab switching works.
7. My business is fast.

What I did:

1. Cloned startup disk using SuperDuper! and confirmed it was bootable.
2. Launched the installer, restarted and chose Erase and Install.
3. Created a new admin account.
4. Selectively copied user data for some (mostly-Apple) apps^† and additional fonts using Adam Rosen’s guidelines.
5. Reinstalled additional applications from scratch^‡ intentionally leaving the cruft behind.
6. Cloned the new startup disk, tested it and scheduled nightly backups.
7. Added the printer.
8. Added the scanner.
9. Blogged about it.

Would I recommend you do it if you have mad problems resulting from a regular upgrade? Yes. Should you have to? Nope. It’s just the price you pay for love-needing the Apple.

† Address Book, iCal, iTunes, Mail and Safari. I also had to boot back into my old system to export data from Address Book and Transmit.

‡ Coda, MAMP, MarsEdit, NetNewsWire, Photoshop, Quicksilver, TextWrangler, Tinkertool, Transmit and something nasty from Cisco related to VPN.

Related posts:

• Shit got ill in the Leopard upgrade
• NetNewsWire and me
• SuperDo

But anyhoo, there are at least two ways to set up Mac OS X 10.5 to recognize hostnames other than localhost (e.g. being able to access a local site using http://mydomain.dev) in place of the defunct NetInfo Manager.app:

1. You can use the dscl command line utility to set up virtual hosts (e.g. sudo dscl localhost -create /Local/Default/Hosts/mydomain.dev IPAddress 127.0.0.1).
2. Or you can edit /etc/hosts (e.g. by adding 127.0.0.1 mydomain.dev to the end of the file).

Number two is easier since the file is “watched” for changes by the system. As soon as you add the entry and save the file Apache will be able to use it. By the way, this is all assuming you have set up your virtual hosts using Apache’s httpd.conf.

Related posts:

• Shit got ill in the Leopard upgrade
• Quirky permalinks problem
• Thirty-one

• Airport card fails to connect to the default network when waking from sleep.
• Mail.app sometimes fails to sync with the IMAP server when waking from sleep.
• Local virtual hosts I’d set up for web development were deleted.
• Cisco VPN client errors out on launch.
• I sometimes get weird video artefacts when resizing or switching windows.
• Safari keeps trying to access Keychain.app when a username input element receives focus even though I’ve always instructed it not to save passwords.
• Command + Tab switching sometimes leaves the wrong app on top.
• Everything feels a bit slower.

Abe has a 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 processor with 1.25 GB of memory. Last of the mighty twelve-inchers.

Related posts:

• Edit the hosts file in place of NetInfo Manager.app
• On reinstalling OS X Leopard
• NetNewsWire and me

One wonders: is Mac OS X’s icon for an installer package supposed to look like an Energon Cube?

Related posts:

• Venus wi-fi trap

I care about this because after e-mail clients (Mail.app and Thunderbird), text editors (TextWrangler and Coda) and browsers (Safari, Firefox, etc.) my next most heavily used application is NetNewsWire. I like this product and I want to stick with it. It’s bloody excellent. I use it on two computers (home and work) and on an iPod touch—so the synchronisation feature is fundamental.

It was on Brent Simmons weblog that I first heard that a new version was in the works. Not long after, I received a rather pumped up message from NewsGator saying that exciting changes are coming ra ra ra and oh, by the way, synching is changing:

• NetNewsWire for Mac – you may continue to use your current version (synchronization won’t be supported after August 31, 2009). However, we recommend that you download the latest version of NetNewsWire and sign-up for a Google Reader account for synchronization. Please refer to our transition instructions for assistance.
• NetNewsWire for iPhone Customers – a mobile RSS Reader requires synchronization and a new version of NetNewsWire for iPhone that supports synchronization with Google Reader will be available soon. We will notify you when it is available so that you can download the latest version of NetNewsWire and sign-up for a Google Reader account prior to August 31, 2009.

I don’t want to use Google Reader for synchronisation, but that’s another story. Let’s just say that I like this software enough that I’ll go with it for now. I’m tuned in and following along at home. The transition instructions told me to download the new version of NetNewsWire for my Mac:

Download the latest version of NetNewsWire.

That link takes you to a beta version. Okay, so it’s not ready yet but they want us to move everything over to Google Reader really soon so they can shut off synching. The iPhone version is not available yet either. Here’s the part where I digress and tell you that I’m a weird nerd who still uses Mac OS X 10.4 even though at that time all the cool kids were starting to count the sleeps until 10.6 was released.

This is relevant because I decided to follow NewsGator’s instructions anyway and installed the latest version of NetNewsWire. It doesn’t work on 10.4. Fortunately, when I downgraded again to my previous version (which I’m still using) all my data was there so I didn’t have to resort to restoring from backups or anything.

So now I’m thinking, hmmm—I will have to finally upgrade to 10.5. No big deal, I guess. I’ve been using it on my work machine and I love it. Then I had a brainwave and decided to check the prices of replacement hard drives for my Mac. [ed.—Excursus #2, for those who are counting.] These things are cheap as chips! You can jam a 300GB drive in there! (I have an 80GB drive currently.) Next, I ask my friends whether upgrading is something that anyone can do with sheer hutzpah alone, or whether you really need to be a technician. @berkleebassist was quick to tell me that the answer lies somewhere in between:

@adriancooke 36 screws to remove the top case. Takes me about 2 hours to do, & I’m a certified mac tech. Get a manual, & be careful!

Ahh… yeah. Well, maybe that’s not really me. I would freak out too much if I killed my computer. I did check out the procedure on iFixit and there was a reader comment in there somewhere about little hooks that you can’t even see in the high res photos and you can break things if you’re not careful and I was all not tonight Josephine after that.

Anyway, back to NetNewsWire… I eventually ordered a copy of Leopard, carefully installed it last night (i.e. using the John Gruber’s Murphy’s Law approach) and now I’m sitting down to figure out how many days I have left until my synching is switched off. So far I have seven related tabs open to try to get this straight:

1. The e-mail: “Action Required – NewsGator Consumer RSS Reader Product Changes”
2. NewsGator Product Transition Instructions
3. NewsGator FAQs
4. nnwbeta.com
5. Google Reader’s signed out page [ack!—sorry, hairball]
6. NewsGator Exporting Clipped and Tagged Articles
7. NewsGator Online (where I’m logged in, but clueless)

Of all of these number four is the most helpful:

Note: This is still a beta — it’s unfinished, and it has bugs and incomplete features. If you haven’t started using a beta yet, you don’t need to: you can wait until it’s finished. […]

(Note: we won’t turn off NewsGator syncing until NetNewsWire 3.2 and NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone are finished.)

Oh, and in the midst of all of this I got another message from NewsGator saying, “chill, the dates have been pushed back because we’re not quite ready just yet.” I don’t know what to do next, so I thought I’d tell the Internet. All of this for a feed reader! And people are saying that RSS is dead. Pish!

† Does anyone else think that NewsGator should have a small “g” just like Photoshop has a small “s”? Wow,you all do? Would you look at that.

Related posts:

• On reinstalling OS X Leopard
• Highlight differences
• MAMP 1.8.3

For now, it may be best not to travel alone. If you must go outside, try to bring a fellow fanboy with you. If you still start to feel weak, download some new apps for your GodPhone. That should help. Also, spend some time looking at your photos of me. Best of all, come to San Francisco this Wednesday, or at least tune in to our event. We’ll have shiny new objects which will restore your sense of childlike wonder. I promise you will be dazzled and re-hypnotized. Until then, peace out.

Sublime fake bloggery.

SuperDuper runs on Intel and Power PC Macs, and is compatible with Time Machine under Leopard. Download and use it forever for free, or buy for US $27.95 to unlock scheduling and Smart Update. (Smart Update copies only the data that has changed since your last backup, enabling you to backup your hard drive in minutes instead of hours. Which means you’ll actually get into the habit of running the backup program every day. Which means you’ll never lose your work. Best $27.95 you’ll ever spend.)

We got SuperDuper! after the PowerBook Catastrophe of 2005 and it saved Elena’s data from annihilation just over a year later when the replacement hard drive failed.^†

† This text was emphasised for your benefit.

Related posts:

• Regarding Ma.gnolia
• On reinstalling OS X Leopard
• NetNewsWire and me

† See for example the W3C’s Character entity references in HTML 4, this multiplatform table of keyboard shortcuts for special characters, this comparison of Mac OS X and Windows XP keyboard functions, and this table of Windows alt code references (PDF file).

Related posts:

• IE, Unicode, freakout boxes and CSS
• Styling the blockquote element

US lawmakers reach stimulus deal

Members of both houses of the The US Congress reach agreement reaches what President Obama praises as a “hard-fought compromise” on the details of President Obama’s his economic stimulus plan.

2/11/09 6:41 pm

Two quizzed over Australia fires

Australian officials blame arsonists for fresh fires Police are questioning two people in Victoria, as a dozen relation to the bushfires continue to burn in the state.southern Australia that have killed at least 181 people.

2/11/09 9:21 pm

Prostate cancer urine test hope

US scientists have moved a step move closer to a simple urine test to distinguish between the benign and aggressive forms of prostate cancer.

2/11/09 7:52 am

UK jobless total at 1.97 million

The number UK unemployment reached 1.97 million between October and December, a further sign of jobless people in the UK is set to pass two million for the first time since 1997 when figures are published later.downturn, official data shows.

2/11/09 5:02 am

Mexico gun fights leave 21 dead

Gun battles Twenty-one people die in shootouts between soldiers and suspected drug gang members and troops leave 21 dead hitmen in northern Mexico, police say.Mexico.

2/11/09 5:25 am

Israeli rivals claim election win

The leaders of Israel’s two main parties, Likud and Kadima, both say they have won the country’s snap early election.

2/10/09 10:59 pm

US cybersecurity review under way

A 60-day The Obama administration starts a review of how well the US copes with relentless cyberattacks has been kicked off by Obama’s security chief.thwarts spies and malicious hackers.

2/10/09 6:27 am

Some of these edits are factual updates (e.g. adding the “hard fought compromise” quote; replacing “blame arsonists” with “questioning two people”), while others soften the tone of the informational claim (e.g. “1.97 million” versus “set to pass two million”, “thwarts” versus “copes”). Both kinds of changes are made to strengthen the utterance: either by adding factual clauses or by making the tone sound less evaluative, which is to say, more impartial.^†

† I’m not saying that the claims are actually impartial. I don’t think they can be.

In a ballsy move that even Stephen Colbert would have to respect, John Gruber (of Daring Fireball fame) has offered a hefty wager to David Maynor and Jon Ellch: he will give them a brand new MacBook if they can “hijack” it using a wi-fi exploit which they claim to have discovered. Gruber’s offer is the latest of several responses to an article by Brian Krebs of the Washington Post, that alleged that Maynor and Ellch had convincingly demonstrated said exploit. The day after the article was posted Gruber responded on Daring Fireball with extreme skepticism citing a lack of evidence from the hackers, and followed up with criticism of Krebs’ reporting citing confusion of key terms of the allegation. Furthermore, Apple claims that the Maynor and Ellch have not come forward with evidence that would substantiate their claims (such information sharing is common practice in the software industry).

Storm in a tea cup perhaps? Well, Krebs went all out to make it stick: the title of the original article was, “Hijacking a Macbook in 60 Seconds or Less.” If the claims are true it means that Apple’s most popular new machine has a serious security flaw of which they are still officially unaware. On his blog Gruber outlines fourteen conditions that have to be met in order for Maynor and Ellch to receive their free computer. The hackers must use a wi-fi attack to gain access to a MacBook with default software and hardware settings, and delete a file that Gruber has created and placed on the Desktop. If they fail to delete it but successfully crash or disable the system, the contest will be declared a draw and he keeps the computer. Gruber sums it up thusly:

It comes down to this. If I’m wrong, it’d be worth $1099 to know that MacBook users are in fact at risk. And if I’m right, someone needs to call Maynor and Ellch on their bullshit.

Pretty funny stuff. It will be interesting to watch the response as the challenge makes its way through the ether.

Addendum (September 4^th)

Ahh, I see now that the mythical Macalope had already beaten me to the punch with his own Colbertism (well, at least I assume it’s a “he” Update: it’s a he: Macalope: About).

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• A little energon and a lot of luck