macosx

Techie stuff

October 6, 2011 by limako

With the semester launched, I've had some time to work on technical things. I've set up one computer to try to start building a template for supporting Lion in the computer labs. I'm not sure when we'll switch, though: there are several pieces of software we use that won't run under Lion and, so far, I've not seen any compelling reasons to switch. And several reasons not to.

One thing that's a PITA is Apple's strategy for distributing Lion: through their obnoxious "App Store". At the University, they provided media that you can use to update Slow Neopard to Lion. Infuriatingly, however, there's no way to just install Lion and start clean with that. I googled around and found a guide that suggested you could wipe the partition with lion and then use the recovery partition to install clean from that. I tried it, but then it wanted me to log into the App Store with my AppleID (which hadn't purchased the license for Lion) and so it wouldn't let me install. So I ended up re-installing Slow Neopard and then updating to Lion.

It took me a while to remember how to set up LDAP authentication: I forgot you have to configure OpenLDAP manually before you use it in the Directory Assistant. Once I copied the key into place and referenced it in ldap.conf, everything worked just fine, although I still haven't figured out how to customize the directory template. This semester, I found where to set RealName = uid (instead of cn) so that when people want to print or mount a server share, it fills in their "username" field with their uid and not their Real Freakin' Name. Two steps forward, one step back.

In related news, I was hugely disappointed to see that Growl is only going to distribute via the App Store. I don't use the "official twitter client" because its only distributed via the App Store. Letting Apple become the sole channel for distributing software is a HUGE mistake. Yes, it's convenient and, yes, it makes it easy to monetize everything -- so easy, in fact, that people that wouldn't otherwise monetize stuff don't see the point in not monetizing it. But the App store does two really unfortunate things: First, it lets Apple choose which applications to let people run and, from there, it's just a small step to letting Apple be in control of what you can do with your computer. They already do that with the iPhone: why can't I write a tethering app so that I can share my Internet Connection with computer? Oh, that's right: an Apple Partner has that capability as part of their business plan. Even more simply, though, letting Apple gain a chokehold over the software ecosystem is as dangerous as it was for the music industry letting Apple control the supply of music. We'll all be better off if there's more competition.

So this morning, I updated my netbook with Ubuntu 11.04. All of the stuff that was problematic before just seems to work now: the ethernet card just works, the wireless just works, the camera just works. Oh, I had to twiddle some things to get the microphone to work in Skype. But it just works. It's not a bad little computer. I'll show it to the North Star kids when I see them next time: most of them have never seen a linux computer before. Maybe I should set up my macbook to dual boot. It may be time...

Semester begins with a snow day

January 31, 2009 by limako

The first week of the semester has come to a full stop in the middle with a snow day today. It's fun to watch the snow coming down when you don't have to go out into it. I have many memories of having to go out into cold and snow. It's more fun to just watch through the window. If it changes over to freezing rain and we lose power later, that might put a damper on the fun. But the snow is pretty, even though I don't look forward to the shoveling to come later.

It's the first semester in years when I haven't had to teach. I enjoy teaching and I will look forward to being back in the classroom next semester, but for a change its great to have time to focus on technology. I've been trying to learn the ins and outs of ldap for the BCRC and department computers we support. I spent a lot of the day yesterday trying to get ldap over ssl working and, by the end of the day, I think I have a working set up. Now I have to figure out how to make the MacOS part talk over ssl to the server. There are a lot of things I really like about MacOS, but -- from a unix standpoint -- its really frustrating when you find perfectly functional and transparent parts of the system replaced with an opaque black box. My ldap connection works fine in plain text and doesn't work over ssl -- even though the command-line ldap tools work fine on the same computer. Argh.

The Governor has released his budget projections. The University has taken a $27 million dollar cut from this year's budget -- this year, that's already half-over. Next year isn't going to be any picnic. Tomorrow there is a General Faculty Meeting where the chancellor seems likely to lay out his plan. I am hopeful that Obama's economic stimulus package will help the state and the University. The University has been cut so much over the past ten years that there really isn't much spare to cut.

Tiel diris nehundo / Thus spake nodog

September 24, 2008 by limako

UMass Rapprochement

September 29, 2007 by limako

Since the spring, the relations between the UMass Amherst faculty, president, and board of trustees has been strained. When the trustees announced plans to have a retreat with the goal of generating action steps, there was some concern raised. Today we held a general meeting of the faculty with a set of resolutions in place to express our lack of confidence. But the trustees decided to have an open meeting, rather than meeting in a secret retreat and so we backed away from the resolutions. One trustee, James Karram, attended the meeting and spoke briefly. I'm encouraged by the positive steps and I hope we are beginning to move away from the series of confrontations that have driven faculty governance relations since the spring.

I was involved in drafting a resolution for the meeting related to the governor's Readiness Project -- this is a commission that has been drawn up to study education in the state. One subcommittee is supposed to study public higher education. Pat Crosson, a highly respected former-provost, is on the committee, but no current faculty, staff, students. We drafted a separate resolution to encourage the commission to hold open forums at the UMass campuses. I drafted the following resolution (with help from many others) to try to provide some guidance to the new readiness project subcommittee:

The Faculty and Librarians of the University of Massachusetts Amherst appreciate the Governor