Is It Time To Say Goodbye?
Sarah’s been using this computer for a few months and all of a sudden, yesterday, it just stopped working properly. We would get a black screen of death, the always frightening kernel panic screen.
As any good boy would do, I thought would just wipe the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. But because this computer is a Powerbook from 2004 (when I got this the Red Sox were last champions in 1918).
And now it looks like my deprecated, Mac OS install disc has become corrupted so I need to find a new one now.
Brother, can you spare an OS disc?
But if it’s a hardware issue, it will be time to say goodbye to an old friend. I have since replaced this guy with a MacBook Pro but this was always a reliable computer, having gone to many classes and having travelled to many conferences. Sarah gave it a second life after I got the MacBook Pro, but we’re still going to miss this old reliable computer.
Since I bought the 2009 iMac 21″, I had noticed that the computer was running “hot.”
Looking at the Activity Monitor utility, the CPU would be running really high and applications would run pretty slow. One process in particular, launchd, would be taking up nearly 15% of the CPU, which seemed very strange considering no other application took up so much processing power.
With the increased processor load, Mail would often crash over and over again. Also, applications that used audio or video would often hang even before they opened and would never respond. (By audio and video applications, I mean iTunes, Quicktime Player, Airfoil, Pulsar, Radioshift and even VLC.) I also tried to activate my Firewall, and System Preferences would hang, too. Clearly, something is wrong.
Looking at the Console utility, I noticed that one entry that came up repeatedly in the diagnostic logs: Adobe Version Cue. It also noted that the parent process of Version Cue was “launchd.” After digging around on the Internet, I saw that many bulletin boards recommended uninstalling the “Version Cue Server. It turns out that very few firms actually use this functionality.
In Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers, you can add/remove specific components of Adobe CS3. So I had this utility uninstall Adobe CS3 Version Cue Server, and just like that the Activity Monitor Dock gauge went down to a nice low reading.
So there you go, if you’re having problems with media applications hanging, a runaway launchd process, and you have Adobe Creative Suite installed, try uninstalling the Version Cue Server.
Lost Weekend in LA
With all the hype of the Lost series finale on May 23, Sarah and I went to Los Angeles to see the finale with 2,000 other Lost fans who packed the Orpheum Theater downtown.
The finale party was bankrolled by Global Cash Card’s founder Michael Purcell, an admittedly “crazy” Lost fan, and hosted by Jay and Jack, a father-and-son podcasting duo who host my favorite Lost podcast.
The party was held in the eighty-four year-old former vaudeville and motion picture palace, which recently underwent top-to-bottom restoration. In addition to screening the 153-minute finale of the series, Michael Emerson entertained the audience for over an hour with a very courteous question-and-answer session.
Pictures of the event are available in the gallery section of this website.
Riding to Montauk
This will be a running log of my third time riding the annual Montauk Century. This year will be different because it will actually be a nice day, unless last year’s ride where it rained for the first seventy five miles of the ride and unlike 2008, where I was in some sort of riding shape.
10:50 PM: Alarm is set for 3:00 AM, and I’m missing three rather important early-season softball games. But I know this will be worth it.
4:24 AM: Checked in at Penn Station. Looking a little bleary eyed.
10:27 AM: Reached the 50-mile rest stop in fairly good time. I had a bit of a delay with a flat tire but I caught up with a fairly speedy rider who pulled me and helped me catch up to my pace. Although it now seems unlikely that I’ll finish by 2:00. Oh well. Serves me right for sitting on my ass all spring.
10:42 AM: Sarah just caught up to me as I was about to leave….
2:50 PM: Made it to the finish line. It’s not quite “The End” but it is as far as the train goes. Again not quite the seven hours I was hoping for but it was still pretty good for doing a ride off the couch. And now I hurt… Ouch!
Don’t Let Facebook Rat You Out
Maybe it’s because I just did a class on contemporary privacy in the media industries, and used Facebook as a case study, but it looks like the amount of information available to anyone on Facebook was enough to find the guy who found the iPhone prototype.
On Thursday, Wired has a story on the guy who found the iPhone and then reportedly sold it to Gawker’s Gizmodo website. In the story, we learn that “Wired.com identified Hogan as the finder of the prototype by following clues on social network sites, and then confirmed his identity with a source involved in the iPhone find.”
If that doesn’t put a little bit of caution before you post any shenanigans on Facebook, consider this timeline of Facebook’s privacy policies over the years.
Since last night’s Mets-Dodgers game was rained out last night and because the Dodgers apparently have a long plane ride home tomorrow afternoon, those of us holding tickets to tonight’s game end up getting in to a single-admission double header.
I miss the old days when they would actually schedule double headers like these. Consequently, when these kinds of games end up happening, it really makes me happy.
The only downside is that it’s pretty windy today so it might be tough sitting out there for about six to seven hours. I guess that’s why we have gift shops for….
Support Freeform Radio… Get Swag (maybe)
One of my favorite parts of living in NYC has been having this radio station always on the dial (and, yes, online, too). It reminds me of the halcyon days at KCSB-FM. Ahhh…
Pledge generously and support this extraordinary stalwart of freeform radio. We need more of these autonomous, listener-supported radio stations.
Hurry up, though. The marathon ends on Sunday.
A week ago I bought a third-party iPhone charger from my new favorite online cables/parts/accessories supplier, Monoprice, that cost less than $4.00. I wanted one to keep at the office that would charge my phone and that the other folks at the office could use, too. So I ordered three of them so I would have one just about anytime I needed one.
Well, I got the chargers over the weekend, but when I tried to charge my phone, it wouldn’t charge for more than five minutes. I tried the other charge, figuring that if this thing retailed for $4.00, it likely cost $0.40 to make and quality control might be lacking. The second one had the same problem. Damn! The phone charges fine with the OEM charger and through my MacBook Pro’s USB so we can deduce that the iPhone is capable of taking a charge.
So as a “hail mary,” I brought the third charger with me to work, and guess what? It works. It has fully charged my iPhone and I’ve been listening to it most of the day. Well, go figure.
Nighttime Snow
So, as you may have heard, it’s been snowing around here, and last night, it really came down in earnest. No foolin’.
Well, I had felt a little guilty about canceling last night’s Media Criticism class, but once I went outside and saw how much snow had fallen, I felt vindicated. It also helped that Fordham University, Queens College, and NYU—not too mention all NYC public schools—had all canceled classes today, too.
Here are some of the pictures that I took late last night to get a glimpse of the peaceful scene on Vernon Blvd.
