Opinions, Expertise, Passion.

Some 9 months ago I left my noise canceling headphones on a plane. Since then I’ve though I’d just self suffer for my carelessness, and I’d decided the next set I would buy would be Bose. The problem is, Bose make two brands, The over ear 2 model and the on ear 3 model. I could never decide which one to order without first trying. They do offer a return policy but that’s just more hassle.

So eventually I get to the Bose store in the Time Warner building at Columbus Circle, try them both, can’t really decide either way and settle for the over ear 2. Some facts in my decision is basically the case is the same size, the 2 model has a recharger, while the 3 uses AAA batteries.

I then head of the the NY apple store for some smaller purchases, and I notice that all the sample headphones for the iPods are Bose. You can even buy them there. So treking across NY in the rain could have been easier?

In other Apple news, the MacBook Air is not as light as I would have thought, being 3 pounds, still it’s a cool geek thing and I was tempted even though I’d just just purchased my own Macbook recently. And of course they released a new macbook yesterday as well. Go figure.

Seems Mac OS/X has not escaped the unnecessary annoyances of Windows. Below are details to unstall a product on my MacBook, following it crashing my machine a few times with the “blue screen on death” below.

Eye TV Lite is the software that comes with the Pinnacle TV line of products for the Apple Mac.

 

To completely uninstall the EyeTV Lite software and it associated files, please follow the steps below.

 

1.      Drag the EyeTV Lite application from the Application folder to the trash.

a.       Open Finder

b.      Select Applications

c.       Select EyeTV Lite and drab it to the trash

 

2.      Using Finder, move the following files to the trash.

 

Below is a list of the files that need to be removed and their function.  Below that is the location of the files. 

 

com.elgato.eyetv.plist - stores the preferences and there are 2 copies on the hard drive

EyeTV Helper - assits with USB/FireWire issues

com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist – preference file related to the available devices

com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist - preference file related to the channel lists

Wakein - assists EyeTV Lite with waking/booting to record

EyeTVEPG.db - EPG data is stored in this file

EyeTV Archive - contains all of your recordings and scheduled programs

EyeTVClassicDontSeize.kext – All of the kernel extension files .kext are to prevent the Mac OS X from attempting to talk to TV devices that can appear as generic USB audio class or HID class devices before the actual firmware has been uploaded to them.

EyeTVAfaTechHidBlock.kext – same as above

            EyeTVEmpiaAudioBlock.kext – same as above

 

Drag these files from the location listed to the trash using Finder

 

/Users/(username)/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.plist

 

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.plist

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist

 

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/EyeTV Helper

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/Wakein

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/EyeTVEPG.db

 

/Users/(username)/Library/EyeTV Archive/

 

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVClassicDontSeize.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVAfaTechHidBlock.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVEmpiaAudioBlock.kext

 

NOTE 1:  If you erase the EyeTV preference files, then any activation key you may have will need to be re-entered.

 

NOTE 2:  The files with the extention .kext can only be erased with root/superuser access. Also, to erase EyeTV Helper, you first have to quit it by using the Process Viewer or Activity Monitor.

Reference

I’m being able to spend more time using my MacBook finally. The following are some essential tools I needed to install.

• Firefox - Browser
• Skype - Chat, Voice Calling
• Colloquy - IRC Chat
• VLC - Media Player for xVid
• Mac the Ripper - DVD Extractor
• Parallels - Virtualization for Windows XP

There are many things I’m coming to grip with on my new MacBook. One is missing buttons on the screen, like Page Up, Page Down and PrntSc.

Well I at least found out from Eric that I can get Print Screen with the following keyboard syntax.

Command-shift-4 then space then mouse click

Time to install MySQL on my new MacBook.

$ cd /opt
$ wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.0/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686.tar.gz/from/http://mysql.mirrors.hoobly.com/
$ tar xvfz mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686.tar.gz
$ cd mysql-5.0.45-ox10.4-i686
$ scripts/mysql_install_db
Installing MySQL system tables...
071129 22:10:48 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/ is case insensitive
OK
Filling help tables…
071129 22:10:48 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/ is case insensitive
OK

bin/mysqld_safe &
[1] 239
macbook:mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686 rbradfor$ chown: /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/macbook.err: Operation not permitted
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data

$ bin/mysqladmin -uroot password ’sakila’
$ bin/mysql -uroot -psakila -e “SELECT VERSION()”
$ bin/mysqladmin -uroot -psakila shutdown

It was interesting that these normal steps under Linux provided two errors not normally seen.

1. Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/ is case insensitive

2. chown: /opt/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/macbook.err: Operation not permitted

The first is interesting, is Mac like Windows in that sense? I’ll need to check that out.
The second occurs every time I start MySQL which is also intriguing, but for now doesn’t affect MySQL operation. It’s interesting that the permissions of the error file is the same as the user running it, so go figure.

I arrived home last night at midnight from San Francisco to a pile of mail and a number of packages. My shiny new MacBook had arrived. It was rather ridiculous that I wanted a HDD upgrade and I could no buy it in the store. They come with 160GB and have only one upgrade option to 250GB.

Nevertheless, I’m now trying to familiarize myself with Mac OS/X 10.5 (Leopard) which is rather foreign as I’ve never used a MacBook before.

So what was my motivations? After Hacking my iPhone I wanted to do more, and even try and write an app, so I needed a Mac OS. I actually wanted a MacBook when I first joined MySQL last year, but my request was not approved (”You have to be able to run Windows” was the response, and yes I told them it can run windows).

Combined with a my Q3 Bonus, I just had to have one. This has been a number of significant purchases in recent months, an iPhone and a Canon 40D. All I need now is a girlfriend and my bank balance will be in more serious trouble.