Paul Wilkinson's Weblog - Computers

Reformatting a FAT32 drive to HFS+ - Never trust a GUI

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:55:41 -0700

I bought an external drive for a relative to use with Time Machine. Of course it cam pre-formatted as FAT32 and while this would work it wouldn't give the best performance, so I wanted to reformat it as HFS+.

I fired up Disk Utility, selected Journaled file system and click erase...and error.
A bit of googling suggested that selecting the option to zero the disk would resolve the problem. I tried this but I decided I wasn't prepared to wait the 4 hours it was going to take to zero a 600GB drive - there had to be an easier way.

I decided to try the command line - I thought that this may give me a more meaningful error message if nothing else.

Anwyay, much to my surprise the command diskutil eraseDisk "Journaled HFS+" "Back Up" disk1 resulted in

Started erase on disk disk1
Creating partition map
Formatting disk1s2 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name Back Up
[ + 0%..10%..20%..30%..40%..50%..60%..70%..80%..90%..100% ]
Finished erase on disk disk1
Finished partitioning on disk disk1

And it just worked, so hopefully Google will find this and it may help someone else.

So much spin I'm getting dizzy

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:42:26 -0700

This is kind of old news now, but I have been too busy to post in the last week or so.
The chaser "invasion" of the APEC security zone was funny but also extremely alarming.
The authorities applied "spin" to the issue, claiming that the security worked as the Chaser boys were arrested and that they placed themselves at risk of being shot by snipers.
In fact, as shown by the video below, it wasn't until "Osama" got out of the car that they were challenged. And if they weren't challenged by ground staff, why would snipers suddenly decide to open fire?

The fact is that once again a lot of money was spent and a great deal of public inconvenience caused in the name of security that was in effect "security theatre".

Although it seems unlikely that the cars were close enough to a venue to actually kill or injur any APEC delegates, if the vans had been packed with explosives and detonated it would have killed & injured a number of police officers and created a serious embarassment for the Australian government.

The Chaser's stunt was fairly simple impersonation attack and even if the police didn't have time to examine the (obviously) fake security passes on the cars, procedures should have been in place to challenge any unexpected convoys. The movement of these VIP convoys through the city was obviously co-ordinated with the RTA traffic operations centre to ensure green lights; this means that even if they movements weren't scheduled it should have been simple to notify the people "on the ground".

The police would have had standing orders to either

Stop any unexpected convoys
or allow through unexpected convoys

Clearly option 1 may have resulted in potential inconvenience to a VIP, but is the more secure stance. It is what is known in IT security as a "default deny" policy. Option 2, "default permit" increases risks while reducing inconvenience.

Surely the same world leaders that decide we can't take nail files on to an airplane would understand the need for a little inconvenience to protect their safety?

Mac "Large Type" Function

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:28:50 -0700

Dear LazyWeb,
I am looking for sample code that demonstrates how to achieve equivalent functionality of the Addresss Book "Large Type" option.
I have successfully created a transparent NSWindow into which I can place by view, but I am not sure how to put that window on "top" of the screen rather than just on top of my application. Do I need to use something other than Cocoa to achieve this?

Thanks,
Paul

Update 11/10/2006 For the sake of Google and posterity, the answers can be found in the Round Transparent Window example on Apple's Developer site. I had figured most of it out myself - the key item is [iconWindow setLevel:NSStatusWindowLevel]; in order to have the window appear on top of everything else.

Apple...working to keep the skies safe

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 07:04:19 -0700

According to an article in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald

US Homeland Security officials were warned the bombers were plotting to use liquid explosives hidden in sports drinks or other containers in their hand luggage.

Once on board, the suicide bombers would detonate the explosives using a battery from a simple device like their camera or an iPod.

But, we all know iPod batteries aren't user replaceable

Its not a bed...its an iPod Dock

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:21:32 -0700

Whilst shopping for beds recently I came across the Pause by NZ company DesignMobel. The available accessories for this bed include a Bose soundsystem and iPod Dock built in to the bedside table.

Microsoft has announced their intention to ship a music player by Christmas. I think it is a good indication of what they are going to have to compete against when companies are building beds with iPod compatibility.

Broadband is back. We missed you so much!

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:34:47 -0700

Hooray! The ADSL has been reconnected. Well I care!

The joy of Dialup...Not!

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:54:33 -0700

This week we have been having a little trip down memory lane. Due to Telstra's incompetance our ADSL has gone off line. Last week it seems that Telstra put someone else's configuration onto our line, with the result that My Darling Wife Kym (MDWK) who complains that I never mention her here, received some irate phone calls from some woman who wanted to know why we had her telephone number! MDWK explained that perhaps she should call Telstra as she (MDWK) had no idea why we had her telephone number. Of course this meant that we lost our ADSL as well.
Continue reading "The joy of Dialup...Not!"

Big and Beautiful

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 07:18:22 -0700

After nearly three months wait I finally have my new iMac G5 20". It was well worth the wait. When you sit in front of it the screen practically fills your field of view.

The upgrade process was also particularly seamless - very Apple. When you turn the new Mac on for the first time it asks if you want to transfer data from an old Mac - if so you simply hook the two machines together via a FireWire cable and come back in about half an hour. No need to spend hours or days reinstalling all of your programs.

The bubble is back redux

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:47:20 -0700

The previously mentioned Bluetooth Network at Broadway shopping centre is offering a free trial - so I signed up.

Amazingly underwhelming. You have to leave your phone in "Discoverable" mode, which I don't like doing because of security concerns. Even though they claim to have 100 base stations throughout the centre I often have no access.

It offers incredibly useful directions; such as when I asked it for directions to Collins Booksellers it suggested "Walk towards Collins Booksellers".

And the special deals - things like "Come in to and check out our special deals". Wow, that is worth $5 a month.

I know that they are just in startup mode, but the whole thing seems to fall in to the "yes you can, but why did you?" category.

I predict one of two things will happen;

The service will change to free (advertising supported)
The company will go broke

Or, probably even more likely 1 followed by 2.

The bubble is back

nospam@example.com (Paul Wilkinson) — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 00:53:00 -0700

A company has spent $100,000 installing a Bluetooth network in Broadway Shopping Centre. The network can deliver location/retailer specific "coupons" and specials.

The strange part is that they expect customers to pay $5 a month to have access to the network. I know that I will be leaping at the opportunity to pay $5 a month to be spammed by my shopping centre.