What the hell is this thing? And who’s the science fiction writer who came up with it?
iPhone Home Screen
September 23rd, 2009 · Photo
A brilliant mockup by Geoff Teehan of what a potential iPhone home screen could be like.
I really hope something like this comes to fruition…
→ No CommentsTags: iPhone
How To: Cisco VPN with Snow Leopard via .pcf File
September 7th, 2009 · Tutorial
Snow Leopard excitedly came out-of-the-box with support for Cisco IPsec VPN which is what a lot of companies use.
The problem came when I tried to connect to the VPN at work. We were using the Cisco VPN client before but it was a nightmare to keep working all the time and the lack of any good error messages made debugging the connection near impossible.
So I took some time to figure out how to use the .pcf file that was given to me by the Network Admin to work with Snow Leopard.
You’d think that you could just add the .pcf file to your Keychain Access application and have it pull the information from there, but you’d be wrong. It couldn’t possibly be that easy. So we have to do the following instead.
- Make a VPN connection in your Network Preferences pane. Be sure to choose “Cisco IPsec” for the VPN Type.
- Enter your VPN server and credentials into the VPN Network Preferences. This will be your VPN username and password that your Network Admin gave you.
- Open the .pcf file in a text editor. Copy the text from the ‘enc_GroupPwd’ field, paste it into the form on this web site: http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode and click ‘decode!’. Select and copy the text next to ‘clear:’ and go to the next step.
(Note: if there isn’t anything in ‘enc_GroupPwd’ but there is something in ‘GroupPwd’ they you can skip this step. Just copy the text from ‘GroupPwd’) - Go back to the Network Preferences panel and click on the “Authentication Settings…” button. You’ll get a dialog that looks like this:
- Paste the text you copied from the decoding web site (or the ‘GroupPwd’ field of the .pcf file if you had that instead) into the ‘Shared Secret’ text box.
- Copy+Paste the text from the ‘GroupName’ field of the .pcf file into the ‘Group Name’ text box and click ‘OK’.
- Now you can try it out by clicking the ‘Connect’ button (and click ‘Apply’ if it asks which it probably will.)
Hopefully it all worked out. If not, there’s quite a few things that could go wrong. You could be entering in some other login credentials other than your VPN ones (typically, they are different than your workstation login credentials.) The .pcf file could be old. Etc, etc.
The best way to clear up any errors is to have a chat with your Network Admin and verify that you are using the right credentials and the .pcf file is the latest.
Anyway, hope that helped someone. Let me know if there were any problems.
Can you hear me now?
July 16th, 2009 · Photo
In an effort to cut costs, the New GM has discontinued the use of voicemail saving approximately $3/person.
No truth to the rumor that they will be using Twitter instead.
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Phusion Passenger + nginx + SSL
April 21st, 2009 · Rails, Tutorial
How to get Passenger to install nginx with SSL support:
1. change to the /tmp directory
cd /tmp
2. download the nginx source
wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.6.36.tar.gz
3. unpack it
tar zxf nginx-0.6.36.tar.gz
4. install the passenger gem
sudo gem install passenger
5. run the passenger nginx module install
passenger-install-nginx-module
6. When asked: ‘Do you want this installer to download, compile and install Nginx for you?’, answer
2
7. When asked: ‘Where is your Nginx source code located?’, answer
/tmp/nginx-0.6.36
8. When asked: ‘Where do you want to install Nginx to?’, answer
/opt/nginx
9. When asked about: ‘Extra arguments to pass to configure script:’, answer
--with-http_ssl_module
10. When asked to ‘Confirm configure flags’, answer
yes
That’s it. Good luck!
→ 4 CommentsTags: nginx·Passenger·Rails·SSL
Nightmare…Anyone Else?
March 18th, 2009 · Photo
Holy %$#@!
This is so true! I still have this dream all the time! Maybe I should’ve spent less time at practice and the bar…
→ No CommentsTags: funny·xkcd
Uninstall GrowlMail on Leopard or Snow Leopard
February 27th, 2009 · Tutorial
I had GrowlMail installed and after I switched to Safari4 Beta my Mail.app started bombing out complaining that the problem was GrowlMail. Whether it was or not doesn’t matter to me since I need my mail.
So since looking around the web didn’t help, I decided to poke around and see if I could find it myself. Turns out that it’s very simple to remove. So go remove the following folder(s):
- /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle
- /Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle (thanks to Hildgrim for pointing this out)
1. run the following in Terminal:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail EnableBundles -bool NO
2. and start Mail.app and then quit it.
3. now run the following in Terminal:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail EnableBundles -bool YES
4. and this time you can start Mail.app and leave it running.
I have no idea why I had to disable and then re-enable bundles in the preferences but just removing the GrowlMail bundle folder didn’t seem to fix the problem, but this did.
Anyway, hope it helped someone. Let me know if something went awry…
-erb
→ 43 CommentsTags: Growl·GrowlMail·Leopard·Mail·Snow Leopard
The Fall of Wall Street
December 17th, 2008 · Text
A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine asked me to explain what exactly happened on Wall Street. Not a lot of people know that in a former life, I was a bond trader. It was only for a couple of years and to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t take it. The environment was so shockingly void of morality and integrity that one day I came home from work, sat down in front of my computer to catch up on some email and immediately had a breakdown. My body had finally manifested all the awful feelings that were swirling around in my head and it scared the shit out of me. There’s nothing more terrifying than not being in control of a bad situation and when it’s your own body you can’t control, it’s just that much worse. Needless to say, I never went back.
[Read more →]
→ No CommentsTags: finance
Math Major
December 5th, 2008 · Text
“The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers.”
-Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, Viking Penguin (1995), page 265
(i’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that Bill didn’t major in Math :)
→ No CommentsTags: funny
Fuddy Duddies
November 7th, 2008 · Text
Apparently, they never went to college…
→ No CommentsTags: funny
Gonzo Journalism
September 29th, 2008 · Text
I miss Hunter S. Thompson. I can only dream of what he’d be writing about this election…
→ No CommentsTags: funny
America the Gift Shop
September 25th, 2008 · Text
If this was a store, he’d be richer than rich…
→ No CommentsTags: funny
Katie Couric Interview with Sarah Palin
September 25th, 2008 · Text
The hi-light for me was the ending. Way to be prepared…
→ No CommentsTags: politics
Progression of Blame
September 24th, 2008 · Text
If the quarterback isn’t performing, replace him.
If the running back isn’t performing, replace him.
If the linebacker isn’t performing, replace him.
If the offense isn’t performing, replace the offensive coordinator.
If the defense isn’t performing, replace the defensive coordinator.
If the team isn’t performing, replace the head coach.
If several head coaches didn’t perform, replace the GM.
PS. You know who comes after the GM right? Too bad you can’t fire the owner…
→ No CommentsTags: football·Lions
The World Without Us
September 18th, 2008 · Text
Hmmm, maybe the Matrix was right. Maybe we are viruses…
→ No CommentsTags: wtf
apple.com circa 1997
September 17th, 2008 · Text
If you are ever feeling bad about your design skills, this is what the web site looked like at one point for the premier design company on the planet.
→ No CommentsTags: design·funny
Voucher or Riddle?
September 16th, 2008 · Text
Who the hell approved this?
→ No CommentsTags: funny·wtf
These guys are nucking futs!
September 15th, 2008 · Text
Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.
Love the suits but why bother with the helmets?
→ No CommentsTags: wtf
MSU vs. U of M
September 9th, 2008 · Text
My wife made me buy a Wii last weekend so I figured that I would get a game for myself. NCAA Football ‘08! My first time playing had to be the Michigan State – Michigan game. Hope this is a good omen for the Spartans!!!
→ No CommentsTags: football·Wii
How the Irish see the American election
September 5th, 2008 · Text
“On one side you have a lawyer married to another lawyer who picked a lawyer who’s married to a lawyer to be his running mate. On the other you have a war hero married to a beautiful woman who owns a beer distributor. Where’s the decision?”
- MI Attorney General Mike Cox’s cousin in Ireland
→ No CommentsTags: funny
And the Republicans are toast…
September 1st, 2008 · Text
Is she really suggesting that Palin knows about foreign policy b/c Alaska is close to Russia? Are we back in the 80’s again? I hate to say it but I feel a landslide coming on…
→ No CommentsTags: politics
Ubiquity for Firefox
August 27th, 2008 · Text
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.
This is incredible!
Best Screenshot Ever!
August 25th, 2008 · Text
Check out the last tab on the right. I love the fact that this was printed in a magazine…
→ No CommentsTags: funny
Let the games begin!!!
August 21st, 2008 · Text
A little mud slinging here and there is a good thing. I think this was a grenade hurl though…
→ No CommentsTags: election
