Monthly Archives: September 2011
You know it’s hot when …
… the sheep on the edge of the moors are all clustered in the areas of shade.
… the heating on the bus apparently can’t be turned off!
This year’s Indian Summer is particularly striking, coming as it does not just after the equinox, but also after autumn seemed to have set in in earnest with some fairly serious wind and rain.
(For international readers, we Brits use the phrase Indian Summer to describe a spell of hot, sunny weather coming after summer is supposed to have ended. Just about late September it’s pretty usual).
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern will die tonight
A NASA satellite is crashing to earth, out of control. Noone knows where it will land, but the chattering classes have been speculating on the risk of humans getting hit by it.
I just heard Prof. David Spiegelhalter on the wireless telling us the risk of getting hit was similar to the chance of 44 consecutive Heads on tossing a fair coin.
The Stoppard fans among us know that 44 times is nothing. Do we need to resort to an Infinite Improbability Drive?
Bootstrapping development on mac
I don’t have any strong memory of bootstrapping gcc on the old mac laptop. It’s something I just did, and I think it was by installing fink.
That’s not working on the new laptop: I’m getting an error message about needing version 10.7 or later of MacOS. Apple’s own xcode gives exactly the same. So it looks as if I’m going to have to get my hands dirty just to bootstrap a development environment.
MacOS on the machine identifies itself as version 10.8 (uname -a), so I infer that’s a misleading error message and may have nothing to do with the real reason the installers refuse to run. But of course in the absence of a compiler, I’m at the mercy of binary packages like these installers.
Googling hasn’t helped: all the results just tell me to install xcode. I have yet to try adding the specific error message (which I don’t have in front of me ‘cos I’m on a different machine right now), but I thought I’d try blogging just in case someone recognises the problem and can point me to an easy fix.
How do I bootstrap development on a new Mac?
“9/11”
I’m sure I can’t be the only one to be heartily fed up with the sheer volume of media coverage of late!
After all the crap we’ve been subjected to, it’ll be practically an anticlimax if nothing happens today! Bah, Humbug.
Mac trouble
Dear Lazyweb, how can I stiffen a laptop hinge, or prop it open?
I have a new laptop, from my new Lord and Master. Arrived today. It’s a 15″ MacBook Pro, which makes it not unlike a bigger, quieter, and updated version of my old macbook.
On the plus side are the reasons for getting a macbook: hardware that Just Works a whole lot better than other laptops I’ve encountered, and a unix-family operating system without having to install it over what the company supplied. On the minus side, several niggles, and one unexpected problem I’m scratching my head over.
The least of the niggles is that it’s US-oriented, with a US keyboard, and adapted for US power points: the latter makes it a pain to use here, though fortunately I do have a ‘universal’ adapter. Slightly more bothersome: the metal finish is rather unpleasantly cold to the touch while using it.
The big and unexpected problem is that the screen’s hinge is too loose. Not a problem when it’s resting on a flat surface, but it means I can’t hold it up vertically while lying on my back, a position I use quite a lot because it’s one I can sustain without back or neck pain. That’s going to make it particularly hard to travel with when I go to places that don’t have a desk and chair I can sit at for sustained periods.
Any suggestions for how I can get it to stay open appreciated.
niq's soapbox 