Every so often, usually after a restart or re-boot, I would be unable to drag and drop on my MacBook Pro. For example, when moving mail to a new folder I could click on the mail and drag it to the destination but when I let released the trackpad the mail stayed “stuck” to the mouse pointer. I’d have to move the mail back to its original location and click there to release it. Moving icons had the same problem: I could drag, but not drop.
This morning, after updating to 10.8.4, the issue cropped up again and I think I’ve fixed it once and for all.
In the past I would bring up the Force Quit dialog (Option-Command-Escape) and restart the Finder. Today, however, restarting the Finder didn’t solve the problem. Some Google searched led me to several forum postings that indicated some third-party software may contribute to the issue. In my case the culprit was AirDisplay.
Avatron, the makers of AirDisplay, are aware of the problem, saying that (for my model of MacBook Pro) I should sleep and wake the computer after every restart or login. Which explains why the problem always seemed to go away eventually.
Since I don’t use AirDisplay very much, I decided to completely remove it from my system. Just deleting the preference pane from System Preferences doesn’t work as AirDisplay, and many other third-party addons, insert kernel extensions or kext files into your system. Since AirDisplay allows the use of an iPad as a secondary screen, it has need of intercepting (or at least being aware of) drag and drop operations. It seems that the kext or kexts involved were interfering with normal drag and drop operations.
Searching for “completely remove AirDisplay revealed that there is an uninstaller for it hidden in Applications/Utilities. Once I ran that (which required a reboot) drag and drop started working normally again.
tmux is a terminal multiplexer — it allows you to create a terminal session containing one or more windows, each containing one or more panes. You can have multiple sessions, and you can attach to and detach from any session, even remotely, making tmux a powerful tool, especially when you work with lots of command line tools.
My tmux usage centers around a single session that contains multiple windows, one for each current activity or project. Depending on the activity a window may have multiple panes splitting the display horizontally or vertically. Recreating my tmux session can take some time, so I figured out how to automatically reattach to an existing tmux session or create a new one anytime I start my terminal program, iTerm2.
In the preferences for iTerm2, select the ‘Profiles’ tab, and then the ‘General’ pane for your default profile. In the ‘Command’ section of the ‘General’ pane locate the ‘Send text at start:’ setting. Put this command in, substituting your session name for base.
tmux attach -t base || tmux new -s base
Now anytime you start iTerm2 (or create a new window) tmux will try to attach to a session called base, or, if that session doesn’t exist, it will create a new session called base.
In practice this means I can simply quit iTerm2, which detaches me from the current session. When I next start iTerm2 I’ll be reconnected, and all my windows and panes will be there.
In February I bought a TwelveSouth SurfacePad for my iPhone 4S. I liked it so much that I wrote a review. In late March my wife and I upgraded both our phones to the iPhone 5. The day after getting my new phone I went to the TwelveSouth Website planning on ordering an iPhone 5 SurfacePad.
After selecting the model and color I wanted, I was informed by the site that it was “currently unavailable.” I was given an option to sign up to be notified when the product was available; which I took.
Since then I have checked the TwelveSouth site daily — each time being informed that the SurfacePad was “unavailable”.
On April 18th I wrote to TwelveSouth asking what the hold up was, and asking if they had any idea when SurfacePads would be for sale again.
Dear TwelveSouth,
I purchased a SurfacePad for my iPhone 4S and loved it. The feel of the leather, the way it looked on the phone, the elegance of the whole thing. Then I upgraded to an iPhone 5. And every day for the past month I’ve checked the TwelveSouth site to see if the Jet Black SurfacePad in the iPhone 5 size is available. And every day for the past month the answer has been no.
Sad Panda.
I signed up to be notified when the SurfacePad is available again, but I am sorely disappointed that it has been weeks with no word. My poor iPhone is naked and cold and bereft of its leather jacket.
Sincerely hoping you’ll respond with a date (Today? Tomorrow?) when I can order my new SurfacePad.
I received a very nice reply saying that they were “experiencing some manufacturing delays”.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for the nice email, and especially for your previous SurfacePad for iPhone purchase!
We are experiencing some delays the manufacturing of the SurfacePad for iPhone, and because of the nature of the delays, I’m afraid we aren’t able to predict when they will be back in stock. If you would like us to notify you as soon as they’re available again, please sign up by using this link (if you haven’t already done so): https://app.e2ma.net/app2/audience/signup/1731974/1400299/?v=a
I’m so sorry for the wait, but we’re doing our best to make these available again just as quickly as we can.
If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Regards, Bridget
Twelve South Support
I continued to check the site daily until May 10th, when I again wrote to TwelveSouth asking for an update.
Good morning,
Almost two months ago I purchased a new iPhone 5 to replace my iPhone 4S. I had a SurfacePad for the iPhone 4S. It was the perfect folio-style cover for the phone.
Everyday since purchasing my new phone I’ve been to the TwelveSouth website ready to purchase a new SurfacePad for my iPhone 5. And everyday since purchasing my new phone I’ve been disappointed. Yes, I’ve signed up to be notified when availability returns, but, really, two months?
My poor phone is naked and cold and unprotected in any sense. How long does it take to grow new leather and slap your nifty stickum on it and mail it to people? :)
Any idea when this product will be available again?
Once again I was told that there were “manufacturing delays” and that the nature of the delay meant TwelveSouth was unable to predict when the product would return to availability.
Hi Mark, and thank you for your inquiry!
We are experiencing some delays the manufacturing of the SurfacePad for iPhone, and because of the nature of the delays, I’m afraid we aren’t able to predict when they will be back in stock. I’m so sorry for the wait, but we’re doing our best to make these available again just as quickly as we can.
If you have any further questions, please let me know.
Regards, Bridget
Twelve South Support
On May 20th (now two months after purchasing my iPhone 5) I looked up TwelveSouth on Twitter and tweeted the following:
Everyday I check TwelveSouth to see if the SurfacePad for iPhone 5 supply issues have been resolved. Everyday I am sad. cc: @andrewbg
Much to my surprise I received a response from @andrewbg asking what model and color I desired.
@zanshin What color/size are you looking for?
After replying with that information, he asked that I follow him and send him a direct message. Since sending the direct message on May 21st I have had no contact with TwelveSouth.
As of this evening, May 29th, the Jet Black SurfacePad for iPhone 5 is still unavailable. I’ve sent a second direct message to @andrewbg.
I’m perfectly willing to pay full price for a SurfacePad for my phone. My review of it still stands — it’s the only case I want for my phone. However, I feel like I’m building up a karmic debt by carrying my iPhone around naked. Eventually I’ll have to give in and spend my limited iPhone case dollars on some other case.
Recently I have been enjoying several recurring email newsletters. Several are weekly and a couple are monthly. Unlike a website, where I have to remember to periodically go look for fresh content, these come to me. Also, they all aggregate multiple stories around their topic into one convenient place for me.
Ray’s Monthly Newsletter
Ray Wenderlich’s newsletter is iOS centric, and is an excellent companion to his website, raywenderlich.com. Lots of tutorials and iOS centered articles.
Ruby Weekly
A weekly roundup of Ruby specific events, reading, libraries and code, tools, and some featured articles. Ruby Weekly always has something I find interesting.
iOS Dev Weekly
Dave Verwer publishes iOS Dev Weekly every Friday. It’s a well curated list of articles, tools, code, and design links all centered around iOS development.
Pycoders Weekly
Pycoders Weekly is to Python what Ruby Weekly is to Ruby. A weekly listing of news, jobs, projects, and discussions.
Devops Weekly
I’ve only recently started working in the devops area, and I find that Devops Weekly helps me to learn more about this exciting new convergence between traditional operations and development.
The Bot Cave
Published by thoughtbot, The Bot Cave contains the current state of their research, a first look at new techniques and tools. It’s published monthly.
Lincoln Loop Django Roundup
The Lincoln Loop Django Roundup is a low-traffic newsletter with links to Django content, exclusive access to blogs and screencasts, and discounts on Django learning material.
Postgres Weekly
Postges Weekly focuses on PostgreSQL articles and news.
Four years ago, in April 2009, I joined GitHub. Whenever possible I use ‘zanshin’ as my account name, however someone else had beaten me to that account on GitHub. So I used my fall-back acccount option, ‘zan5hin’.
Periodically I would visit http://github.com/zanshin to see if the account was being used. Other than an initial project that had long since gotten stale, there was no activity. Moreover, there was no profile information so I had no way to contact the erstwhile owner to see if they would be willing to relinquish the account name to me. This past weekend I sent an email to GitHub support asking for their help in contacting the owner. Here is the email I received today in response to my request:
Hi Mark,
Sure! We happily release unused usernames into the wild. I’ve reviewed this account, and deemed it dusty. I’ve made the username available to you. If you wanted to create an organization, the name will be available. It’s not reserved, though, so someone else might swoop in and take it if you hesitate too long!
You can change your username by going to Account Settings > Account Admin > Change your username.
Be aware, after you change your name, you will need to update the remotes in any local clones of your repos to point at your new repo URL. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks, Sara
Needless to say I immediately changed my account name from ‘zan5hin’ to ‘zanshin’. And started the necessary changes to my remotes.
In case you ever need to change the URL for a remote here’s the command to use:
$ git remote set-url <remotename> git@github.com:<youraccountname>/<repo>
Oh, and don’t forget to change your /gitconfig to relfect your new GitHub account name.
Fascinating footage of Shaolin monks performing in slow motion.
The Uses This series, and Shawn Blanc’s Sweet Mac Setups series have always intrigued me, so I decided to write one of my own.
##Who are you and what do you do? My name is Mark Nichols. I’m married to Sibylle Kuder, I play violoncello, I hack around with various computer technologies, and I’m an all-around good guy. Professionally I work for Kansas State University as an “Integration Services Coordinator” — dealing with the sometimes messy intersection of differing systems and their needs. Lately I’ve been diving into the world of Vagrant and Chef.
##What hardware do you use? My personal computer is a mid-2009 15" 2009 MacBook Pro with a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 8 GB of RAM. Within the next week the original 320 GB hard drive will be replaced with a new 1 TB drive.
I also have a 16GB iPad Mini that is easily one of the nicest computers I have ever owned. My phone is a 16GB iPhone 5 on AT&T.
My employer provides me with wonderful tools, so I have on my desk a mid-2010 27" iMac with a 256GB SSD and a 1 TB spinning drive. My work laptop is a 13" Retina MacBook Pro, with a 500 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM. It is the sweetest computer I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.
Tunes in my car are provided via an 8 GB 6th-generation iPod Nano. The car, a 2010 Honda Insight, has the world’s clunkiest iPod interface, but it does let me listen to Zoë Keating on my way to and from work. I have an aging (no longer holds a charge but works fine plugged in) 30 GB iPod that holds most of my music and lives in the corner of the house where I practice my cello, so that I can listen to the pieces I am learning.
My cello is a Hans Stainer 100, made by Eastman, fitted with Jargar Strings and played with a CodaBow Diamond SX bow. I use Gustave Bernardel rosin.
For printing we have a newly purchased HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 All-in-One printer/copier/fax/scanner. It’s beautiful, it’s wireless, and it prints like a dream.
At work I use a pair of Apple EarPods to listen to music or videos. At home I use a variety of earbud style earphones, but only when the cat isn’t around. She considers them string with which to be toyed.
##And what software? Sublime Text 2, Vim, tmux, and iTerm2 for most coding. IntelliJ IDEA for Java, and XCode for Cocoa and iOS development.
Safari for 99% of my browsing and Google Chrome on rare occasion.
Adium for instant message chat and IRC. Twitterrific for Twitter.
Fetch handles my SFTP needs, although I am making more and more use of sshfs for accessing remote drives.
Growl for notifications and Alfred for Cmd-Space-ing things.
TakeFive helps me to control what’s playing, and Cobook gives me access to my contacts.
F.Lux dims my laptop screen at night, and brightens it during the daylight hours.
Dropbox for convenient movement of files between computers, and Git for version control of all my coding projects.
##What would be your dream setup? After spending a couple weeks with the 13" Retina MacBook Pro I would be hard pressed to consider any other machine. Well, maybe the 15" Retina MacBook Pro.
I’d like a dead simple storage system that hung off our router that would let Sibylle backup her Windows-based machines and me back up my OS X-based machines seamlessly. And perhaps a Mac Mini tied to a couple large drives to house all our music and DVD movies.
I’d also like an iPod Classic as it would be large enough to hold my complete collection of music and audio books. But first I’ll need a car with a decent iPod interface.
I’m intrigued by the Sonos Speaker systems, but other priorities have kept that on the someday list.
And someday I hope to be advanced enough on the cello to warrant a really good, old, instrument.
So this happened a week ago.
$ whois zanshin.net | grep "Creation Date"
Creation Date: 20-feb-1996Seventeen years, 2088 postings, 627,706 words.