The reaction of the little children is priceless.
I love time lapse videos. Seeing our little planet in the vastness of space this way is beautiful and sobering at the same time.
At the tail end of last week I noticed that my mid-2009 MacBook Pro was making an intermittent rattling sound. My first fear was that my hard drive was failing. I did some Googling and found this command which queries the hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status:
$ diskutil info disk0 | grep SMART'
diskutil is the command line interface to Disk Utility. A returned status of verified is good. Anything else is cause for alarm. My hard drive consistently shows verified when I run this command.
My next thought was that one of the two fans in the enclosure must be the cause. After shutting down the laptop and removing the bottom of the case I used a can of compressed air to blow out any accumulated dust and cat hair. I didn’t get much out and after reassembling the machine the rattle returned.
Using the Dashboard widget iStat Pro I could see that both fans were running about 2000 rpm under normal load. To test the theory that one of the fans was causing the rattle I fired up Portal 2. As the fan noise increased, and the measured speed cleared 3000 rpm, the rattle increased in volume and frequency. And I was able to locate the sound on the left side of the laptop, under the ESC key.
A search for replacement fans led me to the iFixit site where I was able to order a replacement left-sde fan. That part came in the mail today and after a few minutes work I had swapped the fans. The iFixit site has very clear, concise directions complete with pictures to walk you through the process. I cannot recommend them enough.
My laptop has been up and running for nearly 30 minutes since the replacement without a hint of rattle. I’ll give it some more time just to be certain but I am confident that I diagnosed and fixed the problem.
102 years ago the idea for air condition was conceived.
I continue to plow my way through the Prey books by John Sandford. Since the first installment I’ve read or listened to 12 more books in the series.
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There are only three more titles to go and I’m all caught up. I had managed to read all of these except Naked Prey. Somehow I missed this book when it first came out. Since it introduces the character of Letty West it’s an important part of the storyline. Even after reading all of the Prey books back to back I still find them compelling. The characters are multidimensional and interesting and their lives move forward and change outside of each book. That there is overlap with two of Sandford’s other series, the Kidd books and the Virgil Flowers books, also adds to their pull. Easily one of my favorite authors.
When I had an Android phone Google Voice worked wonderfully. Now that I am using an iPhone I find Google Voice to be less useful. Since Google controls both Voice and the Android operating system setting up your Android phone to use Voice is simple. Using Voice on an iPhone is doable but a bit cumbersome. You have to discipline yourself to use the Google Voice App when making calls or sending SMS messages otherwise the Caller ID number show will be your phone’s actual number and not your Google Voice number.
This evening I decided to switch from Google Voice to my “real” number, at least with family and friends. I also wanted to setup and use the iPhone voice mail system and discontinue using Google Voice for messages. I had to do a Google Search in order to stop Voice from intercepting incoming calls. It turns out that when you install the Google Voice app and configure it to be your voice mail, a call forward is setup on your phone. The call forward allows Google Voice to work.
So, to stop using Google Voice for voice messages and start using the iPhone’s voice mail system you need to cancel the call forward. Dial *73 and tap “Call”. This cancels the forward and now all incoming calls will land in your carrier provided voice message box.
I particularly like the airborne sideways drift at the 5:40 mark.
An explanation that (almost) makes you think you understand the Higgs. Almost.
Updated: May 1, 2013 The steps below also work for Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) with a couple of minor alterations.
The format of the entries in /etc/services puts the UDP or TCP designator after the port number instead of after the service name. So they should look like this:
ssh2 11122/tcp # my ssh port
ssh2 11122/udp # my ssh port
And in order to unload and reload the ssh.plist you’ll have to sudo.
$ sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
End of Update
My employer is getting ready to block all access to the usual ssh port (22). While this may seem like a security-through-obscurity measure it does eliminate the endless pounding of scripts against that well-known port. In preparation for the upcoming block on port 22 I followed the steps outlined in Mac OS X Lion - Changing SSHD Port to permanently change the ssh port on all my machines.
In a nutshell you first edit the /etc/services file and add an entry for the port number you wish to use for secure shell access. Pick one that isn’t already used for something else, e.g., 11122. Add two lines to the services file, one for TCP and one for UDP:
ssh2/udp 11122
ssh2/tcp 11122
Next you need to edit the /System/Library/LaunchDeamons/ssh.plist file. Here you want to search for the original ssh entry and alter it to point to your new ssh entry.
Search for
<key>SockServicesName</key>
<string>ssh</string>
and change it to read
<key>SockServicesName</key>
<string>ssh2</string>
Save both changes and then reboot your machine. Or unload and reload the services using
launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist
Finally, in the Sharing pane of System Preferences make sure that Remote Login is selected. This toggles the SockService on or off. By changing the port number that SockService points to in the ssh.plist, and by defining the new port number in /etc/services you’ve set this toggle up to control your new secret sshd port.
The Mac OS X Firewall (under Security & Privacy in System Preferences) can be either on or off without effecting the Remote Login setting. Although why you would want to have the Firewall off is beyond me.
For convenience sake you can create an alias for any machine you regularly access
alias buildBox='ssh userid@machinename.tld -p 11122'
As with any change to low level configuration information on your system proceed with caution and have a good backup handy.
In a word, no. C. G. P. Grey once again delivers.