Farewell, Vin

“It’s time for Dodger baseball!"

How many times have I heard that? It’s been less than 24 hours since I heard it, live, for the last time. Yesterday marked the end of Vin Scully’s 67(!)-year career as the voice of the Dodgers and, for us, Dodgers fans, the voice of dreams, of hopes, of joy and sometimes sadness, when we collectively thought “just you wait ’til next year!”.

Since yesterday, it will be no more. The voice of the Dodgers spoke to us for the last time in the final game of the 2016 season. A 5-1 loss to the Giants, no less. We are still NL West champs, hoping to finally break the World Series drought, but the voices that will go on this road with us will be different. They have the biggest boots to fill and I’m sure they will fill them in their own way, but it’s too early for any of us not to miss the voice that has been our companion and friend, in my case for all my life

That in itself it’s mind-boggling. Vin was working as the voice of the Dodgers longer than I have been on this planet, and i’m not a young person. If that doesn’t say lots about how good he really is, I don’t know what will. As a matter of fact, come to think of it, there are no words that can do him justice.

Baseball will never be the same. No matter. As long as Vin’s happy, we owe it to him to move forward ourselves.

As you said it yesterday (masterfully as always), “Don’t be sad because it ended. Smile, because it happened”.

Thank you, Vin. Godspeed and farewell. If life gives me a chance, I would feel honored to meet you someday and shake your hand, just to say thanks. You said you needed us more than we needed you, but I, speaking for myself, although I think it won’t be too hard to find a lot of people who feels the same, don’t believe that’s true.

As you used to say, “Let’s go back to this one”.

Good bye, Steve. Thanks for a wonderful ride.

More than 12 hours have passed and I'm still too moved to work, to think, and even to write… Though deep down I sensed this was going to happen when he stepped down from Apple, nothing could really have prepared me for this.

When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an astronaut or a pilot, even a rock star, just like any other kid my age.  I was about 10 at the time, and then my mom got me a computer magazine in a store near home. I read it mostly on curiosity, and ended up deciding that I wanted an Apple][e.

That is when my life changed.

Right there and then, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. 31 years later I'm still doing it, helped in no small part by the descendants of that machine. It may sound cheesy, but Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak not only changed my life, but actually shaped it. I can honestly say that whatever I am now, I owe it to them. My life would have been very different had they not gotten into that garage and started Apple Computer, all those years back.

I followed their work as closely as I could in an Internet-less world, shaping my career along the way. I was there through it all, the retire of Woz, the fall of Steve, the hard years… you name it. Still, one of my goals in life was to, someday, get to know both of them, just to exchange greetings, shake hands and say "Thanks". That would have been more than enough.

Then the Internet exploded, Steve Jobs came back, and Apple… well, you know how big it became. Suddenly, I was able to e-mail both of them if I wanted to but somehow, something always stopped me. The last time it happened was right after Jobs resigned his position as Apple's CEO, just a while back.

In the back of my mind I just thought "Don't worry, he'll be OK. You'll have plenty of time to meet him" 

Shows you how much I know.

Yesterday afternoon, I was just coming back from a work related trip, tired as hell, and I decided to forgo TV, Internet and everything and just rest, so I was totally unaware. Then a very close friend called me on the phone and relayed the news.

Steve Jobs had passed away.

The world stopped. Right now I can't even remember what I said to him. I could just not believe it. This was it. The man who helped me shape my career and my life had just passed away and I never got to say "Thanks".

It hit me harder than I thought it would and I'm still feeling as bad (if not worse)… Anger, denial, sorrow, the whole nine yards.

I'm just writing this because I wanted to say thanks. Thanks for helping me to be the person I am now and for giving me my career, but also… Sorry. Sorry for not having the time (or the guts) for saying it when you were still with us.

As Steve Jobs once said, "It means to say your goodbyes".

Good bye Steve. Thanks for everything. It was a wonderful ride, and I hoped for it to last a while longer but, sad as it is, all good things must come to an end.

I don't think I can close this post better than with the closing paragraph of Ted Landau's post, so I'll borrow it from him:

"Steve Jobs died today. There are no words that can express the sorrow I am now feeling. The world was a better place because Steve Jobs was in it. Life goes on — as it always does. But the world will never seem quite the same again."

Nintendo 3DS: A quick review

 

Finally, I got my Nintendo 3DS and I thought about writing a short note about it, to try and help other people in the decision of buying it (or not).

In my case, there was no doubts about getting it. I had skipped the DSi XL because it didn’t provide me with something that justified upgrading from my DSi; the form factor and screen size/resolution just weren’t enough (and, thinking in retrospect, for me they were a reason NOT to upgrade). The 3DS, however, is another story: “3D without glasses”? Count me in!

SAPGUI crashes after installing Internet Explorer 9 RC (Updated: Fixed.)

 

After installing Internet Explorer 9 RC, if you use SAPGUI 7.x, you will notice that while doing practically anything, it quits to the desktop ending even the saplogon.exe process. Which is puzzling is that there is no error message or nothing. It just disappears.

This is due to a change in mshtml.dll, which SAPGUI uses extensively for its themes. When SAPGUI passes parameters to this file, an “access violation” ensues and the application crashes.

Until Microsoft or SAP release a patch to address this issue (In SAP’s case it may be patch 5 for SAPGUI 7.20), there is a workaround: Go to SAP GUI Configuration and choose “Classic Theme”. This theme doesn’t use mshtml.dll, and so the app will work without any further issues (plus you get to experience SAP’s “retro” look once more)

Update (03/22/2011): Since Microsoft released IE 9 Final (http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/), SAP released SAPGUI 7.20 Patch 5 – Hotfix 1 (gui720_05_1-10007878.exe), which corrects this error. Download it from http://service.sap.com (with your S-id and password), apply it and you no longer have to revert to SAPGui’s “Classic Theme”, unless you have grown fond of it :)

Quick OS X Tip: Use the Installer log

For some reason, lately I have been asked the same question a LOT by new and old Mac users alike, when an OS X application comes with an installer: "How do I know if the Installer is doing something? It seems to hang at (insert installer phase here; usually 'Optimizing System Performance')."

The OS X installer comes with an often overlooked (and more often unknown) log window which shows, in very detailed form, what the installer is doing at any given moment (and since is updated in real time, you know that it actually IS doing something).

To bring it up, when you are installing software using OS X's Software Installer, choose Window -> Installer Log or press Command-L. In the log window that pops up, choose 'Show All Logs' (if memory serves, it was 'Show Everything' in previous OS X versions) from the drop-down list and you will see it updating in real time, showing what the installer is doing:





As an added bonus, when the installation finishes, you get stats on the installer actions:





The log has some other "useful" features if you peruse the file; you get to know what was installed where and other tidbits of information that could come in handy in case of a failure.

BTW, the software that uses the OS X installer come in package files (.pkg or .mpkg) that usually, but not always, have an icon like this one:





Note: Remember to always install software from good, known sources ;)

Quick Tip: Removing GRUB loader and restore Windows (Vista/7) loader

If you have repartitioned your Vista/7 hard drive to make space for Ubuntu (or some other Linux flavor) , you may find that (should you decide to remove Linux because you find that it doesn’t suit you, or that company policies prevent you from installing it in their hardware *ahem*) while it’s easy to recover the space for Windows using Disk Management, the GRUB boot loader won’t go away that easily.

What happens is that you are stuck with a boot-time menu that lists a long list of “phantom” options (if you already deleted Linux’s partitions) besides your Windows option (which, if you are as lazy as I am, is NOT the default, so you have to manually select it every time you boot the system). Not very nice.

The official “clean” way to remove it involves your original (or any copy of the) media of your windows installation. What you have to do is boot your system from that media, and select the “Repair Windows” option (yes, there actually is an option for that in Vista/7 installation media and yes, it’s quite handy).

Once in the “Repair Windows” menu you then have to select the “Command Prompt” option (DOS FTW!) , change to your hard drive letter (by typing c: <return>), and run the following commands (one at a time):

bootrec.exe /FixBoot
bootrec.exe /FixMbr

These commands won’t take more than a couple of seconds each and, essentially, what they do is write a new boot sector and a new master boot record into your hard drive.

Once you have done that, reboot the machine (it will boot straight into windows) and delete the Linux partition(s) using Disk Management (if you haven’t already done so). After that, expand your Windows partition to recover the used space into it.

Lenovo TrackPoint and iTunes/Safari

It’s no secret that my weapons of choice are Macs, but since my workplace is a Windows-only enterprise (with a few exceptions) I’m every year furnished with a (former IBM) Lenovo ThinkPad. These are pretty useful little machines, my only complain with them being that every new iteration seems to be done cheaper than the ones before and the quality of the materials degrade accordingly :-(

Right now I’m writing this post on my brand new Lenovo X200, running Windows 7 RTM 64-bits. So far, so good.

Anyway, being the Mac guy that I am, I ran every Apple-developed app for windows in existence under my Windows machines. Since I began doing this, I noticed that the scrolling features of the Lenovo TrackPoint wouldn’t work with Safari and iTunes. No biggie, but once you have developed “muscle memory” it’s hard to cope with.

Looking around on the web, I found a somewhat simple fix for this. You just have to edit this file (make sure to backup it first, in case something goes wrong):

C:\Program Files\Lenovo\TrackPoint\tp4table.dat

Use any text editor to open it and paste this snippet of text just before the [AutoScrollTable] section:

;iTunes/Safari Scroll Fix
*,*,itunes.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9
*,*,Safari.exe,*,*,*,WheelStd,0,9

Once you have done that, save the file and reboot your machine. Now the scrolling feature will be working as usual both in Safari and iTunes.

IRC Channel

Well, talking with Woo (admin of tux-irc.net) we are starting a support project. Right now we are starting our own channel, and we try to support every solution and help every user... you can reach us now at irc.tux-irc.net:6667, channel #iphone-support

Hope to see u there!

IRC and help for iPhone users...

With all the drama and the "open war" surrounding the different methods for Activate/Jailbreak/Unlock the iPhone, I'm beginning to think that the support community is fading.

IRC is a great way to get in touch with people who share the same interests as you and, yes, to get support if you need it, but right now the "usual" channels for getting help or just to talk about the iPhone are either war campaigns or bashing meetings.

I have met some people who are actually glad when I, or any other room member, gives them support. That persons usually leave comments such as "hey, this is a great community, where people are willing to help, thanks!". That's what makes my day. I'm NOT in this for the money... in my particular case, I love apple and makes me happy when people walk away with their problems solved and happy because they can use their iPhone or iPod Touch the way they want to.

Maybe some of them are what I call "professional unlockers" or scammers, for short. Those people are in that just to make money and though I don't agree with that, there is no real way for me to know, so I help anyone I can.

My personal take on the different methods is theme for another post (STILL lazy...), but I wanted to get this out of my head.

If you need help with your phone/touch, look for me... I hang out at TuX-IRC.Net (known by some as irc.ziphone.org) in channel #ziphone and in irc.osx86.hu in channel #iphone. If I'm around, feel free to PM me and ignore the usual BS that floats around nowadays.

BTW, before finishing, I would like to mention that if I could have my way, I would have a channel just for helping and informing people. No war, No Bashing. 

If I EVER get around to create such a channel, I would be VERY happy if I could gather my personal "IRC list of good people/great helpers". In no particular order (I consider all of you my friends):

• SunnyD
• Eastyboy
  
• JEsTer
• DrkRealm
• LiKeFRe
• geeb

Well, here's hoping!

Vista and wireless networking...

In the company I work for, the standard is windows (duh!). One of the most "critical" aspects for the people who work there is wireles access to the network. See, a lot of people (myself included) have laptops (in my case, right now is a Lenovo ThinkPad X61), and they roam freely around the office building in meetings and so.

Since I upgraded to Vista (Ultimate first, now Business) my wireless connection SUCKS, and I mean SUCKS BIG TIME. Its slow as molasses and drops every 2 or 3 minutes. I know, all you windows lovers out there should be thinking its the wireless LAN itself, but I happen to have with me my trusty old iBook G4 running Leopard right beside the lenovo and the wireless is excelent. Speed normal, and NEVER drops.

In XP I didn't have that problem, so I could safely assume it was vista related. After some digging, I found out that vista has now an auto-tuning "feature" (it's not a bug, it's a feature :D) that in my case was, to put it mildly, not working as it should. In case any of you experience that particular issue, you could try disabling that feature by opening up a command prompt (as an administrator) and issuing the following command:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disable

In case you want to enable it back, use the following command:

netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

And that's it!

Pwned!

Yep, as the title said (and in part thanks to a "little" pushing from a friend), I took the plunge and now my iPhone is officially "pwned" (without the frigging pineapple! yay!).

I have to say, though, that the results were, for me at least, anticlimactic. 

Don't take me wrong!, I respect and admire the wonderful work of the Dev Team on this project but, as I expected, right now there were no reasons for me to "pwn" my phone (except for testing/give support on the software). Everything is working fine (except for the crapload of apps I had installed which, obviously, were wiped during the restore), but it WAS working that way before... I think the fruits of this labor will present themselves when 2.0 finally is out, but for now I see nothing REALLY different (though my bootloader is now neutered). 

From a purely technical point, however, this software (and the Dev Team) raises the bar on iPhone jailbreaking/unlocking and in the future, modding. This. Is. HUGE. And it will get even better: the makers of iLiberty+ are creating an app that will extend pwnage so you can (among other things) preinstall apps on your custom firmware... It will be callled IPSWTool

In a nutshell, I would have to say that the software works beautifully, save for a little glitch where for some reason it failed to see the iPhone at the very beginning and I had to click the "pwn" button several times until it got the iPhone :-(. If you have already used either ZiPhone (successfully :-P), iLiberty+ or similar, and you are in 1.1.4, you won't see any difference right off the bat. In that case, you could wait until you really need it (or you could continue to use your preferred solution...).

I intend to write a longer piece on this later on, along with another that has been buzzing inside my head about all the drama surrounding ZiPhone, i+, iLiberty, iLiberty+ and now Pwnage, but that will have to wait until I figure out which apps do I really need on the phone to get them installed again (laziness....)

Yes, the iPhone future looks very promising...

Update: Well, after syncing my 7.odd gigs o'music, the iPhone gave me the (now familiar) error "the iPhone canceled the Mail syncing"... Why does this happpen? I don't have a clue. Fortunately, the fix (for me, at least) is simple: Install BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH (or Term-VT100). Get into the iPhone and change the permissions on /var/mobile/Library/Mail (the folder and the .plist file inside it) to 755 or 777.

All is working normal now.