Almost two years ago I discovered James McCombe's GLTerminal. Some people hacked it to work with Tiger, but I (and others) discovered after upgrading to Leopard that the Classic Terminal view was oddly scrambled, so to fix it I rearranged the character bitmap, as you can see under the cut:
( a tale of two character maps )

new and worksafe

As others noted, the original icon was a little over-the-top (jwz quote: "most inappropriate fanboyriffic application icon evar."), so I made it something more work-safe, a VT220 screen with "GL TERM" in green text.

old and "animeriffic"

To make Classic Terminal mode work (the pictured green-phosphor look) you still need to open the Preferences and re-select the "Classic Terminal" plugin, then click Save. I re-ordered the tabs with "Renderer" being the default, so at least you don't have to click on the Renderer tab like you used to; click-count - 1. If someone could reverse-engineer it so this step wasn't necessary, that would be nice. If James McCombe would update it (or even release the original source), that would be even better. Petition him via email, if you like.

Oh, and lastly it works pretty well with Spaces in full screen mode, though the window doesn't display right when looking at all your spaces (not bad for an app made in 2002, five years before Spaces was even developed).

Download GLTerminal updated for 10.5, sil vous plait.

EDIT 20090904: it still works fine on Snow Leopard. fyi, on my Macbook Pro 13" it pegs the CPU at just under 10% usage in top.

Got a bad or dying hard drive? Read on. This is part tutorial, part introduction to data recovery ideas, and part case study. Also, I've linked to some PPC Mac binaries that are useful if you don't have the Developer Tools installed on your Mac and you need to recover some data, hence this whole post is somewhat Mac-skewed, though the theory is applicable no matter what kind of computer you have. Hopefully this is of some help to someone.

Not to be confused with the similar and similarly named dd_rescue and dd_rhelp (which were precursors to this program), the GNU ddrescue program is a useful command-line utility that helps restore failing hard drives. Here is a zipfile containing a Mac PPC binary and a readme, should you be having trouble getting ddrescue working on your Mac. Note that it's available for compilation on just about any unix-like OS; google ddrescue if you need more information or if you need to compile it for different architectures.

The basic idea is that because block-wise data recovery can stall for long periods of time at errors, it's prudent to read all the good data off the drive quickly first, then go back to revisit problem areas and work at them until (hopefully) all the data can be recovered; at worst in the output file there are blank areas where there were unrecoverable sections of the original disk. Because this process can take a significant amount of time it is possible to run the program, abort it (with a control-C), and resume it again later to finish recovery, if necessary (though make sure you specify the same logfile so it is able to pick up where it left off).

Save the above .zip archive to the desktop and extract it. It should produce a ddrescue folder, inside which will be the unix (Mac PPC executable, runs under Rosetta emulation on Intel macs) and a text file explaining usage. Launch Terminal and cd to the ddrescue folder (type "cd " then drag the folder icon onto the Terminal window). Copy the executable to your /usr/bin directory with the following (it should prompt you for your password):
sudo cp ddrescue /usr/bin/ddrescue

Figure out which drive you need to run ddrescue on by running Disk Utility, then getting info on the partition you wish to rescue. The Disk Identifier is the string you need (hooking up a failing laptop hd in a firewire enclosure, knowing I want the second partition of the disk yields the identifier "disk1s2"; yours may well be different).

Run ddrescue with the correct disk specified (all the disks live under the /dev/ hierarchy), your desired output file, and a logfile name for later resuming in case you need to stop and start over (the process can take a LONG time). In my case, the command line was:
ddrescue /dev/disk1s2 ACER.dmg logfile
which runs ddrescue on the correct block device, outputs the reconstructed disk image to ACER.dmg and logs progress in logfile (both files go in the current directory).

In my case, the partition to be rescued was about 54GB in size with (at max) about 140 errors—represented by 9000KB (just shy of 10MB) of bad blocks. The better areas of the drive read after some time (about 18 hours), and then the remainder of the time was focused on the bad areas (only about 3MB, with ddrescue scrubbing repeatedly over them to extract data thus reducing the number of errors and the size of the error regions—it shows the stats in real time on the command line, which is moderately more interesting than paint drying, though heartening if you have a vested interest in the data you are recovering). I stopped it a few times with control-C after rescuing most of the drive and reran it with --max-retries=2 (less obsessive but faster). In the end I was left with a little under 3MB unrecovered, which was gudenuff (I could have stuck it in a ziplog bag and chucked it in the freezer for a few, and then tried again if I was really crazy about that last 3MB).

Also, the zipfile ddrs2r.zip contains some perl scripts that summarize the log file and also let you use other utilities to figure out what files are hosed on your recovered disk image. See here for more info on these scripts. A GUI would be nice, but so far it seems no one has stepped up to the plate and made one.

A final note: when using the recovered disk image, it would be prudent to lock it (make it read-only) first before looking around it and playing, lest you change it (which, if you wish to keep running ddrescue to get the last few blocks, might really F things up). In my case it looks like all the data that my client cares about is recovered! Yay for happy clients!

Mr. Phelps,

Following your specious logic and reasoning, when the Lord takes your life the followers of your congregation will picket at your funeral. They will do this because He must have wiped you from the face of this planet because, logically of course, America is in love with gay people. Necessarily then, your death will be a consequence of His hatred for all things gay. If your followers do not protest at your interment, they will be the basest of hypocrites.

Oh, wait, that doesn't make a bit of sense, does it? I am overjoyed that you have been sued by a grieving party whom you so heinously wronged (as has been your modus operandi for years now, you and your minions having picketed some three hundred military funerals). Good riddance, Mr. Phelps, good riddance.

Signed, with Universal Love and Allowance, despite your hatred and prejudice,
Kim Slawson

Moved by recent local events I have drafted an open letter to Celebration Life Church and to Pastors Bryan and Leah Carle.

( Partial Text of MSAD #28 Curriculum Committee Minutes, Provided as Background Material )

Reading the above compelled me to write this:

( An Open Letter to Celebration Life Church, In Which Freedoms Are Outlined, Truth Is Elucidated, and a Challenge Is Issued )

Bill Moyers on LPFM stations. Amen.

http://icutoff.tk/

which is sadder and more idiotic, this self-amputee-entrepreneur or the people donating money to him?

I love me new Jamaican Beef Patties! I bought mine frozen from the supermarket, but they are dead easy to make, as a simple google search will show.

I think I will pair one up with some red stripe beer tomorrow whilst reading the new Harry Potter book.

+

+

= my weekend.

At what cost, you might well ask? Well, I'm here to tell you from experience: Jamaican beef patties are not without their downsides. But (butt?), if you can stand it going in, you can stand it coming out, right?

This metalworker's pictures up on flickr make me want to make plugs out of powerbook power buttons (and not pendant earrings as he has done). Perhaps they are too shallow to work that way and too large in diameter to do it without distending my earlobe. I hope not though! (and yes, I am aware that I am a geek)

this Waiting for Godot parody on youtube is excellent, not to mention if you watch it a few hundred times you might learn a few words in dutch.

sesame street is really much better in dutch, as Stinkie Stankie proves. srsly.

so, apparently a judge in the UK doesn't know what a web site is.

with judges like this, and senators like Alaska's Ted Stevens ("the internet not a big truck, it is a series of tubes"), is it any wonder that technology continues to baffle our government and elected representatives? (if you don't know what i'm talking about, go to my January 19th entry, I'll wait.)

if someone in DC organized an event for officials to come (masked, of course, to avoid embarrasment) to learn basic technology concepts, i predict that the venue would be filled to overflowing. vespa331, want a side job? ;-)

this looks pretty nifty... not only will it record stats on MPG, speed, voltage, temperature, but it'll show engine trouble codes and let you reset the damned check engine light. Plus, it's removable, should you have more than one vehicle.

I'll take one, please.

they should make this shirt available in baby/toddler sizes!

I can't make this stuff up.

Thanks to poeticdream for sending this my way. Here's an excerpt from the article:

ROCKLAND — The city is conducting a study to characterize the odor emanating from the city landfill and to develop plans to control these odors. To augment work conducted by engineering and odor consultants, the city will form a committee of volunteer odor observers.

A meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, in the council chambers at city hall for anyone interested in joining the Citizen Odor Committee. The purpose of the meeting is to train the odor observers to characterize the nature and type of odor, and to quantify odor strength.
....
The training session will be conducted by the city’s professional odor consultant.

Some cities have an image problem. Rockland appears to have an odor problem.

There's currently hurricane-force winds buffeting the midcoast. See this story about the Rockland public landing and the harbormaster getting flooded.

This caused a large cover to blow off of my roof just now. Fortunately there was an unfinished part of the dining room ceiling through which we could attach a plastic-sheet funnel into a bucket, for when the rain comes through (now there's enough of a horizontal wind so that the air is sucking right out of the attic and there's no rain coming in, yet).

look, daylight! for you Real Genius fans out there, "there's a complete hole... whoa!"	look, a HAZMAT team visited!
thanks to Dave Curry, it's now contained by some plastic, staples, and duct tape.	here it looks almost tidy. say hello to changing buckets now and then.

for full size pictures, and more of them, check out the gallery here. gotta love nor'easters!

My WRFR radio show Live and Direct now has a LiveJournal feed: ld_feed

Gentle readers, I ask you: can my feed now have a posse? If you please, add ld_feed to your friends page to know when I update, or if you prefer, simply subscribe to the podcast using your favorite aggregator (iTunes, Google reader, etc.)

Thanks for listening!

NOTE: Wednesday's Live and Direct Listens episode will be posted shortly.

These are just a few things that Apple's Lisa computer had (remember, this was back in 1983):

• pre-emptive multitasking
  
• a graphical user interface
  
• an intuitive document-oriented system (as opposed to today's application-oriented computers)
  
• automatic saving of changes
  
• versioning (in fact, "saving" merely created new versions)
  
• persistence (turn the computer off, then back on, and everything is where you left it. take a disk out and the open documents close, put it back in and they open where you left off.)

These features may sound technical, but taken together they demonstrate a system acutely focused on the user and focused on tasks. Ask yourself, have we really come that far with our whiz-bang PCs (and Macs) and gigabytes of storage space and millions of colors, at least in terms of productivity? More interesting specifics and screenshots here at this Low End Mac article.

EDIT: I like this quote from the article:

Notice there is one thing that Microsoft didn't steal from the Mac when they made Windows: the hourglass (the classic Mac OS shows a wristwatch). No, they stole the Windows hourglass from the Lisa.

Notational Velocity : vast array of sticky notes :: vi : Word

Notational Velocity is well-written, simple, useful mac software for entering, filing, and searching notes. It has one window with a modeless title/search field, and no clutter or useless extra features. It is the missing link between notepad/stickies (limited and not useful for improving organization and simplifying clutter) and the 800lb gorilla Microsoft Word. It borrows Apple's philosophy of stark beauty, and vi's philosophy of being lean and mean and fast and useful and not getting in your way

Try it, you'll like it.

(forthcoming is an entry on how Notational Velocity, Actiontastic, Quicksilver, and similar apps are very Zen in their ability to enable "doing without thinking", and why this is a Good Thing™)

I really like Actiontastic. It's an almost-out-of-beta mac GTD (Getting Things Done) app that's lean, mean, and Jon is extra-nice and responsive to his user community. It's my GTD workflow/organization/action-filing system of choice. Plus, the action filer is called the "Inbox Ninja" (how cool is that!)

I'm pimping Actiontastic because I use it and like it, the programmer seems to be a nice guy, he cares about making good software and listening to his users. Plus, according to Jon, he uses it himself for all his organizational needs (he "eats his own dog food"), and that's always a sure of quality.

Actionatr is going to be an online companion to Actiontastic that he's working on, so you'll be able to manage your workflows away from your primary computer as well. Actiontastic also supports syncing with iCal, your iPod, and lets you file things directly from Quicksilver, if you're a Quicksilver fan like I am.

You should download this app solely because it supports ninjas over some lame, trite concept like "wizards" or "assistants". Do let Jon know if you like the ninja concept though, because he's apparently looking for alternatives.

I do believe I need a ninja icon for livejournal now.