- Avid Codec d/l for OS X, OS 9, W2K/XP
- Actually, the above only includes the lossless codecs. To get the Avid DV codec, I ended up downloading and installing Avid FreeDV. BTW, here’s a zip of my /Library/QuickTime for those less inclined to install useless software.
Headache-saving tips when setting up Postfix/Procmail/Courier-IMAP/SMTP-Auth/MySQL/Vmail on Debian:
- Add
home_mailbox = Maildir/line to your/etc/postfix/main.cf(also useful to define your myhostname and mydomain) - Make sure you have an
/etc/procmailrcfile with at least, otherwise you won’t be seeing any mail:MAILDIR=$HOME/Maildir/ DEFAULT=$MAILDIR - Run
maildirmake Maildirin existing user folders, and then runmaildirmake /etc/skel/Maildir; Courier-IMAP will barf w/o a properly created Maildir; watch permissions - Courier will throw errors if it can’t find the File Access Monitor daemon – this is probably a good thing to have installed from a performance perspective.
apt-get install fam - this SMTP Auth/SMTP over SSL – Debian Woody 3.0 guide works. w/ Debian unstable I used sasl2 (install the sasl2 libs and sasl2 bins), use saslpasswd2 to create a sasldb2 (see a trend?) and enter appropriately in the sasl/smtpd.conf
As predicted, the Apple laptops got speedbumps. The Powerbooks are now at 1.33GHz and 1.5GHz. I did a little bit of searching for some stats. The information is sort of hard to to pin down (cribbed from sysctl, dev notes, various spec sheets), corrections welcome.
| PB12″ Rev A | PB12″ Rev B | PB12″ Rev C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | MPC7455 | MPC7457 | MPC7447A |
| Cache | 64K/256K/- | 64K/512K/- | 64K/512K/- |
| Freq | 867MHz | 1GHz | 1.33GHz |
| Bus | 133MHz | 133MHz | 166MHz |
| Typical Power | 12.9W | 15.8W | 18.0W |
| Max Power | 17.5W | 22.0W | 25.0W |
(Note, the 7457 is available at 1.1V w/ 8.3W and 11.5W poerw dissipation; the 7447A also has 1.1V models, but the specs max out at 1.17GHz — can anyone confirm whether the Powerbooks (Rev B, C) are running at 1.1V or 1.3V?)
It’ll probably be a while before we see actual performance data (if any). I’d specifically like to see data crunching improvements (better CPU/RAM, but still hobbled by inadequate bus?) vs battery-life (real-life usage and stress tested). Note, that the 7447A has dynamic frequency adjustment capabilities.
Waiting for:
- lower power dissipation
- better battery-life
- modern system bus
- better screen
While driving into work this past Thursday I caught a bit of an interesting NPR report on the number of private military forces being employed (it is apparently now a $100 billion/yr industry?). Some links:
- The Coalition of the Billing – Haiko Hebig has collected a bunch of links
- A Corporate Superpower? – numbers and analysis from Global Guerillas, a new Typepad blog by former UserLand Pres/CEO related to research for the book he’s writing on the future of terrorism/counter-terrorism. Good stuff:
- PMCs currently employ 15,000 security personnel (estimates are as high as 20,000). They represent the second largest military force in Iraq, behind the US. As Peter Singer says, “it is a coalition of the billing.”
- PMCs are funded by a combination of the DoD and private contractors. Between 10-25% of expenditures on reconstruction efforts is spent on PMC security forces.
- PMC security is expensive. It costs upwards of $2,000 a day for an experienced security guard in Iraq. This high pay has recruited some of the best soldiers in the world drawn from units such as Delta, the Seals, and the SAS. This has caused a reversal, more SAS trained personnel currently serve in UK PMCs than in the SAS itself (this is also probably true for Delta and the Seals too).
- Watching Justice – a new site/organization montioring the actions of the DOJ
- Mefi: Behind Diplomatic Moves, Military Plan Was Launched
- Bush Began to Plan War Three Months After 9/11
Before the war with Iraq, Powell bluntly told Bush that if he sent U.S. troops there “you’re going to be owning this place.” Powell and his deputy and closest friend, Richard L. Armitage, used to refer to what they called “the Pottery Barn rule” on Iraq: “You break it, you own it,” according to Woodward.
- Very interesting reading @ Atrios, Washington Monthly lately
A read of the lead (How a hologram, a blimp, and a massively multiplayer game could bring peace to the Holy Land.
) and a cursory search on Yitzhaq Hayutman, the subject of the write-up suggests the possibility that the article Apocalypse Now in this month’s Wired is an April Fool’s joke, but a little bit of digging turns up Proposed Infrastructure-research: Display media for human communications (searches: hayutman ezrahi, hayutman berkeley).
Anyway, it seems it’s not fiction, just well, far out enough to be. (note also, that the site hasn’t been touched for years)
- CLIX – a cmd-line trainer for OS X. The interface needs work, but it’s definitely a good idea
After messing w/ Tech Tool and having my drive accidentally corrupted (not too much data loss) I decided to just bite the bullet and wipe my system. I’ll keep a running list of the PB sw I’m installing, and setup I’m doing.