disobey.com

Who knows anything about Airport networks? Aaron?

Due to the recommedations of some friends, I did NOT purchase an Airport Base Station, under the impression that I'd be able to do a Computer-to-Computer network. With the newly arrived computer, that's where I spent most of my time, and I ran across a fair bit of difficultly. Lemme tell you the oddness I have working.

The G5 (server) and the G4 (client) both have Airport cards. The Airport's TCP/IP settings have been switched from DHCP to Manually (since there's no DHCP server that the Base Station would normally provide), and the IPs have been set to 192.168.177.10 and .11. Since there's no router, those fields were left blank.

With the above configuration, I can create a Computer-to-Computer network on the server, the client can see it, and can "connect" to that network without a problem. However, when I attempt to mount the server's hard drive (either via the private IP address or via the actual Network name), I get, roughly, 7k every ten seconds. Definitely not something I want to transfer files through. (And this happens vice versa too - the server can mount the client's hard drives, but they're simply unusable.)

Now, I also want to get Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) working - the server connects to the 'net, the client should be able to use that connection. So, to faciliate this, I turn on connection sharing in the server's "Sharing" System Pref. Suddenly, the server's little Airport icon no longer shows the Computer-to-Computer network (merely that ICS is turned on). Running over to the client, I can see a full-fledged Airport network (the one created by turning on the server's ICS). I can mount the hard drives and transfer speeds are 500k/sec., certainly something I can live with.

But, oddly, there's no Internet Sharing happening - the client can't get to the Web whatsoever. This is pretty odd, in my opinion, since hey, the only way I got 500k file transfer speeds between the two computers was to TURN ON ICS in the first place.

Anyone with ideas? This is driving me nuts. My only remote inkling is to change the server's Airport IP to the static IP I get from my Internet connection. This makes a tiny bit of sense (since the server IP of the Airport network would then be routable), but I'm five hours away from trying it out.

Gimme suggestions! Let me move on to more important things!

As a writer who hasn't cited in years (due to lack of opportunity, not intent), I had a grande chuckle over Louis Menand's The End Matter: The nightmare of citation, an article I most assuredly have cited wrong.

My new G5 is waiting in my living room, despondently waiting for me to tear off its cardboard clothing and lay flesh to flesh. These last hours of work will never cease.

My new book, Spidering Hacks! WheeeEEEEee!
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spiderhks/
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/spiderhks/chapter/

It struck me suddenly that I've been rebuilding my To Do list for far too long (parts one, two, three, four, and five) and that I need to put it to rest, to move on, to actually do something that I'm supposed to be doing, rather than merely enjoying myself. And hey, why should I tell you my shiny new ideas (as alluded to in part five)? So that I can sit on the sidelines and pout when you have more time to do them in? Bollocks, I say, bollocks!

Oh, and here's that screenshot I promised.

Welp, Apple updated their dual G5 shipping dates from 3-5 weeks to 7-10 days. Thus, I've ordered one. Dual 2ghz G5 coming soon. mMMmMM. New iSight. MmMMMm. Wireless networking. MmMmmm.

Far be it from me to get into a "via" link lovin' fest, but I found this particularly funny:

I read this today over at RadioFreeBlogistan...and I thought, wow, this is what science fiction sounded like in the 1980s. I'm not sure I understand much of it, but it sounds so 2004 I had to reprint all of it below. Kudos if you understand what Christian Crumlish is talking about. :-)

Morbus Iff says keep Atom name for Pie format: Amphetadesk creator Morbus Iff posted to the Atom Syntax mailing list a proposal that the Pie syndication 'n' API format for weblogs just go ahead and use the name Atom and stop all this endless voting.

Looks like other list participants have endorsed the idea and votes are now flowing over to Atom. I voted for Nota and I think I'm not going to change my vote, but I'd be just as happy with Atom. I liked Pie. I liked Echo. I liked Atom. I like Nota.

I do think there's lots of retro-style logo potential around the 1950's-sounding phrase atom-powered.

I haven't been continuing my growth todo for a few days (see part one, two, three, and four) because I've been busy doing other things. I keep writing myself a list of stuff to finish (including this), and then something (rabble rousing, for instance) comes and takes all my time. I knew this would turn into a project. Sigh. Anyways, moving on with stuff I do in the "real world":

• Writing for MacTech: I've a monthly column entitled "Untangling the Web" for MacTech (which I've talked about before). That's gone pretty well - after six months, I'm happy with the way it's developing (although, I should have started my next article days ago - oy!). It's the first time I've had a regular column and definitely something I feel indebted to. However, since I'm talking about stuff I'm an "expert" in, I can't say it's a true growth project, not on a monthly scale (on a yearly, sure). Nevertheless, it's certainly a maintain, with high priority.
• Writing for O'Reilly: You may know me as the author of Mac OS X Hacks from O'Reilly, and I'm nearly finished wrapping up my second book, Spidering Hacks with Tara Calishain. Like Google Hacks? You're gonna love this one... I'm really proud of it. But before I was writing books, I wrote for the O'Reilly Network, and that really spawned where my "writing career" is today. I wouldn't mind starting that up again. There's so much left to say. Restore, with medium priority.
• Writing for Others: There's a strong desire to write for other avenues: I've been invited twice to submit to The Perl Journal (rock!), and other suggestive innuendoes have hungered my taste buds and whetted my appetite (wait...). It's just a matter of catching that constantly mischievous Time; sadly, even though I consider this a growth (as it is "non-traditional"), I have to give it a low priority.
• Write your Third Book: Before I even started Spidering Hacks, my third book was already planned and agreed upon. With Spidering Hacks a few weeks away from being truly finished, it's time to bust out the new outline and begin tickety-tacketying yet again. Growth, high priority.

Next, we'll complete the remapping with the new ideas I've yet to work on.

I would like to propose, nay, admonish, that the name of the format and spec should be Atom, that the current naming vote should be killed, and we should move on to grander things without the auspices of "what's it called?!" over our heads. This has been going on far too long.

• "what to name it?" has been an issue since the wiki started. unsolved.
• in every press mention, it's always been referred to, somewhere, somehow with the Atom moniker (individually or as multiple choice like "atom/echo/pie").
• Atom' is becoming ubiquitous, both in our day to day discussions on this mailing list (contextually and titular, i.e. 'atom-syntax'), in the titles of the Wiki ('Atom Wiki'), and in regular chat (save for the entropied #echo IRC channel).
• The current NameFinalVote wiki page shows very little participation, suggesting that no one really gives a damn. Likewise, the voting is proactive, not reactive (impending doom is more inspiring than lackadaisical choice). The vote should be replaced with something akin to: "Within {1 weeks time}, if a substantial amount of people raise no fuss, the official name of our format will be called Atom." If people can give good reasons WHY it should not be called Atom, in contest of this email, then that's reason to listen. However, it's more important to get this naming finalized, however.

Why Would Changing To 'Nota' Suck?

• Re-education of the Press. As mentioned previously, they've all been using 'Atom' somehow or another, and renaming it to something different will cause confusion, explanatory backsteps that every editor hates, and an alienating of readership ('wait, i thought this was atom? why the name change? huh?'). Likewise, 'Related Articles' links will lose their charm ('i'm reading about Nota, what's this Atom crap?').
• Re-coding of Projects. Due to Atom's ubiquity, much effort would need to be spent banishing the old name, heralding link-rot like never before. All atom-syntax archives and links would need to be forwarded to a NAME-syntax replacement, all Wiki pages would have to change (and searching for 'NAME' within your saved existing bookmarks would fail miserably), and more.
• We'd Lose Search Magic. Searching for NAME will have little effect for months after the change, even though there's a wealth of good information out there.
• People Will Misunderstand. They'll think it's a fork, a poor replacement (once a name becomes popular lexicon like Atom has, any up-and-coming replacement is distasteful), or totally unnecessary this late in the game. Some people will continue to call NAME 'Atom', causing more confusion than necessary (is it 'Really Simple Syndication'? 'Rich Site Summary'? 'RDF Site Summary'? How many times have you read an "either or" statement like this in the press concerning RSS. Do we want this?).
• Besides the above, 'Nota' has a very crucial misstep, already mentioned on the Wiki discussion: it's not indicative of pronunciation. Is it "NotAGoodReplacement" or "Note-a"? Do we really want to release an .mp3 of us saying the word (as PostgreSQL has done). More importantly, can you think of any OTHER product, company name, or item that has an immediate pronunciation problem? This is, IMO, the biggest nail in Nota's coffin.

I really can't believe the naming has been *allowed* to go on this long. I don't even start projects without a name and some sketches of a logo - they can make or break a product, and any revisionist history now will certainly harm the format.

But, but, Morbus! You've forgotten about the legal issues (here and here)!

Quite deliberately, and so should you. If it does in fact become a legal issue, we will have a *reason* for changing the name; one we can quickly whip out when *anyone* questions us for changing the name. There's no herd voting, no "well, you know, because, uh...", no "just because". And, as the above two URLs attest to, there are already multiple companies using some form of Atom, and there have been no desist letters sent. If these URLs were any powerful indication of the feelings of people (besides the ever-popular "LOOK! I CONTRIBUTED MY TWO CENTS TO THE MAKING OF THE NEXT BIGGEST THING! OOOOH!"), then Atom would never have become as ubiquitous as it were.

Post comments to the atom-syntax list.

Only 77 emails left, and now I'm off to do the dishes. (Yes, this is one exciting entry. No, I'm not finished my growth/prune tasks. Yes, I'd rather be. No, probably not tonight.)