Robin Etc

I’ve just posted the latest and greatest version of TETREVIL on my site.  See it on the nav bar above, or click here.  TETREVIL is like normal Tetris, except the computer intentionally gives you the worst piece it can figure out.  At some point the source code will be released under a BSD-style license.

robin Uncategorized

I own a Bluetooth watch with caller-ID, from ThinkGeek. It’s pretty awesome, but it doesn’t play all-the-way nicely with my iPhone.  The caller-ID display part works fine, but it will only show the phone number, and not the name, of the caller.  This is normal until you tell the watch to load contacts from the phone to which it is paired.  The problem is that it can’t load contacts from an iPhone, thanks to the iPhone’s lack of OBEX support.

While playing around with other Bluetooth stuff I discovered that bluetooth contact exchanges were performed by sending VCF files back and forth, so I decided to try sending a VCF to the watch, and… it worked!  With this proof-of-concept under my belt, I went ahead and wrote an application you can run on your mac to send the contacts in your address book to your watch.

When you run the application you are prompted to open your address book and select the contacts you wish to transfer.  The app exports a VCF file, then processes it to strip out everything but phone numbers (and reformats the phone numbers), and then initiates a file transfer to send the exported VCF to the watch.

robin Robin, Technology

Because I said so.

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robin Uncategorized

So my wife’s new kitten arrived yesterday.  Her name is Dinah, much like the cat from Alice in Wonderland.  She is very cute indeed.  Hopefully she will not be leading Anna down any rabbit holes though.

robin Uncategorized

I have a mid-2007 MacBook Pro for sale. It works perfectly and is quite capable of modern computing; it is for sale because I have replaced it with a newer model. I am asking $700 for the complete system (laptop, spare battery, software, laptop bag)

Quick specs:

·      15” display, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, 120GB hard drive

·      Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard), iLife 2009

·      Spare battery included

More Detailed Specs:

·      15.4” widescreen TFT display, 1400×900, matte (not glossy)

·      2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

·      4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)

·      120GB Serial ATA hard drive, 5400 RPM

·      Slot-loading DVD±RW/CD-RW drive

·      FireWire 800 port, FireWire 400 port, 2x USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard port

·      DVI video output, DVI-to-VGA adapter included

·      iSight web-cam built in

·      Combined optical digital and analog audio input and output, microphone

·      10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet port

·      802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0

·      Realistic average 3.5 to 4 hours battery life per battery

·      Weight: 5.4lbs

·      Dimensions: 14.1” x 9.6” x 1.0”

Full specs available at http://support.apple.com/kb/SP17 (See MA895LL).

Good condition; a few scratches on the case but no deforming. Maintained AppleCare extended warranty until July 2010 when it expired. Motherboard replaced under warranty in May 2010, no other repairs or parts replaced other than the RAM upgrade to 4GB. Includes Mac OSX Snow Leopard installation disc, iLife 2009 application suite retail disc, and all original paraphernalia (installation discs, adapters, manual, etc.). Hard drive has been 7x overwritten with random data prior to fresh install of OSX Snow Leopard.

robin Robin

Today, May 23 2010, Anna Elizabeth Kirkman was born.

robin Uncategorized

Who we are depends not so much on our environment, or even our selves, but on the choices we make.  The difference between one person’s self and another person’s self is not that they have different bodies, lives, or histories.  The difference is the choices that they would or would not make when in the same environment.

As a thought experiment, consider the life of John the plumber.  John grew up in an average family.  John decided to learn a trade rather than go to college, and has been successful so far.  Second, consider Jill the research chemist.  Jill grew up in an average family.  Jill decided to go to college rather than learn a trade, and has been successful so far.  The difference between John and Jill is only superficially that one is a plumber and one is a chemist.  The true difference is the choice of whether to go to college or to learn a trade.  (Of course, this thought experiment is so simplistic that it might even be used as a straw man against choices defining selves, but an entire history for two people would be overly verbose.)

Of course, asserting the point that the defining characteristic of a self is the choices it would or would not make begs the question of why we should (or even can) disregard personal history and environment.  The reason we can do so is that the universe is governed by physical laws.  All matter and energy, and interactions between the two, follow rules.  In Newtonian physics, if you knew the initial state of the universe, you could compute all future states, merely by application of physical laws.  Quantum physics asserts that there is non-determinism on a micro-level, and so more than just the physical laws are required, but on a macro-level physical laws again are the rule.

If Jill’s “self” were to have John’s body, environment, and history from birth, what would be the difference between Jill and John?  Only the choices that Jill would or would not make that differ from John’s choices.  So why, then, do we consider Jill in John’s place, when such a thing is impossible?  The reason is that your environment, from your body to your family to your country to your planet, is initially entirely outside of your control.  Environmental factors act upon you, and you define yourself by your reaction to them.  Your “environment” is an extensive term;  it includes not just the ecosphere but also the people around you, your day-to-day life, and even your own body.

As another though experiment, consider replacing John’s self with Jill’s self, and vice-versa.  John’s body will still have John’s memories, and Jill’s self will be acting entirely in the context of John.  How then can we differentiate between John in John’s body and Jill in John’s body?  Only by the choices that whoever happens to be inhabiting the body of John makes.

robin Philosophy

A pretty good christmas this year. First one in the new house. Got a nice artificial tree, had a couple presents, all was nice. The big christmas present my wife and I got was a camcorder, which we bought about a month ago. She also got me a book about the father’s experience during pregnancy, which turned out to be really good.

I got some nice presents from my folks and from the Pikes. Of particular note are a game, Mind Flex, and a rotary saw. The game is fascinating and incredibly tiring. The saw I haven’t tried out yet, having gotten it only yesterday, but I am sure it will work nicely. More tools == good.

robin Robin

I just bought a Blackberry Storm from Verizon, and wanted to use it as a tethered modem for OS X. Verizon will provide no support for this configuration, but you can do it anyway. Here is how: (Note that you still have to pay for the tethering plan.)

You will use your Blackberry Storm as a bluetooth modem. This means that you have to have bluetooth on your mac. However, if you’re using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, chances are that you already have bluetooth. If not, you probably have some kind of wired internet and you don’t need to tether your phone in the first place.

The general plan goes like this:

1. Ensure your Blackberry Storm is configured for Dialup Networking.
2. Pair your Blackberry Storm with your Mac.
3. Create a bluetooth serial port which your Mac will use as a modem.
4. Set up the modem.
5. Connect!
6. Caveat (Unfortunately)

You may run into some problems when you try to use it later. On my MacBook Pro, the bluetooth serial port sometimes disappears for no apparent reason. I do not know why this happens, but it is not difficult to fix. If your Mac tells you that it cannot open the communications device, repeat step 3 and recreate the bluetooth serial port. As long as you give it the same name (“VZW”) as you used in step 3, you will be fine.

Note: These instructions may work with other models of Blackberry, and even other non-Blackberry bluetooth phones. I make no guarantees, and have not tested them on anything else because I do not have any other phones. I have previously written a guide to setting up a Samsung SCH-i760, which uses roughly the same instructions. If this helps you get your non-Blackberry Storm phone working, great! Otherwise, tough cookies, I can’t help you.

Enabling Dialup Networking on your Blackberry Storm

For this part, I am unable to provide screenshots, so you’ll just have to follow along. It’s not difficult.

1. Open the bluetooth preferences: From the home applications screen, open “Options”. It’s near the bottom, and has a picture of a wrench.
2. The 5th down is “Bluetooth”. Click it to get to a list of paired devices. If your Blackberry prompts you to add a device, cancel it.
3. Press the menu key and select “Options”. Scroll down to the bottom and make sure that “Dial-Up Networking” is selected.
4. Press the menu key and choose “Save”.

Pairing your Blackberry Storm with your Mac

Again I am unable to provide screenshots for the Blackberry portion, but it’s simple enough. If your Blackberry is already paired with your Mac, you may skip this step.

On the Blackberry:

1. Open the bluetooth preferences. Follow steps 1 and 2 from above.
2. Press the menu key and select “Add Device”. From the popup dialog, select “Listen”.

On your mac:

1. Open the System Preferences, and select the “Bluetooth” pane. Click on the “+” button in the list of bluetooth devices on the left:
   

   This will open the Bluetooth Setup Assistant:

   

2. Click “Continue”, and follow the directions to pair your Blackberry with your Mac.
3. Select “Any Device” as the device type, and continue.
   
4. Select your Blackberry from the list of devices and click Continue.
   
5. Continue with the pairing process following the instructions in the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, until you get to the service selection screen. Uncheck “Access the Internet with your phone’s data connection”. We will set this up manually. Click Continue.
   
6. Finish the pairing process. You should now see your device in the list of devices in the System Preferences’ Bluetooth pane.
   

Creating a Bluetooth Serial Port

1. Select your Blackberry, click the gear icon, and select “Edit Serial Ports…”.
   
2. Remove the Dialup Networking serial port, if it is there. Select the serial port from the list, and click the minus button:
   
3. Add a new Dialup Networking serial port. Click the plus icon.
   
4. Set the name, protocol, and service for the port. Select “Show in Network Preferences”. When finished, your screen should look like this:
   
5. Click Apply. The serial port for the modem is now set up.

Set up the modem

Now we will create the network interface for your Blackberry’s bluetooth modem. You will use this like any modem connection to use your Blackberry’s internet connection.

1. Select the “Network” pane from the System Preferences. You should be prompted with a “New Interface Detected” dialog:
   
2. Click OK.
3. Select “VZW” from the connections list.
4. Set the telephone number to “#777”. Set the account name to “your_phone_number@vzw3g.com”. Set the password to “vzw”. “vzw” must be lower case.
   
5. Click “Advanced…”.
6. From the “Modem” tab, set the vendor to “Generic” and the model to “Dialup Device”:
   
7. Click “OK”.
8. Back in the Network pane of System Preferences, click “Apply”:
   
9. Your modem is now set up! Click “Connect” to test it out. You may have to confirm the connection on your Blackberry; you can get rid of this prompting by setting your Mac as a trusted device from its “Device Properties” from your Blackberry’s bluetooth preferences.
   

Caveat

Verizon’s tethering support is pretty flakey. Now and then, for no apparent reason, your internet will suddenly stop working. You will not be informed that it has stopped, and your modem will not hang up. Everything will just stop working. If your connection seems to have stalled, just try going to www.google.com and see if it is working. If that doesn’t load, you will have to disconnect and reconnect your modem connection. Disconnecting seems to take a long time, but again I do not know why.

If you are an experienced unix user, you may speed up the disconnect process by typing “sudo killall pppd” at the command line. This will cause the disconnect to immediately finish, and then you may reconnect sooner. I will not provide any instructions on how to do this, though; if you don’t know what the command line is and how to use it, stay away from it.

robin Internet