an email I received recently:
Internet Performance Alert Monday June 13, 2005
Keynote Systems, the Internet Performance Authority® saw no degradation of speed and reliability during the period just before and during the announcement of the verdict in the Michael Jackson case. It seems that news media understand what it takes to handle major events and spikes in traffic and have made sure that their sites are ready.
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= yum :) |
props to damon for the fine recommendations.
I say this every time there is a major os x revision, but I think I’ll say it louder this time. If you’re upgrading to tiger, back up your home directory and other essentials, and then:
DO A CLEAN INSTALL
Seriously, just do it. It will probably be more work, but trust me, it’s worth it. How would I know, anyway? Aside from working in and around Mac OS X all day every day, I also help moderate a Mac OS X IRC channel. *Every time* there is a major release, there are *always* streams of people who come in with issues that would have been averted had they done a clean install.
Yes, in-place upgrades have been a supported installation method in OS X for a long time. No, windows does not make you do a clean install either. Yes, upgrades work fine for some people. Still, do it clean. In the parlance of the Mac OS X Installer, this is the “erase and install” option.
There are two other hidden advantages here. One is that it forces you to back up your data at least once per major release; another is that you get your primary drive defragged (which can have positive performance impacts, especially if it’s been a while since the last reformat). One way to keep yourself from having filesystem problems is to reformat once every year or so. Major release time is a perfect opportunity – think of it as preventative maintainence (yes, it means you don’t need to shell out for DiskWarrior or whatever. On that note, by the way, you really shouldn’t use disk utility software against tiger volumes unless they have been specifically upgraded to support tiger).
More info is about installation options is available here:
Oh yes…
It will be mine. In 5 to 7 days, via teh snail mail.
Woot!
In other news, returning to active status in the quake3 urban terror clan I helped found many months ago is a hoot. Matches on wed and thurs nights. Here’s a screenshot.
More or less finished the unpacking today, with the realization that most of my crap is staying in boxes (which is to say, I could probably get rid of much of it entirely). Bought some more rope lights. I like the fact that they daisy-chain. Also plan on getting a new chair and a vacuum, but don’t feel like carrying it the 6 or so blocks from Target, so I will prey upon some unsuspecting automobile operator for transportation services.
Living this close to both an Outback and a BJ’s will make it difficult to not go there too often, but I will try. I think I may finally Learn To Cook, once and for all. There is a pretty sweet asian market close by with all sorts of intersting foods for cooking. During my time in the BVI, I got really used to eating rice + steamed vegetables, and it was good. And easy. Two of my favorite characteristics of food.
Work is going well. This was the first week, and though I’m certainly still learning the specifics of this particular environment, I’m also solving problems and am able to be useful to my co-workers. There is also the need for me to get into more depth about some things I’ve already known for a while, which will be fun / interesting. Mostly I’m glad that I will have to think a lot, which makes me feel pretty actualized.
Finally, the word for today is monism
First day @ apple was fun! *LOTS* of information to assimilate; it’s good to feel brain burn again :) In no particular order:
– It actually seems to be at least as cool as I hoped it would be
– I won an apple hat for correctly answering a trivia question during orientation
– I’ve been successfully scared / convinced into not talking about anything remotely sensitive to anybody outside the company. When it gets broken down in a straightforward way, it makes a lot of sense. I appreciate their honesty about the policy.
– Got the heavy formica-coated desk slab hauled up from my uhaul to the apartment. Thanks victor :)
– Got dre@apple.com and dre.apple.com
– My work desktop situation is sub-par, but they are cool with me bringing my own hardware in
– I appear to be bypassing some of the more technical portions of the orientation (mostly for people who don’t know os x like the back of their hand), in favor of actual work, which is good.
– Got my badge today:
I had planned to stay at the Cupertino Inn when I arrived ~ 4a.m. this morning. In fact the Cupertino Inn was all locked up, with nobody to rent me out a room. I actually tried to sleep in the cab of the u-haul, first across the two front seats (almost got some), and then I was somehow able to position myself so that I was actually laying down on the floor of the cab. Head jammed up underneath the shotgun side (with pillow of course), I’m sure it looked pretty absurd (remember, I’m roughly 6’5″ btw), not that I cared. I don’t know for sure if I actually got any sleep, but I think I did get a little.
At around 8:30 I drove over to the Valley Green Apartments leasing office, to await their open at 9. NPR kept me company, as it did for most of the journey from Seattle. Got into my new space without incident. Found a good parking spot for the truck, and hauled all my crap in, save for the heavy formica-coated slab that serves as my desktop (getting help with that tomorrow).
After all day Friday spent packing / cleaning / loading, roughly 15 hours on the road Saturday, followed by barely any sleep, getting even my fairly meager amount of stuff (easily fits in the smallest 10ft u-haul) into the second-floor apartment proved to be a formidable task. I was heaving, dizzy, sweating bullets, hungry, and very tired… which is to say, I was digging it. I’m not the sort of person that enjoys pain, but I do enjoy pushing myself really hard physically on occasion… (if only I could get into lifting weights or something, hmm…).
Had an early afternoon dinner at Outback, followed by some household and food shopping at the nearby shopping center.
Tomorrow morning is my first day on the new job @ apple, and I plan on being rested. Which means bed very soon.
I already miss being in Seattle. I did before I was even gone. I’m super glad I got to spend one last night chillin w/damon & amanda before I left, though.
