Category Archives: Technical

I Did Not Know: networksetup -setairportpower

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I sometimes want to turn off my MacBook Pro’s Airport wireless to save battery, even though its battery capacity is kinda awesome.

I fiddle with the icon in the menu bar and get grumpy because that’s the way you make this change and ugh, I’m tired of that.  But guess what:

$ networksetup -setairportpower en1 on
$ networksetup -setairportpower en1 off

WordPress 3.0.1

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One of the nice things about being off work for a few days is not feeling guilty spending time tinkering on non-work stuff.

So here’s WordPress 3.0.1, which didn’t break anything, and seems pretty nice, and comes with a default theme that I think is better than other (free) themes I’ve tried in the past.

I really appreciate not having to maintain my own PHP. WordPress is good.

How I Made StarCraft II Work

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I bought StarCraft II as a digital download on Sunday and began a long hard slog of zero fun.

The first thing I got to enjoy was disabling peer-to-peer in the Blizzard Downloader so my network connection wouldn’t repeatedly die. Still don’t know what that was about, but it definitely made for a long downloading experience.

Wait for the paint to dry, then install, patch, fire it up, start the tutorial, SPLATCRASH *@!*#&!

My steps for fixing this problem:

  1. Whined about it on Twitter and Facebook.
  2. Updated video drivers.
  3. Crash.
  4. Updated audio drivers, which immediately forgot about my front panel audio in.
  5. Reverted audio drivers.
  6. Ran the Windows 7 built-in memory diagnostic. Waste of time, but it felt like doing something.
  7. Crash.
  8. Ran CHKDSK with surface scan. Waste of time, but it felt like doing something.
  9. Crash.
  10. Whined about it on Twitter and Facebook.
  11. Added these settings in Documents/StarCraft II/Variables.txt: 
    frameratecap=60
frameratecapglue=30
  12. Disabled 3D portraits through the menu settings.
  13. Works!

Actually, I should probably hold off on “Works!”, since my test was “Does this run the first tutorial for more than 10 seconds?” For now, it feels like doing something.

For the dorks, some specs of my entirely mediocre PC, which largely meets the “Recommended Specifications” listing I read the other day:

Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: P5K
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/14/08 13:59:09 Ver: 08.00.12
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 2048MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 8800 GT
Driver Version: 8.17.12.5896

Apple Store: “Unngh”

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This is what Apple gets for releasing a sweet new Mac mini on iPhone 4 Pre-Order Day.  The throngs are clogging up the tubes and the iProducts are not moving.

Can’t pre-order an iPhone 4 from the Apple Store, AT&T, or on the new Apple Store iOS App. The dorks (like me) are awake, and they are hungry for Meat.  I suspect the conference bridge, already hopping overnight, is about to turn seriously Thunderdome ugly.

A First World Problem of the highest order.

Yahoo! Password

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I just changed my Yahoo! password.  I believe the last time I changed it was 1996.

Two observations:

  1. I am a bad person. Change your passwords more often than this, especially those that aggregate access to lots of things. Don’t use the same password for everything. If this hurts, get a Mac.
  2. I have been using things at Yahoo! off and on for over 14 years. That’s a mighty long time, if you stop and think about it.

I wonder if I’ll remember the new password by lunchtime.  I give myself 2:1.