I’ve been meaning to put this up for over a week now…

I had the opportunity to experience a new first class configuration on a newer Northwest Boeing 757-200 OW on one of my flights back from Boston recently. This was the second time I had seen this plane; it was substituted for our scheduled aircraft in both situations.

The first class cabin is completely reconfigured with the seats almost double spaced. While sitting down you cannot touch the seat in front of you with your hands or legs without getting up. The seats themselves are more la-Z-Boy style with four points of adjustment. Besides the standard overhead lights, there is a lamp connected to the seat for reading. Because the seats are spaced so far apart, the trays all fold out of the left arm and can be used either folded in half to the left side or fully unfolded and turned out in front of you. There is a universal power plug on the left by your leg that appeared to support both American and European style plugs. On the right side is a special plug to be used with a multimedia device available upon request. I didn’t request one, so I’m not sure what this looks like or what you can do with it. There is a bracket that folds out of the right arm rest to hold the device. The seats fully recline, almost into a bed-like configuration. I was sleeping with the seat all the way back during landing–whether this is now allowed with these planes or the stewardess simply couldn’t wake me up to make me put my seat up I cannot say.

The coach cabin has more modest updates and seemed mostly the same other than perhaps more comfortable chairs.

I took pictures of as much as I could. Forgive the quality–it was a crappy camera phone. Click any of the pictures below to see the rest of the gallery.

Tags: HES experience,Travel
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It was only a matter of time after Apple’s switch to Intel and subsequent thriving of the OSx86 project. There were already plenty of hardware guides helping users spec out their own OSx86 compatible PCs. Now you can switch on the cheap without putting in that kind of effort. Psystar Corporation is selling computers with OS X Leopard preinstalled starting at $554.99. Here are the specs on their baseline machine:

• 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor
• 2GB of DDR2 667 memory
• Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 20x DVD+/-R SATA drive that is Lightscribe-capable

A significant processor gain and twice the memory and hard drive of Apple’s closest priced Mac mini which is $50 more. Interesting to note that most of the cost for these computers, like PCs today, is in the cost of the operating system. In fact, even more of the cost ($155) is due the operating system in the case of these machines because Apple does not have OEM licensing pricing available. Psystar does make their hardware available without Leopard preinstalled for $399, a move likely to encourage piracy of Apple’s OS X. If Apple can hold back the knee-jerk urge to sue they must be feeling right now, this could be another revenue opportunity. A $90-a-copy OEM licensing deal with companies like Psystar in exchange for the manufacturer agreeing not to sell the equipment without an operating system, similar to deals Microsoft has been known to engage in with Dell and other manufacturers, it would serve both add a revenue stream from a customer base that currently finds Apple’s lineup cost prohibitive and reduce revenue loss via piracy. That would make a lot of business sense. Apple will still be the Cadillac. These machines are large ugly bricks compared to the cool and sleek Mac mini. Of course I’m morally opposed to enforced licensing schemes such as that.

Tags: Apple,OSx86
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Since writing the post on synchronizing with Unison, I’ve gotten quite a bit of use out of my synchronized drive. (I call mine the MDrive; I know–creative.) I’ve also come up with a few more tweaks to make Unison hum.

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Tags: howto,Linux,OS X,Windows
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Today I’m very excited. Some of you know I’ve been having heat problems with my MacBook Pro. I’m happy to report that Apple has resolved all my issues! Woo hoo! I was frustrated with the frequency of repairs, etc. to address my overheating issue, but in all fairness, that is the nature of troubleshooting. At the end of the day, I’m very happy and still recommend the MacBook or MacBook Pro as the absolute best laptops. Buying the extended AppleCare is probably a good idea too.

Tags: Apple,AppleCare,MacBook Pro
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I know I haven’t put anything out here in a while, so I wanted to get a quick message out wishing everyone a blessed Easter.  After turning in a mid-term paper and taking a mid-term exam yesterday, I’m sure looking forward to some down time with the family!  Hopefully I’ll see some of you who have been wondering where I’ve disappeared to.  Who knows, maybe I’ll even take a little time out and find some cool techy thing to blog about.  Though I still have a big homework assignment due tomorrow and one final mid-term on the 31st to study for, so… probably not.

Tags: HES experience,jason
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Check it out!  On top of the sidebar to the right is my new Google Talk Chatbox, a feature announced by Google today.  When you click it, a window will open and you can talk to me.  Pretty spiffy.  I’m dying to try it out, so give it a click and let’s get our chat on.

Tags: Google,web 2.0
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Here is a useful HowTo for anyone who needs to keep files in sync between PCs. There are many commercial solutions out there (iDrive et al.) that facilitate this, but those can be expensive and often limit space to a few gigabytes at most. This solution allows you to synchronize as much as you need and keep costs down. It is also relatively easy to implement across multiple platforms and operating systems. Here are the basic ingredients of this design:

1. A publicly accessible machine, always connected to the Internet, that you can access via ssh. This can be a web host that allows ssh access or a machine of your own hooked up to the Internet with a static IP or dynamic DNS.
2. Unison. Don’t worry about this one. It’s a free rsync-like tool that supports bidirectional edits and can be downloaded for free.
3. Some time and patience. This method isn’t exactly for the faint of heart–but no worries, walk through step by step and you’ll get there.

If it looks like you can handle those three, read on for the details.

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Tags: howto,Linux,OS X,Windows
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I needed to do some image editing over the weekend and installed GIMP on my MacBook Pro, running OS X Leopard, using MacPorts. I was happy to find that some folks have worked hard to integrate GIMP with OS X. Included in the default ‘gimp’ port is a Gimp.app that allows easy launching of GIMP and also facilitates opening GIMP when you double click associated files.

I did have to tweak the Gimp.app package just a tad to get it working with Leopard. The package attempts to start X if it is not already running but doesn’t appear to handle Leopards switch from XFree86 to X.org. Furthermore, this sort launchd provides a launch-on-demand service that launches X11.app if an application tries to open an X $DISPLAY. Below are some quick instructions outlining what I did to get this working.

To install GIMP, install MacPorts, then open up a terminal and type:

sudo port install gimp

Grab a sandwich.

Once the install completes, type the following command from the terminal:

sudo vi \
/Applications/MacPorts/Gimp.app/Contents/Resources/script

This will open the script Leopard no longer requires in the vi editor. Feel free to use your editor of choice, but you will need to run it using sudo to have write permission. I commented out every line except the directory change, just to leave something there, but I’m fairly certain you could do without this entire script. Here’s what mine looks like:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Author: Aaron Voisine <aaron@voisine.org>


CWD="/opt/local"


#ps -wx -ocommand | grep -e '[X]11' > /dev/null
#if [ "$?" != "0" -a ! -f ~/.xinitrc ]; then
# echo "rm -f ~/.xinitrc" > ~/.xinitrc
# sed 's/xterm/# xterm/' /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc >> ~/.xinitrc
#fi


#cp -f "$CWD/bin/getdisplay.sh" /tmp/
#rm -f /tmp/display.$UID
#open-x11 /tmp/getdisplay.sh || \
#open -a XDarwin /tmp/getdisplay.sh || \
#echo ":0" > /tmp/display.$UID


#while [ "$?" == "0" -a ! -f /tmp/display.$UID ]; do
# sleep 1
#done
#export "DISPLAY=`cat /tmp/display.$UID`"


#ps -wx -ocommand | grep -e '[X]11' > /dev/null || exit 11


cd ~/
exec "$CWD/bin/gimp" "$@"

Once I had GIMP installed, I wanted a quick easy way to change my file associations. The OS X mechanism, in the file info dialog, would require me to find a file of each type I want to open in GIMP to change them. What I found was RCDefaultApp from Rubicode.

RCDefaultApp is a Mac OS X 10.2 or higher preference pane that allows a user to set the default application used for various URL schemes, file extensions, file types, MIME types, and Uniform Type Identifiers (or UTIs; MacOS 10.4 only). MacOS X uses the extension and file type settings to choose the application when opening a file in Finder, while Safari and other applications use the URL and MIME type settings at other times for content not related to a file (such as an unknown URL protocol, or a media stream).

A nice feature of this preference pane is that it allows you to view the extensions a given application is capable of opening and associate them with that application all in one place.

So, with the help of MacPorts, a quick hack, and Rubicode, I have all the power of GIMP with all the convenience of an integrated OS X application.

Tags: GIMP,howto,Mac,MacPorts,OS X
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For many years now, a battle has been raging between those in favor of open standards on the internet and those who feel their best opportunity for profitability lies in proprietary, closed protocols. This was probably symbolized most dramatically in the now nearly forgotten battle between Netscape and Microsoft. Netscape was arguably a company founded on principles opposite Microsoft’s. They embraced open standards and had a large part in popularizing many of the protocols that people today bring to mind when they think of the internet. Microsoft eliminated Netscape by integrating their browser into the operating system in a way that Netscape was unable to duplicate. I remember consciously switching to Internet Explorer back then. I couldn’t uninstall Internet Explorer and I didn’t need two browsers, so Netscape went.

Since that time there has been increasing pressure on Microsoft to give up some of these practices. It is argued that the only reason their protocols are adopted at all is because they use the Windows operating system and it’s near monopoly on the desktop to force the hand of end users. Third parties often cannot create viable alternatives because Microsoft has not published the protocol documentation necessary. Companies and individuals resort to reverse engineering in order to produce third party products compatible with Microsoft’s. Microsoft in turn condemns the reverse engineering of it’s operating system as illegal and it goes on.

In an announcement yesterday, Microsoft took a monumental step back towards cooperation with the community:

Microsoft today announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice. These changes are codified into four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions: 1) ensuring open connections; 2) promoting data portability; 3) enhancing support for industry standards; and 4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

The protocols have been published here. There is also a Slashdot article that links to a few others and also has some humorous user comments that make clear Microsoft has a long way to go. At this point, I’m unsure how this will affect the current controversies surrounding Microsoft’s assertion of it’s own standards in the place of existing open standards, such as in the case of Internet Explorer 8’s “compatibility” meta tag and the “Open XML” used in Office 2007 file formats.   No doubt this is a strategic move aimed at helping Microsoft on both of those fronts.  Regardless, it is a sure step in the right direction. I, for one, am looking forward to the next major releases of Wine and Samba.

Tags: Microsoft
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Recently I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time in the hospital and other medical facilities, first for pneumonia and then for the birth of my son. This has convinced me of the completely broken state of medical information systems and the need to bring systems for storing and exchanging patient medical data into the 21st century.

Those of you unfortunate enough to see me on a daily basis have had to put up with my scheming and brainstorming–trying to think up a better way to handle medical information electronically. Google apparently beat me to the punch. Help is on the way.  According to this post today on the Google Blog, the Cleveland Clinic is beginning a pilot program using Google’s APIs to securely transmit medial records at a patient’s request. Google is promising to give patients more control over their medical records:

By using the GData protocol already offered in many Google products, and supporting standards-based medical information formats like the Continuity of Care Record (CCR), our health efforts will help you access, store and communicate your health information. Above all, health data will remain yours — private and confidential. Only you have control over when to share it with family members and health providers.

Anyone who has been through the ridiculous ordeal of filling out authorization forms, which must be delivered in person and then faxed to transfer medical records from one provider to another (often for a fee), can appreciate what Google is trying to pull off. Apparently they have a “health team” with at least one engineer working on it. Is there any problem they aren’t solving?

Tags: Google
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