Skip to content

Music

MDM Migration for macOS

Here’s my little tale about MDMs. It’s a history, plus how we migrated from one platform to another, why we did, and the ouches along the way. AirWatch on iPads At my first MacAdmins at PSU, I was speaking to a fellow macadmin about the pain of managing iPads using Configurator, Apple’s in-house product to manage iPads. He said he was in a similar pain and then moved to AirWatch, a Mobile Device Management system (MDM). AirWatch, along with Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP) got me where I needed. I could wirelessly provision my iPads and install applications from Apple’s Volume Purchasing Program (VPP), which is basically the App Store… Read More »MDM Migration for macOS

Doctor Who Serial 108 – The Horns of Nimon

Part One “I’ll go check that the cargo is safe.” Walks into a room with 10 people scared and sitting on the floor in yellow jumpsuits, “WEAKLING SCUM.” This guy’s an asshole. Is that Space Moses? Oy! “You’ve been to Anith?” “Yes, but not yet.” The Nimon is terrible! Jeezy Creezy! Part Two Wow, Doctor Who‘s special effects have never been good, but that spinning TARDIS bouncing off of the planetoid is incredible. Romana! How can you lose your sonic screwdriver? This dude is calling her a space pirate! YAR! Wow, the centre column of the TARDIS shakes a lot when it rises and lowers. Nice, the Doctor got to… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 108 – The Horns of Nimon

zsh on macOS 10.15 Catalina

Back when bash was the default shell for macOS, I had updated the .bash_profile file to change the prompt on my computer. Well, that doesn’t work with zsh, it seems. In bash, I had it set by adding this line to the ~/.bash_profile file. export PS1=”\d \t \w   💩  ” Now in zsh is in the ~/.zshrc file, and just copying and pasting that into it didn’t work. It doesn’t seem to like the \ commands. Turns out that it now uses % commands, but it’s not a one to one relationship, so I thought I’d map it out to try to figure out what is what, because Googling… Read More »zsh on macOS 10.15 Catalina

Doctor Who Serial 085 – The Seeds of Doom

Part One Antarctic explorers found something strange. Dunbar doesn’t like or believe the Doctor. Shouldn’t people know by now? That guy is evil! He’s wearing black gloves, standing too straight, and his suit is impeccable. I think he’s a plant. Oh, shit! The alien plant has its first victim. The Doctor is such a jerk! Uh oh! The vegetation eats the animals. And now there are invaders. Part Two The strangers have a gun and are planning to steal the vegetable! I think they’re going to die. One of them seems logical. The other seems like an asshole. Maybe if you don’t say “an alien lifeform” with a shit-eating grin,… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 085 – The Seeds of Doom

MySpace

A friend of mine pointed me to a podcast that was doing an episode about MySpace pages. She wanted me to submit to them about my MySpace. They never contacted me, so I thought I’d post it here. I was never a fan of MySpace, and I refused to have a MySpace page for the longest time. I enjoy good design and MySpace was the opposite of that. That all changed one day when I was out record shopping and found a 7″ record from Canada’s 1979 federal election. To give you some context, Pierre Trudeau had been prime minister since 1968. Joe Clark was the leader of the now-defunct… Read More »MySpace

Recollection Volume 42 – Gaslight

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron 2.0. Today computron chooses… Album: Gaslight b/w Rimb Nugget Artist: The Ugly Ducklings Released: 1967 Format(s) I own it on: 7″ The Ugly Ducklings were a Toronto band and Gaslight was their biggest hit. This has been sitting in my drafts folder for almost a year. I seem to do this, get stuck on a single review and not power through. Well, I’m doing it. Gaslight is a weird song. It’s about a woman gaslighting the singer. Kinda. I think. Either way, he’s in an unhealthy… Read More »Recollection Volume 42 – Gaslight

Recollection Volume 41 – Original Music From The Motion Picture “The Such”

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron 2.0. Today computron chooses… Album: Original Music From The Motion Picture “The Such” Artist: Elevator Through Released: 1998 Format(s) I own it on: CD After the break up of Eric’s Trip, Rick White began some home recordings under the name Elevator To Hell, eventually adding Eric’s Trip drummer Mark Gaudet, and Orange Glass alumnus and White’s then-wife, Tara White. Elevator To Hell eventually became Elevator Through who later became Elevator. Elevator was one of the best psychedelic bands in Canada during the 1990s and 2000s. This… Read More »Recollection Volume 41 – Original Music From The Motion Picture “The Such”

Recollection Volume 40 – On The Beach

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron. Today computron chooses… Album: On The Beach Artist: Neil Young Released: 1974 Format(s) I own it on: CD This is the final selection by Computron 1.0. It was a FileMaker database, that somehow went missing. I don’t know where the file ended up. As I unpacked from my move, I recreated Computron as a Google Sheet. The next entry will be generated from that. I haven’t been able to put down On The Beach, it’s one of Neil Young’s best records. I’ve had this record on loop… Read More »Recollection Volume 40 – On The Beach

Recollection Volume 39 – Another Side Of Bob Dylan

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron. Today computron chooses… Album: Another Side Of Bob Dylan Artist: Bob Dylan Released: 1964 Format(s) I own it on: CD/Vinyl I was excited for this one. I don’t listen to Bob Dylan much these days, but still like his music. Back in the high school days, this was one of my favourites. Something changed. I don’t know exactly what it was, but here I am, nearly three years after having started this post, and I’m only just getting back to it. It didn’t help that the FileMaker… Read More »Recollection Volume 39 – Another Side Of Bob Dylan

Wonderwall

  Between 1968 and 1975, George Harrison released six albums on the Beatles’ record label, Apple. The first record Harrison released was called Wonderwall Music, it was the soundtrack to a film directed by Joe Massot called Wonderwall. Maybe I should watch this film then. Wonderwall tells the story of obsession. A scientist is obsessed with his work. His life revolves around it and he doesn’t notice anything around him. Not his coworkers, not his apartment. He lives amongst the stacks of papers that line the walls of his apartment. Suddenly, in a rage, Professor Collins knocks a frame off his wall, exposing a hole. Through this hole he spies in… Read More »Wonderwall