50% packet loss on my wireless network!

Now I've always had problems with my wireless router, but never this bad.

This is from 2 metres away:

Ping has started ...

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=35.500 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=13.359 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=83.702 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=98.455 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=9 ttl=128 time=60.282 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 50% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 13.359/58.260/98.455/30.988 ms

Ping has started ...

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=8480.132 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=7493.772 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=6494.477 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=5491.412 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=4490.754 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=3491.359 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=2491.809 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=1496.600 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=497.477 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 10% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 497.477/4491.977/8480.132/2578.873 ms

What the hell is going on?

I then turned the antenna on its side and I got these from Network
Utility (OS X):

Ping has started ...

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=2.717 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=3.083 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=2.876 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=5.423 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=6.824 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=5.982 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=3.871 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=3.115 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=2.946 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=9 ttl=128 time=2.711 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.711/3.955/6.824/1.457 ms

Ping has started ...

PING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=128 time=4.986 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=2.697 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=2.659 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=329.426 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=3.694 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=2.686 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=6.140 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=2.736 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=3.012 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.254: icmp_seq=9 ttl=128 time=3.351 ms

--- 192.168.1.254 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.659/36.139/329.426/97.769 ms

Solution:
Change the antenna position - make it horizontal instead of vertical.
The direction where it's pointing might make all the difference.

Okay... now LinkedIn is starting to get scary.

I accepted an Invite from a former co-workeer in LinkedIn, and then on
the next page it showed a few names under "People you may know",
including an email friend that I have never worked with before, and
with whom I'm pretty sure I don't have any common connections. How it
found her, I have no idea. I didn't enter any friends emails in
LinkedIn to check if they were on the site, so other than that I can't
explain how the system ended up suggesting her name. Has LinkedIn
become part of the Google Skynet? :P

Maven depgraph plugin: getting a better picture of your Maven dependencies

Dependency management has always been a beeyotch, and it's only gotten
worse over the years. This library needs that and that and that
library, and another jar needs that and that jar. Then you could get
one jar depending on an older version of another jar, and another
requiring a newer one. God knows this leads to simple webapps that
only have 4 classes but so many dependencies that they balloon to 14Mb
.war files!

Maven has been a big help in managing this, but the introduction of
transitive dependencies in Maven2 has also resulted in the developer
knowing even less about what libraries are being used. Granted, the
whole thing saves you from having to specify each and every one of
those dependencies, but the fact you had to do it also meant you at
least *knew* what was going in there. And if there were any errors due
to conflicting library versions, you didn't have to trawl through as
many directories to find out what the conflict was. In Maven2, this
pretty much means you have to go through the .pom files in your
repository, whereas in Maven 1 you just had to look in your project's
project.xml.

Anyway, I came across this blog post about a maven plugin that
generates a diagram showing your maven dependencies:

http://mult.ifario.us/articles/2007/03/07/ok-who-put-the-junit-jar-in-my-war

It uses the very useful GraphViz (http://www.graphviz.org/) to create
the images.

It should be as easy as running:

mvn depgraph:depgraph

Sadly, I couldn't get it to work on my PC. Looks like there's a
parameter you pass in so the plugin knows your local repository -
which is kinda strange, since shouldn't it be able to get this from
Maven, which obviously *would* already have this information? The
parameter "m_localRepository" is a required parameter but the plugin
site (http://el4j.sourceforge.net/plugins/maven-depgraph-plugin/depgraph-mojo.html)
lacks examples of the proper usage. I mucked around and *seemed* to
get it working with a call to:

mvn depgraph:depgraph -Dm_localRepository="C:\localrepository"

But again, that didn't work. One of these days I'll get it working,
but looming deadlines require my attention on more immediate things to
do.

.

Resolved: stick to Log4j for logging

A pretty clear reason why if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0122027/2003/08/15.html

" The purpose of Commons Logging is not to isolate your code from
changes in the underlying logging framework. (That's certainly easy
enough to do on your own, and not really worth doing in the first
place given the ease of switching from one logging framework to
another.) The purpose of Commons Logging is not to somehow be more
useful than actual logging frameworks by being more general. The
purpose of Commons Logging is not to somehow take the logging world by
storm. In fact, there are very limited circumstances in which Commons
Logging is useful. If you're building a stand-alone application, don't
use commons-logging. If you're building an application server, don't
use commons-logging. If you're building a moderately large framework,
don't use commons-logging. If however, like the Jakarta Commons
project, you're building a tiny little component that you intend for
other developers to embed in their applications and frameworks, and
you believe that logging information might be useful to those clients,
and you can't be sure what logging framework they're going to want to
use, then commons-logging might be useful to you."

Tomcat Native library

While working in IntelliJ and running Tomcat, I came across this message:

INFO: The Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal
performance in production environments was not found on the
java.library.path: C:\Program
Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_09\bin;.;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\System32\Wbem;C:\Program
Files\Intel\DMIX;C:\javatools\maven-2.0.6\bin;C:\javatools\apache-ant-1.7.0\bin;C:\PROGRA~2\XRay;C:\Program
Files\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program
Files\jEdit;C:\Sun\jwsdp-2.0\jwsdp-shared\bin

I'd never heard of this library before, so I had a look around and found this:

http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-5.5-doc/apr.html

The file is called tcnative-1.dll and is here: http://tomcat.heanet.ie/native/

I placed it in WINNT\System32 and all is sweet. Not that I'd notice it
much, but startup seems to have decreased from 4 to 2 seconds. :P

Launchy - application launcher for Windows, similar to Spotlight on OS X.

I've been looking for a tool similar to Spotlight on OS X that allows
you to start applications by just typing their name. Finally came upon
one - Launch @ http://www.launchy.net/

Just type Alt-Space to bring it up, then type the program name.

Much much better than screwing around with the Start Menu programs list.

(and yes, I know Spotlight does so much more than this)

OMG, Zombie outbreak! When too much Zombie is never enough.

in San Francisco!

http://flickr.com/photos/ari/sets/72157600268877631/

and Apple Store too!

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9723086-7.html

Zombies meet Scientologists - who wins? http://eatbrains.com/

More photos on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/groups/zombiemobsf/pool/

Zombie tennis players with tennis balls embedded in their back... SFX supreme!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tingley/528680945/in/pool-zombiemobsf/

LOL. :P

Maven woes #98797894 - WTF is going on? Why the hell do I continue to get these plugin resolution errors? (Problems AND Solutions)

What the hell is this "just supposed to work" idea I've somehow got into
my head? Did I accidentally drink the Kool-Aid in the 3 years we had
one of the Maven developers in our team? The dependency management
aspect is cool and all, but plugin resolution sucks so badly.

I'm trying to run the Spring-WS samples, and I can't even get past STEP
2! For chrissake, I'm already doing this from home, not going through a
proxy, directly connected via Ethernet to my router, and it is still
getting these goddamn problems getting its plugins!

$ mvn -P hsqldb sql:execute
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'sql'.
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Error building POM (may not be this project's POM).

Project ID: org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin

Reason: Error getting POM for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from
the repo
sitory: Failed to resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list
that is no
t appropriately equipped for this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: < 1 second
[INFO] Finished at: Thu May 31 04:16:24 EST 2007
[INFO] Final Memory: 1M/2M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

me@homer /spring-ws/samples/airline/hsqldb

$ mvn -P hsqldb sql:execute -U -e
+ Error stacktraces are turned on.
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'sql'.
[INFO] org.apache.maven.plugins: checking for updates from central
[INFO] org.codehaus.mojo: checking for updates from central
[INFO] artifact org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin: checking for updates
from ce
ntral
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Error building POM (may not be this project's POM).

Project ID: org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin

Reason: Error getting POM for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from
the repo
sitory: Failed to resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list
that is no
t appropriately equipped for this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Trace
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Error resolving
version
for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin': Unable to read the metadata
file for a
rtifact 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom': Error getting POM for
'org.cod
ehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from the repository: Failed to resolve
artifact, po
ssibly due to a repository list that is not appropriately equipped for
this arti
fact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.verifyPlugin(Defa
ultLifecycleExecutor.java:1266)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.getMojoDescriptor
(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:1522)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.segmentTaskListBy
AggregationNeeds(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:386)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLi
fecycleExecutor.java:138)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:334)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:125)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:272)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
at
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
at
org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
at
org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)

at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by:
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.PluginVersionResolutionException: Err
or resolving version for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin': Unable to
read th
e metadata file for artifact 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom':
Error get
ting POM for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from the repository:
Failed to
resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list that is not
appropriately e
quipped for this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolveMe
taVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:681)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolvePl
uginVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:186)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolvePl
uginVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:90)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.verifyPlugin(DefaultPlug
inManager.java:166)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.verifyPlugin(Defa
ultLifecycleExecutor.java:1257)
... 14 more
Caused by:
org.apache.maven.artifact.metadata.ArtifactMetadataRetrievalException
: Unable to read the metadata file for artifact
'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plu
gin:pom': Error getting POM for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin'
from the re
pository: Failed to resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list
that is
not appropriately equipped for this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

at
org.apache.maven.project.artifact.MavenMetadataSource.retrieve(MavenM
etadataSource.java:134)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolveMe
taVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:672)
... 18 more
Caused by: org.apache.maven.project.ProjectBuildingException: Error
getting POM
for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from the repository: Failed to
resolve
artifact, possibly due to a repository list that is not appropriately
equipped f
or this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

at
org.apache.maven.project.DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.findModelFromRepo
sitory(DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java:560)
at
org.apache.maven.project.DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.buildFromReposito
ry(DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java:234)
at
org.apache.maven.project.artifact.MavenMetadataSource.retrieve(MavenM
etadataSource.java:105)
... 19 more
Caused by:
org.apache.maven.artifact.resolver.ArtifactResolutionException: Faile
d to resolve artifact, possibly due to a repository list that is not
appropriate
ly equipped for this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

from the specified remote repositories:
central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2)

at
org.apache.maven.artifact.resolver.DefaultArtifactResolver.resolve(De
faultArtifactResolver.java:190)
at
org.apache.maven.artifact.resolver.DefaultArtifactResolver.resolve(De
faultArtifactResolver.java:73)
at
org.apache.maven.project.DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.findModelFromRepo
sitory(DefaultMavenProjectBuilder.java:526)
... 21 more
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 3 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Thu May 31 04:39:40 EST 2007
[INFO] Final Memory: 1M/2M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, so the main error is this:

Caused by: org.apache.maven.project.ProjectBuildingException: Error
getting POM
for 'org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin' from the repository: Failed to
resolve
artifact, possibly due to a repository list that is not appropriately
equipped f
or this artifact's metadata.
org.codehaus.mojo:sql-maven-plugin:pom:1.1-SNAPSHOT

Does anyone actually check this metadata before dumping it in the
fucking maven repository?

In the .m2\repository\org\codehaus\mojo\sql-maven-plugin directory on my
PC, I have a file maven-metadata.xml which contains:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>sql-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<versioning>
<latest>1.1-SNAPSHOT</latest>
<versions>
<version>1.0-beta-1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<version>1.0-beta-2-SNAPSHOT</version>
<version>1.0-beta-2-20060821.223722-1</version>
<version>1.0-beta-2-20060821.234648-2</version>
<version>1.0-beta-2-20060822.021210-3</version>
<version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<version>1.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
</versions>
<lastUpdated>20070221045741</lastUpdated>
</versioning>
</metadata>

However, if I go to the URL:

http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/codehaus/mojo/sql-maven-plugin/maven-metadata.xml

The file contains this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>sql-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.0-beta-1</version>
<versioning>
<latest>1.0</latest>
<release>1.0</release>

<versions>
<version>1.0-beta-1</version>
<version>1.0-beta-2</version>
<version>1.0</version>
</versions>
<lastUpdated>20070125135425</lastUpdated>
</versioning>

</metadata>

So where in heaven's name did Maven get the metadata file that got
downloaded to my computer?

=======================

Okay, looks like I found the problem:

<mirrors>
<mirror>
<id>codehaus snapshots</id>
<name>Codehaus snapshots</name>
<url>http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org/
<mirrorOf>central</mirrorOf>
</mirror>
</mirrors>

Which is copied from a setting in my work PC settings.xml. I don't think
it should be there at all. Maven ends up copying the latest version of
the plugin, or trying to anyway, since there is no 1.1-SNAPSHOT release,
only a timestamped jar:

http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org/org/codehaus/mojo/sql-maven-plugin/1.1-SNAPSHOT/sql-maven-plugin-1.1-20070221.045741-1.jar

<http://snapshots.repository.codehaus.org/org/codehaus/mojo/sql-maven-plugin/1.1-SNAPSHOT/sql-maven-plugin-1.1-20070221.045741-1.jar>

Ah, better. It works now, but I had to move up a directory to
/spring-ws/samples/airline/

But wait... there's more:

me@homer /spring-ws/samples/airline
$ mvn -P hsqldb sql:execute
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'sql'.
[INFO]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
[INFO] Building Spring WS Airline Sample
[INFO] task-segment: [sql:execute]
[INFO]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
[INFO] [sql:execute]
[INFO] Executing file:
d:\work\careerone\spring-ws\samples\airline\src\main\sql\
hsqldb\airline-schema.sql
[INFO] Executing file:
d:\work\careerone\spring-ws\samples\airline\src\main\sql\
airline-dataload.sql
[INFO] 18 of 18 SQL statements executed successfully
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 2 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Thu May 31 04:56:53 EST 2007
[INFO] Final Memory: 2M/4M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good. But then.

me@homer /spring-ws/samples/airline
$ mvn -P hsqldb jetty:run
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'jetty'.
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] The plugin 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin' does
not exis
t or no valid version could be found
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1 second
[INFO] Finished at: Thu May 31 04:58:12 EST 2007
[INFO] Final Memory: 1M/4M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, try it with -e parameter.

me@homer /spring-ws/samples/airline
$ mvn -P hsqldb jetty:run -e
+ Error stacktraces are turned on.
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'jetty'.
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] The plugin 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin' does
not exis
t or no valid version could be found
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Trace
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: The plugin
'org.apache.m
aven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin' does not exist or no valid version
could be
found
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.verifyPlugin(Defa
ultLifecycleExecutor.java:1286)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.getMojoDescriptor
(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:1469)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.segmentTaskListBy
AggregationNeeds(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:386)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLi
fecycleExecutor.java:138)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:334)
at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:125)
at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:272)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.
java:39)
at
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAcces
sorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
at
org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
at
org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)

at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by:
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.PluginVersionNotFoundException: The p
lugin 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin' does not exist or
no vali
d version could be found
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolvePl
uginVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:228)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.version.DefaultPluginVersionManager.resolvePl
uginVersion(DefaultPluginVersionManager.java:90)
at
org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.verifyPlugin(DefaultPlug
inManager.java:166)
at
org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.verifyPlugin(Defa
ultLifecycleExecutor.java:1257)
... 14 more
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1 second
[INFO] Finished at: Thu May 31 04:58:22 EST 2007
[INFO] Final Memory: 1M/3M
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isn't maven-surefire-plugin one of the core plugins that maven is
supposed to already know about?

AAAAAARGH. Tried running it with -e -X parameter. Lightbulb moment.
Again, a wayward setting I pasted from somewhere else that screwed
things up for maven.

In trying to fix the sql-maven-plugin issues, I had placed these
settings in, but forgot to replace them with appropriate values.

<profiles>
<profile>
<id>my-snap-repo-profile</id>
<activation>
<activeByDefault>true</activeByDefault>
</activation>
<repositories>
<repository>
<id>my-snap-repo</id>
<name>My In-House SNAPSHOT Repository</name>
<url>http://www.my-server.com/maven-snap
<releases>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</releases>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
<updatePolicy>always</updatePolicy>
<checksumPolicy>warn</checksumPolicy>
</snapshots>
</repository>
</repositories>
<pluginRepositories>
<pluginRepository>
<id>my-snap-plugin-repo</id>
<name>My In-House SNAPSHOT Plugin Repository</name>
<url>http://www.my-server.com/maven-snap
<releases>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</releases>
<snapshots>
<enabled>true</enabled>
<updatePolicy>interval:15</updatePolicy>
<checksumPolicy>fail</checksumPolicy>
</snapshots>
</pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>
</profile>
</profiles>

running it with -X then showed the problem:

[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'jetty'.
[DEBUG] Skipping disabled repository my-snap-plugin-repo
[DEBUG] Skipping disabled repository my-snap-plugin-repo
[DEBUG] Skipping disabled repository my-snap-plugin-repo
[DEBUG] maven-compiler-plugin: resolved to version 2.0.2 from repository
central

[DEBUG] Retrieving parent-POM: org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugins::8
for pro
ject: null:maven-compiler-plugin:maven-plugin:2.0.2 from the repository.
[DEBUG] Retrieving parent-POM: org.apache.maven:maven-parent::5 for
project: org
.apache.maven.plugins:maven-plugins:pom:8 from the repository.
[DEBUG] Retrieving parent-POM: org.apache:apache::3 for project:
org.apache.mave
n:maven-parent:pom:5 from the repository.
[DEBUG] Skipping disabled repository my-snap-plugin-repo
[DEBUG] maven-surefire-plugin: using locally installed snapshot
[DEBUG] Artifact not found - using stub model: Unable to determine the
latest ve
rsion

org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:pom:LATEST

[DEBUG] Using defaults for missing POM
org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-p
lugin:pom:LATEST
[DEBUG] maven-surefire-plugin: using locally installed snapshot
[DEBUG] Artifact not found - using stub model: Unable to determine the
release v
ersion

org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:pom:RELEASE

[DEBUG] Using defaults for missing POM
org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-p
lugin:pom:RELEASE
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] BUILD ERROR
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] The plugin 'org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin' does
not exis
t or no valid version could be found
[INFO]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

So eventually, Maven decides "OK, I'll just go find the RELEASE version
of maven-surefire-plugin, but then it's pointing to a nonsense plugin
repository. Which still doesn't make sense because that plugin
repository is supposed to be disabled. So does this mean having a
setting in there disables Maven from doing any further searches on the
main repo1.maven.org repository? Looks like it.

Nah, that wasn't the problem. The problem was the version I have
installed locally - it looks like when I installed it manually, it
didn't get set up with any version info, so the metadata.xml for that
and maven-resources plugin reads:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
</metadata>

and

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
</metadata>

The fix? Remove those installed jars and just let maven re-fetch them
from the repository.

Maven then re-installed these plugins and we now have:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.1.3</version>
<versioning>
<latest>2.3</latest>
<release>2.3</release>
<versions>
<version>2.0-beta-1</version>
<version>2.0</version>
<version>2.1</version>
<version>2.1.1</version>
<version>2.1.2</version>
<version>2.1.3</version>
<version>2.2</version>
<version>2.3</version>
</versions>
<lastUpdated>20070301014816</lastUpdated>
</versioning>
</metadata>

and

<?xml version="1.0"?><metadata>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<versioning>
<latest>2.2</latest>
<release>2.2</release>
<versions>
<version>2.0-beta-1</version>
<version>2.0-beta-2</version>
<version>2.0</version>
<version>2.1</version>
<version>2.2</version>
</versions>
<lastUpdated>20060514041911</lastUpdated>
</versioning>
</metadata>

Finally got the sample app running. Looks like installing a plugin
without version number (eg, the -Dversion parameter) caused that last error.

Cough up extra $$ to see Marilyn Manson's great grandad! Oooh yeah, that'll work.

I got an email from Ticketek announcing pre-sales for Alice Cooper's tour. This bit caught my eye:

During this pre-sale, a Premium Access fee of $20 per ticket**
has been applied to ensure the allocation of premium seating prior to
general public sale.

Okay, so you mean pre-sales for premium seats will now cost $20 extra, over the normal cost of the Premium ticket - which tends to be overpriced as it is!

What's next? An early bird pre-pre-sale, with $20 extra on top of the Premium Access fee? W000t!

Come on, Ticketek, you know you want to.

Magic hex numbers

So rumour has it there's this magic code that's kinda like that video in The Ring. Post it on your blog and then seven days later, your blog will dieeeee!

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5b D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

....click

...DROPPED CARRIER

MP3s to make you mellow

A few months ago I went on a self-help, hypnosis bender. Or rather, I browsed websites and downloaded mp3s on said topics. I didn't really follow all of the tips or listened to all the mp3s. There just wasn't enough time! I tried, but eventually got bored. The new Justin T. album was more fun.

For a few weeks, I had Anthony Robbins on my headphones while I walked to work in the morning. Then I started thinking about his teeth, and how much work he must put in to keep them gleaming. And how fun it would be to own your own island. Wait, maybe that was Richard Branson. Or maybe they both own their own islands and are neighbours in the South Pacific. Whatever.

One of the sites I got the mp3s from had a lot of audio files, but it pissed me off when I listened to them because they were all read out by a text to speech program. Ugh. And not like Hal from 2001. More like Radiohead's "Fitter, Happier". Anyway, I didn't really get much out of them, and they didn't seem to work.

The good people at The Positivity Blog are recommending this file called "Double Induction", and it's supposed to put you in a state of relaxation for up to 24 hours. The comments from people seem to indicate that it works. And it's free, with no risk of prosecution, unlike some other things I can think of but can't afford right now...

Now if only someone could come up with that "learn Kung-fu subliminally" mp3. Would be easier with a plug-in-the-back-of-the-neck option ala The Matrix but I'm kinda chicken when it comes to cybernetic enhancements to my puny frame.

Crypto scandal: Alice and Bob are having an affair

I always wondered why Alice and Bob needed all that encryption for their messages. Now I know.



Alice and Bob are the example names regularly used in explanations and discussions of public key cryptography. "Eve, an eavesdropper, is usually a passive attacker. While she can listen in on messages between Alice and Bob, she cannot modify them." These two have been the talk of the geekosphere for quite a while now.

Stumbled on this via tabo @ aureal.

Update on Powerbook problems with WPA and wi-fi

I don't know what happened, but this afternoon, my wi-fi connection at home was going crazy. First, the signal just vanished, even though my Powerbook was still at the same location as yesterday - downstairs in the living room. I tried changing channels a few times, fearing that it was conflicting with someone else's network or a cordless phone, or whatever. No dice. Advice I found suggests to try Channels 1, 6 and 11.

In doing so I discovered utilities such as iStumbler and Air Traffic Control for Dashboard, both of which are pretty handy at checking which networks are being detected by Airport and what channel they are using. The only noteworthy difference between the two for me was that the former has a nice looking graph of the samples it takes of the signal, and the latter also displays the type of encryption used. (iStumbler also handles Bluetooth and Bonjour signals)

Knowing what channels were being used didn't really help, since my neighbours were already using different channels. I took the laptop upstairs and put it beside my modem - no dice. The signal was still at zero. Turning Airport off and on, then re-entering my WPA password only resulted in the message "There was an error joining the Airport Network..." I removed any entries for the WPA password in Keychain, typed in the password s-l-o-w-l-y in case of any typos - nah, still no wi-fi.

Finally I shut everything down. Turned off the modem/router, left it off for 30 seconds, turned back on. Then shut down my Powerbook and restarted. Works now.

And you thought the days of "restart the machine if things still don't work" were a thing of the past just because you'd moved to OS X? Think again.

Oh great, my signal just dropped out again - despite my Powerbook sitting here one metre away from my wireless router! WTF is going on here? Restarting the router seems to fix it, but for how long? Aaargh.

I never had these problems when I was using WEP. Maybe I should upgrade my modem, since I'm already on ADSL2+ and it only does ADSL. Then maybe try using WPA2.

I've just found that MAC address filtering doesn't offer much security, since "Wireless clients send their MAC address in the clear, regardless of whether the AP requires WEP or not." I'll test this using a KisMAC, an OS X packet sniffer.

The Polyphonic Spree, Enmore Theatre, Sydney, 27 Jan 2005

Found this while archiving in Gmail. Don't think i ever sent this to anyone except the band. Added a few comments in [italics].

=============

Confused post-gig ramblings, which I'll reorder into coherence and post in the forums later:

I've just come back from their gig at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. This has been the strangest, most uplifting, most ecstatic gig that I have ever been in.

I'd never actually heard their music before I got the tickets to the gig. I'd read some articles about them, and of all the post-Big Day Out shows - the Hives and Chemical Brothers also had gigs on the same night - decided this would have to be the most unique. Twenty-piece plus band, with guitars, drums, horns AND theremin, how could it fail? I asked a guy at the music store to describe what they sounded like - was it like choir music, 60s pop, or more like gospel? He had one word - "happy". I eventually managed to get a copy of the album, but had only listened to it a few times, and the most familiar ones have been the poppier tunes like Hold Me Now and Two Thousand Places. Unfortunately, I won't be able to give an accurate setlist, as the songs are still quite new to me, and I don't have the first album.

My friend and I arrived to see support act Sarah Blasko nearing the end of her set, to my regret. Damn. The last song was pretty good, with some layered vocal effects at the end that reminded me of recent Bjork. I wonder if this was a single. Sounds like it. Faster than the previous song.

I'm glad I didn't get any seated tickets. I originally wanted to get seats for the dress circle/balcony, but they only had General Admission, and Reserved Seating at the bottom. Since everyone was gonna stand up eventually, seats at the bottom would be useless anyway.

What does it all remind me of?

• Sesame Street --- pampam, papap, papapam, papaman.. sunny days sweeping the clouds away...
  


• Pokemon - because they're also cute
  


• Sanrio - because it's the asian symbol for happy, hehehe...
  


• The intro to the Velvet Underground's "Head Held High", which starts with these voices in harmony going "haaa..." then the drums kick, and you keep on jumping back to the start, so you can figure out which air drums to "play" when you're pretending to be Mo Tucker... did
  the kick drum come first, or was that a snare?
  


• Speaking of "haa..." does anyone remember that Jim Henson animated movie from the 80s, the Dark Crystal? There was a part where all the turtle-like creatures come out and also go.. "haaa...", and it piles up, all these deep bassy tones converging...
  


• Jesus Christ Superstar, though not as wide-eyed and funky. Hmm.. must be the robes and the hair then!
  


• tibetan throat singing
  

Oh my god, I've got a crush on someone from the band! O gorgeous Lady of The Orange Robe, of the first row in the choir, standing beside the lady in Red robe, who was also looking extremely cool in her choreography. Love those head-shakes! Does anyone know all their names, and more importantly, *her* name? There's a list of names on the PS website, but no pictures to match the names to!

[I later found out her name: Apotsala Wilson]

We're all high, and we don't wanna come down!

There was one part of the gig where they're playing a song, and then it all goes quiet and everyone onstage was standing still in a pose, except for Tim, who got the audience to start singing this single note for what seemed like ages - ME: "Haaaa......" "Aaaaa......" "Aaaaa......" "Aaaaa......" "Aaaaa......"

They returned to the stage for their encore by coming through the theatre entrance, and going through the crowd.

Little kid in robes at the side of the stage on his little drum kit, sooo cute!! Later, the percussionist came to him and got him to play tambourine.

[This was lead singer Tim De Laughter's son]

Percussion guy comes out and lifts one of the drumkit cymbals and stand, and goes to the left speaker.. I think the's the same guy who went offstage and into the crowd with the cymbals.

Drummer comes out with drum hanging from his neck, like in a marching band

Songs played, in no order:

A Long Day Continues
Hold Me Now
Two Thousand Places
One Man Show
Suitcase Calling
When The Fool Becomes A King

I dont' have the prev. album, but this song -
"It's the sun... It's the sun.. " - must be from that one...

Short verse of "Oh what a night"
A bit of "You are my sunshine"... don't know if this was a request from someone in the audience, but I assume so, seeing Tim holding up a sheet of paper with "You are my sunshine" written in red marker.

Last song of the night - Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (!) - main song and reprise.


[Best cover ever of Sgt Pepper! They played it regularly during this tour. My friend in San Francisco also heard it there.]

The dials were always at 11. Not in terms of volume, but in how it made us all feel. Every song was played like it was the last song of the night.

You don't watch The Polyphonic Spree - you become one of them, if only for the hour and a half that you share the same room.

The Story of E

"After hitting it big during the dot-com boom of the 90's, the tech
world's best-known letter comes out of seclusion for a rare
conversation with BidnessWeek's Steve Rosenblush."

http://www.cerado.com/web20-interview-with-e.htm

Current linkies

A link in an old "starred" email in Gmail led me on this 2 hour round
of click, click, click, following links that took me for a bit more
reading on this low-level web 2.0 goodness:

http://www.geobloggers.com/archives/

http://geobloggers.com/archives/2007/03/31/geonames-rdf-triplr-json-yahoo-pipes-and-the-semantic-web-oh-my/

* Triplr - online tool to transform feeds into different formats:

http://triplr.org/

"Form a URI in your head that is http://triplr.org/output format/input URI

Give that to a web browser or other application."

* geodata - free geographic data

http://www.geonames.org/

"About Geonames
The geonames.org geographical database is available for download free
of charge under a creative commons attribution license. It contains
over eight million geographical names and consists of 6.3 million
unique features whereof 2.2 million populated places and 1.8 million
alternate names. All features are categorized into one out of nine
feature classes and further subcategorized into one out of 645 feature
codes. (more statistics ...).

The data is accessible free of charge through a number of webservices
and a daily database export. Geonames.org is already serving up to
over 3 million web service requests per day."

* Comparison of JSON vs XML, and how with increasing complexity, both
of them start to look pretty.. well, complex:

http://www.megginson.com/blogs/quoderat/2007/01/03/all-markup-ends-up-looking-like-xml/

* More JSON goodies:

http://www.json.org/xml.html

* Yahoo Pipes - Just started playing around with this. Awesome stuff!

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=overview

http://www.hunlock.com/blogs/Yahoo_Pipes--RSS_without_Server_Side_Scripts

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/docs?doc=tutorials

changed MTU with DrTCP.exe --> MTU=1464

Used DrTcp.EXE to change MTU settings in winxp to 1464.

Why this value?

Because of this:

-- 1464 seems to be the biggest value I can set for the ping without
getting the "Packet neesd to be defragmented but DF set" message from
ping.

-- how this relates to the MTU I have set in my modem. I don't know.
Currently set to 1492 but changed it to MTU=1500 because it is now
back to using PPPoA

C:\>ping -f -l 1472 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1472 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.254: Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1500 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1500 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\>ping -f -l 1500 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1500 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\>ping -f -l 1472 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1472 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.254: Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1200 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1200 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1200 time=261ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1200 time=264ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1200 time=279ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 3, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 261ms, Maximum = 279ms, Average = 268ms

C:>ping -f -l 1300 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1300 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1300 time=262ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 262ms, Maximum = 262ms, Average = 262ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1400 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1400 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1400 time=273ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1400 time=269ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 269ms, Maximum = 273ms, Average = 271ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1450 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1450 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1450 time=272ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 1, Received = 1, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 272ms, Maximum = 272ms, Average = 272ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1472 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1472 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),

C:\>ping -f -l 1470 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1470 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),

C:\>ping -f -l 1460 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1460 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1460 time=263ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1460 time=263ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 263ms, Maximum = 263ms, Average = 263ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1465 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1465 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),

C:\>ping -f -l 1463 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1463 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1463 time=264ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1463 time=267ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 264ms, Maximum = 267ms, Average = 265ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1464 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1464 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=262ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=266ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=264ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=263ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 262ms, Maximum = 266ms, Average = 263ms

C:\>ping -f -l 1465 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1465 bytes of data:

Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 0, Lost = 2 (100% loss),
Control-C

C:\>ping -f -l 1464 www.broadbandreports.com

Pinging broadbandreports.com [209.123.109.175] with 1464 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=273ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=262ms TTL=51
Reply from 209.123.109.175: bytes=1464 time=263ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 209.123.109.175:
Packets: Sent = 3, Received = 3, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 262ms, Maximum = 273ms, Average = 266ms

Setting up Airport Extreme to use WPA-Personal on a Powerbook G4

I've been trying for quite a while, but not really hard enough, to set up my Powerbook to use WPA instead of WEP for its wi-fi connection. I finally got it working!

1. Enable ESSID Broadcast on your wireless modem. Restrict the clients that can connect to your network by setting up a list of allowed MAC addresses.

On the modem's Wireless settings, the "ESSID Broadcast" field must be set to "Enable". I found that whenever this was Disabled, I would get the error on my Powerbook when I tried to create a new Network entry:

"The wireless network [network name] does not support the requested encryption method."

This error occurs even if I entered the correct WPA key.

If you really want to turn ESSID Broadcast off, you can still do so by first connecting from your Powerbook while ESSID Broadcast is enabled. Then after that, you can go into your modem's settings and set it back to Disabled.

However, if you turn Airport off, or lose the connection to the network, you won't be able to go back unless you re-enable ESSID Broadcast.

A better way of ensuring no one else connects to your wireless network is to set up a list of allowed clients. In my modem, I went into Wireless Client Filter settings and put in the MAC address of my Powerbook's Airport card. Set the "Filter Action" to "Allowed".

In OS X, you get this value by using Network Utility. Click on the Info tab, then copy the values listed in the Hardware Address field.

Note that my modem is a Billion - BIPAC-743GE. I don't know if this fault/feature is specific to Billion modems or my model. For any other modems, YMMV.

2. On your Powerbook, ,make sure you WPA key is in ASCII and is 63 characters long

I'd previously tried creating Network entry using a shorter WPA key and it didn't work. I kept getting a message "There was an error joining the Airport Network [network name]"

(2.5 hours later)

Shit. I went into my modem settings and tested the above statement, and entered a shorter phrase for testing. I then entered the same values in my Powerbook. Tried to connect and it failed.

I then entered the original values in the modem, saved the settings, then restarted it. Did the same on the Powerbook, changing the password in KeyChain. Didn't work. Network Utility crashed continuously. Re-entered the values a couple of times. No dice.

Then I connected the Powerbook via Ethernet cable, and turned Airport off. Browsed a few pages. I disconnected the cable, then turned Airport back on. It was working, and selected the default network that I had set up.

So what was the actual problem? I have no idea. Maybe some magic gremlin in OS X feels happier when it detects an internet connection via Ethernet, then decides to let WPA work. Aaaargh!

I could have saved two and a half hours of my life by just disabling security or going back to using WEP, since I'd already restricted the wireless clients anyway.

Getting problems with Taiyo Yuden

How ironic. I've started burning a backup set of my photos using my newly-opened stack of Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs bought from MSY, the discs that are supposedly the best brand in the business, and I've already had 3 coasters, out of the 9 I've used so far.  I'm still checking if it's related to the speed that I'm using... previously I could only burn at 4x, even though the TDK case says 1-16x, and have rarely had issues.  But this time Nero displayed the 8x option as default, but it failed during verification.  I then tried burning at 6x but only got one disc fine,  then the second one also failed. I'll try using 4x for the next ones, after I finish with the TDK disc I'm using as "control" for my test.  Arrrgh.

So possible causes:

1. Burning speed - previously only burnt using 4x so I should try doing the TY discs at 4x
2. Hardware problem - forum posts I've seen have mentioned that sometimes the lens getting dirty can cause this, so I should try burning using the TDK DVD-R blanks I still have. 
3. The Taiyo Yuden DVDs I have are either fake or a bad batch.   (I'd like to think MSY only source from genuine dealers, but at those prices, kinda makes you wonder -- $53 for 100 Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs)

Not happy! >:(

Copy del.icio.us bookmarks to Google bookmarks

Ever wanted to be able to just restrict a Google search to only go
across the ones you've already bookmarked? Google can do it by
searching only sites in your Google bookmarks. Unfortunately, I don't
use Google bookmarks, as all my bookmarking is done in del.icio.us.
You can do it by going to this site that has a script which uploads
your del.icio.us bookmarks and puts it in Google.

http://blog.persistent.info/2006/10/import-your-delicious-bookmarks-into.html

Warning though: you will have to log in with your del.icio.us login. To be safe, just change your password before using this utility, then change it back to the original once the import process has finished.