Archive for February, 2006
February 23, 2006 at 6:36 pm · Filed under General
The iMac I have at work has an iSight, which is a decent camera. The picture I had taken for my OS X account was better than previous pictures I had. So, I wanted to get that picture and use it for my Plaxo personal card. Well, after searching in a few places, I couldn’t find it. After a bit of digging, I finally found it. If you need this, then this post is for you.
So, when you setup your account on OS X, you have the option of taking a photo. This photo is then stored with your account. You can see the picture in the System Preferences when you look at your account. Of course, you can also change it again… right there. If an app can use your picture, (like iChat, Address Book, or Mail), it can just use that one. The mystery, though, is where that picture gets stored.
Well, since it is associated with your account, it gets stored in a central location on the machine. (i.e. Not your home directory). I guess this simplifies the retrieval of these photos when the various systems need those photos (login window or the user switcher). So, I took a look in the netinfo store for my user account (ah, just like ye ole NextSTEP)… and lo, there is the path to the photo. Apparently, it stores the stuff in /Library/Caches/.
The exact name depends on your user id or uid. To get this number, just run id in a terminal. For example, my uid is 502. So, for my user id, it would use the name /Library/Caches/com.apple.user502pictureCache.tiff for my photo.
Awesome, done. All I had to do was open the file and then save it as a JPEG via Preview.
February 15, 2006 at 11:01 am · Filed under General
Here is an article, at EE Times, on the new Microsoft Vista OS and how it will start using flash memory in two new interesting ways. This will mean better performance for all forms of PC’s (desktop and laptops). This is kind of similar to the old TRAM idea, but more specific and toned down. They will probably be using $40 1GByte Flash parts to pull this off.
February 14, 2006 at 6:33 pm · Filed under General
Made a simple color picker app. It is a universal binary. Let me know how it runs for you, or if it is useful. You can get to it here.
February 9, 2006 at 4:11 pm · Filed under General
Now that I have a new car, iTunes, and a little bit of a commute… naturally, I would want some decent sounds to listen to.
So I started looking at what it would take to get the car hooked up with an ipod, since that would probably be the easiest way to enjoy music.
Essentially it is a mess. I found a few sites where people have modified their car to hook up to an iPod and the results are expensive. Usually, there is a little box that emulates a CD changer which then talks to the iPod in the Apple iPod remote protocol. These boxes cost about $200 and require you to pull the head unit out. For a while, the hardware hacker in me said ‘hey, I could do this.’. Then my reality about how much time I have hit home and I came to my senses 
This whole thing just shows how lack of standards cause problems. What if the auto industry standardizes on a connector… will it be Apple’s iPod connector? Why does the wiring in a car have to be such a mess? Why isn’t it just a network rather than the mess of cables they have right now?
For now, I’ll just burn a few CD’s and then deal with this later. I mean, I don’t even have an iPod.
February 9, 2006 at 3:44 pm · Filed under General
Saw the site mentioned yesterday, but it didn’t work.
Then Mark Jen was riling people up at work to check it out … and my buddy Jim was giving it kudos too on his blog.
I re-checked it out… Zillow is very cool and handy.
February 9, 2006 at 3:36 pm · Filed under General
Saw this over at projectionist and then on Steve’s blog.
These guys over at NYU take the AudioPad stuff to the next level.
Very cool!
Check it out!
February 9, 2006 at 3:35 pm · Filed under General
Link here from Jack. Weird. I just looked at the photos, not the backstory. I’m perplexed.
Go and be confused.
February 8, 2006 at 10:55 pm · Filed under General
Ok, I’m no music snob…. really… but it does disappoint when you can’t get the music you want.
itunes music store is going against this trend, and delivering the music I want. It isn’t perfect, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t pulling it off. I have found more music there than I couldn’t find anywhere else. My old test used to be Alien Sex Fiend with “I walk the line”. Now most music stores can pull that off.
Today, I went for some old… (yeah, 90’s is fucking old skool now, governor) … Karl Hendrix and Archers. What happens? They fricking have it… that is what happens. Then I search for the real tough nut… old Helium. Bzzzzt. No go. I like their old song ‘XXX’ (hence the image above), but it is not there.
So, I do buy some music, and they made me happy. Very cool!
I can’t wait… ok… I can wait…. but it will be nice when I can finally pull video up on the ole mediatron and see movies that people left for dead.
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