adjusting to using a Mac

I restarted my mac so I could get something in Picasa working, but now I can't find eclipse or intelliJ using Finder. So now I'm trying to figure out how to fix that, which would be pretty easy but I'm having trouble understanding the mac filetree because this is my first time...

Backup solution is to reinstall but I'd really rather just fix what's wrong.

Ruby 1.8 multithreading: fail

Ruby 1.8 "multithreading" is not real multithreading. It ends up that the entire VM blocks on any I/O. Well, hell.

Discovered (and probably soon solved) by rancorbeast.

Other guy's ideas: http://timetobleed.com/fixing-threads-in-ruby-18-a-2-10x-performance-boost/
(Just fixes the performance issue, not the fact that they don't provide useful concurrency.)

Comcast DNS fail

So... according to Twitter and news.google, Comcast is down in IL, IN, MN, MI. Which is a lot of areas to be down in. DNS issue. Fix it by following instructions here. https://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using.html#setup

I would be unsurprised if someone hacked Comcast in return for the Netflix thing. It's not like Comcast is universally loved. I'm watching how this plays out with some interest. Mostly by keeping an eye on http://twitter.com/#!/comcastcares

If it was an accident, how did this accident come about?

Passport

I learned on Friday evening that

1. I had to send in my visa application by Tuesday
2. My passport was missing

Now it's Sunday, and the plan is thus:

• Parents send me my old passport, to arrive no later than Tues morning (as ID to get replacement for lost passport)
• On Monday, I get passport photos taken (two sets) and print & fill out visa forms and passport forms
• Tuesday early afternoon, receive old passport at post office, go to appointment downtown to get new passport
• Tuesday afternoon, mail visa application

Tuesday evening, drink with friends.

I feel a little bad for Lily (The TW visa person); there are some politely calmly panicked emails in her inbox, and one voicemail that all basically say "oh god oh god something went wrong and I don't know what to do. Help!" But now I think stuff is pretty well handled, barring (more) unforeseen fail. I hope she gets back to me on Monday, though. I'd really like some reassurance and guidance to double-check that what I'm doing is the correct thing to do.

Where did my passport go? I don't know. I wish I did. If I could find it, I could save a couple hundred bucks on Tuesday. But I'll have to settle for just not losing my new one. I'm going to keep it in the drawer of papers where it should have been this time, but wasn't.

Southwest database fail

Linda: So it turns out that the reason that I've been locked out of my account is that when I booked your ticket their database subbed your birthday for mine, therefore no validation with my birthday would work. Database flaw, they have one. Also, it seems likely that all of my password reset emails are in your spambox somewhere.
(1:29:32 PM) ce: oh, that's ugly :(
(1:29:54 PM) ce: at least it's fixed now?
(1:30:59 PM) Linda: No, it's not. The database also subbed in middle name and gender and I can't fix them from this end for some reason. Unless I get this fixed, there's no way I can get through security again if booking travel through my SW account.
(1:31:03 PM) Linda: Sigh.
(1:31:27 PM) ce: that's fucking terrible.

When I booked a trip for him using my account (and the rewards and vouchers in my account) the database must have inserted his information instead of mine in the fields of: middle name, birthday, gender, and email address. And there's no way to fix it from the consumer side of the webpage.

However, the good news is that, thanks to someone on the help line, I have a password to my account now. The bad news is that I can't book travel yet, unless I want travel booked for a male with my first and last names, but Lance's middle name. ...useless, no? So, back to the phone help line.

Edit: Called customer service 214-932-0333. After some initial confusion on the part of the agent, and then a request that I fax her my drivers license (my reply: "I don't have a fax machine... can I email you a picture?"), she simply changed my data to correct data which I supplied verbally. A quick refresh of my account page shows that she changed my middle name and my gender, and although for some reason my account won't show me what she changed my birthday to, I have no reason to doubt that she did that accurately too.

So, where are the security flaws here?

• Initial database flaw- replacing good information with bad. How far does this extend?
• In password reset attempts, sometimes two attempts with the same data had different results, i.e. either "bad data, please retry" or "email sent, please click link"
• Lack of ability to change your own birthday/gender on the website might be an attempt at security? Or just a bug. Inability to see my own birthday in my account info is definitely a bug, because if I can't see it, it might be wrong and I would have no way of knowing.
• Ability for customer service rep to change account info without evidence other than my voice (and confirmation data that I provided, such as address, name, birthday... all things that someone could find out about me).

By the way... the way to add a Southwest LUV voucher to your account is here: https://www.southwest.com/flight/travel-funds-results.html (for the next time that I forget and get frustrated)

nothing is installing properly

I will deal with this in just a minute.

Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic-pae
Bus error
Bus error
rm: cannot remove `/tmp/mkinitramfs_2xhLIe/lib/modules/2.6.32-25-generic-pae/modules.*map': No such file or directory
Segmentation fault
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic-pae
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Edit: It turns out that I'd tried to switch from kernel 2.6.32-24-generic to 2.6.32-26-generic-pae but didn't do it completely. Fixing that (yay aptitude!) fixed the problem. Also, remember to update GRUB.

Knowing that would've made cs450 a lot more pleasant. Damn.