Marc Goldberg's Blog

I did a google image search for “rainbows and...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:33:00 -0500

I did a google image search for “rainbows and unicorns,” because, how can that go wrong? White-power ass-unicorn is how.

Time to find a new cleaning place. Wish I noticed before I left...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:16:08 -0500

Time to find a new cleaning place. Wish I noticed before I left the house wearing it!

'Jennifer Government', by Max Barry

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:10:02 -0500

John turned and fled. Jennifer took off after him. Max Synergy and the US Alliance suits just stood there. This, she discovered, was a common thread to the next four and a half minutes: office workers standing around gaping while she and John zipped past them. John was screaming for the NRA or security or anyone with a gun, please, but there was not a lot of action from the suits and skirts at US Alliance. Companies claimed to be highly responsive, Jennifer thought, but you only had to chase a screaming man through their offices to realize it wasn’t true.

It’s a smart and funny book; I just read it on my kindle… it’s a real button-presser, or page-turner, or whatever the phrase is now.

'Jennifer Government', by Max Barry

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:01:29 -0500

John said, “You know what makes a successful executive?”

“Dude, I am a successful executive.”

“Decisiveness,” he said. The doors slid open. A man in a briefcase was standing there; he raised his eyebrows. John pointed the gun at the man’s leg and squeezed the trigger. It was louder than he’d expected.

“Holy shit! the kid said.

“Also, implementation skills,” John said, and left the elevator

The book is a nicely paced absurd satire exploring the extreme free market. Loved it and will re-read soon.

Evidence of shenanigans in the office.

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:04:00 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Evidence of shenanigans in the office.

Apple bug #7720101: TC/AEBS doesn't map L2TP VPN ports

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:09:01 -0500

Apple bug #7720101: TC/AEBS doesn't map L2TP VPN ports:

Turns out to be a duplicate of Apple bug #6961613.

Iced coffee, AKA go-go juice for the gym.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:46:06 -0500

Iced coffee, AKA go-go juice for the gym.

All I can think is, “what administrator has the root user...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:46:00 -0500

All I can think is, “what administrator has the root user login with [t]csh of all shells?” sigh

I have seen & heard the future of the printed word and it is beautiful.

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:30:55 -0500

It’s an accident: At the gym, on an exercise bike; Jennifer Government on the kindle on the bike’s book rest, iPhone playing the score from The Orange Box.

Just started the chapter where Violet is getting ready to “storm the castle” at the same moment the Team Fortress 2 score begins… And it became the score to the chapter.

It fits beautifully. Full of tension and angst and anticipation… The score & the passage. Together, the image painted in my head was more powerful than any book has ever before evoked.

The Printed Word will morph into the Scored Word. Soundtrack-ing will become part of the typesetting and layout process. And inspired readers will score thier favorites independently and share the resulting iScoreBook mix.

There will be satirical and moving and celestial and techno scores that bring new dimension to the Bible, Catch-22, Gone With the Wind, all of Tom Clancy’s & John Grisham’s books, and articles from Time, Newsweek, People, and The New York Times.

There will be critics of the Scored Word, fighting to keep the imagination pure, and proponents who will argue that they can bring more context than ever to their works, and there will be the masses who simply vote with the use of their headphones.

It is a beautiful future.

Apple bug #7720101: TC/AEBS doesn't map L2TP VPN ports

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:30:00 -0500

There is a bug with Apple’s Time Capsule/Airport Express Base Station (TC/AEBS) rendering L2TP servers on the LAN unusable:

When TC/AEBS is used as a router providing NAT services to the LAN, it will NOT under any circumstance provide port mapping services for 500/UDP, 1701/UDP, & 4500/UDP making L2TP VPN servers on the LAN side of TC/AEBS are unreachable from the WAN/Internet side.

The conditions for my tests:

3 different external networks used for all tests: MacBook Air at home on TWC network, the Air on AT&T mobile dongle, & CentOS server at ThePlanet.
MobileMe configuration was removed from both the TC/AEBS & Snow Leopard Server on the LAN.
I used port 501 for my control-test; spot checks of other ports worked as well, though they were all < 10000.
Simultaneous local and server monitoring of port traffic using
tcpdump -vvv -i en0 -s 0 -X port 500 or port 1701 or port 4500 or port 501
The TC/AEBS was configured to forward UDP ports 501, 500, 1701, & 4500 received from the WAN interface to the Snow Leopard Server on the LAN.
The port forwarding was accomplished both 1) manually via AirPort Utility, and 2) automatically via Snow Leopard Server’s Server Preferences utility. Each was tested separately.

The tests:

Netcat with the following commands, in turn, on the server:
nc -l -u 501 nc -l -u 500 nc -l -u 1700 nc -l -u 4500
which causes traffic to the udp port specified to be dumped to std out. Provides a confirmation of the tcpdump output.
On the various external networks, nc -u WAN-address-of-AEBS.example.com 501 to send UDP packets on port 501. The output of the nc -l 501 command and the server-run tcpdump confirmed that packets left the client and made it to the server as expected. Remember, 501 is the control-test.
For each test permutation on ports 500, 1700, & 4500, no packets made it to the server.

Based on some web research, I’m not the only one to have found trouble with this configuration, but I haven’t been able to find any conclusive tests.

I’ve filed a bug with Apple (#7720101) and encourage you to do the same.

Carrie knows me well… voodoopuff: andres:iansanity:Angry...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:24:05 -0500

Carrie knows me well…

voodoopuff:

andres:iansanity:Angry baby collage, the best of the best.

I’ll bite.

For Marc, who can never resist the angry baby.

4w3s0me m4i1 b0x

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:56:43 -0500

It'll be our little secret

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:15:00 -0500

Marc: I used to hate Sundays.
Michelle: Me too! It meant the end of the weekend.
Marc: Yeah! But then I...

(simultaneously)
Michelle: ...started drinking during the day?
Marc: ...got over it.

Michelle: oh. Nevermind.
Marc: ....

I'm ton dyslexic.

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:49:00 -0500

Every time I see the word “Chesapeake” I read the word “Cheapskate.” Causes a double take every time. My brain does something similar to the sign in the EPIX kitchenette, to the word “pantry,” and it makes me chuckle every time.

OS X Pro Tip: paste & match style

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:55:00 -0500

Annoyed that the font from your favorite sticky app or website is carried to and from the clipboard?

Use ⎇⇧⌘V instead of plain ol ⌘V for pasting. It requires loading a new muscle-memory config into your brain, or you can use the keyboard pref pane to map “Paste and Match Style” to another combo.

UPDATED: That first glyph refers to the Option (sometimes labeled Alt) key, so the full keypress is Option-Shift-Command-V.

(via insertname)

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:11:32 -0500

(via insertname)

Photo

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:08:33 -0500

GPOYW+PhotoBooth tip: use AutoFlip under the Edit menu to keep...

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:59:00 -0500

GPOYW+PhotoBooth tip: use AutoFlip under the Edit menu to keep from posting mirror images.

Isn’t this an implied endorsement of the...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:07:00 -0500

Isn’t this an implied endorsement of the following?

Gamblers
Coke-fiends
Scientologists
Chess players
Software developers
Lawyers

Seriously, if you’re going to have a list, please make DAMNED sure it’s complete.

UPDATE: ok, they did include gambling, but they didn’t include murderers!

(pic from insertname)

Make: Online : Automated anti-piracy water cannon

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:38:33 -0500

Make: Online : Automated anti-piracy water cannon:

Embarrassing: I had to re-read nearly the entire post when I realized this has nothing to do with music piracy. Upon re-reading, perhaps it could be related after all…