The Big Think

Found a fun site tonight. Answerbag bills itself as “A compilation of human knowledge an experience”. It’s a question catch-all for randomly related questions on many topics. Waste some time there!

Yup, another one. I’m getting very familiar with the kernel panic screen. I think I’m tracking it down, though. It seems to happen often (though not exclusively) in Safari when I’m trying to play Quicktime movies. I think it may have to do with the MOTU 324 drivers for my 2408 digital interface. I play all my audio out this interface all the time, and this seems to cause the crash (though, as I stated before, it’s non-reproducible in the same Safari movie).
I’m all updated as of today (w/repaired permissions) and I still got the kernel panic.
I tried to use the internal speaker on the computer and went back to the same site to play the movie. No crash. However I really want to use my mixer and speakers to hear audio (after all, I spent a lot on these things) so I plugged a cord into the back of the machine and router it into the mixer. I can hear the sound but I get a horrific amount of RFI from the computer itself, and This Will Not Do.
So I guess I’ll go back to using the 2408 and just putting up with the kernel panics. MOTU doesn’t mention problems and I haven’t heard of anyone else experiencing similar things. Familiar story: I’m off on my own desert island of technical problems and there’s no tech support lifeboat around- nothing to do but resigning myself to the next 1000 dinners from coconuts. I had hoped that the new computer would be a crystal clear and pristine start over, with no sneaky problems anywhere, but I guess that’s too much to hope for. Even for a Mac.

For what it’s worth, here’s the crash log:

Tue May 4 19:03:01 2004

Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0×400 - Inst access DAR=0×000000001C084008 PC=0×0000000000000000
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0×2D81C280)
PC=0×00000000; MSR=0×40009030; DAR=0×1C084008; DSISR=0×40000000; LR=0×00000000; R1=0×12013E20; XCP=0×00000010 (0×400 - Inst access)
Backtrace:
0×00000000
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0×2D81C280)
previously dumped as “Latest” state. skipping…
Exception state (sv=0×00920500)
PC=0×00000000; MSR=0×0000D030; DAR=0×00000000; DSISR=0×00000000; LR=0×00000000; R1=0×00000000; XCP=0×00000000 (Unknown)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0:
Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC

panic(cpu 0): 0×400 - Inst access
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 0:
Backtrace:
0×000834B8 0×0008399C 0×0001EDA4 0×000909C0 0×00093C8C
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0×2D81C280)
PC=0×00000000; MSR=0×40009030; DAR=0×1C084008; DSISR=0×40000000; LR=0×00000000; R1=0×12013E20; XCP=0×00000010 (0×400 - Inst access)
Backtrace:
0×00000000
Exception state (sv=0×00920500)
PC=0×00000000; MSR=0×0000D030; DAR=0×00000000; DSISR=0×00000000; LR=0×00000000; R1=0×00000000; XCP=0×00000000 (Unknown)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0:
Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST 2004; root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj~4/RELEASE_PPC

Dug out my old Apple Plaintalk mic today to try and get audio iChat working. It turns out that my new computer (Apple’s G4 MDD 1.25Ghz Single) is the ONLY machine that doesn’t accept the plaintalk mic. According to this,
While the Apple PlainTalk mic included with earlier Power Macintosh computers does provide line-level input, it does not use a standard 3.5 mm stereo miniplug, and cannot be used with the Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) audio line-in port.
The earlier Apple Omnidirectional microphone will also not work, because it provides mic-level input instead of the required line-level input.

Apple’s sneaky way of getting me to buy an iSight. Sigh.

I broke my Palm Pilot about a year ago by sitting on it. The screen cracked and the touch-sensitive membrane wouldn’t work anymore. I kept it around thinking I would be buying a new one and transfer the data over, but never got around to it. The battery finally died in the old one and all that data-about six years’ worth- has gone to digital heaven. When I install new batteries the unit goes into an initialization mode where it makes you calibrate the screen before you can go any further. Since the screen doesn’t work anymore, the unit is finally, finally dead. Goes in the trash tonight.

According to cnsnews:
Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is “unfit to be commander-in-chief.
[These military people are reportedly democratic, republican, and independent]
“Comrades who actually served with him, almost all of them, are opposed to him, and believe he would be an unfit commander in chief and intend to bring the truth of his actual record to the attention of the American people,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill hopes the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth can reveal to the American people what he sees as Kerry’s flawed character.
“In the military, loyalty between commanders and the troops serving them is a two-way street. We have here a guy (Kerry) that with all of us in the field [in Vietnam] — actually fighting the North Vietnamese — came home and then falsely accused all of us of war crimes at a time when the people in uniform couldn’t even respond,” O’Neill said.
“And he did that knowing that was a lie,” he added.

Finished the table yesterday! I’ll post pictures of it soon. VERY happy with the way it turned out.
It’s funny, I was watching a DS9 episode tonight and they had some silly lines about “imagination becoming real” and I looked over at the new console table and though hmmm… maybe there is something to that.

Just got one of Erin’s birthday presents yesterday. Big sucker that I had to muscle into the attic. There’s just no storage space in this house where prying eyes won’t stumble across certain items!
So I told her to stay out of the attic. As if she goes up there every day anyway.
Besides, it’s always my job to feed the monster that lives up there.