Leopard Install Update

After a lot of work, I pretty much have Leopard working the way I want. I just went to software update and saw a Login and Keychain Update. Apple's support article says:

The Login & Keychain Update 1.0 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is recommended for all Leopard installations. It addresses issues you may encounter when:

Logging in with an account originally created in Mac OS X 10.1 or earlier that has a password of 8 or more characters.

Connecting to some 802.11b/g wireless networks.

Changing the password of a FileVault-protected account.

Hmmm. It is likely that my keychain has been hanging around for years and it definitely has 8 or more characters. Thanks, Apple!

Leopard upgrade is a disaster

I started my Leopard upgrade by doing a backup with SuperDuper! as who knows what can happen when installing software. I decided to do an archive and install as that would preserve my info and get me up and going faster. Well, that seems to have been a mistake. For whatever reason, after I restarted, my default keychain was hosed (20 minutes later I was able to repair that), then I went to remove components from the previous system. This seemed to sort of work, but launching apps gave me a -10810 error. The problems likely stemmed from some of the apps I carried over from before, but this upgrade has been a disaster. So, I now erasing my drive and doing a clean install. I'll start rebuilding my system after things are installed. I really hate doing this, but I'm out of options that don't require a larger time investment and lots of frustration.

Video Conferencing and my wacky network

Yesterday, my mother-in-law had a cable modem installed so that she could video conference with us and see our son (she just got a new 20" iMac the other day). Video conferencing is easier said than done with NAT routers. I've used a Linux box as a router for a long time so I have full control over everything; the problem is that having more than 1 person do a SIP based connection is tricky. I had my iptables setup to route SIP traffic to my Mac, so things worked fine. Well, UPnP on my Linux box didn't seem to work, so I finally plugged a router right into my cable modem only to have mixed results. As a last resort, I plugged an Airport Extreme base station into my cable modem and presto, everything started working. So while Apple's router costs 3 times more than any other home based router, it sure is worth it as I think I spent over 8 hours to fix this issue. Below is a diagram of my wacky network; it is a bit strange in order to have my server running and have the Airport Extreme base station working. I'm almost surprised it all works. Networking is an art, not a science.

Smart Dog

Last night after I read to our son and was ready to put him to sleep, I kept calling my wife to come up and say goodnight, but she couldn't here me. So, I told our dog, Marley, to "get Janessa". He went downstairs and then I hear Janessa say "did you come and get me?". Wow, Janessa thought it was a fluke. We decided to try it again today and this time, Janessa told Marley to get me. He came into my office and started wagging his tail.

I wonder what else we can teach this smart dog; he already gets the newspaper in the morning.