Happy 1111!

January 1st, 2011

Happy new year!

For those of us from the south, blackeyed peas are a new years day requirement and this year was no exception for me.  I decided to experiment a little and combine the following two recepies:

Zap2it Black-Eyed-Peas

Homesick Texan’s Black Eyed Peas

The combo amounted to something like this:

Picture of black-eyed peas

1 pound of Black-eyed Peas
2 Jalepenos, diced
4 strips of Bacon
Salt and Pepper to taste (I used a smoked serano salt and some fresh ground pepper)
1 small Onion/half a large Onion
1/4 package of fresh Thyme
2 Bay leaves
5 cloves of Garlic
1 can Diced Tomatoes (14 oz)
1 can low-sodium Chicken Broth
2 cups Water
~1 teaspoon Chili Powder
~1 teaspoon Red Chili Pepper flakes

  1. Cook bacon in a large dutch oven until crispy, then remove to a plate
  2. To bacon drippings add onions, garlic, and Jalapenos. Saute for 10 min or until softened.
  3. Add Thyme, salt and pepper, and other spices. Cook till fragrant.
  4. Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, water and crumbled up Bacon. Let simmer for a couple of minutes.
  5. Add Peas, and bring to boil.
  6. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until tender (about an hour).

This turned out great! Feel free to experiment and pass on.

Snow Leopard svn problems

September 16th, 2010

A month or so ago I noticed that when I ran ‘svn –version’ I would get this:

$ svn --version
svn: Mismatched RA version for 'neon': found 1.6.2, expected 1.6.5

I did some basic googling and decided the easiest solution was to install a newer version from macports. However, today I decided to revisit this and actually try to solve it since I was moving from macports to homebrew. I found this nice article that suggested re-installing the 10.6.2 Combo update would resolve the problem. That sounds like a horrible idea since I’m no longer running 10.6.2 and who knows what that would break down the road, but I went ahead and downloaded the update to look at the contents. Using Pacifist I opened the installer package and had it verify that the svn binaries and libraries were all alright and they all passed with out a complaint. This didn’t make sense because clearly something was wrong with one of the libraries or binaries for subversion. After a little while I decided to have Pacifist re-install the svn binaries and libraries from the update to see if it fixed the problem. Before I did this I checked the other OS X update receipts to see if the subversion binaries or libraries have been modified since the 10.6.2 update and found they hadn’t. After the re-install everything looks like it’s back to normal! So, if you are having this issue and don’t want to use a newer version, grab the 10.3.2 combo update and Pacifist and go to town.

FYI the binaries and libraries for subversion include:


/usr/bin/svn
/usr/bin/svnadmin
/usr/bin/svndumpfilter
/usr/bin/svnlook
/usr/bin/svnserve
/usr/bin/svnsync
/usr/bin/svnversion
/usr/lib/libsvn_client-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_client-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_client-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_delta-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_delta-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_delta-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_diff-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_diff-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_diff-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_fs-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_fs-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_fs-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_util-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_util-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_fs_util-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_local-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_local-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_local-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_neon-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_neon-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_neon-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_svn-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_svn-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_ra_svn-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_repos-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_repos-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_repos-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_subr-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_subr-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_subr-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_swig_ruby-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_swig_ruby-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_swig_ruby-1.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_wc-1.0.0.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_wc-1.0.dylib
/usr/lib/libsvn_wc-1.dylib

SpiderOak Backup Bouncer tests

July 21st, 2010

I really want to like SpiderOak, especially when you consider the following features:

  • Whole cloud de-duplication – All of the data you backup to spideroak, regardless of the source is de-duplicated
  • The ability to share files in your cloud with others
  • ‘Zero-knowledge’ encryption
  • Cross platform client
  • Support of open source

However, I keep finding problems that prevent me from using it as my primary backup software. As with BackBlaze I did some testing with Backup Bouncer v0.2.0 to see how the latest version of SpiderOak (v3.6.9680) fairs with the meta-data that Mac OS X generates. Results follow.

sh-3.2# ./bbouncer verify -d /Volumes/Src ../Dst
Verifying:    basic-permissions ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:           timestamps ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:             symlinks ...
    stat: ./symlink1: stat: No such file or directory
    FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:    symlink-ownership ... FAIL
Verifying:            hardlinks ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:       resource-forks ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... FAIL (Critical)
   Sub-test:  on hardlinked files ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:         finder-flags ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:         finder-locks ... FAIL
Verifying:        creation-date ... FAIL
Verifying:            bsd-flags ... FAIL
Verifying:       extended-attrs ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... FAIL (Important)
   Sub-test:       on directories ... FAIL (Important)
   Sub-test:          on symlinks ... FAIL
Verifying: access-control-lists ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... FAIL (Important)
   Sub-test:              on dirs ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:                 fifo ... FAIL
Verifying:              devices ... FAIL
Verifying:          combo-tests ...
   Sub-test:  xattrs + rsrc forks ... FAIL
   Sub-test:     lots of metadata ... FAIL

As you can see, SpiderOak fails all of the backup-bouncer tests. Combine this with the password issues I’ve mentioned previously and it looks like SpiderOak still has a ways to go before I can seriously consider using it to house my data.