What's it all about, Alfie?

I love the Mac OS X Hints hint about getting iSync to work with the Motorola V710 phone without the USB cable. When I first got my phone, I needed the USB cable because I didn't want to manually populate my phone with all my contacts because the keyboard is a mess, etc. So I was very glad to see the hint.

With 10.4.7, Apple has once again undone this wonderful hint and I had to re-apply it. Worried that one day the link might vanish, I decided to add it here, so that I'd always be assured a copy exists that I can find. So here it is.

In a terminal window type:

  cd /Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/
      Contents/PlugIns/PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources

it's all one line, but it's a biggie, so be careful. Then edit the file: MetaClasses.plist and look for the tag:

	<key>com.motorola.V710</key>

and then the text needs to be:

	<key>InheritsFrom</key><array><string>com.motorola.usb-bt.0x22B8/0x2A62</string></array>

Simply make sure that's the value and save the file. It'll work with iSync now.

OK, this is a pain I've run into several times so I wanted to jot it down here. Basically, if you have a process that is holding on to a socket the easiest way to find out what that is (on linux) is the fuser command:

  fuser -u -v -n tcp 6024

This will get all the processes that have the port 6024 open. No rocket science, but it's nice to have.

I work with some funny people, and by that I'm not talking only about the laugh-out-loud funny, I'm talking about the what-on-earth-are-you-doing funny. The other day I was talking to someone about some design changes they were interested in making. While I had nothing against the changes, I saw the opportunity to help this person see beyond their initial belief that the design was broken and see how to fix it. Nothing major, and the change might have been really good, but it was a nice to see if this person could see into the problem and see how to fix it.

So, I ask if they see how to fix this. No response. So I explained my idea, and say that it's not necessary, but just a different way of doing the same thing. I'm told it's not the same thing... it's adding another thread. Hmmm... No, it's not, and therein starts my explanation that it's basically the same thing at a high level. Instead I get an argument and insults.

You'd think that someone making as much as these folks would have the common sense that even if they didn't have the intelligence to know the right answer, they'd have the common sense to not insult someone in a professional setting.

I've learned all I need to know about these people. Funny, they probably were trying to enlighten me on the threading issue, but they told me so much more.