tales from the crypt( )

o cupertino, where art thou?

bruno — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:58:46 +0000

Sure, the Mac is exciting. I have nightmares about living in a world where laptops have no backlit keyboards and large shiny screens, sleek user interfaces and some other nice details. I must admit these guys do things the right way. But then…

For those with ADD: Why, oh why does leopard insist on storing entries on its DNS cache with TTL=3600 when the DNS proxy is sending them with TTL=0?

For everyone else: I’m testing DSL routers. One of the “nice” features to have in such a device is something that stands between the DNS clients (computers connected to the LAN ports) and the DNS server (usually provided by the network). This is usually called a DNS proxy or DNS relay and will (hopefully, in decent implementations), if the DSL connection is down, translate every single request to an internal/private/reserved IP address. If the user is using a browser, the www.whatever.com DNS query returns the mentioned IP address instead of the real one and the HTTP request will land on the router itself, which will politely say “your connection is down, go get a towel or something”. Aditionally, the router will send the DNS answer time-to-live to something real low (zero, preferably, so the “fake” DNS entry doesn’t get stored in local DNS caches).

So far so good.

Eventually, DSL connections go up. Sometimes they don’t (but that’s not my problem).

Should the DSL connection go up again, the router will probably fetch a working DNS server from the network and start resolving DNS correctly. End of story.

***Except*** there seems to be something essentially wrong with Leopard (I’m hearing people grinning and whispering “eh, don’t get me started…”).

A quick search on Google returns a few hundred hits on people whining about Leopard’s DNS implementation and the fact that it’ll take a few dscacheutil -flushcache iterations a day to clean the cache from DNS lookup failures (due to unresponsive DNS servers, for instance). Those error entries get marked with a big YES on dscacheutil -cachedump -entries “Neg” column. And they’ll probably have some sort of dealing up with that clutter. Not the issue here.

There’s another issue I won’t bother to go into right now, but is slightly related. Most entries on the cache show up has having TTL=3600 when the DNS server is sending values far above that (12 or 24 hours, just to name a few - I’ve got the packet captures to show it). The sentence “Why would someone want to store a DNS cache entry for so many time” makes some sense to me, but it would be nice if the operating system just did as it’s being told.

Which brings “the” problem here (my problem, at least - but JP mentioned a similar behavior around the time I first noticed the issue on my equipment): Leopard is storing entries with a TTL of 3600 (seconds) for entries that were sent with TTL=0. The DNS relay is saying “don’t cache this entry” but Leopard insists on doing so - and for an hour or something. dscacheutil -flushcache will fix it, but this is plainly annoying.

Here’s the DNS response from the DSL modem on Wireshark:

Windows’ ipconfig /displaydns listing (showing no trace of the google.com entry):

Last but not least, the Leopard dscache -cachedump -entries listing with a glorious TTL=3600:

No sight of similar problems on the Ubuntu installation I tried. Pedro confirmed me minutes ago that Tiger behaves slightly better than Leopard and honors the TTL=0, keeping these records away from the cache (as it should).

~~Now could someone do something about this?~~ I just did. Filed bug #5711166 and became a Mac Geek, according to Rui. Why do I have a feeling I’ll regret this? ;)

Paris Dec07

bruno — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:43:34 +0000

Where to stay:
If you’re looking for a nice place to crash for a small price, the Hotel Au Pacific might be right for you. Book in advance to get one of the larger rooms. It’s small, it’s cozy, it’s on a nice and quiet neighborhood and very close to the Dupleix metro station. The Eiffel tower is at walking distance (15 min). A good alternative would be getting one of those big hotel chains such as Accor, who occasionally have special rates for specific locations (even closer to the city center).
Moving around:
Public transportation in Paris covers most of the city and is pretty decent and safe. The metro may sound a little confusing at first, but it’s nothing the right and ever-helping tool won’t handle, especially when it’s hard to find everything you’ll want to see at walking distance. If there’s a downside on the whole metro deal, it’s the closing time (between midnight and 1AM) - specially when the night line (Noctilien) doesn’t cover the whole city. Consider buying multi-day passes, as the t+ ticket price may be a little overrated (10 t+ ticket bundles are considerably cheaper). Ticket dispensers run Windows NT, are awfully prone to crashes and rarely accept coins, so bring enough coins (or credit cards). IMHO, panoramic tour buses are worthless (and expensive) and can easily be replaced by a few regular bus rides and some short walks covering the most “touristic” spots. A boat cruise along the Seine river, however, may be worth the shot, specially at sunset (Les Vedettes du Pont-Neuf, aprox 10€)
What to see:
You’ll find most mainstream spots spread along the river. Use the boat cruise (or a good map) to identify them. These “attractions” can get pretty crowded and you should expect waiting in line for a couple of hours to get in the Eiffel Tower (where the night ascents are wickedly cool) or the Notre Dame Cathedral. Well know museums can get pretty crowded too, but it’ll take less time to get in (and even so, getting inside the Louvre using one of the secondary entrances - and not the Pyramide, will save you some time - check the timetables for information on days where the museum is opened until later and when admission is free - and please ignore the signs pointing out the Mona Lisa location). On the rive gauche, the Musée d’Orsay is also worth a visit, with its impressive collection of impressionist (was that a pun?) masterpieces such as Monet and Renoir.
There are at least two well known gardens you should visit on a trip to Paris. One is Les Tuileries, which stretches from the Concorde square to the Louvre. The other one lies farther from the city center, so it won’t be unusual to feel a little more relaxed and calm. It’s one of the locals favorite places to have a stroll or just lie in the sun and very close to the Saint Germain quarter, very famous for its cafés and related artistic movements.
And yes it’s true, there’s a whole lot more in Paris than what’s visible from the river axis. La Défense, for instance, an interesting architectural landmark and the major business district featuring some of the tallest high-rises in the city and a huge 110 by 100 meter open cube (l’Arche). It also marks the end of Paris’ 10 Km historical axis (which starts at the Louvre and continues along the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe). Taking a stroll along the Champs-Élysées is mandatory, as well as having a look at the stores. And I’m not talking about places where you could buy a pair of earrings for the same price as you would buy a compact car, but car dealers’ showrooms where you are invited to see the latest concept cars and rarities (and a drink and some merchandising here and there).
Not very far, the impressive Trocadero gardens with the Eiffel Tower as backdrop: definitely a must see. But a visit to Paris demands a walk on the Montmartre district, crowned by the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur and its impressive view over the city. Well known for its night life and way beyond the Amélie clichés, there’s something decadent about this neighborhood. A different city inside the city. A je ne sais quoi…
To finish, a not so short walk towards the Marais, starting in the awkwardly strange Centre Jacques Pompidou (a concept building, odd looking art museum lying whose weird looks and colors seem vaguely well accepted amongst most people - and I just can understand why), wandering around narrow streets and alleys filled of strange shops and strange people and ending near the Bastille area (the Colonne de Juillet dominates the square and it marks the site of the prison known as the Bastille which was stormed at the start of the French Revolution - quite a landmark, but actually quite deceiving - it looks like just any other square with a statue).
Souvenirs:
The best european chocolate may be found in Brussels, but Paris has its honorable share of good chocolatiers. There were probably a dozen places we visited, but Joséphine Vannier, at the Marais district, was the chosen one. Delicious.
Bringing home some tea is also a good idea, and Mariage Frères is just the place to get it. It’s one of the finest and well-known french tea companies. Most of their stores have a “salon de thé” where you can sit and have a cup of tea before you head to the counter and choose what to bring back home (and it’s not just tea - you’ll probably get lost over the hundred varieties - there are also teacups, teapots and everything tea related).
Cool stuff to look for:
Paris has been conquered by Space Invaders. These creatures can be found mostly anywhere along the city. I had a planned encounter with one on the last day of the trip and found out, once arrived at home, that I had photo evidence of a whole lot more without ever knowing. Insanely cool. Last but not least, there are guided tours on Les Ègouts de Paris (the Paris sewers). Honest.
Don’ts:
Don’t trust the train schedules. Don’t trust train operators on strike. Don’t miss the flight back home. Don’t sleep at the airport. Don’t trust anything that replies you back in french you you speak to them in english. Don’t walk when it’s just one block. Don’t go to Disneyland Paris unless you’re staying at a hotel there. Don’t drink vin chaud. Don’t go to the Champs-Elisées on new years-eve. Don’t expect much from a french reveillon (it’s just a bunch of people in the streets getting drunk, destroying things, burning cars and blowing themselves with their fireworks). Meh.

best. xmas. musak. evah.

bruno — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:33:18 +0000

Tired of listening to Kenny G throwing up the usual Xmas tunes every single year? Gregorian chant is so last century. And the classics? The classics are boring.

There’s an alternative for us enlightened ones. The 3rd edition of Santastic is out. 22 bizarre and unusually cool Xmas mashups and remixes. Here’s a sample from last year’s:

Here are the links. Enjoy. Seed. Share the wealth ;)

Santastic: Holiday Boots 4 Your Stockings - 2005 (torrent)

Santastic II: Clausome - 2006 (torrent)

Santastic III in 3D - 2007 (torrent)

some thoughts on file explorers

bruno — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:06:27 +0000

This post is based on a usability rant I shared with Pedro which in turn ended up on one of his posts about the Mac Finder. My initial take on the subject was based on my daily use of Ubuntu (with Gnome as the default Desktop Environment) when compared to Windows (probably any flavour).

Say I’m a average joe user and I’d want to copy or move some files around: Coalesce the contents of two directories into one, with a lot of files on both of them, some of them sharing the same filename, with different modification times.

So basically, when a user tries this stunt on his windows box, he’ll get a bunch of messages from his default file manager like this one:

Excess information can sometimes turn into a burden (*). But it won’t take an experienced user to notice when he’s overwriting a newer file with an old version (or worst, replacing it with a zero sized file).

Let’s compare it to the Nautilus one (and let me remind you, Nautilus is the default file manager for Gnome, which is bundled on Ubuntu).

Not only do the path and filename appear chopped, but there’s no mention about the files properties. Nice, uh? (NOT!)

Some will say a true power user would always check for file contents regardless of timestamps or filesizes. Or use some sort of versioning system. This will obviously fail for a large amount of files or when file content is proprietary (closed) or binary. But there are always a number of occasions I’d want my files overwritten. A bigger-than-zero sized file is probably more useful than a zero-sized one. I want some sort of control. Any control.

Just to keep things straight, the Mac Finder will show only the filename but omit the file properties. Even better, it looks like there’s no chance to randomly overwrite some files and leave others unharmed. The user keeps control over the process. If there are files with the same name in the destination, then there’s probably something wrong with the process and that was not what we wanted in the first place and we can just “stop” it. Cool.

I went further and got my hands on a Suse box (with KDE) to play around and check its behaviour. And it’s amazing, because at the fourth iteration you still get a different approach (how many more can there be?). Here’s how Konqueror deals with the issue:

So basically, this is the ugliest message box of them all, it’s cluttered but you can overwrite the file, rename it to something else using some intelligence (image.0.jpg) or cancel the whole process.

The fact that each operating system / file explorer / window manager / whatever has a different behavior proves there is no easy solution (or at least consensual) for this question - so each one does what it thinks is right for the user. I understand the need to keep things simple, but sometimes we need to have the right tools for the right tasks. As there are multiple user profiles, wouldn’t it be easy to keep simple dialog boxes (like the Mac) giving the user some power whether he’d want some more information or control over his file operations?

(*) Don’t get me started and ranting on Windows lack of usability. Everytime I see one of these dialog boxes I got a shiver up my spine:

an ipod singing the blues

bruno — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:30:24 +0000

Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I plugged the 4th gen iPod on the car, set it to random and started driving. 10 minutes later, I noticed it was skipping some songs. I’ve seen it happen before (a long time ago) and was lucky enough to:

a) have it within the warranty period
b) have the fellow who brought it from San Francisco make the same business trip in a week

The folks at the Apple Store asked no questions and traded the malfunctioning iPod for a brand new (and shiny) one. I also got a Applecare warranty extension for two more years. Needless to say, Apple representatives in Portugal would deny assistance to the iPod with Applecare as they didn’t accept to repair the iPod inside the warranty period. Y’all know the drill with Apple and Portugal, right? But any other Apple store would accept it. A-N-Y.

Back to today. The iPod was left charging overnight and plugged back in to the computer today to confirm the thesis that the disk was screwed up. Windows didn’t recognize it, Ubuntu didn’t (but the /var/log/messages output is slighty more helpful than its Windows counterpart - which is none). A few seconds later, I was greeted with a constant clicking noise coming from the inside of the iPod. And then it reset. And then it made a face at me. Disk failure. No chance of running the diagnostics. No chance of resetting it. A sad iPod icon begging to be taken to the Apple support site.

The Apple support site doesn’t help at all. Last time it happened to me, I was able to put the iPod in disk mode but unable to make it recognizable by the operating system. Next suggestion: open a support call. Yeah right. As if it was possible in Portugal. By this time, it hit me: I had roughly 10 gigs of pictures on the iPod, absolutely no backups (I was waiting to classify them, tag them and burn them to DVD). I started to panic. Even if I got the warranty thing fixed, they wouldn’t recover what was on the disk.

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