Driss-A-Blog

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Posted by Avi at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm giving up and getting an iPhone. Well, trying to, anyway. I was halfway through my order when I punched in my current phone number and got a notice that it was ineligible for transfer. I did a live chat with an agent:

Rene: Does your number belong to a different state than the one you are in?
Avi: yes
Avi: why would that matter?
Rene: That matters because there is a Federal Law by the FCC that prevents the transfer of numbers from state to state.

Seriously? I can't take my number with me because I live in a different state?

Rene: You would have to get a new number. Would that be alright with you?
Avi: Ugh
Avi: no, I've had that # for nine years
Rene: I am sorry about that.
Rene: What would you like to do?
Rene: Sometimes change is good.

Sometimes change is good?! I'm already starting to dread working with AT&T...

Posted by Avi at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day at work I had a task: to figure out how to change the displayed title of a minimized window in the Dock without actually changing the window's title. (Please trust that I had a very good reason for wanting to do this.)

While there are some excellent articles about how to reverse-engineer under OS X, they're all PowerPC-based. And even though the future of the Mac is x86, it seems like people have lots of anxiety about having to work with it.

I think the problem is not a lack of documentation on x86 assembly, but a surfeit of it. Most of it is Windows- or DOS-centric, usually with the wrong syntax (Intel syntax vs the AT&T syntax that GCC uses), and with the aim of teaching how to write it. But reading x86 assembly really isn't that hard. If all you want to do is learn how to read the code generated by GCC, it's probably just as easy as PowerPC.

The other day I took notes of my discoveries. Let's touch on two functions, both in PowerPC and x86 flavors. For those of you who only know PowerPC assembly, I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised.

read more of Reverse-Engineering in OS X on x86 »

Posted by Avi at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

My mom has always said that each person consists of four parts: the emotional, the physical, the mental, and the physical, and that you need to "feed" each part in order to stay balanced. I work out regularly, I read all the time and learn a lot practicing law, I look over myself emotionally, but I have been negligent with my spiritual side. I have had a rough go of things the past two and a half years, and decided that I had reached the last straw. Though I understand that I'm not truly in control of my life (G-d is), I do have some say in the matter, and thus, decided 2009 was my year, the year where I regain control of my life and who I really am. I started studying Torah (Old Testament) with Rabbi Shea Werner this week.

read more of In the beginning... »

Posted by Talya at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been at the office for over five hours now on a Sunday, scanning and labeling creditor documents and paperwork for my clients who filed for bankruptcy last week (getting a papercut in the meantime) and listening to White Stripes, Cake, and Nirvana. I get a call from one of my most favored high school pals. Who is in Hawaii. On the beach. We've been in touch on and off lately via Facebook, but this was our first catch-up phone call. It was great to hear his voice and to swap some stories.... except I'm in Michigan and he's where? HAWAII. Grrr...

I must admit; the green-eyed monster reared its ugly little head. But I figure - all this means is that I'm going to have to book a ticket to Honolulu. Soon. But have you seen the prices??? Ouch. Hmm... I do have lots of miles on Northwest Airlines/Delta. :)

Posted by Talya at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(From a picture taken at the BigTable cafeteria last month.)

Posted by Avi at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the cool things about working at Google is that there's incredible stuff going on behind the scenes. One of the big bummers about working at Google is that there's incredible stuff going on behind the scenes, and you can't say a word about it because it's what gives Google its edge.

One of the biggest secrets was how we build data centers. Apparently we're sharing some of our secrets. That was rather surprising to me, but it looks like it was decided that it was time. The article matches a lot about what I know. Today's April 1, but the article is no joke.

Posted by Avi at 1:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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Originally uploaded by AviDrissman

Posted by Avi at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a guy named Scott Moulton who runs a drive recovery and forensics business. He gives talks about hard drive recovery and posts them on YouTube. They're fascinating and definitely worth watching. But in his latest one (10 Things About Hard Drives 4/6) he confuses two events in the history of HFS+, and in the process makes HFS+ look very bad. HFS+ may have issues, but Scott is just plain wrong here.

[Edit: After posting this I found that Scott annotated the video with a correction. What an honorable guy. Thanks, Scott! The post remains because I love hearing myself speak.]

His argument is that ext3 is just ext2 with journaling, so you can use ext2 tools on it. In contrast, he says, when Apple added journaling to HFS+, they did it a way that caused old tools (and computers) to see an empty disk with a file “Where_have_all_my_files_gone?”

That confuses the adding of journaling to HFS+ (2002) with the introduction of HFS+ (1998). The analogy is easily corrected.

read more of The truth about HFS+ Journaling »

Posted by Avi at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A happy ending to the MacBook saga.

I ended up getting in touch with Jay from Tekserve, who was sympathetic to my plight and offered their help in getting the screws out. I dropped by and within ten minutes, they told me that they had extracted the screws, so I had them replace the top case while they were in there. Apparently their techs didn't even blink. Amazing.

It took them a little while to find the part, but now I'm home experiencing the happiness of a warm MacBook. Thanks, guys!

As an unrelated aside, while waiting there for help on Monday I saw some Mac G4 Cube cases used as Kleenex dispensers. I thought that was just for display until I saw a tech have to tell a woman that her hard drive failed. Kids, remember: backup, backup, backup! Time Machine is free. Use it.

Posted by Avi at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)