wispfox

Hmm! Noted.

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dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com

Yes! *So* cute!
(Although I think my regular one is also very cute and I luuuuuurve it.)

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Meanwhile, I have totally fallen in love with OS X and my Mac Mini...

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Mac mini - is that the tiny little desktop thingy? My co-worker has one of those, too. It's somewhat disconcerting, actually. :)

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5 CD cases! (It's almost a mac toaster, except toasters are bigger.)

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/01/macminiinside/index.php

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Yep. That. That's what my co-worker has. :)

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So why is it disconcerting? Size?

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...

I don't actually know.

Because it seems silly to me to have something which might as well be a laptop, but which isn't actually one?

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But if couldn't be a laptop without being twice as expensive, which was most of the point for me as I didn't want to take the risk of buying something more expensive and finding I didn't like it. I've enjoyed my two weeks as an OS X user so much that I'm starting to which I'd bought a proper PowerMac though. It really is a very pleasant operating system - I haven't needed or wanted to use my Windows box for anything since the Mac arrived.

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I'd bought a proper PowerMac

What do you think you would gain with a "proper PowerMac"?

Oh, and if you have any random questions about Mac stuff, I may be able to answer them.

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I'd have gained the ability to add more discs internally, to upgrade the graphics card, better performance because of the faster processor and front-size bus, more RAM expansion options and so forth. Not that I think I need any of those things immediately, and I can certainly add more discs externally.

I do have a random Mac question! How can I modify my VPN connection so it doesn't set a default route?

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Well, yes. It's a low-end computer, similar to the Gateway Profiles (http://products.gateway.com/products/gconfig/proddetails.asp?seg=hm&system_id=prf55c) on the Windows side. Apple's never promoted easy/much expandability outside of the PowerMacs...

Hmm. What VPN/connection software are you using? (The probable answer is I don't know, but I'll at least ask for more info first.)

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I'm using the VPN client that's built into Panther. I can achieve the effect I want by starting the VPN connection, removing the default route using the "route" command and adding a new default route that goes through my ADSL modem's gateway, but there must be a way to do this automatically. I've tried adding a new file to /etc/ppp/peers/ with the name of the VPN connection and the contents "nodefaultroute" but that doesn't seem to help.

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I predict "/etc/ppp/peers/" will not do anything, as MacOS X pays strict attention to some of the Unix directories, and ignores the rest of it. You may be able to set something as default with a third-party VPN client, and then delete said client.

This may work, but proceed at your own risk
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1907?page=last&x-order=date

After setting up the VPN connection, try running the following script. You will of course need to change the IP addresses to fit your needs. In the example below, 192.168.100.0/24 is the local network, and 192.168.1.0/24 is the remote network we are vpn'd to. This is self-healing; when the vpn is disconnected the routes will fix themselves.

#!/bin/sh
# delete the broken default route
sudo route delete default

# add the route to the vpn network
# via the pptp interface
sudo route add -net 192.168.1.0 \
-netmask 255.255.255.0 -interface ppp0

# set the new default route
sudo route add default 192.168.100.254

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Yes, that's pretty much what I was doing by hand. It works, but I want it to run automatically whenever I establish the connection. I've found various more or less kludgy ways of doing it - replacing the pppd with a Perl script that changes the arguments to replace "defaultroute" with "nodefaultroute" and the like - but none of them seem to work for me.

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Write a script that includes that data and establishes the connection? I'm reasonably certain VPN would be scriptable, even if you had to call an applescript...

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Yes, that's a good idea. I shall try to set aside an hour or two to learn Applescript this weekend.

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http://www.google.com/search?q=vpn+applescript

Applescript's a pretty decent language, such as it is...

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*nod* I use my Windows side for gaming, pretty much exclusively, and the Linux side for everything else. So I do get it. :) I'm just not particularly drawn to Macs...

As for being more expensive, gotcha. Still. *shrug* That's simply why it's disconcerting to me; not saying that it's particularly reasonable of me. :)

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If LCD screen prices come down significantly, then it may become one. The built-in keyboard/trackpad would be another expense... I see this as more useful for noncomputer people or second computers, who want something that doesn't take up much space or money.

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