You know you’ve been doing security too long when you see an article about a restaurant called “A1 Cucina Italiana” opening… and you wonder who did the Orange Book evaluation.
(ducks and runs)
Month: February 2012
When Correctly Viewed, Everything is… IA
Today was my first full day at the technical portion of GSAW. It is amazing, but I could usually find an IA-related question during most of the briefings. Funny how that works.
P.S.: I’ve made the big time. NIST SP 800-53 Revision 4 was released for initial public draft today. You may notice a familiar name as part of the group working on it.
Drive By Posts: Waiters Reading Tables
I’ve been busy all day doing a tutorial at GSAW, so a drive-by post will have to do… here’s an interesting article on how waiters read your table (no, they don’t use reading glasses) to determine not only when you want to order, but what you want to order.
Joy and Sadness in Vienna
Last night, we went to see “Old Wicked Songs” at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. With a title like that, you would probably expect a musical. Although there was music, and the actors even sung to it, this was most assuredly not a musical. Rather, it was part comedy and part drama that explored the conflicted emotions and environment in Vienna, Austria, during the time that Kurt Waldheim ran for the President of Austria.
“Old Wicked Songs“, written by Jon Marans, tells the story of two men: Professor Josef Mashkan and Stephen Hoffman. Mashkan is vocal instructor in Vienna who teaches piano students how singers sing, in order that they might be better accompanists. Hoffman is a young piano prodigy who burned out doing solo concerts, who wants to move beyond technical proficiency to find the joy in music. Hoffman has come to Vienna to study with a piano teacher, but this teacher requires him to study vocal accompaniment for 3 months before he will work with him. The framing music for this study are a number of pieces by Shubert that emphasize the theme of sadness mixed with joy, which proves to be an ongoing theme throughout the piece. I don’t want to give away all the plot twists and turns, but I will mention that the story is more than just piano lessons: it goes into the deeper relationship between these two men, the relationship that both Germany and Austria have with their past (including Dachau), and the election of Kurt Waldheim, who tended to hide his personal connection to the Nazis.
When this show started, we didn’t quite know what to make of it. It was slow, with lots of classical music and German songs. Mashkan came off as slightly antisemitic, and it just didn’t seem all that interesting. We might have left midway through, but the theatre was small enough that the actors would have noticed, and that’s just a wrong thing to do. The second act turned the story around and redeemed the production — you really began to care about these two and their situation, and you ended up walking out quite satisfied. It’s nice when theatre does that.
The credit for this goes not just to the writing, but to the acting and direction. Stephanie Vlahos directs her two actors to have them come across as real people. They way they move and talk and interact just seems normal. Credit also goes to the actors: John Towey as Josef Mashkan and Tavis Danz as Stephen Hoffman. Both are excellent actors and piano artists, and come across extremely realistic. I was particuarly taken with Towey’s portrayal of Mashkan: there was just an indescribable level of depth in it.
Turning to the technical: The Scenic Design was by Stephen Gifford, and did a great job of turning the stage into an old Vienna study. Properties and Set Dressing were by Colony regulars MacAndMe. Lighting was by Jared A. Sayeg, and was particularly notable as some scenes were entirely done through a combination of lighting and the set — no acting. Sound design was by Drew Dalzell, and was effective, especially the music between scenes. Costume design was by Kate Bergh. Mary K Klinger was production stage manager.
“Old Wicked Songs” continues at the Colony through March 4, 2012. The next production at the Colony is “Dames at Sea“.
Upcoming Theatre, Concerts, and Dance: March begins with Bernadette Peters in concert at the Valley Performing Arts Center on March 3. That will be followed by “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” at Van Nuys High School (March 2-3 and 8-10; we’re likely going on 3/10), and continues with “American Idiot” at the Ahmanson, and “Journey’s End” at REP East. March will conclude with Tom Paxton in concert at McCabes on 3/31. Continuing the look ahead, April will bring “Billy Elliot” at the Pantages, the Southern California Renaissance Faire, “Once Upon a Mattress” at Cabrillo, and “Dames at Sea” at the Colony. May will bring “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” at REP East, the senior dance show at Van Nuys HS, and may bring “Heiress” at the Pasadena Playhouse, “Follies” at the Ahmanson, and the Spring Railfestival at Orange Empire Railway Museum. As always, open dates are subject to be filled in with productions that have yet to appear on the RADAR of Goldstar or LA Stage Alliance.
Music: The Marvellous Toy & Other Gallimaufry (Tom Paxton): Englebert The Elephant
iPod Classic: Dealing with Sync Problems
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve become a regular reader of the iPod Classic support forum. I’ve also posted in the past some of my observations from reading that forum (which have been updated since they appeared on LiveJournal). With this post, I’d like to discuss one specific problem that seems quite common: people connect up their iPod Classic, and then iTunes report that it is corrupted and needs to be restored. The occurance of this problem seems to have increased with iTunes 10.5, so my guess is that it is related to iTunes 10.5. Will Apple fix it? Unknown, as they don’t a lot of interest in the older iPod Classic.
What Appears To Cause the Problem. From reading lots and lots of posts and responses on this, it looks like the basic cause (not the specific culprit) is a timing issue. Basically, iTunes is expecting to talk to the iPod at a particular speed (probably the speed of the newer iOS devices based on the iPhone approach), and the older classics can’t keep up. This results in a corrupted file system. The culprit is harder to pinpoint, although there are a number of potentials:
- Low power USB ports
- Slow USB ports
- Insufficient memory (iTunes is a memory pig)
- Slower and older processors
- Conflicts with USB hubs
Fixing the Problem. The variety of culprits makes it harder to fix the problem. The first thing to be done is to ensure a strong and reliable connection to the iPod. If you have a Macbook, reported the rear USB port is on an internal hub and has lower power, so only plug the iPod into the front USB port. In general, you should avoid USB hubs if you can; if you must use one, make sure it is (a) powered, and (b) uses the newest fastest standard. I’d also try to avoid conflicting traffic on the hub.
Let’s assume now you have a good connection. From hereon, I’m going to be PC specific, simply because I don’t know the MAC. This post by Bilbo_Chesire on the forums describes how to check the disk from Windows. You may want to run disk diagnostics on the iPod to confirm there isn’t a harddisk failure starting. More info can be found here, here, and here.
If you’ve just been disconnecting the iPod without formally ejecting it in iTunes, it could just have a Windows bit set wrong. This could result in Windows asking you to “Scan and Fix” the iPod. Here’s what to do if you get that message.
For some of this, you may need to put the iPod into Disk Mode. To do that,first turning it on then toggle the hold switch an then hold down the center and menu buttons. As soon as you see the Apple logo, hold down the center and play buttons. This should get you to disk mode. You may have to try this several times before it takes. The Apple Support article on disk mode may be found here.
If the file system is really corrupted. this post explains how to erase and reformat it. Avoid that if you can.
By now, hopefully we’ve made sure the iPod itself is not the problem, and the connection is not the problem. Now to iTunes itself. Ask yourself: Was the product working with a previous version of iTunes? If it was you want to go back to that version.
Before you do any mucking with iTunes, make a copy of your iTunes library. Go to your music/iTunes directory, and make copy of the directory. Call it something like “safe.iTunes”. This way, if you need to recover your files or your music, you’ve got it. Better safe than sorry. (You should be backing up this directory regularly). BTW: If you don’t understand how your iTunes library is structured and how to back it up, then you should read The Complete Guide to Backing Up Your iTunes Library over at iLounge. This will tell you what all the files are and how to back things up. Go and read it now, I’ll wait….
Next you want to download an install file for an older version of iTunes. If you use Windows, you can try visiting the oldapps page for iTunes (they have both x32 and x64 versions). Oldapps doesn’t appear to have old Mac versions; I haven’t found them yet (if you have, let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post). Alternatively, you can visit the Apple Knowledgebase Search function, search for your version, and then restrict the search to “iTunes” and “Downloads”. For example, doing so I found the link to download iTunes 10.4.1 for Windows (64 bit).
Before you attempt to reinstall iTunes, you want to completely remove the old software. This is more than just uninstalling iTunes; you need to uninstall Apple Media Drivers, Quicktime, Bonjour, and such. After you’ve backed up your directory, follow these instructions from Apple. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have a complete backup of your music files as well, but I’m sure you do that already.
Note: Changes are made to the iTunes library between 10.4 and 10.5. This manifests itself as the error “Impossible to read iTunes Library because it was created with a earlier version of iTunes”. If you didn’t backup your library, you may need to recover a compatible version. If you look in your music/iTunes directory, there should be a subdirectory called “Previous iTunes Libraries”. The process is sorta-described in this Apple post or in this TechnicallyEasy post. You may be able to find a suitable archive copy of your iTunes library in that directory. After you’ve made the backup and reinstalled iTunes, but before you reconnect your iPod, copy the appropriate archive version into the the new music/iTunes directory and rename things appropriately. Start up iTunes and see if your library is there.
With the new iTunes, make sure your library is visible and works independently of the iPod. Reauthorize things as necessary. When you connect the iPod, restoring it if necessary, it is time to reload the iPod. Before you do, turn off automatic syncing. It is better not to load the entire iPod at once, especially if you have a large media library (for example, I’ve got almost 28,000 songs at present). Here is some advice on how to break up a transfer.
(3/13) Even after downgrading, the iPod may still not be recognized by iTunes. This discussion chain on the Apple Support Forum presents a possible solution to that problem.
I’ll be doing some other summary posts on other common questions. If you have any corrections to this, I welcome comments. Expect this post to be regularly updated.
Music [2/25 5:09p]: Aspects of Love (Original London Cast): Love Changes Everything
Music [2/26 3:14p]: Don’t Cry Now (Linda Ronstadt): The Fast One
Music [3/2]: Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd): Money
Music [3/13]: The Best of Friends (Loggins & Messina): Be Free
Not What I Was Expecting
Earlier this week, my mother-in-law called and wondered if I wanted to go with her to a talk her City of Hope group was hosting. The speaker was Judd McIlvain, a well known consumer reporter here in Southern California. Expecting an interesting talk with good “how to be a smart consumer” anecdotes for seniors, I decided to give it a whirl. Needless to say, it wasn’t what I expected.
I should have been suspicious when a codger in the audience kept asking him when he was going to talk about Kennedy. Mr. McIlvain kept responding that he was still dead, so I thought it was just a heckler. But then McIlvain started talking about a book of stories he was working on that his superiors never let him air… and one of them was on the Kennedy Assassination. He then told this story about a woman who purportedly worked for the CIA in Mexico delivering cash to operatives, who was put in jail for 5 years because she told Adelei Stevenson that one of the operatives she paid, a Mr. Oswald, kept hinting that the CIA planned to kill Kennedy. There were all these coincidental deaths, you see, … well, you know the theories. Supposedly this particular one wasn’t on the Internet yet, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t true (and, of course, it is on the internet if you know where to look). Of course, McIlvain had testified to a congressional commission on this, but the results and such won’t be released for 99 years. Even more suspicious.
Now, my job is to be skeptical, and I didn’t believe this at all. Sure, Oswald could have been framed, but at this point it doesn’t make much of a difference (as most of the folks are dead). The likely answer, whatever it is, was too sensitive to be released at the time. But the CIA? C’mon. That’s stretching plausibility even for me. I’d be more likely to believe another government.
So it was definitely one of those off the wall evenings.
Music: The Marvellous Toy & Other Gallimaufry (Tom Paxton): Katy
Friday Clearin’ o’ the Desk: Deaths in the News
Due to some lunchtime meetings, I’m taking a late lunch break. Time to clear out the links:
- Death of Free Access. It looks like two things that previously could have been obtained for free are going away:
[LA Times] First, the LA Times is putting up a paywall on March 5. Given I’m an LA Times subscriber, this won’t affect me, but it will affect a lot of others. I know after the NY Times put up its paywall and my free access expired, I didn’t pay for access. This was not because I object to the paywall, but the pricing was far too high. For digital content, I’m willing to pay what I used to pay for a paper — between 15c and 25c a day — best would be about $1-$1.50 per week. They wanted $3.75/week after the first four weeks. That adds up, and I’d rather support the local paper and get my limited NY Times articles.
[LA Metro] The other thing going away, at least at some stations, are unlocked gates on the LA Metro. Now, you were always supposed to buy a ticket (I always did), but lots of people didn’t. This will force them to do so.
- Death of a Market. Another thing going away — and this one took me by surprise. The Gelsons Market near us in Northridge is closing today. Gelsons was an upscale market, and evidently the Northridge neighborhood wasn’t upscale enough to support it. Tarzana and Valley Village remain open. I’ll miss Gelsons — they always had high quality products, a great in-store salad bar and deli, and often carried pippin apples when no one else did. It will probably be the deathnell for their little center: they’ve already lots a big-box linen store and their Hallmark store, so their only draws will be a few small fast-food restaurants (Western Bagel, Togos, Rubios), a discount shoe store, and not much else.
- Death of a Shipping Company. Last year, Atlantic Mutual Insurance died. You probably haven’t heard of them. What’s interesting is what they left behind, as they were a major insurer of shipping and seafaring companies, including being the insurer of the Titanic. They left behind a fascinating of records of ship wreaks and ship disasters, which will be a literal treasure trove for salvage operations. The article is a fascinating read.
- Death of Cyber-Innocence. CNN has an interesting article on the risks in cyberspace. The article goes into details into the “wars” that occur in that battlespace. Interesting reading, and it demonstrates why “Cyber” is growing in importance these days.
Music: Dance Band on the Titanic (Harry Chapin): Paint a Picture of Yourself (Michael’s Song)
You Probably Don’t Want It
A quick drive-by, as I didn’t get a chance to do a lunchtime post (busy day). Curbed LA has highlighted a wonderful valley listing with a disclosure statement that makes you wonder why anyone is buying this:
The house has major foundation issues with mold. No warranties are giving. Buyer to hire a general contractor and mold company. There are cracks in the foundation with 3 to 4 inches off the back of the house. No termite report or termite completion. The retaining wall has major issues with water running into the back of the house. Part of the house in not in liable condition. Buyer to be aware of dog in backyard. Please be aware there is freeway noise. The seller holds a valid CA Real Estate. Their was additional structural damaged found after buyer inspection. The pool does not work or in operating condition. A lot of draining issues with leaking roof. If you are LOOKING FOR A HOUSE WITH MAJOR DAMAGE YOU FOUND IT. The retaining wall is worse condition then expected.
Music: Godspell (2011 Revival): Beautiful City