I updated to the new iPhone 3.0 OS last night. I had forgotten until this morning the feature I was most looking forward to was now on my phone – the ability to add an LDAP server to the Contacts application. So, I loaded the server we have here on campus, and tried a search. Yay, it returns matches! It even waits for you to stop typing and will bring a list back, which you can then refine by adding more search terms. This is exactly what I wanted. I then tapped on an entry to see what the contact card would look like.

And the Contacts application died. Just went back to the home page of apps. No error, no warning. Just dead.

Luckily, I have admin rights on the LDAP servers. So I bounce over, and look through the logs for my searches. And there they are. So I extract the iPhone search, and run it manually:

ldapsearch -x -h <em>ldap.example.com</em> \<br /> -b <em>ou=people,dc=example,dc=com</em> \<br /> "(|(givenName=<em>username</em>*)(sn=<em>username</em>*) \<br /> (cn=<em>username</em>*)(mail=<em>username</em>*))" \<br /> givenName sn cn mail telephoneNumber \<br /> facsimileTelephoneNumber o title ou \<br /> buildingName street l st postalCode \<br /> c jpegPhoto mobile co pager \<br /> destinationIndicator labeledURI IMHandle \<br /> homePhone postalAddress homePostalAddress

(Server, search base, and test username excluded to protect the innocent). The search returns swimmingly – and, according to the logs, this is what the server gave back to the iPhone. I run the search myself, and save the output, trying to see if something is out of place. Nothing looks wrong – so I hit another entry, for a student this time – an it works. Weird. Some people’s entries are causing the app to crash. I start looking up entries, and comparing fields. This isn’t the fastest process, as often the app will crash out from under my fingers. Finally, I get the problem field isolated:

IMHandle: AIM:<em>username</em>

Any entry with an IMHandle attribute kills the application, so far. This is valid for AIM: and jabber: entries. Next up – start modifying data and see if it’s a format problem for the attr, or if the iPhone just can’t handle it at all. And if it can’t handle it, why is it asking for it?

We’ll find out soon.

My posting frequency is way up. I’ve done this, in part, by writing a little on a bunch of different posts each night. I revisit and edit, as well as add content every time I touch a post. I often wind up with nothing that I started from – sometimes not even the title – but it’s always better than my first draft. One of those hard lessons from school I guess – your first draft is never good enough.

This is particularly true for the longer technical posts. There’s a lot of content in each one, and a lot of research that needs to be done to make sure you have the right data, links and topics ready for a coherent article. As I’m now trying to produce for Shufflegazine now as well, I need all the practice I can get.

I’m going to go on a rant today. I’m getting really frustrated with the government bailout/compensation capping talks. In essence, I see the government having two options, neither of which they are taking:

Option 1: Treat the bailout/TARP/whatever it’s called this week as a loan. Setup interest rates and payment plans, and go with it. No involvement other than collecting payments. In essence, non-voting shares in the companies who need the assistance.

Option 2: Treat the bailout as if they had simply purchased shares in the company the “normal” way. They get to vote on board members, possibly even sit on the board. If they are voting members, they, as The Government, get to do things like suggest new CEO’s and limits on pay. They are major stakeholders, and they get the privileges accorded to them with such a rank.

What they need to stop doing, though, is what they are doing right now. Back in January, when the bonuses were being paid out, and the government said “hey, we don’t like that” the banks said – “hey, tough, it’s our company, and they are our employees.” We all know what happened next – the government passed legislation taking the bonuses back out of the pockets of the employees. While it may have been distasteful to pay them out these large sums of money, it set the precedent for what’s happening now. If the government doesn’t like the way the companies are acting they will ‘fix it’.

It’s intolerable to stand by watching as the individual politicians meddle in the affairs of major companies without also holding them personally accountable to the shareholders of those companies for what they are doing.

http://www.shufflegazine.com/2009/06/09/how-to-backup-with-apple-time-machine

As John Gruber points out, Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) will have it’s default gamma set to 2.2 – which is the native gamma setting for PC’s. Looks like they are trying to close at least part of the issue for photographers who work cross-platform.

With the increased media attention to illegal file sharing and the court cases that the Recording Industry has been filing against people who download music recordings illegally, it has been noticed that Obama has appointed several prominent RIAA lawyers to positions within the Justice Department. My question – why is anyone surprised? Big politics requires big money – those television ads that ran for 14+ months of the last campaign didn’t pay for themselves, you know. If you are a big campaign donor, you get correspondingly large political pull. And there’s a lot of money coming in to the Democrats from the media industry.

Even if Obama didn’t accept any special interest money, the rest of his party has, and those special interests shape the party, not the people. Those special interests decide that the party is going to be for or against gun control, corporate taxes, energy policy and national security, for starters. The will of the ‘people’ comes out in things like gay marriage and abortion – things that are emotionally sensitive, and will distract the people from what’s going on. Let’s say this again to make sure everyone is clear: the people have little say over the platform the party runs on. The party establishes what it’s platform will be, and then the people are expected to vote along party lines. Too bad if you’re a democrat who thinks gun control is a bad idea, or if you’re a republican who is in support of gay marriage.

Time to get back off my soapbox.

Qais got me an early Father’s Day present today – a dog! ¹⁄₂ Chocolate Lab, ¹⁄₂ Australian Shepherd. 1 year old, or thereabouts. Has no interest in cars whatsoever, and the only interest in Qais was to lick his feet. Once. Also, wonderful with other dogs. She’s been in close contact with 4 other dogs today – no signs of aggressiveness, all just playful. And and and! She’s great in the car. 2+ hours of starting and stopping, she sat in the back of the Volvo without any complaints!

We’re in love.