Month: September 2015

Concentric squares in muted range of colors
adjacent on the “plane” of a cylinder (for wrap around), with colors rippling through range of squares.

A random placement of contrast spots (0 or 1) at coordinates causes the nearest squares to display concentric rings of color range positive or inverse, depending on random contrast value.

Another map of contrast spots is generated and previous set is transitioned to the new set gradually.

0 0 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 0 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 1
0 1 0 0 0 0

Inner squares could randomly be circles, as well, as long as the containing path was square.

Also needs some occasional random bright pinholes.

Keychain Remedy

There was no repair to perform on Paula’s keychains — no problems encountered by the Verify option in the Keychain First Aid dialog.

Can’t find the option on my system, now, but on Paula’s, there was a setting for allowing all applications to use the credentials for her email address at paularichards.com. It was off, and so Outlook was constantly asking for access. Changing that setting to allow made the annoying requests cease.

Insomniac Mac

The other problem with Paula’s MacBook was that it wouldn’t stay in sleep mode. After the sequence completed and the indicator light dimmed once, it would come back on bright and the monitor would awake.

I considered the possibility that it was the internal Solid State Drive I installed a while back, but Paula couldn’t remember whether the problem occurred prior to that installation.

I suspected it was likelier to be a peripheral.

I started by unplugging the USB communicator dongle for Paula’s Fitbit. Made no difference. Plugged it back in.

Unplugged the USB feed to the USB hub on which are not only the keyboard and (daisy-chained) mouse, but an external hard drive, a scanner (off) and a printer (also off).

Now it sleeps. Must awaken with the built-in keyboard.

This last step ruled out the printer and scanner for lack of power, as well as the other peripherals — cat5 cable and thunderbolt connection to monitor. Decided to just add back in the keyboard and mouse, so unplugged the USB feed to the external hard drive, and then plugged the hub’s USB feed back into the MacBook.

It stays in sleep mode, ergo, it would appear to have been the drive.

That’s not to say it’s a permanent issue. Plugged the external drive’s USB feed back into the hub.

MacBook stays asleep.

So, the conclusion is that it was the auxiliary USB hard drive on which she keeps her photos and music, or the powered USB hub, itself, that, at some point, introduced a glitch that was remedied by one or more of the USB disconnections and subsequent reconnections.

Lesson learned: It’s not always a big problem.