Hanne's blog

I needed to be able to build a mpkg pakcage. I couldn't find any package manager or the like on Mac. So I googled.

This was actually not simple to find out. At least not to my logic. I probably googled the wrong words... because I didn't know the name of the things I needed.

I found this that page tells me how to do it:
http://s.sudre.free.fr/Stuff/PackageMaker_Howto.html.

It says Developers Tools but must be installed.

First I found some stuff telling me to install Developers Tools from the DVDs. Which I hadn't brought home. Which is why I hate non free software, its not so much the money, it's the inconvenience. Anyway, it turned out not to be on the #*@&!$ DVDs so that was one bit of wasted hatred.

Ever tried putting a DVD in a Macbook? It makes a noise like a minor rocket launch. Definitely not for watching DVDs in the quiet compartment on the train...

Then I found this page http://expsy.ugent.be/tscope/doc/download/node1.html, telling me that it must be\ndownloaded from http://developer.apple.com/tools which requires you to create an account. This worked.

Reading the license agreement tells me that the primary idea of this arrangement is to get people to accept that it is not Apple's responsibility when they mess up their system with their home made software. But that could be done by popping up the same agreement when you installed from DVD. So the real reason is probably that they want to know all kinds of things about you and want to spam you with stuff. Anyway they will get into my filter right away if that happens. All I want to do is to build a tiny little package. So now I can whine about the account part instead of the DVDs...

So after giving Apple all kinds of information about me I was allowed to download a standard Mac package and install it.

It ends up in /Developer. Now I can start figuring out how to build my package.

Update: After installing developers tools I got several errors. When I tried to run cvs or make from the command line, I got "cannot execute binary file". When I tried to install a package by double clicking it, I got "The application installer quit unexpectedly".

http://people.binf.ku.dk/hanne/pics/div/20081007-03-Mac-before-reinstall.jpg

So I decided it was time to install those software updates it has been bugging me about. That went well, I mean, no errors or crashes. So now I run Mac OS X 10.5.5. It didn't solve the problem, though.

Somehow I don't think I'll become a Mac user.

First you need to get the LaTeX package. It is called MacTeX, is based on texlive and can be found here: http://www.tug.org/mactex/

There are other LaTeX distributions for Mac, and some editors and stuff if you want it. See here:
http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

But I didn't want that. I downloaded the MacTex package and installed it the usual Mac way.

The binaries goes in /usr/texbin/. To get it into your path after installation you need to start a new terminal window (or just a new shell I guess).

It contains latex, pdflatex, bibtex etc. just like on Linux, and it compiles my LaTeX documents and seems to have all the LaTeX packages I use.

The only thing missing was the convenience of running Acrobat Reader with the command acroread mydoc.pdf (which is probably only convenient because I am very used to it...)
So I made this advanced script:

#!/bin/sh
/Applications/Adobe\\ Reader\\ 9/Adobe\\ Reader.app/Contents/MacOS/AdobeReader $1 &

and called it "acroread" and put it in my path, and now I can run my LaTeX stuff just like I was on Linux.

(I always use pdflatex these days. I haven't checked for a dvi viewer or anything.)

Perhaps I should ask myself this question: Is making the Mac behave like my Linux box really learning to use Mac? In a way it is not. I do not use the Macbook the "Mac Way". I probably haven't figured out half of the convenient things the Mac can do of its own right. I might someday.

But my using Linux is probably not very much the Linux way either. It is the convenience way. I want my laptop/workstation OS to behave in ways that are convenient to me, and then in principle it could be any OS.

Then off course there are other issues, like compatibility with servers and
evelopment machines, like security, like license issues...

Update: I cannot get acrobat reader to print i colors... And not in duplex either. So I print from Linux...

So I wanted to buy some expensive clothes from agnesb.com. The only designer company whose clothes I like, though their London "flagship store" is dirty and rather unwelcoming and does not have a lot of the clothes in stock.

And online shopping is cheaper than going from Denmark to London anyway. I spent a few days considering what to buy, and sent my order Monday evening and got a confirmation email:

Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:56:43 +0200 (CEST)
From: Their email address
To:my email address

Dear, Ms. Munkholm

Your payment has been validated. We will process your order shortly.
We thank you for your confidence in us.
* Transmission date : September 22, 2008 10:55:31 PM CEST
* Merchant address : www.agnesb
* Merchant id : aaaaaaaaa
* Transaction id : bbbbbb
* Transaction amount : ccc euros
* Card number : dddd.ee
* Authorisation : ffffff
* Payment certificate : gggggggggggg

You can track your order on the agnes b website by clicking here.

We hope to see you again soon on the www.agnesb.com website

agnes b. customer service

OK so I thought they would actually send my goods. But I got wiser.

Today I got this email from them:

Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:25:10 +0200
From: Their email address (french department)
To: My email address
Subject: Your Order [hhh: iiiii]

Dear Hanne,

Thanks for ordering on agnesb.com.

In order to guarantee our customers a better protection against possible defrauders, we made the decision to check the identity of our customers.

To this end, we see ourselves constrained to ask you to address us as fast as possible by fax or mail the written confirmation of your order,

accompanied by a copy of the identity paper corresponding to the name seized on the site and a copy of gas, telephone or electricity invoice too. You will find our co-ordinates complete in signature of this e-mail.

As of reception of these documents, your order will be dispatched. If we do not receive any news within 7 day wrought, your order will be cancelled. For any information do not hesitate to join our sales department directly by telephone.

We thank you for your comprehension and hope to find you soon on www.agnesb.com.

Best regards,

Carine
Le Service Client Internet
3NET
BP 30657
59061 ROUBAIX CEDEX 1

tel: +33 (0)1 40 03 58 44
fax: +33 (0)1 40 03 58 45
SHOPPING ON LINE!shoppingonline@agnesb.fr
http://www.agnesb.com/

Notice that they use my first name now, so I guess that I am close friends with this Carine person by now and I should be hurt that she doesn't trust me, but never mind that.

I have 3 problems in doing what they request.

1. Gas and electricity is in my husband's name, and it has been years since I have seen an actual phone bill. I pay it over my bank's automatic payment service so I only get a few lines on the payment service overview. Actual paper bills are just so nineties... So according to this online shop, I guess I have no identity?
2. I find that it would violate my privacy to send these people my gas bill or the like, not to speak of any actual identity papers. My husband suggests that I ask them for their gas bill in return so I can see that they are actually the company I expect to be dealing with...
3. How does a gas bill - in Danish - prove anything at all? I could fake a very official looking gas bill quickly and convincingly if I wanted to. If they knew Danish they could easily verify my address via the Danish phone directory or via my registered domain name or probably several other ways. But they don't. So I bet they don't know an official gas bill when they see one.
   Actually I wish I lived in Copenhagen and that it was a US company instead of a French one so I could have the pleasure of sending them a bill from "Dong Energy"

So if these people don't want my money they wont have it, and if people in France still use paper bills and expect everybody else to be just as stone age, so be it. I guess I'll just have to find a nicer place to shop.

Bye, bye, Agnes (and my new best friend Carine).

Update: They repeated that they needed the information so I couldn't resist sending them a request that to protect myself from defraud I required them to send me a copy of their gas bill etc etc. in a wording similar to theirs.

The result was that they informed me that they had a policy to request this information from first time cust omers when they ordered for more than 300 euro. So, I allowed them to cancel my order and will try to order for less than 300 euro.

It still remains to be seen if I can order for more than 300 euro when I am not a first time customer anymore, should I desire to do so.

Also, it does not solve the interesting problem here: What do I need for an online identity? How can I prove my being a real customer without compromising my privacy?

Ha! Who needs X11. Just install the native OpenOffice 3.0 Release candidate from http://download.openoffice.org/680/?intcmp=1461 in the usual Mac way. And it actually starts! No need for fancy installation guides, howto's or blog posts... Aaarrr! *

*) It's international "Talk like a Pirate" day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Talk_Like_a_Pirate_Day

Ok I got X11 to work.

The Mac already had an X11 installed but nothing happened when I tried to start it, except from the icon flashing once. When I tried from the command line I got some messages in the terminal that it tried to start an xterm and a login shell but it seemed to exit immediately.

So I found this: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X112.3.0 where I downloaded an almost official non official X11 package for Mac OS 10.5.4. A version 2.3.1 exists but requires 10.5.5 and I don't want to upgrade until I have finished testing on this version.

The package installed Mac-wise normally and I've got a running X11! A bit slow, though. So next step is getting openoffice installed.