02.01.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:08 pm by ryan
Wow! Today’s my lucky day! I managed to tack down instructions for enabling Japanese language input on my iPhone. Choose “Expert” instructions or “Step by Step” instructions. Basically, there’s a file in your home directory called: ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
Just edit AppleKeyboards key to add “ja” after “en_US”. If you’ve installed the Developer Tools you can do this real easily just your iPhone’s SSH along with Transmit and the Property List Editor. Save that file, reboot your iPhone and enjoy typing in Japanese!
There are some instructions for configuring a Korean keyboard input that I’m pretty excited about, but it replaces the japanese input with the Korean, and I need Japanese every day… Korean just occasionally, so I’ll just be sticking with the Japanese until Korean support is improved. Once the iPod touch is released with korean input, it should be also be available in the iPhone firmware… Stay tuned to the Korean “Apple MacGeek Pro” to know for sure 
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01.30.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:41 am by ryan
The first two of these were written by Ben Mezrich - who did an interesting job on the “Ugly Americans” story about some traders in Japan. All 6 of these are a little outside the scope of what I would normally read, which I suppose is all the more reason to give them a shot
- In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg: 4 x 6]
- Bringing Down the House : The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg 4 x 366]
- Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg 2.5 x 39]
- Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg: 4.5 x 208]
- Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg: 4.0 x 97]
- Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today’s Cluttered Marketplace (Audible) (Amazon) [Avg: 4.5 x 31]
Ever being the contrarian, the premise of “Rigged” sounds interesting and the score is so low, I’m going to give it a shot. Most of Amazon wrote that they hated it… Will I? We’ll give Ben a chance…
UPDATE: Completed reading all of the above that I’m interested in. I’ve stricken ”Chasing Cool” from the list as it no longer seems so interesting and I’m fortunate enough to have a very wise and experienced “Marketing Mentor”
Of the books above, “In the Ruins of Empire” is an absolute must read. Bringing Down the House, Rigged and Liar’s Poker are each interesting stories, Liar’s Poker probably being the most educational of the group. Each was entertaining.
I’m trying to decide if I should read “Legacy of Ashes”…
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01.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:36 am by ryan
Today I got a good call from my good friend Markie… Oddly enough, he’s now fallen for a Korean girl. Been down that road before - good luck brother Mark
Mark used to call me Waysian… a Caucasian (white) Asian. Personally I blame it all on him and his family. I always liked the food that they cooked so much, and enjoyed their family restaurant so much (Another Thai Restaurant) that I just “soaked up” a lot of asian culture. Of the 5 close friends I had from childhood up until I was in my early 20’s, 60% were asian. Never noticed it at the time, but it surely had an impact. Today, don’t even ask… Something like 99% asian…
Today Markie thought of a new one: Winja sort of Erwin, White and Ninja all in one ~ that’s pretty funny, now that I’m learning Japanese
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01.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:12 pm by ryan
Do you have a few books that you’ve bought recently, but you haven’t finished reading cover to cover? I can’t stand that feeling — There are two cinematography and a few tech books that I’ll feel really good when I finish up 
Simultaneously, I find that I’m nearly always able to finish BOOK ON TAPE / Audible / 有声读物 versions of any book that I purchase. With my iPhone it’s more convenient than ever before!
Since I started LISTENING to books via Audible.com, back in May 2005, I’ve listened to 118 books with a combined time of 26.6 days. There are a few of these (Adventure Capitalist, first and all time favorite) that I’ve listened to end to end several times!
Of course, the downside of the audible version of books is that the selection is so small ~ but I’ve also found the limit in scope to be a pleasant diversion from the routines that I frequently find myself settling into…
I was quite excited tonight to find:
Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World
AUDIBLE LINK — AMAZON LINK
I listened to the sample and it sounds extremely interesting….
Other books in audible form that appear quite interesting include:
- Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur - An Adventure Story (Audible) (Amazon)
- Marx’s Das Kapital: A Biography (Audible) (Amazon)
- The War That Made America: French and Indian War (Audible) (Amazon)
- Storm and Conquest: The Clash of Empires in the Eastern Seas, 1809 (Audible Only)
Additionally, I noticed a whole “Books that changed the World” series is available, not completely yet in audible form, but if you’ll occasionally settle for the wikipedia version of history, you might want to check out these…
- Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey
- Plato’s Republic
- Darwin’s Origin of Species
- The Qur’an
- The Bible
- Clausewitz’s on War
- On The Wealth of Nation
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01.22.08
Posted in Photos, Uncategorized at 2:53 am by ryan
My new niece - Tara’s little sister just arrived a few hours ago.
Nobody’s even told me her name yet, but my little brother forwarded me this picture.
So cute!
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01.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:25 am by ryan
こんにちは！
I picked up a nasty case of Acute Laryngitis this weekend. I can just barely whisper. What a pain… Doctor said by Thursday or Friday should be back to normal. In the mean time, just DO NOT TALK. Easier said than done…
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the vocal cords causing speech to become hoarse and/or whisperlike, and often inaudible.
CAUSE: excessive use of voice
When I get my regular workaholic routine interrupted, I like to read. Picked up an interesting story called: December 6th, set in Tokyo just before the beginning of World War II.
Main character is a caucasian, son of american missionaries, who traveled frequently a left him to be raised by the nanny in Japan. He’s primarily american in appearance. There’s an interesting line when he’s still a boy and crosses paths with one of the generals who lead Japan in the first Great War… The dialog goes…
It’s one thing to have a woman.
It’s another thing to be in love with a woman.
To love a weaker person, what does that do for you?
To mix inferior steel in a sword,
does that make the sword weaker or stronger?
True love can only exist between equals
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/December-Novel-Martin-Cruz-Smith/dp/0671775928 Audible: audible.com: | December 6
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12.23.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:03 am by ryan
Wow, if you’re a spammer - please add my ryan@ryanerwin.com email address to the list of people you want to SPAM. I’m setting up my new SPAM filter and I need to make sure none of your mail gets delivered, yet legitimate email all goes through.
If you’re reading a blog that is supposed to be about an american business geek trying to be chinese in shanghai… well, it’s a long story. The update on that subject is be careful what you wish for, you might get it. When I’m traveling to the US, I’ve already noticed that the lack of chinese characteristics (high population density, disregard for regulations of any kind, wide variety of chinese foods and ingredients) are somewhat unsettling. Listening to audible books in Chinese is now not difficult, but is still not as automatic as listening to english versions. It will be interesting to see the change after another year…
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11.27.07
Posted in Photos, Uncategorized at 5:26 am by ryan
More copy to come….
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11.19.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:02 pm by ryan
Up until now, this posting to the openldap-software mailing list by Apple employee Gary La Voy is by far the most complete description I’ve ever seen of the LDAP fields supported by Mail.app. I suppose this is all there is to know about LDAP and Address Book - unless of course more has been added in Leopard.
Just now, I stumbled across this Ethereal dump of Address Book’s query to an LDAP server which is extremely valuable. This O’Reilly page also has a useful summary if you’re just getting started, but it’s really the Ethereal dump that’s going to save you. (You can install Ethereal via MacPorts)
Here’s the complete dump of the LDAP Connection from Address Book:
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LDAP Message, Search Request
Message Id: 2
Message Type: Search Request (0×03)
Message Length: 291
Response In: 8
Base DN: (null)
Scope: Subtree (0×02)
Dereference: Never (0×00)
Size Limit: 0
Time Limit: 30
Attributes Only: False
Filter: (|(givenname=carmo)(sn=carmo)(cn=carmo)(mail=carmo))
Attribute: givenName
Attribute: sn
Attribute: cn
Attribute: mail
Attribute: telephoneNumber
Attribute: facsimileTelephoneNumber
Attribute: o
Attribute: title
Attribute: ou
Attribute: buildingName
Attribute: street
Attribute: l
Attribute: st
Attribute: postalCode
Attribute: c
Attribute: jpegPhoto
Attribute: mobile
Attribute: co
Attribute: pager
Attribute: destinationIndicator
Attribute: labeledURI
Attribute: IMHandle
I just did some OpenLDAP debugging and got this list of attributes for Leopard 10.5.1:
givenName sn cn mail telephoneNumber facsimileTelephoneNumber o title ou buildingName street l st postalCode c jpegPhoto mobile co pager destinationIndicator labeledURI IMHandle
Once you get all of these popped into an LDAP directory entry, the result is something like this:
Note that IMHandle, buildingName, commonName, pager, ou and co fields do not get displayed on the contact card. Additionally, only one email address will be displayed (the first one) regardless of how many email addresses exist on the contact record. I’ve spent several hours trying to get IMHandle to work (apple-imhandle), but it never seems to populate. Apparently, I’m not the only one with this issue. Save yourself the trouble - don’t bother.
Apparently Mac OS X Server is required if you want to serve up Instant Messenger contact info.
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11.16.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:54 pm by ryan
UPDATE: This bug was fixed in the OS X 10.5.1 Software Update. Nice work Apple!
I posted a while back about the difficulty of getting Address Book.app with SSL working on Mac OS X 10.4. Now that 10.5 is out in the wild, of course the situation is worse I’ve tried several times and I just get the infamous:
11/17/07 19:52:49 PM Address Book[3872] [localhost:10389] Binding to server did not complete successfully: ‘-1:Can’t contact LDAP server’
No responses to this issue yet: Leopard address book and LDAP - Mac - Apple:
It works fine if you disable SSL - but seeing as how the only authentication method available is “simple” (meaning your password goes over the wire in plain text), I hardly see that as a sane solution. On the bright side of the Apple Address book issue though, it seems that the genius that runs Address Book X LDAP has managed to get all of the various AddressBook.app attributes to packed into an LDAP server!
http://j2anywhere.com/j2anywhere/downloads/index.jsp
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11.15.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:50 pm by ryan
PTHPasteboard - mac software for download at iusethis:
A good friend of mine turned me on to Pth Pasteboard and I couldn’t be happier. At first, the idea of multiple pasteboard’s didn’t seem helpful to me, but after I started using it, I started realizing how frequently I was typing the same text over and over.
Another invaluable feature of Pth Pasteboard is Pasteboard Persistence - copying to your pasteboard becomes the same as saving! Unfortunately my 17″ MBP has never been as stable as my trusty old 12″ PowerBook was - every few weeks I’ll get a crash, but it’s amazing how frequently the data that I was so worried about loosing pops up on the pasteboard on the side of my screen!
Once you’ve been using Pasteboard for a while, you’ll also find the text filters to be quite useful - especially for fixing up junk text that you copied from an email and need to forward on. Note, Pasteboard used to look a bit fugly, but the author recently added Anti-Aliasing - blends into the system quite well.
Give it a shot - I think you’ll really enjoy this one!
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11.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:58 pm by ryan
Early this morning, Eion Robb, the author of the Skype plugin for Adium fixed the UTF-8 encoding issue. I think the Skype for Adium plugin is ready for prime time!
Get Skype in your Adium! Download the plugin here.
Installation is as simple as double clicking on the file once downloaded, then go to File / Add Account / Skype API. Click “Yes” a few times and you’re good to go!
Check out the Skype API Plugin page at: http://myjobspace.co.nz/images/pidgin/
And send Eion Robb a donation, or at least some thanks for getting this excellent plugin put together!
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:23 am by ryan
I’ve been using the infamous Basecamp for a few months and I’m moderately satisfied. Business applications are notoriously difficult to do well since everyone’s needs are so different. If you were to develop a Project Management app that had all of the functionality that was wanted by everyone, you would have the equivalent of an ERP system - something that does everything, but requires a never-ending stream of customization, consultants, and training. Moreover, the result isn’t something that anyone loves to use.
Throwing that caution to the wind, I’ve gone ahead and investigated a few other project management solutions:
Unfortunately, neither GoPlan or Wrike quite do it for me… I jotted the following note to the Wrike team as I prepared to return to my Basecamp task list.
During signup, I was not aware that you do not support Safari, which is the primary browser for myself and my team.
During signup, I noticed that you wrote several times about “Time Tracking”, but I was very disappointed to see that at the actual Task level, there was no support for logging the hours spent by a given employee on a given task, and then download that information into a CSV file to create billing documents and status reports.
The use of the “Rich Text” input in the description area is interesting, but that Javascript control does not support Input Methods such for Chinese or Japanese, while a simple text box works just fine. I would personally greatly prefer the use of Textile or Markup.
I tried. I’m a basecamp client and I’m quite frustrated with the lack of email support and the relatively week project management ability of basecamp. I have a GoPlan paid account in case they ever get it right, but their current lack of support for “Time Tracking” (log hours per task by employee, download to .csv file for reporting) it’s a no-go.
Overall, I think the WRIKE site still needs quite a bit of polishing. I like some of the functionality, but Basecamp and GoPlan are both way ahead in terms of Usability and the overall Look & Feel. Everything about WRIKE feels a bit homespun. The color scheme. The typography. Layout design. This textbox is needlessly small, and the one on your Contact Us page is ridiculously so. Last up, you’ve got to replace that Introductory video, the voiceover, the photos selected, the example content, and the horribly pixelated logo at the end is just wrong… Anti-aliasing has been around since the 80’s.
Please don’t take the above the wrong way - I’m only pointing these things out because I care and would like to see somebody create a better tool than Basecamp. Knock ‘em dead!
Best-
-Ryan Erwin
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11.03.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:58 pm by ryan
If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting a long time for this - Skype and Adium together - in one.
Skype and Adium are still a long way from fully integrated, but if you download the Skype Plugin for Adium, you can take your first steps in that direction. The result, one less window on your desktop! The only downside, is that it still doesn’t support chinese input. You can display chinese messages and the names of Chinese contacts, but if you type anything in chinese into the Adium Skype window, you’ll see yet another example of not-quite-UTF-8 compliant software in action
I guess my hobby of that Internationalization book is even more in need than I though…
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10.12.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:27 pm by ryan
If you have clients, vendors or colleagues in multiple timezones around the world, like me, you may find the World Clock Deluxe utility to be invaluable. I formerly used JetClock, a replacement for the standard Mac OS X menu clock, but the memory leak in the latest version made it too troublesome to continue using. Instead, I upgraded to the excellent World Clock which lets me quickly check the time extremely conveniently:
I’ve found that sticking the Clock to my “Desktop” is extremely convenient, much more than using a Dashboard widget - which can often take several seconds to load. Instead, setting the “Level” of the World Clock to Desktop, hitting the expose command to show my desktop also conveniently lets me review the current time in all relevant areas.
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