How to Fix the Apple App Store bug

from http://www.ngpixel.com/2011/06/25/mac-app-store-you-have-updates-available-for-the-other-accounts-bug/

Solution 1 – Spotlight works but the index is incomplete or empty:

1) Open System Preferences > Spotlight
2) Under the Privacy tab. Add your Macintosh HD (or whatever your main hard disk is called) to the list.
3) Close the window. Wait a few seconds. Then go back to Spotlight settings and remove the entry you just added.
4) The spotlight index should now begin to re-index completely. (A dot will fade-in/out inside the Spotlight icon in the taskbar)
5) Wait for it to finish and then launch the Mac App Store. You should now see updates in the Updates tab.

Fixing Bounces in ProTools 9.0.0

I've had a lot of trouble bouncing to disk or to Quicktime Files with ProTools 9.0.0. It seems to work randomly, then go dead with a "disk not fast enough" error for long periods of time. The following procedure seems to fix it:

1. Go to the  "Playback Engine" dialog
2. Set the buffer size to maximum (1024 samples) and uncheck "Ignore Playback/Record Erros"
3. Quit and restart Protools.
4. Bounce!

Fixing my 10.6.8 installation

Attempting to improve the poor performance of Final Cut Pro X, and following the online instructions at Larry's blog, I started up my Hackintosh in safe mode ( -x) which forces a re-build of all caches and a bunch of other system stuff. It worked OK on my 10.6.7 drive, but killed my Hackintosh insallation on 10.6.8. The problem shows up only after a second restart, when it uses the newly rebuilt caches.  The OS  kernel panics at startup on the ATI500Controller.kext.

After a bunch of ineffective attempts to rebuild the caches manually by booting into 10.6.7 and using MultiBeast, I finally fixed it by re-installing 10.6.8 over the existing installation (using the ComboUpdate installer) and then following the instructions in my blog post of January 7.

Thoughts on Atalanta Fugiens Emblem 1

I've been thinking about a synthesized musical setting of Michael Maier's fugue from the first emblem in Atalanta Fugiens. Because it represents the birth of divinity as brought about by the north wind, I want to use compositional devices, processes, sounds, that recall the motion of the wind. These are primarliy chaotic fluid flow and in general a sense of order developing from chaos.

However the first sound heard is a single high-pitched tone, representing the Word which the darkness could not comprehend. The high tone descends through the course of the piece in seven stages, representing the seven angels, planets, colors of the rainbow,  etc. This is parallel to the ancient belief that the human soul at birth descends from the Sphere of the Stars and touches on the Spheres of the seven planets in their astrological order (cf. Cicero - the Dream of Scipio.) Thus the first sphere it touches upon on its way down is Saturn, followed by Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and finally the Moon. Each planet is represented in appropriate imagery and sound.

The piece is structured as this series of descending tones alternating with periods of chaos (chaotic wind storm). The chaos gradually develops musical characteristcs and ultimately takes the form of Maier's Fugue #1, arranged for brass quintet.

I would also like to make this something of a Dynamic Text piece, using as textual material Maier's rhyming Latin, translated thus:

If BOREAS can in his own Wind conceive

An offspring that can bear this light and live;

In Art, Strength, Body, Mind

He shall excell

All wonders men of Ancient Heroes tell.

Think him no Caeso nor Abortive brood,

Nor yet Agrippa, for his Star is good.

The visual design will be something like the following. Visually, the sections named "TONE" will be  Dynamic Text, while the sections named for a Planet will be montages of imagery relevant to that planetary power.

1. TONE D7 - point of Light in black - "The Wind Hath Carried Him."
2. WINDSTORM - (SATURN) - windstorm - dry leaves blowing, wind ripples on water
3. TONE D6 - "If BOREAS can in his own Wind conceive an offspring"
4. JUPITER () - in his guise as the Bringer of Gifts, Father Christmas
5. TONE D5 - "An offspring that can bear this light and live;"
6. MARS
7. TONE D4 - "In Art, Strength, Body, Mind He shall excel"
8. SUN
9. TONE D3 - "He shall excell All wonders men of Ancient Heroes tell."
10. VENUS
11. TONE D2 - "Think him no Caeso nor Abortive brood, Nor yet Agrippa"
12. MERCURY
13. TONE G1 - "for his Star is good."
14. MOON ( water imagery for transition to Emblem 2)

Physical simulations that occur in this piece - Wind (chaotic fluid flow)

physically modelled synthesizers:

1. Apple Sculpture (string/wind model)
2. Applied Acoustic Systems Chromaphon - modal synthesis, modelled percussive plates and bars
3. Lorenz Attractor generates detuned pitch patterns in choral tones.

OS X 10.6.8 update for Hackintosh

It's been hell updating my Hackintosh (Gigabyte EX58-DS4) to OS 10.6.8 from 10.6.7. The main problem has been with getting three monitors to work. Apple seems to have changed something in the ATI support drivers that has made it much more difficult.

The update also breaks the AppStore connection for some reason, making it more difficult to update some software. I tried several fixes found online, varying from using LittleSnitch to block certain AppStore connections to rebuilding the Ethernet configuration, but nothing worked.

But because I needed 10.6.8 to use the new versions of Mainstage (2.2) and FInalCut Pro X (10.0.2), I decided to give it another try. Here's what I did:


1. Using Carbon Copy Cloner, clone my working 10.6.7 drive to a newly formatted HD.

2. Install 10.6.8 using the Apple Combo Updater (not via Software Update.) DO NOT RESTART.

3. Use MultiBeast to repair permissions and rebuild the kext cache. Also set the UserDSDT flag, AppleHDA rollback. Might be a good idea to install Chameleon (aka Chimera) on the new drive too.

4. Restart into 10.6.8. It should boot OK with 2 of the 3 monitors working.

5. Install the OLD video drivers (version 26 from 10.6.6 I think) using this utility found on TonyMac's blog - ATIDriverPatch10.6.8.pkg

6. Restart and cross fingers!

This fixed my three monitor setup (Sapphire Radeon 5770 with Eyefinity). Seems to work perfectly, DVD Player, Quicktime 7, Quicktime 10, etc all working as expected.

The AppStore is still a problem though. It claims to not recognize my computer. Apparently it's something to do with the ethernet/network registration. Some people online have claimed to fix it by blocking network access with LittleSnitch, but that hasn't worked for me. In the meantime, I'll just update my AppStore software on my MacBookPro and manually copy it over the Hackintosh.

Visual Music piece - Micro Nutcracker

Just finished this little Christmas piece for fun, a bit of parody on The Nutcracker. The idea came as a joke from Stas Jesionka while he was visiting just after Christmas. I wanted an excuse to look into using some of the effects in Final Cut Pro X.

http://vimeo.com/34472529

Suitability?

I've been wondering if a blog could be a suitable medium for developing my research project for my DMA degree.

This paper describes problems and solutions related to the sonification of planetary positions using the Transformation Engine software. A brief background discussion locates this work in the historical context of Kepler's Harmonia Mundi. Technical issues discussed include: dynamic range and resolution, accuracy of detail, and perceptual challenges related to the application of high-resolution numerical data to audio.