Internet, UNIX, Video, Leisure…
OS X
Euphonix MC Transport config files
1/11/09
Check my articles about Euphonix’s MC Transport controler here and there.
If you install the software for every user on the computer (maybe you don’t have the choice, can’t remember), every defined application will have a corresponding preference file.
On my computer they are in « /Library/Application Support/Euphonix/UserSets/MC2User/MC_USER_SET__Root »
total 744
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 174271 1 nov 18:01 Final Cut Pro.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 74407 25 oct 02:23 Safari.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 50407 1 nov 20:09 VLC.xml
-r–r–r– 1 prune admin 21894 21 avr 2009 default.xml
-rw-r–r– 1 prune admin 45115 25 oct 02:40 iTunes.xml
Euphonix MC Transport usage [EDIT]
31/10/09
Second part of the test.
First thing to do is register your controler. Go the the Euphonix support’s website.

This is where you’ll find the software download, the email support link and the docs.
When everything is working, as explained in previous post, you should have the green « € » in the top right of the menu, and the controler should display the name of the software you are actualy using (safari ? firefox ?)
I had some controler « freeze » at some point. Then, the controler keeps displaying the same application name, whichever application is in focus. For the moment, the only solution I found is to power-off the controler, go in the EuControl settings (the only way to get acces to the menu) and quit.
Then, restart the EuControl application, wait until the menu icon stop rolling, then power-on the controler.
As I said, I emailed the support about that without any real answer. I openned a new case today… we’ll see…
If you are using a supported application the controler comes pre-configured. This is not the case for most basic applications like Safari, Firefox, iTunes or even the finder.
While the MC Transport is not made for that specificaly, configuring these applications will help us understand how the controler work.
Basic notions :

you have two ways to do that : clic on the green icon in the menu and go to the settings -> « soft keys » tab or, simply, clic on the « eye » key on the controler, at the lower left of the keypad.
Before beeing able to use the jog or shuttle you have to enable it. Most of the time the activation key is the first soft key for the jog and the second for the shuttle. When switching into an application, every key should be off (no light). clic again to activate

You can change the color of the transport keys (the one arount the shuttle). The 2 first and 2 last keys can be yellow or red. The 3 keys in the middle can be yellow or green. For the moment, I haven’t found a way to light a key or change its color depending on the action. I openned a case to the support to have more informations. For example, keeping the key green while pressed, or changing the color at every clic… Another request, which may be linked, is having two actions for the same key. This way, you can have a yellow key. When first clic, send the « play » shortcut of the application and turn to red. When pressed again, send the « stop » or « pause » keystroke and turn back to yellow… I hope the support will give a clue on how to do that, or add support in the next software release
The pdf manual will lead you through the configuration process, which is really easy for the basic stuffs. Let’s write down a walkthrough…
All this is done in the configuration software, not the controler.
- select the button to assign
- give a name in the « soft key label » box AND press enter to validate
- change the font or color if needed
- clic on « command… » or double-clic on the button
- clic on the « add » menu and select what to do. Most of the time it will be « key », and if you want to make the button an activation button for the jog or shuttle, use « wheel »
- enter a keystroke or a list of them. Doing this enable you to do scripts
- you can add more option, again, to script the button
If you’re programming the button to activate the wheel, select wheel and a custom function.
If you’re programming the wheel, you have to :
- clic on the « + » sign and give a name to the « command »
- as you do when programming a key, add a keystroke or another function. This will be used when turning the wheel right (clockwise) by default
- clic on the « turn jog right » menu and change to « turn jog left »
- add the keystroke used when turn anti-clockwise
If you’re programming the shuttle, this is a little bit different. You can add action for each of the 15s step of the wheel (-7 -> 0 -> +7) and for each transition (0 ->1, 1->2 …) and the other way around (2->1, 1->0…)
These are the basics. I’ll try to give examples in the next post
[EDIT]
Now that I have my disk array working, I had another try.
Once again, the MC Transport stayed locked on the « Mail » application. This is not the first time, and for the moment, the only answer from the support was « disable firewall in your mac » and « start the audio mixer of FCP ». These answers were done after 10 days, or more. Seriously, Euphonix, what are you doing here ?
If this happen to you, follow these steps :
- power off the MC Transport
- go in the green « € » icon -> « EU Control Settings »
- go to the menu and quit
- poweron the MC Transport and wait until the « Euphonix » logo appear
- start the EU Control application. The menu icon should turn to green.
For the moment, while the hardware is perfectly built, I can’t say the software is working fine… If you haven’t bought yet, WAIT !
Euphonix team, if you read this, I’m willing to spend some time debugging for you. Just provide me a beta software, or one with extra debug. But please, stop giving stupid answers.
12Tb RAID for cheap with Hitachi 2Tb drives
31/10/09
It’s been some time now that i’m fighting with Seagate for they damn 1.5To drives not working as they should.
Hitachi finaly released 2Tb drives with good throughoutput and price.
While trying not to be screwed a second time, I started buying only 2 drives. Grosbill, a french reseller, have them for 164€. These two were labelled from August 2009, with firmware 10D.
As everything was working fine, with slightly better results than the 1.5Tb Seagate drives (without RAID, of course), I bought 6 more from Macway. They used to be specialised in Apple hardware but now have standard hardware with really good price : 157€. These drives were labeled September 2009 with firmware 20N. Hopefully, they also work as expected : they did not break the compatibility in firmware upgrade
For the moment I havn’t seen any manual firmware upgrade tool to have every drives in the same version. Actualy, this is even better : if you can, always choose drives with different firmware and series for RAID arrays : you will not have all your drives failing in case of a bug related to the production.
Hitachi 2To 3.5″ (HDS722020ALA330)
24/10/09
Remember few months ago, in april, I changed my old G5 Powermac for the new Nehalem 2009, with an external hard drive enclosure of 10Tb.
At that moment, the Seagate 1.5Tb drive was the biggest one availlable, and with far better throughoutput than the 1Tb drives availlable.
The problem is that this Seagate drive (ST31500341AS) does not work with hardware RAID, and as reported on Seagate forums, with a lot or S-ATA controlers. See how people are complaining there. Solution : NEVER BUY SEAGATE DRIVES AGAIN !!!!
Today I went to the store and grab two of the new Hitachi 2Tb drives :
Lire la suite de l’article »
New MacPro Nehalem and 10To Raid5 Array
29/03/09

I bought a dual 2GHz Powermac G5 when it first came out, almost 6 years ago. I never had a problem with it. It’s still working as a charme. But, when you’re working with HD footage, it gets a real pain !
One of my best friend always tell me : « buy, don’t wait ». But I chosed to wait a little bit for the new Macpro Nehalem. And it finaly happened : http://www.apple.com/macpro/
Lire la suite de l’article »
Add more Os X Solid colors
24/02/09

I’m installing my « new » Imac 24″, which I got from my boss who leaved us a week ago. As you may notice, the OsX background can be any picture you want, but when looking in the solid color choice, you only get 10 of then with no dark or black color.
Adding some there is quite easy.
Colors are, in fact, PNG images, 128×128 pixels. They are located in « /Library/Desktop Pictures/Solid Colors«
Just go there, copy an existing image, change its color with any graphical editor (Gimp ?) and there you go.
OK, this is not a tutorial… but, heh, it’s so damn easy…
OK, OK, I do agree too. Apple should let us chose the color in a color wheel instead of stretching or mapping a small image to the whole screen… Maybe we’ll get that on Snow Leopard soon…
Change Mac OS X user Limits
24/02/09

I always had a process limitation problem on OSX. You may encounter this when you open too much applications. In my case, using iTerm, I easyily open far too much shells to servers I have to deal with.
You will then get a « login: fork: Resource temporarily unavailable » error message. When trying to start a new application, you will barely see the icon in the dock, then it will disapear. Now you’re in Troubble !
Change your keyboard to what you need
7/01/09
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If you’re intensively working with one software, you may be interrested by this.
This website is offering, for cheap, stickers to re-dress your keyboard, for under 10£ !! (13€). They also sell « skins » for your keyboard. This way, you can have a skin for every software you use. This is a little bit more expensive : around 30£ (33€).
You think that’s it ?
Nooooo ! They also make skins for Macbook, Macbook pro AND new Unibody Macbook Pro (and Air) !!!
Now you have no reason to lose a short-cut.
DAA and UIF image formats on OS X
7/10/08
Yeah… windows stuffs, as usual.
Hopefully you’ll find some tools for Os X :
- daa2iso : download, unzip, go to the src directory from the console and start « make ». You’ll end up with a daa2iso binary. Don’t care for the errors.
daa2iso in_file.daa out_file
Result is a out_file.iso, which you can open from the finder.
I just have no valid daa file for testing
- uif2iso : download, unzip, go to the src directory from the console and start « make ». You’ll end up with a uif2iso binary. Don’t care for the errors.
uif2iso in_file.uif out_file
Result is a out_file.iso, which you can open from the finder.
- Daa converter for MacOsX : it’s an app. Download, copy to apps directory and enjoy. Not tested.
New iTerm release (EDIT)
21/08/08
iTerm is the most powerfull terminal emulator I know on Mac osX. I first thought the dev of this projec was over when Apple released Leopard. Today a co-worker just get an update warning. Checking it shows there indeed was a new update, version 0820 (20th of August ?
).
The changeLog on the website reference few features and small bug enhancement PLUS a « Fixed nasty crashing bug« . I really hope this is the one I had once and a while (especialy when doing copy/past).
My friend did the update. When starting iTerm he has lost all his (51) bookmarks. Personaly I don’t use bookmarks. But he was really pissed off. After few minutes searching WHY no iTerm.plist was created when changing the config of iTerm, I finaly found that the config file name was changed.
The solution is to rename iTerm.plist to net.sourceforge.iTerm.plist in the Library/Preferences folder of your user (Bibliotheque/Preferences for French users). You can also do it from the Terminal this way (and keep your original file) :
cp ~/Library/Preferences/iTerm.plist ~/Library/Preferences/net.sourceforge.iTerm.plist
-EDIT-
It wasn’t long for iTerm to correct this « bug » :
Version 0.9.5.0821 includes the following changes:
* Fixed a bug in 0.9.5.0821 that causes loss of preferences when upgrade.
Go download the new version at http://iterm.sourceforge.net/download.shtml

