Bettnetlog

Domenico Bettinelli's place for ephemera and stuff

Fixing iTunes error 9809

I've been seeing a curious set of errors in iTunes lately. One of the symptoms is that iTunes would ask me for to login to my iTunes Store account at random times. After I entered my user id and password, it would ask for them again and then take me to the user account screen in the Store. It was also forgetting which podcasts I had selected to be automatically synched to me iPhone. Annoying but not a fatal flaw. However, a more serious symptom cropped up yesterday. 

The App Store told me that there was an updated version of EA Sports' Madden Football game for the iPhone, but when I tried to download, I got a message that the Store was unavailable now and to try later. As you might guess, it didn't matter if I tried later, still the same message. Then today, I wanted to download a new app from the store and got this message: "An unknown error has occurred. (-9809)". I did some searching online and the only references I found in Apple's support forums was to people using iTunes on Windows Vista. Not helpful for me.

So I looked in OS X's Console.app to see if there were any telltale indicators of the problem cropping up there, but there was nothing. I thought the problem might be in OS X's Keychain, so I opened it up and ran Keychain First Aid, but no problems there either. So I resorted to basic troubleshooting techniques: Erase caches and preferences and if that doesn't work, delete and reinstall. 

I quit iTunes and then found the caches for iTunes in the Home folder (the folder inside the Users folder that likely has your name on it). The exact location is (Home)/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes/. Inside the com.apple.iTunes folder was two files, cache.db (which was 159mb!) and goog-phish-shavar.dat (only 262k). No idea what the latter file is, but if it's in caches, it's toast. I deleted both and, presto!, iTunes was working fine again.

Bottom line: If you get error -9809 in iTunes on Mac OS X, delete the cache files in (Home)/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes/, and try again.

The Curry Favor

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Ever since my bachelor days I've been a fan of Indian curries made at home for dinner. Back then, it was not unknown for me to eat tikka masala, vindaloo, or korma four or five times a week.

I'd picked up the habit after a series of priests from India had come for several summers and stayed in the rectory where I lived. At least a few were cooks and they introduced me to their native cuisine.

Now when I make curry it's rarely from scratch but it's also never straight from a box or jar. I use commercial curry paste but add other ingredients as well. And I almost never make it exactly the same way twice.

Lately I've been adding curry powder at the simmer stage. In order to boost that flavor. At the end I always add the traditional garam masala, which boosts the flavor depth. And tonight I grated a chunk of ginger and added with onions to sauté.

I love curry, as you might guess. Melanie claims I'm addicted. All I know is that on nights when I make it, the leftovers begin to call to me about 9pm and I can't resist.

But who can blame me? I wish I could properly thank those priests who introduced me to homemade curry those summers. You might say they "curried" favor from me.

The problem with Mac software promotional bundles

The problem with so many of these Mac software bundles, like MacUpdate Promo is I either own the apps already, I have competitors' software that do the same things, or I don't care about the functionality the apps provide (don't do eBay auctions, for example). Most often there are one or two applications I might be interested in but the $50 price tag for the whole bundle isn't worth it for the one or two I want.

On the other hand, these bundles are great for new Mac users, especially people who are switching to the Mac and who could use inexpensive versions of software they used to use on Windows (without having to boot into Windows to use them on the Mac via virtualization or Boot Camp). Path Finder and Drag Thing are great utilities that make using the Mac's basic functions better, whileYep sounds like a great document organizer, and those are just two of the 14 apps you get in the MacUpdate bundle.

Don't get me wrong: I love these bundles when they come around and scrutinize them every time, but I'm starting to see the same names over and over in them and/or a lack of truly innovative titles. And that just makes me disappointed in the bundles that are out there today.

Clam shack on a rainy day

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We've all been pretty much cooped up indoors for the past week with "the ailment" with little respite. So today we decided on a little road trip despite the rainy weather. (It's been raining for a week now.)

We headed for familiar territory at Hingham's Bathing Beach but a hankering for chowder sent us to Yelp on my iPhone and then the Hingham Lobster Pound, which you see above. Where to next? We haven't decided yet.

Maine's vote for marriage holds back the tide

Yesterday, in Maine, voters rejected the notion that marriage is whatever kind of construct we decide it is rather than the union of one man and one woman in a binding and committed relationship. And so, in every state where voters have been asked to vote on the matter--or allowed to (looking at you, Massachusetts)--the answer has been clear. Marriage as the fundamental structure of society is not whatever we decide it is, not any kind of pairing imaginable. And once again, voters have agreed that it's irrelevant to the state whether two people have feeling for another, that it's not the business of government to validate love. (That's the job of religion.)

All this despite the constant drumbeat of political pressure groups creating so-called studies on the alleged normalcy of same-sex relationships and their willing cohorts in the media who publish them. Everywhere you look the message is consistent: homosexuality and lesbianism is normal; same-sex relationships are normal; you are abnormal and a "homophobe" for refusing to believe it; you're no better than the racists who opposed equality for blacks in the '60s. The aim is to intimidate and indoctrinate us all the while forcing us to vote against their social re-engineering proposals until finally they have brainwashed and ground-down enough people eventually to reverse the course of the tide and get their laws passed. They see it as inevitable. As long as they control the levers of culture and the media and public education, it's hard to argue with them that time is on their side.

I hope we can withstand the onslaught and even reverse momentum, not just on the homosexual agenda, but also on abortion and other civilization-destroying trends. Maine's vote is a small hopeful step in that direction.

The Jerk in the Vette

I encountered a jerk driving a Corvette during my commute this morning. Shocking, I know. And yes, I know that not everyone driving a sports car is a jerk, but too many men (rarely women) get behind the wheel of a high-horsepower rocket and think they're Cole Trickle. More often, they're Ricky Bobby.

Anyway, on this fine morning, as I was driving the mean streets of Braintree, a Corvette raced up out of a side street. While it wasn't exactly bumper-to-bumper traffic, the volume was heavy, yet there was some space between me and the car in front of me. I was going to let the Vette out in front of me, but he had raced up so suddenly it took me a moment to react. By that time, the Vette had jumped out in front of me, almost hitting the car in front of him, and then he slammed on his brakes. I thought me must have slipped his foot off the clutch, but the guy turned to me and yelled an expletive at me. What? What did I do?

And then he had the nerve to pull a "brake job" on me! Look, buddy, you're driving a brand-new Corvette, probably worth about $70,000. I'm driving a 2000 Honda Civic with its front bumper riveted on and a busted headlight. We could replace my car for the cost of pulling a Civic-shaped dent out of his trunk. Not exactly rocket-science here.

I see the most bizarre things on my commute, although fewer of them since my drive was cut by more than three-quarters a year ago. You should hear my brother's stories. He's a truck driver.
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
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