One of the great triumphs of Mac OS X is that it's based on Unix.
And anyone familiar with, say, Linux recognizes the power and
flexibility of Unix, allowing you, without rebooting, to change just
about any aspect of the system's configuration except for actually
running a different kernel.
Sadly, OS X dishonors this noble heritage by requiring a reboot
merely to update video codecs. But this is not that hate's story.
It is the story of networking in the real world, where connections
break and peers disappear. It is the story of your ex-girlfriend
never coming back, no matter how long you wait. It is the story of
the people around you, whose lives you *are* still a part of, getting
really tired of your moping around and refusing to do any work
because you're too depressed, and you just can't help it, and you
can't do anything about it until she comes back, so you just keep
waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Until someone finally gives you
the bitch slap you so richly deserve and you black out. The next
morning you don't remember a thing, much to everyone's grudging relief.
And so it is with the Modem menulet. I said to Disconnect from the
Bluetooth modem provided by my cell phone, and then I reset the phone
itself since it was starting to flake out. (Palm OS is its own
hate.) The marquee-animated 'Disconnecting...' message froze in
place -- along with the entire right section of the menubar,
including the clock -- until I killed SystemUIServer. You'd think it
might then respawn like the Dock does, but no. Another
SystemUIServer process does indeed launch, but it doesn't actually DO
anything noticeable. The right side of the menubar remains blank.
(Except for Spotlight. Woo-hoo.)
Remember waiting several minutes for the Finder to figure out that
the AppleShare server is GONE, and it's NOT coming back? Well, lose
a Bluetooth peer and you get to wait FOREVER.
Or until you reboot.
Josh
