Software
Whats going on at Apple?
12/03/09 18:31
Okay this title is just a head line to grab some
attention! But it is clear that things are changing
at Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm. Read More...
Safari 4
26/02/09 19:28
So Tuesday was a big day for me. A new version of a
web browser is always big news for me. Now some 36
hours later what do I think of apples latest bit of
chrome? Read on... Read
More...
Macworld and the 'philnote'
11/01/09 09:43
I know posts have slowed a bit in the last month, so
it’s now time to start catching up. First this years
Macworld... Read More...
Snow Leopard: A hard sell?
22/11/08 15:57
Just how is Apple going to try and sell Snow Leopard?
This is the second of the three posts I created for my TUWA blogger application. Read More...
This is the second of the three posts I created for my TUWA blogger application. Read More...
Pathfinder 5
22/11/08 15:54
My review of Pathfinder 5. This was created for my
TUWA blog application. Read
More...
Backups
28/09/08 11:00
I was listening to Mac Tech the other day, one
of the many, many podcasts I subscribe to and I
came across their episode about backups.
<sigh>, I know, backups. Everyone needs these and every body says that every one needs them. And normally the only people that have a system for this are the people that have lost data through some sort of disk failure or deletion ‘user failure’ etc.
I say normally, because I am one of those people. Years ago, back in my PC days, I lost everything through a Windows reinstall format ‘user failure’. Yes I messed up and formated the wrong disk and lost everything. Which is why I don’t have my first version of this site or any of my very first stories. It’s very sad!
Anyway, despite that I didn’t until recently have any real sort of back up system in place.
I would from time to time copy my Documents directory to my USB pen drive, but that was it.
So after hearing this maybe alarmist podcast, I decided that it was time to do something about it.
I say alarmist, but these guys do use lots of disks and so they are in a position to know about the life times of hard drives and using them in business they need rock solid backups.
Hard drives don’t last forever, it doesn’t matter if they are running or not, bearings were out or freeze up. When, not if, they die, the chances are that your data will die a long with it. So tape backup? Nope those don’t last forever either, apparently the metal oxides rust and data can be lost that way. Not that tape backup would really work for me, or at least it would be if I could afford it!
I guess all of this goes back to what I was saying in my ‘life after people’ post, unless something is ‘alive’ and changing (in this case the data isn’t changing but the location of the bits of the data is) entropy takes it’s toll and things start to decay.
Okay now this post is getting off subject and depressing! Back to backups.
So my current strategy is a daily SuperDuper task makes a complete copy (a clone) of my hard drive every night at 02:00 to another internal drive. I did want to go for a RAID 1 set up which is built in to OSX (10.5 and I think 10.4), but in order to do that I would need to start again with a fresh install. Having done this set up I now think that cloning the drive is a better option any way. Do it this way, if I delete a file and then go and empty the bin (it happens with me...a lot!) and I find out I want that file before the next day I can get the file back. It’s a sort of very limited Time Machine set up.
That protects me from drive failure, so now I need to cover my self from disasters, like say my flat burning down! To cover that angle I have an external hard drive, a Western Digital my book, which I do a monthly back on to. This drive then for the rest of the month lives at my draw in work. The chances of both buildings burning down in the same day is slim (for the same reason, I have the off site backup for work at home!) This external drive again has a fully bootable clone of my disk on it, made by SuperDuper.
This drive is *not* the firewire version, which I couldn’t afford, so how do I boot from it (for those not in the know macs can only boot from external firewire drives, not USB ones). Well I was worried about this too, then a friend pointed out that I have a macbook as well. One of the really clever things about all apple laptops is that by holding down the T key while powering up, turns your at least £600 laptop in to a simple £100 firewire drive. And it is a really dumb drive, you get no power management, you just get a drive. So I could boot from the laptops drive as a firewire drive and then plug in either to my macpro or macbook the USB drive and use SuperDuper to do the restore.
So thats disaster recovery covered. The final thing is to have another copy of the data I can get to just in case. So I have zipped copies of my Documents and important Library directories on a remote server. For this I use Amazon S3 service and Transmit as my client. However I have one small problem here, these directories even when zipped come to over a gig and half in size. Not a problem for Amazon, but uploading this takes about 12 hours. I can’t leave my machine on for that long, well I could, but I don’t want too. So I upload the whole thing once a month manually and every day I just upload the stuff than has changed.
Well thats the theory anyway, I’ve not quite got the applescript/automator code together yet to get this bit working...yet.
So thats it my backup strategy.
<sigh>, I know, backups. Everyone needs these and every body says that every one needs them. And normally the only people that have a system for this are the people that have lost data through some sort of disk failure or deletion ‘user failure’ etc.
I say normally, because I am one of those people. Years ago, back in my PC days, I lost everything through a Windows reinstall format ‘user failure’. Yes I messed up and formated the wrong disk and lost everything. Which is why I don’t have my first version of this site or any of my very first stories. It’s very sad!
Anyway, despite that I didn’t until recently have any real sort of back up system in place.
I would from time to time copy my Documents directory to my USB pen drive, but that was it.
So after hearing this maybe alarmist podcast, I decided that it was time to do something about it.
I say alarmist, but these guys do use lots of disks and so they are in a position to know about the life times of hard drives and using them in business they need rock solid backups.
Hard drives don’t last forever, it doesn’t matter if they are running or not, bearings were out or freeze up. When, not if, they die, the chances are that your data will die a long with it. So tape backup? Nope those don’t last forever either, apparently the metal oxides rust and data can be lost that way. Not that tape backup would really work for me, or at least it would be if I could afford it!
I guess all of this goes back to what I was saying in my ‘life after people’ post, unless something is ‘alive’ and changing (in this case the data isn’t changing but the location of the bits of the data is) entropy takes it’s toll and things start to decay.
Okay now this post is getting off subject and depressing! Back to backups.
So my current strategy is a daily SuperDuper task makes a complete copy (a clone) of my hard drive every night at 02:00 to another internal drive. I did want to go for a RAID 1 set up which is built in to OSX (10.5 and I think 10.4), but in order to do that I would need to start again with a fresh install. Having done this set up I now think that cloning the drive is a better option any way. Do it this way, if I delete a file and then go and empty the bin (it happens with me...a lot!) and I find out I want that file before the next day I can get the file back. It’s a sort of very limited Time Machine set up.
That protects me from drive failure, so now I need to cover my self from disasters, like say my flat burning down! To cover that angle I have an external hard drive, a Western Digital my book, which I do a monthly back on to. This drive then for the rest of the month lives at my draw in work. The chances of both buildings burning down in the same day is slim (for the same reason, I have the off site backup for work at home!) This external drive again has a fully bootable clone of my disk on it, made by SuperDuper.
This drive is *not* the firewire version, which I couldn’t afford, so how do I boot from it (for those not in the know macs can only boot from external firewire drives, not USB ones). Well I was worried about this too, then a friend pointed out that I have a macbook as well. One of the really clever things about all apple laptops is that by holding down the T key while powering up, turns your at least £600 laptop in to a simple £100 firewire drive. And it is a really dumb drive, you get no power management, you just get a drive. So I could boot from the laptops drive as a firewire drive and then plug in either to my macpro or macbook the USB drive and use SuperDuper to do the restore.
So thats disaster recovery covered. The final thing is to have another copy of the data I can get to just in case. So I have zipped copies of my Documents and important Library directories on a remote server. For this I use Amazon S3 service and Transmit as my client. However I have one small problem here, these directories even when zipped come to over a gig and half in size. Not a problem for Amazon, but uploading this takes about 12 hours. I can’t leave my machine on for that long, well I could, but I don’t want too. So I upload the whole thing once a month manually and every day I just upload the stuff than has changed.
Well thats the theory anyway, I’ve not quite got the applescript/automator code together yet to get this bit working...yet.
So thats it my backup strategy.
The great software expirment
18/08/08 20:33
I’ve said it before (and probably will again!) I
collect software, which is expensive, so I’ve had an
idea... Read More...
Desktops
14/08/08 19:59
Having just finished a hard evenings work at my
keyboard I was stuck by the difference between my
real and computers desktop. Read
More...
Software bloat
16/07/08 20:59
You may have noticed a bit of a theme with some of my
recient posts, that of software bloat. Read
More...
What to do with Windows
09/07/08 19:17
With the apparent failure of Windows Vista to make
any real impact and the gathering rumors of what
exactly windows 8 is or isn’t going to be, I figured
I’d give my idea’s of what the version of windows
could (should?) be. Read More...
RapidWaver 4.0, the first 5 minutes
30/05/08 22:05
Note managers
20/05/08 08:14
I've written about Mac note takers and managers,
a
long time ago (but not in a galaxy far, far
away), but this time I'm not so much writing
about them, this is more what they tell us about
the state of mac development. Read More...
Get A Mac
16/05/08 09:27
Am I the one of the few Mac faithful that think the
'Get A Mac' adverts are getting a bit, well snarky?
Read More...
Getting some air
10/05/08 11:58
So what is Adobe air and does the
world really need another attempt and platform
neutral programing environment? Okay so I
answered my first question there, but what of
the second one? Read
More...
Web standards and Browsers
12/04/08 22:19
I've said it many times, that I collect software. And
since most web browsers are free, I have a lot of
them installed on my machine. What is perhaps more
surprising is that I actually use nearly all of them
in any given week. Read More...
Google desktop (take 2)
24/03/08 15:02
It's been a while and I've seen several updates go
through so after my first
attempt I've tried google desk top again.
This time I have slightly different results.
Read
More...
iPhone SDK
07/03/08 12:46
Okay yes I know I said I' sick of the
iPhone, which is still kind of true. But I
am very interested in the iPod Touch, I don't
have one...yet!
So yesterdays software road map announcement for the iPone (and iPod Touch!) was very interesting to me. Read More...
So yesterdays software road map announcement for the iPone (and iPod Touch!) was very interesting to me. Read More...
My first 2 weeks with Leopard
23/02/08 21:00
Well it had to happen some time, there was just to
much software out there that was leopard only for me
to hold out for to long. But the upgrade did come in
an expected way... Read More...
Land Rover LRX
03/02/08 22:04
The Land Rover...what!?
I'm doing car reviews now! No, don't worry I'm not going to go all Jeremy Clarkson on you, read on to find my angle on this story from the Sunday Times Read More...
I'm doing car reviews now! No, don't worry I'm not going to go all Jeremy Clarkson on you, read on to find my angle on this story from the Sunday Times Read More...
Sanity returns (maybe)
21/01/08 21:52
A while back I
mentioned that I was trying to juggle six
different apps in 3 different areas to find the
best. Well I've done juggling and come to some
conclusions. Read More...
windows!!!
17/01/08 20:46
I've now gone totally PC (at work fortunately) so how
am I doing? Read More...
Am I mad? Probably
19/12/07 20:50
It's been a while since I did one of my software
shoot outs, comparing two bit's of software doing the
same job side by side.
So I deiced to do 3 at once! But that's not the end of my madness, no thats only the beginning. Read on to find out it ends... Read More...
So I deiced to do 3 at once! But that's not the end of my madness, no thats only the beginning. Read on to find out it ends... Read More...
Mac OS X Leopard Gets Last Minute Tweaks
25/10/07 20:16
Mac
OS X Leopard Gets Last Minute Tweaks:"At the last
minute, Apple has changed the appearance of the Dock
in Mac OS X Leopard when it is placed on the sides of
the screen. If so, the dock will lose its
much-criticised 3D appearance in favour of a more
traditional 2D look. When placed at the bottom, the
dock does retain its 3D appearance; however, a smart
hacker has already found out that via a single
command in the terminal, you can give the bottom dock
the same 2D appearance. In other words, everybody who
criticised the new dock (including yours truly):
rejoice!"
(Via OSNews.) Read More...
(Via OSNews.) Read More...
The cat is out of the bag
20/10/07 19:05
Well okay it's not quite yet out of the bag, but as I
type this there is a little under 5 days 23 hours to
go till Leopard is, finally released. Read
More...
That depressing shade of green
17/10/07 21:41
That depressing shade of green:"Have you ever
seen the default wallpaper of a Windows 95
installation? That horrendous, disgusting, depressing
shade of gray-green that, for years, went mocked and
scorned by many? It turns out it may just be what the
doctor ordered for long term computer use. Have we
missed something all along?
(Via O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com.) Read More...
(Via O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com.) Read More...
It's not the tools that matter
15/10/07 19:48
So yesterday I had a (very small) revelation.
Is this revelation going to change my life? Well probably not, but it's still post worthy. Read More...
Is this revelation going to change my life? Well probably not, but it's still post worthy. Read More...
iPlayer on the mac?
08/09/07 16:26
Mac, Linux BBC iPlayers in the offing, says PM:"
The Beeb's controversial decision to roll out its iPlayer TV-over-IP platform on Windows only seems to have been overruled, presumably by its own governing body.…"
(Via The Register.) Read More...
Not that I control the Beeb or anything
The Beeb's controversial decision to roll out its iPlayer TV-over-IP platform on Windows only seems to have been overruled, presumably by its own governing body.…"
(Via The Register.) Read More...
Bye Apple works, hello iWork
16/08/07 20:35
Apple 'retires' AppleWorks: "
Apple has finally put its venerable AppleWorks integrated productivity software application - a package it hasn't updated for more than three years - out to pasture.…"
(Via The Register.) Read More...
Ye Olde Appe dropped for brand spanking new iWork 08
Apple has finally put its venerable AppleWorks integrated productivity software application - a package it hasn't updated for more than three years - out to pasture.…"
(Via The Register.) Read More...
The story I've been waiting for
15/08/07 20:03
It's not that I've actually been waiting for this
story, more like I've been expecting it....
Mac OSX 10.5 is now running on non apple hardware! Read More...
Mac OSX 10.5 is now running on non apple hardware! Read More...
yuk php!
25/07/07 22:45
I'm probably going to get hate mail for this one, but
why would any one choose to use the php language?
Read More...
Me and my dock
18/07/07 21:03
So I'm a mac user, where do I stand on the Dock? Love
it, hate it or don't really care? Read
More...
I'm sick of the iPhone!
27/06/07 19:56
Yes I am. And I suspect it not just me and John C.
Dvorak (/blog) Read More...
Post keynote througts
13/06/07 19:13
Monday was the day of the big WWC keynote speach by
Steve Jobs, here are my thoughts. Read
More...
It's update-a-licius
06/06/07 16:50
It seems all of my favorate software has been updated
this week! Read More...
Text editors
27/05/07 10:54
It's been a while since I covered one of my favorite
subjects...text editors. Read More...
Mac hardware
16/05/07 20:44
Some thoughts I had today on the Mac's PC's and why
we don't see PC's running OSX. Read
More...
Don't panic, it's coda
05/05/07 14:37
Okay, okay I know that's a very bad joke, but one of
my favorite mac software houses, Panic,
has a new application out, Coda
Read More...
Why is there so little mac malware?
05/05/07 14:05
Lack
of Mac malware baffles experts-Exploit authors
continue to ignore OS X: "Apple's
Mac OS X remains almost completely free of any
sort of malware threat despite several years of
availability, a significant market share, and even
an entire month dedicated to pointing out its
flaws. And security experts are not exactly sure
why"
(Via digg.) Read More...
(Via digg.) Read More...
Apps I can't live with out
30/04/07 21:52
Okay yes I'm at it again, writing a blog entry about
a blog entry by one of my favorite mac men Giles Turnbull. This
one is about those little apps, that I just can't
live with out on my mac Read More...
Wow it's still around
12/04/07 20:27
I've come across an old friend (in software) which I
thought was long gone. Read More...
High and low level programers
06/04/07 22:56
Don't Forget The 'C' in Objective-C!: "
Looking at runtime efficiency issues in Mac Cocoa programming
Part One Nowadays, it’s all too easy to take today’s fast processors for granted. At the risk of sounding like an old fogy, I get the impression that a lot of developers do just that. This devil-may-care attitude is not, in my opinion, the result of complacency but far more likely due to inexperience or even - dare I say it? - ignorance. Just as a good driver has a certain understanding of, and empathy with, the mass of rotating, reciprocating hardware a few feet in front of him, I reckon the best programmers have some ‘feel’ for the way in which their code is mapped onto machine code instructions; an understanding of the demands they’re making on the processor, if you will.…
"(Via The Register.)
Read More...Video cards, PC games and consoles
21/03/07 20:46
Some thoughts (guesses) on what may lay head for the
PC/console gaming industry, from an outsider.
Read
More...
Current favorite writing apps
05/03/07 19:32
I guess it was invertible that this
article from macdevcenter would spur
me in to action, so here's my list of current
favorite writing apps Read
More...
I'll try again
24/01/07 21:43
Trying my hand at cocoa programing again (3 times
lucky). Read More...
Text editors
30/10/05 20:57
It's been a while since I last covered this, one of
my favorite, subjects. Read
More...
Mmm, sounds like something I said
07/07/05 20:51
"CPU magazine has
written a very straight-to-the-point editorial on
the lack of quality and innovation in
software for the mainstream
OS.
They compare it to the Mac, which is found in a
much different light. Where has all the innovation
gone?"
(via slashdot) Read More...
(via slashdot) Read More...
2 Weeks with Tiger
22/06/05 20:44
I've now been using Tiger (10.4) for 2 weeks at work,
here's what I think... Read More...
The biggest mistake Apple could have made!
18/06/05 20:41
My thoughts on Steve Jobs WWDC keynote speech.
Read More...
I'm getting back to my Geeky roots
12/02/05 15:47
I've found a project I can get my hands on to.
Read More...
I think I've found it (an update)
07/02/05 20:20
A while
back , I wrote of my discovery of a
modern, native mac word processor. Well now I've
found another one! Read More...
Why Apple Makes a One-Button Mouse
28/01/05 17:45
Why Apple Makes a
One-Button Mouse: "IdiotOnMyLeft writes 'There
is a short article at Gear Live that tries to explain
why Apple still sticks with a one-button mouse. It
points out the fact that although it is perfectly
possible to use a two-button mouse on a Mac for 7
years now, developers are forced to rethink their
design approach and can't flood the right-click menu.
No article of this kind would be complete without
mentioning that users get confused with two buttons.
There's a rumor that John Carmack once asked Steve
Jobs what would happen if they'd put one more key on
the keyboard.'"
(Via Slashdot.) Read More...
(Via Slashdot.) Read More...
I think I've found it!
22/01/05 21:56
I could be that my long quest for a true mac word
processor is at an end. Read More...
Monster Fueled by Caffeine
16/01/05 20:21
Monster Fueled by
Caffeine:
"Delicious Monster's cataloging software is a big hit, but the company works out of a coffee house. Not only is it cheap, but the collegiate atmosphere is an inspiration for turning obsessive catalogers into personal lending libraries. Leander Kahney reports from San Francisco."
(Via Wired News.) Read More...
"Delicious Monster's cataloging software is a big hit, but the company works out of a coffee house. Not only is it cheap, but the collegiate atmosphere is an inspiration for turning obsessive catalogers into personal lending libraries. Leander Kahney reports from San Francisco."
(Via Wired News.) Read More...
Misc mac software updates
13/01/05 17:50
A few new and not so new apps that have caught my eye
recently. Read More...
10 things I hate about the mac
13/12/04 17:29
I'm not a mac zealot, I just happen to think most of
the time they are great. Read
More...
Take cover, it's a religious war
05/12/04 23:11
I knew this was going to generate lots of comments
when I first read it! Read
More...
Results of the launch bar/quicksilver shoot out
02/12/04 21:45
The dust settles, and one is left standing, while the
other lays prone, it's life slowly ebbing away...
Read More...
One more reason why macs are so great One more reason why macs are so great
26/11/04 20:54
Okay so I covered this topic
before (and probably will again), this is just so
cool, I've got to cover it... Read More...
What's on my dock
13/11/04 16:59
I've just read this very
interesting article at oreilly's
mac dev center, so in the same sprit
heres what's on my dock!
Taking it from the top we have Safari, Mail, Newsnetwire ,Super get info, Sticky brain, Iterm, calculator, Sherlock, Launch bar, Ipluse and Iblog. I then have a the two locations I can do with out my home directory and applications and finally trash. The only item here that doesn't have a permanent home on the dock is IBlog, which I'm using to write this!
I don't keep many applications on the dock, because I use Launch bar virtually every thing. The only items that get to live on the dock are ones that I use every single computing session Safari, Mail, and Newsnetwire fall in to this category and ones that run all the time (mostly hidden till they are needed), Iterm, calculator, Sherlock, Launch bar and Ipluse are these applications. In the middle we have two oddities, Super get info and Sticky brain. Super get info needs to be where I can drag things to it and I like keep my desk top totally empty of permanent icons so I can use it as a temp directory, so it can't go there. Sticky brain, well I don't know why I keep it there, I do use it almost every session, but it can be lunched from most context menus and has global key short cut that lunches it as well.
The items that run but say hidden are all manually started at boot time and then hidden, why do I do it like this? I don't know I just do. It's not to much of a problem since my mac gets rebooted about once every 3 months or so and they are on the dock so it's click, wait, command-H.
I keep my dock on the right hand side of the screen, with auto hide on. It's kept small but I have a large zoom factor set. It's on the right and hidden, because that's the way I set my PC up at work and I just can't break the habit.
I'm not massively happy with the dock. It dose it's job adequately, but it is confused. The task bar in windows is just used for switching apps, the dock however dose this as well an launching. Also you can only put apps or documents on it. I've tired various replacements, like Dangthing and pathfinder, but at the end of the day Launch bar covers the launching side of things nicely and I can live with or work around the other limitations, so it's staying.
Taking it from the top we have Safari, Mail, Newsnetwire ,Super get info, Sticky brain, Iterm, calculator, Sherlock, Launch bar, Ipluse and Iblog. I then have a the two locations I can do with out my home directory and applications and finally trash. The only item here that doesn't have a permanent home on the dock is IBlog, which I'm using to write this!
I don't keep many applications on the dock, because I use Launch bar virtually every thing. The only items that get to live on the dock are ones that I use every single computing session Safari, Mail, and Newsnetwire fall in to this category and ones that run all the time (mostly hidden till they are needed), Iterm, calculator, Sherlock, Launch bar and Ipluse are these applications. In the middle we have two oddities, Super get info and Sticky brain. Super get info needs to be where I can drag things to it and I like keep my desk top totally empty of permanent icons so I can use it as a temp directory, so it can't go there. Sticky brain, well I don't know why I keep it there, I do use it almost every session, but it can be lunched from most context menus and has global key short cut that lunches it as well.
The items that run but say hidden are all manually started at boot time and then hidden, why do I do it like this? I don't know I just do. It's not to much of a problem since my mac gets rebooted about once every 3 months or so and they are on the dock so it's click, wait, command-H.
I keep my dock on the right hand side of the screen, with auto hide on. It's kept small but I have a large zoom factor set. It's on the right and hidden, because that's the way I set my PC up at work and I just can't break the habit.
I'm not massively happy with the dock. It dose it's job adequately, but it is confused. The task bar in windows is just used for switching apps, the dock however dose this as well an launching. Also you can only put apps or documents on it. I've tired various replacements, like Dangthing and pathfinder, but at the end of the day Launch bar covers the launching side of things nicely and I can live with or work around the other limitations, so it's staying.
Why mac software is so great
13/11/04 14:12
Some thoughts on why mac software is so insanely
great! Read More...
Oh yes it was worth the wait!
12/01/04 21:12
Finally 2 (or is it 3) years later, we have Halo 2.
Read More...