Cunning Fox 1.0
I need this!
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
macosxhints - Twenty steps to help diagnose and fix system issues
macosxhints - Twenty steps to help diagnose and fix system issues
Very good summary, from restart to return the machine.
Very good summary, from restart to return the machine.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
The 2-3 year lifespan of Lithium-Ion batteries (Washington Post)
Batteries Can't Keep Up (TechNews.com)
This is a fascinating story, there are really several things to learn from the LiOn history:
1. It takes quite a while for these things to emerge. LiOn batteries have been in heavy use for at least five years, but it's only in the past six months that their lifespan and other characteristics have started to be known to Geeky types. This washington post article is the first summary I've seen for a wider audience. As usual the trade journals had nothing to say. I do miss the old BYTE! I'm sure this was well known by engineers in this domain.
2. The real problem is not so much the short lifespan of LiOn batteries, or even their high replacement cost, but rather that quite expensive devices were sold with a fixed non-replaceable battery. You can easily pay $500 to $1000 for a PDA or iPod that has a 2 year lifespan. In contrast a laptop can have a 4-8 year lifespan. A PDA or iPod is thus more costly than a laptop. This doesn't have to be true.
3. Customers have not made wise choices, but manufacturers could have educated them better. Or maybe not.
4. iBook customers noted the same problem as iPod customers, but iBook batteries are replaceable.
5. If you buy a laptop towards the end of a production cycle, your battery may be less fresh and die sooner.
6. I'm not sure this is equally true for all LiOn batteries. In particular I think SONY may have some useful "tricks" that are somewhat underappreciated.
Lithium ion batteries, the battery type most commonly used inside laptops and the flashy gadgets that early adopters of new technology lug everywhere in their pockets, are the most lightweight, powerful and low-maintenance batteries around....
But they have one drawback: a limited lifespan. Lithium ion batteries are particularly susceptible to aging; as soon as one leaves the manufacturing line, its countdown begins. A typical lifespan is two to three years, whether it is ever used or not -- as some disgruntled owners of Apple Computer Corp.'s iPod found when their digital music players suddenly went dead. A huge hullabaloo ensued.
...Though Rio offers players with both replaceable and built-in battery options, Hastings said that most consumers care more about a player's looks than its onboard battery lifespan when comparison shopping.
Some gadget makers have programs to replace batteries when they've worn out, some don't. Apple eventually agreed to set up a battery-replacement program for the popular digital music player (iPod owners can now have their batteries replaced for $99). Handheld maker PalmOne doesn't have a program in place to replace the batteries of old handhelds; PalmOne's vice president of hardware engineering, Gregg Zehr said that most users choose to upgrade to a new handheld when the battery wears out.
This is a fascinating story, there are really several things to learn from the LiOn history:
1. It takes quite a while for these things to emerge. LiOn batteries have been in heavy use for at least five years, but it's only in the past six months that their lifespan and other characteristics have started to be known to Geeky types. This washington post article is the first summary I've seen for a wider audience. As usual the trade journals had nothing to say. I do miss the old BYTE! I'm sure this was well known by engineers in this domain.
2. The real problem is not so much the short lifespan of LiOn batteries, or even their high replacement cost, but rather that quite expensive devices were sold with a fixed non-replaceable battery. You can easily pay $500 to $1000 for a PDA or iPod that has a 2 year lifespan. In contrast a laptop can have a 4-8 year lifespan. A PDA or iPod is thus more costly than a laptop. This doesn't have to be true.
3. Customers have not made wise choices, but manufacturers could have educated them better. Or maybe not.
4. iBook customers noted the same problem as iPod customers, but iBook batteries are replaceable.
5. If you buy a laptop towards the end of a production cycle, your battery may be less fresh and die sooner.
6. I'm not sure this is equally true for all LiOn batteries. In particular I think SONY may have some useful "tricks" that are somewhat underappreciated.
Friday, January 09, 2004
RAMJET Inc.: Only trustworthy source of Mac DRAM?
Kingston is getting a bad reputation. Macintouch points here instead: RAMJET Inc.: Quality Computer Memory.
Update 10/29/2013:
I wrote the above in 2004 -- about 9 years ago. Back then my tech blog was more of a microblog - rather like my current app.net stream.
Today I received a curious email, ostensibly from a ramjet address. Perhaps it's some kind of campaign to smear Ramjet? Here's what it says:
We have tried to contact you several times regarding the link on http://tech.kateva.org/2004/01/ramjet-inc-only-trustworthy-source-of.html to our site http://www.ramjet.com. This link is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and must be removed in order to bring our site into compliance with Google's terms.I wonder what the heck he means? All I can think of is that the original link included a Macintouch referral parameter - http://www.ramjet.com/?src=macintouch.
We are assembling a reconsideration request and will be submitting it to Google, soon. Again, all links which we could not remove will be included in the information we submit.
Please remove the link from your site and notify us when this has been done, so that we do not include your site information in our submission.
Thank you,
Steven Lizardi
I removed the referral parameter. Otherwise, I can't imagine revising 9 year old blog post, or that this could in some way relate to Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
Smells fishy, but I can't figure out the angle.
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
PDFPen: $30 alternative to Acrobat for OS X
SmileOnMyMac about PDFpen
Impressive if it works, it does a lot of what Acrobat since OS X handles the page generation and Preview does bookmarks. No thumbnails.
Impressive if it works, it does a lot of what Acrobat since OS X handles the page generation and Preview does bookmarks. No thumbnails.
ComboDock: very cheap approach to firewire drives. $150
WiebeTECH Micro Storage Solutions - ComboDock
Stick it on an IDE drive, plug it in, have a firewire drive. Something to do with those ancient 20GB drives -- easy way to make an emergency boot disk for OS X. $150.
Stick it on an IDE drive, plug it in, have a firewire drive. Something to do with those ancient 20GB drives -- easy way to make an emergency boot disk for OS X. $150.
Metakit by Equi4 Software: Underlies Mac OS X address book
Metakit by Equi4 SoftwareFascinating application, with a veyr modest web site. They're tackling some terribly hard problems.
Macintosh iLife: iPhoto Links
Macintosh iLife: iPhoto
Nice collection of iPhoto links and digital photography resources.
Nice collection of iPhoto links and digital photography resources.
Panther and Journaling: Carbon Copy Cloner and reformatting system disk
Apple - Discussions - Panther: iPhoto freeze, black screen of death
Based on the hypothesis that the primary problem is a disk defect not detectable by Apple's disk utility, I did the following.
1. Formatted my iPod as HFS (journaled) and used CarbonCopy Cloner to clone my iBook drive to the iPod. Repaired privileges before and after.
2. Booting from the iPod I erased and formatted my iBook drive (not just the volume, the entire drive) as HFS (journaled) including OS 9 drivers.
3. Used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone iPod to iBook drive. Repaired permissions -- this time some major (.core) privileges were repaired. Ran Disk Repair again, as usual no problems.
4. Restarted from iBook and tested. Found the icon for the CD/DVD system preferences was missing though the preferences worked. Switched users and the icon was back, so I located the cache for the System Preferences in usr/Library and deleted it. This restored the icon. Unsettling!
5. Restored the iPod (reset to factory, then applied iPod updater then synched with iTunes).
A few preferences did not make the round trip -- which is again unsettling. The power preferences, for example, had to be reset.
If I were to do it again, I'd like to see if I could install a basic version of Panther to the iPod w/ CCC, but do my cloning to a sparse disk image and restore from the sparse image. Given my experience with sparse disk images on an SMB share I could actually put the sparseimage file on an SMB share and use the iPod just for booting.
I've done some preliminary testing and not experienced the problems seen earlier, but I need to use the system a lot more before I start to trust it.
At this point I still suspect the problem is switching to journaling on a file system first formatted under OS X 10.x then subject to various lockups, repairs, crashes and severe file fragmentation through 10.1 to 10.3. (However the S.M.A.R.T test shows valididated, so the disk mechanism appears intact.).
Based on the hypothesis that the primary problem is a disk defect not detectable by Apple's disk utility, I did the following.
1. Formatted my iPod as HFS (journaled) and used CarbonCopy Cloner to clone my iBook drive to the iPod. Repaired privileges before and after.
2. Booting from the iPod I erased and formatted my iBook drive (not just the volume, the entire drive) as HFS (journaled) including OS 9 drivers.
3. Used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone iPod to iBook drive. Repaired permissions -- this time some major (.core) privileges were repaired. Ran Disk Repair again, as usual no problems.
4. Restarted from iBook and tested. Found the icon for the CD/DVD system preferences was missing though the preferences worked. Switched users and the icon was back, so I located the cache for the System Preferences in usr/Library and deleted it. This restored the icon. Unsettling!
5. Restored the iPod (reset to factory, then applied iPod updater then synched with iTunes).
A few preferences did not make the round trip -- which is again unsettling. The power preferences, for example, had to be reset.
If I were to do it again, I'd like to see if I could install a basic version of Panther to the iPod w/ CCC, but do my cloning to a sparse disk image and restore from the sparse image. Given my experience with sparse disk images on an SMB share I could actually put the sparseimage file on an SMB share and use the iPod just for booting.
I've done some preliminary testing and not experienced the problems seen earlier, but I need to use the system a lot more before I start to trust it.
At this point I still suspect the problem is switching to journaling on a file system first formatted under OS X 10.x then subject to various lockups, repairs, crashes and severe file fragmentation through 10.1 to 10.3. (However the S.M.A.R.T test shows valididated, so the disk mechanism appears intact.).
Dry Creek Photo: ICC profiles to get great results at Costco and other digital print vendors
Dry Creek Photo
Great stuff, especially for Mac users. Most printers are set for standard PC gamma and other settings and print Mac images as somewhat dark. I will try this out.
We offer a database of freely available Fuji Frontier and Noritsu digital printer Icc profiles for mini labs everywhere. In the US, these include most Costco, Wal-Mart, and Ritz Camera locations, among others. If your local Frontier or Noritsu lab is not listed in our database, download and print our profiling target. We will build a basic profile for you at no charge.
You can use these profiles to get the best color fidelity from your digital prints.
Great stuff, especially for Mac users. Most printers are set for standard PC gamma and other settings and print Mac images as somewhat dark. I will try this out.
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Panther's Best: Sparse Disk Images on an SMB share
Apple - Discussions - Disk Images on an SMB share
Other than a more robust file system, the single best feature of Panther for my purposes may be the ability to host a sparseimage (sparse disk image) on an SMB share. Jaguar did not allow sparseimage nor regular HFS+ disk images to be mounted when hosted on an SMB share unless the images were quite small.
[Addendum 1/9/04: From a MacDev article - FileVault uses sparse image -- "FileVault uses a special disk image format: USDP or SPARSE. These files have a .sparceimage extension. Their specificity is that the resulting volume expands as needed to accommodate more data without requiring you to manually create a new image and copy data back and forth -- or requiring the system to do so."]
Using Disk Utility one can create a sparse image (not a read/write image) on a local drive or a share, including an SMB share. The file created has the extension "sparseimage". The size one specifies in the create image dialog is the MAXIMUM size, the actual file created is quite small -- about 4MB where the maximum size is DVD size (4.7 GB). Even over an 802.11b WLAN connection it only takes a few minutes to create and format the image.
Once the image is created and mounted one can copy files to it. I experimented with copying a 500MB iPhoto Library to the disk image. The sparseimage file grows only as needed to incorporate the added files, so the physical file grew 500MB after copying. (The Finder reports 4.2GB free, as far as the Finder knows this is a 4.7GB disk.)
The image can be quickly mounted and dismounted. Using a G3 iBook and a slow 802.11b connection the 500MB sparseimage (4.7GB capacity) mounts in seconds.
Once mounted it is accessed like an HFS+ share. Using iPhoto Library over the effective 2mbps (802.11b) connection I loaded the 500MB library into iPhoto 2.0. Access was quite fast with a delay of a few seconds when displaying a full screen image for the first time. I expect there'd be no perceptible delay on a 100mbps wired LAN.
Why is this so valuable? SMB storage is very cheap. Any ancient box running Win2K and some dirt cheap IDE controllers easily host 5 or so inexpensive 120GB drives. Unfortunately the OS X SMB client cannot take full advantage of this. Problems with character encoding and perhaps permissions mean some HFS+ data cannot be placed on an SMB share. In particular iPhoto 2.x libraries, which can require a large amount of storage, cannot be moved to an SMB share. (If you try you will get messages that some files cannot be copied.) They can, however, be quite safely copied into a disk image on an SMB share. One might consider the same approach for iTunes, though I've been hosting my iTunes files on an SMB share using the standard approach without known problems.
The main drawback is backup. If one is doing backup via the SMB host then changing a single bit in a file on the disk image will alter the disk image. Even the kind of disk based backup I use [1] will run out of space. I will probably exempt the disk image from my standard backup and just copy it weekly to my backup store, while doing monthly DVD burns of the sparseimage to provide serial backup. I will experiment with Retrospect server to see if Retrospect will do a file level backup if I simply leave the image mounted on my laptop overnight.
I await reports from other experimenters!
john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
www.faughnan.com/ibook.html
[1] http://www.faughnan.com/backup.html
meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, OS X, diskimage, disk image, sparse image, sparse disk image, SMB, windows, share, network, iPhoto, backup, server, storage management, Panther, 10.3, 10.3.2
Other than a more robust file system, the single best feature of Panther for my purposes may be the ability to host a sparseimage (sparse disk image) on an SMB share. Jaguar did not allow sparseimage nor regular HFS+ disk images to be mounted when hosted on an SMB share unless the images were quite small.
[Addendum 1/9/04: From a MacDev article - FileVault uses sparse image -- "FileVault uses a special disk image format: USDP or SPARSE. These files have a .sparceimage extension. Their specificity is that the resulting volume expands as needed to accommodate more data without requiring you to manually create a new image and copy data back and forth -- or requiring the system to do so."]
Using Disk Utility one can create a sparse image (not a read/write image) on a local drive or a share, including an SMB share. The file created has the extension "sparseimage". The size one specifies in the create image dialog is the MAXIMUM size, the actual file created is quite small -- about 4MB where the maximum size is DVD size (4.7 GB). Even over an 802.11b WLAN connection it only takes a few minutes to create and format the image.
Once the image is created and mounted one can copy files to it. I experimented with copying a 500MB iPhoto Library to the disk image. The sparseimage file grows only as needed to incorporate the added files, so the physical file grew 500MB after copying. (The Finder reports 4.2GB free, as far as the Finder knows this is a 4.7GB disk.)
The image can be quickly mounted and dismounted. Using a G3 iBook and a slow 802.11b connection the 500MB sparseimage (4.7GB capacity) mounts in seconds.
Once mounted it is accessed like an HFS+ share. Using iPhoto Library over the effective 2mbps (802.11b) connection I loaded the 500MB library into iPhoto 2.0. Access was quite fast with a delay of a few seconds when displaying a full screen image for the first time. I expect there'd be no perceptible delay on a 100mbps wired LAN.
Why is this so valuable? SMB storage is very cheap. Any ancient box running Win2K and some dirt cheap IDE controllers easily host 5 or so inexpensive 120GB drives. Unfortunately the OS X SMB client cannot take full advantage of this. Problems with character encoding and perhaps permissions mean some HFS+ data cannot be placed on an SMB share. In particular iPhoto 2.x libraries, which can require a large amount of storage, cannot be moved to an SMB share. (If you try you will get messages that some files cannot be copied.) They can, however, be quite safely copied into a disk image on an SMB share. One might consider the same approach for iTunes, though I've been hosting my iTunes files on an SMB share using the standard approach without known problems.
The main drawback is backup. If one is doing backup via the SMB host then changing a single bit in a file on the disk image will alter the disk image. Even the kind of disk based backup I use [1] will run out of space. I will probably exempt the disk image from my standard backup and just copy it weekly to my backup store, while doing monthly DVD burns of the sparseimage to provide serial backup. I will experiment with Retrospect server to see if Retrospect will do a file level backup if I simply leave the image mounted on my laptop overnight.
I await reports from other experimenters!
john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net
www.faughnan.com/ibook.html
[1] http://www.faughnan.com/backup.html
meta: jfaughnan, jgfaughnan, OS X, diskimage, disk image, sparse image, sparse disk image, SMB, windows, share, network, iPhoto, backup, server, storage management, Panther, 10.3, 10.3.2
Saturday, January 03, 2004
Running older games in XP: Broderbund
Broderbund Customer Support - Tech Tip: Running Programs in Windows® XP Using Compatibility Mode"
Very well written, a nice reference for managing games w/ XP. I am awed by how well XP handles ancient software.
Very well written, a nice reference for managing games w/ XP. I am awed by how well XP handles ancient software.
Panther calculator - take two
Mac OS X Panther (10.3.2): "Re: Hidden capabilities in the Panther Calculator
Russell Stephany
In response to 'Hidden capabilities in the Panther Calculator' by Norman Palardy, adding these plug-ins can also be accomplished by using the 'plug-ins' section of the Get Info window. The only unusual thing is that you must click the 'open' button (or, presumably, double-click) when on the.calcview folder.
There is also an rtf file in the ExpressionSheet.calcview/Contents/Resources/.lproj with information about the expression syntax.
Michael Merwin
The tip from Norman Palardy 'Hidden capabilities in the Panther Calculator ' prompted me to look more closely at the calculator and to discover its conversion capabilities including currency conversion with an update feature which takes into account the fluctuation of the dollar on the world markets. "
Russell Stephany
In response to 'Hidden capabilities in the Panther Calculator' by Norman Palardy, adding these plug-ins can also be accomplished by using the 'plug-ins' section of the Get Info window. The only unusual thing is that you must click the 'open' button (or, presumably, double-click) when on the
There is also an rtf file in the ExpressionSheet.calcview/Contents/Resources/
Michael Merwin
The tip from Norman Palardy 'Hidden capabilities in the Panther Calculator ' prompted me to look more closely at the calculator and to discover its conversion capabilities including currency conversion with an update feature which takes into account the fluctuation of the dollar on the world markets. "
Thursday, January 01, 2004
More recommendations on the care and feeding of LiOn batteries
iPod Battery FAQ
This matches everything I've read and practice. I think it's equally true for an iBook. My sense is that only SONY truly has true mastery of LiOn batteries -- they developed the core technology and I suspect they may have some unique patents or skill with them -- Apple and PalmOne are not in teh same class.
I try to run in the 40-100% charge range. It's good to know however than an iPod can be happily left in its powered cradle -- assuming the cradle is connected to the wall charger.
Q: What is the best way to handle charging/discharging/storage of lithium ion batteries?
... Lithium ion batteries are good for 300-500 charge/discharge cycles. A 'charge/discharge' cycle generally consists of an extended charging period, and an extended discharging period. A quick charge, listening for 30 minutes, and charging again, for example, does not constitute a full 'charge/discharge cycle', but could rather be considered a portion of one.
Also, many, many factors affect how much you get out of each charge, as well as how long the battery will last overall. The main factors include charging patterns, the routine amount of discharge (i.e., Do you use it until it dies? Use it for an hour or two and recharge?), temperature, storage, usage frequency, etc. Lithium ion batteries do not take kindly to frequent full or complete discharges. When possible, the optimal usage pattern - for any lithium ion battery - is a partial discharge, followed by recharging. A partial discharge can be anything less than a full discharge. However, an occasional full discharge is desirable (e.g., once every 30 charges) to calibrate the battery. Lithium ion batteries do not significantly degrade, or develop 'memory', even if charged at irregular intervals; irregular charging is acceptable. An iPod can also safely be attached to external power for extended periods of time. (For extremely extended periods of time, such as months, the battery will essentially be the same as if it were in 'storage'; lithium ion batteries do not store well for extended periods of time at full charge. However, there is no way around this under these circumstances.) When possible, always use the AC adapter (or vehicle adapter) for extended charging, not a FireWire cable attached to a computer.
If you will be storing your iPod for an extended period of time (i.e., weeks to months), it is recommended to store the unit in a cool place at about 40% charge. The most harmful combination for storage is full charge at high temperature (i.e., in a hot car for a couple of weeks).
This matches everything I've read and practice. I think it's equally true for an iBook. My sense is that only SONY truly has true mastery of LiOn batteries -- they developed the core technology and I suspect they may have some unique patents or skill with them -- Apple and PalmOne are not in teh same class.
I try to run in the 40-100% charge range. It's good to know however than an iPod can be happily left in its powered cradle -- assuming the cradle is connected to the wall charger.
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