A9.com Home Page
If only we had this kind of competition in productivity software. Alas, Microsoft has left much of the software world a barren desert. OS X has not provided great productivity software alternatives because Microsoft Office rules there too.
Not so on the net.
Amazon/A9, Firefox, Google and Yahoo are all in a complex and intense struggle that's increasingly interesting.
In the past few weeks:
1. I switched to Amazon/A9 because Amazon has put together an excellent Firefox toolbar. It uses Google search, but it has a number of fascinating and subversive features. Amazon is leveraging their review infrastructure and their customer knowledge in fascinating win-win ways. Privacy shmivacy. (I made my last stand for privacy in 1994, when it was obvious that privacy was doomed if we didn't act. We didn't act.)
2. I switched my web site and blog search engines from Google to Yahoo because Google is having serious indexing problems. They are not indexing Blogger -- their own property. If I had time I'd short Google stock. They're a great company, but they are heading for a rough patch.
3. Google's GMail is great. I love it and I'll happily pay for it -- esp. when they add IMAP support. I'm looking forward to their image and backup solutions. Now if they can only fix their search. Above all -- will they make Firefox their core browser?
4. Firefox, my Win browser of choice for about 8-10 months, is moving from strength to strength. Their extension collection is becoming amazing. Bloglines has added some nice extensions. Google has been oddly quiet. The Amazon A9's ability to share data and bookmarks effortlessly between platforms is highly subversive -- it may drive me to Firefox on the Mac as well as on my Win machines. I also like the ability to pass notes around. Now we need a Palm client for the Amazon repository that Firefox/A9 builds. Hmm. I wonder if AvantGo could be set to pull down that data ...
Ahh. I do love a fight like this. Bring it on guys.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Amazon.com: Electronics: Seagate Firewire/USB external $120 w/ rebate
Amazon.com: Electronics: Seagate ST3160024A-RK 160 GB External USB 2.0/FireWire Hard Drive
A few points of interest here.
1. I got this referral via Macintouch. Macintouch is a superb OS X oriented site with loyal readers. They make referral money from Amazon and they make good referrals -- like this one. Nice win-win.
2. This is an amazing deal.
3. I never thought of Amazon when I bought a firewire/usb drive recently. I should have. The user reviews are excellent and would have been most helpful.
A few points of interest here.
1. I got this referral via Macintouch. Macintouch is a superb OS X oriented site with loyal readers. They make referral money from Amazon and they make good referrals -- like this one. Nice win-win.
2. This is an amazing deal.
3. I never thought of Amazon when I bought a firewire/usb drive recently. I should have. The user reviews are excellent and would have been most helpful.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Equalizers in general, an in iTunes in particular
Demystifying the iTunes EQ
A rare find! Fascinating article on how to get the most from different acoustic environments.
32 Hz: This is the lowest frequency selection on the EQ. This sits in the lowest of low bass frequencies, where sub information resides in mixes –such as kick drums and bass instruments. Some speaker systems can't even reproduce this frequency.
64 Hz: This second bass frequency starts to become audible on decent speakers or subwoofers. Again, mostly bass drums and bass instruments will reside in this region.
125 Hz: Many small speakers, such as in your laptop, can just about handle this frequency for bass information. In other words, if you turn it up on most systems, you'll hear more bottom in your mix.
250 Hz: This is still considered low-end, but more of the "woofy" sound of bass and drum sounds. Guitars and pianos will have a large amount of low end in this frequency range.
500 Hz: Now were approaching midrange frequencies, but still some of the low end of vocals and the mids of bass instruments sit here in a mix.
1K: This is now low midrange of most instruments such as guitars, pianos, snare drums, etc.
2K: The 2k frequency can boost or cut the "nasal" sound of your music, in the range your voice makes when you hold your nose and talk.
4K: 4k is the upper mid range that many electric guitars sit in, as well as a large portion of many instruments.
8K: This is getting into the high end, where the majority of cymbals and hi-hats are, as well as upper range of synths, pianos and guitars. Many vocals have a lot of information in this range.
16K: Theoretically, us humans can hear just above 20K, so this is true high end. If you crank this up, your mixes will get ‘sizzly'. This is the top of high end on the iTunes equalizer.
A rare find! Fascinating article on how to get the most from different acoustic environments.
How to downgrade an OS X install
Apple - Discussions - 10.3.6 Firewire Problems
I love OS X, but it's pretty darned sad that experts recommend a full system clone prior to a point upgrade. Of course if one cloned to a firewire drive, and the upgrade disables the firewire drive, a clone alone might not help. One needs both a clone and a boot CD.
To downgrade from 10.3.6 to 10.3.5, recover from your clone backup. In the future always make sure to clone your operating system prior to making upgrades, if you didn't this time.
The other way to downgrade to 10.3.5 is to shut down your machine, detach all third party devices, Archive and Install from the system CD that came with your machine, or the retail 10.3 installer CDs (the black ones with the white and gray X logo that do NOT say Upgrade or a Mac model name) (whichever CDs are newer*), repair permissions, and then run the 10.3.5 combined update:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Repair permissions is in Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> select hard disk in Disk Utility -> Click on First Aid.
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxcombinedupdate_10_3_5_.html
Repair permissions when done.
* Remember you can't install the retail Panther (10.3) CDs, if your machine came out after Panther, and must use the CDs that came with your machine.
I love OS X, but it's pretty darned sad that experts recommend a full system clone prior to a point upgrade. Of course if one cloned to a firewire drive, and the upgrade disables the firewire drive, a clone alone might not help. One needs both a clone and a boot CD.
OS X: safe mode startup can fix some disk problems
Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3: Starting up in Safe Mode
Wait for tone, then immediately press and hold shift key after the startup tone, releasing on seeing the Apple screen appear. Forces a "directory check" (runs a version of fsck that's compatible with journaled file systems.
It takes quite a while to startup in safe mode. In theory one has to hold the shift key after the startup tone, I did it beforehand and it worked. You know you're in safe mode because you'll see a notice of that during startup.
After restarting shut down completely and power up again. I do this periodically for preventive maintenance.
Wait for tone, then immediately press and hold shift key after the startup tone, releasing on seeing the Apple screen appear. Forces a "directory check" (runs a version of fsck that's compatible with journaled file systems.
It takes quite a while to startup in safe mode. In theory one has to hold the shift key after the startup tone, I did it beforehand and it worked. You know you're in safe mode because you'll see a notice of that during startup.
After restarting shut down completely and power up again. I do this periodically for preventive maintenance.
G4 iBook for $850?
Amazon.com: Computers: Apple iBook Notebook 12" M9426LL/A (1.0-GHz PowerPC G4, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive)
Wow. Of course with memory upgrades and an Airport Extreme card this would come to $1100 or so -- but still!
Wow. Of course with memory upgrades and an Airport Extreme card this would come to $1100 or so -- but still!
Monday, November 08, 2004
Écliptique: panoramic pictures
Écliptique
Nice set of panoramic photos. French originally, but they've apparently gone bilingual due to increased US traffic. You have to click around a bit to find the QuickTime virtual environment photos, but once there you can spin around the site in dizzying QuickTime mode.
Nice set of panoramic photos. French originally, but they've apparently gone bilingual due to increased US traffic. You have to click around a bit to find the QuickTime virtual environment photos, but once there you can spin around the site in dizzying QuickTime mode.
Recycling your iPod q2years
Dan's Data letters #130
The LiI battery in my iBook seems to last about 12 months. After two years one can either leave the iPod in its cradle and buy a new one for portability, or pay to have the battery swapped.
Regarding longer life for LiI - nothing that I know of helps. It's a general rule that rechargeable batteries will last for more partial cycles than full cycles, and that applies to LiI batteries too; don't worry about running the battery flat, just top it up when you feel like it. The main problem with LiI is that it naturally ages quite rapidly no matter what you do with it; some LiI packs last better than others, and not leaving your iPod to bake on your dashboard in summer will help a bit, but you shouldn't expect any iPod pack to be good for much after three years, even if it's never been used at all. Death in two years is perfectly possible; common, even. That's just the price you pay for the excellent energy density of LiI - and it's also why I've got a Luddite affection for NiMH, and even NiCd.
The LiI battery in my iBook seems to last about 12 months. After two years one can either leave the iPod in its cradle and buy a new one for portability, or pay to have the battery swapped.
Why firewire drive enclosures are probably a bad idea
Drivers & Updates
Firwire is a problematic standard. Oxford is a problematic chipset. Hard drives can be problematic. OS support for firewire can be problatic. Cables can be problematic.
So what's the chance that everything actually works?
INITIO AND OXFORD FIRMWARE UTILITY DOWNLOAD CENTER
MAXTOR MAKES BAD DRIVES: WE HAVE RECEIVED INFORMATION THAT MANY MAXTOR 250GB 8MB 7200RPM Drives MODEL 6Y250P0062811 (mostly made in June and July 2004) DO NOT WORK PROPERLY IN ANY FIREWIRE ENCLOSURES!
WE HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION: IF you are using Oxford 911 ,912 or 922 you will need to change DMA modes down to UDMA5 (down form UDMA6 default). This will fix Transfer Issues with these Maxtor Drives.
Firwire is a problematic standard. Oxford is a problematic chipset. Hard drives can be problematic. OS support for firewire can be problatic. Cables can be problematic.
So what's the chance that everything actually works?
Mac OS X 10.3.6 - example of a troubleshooting technique
Mac OS X 10.3.6: "Peter Chin
To all that were having calculator problems: I was able to get Calculator to show the Basic window every launch (its normal execution) by deleting ~/Library/Caches/Calculator and ~/Library/Preferences/ com.apple.calculator.plist. Do this and then relaunch Calculator and this should fix it.
It was interesting to note that ~/Library/Caches/Calculator was only re-created after I updated the currency rates. Little Snitch told me that Calculator had tried to access an Apple address and the International Monetary Fund."
To all that were having calculator problems: I was able to get Calculator to show the Basic window every launch (its normal execution) by deleting ~/Library/Caches/Calculator and ~/Library/Preferences/ com.apple.calculator.plist. Do this and then relaunch Calculator and this should fix it.
It was interesting to note that ~/Library/Caches/Calculator was only re-created after I updated the currency rates. Little Snitch told me that Calculator had tried to access an Apple address and the International Monetary Fund."
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Annual Business Registration - State of Minnesota
Annual Business Registration - State of Minnesota
Businesses in Minnesota are required to register with the state every year. I have a consulting business that is very active some years, and does nothing in other years. This year it's inactive and I misplaced my registration form. I tried finding a form online, but I didn't know the search terms. The State Govt site was of no use.
I finally dug through some old files and found a prior registration form. Once I knew the search terms from that form I found this site in seconds. That's when the real shock came. I could register on the site! As far as I can tell, it works. It took no time at all.
I'm still stunned. I never expected this level of competence.
The problem with finding such a site, however, is another matter. Perhaps this entry will turn up in someone's searches and help them.
KW: LLC, company, registration, annual, business
Businesses in Minnesota are required to register with the state every year. I have a consulting business that is very active some years, and does nothing in other years. This year it's inactive and I misplaced my registration form. I tried finding a form online, but I didn't know the search terms. The State Govt site was of no use.
I finally dug through some old files and found a prior registration form. Once I knew the search terms from that form I found this site in seconds. That's when the real shock came. I could register on the site! As far as I can tell, it works. It took no time at all.
I'm still stunned. I never expected this level of competence.
The problem with finding such a site, however, is another matter. Perhaps this entry will turn up in someone's searches and help them.
KW: LLC, company, registration, annual, business
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Training SpamAssassin
Lunarpages Web Hosting :: View topic - How-to: Train SpamAssassin
Entirely too esoteric for me, but an unusually detailed discussion.
Entirely too esoteric for me, but an unusually detailed discussion.
LaCie likes DriveSavers for data recovery
LaCie - External Storage: Hard Drives, CD-RW Drives, DVD-RW Drives, Tape, Monitors
Good reference to keep. Never know when one will need a data recovery service.
Before sending a drive to a data recovery company, check with the drive manufacturer to verify that the company is authorized to perform data recovery. If it is not an authorized company, the warranty will be voided.
We recommend DriveSavers at 800/440-1904. They are certified by all drive manufacturers to do what is necessary to recover data from the drive.
Good reference to keep. Never know when one will need a data recovery service.
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