Daring Fireball: In the BackgroundI hope the next iteration gives us at least 256MB of RAM. It seems Safari always has to reload my pages. I don't know why...
... The iPhone (and iPod Touch) only have 128 MB of RAM, and WebKit can use a lot of memory. When memory gets tight, the system sends low memory warnings to running applications, telling them to purge what they can. Eventually, the system will start forcing apps to quit in order to free more memory. That’s why sometimes when you relaunch Safari, it remembers the URLs, but has to reload the content for all of your open web pages — that’s what happens when Safari is asked to quit while it’s running in the background....
Monday, October 06, 2008
iPhone is RAM constrained
I'd forgotten how RAM constrained the iPhone is:
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Reconsidering Google: life without customer service
We have a lot of our personal data invested in Google.
Gigabytes of email. Gigabytes of photos. Thousands of blog postings. Six Google Apps domains, including our family domain and Minnesota Special Hockey. Maps. Googe group posts. Google Notebook items. The Family Calendar. Contacts.
A lot of stuff. Stuff tied to a single user name and password.
With no customer service ..
As noted above there is customer service associated with upgraded Google App accounts, but the price is $50/user/year. So $200 for our family. The commercial Google Apps accounts are really aimed at corporations; they aren't a reasonable solution for families.
We do get free Google Apps Educational/Non-Profit service for our Minnesota Special Hockey site (free upgrade for non-profits). I can confirm the email response is very fast. You get corporate-grade support.
I don't believe the line in the article about "no falsely recovered accounts". The world doesn't work that way. There are no perfect tests. If Google really hasn't had any "falsely recovered accounts" that means they have shut out thousands of legitimate account owners.
On the other hand, kudos to this journalist for noting that anyone who fears losing their account won't use Google's obscenely inane security question, but if you don't answer the question then you have no hope of account recovery. (I've gone to my Gmail account and answered the question with a password-like string I now store with in my backed-up password database.)
Google should offer a support service with enhanced user authentication procedures for a fee of $25 a year, and bundle it with an extra 5-10GB of storage.
If they don't do that, I'm going to have to reevaluate my Google relationship.
Update: I reviewed https://www.google.com/accounts/EditUserInfo after reading this story.
Google has added a lot of new features to the Google Account information since I created my account years ago. I changed the security question to "what is your secondary google password?" and gave it a 50 character grc.com generated random hex string.
I then added additional email addresses that I control through my DreamHost domain and completed all the "optional" identity related questions. These email addresses are distinct from whatever extra email addresses may have been defined in Gmail settings. These addresses are associated directly with the Google account. They may act like a kind of merged identity.
I use unique passwords on the two external services. One is outside of Google completely, the other is in a distinct Google Apps account. So for now I feel a bit better. I appreciate the warning!
Gigabytes of email. Gigabytes of photos. Thousands of blog postings. Six Google Apps domains, including our family domain and Minnesota Special Hockey. Maps. Googe group posts. Google Notebook items. The Family Calendar. Contacts.
A lot of stuff. Stuff tied to a single user name and password.
With no customer service ..
Digital Domain - Can’t Open Your E-Mailbox? Good Luck - NYTimes.comI pay Google for extra storage for my Gmail and Picasa Web Album accounts, but that still doesn't get me any customer service.
... If you’re a Gmail user, what you’ll want to do after a few more unsuccessful, increasingly frantic attempts is to speak with a Google customer support representative, post haste. But that’s not an option. Google doesn’t offer a toll-free number and a live person to resolve the ordinary user’s problems.
Discussion forums abound with tales of woe from Gmail customers who have found themselves locked out of their account for days or even weeks. They were innocent victims of security measures, which automatically suspend access if someone tries unsuccessfully to log on repeatedly to an account. The customers express frustration that they can’t speak with anyone at Google after filling out the company’s online forms and waiting in vain for Google to restore access to their accounts.
Tom Lynch, a software entrepreneur who lives near Austin, Tex., discovered early last month that he had been locked out of both Gmail accounts he used; he had no idea why. He received boilerplate instructions for recovering his accounts that did not apply to his particular circumstances, which included his failing to maintain a non-Gmail e-mail account as a back-up. He said it took him four weeks, including the use of a business directory and talking with anyone he could find at Google, before he succeeded in having service restored....
... Google does provide phone support to Gmail customers who subscribe to Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 annually and includes larger storage quotas and other benefits. Customers who use the advertising-supported version of Gmail, however, must rely solely on what Google calls “self-service online support.”...
... Last month, with cases like Mr. Lynch’s in mind, I contacted Google to see what the company had to say about my suggestion that it add phone support for its customers with account-related problems. The company returned with a debate team of three to argue the negative position: Matthew Glotzbach, who works with Google’s business customers; Roy Gilbert, who handles consumers; and Greg Badros, who is an engineering director.
Mr. Glotzbach began by saying that “one-to-one support isn’t always the best answer” because it would take Google too long to collect lots of data about a problem that is affecting many users simultaneously.
For systemic problems, data collection is important. But not for other categories. Account recovery could be slow for a locked-out customer who doesn’t have a backup e-mail account, and who declined to provide a security question and answer because of concerns that someone else could use it to get in (which is what someone did to Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo Mail account).
Mr. Badros argued that Google asks so little personal information of a new Gmail customer that it’s hard to determine identity when the genuine user and the impostor both present themselves to claim the account, and neither can produce the verification. He said more information could be asked of users when they sign up, but the inconvenience would dissuade them from trying the service.
Mr. Gilbert added that proving identity with only minimal information is a problem, whatever form of communication is used to reach customer support. He said, “Even if they were standing right in front of us, it wouldn’t help.”
THIS makes sorting out competing claims seem permanently hopeless, when, of course, this is not the case; it simply means that standard security questions will not suffice. But if Google were to use real people to sort out identity problems over the phone, the only remaining consideration would be the one that Google’s panel of experts didn’t mention in our talk: cost.
Google says it has “tens of millions” of Gmail customers. (It declines to be more specific.) If it’s willing to consider phone support for account-access emergencies, it can take heart in the example of Netflix, which last year adopted phone support with enthusiasm, replacing online support completely. For all customers. For all problems. And without resorting to an offshore call center.
It turns out that a staff of 375 customer service representatives are enough to handle calls from Netflix’s 8.4 million customers, answering most calls within a minute. Netflix says with justifiable pride that it has received the top ratings in online retail customer satisfaction by both Nielsen Online and ForeSee Results....
As noted above there is customer service associated with upgraded Google App accounts, but the price is $50/user/year. So $200 for our family. The commercial Google Apps accounts are really aimed at corporations; they aren't a reasonable solution for families.
We do get free Google Apps Educational/Non-Profit service for our Minnesota Special Hockey site (free upgrade for non-profits). I can confirm the email response is very fast. You get corporate-grade support.
I don't believe the line in the article about "no falsely recovered accounts". The world doesn't work that way. There are no perfect tests. If Google really hasn't had any "falsely recovered accounts" that means they have shut out thousands of legitimate account owners.
On the other hand, kudos to this journalist for noting that anyone who fears losing their account won't use Google's obscenely inane security question, but if you don't answer the question then you have no hope of account recovery. (I've gone to my Gmail account and answered the question with a password-like string I now store with in my backed-up password database.)
Google should offer a support service with enhanced user authentication procedures for a fee of $25 a year, and bundle it with an extra 5-10GB of storage.
If they don't do that, I'm going to have to reevaluate my Google relationship.
Update: I reviewed https://www.google.com/accounts/EditUserInfo after reading this story.
Google has added a lot of new features to the Google Account information since I created my account years ago. I changed the security question to "what is your secondary google password?" and gave it a 50 character grc.com generated random hex string.
I then added additional email addresses that I control through my DreamHost domain and completed all the "optional" identity related questions. These email addresses are distinct from whatever extra email addresses may have been defined in Gmail settings. These addresses are associated directly with the Google account. They may act like a kind of merged identity.
I use unique passwords on the two external services. One is outside of Google completely, the other is in a distinct Google Apps account. So for now I feel a bit better. I appreciate the warning!
Symmetry: Apple and Microsoft kb and the wonders of Google Custom Search
When addressing technical OS problems, the Apple and (especially) Microsoft knowledge bases are often the best place to start.
Unfortunately Google searches for topics covered in Microsoft KB articles are often obscured by lots of ad funded pseudo-splog "tech sites". It takes some digging to find the good stuff.
That's the beauty of my favorite Google custom search engine. I simply add the URLs for those knowledge bases and Google boosts those results above the noise.
Wondrous, really. The custom search engine Searches my Google Reader feeds and 13 other sites including: support.apple.com/kb/, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/, www.sciam.com, bestyoucanbe.blogspot.com, tech.kateva.org ...
Even the Encyclopedia Britannica (since we still subscribe) gets boosted and included in our personal version of Google.
Which brings me to the title of this post. On entering the URLs I noticed a funny symmetry ...
Unfortunately Google searches for topics covered in Microsoft KB articles are often obscured by lots of ad funded pseudo-splog "tech sites". It takes some digging to find the good stuff.
That's the beauty of my favorite Google custom search engine. I simply add the URLs for those knowledge bases and Google boosts those results above the noise.
Wondrous, really. The custom search engine Searches my Google Reader feeds and 13 other sites including: support.apple.com/kb/, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/, www.sciam.com, bestyoucanbe.blogspot.com, tech.kateva.org ...
Even the Encyclopedia Britannica (since we still subscribe) gets boosted and included in our personal version of Google.
Which brings me to the title of this post. On entering the URLs I noticed a funny symmetry ...
support.apple.com/kb/Chance probably, but given all the ways in which Microsoft and Apple are trading innovations (admittedly more from Apple to Microsoft) this caught my fancy.
support.microsoft.com/kb/
Friday, October 03, 2008
An iGoogle Gadget that can display your Google Apps Calendar
I've been looking for months for an iGoogle gadget that would display our family google apps calendar.
I finally found one by searching on "google apps calendar".
Dang, but it's hard to find this stuff. Definitely an unsolved problem. Here's the link, with my review ...
I finally found one by searching on "google apps calendar".
Dang, but it's hard to find this stuff. Definitely an unsolved problem. Here's the link, with my review ...
Google Apps Calendar
... I only found this by searching on Google Apps Calendar. I'll promote it on my blog. Standard Google Calendar apps all assume they're displaying the calendar associated with one's Gmail account. I want to display our family domain calendar; I have access privileges from my Gmail account. This does the trick....
Windows Server 2003 – read this if you abruptly lose network connectivity on a restart
I rebooted our corporate Windows Server 2003 today. I was moving it to a UPS. No problem – except when I restarted I had no network connectivity.
First I saw a “service didn’t start, check the event viewer” message. The event viewer just told me I couldn’t register with the domain. I couldn’t do that because I didn’t have network access. I got the usual “may have limited connection” error.
I did all the usual things (ipconfig, repair connection, swap cables, switch accounts, login as local user, test everything, etc etc) but they all passed. The big breakthrough was when I investigated the advanced boot options on restart. Windows 2003 includes a “safe start with network” option. When I did that I had a network connection.
There was a lot more work to do before I found that disabling IPSEC service, then rebooting after disabling it, fixed everything.
I easily blew 6-8 hours of work today.
Lesson 1: Run Safe Boot/Safe Start with networking first.
Then you work your way through this Microsoft kb article. I’ll excerpt some key points, then pass on a trick, then I’ve got to go home and finish up the work I couldn’t do today …
How to troubleshoot startup problems in Windows Server 2003
How to Start the Computer in Safe Mode
When you start the computer in Safe mode, Windows loads only the drivers and computer services that you need. You can use Safe mode when you have to identify and resolve problems that are caused by faulty drivers, programs, or services that start automatically.
If the computer starts successfully in Safe mode but it does not start in normal mode, the computer may have a conflict with the hardware settings or the resources. There may be incompatibilities with programs, services, or drivers, or there may be registry damage. In Safe mode, you can disable or remove a program, service, or device driver that may prevent the computer from starting….How to Use System Configuration Utility
System Configuration Utility (Msconfig.exe) automates the routine troubleshooting steps that Microsoft Product Support Services technicians use when they diagnose Windows configuration issues…
… Click the General tab, and then click Selective Startup.
…Note You might be able to determine more quickly which service is causing the problem by testing the services in groups. Divide the services into two groups--select the check boxes of the first group, and clear the check boxes of the second group. Restart your computer, and then test for the problem. If the problem occurs, the faulty service is in the group with the selected check boxes. If the problem does not occur, the faulty service is in the group with the cleared check boxes. Repeat this process on the faulty group until you have isolated the faulty service.
It took hours.
Here’s the trick. Boot in Safe Mode first. Then run msconfig.exe and look at the services. Assuming things work in safe mode, the ones that are running (sort by that column) are good. Now uncheck all services, check the ones that are currently running, apply, restart.
When you restart you’re in the equivalent of Safe Mode, but you can use msconfig.exe to add services in blocks.
The UI of this app is dismal. I sorted alphabetically, then did screen captures to a Word document to get a complete alpha sorted list. I printed that to guide my tedious enabling of sets. (In theory you can do the binary sort approach faster. Long story, can’t explain.)
One thing to watch for.
When you enable “Error Reporting Service” you start getting … error reports! Wow. So if gets enabled with a bunch of other items, you might think you’ve found a problem. Wrong. It’s just that now you’re getting the error reports.
IPSEC.
So now I have to figure out what the #$!#% happened. I don’t think we’ve done any software installs on that box or tweaked any services. Did some antiviral update trigger a problem?
Update: This experts exchange article may be related, but the responses are not accessible. A clue:
Description: The IPSec driver has entered Block mode. IPSec will discard all inbound and outbound TCP/
IP network traffic that is not permitted by boot-time IPSec Policy exemptions. User Action: To restore full unsecured TCP/IP connectivity, disable the IPSec services, and the restart the computer. For detailed troubleshootinginformation , review the events in the Security event log
This suggests an interaction between Group or Local security policy, IPSEC block mode, and loss of network access. I wonder if a corruption or misconfiguration of a local policy setting could cause this.
Update: This article connects group policy file corruption to IPSEC problems and loss of network access, and points out there are definite bugs with group policy editing. I didn't touch local or group policy on our server, but perhaps another admin might have. I now see there have been nasty unfixed bugs.
Update: I'll take a look at these when I get back to work on Monday, then update this post. I think we're narrowing things down to a corruption of misconfiguration of a group policy file that activated IPSEC and disabled, without any meaningful entry in the event monitor, all network TCP/IP traffic.
So Monday I'll look at windows update and try opening, reviewing and savng the IPSEC and Group Policy files. If they're corrupted they may cause other problems.
Update 12/14/08: I'm grateful to an anonymous visitor for finding the underlying issue. S/he references two Microsoft kb articles, I've added a less important but related third article.Update: This article connects group policy file corruption to IPSEC problems and loss of network access, and points out there are definite bugs with group policy editing. I didn't touch local or group policy on our server, but perhaps another admin might have. I now see there have been nasty unfixed bugs.
Update: I'll take a look at these when I get back to work on Monday, then update this post. I think we're narrowing things down to a corruption of misconfiguration of a group policy file that activated IPSEC and disabled, without any meaningful entry in the event monitor, all network TCP/IP traffic.
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870910: looks like a pretty pertinent kb article
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914962: IPSEC bugs fixed in SP2. So did some later upgrade break them again? Clearly I need to check windows update for the server.
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898060: After SP1 a security update broke IPSEC. Should be ok in SP2, but did it get broken again?
- http://marc.info/?l=patchmanagement&m=121632162501913&w=2: A fairly recent DNS spoof prevention security update from Microsoft has broken IPSEC on some machines.
- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;816579: In place upgrades when WS 2003 is truly hosed. I don't think this applies, but nice to know.
So Monday I'll look at windows update and try opening, reviewing and savng the IPSEC and Group Policy files. If they're corrupted they may cause other problems.
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956188 (details the problem)
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956189 (the fix)
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812873 (More on these transient ports)
The latter references the problem I had:
Event Type: ErrorUpdate 12/31/08: Nope, it didn't work.
Event Source: IPSec
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4292
Date: Date
Time: Time
User: N/A
Computer: Server_name
Description: The IPSec driver has entered Block mode. IPSec will discard all incoming and outgoing TCP/IP network traffic that is not permitted by boot-time IPSec Policy exemptions.
User Action: To restore full unsecured TCP/IP connectivity, disable the IPSec services, and then restart the computer. For detailed troubleshooting information, review the events in the Security event log.
I finally got around to applying Microsoft's fix and it didn't work!
So even after I reserved these ports:
3343-3343I still got the service failure notice on restart and lost my network connections. Guess I'll have to wait for a service pack. I removed the registry changes I'd made (why ask for trouble?) and again disabled IPSEC services.
1645-1646
1812-1813
2883-2883
4500-4500
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Google Apps calendar on the iPhone - the top secret web display
It's not the OTA blackberry-like iPhone gCal sync we want, but it's something ...
In an essay on the darkness of Apple's App Store policies Gruber mentions a few more calendaring options ..
The official update feed from the Google Apps team: New Google Calendar features for the iPhoneUntil now the webapp was read only.
... Google Calendar users in the US can now add new events, invite attendees, and see daily and monthly views of their agendas from the iPhone. This release also includes speed improvements for the iPhone interface....
In an essay on the darkness of Apple's App Store policies Gruber mentions a few more calendaring options ..
... Apple doesn’t seem to have any problem allowing Calendar competitors into the App Store. Notes Calendar is a $3 Lotus Notes calendaring client. iExchange Remote Calendar is a $10 calendaring client for Exchange. It can’t even be explained by some sort of anti-Google bias at Apple, because they’ve also accepted SaiSuke, a $10 dedicated Google Calendar client. If these are OK, why not a dedicated Gmail email client? The only explanation is that Mail is deemed untouchable and Calendar is not...Update 11/10/08: The iPhone Google App didn't show me the new calendar. I had to use the URL: http://www.google.com/m/a/faughnanlagace.com (our family domain) to see the new calendar. You can also use: http://calendar.google.com/a/faughnanlagace.com/m. There's still no calendar search -- an odd omission.
iPhone audio recording: Plum Record, Audio Recorder, others?
Eons ago I used to record conversations on my third generation iPod (not to be confused with iPhone 3G. I can't recall if I was able to transfer the audio files to the desktop.
It worked quite well -- until Apple obsoleted the hardware connection!
It finally occurred to me that I could do that again. The Monster adapter I bought for my BOSE headphones works just fine as a standalone microphone - I just have to unplug it if I want to hear playback without headphones. (I wouldn't mind finding a direct cable connector for analog to analog transfer though. I don't need stereo recording ... yet ....)
Plum Record will record files that can be transferred to the OS X desktop and translated there. Audio Recorder transfers by email but uses native iPhone audio formats (.caf, uncompressed). (Yes, we all want access to that damned USB cable.)
The Audio Recorder FAQ says the iPhone will work with a standard mini-jack mike.
I purchased Voice Recorder a while back but took it off my phone. I'll have to see if they offer any audio-transfer options.
It worked quite well -- until Apple obsoleted the hardware connection!
It finally occurred to me that I could do that again. The Monster adapter I bought for my BOSE headphones works just fine as a standalone microphone - I just have to unplug it if I want to hear playback without headphones. (I wouldn't mind finding a direct cable connector for analog to analog transfer though. I don't need stereo recording ... yet ....)
Plum Record will record files that can be transferred to the OS X desktop and translated there. Audio Recorder transfers by email but uses native iPhone audio formats (.caf, uncompressed). (Yes, we all want access to that damned USB cable.)
The Audio Recorder FAQ says the iPhone will work with a standard mini-jack mike.
I purchased Voice Recorder a while back but took it off my phone. I'll have to see if they offer any audio-transfer options.
One reason we don't see gSync for the iPhone
We all want Blackberry-like Google Sync to Google Calendar.
Here's one reason why we're waiting ...
See also SyncML.
Here's one reason why we're waiting ...
A touch of Cocoa: inside the iPhone SDK: Page 2Since Google Sync would be competing with MobileMe there may be other obstacles to App Store distribution, but first we need an iPhone API for Calendar.app.
... Apple also provides access to some system-wide data in the form of the address book, with both model and view classes exposed to developers. The equivalent classes for the calendar data, which only recently appeared in the desktop OS, are missing from the iPhone. Here's hoping we don't have to wait for 3.0 for them to appear...
See also SyncML.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Nuevasync - detailed configuration
Nuevasync is too raw for me to risk my data there, but once it's fully vetted and commercial I may pay for it.
It emulates an exchange server for the Palm, and syncs to gCal and gContacts.
A user has written a thorough configuration review:
When you sync an iPhone to Exchange Server, you lose all the data on the phone -- unless it's moved to MobileMe or, through the back door, the the Exchange server source. Fun, eh?
It emulates an exchange server for the Palm, and syncs to gCal and gContacts.
A user has written a thorough configuration review:
Nuevasync: Over the Air Syncing of Calendar and Contacts for your iPhone or iPod Touch | The iLifeDon't miss the above in the setup.
... The first thing you really want to do is sync your current data back to Google. Open up iTunes, plug in your iPhone (or iPod touch) and click on your device and go to the “info tab” and check the sync contacts (make sure you say “Google Contacts” and enter your account info!) and sync calendar tab....
When you sync an iPhone to Exchange Server, you lose all the data on the phone -- unless it's moved to MobileMe or, through the back door, the the Exchange server source. Fun, eh?
Palm to iPhone - the update
A few weeks ago I wrote a summary of my Palm to iPhone conversion.Time for an update.
This is really a Geek Odyssey, though, as I mentioned before, Missing Sync for iPhone would probably help.
I won't repeat all the extensive links in my earlier post, please go there to get the details. I've even updated that older post with a link to today's Appigo Notebook/ToodleDo migration.
You can see the current state my "iPhone as PDA' above. Those bottom four links should look familiar. They're a close match to the classic four iPhone buttons: Calendar/Date Book, Contacts/Address Book, Tasks/Todo and Memo/Note.
On my Palm I'd substituted a 'digital ink' app for the Note, I used that to scrawl quick notes. On my iPhone the equivalent is Jott. It captures audio snippets which are then transcribed. In some ways better than being able to scrawl an "ink" note, in other ways not as good.
The Calendar and Contacts are Apple apps. They sync with OS X iCal and Address Book. I wish instead they would sync directly with Google Calendar and Contacts. For now I sync my desktop data to Google using Spanning Sync.
Appigo makes both Todo.app and Notebook.app (to the right above the main four). Both sync with Toodledo. I wish Google would buy Toodledo and take that over too. The Appigo products are great. Toodledo tasks are spartan but good enough, Toodledo Notes need a lot of work.
The rest of my primary screen consists only of apps I use ALL the time (oops! Looks like Maps got bumped off. It should be there). Other screens are split info games (a real strength of the iPhone), lesser used apps, etc.
The Appigo apps make the iPhone a better competitor to the 1994 Palm III, but in terms of usability and PDA value the Palm III is still a clear winner. The iPhone is only competitive when you start to do geeky and barely possible things with Google Calendar and the like. Of course the iPhone can do far more things than the Palm III could, not the least of which are Safari, Mail.app and Map.
One more thing. The Palm III had global search. So you could search tasks, notes, address book, etc with one tap. Slow, but global. There's nothing like that for the iPhone. Appigo Task and Note search is very fast but limited to those apps. Calendar has NO search, and Contacts has a feeble search against name alone.
iPhone 2.1 - now with more crashes
The 2.1 update didn't directly fix the miserable "unknown application 0xE800002E" error, but it made a repair possible (see link).
So I'm not ungrateful.
Still, my iPhone is crashier now that it was before the fix. Apple's own Mail.app is particularly unstable.
I'm following the old Windows 98/Mac Classic practice of rebooting after every crash, and, if I can get in the habit, I'd like to reboot every night. If I crash and don't reboot more cashes come. I suspect iPhone apps run pretty close to the kernel.
Apple still has miles to go to get to their baseline vision, but in the meantime the App Store provides some comfort.
So I'm not ungrateful.
Still, my iPhone is crashier now that it was before the fix. Apple's own Mail.app is particularly unstable.
I'm following the old Windows 98/Mac Classic practice of rebooting after every crash, and, if I can get in the habit, I'd like to reboot every night. If I crash and don't reboot more cashes come. I suspect iPhone apps run pretty close to the kernel.
Apple still has miles to go to get to their baseline vision, but in the meantime the App Store provides some comfort.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Jott Express requires Adobe AIR. That's bad.
Jott Express doesn't say whether it's an OS X or XP app.
That's because it's neither; it's an Adobe AIR app.
Of course that means installing Adobe AIR on OS X*.
I've installed a few Adobe apps on OS X. Near as I can tell, Adobe is determined to destroy Apple. Adobe's installers routinely screw up OS X permissions, scatter files in illegal place, and generally act like drunken football hooligans.
Jott Express is also supposed to sync directly with an iPhone/iTouch. That's really piling the risk on.
I ain't installing AIR until I read some trusted source who's had a really good experience. I'd sooner invite Hell's Angels to dinner than Adobe products to my OS X box.
* In terms of cross-platform portable virtual environments there aren't a lot of great choices. Desktop Java is walking dead, Silverlight is from Microsoft, and ... well ... I think that's it.
That's because it's neither; it's an Adobe AIR app.
Of course that means installing Adobe AIR on OS X*.
I've installed a few Adobe apps on OS X. Near as I can tell, Adobe is determined to destroy Apple. Adobe's installers routinely screw up OS X permissions, scatter files in illegal place, and generally act like drunken football hooligans.
Jott Express is also supposed to sync directly with an iPhone/iTouch. That's really piling the risk on.
I ain't installing AIR until I read some trusted source who's had a really good experience. I'd sooner invite Hell's Angels to dinner than Adobe products to my OS X box.
* In terms of cross-platform portable virtual environments there aren't a lot of great choices. Desktop Java is walking dead, Silverlight is from Microsoft, and ... well ... I think that's it.
Moving Palm notes to Toodledo via CSV file - what worked. (Hard!)
Why doesn't Toodledo have a $#!#$!$ blog? [Update: A reader gave me the address. It's new, but it exists.]
Can they please join the century of the fruitbat?
I had to visit their web site to learn they've done something that's extremely important to me, one of their paying customers:
Now I can migrate all my old Palm and Outlook Memos/Notes to Toodledo, and then from Toodledo to Appigo's Notebook.app.
Oh happy day.
Now about that Toodledo blog ...
Incidentally, since I use the double push feature to get to the phone, the "permanent" four column row of my iPhone is now a close match to my old Palm devices. From left to right: Calendar (apple), Contacts (apple), Todo (Appigo) and VoiceRecord (quick notes). I'm probably going to switch VoiceRecord to Jott. Appigo Notebook will be on a secondary screen, as a search resource.
Update: They do have a blog, see comments. Now I have to figure out why I couldn't find it!
I'm still figuring out the best way to manage the memo migration. I couldn't find any help screens from toodledo.
The export file uses this structure:
Update 9/29/08: Every year I tell my students that everything I know about applied health informatics I learned from my Palm. My Notes export experience was no exception. In this one case I'm not sure it would even help to buy Missing Sync for iPhone!
I tried several routes to get my Palm Notes into Toodledo. Only one worked, albeit a bit oddly. Here they are:
At this point, interestingly, the notes still have embedded carriage returns (PC character set I think).
I then exported from FM Pro as CSV. I first tried UTF-16 encoding but that was gibberish to Toodledo so I tried Macintosh characters. The import worked and the carriage returns were transformed in '|' characters.
So it worked, in the end -- though I did lose the paragraphs.
I'm hoping I made a simple mistake early on, because I don't think any non-geek would ever get this working.
For these kinds of Palm migration problems I normally recommend OS X users buy Missing Sync for Palm (Palm migration is bundled with Missing Sync for iPhone too), but I don't know what the export capabilities of the Missing Sync Notebook are. I looked at the export from their Blackberry Missing Sync Notebook and it wouldn't work at all.
Incidentally, exporting Notes to Evernote was only marginally better.
In the end, notes were harder than anything else. I'd never have guessed.
PS. the Toodledo interface for Notes is only slighly better than nothing at all. On the other hand, Appigo Notebook is very nice and the search is fast.
Can they please join the century of the fruitbat?
I had to visit their web site to learn they've done something that's extremely important to me, one of their paying customers:
Toodledo :: Import To-Do ListThis is what I've been waiting for.
This will read in a CSV (comma separated values) file and add the notes to your Toodledo Notebook.
You can use this to import memos from Palm Desktop.
Now I can migrate all my old Palm and Outlook Memos/Notes to Toodledo, and then from Toodledo to Appigo's Notebook.app.
Oh happy day.
Now about that Toodledo blog ...
Incidentally, since I use the double push feature to get to the phone, the "permanent" four column row of my iPhone is now a close match to my old Palm devices. From left to right: Calendar (apple), Contacts (apple), Todo (Appigo) and VoiceRecord (quick notes). I'm probably going to switch VoiceRecord to Jott. Appigo Notebook will be on a secondary screen, as a search resource.
Update: They do have a blog, see comments. Now I have to figure out why I couldn't find it!
I'm still figuring out the best way to manage the memo migration. I couldn't find any help screens from toodledo.
The export file uses this structure:
"TITLE","FOLDER","ADDED","MODIFIED","NOTE"So that might work for import too. At the moment this data lives in 3 places, each with its own complications:
"Create a New Notebook","Tips & Tricks","2008-09-12","2008-09-12","...."
- Outlook: best export, but Outlook Memos do not have Titles. So I'd have to parse out the first line of each memo to create a title. I might be able to do that in Access.
- Palm Desktop: the export is weird. Just weird. I must be missing something - it doesn't look like it could be reasonably imported. Everything is together.
- Palm handheld: I could probably install Palm desktop on our ancient iBook and sync there to the old Mac Palm Desktop, which was a descendant of a Claris product. It has great notes and export.
- Carriage returns: In every case Memos have embedded carriage returns (paragraphs). CSV import will eliminate those.
Update 9/29/08: Every year I tell my students that everything I know about applied health informatics I learned from my Palm. My Notes export experience was no exception. In this one case I'm not sure it would even help to buy Missing Sync for iPhone!
I tried several routes to get my Palm Notes into Toodledo. Only one worked, albeit a bit oddly. Here they are:
- Palm Desktop/PC: I sync'd the Tungsten E|2 to Palm Desktop PC, then tried the CSV export. The result looked odd, and Toodledo's notebook import couldn't manage it at all. Just gibberish.
- Outlook: Outlook export is pretty good, but Outlook Notes/Memos are very barebones. They don't have a separate title field, the first row of a Note is the title. So you can't export a title field.
- Palm Desktop/OS X: This is little change from Claris Organizer, so I'll call it "Organizer". In Organizer tasks, calendar items and contacts are linked to memos. Standalone memos are called 'desktop memos'. The export tool does a good job exporting memos in a tab delimited file. Oddly enough, you can't really export ANYTHING else! So you can export tasks, but they will be missing their related Memo. (This, by the way, is why I like FileMaker Bento. I don't think anyone but me gets why that little app matters. But that's another story.)
At this point, interestingly, the notes still have embedded carriage returns (PC character set I think).
I then exported from FM Pro as CSV. I first tried UTF-16 encoding but that was gibberish to Toodledo so I tried Macintosh characters. The import worked and the carriage returns were transformed in '|' characters.
So it worked, in the end -- though I did lose the paragraphs.
I'm hoping I made a simple mistake early on, because I don't think any non-geek would ever get this working.
For these kinds of Palm migration problems I normally recommend OS X users buy Missing Sync for Palm (Palm migration is bundled with Missing Sync for iPhone too), but I don't know what the export capabilities of the Missing Sync Notebook are. I looked at the export from their Blackberry Missing Sync Notebook and it wouldn't work at all.
Incidentally, exporting Notes to Evernote was only marginally better.
In the end, notes were harder than anything else. I'd never have guessed.
PS. the Toodledo interface for Notes is only slighly better than nothing at all. On the other hand, Appigo Notebook is very nice and the search is fast.
OS X 10.5.5: CPU pegging with Firefox
Even after five updates it's not clear that 10.5.5 is a better OS for my iMac G5 than 10.4.11. Leopard is probably optimized for the Intel machines, and I suspect the security measures (memory address changes) have their price.
The biggest problem now is it's slow. In particular Firefox routinely pegs the CPU (activity monitor) on 10.5 whereas it didn't on 10.4. The type lag is very annoying. In general it feels about 10% slower for most of what I do.
So if you have a PPC machine on 10.4.11 you might want to wait until you buy a new machine to switch.
Update 9/27/08: I find a few other people noticing this. Some are disabling the memory cache. I'll try the new google toolbar and look for other extensions to remove.
See also:
The biggest problem now is it's slow. In particular Firefox routinely pegs the CPU (activity monitor) on 10.5 whereas it didn't on 10.4. The type lag is very annoying. In general it feels about 10% slower for most of what I do.
So if you have a PPC machine on 10.4.11 you might want to wait until you buy a new machine to switch.
Update 9/27/08: I find a few other people noticing this. Some are disabling the memory cache. I'll try the new google toolbar and look for other extensions to remove.
See also:
Gordon's Tech: OS X 10.5 bug 5: archive and install cross-user startup (login) item application: "In the course of updating my MacBook and iMac to 10.5 I've previously documented four significant bugs (though the last may, after some fixes, have limited impact):
* LaunchDaemons: cannot login from admin account
* Permissions - apps cannot be updated
* Keychain First Aid 10.2 running on OS X 10.5
* The unknown user and group bugs
Now I can add a fifth bug [1].
The Archive and Install form of the update process (this or clean install are the only safe choices, both have big issues) applied login items belonging to my wife's user account to my own account. I suspect it applied them to all accounts, but I haven't dug through the rest yet.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Digital radio - Apple style
Well, that was certainly stealthy.
Suddenly digital radio is upon us - quite unexpectedly.
My first awakening was the excellent Minnnesota Public Radio app for the iPhone -- a joint venture between MPR and CodeMorphic - a Twin Cities Mac dev shop (interesting projects!).
So now I can play digital radio in my car while I drive to work -- through my iPhone. (Yeah, it won't work as well as it does at home, but don't you think Sirius/XM worry about this?)
That reminded me that M has been asking for a radio for the kitchen. There are some excellent radios still on the market, and we'll probably get one, but we also have a pretty nice iTunes/AirTunes/iPhone Remote setup already in place. Didn't iTunes used to play streaming radio?
Turns out they still do, iPhone Remote will find the stations in my playlist, and the choices and quality are better than I remember. Consider CBC Jazz ...
There's even a "staff picks" list in iTunes now -- new each month.
So now Apple rules digital radio.
Anyone noticing?
Suddenly digital radio is upon us - quite unexpectedly.
My first awakening was the excellent Minnnesota Public Radio app for the iPhone -- a joint venture between MPR and CodeMorphic - a Twin Cities Mac dev shop (interesting projects!).
So now I can play digital radio in my car while I drive to work -- through my iPhone. (Yeah, it won't work as well as it does at home, but don't you think Sirius/XM worry about this?)
That reminded me that M has been asking for a radio for the kitchen. There are some excellent radios still on the market, and we'll probably get one, but we also have a pretty nice iTunes/AirTunes/iPhone Remote setup already in place. Didn't iTunes used to play streaming radio?
Turns out they still do, iPhone Remote will find the stations in my playlist, and the choices and quality are better than I remember. Consider CBC Jazz ...
CBC Radio 2 Blog - Tech Q's?: How To Listen To The New R2 New Internet ChannelsThe 192kbps Jazz stream sounds as good as my 192 kbps encoded Jazz tunes. In other words, good enough for my ears. There's even a Big Band station I'll try out on my mother.
... Peter kindly walks us through how to listen to R2's new internet radio channels, which include classical, Canadian composers, Canadian songwriters, and jazz.
Over to Dr. Peter:
'Audio on the internet used to be a minor miracle . . . but a really lousy sounding one. Especially for music! Often it still does sound bad. But not when it's coming from CBC Radio 2.
Today we launched our new new Internet Radio Channels and we're pretty proud of the sound quality...
So we've created some 'How to' files to help you make your way.
* How to Listen to CBC Radio 2's New Online Channels
* How to Connect Your Computer to Your Audio System...
There's even a "staff picks" list in iTunes now -- new each month.
So now Apple rules digital radio.
Anyone noticing?
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