Reverting to iPhoto 4 -- OS X needs an uninstaller

Apple - Discussions - How to revert to iPhoto 4

OS/X needs an uninstaller.

If you have an intact copy of your iPhoto 4 iPhoto Library folder, you can go back to the that version. Just delete the current applications and all files with iPhoto in the file name that reside in the HD/Library/Receipts folder. Also move your current iPhoto Library folder from the Pictures folder to the desktop. Then install iPhoto 4 from your CD, make any upgrades to it immediately before launching. Then copy your version 4 iPhoto Library folder into your Pictures folder. At this time you should run Disk Utility and repair disk permissions. Also delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist. Then launch the new iPhoto.

Pogue likes JVC DR-MV1S for VHS to DVD recording (save old home videos)

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > State of the Art: Videotape to DVD, Made Easy

David Pogue reviewed a few, the JVC DR-MV1S one out (for now).

The Mac-Mini server: reliability through redundancy

PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column

A great column, even by the very high Cringely standards. This quote, from a very authoritative source, is very interesting.

'The second box is going to be our source-code server. It's safe as heck, because OS X includes one-click firewalls. And, again, it's not like I have so many engineers that we're checking in code every second. If it processes a transaction every ten minutes, I'll consider our company very productive. For us little guys, the Mac mini is the absolute perfect server. I'm hooking up two identical external drives to each Mac mini (total of four), each two set up as a RAID 1. (Each drive is slightly bigger than the mini.) The chances of losing data via disk failure are astronomically low this way. And if a motherboard crashes, I can swap in the other box -- I have a $500 hot-backup OF THE WHOLE MACHINE. I have a complete server 'closet' that fits in less than a cubic foot. It's quiet. It's got a redundant RAID built-in. It's easy to administer and set up. I share a monitor and keyboard with my main workstation, so I don't have any extra clutter. Look out, Linux.'

Hmm. I'm not sure Apple will like this; they sell xserve blades! The cost advantages over doing this with a cheap PC come from security, built-in RAID support, and a low cost quiet machine.

More broadly speaking we've moved to high reliability systems in the past 10 years not by making individual machines more reliable, but rather by seeking reliability at the system level -- not the component level. Hmm. Reliability at the system level. Where have I heard that idea before?

The other point the author makes, that many people forget, is that many servers really aren't doing much work at all. Our home server is a very old Win2K machine and that's overkill.

Cringely has more in the article. Clearly he's fond of Apple. He describes how to build a $9K supercomputer with 16 Mac-Minis:

Imagine a Mac Minicluster running Apple's xGrid software. Start with a 16-port fast Ethernet switch and stack 16 Mac Minis on top. That's a 720 gigaflop micro-supercomputer that costs less than $9,000, can fit on a bookshelf, and can be up and running in as little time as it takes to connect the network cables. High schools will be sequencing genes.

Read the whole thing. Good fun. Now if Apple could only get their #$!* iPhoto product working ....

Sending large files: YouSendIt and others

ExtraBITS

I've used YouSendIt for a while (blogged on it sometime). This post lists some others. YouSendIt can be very slow (minutes) to initiate an upload, but otherwise it's worked well for me.

As the author notes it would be interesting to learn how YouSendIt expects to make money. (Probably they're just trying to get Google to buy them --- which smells like a 1998 business plan.)

Google Microsoft Search

Google Microsoft Search

Running into a Microsoft problem? Start here.

Obscure Windows XP networking problems: Disabling the DNS Cache

JSI Tip 6540. How do I disable client-side DNS caching in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003?

I'm having DNS problems with my Cisco VPN connection. I'm testing if it might be related to a bad DNS cache.

Update: Yep. That did it. I could connect to work via my Cisco VPN from my home LAN, or from a cafe LAN. I couldn't do it from the hotel though! I have XP firewall disabled. When I tried to ping a machine in the office I saw the DNS was returning an IP address of 1.1.1.1

I tried various VPN options and even reinstalled it. Nothing worked. Finally I made a wild guess that XP cached DNS values and that the cache was corrupted. So I did the search and found the above.

Then I did:

net stop dnscache

- after this the VPN wouldn't connect at all

net start dnscache

- the VPN connected and I was fine again.

Update: I've since learned ipconfig, the secret weapon of windows IP networking, has some useful options for debugging DNS problems. There's a secret glitch however, a windows networking guru tells me one must run /flushdns TWICE to really clean out the Resolver cache.

Here are the options displayed with ipconfig /?:

/all Display full configuration information.
/release Release the IP address for the specified adapter.
/renew Renew the IP address for the specified adapter.
/flushdns Purges the DNS Resolver cache.
/registerdns Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names
/displaydns Display the contents of the DNS Resolver Cache.
/showclassid Displays all the dhcp class IDs allowed for adapter.
/setclassid Modifies the dhcp class id.

BBC Internet Radio -- including podcasting In Our Tme

BBC - Press Office - Radio Player re-launched

This is the first podcast that's caught my attention.

In Our Time is also available via podcasting - the BBC is the first British broadcaster to use this technology.