Monday, January 23, 2006
TextDrive – Hosting service with WebDav
I'm not in the market for a hosting service at this time, but if I were TextDrive's WebDav server would be very appealing.
200 Ways To Revive A Crashed Hard Drive
This is a handy reference to keep at hand. If the data is really critical I'd just pay a data recovery service. If the data, however, is just nice to have, then try these tips: Tony Sutton's Homepage > Hardware > 200 Ways To Revive A Crashed Hard Drive - Part One - Freeze It.
Why are Apple products so risky?
Another iPhoto release, another hundred thousand lost images. If things run true to form the bug will affect a moderate number of early adopters and will be fixed in a point release.
This is typical for Apple. It's also typical for Microsoft's beta releases. Microsoft's commercial releases are much safer than Apple's.
Why is this?
I think it's because Apple doesn't do beta releases for its major products (they do beta test point releases of the OS). Jobs insists on secrecy, and that strategy has served him well. Secrecy, however, means no testing of new products in real world environments. In other words, no true beta.
In the Apple world, early adopters are beta testers. Beta testers need very robust backups and time to burn. The rest of us need to wait until the beta is done; that's usually after the first patch. If the first patch comes within four weeks of product release then wait for the second patch.
By that measure both iPhoto 6 and Aperture are still in beta. I'm waiting.
This is typical for Apple. It's also typical for Microsoft's beta releases. Microsoft's commercial releases are much safer than Apple's.
Why is this?
I think it's because Apple doesn't do beta releases for its major products (they do beta test point releases of the OS). Jobs insists on secrecy, and that strategy has served him well. Secrecy, however, means no testing of new products in real world environments. In other words, no true beta.
In the Apple world, early adopters are beta testers. Beta testers need very robust backups and time to burn. The rest of us need to wait until the beta is done; that's usually after the first patch. If the first patch comes within four weeks of product release then wait for the second patch.
By that measure both iPhoto 6 and Aperture are still in beta. I'm waiting.
Avoid iPhoto 6?
Apple - Support - Discussions - iPhoto crash, 3000 photos now missing ...
Hmmm. Interesting thread. iPhoto 6 is very appealing, but it seems to have the usual Apple issues with a major application update. In addition, a separate thread suggests that techniques for merging Libraries from iPhoto 5 won't work in iPhoto 6.
Overall, I think I'll wait a few weeks and monitor the forum to see how this turns out. For those who haven't yet bought iPhoto 6 -- waiting might be a good idea.
Hmmm. Interesting thread. iPhoto 6 is very appealing, but it seems to have the usual Apple issues with a major application update. In addition, a separate thread suggests that techniques for merging Libraries from iPhoto 5 won't work in iPhoto 6.
Overall, I think I'll wait a few weeks and monitor the forum to see how this turns out. For those who haven't yet bought iPhoto 6 -- waiting might be a good idea.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Why I hate Palm
[Updated with more illustrative notes]
My PalmOS CLIE TJ-27 (the one with the stylus from heck) finally died. I dropped it. No big deal, my wife has one she isn't using. All I have to do is sync it ...
Wrong.
The backup restore sort of worked, except for a bunch of apps where it didn't. It left a remnant of TealLock that took me an hour to get rid of.
Then a sync replicated all my Outlook records -- three times for every one. Then the restore from a Palm device backup failed because I was restoring to a 'different device'. Riiiiigggghhht. So exactly what did those idiots think one needed a backup for?
I found the Outlook .ost file from my automated system backup of 1 am this morning and fixed up Outlook, then executed a sync back to the PDA. That worked.
Its easy to see why Palm died. Any one of the problems I ran into on this restore would have led 99% of the world to give up on the device.
Sure, this is a SONY device -- but these are all classic Palm OS problems. The Palm OS was great in its day, but the company was snowed by Microsoft and lost its way in the boom years. They never recovered. The darned OS needs a stake through its heart.
I guess I'm back to waiting for the rumored Apple SmartPhone, but I have to say that the history of sync services in OS X is not encouraging. And let's not mention iCal ....
Update 1/23/06: So everything works, except when I enable TealScript (I also hate Palm for dumping Graffiti One -- the version that worked) the number and alpha input areas are reversed. Fortunately I didn't delete the installer for the older version of TealScript.
Update 1/23/06b: Ok, I figured out the TealScript glitch. The new version of TS has some new advanced features. For example, it's now configurable for different input area setups. It's supposed to recognize the layout automatically, but it made the wrong guess for the TJ-27. I set it manually and it works.
My PalmOS CLIE TJ-27 (the one with the stylus from heck) finally died. I dropped it. No big deal, my wife has one she isn't using. All I have to do is sync it ...
Wrong.
The backup restore sort of worked, except for a bunch of apps where it didn't. It left a remnant of TealLock that took me an hour to get rid of.
Then a sync replicated all my Outlook records -- three times for every one. Then the restore from a Palm device backup failed because I was restoring to a 'different device'. Riiiiigggghhht. So exactly what did those idiots think one needed a backup for?
I found the Outlook .ost file from my automated system backup of 1 am this morning and fixed up Outlook, then executed a sync back to the PDA. That worked.
Its easy to see why Palm died. Any one of the problems I ran into on this restore would have led 99% of the world to give up on the device.
Sure, this is a SONY device -- but these are all classic Palm OS problems. The Palm OS was great in its day, but the company was snowed by Microsoft and lost its way in the boom years. They never recovered. The darned OS needs a stake through its heart.
I guess I'm back to waiting for the rumored Apple SmartPhone, but I have to say that the history of sync services in OS X is not encouraging. And let's not mention iCal ....
Update 1/23/06: So everything works, except when I enable TealScript (I also hate Palm for dumping Graffiti One -- the version that worked) the number and alpha input areas are reversed. Fortunately I didn't delete the installer for the older version of TealScript.
Update 1/23/06b: Ok, I figured out the TealScript glitch. The new version of TS has some new advanced features. For example, it's now configurable for different input area setups. It's supposed to recognize the layout automatically, but it made the wrong guess for the TJ-27. I set it manually and it works.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Bonjour for Windows 1.0.2 - essential for mixed LANs
I've been very pleased with Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) for Windows -- it brings internet standard resource discovery solutions to Microsoft's platform. There's an important update out. (via Macintouch)
Apple - Support - Downloads - Bonjour for Windows 1.0.2
With Bonjour for Windows, you can easily network your Windows computer to an existing network or create instant networks of multiple devices without any additional network configuration.
This update is recommended for all Bonjour users to improve usability and compatibility.
It includes fixes for:
- Improves compatibility with Mac OS X Printer Sharing
- Fixes 'Error 1920' installation issue that could occur if Norton Internet Security was present or Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service was disabled
- Improves compatibility with Norton Internet Security
- Improves connectivity with DNS relays in certain third-party routers
- Fixes an issue that could cause 'You do not have sufficient access to your computer ' error when adding new printers
- Addresses compatibility issues with certain third-party VPN clients
- Installation of Bonjour no longer requires a restart
Image Tricks - free OS X app for using core image library
Via Macintouch. This free image management tool, Image Tricks, allows access to the OS functionality also used by Preview, iPhoto and Aperture.
I'll play with it.
I'll play with it.
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