My primary backup is still Retrospect, but it's creaky and buggy with a grim future. While I'm waiting for something better I think I'm going to start using SuperDuper to mirror some of my systems. Kind of a redundant backup to my backup that I'll do every few weeks. I use USB enclosure drives for my backups (two enclosures, one offsite), with the new cheap 320GB drives it's not hard to keep a couple of images as well as the Retrospect data.
PS. I am a bit of a nut about backups. In 19 years they've saved me from catastrophic data loss at least five times.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Apple is serious about iPhoto: network effects
The value amplifier once known as 'network effects' and now called 'product ecosystem' has been a huge win with the Apple iPod. Apple is building an ecosystem for its iLife suite -- years after they promised it. Better late then never:
iWeb 1.1: Create a living, growing photo gallery:Wow. Enhanced value all around. I may even get a .Mac account since I think iWed supports sync with .Mac rather than mere upload. Between this and the MacBook's ambiguous support for Aperture I'm resigning myself to staying with iPhoto. Now if Apple would only add #$$!$%%@#$$ merge/import of Libraries to iPhoto ...
Imagine a webpage that's a gallery of family photos. Click on any one of those photos -- say, little Justin making that face where he looks exactly like Uncle Roy -- and you're taken to a page containing a whole album of Justin's baby pictures...
Here's how it works. First, pick any iWeb template (just make sure it's not a photo page template). Next, open the iWeb media browser and select an iPhoto album. Then drag the album onto the template....
iWeb takes over from there, automatically creating a separate photo page containing all the images in the album. At the same time, on the page where you dragged the album, iWeb will display the album's first image (or you can choose any other image from the album). That image will then link to the newly created photo page when you publish. Repeat the process as often as you like, dragging other albums to different locations on the page, creating new links and new photo pages each time you do. And you can keep your photo gallery alive and growing. Just come back later at any time, drag in another album, and republish."
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
iWeb 1.1 - now multiple web sites
I recently blogged on iWebSites 1.1, a utility that hacks iWeb to handle multiple sites.
Today TUAW noted iWeb 1.1 has covertly added multi-site support, as well as some other features. I definitely have to play with iWeb.
Update 5/17/06: I did a quick test. iWeb does have decent support for creating links to existing pages and related files. It does not support anchors. You can't highlight text and make it a target for a link, then create a link to it.
This is a shame, but I guess links are "out of scope" for what's very much a novice-friendly product. Alas, it's no "FrontPage 98", but then nothing is any more. Dreamweaver et al are in a different product niche, FrontPage died after 98 and the residual zombie was recently (mercifully) terminated by Microsoft, and several open source FP replacements have failed my tests so far. I've looked at the various Mac web publishing alternatives to iWeb and they weren't much better than iWeb 1.1, so I'm not enthused about them. I think most of the interesting work will be in Ajax web page authoring systems; alas the vendors of those (ex. Google) have "lock-in" front and center in their business plans. No moving web sites around!
Today TUAW noted iWeb 1.1 has covertly added multi-site support, as well as some other features. I definitely have to play with iWeb.
Update 5/17/06: I did a quick test. iWeb does have decent support for creating links to existing pages and related files. It does not support anchors. You can't highlight text and make it a target for a link, then create a link to it.
This is a shame, but I guess links are "out of scope" for what's very much a novice-friendly product. Alas, it's no "FrontPage 98", but then nothing is any more. Dreamweaver et al are in a different product niche, FrontPage died after 98 and the residual zombie was recently (mercifully) terminated by Microsoft, and several open source FP replacements have failed my tests so far. I've looked at the various Mac web publishing alternatives to iWeb and they weren't much better than iWeb 1.1, so I'm not enthused about them. I think most of the interesting work will be in Ajax web page authoring systems; alas the vendors of those (ex. Google) have "lock-in" front and center in their business plans. No moving web sites around!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Weird IDE hard drive behavior
Last June I wrote about some puzzling experiences with some IDE drives. It was just plain weird. Every drive I tried worked fine when hooked up directly to the motheboard or PCI card IDE slots -- but behavior inside a Vantec enclosure or a Firewire enclosure was much less predictable. I ended up leaving the 200GB Maxtor Diamondmax in my IDE tower and putting the Seagate Barracuda (the best of the drives) in the firewire case.
Yesterday was phase II. I'd outgrown the Vantec removeable enclosures I used for backup and I'd bought two of the lovely Venus USB enclosures I so like. Imagine my surprise when the Maxtor failed during backup, making the same clunky sounds as it had in the Vantec! It then failed during a repartitioning and reformatting (NTFS).
I moved it to a Mac in the same enclosure and ran some intensive workouts there. It never had a problem, swallowing GBs of data. Then I moved it back to XP but plugged it into an old and reliable Orange Micro USB/Firewire card. It reformatted, did a backup, absorbed 100s of GB of data -- no problems.
Weird. I have to guess there's some stable defect in this drive that makes it very sensitive to timing issues of some sort. I'm using it for backup for now, but I'll probably replace it with something I trust more. (I'll update this post with the make of the drive I use at the office -- that one has performed flawlessly in the Venus enclosure.)
IDE drives can be weird when you put them in enclosures. Seagate's done better than Maxtor or WD in my limited trials.
Update 4/17: The Maxtor is definitely flaky. Retrospect Pro, an evil product, breaks it. It goes into some eternal seek mode where it's very busy, but accomplishing nothing. A good lesson in the costs and complexities of flaky hardware. Consumer drives are dirt cheap, but their odd failure modes may be very expensive. Unfortunately I don't think there's a "quality option" available for a consumer buyer at any reasonable price. Nonetheless, I've had better luck lately with Seagate and I'll try them again.
Update 4/17: Ouch. NewEgg's reviewers had very poor ratings for Seagate, and WD isn't so sweet either. I guess there really aren't any good options. I may go for a larger capacity drive on the theory that they might still be competing a bit on quality. Or just give up and figure it's just another example of living in the age where everything is disposable -- except time. (My theory is that we're actually experiencing a LOT of inflation in our economy, but it's hidden by shifting costs to consumers and buy shedding quality. In terms of value delivered per dollar spent, however, I think we're in 1970s style inflation -- only now it's occult.)
Update 5/27: I ended up going through Amazon's reviews. They gave the best sample of feedback, including longer use feedback. Based on that, and a guess that a newer drive would be quieter, cooler and more reliable, I opted for the Western Digital 320GB ATA IDE drive for about $150. So far, so good -- after one week of heavy use. The Seagate drives had awful rating, even though only Seagate seems to "sleep" properly in on of my external enclosures. Maxtor was pretty good, but of course I didn't want another Maxtor. The WD 320 did relatively well with a good number of comments. None did terrific. I notice Apple used Matsushita in my iMac.
Yesterday was phase II. I'd outgrown the Vantec removeable enclosures I used for backup and I'd bought two of the lovely Venus USB enclosures I so like. Imagine my surprise when the Maxtor failed during backup, making the same clunky sounds as it had in the Vantec! It then failed during a repartitioning and reformatting (NTFS).
I moved it to a Mac in the same enclosure and ran some intensive workouts there. It never had a problem, swallowing GBs of data. Then I moved it back to XP but plugged it into an old and reliable Orange Micro USB/Firewire card. It reformatted, did a backup, absorbed 100s of GB of data -- no problems.
Weird. I have to guess there's some stable defect in this drive that makes it very sensitive to timing issues of some sort. I'm using it for backup for now, but I'll probably replace it with something I trust more. (I'll update this post with the make of the drive I use at the office -- that one has performed flawlessly in the Venus enclosure.)
IDE drives can be weird when you put them in enclosures. Seagate's done better than Maxtor or WD in my limited trials.
Update 4/17: The Maxtor is definitely flaky. Retrospect Pro, an evil product, breaks it. It goes into some eternal seek mode where it's very busy, but accomplishing nothing. A good lesson in the costs and complexities of flaky hardware. Consumer drives are dirt cheap, but their odd failure modes may be very expensive. Unfortunately I don't think there's a "quality option" available for a consumer buyer at any reasonable price. Nonetheless, I've had better luck lately with Seagate and I'll try them again.
Update 4/17: Ouch. NewEgg's reviewers had very poor ratings for Seagate, and WD isn't so sweet either. I guess there really aren't any good options. I may go for a larger capacity drive on the theory that they might still be competing a bit on quality. Or just give up and figure it's just another example of living in the age where everything is disposable -- except time. (My theory is that we're actually experiencing a LOT of inflation in our economy, but it's hidden by shifting costs to consumers and buy shedding quality. In terms of value delivered per dollar spent, however, I think we're in 1970s style inflation -- only now it's occult.)
Update 5/27: I ended up going through Amazon's reviews. They gave the best sample of feedback, including longer use feedback. Based on that, and a guess that a newer drive would be quieter, cooler and more reliable, I opted for the Western Digital 320GB ATA IDE drive for about $150. So far, so good -- after one week of heavy use. The Seagate drives had awful rating, even though only Seagate seems to "sleep" properly in on of my external enclosures. Maxtor was pretty good, but of course I didn't want another Maxtor. The WD 320 did relatively well with a good number of comments. None did terrific. I notice Apple used Matsushita in my iMac.
Google Notebook: firefox and IE only
Google Notebook is up. Firefox and IE only. I haven't figured out a use for it yet. It looks like much of what it would do I do with Blogger.
What I want is shared workspace, not a notebook that's mine alone. I've installed it, but I'll wait and see if I can figure out a use.
What I want is shared workspace, not a notebook that's mine alone. I've installed it, but I'll wait and see if I can figure out a use.
MacBook Pro: An Aperture decider?
The MacBook sounds great, but will it run Aperture?
With extended desktop support, if this device will run XP via Boot Camp or virtualization, then it moves way up on my buy list. In that case, paradoxically, Aperture moves way down.
Update: 5/16. The senior product manager for Aperture responded to my inquiry:
MacInTouch: timely news and tips about the Apple Macintosh:The Intel GMA 950 is not on the list of Aperture supported cards. It makes sense to have my laptop run my image management software, but I can't justify spending $2800 for a device that can be dropped or stolen (MacBook Pro). Interesting that Apple kept the Firewire support, esp. since iPods won't sync with Firewire any more.
Apple today announced its iBook replacement, the plain (non-'Pro') MacBook in both black and white case designs, starting at $1099.
The MacBook is built around a glossy, 13.3-inch, 1280x800 screen, driven by Intel GMA 950 graphics (64MB of shared video memory). A mini-DVI port drives external DVI monitors, VGA, S-video and composite video via optional adapters, offering extended desktop, mirroring or lid-closed modes.
Like its pricier 'Pro' siblings, the MacBook uses Core Duo processors with 2MB Level 2 cache and a 667MHz system bus. Standard memory is 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMMs (with support for 2GB of memory total).
The new MacBooks also build in a video camera, and other features include FireWire 400, dual USB 2.0 ports, combined optical/analog digital line in/out, 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet, 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (802.11g), and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), plus an Apple Remote and a 60-Watt MagSafe power adapter...
With extended desktop support, if this device will run XP via Boot Camp or virtualization, then it moves way up on my buy list. In that case, paradoxically, Aperture moves way down.
Update: 5/16. The senior product manager for Aperture responded to my inquiry:
Aperture does run on the new MacBooks, but it is NOT officially supported, due to limitations with the graphics card. This means if you call AppleCare, you'll simply be told that you're running Aperture on an unsupported configuration. It's an "at-your-own-risk" experience.An interesting twilight zone! I hope this gets clarified soon. "No Hacks" but "Not supported" suggests to me that a future version of Aperture may bring official support. Clearly Apple recognizes that the MacBook vs. MacBook Pro price gap creates an opening for an Aperture competitor.
That being said, Aperture will install and run on a MacBook...at least you're not disallowed from using it. No hacks needed!
And of course, Aperture is fully supported on all MacBook PRO models.
Joe Schorr
Sr. Product Manager, Aperture
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Palm software: Handmark
Handmark feels like a relic of a bygone era -- they market PalmOS software. It's well done and easy to use. Worth keeping track of. I use my old CLIE as a kid's toy; they've gone some good games here.
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