The original Apple iSight external firewire webcam cost $150.
Three year old used models sell for $250 and up.
Sigh.
I miss firewire.
The best current alternative is the Logitech's Mac specific QuickCam Vision Pro ($30 more than the identical Windows webcam).
See also.
Of course there are always rumors of something better ...
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Mac Windows video-conferencing options
After a decade of false starts, maybe oil prices are going to push low end video-conferencing out of the "gutter". (The technology historically been used primarily for porn on the PC side [1], a bit more for family messaging in OS X.)
At the moment we have good working solutions for OS X, though we did better with the discontinued iSight webcam than with the currently available lower quality embedded Mac webams. On the XP side things are much dicier, we really need either USB 3 or to do video compression on the camera (Firewire worked wonderfully; sometimes I really dislike USB).
So how can the good OS X solutions interoperate with quirky PC solutions? This blog post from 2007 and its comments is helpful:
I'll do some personal experiments and report back. My preferred solution would use iChat on OS X.
Update: I was able to install AIM on my XP box and connect my AIM/AOL username with iChat/MobileMe. The AIM client provides a fairly small video image. During AIM installation you have to be very careful to disable all other AOL-junk installs, and you may wish to delete all the plug-ins. You will be stuck with annoying embedded advertising that cannot be hidden.
I couldn't find much on OS X Live Messenger. There's now a corporate OS X Messenger client, but it requires an Office Communicator 2007 corporate server.
Skype is probably the only other option. I'll take a look at that next.
Update: Skype's high quality video solution is Windows only. Skype annoys me even more than AOL, which is saying quite a bit.
Update: A slightly dated tutorial on AIM and iChat videoconferencing. Some parts are up to date, others are obsolete. If I go forward with this project I'll have to write a post on setting up the AIM client for this use.
[1] Neat link by the way. A 1998 NYT article on how porn was going to drive videoconferencing. Well, it did -- almost to extinction. Turns out porn has a way of ickyfying an entire technology. Good lesson here -- also thank you NYT for letting Google trawl your archives!
At the moment we have good working solutions for OS X, though we did better with the discontinued iSight webcam than with the currently available lower quality embedded Mac webams. On the XP side things are much dicier, we really need either USB 3 or to do video compression on the camera (Firewire worked wonderfully; sometimes I really dislike USB).
So how can the good OS X solutions interoperate with quirky PC solutions? This blog post from 2007 and its comments is helpful:
Trying to Video Chat between Mac and Windows? | Times New RohanSo Skype is one option. The comments also mention iChat interoperability with the newest version of AOL's Instant Messenger and a beta Mac client for Windows Live Meeting.
...Finally we both downloaded Skype, and it just worked. We installed the application, created accounts, initiated video chats, and were chatting within minutes. (It is a well behaved Mac application to boot)...
I'll do some personal experiments and report back. My preferred solution would use iChat on OS X.
Update: I was able to install AIM on my XP box and connect my AIM/AOL username with iChat/MobileMe. The AIM client provides a fairly small video image. During AIM installation you have to be very careful to disable all other AOL-junk installs, and you may wish to delete all the plug-ins. You will be stuck with annoying embedded advertising that cannot be hidden.
I couldn't find much on OS X Live Messenger. There's now a corporate OS X Messenger client, but it requires an Office Communicator 2007 corporate server.
Skype is probably the only other option. I'll take a look at that next.
Update: Skype's high quality video solution is Windows only. Skype annoys me even more than AOL, which is saying quite a bit.
Update: A slightly dated tutorial on AIM and iChat videoconferencing. Some parts are up to date, others are obsolete. If I go forward with this project I'll have to write a post on setting up the AIM client for this use.
[1] Neat link by the way. A 1998 NYT article on how porn was going to drive videoconferencing. Well, it did -- almost to extinction. Turns out porn has a way of ickyfying an entire technology. Good lesson here -- also thank you NYT for letting Google trawl your archives!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Mount your HFS formatted iPod on a Windows machine
In case you want your Mac-formatted iPod to move files back and forth from your work machine:
Featured Windows Download: HFSExplorer Reads Mac-Formatted Hard Drives
Windows only: Free, open source application HFSExplorer reads and extracts files from drives formatted with the HFS+ file system native to Macs. Common uses for HFSExplorer include reading files from your Mac file system from Windows running in Boot Camp or—something I've used it for—grabbing music in Windows from a Mac-formatted iPod....
AT&T iPhone availability: 1-2 weeks
Our local AT&T outlet ran out of iPhones in the first hour or two of the first day. I'd wanted to buy there because of the strategic contractual complexity of our corporate-discount family plan, but I didn't like their initial pre-order policy. I thought Apple might be a better bet ...
Ever staff person was handing out an iPhone to a customer. Turns out they get about 50 a day for people who've pre-ordered; it works out to an average wait of 1-2 weeks (they say 7-21 business days). AT&T no longer charges credit cards on order, they charge only when the phone ships.
AT&T notifies of shipment by email, and receipt by email and phone, or you can obsessively check shipping status at an order status link (Note: when you enter the zip code here, it's the zip code of the AT&T store, not your home/billing zip code). Customers have 7 days to make the pickup, so it's not something to do prior to a trip to Maui. Don't lose the receipt, you need it to get the phone.
I placed my order today.
Update 7/23/2008: I ordered on 7/22. The order status link now says the phone was shipped on 7/22 and delivered to the store on 7/23. I emailed the staff person who sold me the phone, and she confirms the phone is waiting. So basically a two day turn around, clearly the floodgates have opened. I never received the email notifications and I didn't find them in my spam filters. So either the email was entered incorrectly or something went wrong. Email isn't nearly as reliable as it once was.
Gordon's Tech: iPhone availability widget
... I suspect Apple stores are getting more shipments. AT&T is not offering a similar availability widget, they suggest payment up front and they'll hold a phone when it arrives. Fortune reports they have no phones anywhere, and no word on when they'll receive any.I passed by my local AT&T shop this noon, and decided to check in. The staff really are excellent, it's not their fault they work for Satan.
I'd pay to reserve at an AT&T except I know AT&T is so Satanic that Hell itself could not abide them. (Apple, on the other hand, is merely a close confidante of Beelzebub. AT&T store staff, in my experience, are quite good btw.)...
Ever staff person was handing out an iPhone to a customer. Turns out they get about 50 a day for people who've pre-ordered; it works out to an average wait of 1-2 weeks (they say 7-21 business days). AT&T no longer charges credit cards on order, they charge only when the phone ships.
AT&T notifies of shipment by email, and receipt by email and phone, or you can obsessively check shipping status at an order status link (Note: when you enter the zip code here, it's the zip code of the AT&T store, not your home/billing zip code). Customers have 7 days to make the pickup, so it's not something to do prior to a trip to Maui. Don't lose the receipt, you need it to get the phone.
I placed my order today.
Update 7/23/2008: I ordered on 7/22. The order status link now says the phone was shipped on 7/22 and delivered to the store on 7/23. I emailed the staff person who sold me the phone, and she confirms the phone is waiting. So basically a two day turn around, clearly the floodgates have opened. I never received the email notifications and I didn't find them in my spam filters. So either the email was entered incorrectly or something went wrong. Email isn't nearly as reliable as it once was.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Google profile grows, but no direct OpenID yet
I first realized I was 113... last December:
http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/113810027503326386174
So I tried a Google search on 113810027503326386174 and I found a Sharing Stuff page I didn't know about
http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=113810027503326386174
The "social stuff" all hangs off of www.google.com/s2, which first gets a mention in a 2006 post.
The Google Profile includes an OpenID bound to my Google identity, I added that last December. Google provides an OpenID through Blogger, but not yet through the Google Profile itself.
I'm accumulating these identity defining attributes on my "address" page.
Reputation management moves forward, but all this social networking stuff is bound to my real world identity. Most of my writing is now under a light pseudonym. So it doesn't quite fit.
More on the evolving profile here ...
Gordon's Notes: My Google profile -- another brick in the wallNow I have a full Google Profile. Here's the URL:
.... I mentioned a few weeks ago that blogger knows me as 113810027503326386174. My friends call me 113. I wonder if Google will ever recycle that identifier, or if I can confidently carve it on the old tombstone.
Today Google maps has added a new profile link using the same identifier:
http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=113810027503326386174
The maps profile link shows some maps I've created, and a link to 'report this profile'. (That seems an ominous invitation to the ill-intentioned)...
http://www.google.com/s2/profiles/113810027503326386174
So I tried a Google search on 113810027503326386174 and I found a Sharing Stuff page I didn't know about
http://www.google.com/s2/sharing/stuff?user=113810027503326386174
The "social stuff" all hangs off of www.google.com/s2, which first gets a mention in a 2006 post.
The Google Profile includes an OpenID bound to my Google identity, I added that last December. Google provides an OpenID through Blogger, but not yet through the Google Profile itself.
I'm accumulating these identity defining attributes on my "address" page.
Reputation management moves forward, but all this social networking stuff is bound to my real world identity. Most of my writing is now under a light pseudonym. So it doesn't quite fit.
More on the evolving profile here ...
Sunday, July 20, 2008
MobileMess troubleshooting and why this may be worse than it looks
I think the MobileMe problems are worse than they look ...
Synchronization is technically hard. Semantic communication between disparate data models is not only an "unsolved problem", it's not perfectly solvable even with human intervention. To the extent we succeed it's by converging data models.
Technical challenges are one thing, but what makes Synchronization a killer problem is that most executives in most domains don't understand why it's hard. So they don't treat it as something to fear and budget for. Synchronization projects tend to be career killers, so people who know something about synchronization tend to find other work to do.
My fear is that the Apple engineers who understand synchronization have found other projects to work on. Meanwhile Apple execs demanded Exchange support, along with iCal support, along with Outlook support, along with an expectation that it would "just work" (so no options for undirectional messaging, just bidirectional synchronization).
It ain't going to work. iCal and Address Book have very different data models from Exchange/Outlook.
This wouldn't be so bad if the iPhone weren't locked down. If small, smart vendors had access to the hardware connector they could work around Apple's mistakes ...
MobileMeI deal with synchronization issues professionally, in a high-reliability domain (healthcare). In this domain we call it "integration" or "message-based integration" and the "standards" are HL-7 RIM 3.0 and CDA, formal ontologies (SNOMED), knowledge bases (NDDF for example) and data sets (ICD, CPT, etc).
...The MobileMe rocky transition is still an ongoing battle for us. We have not been able to successfully synchronize our iCal calendars nor our Address Book to the MobileMe website for 3 days now. The MobileMe website contains OUTDATED information from our Address Book and iCal calendars. We are running Mac OS X 10.5.4 on a MacBook Pro, with the MobileMe 1.1 updater applied. We have tried all the troubleshooting steps on Apple's website, including unregistering & re-registering our computer from the MobileMe system preference, completely resetting our sync data from the MobileMe System Preference, resetting our SyncServices folder using the Terminal command in this tech info article - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627 - repairing permissions, and running Keychain First Aid. All to no avail...
Synchronization is technically hard. Semantic communication between disparate data models is not only an "unsolved problem", it's not perfectly solvable even with human intervention. To the extent we succeed it's by converging data models.
Technical challenges are one thing, but what makes Synchronization a killer problem is that most executives in most domains don't understand why it's hard. So they don't treat it as something to fear and budget for. Synchronization projects tend to be career killers, so people who know something about synchronization tend to find other work to do.
My fear is that the Apple engineers who understand synchronization have found other projects to work on. Meanwhile Apple execs demanded Exchange support, along with iCal support, along with Outlook support, along with an expectation that it would "just work" (so no options for undirectional messaging, just bidirectional synchronization).
It ain't going to work. iCal and Address Book have very different data models from Exchange/Outlook.
This wouldn't be so bad if the iPhone weren't locked down. If small, smart vendors had access to the hardware connector they could work around Apple's mistakes ...
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Things - task management on the Mac
Things - task management on the Mac is another entry in my OS X alternatives to Outlook tasks.
This is nice:
This review suggests Things might be a rival to OmniFocus, though I doubt they're any better at data import. They claim to have an iPhone client.
Update: It's hard to tell what's going on with them, but I think they put their desktop app on hold to create an iPhone app. The two don't appear to have any current connection or synchronization, and their blog mentions rewriting the desktop app. That's ominous.
This is nice:
Yours forever. We don't lock you in. Things uses an open XML file format to store your data. This gives third parties a transparent way to communicate with Things.It's scheduled for release in "summer 2008" (previously "spring 2008").
This review suggests Things might be a rival to OmniFocus, though I doubt they're any better at data import. They claim to have an iPhone client.
Update: It's hard to tell what's going on with them, but I think they put their desktop app on hold to create an iPhone app. The two don't appear to have any current connection or synchronization, and their blog mentions rewriting the desktop app. That's ominous.
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