One Man's Blog » Computing

A Video History of the Internet

John P. — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:19:17 +0000

I’ve seen a few decent writeups on the History of the Internet, but this short video crams a working history into about 8 minutes that anyone can follow.

Now, it will start using some funky technical terms like TCP and IP, but they introduce it in such a way that I think almost anyone can understand it. Give it a listen.

And don’t forget to check out The World Wide Web Circa 1994 and the “Ancient” Internet TV News Special from 1993 if you didn’t see those before. I find the olden days fascinating. :-)

Introducing the World’s First 640GB Notebook (It’s a MacBook Pro)!

John P. — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:15:17 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of photography with my Canon 5D Mark II 21MP camera, and each image taken in RAW format is about 25MB! So, needless to say, I’ve been using up a whole lot of hard drive space. Even though I upgraded my MacBook Pro to a 500GB drive a month ago, it’s only got less than 100GB left on it. So, I went looking for MORE!

Well, it turns out that Seagate is making a 640GB drive which will actually fit in a standard laptop. While there are a couple of other 2.5″ drives that are larger, they are also thicker and won’t work in most notebooks. So, the Seagate was what I wanted! Only problem – they aren’t selling it yet!

Doah! Well, no matter. Because I found out that I could buy a Seagate FreeAgent Go 640 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive from Amazon.com, and being the warranty voiding freak that I am, I had no problem with trying to rip the drive out of this case to stick in my laptop (the video of me doing just that is below). Here’s the Seagate PDF on the FreeAgent Go for more info.

Well, guess what. It worked! And now I’m posting this article from the world’s first laptop computer with a 640GB hard drive! Of course, that happens to be my 17″ MacBook Pro. Oh, and if you read along I’ll show you how you can do it too!

Performance Differences

After reading the review of the hard drive over on The Penguin Trail, here is the summary they gave:

Performance cannot match a 7200RPM notebook drive in many tasks, but the Seagate 640GB is no slouch. It can perform as fast or faster than lower density 7200RPM drives in streaming and other sequential tasks. Keep this drive defragmented and you can expect good all around performance. Of course, on top of that is huge storage capacity.

This left me wondering if getting the new bigger hard drive might actually perform as well as my smaller, faster turning 500GB drive. So, before I pulled out my old drive, I ran a series of tests on it with the help of AJA System Test. The following are screen captures from the tests along with a summary at the end if you’d like to skip ahead.

Original 500GB 7,200RPM Seagate Drive Performance

This is the drive that was in my machine, and it was only about a month old.

Disk Read/Write Speed

Sweep Video Frame Sizes

Sweep file Sizes

NOTE! Do you see how the performance of the 7,200 RPM drive drops off dramatically when dealing with large file sizes? This surprised me so much I ran the test three times! As you’ll see from the testing below, for some reason on large files this drive is actually slower than the 5,400 RPM drive that replaced it. And the Firewire G-Drive is just as fast even though it’s external! Amazing, unexpected, and really unforgivable.

New 640GB 5,400RPM Seagate Drive Performance

These are the results of the new drive after it was installed in my machine. How exactly did I do that you may ask? Well, I simply used the freeware app SuperDuper! to clone my existing hard drive onto the external USB drive. Then I disassembled the USB case and took the hard drive out to install in my machine.

Here is a little video of the disassembly of the USB drive that I did:

And you can do a search on Google to learn how to physically upgrade the hard drive in your MacBook Pro. If you’ve got a unibody it is very, very easy. If you’ve got the old style, you’re going to need a chainsaw. (I hope they fired the guy who designed the old ones!)

Disk Read/Write Speed

Sweep Video Frame Sizes

Sweep file Sizes

500GB G-Drive Mini Firewire 800 Drive Performance

Just for comparison’s sake, I also ran the tests on a G-Drive which is my portable that I put video files on. Turns out it’s smokin fast!

Disk Read/Write Speed

Sweep Video Frame Sizes

Sweep file Sizes

FreeAgent Go 640GB USB Drive Performance

And this is how the new drive performed when it was still in it’s original USB container. It seems that the limitations of the USB interface ensured that this drive doesn’t even reach half it’s potential. But I can’t wait to see what happens when they begin offering it with a Firewire 800 port. I would hope that it performs like the G-Drive, which will make for huge, fast, and compact mass storage on the go.

Disk Read/Write Speed

Sweep Video Frame Sizes

Results

Well, I must say that I didn’t know exactly what to expect when comparing the new 5,400 RPM drive to the 7,200 RPM drive, but I was pretty sure that the faster drive was going to run circles around the slower one. But apparently that is not always the case!

As you can see, the new drive performed the fastest in the Sweep File Sizes test, and even more shockingly, the G-Drive external hard drive even out performed the 7200 RPM drive mounted internally in the machine! By the way, I ran those tests multiple times to make sure it wasn’t an anomaly, and the computer was doing nothing else at the time.

Summary

Just to wrap up a couple other items:

Although it was speculated that a 5,400 RPM drive should run cooler than the 7,200 RPM versions, I’m not sure if this is the case yet in my machine. I do use the free iStat Menus (which you should have if you’re on a Mac!) to monitor my system stats, but I didn’t think to check the hard drive temps before and after. However, my overall computer temperature is basically unchanged from normal.
This new drive is supposed to be very energy efficient, but my old drive was so new that it was also pretty efficient too I think. So I’m not sure if this will cause any difference in my battery life.

Anyway, I guess the final report is that this definitely works. So you just have to make a decision… do you need the most hard drive space that money can currently buy? Or are you good with what you’ve got?

Cheers!

NetStumbler for Mac – Free MacOS WiFi Network Finders

John P. — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:50:34 +0000

Before I switched to Mac, I used to love to use NetStumbler for Windows. It is a tool that allows you to find any WiFi network and learn a lot about them. This tool even lets you make note of GPS coordinates and do a little thing that people like to call WarDriving. Not that I would know anything about that.

Problem is, there is no NetStumbler for Mac. However! After a lot of searching I came up with a couple of cool alternatives:

iStumbler – Allows you to find AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac. There is also a desktop widget.
KisMAC – This is a complete wardriving app. Meaning it is GPS enabled and will map open WiFi hotspots and everything. Here is the latest Mac OS version.

Oh, and if you are still using Windows, Netstumber is too old and stale. Now there is inSSIDer. Go and get it.

Oh, and if anyone knows of others for either Mac or Win, please do share!

Bob Donovan, You Sir (and all the Other Spammers), May Kiss My Ass!

John P. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:00:51 +0000

Look, there is no delicate way to put this. Bob Donovan, I hereby formally invite you to participate with me in a no-holds-barred MMA style cage match to be broadcast on live television. I’m 100% serious. Because I want to kick your ass, and I’m quite sure I can do it too.

Wait! What’s Going On Here?

My other dear readers may be asking themselves, who is this Bob Donovan, and what exactly has he done to John P.? Well, I’ve got no idea who Bob Donovan is, but what he did to me was send me an annoying Twitter spam with a link to nothing other than an affiliate site (belonging to 10 Best Hosting 2009).

Oh, and that link does nothing other than direct traffic to the Web site link http://www.10besthosting2009.com/#1492937361/. You see that number at the end? I’m sure that is an affiliate tracking link, and 10 Best Hosting is paying this spammer to fish people in to their Web site. That is assuming they are not directly behind it!

By the way, you can’t trust anything that site says about hosting, because all they are doing is listing hosting providers who pay them the most money for referrals. You want independent “reviews”? Ask someone who is NOT getting paid by the people they are “reviewing”.

Back To The Filthy Spammer

But I digress. Back to Bob Donovan. This is nothing more than an automated “bot” which is using the Twitter API to look for the name of hosting providers and respond to the people mentioned in those tweets with a recommendation to follow their affiliate link. It’s merely disguised to look like a person, but it’s just as bad or worse than e-mail and blog spam. And of course I hate all spammers and want them to die!

Notice the Tell-Tell signs of an automated spammer:

Several posts within seconds of one another.
All using the Twitter API for posting.
All with identical wording.

What’s a Boy To Do?

So what did I do about it? Well, if you are using TweetDeck, you can choose the User menu by hovering over the user’s Avatar and then select Block & Report Spam. Which is what I did. But who knows if Twitter will actually do a damn thing about it!

Finally: The Offer

So, the next thing I’ll do is offer Bob Donovan (or whoever is behind it) $5,000 to go three 5 minute rounds with me – full contact, MMA style! So come on Bob! You wanna make some money? Put your body where your bot is.

Oh, and just because I don’t want anyone to confuse the funny, joking, “ha ha” John P. with this offer, let me be clear. I will honestly pay, and this is a bonafied offer for one $5,000 ass whipping to any spammer who will take me up on it.

But make sure your insurance is paid up, because you’re gonna need it!

How to Change Time Machine’s Backup Schedule

John P. — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:21:19 +0000

Have any of you Mac users noticed that if you have Time Machine enabled, it will absolutely drag your system down when it decides to perform a back up while you are working? It was driving me absolutely nuts until Cali pointed me to a little freeware application called Time Machine Editor 2.1.

Time Machine Editor allows you to specify a schedule for Time Machine to run so that it won’t get in your way constantly. For example, I was able to go in and tell mine to run daily at 3am. In theory I shouldn’t be interruped by this schedule, though you never know with me!

So, if you need to tame Time Machine give the editor a go. It solved my headaches!

Review: Brother MFC-9840CDW Multi-Function Color Laser Printer / Scanner / Copier / Fax

John P. — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:37 +0000

Ok, I’m about to go on and on about how much I love the Brother MFC-9840CDW Color Laser Multifunction Center with Wireless Interface and Duplex, but before this turns into a giant love fest, let’s start with the bad news. Software installation is a bit of a nightmare.

Software Installation

I installed the printer to work on three different Windows machines and one MacBook laptop. The MacBook installation went best, but not without issues. However, the Windows installations were all three a nightmare.

On two laptops the installation completed successfully and during the setup I was able to see the printer and select it. The problem is, even though the software can easily and routinely find the printer… it could never connect to it using the printer name. I had to go in and manually configure the printer port to use the printer’s IP address. This was the case regardless of if I used the wired Ethernet or WiFi to connect the printer to the network.

On the desktop Windows machine, the install failed mid-way through and gave a cryptic error message that was less than helpful. I had to fully uninstall the software, and then I had to use an almost unnoticeable setting in the install CD to “repair” the installation. It at least allowed me to get the software installed, though I still had to make the manual modifications to the settings.

By the time I had wasted about 3 hours on the machine I was able to use all of the printer and scanner functionality except one thing. The machine has a “Scan to…” function which allows you to walk up to it, put in a document, and from the menu on the printer choose to scan the document and send it to one of your configured computers. I was able to get this to work on the Mac with no problem, but could not make it work on any of the Windows machines no matter what I tried.

If I compare this software installation process to the Canon multi-function printer’s software, I’d give this one a “D-”. It works… kind of. And only if you are a power user who is really good at solving networking problems.

Hardware Installation

Ok. Things start getting better here. With the exception of the fact that this printer is about 80 pounds, physically setting it up is actually pretty easy. You unbox it, put it where you want, and plug it in for power, and optionally ethernet or USB. Personally, I recommend the Ethernet route over the wireless, because wireless configuration can be a tad finicky at times.

Adding the toner cartridges is as simple, or more, than other color lasers. Open the front door, slide the tray out and insert the various color. You’re done! The only bad news is, the cartridges that come with it don’t seem to last very long. Either that, or I was doing a lot more printing than I thought I was doing!

Print Speed

You know, they claim that this printer can do 21ppm in either color or black and white. Guess what. They aren’t lying! I kid you not, this sucker is so fast you can print hundreds of pages in minutes! I LOVE it! Now, if you try and print them two sided, it will really slow things down because of the changing mechanism.

But then again, if you had to print a lot of two sided printouts of the same thing you could always feed the paper through on side one first, then on side two for a second pass.

Print Quality

The black and white text is fantastic. And in general, color printing is quite good. However, this laser doesn’t seem up to the task of printing realistic photo quality prints. I’m not complaining because I’ve never seen a color laser printer print a photo I like. Inkjets are far better at this task, or if you really want to do it right, get a dye sublimation printer like a Xerox Phaser. Solid wax printing is truly amazing!

Scanning

One thing that I really love about this machine is that it makes a great scanner. Everyone in the household can share it because it works right through the wired or wireless network. It has an auto page feeder, and will scan stacks of documents that are either one sided or two sided. It’s quite fast, and the scan quality is excellent!

Copying

Yes. It makes copies. Black and white, color, whatever! It will do them one sided or two. And it will enlarge or reduce things if you want it to as well.

Faxing

Faxing? Um. This is 2009. I don’t do faxes. But I’m sure it works. You can probably use it for that right after you answer your pager.

Summary

Yes, you should buy this machine! If you can in any way afford it, it will spoil you rotten and you won’t want another machine for years! That is all. Buy it. Now.

What are you waiting for?…

FaceBook Usernames: The Gold Rush is Upon Us!

John P. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:00:45 +0000

For those of you who have been long frustrated by the fact that you can’t have a reasonable freakin FaceBook username, and instead have to have something like http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1529863541, well the times they are a changin’!

Tomorrow you are going to be able to choose your own username for your shortened FaceBook URL. So, you could get http://www.facebook.com/SexyBeast for example (that’s probably already been pre-assigned to me. Sorry.). But you are going to have to compete with millions of other people who are trying to do the same thing! So you better get there quick, and pray to the gods of everything technical that the FaceBook servers can handle the onslaught! (I’m betting they WON’T.)

Choosing a name is supposed to be simple. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and I guess as long as you are logged in you’ll be able to pick it. Right now it just shows a countdown timer, and I already had problems loading the page once, so I’m telling you the demand is going to be fierce.

Anyway, if you’re a loyal OMB reader drop your new FaceBook URL into the comments when you get it so I can go check you out! Oh, and friend me while you’re there if you haven’t already…

Add AVI Movie / Video Drivers to Your Mac with Perian

John P. — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:38:28 +0000

If you ever try to play certain movies on your Mac without having the correct driver installed, you are going to get nothing more than a black screen. No fear! Perian is here to save you! Just download and install this little applet which adds itself to your System Preferences menu, and you can watch all those movies you weren’t previously able to view.

If that alone doesn’t do it for you, it’s possible you need to install the DivX codec and maybe even the XviD codec. If anyone knows of other drivers that help play media on the Mac, please drop a link in the comments!

iPhone Custom Restore and Bootup Images

John P. — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:41:05 +0000

Well folks, I just followed the iClarified guide to jailbreak my iPhone, and now I’ll be able to take and stream live videos from it. So eventually when I get it working you can look for more video updates from on location as I travel around and stuff.

One of the things that you can do is set up custom startup and restore images, and I spent a lot of time searching for some good ones. So these are the ones that I had saved in case I wanted to use them. The blog here seems like as good a place as any to put them.

REVIEW: Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking Station

John P. — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:06:58 +0000

I recently purchased the Thermaltake BlacX eSATA Hard Drive USB Docking Station from Amazon so that I could use an external hard drive for backups and /or disk recovery needs.

This particular device is capable of either USB connectivity or eSATA, meaning that it can be hooked to your PC at the same speed as an internal drive, making for radically increased performance!

Well, all I have to say is that the BlaX docking station works like a charm, and its good looking too! So if you are in need of a USB hard drive docking station, i highly recommend that you go pick one up. Amazon’s currently got them for $29.99 after rebate, so you’re not going to do any better than that. Enjoy!

REVIEW: EVGA USB VGA Adapter Adds Two or MORE Monitors to MacBook Pro

John P. — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:18:25 +0000

I just received a few EVGA USB VGA Adapters from Amazon.com and installed them so that I could hook up two more external monitors to my MacBook Pro. Now that I’ve done that, I may just add a couple more for no reason other than the fact that… I can!

The EVGA USB VGA Adapter lets you add monitors to your PC or Mac at up to 1600×1200 Resolution (or 1680×1050 for widescreen monitors like mine). This is actually a big deal, because there are a few other USB video adapters out there, but they have lower resolution capabilities – like 1280×1024. It’s also a big deal because most of the other adapters out there only have Windows drivers! For some reason, the manufacturers just ignore the Mac population.

Don’t get me wrong, EVGA didn’t start out with a Mac driver either. But the underlying chipset manufacturer, DisplayLink, finally released a Mac driver which enables it on this device.

Now, before you go thinking that all of the USB video devices with a DisplayLink chip in them will work with Mac, be warned:

Only the ones on this list are supported by the Mac driver.
Not all of them actually support 1600×1200 resolution. So don’t make a mistake and get one that isn’t going to replicate what I’m showing you here.

The Good

Well, what’s there not to like about being able to sit here writing this blog post while staring at a 24″ 1920 x 1080 monitor, flanked by two 22″ 1680 x 1050 monitors on the sides? I mean, my desktop resolution is effectively 1680 x 3180!!! I can have all my applications open without shuffling through windows! And if I need more screen real estate, I’ll just add a couple more monitors.

The Bad

When I unplug my laptop and take it with me, then plug it back in, the system doesn’t remember the configuration of the monitors correctly and I have to take like 1 minute to reset the monitor preferences. This doesn’t really bother me that much, but would be nice if they could fix it.

There is a list of known bugs for applications that won’t work properly on a display fed by the USB video. In that case, move those apps to your primary monitor and you’ve got no problem!

Although video and motion type objects do work on the USB powered monitors, it’s not quite as smooth as a regular connection. So you aren’t going to play games on them.

The Ugly

I had ordered three of these units. For two days everything was fantastic using two of them. For some reason all of a sudden one unit just would not work any more. Luckily I had the other unopened unit, and I opened it and plugged it in and was back in business. I suppose any product could have some defective ones, but in this case I was lucky to have a spare.

Overall, I highly recommend that people pick up one or two of these bad boys and get your Macs situated! You can use them on an iMac, a Mac Mini, a regular MacBook or the MacBook Pro. Have fun!

BumpTop Turns Windows into a 3D Environment

John P. — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:11:03 +0000

Well, I’m assuming that by now just about everyone who reads my blog also checks out GeekBrief.TV at least occasionally. Neal and Cali produce that show, and they just covered a very cool looking application for Windows called BumpTop.

BumpTop is a desktop replacement application which allows you to have a 3D environment instead of your boring flat desktop. This will let you pin things on virtual walls, have news delivered while you work, automate the sharing of photos with Flickr, and just a bunch of other things.

Here, I’m not going to re-invent the wheel. Cali gave a great overview of how the app worked in this issue of GeekBrief. Enjoy!

Also, here is the complete YouTube demo video for the product:

50 Free iPhone Apps I Love and Use

John P. — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:30:05 +0000

I kicked off a trend at work after I got my iPhone, so I’m putting this handy little guide together for all the new iPhone owners out there so that you don’t have to go downloading every crappy free app to try. I already did that!

So, here is my list of top apps in a wide range of categories. I’ll keep it updated as I add or delete things.

And if anyone has suggestions for other really great free apps, let me know and I’ll give them a try. Leave the name, description, and link to the app in the comments. (To get the link to an app, look it up in iTunes, then right click on the Apps icon on the top left.)

News, Sports and Weather

AP News – The greatest News app ever. Has replaced the paper completely.
Pro Football Live! – Need the latest NFL scores to keep up at the office? Here you go.
The Weather Channel – Um. You know what this is.

Music

Shazam – Just hold this up to the radio and it’ll tell you whatever song is playing!
Pandora Radio – If you enjoy randomly selected music, Pandora will deliver.
AOL Radio – Listen to any Web broadcast radio station.
Ringtone Recorder – Record custom ringtones for everyone in your address book.

Communication

IM+ Lite
Skype – Make free phone calls via WiFi with your Skype contacts.

Travel and Entertainment

Google Mobile – Search everything… even with your voice!
Google Earth – Explore and map the planet.
Local Picks by TripAdvisor
Nearby – Notes, pictures and stories about places nearby.
Restaurant Nutrition – View nutritional info about restaurant menus and track your calories.
Showtimes – Shows you every nearby theatre, and what is playing along with movie trailers.
Tiggits – Concert, sports and theater tickets on demand.
Travelocity – Book airfare, hotels and rental cars right from your iPhone.
Urbanspoon – Shake your iPhone and Urbanspoon will pick a restaurant for you.
Yelp – Find places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play. A personal favorite!

Social Networking

Tweetie – Awesome Twitter client. This one costs $3. It’s one of only 2 apps I’ve paid for. And glad I did.
Twitterfon – Another great Twitter client. Works if you only have on Twitter account.
Twitterific – Still another free Twitter client.
Facebook – If you are a regular user, you can’t miss this. Well done.
LinkedIn – Access your LinkedIn connections on the go.
MySpace Mobile – Stay connected with your MySpace friends everywhere.
Loopt – Find things nearby, see where friends are, find recommendations.

Misc.

BubbleWrap – Completely useless, but amazingly entertaining.
Freebird – A digital lighter so you can stop burning your finger at concerts.
iPhunny Jokes – Jokes and quotes from late night comedians.
Lose It! – Fantastic exercise and weight loss tracker. Everyone should have this!!!
Remote – Control music on your computer or Apple TV from the iPhone.
Ruler Plus – Hey, sometimes you just gotta measure things.
1Password – The best Password app for iPhone and Mac. Matches the desktop app.

Media

Joost – Watch videos, music, TV, movies and more.
Kindle for iPhone – Read Amazon.com’s Kindle books on the iPhone. Works great!
PixUp – Upload photos to Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa.

Notes and Memos

EasyWriter – In case you need something a little better than the built in Memo function.
Evernote – Organize text, audio and photo notes anywhere you go. Works with desktop version nicely.

Shopping

Craigsphone – Shop Craig’s List from your iPhone for local items for sale.
Yowza!! – Find local coupons in your area and use them from the iPhone!
eBay Mobile – It’s eBay. Only… mobile. Enjoy!
GasBag – Find the cheapest gas in your area thanks to social price sharing.
Trulia Real Estate Search – Find homes for sale nearby and even get maps to take you right to them.

Finance

Bank of America Mobile Banking – Pretty self explanatory.
PayPal – Access to the main PayPal account functions from your iPhone.

Network and Web Tools

Domain Scout – Search for domain names and get registrant info.
DomainPro Another Domain search tool that includes registration.
FreePing – Simple tool to ping a server and see if it’s up.
Network Ping Lite – A great tool to scan a network, ping an IP, Traceroute, Telnet, or check your iPhone IP.
Speedtest.net Speed Test

Well, that’s is for now. Later I’ll publish a list of my favorite games for iPhone. Stay tuned!

Tutorial: How to Burn a VIDEO_TS Folder to DVD on a Mac

John P. — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:19:35 +0000

Let’s say that for some reason you decide to make a copy of a DVD. Like you want it for backup purposes or whatever. If you’ve got a Mac, it’s your lucky day. Here is how to do it:

Use the Finder to copy the VIDEO_TS folder to your local hard drive.
Download the DVDImager application and install it.
Stick a blank DVD in your Mac.
Launch DVDImager and then drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder onto the DVDImager icon

The rest should be simple. Enjoy your new disc copy!

Yoics Delivers Free Remote Desktop Sharing for Macs, Linux and PCs

John P. — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:30:51 +0000

I just signed up for a new Beta service called Yoics today. (I wonder how that is pronounced by the way?) It’s a very interesting Remote Desktop sharing service, and it works with PCs and, most importantly, Macs. The underlying technology appears to be VNC, which I appreciate because it is a mature technology. But it seems they’ve managed to make it extremely simple to use.

Yoics allows you to share not only your remote machine’s desktop, but also the drives in your machine and even devices like Webcams!

That’s right, you could set up Webcams all over your house, and use Yoics as a remote security monitoring system. But wait! There’s more! If you happen to have a Drobo file storage unit and the accompanying DroboShare network adapter, you can also directly connect to it via Yoics.

Here is what the good folks over at Yoics have to say about their service:

Yoics offers an easy and FREE alternative to remotely access computer desktops, computer files, web cameras, IP cameras, network storage devices and just about any other network accessible product or service. If you are a consumer, device manufacturer or software publisher, Yoics has a product or solution for you. Our core consumer services are FREE to use, just sign up for an account. We will soon offer premium services for those that need our premium services.

One of the things that I especially appreciate about the way they’ve designed this service is the fact that they are thinking of all the different ways that people can interface with it. For example, they’ve built a G-mail gadget so you can have access right from your Gmail interface:

They’ve also taken pains to ensure that the interface is remotely accessible via the iPhone:

Anyway, I’m not going to keep going on and on. Those of you who are interested probably haven’t even waited to read this far. Check it out if you ever wanted to get access to your computers, but just didn’t know how!

I Broke My MacBook Pro

John P. — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:03:02 +0000

So, I have this backpack that holds my laptop in a zippered pouch on the back, and all of my awesome camera gear on the front. Of course, the primary security mechanism for the laptop is a zipper to actually hold it inside when you walk around.

Yeah. This is what happens when you don’t actually zip that zipper and let your laptop fall out onto the concrete as you walk around like a complete dumbass.

To make matters worse, this happened as I was walking in to work yesterday, so there were witnesses. Now all of the guys at the office keep making jokes about how I’m going to break everything around me. And no one will let me anywhere near their computers.

Well, all I have to say is, at least I wasn’t letting my cat torture my MacBook like Travis does!

WordPress’ Newest Data Center

John P. — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:26:45 +0000

For those of you who don’t know Barry, he’s the mastermind behind the infrastructure that powers WordPress and all of their various services (Akismet, bbPress, Gravatar, etc.). He seriously knows a lot about hosting infrastructure, as he demonstrated when he gave this lecture about WordPress performance at WordCamp SanFrancisco 2007.

Anyway, this morning he posted a little article about the newest WordPress data center and included a video shot by Aaron Phillips. Watch really closely and you might catch a glimpse of my cameo…

Cali Lewis, Layered Tech and the Robotic Data Center

John P. — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:24:15 +0000

Oh, my. Cali Lewis, everyone’s favorite video podcaster, stopped by Layered Tech to learn about our top secret project (code named Astro) a couple of weeks ago – even though we made her keep it under wraps until yesterday!

Anyway, Cali interviewed LT’s Director of Software Development, Josh Bosquez, in part one and learned all about whats been under development for like a year. In part two I give a mini-tour of the data center and you get to learn a few things about it. The data center tour was more extensive, but some of the video had to be taken out for security reasons. Still, it’s pretty cool!

All of this happened during the same time that Cali got a tour of the old vault in the Dallas Federal Reserve building.

Review: Parallels Desktop 4 Offers Kick Ass Virtualization For Macs

John P. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:28:32 +0000

Well, my good friends over at Parallels hooked me up with a free copy of Parallels Desktop 4 for my MacBook. But before we get started here, you should know that Microsoft, VMware and just about anyone else with virtualization software will hook me up too. So my comments here are unbiased as always. I only tell you exactly what I think.

Anyway, did I mention that Parallels 4 is a fantastic product for running virtual machines within your Mac environment? No? Well, let me go on record as saying that I think Parallels 4 kicks ass. Yeah, I said it. Now let’s move along shall we?

So, is Parallels Desktop going to change the world? Let’s see…

Before we go along, let me explain that Parallels is most often used to allow people to run Windows on their Mac. This means that you don’t need a PC if you are simply trying to run one or two programs. You can get Parallels and install Windows on your Mac, and you’re done.

But Windows is not your only option! You can also use Parallels Desktop to install Linux or just about any other 32 or 64bit operating system.

Now let me tell you some of the coolest stuff that Parallels will let you do that you couldn’t do before (I don’t think…):

You can cut and paste, or even drag and drop files between your Mac operating system and any Windows application running in Parallels! Heck, for that matter, you can share your hard drive and documents between both operating systems. It’s almost like they were all just running one operating system! Now, for those of you who haven’t tried this before let me just tell you that this is the equivalent of dragging and dropping files from one physical machine to another. Except that it works in Parallels!
After you install Parallels, you can actually choose which application, in which operating system, you want to be the default handler for certain tasks. So, for example, you could set it so that Outlook in Windows is your default mail, but Safari in Mac is your default browser. That way you can use the best OS and application for every task.
You can now connect an external drive to your Mac and have it simultaneously recognized in Windows and OSX! It used to be that you’d have to choose one OS or the other when you plugged in a device, and you’d have to unplug it and replug it to use it in the other OS. This is a huge time saver.
Parallels 4 offers much better optimization for virtual machine usage of physical resources. For example, you can now allow your virtual machines (like Windows) to use multiple processor cores and up to 8GB of RAM (like for Vista the memory hog!). It also supports native virtualization hardware from Intel which allows the system to run more efficiently and faster.
It makes dramatic improvements for video performance for apps like AutoCAD, flight simulators or games. I don’t play games, but I do use AutoCAD sometimes. In addition to 3D support you can also assign 256MB of memory to be used for Windows video only. That should really speed things up.
A new feature called SmartGuard allows you to take automatic snapshots of your virtual machines so that you can always revert back to a previous version if you mess something up. This is especially useful for people like me who are always experimenting and prone to screwing something up. If you break it, you just revert back to your last known good snapshot. Snap-shotting is a basic feature of all virtualization platforms, but the fact that Parallels has automated it is fantastic.

You know what? I could keep going about all the new stuff that Parallels 4 has in it, but heck you can go read their web site for that. The real question is, did I notice the improvements between version 3 and 4?

Hell yes!

First of all, to say that it’s faster is an understatement. I noticed an improvement on Windows boot up time on the second and subsequent launches, and I noticed that even though I messed with the settings and gave Mac OSX priority over Windows, Windows was still more responsive! Must be the new built in virtualization hardware support.

I also noticed the support for external drives being available in both my host and guest operating systems simultaneously. I used to hate having to shut down Parallels to share a USB drive between the two OSs.

Finally, I have to say that I think the user interface has been dramatically improved. The new version is beautiful. Frankly, if you are running a Mac, you should own a copy of Parallels. There is just way too much quality Windows software out there to limit yourself to only Mac versions.

A Direct Comparison of Picasa for Mac vs. iPhoto

John P. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:22:17 +0000

Yesterday was the day I’ve been waiting on for months. Google finally released the popular, and FREE, Picasa image management software for the Mac!

Let me explain. You see, a while back I was forcibly converted to the Mac at work. At first I complained. A lot. But later it grew on me. Now, even though I hate to admit it, I have to say I actually prefer the Mac for most computing operations. One of the things that I did not enjoy, however, was the pathetic iPhoto software which was pretty much the only game in town for Mac users… until today.

So, Picasa, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

First of all, I hate any sort of application that unnecessarily forces it’s users into a proprietary closed platform. And right off the bat, iPhoto does this (just like freakin iTunes!). You see, when you import photos into an iPhoto library it basically takes all of your individual pictures and lumps them into a giant ball, from which the average users can no longer extract them without great pain!
Clearly they do this for the sole purpose of excluding the use of any other image editing software once they’ve got their grubby hands on your photos, because once they are imported you are going to have one heck of a time getting them OUT of iPhoto without making a huge mess. (You can opt out of this default behavior, but most people don’t know that.)

If we take a look at Picasa on the other hand, this image management tool simply organizes your photos into directories on your hard drive which it efficiently scans and catalogs – without moving things around or messing stuff up!

It also means that if you wanted to make a copy of your entire photo library, or a portion of it, for a friend or relative all you need to do is copy those folders onto portable media and hand it over. Can’t do that with iPhoto without a messy Export session! Oh, and while we’re on this topic, the folks behind Picasa were nice enough to include an “Import from iPhoto…” function to help you free those images from their bonds.
Speaking of liberating your photos, God forbid you ever end up with photos in two separate iPhoto albums! Like one on your desktop and one on your laptop! Attempting to combine them means you’re going to have to literally spend money on third party software to make it happen. That is inconceivable! (You keep’a using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means…)
But again, Picasa makes this as simple as copying your photo directories to the other computer, and voila! It catalogs the images automatically. And you can still even gain access to those images with another piece of image editing or management software since the photos are just sitting there in directories, just like normal.

By comparison, the Picasa image editor screen places your image in a window on the right, and clearly displays all the tools on the left, and even some more options on the bottom of the screen. Absolutely anyone can figure out how to edit their images using this method. Even my dad. (Love ya Pop!)
Next, let’s talk about the primary interface for a moment, shall we? iPhoto attempts to organize everything into “Events”, and while this might work for someone who doesn’t take that many photos, it will eventually grow completely out of control. For example, I have over 60,000 photos that I’ve taken over the last decade on my primary computer at home. They are neatly organized into directories. How in God’s name could I possibly organize them all into “Events”?

Picasa deals with this quite elegantly. It displays all of the directories on the left and they can be expanded as usual, then on the right side it displays a chrolological stream of the image thumbnails. While doing so it also manages to nicely integrate the ability to do other things such as sync the directory to the Web, burn a CD, change the directory name, and much more.
In addition to the massive differences outlined above, there are a ton of little things that make all the difference between the two applications. For example, zooming in on an image. With Picasa you simply grab and drag the zoom bar at any time when looking at an image. In iPhoto you have to be in the edit menu. This almost drove me to drink!

If you also check that image above again, you’ll see that Picasa is constantly showing you all sorts of vital details about the image you’re viewing like the resolution, size on disk, etc. This detail is all buried in the iPhoto interface for no good reason whatsoever.
Let’s talk about printing for a moment. My freakin iPhoto literally won’t print an image! I paid $79 for this software, and when I try to print it gives an error! I have to export an image and print it elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Picasa has a wonderful print wizard which basically lets you choose the size of the image, how many you want, and make adjustments to the print settings while you’re at it.

Believe me, I could go on for hours about how much better Picasa is, but I’m bored with all this documentation, and frankly if you aren’t sold on giving it a try yet, nothing is going to work. But to sum things up, you can also watch this little Google video that explains some of the features in more detail:

I hope that all of you Mac users out there give Picasa a serious try. You’ve got nothing to lose since, unlike iPhoto, it won’t lock you in or make irreversible changes to your photo library.

Enjoy!