Archive for the 'Mac OS X' Category

My Maxtor Hard Disk Clunks To Death

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on April 3, 2008
in Mac OS X and Technology
. 0 Comments

imageWhen your disk drive starts making loud, squealing noises when you first turn it on… That’s a sign.

When your disk drive starts making clicking noises as if it were a metronome… That’s a sign.

When your disk drive starts throwing I/O Errors to the console… That’s a sign.

When your disk drive no longer mounts its volume… That’s a sign.

Yeah - A sign that your disk is about to die or is already dead.

That’s what happened to my Time Machine disk that is attached to my Apple iMac desktop computer. It was a 750GB Maxtor One Touch III, purchased just 7 months ago.

The Good News is that it was just my backup drive and not my primary drive. My primary drive is a 1TB disk, as shipped by Apple, and thankfully has hummed along perfectly. So, I could keep working.

The Bad News is that you are no longer making hourly backups, and all of your Time Machine backups are no longer available, so you are completely exposed. I.e., I need a Time Machine backup disk for my Time Machine disk! Or, multiple Time Machine volumes (if that’s possible?)…

So, I surf over to the Seagate/Maxtor site and check the warranty coverage. The disk has a 1-year warranty, so I’m good since I bought it about 7 months ago. The warranty process is very streamlined at Maxtor - completely hands-off and web-based. I was given the choice of paying $20 for expedited replacement (two-day shipping), or a free replacement that could take a couple of weeks (I would have to send in my disk first, then get one back through slow mail).

I like my backups, so I chose the $20 option, and the disk arrived 3 days later (submitted the form on Sunday night, it was processed and shipped on Monday, and arrived on Wednesday).

It took all night (about 10 hours) to re-sync my Time Machine backups. About 1,256,435 files in 600GB of data. I was quite surprised to see that I’ve got over a million files… Hmm.

Ah, I feel safe again.

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Sony Vaio UX Running Mac OS X At The Hockey Game!

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 28, 2008
in Entertainment, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile and Technology
. 0 Comments

So, I’m at the Sharks hockey game last night, and I notice a guy a couple rows in front of me using a Sony Vaio UX Micro PC. Hey, it’s the Bay Area. People bring high-tech gadgets to hockey games. That’s just how we roll out here.

No big deal, right?

Well, I look a bit closer, and the device appears to be running Mac OS X! WTF?

Furthermore, the Dock appears to be a Leopard Dock, not a Tiger Dock, so I think the device is running Mac OS X 10.5, even…

Geeks.

Sheesh.

Of course, then I get a pang of jealousy.

After all, it is a 1.2 pound device running Leopard…

Geeks (including me).

Sheesh.

Poking around on Google, I find an old article about getting Mac OS X (which they call Mac OSuX for this device) on the Sony Vaio UX. Lots of scary stuff in there. Just get a Macbook Air. The picture above is from jkOnTheRun (i.e., is not a picture of the guy a couple rows in front of me).

So, you know what this means?

It means that you can develop iPhone applications on your mobile phone!

Only in the Bay Area…

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iPhone SDK: Now With Interface Builder Goodness

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 27, 2008
in Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile and Software
. 5 Comments

image That was much faster than I had anticipated.

I wrote about the Apple iPhone SDK and how I thought it was going to revolutionize the mobile application market.

At that time, Apple released the first Beta of the iPhone SDK, which was very functional, but did not include a working Interface Builder application. That meant that you would have to roll your own User Interface elements using Cocoa Touch. No big deal for now, but it sure would be much nicer to have IB available.

And, now it is.

Kudos to Apple for moving quickly to get this out.

I am extremely impressed by Apple’s execution of their iPhone strategy and developer program. There will be a shitload of high-quality and reasonably priced applications for this device.

Thanks to Ars Technica for catching the announcement for me.

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Fake Steve at EclipseCon 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 18, 2008
in Blogging, Entertainment, Mac OS X, Open Source and Technology
. 1 Comment

steve4 daniellyons

Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, won the keynote slot at EclipseCon and, as expected, gave a very entertaining keynote address. Excellent choice. Refreshingly irreverent.

Dan takes no prisoners. Every big tech company is fair game, and he calls it like he sees it. Something that he cannot do at Forbes. The Fake Steve blog now generates a nice 1 Million pageviews per month.

Some snippets that caught my funny bone:

  • “Mainstream media is like the COBOL programmers…”
  • “I’m a Mac fan. Here with my MacBook Air, that’s didn’t work - that’s why I love Apple. But, it’s so beautiful… and only 3 pounds!”
  • Dan likens Apple to a cult rather than a product company. He says, “If the Church of Scientology made computer products, they would be Apple.”
  • “You look up narcissist in the dictionary and there he (Steve Jobs) is.”
  • Great photos of Uncle Ballster and Dr. Stevil (which I can’t find to link to right now).
  • Lots of Sun and Jonathan Schwartz bashing (I spent 7 years at Sun Microsystems, so I could certainly relate). Such as, “There’s always some new line of bullshit from Sun.”
  • On IBM: “They’re the worst company in the world to deal with as a reporter.”

Anyway. Tune into his blog for more laughs.

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Damnit - I’m Beholden to a(nother) Windows Application

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 17, 2008
in Blogging, Mac OS X, Software and Virtualization
. 1 Comment

WriterSplash So, I’m finally getting back to blogging. I had a very long hiatus. Sorry about that.It seems that life got in the way (if you call getting married and starting up a new company “life” - I know I do).Anyway, back to the same old blogging tools on the Mac OS X platform. Nothing really satisfied my needs. I had previously been using Qumana, and wrote some positive articles on it before. It’s unchanged in the last year, and still pretty good, but it did leave me wanting more and something that felt a bit more “solid”.Best likely candidate would be MarsEdit. I love what Daniel Jalkut is doing with this application. Great stuff. But, I am one of those types that wants a WYSIWYG-like experience. I’m quite good at flinging around markup, I just don’t want to have to do it while I’m writing - it’s just too distracting from the task at hand. MarsEdit does have some excellent image integration, and I feel that at some point it WILL be my blogging tool of choice. I’m continuing to watch.Last year, I tried Adobe Contribute 4, and even participated in the Adobe Contribute CS3 Beta test. While it is WYSIWYG, it’s just not for me. The team made significant progress in the CS3 edition, but the tool still had lots of little problems that distracted from the writing experience and the application itself was quite the resource hog.If you are seeing a theme here, it’s all about reducing distraction; reducing friction in the writing process.OK, so I decide that my new wife needs to blog about what we learned while planning our wedding. She’s a Windows user. So, I set her up on her own Wordpress blog and find her a blogging tool to use. I chose Windows Live Writer.And, you know what?Windows Live Writer rocks!Every bit of it is very well done. And, it’s FREE. I do hate to say it, but you have to give Microsoft props when they get it right. Well done WLW team!So, for now, I will be blogging with Windows Live Writer running from my VMware Fusion based version of Windows XP executing on my MacBook Pro (when on the road) or my iMac (when at home). Now, that’s a mouthful.

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iPhone SDK: Awesome or Dead On Arrival?

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 17, 2008
in Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile, Software and Technology
. 2 Comments

index_promofooter_sdkWell, Apple finally released the iPhone SDK, or at least a Beta version.

Apple took quite a beating when they released the iPhone without an SDK back in June 2007. What were they thinking? Back then, they released a set of guidelines for building web-based applications that, when run through Mobile Safari, would sorta, kinda look like an iPhone application. That’s not gonna fly…

Then, they released the iPhone SDK (Beta). I downloaded it immediately and built my first test application.

Holy crap.

The wait was definitely worth it.

They knocked the ball out of the park!

They exceeded my expectations in almost every dimension.

Yeah, sure. There are plenty of things not to like about this first version of the iPhone SDK, and many have already ripped the failings to shred:

  • Third-party applications must be distributed through the Apple iPhone Store. You cannot just build an application and run it on the iPhone. It has to be signed by Apple. Some see this as too restrictive.
  • iPhone applications cannot run in the background. This rules out a whole host of interesting applications and certainly does make the iPhone less attractive as a truly useful mobile platform. Some say this makes the platform a non-starter for them.
  • Apple takes 30% of all software sales for handling the distribution and update of approved iPhone applications. Some think that’s a bit much, and would rather keep that 30% for themselves, handling the marketing, installation and upgrade of their applications directly.
  • Apple gets to say “yes” or “no” on whether your particular application gets to run (is signed by them). Some think that Apple will deny competitive applications or applications that may encourage illegal downloading, say. Some say Apple has too much power as application gatekeeper.
  • Apple will not allow a VoIP application to be built that operates over the GPRS/EDGE (soon to be 3G/HSDPA) data network. They will allow VoIP applications to run over WiFi, however. Given the hassle of finding a WiFi hotspot, some feel that this is an unfair restriction.
  • You can’t build applications with Interface Builder yet. Some think that makes iPhone app development a complete non-starter, at least until IB is made available.
  • Apple claims that the third-party developers get to use “the same API calls used by the Apple developers to build their own iPhone applications” (like Mobile Mail and Mobile Safari). However, given all the restrictions, this is clearly not true.
  • Apple does not allow you to build an application that executes other applications, either using plug-ins, or interpreted code. Which means that you cannot have a Java Virtual Machine on the iPhone. Hey, wait a minute. That sounds like a good restriction after all, given all the junk J2ME applications out there…

But, they’re missing the bigger picture. They are lost in the details.

Here’s some of what is absolutely great about the Apple Mobile Platform:

  • It’s a controlled environment for developers. The development tools (Xcode, Interface Builder, debugger, performance monitors) are exceptionally good. Anyone that knows Objective-C and Cocoa certainly have a head start, but this is a great toolchain. No other mobile platform has such a great and robust development environment.
  • Running only Apple-signed applications means that it will be very hard to get ill-behaved malware on the device. And, if you do, it will be very easy to identify it and remove it. Apple has done a great job on the security aspects of the mobile platform.
  • Apple nailed the Enterprise requirements for the iPhone. Nailed them. They are listening. And responding. Very refreshing to see a big company get it right. So often.
  • I love the 70%/30% split between developers and Apple. I think it is more than fair to the developers. Apple has taken a game-console style revenue sharing model here. Apple defines, markets, and distributes a great hardware console (the iPhone) and publishes the API for creating structured (and signed) applications. For that, they take 30%. Extremely fair. I think it’s great that product updates will be easily delivered to customers. Much better than forcing every application to have a slightly different way of updating itself. Very nice for the end-user experience.
  • I’m OK with the other restrictions. Yes, the platform will be less extensible, but it will surely be beautiful, consistent, and solid. Disallowing background applications will not be as bad as people think - I’m with John Gruber on this point. Remember: Apple is developing this “for the rest of us”. I.e., it is not a phone that only geeks will own. It’s a phone that my Mom would own. And, she just wants it to work.

I own a Nokia E61. It runs Symbian. Until last week, Symbian was the best thing going for Mobile OS development. Not anymore. And don’t even get me started about Windows Mobile… Ugh.

The iPhone, and this oh so restrictive SDK, will be THE mobile platform for the mass market (and the enterprise).

Jason Fried said it best:

What we saw today was the beginning of two-decades of mobile domination by Apple. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile.

I completely agree.

And have doubled-down on my AAPL stock.

Stay tuned for more. We’ll get to Android later.

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Setting Up My New Apple MacBook Pro

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 9, 2007
in Mac OS X, Software, Startups, Technology and Virtualization
. 0 Comments

I recently celebrated a birthday.Some people don’t like birthdays. They fear growing older.I don’t have that reaction at all. About a birthday, I always say: “It beats the alternative!” And, I truly believe that.My fiancée bought me the best gift ever. Something that I will use many hours a day, every day of the week.A shiny, new Apple MacBook Pro.OK, so now I have to move everything off my old Apple PowerBook G4 and turn it into a dedicated software test machine.The easy way is to use the excellent Apple Migration Assistant tool. I didn’t want to do that, however, because I wanted a fresh start. You see, as part of what I do, I install a lot of crap on my system. A fresh computer every couple years is always an opportunity to get a fresh start. So, that’s what I did.I downloaded the latest versions of all the software that I use the most. And, I kept track, just for you. Here’s the list:

  1. Quicksilver β51
  2. Safari 3 Beta for Mac
  3. VMware Fusion Beta
  4. VoodooPad Lite
  5. Inquisitor 3 for Safari
  6. Set up Mail.app (accounts, rules)
  7. Transfer files from old Mac (using FireWire Target mode)
  8. Backup/Recover Address Book and iCal databases
  9. SpamSieve (export/import the old corpus)
  10. Windows XP (under VMware Fusion)
  11. Windows Live Writer Beta (under Windows XP; took forever for Service Pack 2 and .NET junk). Thank goodness Windows boots incredibly fast under VMware Fusion!
  12. Remote Desktop Connection for Mac (get the new Beta)
  13. Firefox
  14. F-Script Anywhere
  15. Aperture (actually was pre-installed) 
    • Move over Aperture and iPhoto Library
  16. Xcode
  17. AppleCare Online Registration
  18. Google Desktop for Mac
  19. Google Earth & Picasa Uploader (easily from Google Updater)
  20. Adium
  21. Copy over login.keychain (since “Export” option doesn’t work)
  22. Adobe Reader
  23. Application Enhancer with SDK
  24. Safari Bookmarks (export/import)
  25. FlickrExport Lite for Aperture
  26. KeywordAssistant for iPhoto
  27. Full Tilt Poker
  28. Quinn
  29. Bluetooth Connection and iSync my Nokia E61 
    • Customize modem script to access Internet through phone’s EDGE connection
  30. DarwinPorts and Subversion
  31. Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac
  32. RsyncX
  33. Chicken of the VNC
  34. Flip4Mac

That’s enough to get me going.Now, off to order that new 24″ iMac for the office computer… So glad that I own Apple stock.Tags: , , , , ,

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Full Tilt Time Wasting

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 5, 2007
in Entertainment, Mac OS X and Startups
. 0 Comments

A good friend suggested that I try FullTiltPoker.net.

She is no longer a good friend.

Permit me to explain.

She plays a lot of Poker. Real poker, against real people, at real tables, for real money. Texas Hold ‘Em mostly. She’s quite good.

I play a bit of pretend poker. Fake poker, for fake money. I’m OK. But, I’m really not much of a gambler. Yeah, I’m an entrepreneur, and some people think of that profession as "gambling" but it’s really not. There is luck involved, to be sure, but that’s not quite the same as gambling. I do enjoy poker, however. Very entertaining.

Anyway, my friend mentioned that she’ll login to Full Tilt Poker to get a quick poker fix in the morning.

I surveyed some of the available (FREE) online poker playing, but very few had support for the Apple Mac OS X system. However, Full Tilt Poker did! I had no excuse. I had to download the client and give it a try.

Wow.

The application is really well done. Gameplay is very good (except when you have somebody at the table with a sketchy internet connection). The graphics and animations are nice. Sound is decent. Gameplay is pretty quick (play 70 hands per hour easily). Play with fake money. Re-fill your fake chips every 5 minutes (if you lose it that quickly, which is quite likely when you get started). Makes it very easy to try different playing strategies. It’s awesome!

Now, they do have a real money side of the site as well. I watched a heads-up match where the pot was $44,700 for a single hand. Crazy. It can be entertaining to just watch. The real-money online tables play hands much faster than the real-money tables at a casino, so you can win it faster (or lose it faster). I just play the free chips and leave the real-money play to the professionals.They have every possible poker game you can imagine - Hold ‘Em, Omaha High/Low, Omaha High, Stud High/Low, Stud High, Razz, Multi-table Tournaments, and lots of events. All really well done.

Now, I wouldn’t necessarily call this "Massive Multiplayer" at this stage. I’ve only noticed about 60,000 people playing on the site at one time (but, to be fair, I haven’t really looked very often).

Bottom line: Full Tilt Poker is tons of fun. And, it’s FREE. However, it just ate a week of my life. Yikes. Now, I need to exercise a little self restraint!

Do not download this application unless you, too, would like to say goodbye to a week (or more) of your life.

Enjoy!

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NetNewsWire Beta Goes Public

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on February 20, 2007
in Blogging, Mac OS X, Software and Startups
. 0 Comments

Back in November 2006, I wrote the article, Google Reader: Actually Quite Good.

In that article, I noted how surprised I was that Google Reader was such a good online RSS news reader. I had been using the desktop application, NetNewsWire 2.1.1, on my Mac and was overall pretty satisfied with it (except for some scaling issues)… Then I moved up to the pre-release version of NetNewsWire 3.0 and found that things had not really improved.

I even complained that the developer, Brent Simmons, had not made much progress on NetNewsWire since the acquisition of his company, Ranchero Software, by NewsGator, over a year prior (October 2005).

The result was that I switched my RSS news/feed reading experience over to Google Reader and wrote about the switch. And, the Blogosphere responded.

Brent Simmons wrote a personal email to me to let me know that development was progressing along nicely and that he hoped to entice me back to NetNewsWire with the 3.0 official release. I thought that was awesome! In that note, Brent added:

I’m more excited about the 3.0 release than I have been about any software I’ve ever worked on.

Very cool. Brent is an excellent programmer and excited programmers can change the world.

Fast-forward. I noticed today that Brent has released a new pre-release version. I downloaded it and kicked the tires. I have to say that the performance of the Combined View and search functions were much nicer now. I may use Google Reader and NetNewsWire in parallel, or may just decide to wait for the official NetNewsWire 3.0 release to give it it’s full due.

Bottom line: Many thanks to Brent for engaging the community and continuing to make NetNewsWire great. I look forward to the official 3.0 release!

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AppleScript Shell for Mac OS X

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on January 4, 2007
in Mac OS X, Software and Startups
. 2 Comments

This is truly cool, if uber-geeky.

I’ve been coding of late. Working on a prototype for a new application that would, at least initially, integrate tightly into the Mac OS X operating system.

As such, I’ve been up to my ears in Objective C and AppleScript.

Thankfully, this discovery came at the perfect time.

It’s a program, written in PERL, that provides for a command-line shell for AppleScript applications under Mac OS X. It’s called "ash", for AppleScript Shell, and is available here.

It’s just like the good old days. Programming in the ’80s. Caveman style. Just the way I like it!

Many thanks to Hayne of Tintagel for this nice piece of work.

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