January Screenshot

First Leopard shot:

Clean | Dirty

Safari 3

Safari’s new resizable text boxes feature makes it really easy to obliterate a page layout.

[How To] Clean A Desk

About an hour ago, my desk looked like this:

This is just a mess. It’s the result of a week’s worth of work. In the top picture (l-r): Magazines, book, empty drinking glasses and a mug, camera bag, Mountain Dew bottle, CDs, iPod (with earbuds – still need to send my Skullcandys in for repair) and my wallet.  This crap all needs to move.

STEP 1:  Analysis

Determine what you need on your desk and what you don’t. For me, it’s limited to my computer, speakers, mouse, and the lamp behind. So, everything else has to go.

STEP 2: Find places for your crap

Magazines should naturally go on the book case to the right of my desk. My book should go beside my bed, and guitar picks on my guitar. Drinking glasses need to go to the dishwasher, along with the mug. The bottle needs to go to the recycling pile in the basement.

STEP 3: Get a move on

STEP 4: Admire your finished product

This is what my desk looks like right now:

My Country Is Hard Core

“Ahh,” some of you are saying. “My country also gets that cold.”

Ahh ha!

Feels like -45. Sometimes colder. And it’s noon. And that’s as warm as it’s getting today.

DAMMIT!!!

So, as I mentioned last time, I forgot to back up bookmarks and IM convos. Guess what else I didn’t back up?

My Photoshop work.

I no longer have some of my wallpapers (works in progress), some old work that I use, patterns, and other crap.

DAMMIT!

Leopard – Really Bloody Fast Review

So, I (finally) upgraded to Leopard yesterday. Quick walkthrough:

I upgraded from Tiger. Since I modded my system so much, I figured I’d back up any essentials, and do a clean install. I know it isn’t necessary, but having old bits of ShapeShifter, Silk, APE and God-knows what else on my system isn’t exactly appealing in terms of making stuff run faster. So, clean install it is.  The install itself took about half an hour. Not bad for clearing about 80 GB of stuff from a hard drive, and tossing another 12 or 13 on it. Then the intro video ran:

Then the setup… usual stuff.

And it was at that exact moment that I remembered I hadn’t backed up my 300 or 400 bookmarks. I hate formatting sometimes.

Initial Impressions:

Leopard is familiar, visually. I’ve seen the screenshots and knew what to expect. That still didn’t prevent the “wow” moment. One thing struck me as good looking, however, that I did not expect. I saw the screenshots and videos, but I now actually like the transparent title bar. The 3D dock is sweet too, especially the shiny-ness.

Time Machine

One of the reasons I bought Leopard was because of Time Machine. It’s a super easy way to back up, or so they say. Let’s find out…

I have a 250 GB hard drive which is in a FireWire 400 enclosure. It’s perfectly suited to the task. I plugged it in, and realized that it was FAT32 formatted. So, I pulled all the useful stuff off of it (all 150 GB worth… took absolutely forever), formatted it, then partitioned it. I created one partition that matches the 120 GB hard drive in my MacBook Pro, and the remainder just for me to dump my crap. That came out really wrong. If you’re reading this and suddenly got the impression that my hard drive was a toilet, my bad.

That 150 GB of stuff I managed to pare down to 80 GB, which was nice. I put that on the crap dump section (again, my bad). Then, I set up the rest of it to work with Time Machine. The initial backup (of three-quarters of a million files) took about two and a half hours, which isn’t bad, considering it was about 50 GB of data. Then, it was 1:30 AM, so I went to bed. I left my hard drive on, thinking it would be good to let it back stuff up at night.

Here’s my first problem with Time Machine: the hard drive whirring every 15 minutes is enough to drive you mad. All of the documentation said it would happen every hour. Which meant that, after the first whirr, I had 50-odd minutes to get to sleep. Then it would carry on throughout the night, whilst I lay asleep. Ah, but ’tis not the case. The hard drive kept waking up every 10-15 minutes. So I finally just got up, told Time Machine to shut up, and turned off the drive. And that settled that.

I woke up, and turned on the hard drive. It made a backup right then. And another an hour later. It worked really well in the background. But I hit upon another weird thing.

As it was doing my 11:28 AM backup (not that you needed to know that), my computer ground to a halt. I mean, spinning pinwheels in every application regardless of what it was doing. Heck, I just had Smultron (a really dead simple text editor) running alongside Time Machine, and no dice. So, I opened up System Preferences (took about 5 minutes, and I am not exaggerating) and attempted to stop the backup. It wouldn’t budge. So, I did what any angry user would do, and force-quit the backup, ejected the drive and turned it off. I then disabled a few folders (BitTorrent transfer folder being one of them) to stem the anger. It worked. Lesson: Never let Time Machine back up an active BitTorrent folder.

I’d just like to wrap this up now, because I’m lazy, tired, hungry, and can’t think of anything else to write.

The Good

+ Looks great

+ Runs faster (after some initial slowdowns)

+ Better battery life (!), despite fancy-shmancy visual effects. I used to get about 3.5 hours on Tiger, and I’m getting 4-4.5 on Leopard.

+ Lots more functionality that I’m too lazy to list

The Bad

- Time Machine has a few quirks

-  Some initial backup calamities (guess who forgot to backup bookmarks, old IM conversations, and some of their desktop pictures collection? I did)

- Runs HOT. I installed smcFanControl to monitor the temperature. At the moment, if I keep it on default fan speed, I’m getting low-to-mid 70˚C CPU temperatures. I’ve got it on high-speed at the moment, and temperatures have dropped to the low 60˚C range. But high-speed will kill battery life.

Apple Faces (Yet Another) Patent Lawsuit

So, some crappy little company in LA is suing Apple because the iPhone allegedly violates one of their patents.

The company is Minerva Industries Inc. Now, according to their website, they basically are patent trolls. They grab patents for products that might exist, but they never intend on producing said products, just holding the rights to produce them. They also haven’t updated said website since 2006, so that shows – erm – commitment.

Anyways… the patent. It’s #7,321,783, and here’s the abstract:

“A mobile entertainment and communication device in a palm-held size housing has a cellular or satellite telephone capable of wireless communication with the Internet and one or more replaceable memory card sockets for receiving a blank memory card for recording data directly from the Internet and, in particular, musical performances that then can be selectively reproduced by the device for the enjoyment of the user, including both audio and visual recordings and reproductions. The device also includes a camera and microphone for recording images and sound within the range of the device that can be wirelessly transmitted, either selectively or automatically to a remote telephone. Further, the device includes sensors for sensing unusual conditions that may also be transmitted to a remote telephone, together with the location of the device as determined by a GPS section of the device.”

Now, I don’t know if anybody at Apple legal has read this patent yet, but if they have, they’re probably giggling with laughter. I’m going to go through the abstract again, but this time, I’m going to bold all of the stuff that the iPhone doesn’t have right now, and probably won’t have for a very long time (if ever):

A mobile entertainment and communication device in a palm-held size housing has a cellular or satellite telephone capable of wireless communication with the Internet and one or more replaceable memory card sockets for receiving a blank memory card for recording data directly from the Internet and, in particular, musical performances that then can be selectively reproduced by the device for the enjoyment of the user, including both audio and visual recordings and reproductions. The device also includes a camera and microphone for recording images and sound within the range of the device that can be wirelessly transmitted, either selectively or automatically to a remote telephone. Further, the device includes sensors for sensing unusual conditions that may also be transmitted to a remote telephone, together with the location of the device as determined by a GPS section of the device.

So, basically, about 70% of the patent is irrelevant. That leaves 30%. And, you’ll note that I italicized one line in there. Here it is again for reference:

[...] microphone for recording images and sound within the range of the device that can be wirelessly transmitted, either selectively or automatically to a remote telephone[...]

Now, correct me if I’m wrong here, but that sounds an awful lot like they tried to patent the cell phone. Only without the cool.

UPDATE: And I hate whomever coded this WordPress editing thing. I liked the old one more, because it actually worked in Safari. This one doesn’t. Fix it, dammit.

Icon Pack – Dots 2

Dots 2 is a brand new icon pack. It’s a followup to the original Dots icon set.

The pack includes 60 icons in 128 and 512 sizes, in 2 colours per size (black and clear…I know, both aren’t colours. So shoot me).

You can download the pack at deviantArt. It’s a 6.2 MB disk image. Are you on a Windows or Linux system? No problem. I’ve got a special version for you guys, available here.

Failed Predictions and New Predictions

So, Macworld 2008 has come and gone. Another year of “Boom!” is coming. If you’ve been living under a rock, or have stayed away from the internet (???), TV and newspapers, here’s a rundown of what Apple released at MW08 (I’ll be using that abbreviation, because I’m lazy):

1. New software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The 1.1.3 firmware update includes the ability to add web clips to the home screen (for frequently accessed websites and web apps), reorganize the home screen, and use #2 on my list. The firmware is free. 5 apps (which were on the iPhone) are now available for iPod Touch users (like myself). The apps are Mail, Maps (with cool new features), Weather, Stocks and Notes. These apps cost $20, and are available on the iTunes store.

2. iTunes movie rentals are now a reality. $2.99 for library titles (“Die Hard”, “The Incredibles”, etc.), and $3.99 for new releases. You have 30 days to start watching a rental, and 24 hours thereafter to finish watching it. Not bad at all. New releases are available 30 days after the DVD has been released. Fox is also offering digital copies (for no extra charge) on some of its DVDs. You can buy a physical DVD, pop it into your computer, and iTunes will ask you if you’d like to copy the digital version of it to your computer. That’s pretty cool.

3. New Apple TV updates abound! There is a redesigned UI, so you don’t need a computer anymore. You can rent or buy movies, music and more from your sofa. I think this is pretty cool, and I’m thinking of buying my parents an Apple TV. Oh, and the new Apple TVs are cheaper, and for 1st generation users, it’s a free software update. One more thing about this is the addition of HD rentals. Unfortunately, you can’t rent HD movies on a computer, but you can on the Apple TV. Only $1 extra to get the movie in HD. Obviously, not all movies are HD, but some are and they look really good, apparently. I believe the HD movies are 720p, not 1080p.

4. Time Capsule is a wireless backup drive. Basically, it’s an Airport Extreme base station with a 500GB or 1TB hard drive built in. That’s really great for MacBook (Pro) users, because (assuming you’re running Leopard), you can backup wirelessly. That means that you don’t have to lug around a hard drive with you if you want to work outside, or downstairs, or wherever. It’ll do it wirelessly, and of course, automatically. $299 for the 500GB version, and $499 for the 1TB version.

5. A new laptop in Apple’s lineup. It’s called the MacBook Air, and it’s only 0.76″ thick at it’s thickest point (and a Jenny Craig-esque 0.16″ at its thinnest). It has an 80GB hard drive, or you can pay $999 for a 64GB solid state hard drive. I don’t think that it’s going to be a popular option, but it’s cool nevertheless. 1.6 GHz C2D processor as standard, upgradable to 1.8 GHz. 13.3″ glossy screen, all aluminium enclosure, and other cool stuff. Starts at $1799, which isn’t bad for a compact laptop. My sister even wants one…

So, that’s the wrapup. But I was really hoping to see new Apple Cinema Displays as part of the presentation. I posted my photo illustration of what a new one could look like a couple of weeks ago (link), but I have a better idea of what they may do.

I propose 2 lineups of displays. The first will be called the Apple Cinema Display. It will be available in 20″ and 24″ models, and will sport a glass display (glossy, of course), black bezel and an iSight camera. It will look something like this:

(yes, I know that’s probably the 30″ model, but it was the best picture on Apple’s website for illustrating what I want it to)

Then, there will be a pro line of displays, called the Apple Cinema Display Pro, or Apple Pro Cinema Display, or some play on words like that. These displays will be matte (with the option of a glossy screen), and will be without the iSight camera. However, they will have closer colour calibration for designers and professionals, and will be available in 24″ and 30″ screen sizes.

Of course, I could be (and probably am) talking complete rubbish, but it’s nice to dream. My laziness dictated the design of these illustrations, so it’s largely based on the current generation of displays (obviously).

On the technical side, the response time of these displays should be in the 3-5 ms range. The ports on them will be largely carried over for the consumer models (2 Firewire 400 ports, and 2 USB 2.0 ports), but the professional range will have 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire 400 port and 1 Firewire 800 port. Maybe by the time these displays are released (hopefully at WWDC 08), USB 3.0 will be finalized and we’ll see hubs for those. Oh yeah, and the materials…

Obviously…

Maybe Apple will use matte glass in some way on the pro line.

Enough predictions. Bring on WWDC!

5 Tips For A Clean Workspace

If you’re like me, you spend a good chunk of your time sat at your desk in front of your computer. The most irritating thing about working long hours is that a pile of stuff accumulates at your desk and sort of sits there begging to be taken care of. What follows is a list of 5 ways to keep your workspace tidy. Apologies if the previous paragraph made no sense; it’s late.

Who doesn’t want a nice clean setup to be proudly working behind? I sure enjoy working at a clean & comfortable desk everyday. Hopefully this post will help you on your way to achieving that dream setup you’ve always wanted, and give you some insight on how to keep it that way.

Tip One: Respect Your Area

Tip one is the most important of them all. If you don’t have respect for your area and your possessions, you won’t care about their condition and cleanliness. If you do have respect for your things, than you’ll take the extra time to make sure they’re clean and in good shape. This also displays how thankful you are for what you own. This tip is one that a lot of people don’t follow. The majority of people buy expensive things, that others aren’t fortunate to have, and they treat it like it’s garbage. So, if you’re going to keep a clean setup, you’re going to need to respect what you have.

Tip Two: Invest In Storage

A major reason that some people can’t keep clean setups is because they have a lot of papers and pencils lying around on their desk. If you notice on the bottom left of my set up, you’ll see a storage drawer with 4 drawers on it. I use this for all of my papers, schools supplies, miscellaneous items and some tech stuff. Without that $20.00 contraption from Wal-Mart, my desk would be a complete mess. So, invest in a small little storage drawer like mine, and put all loose items in it. You can still have a mess, but just keep it hidden.

Tip Three: Save Up & Buy Better

Save up and buy better. This is pretty simple. A lot of people buy less expensive things, which are of inferior quality, just because they have the money to buy it now. In the last few years, I’ve learnt that it’s better to save up and wait a little longer, so that you can invest in better quality. Not only is this beneficial for the present, but it will be beneficial for the future. You’ll a) have something that will last you longer and b) own something with a greater resale value. This will also enforce step 1 on you, because you’ll have something that’s worth more, so you’ll treat it better and with more respect.

Tip Four: Go Wireless

This tip should come as no surprise. If you want a desk that’s clean and simple, wireless is the way to go. Although this costs more, it’s all worth it in the end, when you’re sitting and working in front of the setup of your dreams. Going back to step four; take a little more time to save up, and buy better quality things, like wireless devices.

Tip Five: Keep Only What You Need

Keep only the things you absolutely need on your desks surface. To keep things as neat and simplistic as possible, just keep your necessities on your desk. Try and find alternative places for things like cell phone chargers, printers, scanners, books, ect. This will allow you to take full advantage of your desks real estate, and it will clear up any clutter you previously had.

In terms of my personal checklist…

1. I respect everything I own. I work hard to make enough money to buy the things I do have, which really helps. I know so many people who treat what they own like crap because their parents bought it for them and “well, they can buy it again”. Not cool. Grow up.
2. Working on this one. I just bought a new Ikea shelf to deal with my Top Gear addiction, so that was a welcome addition. Well, when I said “I purchased”, what I meant was “my parents bought me”. But I treat it with respect! I swear!
3. Oh how many times I’ve learned this lesson. I try to buy the best I can. For example, I could have purchased just a MacBook, not a MB Pro. But I chose to wait and get the Pro, because of a number of reasons which are irrelevant to this blog entry. Same with my speakers, same with my iPod. I could have bought the 8 GB Touch, but I wanted the 16, because that’s just doing things properly.
4. Working on this one. I’m looking to buy a Logitech wireless mouse and an Apple wireless keyboard. Both are Bluetooth. Again, doing things properly (lesson #3). I only have 2 USB ports on my MBP, so I don’t want them clogged up with IR dongles. Internal Bluetooth for the win.
5. I do a minor tidying of my desk every week or so. It helps keep the clutter down. Right now, I have a couple of glasses from beverages (now drink drank drunk), a chocolate bar, the latest issue of Wired and my dad’s external HDD on my desk. I will be ridding my desk of this evil by tomorrow.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. The above list of tips is from Wesley Yendry’s blog. It’s an old post, but I stumbled upon it today, and thought I’d share it.

Is This The Next Cinema Display?

New Years Live Playlist

Not going to release a mix of this one (it’s too big), so here are the tracks I played: