ZFS Fail

So after a reinstall of OpenSolaris and starting from scratch and carefully going through the newly learned steps of setting up my home file server, I finally got it working to the stage when the server had a ZFS pool and could share it over the network and I could read and write to it. I recorded the terminal commands that I used to get it going in a Google Doc if anyone wants to try if for themselves.

However, every time I tried to copy anything big to it, it would disappear off the network until it was rebooted. Not sure what is causing this and the OpenSolaris community aren't newbie friendly. In fact, they're not helpful at all. The problem could be a hardware fault, but I don't know my way around OpenSolaris well enough to determine that and operating systems that require terminal commands to get anything done just seems so... '80's...

I'm not giving up just yet though. Today, Uncle Phil is donating his old PC to the cause. It's a PC that he doesn't use anymore because he now has an iMac, something that's been happening a bit in our circle of friends lately. Phil's old PC isn't shabby at all, with a Core2Duo processor and plenty of RAM so it'll be interesting if this makes a difference.

Here we go again!

A Win Followed By Another Problem

Yay! I googled and googled and googled and eventually found a few blogs with useful information and guides to get Windows to see OpenSolaris shares, and if Windows can do it, the Mac can.

If you've happened on this page looking for the answer I found, I apologize. It was like 4am when I got it working and I went to sleep pretty much immediately but I'll post a few pages from the history that I think were helpful.... I was pretty tired.

A good place to start if you're just considering using OpenSolaris for NAS (network access storage)
Simons Blog:A Home Fileserver using ZFS
I started following the guide at:
Corner 11:Adventures in Opensolaris - Build a ZFS pool as a network share

but he got a bit vague on a couple of steps but got me most of the way.

The Observatory:Accessing OpenSolaris Shares From Windows.

This one cleared up the steps I was having problems with.

Anyway, the point is that after yet another fresh install of OpenSolaris and lots of reading and typing terminal commands, I can now access my ZFS File server from my Mac. That's what the "Yay!" was about.

I've only been playing with OpenSolaris for about a week now in it's painfully obvious to me that I still have a lot to learn. A fact that hit home hard when I tried to copy something onto the file server. I couldn't. In fact, I couldn't even copy a file to the ZFS volume from OpenSolaris. So my next challenge is to decipher folder permissions. I think I have a clue... it's starts with chmod.

I'm sure there's a whole lot more reading and probably some lengthy terminal sessions involved... Mick suggested that I visit a OpenSolaris IRC Chat Room, a suggestion I took about a day before I received. OpenSolaris comes with Pidgin - a multi service chat client (like MSN or GoogleTalk but more useful) and checking out the IRC channel (#opensolaris at Freenode.net) was what I was doing while googling.

Is it too soon to say googled with a little 'g'?

I like to scope an IRC channel before I blurt out a question - especially a channel full of techies. I've worked as a computer tech so I know what it's like to be asked stupid questions - often the same questions from different people, and some tech-type channels have rules like "Don't ask questions that are already answered in our FAQ" and "No Noobs". So I said "hi" when I entered and sat back to see if I could understand what everyone was saying, to see if I had learned enough to jump into a conversation.

Considering OpenSolaris is kind of like the 'in-development-bleeding-edge' version of Sun Solaris, it wasn't surprising that these guys were talking like programmers and developers, not a newbie helpline.

Still, I might ask them about chmod... nah!

Parties, Maps and the Flu

We went to Brisbane on the weekend to attend Jemma and Nick's engagement party. We took the X-90 down for the drive, the first time I've taken the little Suziki for such a long trip. It handled really well, although the seats stop being comfortable after about three or four hours.

The party was great! We caught up with a lot of Cilla's family and got to meet some of Nick's relatives which was really good. Nick's clan seems like a top bunch. We're looking forward to catching up with most of Cilla's family again at Xmas. Nick show me his new iPhone 3G S which is a very tidy bit of gear. iPhone is a bit smaller than I thought it would be. I really really really want one...

We had a few days free to do whatever and we were trying to think of who we know near there to drop in and visit. The Gilberts are pretty much just across the NSW border, and Mick and Anna aren't far away in Dalby, but the choice was made for us when Cilla woke up with a cough and the sniffles. I'm sure no-one want's a visit from someone with the flu (especially with a house full of kids) so we headed home.

We did drop in to Maryborough to stretch our legs and give our arses a rest, where we caught up with Reid and met his Grandmother Beryl. She didn't like my long hair at all and didn't hesitate to tell me so. She's a funny old dear. She cooked us up a little pizza and sent us on our way.

It was nice to crash in our own bed after a long trip but we were both sick as dogs. Of course there was that little voice at the back of our heads saying "...it could be swine influenza..." so on Monday we gave Queensland Health a call and let them know we had the flu. They interviewed me over the phone and asked me lots of question along the lines of "are you dying?" and "are you dead yet?" and finally said it was likely just normal people flu and I should just go see a doctor.

Our regular doctor was booked out so we booked in at another medical center. And what a wanker we ended up with! He quizzed us about smoking and then blamed that on why we were sick and then told Cilla, who works at a cafe at an airport that she'd be ready for work in two days. Knowing the risk of taking the flu into a cafe at an airport, she asked to have until Friday, but the doctor refused saying she can go back to work on Wednesday. So without a medical certificate from the doctor, Cilla has been forced to go to work before she's recovered.

And get this! The antibiotic that this doctor prescribed came with a "Consumer Medicine Information" sheet which says:

"Doxyhexal is an antibiotic and belongs to a group of medicines called tetracyclines... Tetracyclines will not work agains viral infections such as colds or flu."

So what the fuck is up with this doctor? To the untrained eye, it looks like he has no idea of what he's doing. To the conspiracy minded it looks like he's trying to spread the flu as far and wide as possible. Perhaps he's just an anti-smoking campaigner posing to be a medical practitioner. Whatever his problem is, he does nothing to promote trust in his industry.

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Other news. Google have added Real Estate search to Google Maps. Try it out like this.

1. Visit maps.google.com.au
2. Type "real estate" into the search box
3. Click the "Search Maps" button
4. Click "Real estate on Google Maps" link in the left sidebar of the webpage - it has a little blue house icon beside it.

Now you should have lots of little red dots all over the map. These are properties for sale or rent. You can narrow the search field using the options in the side bar and you'll see dot's disappear as you do. This is a very neat tool and an extremely practical use of Google Maps.

Gotta love Google!

Google Wave

Google have announced new technology called Wave. They say that they asked themselves one question.

"What would e-mail be like if it were invented today?"

As usual, Google have not failed to impress. After watching the keynote on their homepage on what we can expect to be able to do with Wave once it's released, I am excited. It marries Instant Messaging style chat to e-mail style conversations to forum style discussions with wiki style editing options... and much more than that!

Here are a few points in the video that I'd like to list that I'm really looking forward to.

• Character-by-character chat.

No longer do you sit and wait while you stare at the notice "Fred is typing...". Instead, you see Fred's message as he's typing it, so you can be already formulating your reply. If you begin typing your reply before he's finished, he can see you doing so, character by character as you type.

• Photo (and other rich content) sharing.

Something that is difficult to do with online photo albums today is allowing many people to add to a single collection. Wave makes it really easy to share photos and ideas under a single topic for everyone to see and add to. For example, your young child has a birthday party and you post some fun pics on a wave to share with everyone who was at the party, and other people could add photos that they took to the same collection.

Which brings us to

• Collaboration

This system really allows for groups of people to work on one thing all at once. The character-by-character nature of the communication means that many people can be editing the same document at once because you see everyone's changes and additions as they're making them.

• Spell Checker

They also demonstrated a new spell checker that is actually context sensitive. It can fix those mistakes that most spell checkers miss, like the difference between to and too, or there, their and they're. This is technology that draws upon Google's vast amounts of information at their disposal, by creating a massive database on language usage and how sentences are formed and what people are talking about. If information is power, then this is an example of an enormous amount of power being used for the common good of the Citizens of Earth... but wait, they're about to prove that spelling and grammar are not the limit of their power...

• Language Translator

I was just completely blown away when they demonstrated this. The translator supports forty different languages and can translate between any two of them. It, like everything else, is character-by-character, so as your French acquaintance is typing you can see their text appear as they type it, with the translation appearing below, as they type.

So while Microsoft are playing a fanfare for the launch of Bing, the search tool that censors your results but has a pretty picture behind it, Google are coming up with the next big thing.

Remember the original question? "What would e-mail be like if it were invented today?" One of the things that makes the forty-odd year old e-mail standard so successful is that it remains an Open Standard, meaning that anyone can write an e-mail program, run their own e-mail server and still send and receive e-mail with anyone in the world, regardless of what software or server they are using. This is the benefit of using Open Standards so Google are releasing Wave as an Open Standard too, allowing anyone to create clients, extensions and add-ons that take advantage of the new Wave protocol.

This is what Google reckon e-mail should be like, and I like it!

Let's see, what's new?

Well, Windows 7 is landing with a big splash. It hasn't even been released yet and already the NSW Dept of Education is installing it on student laptops. Not surprisingly, the students are liking it. It's actually quite good. I've had Windows 7 loaded up on my iMac with Bootcamp for a while now and it seems to work really well. It doesn't deliberately go out of it's way to piss me off like Vista did, although it has still inherited many of the classic faults of the Windows Operating System.

By loading up Windows 7 on my computer I agreed to a non-disclosure agreement which prevents me from discussing my Windows 7 experience with anyone but Microsoft, which is why I haven't blogged for a while. So I'm not going to tell you any more about it - except that it's the best Windows OS I've ever used and is easily as good (in terms of OS features, security and ease-of-use) as the previous version of Mac OS.

If you want to try out Windows 7 visit the official Microsoft Download page and you can try it for free until July 2010. You'll need a "Microsoft Account" to acces it. A Hotmail/Live/MSN account... y'know, one of those... if you use Microsoft/MSN/Windows/Live Messenger, that's the account you'll need. I wish they'd just settle on one branding!

Look out! Here comes another one! Bing!

This picture is an accurate representation of what Google has done to Microsoft's previous forays into online search. Google is so successful at online search that the two words are interchangeable. People don't search for something anymore, they Google it.

If we can give Microsoft credit for anything though, it's that they just don't give up. Enter Bing, Microsoft's latest brand sporting an uncharacteristically creative name which they hope will be the search engine of choice for Netizens of the future. I reckon Google are already preparing the backswing for this one.

Facebook

Being the technology fan that I am, there are a few online services that I have come to really appreciate. Google is obviously at the top of the list with their search, mail and calendar firmly entrenched in my everyday life. I dislike MySpace because it always looks so cluttered and poorly formatted. There was an idea there, but it didn't really have a properly defined goal and seemed to lack direction.

My next foray into the social networking website scene involved Orkut, Google's own attempt at this growing market, but it didn't seem to work very well either. There is an awful lot of spam comments littered throughout the site making it quite an unpleasant place to visit.

I initially dismissed Facebook as another doomed-to-failure attempt at the social networking website genre and I didn't expect it to go very far, but when we really needed to find so people it amazed me at how efficiently I was able to track down and get in touch with them.

Earlier this year a friend of ours was involved in a terrible accident. When we initially heard about it we had very little information. Using Facebook, we were quickly able to track down friends of the people involved and by the end of the day we had made contact with several people we were able to share information with.

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, as my regular reader will already know, and the fact that they have recently bought into Facebook is a little worrying. I've seen what happens to websites that get bought by Microsoft. HoTMaiL is a prime example of how Microsoft can screw up a perfectly good service website.

There is no doubt though, that Facebook is 90% crap. In fact the crap level is probably closer to 97 or 98%. It's filled with stupid surveys like: "Do you think your friend's mother's chiropractor is sexy?", "What are your top ten David Letterman Top Ten lists?" and "Rate my sports clothing company's sex appeal". Then there's those silly time-wasting games that go nowhere, although I do click through the Pirates! game. Anyone thinking of sending me a fish for my coral cove should be aware that I drained it months ago and anyone thinking of sending me a plant for my Lil' Green Patch should be aware that it's now nothing more than a big slab of concrete. I stopped accepting those silly gifts when some dude send me a virtual diamond ring! That worried me a bit.

Underneath the crap though is an excellent network that allows me to keep in touch with friends around the world. We keep in contact with our friends Kerry and Bevan who are travelling Europe for the next several months. They drop a little note on their Facebook page nearly every day and post photos of their trip. At the same time they keep up-to-date with everything that is happening back here in Australia. Another friend, Kaaren is in Thailand at the moment and she's keeping us informed of her adventures over there. My good friend Steve "The Drummer" recently got onto Facebook and immediately found and contacted members of his family over in England that he hasn't seen or spoken to in over a decade! It's allowed a level of communication among our family that we've never had before with every single member keeping in touch with everyone else with very little effort.

I like it. I like the way it keeps me in touch with everyone on my friends list. I like the way I can set it up to restrict my information to just people on my friends list. I like that people can find me, but when they do, they can see only my name and profile picture and nothing else until I confirm them as a friend. I like the way I can share photos and stories with all the people that I care about. This blog has been a great way to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing, but people have to come here to read it (unless you subscribe to it using an RSS feed reader like Google Reader). What makes Facebook work so well is that you only need to visit your own page because has all your friends posts already on it.

I'm a fan.

Google Ocean

Google Earth has had a big update to provide us with even more science and geekness. The latest update includes Google Ocean, where you can view the 3D topography of the ocean floor, track pods of whales that have been fitted with global positioning systems, view up-to-date info on lots of marine life and check out plenty of photos, especially showcasing our own Great Barrier Reef.

It'll have to do until we can go SCUBA diving again.

Backup in time.

I worked with this guy in a computer shop a long time ago, we'll call him Dave - an intellectual, a musician, a fellow geek whom I've known for many years as a competent computer technician.  In a comment to one of my previous posts, he directed me to some nice backup software to help cope with the problems we have both experienced with Windows.

I can't see why we need to try and develop or purchase all these work-arounds for the failings of Microsoft's OS. To be fair, WindowsXP has backup software built in but even this guide to using it on Microsoft's own website says most people don't know think about backing up and even if you do, you have to do some digging to find the program to do it.  And then the whole back-up process is totally manual, requiring you to select everything you want to back up, tell it where you want to put the backup - network drive, blank CD - and then you have to set up a schedule and maintain that schedule, which few people are able to do. Also, a complete and regular backup using this method would use an enormous amount of data storage because you back up everything, every time, even the stuff that didn't change since the last backup.

Dave's suggestion was some imaging software - Acronis - which essentially takes a snapshot of the entire system which you'd then burn to a disc or save on an external or network drive. Disk imaging is usually time consuming and best for quickly performing clean installs. I haven't tried Acronis, but their site doesn't give a lot of information about how their software works. It says they have an incremental backup feature suggesting that it can identify your files that have been changed and add them to the backup which saves a lot on data storage.  

Both above methods can be stored on a DVD which makes it hard to accidentally erase the storage which can happen with external hard drives but even DVD are not infallible.

I also had a comment on my last post from an anonymous user - lets call him Mick Frank - who suggested that I back up to the cloud.  While I already keep a lot of information online under my Google account  - Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, Google Video, Picasaweb - I am rather selective about what I upload to these sites.  One should ask: Do I really want to place my information in the hands of another person or business?  I don't think of these Google services as somewhere to store my backups.  They are a place to share ideas with others.  As for anonymous ftp servers, there are serious bandwidth issues for most Australians.  In this country we have limits on how much we can download with nearly every Internet plan, limited either by speed or by the amount of downloaded data.  There are speed issues.  How long does it take to send a modest 35GB backup to an FTP server on the other side of the planet?  There are privacy issues too.  Where is the server located?  Argentina?  Zimbabwe?  China?  USA?  What is to stop someone looking through all my stuff?  More to the point, will that server still be there tomorrow?  No thanks, I prefer to hang on to my data myself.

OS X has a backup feature called Time Machine. First of all, it's included with the OS and not only is it easily found, it's one of the most advertised features. This is what I needed to do to get it going.

1. Plug in a big external hard drive.
   
2. Open Time Machine
3. Turn On Time Machine
4. There is no step 4.

Now our Mac is backed up.  A complete backup.  When I import a new CD, it detects that there are new files and adds them to the backup.  When add a riff to my musical composition it is automatically added to the backup.  If the Mac were to suddenly die in a billowing cloud of smoke - touch wood - the last entry I put into the calendar, the last note I jotted on the desktop and the last web page I bookmarked are safely backed up on my external drive.

So how did I end up in the situation I described in my last post?  

Fact: 

No-one backs up until about 10 minutes after they need to.

I had even done step 1. Plug in a big external hard drive. but I still just couldn't be bothered with clicking the mouse a few more times to back up all my data.  At the time it all just seemed too much hassle...

...and then there's that tendency to erase hard drives without thinking...

Apple seem to have put data protection up front.  We all know that computers crash.  Macs and PCs alike, all are susceptible to a hard drive failure, but Apple are actively doing something about it.  Not only with the most easy-to-use backup software in the world, but even the hardware is being re-designed with data protection in mind.  Apple notebooks have the option of shipping with solid-state hard drives that have no moving parts.  Wherever there are moving parts, there is wear and with wear, failure is inevitable.  So if you have anything on your computer that is irreplaceable - back it up.  

Make up a check list.

1. Documents
2. Pictures
3. Music
4. Videos
5. Address Book
6. Bookmarks
7. Financial Records
8. Downloaded software
9. Game saves
10. Whatever else you can think of... and think hard!

Backup now... before it's too late - although, as I showed in my last post, even when it's too late it may not be too late!

Slice of News

I'm in a rush so I'm going to just post some quick links to stuff that I found to be an interesting read.

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Roundup of NASA's 50 years in space, the retirement of the shuttle and what's it all about?

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Google Maps Great Barrier Reef

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Fifty years in space and 100 years on the road - Ford celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Model T and have a car design competition.  The winner is an air-powered three wheeler!

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Take a look at these picture.  They are actual photos of clouds floating across another planet's sky! Courtesy of Phoenix Lander

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Skype users?  China is listening!

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Chrome - Googles new Internet Browser

It's a bit hard to go on about Chrome.  It was launched very quietly and had it not been for a friend pointing it out to me, I probably wouldn't have discovered for a while yet.

Google have launched their own Internet browser.  My first thoughts were "Why do we need another Internet browser with so many others like Safari, Internet Explorer and my beloved Firefox?".  Like most software from Google, it's very spartan, yet usable.  Most of what's special about it is under the hood.  To the end user, it's a very basic browser with very few features.  It has more screen space than any other browser.  It's faster and more stable than any other browser.  It looks pretty good too.

Google have created a comic style help file/manual for those that are interested in the inner workings of Chrome.  It was the comic that convinced me to give it a serious try so I'm using it as my default browser for a while.  So far the only thing I miss from Firefox is the GoogleBar addon because it allowed very good access to Google Bookmarks, Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Maps but the single search/address bar seems to have an uncanny knack of knowing what I'm asking of it.

So far, so good.

Street View for Australia

Google Maps has launched street view. I was going to write a big story about it but I'm lazy and will instead just post this video from Google.



The photos aren't all that current but the 'wow' factor is still there. My place is too far off the beaten track to appear on street view but it's been quite interesting to go and have a look at places I havn't been to in years!

iPhone and WWDC

The 9th of June marked the opening of the WWDC '08, Apple's World Wide Developers Conference where they've just announced the new and updated iPhone 3G. And that's about it. They talked about the iPhone. And not much else. No Apple TV, no new touch interfaces, no iMac overhaul, no games console, a little about the next version of OS X, but pretty much it was all about iPhone 3G and the stuff they're making to support it.

So lets go over it a little bit shall we?

iPhone 3G is to be released in Australia on July 11th. Don't actually expect to get one on that day as demand is expected to outstrip supply on a scale that rivals the Wii.

Telstra don't look to have it. They made some snide comments about how Apple should stick to making computers and keep out of the mobile phone market about a year ago. Apple may be feeding Telstra some humble-pie for their arrogance.

Optus and Vodafone do appear to have it - although neither have released pricing details yet. There has been mention of a pre-paid option suggesting you could buy the phone without a contract which appeals to me - I use a telstra pre-paid phone at the moment.

The thing is with Optus and Vodafone is that their 3G networks are pretty much exclusive to the capital cities. Outside of these areas they're coverage is minimal with a 900MHz 3G which is incompatible with the 3G iPhone, so when you're in these areas your iPhone will have to switch to the much slower 2.5G (EDGE) network. Telstra have rolled out an extensive 3G network that runs at 850MHz which the iPhone 3G can run on, but so far it doesn't look like you can get a iPhone through Telstra. That means that if I were to buy an iPhone 3G to use where I live in regional Queensland, my iPhone 3G won't actually connect to a 3G network... unless I jailbreak it to work on the Telstra network. But if it's pre-paid, it shouldn't be locked to a network provider should it? I've never been good with mobile phones...

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Anyhoo.... iPhone 3G has Google Maps with built in GPS - cool. It's got Wi-Fi Internet browsing and it's capable of playing games. A 2 MP camera is on the back and it comes in 8GB and 16GB varieties. The 8GB looks pretty much like the old iPhone except a bit thinner and has a black back instead of the aluminium back. the 16GB gives you the choice of a black back or a white back. I'd still choose black.

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They mentioned something about the next Mac OS at WWDC too which apparently will be called Snow Leopard. Meh.

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Games are coming out for Mac. People are pushing for development. I'm going to try out this trial of CrossOver Games by Codeweavers which will apparently let me play Guild Wars on the mac without loading Windows on it at all. More on that when I try it out.

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The Mick Thackray Experience has been moved to Blogger. Please create or update your bookmarks.

Lots of rain

We have been getting heaps of rain here for the last couple of weeks but yesterday it really bucketed down so I jumped in my X-90 and took it for a splash with video camera in hand. See the video on YouTube or Google Video.

First Mac

I woke up on Monday morning and crawled out of bed to the computer.

Through bleary eyes I clicked Start and found the Firefox icon.

I tried to type the couriers site.

www.tmt.cp,

doh... typo - tap Backspace repeatedly.

check hand position...

stare at keyboard and blink a couple of times...

www.tnt.com.au

[Enter]

minimize Firefox

open a pdf on the desktop - the shipping order from Apple for the Mac Mini

double click to select the order number - right click and copy

alt tab to firefox

right click and paste

[enter]

.........

Onboard for Delivery - Gladstone

close eyes really tight

look again

Onboard for Delivery - Gladstone

Oh, sweeeeet... its here... over a week since the release of Leopard and it's finally here.

www.google.com.au TNT Gladstone Australia Big Book Business Directory

scroll down

TNT Express (Gladstone, QLD)

read the phone number

grab phone and copy the number off the computer screen onto the phone screen

"beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep"

[TALK]

"brrrp brrrp, brrrp brrrp, "

"TNT Gladstone, Sumdude speaking."

"Hey, I'm expecting a package for Jon O'Hare"

"Yeah, we got a couple here."

"Don't put them on the truck! See you in a minute!"

*click*

I took this photo Monday afternoon after getting everything set up... and before I dusted... Everything I had ordered had arrived ten days later. The custom built Mac Mini came with Tiger pre-installed which surprised me a little, but the lady from Apple I spoke to on the phone last Friday said that might happen. Instead I got a Leopard drop-in kit which is just a Leopard DVD in a paper sleeve packaged with the other disks.

I've been pretty busy setting everything up and fiddling with it, transferring photos and music from the Vista machine it replaces and integrating them into iPhoto and iTunes. For the most part everything went smoothly. I installed the software we have become used to (Joost, Vuze, Firefox, Google Earth, VLC) and some software that is completely new to me like EyeTV.

So far I'm impressed. It's so much nicer to use than anything I've used before. Even in the short time that I've played with it, I have already come to appreciate the integration of the core Mac applications and Front Row is so refreshing after battling with Windows Media Center.

Speaking of Front Row, the little remote control that comes with the Mac works really well. Toss the keyboard and mouse aside and click the Menu button on the Front Row Remote and the computer turns into a media center with videos and music from your own collection plus previews from iTunes and slide shows of your iPhoto collection.

The only problems with so far have been to do with networking. While the Mac connected to the network and found it's way to the Internet through my router without any help from me, it took some time to figure out how to get it to talk to the Windows machines on the network. Like most things on any computer though, you bang your head against it for ages and don't get anywhere until you see that one little thing, that one tiny little setting, that one radio button or switch, and you click it... and everything just works... and you feel like a idiot for not finding it in the first place.

So that's sorted. Installed EyeTV and can watch digital television and analogue television plus we can record stuff from the VHS player with it now. It seems to work well so far and also uses the Front Row remote control allowing us to pause and rewind live TV. Cilla gets a little worried about the space-time continuum when we do that.

I just finished recording a two hour VHS tape to put on DVD. It's almost exactly two hours long and takes up five and a half gig (5.5GB). I still have a little playing around to do with it yet so we'll see how it goes.

Since I've started getting into Mac computers and blogging about them and discussing them with friends and family I've noticed that they are being bought. Cilla's niece, Jemma asked me a while back now what sort of computer she should get and I suggested a MacBook. She took my advice and seems very happy with it. Mum got herself a 24" iMac which is just lovely. I got told that Uncle Phil ordered a Mac about the time I ordered ours - I have yet to catch up with him and find out which one. Mark the Electricity Man, Bill the Airconditioner Man and Steve the Drumming Man have all said that they intend to aquire Macs of their own. It's hasn't even been twelve months since Jem got hers. Steve Jobs said 2007 was going to be a good year for Apple. If this kind of interest in their products is world-wide I reckon that would be spelling even better times to come.

OSX 10.5 is a beautiful operating system to use. I've only been using it for two days and I can't think of a single reason why I'd want to put Boot Camp on and run Windows. Sure, some things are done differently on the Mac than they were on Windows - but some things are done differnetly on WindowsXP than they are on Vista.

So far, lovin' it!

Dot Mac (.Mac)

I've never liked subscription services. I always try to find an alternative that is either free or only has a once off fee. Some examples...

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Subscription - Cable Television

Alternative - Joost!

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Subscription - World of Warcraft

Alternative - Guild Wars

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I was hoping to think of three examples before I had to get to the point, but that's all I've got.

Anyhoo, with our new Mac ordered I've been looking at this .Mac service. It's an annual individual membership fee of $99.00 and includes all kinds of complementary services that work with your Mac as follows...

1. Web Gallery
2. Website Hosting
3. IMAP Mail
4. Back to my Mac
5. Sync
6. iDisk
7. Groups
8. Backup
9. 10Gb Storage

Seeing as how I like to avoid subscription-based services where I can, I'll be looking for alternatives.

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1. Web Gallery - Photos and videos. (View Sample)

Google's Picasaweb and Google Video or YouTube.

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2. Website Hosting.

Google Page Creator or any web hosting service.

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3. IMAP Mail.

Gmail.

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4. Back to my Mac - essentially this is Remote Desktop access via VPN. Remote Desktop access is built into OS X and .Mac is just supplying the VPN.

Hamachi.

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5. Sync - syncronize address books, bookmarks and many preferences accross all your Macs.

Google Toolbar for Firefox takes care of bookmarks and Gmail has my address book. As for preferences accross all my Macs? Well I'd have to have more than one Mac for that to be an issue.

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6. iDisk - 10GB of online storage is what you get in total to store all your photos, videos, backups and anything you want to put on your iDisk.

Your free Google account has less than half of this...
but they are adding to it all the time.

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7. Groups - A place to create a community website.

Orkut.

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8. Backup - now with the release of Time Machine in Leopard this feature isn't as attractive as it once was.

Time Machine.

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9. 10GB Storage - thats a fair bit of space for an online storage account and they give you 20GB with a Family Account.

When I first opened my Google account
I had about 2GB of storage space for my account.
Now it's over four and a half gig and counting.

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The advantage of .Mac is that all these services are in one place. If you don't mind the $100.00 yearly membership fee then you can get all this in one place plus a cool @mac.com email address. For me, I will stand by Google's services and make them work.

December '06 saw the "NotMac Challenge" for someone to come up with a free alternative to .Mac and involved a $10, 000 prize for the first to do so. The challenge was met and the prize money was collected. The NotMac software emulates most of the .Mac features but on your own server. If you have another machine that you can turn into a server and keep it online with a static IP address, just download the NotMac software and off you go!

Sub-standard search

It is probably because my blog posts may seem, to some readers, a little anti-Microsoft. Or it might be the permanent link to Get Off Microsoft in my sidebar. It might just be the pro-open source software or even the iPraise.

My blog can not be found on any Microsoft search. Not Live search. Not MSN search. Can't be found.

D'gar HQ

This search will land my blog on the top of the list in Yahoo!, Google, Altavista and Ask.com. I can only assume that my site has been censored by Microsoft.

Doesn't that make their search inaccurate?

Why is a commercial entity allowed to affect free speech in this way?

And get this. The End-User Licence Agreement in the Microsoft web page creation software - Front Page - forbids users to use the software to write anything anti-Microsoft!

Considering their monopoly status - and no-one disputes Microsoft's monopoly status - should they be allowed to censor the searches they provide to the millions of people who use their search every day?

Pretty rude, I think!

And you know what else? I went to check out Mimi's Blog which was on my sidebar too, but I couldn't read it unless I signed up for MSN or Live or whatever they're calling it. So you can't even read MSN Spaces blog sites unless you register with Microsoft! They've missed the point of blogging. They've missed the point of the Internet. It is supposed to be a platform for free speech and freedom of information. They're not helping.

Not that anyone using MSN will ever be presented with the opportunity to read this. Microsoft has decided for you that you don't need this information and you certainly shouldn't be reading my opinions!

Sorry Mimi. There's always Blogger!

Gonna get a pet Leopard

We have made a decision what our next computer will be. We will replace our Windows Vista Ultimate Edition media center PC in the lounge room with our first Mac!

In my humble opinion, Macs are at the stage now where they are not only a viable alternative to a Windows PC, but a preferred alternative. Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is due to be released this month which will replace the current Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Leopard is actually certified as UNIX. That's the kind of stable and secure operating system that they use in banks and the space shuttle. While virus and worms for Windows number in the hundreds of thousands you can count all OS X virus threats on your fingers. The Mac seems to be a great computer for everything...

Everything except games.

But the lounge room computer is a media center. It needs to play DVDs and music, connect to Joost and YouTube, browse the web and online banking, access Gmail and Google Calendar and... well... everything, except play games.

Perfect!

So I've spent the last few months carefully researching how to make a Mac media center. I already have a nice LCD TV and a great surround sound setup. Mac Mini is the obvious choice. I will wait until Leopard is released before we get it but the specs should be as follows:

1. 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
2. 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMMs
3. Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM share
4. 160GB Serial ATA hard disk drive
5. Dual Layer DVD±R/W (SuperDrive)

This year has seen iMac updated with aluminium and glass, the release of the iPhone in America and U.K. and iPod has been updated with a whole new family so I live in hope that Apple will give us an updated Mac Mini with a better graphics chip to go along with the release of Leopard. I can't see that happening, but I can dream...

Elgato EyeTV Hybrid is a USB TV tuner that supports both analogue and digital television and also allows me to connect an analogue source through composite or s-video so I can record off my VCR. Firefox, VLC Media Player and Joost all work on Mac so we won't lose our favourite programs.

If I've missed something, please let me know... it's not too late, comment below!

Google Earth Flight Simulator

Google Earth was recently updated. It now includes Google Sky which lets you virtually gaze into the heavens with a virtual telescope complete with place names and restaurant locations. What you didn't know was that they also built a flight simulator in.

Start Google Earth. <= Make sure you have the latest version available at earth.google.com

If necessary, close the tips.

Press Ctrl+Alt+A

Some people have reported that Ctrl+Alt+A doesn't work but have got it going with Ctrl+A or Ctrl+Windows+A

You may also find the option "Enter Flight Simulator..." under the "Tools" menu.

A choice of aircraft are presented to you. An F16 fighter jet or a SR22 prop plane. Choose and airport and start flight.

It supports joysticks so if you have one, try it out.

Google have supplied online help with a list of keyboard commands to help you control your aircraft.

Cool, fly around the world. For free. Yay!

Eclipse

My brother Steve took these great shots of last nights eclipse by simply holding a Canon compact digital camera up to the eyepiece of his telescope.


I filmed, edited and published this video to Google Video, YouTube and this Astro Shorts site, which seems to have the best quality. It's played back at 4000% speed so its easy to watch. Hope you like it.

APEC Protests

Every now and then I pull up the Google News page to check out current affairs. A news story caught my eye about police being asked to free up five hundred jail cells for APEC.

I didn't know what APEC was or why we'd be expecting lots of arrests for it, so I read on. The news story, which was from The Australian, says:

"The commonwealth has demanded a minimum of 500 jail beds be set aside for possible arrests during next month's summit of world leaders, which is expected to attract major protests."

The story goes on to say that police have been given extra powers in certain areas around where the world leaders will be and that those extra powers would be rather boring ones.

"The additional police powers inside these zones include the right to stop and search people and to block roads."

So they can't fly or shoot laser beams out of their eyes. They also tell us that they aren't just going to kick criminals out of jail to make room. They also fill us in on dates and locations where the police will be granted their additional powers. But nowhere does the story say what the APEC summit is or why they were expecting to arrest anyone, let alone 500 people.

Wiki APEC

"The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an economic forum for a group of Pacific Rim countries to discuss matters on regional economy, cooperation, trade and investment. Together, these countries represent about 60% of the world economy."

Apparently our very own Bob Hawke came up with the idea and in 1989 held the first meeting in Canberra. Sounds good so far, doesn't explain why we'd want to arrest anyone.

"In 1997, the APEC summit was held in Vancouver. Controversy arose after officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police used force and pepper spray against non-violent protesters. The protesters objected to the presence of autocratic leaders such as Indonesian President Suharto."

Okay, so we are expecting protests against leaders of other countries that we don't like being included in APEC. Wiki lists members of APEC but doesn't say who's actually going to be turning up to the Summit, so I went to the APEC 2007 site to see if they would tell me. What I saw first was the advertising of the APEC Australia 2007 Sponsors. Microsoft was the exclusive technology partner. That's reason enough for me to protest. How is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation going to survive if it allows exclusive partners? Anyway, I kept looking for who was going to be there but couldn't find anything at the official site.

Back to Wiki.

There is a separate Wiki entry for the APEC Australia 2007 summit which does have some information on who is going.

• Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard
• Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper
• Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe
  
• Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark
• President of Peru, Alan Garcia
• President of The United States of America, George W. Bush

There is supposed to be representatives from twenty-one countries so this is clearly not a complete list.

Okay. There might be some people who would want to protest to let Howard and Bush know their feeling on the war. Granted. It also says on Wiki:

"The public response in Sydney presently has been mixed. Many are fearing similar disruptions to those experienced during the visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney which cause massive transport disruptions. Civil liberties and many political groups are also concerned about new laws enacted for the protest giving police sweeping new powers. Police and security forces have also planned a security wall around much of inner city Sydney for the September 8th leaders summit. Around 5000 police are expected to be present at the leaders summit. Another point of criticism is the massive cost of security for the event with official budget figures at AU$169 million."

Still don't understand why 500 cells need to be cleared. Trippy how often the number 500 turns up with reference to the APEC 2007 summit.

• 500 cells to be cleared in expectation of arresting protesters.
  
• 500 entrepreneurs from around the world will attend by invitation.
• 500 students will volunteer

Also, readers of the Sydney Morning Herald were invited to send 500 words on what makes their blood boil about the APEC summit like traffic problems from police exercising their special powers, or the cost of all these guys spending millions of dollars on a meeting they could have done with a conference call. 50 of the 500 members of the Sydney Children's Choir had background checks done by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. There's also the 5000 police on duty at the leaders summit.

That is 50 weird...

It took some digging but it seems that protesters will be demonstrating against a number of issues, like climate change, work choices, and George W. Bush. It doesn't look like anyone is actually against the meeting, if only it didn't inconvenience so many Sydney residents and business owners or cost so much money.

Really, someone should introduce our world leaders to GoogleTalk and they'd be able to sit at home and have their meeting without upsetting anyone.