Mark Dalton

Okay so after tidying up my website I thought it was about time I tided up my MacBook Pro. I have downloaded a bunch of applications and tested them only to throw them away later and everything was starting to feel a little sluggish. I was also starting to have problems getting certain applications working, and suffering from the odd hang here and there. I therefore resolved to test my backups and go through the process of trying to rebuild my MackBook Pro only using the equipment I travel with. I was surprised how simple it was and how well prepared I actually was.

So here is my setup

1) 1x MacBook Pro 17″ plus power supply
2) 1x Lacie 1TB Firewire 800 connected Hard Disk Drive (3 Partitions, one containing a bootable copy of Leopard, one TimeMachine, and the last a scratch disk)
3) 1x 250MB USB connected Hard Disk Drive
4) 8GB iPhone
5) 80GB iPod Video G5
6) Neoprene wash bag filled with cables & connectors

So I first of all rebooted the MBP and made sure that no programs had started up. I ran a Time Machine backup and then a SuperDuper backup, and synchronized mybookmarks, email rules, notes, etc with .MAC. I then opened Tunes and de-authorized my audible account and my computer. I then restarted the computer and choose to boot off the Leopard disk on the Lacie drive. I then went through the installation selecting the erase and install option. I did a custom install and removed all the stuff I didn’t need like printer drivers, foreign languages, and fonts.

Once the installation was complete I connected to my Wireless network and downloaded all the updates from software update. After rebooting I opened up time machine and pointed it to the partition on my Lacie drive that I was using for Time Machine backups. I choose not to enable backups at this point, as I just wanted the Mac to know that this was the Time Machine drive. I then fired up Time Machine and restored the contents of my home folder. I selected to restore;

1) The “Documents” Folder – My personal documents.
2) The “Downloads” Folder – Audible Books / Applications
3) The “Library/Mail” Folder – My Email
4) The “Music” Folder – My iTunes Library
5) The “Pictures” Folder – My iPhoto Library
6) …and a couple of other folders that I store graphics, and my development projects.

Once that was done, I configured my system preferences and synchronized with my .MAC account. I then opened Mail.app and it imported my mailboxes, everything was where it should be. I opened up Safari and once again everything was as I left it. I then went through reinstalling my applications. I store everything I download in the downloads folder and have all the license keys in my email.

4 hours after I started the process, and that doesn’t allow for the time I wandered off to do other things I am back up and running. I plugged my iPhone and iPod back in and after re-entering my account details and syncing I can’t see anything untoward. All my documents, photo’s, Music, and audio books are there. The machine is snappy, and quick again.

I think I am prepared. What have I missed?

Well for those that didn’t know I converted to the Mac (MacBook Pro) about a year ago. On the Mac I use RapidWeaver from RealMacSoftware to keep my personal website and blog up to date. Now I love RapidWeaver as it’s easy to use and extremely versatile, but one thing that does annoy me is that it doesn’t seem to like publishing a lot of files over a slow link.

Let me explain a little, while the man from Jaguar goes off to find me a new car battery. In India I have a 2 Mbps DSL line. Now when I say 2 Mbps line what I really mean is I have a line that at some point in the future might actually start to offer 2 Mbps transfer rates and I might at some point be able to get an upstream rate that is marginally quicker than a fax machine. Not that that is really RapidWeavers fault, but I recently decided to tidy up the site a little, area’s like the Photo Gallery where becoming a little cluttered and I wanted to simplify the structure a little. So I set about creating an archive area and moving some pages around, all of which was very easy using RapidWeaver, but when I came to publish the site there were over 3000 pages that needed to be re-published. So I clicked the publish button and RapidWeaver started to weave its magic. The only problem was that it never got beyond the first few hundred pages before it through up an FTP error.

So frustrated I kept hitting the publish button and RapidWeaver went through the motions, but I was never quite convinced that it was doing what it said it was doing. So last night I decided to take the plunge and after checking everything was where I wanted it to be and saving the site project file ten times I cleared the publishing cache and marked all the paged as changed, I FTP’ed to my website and deleted the entire contents. I then went back to RapidWeaver and clicked the publish buttons. RapidWeaver went through the export phase, and then advised me that 5134 pages need to be uploaded, and off I went to bed (with a doubt or two in my mind).

I woke up this morning to find that every single page had uploaded and not one error was encountered. I thanked my 22 Mbps Internet line and the Internet gods. I checked the site and everything seems to be there, even my newly implemented Google Analytics code and FavIcon.

What’s does that mean to users of the site? Well not much really, but what it should mean is that there are no broken links (Google Web Tools showed four) and that everything is a little less cluttered. If you have bookmarked anything other than the home page you might find those links don’t work as I have tidied up the file structure a little too, but everything does feel a lot more ordered; to me at least.

If you do have any problems let me know via the Contact Form. Otherwise enjoy!

Okay so the week dragged, mainly as all I could think about was my trip home, but Thursday came before I knew it. I left the office and headed back to the apartment for a little lay down before grabbing a shower and a change of clothes. Karan picked me and my luggage up and we headed off to Dine Estey, where I met up with Laurence and Vikram for a few beers. I headed over to the Crown Plaza as I needed to see a friend of mine there, and there were a bunch of COLT people staying there who were on the same flight as me. I bumped into them just as I was leaving for the Airport and met them again in the check in queue.

After checking in and blagging a pass to the Business Lounge we had a few more beers before clearing security and boarding the plane. We took off on time and I had just enough energy to consume a few bottles of red wine and watch a film before passing out. I woke up about an hour from Heathrow and had enough time to have a coffee and a quick wash before we landed.

We landed on time and it all went pretty smoothly as I cleared immigration and collected my case. I exited the terminal and had about 10 minutes until the Rail Air coach arrived which was just enough time to get my nicotine levels back up to normal. The coach trip to Woking, and then the train trip to Basingstoke was straight forward with no waiting about and I was back at home about 10:00.

I grabbed a quick shower and changed, unpacked my bag, and then headed round to Mum and Dad’s to say hello. Katrina and the kids dropped round about an hour later and I got to say hello to everybody. By the time lunch time arrived I didn’t really know what planet I was on and decided to take a walk into town to get some fresh air. It was certainly fresh, so much so that my teeth chattered as i walked, but after I got going I warmed up a little and soon started to feel comfortable.

I walked around town not really looking at anything in particular, although I did stop off at Jessops to take a look at camera’s before walking home via McDonalds and a large Big Mac Meal. I got home and laid on the couch watching TV, but could feel myself drifting off so decided to settle in the study and sort some of my post out. I got about 80% of it done, and realized that I needed a clear head to focus on the rest so started to take a look around the house and asses the work that needed doing.

The kitchen waste water system has fallen to pieces, and the garden fences came down in the storm a few weeks ago. The freezer had defrosted but thankfully Mum and Dad had thrown away the contents and installed 5000 air fresheners to get rid of the smell. The driveway and patio need weeding and cleaning, but otherwise things were in pretty good shape. The kitchen has needed redoing since I purchased the place, but has been usable, but I know that I will need to gut it and redo it completely when I return in August. Time to start saving!

So this morning (I think it’s Saturday today) I woke up at 06:00 and thought I would take the car out for a run as it’s been stood for a while. My suspicions where confirmed when I got in and tried to start it and the battery was flat. So I rang Jaguar and am now waiting for the man that can to turn up and sort it out. Once that’s done I think I will take a drive to the supermarket and stock up on provisions. The only real plan after that is to meet up with Dad for a few beers.

Okay well it’s all confirmed and my flights are booked back to the UK for this Friday. I leave new Delhi on BA 0142 at 03:25 Friday 21st March and arrive at London Heathrow at 07:25 also on Friday (You got to love Time Zones some times), and I return to New Delhi on the 17:20 flight on the 6th April which gives me pretty much 17 days at home.

I am really looking forward to seeing everybody again and catching up on all the news and gossip, together with the odd home cooked meal.