Posts Tagged Mac
MacBook Woes, and the Apple iPad.
Posted by Mark Dalton in Personal, Technology on February 5th, 2010
Back in October I wrote about a few issues I was having with my MacBook Air, well thankfully I managed to resolve them without spending any money! The main issue I was experiencing was a reduction in battery life, leaving work with a full charge I would use it on the train journey home and be left with a 20%-30% charge. Well, what I didn”t do was look at what I was doing during that journey.
The first thing I usually do, once comfortably seated, is plug in my 3G dongle and check my email, and try and catch up with the mess that is my inbox. Once we are moving however I would fire up the BBC iPlayer application and try to enter “unwind mode” by watching some of the programs the BBC shows that I actually like (few and far between these days).
Now it would seem that this combination is the perfect setup to drain the battery, at least on a MacBook Air. The BBC iPlayer content had been downloaded to the local drive, so I wasn”t streaming, but I still had the 3G Dongle plugged in and connected, and was checking my email while using iPlayer. So I tested the obvious combinations.
What I found wasn”t a real surprise, but both iPlayer and the 3G Dongle do make the machine work harder and therefore take their toll on the battery. I didn”t do any really scientific tests but simply using the 3G Dongle and working on email left me with 40%-50% battery life, and just watching iPlayer left me with 20%-30% charge. Now the MacBook Air hasn”t got the best battery but I have found I can get 2-2.5 hours out of it using it moderately, but if I am using BBC iPlayer or indeed watching any type of media, I can only expect 1-1.5 hours. This doesn”t really work for me!
My second issue was with the hard drive. Now this was initially triggered by an issue I was having with SuperDuper and errors during the backup routine, the support technician from ShirtPocket made it sound like the drive was going to fail at any minute, and he wasn”t to far out, as not long after I had a nasty “Will not boot” (I forget the exact error message) issue on the MacBook Air.
After doing some research I found a number of posts that all pointed to the same solution, format the hard disk drive and restore from backup. Now luckily I did have a SuperDuper backup that was 3-4 weeks old, and I don”t keep any data on the laptop (I use DropBox), so all I was missing was a few application updates. After doing this however the whole system picked up and was much more responsive, and I haven”t had any issues with the hard drive since.
So the question about what to do came up again. As I said back in October I love the MacBook Air in terms of its weight but after two years I am starting to find it somewhat limited. The more powerful, but slightly heavier, MacBook Pro is one option but we all knew there was a special event due and the much rumoured Apple Tablet device was what everyone was talking about. Every Mac fan know’’s you don”t go and buy anything prior to a Steve Job’’s Keynote!
When Steve stood up at the end of January and announced the iPad to the world, what I needed was clear. When I purchased the MacBook Air it was so I could browse the web, send the odd email, and look at my pictures while around the house or traveling. It however transpired that I did more on the move than I originally thought and the MacBook Air quickly became my main mobile computer. The iPad for me is what I really wanted when I brought the MacBook Air. What I then needed was a laptop that really is a laptop and capable of doing those more advanced and resource intensive tasks. This for me is the 13″ MacBook Pro. So decision made. I am going to replace the MacBook Air with a 13″ MacBook Pro, and when the iPad is available will be buying one of those.
Mac Mini as a Media Server.
Posted by Mark Dalton in Personal, Technology on February 1st, 2010
Back in May 2009 Don McAllister who runs and hosts ScreenCastsOnline did an episode on using the New Mac Min as a Media server. Now I have owned a Mac Mini (G5) for a while and have been using it as a basic media server, and when I say basic, I mean I have Snow Leopard installed, but only use it connected to my iTunes Library via FrontRow. Well, after buying a new Samsung Series 7 LED HD TV I moved my Series 6 up to the bedroom and had it wired into Sky via a Sky Multiroom subscription, but this got me thinking again about the Mac Mini as a Media Server, so I decided to revisit the original shows (SCO198, SCO201, SCO204) and see what I had missed.
I did a clean install of Snow Leopard on the Mac Mini and then a Software Update whilst watching SCO198, and then set about installing Sapphire. Now Sapphire for me doubles the usefulness of the Mac Mini straight away as it gives me full access to my ripped DVD library that lives on my Drobo. Sapphire simply provides another option within the FrontRow interface, aptly named Sapphire that connects you to your media. This media can be on the Mac Mini itself, although Don didn’t recommend that, or on an external or network attached drive. Now at present I have my DVD’s located on a Drobo connected to the network via a DroboShare. This is functional but three is some lag. Once I have things as I want them I will once again look at the storage element as I don’t really want external drives all over the place but if its flakey I know I won’t use it.
Following Don’s instructions the installation was simple and was completed in less than 30 minutes. Importing the meta data and choosing the correct artwork did take a while, but given how many DVD’s I have on the Drobo that was to be expected.
The second show (SCO201) moved things up a notch and introduced Plex. Plex was just as simple to install and configure using Don’s walkthrough, but right from the outset it was obvious that Plex was a lot more powerful than Sapphire and there are many more options to explore / play with. Obviously Don could only cover the essential ones in the show, but this was enough to get me up and running. Importing the meta data and selecting the Album Artwork were easy and I know it’s sad, but quite good fun, especially with the added ability to use Fan Art which is top quality I must say from what I have seen so far. The interface is not as intuitive as it could be and some of the menu options are simply not named correctly as they do not actually do what they say they do. However once installed and configured this is certainly a small price to pay for the experience the application provides, and with luck the developers will quickly correct. Plex hooks directly into iTunes an iPhoto to provide you access to your music and photos, and better still Plex also supports “Applications”, which easily allow you to connect up to other services such as the ScreenCastsOnline feed.
In SCO204 Don takes a look at ways to remotely control the Media Server, but I must say I am perfectly happy with the Apple supplied remote. I did purchase the Aluminium remote for use with the Apple TV in the lounge, and may at some point buy another for use with the Media Server. I did explore using the iPhone and use the Apple Remote application to control my iTune library on the Apple TV as I do like to skip tracks and move between albums, but with the Media Server it is more select movie, click play, fall asleep. Why complicate perfection!
Liverpool Tweetup
Posted by Mark Dalton in Fun, Personal, Technology on December 24th, 2009
Well somewhat of a different start to the holiday season this year when I decided last minute to join a bunch of online friends in Liverpool for what is affectionally known as a TweetUp. I have been chatting to most of these people for a while now and when the chance came up to meet them face to face I thought it was a great idea and a brilliant way to start of the festive season.
I worked from home on the Friday as I didn””t fancy doing the commute in and out of London to then drive up to Liverpool and it was a good job I did as I woke Friday morning to a dusting of snow. I set off late afternoon and made good time only stopping a couple of quick comfort break”’’s and was checked in, unpacked, and in the bar by 19:30.
The weekend was spent chatting over beer, food, and the odd cup of coffee, about a variety of subjects from emerging technologies to Christmas plans. We did manage to get out and about a little bit and see a few of Liverpool”’’s landmarks but it was very cold and we did tend to break the touring up with beer breaks on a regular basis, so didn””t cover quite as much as we could of, but we did make it to the Apple store.
I also managed to meet up with Don McAllister the host of ScreenCastsOnline and The Mac ScreenCast Guy. Don was just as nice in the flesh as he is online and had some great insights and views on upcoming technologies. I also manage to meet up with three of my oversea”’’s contacts, Jane from Australia who was visiting family in the UK for Christmas, Paul Shadwell who flew in especially from Zurich who is very knowledgeable on Virtualisation and hosted services, and David Allen who also flew in especially from Barcelona, who run”’’s amongst other things the Mac 20 Questions website.
A great time was had by all and I think its fair to say that some good friendships were cemented in the process. Not to mention we all got a ScreenCastsOnline cap 
Most people left Sunday morning but I had arranged to stay another night, which in hindsight wasn””t such a good idea, although it did allow me to do a little extra Christmas shopping and see a little more of the city.
Monday morning I checked out and headed for home and made good time until I hit Newbury where it had been snowing and snowing pretty hard. As I came down the A339 it was bumper to bumper traffic and nothing was moving. It took me 7.5 hours to get from Newbury to my home in Basingstoke, 5.5 hours of that was spent crossing Basingstoke itself. I have personally never seen anything like it, and Basingstoke made the national news with 2000-3000 people affected. It took 3-4 to clear completely but luckily I didn””t have to go further than my parents around the corner, which was safer to reach on foot. I was lucky however as poor Paul Shadwell got to Manchester airport on Sunday to find it shut down, and finally made it back to Zurich on Wednesday after travelling down to London”’’s Heathrow airport.
A “Doing” Week
Posted by Mark Dalton in Personal, Technology, Work on September 19th, 2009
Wow what a week! The moment I set foot in the office on Monday I knew it was going to be one of those crazy weeks, and I wasn’t let down. After my catch up last weekend I decided that I wasn’t going to fall behind again so went back to carrying my MacBook Air. I must say that its surprising how much I get done during the train journey and with things so busy at work it’s nice to get things done while I am still in the frame of mind to do so, meaning that when I get home I can relax.
It has now been a couple of weeks now since I upgraded all of my machines to Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). While Snow Leopard isn’t revolutionary I must say that I have found that all my machines are a little snappier. The MacBook Air is probably the machine I notice it on the most as this is the one that travels with me. The first thing I have found is the speed at which it comes back from sleep mode and secondly the speed of the Time Machine / Time Capsule backups, especially important as quite a bit of data can change while I am on the move. Other than that I can’t say anything has particularly impressed me, but for the £25 upgrade fee I am happy with the improvements made. On the MacBook Pro and iMac I can’t say I have really noticed any difference as both are high end machines, but the real test will probably be the next Final Cut Pro project I have. What I can say however is that to date I haven’t experienced any problems, bar a few applications that are awaiting compatibility upgrades.
With the Snow Leopard upgrade also came the upgrade to iTune 9. Now there were some much trumpeted improvements but the one that really stands out for me is iTunes Home Sharing, which allows me to finally copy my music between my machines legally.
Well today I am going to catch up with my PodCasts while catching up with some paperwork, and then tidy up the house. Tomorrow I need to sort out the weeds that are over taking the drive way and the garden which is just going wild again.
Back to Business.
Posted by Mark Dalton in Personal on September 13th, 2009
So after being Duty Manager last weekend I started the week looking forward to a short (4 day) week. Monday and Tuesday were uneventful and pretty quite but Wednesday was just crazy. Meeting after meeting, the phone didn’t stop, and email was coming in from all sides. Thursday thankfully things calmed down and gave me the chance to catch up before heading into the weekend.
Friday I woke early and hit the ground running. I have felt a lot better this week and was determined to start catching up on all those things that I had been neglecting. I had ordered a Drobo & DroboShare Thursday from Amazon and had ordered it early enough to secure next day delivery. Now I have been looking at these for a while, but up until now they have been far to expensive, but Amazon had them both as a package for a very reasonable price. Unfortunately I was then pulled into a meeting and completely forgot to order any hard drives when I returned. Doh!
So Friday morning I was resigned to the fact that I was going to be stuck in all day waiting for the delivery so set about house chores. I was relieved when just after 09:00 I heard the sound of the City Link delivery truck pull up and gratefully accepted my parcel. Within about 15 minutes I had it setup and it was then I remembered I hadn’t ordered any Hard Drives. So I hit the web and after a little searching settled on 4x 1TB 3.5″ Hard Drives from Scan at a quite reasonable price, and once again next day delivery.
After finishing the household chores I headed to Morrisions and set about restocking the cupboards and filling the car up with fuel. I was surprised while making a rather tricky biscuit decision by a text message from scan advising that my Hard Drives had been dispatched. Shopping completed and car fuelled I set about refuelling myself with a couple of nice salad rolls and considered my plans for the rest of the day. I decided that the next priority was a hair cut but instead of driving into town I elected to walk in. The idea being walking in meant I could have a couple of pints. Once in town I meet up with Laurence and Phil and then a little later Dave Birkett. Laurence and Phil had other plans so left Dave and I in Lloyds bar. Needless to say a few more beers were consumed however this time it was me that ended up a little worse for wear.
Saturday I woke up feeling a lot better than I probably deserved to feel but at 07:30 still with a zeal to get things done. I set about finishing off some of the house chores left over from Friday. About 09:30 the City Link truck was back outside and 5 minutes later I had my new Hard Drives laid out on the desk, and about 30 minutes after later I had them all installed and formatted in the Drobo. I then spent about an hour trying to figure out why the Drobo wasn’t auto mounting before finally finding a knowledge base article on the Data Robotics web site saying there was a known issue with Snow Leopard and the Drobo Share that prevented the volume mounting automatically. Thankfully they provided a work around and I was up and running in a couple of minutes. I spent the rest of the day catching up with stuff, mainly paperwork.
Today I was up and about at 08:30 and after a quick shower set about the last few jobs of the weekend before heading round to Mum & Dad’s for Sunday lunch with them, Katrina, and the children. After the last week the sunshine let us down and after an hour or so we were starting to feel cold so headed inside. It was good to see everyone again, especially as William starts school tomorrow, and I am feeling more like myself every day. It was great fun as always and the kids surprise me every time I see them. Little Eleanor is such a little beauty and so cute when she laughs. Well, its back to work tomorrow but I have had a good weekend so it will be what it will be.
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