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How the iPhone has changed my life in 4 Days

• It is so much easier to keep on top of heaps of emails.
• I don't have to carry my cell phone and Palm TX anymore
• I can watch TV that I record using my EyeTV
• I can schedule my EyeTV to remotely record
• I can get map information that's more up-to-date than the most recent version available through my Garmin GPS
• I can stay in contact with everyone far easier than before
• I can finally begin to sort out my music and finish adding my "star" recommendations
• I can take pictures again after my digital camera kinda died
• It's much easier to update my address book and calendars now
• I can check out new music on the road through the iTunes (mobile) store
• It's a lot easier to check out YouTube videos and share them

There are some things I'd like to see...

• When a website claims that it has a dedicated iPhone website, that's not necessarily a good thing - they usually limit what you're able to do compared to a desktop
• Flash compatibility when surfing
• Deleting multiple emails
• The ability to make basic edits among your pictures before sending them out
• Taking video clips
• Making voice memos
• Full To-Do lists
• Free Skype functionality
• SD card support
• ability to edit docs in Google Docs
• more onboard storage

Birthday present: iPhone

First off, thank you to everyone who chipped in to getting me my iPhone:

Mom and Dad

Abonim & Oughmonim

Hyunjoo

Scott & Hyunjung

Nayoung

Winston & Julia

I haven't actually gotten my iPhone yet, but that's because Macworld begins in a few days. It would be silly to buy one before finding out what the new changes in Apple's offerings are.

I'm not interested in the next iPhone version. I'd just like more memory.

Leopard woes

I don't regret switching to Leopard. I do like Spaces and the redone finder. I wish I could play around with TimeMachine, but I don't have another external drive. The upgrade forced me to start fresh and clean things up... but I've run into some problems like many with this new version of the Mac OS.

• Kernel Panics & bittorrent client
  
• Dock Problems
  
• EyeTV issues
  
• keyboard/trackpad lock-ups

Unfortunately for me, those are things I'm using all the time now. I hope Apple and developers get some patches out soon.

Leopard Crashes: Kernel Panic

I woke up this morning to find this lovely screen on my Mac. Actually this was the second screen. I can't take a snapshot of the first screen cuz the whole darn thing is frozen. Yesterday my computer choked maybe four times and this morning makes five. I've never had my Mac crash on me... I'm not using any applications I didn't use with Tiger, so it must have been something with Leopard.

I thought I found some good information on Hoopla! posted by LCO, but my computer crashed after making the suggested changes:

- Try disabling IPv6 in your Airport System Preferences
- In Azureus preferences, expand Connection -> Advanced Networking Settings, and make sure “Prefer IPv6 addresses when both are avail” and “Enable experimental extension…” are UNTICKED.

There's also a good website that has kept tabs on which applications are not compatible with Leopard. This would have been nice to know before I upgraded.

UPDATE: After making the changes LCO mentioned above... I only had one more crash, but it was after I set Azureus back to "Simple" mode or whatever. Once I returned it back to "Advanced", I haven't had any problems again.

UPDATE: Still crashing under Azureus. Transmission isn't any better while running a large torrent. Tomato - I'm not even going to go there.

Test Bubbleshare Album

Please click on slideshow to view a larger version or to download.

How Mac & PC can Share an iTunes Network Library

I thought I had started another post on this... I'm trying to find a way to share one iTunes 7.5 library, stored on a network drive, between my 10.5 Mac and her XP-PC. I want both of us to be able to play, add, and trash songs and video - it doesn't have to be simultaneously.

When you start up iTunes on a PC holding the "Shift" button down, it will ask you if you want to "Choose a Library..." or to create a new one. When you choose a library, the app looks for an ".itl" file. When I navigated to the network drive, it listed all of the directories, but no library file was apparent.

My Mac generated iTunes library file has no extension on it. Just for kicks, I added an ".itl" extension to the Mac file and it asked me if I really wanted to do it. I said yes and then I tried launching iTunes on the PC again.

This time it loaded the library up with out a problem. Then, iTunes began updating the library since I had just installed the newest version of 7.5 on the PC.

Now, my fear is that I won't be able to access the library file on the Mac. It's just a waiting game now.

UPDATE: It seems to work fine. I might not have even needed to add the ".itl" extension, but it doesn't seem to negatively effect the Mac version.

Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx

When I returned to America, I took the opportunity to buy an all-round GPS that would serve me equally well in the car as out and about. It wasn't that difficult of a decision. The 60CSx is one of the highest rated devices out there.

I bought an auto kit and a 2GB MicroSD card to go along with my hand held. The auto kit is essential for in-the-car use. It wasn't cheap, but worth every penny so far. I loaded the MapSource software into my Bootcamp partition and every thing is working out great.

I had troubles uploading the maps to the 2GB card initially, but it worked the second time around. I was a little worried there since it took about 3 hours the first time.

I love how I can create new waypoints, etc. on my computer or the 60CSx and sync them later. It's much more flexible than just a built-in system. The integration with GoogleEarth is fantastic. I've used the system to find wilderness POI's using the satellite imagery.

Unfortunately, I can't search for POI's by name and location on the road. If its not within a couple of miles here in the city, I have to know the address or approximate location and then search from there. That can make a huge difference. Last night, we were looking for a Thai restaurant, Kung Fu and if I didn't know the street, I wouldn't have found it. Thankfully that's not much of a problem because you can usually get an address or a general location. Still, it would be nice to have that extended search option.

I wish I could get a larger 4GB card and load up a full complement of topo maps as well, but that also makes map management difficult since map types can't be layered. Perhaps having two 2GB cards with different map sets is the best way for now, but it would be great to have other options like loading two cards and specifying which card you want to use.

No regrets here. A larger screen and something a little more compact would be great, but I'm not expecting perfection.

UPDATE 12/19/07: One of the things I mentioned earlier about searching for POI's... I found a very easy way to look for POI's outside of the 2 mile radius, without going to a different area with the pointer first:

If you want to find an "Old Navy" and there isn't one listed under "Shopping"... Hit the Menu button and select "Find the nearest containing..." (or something to that effect) and then type in "Old Navy" and it should begin to show you nearby stores in red in the search window.

I have City Navigator and Topo maps and two 2GB cards. I found that I could easily store all of my city maps (about 309 of them), but could only store a small amount of the topo maps (way less than 2gb worth). I realized that the limiting factor isn't the storage space... it's the NUMBER of maps (2025 is the max number of map sets). I can only store part (a pretty sizable chunk) of the US, but not the entire country. Kind of a bummer. I hope they offer a flash-firmware upgrade someday, but I'm not holding my breath. The 60CSx is probably limited by the amount of onboard memory to index all of the maps. Oh well.

Garmin for Mac?

Looks like Garmin is fooling around with a utility that only handles transferring maps from your PC to your Mac so that you can use your Mac to transfer maps to your GPS. I'm handling the process using Bootcamp. But for folks without a Windows license and wanting to go through the "hassle" of setting up Bootcamp just for Garmin, then this might be a good way to go.

Looks like the process requires software in Windows and (of course) Mac to complete the process:

Windows MapConverter

Mac MapInstall

My real question is whether or not it is possible to share maps from one unlocked MapSource set of maps to two or more Garmin units (i.e. Map60CSx and a nüvi 350).

Terminal to copy files

I was trying to copy an invisible file and found a link to FileBuddy, but I wasn't sure it was Leopard compatible. So, rather than installing another application to my pristine upgrade, I figured I'd look for an option using terminal.

MacDevCenter.com had a nice explanation.

I also found a nice reference on navigating directories in terminal.

Bootcamp and Parallels updating session

I don't know why I waited to update Parallels until now. I was running Build 3214 until yesterday evening and I just upgraded to Build 5582 - which is most noticeably the newest (I believe) version of Parallels 3.0. I backed up my 3214 version of course, but everything is running smoothly so far.

I was also still running Bootcamp 1.2 Beta even though I have the 1.3 Beta. I had to change my computer's date to install the update and run the driver burner application. I'll update my Bootcamp partition later. I still like Bootcamp because it allocates all resources to Windows apps which is useful when I'm playing around with digital video, Flash or Captivate projects. And until recently, it was the only way to run iSight - which I use for my online conferencing for EVO.

I was surprised that there didn't seem to be an easy way to install the iSight drivers. The folks on the Parallels forum kept saying to install the Bootcamp drivers, but I didn't want to install all of them, just the ones for the webcam. I copied three files out of my Bootcamp 1.2 partition and was able to manually install the drivers. I've uploaded the drivers for everyone to use:

http://www.mediafire.com/?5uyztqv9rbm

These drivers aren't based on the newest 1.3 Beta, but they worked just fine with Windows XP.

Playing DivX on Scott's DVD player

Scott has a Samsung HT-TQ85 DVD player. One of it's cool features is that it allows you to access media directly off a USB drive. On the downside, it's a bit finicky with DVD's. It doesn't like any blemishes on the disks.

I believe I'm going to have problems with a video I've found that features an odd audio codec "ms". I don't think it'll play on his DVD player.


The problem is that I can't play it through QT so I don't think I can convert it with a different audio codec.

UPDATE - Well, it seems that I can play this through his DVD player. In fact, the quality is awesome. Guess I had a different problem with it.

A Turbo.H264 Pain in Ass

I just got Elgato's Turbo.H264 hardware video encoding acceleration device and it was initially a major pain in the ass to get converted video to play on my PSP. It wasn't until I found some information on their website that I was successful. The most important information is at the bottom! I guess I'll just have to get an iPod one of these days, but the PSP is a great PVP even though I only have 4GB of storage on it.

Update from Las Vegas

It's been a long time. I've been slacking on my blogging. So, here it is.

Basically, I'm in heaven right now. I can order/buy basically anything I could ever want now that I'm back in America.

Scott-folks have digital cable here at the house. I've been having a great time channel surfing here. It's easy to miss a lot of great shows. Plus, I felt bad that Dad didn't have the Golf Channel in Princeton. I initially thought of buying a TiVo or a Slingbox so that I could "send" him the channel directly. I ended up selecting an EyeTV 250 Plus for my Mac. I can watch and record shows on my Mac and then encode them for burning to DVD, etc. For H.264, I also bought the Elgato Turbo to speed up encoding. I've also been using the TitanTV listings to check out what's on even with out the EyeTV. I just hope that I can connect this thing up to one of the free outlets around the house.

This whole thing got me thinking about how to hookup my Mac to Scott's HDTV. I think with a Mini-DVI to DVI adapter I can get the video out to the HDTV, but I'm not exactly sure how to handle the digital audio. I could make it a lot easier by going with an S-Video and RCA hook-up, but I'd probably be sacrificing a significant amount of signal quality.

SmartFlix

Future network setup

Once we get jobs and find a place to settle down, I'll finally get to set up our network. It'll take a while to get "everyone" together, but I'll have to think of how I'll assign everything.

1. PowerMac G4 w/ 10.3? - I dunno if I'll even be able to take this one back. Mom-folks have been using it for sometime now and they might be reluctant to letting it go, but I could persuade Dad to getting them a new iMac of their very own. Unfortunately I don't really remember what it's got under-the-hood. I'd like to incorporate it into a file server with a bunch of HD's in it. It'd be nice to get over a tetrabyte of storage finally.
   
2. PowerBook G4 w/ 10.4 Server - I'll probably keep this one running as the main server until I can figure out what to do with the PowerMac G4. Eventually this might just function as a backup mail server.
   
3. iMac w/ 10.4 & Windows XP - We haven't even bought this computer yet. It'll be Hyunjoo's main computer, running both OS's. We'll probably use it for watching videos directly and hopefully I'll be able to load up some cool games on it.
   
4. MacBook w/ 10.4 & Windows XP - something that I'll probably use as my main computer and something to play movies for Movie Night.
   
5. Compaq Armada M300 w/ Windows XP - I'll probably turn this in to a guest computer or an emailing station.
   
6. Linksys - I'll keep this router to handle our Ethernet and wireless networking.
   

What to pack and what to bring?

I gotta start thinking about how I'm going to separate my stuff for our move. I have stuff I'll need to bring with me and other things I can pack away until Yamato brings them to us in Las Vegas.

Stuff to bring:

1. Computer backpack
   
2. MacBook, AC charger, audio and video cables
   
3. i70, AC adapter, USB cable
   
4. digital camera, extra battery, USB cable, AC charger
5. iPod, Firewire cable, case, Belkin car adapter w/ Tape deck adapter
6. Palm TX, USB cable, USB-AC adapter, 5V-USB cable
7. Bose QuietComfort headphones, AAA batteries
   
8. External Portable HD
1. iPhoto Library
2. Vault files
3. video files
   

Stuff I'll need to buy once I arrive in Las Vegas

1. Belkin 7-port USB hub
   

Palm backup and security

I was looking for two options for my Palm TX.

How can I backup my TX to my external SD card and to a server via wireless?

NVBackup is designed for new Palms (Treo 650, TE2, T5, Tx, and Lifedrive are the models listed) and claims to use a different system for accessing the data. There is not a lot of information about this new method, but it claims that it should be more reliable on newer Palms than most other programs. Download at SourceForge.net.

The program uses about 240k, and offers a nice selection of options, such as:

• Various compression options
• Daily backup option
• Encryption
• Putting the program on the card
• Selectable time server
• The option to export or import a copy of the backup to or from an FTP server

Besides these option, the program features include:

• Backing data up directly from internal nonvolatile memory (which supposedly helps avoid crashes)
• Selective or complete restores
• Fast saves that only update files changed since the last backup

How can I secure the contents on my external SD card?

Complexity – Intermediate
Time needed – ~20 minutes

The functionality of your Palm handheld can be extended by turning it into an authentication key on which encryption passwords and user profiles are stored. You will be able to use your Palm to protect access to your computer and use it instead of typing the passwords.

You will also enjoy the safety of having all your important documents on it – all protected by strong 256-bit AES encryption. You can easily do this by using a smart combination of Dekart and Softick software.

It will take you only a few minutes to learn how to make your Palm an all-in-one solution – a handheld, a security token and an encrypted disk. We hope this guide will help you increase the value of your Palm – by making it a secure and efficient solution for protecting your private data.

I bought some software called mEncrypt or something like that. It looks pretty good and now I'll have to see how it runs.

Using VLC for DVD Screen Captures

To disable graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications in Windows XP or Windows 2000, Select
Control Panel - Display - Properties - Settings - Advanced - Troubleshooting and slide the Hardware Acceleration slider from Full to None.

And for Macs...

Cool Coundown Timer

This is a great little script to mark the passage of almost anything! See the sidebar.

Network update

Server anomaly
I had a strange problem emerge this past weekend where my server couldn't connect to the web via Firefox. I couldn't even use Server Admin to connect to the server. I restarted a bunch of times and even precariously used changeip to try changing the IP address of the server, stupid in hind sight. I ended up changing the DNS servers to ones that were listed from my router and changed the server listing from Server Admin to its IP address. Whatever I did, it worked. I don't like the powerlessness of not knowing where to look for solutions. I don't know how to read the logs beyond a superficial level, so I don't really know where to go to fix the problems.

WPA TKIP
I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, but I changed my router from WEP encryption to 120 bit WPA TKIP encryption. I wasn't able to enter in my 503? bit passkey, so I had to choose a 20-digit key instead. I'll limit the MAC addresses next ensure that no one will be able to access my IP address.

FTP admin
I just tried to access my net2ftp admin page and was twarted by the login. I have no idea what the password is! I'll have to change that this evening.

eDrive
I installed a TechTools eDrive on my PowerBook so I don't have to rely on my newly created iPod "toolbox" for maintenance. I had troubles installing iDefrag though since I wasn't able to resolve permissions on the eDrive to allow the license key to be copied into the /Library/Application Support folder.

Buffalo 80GB Protogo Drive
Since I made an eDrive for my PowerBook, I thought I'd do the same for my MacBook. Well technically I can't make an eDrive since I have Bootcamp installed, but I have a Buffalo external USB 2.0 drive that wasn't doing anything, so it's now a portable Intel-only toolbox with lots of storage space on it (about 73 GB).