Raible Designs

New MacBook Pro and iMac

Matt Raible — Sun, 6 Nov 2011 18:10:17 -0700

Almost a month ago, I wrote about how I was hoping to increase my developer happiness by getting a new iMac and MacBook Pro. I received a lot of good advice in the comments and proceeded to order place my order with the Business Group at the Aspen Grove Apple Store the following Monday. I have to admit, the paperwork to get a lease on the equipment was kinda painful, but I was happy to get a 7% discount for being a business customer. It took until Wednesday for my order to be placed and everything started shipping the following weekend.

To make my new machines as fast as possible, I purchased OWC's Turnkey Upgrade Program for my iMac, with the 240GB OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSD and 16GB RAM. I also ordered a 480GB Pro 6G SSD and 8GB RAM for my laptop. I received the laptop about two weeks ago and the iMac a few days later. Instead of building my new laptop from my old one, I chose to simply use Lion and copy all my apps and data over manually. I sent the iMac to OWC as soon as I received it and got it back about 3 days later. I was out of town on business last week, and when I arrived home Thursday night, I found all my new equipment waiting for me. I built my iMac by cloning the drive from my laptop and installed the new SSD and memory into my new laptop.

For the last week, I've been very happy with the speed improvements and the wicked fast snappiness of opening apps, compiling programs and IntelliJ indexing in only a few seconds. However, on October 24th, I received a strange email from Aspen Grove Business with the subject MacBook Pro Price Reduction. I quickly replied, asking if new MacBook Pro's came out in the last couple days. I received no response, but learned a couple days ago that indeed they had. One of my office mates bought a new machine and said he got a 2.5GHz processor, while mine had a 2.3GHz.

Today, I packed up my new laptop and drove down to the Aspen Grove store to see if I could exchange it for a faster one. They hesitantly agreed to exchange it, as long as I put the original hard drive and memory back into it. I drove to my office, which was only a couple miles away in downtown Littleton. I put in the original disk and memory back in and returned to the Apple Store. 20 minutes later, I was walking out with a new, new MacBook Pro and happy to get the fastest Apple laptop on the market. The funny thing about this experience is it's the 3rd time in a row I've experienced buying an Apple laptop and returning it shortly after for a newer one. My last laptop purchase (March 2009) and Trish's 13" MacBook Pro (in March) were the first two.

I'm writing this post to thank Apple for having such great customer service. I've been very close to experiencing buyer's remorse (because I missed laptop upgrades by a few days) and Apple has always been very gracious in helping me out. In fact, with this latest purchase, they said there was a $400 difference between my two-week-old laptop and the latest 2.5GHz. Then they only charged me $50 for "being such a great business customer".

Thanks Apple, you rock!

Increasing My Developer Happiness

Matt Raible — Fri, 7 Oct 2011 15:35:35 -0600

I've bought into the idea that a happy developer requires a clean, attractive, comfortable workplace that encourages healthy, sustainable productivity. Rich Armstrong of Fog Creek Software explains how they spend $6,174 per developer to make them happy. Shortly after reading this article, I tweeted:

My ideal setup is ~$10K more (MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, two 30s).

While this is my ideal setup, it's not something I actually need. If you've ever worked with two 30" monitors, you might agree. That much screen real estate can be too much, as you have to pan your head side-to-side to take it all in. I've found that a single 30" or 27" is good enough for me. As far as a Mac Pro goes, they can have awesome horsepower when full-loaded, but unless you're doing some serious processing, you probably won't utilize it all.

The last time I bought a new computer was March 2009, when I bought a 15" MacBook Pro with an SSD. I upgraded it to 8 GB RAM a year later and it's hummed along just fine since then. I also had the pleasure of working on a fully-loaded Mac Pro at Time Warner Cable for all of 2010 and a company-provided MacBook Pro at Overstock for most of this year. With my recent move to a new client, it's time to increase my developer happiness. Since I am my own boss, it's easy to get hardware upgrades approved.

My current hardware inventory is as follows:

A 15" MacBook Pro
A 30" monitor at home
A 27" monitor at my office in Downtown Littleton

Since I ride my bike to work everyday, I've been hauling my laptop back and forth on my 8-mile commute. This is getting old quickly. I'd rather have a permanent machine in my office and a laptop for when I travel to clients, the mountain office or to conferences. So here's what I hope to buy in the next week:

A new 15" MacBook Pro, fastest CPU available
A fully-loaded 27" iMac for my office

I'll be moving my current 27" monitor to the mountain office. I plan on getting rid of my current MacBook Pro through the Apple Recycling Program. I'm also planning on trying out Apple's 24-month leasing program. I like to get new hardware every two years and it's a better tax deduction, so it seems to make sense.

My only question at this point is should I get Apple's SSD and RAM instead of getting it aftermarket (e.g. via Crucial)? My original plan was to install an aftermarket SSD and 8 GB RAM in the MacBook Pro. For the iMac, I've heard installing an aftermarket SSD isn't an option, but RAM is. I was thinking about getting the SSD + 1 TB drive combo and upgrading the RAM to 8 GB myself. There's a good chance aftermarket is better quality, but I'd also have to pay more vs. having it wrapped up in the total lease price.

Of course, new hardware is only part of developer happiness. A clean, attractive, comfortable workplace is an essential component as well. My home and mountain offices are nice, but my Littleton office needs work. I currently share it with two other developers, Angela and Jim. Over the next couple months, we plan on making a lot of improvements to our daily digs. I'll make sure and take some before and after pictures and blog about how we improve things.

Update: Thanks to everyone for their advice. As I suspected, upgrading RAM and disk aftermarket is the way to go. When I wrote this, I was under the impression that you couldn't upgrade the iMac's disk. Since then, I've discovered OWC's Turnkey Upgrade Program. Using this, I can send them my iMac and get a wicked fast 480 GB SSD, a 2 TB drive, 16 GB of RAM and have it shipped overnight for around $1400. Add in 8 GB RAM and a 480 GB Mercury Extreme 6G SSD for my new MacBook Pro and I'm looking at $2600 (aftermarket) + $5500 (Apple) = $8100. Now I just need to find some external hard drive enclosures for my old drives. Bonus points if I can find one with Thunderbolt support.

I can feel my developer happiness increasing already...

My iPad Review

Matt Raible — Tue, 6 Apr 2010 22:51:22 -0600

One week before my home computer was stolen from my living room, the iPad was announced. After watching the initial video, I figured I might want to get one. Fast forward to iPad release day. I was skiing with a friend in Winter Park as I was scratching my head trying to come up with good Easter presents for my kids. Then it hit me: An iPad would be an excellent Easter gift for my kids.

I called the Cherry Creek Apple store and asked if they had any left. They said they did, but they'd likely be sold out before the end of the day. I arrived back in Denver around 3 and was 2nd in line at the Apple Store at 3:30. 5 minutes later, I walked out with an iPad. They were sold out of 32GB models, so I went with the 64GB.

CNET has a good about the 5 Reasons NOT to get an iPad. There #1 reason is great: because you don't need one. They're absolutely right, I didn't need an iPad. I wanted a new home computer so I don't have to pack my MacBook Pro back and forth to the office. However, I realized that most of the time I'm at home, I'm not doing much hard-core computing. Most of the time, I'm checking e-mail, reading Twitter or reading articles. So I bought it because it was cheaper than a new home computer, but I also realize it's not a computer replacement.

It's really just a big iPhone.

In every aspect, it's a larger iPhone. Abbie's first words when she opened it on Easter Sunday were "It's a big phone!" It is a big iPhone, but it's much more pleasant for reading articles and e-mail. Beyond that, it seems good for games, but it's certainly not super-duper fantastico. It's a bit heavy; too heavy to read as you would a book. After holding it for an hour or two last night, my left hand started to get sore. Also, its keyboard sucks. Maybe I'll get used to it in the long run, but without the tactile feedback of keys, it can be difficult to type without looking. The other things I don't like about it are:

There are very few good apps (iPhone apps work, but they're small).
The screen gets dirty quickly and it looks kinda gross when it's not lit up.
The Photos app doesn't work at all for me. It says "Updating Library" when I open it, then crashes several seconds later. Maybe I have too many pictures (12.5K items, 28.5 GB).
When it's synching with my laptop, it constantly connects and reconnects and makes a loud noise each time.

I took the iPad to work on Monday and received some interesting feedback from co-workers.

There are some good things about it. First of all, it's wicked fast. Apps *pop* and load their data very quickly. Way faster than my iPhone and faster than both my MacBook Pro and the powerhouse Mac Pro I use at work.

I really like the newspaper apps for reading the latest news articles. I'm not much of a news person, but there's a good chance I read more of it because the apps are so pleasing to the eye. Also, the Netflix app sucked me in as soon as I started reading about it. I've bought my kids several movies on iTunes, but there's still not a huge selection to choose from. With Netflix and its live streaming, we have seemingly thousands of movies to choose from and they're all a touch away. The Mail app is also pleasant to use, possibly moreso than Mail.app on OS X and Gmail in any ol' browser.

There's a good bit of me that's underwhelmed with the device, but I think it has a lot of potential when more apps start appearing. It also seems to need some accessories right away: namely a case to carry it in and a shield to keep clean. I could also see getting a stand for it to enhance its digital picture frame feature. If I could plug it into my HD TV, it might even eliminate my need for OnDemand Movies and DVDs.

I think the biggest potential for the iPad is kids, baby boomers and couples. There's a good chance all of these demographics have a real computer in their home, but the head of household doesn't want to spring for two. Take my mom for instance, she wants an iPad for e-mail because my dad always hogs their iMac. My kids aren't that enthralled with it, but it took them awhile to appreciate the Wii and iPhone. With the Wii, it was the Super Mario Bros. game that reeled them in. Same story with my iPhone; they love the games.

My guess is the real attraction of the iPad will be the apps that are built for it. I can't wait to see what developers come up with.

17" MacBook Pro Stolen from Living Room

Matt Raible — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 09:45:52 -0700

Almost 3 years ago, I bought a 17" MacBook Pro. This laptop served me well for several years, mostly as a home computer. A few months after I bought it, I started working at LinkedIn and got a brand new laptop as part of my first day on the job. After working with LinkedIn's 15" for almost 2 years, I grew to love the form factor and purchased another one almost a year ago. I found the 17" was too big for planes and the 15" fits me perfectly.

Fast forward to last night.

I attended the first half of the Ignite talks at DOSUG and left around 7. When I arrived home, I suspected something might be out of whack when my front door was unlocked. Julie had come over to pick up Abbie's dance shoes around 6, so I figured she must've forgot to lock the door on her way out. When I got inside and saw my coat closet open, I justified it by thinking she grabbed one of the kids coats out of the closet and forgot to close the door. When I walked into my living room and saw my space heater's remote in the middle of the floor, busted open with batteries out, it clicked that a stranger was in my house. The first thing that jumped into my head was "Where's my laptop?" As I looked at the bare mini-desk in my living room, I realized it had been stolen.

I called Julie and asked her if she left the front door open. She said no, but when she arrived at my house (and came through the back), the garage's light was on and my back door was wide open. I asked her if she saw the busted remote on the floor or if the closet door was open. She said no. Putting all the pieces together, it appears that the burglar was actually hiding in my closet when Julie came into my house. Naturally, she's a little a freaked out by this, but she also saved the day by scaring off perpetrator before they took anything else.

This isn't a new trend for me and this incident is mostly my fault. I left my backdoor unlocked. Two years ago, my truck's stereo was stolen and there's a good chance I left the doors unlocked (and didn't turn on the alarm). Last year, my bike was stolen and the lock was still there, indicating I missed the frame when locking it up. So getting robbed in the first part of every year seems somewhat par for the course.

With my truck's stereo, it worked out well because the rig needed a new stereo. My bike last year? There wasn't any silver lining to that incident, so I made myself earn a new one. With this laptop incident, there is a silver lining in that I've been thinking about getting a 27" iMac for a home computer. Other options include a Mac Pro for my office (and use my laptop for traveling/home use) or a Mac Mini for home and hook it up to my TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The home iMac seems like the best option, but I'd also be interested to hear what others recommend. Of course, I'll be keeping my doors locked from now on.

New 15" MacBook Pro with SSD

Matt Raible — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 07:24:28 -0700

Just over a month ago, I reduced my computing machinery from 3 to 1. Since I was running to work, this quickly presented a problem of how to get my laptop to/from the office. I decided to go for the "no home computer" about half the time and it was a fairly pleasant experience. It's hard to stay up late and hack away on open source when all you have is an iPhone.

To be perfectly honest, I only made it about 2 weeks before I ordered a new laptop, but I cancelled the order shortly after. Last weekend, I re-ordered and my new 15" MacBook Pro arrived this past weekend. Here's the specs:

Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

I also chose the solid-state drive (SSD) because I'd heard it's faster. I did some rough performance comparisons against my old laptop (a 2-year-old 17" MacBook Pro) and found it's quite a bit faster.

For these tests, the computers have exactly the same software and OS (I restored my new MBP from my old one). For the tests below, I used Java version "1.5.0_16" and had JAVA_OPTS set to the following:

-Xms512M -Xmx768M -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC.

Computer	Operation	Time (mm:ss)
New MacBook Pro with OS X 10.5.6 (2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM)	appfuse: mvn install	3:23
	cp -r appfuse appfuse2	0:28
	gwt-project: mvn install	1:24
Old MacBook Pro with OS X 10.5.6 (2.33 GHz, 3 GB RAM)	appfuse: mvn install	4:11
	cp -r appfuse appfuse2	0:56
	gwt-project: mvn install	2:21

From these numbers, you can see that it's around 20% faster for building AppFuse (2.1-SNAPSHOT) and almost twice as fast at copying files and building the GWT project I'm working on. Needless to say, I'm impressed and pleased with my purchase.

Update: New MacBook Pros came out today with a faster CPU (2.93 GHz) and 256 GB SSD. I was able to call Apple and get a full refund on mine. Thanks Apple!

Bye Bye Dream Machine

Matt Raible — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:18:33 -0700

This evening, I'm shipping back one of my favorite machines of all time. I received a fully-loaded Mac Pro as part of my employment with LinkedIn last June. It was necessary to run the LinkedIn application locally and I thoroughly enjoyed using it for the last 6 months. With 12GB of RAM and two 23" monitors, it was a great employee perk.

When I became a contractor again, they let me take my dream machine home. I promptly plugged in my 30" monitor and I've been loving my home work environment ever since. I could have bought the machine from LinkedIn, but I discovered I can buy a brand new machine with similar specs for less than their asking price.

The good news is I'm now able to answer the question I asked a couple years ago: One 30" monitor or two 23" monitors? IMO, one 30" monitor is definitely better and two 30" monitors would be awesome.

In addition to the Mac Pro, I'll also be shipping back the 15" MacBook Pro they gave me. This leaves me with my 17" MacBook Pro and an old HP Pavilion with Windows XP. I was hoping to plug my 30" into the HP, but I discovered I don't have a DVI card that will handle it. Over the next few months, I do plan on buying a new MacBook Pro (for work) and a Mac Pro (for home). With my running commute, I need to leave one machine downtown and I like to have one at home for the kids + late night hacking.

I'm currently having a hard time deciding if I should buy a MacBook Pro now or make do with what I have and just buy a new DVI card for my Windows box. I'm leaning towards a new 15" MacBook Pro (17" is too big to travel with). If I could get one with a 256GB SSD, I'd definitely be sold.

What would you do?

My iPhone Review

Matt Raible — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:07:26 -0600

Today I picked up a 16GB iPhone at the Park Meadows Apple Store. As far as I can tell, I got it with a stroke of luck. Last night, I was searching Apple's "Concierge" application to see which store (there's 4 in the region now) would look at my Mac Pro (averaging 4 GSOD per day). Most had a 24-hour lead time at the Genius Bar, but Park Meadows had an 8AM available.

This morning, I hauled the box into the mall and doubted the store would be open at such an early hour. Apparently, the store isn't really "open", but the Genius Bar is and they have a camp for kids from 8-10. After submitting my machine to the Genius Bar, I asked a guy about iPhones. He said they got a shipment the night before and they had 16GB White iPhones in stock.

LinkedIn has an Employee Discount for AT&T, so I asked the sales guy if I could use that. He said I needed to buy the phone from AT&T if I wanted to use any sort of "business" discount. I called the downtown AT&T store (they angrily told me they were out-of-stock) and walked by the one in Park Meadows Mall (didn't open until 10). I then rationalized that buying an iPhone from an AT&T store could take weeks. After an hour of contemplating, I decided to go ahead and purchase the white iPhone, even though I wanted black and I wouldn't get the employee discount. My reasoning:

Employee Discount is 8% which amounts to about $8/month. My last T-Mobile bill for my Blackberry Pearl was over $200. Going from $200 to under $100 makes $8 irrelevant.
When I bought my Escalade, I liked a black one more. When I bought my last iPod (May), I wanted a white one, but ended up with black (no white in stock). It seems fitting that I'd get a white one when I'd want black. My previous black vs. white purchases haven't bothered me post-purchase.
These things are hard to find - I should just buy the damn thing.

So yes, I thought about the decision way too much, but managed to talk myself into it. It's a good thing too - they were sold out by the time the store opened at 10. I bought mine at 9:30.

So what do I think of it? I like it, but not for the phone or fanciness of it.

Pros: The main reason I like it is for its iTunes Remote application. With an Airport Express + Bose System at home, I've been wanting this for quite some time. I would've paid $200 for this alone.

Cons: I love the Pandora app, but was disappointed to find it didn't work with my car's iPod connector. I was hoping for Pandora-in-the-car, but no dice. The iPod feature of the iPhone works, but charging via my car's iPod connector doesn't. The enabling-of-charging feature may be software related since there's a "charging won't work" message that pops up when I plug it in.

So 12 hours after purchasing the device, I'm happy with it, but not thrilled. However, it seems like the kind of thing that grows on you and someday you wonder how you lived without it. Should be a fun ride.

Update 24 hours later: I really like that the iPhone has a speaker. I've always wanted a radio in my bedroom at night and now I have one. On the downside, the battery life is abysmal: it was fully charged at 8AM this morning and completely dead by 8PM tonight.

New Mac Pro

Matt Raible — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:21:17 -0600

It sure is cool when dreams come true. Look what arrived at the Denver office today.

Update: Believe it or not, I rebooted my MacBook Pro the same minute I plugged in my Mac Pro. Upon reboot, the MBP choked and I've been looking at a gray screen with a spinning icon for most of the day. I'm soooo glad I have Time Machine. Let's hope I can do a restore on the MBP tomorrow.

Update 2: I was able to successfully build the Mac Pro from my latest MacBook Pro backup on Time Machine. Sweet! Let's see how this works:

$ echo $JAVA_OPTS
-Xms512M -Xmx4096M -XX:PermSize=384m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Djava.awt.headless=true -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -server

I Got Lucky

Matt Raible — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:18:02 -0600

Earlier this evening, I decided to upgrade my work laptop to Safari 3.1. Shortly after restarting, I was greeted with the Gray Screen of Death. To fix, I rebooted. Same result. 3rd time is a charm, right? Nope.

/me this is really going to suck, I'm going to have to give up my laptop for several days to get it fixed. Furthermore, this is my only machine authorized to VPN into LinkedIn's network. Looks like I'm going on vacation for the rest of the week.

Rather than trying to rescue the OS or upgrade it to Leopard, I decided to watch TV for an hour instead. When I came back, I disconnected the machine from its monitor and tried rebooting on battery power. Voila - it worked!

Now I'm in the process of using my old friend SuperDuper!.

I got lucky... when was the last time you backed up?

My Entire Family is now on Macs

Matt Raible — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:27:17 -0600

I bought my first Mac in January 2002. I had dreamed about a PowerBook for years before buying it and was very excited when it arrived. A couple days later, I discovered it was practically worthless because it was so slow for Java Development. I used it for pictures and music, but not much else. Through the years, I owned a couple more PowerBooks, but rarely found them fast enough to use on a day-to-day basis. I kept doing most of my development on Windows.

In January 2006, everything changed. I kept my Windows box around at home, but mostly because it was connected to my 23" monitor and I didn't feel like switching things out. When I moved last summer, I put my Windows box in a closet and bought a 30" monitor. I've hardly touched that Windows box since. Of course, it helps that I have Parallels installed on my Mac.

Now I have two MacBook Pros (a 17" I bought and a 15" that LinkedIn gave me). Last year I convinced my sister to buy a MacBook. Time I've had to spend in the last year helping her fix it: 0 minutes.

Yesterday, I took my Dad to his local Mac store and helped him buy a 24" iMac.

The Raible Family is now an all-Mac family and I work at an all-Mac company.

Life is good.

Part Apple Fan, Part Geek

Matt Raible — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:26:53 -0700

I like to think I'm not too committed to anything (except my kids and skiing). The following quizzes seem to indicate I'm on the right track. Moderation is good.

52%How Addicted to Apple Are You?
48% Geek

Proof that the holidays are treating me well? I'm heading to the hills for 2 days of skiing with my sister tomorrow. Forecast: Powder.

Life with a 30" Monitor

Matt Raible — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:03:24 -0700

Back in August, I asked if it was better to have one 30" monitor or two 23" monitors? After many comments, I concluded:

After reading The Large Display Paradox, it seems like I should either find something like WinSplit Revolution for the Mac, or get 2 monitors. I agree with everything that Jeff Atwood says about maximizing windows, that's why I originally thought two 23" monitors might be better.

For some reason, I threw this conclusion out the window in September and bought myself a 30" monitor. Within minutes, I concluded He who says 30" monitors are no good has never owned one. It's simply one of the coolest computing devices I've ever purchased. It makes developing in my home office simply awesome.

Below is a picture of my home office. The fireplace and "AirTunes to Bose System" make it one of my favorite offices ever.

Going to see Fake Steve Jobs Tonight

Matt Raible — Tue, 6 Nov 2007 14:41:15 -0700

One of the perks of working at LinkedIn, and being out in Mountain View this week, is I get to attend a talk tonight where Guy Kawasaki interviews Fake Steve Jobs. It's my first trip to the Computer History Museum, so it should be a fun show. If you're not able to make it tonight, it looks like they'll be live streaming the event from the LinkedIn blog.

My only question is - do you think FSJ will act like Jobs or himself? I'm hoping for the former.

Update: That was an awesome event. Thanks to LinkedIn for hosting it and for Fake Steve for the great stories behind his journey.

Update 2: The LinkedIn Blog has videos from the event.

My Upgrade to Leopard

Matt Raible — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:42:39 -0600

By now, you've seen many stories about upgrading to Leopard. Here's mine.

In the past, I would've slapped the DVD in, selected upgrade and prayed for the best. Now I'm older and (apparently) wiser. First, I cloned my hard drive with SuperDuper!. Then I attempted to upgrade. I started the process on Saturday morning and didn't check it until Saturday afternoon. At that point, I was greeted with the lovely blue screen of death. I didn't even bother to look up the problem - instead opting for the clean install.

The next time I checked (Sunday evening), the installation was completed. I registered, clicked through some stuff and started copying files from my backup drive. On Sunday night, I closed the lid on my laptop and haven't used it since. I guess new operating systems don't excite me as much as they used to. Then again, I do have two MacBooks, so I don't really need the Leoparded one.

As far as the lack of Java 6, that doesn't surprise or disappoint me. I'm sure it'll be out in a few weeks. By the time it's released, I doubt any of my clients will have made the leap from Java 5 -> Java 6.

It could be that I'm burned out on technology - or it could be the Rockies and Broncos performance this past weekend has got me bummed. Who knows - the good news is there's lot of trick-or-treating to be done in the next couple of days and I'm sure to cheer up with the kids around.

iPhone Unlocked

Matt Raible — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:53:20 -0600

My only good reason for not getting an iPhone? You have to switch to AT&T. I had AT&T a few years ago and their customer service sucked. I've been on T-Mobile for a few years now and couldn't be happier. Now it looks like the iPhone will work with any provider. Very nice!

It's high noon, Apple and AT&T -- we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It's all over, guys. [Read More]

Will I get one now? Probably not, I don't spend enough time on the phone and I'm perfectly happy with my Blackberry Pearl. With that being said, I have seen and fondled one and they are quite nice.

RE: One 30" monitor or two 23" monitors?

Matt Raible — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:08:31 -0600

My post asking about one 30" monitor or two 23" monitors generated quite a few comments. After reading The Large Display Paradox, it seems like I should either find something like WinSplit Revolution for the Mac, or get 2 monitors. I agree with everything that Jeff Atwood says about maximizing windows, that's why I originally thought two 23" monitors might be better.

However, the problem with two monitors is I'd need to get Matrox's DualHead2Go Digital Edition to run both on my PowerBook MacBook Pro. Frederic notes some issues I might experience with this device:

It worked ok with 2 17" LCD monitors but did have some issues with most games... One thing to keep in mind is that it may not have the bandwidth to drive anything over 2x1280x1024.

I don't play games (too addictive), but if I can't drive both monitors at 1900x1200, it's probably not worth it.

So you're getting a 30" monitor then?

Maybe, but there's a problem with the 30" that I didn't think of: I'd need dual video cards in my Windows box to drive it. Not only that, my KVM switch probably can't handle a 30" monitor. If I'm wrong, and I can drive a 30" monitor through a single DVI KVM switch, let me know. In the meantime, I'm strongly considering a single 23" with my MacBook Pro on an iCurve next to it. That gives me dual monitors when I'm on the Mac, but not on Windows. That's OK - I don't use my Windows box that much anyway.

One 30" monitor or two 23" monitors?

Matt Raible — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:42:24 -0600

As part of Julie and I's divorce settlement, I let her keep my 23" Cinema Display along with its attached Windows PC. Since I like having a Windows PC available, I managed to buy the same machine on eBay for $250. However, now I'm in the market for a new monitor.

So what should I get? One 30" cinema display or two 23" displays?

I'm leaning towards two 23 inchers. Matrox's DualHead2Go seems to provide exactly what I'd need to hook two 23s to a MacBook Pro. Furthermore, I could hook it up to my DVI KVM switch and have dual monitors on both my Mac and my PC. No matter how big the screen is, I always seem to enjoy dual monitors more.

What do you think? Is anyone out there using Matrox's DualHead2Go Digital Edition?

A New 17" Powerhouse

Matt Raible — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:20:35 -0600

On my current project, we're using SQL Server as the backend database. To make this work on my MacBook Pro, I have to run Parallels in the background. While this setup works, it does have issues. The main problem is things slow down a fair amount when running two operating systems. Last week (or was it two weeks ago?), Parallels came out with their latest release, which includes a Coherence mode. If you're a Mac user, I highly recommend this software. It basically lets you run Windows and OS X at the same time, all integrated into the same screen, which the same dock and everything. It's really slick the first time you see it in action.

After working in this mode for a few days, I knew it was the perfect programming platform for me. I tend to use Windows and OS X each 50% of the time, so having them both running side-by-side rocks. But as I worked, I thought to myself, "I need more RAM and more real estate". It seems liked a no-brainer: it was time to upgrade to the 17" MacBook Pro - with all the performance goodies I could get. Against Ben's advice, I bought a new 17" MacBook Pro last week. 3 GB RAM and the fastest disk they had (100 GB 7200 RPM version). Sure, it'd be great to have more disk space, but I'm not going to give up speed for space. If this bad boy really is 40% faster than my current MBP, life is going to be very good.

Of course, my real reason for getting a new laptop was because Julie dropped her PowerBook a couple months ago. I was going to spend $1000 to get it fixed, but it didn't seem like a worthwhile investment. Julie's renovating a new house, so with me working from home, it can get contentious for her trying to get some computer time. So she needed a new laptop. She mentioned she wanted to buy a PC laptop. I shrieked when I heard this and knew I had to buck up and get a new one so she could have my MBP that runs Windows. Did this reasoning work with her? No, not at all. However, when she gets a new computer later this evening, I'm willing to bet she'll be pretty pumped.

I'll try to post some performance comparisons this evening after I get it all setup.

Update: It's gonna be a while before I can post any performance comparisons. I got the box setup thanks to Apple's "import from another box" feature. However, I'm wwaaaayyyy behind on a lot of commitments, so I'm scrambling to catch up. With any luck, I'll post something this weekend.

Airport Extreme

Matt Raible — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:23:29 -0700

Even though I managed to get my home network speedy again after my bandwidth speed issues, I bought a new Airport Extreme last week. My main reason for buying it was its USB device sharing feature. I have a Suse 10 box that runs Samba, DHCP, DNS right now, but for some reason, my MacBook Pro doesn't work for printing to CUPS over Samba. In my experience, printing is one of the major issues with Macs - it just never seems to work when you want to print over a network. I have gotten it to work in the past, but it's often been a wretched weekend's adventures where I end up sacrificing a goat to the CUPS gods to get everything working.

So by buying an Airport Extreme, I figured I'd have an Apple product at the center of my network and all my problems would be solved. I was wrong.

First of all, why can't there be a web interface on this sucker? Why does it require that I have a client installed to configure it? With most routers I've worked with in the past (NetGear and Linksys), the web interface might've been clunky, but it didn't require I install a CD. I initially tried installing the software on Windows XP, but for some reason it wasn't able to communicate. So I installed it on my Mac and was able to configure everything. While the setup process worked, and I was able to access the internet afterwards, this device doesn't seem to work well with my network. After plugging my printer in (an HP OfficeJet G85), I was able to add it on both XP and OS X using Bonjour. However, no matter what I sent to the printer, it'd never print. Further gripes: it might have an integrated firewall, but there doesn't seem to be a way to configure it. I couldn't find any way to do port forwarding. This stuff is so simple to do on my Netgear router.

At this point, it seems logical to return my Airport Extreme as it simply doesn't work as expected. Of course, my frustration could be from my lack of knowledge, but that's the point - I shouldn't have to read the documentation or contact Apple Support - it should all just work.

Broken PowerBook Display

Matt Raible — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 21:20:53 -0700

This past week, Julie accidentally dropped her PowerBook (my old 17" G4) and broke the display. 1/4 of the screen still works, but the rest looks like a digitally shattered window. There doesn't appear to be any physical damage to the exterior. The laptop is definitely out of warranty, so I'll probably take it down to The Mac Outlet and see if I can get it fixed. Has anyone experienced a similar situation? If so, how much was it to get repaired?

VMWare for OS X now available

Matt Raible — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:54:47 -0700

Like Marc and Howard, I've been eagerly awaiting VMWare for the Mac. Howard blogged his frustration yesterday and voila! - the VMware Fusion public beta was posted today. I downloaded it, installed it and was successfully able to start my Ubuntu image I use for training classes. Well done VMWare!

You might ask why this is a big deal if Parallels already exists? The answer is simple: VMWare Player, VMWare Server and (hopefully) VMWare Fusion are all free! This means you can build an OS (or appliance) and anyone can download free software to play it. This is huge when you're doing training classes and need to install an OS on student's machines w/o charging them for it.

The only problem with all this virtualization stuff? It's currently taking up 20 GB of disk space on my MacBook Pro (15 GB for Windows, 5 GB for Ubuntu). Sounds like a good excuse to get a new write off before the end of the year. Or maybe I should install a 160 GB hard drive like Darren recommends? In reality, what I'd really love to do is get a couple of 16 GB flash drives and put an OS on each one. Too bad they're so spendy.

The New MacBook Pros - 40% faster!

Matt Raible — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 09:05:43 -0600

My MacBook Pro is fast, but there's no such thing as a computer that's too fast. The fact that the new one is 40% faster than my current one makes me drool. Anyone interested in buying a 15" MacBook Pro with 2 GB of RAM?

Windows Vista

Matt Raible — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:10:16 -0600

I spent some time this past weekend playing with Windows Vista. By playing, I mean I tried to install it on a couple machines. The first lucky recipient was my MacBook Pro. I attempted to install it as both a clean install and as Windows XP upgrade in Parallels (Build 1884 RC). No dice - I got a blue screen of death with both installs. It didn't even make it to the "copy files" phase. Next, I tried it on my Windows box. Rather than blow away Windows Media Center (the kids would kill me), I installed it in VMWare Server. Amazingly enough, it worked without any issues. While both VMWare and Parallels label their Vista support as "experimental", it seems that VMWare is doing a much better job. I wonder when VMWare is going to release their VMWare Server for the Mac?

After installing it, I discovered that Windows Media Center is included in Vista, so I'm guessing I could easily upgrade Windows Media Center w/o losing any functionality. I played around with the OS a bit and after about 10 minutes decided I liked the look of XP better and the look of OS X way better. It seemed very sluggish as well, but I'll attribute that to the 768 MB of RAM I gave it in VMWare. Will I upgrade? Probably, but at this point, I don't see a whole lot to get excited about (at least from an end-user perspective).

What's a good portable USB Drive?

Matt Raible — Sat, 9 Sep 2006 17:16:48 -0600

After finding Mark's HOWTO Rip DVD Movies To Your iPod Using Free Software, I've started ripping some DVDs to my hard drive. On the list: Top Secret, Old School and Office Space. I imagine my hard drive will fill up pretty fast, so I'm in the market for a portable USB (or Firewire) Drive. Know of any good ones? I'll probably head down to the Apple Store tomorrow and pick one up.

Monday I'm heading out on a whirlwind trip to Milwaukee, followed by a weekend in Vegas. I'm teaching a class where we use Maven 2, so it might be a good idea to take the Maven repo with me. Especially since it's rumored the classroom won't have internet access. The good news is I have an Ubuntu VMWare image that already contains all the necessary JARs. Hopefully I can convince all the students to use it.

Update: In a perfect world, I could use my 60 GB iPod as a fat USB drive. However, it doesn't just "plugin and work" on a Windows box like thumb drives do.

Update 2: I ended up getting the LaCie Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive. It was a little pricy, but it's tough to assign a value to a backup drive. With 120 GB, I should be able to use SuperDuper! to clone my hard drive and have plenty of room for movies.

rsync -v -t -l -r ftp.ibiblio.org::maven2 ~/.m2/repository

...is a wonderful thing. Looks like the Maven 2 repo is currently at 7.28 GB.

Verizon V640 ExpressCard - works like a charm

Matt Raible — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:21:07 -0600

As mentioned previously, I've been waiting on a Verizon V640 ExpressCard for my MacBook Pro. It arrived this week, and I had a chance to try it out yesterday. I plugged it in, waiting a few minutes, entered the root password, and voila! - I was online. Pretty slick stuff. Bandwidth tests show the speed is around 512 KB/sec. With all the wireless issues I've had, this thing is a nice treat. Who knows if I'll even bother to use wireless anymore!

Speaking of MacBooks, it seems that the first ones produced were some of the best. I have 3 co-workers with machines, and while one works great, the others have some serious issues. One randomly reboots (without warning) and the other guy's has been in the shop for a week b/c it has kernel panics 2-3 times per day. Besides the wireless, the only other issue I have is mine doesn't work on some projectors. Since I'm doing a lot of training and conferences in the next few months - I should probably get that looked at.

Dream Machine

Matt Raible — Mon, 7 Aug 2006 20:47:11 -0600

Well done Apple, you've created my dream machine. Too bad it's so damn expensive. My ideal configuration is as follows:

Two 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB (4 x 1GB)
Hard Drive - Bay 1: 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Hard Drive - Bay 2: 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB
Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
2 x SuperDrives
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
AppleCare
Subtotal: $6,436.00

The nice thing about owning one of these bad boys is you could run several copies of Linux and Windows (using VMWare and/or Parallels). I could literally buy one machine and have 5 in a matter of hours. Hmmm, I should probably bump up that ram to 8GB.

It's tempting, but that's a lot of cash to shell out for a machine. Then again, the more write-offs the better.

EVDO ExpressCards for MacBook Pros

Matt Raible — Sat, 8 Jul 2006 11:10:01 -0600

When Bruce said he wasn't getting a MacBook Pro because they didn't support EVDO Cards, I had a hard time believing him. Last week, I saw a co-worker using an EVDO card and have completely changed my perspective. He was able to get 7.9 MB/s (from the Bandwidth Speed Test), while only getting T1 speeds from an ethernet connection. Needless to say, I was instantly sold. Since Virtuas supplies EVDO cards to its employees, I've been yearning for one ever since.

As Bruce noted, the current models don't fit in MacBook Pros because they ship with ExpressCard slots instead of PMCIA. I did some research last weekend and found MacBook Pro owners have two options: 1) a USB adapter or 2) the Verizon V640. The V640 is obviously the better solution as it's more compact, but they're not shipping yet. The good news, according to EVDOinfo.com, is they will be soon.

July 7, 2006 @ 8:30AM CST Update

Verizon is in the process of sending Novatel V640 ExpressCards (aka XV620) to their warehouses, we are expecting the ability to order them over by the end of this week, however, this can be delayed based on Verizon Official Launch dates.

I'd love to have one of these bad boys for Raible Road Trip #10.

Two Finger Right Click

Matt Raible — Sat, 1 Jul 2006 20:52:13 -0600

I just discovered that two finger right click has been added for 15" MacBook Pro machines. To enable it, go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Trackpad. Check "Place two fingers on trackpad and click button for secondary click". Sweet - I dig this feature. Hat tip to the Parallels web site.

Now onto seeing if I can the free VMWare server to run Ubuntu side-by-side Windows XP on my HP box. If not, I'll drag out an old server and install it on there. It seems I'm in need of a build server since my other one is already being taxed by AppFuse's CruiseControl.

MacBook Pro Power Management Issues

Matt Raible — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 12:57:06 -0600

Last week, during the Denver JUG meeting, my MacBook Pro's battery quit functioning. I got a new one from my local Apple Store the next day. Today, my power cord quit working. Again, my local Apple Store was happy to replace it. I wonder if this is a sign of things to come? It's probably time to backup the whole thing tonight just in case the hard drive is next.

Wireless in NYC

Matt Raible — Tue, 2 May 2006 19:11:06 -0600

What's worse than staying at a high-priced hotel and having to pay for internet access? Staying at an old NYC hotel where the free (wireless) internet access doesn't work. Even worse, there's a plethora of available networks nearby. 2/3 of them are protected, and the rest simply don't work with my Mac. I'm starting to get pretty frustrated with the wireless on this MacBook Pro - especially since it worked nearly *every time* on my old PowerBook. I should probably take it into the Apple Store next week. The strange part is I can get a connection just fine at my client and Starbucks. It's weird staying in a hotel room and not having internet access - especially when traveling for business.

Update: Strangely enough - when I got back to my room tonight, there was a new wireless connection and I got a full/fast connection. Go figure.

Exporting an outline from Keynote

Matt Raible — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:20:00 -0600

Last night, I started thinking it would be pretty cool if I could take a Keynote presentation and export an outline from it. After a bit of Googling, I discovered that OmniOutliner can open Keynote files. I was tickled pink when I read this, only to be disappointed a minute later when I found it didn't work. It imported the file OK, but most of the bullet points are blank, and the ones with text only contain notes.

I'm using Keynote 3.0.1 and OmniOutliner 3.5. Has anyone had success using this feature in OmniOutliner? Of course, if you know of a way to export a Keynote (or PowerPoint) outline, I'm all ears.

2 Minutes Later: Looks like there's a beta that supports Keynote 3.0. Sorry for the noise.

Update: Same result with the beta. Damn.

Parallels Workstation for OS X fails the 10 minute test

Matt Raible — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 23:45:01 -0600

I gave the Parallels Workstation a run for its money on my MacBook Pro this evening. It failed the 10-minute test because it took 45 minutes just to install Windows. Beyond that, the networking doesn't work and you can't full-screen the application window. It's not included in the free beta download. I think I'll just continue using a 2nd Windows box instead of making my MacBook Pro a 2-n-1 machine.

Update: The Beta 2 and Beta 3 solve these issues. However, I'm unable to install WebLogic 9.1 on either of these. I get a nice "could not extract the archive since it is corrupted. Error code = 2" error from the installer. Luckily, I found this howto for OS X. The same Windows installer works fine on a real Windows XP box.

Run Windows XP on your Mac Book Pro

Matt Raible — Wed, 5 Apr 2006 13:19:09 -0600

I have to admit, it's pretty cool to see Apple's BootCamp. This software allows you to install/boot Windows XP on a MacBook Pro. I'm intrigued by the thought of doing this. I'd love to use WAPT, Beyond Compare, TopStyle and HomeSite on my laptop.

However, I realize that the process of installing BootCamp would probably take up the whole day - and after 2 days, I'd never use boot into Windows again. It's just easier to use my Windows box when I need Windows stuff. The thing I am interested in is running Windows XP on my Mac using VMWare. Then I don't have to reboot the whole machine just to do some CSS tweaking with TopStyle.

MacBook Pro Battery Life

Matt Raible — Thu, 2 Mar 2006 13:36:55 -0700

I leave my MacBook Pro at the office these days, and keep it plugged in most of the time. However, some folks have asked about battery life, so I figured I'd test it out today. I unplugged it when I got in and waited for it to sleep. 2 hours and 23 minutes. This is on par with my old PowerBook, but it's quite different from what MacRumors says (3hr 17min). I have a keyboard, mouse and 20" cinema display hooked up to it, but the display has its own power, so I doubt that effects the results.

MacBook Pro and Wireless

Matt Raible — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 09:46:39 -0700

The only major issue I've had so far with my MacBook Pro is wireless connectivity. It works fine at my office, works great at Starbucks, but not at home. My router is a Netgear WGT624.

The Netgear works flawlessly with my Windows XP Desktop (HP Pavilion 1250n) and PowerBook G4. It works with no password, 40-bit WEP and 128-bit WEP. But not with the MacBook Pro. Is there something special I have to set on my router for it to work with the MacBook Pro?

I posted this question on the Apple Discussion forums yesterday (which appear to be powered by Jive Forums). The response? Crickets. Oh well, I think I'll just leave my MacBook at the office and ignore this issue for now.

Update: Looks like Apple is aware of many issues with the MacBook Pro. Hat tip to Jeff for the article.

The MacBook Pro's start arriving

Matt Raible — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 19:54:24 -0700

David Heinemeier Hansson in MacBook Pro: So fast, oh, so fast:

The MacBook just feels freaking fast.
...
The MacBook Pro simply rocks.

Rob Williams in Eclipse on MacBook Pro:

First off, this machine is very fast. It is like having a G5 laptop. Apple says 4x over the G4. I was kind of skeptical about that. Not anymore.

Mine is due to arrive Friday morning at 10:30. Unlike everyone that compares their new MacBook to their old PowerBook - I'll be comparing mine to my dual core AMD 64 with 3GB of RAM. The MacBook is likely to lose, but it should put things in a more realistic perspective. Especially since I continue to use Windows and OS X an equal amount.

Thursday, 8:30 AM: From Fedex Tracking: 7:50 AM | On FedEx vehicle for delivery | LITTLETON, CO. Sweet! Looks like I'm going to have to ride into work a bit late.

Thursday, 9:30 AM: It's here! I'm heading into work with both machines to build it - so I probably won't have any benchmarks until this afternoon. I forget the initial steps to get the best battery life - anyone got those handy. As Julie said a few minutes ago, "No Wheelies!"

Quote of the Day

Matt Raible — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:22:28 -0700

Alex Russell: "It's a cock tease in the form of a laptop."

New MacBook Pro has shipped!

Matt Raible — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:22:53 -0700

A week ago, Apple announced that it was shipping MacBook Pros with faster processors. At the time, this seemed like an excuse for Apple to change the shipping date from February 15th to the 28th. Since I was already disappointed by the extra 2-week wait, I upgraded to the 2.16 GHz chip. This bumped my ship date back even further - to March 17th.

However, I just received an e-mail from Apple saying that my laptop has shipped! WTF? Either there's a glitch in their system or I'm gonna be one happy camper at the end of this week.

MacBook Pros shipping with faster processors

Matt Raible — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:57:47 -0700

This morning I was pumped to read that the MacBook Pro is shipping with faster processors. Of course, since there's a 2.16 GHz version available, I called today to upgrade. It's $300 more and it would delay my order by 3-4 weeks. I had to pass - I've been waiting long enough for a faster laptop. I'd gladly pay twice as much for an upgrade if it was shipped on the same date.

Hmmmmmm

Matt Raible — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:37:17 -0700

This will make you have second thoughts about purchasing a MacBook, eh?

..."They can't get enough Core Duo (chips)," said my source. He also said that if he were me, he probably wouldn't order one of the new MacBook Pros. I asked if there would be MacBook replacements for the 17-inch and 12-inch PowerBooks, but he said, "Oh, it's much cooler than that. Much cooler." - Leander Kahney

MacBook Pro

Matt Raible — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:21:21 -0700

Thanks Steve. Much appreciated.

Purchased. Fully-loaded. Ships in February.

Steve, PLEASE announce Intel PowerBooks

Matt Raible — Mon, 9 Jan 2006 12:39:03 -0700

I totally agree with Dion. For the love of God, pppplllllleeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssseeeee announce Intel-based ass-kicking PowerBooks tomorrow!! I love my PowerBook, but I hate the speed. It's extremely frustrating developing in Java on it, especially when I spend 60% of my time on a dual-core AMD 64. If Apple doesn't announce new PowerBooks tomorrow, it's likely I'll buy a Ferrari instead.

PowerBook won't boot after upgrading to 10.4.3

Matt Raible — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:12:52 -0700

This morning, I began building a new user account for my demos tomorrow at NFJS. I'm doing this because the last time I did demos was a disaster. Since then, I've rebuilt my hard drive, and while things seem faster - a clean user account is the best way to get maximum efficiency. While building the new user, I was prompted by Software Update, and promptly installed Backup 3.0.1 and OS X 10.4.3.

After configuring a number of settings, I rebooted the machine. Now all I get is a gray screen with a dark gray apple on it. The damn thing won't boot. I rebuilt the disk with DiskWarrior, but no dice. Now I'm trying to repair permissions and all that jazz with Disk Utility.

Luckily, I can still boot off my iPod and I can always rebuild an external Firewire drive if I need to. However, I'd much rather get back to where I was this morning. There's nothing like hosing your machine the day before you really need it.

Update: I fixed the problem by reinstalling OS X with the "Archive and Reinstall" option. No data loss, time to backup.

What's a good DVI KVM?

Matt Raible — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:56:21 -0600

I'm looking to get a KVM Switch for my home office. I used to have one when I had 2 19" Dell Monitors and it worked quite well. However, since I got a 23" Cinema Display, I haven't had one. This means that if I ever work on my PowerBook, I don't get to enjoy the comfort of a keyboard, mouse and huge monitor. This needs to change.

I bought a DVI KVM switch when I first got the monitor a year ago, and it didn't work. Apple's DVI connector was too big and didn't fit in the switch. So now I'm looking again - do you know of any that work well with a Cinema Display?

Starting from scratch on OS X and Windows

Matt Raible — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 09:01:57 -0600

Last night I began my quest to get rid of "OS Rot" on both my PowerBook and my Windows box. I bought new hard drives for both, so I wouldn't have to worry about losing any data. For the Mac, I bought a Lacie d2 (250GB) and for Windows, I bought an internal Maxtor 120GB. Thanks to everyone who suggested the Lacie.

To start, I cloned my PowerBook's drive to the Lacie drive using the free version of SuperDuper. It took about two hours and worked flawlessly. I then proceeded to format the PowerBook drive and install OS X. For the most part, I just copied a bunch of files back into place. I've been trying to restore my settings by copying individual folders from ~/Library to the fresh install - but it's not working so well. I'm thinking of just restoring my whole home directory (cruft in ~/Library and all).

The Windows install wasn't nearly as easy. Rather than backing up to an empty drive, I just installed the new disk as the primary and old one as a slave. I tried installing Windows on the new one twice (once w/ the slave installed, once w/o). After installing, when I boot up, it just sits there will a dark grey screen. So I gave up and put my old hard drive in as the primary. I think the disk might be bad. Regardless, I'm going to try again tonight. This time I'm going to use a ghosting/cloning program to backup to the new hard drive - and essentially go through the same steps I did on the Mac. I'll probably use Norton Ghost or PartitionMagic - but I'm open to other suggestions.

What's a good external firewire drive?

Matt Raible — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 09:15:44 -0600

I have a 60 GB firewire drive that we resurrected from Julie's dead PowerBook, but I'm interested in getting a bigger one to start regular backups. CNET recommends the Maxtor OneTouch II (300GB), but there's lots of bad reviews. 200 GB should be enough for the next year or two. Any recommendations? Is there one that can be used to backup OS X, Windows and Linux?

PowerBook Dent Redux

Matt Raible — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 10:36:13 -0600

Continuing my PowerBook Dent story from last week...

I continued to work with my iPod as a hard drive on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and took my laptop into the Apple Store on Thursday evening. The guys at the Genius Bar said that neither Apple Care nor a warranty covered accidental damage, and that it would be very expensive if I sent it in. Their suggestion was to take my dented, no-hard-drive-finding PowerBook to The Mac Outlet for a new case. They said if I got a new bottom case, I could bring it back and say "the hard drive can't be found" and Apple Care would likely fix it for free.

On Saturday, I took my machine into The Mac Outlet. They estimated $550 for a new bottom case, and suggested the cheaper new hard drive route for around $250. I agreed with the cheaper route, but told them I was very keen on trying to recover the existing hard drive. Yesterday, they called me at 5:30 and said "You're on of the lucky ones." The whole problem was due to a loose cable - plugging it back in fixed all the issues. Yeeee haawww, my laptop is as good as new!

Now it's time to buy some DVDs, do some backup, and buy one of those "spongy wetsuit material" type cases.

PowerBook Dent

Matt Raible — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:40:31 -0600

A fair amount of PowerBook owners I know have corner dings in their laptops. It usually comes from dropping it in a parking lot or something similar. I've managed to escape this problem for a number of years now. Until today. I'm writing this post on my PowerBook, but my hard drive is currently my iPod because I can't boot up off the regular hard drive. I'm heading to the Apple Store in short order to see if they can fix the hard drive.

At least I have a decent story behind it. I was riding my bike downtown today, and while riding off the curb onto Larimer street - I popped a wheelie. I had too much oomph - and the front wheel started to head for the sky. Normally when this happens, you hop off the back of the bike and you're good to go. Not today, my shoes wouldn't snap out of my pedals - so WHAM, splat, boom. I hit the pavement like Whiley Coyote off a cliff. Right in the middle of the street too - good thing no cars were coming. Most of my left side hurt like a mother and my left elbow has some nice road rash - but nothing out of the ordinary from a bike wreck.

After riding off with stars in my eyes, I headed to Chipotle for lunch. After lunch, I broke out my laptop to work on Spring Live. When I pulled it out, I noticed the left-corner dent and thought, "Not bad, could have been a lot worse." Moments later, all my open applications froze up. When I tried to reboot, I got the blue Mac folder with the ? on it. In other words, "I can't find your hard drive." And so another PowerBook repair adventure begins...

What's the best way to synch iPhoto Libraries?

Matt Raible — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 06:02:50 -0600

Having two 17" PowerBooks around the house has led to a problem. We've accidentally imported our photos onto both machines, and now we don't have a true master that contains all our pictures. To rectify the problem, I tried using rsync to update my ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library directory with the one from the 2nd machine. All the pictures were migrated successfully, but not the photo albums, nor the thumbnails in iPhoto. I even tried importing the new pictures, but it says the file is not a valid image (even though I can open it in Preview just fine). Any ideas for a better synchronization strategy?

Synching home directories on OS X

Matt Raible — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:51:51 -0600

My old PowerBook is fixed, and I'm getting ready to send my new one off to the person that bought it. As part of this process, I wanted to synch up the home directories, since that's all that's changed b/w the two in the last 3 weeks. I figured rsync was the solution, but since I'm an rsync rookie - I searched around for a GUI tool. I found RsyncX, installed it, booted the newer PowerBook as a firewire drive and updated my old PowerBook. 20 minutes later and my old one looks like my new one. Very nice.