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Archive for December, 2008
Frohe Weihnachten!
Unlike previous years, we will be able to open our gifts even earlier tonight: the Gold Coast is eight hours ahead of Johannesburg 
Of course we dispense with the Christmas Day event. Early mornings are not that cool. Besides, if you can follow German tradition, then why not
May you and yours have a merry Christmas!
710 – Lazarus
3 years ago
Some gadgets seem adept at miracles. The nuvi 710 has taken a sabbatical of several hours, during which time no amount of coaxing could make it wake up. The screen remained blank, the power switch was powerless.
The sole help item the Garmin support site can dish up is to attempt a factory reset. That involves pressing a finger on the lower, right-hand corner of the display and then powering the unit on. Since my 710 had no inclination at all to power on, that was somewhat useless. Not even plugging it into the USB port of the MacBook or the car cradle helped. So I left it, assuming I’d be navigating without the aid of that annoying female voice.
This morning, I simply had to try switching the unit on again. Surprise, surprise. The battery seemed completely drained, but the welcome screen appeared. Plugging it into the USB port charged the battery. Twelve hours before, that simply did not happen. We’ve been to Yatala (don’t ask) and back, aided by the miracle of electronic navigation. From now on, the 710 will be codenamed Lazarus. I do hope it refrains from exhibiting its miraculous powers ever again…
Navigating blind
The Garmin nuvi 710 has been a faithful travel companion. Today, after navigating us quite successfully to Robina, it suddenly had one if its fits: the software hanging on this device is nothing new. The multiple firmware updates I’ve applied have done little to improve the overall seamless operation I’m used to when using other Garmin products.
A sudden freeze is often helped along by a quick reset, painful but necessary when dealing with traffic on a busy motorway. The lack of voice prompts was an initial indication that the reboot had been anything but successful: even an attempt to select a different voice from the menu showed the error no voice found.
So it goes. Another hard on-off and nothing. The unit is dead. Dead as a dodo, and we’re stuck in Robina.
Thankfully, human beings rely on memory and we found our way home. But the 710 is still showing little interest in actually waking up. In my opinion, either a dud or a badly manufactured and thought-out Garmin product. Since it’s still under warranty, I’ll be having a bit of a fight with the South African importer to get the unit replaced when I return in early January. For now, I’m really pleased I brought along the Edge 705 (sans bicycle). It has the maps for Australia loaded too, and won’t annoy with the female voice telling me where to go…
Let Leopard write to NTFS
To maintain some kind of data interchange capability between Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, I generally keep one external hard drive and one 16GB USB thumb drive around that is formatted FAT32. That saves me from having to figure out other ways of copying data from the MacBook or Mini to Linux, for example. The biggest issue is the file system’s stability and its ability to handle files that exceed the 4GB barrier. One solution is to connect the systems up to a network, but that’s not always convenient and I like to carry my files and backups with me on a mobile drive.
Mac OS X has no issue reading NTFS-formatted hard drives, but will stubbornly refuse to write any data to that file system. MacFUSE is a solution that operates with plug-ins to enable Mac OS X to read, but more importantly write, to a variety of file systems. NTFS included.
MacFUSE is not the only software component required, but is the most important. Specific plug-ins for specific file systems need to be added as these are required.
To get going, download MacFUSE from Google‘s Code repository and install it. A new item will be visible in the System Preferences pane, under the section titled Other.
There is nothing to configure or change for the MacFUSE add-in. Instead, clicking the icon in the System Preferences pane indicates whether or not updates are available and enables their installation. MacFUSE may also be removed from the system.
To enable NTFS write support, one more component needs to be installed. Download the NTFS-3G add-in for MacFUSE. The installation is very simple, but a system restart is required to activate the capability in the operating system. By the way, the NTFS-3G component is available (and often pre-installed) in most popular, modern Linux distributions. Hence, you’d be able to read from and write to NTFS volumes if you’re using such a distro without requiring the installation of additional software.
Once the two components are installed and the system restarted, attaching an external hard drive formatted as NTFS should work as before. Except now, you should be able to drag and drop files to it.
MEL to OOL
This morning, we are starting the first of our three flights back home. Between this one and the penultimate two are another two weeks of doing very little. This is a rather positive note! The Virgin Blue service will shuttle us back to the Gold Coast in roughly two and a half hours.
Watches to be set back by one hour and we are getting ready to face the sweltering climate.
The Southern Star
Observation wheels are the next big thing. I didn’t have the time in London to ride the Eye, but we took the 30 minute round-about on Singapore‘s Flyer. The Melboune Southern Star has been dogged by numerous delays and we were rather fortunate to be able to get on board on opening night.
Arriving just on time for sunset and disembarking from our flight just prior to the light fireworks spectacular, this was certainly a night to remember. One circumnavigation by pod lasts roughly 30 minutes and provides a tranquil setting for taking in the Melbourne skyline and harbour area.
We got a great glimpse of the city and its surrounds: 60000 odd coffee shops and Australia‘s busiest harbour.
I’m not normally one to pay for touristy photos taken by automatons on site. This one may have been worth the AUD 15, though:
The opening night fireworks are easily the longest and biggest I’ve ever seen.
I like my Koko Black
The Westfield in Doncaster is a rather upmarket shopping mall, hugely extended and renovated since our last visit here about three years ago. Here, we spent a bit of time browsing and shopping. An astounding array of shops and shoppers as you’d expect in any part of the world. Nice Christmas decorations and extended shopping hours right up to midnight.
Since darkness falls only once 21:00 approaches, it’s easy to get time-confused…
Borders is easily my favourite bookstore abroad. Not quite the size of the Singapore store, the Westfield store provided the latest Wired magazine and a Sandisk 4GB Micro SD card for only AUD 17.95. I’m sure that’s a bit of a pricing error on their part. That extra storage will be put to use in the Telstra HSDPA modem and later the E90.
If you’re into chocolate, a visit to Koko Black is a must. Serving the best Belgian hot chocolate
and a rather decadent selection of their chocolate creations,
you’re well advised to eat dinner before venturing out for this treat. Once it’s dark in Melbourne, a visit to certain suburbs reveals some rather interesting decorations. The owners have gone to a fair bit of trouble to provide eye-catching exhibits.
Time for bed now!
Canon whitepaper – 50D and 5D Mark II
3 years ago
by manfred
in Photography
Canon USA have an interesting whitepaper covering the capabilities, specifications and accessory range of the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II. An interesting read if you already own or intend owning one of these two models.
The PDF contains 77 pages and can be downloaded here.
On the topic of the 5D Mark II, Canon have indicated that a new firmware upgrade may be made available for that model sometime next week. Check their site for details on that download, and don’t forget to get the latest Canon software updates for the Mac or PC down.
Secrets
There’s no denying it: a Mac is simply in a different class and offers more than an ordinary computing experience. The MacBook has been my daily computing platform and has not let me down in any way. That’s more than I can say for other systems I’ve used…
The System Preferences application permits the most pertinent system settings to be tweaked and changed. But, like any other operating system, there are a number of settings that require under-the-hood knowledge or rather arcane modifications to system parameters to be activated. The creator of the very powerful Quicksilver has made such settings much easier to access and modifiy, by providing a plug-in for the System Preferences application. The appropriately-named Secrets provides an excellent resource for every Mac OS X hacker and power user. Simply download the PrefPane plug-in and install. It’s for Leopard 10.5 and higher only, and will certainly add value to your computing experience if your system conforms to its installation requirements. Think of this as the TweakUI for Mac OS X.
PrefPane provides an additional icon in the Other section of the System Preferences window.
Clicking on that shows a dizzying array of extra settings that can be effected. In many cases, these settings relate directly to specific applications or functions of the OS.
I’ll let you discover some of the settings available by yourself – there are simply too many to mention. I am pleased to have finally changed the location of the scroll arrows on my windows: instead of appearing in a stacked formation at the bottom of the scrollbar, they are now shifted to the top and bottom of the scrollbar.
Some tweaks are useful, others less so. But it is likely that you’ll find the solution to that nagging question you had about changing some behaviour of the system. For completeness’ sake, all Secrets are also document on the Blacktree website. A very useful addition to any modern Leopard system.
Left on Batman Avenue
Today, it was time for increased activity and a short stint into town to see a bit of Melbourne‘s CBD. The best way to do that is by bicycle, which is a really great idea. Since travelling with a bicycle is a bit of an issue, I rented a rather capable mountain bike from Rentabike close to Federation Square. The Gitane something or other was decked out in a stylish blue, replete with working everything – no issues with the functionality of my steed!
The supplied bicycle lock has the code 1956. That’s the year the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne.
Clever! That way, anyone unable to remember the combination has a second chance: at least one or two people in Melbourne should remember the date they last hosted the Olympic Games… Starting at the intersection of Russel Street and Batman Avenue we made our way on a longish loop through the city. How cool is it to be in a city with a Batman Avenue?
John Batman was an Australian farmer and businessman who was one of the first settlers of Melbourne and known for founding Victoria. And here you’re thinking Bruce Wayne…
Since this was no hectic cycling event, we had decent time for a few photographs and to look around.
A curry on the way never hurt anyone…
I can recommend TIFFINs to anyone in the inner city eager for a delivered meal. A coffee close to the location of the world’s latest tourist attraction: the observation wheel. London has one, as does Singapore. Melbourne‘s Southern Star is another in a long line of similar structures. Not yet open to the public, we’re hoping to take a round-about trip sometime during the weekend. The surrounding harbour with its views of the city is quite spectacular.
For someone who’s not at all interested in cricket, a slow cycle around the MCG was more about seeing the impressive structure and its surrounds. Once again, some great views of the cityscape from that side of town. We made our way home after a solid three hours on the road: some Beard Papa goodies for the wives and kids…
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