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The first task at hand after Friday’s brief intro to Snow Leopard at the local iStore was to shove the DVD into the drive of the MacBook and try out an upgrade.

I didn’t bother backing up any applications or settings. All my data is routinely shoved to the Drobo, so losing the recently installed Leopard OS should anything go awry was of little concern.

With the DVD in the drive, a simple click commenced the upgrade, with a single obligatory entry of the super user password the only other interaction. All in all the upgrade completed in roughly 40 minutes, with a reboot in between. Before the upgrade, the MacBook showed about 188GB of free space available on the hard drive. True to Apple‘s word, the drive indicated more free space once the upgrade procedure had completed: about 209GB.

Startups and shutdowns of the machine are lightning-fast. With Leopard, booting took a bit of time with shutdowns reasonably speedy. With Snow Leopard, there’s a marked improvement. Other than that, there’s nothing to visually provide any clue that there’s a newer incarnation of the OS running. The desktop interface and interaction with elements on screen remains the same. Two changes I noticed almost immediately: take a snapshot of a section of the screen and the item is saved with a name other than the usual Picture 1 – that’s a welcome fix. Also, the slider in the status bar makes zooming in and out in the folder view quick and easy.

A new look to the menus when icons in the dock are clicked, plus the addition of stacks and Expose built into the dock.

It’s 64-bit enabled, but that’s really important only once the actual application one is using requires vast amounts of RAM. Applications need to be compiled for that. In fact, some 64-bit applications will run slower than 32-bit ones…

Exchange support is built in, but requires Exchange 2007 on the server. Useful once corporates take the plunge and upgrade to that…

Additional useful features include automatic determination of location using the SkyHook Wi-Fi positioning service. That automatically adjusts the current time zone and is useful to travelers. Text substitution is enabled in certain applications, such as Mail.app, permitting shortcut codes to be used which are automatically expanded to the intended text when entered in a supporting application. The text substitution feature is found in the System Preferences. QuickTime X is the new QuickTime player that now sports the ability to save content and includes some basic editing features. A right-click on the synchronization icon in the menu bar provides a more detailed overview of recent synchronization sessions.

Next up: ensuring that the most important applications I use are able to run on the new OS. Bento – check. Aperture requires an update, available from Apple. PhotoShop CS4 – check. ChronoSync – check. Fujitsu‘s ScanSnap Manager is the only issue – an intermediate fix has been released, but a complete update to the software will be available only sometime later this year. Because of the issue with ScanSnap, I’m holding off on the upgrade to Snow Leopard on the iMac.

I took a similar approach to the upgrade with the Mac Mini, whose main task is to run Boxee, connected to the large LCD in the TV area. Inserted the disk and let her go.

After about an hour, the system had been upgraded with no apparent loss in functionality.

There’s no question that the upgrade to Snow Leopard is worthwhile. Expectations of a new look and feel will quickly result in disappointment. Speed improvements, minor enhancements to the user interface and experience and a reasonable saving in disk space are the main gains.

Caution should be exercised when critical applications could be affected by the upgrade. By now, more and more information is trickling through with regard to problems and potential solutions. With only the ScanSnap to worry about, the upgrade of the iMac promises to be similarly hassle-free once Fujitsu release an update to their software.

USD 29 = ZAR 329.

Close enough!

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

The biggest annoyance about Apple‘s products is their insistence on bespoke cabling and physical connectors. The iPhone and the extended iPod family suffers from this design decision. For the end user, leaving a certain cable or dock at home can mean the inability to charge or synchronize the device. Accessories abound for charging the iPhone, but the new SendStation PocketDock Line Out Mini USB adapter for iPod is innovative and rather useful (thankfully, its form factor is more compact than its name). Made in Germany, too!

The PocketDock is tiny, fitting onto the existing dock connector at the bottom of the iPod or iPhone. Its function: to provide both a line-out and a standard mini-USB connector for audio output, synchronization and charging  all in one. Best of all, the provision of a mini-USB port means any existing USB cable can be used for charging and synchronization.

A standard 3.5mm jack connects the device to to speakers or an amplifier. The PocketDock is small and unobtrusive, with dimensions almost identical to the dock connector plug on the Apple cable.

The tiny marvel costs USD 30 and the package includes a set of cables for audio output and USB connectivity.

Though the weather is warming up nicely in South Africa, the Snow Leopard is nonetheless making an early appearance. Apple‘s updated Mac OS X, that is.

No doubt those of you who receive marketing blurb from Core, the local Apple distributor, will also have seen an invitation to the Snow Leopard launch at your nearest iStore. The event takes place on Friday evening at 18:00. I’ll be at the Clearwater iStore.

A sneak peek at Mac OS X 10.6 is promised, as is a chance to get your mitts on a copy. Here’s hoping that the USD 29 price point will be maintained as promised…

And another year has passed since August 2005 when I started this blog. It’s still an endeavour I enjoy, hence I’m able to maintain my goal of a post a day without too many exceptions.

With a change in interest, visitors will notice a change in direction and content. My switch to the Mac means that there is hardly any content regarding Linux, for example. That’s not to say I no longer dabble or have an interest in Linux, simply that I have something new that takes precedence.

There’s a reasonably steady stream of hits on a daily basis, though I find various peaks and troughs as my content veers from Windows Mobile to Symbian and then to the iPhone, as another example. I neglected to enable statistics after moving the blog to a new hosting provider, with the result that my statistical information for most of 2008 is not available. No matter, really. That’s just for interest in any case, but does provide even a slight assurance that hits are coming in.

Here’s what I had in 2008, provided by Awstats:

And here’s a view of 2009:

A slight increase overall, but reaching a plateau, it seems. Popular search terms that lead here still include GRUB error 17, lightscribe templates and iPod Touch firmware updates.

Overall, this site hovers in the top 30 at SA Top Sites, every now and then veering crazily towards the 50 mark.

Achieving good statistics and rankings is not the aim – I just find the information interesting and use it as a yardstick of sorts. The new versions of WordPress now include statistical information of their own. Here’s a sample for August:

Thanks to regular readers who find their way back here and to those who stumble on to this accidentally. Now, on to year 5…

Set to make its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Ferrari 458 Italia is one of the best looking Ferrari creations to appear in quite some time. The power unit is a 4.5l V8 that should propel the car from a standstill to over 100km/h in just over 3 seconds.

Its top speed is above the 300km/h mark. To get to that top speed, a seven-speed dual clutch gearbox provides slick gearshifts.

Very nice.

This Lego Clock Radio is not produced by Lego, but is another example of a licensed product tugging at wallets of Lego fans. Ten times the size of a Lego block, the clock radio does what clock radios do: it provides an AM/FM radio and an alarm. The two studs provide volume adjustment and tuning.

Unfortunately available only in the US for now, the Lego Clock Radio retails for USD 30.

Any uses for liquorice beyond eating I’m not aware of?

Must be an Australian thing…

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous

Who’d have thought that anyone would ever show any interest in publishing something I’ve written. Not me, for certain. I was intrigued by a mail I received from VDM Publishing, asking whether or not I’d be interested in having a real book made out of my PhD dissertation. Whilst I’m under no illusion that this request benefits the publisher and enables them to bolster their stock of available literature, I’m also quite interested in their model: free submission of the text, including some hold on the content with regard to rights and a slice of royalties received from any (in my mind unlikely) purchases.

Best of all, the entire book is created and submitted online, including cover generation. For a geek and aspiring author, that’s just too cool to miss out on!

The process is rather uncomplicated – once accepted by the publisher, the manuscript may be submitted electronically. To start, relevant personal details are entered into the online system and an ISBN number is assigned. I have an ISBN number. Fancy that…

I spent some time digging up the original Word document and pasted it together again. I’ll need to format some of the headers and footers, but for now I’ve uploaded the resulting 2MB PDF file. Enter text for the cover, blurb, author background, then on to the fun thing: choose a colour for the jacket. Orange, of course. VDM directs authors to PurestockX to select an image for the cover – the cost of that selection is carried by the publisher. A click later, and the draft version of the book’s jacket is presented:

Not bad.

How the books are marketed, I’m not sure. This is obviously a print-on-demand business, costing the publisher little more than the storage of electronic manuscripts, a few stock images and shipping of a complimentary printed copy to the author.

I expect you won’t find this at the local Exclusive Books

As the author, I could (at my discretion, of course) provide loyal readers with an abstract. Or a discount. Or, how about a limited, signed edition? Hehehe….

Finally!

Posted via email from mhertenberger’s posterous