VelociPeek

Song of The Day: 3 Strange Days - Artist: School of Fish

So the last couple of blog posts were about OS X Leopard’s installation and 64-bit support. This entry delves into Time Machine.

Although I had a few initial challenges setting up Time Machine to work, the new feature of Leopard truly, I think, brings backups to the Apple masses.

For my backup device I already had previously purchased a Western Digitial 320GB My Book with a FireWire connection for video. Since it had an extra 200GB available, I figured it would work (i.e., have enough capacity and be fast enough).

Time Machine required a reformat of my My Book

I expected to be able to connect it up to my Macs, then configure, and then copy way. However, that wasn’t the case. The Time Machine configuration required a reformat of my WD HD with the Mac OS Extended filesystem or HFS+. Since I already had about 100 GBs of data on the disc, which was using the default FAT32 filesystem, the reformatting process was a BIG pain. So much so, that I would recommend buying a new drive for backups if you can do that!

Although I consider the Mac’s filesystem to be far better than FAT32, I still would have preferred the FAT32 for my backups to spare me the problems of transferring those files.

However, after transferring the data off of the hard drive, I was able to configure Time Machine and start the backup process without a hitch. The backup process took about 5 to 6 hours for approximately 120GBs of data.

I started my iMac G5 in the morning before work and it completed by the time I came home. My laptop worked the same way, but I watched while it backed up the data one evening while comet gazing.

Afterwards, the typical MyBook orange icon turned into a Time Machine green icon.

New Time Machine icon for My Book drive

Furthermore, as a note, I could still place spurious files onto the drive with the remaining space available.

The only other issue I had during the entire process for both computers was an error dialog box when I clicked the Time Machine icon on my MacBook Pro.

One issue when configuring Time Machine

Upon investigation it looked to be related to the way I initially set up Time Machine on my laptop. I had previously configured Time Machine to use the My Book, but then disconnected the drive before the backup could start and complete due to the reformatting requirement. The reformatting never happened, and the backup, but Time Machine was still enabled. Somehow it got into a broken state.

After hitting System Preferences, disabling Time Machine, and then reconfiguring it again with the reformatted My Book, it worked correctly.

The UI, once everything is set up, is very slick. Apple lately just seems to get the user interface for applications right. :) Overall, a couple of challenges, but now both of my Macs are backed up, which were infrequently, and never entirely, backed up before.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, OS X Leopard, Time Machine

Song of The Day: What’d I Say - Artist: Ray Charles

Over the weekend I started a post about OS X Leopard. Thought I’d post a follow-up or two about the features. Most have probably read or heard about the Dock and Finder improvements, which include reflections, Cover Flow and Stacks.

Those alone could be enough for one to justify a purchase, but I thought I’d write a few thoughts about one of the less emphasized features (i.e., at least lately) of OS X Leopard: full 64-bit support in the OS and Xcode 3.0. BTW Xcode 3.0 is offered as an optional install from the OS X Leopard installation disc. From the Apple website Xcode 3.0, Cocoa, and 64-bit blow the ceiling off of memory and data restrictions:

• 64-bit addressing of up to 16 exabytes of virtual memory and 4 terabytes of physical memory
• Full 64-bit arithmetic
• 64-bit development tools
• 64-bit performance monitoring tools
• Seamless deployment
• LP64 data model
• Common source base support

Granted, most probably won’t see much need for it immediately, but its introduction paves a great evolutionary step forward. For example, Leopard applications running on Intel-based Core 2 Duo processors may take advantage of the x86-64 instruction set. One area where this may make a difference is in software rendering for games, etc.

There was an announcement by Apple a while back regarding the use of LLVM with OpenGL for software rendering. When particular hardware features are unavailable LLVM helps fill the gap. Using the 64-bit version could improvement performance substantially.

Furthermore, as mentioned, if an app or OS needs over 4GB of memory, then 64-bit removes that boundary, allowing up to 16 exabytes of VM or 4 TB of physical! Don’t see many reasons a typical consumer laptop or desktop would need such capability; however, intense graphics and video applications (i.e., data intensive in general) could substantially benefit from increased memory and larger file pointer sizes.

As a little test drive for Cocoa and 64-bit, I recompiled my simple Cocoa-based dentp program (i.e., a pinger). It was pretty easy, but I ran into a few initial gotchas due to the way I loaded my Xcode 2.x project with Xcode 3.0.

Initially, I just adjusted the Project Settings within Xcode 3.0 to use Architectures 64-bit and changed the Base SDK Path to point to “/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk” because it was pointing to the “MacOSX10.4u.sdk” from my previous installation. It built and ran, but after using the file command on the dentp binary, I noticed that it still read:

> file dentp
dentp: Mach-O executable i386

Once I switched my “Cross-Develop Using Target SDK” under the General tab under Project Settings to use Mac OS 10.5 (or Current Mac OS) and the Active Target to x86_64, I eventually saw the desired file type:

> file dentp
dentp: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

However, I still wasn’t able to compile for multiple architectures together (i.e., i386 and x86_64) as I wanted. For example, if you do the following on the Xcode binary it will display four architectures:

[newton]:/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/MacOS]
> file Xcode
Xcode: Mach-O universal binary with 4 architectures
Xcode (for architecture ppc7400): Mach-O executable ppc
Xcode (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit executable ppc64
Xcode (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
Xcode (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

To build a universal binary for all four I had to Edit active target “dentp.” I added the the additional 64-bit targets to the default i386 and ppc target Architectures and I was golden:

[newton]:~/code/dentp2/build/Release/dentp.app/Contents/MacOS]
> file dentp
dentp: Mach-O universal binary with 4 architectures
dentp (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
dentp (for architecture ppc7400): Mach-O executable ppc
dentp (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit executable ppc64
dentp (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

Overall, it didn’t make my program any noticeably faster or better; however, it was, now, an official 64-bit binary running on OS X Leopard, which is pretty cool. Also, no additional CD requests needed to get 64-bit support with Leopard (umm…like with Vista? :) and no reason to release multiple binaries on the Mac platform! That’s the beauty of universal.

And to think that I would have needed a super computer a few years back!

Perhaps, a few notes on other features in the next few posts…

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, OS X Leopard, 64-bit

Song Of The Day: Whole Lotta Love Artist: Led Zeppelin

I couldn’t resist the urge to visit the local Apple Store last night to buy an official copy of OS X Leopard during Apple’s Leopard World Premiere. The first 500 people would get t-shirts. I arrived rather late, so no t-shirt, but I had no line wait as well, so I was happy!

As I was walking through the mall, Tysons Corner, I saw multiple people in the mall corridors carrying computer boxes. If that’s any indication of future weeks then I suspect a good holiday season for Apple. :)

Once in the Apple Store, the place was buzzing with people. People checking out iPods, iMacs, and accessories.

Someone greeted me, I bought a family pack (~$200) of OS X Leopard, had an e-mail receipt sent to me, and I was done. No hoopla really! I decided to play with the new 20″ iMac for a while and asked a few questions, but that was it. I headed home with the intent of loading the OS by midnight :). Okay. So I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a Leopard t-shirt. I knew there were only 500 available and I was late, but hey! Oh, well. I guess it’s my AOL t-shirt expecting nature (i.e., seems like t-shirts were currency at AOL). But I have some from last summer’s WWDC, so I shrugged off the feeling and got back to business–operation Leopard Install.

As a note for Photoshop Elements users and Mactel owners, I was told that a native build of Elements 6 would hit the street in Feb and that native Adobe Premiere was on its way as well. Not sure if the source was referring to a future release of Premiere Elements or not, but we’ll see if that comes out. Here’s a link on Adobe’s recent compatibility announcement: Adobe Leopard Compatibility

After getting home, and most being asleep, I plucked the install DVD in my iMac G5 first. It was not running the best previously because of an early beta version of Leopard on it (i.e., something to do with a bluetooth keyboard I think). However, I plugged in a USB Apple keyboard, chose to archive the old and to install (i.e., Archive and Install option) the new official copy, and my iMac was revived within an hour and a half. Installed and ran perfectly. All data in tact.

The refreshed Dock and Desktop look beautiful; I went to sleep with visions of sugar plums.

Today, I decided to be rather risky–not good practice–and I upgraded my main MacBook Pro without performing an initial backup. Maybe this isn’t entirely true because I already have my critical information and applications stored elsewhere for various reasons, so I know I could recover if needed. However, not to worry, Leopard installed and worked flawlessly within an hour. All data in tact.

Wow! I haven’t had an easier installation of a major OS in recent memory, except maybe with previous versions of OS X. Vista was a disaster. Linux is still touch and go sometimes. My experience with Leopard seems to compare only to installations using virtual appliances (e.g., VMWare and pre-configured OSes). And those are installed, pre-configured, and then packaged.

Truly impressive, and appreciated!

I know…controlled hardware environment coupled with a controlled software environment, etc. I just don’t think that line of skepticism resonates with most consumers. People want computers and software that work. They may allow some deviation with “flexibility,” but not at the expense of a 7 hour installation, for sure!

It’s the weekend and I have some things to do, like run a marathon tomorrow (!!), but I’ll write about the Leopard features I like, and any dislikes, when I get a chance.

Update:

• OS X Leopard Test Drive - Part 2 - 64-bit
• OS X Leopard Test Drive - Part 3 - Time Machine

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, OS X Leopard

Song Of The Day: Clown Artist: Korn

The AOLserver, binary port is here (i.e., with the launchctl directive plist), likely to be available on AppTapp soon.

If you download the AOLserver distribution you do not need the Tcl package if you don’t want. Within the AOLserver distribution the tcl distribution resides under the installation directory.

Sources (Tcl and nsd) are currently here.

This should go without saying :), but these packages are VERY experimental and you will be installing and using at your own risk.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, iPhone AOLserver, iPhone Tcl

Song Of The Day: Blind Artist: Korn

So what have I been up to the last few days…?

I ported Tcl 8.4.x and AOLserver 4.x to the iPhone. Tcl is already available via AppTapp and AOLserver will follow soon, hopefully.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, iPhone AOLserver, iPhone Tcl

Song of The Day: Icky Thump - Artist: The White Stripes

iPhone gets its own bag

Okay. So you now know I made it back from WWDC alright. I have/had so many things to write about during my days there, but just haven’t had the time yet. I’ll have to post some pics and video of the beer bash. After CT Partners sponsored my trip, which was way cool of them, I’ve been busy coding away at the next release of their portal for the military. It’s gonna be “hot” but…

…thought that this next experience may make for an interesting post today: iPhone. I’m in the Apple Store at Pentagon City Mall near Washington, DC, and I am in the midst of activating the iPhone–just purchased–at the Apple store. The store’s normal hours are 10am, but it was open when I arrived at 9:40 or so. I arrived–no waiting–and picked one up.

Since I brought my MacBook Pro with me, I decided to activate the iPhone at the store after purchase. So I took out the device, which does look awesome, hooked it up via USB, but wasn’t entirely sure what to expect next because my version of iTunes didn’t recognize it. Given my experience with past iPods, I assumed that I needed the latest iTunes, so I Google’d over the Apple stores WiFi and saw that I did indeed need iTunes 7.3.

iPhone 2 megapix camera mug

This wasn’t too bad, so I downloaded it and was on my merry way in about 5 minutes. However, I then discovered that the iPhone (or something related to it) also requires Tiger, the latest version of OS X 10.4.10 (approximately a 74 mbyte download). The requirements are covered by Apple’s website and specs, but I basically winged it because I have the latest hardware and software.

Later, an Apple retail employee told me that they are telling folks so they aren’t caught by surprise.

One other thing I noticed is that AT&T’s insurance doesn’t apply to the device, only Apple’s warranty of 1 year. This caught my attention because I have been prone to messing my cell phone up, so others should consider it before delving into the universe of iPhone.

So, to make a long story short, I activated my iPhone, transferred my AT&T number, and am now taking calls while enjoying a few tunes! The experience is nice.

More later perhaps, but now I need a coffee.

Update: After some use, the iPhone has–by far–the best browsing experience of any cell phone. Although AT&T’s EDGE network with the phone is slower than the HSDPA 3G network, I’d rather have this phone, and its capability, than the faster network and a klunky, unusable browser. I had the Samsung SYNC with 3G before and I won’t miss it: browsing, CV (cell video), and all. I know it wasn’t really a “smart phone,” but I’ve had Treo’s as well and have tried other smart phones–no comparison. With WiFi it wins hands-down.

The integration of music, voice, and SMS/e-mail seem superior as well, but will hold off after a few days before commenting.

Although I’m still withholding some judgment, seems like this phone coupled with 3G cell network speeds, and a little cheaper pricing, will render any competitors complete toast. :)

…worth the hype.

Recommended/necessary accessories:

• Power Support Crystal Film Set.
• Plantronics blutooth headset (got the Discovery 665)
• Contour Design iSee case+holster (hard plastic/clip based)
• ExtremeMac Incharge Auto

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Apple Computer, iPhone

Song of The Day: Feeling This - Artist: Blink-182

So I just got back from the WWDC 2007 Keynote delivered by Steve Jobs. It was a great time. Without further adieu there were three major announcements, which most can be viewed on Apple’s updated site today:

• Safari 3.0 on Windows
• Leopard OS X with 10 major features
• iPhone 3rd party apps via Web 2.0, AJAX, and the Safari 3.0 engine

The Leopard features listed and reviewed by Jobs were:

1. New Desktop (menu bar, dock, stacks (of files and downloads)
2. New Finder with iTunes-like Cover Flow
3. Quick Look (i.e., to view docs without executing apps)
4. Full 64-bit support (e.g., in Cocoa too)
5. Core Animation
6. Bootcamp (stock with Leopard)
7. Spaces (i.e., virtual desktop-like application)
8. Dashboard with Web Clip and Movies widget
9. iChat with Theater
10. Time Machine

And the “one more thing…” items (2):

Safari 3.0 on Windows (including Vista)

iPhone 3rd party apps via Web 2.0, AJAX, and the Safari 3.0 engine

There is a lot to write, but I’ll have to get to some of it a little later. The keynote opened with a video of the “PC-guy” claiming to be Steve Jobs, so here is a cell phone partial clip of it:

Fake Steve Jobs - clip1

Fake Steve Jobs - clip2

Steve Jobs opened the keynote proclaiming that more than 5000 WWDC attendees with over 950,000 developers world-wide, 200K more than last year. A partial cell phone video can be seen here:

Real Steve Jobs - clip1	Real Steve Jobs - clip2
Jobs on Leopard	Jobs on 64-bit processing

Jobs on iPhone - clip1	Jobs on iPhone - clip2
Jobs on iPhone - clip3	Jobs on iPhone - clip4

One of the more surprising aspects of the keynote was the proclamation that Safari 3.0, that will run on Leopard and Windows, is 2x as fast as IE7 and 1.6x faster than Firefox 2.0 according to iBench:

Jobs on Safari 3.0 and its speed

As an unexpected treat, John Carmack presented new technology for game developers and designers. I have a couple of mini-clips of it here:

John Carmack - clip1	John Carmack - clip2
John Carmack - clip3	John Carmack - clip4

When I arrived at 5:30am to get in line for the event, I wasn’t the only person standing there nursing coffee!

I have to give a special thanks to Ryan and Charlie (pictured above) for helping me bide the time away with great conversation. Ryan develops his own Mac software at Chimoosoft and Charlie works at UCLA, College Library Instructional Computing Commons.

More to come later….

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Apple Computer, WWDC 2007

Song of The Day: Coming Up - Artist: Paul McCartney

It’s been a while since I blogged, but today seems like a fitting day to check in. I’m in San Francisco this week for the WWDC 2007. There are various thoughts about what will be announced, but it would be nice to hear an official announcement involving the iPhone and 3rd party integration. How nice would that be?

Steve Jobs alluded to this already at D5, but it would be great to hear some more news. Regardless, it will be a fun and rewarding week.

One thing I never tire of, unashamedly, is the conference loot. :) This year’s black t-shirt has “WWDC07″ on the front and the quote “Power to the programmers” on the back. Attendees also get a carrying bag, a badge, and conference maps upon registration.

The conference registrars tell attendees that all sessions are confidential except the keynote, so I’ll be sure to publish a few thoughts and notes about the keynote afterwards. As usual, all the major news outlets will cover things, but I’ll provide a personal account for any interested.

For now, 600) )4j.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Apple Computer, WWDC 2007

Song of The Day: Copycat - Artist: The Cranberries

Here is a video of David Pogue from the NY Times “proving” that Windows Vista has an identity all its own. Pretty funny….

This was also a theme at the WWDC this year.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, WWDC 2006, Apple Computer

Song of The Day: Cubicle - Artist: RinôÇerôse

I know these have been out for a couple of weeks, but finally got around to writing about them. I think I like the Meant For Work best. Maybe it’s because I envision kids beating up/on a PC like my current kid does on my PCs and Macs! :)

However, I did appreciate the “Gift Exchange,” but the “dis” on the C++ GUI Programming Guide? Perhaps this is because Apple prefers the Objective-C and Cocoa GUI Guide. :)

The Sales Pitch didn’t do that much for me…maybe because I already own PCs and Macs :).

Furthermore, I guess you won’t be seeing the “Mac guy,” Justin Long, anymore. He is supposedly not going to show in future commercials. Not sure if Apple is changing because “PC,” John Hodgman, is more likeable, but I have to admit I found the “PC” personality more entertaining to watch :).

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Apple Computer, Apple Computer Commercials