VelociPeek

Song of The Day: Swallow - Artist: Supreme Beings of Leisure

Lately, I’ve been checking out an iPhone application from Summize and, I have to say, I really like the service and application. First things first however, what is Summize?

Summize, the company, is a start-up in the Northern Virginia area. The service they provide connects users with opinions and reviews from the Web, focusing on blogs and other reviews. From Summize’s homepage:

Summize connects you with the opinions of millions of people on zillions of products. We scour the web for the latest user reviews and blogger discussions, surmise their sentiments, and summarize them here.

Summize epitomizes Web Think. Want to see how Summize brings Web Think to you? On your mobile?

More thoughts and screenshots after the jump…

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Song Of The Day: Beautiful Day Artist: U2

After Time Warner’s Blue-ray announcement at the CES 2008 and the Blu-ray movie promotion, I decided to buy a PS3. With the 5 free Blue-ray movies, at a typical $30 a pop, the deal just seemed too good to pass up.

However, there was one really annoying problem with my new-found Blue-ray player: no IR support. This meant that EVERY aspect of my system could be controlled by my universal remote, except the PS3 - ugh!

So I searched around and found a couple solutions:

• Using a PS2 USB adapter
• PS3 Blu Wave Remote

However, I didn’t want a new remote and none appeared to support power on/off of the system. Who wants to walk 3 yards to turn the PS3 off and on when everything else does the right thing. How dare Sony prompt me to exercise. :)

Well, for those like me wait no longer. There is a device for $50 that supports playback and power on/off capabilities, all from a universal remote like the Logitech Harmony 880.

More after the jump…

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All,

Some of the links are broken due to a recent mishap with Jumpline, the hosting provider I was using.

In short my files on Jumpline’s particular box were wiped out because, get this, I violated their terms of service for compiling a custom version of Apache 2.2 with PHP 5, which was supposedly causing CPU spikes. I’m not sure if that was true (i.e., it had hardly any traffic) or not, but if true, it was probably due to Apache’s interaction with their virtualization software. Ugh!

Their default action was to the suspend the account, and then it could only be reactivated by erasing/reinstalling the entire image! I had no idea that that would happen and I voiced my displeasure about their actions. I mean they didn’t even ask me if I needed anything off of the box before doing it! And, all they really had to do was kill the custom httpd daemon.

I have backups of things, but will need to retrieve the archives and repost.

I now have a new provider cari.net, with which I am very happy.

For now please excuse a few of the broken links, etc. until I can get things fixed.

Song Of The Day: Bulls On Parade - Artist: Rage Against The Machine

The short answer is: they’re still focusing on something other than the customer.

So last night I decided, more for nostalgic purposes I guess, to click on the AOL icon that still existed in the dock after an upgrade from OS X Tiger (10.4.x) to OS X Leopard (10.5.x).

The version of the AOL all-in-one software was 10.2.6, quote old, but decided to see if would still work.

The software fired up, then displayed the following splash screen:

Now for anyone that knows anything about AOL, and it’s past initiatives, the software is basically an all-in-one connection and communication application. Also, most know that the company went advertising based a couple of years back in an attempt to transition from its subscription-based revenue model. The company transition and client software message is all fine and good by me, so far.

So why the entry and headline today? More after the jump…

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Song Of The Day: The Pot - Artist: Tool

So finally I got around to watching the interview with Brendan Eich on ZDNet, published 1/18 or so. If you love or hate JavaScript, and Firefox for that matter, then you’ll want to know who Brendan Eich is. He’s the CTO of the Mozilla Foundation and the creator of JavaScript!

Nothing too earth shattering in the interview, but Brendan does talk about Firefox 3 Beta 2 and the browser as a platform. Things us “web weenies” want to know. :)

Some of the more interesting notes from the interview after the jump…

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Song of The Day: Extreme Days - Artist: tobyMac

So it’s been about a week since MacWorld and Steve Job’s keynote presentation, but thought I’d still write a few thoughts. The major gadget introduction was the MacBook Air. However, the reviews have been mixed, but I think some miss the point of the new product.

There are probably 3 ways of looking at it:

• Consumer View
• Investor View
• Strategic/Business View

I can understand a little about the consumer view. For example this CNET Crave blog entry compares the MacBook Air with the G4 Cube: “Overpriced and underconfigured.” Although I understand, that doesn’t mean I have to agree. To be honest Crave’s post is non sequitur, apples and oranges really. More always seems better than less by default, but for the record one is a portable while the other a mini system. Hello? It’s better to compare the Mac mini with it. I wonder if the reviewers are using Apple products when I read stuff like that. Also, complaining about no ethernet port when there are USB-to-RJ45 adapters? Isn’t mobility about defaulting to less while having add-ons for more? The price is a little easier to understand on complaints, but I guess that’s the price when getting a simplistic, elegant 3.0lb laptop with full keyboard, 13″ screen, 802.11n, BlueTooth EDR, and OS X Leopard.

Anyhowzy.

I am a little surprised by the investor view, mostly because the product bodes well for the future of Apple.

More after the jump…

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Be careful if you buy SIIG-based ExpressCard/34 technology and you are using Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.x). It may not work.

I specifically bought the eSATA II 2-Port ExpressCard/34-M, Part #: SC-SAEE22-S1 desiring 3.0Gb/s transfer speeds for video. However, the product and driver doesn’t work with Leopard.

Since the system requirements state that the product will work on Mac OS X 10.4.6 or newer (i.e., on the box and on the website the last time I checked), I inquired about the lack of support from SIIG. The response from SIIG:

Hi,

We do not have another driver for Leopard for this expresscard. Nor do
we think it will work in Leopard. We are working on a different
version expresscard for Leopard, however, it won’t be available for at
least 3-4 more months.

Please return this product to your vendor for refund,

Regards,

Although disappointed, I am happy that SIIG was straight-forward.

I’m looking for a current product that will work with Leopard. If you know of one please drop me a comment! If I find one I’ll update this entry later.

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Mac OS X Leopard and eSATA II ExpressCard/34

Song of The Day: Bugs - Artist: Pearl Jam

PC World announced its fifteen biggest disappointments of 2007. The funny thing is that they appear to indicate angst for all new, popular tech products in 2007 :). Perhaps they should get a new gig to renew their “love” for innovation. For example, Leopard is #8, iPhone #5, and Facebook #3? Sure, they all have their issues, but those rankings?

The list appears to pinpoint pre-announced products or products with high-expectations, but kept wondering how Amazon’s Kindle didn’t make the list. Although the Kindle link and review end positive, it–like most reviews–invoke the sympathy vote! “It looks awful, but give Jeff a chance.” Aesthetic appeal is now in Amazon, thanks to Apple. Even Cherry 2000 would have had issues making the drab, beige box look appealing.

However, I couldn’t agree more with the #1 spot: Windows Vista. Having exhausted, never to be reclaimed, 7 hours of my life with an “update,” I can’t even fathom SP1. Long in coming, I don’t know anyone that had an easy installation or upgrade with Vista (i.e., except for ones that bought new PCs pre-installed).

Tags: Eric O’Laughlen, Windows Vista: Biggest Disappointment 2007

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