Do you audit what software you use?

November 21st, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink

This weekend I took a little time between studio duties to do a little software audit. What, you ask, is a software audit? For me, it’s when I look at all of the software I am using regularly, ask myself why, and possibly replace or combine things where they make sense.

This weekend I made a few changes that I hope will make my life a little simpler. The first thing I looked at was Instant Messaging.

Death of Pidgin & Adium

I use IM to communicate with friends, family, coworkers, blog readers, etc. It’s important that I have that channel of communication and until this point I have always used Pidgin (Formerly Gaim) because it was simple, solid, supported tabs and all major chat networks. I rarely send images or files or video chat.

Recently the latest builds of MSN added Facebook chat. Everyone I know uses Facebook, and a very dwindling group of friends still used AOL or Google Chat.

This weekend’s decision was go stop using Pidgin on PC and Adium on Mac, and standardize on Windows Live Messenger. Google and AOL buddies can keep up on Facebook if they really need to.

The result is one Top Tier app that is more reliable and has a larger support system, and I add features that I have always skipped over because I wanted more communication options than features.

Goodbye Multiple Browsers

A browser these days is a tool. I think the days of having to have 3 or 4 browsers installed are over. I will still keep multiple browsers on the machine I use for web development, but to simplify I am going all IE9 on my Windows machines and Safari on my Macs. That means my one dev box has Firefox and Chrome on it, but the rest of the machines use the default included browser.

Let’s face it, I don’t really use extensions anymore. Internet Explorer 9 is a fantastic browser, Safari does just fine on the Mac. X-Marks keeps my bookmarks in sync across them all. Done.

Email – Adios Thunderbird

I also decided to dump the Thunderbird email client and go back to using Mail and Outlook on the Mac and Windows Live Mail & Outlook on the PC.

Thunderbird is great, but not really light years better than Mail. I use email to read and compose messages. I don’t need anything more than Mail itself provides. I use Outlook for all my work related mail.

Now one may ask why I still use two clients. The answer is that I want my work mail to be separate. I don’t have my personal mail set up on my work computers at all, but at home, I only fire up Outlook when I have work to do. I use the lightweight clients for my personal messaging. They load faster and I don’t have to wade through all of the sheer magnitude of Outlook just to send an email.

What’s Next?

I am not sure how much more I can strip it down. I only use a small set of software regularly. This weekend I went through and uninstalled software I don’t use. It’s always nice to have a task bar or dock that is clean and allows quick access to just the software you use regularly. With search so good on both Mac & PC, I can type the name of the app I want if it’s not something I use all the time.

My Thoughts as an iPad User

November 19th, 2010 § 0 comments § permalink

ipad-LEAD01 I’ll be the first one to admit that I was more than a little excited when the iPad was announced. I am a Microsoft guy for sure, but my multimedia interests keep me in the Mac Camp part time and thus always curious about new Apple gadgets. The iPad had me at hello. I quickly pre-ordered and was there with my wife to get them in line on launch day.

I don’t think at this point you can call me an MS fanboy, or a casual Apple user, etc. Between my audio and video interests our household has 3 Mac Pros, a Macbook Pro, an iMac, two iPhones and two iPads. Don’t call me a hater.

That being said, my love affair with the iPad has been short lived and although it’s not over, it’s definitely waning. I am swayed when I see devices like the HP Slate or Dell Duo, and as soon as they have something more than an Atom Processor I’ll probably buy one, but back to the iPad.

Is It a Laptop Replacement?

I can tell you this, it’s not a laptop replacement. I think we all knew that. My iPad stays at home unless I am traveling overnight. Interestingly enough, I’ll never travel with JUST the iPad overnight. It goes in addition to my Macbook Pro. I just can’t do most of what I want to do on it. Is it fitting that I keep an Evernote scratchpad to share links for sites I can’t view because of flash? If you are into music like me, it’s almost every site that uses a flash audio player. Just about every audio hardware site shows off their wares with flash. I started keeping screenshots of all of the Flash fail messages I got on iPad for a blog and quickly scuttled it because it would have been a book. So it’s not a laptop replacement, is it a mobile device?

Is It a Mobile Device?

I know what Mark said, but I am going to second it. I don’t bring it anywhere I am going unless I am packing a bag. My iPhone really does everything it does. The screen is smaller, sure, but it fits in my pocket. The iPad is just not that portable. I’ll even go as far as to say it’s downright uncomfortable to use in many portable situations. It’s too heavy to hold with one hand for every long in a portrait format. It’s too awkward to type on with two hands while you are holding it. I find myself getting up and grabbing my laptop or going into my home office if I need to respond to an email with more than a sentence or two.

What Is It For?

It’s good for Angry Birds. It’s good for triaging email. It’s great for watching video and playing casual games. It’s a terrible web browser, don’t let anyone tell you differently. Facebook is now the largest site on the internet, and the iPad is just barely functional with Facebook.

It’s great for new types of applications. Audio creation, creative drawing and the like are fun and intuitive.

The Bottom Line

I use my iPad for a few specific things and a few specific places. Without going into TMI (Too Much Information) areas, my iPad lives in the bedroom and bathroom. I use it in bed, on the can and in the tub. I use it for email, basic web surfing, games and video content. If you are purely a consumer, it’s probably a good fit. If you generate anything, you might want to look elsewhere.

I wish it had been what was hinted at. I wish it ran a full version of OS X. I think touch is a great technology, but I think the Dell Duo is closer to the right track. I don’t think the software is there yet, hopefully we’ll figure out a great way for Touch and Keyboard/Mouse Operating Systems to coexist in a meaningful way and let you use the device in the way that suits you for the task you are trying to accomplish.

In it’s current form, the iPad is absolutely a companion device, and I would say a rather poor one at that. It doesn’t really play nice with whatever it’s paired with. Outside of what iTunes lets you share, it’s a nice set of golden handcuffs. It’s beautiful, sleek and good at a few things. I just get annoyed when I am on a web page and want to send myself a link, or IM something to a friend, or pop open a new blog post. It’s just not a computer, it’s a very cool toy.

Do It Yourself (DIY) Guitar Wall Hangers

November 7th, 2010 § 5 comments § permalink

Hanging GuitarsIt’s no secret that I have more than one person’s share of guitars. When I started getting close to finishing my new home recording studio, it was apparent that I needed them on the wall instead of losing all the floor space for the floor stands I have. You can buy decent guitar wall hangers for $7-10 each, but when you need 18 that gets spendy.

I did some looking around and saw some plans on Instructibles for making guitar hangers and figured I could do it just a little better.

TWall Plates Before Drillinghe first part was finding a better way to mount them than a half cut piece of dowel rod. I decided to go with a pre-made trim piece you can get at Lowes for $1.88. It’s already routed and has a nice edge, white and just needs to be painted.

First I marked a center line on all of them, then I evenly measured out for 3 holes, two to mount it to the wall, and one for the hanger.

Once all 18 were marked, I went outside with my drill, two drill bits and a counter sink bit so I could make the holes and sink the screw holes so they screwed in flush.

Once I had them all drilled I laid them out and painted them all black to match the theme I have going in the studio. After that, it’s just a matter of screwing in the hanger itself, and then measuring and putting the sheetrock anchors in the wall.

Assembled HangersThe finish product speaks for itself. They hold all of my guitars perfect, they are very sturdy, and they look as good as something store bought.

All you need to build and hang them are:

  • Super Hangers, Ace Hardware, $2.00 each.
  • Trim Wall Plates, Lowes, $1.88 each
  • Spray Paint to paint them, $4.
  • Metal Sheetrock Anchors, $16/50ct. Holds 50lbs.
  • 1/8” Drill Bit
  • 1/4” Drill Bit
  • Counter Sink Drill Bit

Social Network Tip #112: never delete your social network accounts

August 29th, 2010 § 10 comments § permalink

social-network_illu_farbigTonight I had a friend tell me, “Just deleted my Twitter account, feels good.” I asked why, she responded that she didn’t need it anymore.” Sound theory, but I’d like to offer a little counter advice, the same advice I gave her.

Never delete your social network accounts. In an age where digital fraud is common, and social engineering is the #1 form of hacking, deleting a social network is at best a way to give someone a free pass to impersonate you and at worst giving someone a ticket to try to attack all of your friends.

See, the thing is, when you delete your account, after a period of time, that username will be opened up again, someone can register that and then use it pretending to be you. Anyone from a crazy ex-boyfriend or wife to a Nigerian scam artist.

So what do to instead? Easy, if you can just blank out all of the personal identifying information (PII) on the account and leave it active. If you didn’t care enough to delete it, you shouldn’t care if it’s still out there and full of junk info.

If the site won’t allow you to empty it, just fill it with crap. Create a junk email address, change your primary to that, and fill it with made up information. Make up a name, etc.

The nice side effect is that if you ever decide you want that account back, you can just start using it again. No harm!

Silverkeeper for Mac and PC Unity

August 29th, 2010 § 1 comment § permalink

SKwindow202There are some great programs and services for keeping files in sync. Personally I use Dropbox, but I have also used Live Mesh with great success. These services are great for managing a limited amount of files, but what if you need to manage a lot, like my nearly 100GB Lightroom photo collection on my Mac Pro?

I have a 1TB Storage drive and a 1TB backup drive on that machine, but being someone who has lost a lot of photos in my lifetime, I also like to have an off PC backup and an off site backup. How can I accomplish this you ask? Silverkeeper helps me with the first part, Home Server and Cloudberry solve the second part.

I have Silverkeeper, a free Mac based backup utility from LaCie, set up to do two backups daily. The 1st backup copies my library from my storage drive to the backup drive. The second job backs up the hole library from my backup drive to my Home Server’s user folder.

Once the photos are staged there, Cloudberry does the magic of syncing the photos from my home server to Amazon’s S3 service.

I am sure at this point you are thinking, “My God is that overkill.” The sad part is that I have lost so many originals to my favorite photos over the years due to failing disks and simple mismanagement of files, this solution is nearly fool proof.

When Microsoft drops the latest version of Home Server with native OS X backup support, I will probably take the second backup off and do the backup to home server via native means, but for now, this works well.

If you have a Mac, and want to backup files to another location, PC or Mac, this free utility is from a reputable company and definitely worth checking out.

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