MobileMe (the email, contacts, calendars and file service from Apple) is something that seemingly everyone loves to hate.  It’s too expensive, doesn’t work right, and doesn’t really offer anything that you can’t find for free.  This winning combination of traits have lead to more than a few articles detailing how to sync, share and publish without handing even more money over to Apple.

Even with the plethora of articles explaining how to save time and money, however, it is possible to find happy users of Apple products.  Users which will "vigorously" share their "carefully considered" opinions.  One user from MacWorld raises the following (somewhat legitimate) points:

Are you the pot or the kettle?  First you say don’t expect the rest of us to have the same needs/wants, and then you make a blanket statement … [which] is full of assumptions that are not necessarily correct ...

1. “It’s way to expansive.”  If you only use web hosting, then maybe.  MobileMe is $8.25/month.  how much is hosting?  Does hosting give you automatic sync of photo galleries, contacts, ect.  How much is Flickr pro on top of regular web hosting.
2. Alternatives are not that hard to find, set up or use.  Really?  It seems that not everyone knows of alternatives.  And then why did the commenter have to make suggestions and corrections?  It seems to me [that] it’s not as easy as you say.

This happy MobileMe user has essentially laid down a challenge.  He implicitly (and others explicitly) state that they are willing to pay good money for their time.  And in the same bravado common to members of the Cult of Cupertino, he almost dares someone to disagree with him.  Since this topic has become a bandwagon and I’ve decided to generally hop in its direction, I accept this challenge. You might even say that figuring out ways to avoid using Apple’s signature web service has become a bit of a hobby.

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Tags: Apple,Mac OS X,MobileMe
Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Featured, Raves
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There is one fundamental problem that computing has been trying to solve for quite some time.  How do you keep information up to date on multiple computers.  Referred to as synchronization, this problem has a long and troubled history.  And unfortunately, it has never been definitively solved.  Don’t believe me, go type “File Synchronization Solutions” into Google.  In less than a second, you will be presented with millions (if not billions) of hits covering everything from syncing personal information (appointments, contacts, e-mail) to transferring files and parts of files.  And while there are many programs which do a good job on individual data components, there is nothing that can be used on all types of data.

Mesh is a framework from Microsoft that is meant to change the current state of the art.  The idea is to make sync between multiple computers and the “cloud” happen in a generic and completely transparent manner.  Not only does this mean that it should be able to tackle any data thrown at it, but that it should be able to successfully manage conflicts without consistently disturbing the user.  Just in case you’re thinking it, yeah it’s audacious.

But strangely, it largely seems to work.    And while it can become difficult completely understand the vision that Microsoft is trying to sale; that’s okay. What the beta offers is extremely useful, namely: 1) simple and reliable file sync and 2) remote desktop.  (Oh, and did I mention that the file sync is cross platform?)

Here’s a more detailed rundown: 1) you get 5 GB of online storage, 2) there is no limit on the number of devices where you can install the client software (both Macs and PCs are supported, with plans for phones in the near future), 3) files are available from any computer via the web, 4) it is extremely simple to set up a file share with other users of Mesh, 5) it’s completely free.  And while the service is currently limited to 5 GB of online storage, you can use Mesh to synchronize an unlimited number of files between two PCs without creating an online copy.

Consider a few of the potential uses for a moment:

1. Offline blogging done right.  I like to use an offline blogging client called Windows Live Writer.  Unfortunately, Writer doesn’t include an easy way to sync drafts from one computer to another.  Mesh makes this trivial, however.  By syncing Writer’s data folder to all of my different machines, I have access to my blog drafts regardless of which computer I am working on: work desktop, home desktop, or laptop.
2. Synchronizing important folders between all computers.  I have most of my projects, important folders, and other materials set for sync.  If I am on a deadline, I can save a copy of a file on my work PC and know that it will be available for me after I arrive home.  Worries about whether the file on my flash drive is the most current are a thing of the past.
3. Instant access to all of your computers.  Have you ever needed access to your work computer while away from the office?  Mesh gives you an easy remote desktop without wrestling with firewalls, IP address and other technical headaches.

If this service sounds like it might be of some interest for you, then read on.  If not, please go have your head examined.  Put simply, Mesh is one of the coolest and most innovative pieces of software to come out of Redmond in a very long time.

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff
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With the introduction of Samba, we have taken another step towards computer backup, sharing and sync bliss.  And while a Samba share greatly improves life by providing shared access to files, it is only a small part of effectively sharing and syncing.  In this article, I will introduce another major pillar of the setup: Subversion.  I will also explain how to configure your home server to act as a central subversion store which can be accessed from any computer in the house.  A separate article will describe why you should care and how you can effectively leverage Subversion’s power.  This article builds on steps taken in Part 1 of this series where we have already downloaded and installed the software needed for a functional Subversion setup.  In this article, we will take a look at how to configure it.

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Tags: Subversion
Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Writing and Literature
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Anyone who has worked on a major project knows the panic of losing their work.  It happens for reasons that are too numerous to count; even to the most organized, disciplined and obsessive.  A hard drive goes bad, the work doesn’t get saved or it might accidently be overwritten in a careless moment.  While some of these setbacks are inevitable frustrations of the Wordsmith, they don’t have to be.  In this, the first of a two articles, we will look at one solution that can greatly simplify a writer’s life: Subversion.

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Tags: Subversion
Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Featured, Writing and Literature
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On the way to file backup, sharing and sync nirvana, there are several important steps.  These include understanding the roadmap and how the individual components work together as well as the configuration of each of client and server programs.  In this article, I will explain how to set-up the USB drives and configure Samba for access to your shared files from any computer in the house.

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff
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On any given day, I engage in a lot of different activities which can generate a great deal of digital stuff.  The digital stuff might include notes, pictures, drawings, drafts, scientific data, or dozens of other little things.  What’s more, the random bits often contain very important information about both my digital and often real life.  About two years ago, though, I had a disaster.  My main computer hard drive failed and with it went all of my data.  I lost vacation pictures of my family, my entire digital music collection, drafts of two major papers, as well as the only copy of a book I was writing.

To say that I was completely devastated would be an understatement.  It took me nearly six months to repeat much of the work that was lost.  I was never able to recover either my pictures or the music, and I’ve never restarted work on that book.  Shortly after that crash, I decided to get serious about keeping a good backup.  Rebuilding a digital life from scratch is something I never want to do again; it was extremely painful.

To avoid another disaster, I studied out all of the different ways that I could keep a redundant set of backups that would ensure that all of my digital information would be available to me wherever I happened to be.  After a little bit of research and a great deal of tinkering, I put together a system that works very well for my needs.  Using my little system, I am able to keep my computers in sync, backed up, and access files that I need over the network and internet.  My system marries both software and online services and helps me be more productive and worry less about losing important information.  Coincidentally, every service and piece of software is absolutely free to use (and many are OpenSource), so the barrier to entry is pretty low.

In this series of articles, I will describe what software and hardware I use to backup, share and sync my files.  I will provide instructions on what materials you will need, how to setup the software and hardware, and how to configure the services on your various devices.  Lastly, since the setup can be somewhat complicated, I will try and provide tips that might help you avoid problems and snags that I discovered along the way.

In this article, we will quickly overview the setup as well as describe how to prepare a simple file server and install the core software that makes digital nirvana possible.  Later articles in this series will look at software configuration and setup on both the server as well as on the clients.

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff
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The map above shows the spread of Walmart from Arkansas to the rest of the country from 1968 to the present.  Its expansion looks just like that seen in a plague outbreak.  Really.  In this case, people don’t necessarily end up dead; just unemployed.  It is still worth marveling at.  In slightly more than 40 years, Walmart expanded from a small town wonder in Arkansas to its current status as a global powerhouse which strangles local economies.  While I personally don’t shop at Walmart (my reasons have more to do with eating habits than anything moral, I refuse to shop somewhere which doesn’t have kringle's cut barbeque chips), it is still rather sobering.
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I should probably mention (in fairness to "academic use" and all) that I stole this whole thing from Gizmodo (right down to the plague reference).  In my defense, I don’t understand why FlowingData plotted the thing in “toxic waste green” though.  That color choice begs the whole plague comparison.

Categories: Cool Stuff
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Every January, following the New Year, I have a bit of a ritual.  I like to spend a few days getting things cleaned and organized.  My little ritual includes both a mental, digital in addition to a physical cleaning.  I repeat the entire process again in July.  I should also probably mention that I really, really dislike cleaning  and organizing.  There are, of course, a bunch of reasons why I hate them.  They include good reasons and stupid reasons.  Some of those reasons, however, are worth a review.

First up is the time and effort which said activities require.  This is time and effort that I would rather use to do just about anything else.  Second, cleaning things require judgments.  I have to decide what things to keep and which to keep.  This almost always leads to loose ends; in addition to my aversion of decisions, I also really dislike loose ends.  This combination has led to a secondary tradition.  In addition to the “Cleaning Week”, there is also a “Finish Things Week”.  Yet more time and more effort to completing things which should have already been completed.  That sounds like grand fun.

The third reason that I dislike cleaning is that it invariably leads to change.  For those wondering how how I can jump from organization to change, allow me to explain.  While my mind is certainly a bit crooked round certain edges and has made more bizarre leaps, there is a certain logic to it.  Organization involves a review of activities and acquaintances.  When we plan, we consciously choose to grab the steering wheel and go somewhere new.  That often means that activities and acquaintances get left behind and new things will start looming up ahead.  Either way, change happens and everyone knows that, “Change is uncomfortable.”  It might be uncomfortable in the good kind of way, but it is still uncomfortable and I dislike being uncomfortable.  What can I say?

Anyway … I started cleaning this week and I got quite a bit organized … and then I got sidetracked.  The server that I keep in the house for backup and music streaming decided to stop working.  That required a day to fix.  After fixing it, I decided to upgrade it.  That took another evening (and never quite ended up working), so I just put it back to the way it was originally (except working this time).  In the process, though, I learned a lot of cool things.  This includes how to get both Windows Vista Backup and Apple Time Machine to back up to a Samba share.  Oh, and did I mention that Ubuntu makes it trivial to then move a copy of that backup offsite?  Redundant backups, that’s just cool!  You can, thus, expect a post about how to make the Ultimate Backup Server.

After I got back to organizing, I also started leafing through pictures and other material from the last year.  I found some some nifty old stuff, including a guide to leather braiding.  I’ve meant to braid a new reata for quite a while now.  I’ll have time in the next few months, so I figure I could start now.  It’s also probably time to start writing some posts about how to do things with horses.  While I am still working hard to master Python, I feel like I need to write about things other than technology.  I’ve wanted to write a little series about how to refine and train a saddle horse.  Far too much of the literature/discussion among the horse “academic class” for quite some time has focused almost singly on the basics and foundation.  What about the moderate and advanced riders of the world?  We deserve brain food too!

Finally, we arrive at the last reason I dislike cleaning and organizing.  In addition to having a slightly crooked mind, I also have a wildly overactive mind.  When I start digging through my junk, I start getting Ideas which lead to Plans and eventually Notions.  Plans and Notions aren’t necessarily a good thing, but … they aren’t necessarily bad either.  Either way, I hope that this coming year is as exciting as 2008 (except in good ways).  At the very least, I’ve got a whole new heap of material to explore and write about.  Here’s to blogging in 2009!

Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Horses and Horsemanship, Writing and Literature
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While there have been some notable attempts, the manner in which we interact with our computers has changed little in the past thirty years. If you look at the first GUI and compare it to that which you are using right at this moment, the similarities are striking. There are icons, folders, windows, and a mouse.

While the similarities may be striking, it doesn't mean that computers haven't progressed in that same time. To the contrary, actually. Building on the original idea, we've added many improvements. These include floating programs called widgets (gadgets, thingummy, etc), a dock (which doubles as a place to store our most used programs), animated backgrounds, and all kinds of other marvelous enhancements. While there has been some progress in the past 30 years, it doesn't mean that all of the tweaks and add-ons available for the desktop are of equal value. Some things, in fact, appear to have little use other than being endlessly obnoxious. Other things make it easier to enjoy the benefits of a wired life.

As it is nearly Christmas, I thought I would take a few minutes and describe some of my favorite tweaks and add-ons for the desktop. While there literally thousands of ways which you can change and "improve" your workspace, the examples included here are fairly conservative. More important, these are add-ons which I actually use on a daily basis. Read on for some recommendations to improve how you do simple tasks, access files, move Windows and crunch numbers. Oh … and did I mention that all of these add-ons are free?

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff
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I bought my first handheld in 2000. It was a Palm V with a backlit green and black screen, the ability to take notes and keep track of my appointments. It synced to my desktop computer and helped me organize my life. After a few months of use, I found a fantastic little program called iSilo which was used for reading packaged HTML files called eBooks.

About six months ago, when my Palm TX decided to give up the ghost, I moved to a new platform. I was in the Apple store picking up some things for the hospital and spent a few minutes playing with the iPods on the gadget table. That was either very fortunate, or a huge mistake. In that moment, I got bit by the Apple bug: badly. While I held the gadget lust at bay for two months, it was all but inevitable that I would eventually purchase an iPhone or an iPod touch. After seeing the cell phone bill for the iPhone, I decided on the iPod Touch.

While the iPod touch is a brilliant music player, that wasn't the reason I bought it. I needed a replacement for my Palm. It was only a (huge) benefit that the iPod is the best MP3 player, video player, and audio book player available. Given it's media superpower status, it is somewhat ironic that the five most used-programs on my iPod happened to be the Calendar, Address Book, Notes application, Mail and Calculator. Even after eight years, my main needs have changed very little.

This also leads to the first major headache I encountered when using the iPod (other than the complete lack of Notes and Tasks sync; Apple what were you thinking?). Initially, I could not find a good e-book reader program. After the iPhone App Store became available, I tried most of the programs, including eReader, Libris and BookShelf; but they fell short for various reasons. After some time of looking, I found a candidate that might make a good replacement for my reader of choice on the Palm: MobiPocket. In this article, I will take a in-depth look at where this program, called Stanza, stacks up and a few places that it doesn't.

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Categories: Computer, Cool Stuff, Writing and Literature
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