Category Archives: Computers

Another rambling update…

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Here’s an insight into what I have been up to recently:

  • Started basketball training again (with the intention to play a season on a team). I really need the exercise…
  • Still tinkering with model trains. I’m in the process of re-doing a whole heap of track work I did earlier in the year (or late last year) that I’m not entirely happy with. Contemplated (briefly) a new, much larger N gauge layout but decided to continue with the one I have been working on. Still acquiring random trains/rolling stock/buildings and other miscellanea. Lots of fun.
  • Not bird-watching/photographing anywhere near as much as I would like. Don’t like my chances of reaching 250 species by the end of the year (currently sitting on 215).
  • I have finally delved back into Mac programming. Just working on a simple project to start with but hopefully things will ramp up once I get familiar with it again. Seriously liking the new version of Xcode.
  • Still working (probably too much). Got to pay the bills somehow. While the downturn means less project work it does mean we are putting together a lot more quotations and proposals.

Review of iPod Touch Software I Use

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  • BirdSight AU (Natural Guides, LLC) – the only app I have paid for, unfortunately it cannot handle any strings with apostrophes in it (ie. Thomson’s Lake, a fairly basic bug in a database app I would of thought), otherwise this is a good app, would be better if there was a way to get all of the sightings out of it in one email (as opposed to one “observation” collection at a time);
  • Files lite (Olive Toast) – does what it does perfectly, highly recommended, I am seriously considering buying the full version;
  • Mactracker (Ian Page) – awesome, highly recommended, very slick interface;
  • TouchCalc (Alexander Clauss) – very good, I use it regularly;
  • To Do’s (AustinBull Software) – basic ToDo app, does what it needs to do well;
  • Sudoku (Mighty Mighty Good Games) – addictive;
  • Solitaire (MobilityWare) – very good fun.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

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I have finally gotten around to updating the MacBook to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). Just running the Software Updates now (thank goodness we have decent broadband). I’ve still got to install some applications and copy across all my data but so far so good.

Also took the opportunity to upgrade the 120GB HDD to a 320GB HDD. Compared to the 12″ G4 PowerBook HDD changeout procedure the process was trivial (take battery out, remove panel fixed with 3 screws, pull HDD sled out, replace disk, put everything back together). This future-proofs my MacBook for at least a few years (hopefully).

Recent (Apple) Purchases

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No, I haven’t gone and bought an iPad. They do look good though…

Just picked up a copy of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) and one of the wired (USB) Apple keyboards with a full number pad. I’m using the keyboard now and it is awesome. Very minimal yet almost impossibly sturdy. Snow Leopard will be installed on the MacBook when I get the chance. I’m going to do a full (format the disk) install so it could take a while to get everything up and running again.

A positive story about ISPs and Telcos

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Recently we upgraded our Internet connection to TPG ADSL 2+. This was an effortless transaction with TPG providing good progress feedback and the required modem/router settings.

Our house has always had a very noisy telephone line (to the point of making it difficult to hear the other person in a conversation) so the ADSL connection had issues from the start. Connections would drop out after a few minutes and take multiple retries to re-connect (and then drop out anyway). The best connection we had would have been less than an hour in duration. Having inspected some of the internal telephone wiring in the house I wasn’t convinced the problem was with the Telstra side of the wiring (Telstra provide our home telephone line).

At this point I was spending a fair amount of time away with work and didn’t get a chance to look at the issue any further. TPG telephoned us (without me contacting them) and said that they had noticed the connection dropping out and suggested a few configuration changes. They also speed limited the connection in an attempt to increase uptime. Needless to say I was very impressed (I knew at this stage TPG were not at fault).

After talking to TPG I lodged a line quality complaint with Telstra. This was a bit of a gamble on my part as if the problem was on our side Telstra would charge a $405 callout fee and I would have to get an Austel electrician to look at the house (costing hundreds more). Telstra came out two days early (I was staggered at this) and fixed the fault in the line at the street a few houses down. The technician was very polite and everything was sorted in an hour or two. We now had a crystal clear phone line!

A quick email to TPG and a modem reboot removed the speed limit on the line and the ADSL hasn’t dropped out since! Given the horror stories that circulate on the Internet regarding Internet service providers and telo-communications companies I thought it would be good to share a positive story.

Beach Stone-curlew at Dampier

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IMG_5000, originally uploaded by gjhmac.

Beach Stone-curlew (Esacus neglectus, Dampier, WA, Australia). Now I have seen both the Bush and Beach Stone-curlews at Dampier – another lifer!

I have turned on the image verification security feature for the comments on this blog as I seem to be getting a fair amount of spam posts. At least someone is reading my blog I guess…

New gadget/early Christmas present

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I recently picked up my own Christmas present – a 3rd Generation 8GB iPod Touch. So far I have been very impressed. Current apps that I like are:

  • BirdSight AU (pretty good, could do with some extra features like lumping/splitting);
  • Convert Units (does the job well);
  • Holy Bible;
  • Mactracker (very good for a computer collector);
  • TouchCalc;
  • Sudoku (great apart from the fact that it tells you when you have placed a number incorrectly, which makes the game much easier than a paper version);
  • To Do (basic To Do list manager);
  • File lite (superb application that allows files to be stored on the iPod Touch and viewed).

All of the above are free (apart from BirdSight AU).

I also purchased a Belkin leather case and screen protector for it.

Mac mini Server

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I think this is a really cool idea – a Mac mini with dual HDDs (no optical drive) and a copy of Snow Leopard Server. If only they had 2.5″ HDDs bigger than 500GB.

I also think Apple should have dropped a few of the USB2.0 ports and added a second gigabit ethernet port (although that would have required a motherboard change, the second HDD just requires the internal adapter and case to be modified).

Still – very cool. If I only had the spare cash…

Formatting drives in 2.5 inch external enclosures

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I have a somewhat generic BlueEye O2 USB2.0/FW400 2.5″ external drive enclosure. I was recently trying to format some older laptop drives (2.5″ PATA) and discovered that the “erase” and “partition” options in Disk Utility (Mac OS X 10.5.5 version) always fail when I was connecting using USB but work fine when connecting using FireWire. The error message is along the lines of I/O error or something. I’m sure glad my MacBook has FireWire…

I wonder whether this is a limitation of the BlueEye chipset or the Disk Utility software. I really should upgrade 10.5.5 to 10.5.8 too…