Something happened yesterday (05/11/2010) 5th Nov to our transatlantic cousins.. And I don't mean Guy Fawkes!!! Anyone who knows me will know I'm virtually obsessed with using Apple's OSX operating system in high end environments. To facilitate this we mostly use the Xserve rack-mount server (www.apple.com/xserve) Yesterday Apple announced it's retirement.. Once we found out that there wasn't going to be a replacement this gave me a twofold worry. 1)The suggested replacement is the Mac Pro Tower. For a number of reasons this isn't ideal, the most obvious ones being form factor and lack of dual psu's. However the implications may range far wider than this. Are Apple considering removing themselves from the Pro/High end markets? This was especially important to me as I have just invested in the Xsan fibre san system and the Final Cut Server asset management system with the main aim of training myself. A pretty useless past time if the products are end of life'd yes?
To this end I have started a petition to ask Apple for a statement on their Pro products.
This affects alot of folks. Techies like me who install and maintain these solutions. Our Clients who invest in the solutions.. It's just not the way to work with the Pro sector. Keeping far reaching plans 'behind the curtain'. It works great in the consumer arena, but in the high end Apple are costing (or could be costing) people their careers...
If this affects you at all please consider signing my petition. Anon if you prefer.
You'll find it here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/applepros/
Thanks.
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
Tech off the beaten path
As I write this I'm currently on holiday in Voronizh Region of Russia. It's a Rural location and I knew beforehand that there would be no Internet access available, or at least in place.
I'm here in support of my wife and Daughter. My wife is Russian and is here seeing her family and Introducing our (nearly) 3 year old Daughter to friends and family over here. So I was wondering how I would keep myself entertained for the duration of the visit as I have only basic Russian language skills and am far from the focus of the holiday.
The kitlist for the trip was initially going to be the following:
Apple Macbook Air
Apple iPad 64 Gig
Apple iPhone 3GS (used as camera for the trip mainly)
A few things then cropped up... My daughter is Cartoon crazy and if I filled the ipad with those there A) wouldn't be much room for some films for me and b) I wouldn't get to use it much!!!
So I unexpectedly got an offer on a cheap 13" Macbook Pro with a 320 Gig Drive, so the MacBook Air was replaced with this. I could fit alot more films on this rather than the 120 Gig SSD of the Air.
I then bought a 2nd iPad (A 64Gig 3g model) which I could dedicate to myself.
I thought I would transfer as much of my itunes library as possible to the MBP. Unfortunately this didn't happen as time got the better of me with a heavy workload. In a bit of a panic I had a brainwave... My media server is a macmini. Small,quiet and pretty portable. Maybe I could take this with me? Surely it would mean taking a screen/keyboard and mouse? Getting out of hand!! Another brainwave.. I could remote into the mini and run it headless. BUT todo this I'd need a certain amount of network infrastructure. I was going to use the Airport "create a wifi network" feature todo this for the ipads/iphone but what if I took a small router? Luckily I have a few such items already. I decided on the Solwise 3g router ( http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers-3g11nmrw.htm ) I have both the older 54g wireless and the newer 802.11n model which has the benefit of being powered by usb too. I try not to be without one of these little boxes in my kit bag.
I could power this from the usb of the mini and it will provide ethernet and/or wifi for the mini and wifi for the IOS devices
I tested it quickly in the office before I left and it worked perfectly.
So the kitlist is now:
Apple Macbook Pro 13"
Apple Macmini 2 Ghz (mediaserver with 640 Gig HD)
Apple ipad 64gig wifi
Apple ipad 64gig wifi & 3g
Apple iphone 3GS
Solwise 3g11nmrw Router
Apart from me forgetting the mini psu and having to turn back on the drive to Heathrow Airport and only having 1 travel adapter for power, its all run very smoothly... I have all my media library here in the middle of rural Russia, and have even managed to sort 64k 2G (no 3g in alot of Russia yet) mobile internet.
With Temperatures over 40 degrees here right now this is really helping to keep me sane..
I'm here in support of my wife and Daughter. My wife is Russian and is here seeing her family and Introducing our (nearly) 3 year old Daughter to friends and family over here. So I was wondering how I would keep myself entertained for the duration of the visit as I have only basic Russian language skills and am far from the focus of the holiday.
The kitlist for the trip was initially going to be the following:
Apple Macbook Air
Apple iPad 64 Gig
Apple iPhone 3GS (used as camera for the trip mainly)
A few things then cropped up... My daughter is Cartoon crazy and if I filled the ipad with those there A) wouldn't be much room for some films for me and b) I wouldn't get to use it much!!!
So I unexpectedly got an offer on a cheap 13" Macbook Pro with a 320 Gig Drive, so the MacBook Air was replaced with this. I could fit alot more films on this rather than the 120 Gig SSD of the Air.
I then bought a 2nd iPad (A 64Gig 3g model) which I could dedicate to myself.
I thought I would transfer as much of my itunes library as possible to the MBP. Unfortunately this didn't happen as time got the better of me with a heavy workload. In a bit of a panic I had a brainwave... My media server is a macmini. Small,quiet and pretty portable. Maybe I could take this with me? Surely it would mean taking a screen/keyboard and mouse? Getting out of hand!! Another brainwave.. I could remote into the mini and run it headless. BUT todo this I'd need a certain amount of network infrastructure. I was going to use the Airport "create a wifi network" feature todo this for the ipads/iphone but what if I took a small router? Luckily I have a few such items already. I decided on the Solwise 3g router ( http://www.solwise.co.uk/3g-routers-3g11nmrw.htm ) I have both the older 54g wireless and the newer 802.11n model which has the benefit of being powered by usb too. I try not to be without one of these little boxes in my kit bag.
I could power this from the usb of the mini and it will provide ethernet and/or wifi for the mini and wifi for the IOS devices
I tested it quickly in the office before I left and it worked perfectly.
So the kitlist is now:
Apple Macbook Pro 13"
Apple Macmini 2 Ghz (mediaserver with 640 Gig HD)
Apple ipad 64gig wifi
Apple ipad 64gig wifi & 3g
Apple iphone 3GS
Solwise 3g11nmrw Router
Apart from me forgetting the mini psu and having to turn back on the drive to Heathrow Airport and only having 1 travel adapter for power, its all run very smoothly... I have all my media library here in the middle of rural Russia, and have even managed to sort 64k 2G (no 3g in alot of Russia yet) mobile internet.
With Temperatures over 40 degrees here right now this is really helping to keep me sane..
Saturday, 16 January 2010
New Aquisition
I've just bought a nearly new Apple Macbook Air.. Great price and it looks just like a new one. 1st Job is to buy and Applecare on Monday lol.
I'll be blogging about my experiences with it shortly..
UPDATE: I've now sold this and replaced it with a 13" MacBook Pro as I needed a bit more power and Firewire. I still like the Macbook Air even though I think its future is in doubt..
I'll be blogging about my experiences with it shortly..
UPDATE: I've now sold this and replaced it with a 13" MacBook Pro as I needed a bit more power and Firewire. I still like the Macbook Air even though I think its future is in doubt..
Sunday, 3 January 2010
My Essential Mac Apps (updated)
Just a list of the Apps that I insist on having on all my Macs, which are currently:
Macbook Pro 15" 2.66Ghz, 8Gig Ram, 750 Gig HD
Macbook Pro 13" 2.25Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 320 Gig HD (which has replaced the Macbook Air as my home/mobile web device)
Mac Mini 2.0Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 500 Gig HD
Mac Mini 2.0Ghz (Media Server), 4 Gig Ram, 640 Gig HD
Mac Mini 2.16Ghz 2 Gig Ram, 500 Gig HD (x 2)
Mac Pro 8 Core 2.26Ghz, 16 Gig Ram, 4 x 1TB HD's
Xserve Twin Dual Core 2 Ghz, 8 Gig Ram, 2 x 80 Gig HD + 1 x 500 Gig + Apple Xserve RAID via Fibre Channel
My Image for these machines (Apart from the server) contains the following essential apps:
Yazsoft Speed Download (http://yazsoft.com/products/speed-download/information/): Amazing app that integrates with Safari and is also a nice FTP/iDisk client.
Cocoasoft Pathfinder (http://www.cocoatech.com/): This is what the Finder should become...
Acrylic Wallet (http://www.acrylicapps.com/wallet/): I keep ALL my secure info in this App, and it syncronises between all the Macs and my iPhone.... Love it!!
Blacktree Quicksilver Nahh scrub that. Replaced with Launchbar as it's still supported and can be made to act just like Quicksilver.
Conceited Software Linkinus (http://conceitedsoftware.com/products/linkinus): Lovely/Polished IRC Client.
JollyfastVNC (http://www.jinx.de/JollysFastVNC.html): Just as it says..super speedy, lightweight VNC Client.
Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/): This holds all the other info I can't keep in wallet easily. And just like it syncs great between Computers and iphone etc...
Adium (http://adium.im/): THE Messenger client on the mac. Integrates with skype via 3rd party addon.
TimeMachineEditor (http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/): Make Time Machine work when YOU want it too!!
Micromates Textmate (http://macromates.com/): Quality Super Text Editor at a great price...
Put these on your Mac and watch it fly!!!
Macbook Pro 15" 2.66Ghz, 8Gig Ram, 750 Gig HD
Macbook Pro 13" 2.25Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 320 Gig HD (which has replaced the Macbook Air as my home/mobile web device)
Mac Mini 2.0Ghz, 4 Gig Ram, 500 Gig HD
Mac Mini 2.0Ghz (Media Server), 4 Gig Ram, 640 Gig HD
Mac Mini 2.16Ghz 2 Gig Ram, 500 Gig HD (x 2)
Mac Pro 8 Core 2.26Ghz, 16 Gig Ram, 4 x 1TB HD's
Xserve Twin Dual Core 2 Ghz, 8 Gig Ram, 2 x 80 Gig HD + 1 x 500 Gig + Apple Xserve RAID via Fibre Channel
My Image for these machines (Apart from the server) contains the following essential apps:
Yazsoft Speed Download (http://yazsoft.com/products/speed-download/information/): Amazing app that integrates with Safari and is also a nice FTP/iDisk client.
Cocoasoft Pathfinder (http://www.cocoatech.com/): This is what the Finder should become...
Acrylic Wallet (http://www.acrylicapps.com/wallet/): I keep ALL my secure info in this App, and it syncronises between all the Macs and my iPhone.... Love it!!
Blacktree Quicksilver Nahh scrub that. Replaced with Launchbar as it's still supported and can be made to act just like Quicksilver.
Conceited Software Linkinus (http://conceitedsoftware.com/products/linkinus): Lovely/Polished IRC Client.
JollyfastVNC (http://www.jinx.de/JollysFastVNC.html): Just as it says..super speedy, lightweight VNC Client.
Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/): This holds all the other info I can't keep in wallet easily. And just like it syncs great between Computers and iphone etc...
Adium (http://adium.im/): THE Messenger client on the mac. Integrates with skype via 3rd party addon.
TimeMachineEditor (http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/): Make Time Machine work when YOU want it too!!
Micromates Textmate (http://macromates.com/): Quality Super Text Editor at a great price...
Put these on your Mac and watch it fly!!!
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