You Control: Tunes, Control iTunes From The Menu Bar

I've slowly been trying to rate a bunch of my mp3's in iTunes. Its a real pain to be constantly switching to iTunes when each new song begins to rate it. I knew there had to be a better way. Google to the rescue. I initially found Synergy, but it wasn't free so I kept looking. My next search yeilded You Control: Tunes, which to my delight was free and fit the bill!

You Control: Tunes has a wide variety of features. Using You Control: Tunes you can navigate through your music via small back, forward, play, and pause buttons located in your menu bar (previously I used Bytecontroller for this). You can also rate the song that is currently playing by clicking on the star ratings next to the navigation buttons. Another neat aspect of this little application is that when a new track begins a small window pops up showing you the artist, song name, album art and other configurable information.

This helpful application has allowed me to easily rate my music while keeping most of my concentration focused at the task at hand. I'd recommend that you at least give You Control: Tunes a shot. Since its free, there's no loss if you don't like it. But, I doubt you'll be uninstalling this puppy!

My First Mac Convert!

Today was pretty exciting. My Aunt stopped by and said that she wanted to get a new laptop. Her 7+ year old HP portable with Windows ME (yuck!) is finally almost dead. Being the computer guru of the family she wanted my opinion. Of course, the new Mac fanatic in me reccomended that she check out the MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. She said that she had read some reviews that said that Apple produces some phenominal laptops. So she was a bit interested in Macs to begin with.

Since she had never really used a Mac I let her take my MacBook Pro for a spin. I showed her iTunes, iPhoto, Photo Booth, the Dashboard, and a few other things. She was pretty impressed at how easily I manuvered between the programs and commented on how easy everything seemed. I assured her that everything on a Mac is super simple and she'd be using it like a pro in no time.

Like most computer users she mostly surfs the internet, checks her email, writes documents with Office, and uses QuickBooks. I told her that she could easily do all that and more with a Mac. She had heard that you could use Windows programs on a Mac and wanted to know a bit about it. I filled her in on Parallels and BootCamp. I told her that I had installed Parallels thinking that I would use it all the time. But, it turns out that I only used Parallels when I first installed it to check it out. I've since had no reason to use it. I doubt she'll need it either, but said I'd install it for her if she thought it would make her feel better about the switch.

At the end of the conversation she was ready to buy a MacBook Black edition! She's my first Mac convert since becoming a switcher myself. Not only does it excite me that I'm helping spread the word about the best OS on the planet, but I'm confidant that she'll be 100% satisfied with her switch. Since she's never really used a Mac I'm sure she'll have a bit of learning to do, which I'm more than happy to help her with. Maybe I can get her to write a short series of articles about her switch for the site : )

Apple Portables From 1989 To Present

This article written by The Apple Gazette has been floating around the internet lately. I found it rather interesting. The author took the time to rehash the evolution of Apple portable computers. Beginning with the inception of the Macintosh Portable and finishing with the MacBook/Pro you'll get a feel for how Apple has continually tried to push the envelope.

Apple has routinely made market firsts with their laptops, all of which took place in the 90's. Here are some of the most notable firsts.

• 1991 - PowerBook 100: The keyboard was placed close to the display, leaving room for palm rests and the trackball.
• 1994 - PowerBook 500: Built in Ethernet, and a trackpad.
• 1996 - PowerBook 1400: Built-in: CD-Rom drive.
• 1997 - PowerBook 3400: PCI architecture, EDO memory, and a 64-bit wide internal bus.
• 1999 - iBook "Clamshell": Designed and sold with internal wireless networking.

1989 to 1991 is considered to be the first 'Golden Days' of apple, which was coined by MacAddict magazine. Following the 'Golden Days' was a big slump between 1991 and 1997. During this slump Apple was not profitable and wouldn't be until Steve Jobs revived the company in 1998 with the iMac.

That being said, I'm really surprised that nearly all of Apples market firsts in the mobile sector took place during the companies slump. Where as the original 'Golden Days' and Apple's current success has produced nearly no notable portable computing market firsts. Maybe, coming to market later with new technology is better? It definitely worked with the iPod and time will tell how it comes into play with the iPhone and iTV. As we all know, Apples recent success with consumer electronics has been due to 'reinventing' current technologies.

Marware Sportfolio Laptop Sleeve/Case Review

My journey began 10 days ago when I began looking for a case/sleeve for my MacBook Pro. What's kind of funny is that I kinda thought I knew what I wanted when I made that post. In the following four days I kept researching. After reading a bunch of recommendations and some hands on reviews I decided on the Marware Sportfolio.

The postman dropped off the box this afternoon and I immediately tore it open. I was really stoked to see how awesome this sleeve was. My first reaction was... wow, this sleeve looks amazing! Not only does it look sleek and stylish, but its well constructed.

The outer neoprene feels rugged get fairly pliable. The interior is very soft and reassures me that my MacBook Pro is safe. The zipper protection is impressive. I wasn't sure what to expect since I've never used a case that offered it. The zipper protection consists of an extra lip of neoprene that sits between the zipper and the laptop. I half expected the extra neoprene to get in the way of zipping and be more of a hassle that its worth. However, the zipper zips with ease and the extra neoprene offers the protection that is advertised. The bottom edge of the case is wrapped in very thin rubber. Behind the rubber is a fairly hard plastic insert. The insert is unobtrusive and sewn into the case to do its duty to serve and protect.

I was hoping to be able to fit my digital camera in the front pocket of the case. Its just a bit small for that though. It should hold anything the same size or smaller than an iPod Video. I have yet to figure out what I'll store it it, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something :)

In my opinion the fit is one of the most important aspects of a case. Without the correct fit its hard for a case to do what its designed to do, protect your computer. When I slipped my MacBook Pro into the Sportfolio I was happy to find that it fit perfectly. The case wasn't so loose that the MBP shook around inside. Nor was it so tight that getting the zippers zipped around the corners a pain in the butt. The Marware Sportfolio is made specifically for the MacBook Pro computer. If you order a case online and it doesn't say that its crafted for a certain computer you're taking a gamble and it may end up fitting incorrectly.

Now I just need to go on vacation so I can use the case :)

So if you are looking for a case for your MacBook Pro I recommend the Marware Sportfolio with 100% confidence. If fit and style are important to you I promise that you won't be disappointed. You can purchase the Sportfolio on Marware's website for $29.95.

New Site Design Preview

I have just a few more CSS issues to work, but other than that I've got most of the design done. I just wanted to give you all a sneak peak at what I've been working on. You'll find that its a lot more functional and looks tons better than the lame default blogger theme, hahah.

Bandwagon Plug,,, Get Your Free Account

Bandwagon is for music geeks that use Macs. If you have a huge music library that you never back up, then it may be time to look Bandwagon. The service officially launches February 22nd, 2007. Essentially But, I've got some great news. They have a neat promotion going on right now. Post their logo on your blog and you get a free account for 1 year... hence the shameless plug, lol.

I probably wouldn't normally try out their service, but if I get a free account out of this then I'll give it a shot. Of course, if I get a free account you can all expect a review :)

Apple Tattoo Photomontage

Ever thought about getting a tattoo? How about an Apple logo tattoo. The idea had never crossed my mind, but I saw someone walking down the street with one today. It got me thinking... Is that common? When I got home I did a quick search on Google and found that it was more common that I thought! Flickr turned up a bunch of results as well. I even found sites dedicated to people with Apple tattoos.

• The Apple Collection
• Revenge of the Tattooed Nerds (not all Apple tattoos)
• Apple Tattoos

I don't know why or how, but it inspired me a bit. After an hour or so I had created this!


Small: 400 x 480
Medium: 625 x 750
Large: 2000 x 2400

Neat eh? I still don't think that I could permanently inscribe my love for Apple in my skin. A big high five to those that have. Your devotion to your brand of choice is amazing!

The tattoos in the image are mostly Apple logo's with power button icons, sad face macs, and one startup screen image mixed in. I tried to only include one image from each person in the picture, but after a while one black Apple logo started to look the same as another :)

One neat trick I learned tonight was that if you type shift+option+k in a text editor most standard fonts will display an Apple logo. By using that trick and pumping the font size up to 1200 I was able to get my high res Apple logo.

If you found this interesting and you own/use a mac check out the 100 Apple Users/Switchers Collage thats still in the wroks.

My MacBook Pro Airport Connection Problem And Solution

Out of the middle of nowhere today my MacBook Pro wouldn't reconnect to my WiFi connection. This happened after I awoke the computer from sleep. It took a restart to get it working again. A few hours later the same thing happened when I woke the computer up again, but this time it wasn't fixed after a restart. I connected to my Linksys wrt54g wireless router with a manual IP address and snooped around. I ended up clearing the DHCP clients table and then trying to reconnect with DHCP. The router assigned my computer a new IP address in the clients table, but the computer itself didn't get the address. This seemed kinda strange.

After a bit of reading on the internet it seems that there are quite a few people who's Mac's won't reconnect their WiFi after sleeping. I attempted some of the most common fixes.

• Turning AirPort on and off
• Reconnecting to the access point
• Deleting the following files
• com.apple.internetconnect.plist
  
• com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
• com.apple.internetconfig.plist

None of this worked. So I gave up for an hour or so. When I returned, as randomly as it stopped connecting to the internet it started working again. Maybe it was a delayed reaction from one of the above fixes. However, this was only a temporary fix.

Whenever I would put the computer to sleep it would loose its connection with the access point. However, unlike before, I could reconnect by turning AirPort off and then back on again. This is less than optimal though. It was really a pain in the butt to do all the time. Especially since I have the computer set to go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity.

I set out to eliminate this problem. I must have created a new 'Location' in the Network System Preferences when I first got my computer before I knew what I was doing. So I deleted that. Then I clicked the options button and set 'Keep looking for recent networks' when a preferred network is not found. Next, I removed all the 'Preferred Networks'. Followed by opening the Keychain Access application and removing all keys related to those preferred networks.

After all these changes my MBP now reconnects upon waking up from sleep again. It took me a few hours to figure out what was going on and find a fix for it. I can't say for sure exactly what the ended up being the solution since I was trying multiple things. I do know however, that one of the things listed above took care of the problem. At least now if it happens again I'll be able to hopefully fix the problem quickly!

RadTech BT600 Bluetooth Mouse Review

RadTech has pulled out all the stops when it comes to the BT600. Its offers everything anyone could want in a Bluetooth mouse. We're talking 5 buttons, all functional in OS X, unlike many other Bluetooth mice... An on/off button to help conserve battery power and to keep the mouse from waking the laptop up while traveling... No Bluetooth dongle required... Rechargeable through a USB cable... Its almost as if the list never ends. These features are what initially led me to the BT600 while searching for a BlueTooth mouse.

Before purchasing the BT600 I was a little skeptical. I didn't think that a mouse from a company that I had never heard of could produce a product with these features that would not only work, but work well. After receiving the mouse it wasn't long before my skepticism was washed away.

The mouse comes in a well made package without that impossible to cut/tear plastic stuff, which is nice. Included in the box was a small instruction sheet about how to pair the mouse with the Bluetooth on a Mac and PC, two AA sized NiMH batteries, a short USB cable for charging, and the mouse. I was surprised to find that there was no driver CD. The BT600 paired quickly with OS X without a hiccup. I quickly found that a driver is not needed for the BT600 to work with OS X. However, if you want to customize the functionality of the 5 buttons you'll want to download RadTech's RadMouse driver for OS X.


The 800dpi sensor is no slouch. I found the mouse to responsive and accurate. While doing precise selections with the lasso tool in Photoshop I had no problems. The mouse also works great with World Of Warcraft which is good, because I was having a hell of a time trying to play with the trackpad before.

I'm pretty impressed with the power consumption of the BT600. I was half expecting to half to charge the mouse every night, or at least every few days. This is the reason its taken me so long to write this review. I've been trying to gauge how long the batteries will last. So far I've logged 12+ hours on the mouse and have yet to have to charge the BT600. The only time I've gotten to use the neat charge by USB feature was the first day I got the mouse. While the mouse was plugged in and charging I was taking the mouse for a test drive! I really loved being able to charge on the fly and use the mouse at the same time. This is probably one of my favorite features of the mouse.

When researching the BT600 I was a bit worried about the on/off button located on the top of the mouse. I thought that I may accidentally turn the mouse off while using it. But, after purposely trying to do so I was unable to succeed. The button needs to be pushed down quite a bit to power off the mouse and it is simply not possible to do so with your palm. I had also read a few comments online about how the buttons of the mouse felt cheap. This is not the case. The right/left buttons and the scroll wheel click and feel exactly as my Logitech MX500 does. The back/forward buttons located on the side near my thumb are a little stiffer than what I'm used to. Its not a big deal and I'm sure that as I use the mouse more they will loosen up a bit.

Something I found odd while using the mouse was the default functions of the forward/back buttons. The button I was expecting to be the back button was the forward button and vise versa. Swapping the functionality was a quick fix in the System Preferences via the RadMouse software.


I only have one gripe about the mouse and I've already adapted so its not an issue. Its a bit tough to explain, but when you lift the mouse off the mouse pad it keeps tracking slightly. This only happens if you keep the mouse very close to the surface of the mouse pad. By lifting the mouse a little higher than normal I've been able to completely eliminate the rogue movement.

I'm thoroughly happy with my RadTech BT600 Bluetooth mouse. It not only has a bucket load of features, but all of them work exceptionally well. I'd recommend this product to anyone who's in the market for a Bluetooth mouse. Hell, I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a mouse period, its that cool :)

The RadTech BT600 Bluetooth mouse can be purchased here if you are interested.

Random Rambelings For the Day

With all the work on the new site that I've been doing its been difficult balancing time between writing new articles and the design on the new site. I suppose that the content for the last few days has been lacking because of this. With any luck I'll be rolling out the new design shortly and it'll be worth it! In the mean time I plan on getting my RadTech BT600 mouse review finished up and posted tomorrow. I know I've been promising this for a few days now. Honestly, whats holding me back is that I'm trying to run the batteries all the way out so I can judge how long they will last. But, after about a week and 12+ hours of use its still running strong.

February 15, 1997: The Tiger is Unleashed…For the Apple II?
That's right... only 10 years ago! I remember a few of these Apple II computers sitting in my high schools computer lab when I was a freshman in high school. They seem so primitive by today's standards! Its hard to believe how far we've come in such a short amount of time.

If your in need for a good laugh watch the following video. A spoof of Apples get a Mac commercials starring Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. There are a few sware words in the video, so if you are at work its probably best to wait till you get home.

The Valentines Day edition of Full Frontal Nerdity is worth a read. From what I can tell this web comic doesn't normally do Mac related humor. My favorite line... "The resulting ANGER, if harnessed, could power Los Angeles for a MONTH!" This is of course referring to the heated debates that spring up about Mac's Vs PC's.

Marware Laptop Case/Sleeve Ordered... woot!

I ordered a neoprene sleeve for my MacBook Pro today. I had to treat myself to a Valentines Day present :) I ended up not going with any of my original choices. After doing a bunch more research and reading some hands on reviews, I chose to go with the Marware Sportfolio.

The Sportfolio boasts a neoprene design, zipper guards, and a snug fit! Everything I was looking for. Additionally, the sleeve has a pocket for an iPod/mp3 player or a digital camera. The pictures on Marware's website show the Sportfolio with very nice blue accents that seem to compliment the black design nicely. I hope that the blue will match my RadTech ScreenSavrz.

I think I've made the correct choice and can't wait to get my hands on this sleeve. If its as cool as I've read it is I think I'm going to love it. Now I just need to mod (aka sew... yuck!) my backpack and put one of those laptop separators in it. I'd consider buying a specifically designed laptop backpack, but I love my Oakley pack to much to retire it (I have the original before they added the laptop compartment). Maybe I'll just give Grandma a call :)

RadTech ScreenSavrz Cleaner/Protector Review

When I bought my mouse I also picked up their Notebook ScreenSavrz product. Since I'm still in the process of testing their BT600 mouse I decided to tell you a bit about the ScreenSaverz. I'm not sure why I bought the ScreenSaverz. Maybe it was because of bad experiences in the past with the keys of notebooks rubbing on the LCD. Basically what would happen is that sweat/gunk would begin to build up on the keys. Then, when I closed the lid the build up would transfer onto the LCD screen. At first all that I needed was some of those little laptop screen cleaning wipes to take care of it, you know the ones that remind you of mini baby wipes? After a few months, the LCD itself began to get very small scratches/abrasions from the keys! This damage was irreversible short of replacing the screen.

It may have just been a particular Dell model that was prone to this, but I was determined to prevent this from happening with my new baby. From what I've seen of the ScreenSavrz, there is no way that your keys can do any damage to your screen!

The ScreenSavrz was packages in a neat little tube. I'm definitely going to be able to find another use for the tube, which is a bonus :) The ScreenSaverz popped out of the tube without trouble. My first impression was how soft and firm it was. I was expecting something similar to those little cloths that you clean sun glasses with. However, this is not a fault. In fact, I see it as a plus since I've been able to use it as a mouse pad is some instances. I'd compare the cloth to a very very thin piece of neoprene that feels like microfiber.

My ScreenSavrz fits perfectly across my MacBook Pro's 15.4" LCD. But if you're sporting a different portable you're still in luck. RadTech offers the ScreenSaverz cloth in many different sizes to provide the perfect fit on your machine. Aside from sizes there are a handful of colors to choose from. You can even get it customized with a quote, your name, or logo if you choose. I chose Indigo since I think that blue looks awesome in conjunction with silver.

I found the ScreenSaverz alone adequate to protect my MBP. But if you are looking for even more protection RadTech offers Wildeepz, a way to keep even space between your screen and the case. But, $13-$17 dollars is a bit too expensive for some little plastic things if you ask me.

Site Revamp In The Works

Today I began looking back into WordPress. Initially I started this blog out on WordPress, but I had no clue what I was doing. Blogger was simple, and got me posting right away, so I decided to go with Google's blogging software instead. But, Its been over a month since I started the blog, and I'm ready to do some customizing. I found a free web host, AwardSpace, and installed WordPress to do a little experimenting. After some fooling around, I'm 100% sure that I'll be switching to WordPress. Once I finish installing plugins, and work on the CSS I'll be rolling out the new Keynote2Keynote. Hopefully this will take place within the next 1-2 weeks.

I'm really excited about the changes that I'll be making and I'm sure that everyone else will enjoy them. I secretly told myself when I got started that if I could get 20 RSS feed subscribers I'd think about putting a good chunk of time into a custom theme/template. The site's been creeping up towards 20 and I hope I'll be able to get the revamp done within a few days of the goal being reached :)

Completely unrelated... I received my RadTech BT600 mouse and have been testing it the last few days. I plan on getting a full hands on report posted tomorrow or the next day. I can tell you now however, that I'm a happy camper and loving this little guy!

So there I was... 3am and 7 FireFox Tabs...

This should be interesting. Last night, while I was surfing around trying to figure out what to write about I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up till 3am. Since I don't have a well thought out post, I'm going to write about the open FireFox tabs that I had open when I woke up!

I just love all these parody Mac ads... If you haven't seen the next one, you're in for a good laugh...

This iPhone ad is well done in my opinion. It uses a background color close to that of the iPod ads. And the art is definitely done with Apple in mind. It looks like it could have come strait out of the art department in Cupertino.

Thats the extent of my Mac ad surfing. On to the meat and potatoes.

If you're the do it yourself kind, give this a shot. An iPod charger for your bicycle, made from a hand crank charger. This is a great idea. I didn't take the time to look, but if there isn't already a commercial product similar to this, there should be. Mac users are usually pretty savvy and often hip to energy conservation.

Take your iSight camera and turn yourself into Quasimoto! Then show the world on The Mac Metamorphosis Meme. This page is dedicated to making a fool out of yourself :) I plan on getting a pic up there as soon as I take a shower, lol.

Need to know if its time to upgrade your Mac? Mactactic helps you decide. It tracks updates to the Mac line and tries to predict if a hardware update is right around the corner. I had another site similar to this, but better bookmarked at one time, but I lost the link :(

The last page I had open was the latest Applgeeks 3.0 comic.

There you go. Its my mash up of what I was reading last night before I fell asleep, lol. Enjoy your day and try not to drool on your trackpad like I did.

Looking For a MacBook Pro 15.4" Case

I have yet to take my MacBook Pro anywhere except the patio, couch, or bed. But, one of these days I'm going to christen him and take him on his first voyage. Before I can even think about taking him out into the harsh elements of the real world he's going to need some protection.

I'm not looking for a large bag that will carry every accessory known to man. I can use a backpack for that. What I need is one of those neat neoprene zip up cases that I can slip into my backpack or just carry as is. I've been looking at a few of these cases but haven't come up with a concrete decision yet.

Tucano Elements: This is the only case that I've actually seen in person. Its pretty much exactly what I want. I'd buy this case in a heart beat if I could find it anywhere other than ebay from sellers in the UK.

RadTech NeoCase: I'm not sure if I like the 'work in' type case that allows you to use your computer while its still in the case. Another thing about this case that I'm unsure about is whether I'll like the handle. Since I'll be mostly placing the case in my backpack I'd image that the handle would get caught on cords and aggravate me.

MagicSoft SkinBook: Another 'work in' style. I think I mainly like this case because they show a graphic of an egg falling on the computer, hahaha.

Every forum I go to has a sticky with PAGES & PAGES of people saying which case they use, but its hard to surf through it all. What would be nice is a site dedicated to neoprene laptop case user reviews. There are lots of questions one could potentially want to know about a case. How snug of a fit does the case provide? Are there guards around the zippers to prevent them from scratching the edge of your computer? Etc.

If I can find the Tucano Elements case in the US I'll probably buy that case, if not I'm not sure what to get. I suppose that I'll have to break down and actually make my way through those forum posts and just pick one out of a hat :)

Links For 2-10-2007

Just a few tidbits from things I ran across today.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Laptop Battery: Info on recalibrating your battery and ways to save juice while on the go.

Apple TV Ship Date - Feb 27th: Gizmodo claims that Apple employees confirmed the ship date.

Apple Commercial Mash Up: Neat video that combines cuts from many Apple commercials since the initial Nike advertisement.

CNET Reviews OS X Tiger 10.4: Reviewed on 2/2/07... Release date: 4/28/05... Anyone find it funny that it took CNET so long to do a review? lol

AppleURLS: All Your Apple News in 1 Place.

Belkin ExpressCard Multimedia Reader/Writer Hands On

Since I've got a portable computer its really important to me that my perifrials are equally portable. This has infulenced my decisions to buy a surge protector (Tripp-Lite Traveler 100Bt), a mouse (RadTech bt100), and now a memory card reader. I currently have have a Sony DSC-N1 Camera and also chose it for its size and image quality (for a point and shoot its pretty decent). Carrying around the cable to transfer pictures onto my computer along with many other cables just isn't cool. So in an attempt to declutter a bit I've purchased a Belkin ExpressCard reader/writer.

I can leave the ExpressCard in my MacBook Pro wherever I go. The card sits in the ExpressCard slot flush and I don't even notice its there. I was amazed that everything worked right out of the box and didn't require any drivers. As for supported formats the Belkin ExpressCard supports: Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Pro Duo (with adapter), MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, xD-Picture Card. Since my Sony DSC-N1 uses a Memory Stick Pro Duo card thats all I'll be able to test it with.

The process to move pictures off the camera and onto the computer is easy. Remove, Memory Stick Pro Duo from camera and insert it into the Memory Stick adapter. Then place the adapter in the Belkin ExpressCard. Push the card into the card till you feel a bit of resistance. If you push the Memory Card in to far, the ExpressCard will eject. This is an issue with how the MBP's ExpressCard slot is designed. It would have been nice if Apple used an eject button for cards instead of the 'push-release' method. Once the card is in all the way an icon on the desktop appears and simply drag your images onto your computer. You'll notice that the Memory Stick only goes about half way into the ExpressCard. This is a slight bummer as it could get bumped and damage something.

If I wasn't such a nerd I'd end this story here, but this is where the fun begins! I was curious how the transfer rate of the ExpressCard compares to using the DSC-N1 usb cable. I decided to run two different tests. The first test would entail transfering a 1gb file using the ExpressCard and then just the usb cable. For the second test I'll transfer 100 5mb files with the usb cable and ExpressCard.

I wrote the following ksh script to help with the experiment...

#!/bin/ksh

# This script creates n number of files whos sizes are in
# x megabytes
# Usage ./createfiles [filecount] [filesize in megabytes] [output file name]

if [ "$3" = "" ]
then
Echo "Usage: ./createfiles [filecount] [filesize in megabytes] [output file name]"
exit -1
fi

FILECOUNT=$1; # The amount of files you want to create
FILESIZE=$2; # The file size in megabytes
FILENAME="$3"; # The name of the output files

bc |& # Use bc to convert mb to bytes
print -p "$FILESIZE * 1024"
read -p FILESIZE

FILESIZE=${FILESIZE/.*} # Remove the decimal place

# Create as many files as FILECOUNT specifies of
# the size FILESIZE
for ((i=1; i<=FILECOUNT; i+=1)) do
dd if=/dev/zero of="$FILENAME""$i" bs=1024 count="$FILESIZE";
done

Basically this allowed me to create the 1gb and the 5mb files needed to run the tests. Gotta love the unix aspect of OS X :) Once I had all the files created an on my Memory Stick I tested the transfers individualy using terminal and the following commands

neyoung$ time cp 5mbfile* ~/speedtest/
neyoung$ time cp 1gbfile ~/speedtest/

And here are the transfer times...

1gbx1 USB: 267.38 sec.
1gbx1 ExpressCard: 217.15 sec.

5mbx100 USB: 135.42 sec.
5mbx100 ExpressCard: 54.20 sec.

As you can see, the ExpressCard was faster in both tests. But, you'll notice a much bigger gap between the USB/ExpressCard test on the 5x100 test than the 1gb. As is the case with trying to time your computer there can always be factors that will affect the outcome. If I had more time I'd run the tests multiple times and take the average, but its getting late. I suspect that with multiple tests the USB cable times would be more in line with the ExpressCard. If anyone has the time to do this I'd be interested in the outcome :)

Anyways, overall I'm pleased with the Belkin ExpressCard Reader/Writer. It works with no hassle and the speed is impressive. Another bonus is that I don't have to carry my camera cable around with me! For $27 I couldn't be happier.

Apple Mail Does Gmail But No Syncing :(

Yesterdays iCal/GoogleCalendars success got me excited for todays task. But it ended up being short lived. Since Google and Apples calendar apps work so well together I figured that their email offerings would work equally well. As I stated yesterday, I like having a local copy of my data as well as a web version to view when I'm not using my personal machine. Getting the two copies of data to sync is a big bonus. Even if its only a one way sync (web to computer) its better than nothing.

Since I'd like a full two way sync, IMAP is the only way to go. IMAP allows you to sync your web mail to your hard disk and vice versa. Any changes made in either place will be reflected in the other. But, unfortunately Google doesn't offer IMAP for Gmail. Instead, only POP is available. So, although I won't have full syncing capabilities it'll still be nice to have a copy of all my email to reference while I don't have net access. POP essentially allows users to download mail off a mail server. The mail on the server can either be left there, or deleted once its downloaded. Because GMail gives its users such large (2gb+) mail boxes, I chose to leave my email on the server after its downloaded. Other web mail sites might give you a very small disk cap and deleting the mail on the server would be best. If you'd like some instructions on how to setup Apple Mail to receive email from Google's GMail check Google's official walk through in the Help Center. If you want to configure how GMail handles your mail after you download it you'll need to change your GMail settings. Its under 'Settings' -> 'Forwarding and POP'.

This solution is more or less the same as I was able to achieve with iCal. Syncing from Googles servers to my MBP is doable, but the opposite isn't. Hopefully that will change, because IMAP is perfect for having your mail synced in multiple locations. I have a feeling that IMAP hasn't been released for GMail due to the use of Labels instead of folders. GMail allows email to be organized under multiple labels instead of the conventional single folder method. IMAP could get quite tricky under this situation.

I feel that I've only half tackled this task. Until IMAP is available with GMail I won't be satisfied. Its funny how I'm ok with my calendar only being able to sync one way, but not my email. I suppose that I hold higher standards for some things than others.
Oh, and Google recently started allowing public signups for GMail. You no longer need to find someone to invite you. The new sign up is a bit goofy though. It requires you to give Google your cell phone number. They will then send you a text message with an activation code, which is used to open your gmail account.... Told you it was a bit goofy!

Subscribe/Sync Google Calendars to iCal

Three to four months ago I moved a lot of my data over to Google's servers (bookmarks, mail, calendar, RSS reader). I knew that I was going to buy a new computer, probably a Mac. I also knew I didn't want to deal with migrating the data over to the new machine. Furthermore I figured that its best to be able to access your information from anywhere, rather than one computer. I'm fully impressed with all three web apps. But, now that I have this great portable computer, I may go some places that don't have internet access, and thus no calendar :(

OS X comes with a full fledged calendar app named iCal, and I figured that I'd give it a shot. If I had to move my calendar data, day by day into iCal I wouldn't even consider trying it. But, Google Calendar supports iCal quite well. Google Calendar basically offers the equivalent of an RSS feed of your calendars, and iCal supports subscribing. You can even subscribe to any public Google Calendars through iCal, which allows you to get Federal Holidays, Moon Phases, and many others. The process is pretty strait forward, but if you'd like a step by step walk through check out GoogleTutor.

Within 5 minutes I had imported all my Google Calendar data into iCal. I didn't expect it to go that smooth. There are limitations to this though. Any changes you make in Google Calendars will show up in iCal. However, changes made in iCal won't be displayed in Google Calendars. This is due to the fact that you are merely subscribing to a feed rather than syncing the two. After a bit of searching around I found SpanningSync. Although still in Beta SpanningSync will offer two way syncing between iCal and Google Calendars. Ultimately this is what you want. But for now, as long as you understand the limitations of subscribing you'll be able to get by till SpanningSync is officially released.

The Joy Of Tech - Updated

In response to Apples resolution with The Beatles, the artists over at The Joy Of Tech have released a new comic. It would have been funny if this comic came out when the original iMac (Grape, Tangerine, Lime, Strawberry, or Blueberry) computers came out... now those were lickable!

The Only Windows XP Feature I Missed

One of the only features of Windows XP that I have been missing is the 'Show Desktop' button in the quick launch bar. That little button immediately clears your workspace and tosses windows in the task bar. Sure OS X has Exposé, but sometimes it just doesn't do the trick. F11 is nice, but the windows are still there once you toggle it back on. And hitting Apple+M or Apple +H really fast isn't efficient.

Luckily I found a 'Show Desktop' clone, ironically named Show Desktop :) This little app resides either in your Dock or Menu Bar. When clicked, all of your open programs get hidden (so you can still Apple+Tab through them) and finder windows get minimized. This is as close to the Windows XP version as it could get. Now if only I could figure out how to set a keystroke to Show Desktop I'd be set!

iEatBrainz

As you know I've been living in ID3 tag hell. You know those mp3's that you got from a friend that don't have an informative file name and the tags are completely empty? Picking through those songs one by one trying to figure the song name or artist out takes a rediculous amount of time. Of course you don't want to get rid of the songs, but you don't want to slowly figure each song out either.

Well, there is a solution!

Have you ever heard of acoustic matching? Basically all music files have an audio fingerprint. This fingerprint can then be used to identify your songs. BrainzMusic maintains a database of a huge amount of audio files. Included in this database along with the fingerprints are ID3 tags. So those unruly mp3's without tags are no longer a problem. The database won't work on 100% of your music files, but it is fairly robust and will be able to tackle most of what you throw at it.

The Mac client, iEatBrains, integrates with iTunes which is awesome. Simply load up iTunes and iEatBrains, then select the songs in question within iEatBrains. The search takes a second or two for each song. When the searching is complete you can choose from potential matches and update your iTunes library.

This is definitely a nifty tool if you're music tags are in shambles! Best of all... its FREE :)

Search For The Perfect Bluetooth Mouse

Let me start by saying that the track pad on the MBP is large and responsive. The button also clicks very nicely and is quiet. In most cases this is the only pointing device that you'll ever need. For some instances (gaming, photo work, etc) when you need a bit more precision or another button or two, having a mouse is nice. Everyone has their own opinions on what is the most important criterea when choosing a mouse and I'm no different. Here's what I want in a prospective mouse.

• Wireless - I've got a computer that can be used without a power cable, internet that doesn't require a wire... why not a wireless mouse as well?
• No Dongle/Base - If you've looked around at wireless mice you'll notice that most come with some sort of base to recharge and connect the mouse, or a usb dongle. RF mice require one of the two. Bluetooth mice do not since my MBP has built in Bluetooth. Why buy a wireless mouse and then deal with something that plugs into your computer. Not only that, but its just another thing to carry with you when you travel.
• Working Buttons - Another thing you'll notice when researching Bluetooth mice is that many of them have numerous issues with OS X. In most cases all the extra buttons on the mice don't work. I can't justify buying a product that doesn't do what its advertised to do no matter how many cool buttons or lights it has.
• Power Consumption - Whats the point in buying a wireless mouse if the batteries are always dead or if its gotta sit in a charging cradle. I don't want to spend a ton of money on batteries so a way to recharge the mouse would be nice. The mouse must have an on/off button to keep it from waking up during travel.
  
• Size - I can't stand insanely small or overly large mice.

With this criteria in mind I've settled on the RadTech BT600. I looked at many different mice from a wide variety of vendors and this mouse seemed to fit my needs the best. I've been using Logitech mice for as long as I can remember, but the only Bluetooth mouse in their current lineup just doesn't cut it in my opinion. Microsoft didn't have anything that sparked my interest either. Apples Bluetooth Mighty Mouse just isn't my cup of tea.

The BT600 is average sized and boasts Bluetooth. From what I've read all 4 buttons and the scroll wheel work fine in OS X. My favorite feature about the mouse is how its powered. The BT600 uses 2xAA NiMH batteries that can be swapped out for regular alkaline batteries in emergencies. You'll know when you need to recharge via the integrated status meter in the scroll wheel. The best part is the NiMH batteries are charged via a standard USB cable. Unlike charging docks, you can still use the mouse while its charging!

The only negative aspect of the mouse that I could dig up was that some people thought the buttons felt a little 'cheap'. I'm used to the great build quality of Logitech mice so I hope it doesn't feel 'too' cheap. I'm willing to overlook a 'little' cheap feeling if all the other features live up to their potential. I'll report back when I receive the mouse and give it a test drive :)

Surge This

My electricity has been going nuts lately. Probably once every day or two I notice at least the lights dimming if not the power going out completely. This has reminded me how glad I am that I bought a slick little surge protector with my MBP. The Tripp-Lite Traveler 100Bt is about half the size of the MBP AC adapter, which is the perfect size to bring with you on the road! You always want to protect your investment from surges, but big bulky surge protectors just aren't practical to take on the road. This little guy solves that and is exactly what travelers need. The 100Bt boasts 1050 Joules surge protection, a retractable plug, two outlets to plug into, and a telephone/ethernet jack.

I really like the retractable plug. It not only decreases size, but prevents the plug from scratching anything. The button that slides the plug in and out feels a little weak though :( I read a few reviews online where peoples buttons broke off, but I have yet to experience that. I'd recommend everyone to use a surge protector any time you plug in your ac adapter. If toting around a full sized surge protector isn't possible then give the 100Bt a shot. You won't regret the $12.95 it'll run you. A big bonus is that if anything gets fried while using the 100Bt, Tripp-Lite will replace equipment up to $50,000!

Unix Trickery Explained

I realized this morning that I should probably provide a bit of explanation about the Unix commands that I used yesterday.

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {}

find is a shell program built into OS X and most if not all Unix based systems. If you type 'man find' in the terminal it will tell you all the info about the switches you can use with find. You'll notice that there are many ways to search for things, including by name, type, permissions, etc. Find also allows you to execute programs on its results using the -exec switch.

chmod is program that allows you to set permissions on files and directories. Alternatively you can set permissions using 'Command + I' and looking under 'Ownership and Permissions'. This doesn't allow you to change a bunch multiple file permissions at once, so thats why chmod is useful. chmod is a bit confusing to explain but I'll do my best. To use chmod effectively you need to understand how it works. The numbers after the command set the permissions. To illustrate this open up the terminal and type 'ls -l' This will list all the files in the directory and information about them. The first column is the permissions on the files. You'll notice they are in the format 'drwxrwxrwx'. R stands for read, W denotes write, and X means execute. The first set of 'rwx' is the users permissions, the second set is the users group, and the final set is the world (ie anyone).

In the command 'find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {}' the 6 corresponds to the first set of 'rwx', the middle 4 corresponds to the second set of 'rwx' and the last 4 corresponds to the last set of 'rwx'. The numbers 644 correspond to binary bits, x=1, w=2, r=4. The 6 stands for rw- (read=4 + write=2). So the user has read and write permissions on the file. The 4 stands for r-- (read=4). So if amazingly you are still following me 644 means user has read and write permissions, and group and world have read permission. Heres a rundown of each possibility.

7 = rwx (read write execute)
6 = rw- (read write)
5 = r-x (read execute)
4 = r-- (read)
3 = -wx (write execute)
2 = -w- (write)
1 = --x (execute)
0 = --- (no permissions)

If you've made it this far I've got a treat for you! Do you ever want to open a terminal that is already at the directory that you are currently at in the finder? I do. I can't stand having to cd all the way to a directory (or type the full path) to execute a command on a file. If you download and install Open Terminal Here you won't have to.

iPhoto Automation

Tonight I busted out some archive DVD's I had laying around with photos on them with the intent of slowly importing them into iPhoto. Once I copied the 10gb worth of pictures onto my MBP I set out to import them. Somehow I noticed the file permissions were a bit botched up though, which lead me to a bit of unix trickery :)

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Thank god for the sysadmin class I took in college. That saved me tons of time.

With this hurdle out of the way I moved on to creating folders/albums for my pics. I figured that there must be a way automate this and there was! Allan Marcus wrote iPhoto Folder Import 1.0, a great script that creates iPhoto albums from folder names. So if you have all your pictures already sorted into folders that are neatly named just drag the folders onto the script icon and ZING! You got your albums! iPhoto can handle drag and drop album creation, but only with 1 folder at a time. The importer can handle multiple folders :) I expected to only get through a few years worth of photos, but instead I got through ALL of them.

With a bit of extra time I was able to install Keyword Manager (thanks Galley) and start fooling with it. This little plugin/script seems really awesome and I can't wait to get all my photo's tagged :)

ID3 Tag Hell

Sorry I haven't had anything enlightful to write lately, but I've been living in id3 tag hell :( Not taking the time to edit the data in in the songs when I ripped them proving to be a big pain in the butt. And the tags that are there are a mish mashed mess. Luckly its easy to edit id3 tags in iTunes. Taking the time to edit all the tags is a good thing. All my music will be well organized, with proper meta data, and have album art! Its pretty exciting to know that my mp3's will be in order for the first time.

I've been manually downloading my album art from Amazon. I found a script called FetchArt that automatically finds and downloads the art for you. Unfortunately, it isn't compatible with Intel Macs :( I've been told that iTunes will download album art for you through the iTunes store, but I don't have an iTunes store account yet.

I may be the only person on the face of the planet that doesn't have an iPod. My trusty iRiver iHP-140 has been kicking along like a champ for years. When it dies I'll probably replace it with a video iPod, but for now it does the job. The biggest bummer about my iHP-140 is that I can't sync it with my iTunes library. I did find an open source solution, iRiverSync 2.0. The original site is down but it can be download here. I have yet to try it yet since I'm still moving my data off my mp3 player still, but as soon as I'm finished its going to be the first thing I'm going to try. I don't know if it will work though, since it was developed for iTunes 4.7. Maybe the iTunes leprechaun will give me a bit of luck and it'll work.

Well, I hear the whip cracking, that must mean that its time to get back to importing music.

Oh, 1 last thing. Is it common for people to put the track number in the 'Title" field for id3 tags? (ie. "07 Happy Birthday" in the title field instead of just "Happy Birthday"). I have the track data in the track field and also at the beginning of the file name of the actual mp3.