Since the server was a headless box, I needed a terminal client on Windows and the best one at that time and I believe it still is now, is Putty by Simon Tatham. It is really a Swiss-army knife for managing a Linux/Unix server box since it supports quite a lot of very handy functionalities.

When I got my first Mac, it was running OS X Tiger (10.4.11) and immediately I missed the handy functionalities that Putty offered, compared to the barebones feel of the mac terminal. What I mainly missed was the support for mouse clicks in the terminal window, which was really handy for working with programs such as Midnight Commander (MC), especially since MacBooks and MacBook Pros have impaired function keys (they are assigned to volume, screen brightness, etc) which means that using function keys to perform basic functions in MC could be a real pain.

I am not sure how I did not know about this before, but I found a software that allows one to work well with MC on OS X. That program is iTerm2. It supports mouse clicks in the terminal window, so working with the terminal commands becomes a lot easier.

If you like using command line over SSH, you will love iTerm2!

Looking at the folder structure of the decompressed Zip archive, I really could not tell how to install this plugin (having never installed a Sketchup plugin before). So I read the instructions on the FAQ website and I learned that it needs Silverlight, specifically version 4.0. I went to the Silverlight website and tried to download it, but the only one offered is the new Silverlight 5.0. For some reason that I am not sure of, my Mac already has Silverlight 3.0 installed in /Library/Internet Plug-ins/Silverlight.plugin.

I kept searching through Google results to see if there’s any link for downloading Silverlight 4.0, but every link I come across points me to the same page for downloading Silverlight 5.0, which is apparently not compatible with the Maxwell Render plugin. I got sick of trying, so I went ahead and trashed the version 3.0 plugin from the /Library/Internet Plug-ins folder and I proceeded to install version 5.0 of Silverlight.

Searching for the correct version of Silverlight was a huge waste of time, although necessary. I cannot imagine any non-technical user going through this stuff and to be honest, I do not fancy using technology from Microsoft too much when I have already switched to a Mac (other than Word, Excel and PowerPoint, I suppose). The reason why I am complaining is mainly because of having to install third party software just to use the plugin.

In the Zip archive, there is absolutely no mention of how one installs this plugin. I have never installed a Sketchup plugin before, so it is a little bit of a mystery to me. I decided to poke around in /Library/Application Support/Google Sketchup 8/plugins and then I found that the structure resembles the structure inside the Zip archive. So I moved the file “maxwell.rb” and the “maxwell” folder into the Sketchup plugins folder and this seemed to do the trick.

Having installed version 5.0 of Silverlight, brought up a prompt when I started Google Sketchup and then clicked on the Plugin>Maxwell menu. This prompt complained that version 5.0 of Silverlight has been detected and it gives you a link to download. If you use Google Chrome as your default browser, it will take you to the download page for Silverlight 5.0, but if you copy the link and paste it into Firefox, it will let you download Silverlight 4.0 (huh?). This is weird, but it is true.

Good luck with installing and enjoy this magnificent render plugin from Maxwell Render. If they asked me for advice, I would say:

1. Include a link to download Silverlight 4.0 in your documentation, not just the “Get Silverlight” website, which makes you download version 5.0.
2. Better still, if Microsoft licensing allows, bundle Silverlight 4.0 in the package
3. A few short paragraphs on how to install this plugin in Sketchup would have saved a lot of time.
4. Nice plugin.

I went for a cheaper option and acquired the Seagate GoFlex Home 2TB drive for $100 less than the time capsule. When I took it home, though, the Time Machine could see the drive in the network, but did not want to backup to it, complaining about “The network backup disk does not support the required AFP features”. After persevering for a while, I went to search Google and found out in the Seagate forums that there was a firmware update for the drive, which I promptly downloaded through Preferences > Administration > Software Updates.

When the update was finished, I restarted the drive. I checked on the software version and I got version  2.5.3:2.0.0.367:1.2.331. Then I went to create a new user through Preferences > Administration > Add User.  As per the advice in the Seagate forum, I made sure that the user was not an admin user (do not click on the “Create As Administrator” checkbox in the GoFlex interface). I also ticked the Enable Computers Backup feature under Preferences > Administration > Computers Backup. I entered a password and then I restarted my MacBook Air and fired up Time Machine and Voila!

Time Machine is now working to backup my MacBook Air and it went on for 5 hours (my wifi is still on g, not n). I hope that someone will find this useful as I was getting a few gray hairs trying to make this work. I am not saying that this will work for everyone, but I hope it could be a starting point towards a solution.

In the Android camp, at the moment there is the new Samsung 10.1v being sold through Vodafone. The tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb and it has good specs, such as a nice camera, 3G connectivity and being an Android tablet, it can be used as a USB storage device. However, the Samsung lacks any expansion slot whatsoever. This makes it a slight disadvantage if you are one of those movie and music hogs who like to take a lot of media on the go.

Recently, I started to see some Acer Iconia A500 tablets around the shops. Yesterday, I looked at a couple in a JB-HiFi store somewhere in Sydney. The unit definitely feels nice to hold and amazingly light. It has a brushed aluminium back and the camera seems to be quite good. However, so far there is no 3G version available in Australia.

Dilemma is sometimes a wonderful thing, as I think I will wait until there is a tablet in the market that will fit in as a daily use tablet without being tied down to any particular device ecosystem.

Experience: After getting the remote out of its box, I briefly read the manual. I honestly first thought that I could find a way to add the devices to the remote using the computer by visiting the Logitech website. After poking around for around 5-10 minutes, I failed to find any mention of where you should go to carry out the setup procedure. In the end, I noticed that the manual said that you have to visit a website with the address myharmony.com

After going to the site, I was greeted with an account setup screen. I filled in all the necessary details (email, password, etc, etc) and then I clicked next. After the account creation step was successful, I was told that the setup procedure would only work through Safari 3 or Firefox on OS X.

I felt that this part was a bit of a let down, since I had come to the site using Google Chrome browser and  was not warned of any impending doom until after I clicked next in the setup procedure. This meant that I had to launch Firefox (I prefer Firefox to Safari) and login again before being able to continue. It is a minor issue, but I feel that a company such as Logitech should try to make the experience as smooth as possible even for non-technical users. Telling a user that the browser being used is not compatible is not necessarily bad, but letting them know after the process had begun (in this case in the third step), is a little annoying and confusing. I would have preferred to be told in the very first step that the browser I was using was incompatible.

Despite the little hiccup, the process as a whole was quite smooth and orderly. You put the batteries in the remote and then you plug it into the computer’s USB port when prompted during the setup process. Once the software can see the remote, it then prompts you to add devices. I added the following devices to the remote:

1. Sharp Aquos LC-37D85X Television
2. Rowa RDV650 DVD player
3. Samsung DVD-R155 DVD recorder.

After the setup process finished, the remote seemed to work just fine with all three devices.

Verdict: I would recommend this device to others, even though the Harmony 300 is limited to only 4 devices (reasonable for most homes). The setup is quite quick and straightforward and the software used in the setup is quite intuitive.

What’s in the box: 2 AA batteries, remote, manual, warranty card, USB cable.

Merry Christmas people.

I did a little research and I got some information from this blog. After following the instructions carefully (it was very specific), I got the computer to boot into OSX installer. After about an hour, I got to the OS X desktop and was happy to find that the network card worked (the one onboard) and that everything else seemed to have been detected fine except for a couple of problems, namely the soundcard (no sound at all) and the graphics adapter (resolution stuck at 1024×768).

A little research later I discovered that to do this successfully you need a recent GPU from Nvidia, as the intel built-in one was not supported at all. Not sure how to get the sound working, but I will try in the next few days to play around with some kexts (kernel modules).

At the same time, my Nokia E71 is now slowly dying (charger pin getting loose so that it does not charge properly anymore). I have been thinking maybe I should go with one of those giant-screened Android phones like the HTC Desire or the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. Buying one of these phones will be around the same as buying a 3G Ipad. Hmmm!

After trawling through some forums and blog discussions, I found a Dashboard widget called Deep Sleep which is easy to use (one click) and seems to reliably put the notebook to sleep without wake up crashes (that’s what happens to me when waking up early morning). So if your macbook is a little insomniac like mine, then do give it a try.

Annoying? Well what do you think? The waking up process, which is supposed to be quicker than starting it cold, takes a lot longer and then you have to force the notebook to reboot. This is unacceptably inefficient and not to mention scary. I keep thinking that there is something wrong with the hardware, but it does not get worse, it just seems to happen with any resource-intensive application.

The solution is apparently very simple: just open terminal and type sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage, then enter your password and then if there is no error, you have just deleted the sleepimage file, which is where the content of your RAM gets dumped when the computer goes to sleep. When done, just reboot the machine and all should be fine. I even tried running Photoshop and then putting the Macbook to sleep and it wakes up fine.

So if your MacBook has a crash on wake up (that’s what happens to me in the mornings), then just delete that sleepimage file in /var/rm and it should be recreated afterwards and everything should be fine. It is particularly wise to do this after upgrading your RAM. I upgraded mine from 1GB to 3GB and did not know that I had to do this.

My experiences with store level service by staff members of the local Apple resellers vary wildly depending on which store I happen to walk into. I have dealt with staff members from Frequency (now Next Byte) at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney both over the phone and in-store and they have been generally friendly and helpful. On the other end of the spectrum, the Academy store in Bondi Junction has not consistently been friendly or helpful.

While I was looking around to purchase my Macbook, I met with a couple of very friendly staff members at the said store who took the time to show me around the products and accessories as well as the features. I was so impressed with them and I returned a couple of weeks later and purchased two Macbooks (the black ones) and a couple of accessories.

A few months later, I returned to the store to find that not only the mood had changed in the store, they also had a security guard at the front who opens the door for customers. While it might be necessary for the store to have a security guard, I feel the store had lost its openness andbecome like a jewellery store that locked its doors and only let a select few inside.

Once inside, I went around to look at a few things and then I decided to get what I came for, which was a mini DVI to VGA adaptor cable. When I went to the shelf that had the cables I found that it was locked (it had glass doors) so I walked over to the counter to ask a staff member for some assistance. Immediately when I got to the counter one of the two staff members just walked away while the other one was on the phone. The man on the phone signalled to me to wait a minute while the other one did not even acknowledge that I was there.

After waiting for a few minutes, the other man returned and asked me if I needed help. I told him what I needed and after getting it for me, he asked me if I knew what I was going to use it for. Having been ignored, I was a little offended so I asked him why he was asking me the question. He simply told me that they would not accept a return of the item for a wrong purchase and that it had to be returned within seven days. While it might be store policy, I found that the way this was being handled to be unnecessarily rude.

I had come to the store for a particular item, which I knew the name of and the specific connection on either end of the cable. I was then ignored for a few minutes (a simple:”I will be with you in a minute” would have been great) and then I was treated like an idiot by being asked if I had an idea what I was buying. This particular experience really changed my attitude toward the store as a whole. Later, when I mentioned this to a few of my friends (all Apple users) they relayed their negative experiences with the store as well.

When the Macbook Air came out, I visited the same store a month later and there I found the Macbook Air inside a glass case that was locked. Now, I know that the Macbook Air was not cheap (AU$2,499), but they were displaying Macbook Pros on the display desks that you could touch and operate even though they were worth almost a whole thousand dollars more. The reason why I came there in the first place was because I thought I could look at one on display to see if it could be my next purchase.

Luckily, afterwards I went to the shopping mall nextdoor and found that at the JB HiFi store they had a Macbook Air on display. In there I got to touch it with my hands and I got to feel the overall shape of the notebook. I even got to look at the lone USB port.

Well, next time I need to look at an Apple notebook or desktop I know where I can look at them and it won’t be at the Academy store. If I don’t go to the Academy store then obviously I will be buying my Apple fix from other places. Bye, bye!

Bring on the official Apple Store!