Juha Haataja: Universal Mac

Photography is the thing

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:58:04 GMT

I haven't been blogging much here at Universal Rule for some time, but those who are interested in what I'm currently doing, please check out the Light Scrape blog, which is about photography. I'm nowadays mostly using the Panasonic LX3 for taking photos, over 23,000 photos taken so far with the camera. There has been much less time for other topics since I got a major interest in photography, but that can of course change at some point. But currently it seems that photography poses an interesting long-term project, defined in my own terms. So, other topics such as DRM, Macs, and such will have to wait.

Some happy things

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:06:30 GMT

Some computer-related things make me happy, or at least don't increase my non-happiness. Firefox 3 is one such thing - switching to it from Safari was a good decision. I has been great, especially with the add-ons I have been using for synchronizing bookmarks, blocking ads and tweaking the interface. Safari was quite fast and mostly robust, but it crashed every so often. Firefox has been more stable, although even it does freeze sometimes, perhaps once a week.

The only remaining problem is a specific web site, which for some strange reason does not work right in Firefox, but works in Safari. But that is also all right, as this system is not needed every day, and because I'm using it for financial things it is actually good to quit the browser after each time I go there (I have set it up as the home page in Safari).

What are other happy things. My iMac and Macbook Pro are nice things, especially as they mostly stay out of the way of using them. And the software I need works great on both systems, no bottlenecks and no hiccups. The iMac has become the media center of out family, used for all kinds of things - kids playing, the family watching movies and tv, I organizing photos, everyone using the web (the kids with access restrictions).

The MBP is really a workhorse machine, performing those things I need to do. And both the iMac and the MPB have excellent displays and keyboards, allowing the work efficiently. The one remaining thing about the MBP is the buttonless trackpad, which still causes some learning problems - mainly because at desk at work I'm using it with an external display, keyboard and mouse, the same way I did with my old Titanium Powerbook G4. But slowly I'm also learning to use the trackpad, especially the single-finger click and drag, which used to require two fingers with the old trackpad.

Macbook Pro hiccups

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:00:34 GMT

After using the new Macbook Pro for two weeks of so, I have mostly good experiences, but also some problems have turned up.

What is interesting about the MBP is that when you are using it, it seems quite large, even big - plenty of room for typing, using the trackpad and working on the screen - but when you look at the machine, especially closed, on a table, it seems small, almost diminutive. It is probably the rounded edges and the aluminium color which produce this effect.

The problems which I have had are twofold. I'm using the machine lid closed on my desk, connected to an external display and through a USB 1.0 hub to a keyboard and a mouse. (The MBP needs to be connected to the power supply to use the machine like this - this is the same as with the TiBook.)

I had a single instance when the machine was not waking up when pressing the mouse button or keys on the external keyboard. Fortunately, this problem never appeared again.

But there is another problem which appears once in a while. When woken from the sleep, the external display starts to switch on, goes off, wakes again, goes off, etc. The display does not function properly until disconnected and reconnected, or until the display (not the MBP) is put to sleep and then waken up. You can use define the "sleep display" command to one of the corners of the screen to do this easily.

Perhaps connected to this "waking display" problem is the occasionally slow startup when connected to a video projector - my old TiBook can do it faster. But this doesn't happen always, and may be due to some software settings (PowerPoint of the new MS Office etc.).

I would imagine these problems will soon be fixed in a software update. At least they are quite minor, and don't much diminish the joy of using the MBP.

Ssh and Mac OS X Keychain

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:40:14 GMT

SSP asked for details about my ssh integration with Mac OS X Keychain. I'm using the keychain unix system, and the Mac OS X Keychain integration happens through SSHPassKey. (There are two software packages with the same name here.) SSHPassKey is quite old Mac software, but surprisingly it still works.

I'm not quite sure how much it needs tailoring to function (I installed it five years ago or so), as I just moved the files from my old TiBook to the new MBP. This combination is quite handy - after starting up the machine, the system starts up with the first use of Terminal (it asks for a Mac Keychain password), and from there on I don't need to give any ssh passwords at all.

I set up this a long time ago, and since then I have forgotten all the details. But there was some tinkering involved (not modifying the software, though). I hope this helps those who would like to try something similar.

Transferring files to the Macbook Pro

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:45:46 GMT

I finally managed to move over my files from to old Titanium PowerBook G4 to the new Macbook Pro. In the end, I used an external USB/Firewire hard disk - using Firewire 400 with the TiBook, and USB 2.0 with the MBP. Everything seems to be more or less as it should, or I hope so.

I even got my Unix environment set up the way I want. I'm using /bin/tcsh as my shell (from old habit) and Emacs of course, with some tweaks. And I also managed to set up ssh with Mac keychain integration. That was a bit of a surprise, I didn't expect it to work right away but so it did. So, I'm happy user of the new machine.

I even did a bit of a daring thing - there was a replacement (faster etc.) hard drive delivered with the machine, which I hadn't installed because I needed to use the machine right away. Well, today I made a Time Machine backup of the MBP to an external hard disk, replaced the internal hard disk (easy to do, remove one screw only), and installed the Mac OS X and all my files from the external TM backup disk using the Mac OS X installer.

Surprisingly, there we no hiccups - well, Mail did go through all the files at startup, but after that it behaved as it should. Yes, and PowerPoint started up with a incompletely saved last file - I had forgotten to save that file to disk before running Time Machine. But in relative terms - switching from one hard disk to another without any problems - that was really something. It took about on hour, but I didn't need to do anything during that time, just wait for the data transfer to finish.

I must say that I'm impressed with Time Machine. I wish all software would work like this, just the way it is supposed to. Switching machines - or hard disks - is no pain with a system like that.

Macbook Pro - in good and bad

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:32:23 GMT

I have now used the new "unibody" Macbook Pro for one week. No problems so far, but there are some inconveniences.

I haven't yet transferred all my files from my old Titanium PowerBook G4, because of technical hurdles. Usb file transfer on the TiBook is very slow - it is not USB 2.0 but the older version - and moving gigabytes and lots of files is VERY slow. There is of course Firewire, but I don't yet have a cable for connecting my TiBook and MBP together, because the Firewire port on the new MPB is FW800. So, I need to get a 9-pin to 6-pin Firewire cable to use the target disk mode on the TiBook for file transfer. I did manage to transfer a couple of GB of data, but the rest is still waiting on the TiBook.

One problem with the nice design of the MBP is that dirt is easily visible in the aluminium and on the display. Well, you just have to keep on cleaning.

I'm liking the keyboard more and more. It is nicely responsive, I would say a bit evolved version from the iMac flat keyboard. It is very nice to write when the laptop is in the lap. Some have been reporting unevenly placed keys on the new MBPs, but no such things with mine. And no crooked lines or other blemishes.

The early-adopters dilemma is quite possible with new Apple hardware - and with other brands as well. When I got an aluminium iMac a bit over year ago, there were severe software problems resulting in the machine freezing several times a week. After a month or so Apple updated the graphics software, and from there on the machine has been performing almost flawlessly. So far, it seems that the new MBP does not have such severe problems (at least mine doesn't). But I'm not using the faster graphics cpu, and also in other ways my needs are quite modest.

There may be a slight problem, and that is with sleeping - or waking from sleep. Normally this works very well, but when working with an external display and the lid closed, I had one-time occurrence when the machine did not at once wake up when pressing a key on the external usb keyboard. It may have been caused by the old usb 1.1 hub, perhaps, or there may have been other reasons. But that was a single occurrence. Since then, no problems like that have occurred.

I'm not yet quite sure how long the battery lasts on this thing. About four hours at least, but I haven't really timed it. When not plugged in, I have been using wireless, bluetooth etc., so I feel that four hours is not bad at all.

In all, the MBP is an excellent workhorse. Perhaps I could have coped with the new aluminium Macbook as well, but I feel that this machine will last longer in use, and the display of course is larger and allows more effective work.

Will this machine last for almost six years in use as the TiBook did? Who knows - but I'm not so sure about that. Getting outdated is happening faster all the time. Perhaps only five years?

Using the new Macbook Pro

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:28:28 GMT

I'm still in the early stages of getting familiar with the new MBP. I notice more and more little details, which matter. For example, the magnetic lock which keeps the lid closed - a very well designed feature. And the black border around the screen and behind the glass, it helps at least me to focus on the content. Also, the robustness of the machine is more and more evident, as there is no flexing of lid or the base part.

Some minor annoyances: the trackpad is quite loud when pressed - although this is not different from the Titanium PowerBook, it is quite noticeable in a quiet room. There have been a couple of situations when using the buttonless trackpad has been a bit confusing, but I'm slowly getting to know the more advanced details. Mostly it just works. Using two fingers for control-click does not come naturally, but perhaps I'll grow to that as well. But the usual things like two-finger scrolling etc. work extremely well, because there is a lot of room in the trackpad.

Also, I'm liking the new keyboard more and more, and the backlight works well with the black keys. Writing is pleasant on the keyboard - although I must admit that most keyboards are ok for me. But it is nice that the MBP and the iMac have so similar keyboards, switching between them is easy.

The MBP stays cool when in use, at least in the use I typically have - and even when I'm charging the battery. This is very different from other laptops I have been using. But I would expect that be doing something really heavy you can get this machine heated up as well.

Another interesting observation: it seems that the wireless (wi-fi/wlan) reception is better on the MBP that in my iBook, which is surprising because the iBook is plastic and MBP is metal. But this may be a random occurrence - in any case, some networks which were not visible on the iBook were available on the MBP.

Experiences of using the new Macbook Pro

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:45:55 GMT

I have been using the new Macbook Pro for a few days, and it is indeed impressive. All things seem to work as they should, and many practical features are much better than on my previous (work-horse) laptop, a Titanium PowerBook G4.

What are the best things? The display is excellent. I have never been especially militant about glossy vs. matte displays, and the bright and clear display of the MBP is for me just right to work on.

The keyboard is also great, better than on the TiBook, which was one of the best laptop keyboards I have used. I like the "flat" keyboard of the aluminium iMacs, and the MBP keyboard is of similar style, but even better in terms of handling. Also, it is backlighted, which is nice now that there is not much natural light here in Finland.

The "buttonless" trackpad has proven to be very convenient, I have had hardly any problems in starting to use it. I'm not really familiar with all of the gestures yet, but it seems that most of them are quite natural to use.

Compared to the TiBook, the speed of the MBP is of impressive, sometimes many times faster. Of course, in practice the speed difference is not always that great, especially when you are using the net. Then you wait exactly as long as with the TiBook. But there is little I could wish in terms of more speed.

And one more thing about speed: the MBP seems to stay quite cool, so it is convenient to use the machine in the lap. It is also very silent. But I haven't yet really tested it much. When I was installing some software, the fans made some noise, but it wasn't what you could say loud.

The "unibody" construction feels robust, no flexing in the machine at all. This is of course very different from the TiBook, which was sometimes disturbingly flexible. But that machine has lasted in continuous use for 5 years and 11 months, so perhaps rigidity is not all that necessary in designing durable computers.

What I like about the machine are the small details. I allowed the battery to run out after the first charge, and the machine automatically shut down saving to disk the contents of the memory. When I started the machine again, it continued where I left.

The Magsafe power has already proven to be useful, a nice way of avoiding dropping the machine on the floor by pulling from the power cord. I also looked inside at the battery and hard disk compartment. Extremely easy to access and to replace both. Convenient design. As is the battery charge indicator on the side of the machine.

A slight problem is that the two usb ports are beside each other, making it difficult to use "thick" usb sticks at the same time. But this is a minor thing. Having all ports on the same side has good and bad points. That side of the machine gets cluttered with things, but on the other hand the other side of the machine stays clear. In the TiBook most of the connections were behind the machine. This was in some situations quite convenient, but sometimes it was a bit hard to reach there when you had the machine on the table in front of you.

Getting a new Macbook?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:06:15 GMT

I'm pondering whether to get a new Macbook (the aluminium one) to replace the old 1,33 GHz iBook G4 we have at home. A week ago the iBook battery charger broke, but we do have a spare one, so we can still use it. But I feel that this was a warning of problems to come. The iBook has been in a lot of use, and is still serving nicely in web surfing, normal office work (such as Word/PowerPoint/Excel), but for digital media (except for iTunes) it starts to be slow. So, perhaps it is now the time to upgrade.

But I think I'll wait for a month or two until making the decision. We have a year-old iMac at home, which works as the media center, digital tv, video recorder and the children's gaming machine. So, it is not as if we didn't have enough computers at home. But still, the unibody aluminium Macbook looks so great...

On Google Chrome user statistics

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:55:48 GMT

I'm tracking (so now you know) the use of this weblog and Light Scrape with Google Analytics. Here at Universal Rule the browser statistics are as follows (last four days):

Internet Explorer 39%
Firefox 36%
Safari 12%
Mozilla 8%
Opera 2%
Chrome 2%

At Light Scrape the statistics are:

Firefox 48%
Internet Explorer 32%
Safari 13%
Chrome 4%
Opera 2%

It is interesting to see how Chrome has got quite a share in a couple of days. Here at UR the lower share is probably explained by Mac-related things which are not relevant to PC users. At Light Scrape, those who are looking for information about camera equipment seem also to be interested in trying out a new browser.

MacUpdate Promo is a great deal - one day to go

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:41:53 GMT

MacUpdate Promo has ten Mac apps available for $50. I had some of these applications already, but a current version of MacJournal plus LightZone as a new tool were worth the price alone. And if you have never tried out Mellel, now is a good opporturnity.

The greatest comedy of all time

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:05:05 GMT

Did you like the comedy series Seinfeld in the 1990s? Well, now WSJ reports that Microsoft is investing $300 million into an ad campaign against Apple, and they are paying $10 million to Jerry Seinfeld for starring in the ads. I thought that Seinfeld was dated when the series was shown on tv, but perhaps the Microsoft-Seinfeld connection is natural: Microsoft used to be somewhat cool in the 1990s, so this is a nostalgy trip.

But will this help against Apple? No. I big giant like Microsoft should never try to be cooler that the small challenger.

Switching to Firefox

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:51:59 GMT

Brad-x switched from Safari to Firefox and tells why. I had quite similar experiences in switching from Omniweb to Firefox. In Finland, about half of web surfers use Firefox, so most local web sites work with it, which is not quite so with webkit-based browsers like Omniweb and Safari. FoxMarks and 1Password made the transition to Firefox quite painless.

Here are three add-ons which I found useful: Adblock Plus (get rid of all ads), Fission (Safari-like progress bar) and Quartz PDF Plugin (view pdf-files in browser). I also like the "wiki auto-discovery button".

Add Safari-style progress bar to Firefox

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:45:02 GMT

I installed the Firefox Add-on Fission, which provides a Safari-style address bar/progress bar. This was one of the remaining items on making Firefox behave just the way I want a browser to do.

Firefox - great or ugly?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:24:39 GMT

Ssp doesn't like Firefox. I think these are natural differences is taste. For example, I like the big back button in the toolbar, which may seem ugly to others.

Today I solved one of the remaining problems: Keychain integration. Some time ago I got a copy of 1Password in the MacHeist bundle of software, and now I started to use it. The functionality is better than the Keychain integration in Omniweb, and at least so far so good. And the Macs I have are synchronized via the .Mac service ("MobileMe"), which means I need to submit the access information only once.

There is one usability issue which I would like to see changed: in Firefox the progress bar is on the bottom of the window. Safari (and Omniweb) show this information in the toolbar area, which is much better.

The biggest good feature of Firefox is keyboard navigation, which is a significant improvement compared to Safari and Omniweb. And the so-called "Awesome bar" is really good, with a quite nice system for managing bookmarks. (Although some rough corners remain there.)

Is Firefox 3 good or bad?

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:22:50 GMT

I browsed Mac OS X software at Versiontracker.com, and noticed Firefox 3 feedback there. It was not pretty. If I would have seen the comments earlier I would probably never have installed Firefox on my systems. But I did, and it works great.

I think a lot of the criticism is nit-picking. Some of it is probably quite fair, but I think the picture is much too negative. At least I'm happy with Firefox, and haven't had much problems with it (in fact, almost none).

Firefox shortcuts

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:34:49 GMT

I discovered new good things about Firefox, especially keyboard shortcuts.

I'm now using the shortcuts extensively together with this: "Command + L = Selects the location or address bar, where you have to enter any URL or copy the URL." Also, Command + T (new tab) combined with shortcuts is fast way to visit favorite sites. Now I don't any more miss the Omniweb functionality of using Command-1, Command-2 to visit urls on the favorites bar.

Not everything is perfect in Firefox 3

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:45:30 GMT

I discovered one web application which was not compatible with Firefox 3, although it works fine with Safari and Omniweb. It was an accounting system used via a web interface, and for some reason the basic functionality was missing. Probably some differences in interpreting JavaScript.

I have understood that Firefox 3 is in some cases more strict about interpretation than other browsers. These other browsers are of course supporting bad coding style, but that is a compromise that you probably have to make to have a usable browser. How much compromise is done, that separates the browsers from each other.

Firefox 3 - how good can a web browser be?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:07:09 GMT

I have been using Firefox 3 for a while, and I'm a happy camper. I managed to get both bookmark syncing and in-window pdf viewing to work in Firefox. Thus, I don't have much to wish for. Well, perhaps there are some rough corners here and there (minor blemishes in appearance etc.), but nothing which really bothers me. And Firefox has been stable on both my aluminium iMac and my iBook. No crashes, no slowing down - everything works smoothly.

There are some things which are better in Safari and some things which are better in Omniweb, but nothing major is missing or badly implemented. In fact, for such a feature-laden browser, Firefox is quite elegant and simple to use.

An additional bonus is that Firefox copes with some (Finnish) sites where Safari and Omniweb (based on webkit) have problems. This may be due to the fact that Finland is one of the leading countries in the world as regards Firefox use - almost half of the web surfers use Firefox.

I was quite sceptical of Firefox 3 before I started testing it, but it surpassed all my expectations. Congratulations to the project!

Firefox 3 is great

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:32:11 GMT

Started yesterday using Firefox 3 on all my Macs. Transferred bookmarks from Omniweb (via HTML file input, some cleanup needed), installed the Adblock addon, switched on color management and faster mousewheel scrolling.

One nuisance remains: I am used to the keyboard shortcuts Command-1, Command-2 etc. for selecting the first, second etc. bookmark in the favorites bar, and this does not work in Firefox. Is there a way to get this functionality in Firefox 3?

A bonus: my blogging software (Radio Userland) supports the better editing mode in Firefox, Omniweb is worse in this regard.

Unix is not always a good thing

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:55:49 GMT

Ssp commented my thoughs on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard:

I think much of the bloat or bloated appearance of OS X comes from its Unix background. Rather than wrapping everything in a single file, things like applications usually come in thousands of files once they are localised and contain help. You can see an (over-dramatised) effect of this if you time how long it takes to copy your iTunes application: much longer than copying that amount of data should take. It may sound like a heresy, but the good old resource fork was a way around that kind of problem ;)

I agree that there is quite a lot in the Unix environment that can be improved from the desktop/mobile device users' perspective. This applies of course to Linux as well. But things are getting better, for example Nokia using Linux on mobile devices, and Apple now promising to clean up OS X.

Further thoughts on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:13:16 GMT

Many have commented on the next version of OS X, 10.6 "Snow Leopard". There is lots of discussion on "no new features" (apart from built-in Exchange 2007 support). But after thinking about this a bit, I think Apple may be able to deliver quite an impact with 10.6. The current version, 10.5 Leopard, has layers upon layers, hundreds (?) of thousands of files. Complexity upon complexity. What would "think different" be able to do? As an example, Apple developed the "launchd" software to replace numerous Unix startup programs (cron, init etc.), and making a much better job of it, for example making it possible to startup the Mac much faster than previously. What if similar work would be applied to all of the system, on all layers? It seems that some of the new technology is exactly this. How much speedup would be possible? I think that on systems without separate GPUs the speedup might not be so dramatic, perhaps in the 10-50 percent region. (However, the amount of disk space needed for the operating system may decrease dramatically, resulting in much faster program launch speeds, as an example.) But on systems with separate GPUs and more than two cores the effect may be dramatic, perhaps several times the current speed. And much less overhead than currently (think about Spotlight, Time Machine, Dashboard etc.) How would you feel about using an operating system much faster than any current ones, consuming dramatically less disk space, and being able to use all kinds of external accelerators (no need to limit to GPUs). This OS would scale upwards (to tens of cores and terabytes of RAM), and also downwards (to future mobile devices). Perhaps the best selling argument for the OS will be the devices which are built upon this foundation. Not to speak about new possible applications, and new ways of connecting to the net/cloud.

EU wants openness - sends message to Microsoft

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:06:03 GMT

New York Times reports on the EU comments related to Microsoft business practices vs. openness:

"I know a smart business decision when I see one - choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed," Ms. Kroes told a conference in Brussels. "No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one."

What will happen with OOXML?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:27:51 GMT

ISO put OOXML document formats on hold. This was expected, and not only because of the complaints from the member countries. Now the ISO organization has a possibility to fix its reputation. This was a sordid mess. No wonder Micrsoft announced support for ODF, the competing format, in MS Office.

OS X will be even more stable (and faster)

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:24:46 GMT

I started using Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in February 2008, although I bought a copy several months earlier. Based on the experiences, I should have made the move much earlier. I very much liked the earlier version of OS X, and version 10.4.11 has been extremely stable, but all in all 10.5 easily surpasses the old one. And for me there haven't been stability problems in 10.5. The newest version, 10.5.3, has now been in use for two weeks on my iMac and iBook without restarts or other interruptions. And I have now been able to make fast enough backups of the iBook over the wireless network at home to my external Time Machine backup disk.

The news about Apple focusing on stability and speed in the next version of OS X seem just right. I totally agree that parallelism is the next great step, and software vendors should really look into their software to scale it to 8, 16, 32 etc. processors. This is the only way to benefit from the next steps in processor technology. In terms of user experience, version 10.5 is great. There are some details to finetune, bugs to correct (and Apple has made hundreds of corrections already), but otherwise this operating system is great as it is. In any case, I think the value for the future arises from the applications and from the cloud. Perhaps Apple has quite a lot in store on this front.

Leopard - 10 days, 9 hours, 39 minutes

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:30:33 GMT

Leopard has been running for well over 10 days on my iMac, since the first boot after installing 10.5.2 upgrade. (I switched from Tiger at the same time.) There have been minor nuisances, and some stupid things I did myself. For example, I shut down the external Time Machine backup disk without unmounting it first. Fortunately no data seems to have been lost or corrupted. Two days ago I started doing Time Machine backups of my iBook over the wireless connection to the same external disk on the iMac. The first backup (over 35 GB of data) took about 10 hours, the next one less than one hour. A bit too long for my liking. One reason may be the slow wlan connection on the iBook, the 802.11g-version instead of the newer 802.11n. But there may be also some software bottlenecks involved. In any case, doing the backups is quite simple, even if it takes a long time. I have the firewall enabled, and just a few allowed software packages, which should limit the risks of over the network backups. I have to once again say that Leopard is one smooth beast. Running simultaneously a lot of programs on many different accounts on the iMac has hardly ever slowed it down. Perhaps once or twice there have been slight pauses in watching EyeTV, when I have been recording programs, doing Time Machine backups (both from iMac and iBook), and downloading software and music from the net (SXSW 2008 Showcasing Artist torrent, for example). It now seems that 10.5.2 is one of the most stable Mac OS X releases ever. At least I hope so. One of the great new things of Leopard is the ability to make Dashboard widgets from web pages with Safari. I have made a couple of good ones, of weather services for example. The Leopard Dashboard seems to be a valueable tool, compared to Tiger where it was more like a toy.

Leopard - 6 days, 5 hours, 27 minutes

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:06:45 GMT

I have now been using Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.2) for over six days on my iMac. There have been no problems, and I have even remembered to switch on the external disk for Time Machine backups every once in a while. I was anticipating some problems, but it seems that there are few if any. In fact this may be the smoothest Mac OS X upgrade ever, and I have been using all versions since 10.0. Most 10.X version changes have caused some problems, but this didn't, at least so far. Impressive. On the other hand, I usually jumped in quite early, sometimes even with 10.X.0 version, or 10.X.1 version, so perhaps waiting a bit explains the good feeling.

Leopard works well on iBook G4 and aluminium iMac

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:59:34 GMT

I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard a few days ago, and there have been suprisingly few problems. (Almost none in fact.) The biggest surprise was that the parental restrictions defined in Tiger were immeadetely functional in Leopard without any tweaking. Thus, the children are allowed to use certain software, and only those. Also, I was afraid that certain older games would not work in Leopard, but all seem to work so far. I had two games which didn't fit into parental restrictions under Tiger. For some reason you had to use a normal account for them. I haven't yet checked whether Leopard is better in this regard.

Upgraded my iBook G4 to Leopard

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:19:09 GMT

After a few days worth of positive experiences of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.2) on my iMac, I upgraded my iBook to Leopard as well. I have the last version of iBook G4 --- a 12 inch model at 1.33 GHz. There is 80 GB of disk, and I recently upgraded the memory to 1.5 GB.

I made an "Archive and install" type upgrade, which went flawlessly, although it took quite a while. At the same time I took the opportunity to remove some old software and documents from the iBook. There was even some Mac OS 9 software still there. After the cleanup I have 22 GB of free disk space instead of 12 GB.

I tested screen sharing between the iBook and iMac, and it worked suprisingly well. Browsing iTunes music and iPhoto pictures on the iMac works also nicely from the iBook.

So far I haven't really run into any inconveniences with Leopard. Sometimes Stacks behave a bit suprisingly, but that may be just a question of newness. I'm quite happy with the speed both on the iBook and especially in the iMac. For some reason Leopard seems snappier even on the iBook, which is unexpected.

The only incompatibility so far is Cisco VPN on the iBook. It starts up properly, and tries to connect, but doesn't manage to do it, and never reports an errror. On the iMac I haven't had any difficulties in using Cisco VPN.

Good Leopard - or bad?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:43:54 GMT

I have been corresponding with SSP on Leopard user experiences. He has had negative experiences with EyeTV and iTunes: "multitasking in X.5 is rotten and things skip a lot". However, for me things are different.

EyeTV seems to work in Leopard even smoother than in Tiger. For example when pausing a recording and then continuing, there is no that small "hiccup" in the beginning of playback as there was with 10.4.11. And this is while multitasking - usually I have 4-5 users logged in to the iMac, and some of these accounts are doing things in background, such as reading dvds or cds or downloading things (such as software updates) from the net. Usually I have 5-10 different programs running on these accounts (no need to shut them down, is there?).

But I do have the new iMac (2.4 GHz, 4 GB of memory, 750 GB disk), which is a quite nice machine in terms of performance.

Yesterday I watched a recorded movie with EyeTV (version 3), while simulaneously recording two programs (I have the Diversity model). And at the background I was ripping a dvd with Handbrake using all available cpu capacity. In addition, on different accounts I had an e-mail program, Last.fm etc. software running. Everything was as smooth as can be.

Today I switched on Time Machine, and the first backup is currently in progress. So far I haven't had any trouble (listening to iTunes, watching tv, listening to Last.fm).

Perhaps I'm just fortunate? I do hope this feeling of satisfaction with Leopard continues.

Now I'm learning to use Spaces. Several years ago (in 2001 perhaps) or so I was using a similar system in Gnome and KDE (running under Mac os X), but those virtual desktops were worse implemented. And Quick Look is definetely helpful in checking what a file contains.

Made finally the leap from Tiger to Leopard

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:25:08 GMT

The second update to Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.2) was released yesterday. I today upgraded my iMac from Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4). I bought a copy of Leopard last year, but postponed the upgrade due to worries about incompatibility.

I made a default upgrade, and there were no problems although the iMac had lots of additional software installed (including system utilities etc.). Everything is running as smoothly as can be wished.

I read a lot of complaints about the details of Leopard from the net discussions. A bunch of nitpicking ninnies! Although Leopard is markedly different, I think the new features (transparent dock and stacks) are real improvements, not just eye candy.

I haven't yet tested Time Machine, but will do this in a few days. I'm currently doing the backups with Carbon Copy Cloner, this is sufficient for now.

The value of the new features remains to be seen. Quick Look, Spaces etc. seem reasonable improvements, although not revolutionary. I already got used to Quick Look, and probably will miss it on those Macs running Tiger. Also, some of the current software requires Leopard to work properly, for example EyeTV and Cover Sutra. Thus it was time to make the leap to Leopard.

10,000 music tracks, over half unheard

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:00:46 GMT

Since moving my iTunes music from iBook to iMac I have been growing the collection. I used to have a lot more classical music on the iBook, but disk space constraints forced to remove some of the music. But now I have read a lot of the music back from the cds. And I have also bought quite a few albums from the iTunes Store, and eMusic as well.

Currently I have a bit over 10,000 music tracks in iTunes. There are several dozen tracks which have been listened to over 150 times. But there are also tracks which have not been listened at all. I made a smart playlist with these tracks, and it had initially over 5,400 tracks. Thus over half of the music had been unused in iTunes. Now I'm playing this playlist in random order and decreasing the count little by little. A lot of positive suprises there.

Using MacBook Air as the only computer

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:22:31 GMT

After Apple announced MacBook Air, many reviews have commented that this machine is only good as a second computer, complementing a desktop system or a MacBook Pro. However, I don't think so. As I wrote previously, MacBook Air (hereafter MBA) is in almost all aspect a more powerful system than a PowerBook G4 (from 2002), which I'm currently using as my only computer at work. At my desk I can plug the MBA into my 23-inch widescreen display (1920x1280 resolution is supported), and connect the keyboard and mouse through an usb hub. (Or through Bluetooth.) And who really nowadays uses cds or dvds for transferring files? Usb sticks are the way to go. The only dissappointing thing about the MBA is the reported battery performance. If it is only 2.5 hours, this is far too little. (Although it is the same as with the PowerBook G4, but here I can switch batteries on the go.) If the battery would last four hours, that would be enough, and about six hours would be excellent. Perhaps the next revision can do this?

Too much for me in MacBook Air

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:06:20 GMT

At work I'm currently using a Titanium PowerBook G4 from 2002. This has been my only computer for well over five years now - both at my office and while traveling. The CPU is 1 GHz PowerPC G4, and there is 1 GB of memory and 60 GB of disk. The machine is fast enough for daily work (I'm running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger), for example MS Office, Acrobat etc. There are several gigabytes of disk available (and I could easily free some more if needed). The memory seems sufficient as well (although sometimes the machine slows down if I'm using a dozen applications simultaneously).

I didn't expect the PowerBook to last this long. I was actually a bit afraid of replacing my G4 tower desktop with a laptop. But now I have over five years of positive experiences. The PowerBook has been an excellent little machine for work. I have got a replacement battery, and several additional external devices (more of these later), but otherwise there have been no changes needed. A big reason for the longlevity is the relatively big cache memory of the 1 GHz G4 processor, and the speedy graphics card.

So, how does MacBook Air (MBA) compare with the Titanium PowerBook G4 (TiBook)? There is twice the memory - 2 GB vs. 1 GB. A slightly larger disk - 80 GB vs. 60 GB. (Certainly enough for me.)

A big bonus is the n-version of wlan (WiFi). The PowerBook G4 contains a b-version card, which is much slower, and limits the overall speed of the wlan network. A big MBA advantage is the internal Bluetooth. The TiBook requires an external Bluetooth usb adapter, which is often inconvenient.

Potential drawbacks of the MBA are the one usb port - but I have already an usb hub at work, which fixes this problem. No cd/dvd reading? Well, it has been a long time since I last used the cd/dvd drive on the TiBook. Usually I transfer files via net/e-mail or by using usb sticks. No built-in ethernet? Well, the usb ethernet adapter fixes this problem. (And in most places the wlan connection is nowadays quite enough.)

What about the speed? Well, my understanding is that the MBA is 2-3 as fast as the TiBook, and there is twice the memory. So, this would be quite an upgrade. Potential advantages are also the built-in iSight, a nice display (brighter than on the TiBook), and the new gesture-based trackpad (the TiBook doesn't even know two-finger scrolling). Not to speak about the smaller size and less weight.

In conclusion: MacBook Air is more than enough computer for me. Will I get one? Perhaps not. I'm happy with by PowerBook G4, but perhaps when the sixth year of using it is closing, I'll switch to the MBA.

Update: I forgot that I wrote a quick review of 1 GHz PowerBook G4 in December 2002, when I was thinking of switching from a desktop to a laptop computer. Some of the thinking is suprising in retrospect.

Using EyeTV 3

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:08:08 GMT

I upgraded the EyeTV software to version 3 on my iMac. There were some new useful features, such as smart lists for automation of recordings. A robust but not a revolutionary upgrade. I have recorded a lot of programs from digital tv using EyeTV and the dual usb stick, which makes it possible to watch or record two channels simultaneously. Extremely nice way of viewing digital television. However, it seems that now I'm getting more and more repeats - there is not so much novelty in the available programs as in the beginning. I really hope that net-based movies and television takes off soon.

NetNewsWire vs. Google Reader

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:31:39 GMT

The RSS feed reader NetNewsWire is now free. Some years ago I used it quite a lot, but nowadays I'm using Google Reader, which does a fine job. However, maybe it is time to re-evaluate NetNewsWire. However, the advantage of having RSS feeds automatically up-to-date on any system I happen to be using is hard to replace. Thus, Google Reader will prevail, I think.

Not (yet) using Leopard

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:27:48 GMT

I today upgraded the memory on my iMac to 4 GB. Having several active accounts running simultaneously slowed the system a bit every once in a while, but new everything is running smoothly. I'm running EyeTV, iTunes, several web browsers etc. simultaneously, and sometimes there are jobs running in the background consuming all free cpu cycles. (For example, video format conversion.) The children have been playing games, drawing, experimenting a lot on this system. The iMac has been stable without problems for a couple of months now. I'm not rushing into Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) yet. I'm still waiting for version 10.5.2, and perhaps even version 10.5.3, until the upgrade. However, some new software requires (or recommends) using Leopard, so the time to switch is near.

Converting VHS videos with Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 22:13:52 GMT

About a week ago I got a Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac system for converting VHS videos to be viewed on my iMac. Now I have converted 25 videos to mp4 format. No need for the VHS player any more. The video quality (and sound) is quite ok, as good as VHS can be, I think. Of course not dvd or digital tv quality, but good for my purposes at least. Only "Lumikki" (Disney's Show White) caused problems. A ten-second section (dwarfs singing in a mine) refused to sync with the system. But I think dwarfs singing in a mine may cause problems for anyone.

Not yet into Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:17:00 GMT

Apple today released the first update to Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5.1. I'm not yet installing Leopard on my computers. I probably will not install it on the iBook G4 ever, but on the iMac I'll wait for the 10.5.2 update. Typically the first update includes fixes already in pipe, and the second update contains fixes based on feedback from the users. Thus, better wait a month or so until moving to Leopard. Also, some of the applications on the iMac (especially games) may not work with Leopard, so caution is needed. On the other hand, Leopard contains so many good things that I'm itching to try it out. Patience, patience.

Still tempted by Civilization IV

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:37:22 GMT

Last night I played until 2 AM, getting quite tired. Today I didn't play at all, have to get some sleep. Not good to go several days without enough sleep. Bad, bad game. But good in reasonable doses.

Addicted to Civilization IV

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:51:52 GMT

I didn't think it was possible for me to get addicted to gaming, but after playing first with the Civ IV demo, and then with the game itself, I must admit being hooked. Last night I played until 3:30 AM, and didn't notice time passing. And I seem to be thinking about Civ strategies all the time.

At first Civ didn't seem to be such a good thing, especially when the graphics were sometimes misbehaving. (Hasn't crashed once yet, though.) After updating to version 1.74, the graphics problems went away. And the gaming speed is good, although I'm running at maximum resolution and eye candy. Of course, my new 24 inch iMac is quite fast, so no surprise there. A great game, with lots of room to grow.

OmniWeb updated to version 5.6

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:23:48 GMT

I downloaded the international version of OmniWeb 5.6, and was surprised to see that the software has a Finnish localization. I have been using OmniWeb as my number one web browser for years (paid for it), but always downloaded the smaller "English only" distribution. Well, this was a nice surprise. And the new version seems to be both faster and more reliable. For example, Google Reader works now better than with version 5.5.

Games on the Mac

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 10:29:20 GMT

There are too much to do on the iMac. I downloaded the Civilization IV demo, and I'm really trying to avoid investing time in the game. But I think I'll submit and buy the game. At least my iMac is fast enough to run it.

Also, there are quite a few other games which seem to be interesting, and I have in fact played with my daughters some of the games I have downloaded and bought from the net. Those who say that a Mac is not a gaming machine may be right - but all the same, there are enough games for our family at least.

Hard disks and backups for iMac

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:55:28 GMT

I just ordered a 750 GB external hard disk with Firewire 800, to be used for backups and other storage need with my new iMac. The Iomega disk costs 210 euro, not bad. Currently I have partial backups of data on the iMac, but most of the data is without backups. I'm studying both Cardon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper! - perhaps one of them is the perfect backup solution for me.

Not rushing to Leopard

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:37:28 GMT

Apple announced that Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will be shipping on October 26th. I'm not rushing to buy Leopard, but will instead wait a while before installing it on my computers. Also, I'll buy an external disk for backups, to really benefit from Leopard. My feeling is that Spaces - the virtual desktop system - and Time Machine - the new backup software, will be the best features of Leopard. Of the other new features I can't say much. Although I have got the impression that the Spotlight search system has something new, which might make it a contender in the best features list.

Children and the iMac

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:45:00 GMT

Have been studying the parental controls on Mac OS X. I made an account for the daughters to use, making it possible to use various programs, such as painting, writing, games, astronomy etc. Although giving restricted rights to program and web works fine usually, there are some rough corners, for example with non-bundle applications. But I have managed to get almost everything working fine. And the daughters really enjoy using the iMac.

Apple says new iMacs have a problem

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:15:51 GMT

Apple recently acknowledged that the new iMacs have a freezing problem. I wrote about my experiences about a month ago, when I had had 3-4 freezes in two weeks. But since installing iMac update 1.1, I have had only one freeze. Currently the iMac has been in use for over a week without any problems.

Backing up to dvd's vs. hard disks

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:29:33 GMT

It seems that hard disk prices will drop dramatically this autumn. Perhaps by half. I'm planning to get a 500 GB or a 750 GB external hard disk for iMac backups, but not yet. A Firewire 800 version would be nice, and I think a 750 GB disk may cost less that 200 euros later this year. Meanwhile, I bought a couple DVD+RW disks for backing up my photos and music bought from iTMS.

On the other hand, I believe the built-in backup software (Time Machine) in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will increase the demand for disks, so perhaps the drop in prices will not be so great after all.

EyeTV updated to version 2.5

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:37:49 GMT

I installed a new version of EyeTV on my iMac, version 2.5. This version uses a dual-tuner setup more intelligently, starting a scheduled recording on the unused tuner. Also, EyeTV can now record from the live buffer to file, a nice improvement. EyeTV was already a great program, and now even greater. (I also noticed that I had not been using the "best" settings for picture quality, even though I have a fast iMac - however, I didn't notice much improvement to the previous settings.)

Toysight - game control through video camera

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:46:11 GMT

Tried playing Toysight with the children. Not easy to get it to work at first, but after a while things started to work. An interesting concept, controlling computer games by using the iSight video camera. This is not a new game (launched in 2003), but I didn't have a Mac able to run the software before getting an iMac.