Software

iLife 2009

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I have been using iPhoto as my photo editing and archiving software of choice for several years now, and although it isn’t perfect it is the best that I have found. Earlier this week I got iLife 09 specifically for iPhoto 09. The two main features that got my curiosity peaked is the faces and GPS features. With my iPhone I am capturing the GPS coordinates of all my camera photos so the GPS feature in iPhoto seems cool. I am still a bit gun shy to post GPS coordinates on all my photos to Flickr, but for me to have them and publish to my friends is cool.

The really interesting feature in iPhoto 09 is Faces. That is what is hopefully worth the cost of the software. I have been tagging and labeling my entire photo album for a while. It is always a work in progress. With the Faces function I can label all my photos in one shot. As I write this post I am letting iPhoto scan my library to look for faces. Hopefully it will be easy to label after that.

The one downside I have with iPhoto is that all the photo detail (EXIF) data is not stored in the photo. That means if I export a photo it won’t have any tagged details that I put in iPhoto. Since I am a fan of data portability I don’t like that. Since I have started using iPhoto I keep a copy of all photos I put into iPhoto in a separate folder in case I have problems with my iPhoto files. I am glad I did this since I already have damaged my iPhone DB once and had to restore a several months old version. Without my regular backup I would have been out of luck.

So far the new version of the app looks decent, but I am not so sure if it is worth the cost? Only time will determine that.

Internet Explorer

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I find it really funny that everyone is saying Internet Explorer has lost market share. I just read that Cnet reported that IE’s market share has dropped to 67.55%. I am sort of happy about that. I don’t use Internet Explorer that much. I like Firefox, Safari, and Chrome wasn’t so bad when I tried it out. I like options, so when one browser is overwhelmingly dominant it isn’t good. What I still don’t understand is that if IE’s market share is under 70% why are sites and applications still only made to work with it? Many Cisco devices, and internet portals I have tried just don’t work the same with other browsers. I mention Cisco devices since they are an example I am personally exposed to, but there are tons of examples of sites and appliances writing for IE only. Everyone needs to wake up and see that 1/3 of the word doesn’t use that browser!

For me Firefox 3.x is the default browser on both Windows and Mac for me!

A Release in Progress

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I am eagerly waiting for one of the guys on my team to finish a software release on one of the applications my team supports. They have been working on it almost all day. I don’t have anything really to do with the release again until tomorrow morning but I know I won’t sleep right until I hear that everything went OK. I am hoping I get that nice all OK email in the next 90 minutes! Fingers crossed.

iPhone 2.2

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I upgraded today to the iPhone latest version of the iPhone software, 2.2. On the off chance that the problem I had last week with my iphone not syncing with my computer was related to the phone and not the computer I am updating the software right away. So far I don’t see any major features stand out. I am happier that my Apple TV has a new OS version on it so I can control the volume of the Apple TV using my remote software on the iPhone! Now that is functional!

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iPhone 3G Reset

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My afternoon today was thrown for a bit of a loop when I tried to go out today and tried to play some music on my iPod. There wasn’t any. That was odd since I always have about 8gigs of music on it. I then went to sync it up again with my Macbook. That is when things got interesting. I kept getting an error saying the phone couldn’t sync and I had to reset it. I figured a quick reset and I should be good to go. Well that didn’t work either. I reset the phone and then it kept giving me an error. I couldn’t sync it, or boot it up. An Apple KB article said to reboot the computer so I did that. After about 3 more tries the phone reset and started restoring.

This is the problem with one converged device. I almost can’t go anywhere without it. It is my phone (only one except Skype until I get my blackberry from work). It is also my music player, and PDA. I am sunk if it doesn’t work. Today was a perfect example of that. 3 hours later I am back and semi running with the phone. My only lingering issue that I know of is my icon’s are all in the wrong order. I am more concerned with the fact that I don’t know if this will happen again, and I have no backup plan. I guess that is my operations mindset going. I always need a “plan B”. I am thinking about that, but for now I am just happy things turned out as well as they did. It could have been allot worse!

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Teleport

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The ablity to teleport would be a nice to have, but in the mean time I will stick with the Mac application Teleport. Sorry I couldn’t think of any other segway! Teleport solves an annoying problem I have had for a little while. I have setup my Macbook (without a KVM) on one part of my desk, but since I got my 20″ iMac a few months ago when I am not using it as a TV (almost all the time) it is on a portable table near my desk. I have had two keyboards and mice at my desk for a while. That was annoying. Now that I am working from home a bit and sitting using my laptop screen was killing me I setup a spare 19″ flat panel I got from my dad also. Three displays / computers setup near each other is great, but 3 keyboards and mice are not. Now with Teleport I can control my iMac with my main keyboard and mouse from my Macbook. It works great and took a whole 2 minutes to setup. I could have used an open source tool to control both my Mac’s and my Thinkpad, but I would rather have a dedicated setup for my work computer anyway.

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My Mediawiki

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I have been using VoodooPad for a few months (actually pushing a year now, wow) and it has been a great product. With me at a new job that requires me to use a company issued computer having all my wiki information on my Mac is not the most functional setup. If I am at work our out and about I cannot access my data. Because of that I have been trying out Google App’s Sites. It is a decent wiki like application, but I don’t like the fact that I cannot export my data easily. I am also becoming more and more wary about Google’s privacy and security policies. I tried to setup PHPWiki on my web hosting account, but ran into issues with it. I used PHPwiki at Partsearch and we had all of our department documentation on it and I loved it. More recently however I have been liking Mediawiki.

I finally sat down and tinkered around with my hosting account and got Mediawiki installed. Because this is a private wiki, I had to password protect the directory that the wiki resides in on my hosting server, but otherwise the install wasn’t so bad. I have to get used to formatting my pages for the wiki. Voodoopad spoiled me in that way. It was like writting in word when you wanted to format text in Voodoopad, but this is the price I pay for having my data availible to me anywhere I have an internet connection. I have already leaveraged that benifit of my new site by accessing it on my iPhone. I also like the fact that I can backup the DB and port it to another Mediawiki install if I ever have to. Overall I have been happy with my experience!

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Task Management

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For the past few years I have been trying to find the perfect solution for task management. I try to follow the Getting Things Done model for organizing my “stuff”. Even before I followed GTD I tried different tools for task management. For years that simply meant using the built in task functions in Outlook. When I switched to a Mac I continued to use Outlook for about a year or so for mail and tasks since I wasn’t comforatable enough with iCal, Address Book, and Mail. By 10.3 or so I switched over and began using iCal for task management. iCal is a good calendar program, but it isn’t so hot for tasks (in my opinion). I used it since it was what worked when syncing my Treo’s. I wanted to have the categories stay intact so I had problems with Entourage. That left me stuck with iCal. I tried Market Circles’s Daylite for a while. In the version 1.x days or even the early 3.x days it wasn’t the best with syncing with the Palm so I used it on and off again but I always ended up back with iCal. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was the one that worked for most of the basic functions. When Daylite 3.5/3.6 came out last summer with Sync Services support I switched back to Daylite. I had problems with my computer that forced me again back to iCal. By the time I got my iphone I knew I needed to find a new solution for task management, since the iphone didn’t support iCal tasks. Daylite is coming out with an iphone product that looked perfect, and there were a few other products out there that did similar functions, but my new job threw a kink in my plans. See next paragraph!

During this entire time using a Mac based program was not an issue since the two companies that I worked at didn’t care if I used my own Macbook. My boss at Partsearch at one point allowed my tech team to buy Mac’s when we wanted to. He even got one. My current job however requires me to use a windows PC exclusively. This poses a problem for me. If I used a desktop program to manage tasks I would have to choose between data I can only access at work or via my work laptop or data that I can access only at home or via a PDA. Neither option was appealing to me. For the first 3 weeks at my new job I was using outlook for work tasks, and continued to use iCal for personal ones. It was becoming apparent that I needed to take the plunge and choose one. I couldn’t decide! Then I remembered I signed up for Hiveminder. It is a web based task tool by Best Practical. They are the guys that make Request Tracker, a favorite issue tracking tool I have used at a few companies. I started using that site for my new tasks. It was an ok experience. I had some issues with the usability of the site so I wasn’t sure if I would continue using it.

The overall idea of a web based tool did have my curiosity. In the past I had discounted a web based tool since I wanted a full featured client. Now I needed the flexibility of accessing my data anywhere. I went to Lifehacker to see what reviews they had for web based task management or GTD tools. I found a few that looked promising. That was when I came accross Remember The Milk. I remembered reading reviews about RTM a while ago, and every review was positive. So after signing up and playing with 2 or 3 other services I signed up for an account with RTM. It has only been a few days, but I have all my active tasks in RTM. So far I have found it to offer most of what I am looking for. I can have lists, tags, due dates, & reminders. It has a good search function. Adding of notes isn’t so hard. It also has a quick entry for for tasks (Hiveminder’s is better, but you can’t have everything). I also like that I can access an iPhone optimized version of the site. It isn’t an offline client, but it is close enough. I can also view (unfortunately not edit) my tasks in iCal. I just downloaded the gmail plugin for RTM that allows me to manage my tasks in my Google Apps account. That looks very promising also. The other major feature I love is the offline mode thanks to Google Gears. If I had any doubt that I would be trying this service for a while it went out the window with the offline mode option.

Remember The Milk

For now I am exploring what I can do with RTM. As it stands now task management is now another function I can perform via a web app, and not an installed application. More about that in a later post.

So why am I rambling on for paragraphs about task management? There are a few tools (hardware or software) that I live and die by. Managing tasks is one of those critical tools and I have been in limbo for ages with mediocre options (Daylite excluded, it rocked but I was never 100% right for my situation). With Remember The Milk, it looks like I have a great tool, and I have options with how I access it. I like that. I know I am fickle. In two weeks I might be writing about some fatal flaw I found in this service that makes it not right for me, but for now this is the way to go for me!

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SugarSync

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I have been using .Mac on and off for a few years as a remote file storage location for my documents. The service was the only one that I found that had a workable system that kept a local cashed copy on my computer and synced the changes to a central server. The problem is that .Mac doesn't work that well. I stopped using it back in January when my annual renewal was coming up. I didn't want to keep paying it since I didn't think I was getting my money's worth. In June I changed my tune since the MobileMe functionality was coming out with the iPhone 3G. I thought those added functions were worth it the fee, and if I was already paying for the MobileMe syncing I might as well use the iDisk feature as well.

That decision hasn't worked out well for me. I constantly get sync errors when I have documents open that iDisk is trying to "automatically" sync. I have had iDisk totally corrupt two of my personal wiki's I have using VoodooPad.

I was happy to stumble upon an article that talked about among other things different file syncing and storage services. I had heard about Xdrive, and Box.net, but I looked up a new one called SugarSync. On paper it does everything I need:

  1. Price is reasonable
  2. Mac & WIndows clients
  3. Local (or multiple local) copies as well as the server copy
  4. Sync on when changes happen
  5. Plus it offered other features that I didn't think of but probibly could use.

Best of all the reviews were all really good, and from reputable people like Mossberg and Pouge (I hope I spelled their names right). With all this good "sounding" information I signed up for a 45 day trial with 10gigs of file space. I am slowly syncing my documents folder to their system now. According to their status meeter it will be about 7 more hours before the data is fully synced. I will then give it a true test drive at work tomorrow. I will also be able to install the Windows agent on my Vaio laptop at work and see if I can access everything. That was something I couldn't do with iDisk.

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Apps That Should Be Written To Be Put On My iPhone 3G

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I know the iPhone App Store is only a few weeks old but I really would like to see some apps that I am used to on the palm. I don't miss the Palm OS, but some of the apps I had on my Treo's were very helpful or fun.

SSH Client – someone wrote a Telnet client, but lets face it if you are a decent network or systems person you really want SSH and not telnet. Or both!

FTP Client – Probably wouldn't use it that much, but a cheap or free client would be a nice to have.

Quicken or an expense program that will export inputed data into a format that Quicken will read. Am I the only one that uses Quicken that wants this? They make a Palm and Windows Mobile version!

Call Recording – This was a must have for me on all my recent phones. Until you have it, you don't realize how much you need to record calls. Especially when dealing with vendors, support people, etc. Had it on my Palm Treo's and my Nokia E61i. I actually didn't use the Treo 750 because it couldn't record calls. Not having this function was a trade off I made when getting the iPhone, but I would hope someone would write a program to do this!

Skype – probably too much to ask for since you can't use VOIP applications via the 3G network, but Skype would be nice!!!

There is probably more, but for now that is all that I can come up with.

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