MILES to GO || before I sleep

The Great Meow

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:21:49 GMT

At some point in the not-so-distant future, I will finish my cute wallpaper of a kitten trying to be a lion. And possibly make matching icons.

In the meantime, now that Lion (Mac OS X 10.7) is out, I'm going through my list of apps to try and determine which ones are PowerPC (read: not going to work on Lion, ever!) and which ones are Intel/Universal binaries (read: probably will work, but not guaranteed).

Of those, I'm trying to find out which ones I can and cannot live without. For the ones that I can't, I'm looking for solutions. For example, realMyst. It's an amazing game, with levels you won't find in the other versions of Myst out there, even for Windows (as far as I know). It's also PowerPC-only and unlikely to get patched or updated in any way to be compatible with Lion.

The solution? Get Steam for Windows and download it there for cheap. That particular version of Myst from Steam IS realMyst, so it'll have the special world that doesn't exist in the other Myst releases, will be all kinds of awesome and while yes, I'll have to run it in Windows, for a game like Myst, it's actually kind of worth it.

For everything else, please offer suggestions as to other/better/newer apps that are Lion-compatible, or let me know if there's an update I should get (hopefully free, but if I have to pay for it, them's the breaks).

( PowerPC-only apps )

After this is looking at all the other Intel-based apps and seeing which ones
a) haven't updated lately, and therefore may not work with Lion
b) I don't care about/use no matter how recently they've updated

And I think that's it...right? I almost seem Lion-ready...

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The Story So Far

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:10:25 GMT

So. I went to the Apple Store and to PowerBook Guy (third-party Apple product repair) today. I picked up my MacBook Pro from the Apple Store, where they reiterated what the guy told me on the phone: it's Tier 4 damage, must be sent out, and will cost $1240 flat for all repairs, which would include the keyboard, logic board (most expensive part), connection cables, CD drive, hard drive, etc. Apple has to replace anything they see damaged: there's no part/parcel replacement, and heck, even if there were, it would probably cost more.

The guy even showed me the internal damage: chocolate milk and dried-up sugar (?) in small splotches throughout the entire thing (so much for my prompt and level-headed clean-up and reaction). I went to PBG and told the guy this, but for him to open it and give me a different diagnosis would have cost me $125. Based on what I told him, he estimated $1025 for repairs, and even had to ask me to plug in, because the power cable internally and the port for it on the outside had chocolate milk damage.

( The next computer shall be named Chocomac (or something like it) )

It sure would be nice if Will (#repomen) would show his face here in San Francisco so I could collect the $7500 bounty on his head. *sigh*

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You better not be jerking me around!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:44:28 GMT

So, after-- lost count how many times--I've successfully managed to install, activate, and run every application in Adobe's Creative Suite 4. This most recent time, everything was working EXCEPT Acrobat, which of course, is one of the three programs I use on a regular basis (the other two being Dreamweaver and Photoshop, of course), and as a "solution," Adobe's Customer Service suggested I uninstall and reinstall everything, and use the same "Clean Script" app that mangled my CS3 install and forced me to download the CS4 trial that mangled this install.

Needless to say, I was wary. I had installed this CS4 twice already and was still having issues. But this time, I really did get rid of EVERYTHING Adobe, and the re-installation went smoothly.

I ran Acrobat immediately after the install and it whined about a licensing error, which is what the CS4 trial had been doing after I used Clean Script, but once I installed the updates, it started working again. I opened up a file with it, and opened up a file in Safari (which, for some bizarre reason, requests Acrobat's permission to display, even though you can view PDFs natively in Preview and in some browsers), so everything seems to work fine. Acrobat even has "Enter Serial Number" grayed out, and when I click on "Register," my information is already filled in (and presumably sent to Adobe, since I finally got the "free benefit" email).

I'm still unable to install this "Adobe CSI CS4 1.0.1 Update," as it keeps failing to install, so I'll mention that in my case reply, but otherwise...everything's FINALLY working again. Interestingly enough, for the CS4 case, Adobe told me someone would actually be calling me within 48 hours, and it'll be 48 hours at the end of today, so we'll see if that actually happens and what they'll say/do.

I'm just glad I didn't have to do an Erase & Install after all. Yesterday while I was testing various apps to see if I could re-create the crash that had Photoshop so disabled, I ended up ditching a few apps, sorting the rest, and seeing just a few crashes, all with different SIG errors.

They are:
* Adobe kuler - SIGBUS (once) -- I ended up uninstalling this anyway, since Kuler is a panel in Photoshop now, and it's also accessible online
* Delicious Library 2 - SIGILL (once)
* NewsFire - SIGABRT (once)
* Spring Cleaning 10 - SIGSEGB (twice)

And Firefox hasn't been crashing on startup repeatedly, either, which is cool but also very weird. It, like Toast 6 Titanium (which is probably not even SL-compatible; I really need to get Toast 10), was crashing without a peep. I didn't know how to diagnose that, except to look up the app's name along with "crashes on startup." Often the results weren't very helpful, but if the problem's no longer an issue....

*fingers crossed!* I'd really like to be able to do my homework now!

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A Happy Mystery?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:23:06 GMT

I don't want to jinx things, but my computer problems might somehow have been mysteriously solved.

I did the security update from Apple earlier, along with a whole host of updates from Adobe. I've been going through all my apps to see which ones produce the infamously aggravating SIGTRAP error (or variations of it), but NOTHING has been crashing.

Not even Firefox, which used to take 3-4 tries just to boot, and it never said a peep when it crashed! Photoshop is staying open, with files open. I've had no problems with any other CS4 product (except Acrobat, because Acrobat is a whiny brat that doesn't like my serial number even though I got it from Adobe!), and other programs that crashed or acted weird are now being...fine.

There's Big Fish/Play First Games' "Gotcha! Celebrity Secrets" game that I wanted to try out. It previously tried to load but then crashed without a word. All of a sudden, it worked! I enjoyed 60 horribly bad-in-a-good-way minutes of playing "Where's Waldo" in a cartoon celebrity world, pretending I was a paparazzi blogger.

There's TextWrangler, which updated but then refused to let me update the command keys. Then I did, and...it works fine! No insta-crash like before!

Even Corel Painter 11, which would occasionally crash and occasionally work, now seems to be working fine, even displaying a start-up dialog box that I've never seen before!

I want to do a battery of tests on my most-frequently used apps and ditch apps I don't really use that often while I'm at it. If the errors still come up, I might want to stick to the Erase & Install option just for the sake of having a "fresh" start on the laptop, but if not, I can always cancel my appointment.... Of course, I should probably do this tomorrow and sleep now, because being awake at this hour is really quite bad for my internal clock. Or so people tell me. *flaps her bat wings*

*fingers crossed* I'd much rather go to In-N-Out Burger tomorrow than a crowded Apple Store to get my precious laptop wiped (for no reason???).

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The Next Step

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:13:16 GMT

CS4 finally arrived. I attempted to install it yesterday (which took a while) and was told that it was done BUT it needed me to reinstall anyway, because some components or whatnot were missing. Made sense, considering I'd had the CS4 trial on here and the CS3 Clean Script the "wonderful" folks at Adobe had me run removed some vital CS4 components, too. So I restarted, turned off all the extra bells and whistles running in the background, and reinstalled.

It said done! Successful! Hurrah!

And then I ran Photoshop.

I waited.

It crashed.

AGAIN.

Also, because it crashed, I thought I wouldn't be able to register the applications in-program, so I did so online, at Adobe.com. Apparently that means I don't get my free benefit!? But I tried opening Dreamweaver CS4 and registering through there, and that seemed to go smoothly, except I still didn't get my benefit email. I want that damn benefit, especially after all the BS I've been through with this.

Dreamweaver isn't crashing at all. It's sitting pretty, which is nice and a bit of a relief. But I still need Photoshop. I need it soon, for my class. And because Corel and the Citrix plug-in were both crashing with the same (looked the same, anyway; an error that long, I'm not exactly going to read it line-by-line, although I could always compare them using TextWrangler...hmmm...) SIGTRAP error too, I've determined this is a system error and I need to do something about it.

LIKE, YESTERDAY.

So, I'm going to do an Erase and Install. But not on my own, no. Because much as I love software and think I'm pretty spiffy with it, something as large as this requires the "delicate" hand of a so-called Genius (a.k.a. someone to walk me through this whole mess). I'm going to go there, at my appointed time, bring my Time Machine drive, tell them the last schmuck at the downtown store told me to do something that's not possible with my OS version and he should have known that, and I want them to FIX the issue however they can (and for free, because dammit, it wasn't doing this before, I haven't changed anything, and this isn't fair!).

I pray that this will:
a) fix the problem with the crashing, because it's caused by occasionally corrupt files that can't be repaired the usual way
b) allow me to restore all my applications, or at least the ones I really, really need and paid money for
c) not take more than one to two days, because frankly, I have homework to do and trying to do it on a PC is nearly as agonizing as thinking this is fixed and then finding out it's not

*pray pray pray*

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Makes me want to scream

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:54:13 GMT

I've uninstalled Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium. Not just Photoshop, which was really the only application giving me issues, but all of it. I have the trial of CS4 and should be getting the CS4 backpack that is my graduation present soon-ish (it's on backorder from JourneyEd.com), but the problems...they aren't going away.

I uninstalled CS3 using the uninstaller in the Applications/Utilities folder. Everything was a success. Then I ran the CS3 Clean Script from Adobe's Support Center--twice. Everything seemed to go smoothly there, except it also apparently removed Shockwave Flash (Safari is now protesting I don't have the right plugin for some websites) and InDesign CS4. I re-installed CS4 and then Photoshop said it was missing components. So I reinstalled Photoshop. And everything seemed to be fine (again) for a few minutes. I opened some documents and prepared to get to work.

And then it crashed.

AGAIN.

Same error as before EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP).

I have tried everything at this point short of fully uninstalling Intego (but you'd think if that was really behind it, the error messages would say something relating to Intego, right?) and wiping the OS and reinstalling. I have NEVER had to do this with a Mac OS, so I'm obviously a) very worried and b) very reluctant.

This has happened with Photoshop, while I got another Initializing Extension Data... hang with Dreamweaver CS3. It only happened sporadically, though, and hasn't happened with Dreamweaver CS4. Only Photoshop seems to hate me, and I don't know why. (Why, Photoshop, why!? Was it something I said?)

Oh, and then there's Firefox. So after I couldn't get into my Photoshop for class, I thought I could use DeVry's iLab environment, which is run by Citrix. Blah blah, got the latest extension, went into Firefox because supposedly it's more compatible with Firefox than Safari (lamesauce, Citrix, LAMESAUCE!). Firefox didn't even seem to recognize it. So I uninstalled and re-installed (after a bit of a scuffle with a crappy beta). I let it be shiny-new, as is, for a while. Citrix seemed to be there (though not in the Add-Ons list, the way 1Password is despite being an external install), but the second it tried to launch Photoshop via Citrix, CRASH! The Citrix online plug-in, that is--not Firefox. Actually, it happened with ANY of the Adobe suite programs I tried to launch via Citrix (didn't bother trying Microsoft gunk--should I?), so it doesn't seem to be just Photoshop-related.

However, since that fresh install of Firefox, the app itself has crashed--repeatedly. It looks like the same error message as the Photoshop one, which is to say: not helpful at all. This tells me that whatever Adobe tells me to do to "fix" Photoshop won't actually help, because this is starting to look more and more like a system issue. I disabled XMarks, since that would cause freezes that would force me to quit Firefox, but the problem isn't really solved: Firefox takes around three "clicks" to get it to start. I can launch it from the Dock or via Quicksilver, but either way, it'll be in the Dock for a split second, even have the "running app" indicator below it, but it'll still just vanish without a word. No error, no crash reporter, nothing. And I'll try again. And again. And again.

And then it works, acting like nothing's wrong. It doesn't APPEAR to be as slow as it used to (which is why I switched to Safari in the first place), but it may depend on the website. And I still do have a lot of extensions, because to be frank: if there's going to be a limit on Firefox's number of extensions, then TELL ME SO from the outset. Give me a suggested number, or tell me how much memory each extension will hog up, or whatever. Because most of them I got because they're actually USEFUL and I need them in some fashion.

I think I'm going to have to make another appointment at the Apple Store. Hopefully I'll get someone who actually knows that Snow Leopard doesn't have Archive & Install as an option anymore, and that dust can't creep into your computer and make your hard drive explode (Yes, it's been said).

Another thing to add to The List of Mer's Computer Woes? My Time Machine is definitely on its last legs. My lovely new-ish Western Digital MyBook Studio has begun ticking, a bit like a soft clock. It doesn't always mount, and even when I do the whole unplug-to-power-cycle thing and re-plug, it doesn't always work. And I'll hear a soft tick-tick-tick...like a clock, only not as regular. Maybe every few seconds. This one might still be under warranty, but what's the use if I'd just end up replacing it with another WD drive? WD doesn't seem to be nearly as reliable as I thought. :( What are the HDs the "Geniuses" use at the Bar, I wonder? They look pretty compact and sturdy...

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Is it Intego? Or is it...a mystery?

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:30:52 GMT

My Photoshop CS3 (not any of the other Creative Suite 3 apps that I use) has been crashing upon open for the past week or more. I have been around the block and back trying to figure out what to do, and I've tried almost everything. I searched Adobe's KnowledgeBase for potential solutions and went through almost all 22-23 short of re-installing Photoshop, mainly because I don't have the discs on me here in San Francisco.

I tried doing Disk Utility checkups and got some weird errors that I couldn't fix, and at the time, I'd been without my Snow Leopard DVD either, so I took it to the Apple Store. They couldn't fix it and the "genius" recommended an Archive and Install...which is apparently not an option for Snow Leopard. Never mind that I spent a good 20+ minutes trying to find a button that just wasn't there, if only the guy had told me--oh yeah, it's no longer an option for your OS!

I tried fixing the same errors with TechTool Pro before just Googling them--hah! Turns out they're generic errors that can be "safely ignored" and have nothing to do with Photoshop's crashing. I tried using Time Machine to restore Photoshop to the earliest date I had--the 15th of December, but no dice.

So then I tried rebooting in Safe Boot mode, and THAT miraculously worked. So apparently the issue is with Photoshop and one of my login items...but which one? The ones I think I have (and I don't know if I know all of them) are: Synergy, Quicksilver, Hyperspaces, some Intego software, and XMarks for Safari. Of those, I updated Intego and Hyperspaces recently. I've used Synergy and Quicksilver for so long, I'm sure they're not the issue. To check, I closed each of them one by one...except Intego, WHICH I CAN'T CLOSE. AT ALL.

I think I have to uninstall the damn thing to test out this theory. And why do I have Intego ContentBarrier, NetBarrier, Personal Antispam, Personal Backup, and VirusBarrier, anyway? Simply put, it was part of a security bundle I'd gotten a while ago, and my boss back at CSUN said it was part of the policy to have antivirus software, even on a Mac (which doesn't need it--not because there are no viruses because of Apple's "small market share," but because it's Just That Damn Good). And I thought all was well--it caught a few infected emails that could have damaged my Windows VM or passed on the virus using my email address, but maybe it's interfering with Photoshop after all.

I'm waiting to hear back from Adobe and see what they say--maybe there will be login items I missed, that the lengthy crash report reveals, or they can tell me something specific about my installed, mentioned login items and incompatibilities with Photoshop. And then there's always trying to figure out how the hell to temporarily disable the Intego software just to test whether or not it crashes Photoshop after all.

I've searched for tips and tricks, but none apply to my situation here, so I'm sort of at a loss until Adobe gets back to me. My options at this point are:
* Uninstall Intego -- and I don't even know if it's really the issue
* Get Baba and Grandpa to send me the CS3 DVDs so I can reinstall Photoshop
* Have my mom buy me the CS4 backpack I've been saving up for myself, as a "graduation present," just to fix the damn issue and have new everything that's up-to-date and be done with it.

I'm not a big fan of any of those, because none are really simple and easy. Any tips would be appreciated.

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Yet another bundle

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:08:37 GMT

If it weren't for Mac360, I wouldn't know about/remember half these promotions, but geez, another bundle!? And it's not even Christmas yet! Let's check out the about-to-run-out MacBundles bundle. Talk about appropriately named, eh?

iPhoto Library Manager - I have yet to use multiple iPhoto libraries, but I can definitely see the use. You can keep multiple libraries and move photos back and forth between them without losing all the data like keywords and ratings. Wow--potential hit!

Media Rage - Help catalog, sort, update and organize thousands of audio files. I've got nearly 8,000 songs in my library, and I haven't even found the remaining 100 or so MIA tracks or imported all my CDs! HIT!

MyTunesRSS - Access your multimedia collection through a web interface in any browser. Create RSS feeds, download playlists, albums or single tracks. Play music in the browser or a favorite player. You know, short of shelling out for AirTunes, this sounds awesome! This sounds like cloud computing for me! HIT!

Renamer - Batch renamer. When Automater is just too confusing, and programs specific for file types are too annoying, I guess? Potential hit.

Simon - Checks site servers for monitoring and lets you know every damn way there is possible short of calling you up in the middle of a date. I'm not a business or anything, but this might be nice. Potential hit.

ViewIt - Image viewer for the most popular formats, has tools for quick image sorting, printing, digital cameras, and EXIF tags. Extendable via the SDK. I already have so many photo/graphic apps I've lost track of them all, but you never know when one can do what others won't. Potential hit.

WebPrint Plus - Quickly save or print snippets of any size from any program, the 'Net, or the clipboard. Eliminates the need for tedious copy-pasting between programs. Sounds useful, but...potential hit.

Yum - Recipe and cookbook manager. I already have SousChef. Miss.

Yummy FTP Fastest Mac FTP/SFTP client out there. Allows for directory synch, scheduling, remote editing with per-file editor support, auto-uploads, FTP Alias upload droplets, bandwidth throttling...blah blah, I have just what I need built-in to Dreamweaver, and Fugu for all else. Miss.

A-Dock X (BONUS APP) - Available for the next 9 days and 9 hours or so, brings a secondary dock to the screen. Allows for skinning, built-in separators, desktop trash, 10-level deep folder browsing, hotkeys, and more. Seems to do what DragThing does. Potential hit.

SonicMood (BONUS APP) - Available today and tomorrow for 9 hours. Creates a soothing background of tones when you don't want to listen to ordinary music. Comes with 31 moods and lets you customize or invent new ones. Sounds awesome--HIT!

FolderGlance (BONUS APP) - Small plugin for the finder that lets you right-click on folders to examine contents and sub-folders, down an unlimited number of levels, plus support for control-free pop-ups, display of hidden files and folders (!!), contextual menu font size, and more. Sounds pretty useful. Potential hit.

12 apps for $49.99 and the survey says...

Miss: 2
Potential Hit: 7
Hit: 3

That's 10 total programs that are worth my while and again, two that I already have a version of and would either be willing to try out or pass along onto a deserving person (hint hint).

Gaaak, another $50 bundle...to get or not to get!? Battle of the Bundles!

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The little brother big bundle

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:39:50 GMT

So, aside from new bundle MacFriendly, there's the regular and usually awesome MacUpdate Promotional Winter bundle. This year, it's got some goodies, but also some oldies. To get or not to get? This might be a harder decision than MacFriendly, where six apps of useful quality weren't enough to swing me into whipping out my credit card.

PowerTunes - Create, organize, and share multiple iTunes libraries. I used to want to do this because I had the majority of my music on my external drive, and I tried to have a smaller one on my laptop...but the way iTunes did it made things confusing. Even though I had the music on the external, some folders were still on my laptop, and Time Machine couldn't back up the full library on the backup. This might be useful if I ever find a reason to do multiple libraries again. Potential hit.

PathFinder - A replacement for Finder. I hear a lot of people hate Finder and think it needs to die already, but I've never had a problem with it. Still, it's always nice to discover something awesome...potential hit.

Socialite - "Keep track of the social networks that matter to you." I don't really know what this means, but I do use social networks A LOT. Oh wait, this is EventBox renamed! The last thing I need is another Twitter client when so many cool ones are free, but this does integrate a lot of others, but mainly for status updates...which, hello, are not the only thing attractive about social networks. But it also integrates RSS feeds, and ever since the upgrade of NetNewsWire, this might be a cool replacement...maybe. Potential hit.

Yep - Tag, organize, find documents. What iPhoto is for pictures and iTunes is for music and video media, Yep is for documents! Does it do HTML, I wonder? If so, this would be a total Hit!

Radio Gaga - Already have it. Miss.

GarageSale - Already have it. Miss.

Speed Download - Had a previous version from another promo and liked it, but having the newest version might be nice. Hit!

HealthNut - Not like I need to diet, but it sure would be interesting to put all that I learned in my Food Science classes to good use. Besides, I can't assume that I'll have this fabulous metabolism forever! Pretty useful! Potential hit!

PCalc - A scientific calculator. Not like I do complex math often, but if I did, aren't there websites or widgets to take care of it for me...or my own scientific calculator that I spent a year taking math classes to earn. Miss.

FlagIt! - Flag email messages in Mail.app with different colored flags. Endless colors, and the ability to mark and unmark the messages and then find out when they're completed. This could be useful, especially for me, when Smart Folders, Junk marking, and colored labels just aren't enough. Every layer of organization helps. Hit!

Holiday DVD Templates - Well, I've never made DVDs, let alone holiday ones, but it's cool to have the option to have jazzy holiday DVD menus. Useful for when I finally get around to learning iMovie and iDVD and maybe even shooting my own video. Hey Santa, can I have a Flip camera? Potential hit.

iRip - Get music from my iPod back to my Mac. Nice tool, but I've already got the free (albeit basic) expod for that. Miss.

Machinarium - An adventure/puzzle game featuring robots. Sounds cool enough, and it might be neat to review for GD. Potential hit.

DragThing - A professor I had recommended this, and the Macworld editors seem to love it. I already have Quicksilver as a launcher and Overflow as a dock manager (which I hardly ever use, since Quicksilver's become second nature to me), but DragThing seems to do a lot more: you can have hotkeys, have multiple docks, have a Trash on the desktop, play sounds in response to actions, and even stores frequently used clippings! Sounds like a total hit to me!

14 apps for $50 is already a better deal than MacFriendly, but how does it break down?
Misses: 4
Potential Hits: 6
Hits: 4

That means 10 total apps of the 14 (3 of them are only available for the first 10,000 sales, but they're only at a little over 1,000 now) are something I'd like to try--a much better fraction than with MacFriendly. I might just have to invest in this...but would anyone like the licenses for Radio Gaga and Garage Sale, since I already have them? If each app were evenly priced, they'd be $3.57/each, so two apps would go for about $8. Any takers?

Anyone know about any other bundles out there I should take a look at?

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Not another bundle...!?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:25:11 GMT

Found out about MacFriendly today, which includes 12 (maybe 13, depending on sales) apps for $50. But how many apps that are unique or different from what I already have to justify buying something like this?

Invoice 3 - useful if I ran a small business. But being that I presently have no need for an invoice application, this is useless. As for managing my finances, I have Mint.com and even Quicken. Miss.

Flash Decompiler Trillix - Do what with the what now? Something about messing with SWFs, which might be nice to know in the future if I ever start seriously playing with Flash, but for right now, this is a miss.

TimeNet - Basically something to work in conjunction with a business manager like Invoice 3...except I have TimeTable, which I like a lot, have gotten used to, and see no reason to replace. Keeps track of your time for billing purposes. Miss.

Icon Commander - Turn any image into icons for Windows Vista, XP, or Mac. Believe it or not, I'd actually find this useful. I'm always wanting to jazz up my apps and folders, and "if you want something done, you've got to do it for yourself." So I might just start making icons! Hit!

Amnesia - Uninstall apps properly. I already have AppZapper. Miss.

WaterThumber - Easily batch process images with watermarks, resize them, create web-ready thumbnails, and so forth. Sounds like a good replacement for the finer things that IrfanView for Windows does, and what powerful image editors like Photoshop don't do. I have a number of photo editors and managers, and this does things that they don't (as far as I know, though I don't have to do this often). Potential hit.

MacPilot - Finds all the hidden tricks in OSX without having to rely on Terminal. Supposedly does what TinkerTool and Onyx can't! Plus, I like Koingo Software. Hit!

Singlemizer - Get rid of duplicate files. This is a double-edged sword. Not all files that appear to be duplicates are, and some that are need to be kept for special reasons, like back-up or backwards-compatibility purposes. Plus, the most common producer of duplicates (for me, anyway) is iTunes, and I have Dupin for that. Potential hit.

Squish - A URL shortener. For the truly lazy who can't just go to bit.ly, fb.me, or any of those other URL shorteners. I use Twitter apps that shorten the URLs automatically, so this is a total miss for me.

Marketplace - Craigslist without the Ugly. I hardly use Craigslist at all, but I just might if it comes down to job hunting...and the incentive is greater if an app prettifies it. Potential hit.

Emailchemy - Takes closed-source email formats and makes them open-source. Can converted emails to Google Apps accounts (of which I have two: CSUN and Gaming Dead). Other than that...uh, I don't really think the features are all that useful for me. Overall, a miss.

ForeverSave - Time Machine on steroids. Lets you back up the documents created by specific programs, on a regular basis, to avoid all those program or computer crash losses. Sounds awesome. Hit!

iTasksX (LOCKED) - Project Management "for professionals." It sounds awesome, but it looks totally complicated and like it has a steep learning curve. Plus, how is it any different from what Bento, Things, or similar programs do? It may be more robust, but those programs LOOK easier to use, even if I have to use multiple programs to achieve the same result. Miss.

Overall? Six (Seven) Misses, Three Hits, and Three Potential Hits. It's basically dead-even if you don't take iTaskX into account, and usually I'd expect more out of a bundle, even for such a good deal as 12 (13) apps for $50. I'd be willing to split the cost with someone if they wanted the licenses for the apps I don't think I want, but where am I going to find someone like that?

I wish I could mix and match bundles, but that defeats the whole thing that makes bundles so cheap--the fact that people get dupes of apps they may already have, if they're Mac-savvy, that they discover new apps from cool, favorite, or possibly new developers, and that ALL TOGETHER, enough sales rewards all the developers involved. If I could buy only six of the apps, I'd probably pay at least $50 for them. Can someone invent the Mix Bundle, or a mini-Bundle better than the MacHeist nanoBundle?

Pleeeeease?

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OSM!

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:42:30 GMT

So, I'm chilling here at SFO (San Francisco International Airport, for those that don't speak airport code). I shelled out $7.99 for a T-Mobile Hotspot Day Pass, because even though I don't visit airports (or Starbucks, or even Borders) quite often enough to get a Hotspot account/shell out $40 a month, sitting here for 3 hours nursing a Coca-Cola and reading the August issue of Wired just doesn't cut it for me. I need to be connected, which is kind of sad. I sort of miss my childhood. :P

( Tech jargon )

( More win and OSM )

I'm actually somewhat looking forward to going home, if just to sleep on my own bed (though the AeroBed Mom got was pretty damn comfortable, no matter what Eva said about it being too soft) and have steady Wi-Fi in all my usual haunts. Also, MAIL! And money. And work for a week, until I have to get my butt to DC. And in-between all that, family visits and the Orange County Fair. Should be fun.

Meanwhile, Michael Jackson's "Beat It" is stuck in my head, along with a plotbunny for a multichapter Sailor Moon fic I meant to write for sm_monthly and never got around to. I mean really, ANOTHER multichapter? I wish I could churn stuff out as fast as moodwriter, with her "Hate, Prejudice and Secret Intentions" (I think I got that title right) Dramione fic that I've been reading lately. Good stuff! I've also got to catch up on Stargirl's "Tsuki no Namida," an AR of the Silver Millennium, since the latest chapter is up for critiquing on one of the_circlet communities. I'm not a big fan of walking into a long-ish multi-chapter fic blind, so I'll start with the beginning and go from there. So far, it's got an interesting premise but some grammar issues that irk me. But hey, SAILOR MOON FIC. I ought to get writing!

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The Dreaded Click

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:38:30 GMT

My Western Digital 500 GB hard drive started CLICKING today.

I was still able to get it to mount, but I get the feeling that data isn't moving from my laptop to the drive; normally when it does, the light on the front of the drive will be going up and down. Right now, it's just still, with one little segment near the top "burnt out" (it's not really burnt out, as it does light up every now and again, but lately that section doesn't light up).

I've tried stopping the Time Machine backup, ejecting the drive and remounting it, but that doesn't always help. Even power-cycling doesn't always do the trick, which has me a bit worried. Previous SNAFUs with this or other WD drives have caused me to switch from USB to Firewire for the port of choice, and make sure that it's powered directly into a wall socket, versus a surge protector (which seems stupid, but meh, it's what they told me).

Anyway, after it started to click this morning, I got worried, so I looked into whether it was still under warranty. It is, and in fact, I can upgrade to a 1 TB drive for $20 off the MSRP, provided I ditch the current warranty on my existing drive. Thus, a quandary: do I wait for the drive to asplode before getting a new one, or do I act preemptively, assuming that no click is a good click?

Idea that just got thrown out the window: use a new 1 TB for a data external and use the old data external (250 GB) for Time Machine. That won't work, because if my internal is 300 GB, then I need at least that much (double is better) for a Time Machine. I'm actually kind of cutting it close with the 500 GB Time Machine I'm currently using.

I also have conflicting "to do" stuff with the laptop itself. See, I was worried about losing my iTunes library, so I moved the larger one to my external hard drive. That means it doesn't get backed up with my Time Machine. So if I do something stupid, like delete files off my external, I'm S.O.L. I've been thinking about moving my complete iTunes library back onto my internal HD; I have the space for it. It'll start getting backed up with Time Machine (unless the clicks really do spell bad news), and that should all be gravy. I don't really need two libraries, one iPod-sized and the other not. I can just manually sync what I want through checking and unchecking tracks and playlists and such.

What confused me was that the Genius at the Genius Bar (honestly, at this point, I'm starting to think it's a rather lame title) suggested moving my iPhoto library onto an external! But then I can't access it when I'm out and about, which is why I'd always kept it on the internal. Plus, it's getting backed up by the Time Machine! Apparently using Backup for these purposes is bad, due to the format Backup uses or something.

And don't get me started on the whole battery thing. The laptop's BEEN plugged in, and yet it's mysteriously at only 97% charge, which probably is a little over 2 hours. I'm sure the battery life is supposed to be longer than that, considering I bought it just a few months ago. And yet it still passes Apple's tests.... I've stopped using Firefox 3.5 for now, since it was proving to be a major CPU hog and probably didn't help with my battery problem.

So, yeah, lots of things to do and I have no idea how or where to start. Grr.

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