Review: Apple’s New .Mac Service

As far as I can tell .Mac (Apple’s Website describing the complete service) has been overhauled in a very big way and for the better. For a while now I’ve been aware of the .Mac service which was basically a somewhat expensive way to keep all of your macs up to date with each other. It offered a simple way to sync bookmarks, address books ect as well as offering 1GB of online storage to use between your iDisk and the IMAP email they offered.

The iDisk itself was and is a very cool system. Basically it’s a place that you can keep your files so that they are available to all of your macs.… Click here to read more!

The Wheels of Progress

Well, It’s been a while hasn’t it? Let me wipe the cob webs of the site (and the servers, but thats another post) and mention a couple of things I have in the works. First off, my Thecus N5200 has been having some trouble lately and I think it’s something that needs to be posted about. As it turns out the web interface for the product is severely lacking and does not in any way provide adequate data about the array’s health. Look for a scathing post about that coming up…

In other (better) news Apple has released some new software (iLife 08,iWork 08) and updated both the Mac Mini and the iMac.… Click here to read more!

New additions to the Image Gallery

Well, I have returned from Nashville where I went to the Music & Worship Conference. Had a great time down there and I took a ton of pictures. I have posted all of the images that I didn’t delete in their unedited form. Out of the 1600 shots I took I’ve keep about 500, not to bad I’d say.

Have a Look. I’ve posted in two groups, one group is pictures from the concerts and classes and the other is shots from around the City as we took some time during our final day to look around downtown Nashville.… Click here to read more!

Followup: Thecus N5200

Well, I have my first real drive failure on my hands. The array has been running for a few months now (though not without issue), and when I logged into it the other day I noticed I have a drive on the fritz. The array did not send me an email telling me about the issue but that could be understandable as the array is not currently degraded, I just have a drive with a few errors. I will place an order for a new disk and go through the process of replacing it. The manual says all I need to do is pull the bad drive and pop in a new good one.… Click here to read more!

HP. Not Perfect, but Trying!

I like HP. They make a good product at a competitive price and most importantly they stand behind what they sell. I’m not going to get into details about my job or our server environment ect ect but I do want to relay a couple of things that have helped to cement my position on HP.

Shortly after I was hired on at the company I work for my boss and I (we’re a very large IT department…) were asked to get a server in house and prepared to host a new application in 10 days. Quite a tall order. We looked into a number of server from Dell, IBM, HP ect ect and settled on getting an HP ML 350 G5.… Click here to read more!

Treo as a Modem: The Windows (Part 2)

Ok, Well, I took a minute to try out pairing my Treo to my Windows XP laptop to see what I could do. The short answer is that the process works and I can get online using the phone as a modem.

The long answer is that it happens in typical windows fashion. I paired the phone using the XP bluetooth tools. During that process it asks which services you would like to use with the phone, one of them is to use the phone as a modem. So far so good. As soon as I clicked on the check box though I swear to you 4, yes FOUR wizards opened on my screen.… Click here to read more!

Cingular Treo 750 as a Modem

Ok, using my Macbook and my Treo 750 it was pretty simple to get online. I’ll outline my process here for anyone else who might be curious to try. I will also post about getting it to work with my HP nc6400, assuming I’m able to make it happen…

Step 1:

Install the Treo Cingular modem scripts. All you need to do is download this file and copy the contained files into the /Library/Modem Scripts folder starting from the root of your system drive. You will not find this folder in your users Library folder.

Step 2:

Pair your mac and your phone.Click here to read more!

Online… From the Highway…

Well, We have just left a fireworks display in Portsmouth, NH. While I was there I was thinking about how to make my Treo 750 work as a modem on my Macbook. I of course was unable to get it to work while sitting on a hill in the middle of now where but as we were sitting in the post fireworks traffic I was able to get my airport to connect to some unsecured wireless. I grabbed the modem scripts I needed just as we got moving again. A few miles down road I was able to get my Mac and my Treo to talk to each other..… Click here to read more!

New Image Gallery Additions

I’ve just added some new pictures to the image gallery. They are shots from a local softball team the Saints. They are, for the most part, taken during the evening and night ‘under the lights’ at the field. I’m a bit disapointed with them as it’s very tough to lock motion in such low light with my amateur lenses. It’s been a lot of fun trying though and every once in a while I manage to get something worth keeping.

I have not edited the images posted and I have only deleted the ones that were totally blurry or lacking a subject, everything else has been posted.… Click here to read more!

Trying to Keep Current

I’ve been making some changes to the site over the past few days. The most obvious one is that I have setup the front page to only show a few lines of each post and to include a link to the rest of the post. Should make the front page a little easier on the eyes as well as the scroll wheel.

I have added a Who Are We? page to offer a bit of information about the authors on this site as well as a my motivation for posting. As of today CodeC11b has not added to that page though I hope he will shortly.… Click here to read more!