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When's A Good Time to Start Backing Up Your Data? Yesterday.
 Apple
I've been in the computer repair business for a while now, and this is exactly how it goes over and over again:
You know people that backup their data. You've seen hard drives that have notes on the box about backing up. Maybe you've even come across backup software before, but you don't use it regularly. Whatever the case, you don't back up your data. Then one day you lose your data. The most common way to lose data is from hard drive failure. All hard drives die, it's only a matter of time. So at this point, you have a computer that won't work, and either no backups, or maybe if you're lucky, you have old or incomplete backups. The next step is to call a computer person, like myself. Then I give you the bad news that your hard drive is dead and all it's data is lost. Sure I can put a new hard drive in and reinstall your system so your computer will work again, but all your personal data is lost. After much grief, you start over from scratch, and this time you start backing up properly. Next time you have a drive failure, you'll have a little bit of downtime, but you won't lose any data at all.
Disclosure: backups aren't a guarantee. If a meteor crashes into your house and hits your computer AND your backup drive, you're kind of out of luck. But data loss due to meteor is very rare. Almost all of it comes from failing hard drives. Even a brand new computer can have a drive failure. It's always important to have an up-to-date backup. Your new computer's warranty will cover replacing the hard drive, but it won't get your data back.
Do you backup? If not, you should start NOW. Don't wait until you lose all your data, like most people do. If you have Mac OS X 10.5 or newer (Leopard or Snow Leopard), it's extremely easy to back up. The operating system has really great backup software built in called Time Machine. All you have to do is plug in an external hard drive and turn Time Machine on. If you have an advanced setup, you can also use a network volume or a Time Capsule device as a backup destination.
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Introducing Mac OS X 10.6, "Snow Leopard"
Apple
The next version of Mac OS X is here. Version 10.6, codenamed Snow Leopard. It is significantly cheaper than all of the recent previous versions of OS X. I believe the reason for that is simply that on the surface, it doesn't look very different at all. It does have a lot of under-the surface features, but for the user, it looks and feels pretty much the same.
The most significant change is that this operating system only runs on Intel-based Macs. PPC Macs, G3s, G4s and G5s, are all now officially obsolete and no longer supported by the most up to date Mac OS version.
The main feature this upgrade brings is greater optimization and performance.
With most of the PPC code stripped out, the operating system as a whole uses a lot less space. In fact, upgrading to Snow Leopard will actually free up several GB of space on your Mac. Apple has also upgraded almost all of their apps to 64-bit.
Apple also introduced two new technologies that you really won't feel at all now, but down the road they will make a huge difference. Applications on the Mac will be significantly faster. The names of these two technologies are Grand Central Dispatch, and OpenCL. Without going into too much dull detail, what these technologies do is allow programmers to greatly speed up their programs by having them more easily use all of the processors in your Mac. All Macs have multiple processors, Mac Pros can have as many as 16 virtual processor cores. They also let programmers use the graphics card in your Mac to give a tremendous speed boost to certain kinds of math. As programmers start to use these tools, programs will get faster and faster.
There are lots of other even more minor changes too. Like support in Mail/iCal/Address Book, for MS Exchange servers.
The bottom line is, this isn't going to be like all the previous Mac OS X upgrades, where it's this big new thing. But it does have lots of optimization and new features beneath the surface, and for only $29, you definitely want to upgrade soon!
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Ouch
Biking
Oh yeah, this is technically my personal blog. So I guess I should write about how I smashed my face open the other day eh? OK so let me explain. Me and my buddy Greg were biking in the Burlington Landlocked Forest. Most of the trails were kind of 'untechnical' but there were a few interesting structures here and there. The one very cool area was a downhill trail with these two massive inline wooden ramps. They weren't really what you would call jumps. More like launch pads. You just float off of them, get an amazing amount of air, and land probably 20 feet down the trail. When at the bottom of these trail, there are two dirt jumps. The one on the left is like a newbie dirt jump, and the one on the right is more of a big boy dirt jump, although it's hard to get a good angle on it.
So we were biking in these woods for a good 3.5 hours. We went down that "jump line" several times. We went all over most of the rest of the woods too. There must be easily 20 very old junked cars in this place too, its so strange.
So on the way home, we decided to stop at the Melrose skate park. It's a tiny outdoor skate park. It only has 3 objects, one barely counts. So I see it and I think, meh this place is tiny I'll just sit on my bike. So I grab my gloves, and leave my pack and helmet in the van. Object one is a miniramp, object two is a mini box jump. So I go up to object 3 which is like a ramp towards the box jump. I hit the mini box jump backwards (up the flat side, down the curve side). But I forget that it's only 1.5 feet tall, and not 5 feet tall. I went big, and I landed in a massive nose dive probably 6 feet past the landing ramp. I'm also riding my mountain bike, not my park bike. My 6.5" travel mountain bike. It's a tall bike, so if you go over your handlebars, you're falling down a long distance. So I smacked my face and started gushing blood all over the place. I also scraped my knee, right shoulder. I also have a sore left wrist, sore left and very sore right shoulder, and my right hand is fucked. It felt like someone whacked my right hand with a sledge hammer. This was Sunday so 4 days later its actually doing much better and I plan on riding tonight.
So I don't crash often but when I do, I crash big. Better crash on a skate park than on highland mountain I suppose. It was a very stupid crash though. I shouldn't have been riding that bike in a park, I shouldn't have hit the ramp the way I did, and of course I should have grabbed my helmet before trying something dumb.
And no there is no video of it. Don't you think I would have posted that already!
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iPhoneOS 3.0: Your iPhone's Full Potential
Apple
I've been using the new iPhone OS 3.0 for over a week now. I have to say, I finally feel like my iPhone is the powerful device it's supposed to be. There are many features under the surface that Apple likes to go on and on about. But I want to tell you about the features you will notice. Also keep in mind I'm using iPhoneOS 3.0 on a 1st generation iPhone, not a G3/G3S.
First thing you'll notice, it's snappier. It's particularly noticeable in the phone app. Making phone calls is much faster. When you hit the phone app, it pops up almost instantly. When you hit Keypad, the keypad also pops up almost instantly. And dialing on the Keypad, I can't put my finger on it, but it feels much better and more natural too.
The phone app isn't the only place you'll feel a boost. The whole phone feels faster, like there is less delay when you click or swipe on the phone. Thing's just happen.
My favorite new feature of 3.0, the thing I've been dying for, is the Landscape (aka wide) keyboard. Thats when you turn your phone sideways, and the skinny little narrow keyboard turns into a wide keyboard. Apparently my thumbs are much bigger than Steve Job's thumbs. But I find it very difficult to type a lot of text on the narrow keyboard. But with all of Apple's apps now incorporating the wide keyboard, I feel like my iPhone finally is that "Internet Communication Device" Apple first advertised it as. I have 6 email accounts set up on my phone, and now I can reply to emails with ease. And without giving very short, abrupt replies. The same goes for text messaging. I've never gone over my 200/month limit before, but I might end up going over now that it's such an ease to type.
Push notification is finally here. You can receive messages and sounds from apps on your phone, when they are not even running. You can talk to your friends on AIM, then switch to Mail, and still get instant messages from your friends. It really gives you the ability to multitask.
There are many many other improvements, but those three are the ones that really effect me the most. I use my phone much much more these days, because of them.
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