Macintosh

June 16, 2004

120 GB Hard Drive

I was thinking of getting a new hard drive for my desktop computer. So this evening I spent a few minutes looking around the web at some electronic stores near me to see who had the best pricing for a 120 GB internal hard drive. (Since this is to be for storage, the speed of the drive didn't matter.)

Best Buy	Maxtor	$113.99
Comp USA	Maxtor	$119.99
Micro Center	Maxtor	$139.99
Staples	Maxtor	$119.98

It appears that Best Buy had the best pricing option. Not only that BestBuy.com has the ability to order online and pick it up at the store, so you'll know it will be there when you arrive. (It isn't fun going to the store and finding out that they don't have it in stock.)

However looking online, I noticed that MacSales.com has a Maxtor 160GB drive for $117.99. So if I am willing to wait a couple of days, I can get a 160GB drive for about the same price of 120GB drive.

I'll probably go for the MacSales.com option.

June 08, 2004

Itunes Problems

I am in the process of making my new apartment to be pretty high tech. Right now I have a wireless network and a webcam setup. In fact, you can see the latest photo online.

In order to do this I have one of my old Macintosh computers, Powermac G3 400Mhz, in my living room. So I thought I would take advantage of the computer and use it as a personal stereo. I have run into two problems:

1. The speakers I wanted to use are not working, this is probably because I have the wrong input connector, and buying an adapter at Radio Shack should fix this.
2. The more serious problem is that I can't see other Itunes libraries from my two newer computers. This seems to be a 'known' problem since other people are encounter this.

So, once everything is successful, I'll be able to stream music from my office to the living room and the dinning room. Apple just announce a cool new adapter, I'll have to check that out to see if it will fit into my network.

May 20, 2004

MacJournal

For the past few months I have been using MacJournal by Dan Schimpf Software. This is a great Macintosh application that allows you to store data in a Journal form.

Does this mean I am writing a book? No, I am logging all my PHP, ASP and Cold Fusion code so that I can use them again. This application allows you to store the data in an organized way and the find it easy.

For the past 2 years I was using BBEdit, and saving the files in a Library folder. However, this makes searching hard, and BBEdit doesn't support images.

If you do any development on a Macintosh, you should check out MacJournal.

March 24, 2004

Carbon Copy Cloner

A year ago I mention a neat Mac OS X utility called Carbon Copy Cloner. Well once again I need it again since I'll be install a new 60GB hard drive into my laptop. Most of the software I'll be installing will be from scratch, but Carbon Copy Cloner will help with migrating some other programs.

Carbon Copy Cloner is an easy way to copy one hard drive to another. Its a great backup utility for people who have laptops and want a complete backup of the system.

March 07, 2004

MSNBC and Apple

If you use a Macintosh and visit MSNBC you'll discover that you are not able to utilized their website. All the video content checks the operating system and will not play the video if you are not using a Window's system, even thou Windows Media Player is available for the Mac.

I was also getting errors when I was clicking on several news links. It appears that MSNBC is using some special HTTPD redirect commands that are not industry standards.

This isn't a major issue since there are lots of sites that offer news on the Internet, but it just goes to show how Microsoft tries to force people to use their technology even if its not the best.