Logic Board #3

My MacBook Pro is at the Apple Store getting its third logic board and, strangely, I'm okay with that. I first noticed a problem with the right USB port dropping off when accessing a USB Drive or recording. After some diagnosis at the Apple Store, they figured the logic board needed to be replaced. So I turned it in and a few days later got the cal to pick it up.

When I showed up, a very nice Apple Genius explained the new board had a small defect for the onboard battery (the one that keeps time when you shut it down). They had already ordered a replacement but told me to take the Mac home until the new one showed up. Sure enough, they now have the replacement board and are setting things right. This was a great consumer experience. Not because the board was wrong but because they cared enough to figure that out and get the situation resolved even before I knew about it.

As an aside, if you ever get a new logic board, make sure to de-authorize your iTunes account before the replacement. The logic board has the serial number on it so to the rest of the world it is like you got a new computer. It looks like I'm also going to need to restart the Time Machine.

Revisiting Microsoft Word

I have not always been kind to Microsoft Word on the Mac. Put simply, Office 2004, was a slug on intel Macs. It was slow to load, slow to type, and clunky. It was also a resource hog since its not inconsiderable code had to be ground through Rosetta. I simply found it easier to use other applications.

It has occurred to me recently that this has changed. I've been using Office 2008 for a few months and have found it serves an important role in my day job once again. A lot of the work I do is collaborative. I write agreements and contracts all the time and, sadly, I can count the number of Macs on the other end of that process on one hand. So it is a given that I'm dealing with Microsoft Word on the other side of the table just about every time.

Word 2008 cures a lot of its predecessor's sins. It loads pretty snappy and doesn't get in your way when typing. I think the Microsoft Mac:BU has also made some significant strides in making it feel . . . well . . . more Mac-like. I met several of the Office developers at Macworld and a lot of those guys really "get it" with the Mac experience. For me, it was real eye opening. Microsoft Word is legendary for having every imaginable feature. The Microsoft Mac engineers had to retain all of that stuff and still make a pleasant to use Mac application. That is not exactly easy. Nevertheless, they did a good job of containing it all.

Most importantly for me however is compatibility. Microsoft Word on the Mac is rock-solid compatible with that "other operating system." I can send complicated pleadings and forms and nobody ever knows they were made on my Mac. While Pages can do the same for simple documents, on more complex documents, things break down.*

Another thing I like about Word is the way it has embraced automation. Built in automator scripts and plenty of Applescript support make Word an attractive option for me on a lot of my transactional forms. I already blogged this once but plan on following up on this in the future.

So without really thinking about it, I've found myself going directly to Microsoft Word increasingly often. Put simply, Word is back on the team.


* This doesn't mean Pages is out of the rotation. It also certainly doesn't mean that I've stopped using my "precious" Scrivener. When it comes to detailed research or long documents, you'd have to pry Scrivener off my my cold, dead hard drive.

Mac Roundtable 37 is Up

Once again I added my dulcet tones to the Mac Roundtable with the episode that just published today. I can't really give myself very high marks this time. I went in fully prepared to talk about my experience setting up a syncing process for multiple macs but upon listening to it, my well thought out ideas came out as an endless string of gibberish. Oh well. Guess that is one more reason to read the blog. Everyone else, however, sounded brilliant. Check it out.

Going Deeper with SugarSync

So as the readers know, I've been obsessing over synchronizing files lately. I had a pretty good solution figured out using my .Mac iDisk and even made a nifty little Applescript to deal with that pesky Bento.

For the last week however, I've been trying a new online synching service called SugarSync. I've even been talking about it on some of the various podcasts. SugarSync gives you a local client (either PC or Mac) in which you plug in your account information and tell it what data gets Synched. I've got big chunks of my Documents folder going up along with my OmniFocus datafile, Bento database, and several other items I want to have everywhere. I then log in on the other computers and tell them what parts I want synched locally (you can also leave them in the cloud). Once that is done, you are good to go. If I make a change to that little text file that keeps my grocery list, it goes up to SugarSync and then back down to my other Synched computers lickity split. I even have the PC version loaded at work and keep some of my forms synched. I haven't got to the point where I feel comfortable sending client files up into the interweb.

In summary SugarSync does a few things the iDisk solution doesn't:

1. It is faster, much faster.

My iDisk solution involved a second step that included a Chronosync pass. Put simply I was afraid that if the iDisk went nuclear, so would my data. With SugarSync it is not necessary to add that extra step but even if I skipped that and just used the iDisk solution, it still can't keep up with SugarSync. I can close out OmniFocus and then walk ten feet to the other computer and open OmniFocus. By that time it will have already grabbed the database file from SugarSync.

2. It is Multiplatform.

The PC Sync works. This makes it really easy for keeping things working between the Mac and PC. My PC sync is very limited but it works just fine.

3. It works on your Phone.

They have Windows mobile and Blackberry software. They also have an iPhone friendly site that allows you to see all of your files. You can access some of the files directly and email just about all of them from your iPhone.

My Concerns

SugarSync has some nice benefits but comes at a price. The revised pricing plan is 30 gigs for $5 a month. The price just doesn't come from your wallet. It also costs a few clock cycles. As I sit here working on my MacBook Air with 7 applications open, SugarSync is using .1%. I've seen it higher though. Earlier it was at 7% and when it is actually syncing it ramps up higher.

My other two big concerns are security and reliability. The developer explains that the transmissions are all done on a secure connection and the data is also kept secure on the SugarSync servers. I need to investigate further to see exactly what that means. I frankly don't care if someone figures out how to access my grocery list or MacSparky ramblings. Client documents are, obviously, a different question.

Likewise stability is critical. Last week David Pogue and Walt Mossberg gave SugarSync positive reviews and their servers were understandably slammed. Regardless the system was down so it was pretty much useless for a day. If that trend were to continue, I'd lose interest pretty quickly. They have a free 45 trial so if you are interested, head over and try for yourself.

Leap Review

Now I know us old guys frequently like to ramble on about how much things have changed since we first started computing with cassette tape backups and old televisions for monitors. However, there are a few things that haven’t changed at all. Remarkably, one of those is the way we organize files. The step from MS-DOS to the original Mac graphical user interface was revolutionary. Well that was a long time ago and things really haven’t changed much since then. If I could go back in time to 1987 and stick my MacBook in front of an original Mac user, he or she would probably be right at home finding my various applications, folders, and documents.

So the question becomes whether we have not really changed much because the system is perfect, or because we are not really trying. Well Ironic Software’s “Leap” is a finder replacement that looks to cause that type of paradigm shift.

When you fist open the Leap window, it looks more like iTunes than a finder. Gone are the hierarchical directories and in its place are a series of filters based on tags and file types.

For instance I can tell Leap I want to see document files tagged with “form” and “contract” and Leap will go and fetch. It will search through my thousands of document files and returning the few that match that criteria. You can then use the loupe tool to scan over the documents or invoke quicklook to find exactly the file you are looking for. You can then copy, move, delete or open the selected files. You can even save the searches to Leap’s toolbar for future access

It doesn’t matter that those forms may be spread out over 15 different folders. Leap doesn’t care where you keep files, it is more interested in what the files are and what reference you’ve given them. In other words, Leap embraces the anarchy of your cluttered drive.

Leap doesn’t just let you search tags, it also lets you create them. Rather than using its own proprietary tagging system, Leap just applies them as spotlight comments. This way the tags are good in any self-respecting OS X engine. Specifically, it works hand-in-glove with Default Folders X. Why doesn’t everybody do this?

In addition to acting as a potential finder replacement, it also can give you a better method of doing spotlight searches.

I’ve been using Leap for a month now and while sometimes I find it very useful, I still find myself going to Quicksilver or the Finder. The problem with tagging is that you must create the tags. Ironic Software is doing a good job of simplifying this process but it still takes work and you can’t get all of the benefits of tagging until it is in place. So at some point you have to excercise some discipline. I will be very interested to see how the folks at Ironic help us to get our tags set up quickly and easily so we can better take advantage of Leap. I think if you are a “tagger” or contemplating becoming a “tagger”, Leap may be just the tool you need. You can get it at IronicSoftware.com and a license will cost $59. If you decide to buy it, I also recommend Ironic’s very useful PDF organizer, “Yep” which costs only $10 when packaged with Leap.

Looking at the Aperture/Noise Ninja Marriage

So I have this running battle with my flash. Specifically, I cringe every time I use it (particularly indoors). I'm just never happy with indoor flash shots. Anyway, as a result, I am reckless with my ISO often cranking it up 800 and even 1600 to avoid using the flash. The problem is at 1600 ISO, the Rebel can get pretty noisy.

As a result, I've been thinking about buying Noise Ninja to give me a hand cleaning up some of these photos but with the release of Aperture 2.1 it now appears the Noise Ninja developers are going to release an Aperture version as early as May. Needless to say I'm going to wait and see how this all shakes out. Noise removal seems to make more sense to me in Aperture than Photoshop so I'm crossing my fingers.

Wordpress Upgrade Complete - Nothing Blew Up!

Wordpress is getting better about upgrades. The last one I did resulted in about 4 hours of down time and more than a little frustration on my behalf. Tonight I updated to version 2.5 in about 10 minutes and everything worked great.

Mac OS X - Quickly Delete Widgets

Some times I figure interesting tips entirely by mistake. Tonight I was moving some widgets and accidently discovered a very cool tip.

If you hold the "Option" key while over a widget, OS X gives you the option to delete it. This is much faster than clicking the big plus sign below to "manage widgets".

So there you have it. To quickly remove a widget, press the option key.

Book Review - Temeraire Series

I am going to stray a bit with this post so if you are not interested in science fiction/fantasy books, feel free to let your mind wonder.

One of my favorite subjects to talk about with my friend, Steve Stanger, is books. I recently turned him on to a good series (that will get another review another day) and asked him if he had anything interesting. Steve told me about the Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik. These books are set during the Napoleonic wars with one wrinkle: there are dragons. Each country has its own aerial corps of dragons and these books follow the adventures of one such reluctant captain and dragon companion, Temeraire. I don’t want to say much more and spoil the fun but I’ve now finished book 4 of the series (all that are published at the moment) and highly recommend them. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the author was partially inspired by Patrick O’Brian's Aubry/Maturin novels, the source for Russell Crowe’s “Master and Commander” movie a few years back.*

Anyway, I’ve never been particularly enthralled with dragon novels but these are outstanding books with engaging characters. If you are looking for an entertaining read, pick them up. The first book in the series is “His Majesty’s Dragon.”


* This partially explains why I loved the Temeraire series so much because Patrick O’Brian’s novels (which spanned over 20 books) were an obsession of mine a few years back. I read them all but never was able to convince a single person to read them.

The Big Switch

Okay ... I've had it. It is driving me nuts that it is so easy for everyone to make presentations in Keynote. It just isn't right that I can run a home movie production house, photography lab, and music studio off one laptop. I've thought long and hard about it and decided the only answer is regression. I'm switching to Dell.

Oh .. and by the way ... Happy April Fool's Day.