Dear Apple
Fighting bad design in Apple products one thing at a time.
The blog went down with a Posterous boat and all the recent posts are lost. I am looking into switching to a self-hosted solutions meanwhile. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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BitTorrent Sync – Free, Fire-and-forget sync between computers
I was looking for something like this for a long time now. I keep books, Documents folder and some app settings in Dropbox to sync between computers. This also allows me to quickly open books in iBook app on iPad, but videos were always a problem.
I sync Podcasts using Instacast but while it is really good with syncing, the subscriptions management is left to be desired. And for non-podcast videos there was no solution in sight… Until now.
Turns out there is a whole undergroun BitTorrent lab producing some amazing tools like BitTorrent Sync. I have installed it on my server computer that holds all the media library, chose folder to sync, copied the secret string and pasted it in on my notebook.
This is it, it started file exchange, no annoying dialogs or popups, the little icon is spinning in the menu bar and the files are being transferred. Pretty much like Dropbox, except that I can’t access the files online. But hey, it’s free and there is no size limit!
So far it is simply amazing, the only thing it is not exactly fast somehow. Which is strange since both computers are in the same networks. I’ll let it run for a while and will see what comes out of it.
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I am still alive… kind of.
Sorry guys, Posterous went down with the blog and the recent posts. Since they haven’t been bothering too much about fixing cross-posting or even replying to emails, everything I have blogged about in the last year is gone. So I am back to Tumblr.
With the recent announcement that Google Reader is about to shut down, I don’t have much trust for these free services anymore. I do have a backup from my old blog though, but I haven’t decided what to do with it yet.
With the recent changes in my professional life I am looking for a new project to work on and might not have enough time to build a new blog in the meantime.
Everything’s for the better, anyway.
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BackupLoupe for Mountain Lion
Good news everyone! BackupLoupe I wrote about before is now working with Mountain Lion and indexes backups just fine. No background indexing yet, but this is not a problem. If you are not familiar with it here is a quote from the older post:
Thanks to Backup Loupe, this wonderful little utility. One of those that should be included with Mac OS, it shows you detailed reports about what was backed up by Time Machine. And if you for example see that 2Gb of some data is being backed up every other hour, Backup Loupe can help you to see what’s going on and find the file or folder to ignore.
You can download it on Soma Zone, don’t forget to support them, it’s only $5 which I was glad to pay.
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If you can’t download Mountain Lion 10.8.1 from Mac App Store…
… download it here instead: support.apple.com/kb/DL1571
Update went fine on my notebook, but on the desktop computer it started to download 4.3 Gb instead. Even after having the update applied Mac App Store wants to download the full Mountain Lion install again. So if you are in the same situation, download an update from Apple directly.
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Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock
Just what doctor ordered it seems. The only problem – it isn’t out yet and there is no hint on the price. Hope it will be more reasonably priced than some of the devices we’ve already seen. But I guess it is cheaper than upgrading a pre-USB3 Apple device anyway. I wish Apple pulled themselves together and made something like this already though. They have money and they need to push Thunderbolt forward. Why not make cheap hi-speed docks, so people would be actually wanting to buy these things?
It’s up for preorder at Belkin, with the release date set in September. But if this thing is going to cost like a rocket launcher I will be happy to skip it.
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Dear null…
Always nice to get an email from Apple…
I had OS X Lion Server, but after App Store restarted 4.5Gb Mountain Lion download for the third time, I gave up and just installed Mountain Lion on top using the installation app that I had already downloaded to another computer.
With it gone were the server additions but since I didn’t use them anyway I don’t mind too much. The only thing though, I would expect it to let me download the server stuff from Mac App Store like I can download iPhoto and other iLife stuff since I have bought a computer with them. But the trick didn’t work. Oh well I don’t mind.
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Google Handwrite
An interesting gimmick, it works right in the mobile web browser be it Android or iPhone. Open google.com and you can write right on the screen when you focus in the input field. It perfectly recognizes at least english. All in all it is really nice except the awkwardness of scribbling letters with your finger.
It raises the same question again, are we really not needing styluses at all? I bought the Cosmonaut, tried a few other ones, but they all are clunky, unprecise and nothing comes close to what I can achieve with my Wacom drawing tablet.
Remember Apple Newton? It had it all, and these days when stylus is suddenly abandoned by everybody, maybe only Samsung Galaxy Note can be used as an actual notepad to scribble down notes or sketches. Unfortunately you’re out of options if you stick with iOS.
PS. Regaring Newton, there was quite an interesting computer running Netwon OS - eMate 300. Reminds me of something all these companies are trying to invent now.
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Leaving Gatekeeper alone
After the post about Hiss where I suggested to turn Gatekeep off, I got a message from an annoyed reader who pointed me that you ca open unsigned apps using Right-Click > Open. I knew that already, but what I did not know is that Gatekeeper will remember that you trust this app and won’t bug you anymore.
Simple as that. Thanks for the tip.
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Q: about your post about Hiss to not disable security in gatekeeper and allow applications such hiss you just need to use right-click popup menu on application and choose "Open" and then allow Hiss to run. your choice is remembered and no need to change security at all. shame on you!!! shame!!!
from Anonymous
A:
Yep, I have noticed that the next day. Thank you for reminding.
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