HARDWARE: Added a POGOPLUG to my garage “datacenter”

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

http://download.pogoplug.com/meet/

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The Pogoplug is the perfect accessory to your connected life. Imagine accessing all your files and media at home from any laptop or desktop computer, anywhere in the world, or sharing this content with friends and family without having to upload. There’s even an iPhone application so you can always “phone home” to get your files!

*** end quote ***

It installed quickly and easily.

It works as advertised.

(Doesn’t seem to like when the platform hibernates?)

Have to figure out how to sync various machines on the home network. No immediately apparent.

RECOMMENDED!

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MACBOOKAIR: So much for Apple’s vaunted service

Saturday, November 27, 2010

201011271138.jpg

Case close. Broken hardware (maybe? probably?) But “closed” from their POV. Not mine.

Now you see why it’s “NOTRECOMMENDED”?

Like DELL, I think they are living of reputation.

# # # # # posted 2010-11-27 11:38


MACBOOKAIR: Hardware problem. (Remember Apple Computers are on my “Not Recommended” list)

Friday, November 26, 2010

“No output sound devices defined” (No input either.)

Conclusion after ½ on the phone is it’s a hardware problem.

NOO, really!

Argh!

They want me to leave the machine for three days for them to diag, order parts, and repair.

You gotta be kidding me.

Or, I can send it in and this is with the extended warranty.

Argh!

This is for a machine that won’t sync. (They never figured that one out either.)

Hence my time machine is a giant router in disguise. That’s all it is good for.

Argh!

BAck when I first got the machine and wasn’t totally “on” it, the screen took a week to replace.

Cloud computing, with all it’s version control issues, is looking better and better.

Argh!

# # # # # posted 2010-11-26 15:34


IPAD: Some irritations with the IPAD

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Major irritations with the way applications are handled on the IPAD. Can’t nuke stuff without going to iTunes. Some applications show up in the “settings”, but most do not. (Why is that?) After upgrading the os, I find I have a new piece of “crapware” added in. Said piece of software has a dumb “sequential” password validation against rules that are not known in advance.

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IPAD: the US-focused Daily

Monday, November 22, 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/21/ipad-newspaper-steve-jobs-rupert-murdoch

iPad ‘newspaper’ created by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch
Apple and News Corp reportedly set to launch joint iPad news publication exclusively via download

*** begin quote ***

Rupert Murdoch, head of the media giant News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are preparing to unveil a new digital “newspaper” called the Daily at the end of this month, according to reports in the US media.

*** and ***

With no printing or distribution costs, the US-focused Daily will cost 99 cents (62p) a week.

*** end quote ***

Unless it has the UK Sun’s Page 3 ladies, I don’t see the 50$/year working.

The FLIP application already on the IPAD for free has a better shot.

All these “media moguls” have done is to get “We, The Sheeple” to buy the reader and transfer all the costs to us from them.

The IPAD is a “game changer” but it’s not a “credit card machine” like a toll booth collector. When I first saw it, I thought it was nothing more than a heavy device to sell me stuff. That’s the way these guys are thinking of it. It’s really a tool that puts the cloud at your finger tips.

Just rearranging those proverbial deck chairs isn’t going to do it.

Micro-payments will.

If each issue cost a tenth of a penny, then maybe you have a chance. And, charge me when I buy it. Subscriptions, “applications” that have to be downloaded to do nothing more than cost your wealth, and “copy protection” (i.e., Digital RIghts Management) in general is not how dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) is consumed on the inet.

(Consumed is a bad word. It’s not “eaten”. It is digested, shared, and amplified. Absorbed might be better.)

This idea is a dud! The continued death throws of the old print media.

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IPAD: Upgrade to new OS

Monday, November 22, 2010

Not immediately apparent how to do it.

Takes a while. Half hour? And, a few syncs.

Not apparent at all how to print from ipad.

Not sure if the upgrade does anything at all for anything.

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HARDWARE: MacBookAir is more like Windoze that folks admit

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

An observation: my macbookair is “slowing down”.

I assume this is an example of “crud buildup”. In Windoze, the registry is the source of all crud. Over time, for inexplicable reasons, the hardware just gets tired. Random slowdowns, lockups, crashes all eventually leading to the dreaded “bare metal restore”. Think voluntary suicide. A metal lobotomy. Starting over, … maybe. Who knows what exactly you will lose.

One of my reasons for trying the MacBookAir was the reputation for … stability.

Sorry, but I think I need a bare metal restore here on McBa.

It’s not going to be pretty. What will I lose?

This is one of the reasons I don’t recommend Apple.

Argh!

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IPAD: Apple wants control

Sunday, November 14, 2010

EMAIL WITH Prof P

Re: Jasper Jottings for the IPAD

*** begin quote ***

Right now Jet Tech and I are wrestling with how to get a free book (one that was electronically given to me by the publisher) onto one of the 6 ereaders on my iPad. I like reading on the iPad so I encourage you to go with it.

*** end quote ***

As I understand it. IBOOKS on the IPAD can only take an EPUB or PDF format via ITUNES. You didn’t say what format the ebook was in? Assuming (and we know what that means), that you have ITUNES set to export “books”, it should flow right over. I have to assume that the ebook you’re attempting to move is in another format. Depending upon what format it is, you’ll have to convert it. On the MAC, I like CALIBRE. While the UI is terrible, it does “do” many formats that I haven’t even heard of. Let me know what the format is or send me the file, I’ll attempt to convert it for you. After all I’m sitting in ICU with nothing to do. :-) Argh!

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MACBOOKAIR: OSX 10.6.5 applied

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Update applied. Big one. Reboot required. We’ll see.

Sound still broken.

Assume sharing is still broken.

Argh! Have to consider “bare metal restore”.

# # # # # posted 2010-11-13 09:53


IPAD: Is held hostage by ITUNES and docking

Monday, November 8, 2010

So far the only way I have found to get a book into, or is it onto, the IPAD is via ITUNES. You either have to buy through their store (and boy do they make that convenient) or to import into ITUNES, dock the ipad, and sync it on board. That’s a pain. Amazing that the IPAD and the MACBOOKAIR are both sitting next to each other and they can not communicate by wifi or bluetooth. It’s no wonder that APPLE gets the label “CLOSED” and “DUMB”. Amazing for as good as their hardware is — novel, useful, and thought provoking, their implementations leave a lot to be desired.

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