Over the past couple of weeks a series of unfortunate events has led me to spread my computing across two laptops and a Mac Mini (Long story starting with a flat tire and drowned MacBook Pro). We typically use SuperDuper to move the information on computer into another as part of our regular backup strategy. In this case, I’ve been using Apple’s built-in function to transfer the files and settings, which works incredibly well.

Through all this I realized that the love and personal attachment I’ve always felt for my Mac’s has transferred from the physical machine to the “soul” of the machine. Before I get too spooky, let me explain. I’ve been using Mac’s for two decades. They’ve always been a significant purchase (most computers are), but I really used to geek out on the machine itself. Apple has almost always excelled at merging beauty of form with the highest practicality of industrial design (longevity, durability, easy access to replace parts, etc.). Since I lean on the side of function in design, nothing impresses me more than artists and designers who truly innovate and move the industry forward by creating brilliant art without sacrificing practicality. (And yes, even at current prices Mac’s are still practical over the long haul if you compare their average lifespan to equivalent PC’s)

The new MacBook Pro is no different in continuing the practical work-of-art tradition, but the software has evolved to make moving from one computer to another painless and simple. So simple, in fact, that it’s not difficult to imagine that what you’re actually doing is moving the soul of the computer (that is, everything you do to make it uniquely your own) to another body. Taken a step further, it’s not hard to imagine that this soul will one day live in the cloud and that you’ll be able to access it from any computer or mobile device. Let’s not talk about Matrix-esque hard-wiring quite yet.

At first I was slightly disappointed in myself for losing this enamor for my computer. I wrote it off to growing up, or just the fact that with the business I now own several computers when I used to hold onto just the one. But then I realized all I’ve done is stopped caring so much about the physical body of the tool, and now focus entirely on how I use the tool. I still love my Mac. It’s just that now “my Mac” isn’t really a computer, it’s some transient pile of ubiquitous bits and bytes that have a diminishing relationship to the body they inhabit. I guess you really can’t judge a MacBook by its cover.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Gadget, Technology

In the Woodfield Apple Store last night, I noticed that Apple is now displaying ads for Yelp and Twitter on their walls. This is part of the huge campaign to promote iPhone apps, but I was encouraged that these services (especially Twitter considering the benefit of using it on a mobile device) are now considered mainstream enough to get people’s attention in such a heavily branded environment.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Web

Everyone who takes and edits photos (isn’t that everyone?) should check out Picnik. This service is going to give Adobe Photoshop a run for its money. It’s by far the most comprehensive and easy-to-use Web-based photo editing software I’ve ever seen. I like that you don’t have to have an account to try it, which makes it easier to sample. Integration with popular photo-sharing and social networking sites makes it a breeze to use in those spaces. I’m glad someone got this right as it’s been needed for many years.

We’re looking at their API feature for integration into our future projects. But don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself!

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Social Media, Technology, Web

My mother and friend each lost computer data recently, so I’ve been thankful for having a comprehensive backup and recovery set-up for the office. I outlined it for my friend after he asked, so thought I would share it here as well. It’s inexpensive, efficient, and covers me for incremental file versioning, immediate system recovery with no reinstallation downtime, and offsite backups for full contingency. This is based on our primarily Macintosh network, but the principles apply to any computer system.

For many years I’ve used Retrospect software, which is especially great for multiple machines on a network (Mac/PC). But even if you are just backing up the files on your local machine, it’s nice because you can script it very precisely (more efficient) and it’s incremental, so you can recover a version of a file from, say, 30 days ago.  Apple’s Time Machine is a slicker interface, but incremental backups work fine through Retrospect. And darn the timing, I just got an email from EMC that Retrospect 8 for the Mac is out. I’m still on 6.2, so I think they skipped a version, but it works fine with Leopard.

Retrospect:
http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/software/retroformac/

I have many layers of backup myself.  My main file server has RAID mirrored drives for sensitive company data (RAID means if one drive fails the machine will keep running until you replace the other drive. Both drives must fail to take down the machine).  This data is then backed up to Retrospect software running on a trusty 1st gen Mac Mini with 2TB of storage hanging off it that doubles as music server for the office.

Another layer of backup strategy addresses the issue of getting you back up and running quickly in the case of catastrophic failure.  Retrospect and Time Machine are great for incremental file backups, but there is an application called Super Duper that clones your entire hard drive.  In the case of drive failure, you can easily boot off that external USB drive and start with all your data and apps right where you left off, even from another computer.  After replacing the defective drive or fixing the computer, you can hit one button and it will dupe everything back to the new destination.  Never skip a beat.  We have this on everyone’s laptop to complement Retrospect’s incremental backup.

SuperDuper:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Now this leads to the final layer of contingency, which is off-site backups.  We’d still be up a creek in the event of a fire, etc.  Extreme and rare, but it’s still a possibility.  I finally got MobileMe last year, mainly for photo sharing, but also for remote backup.  I’ve been less than thrilled with the backup performance, but it’s okay.  It almost seems like an afterthought, as you have to download a separate Backup application and configure it.  It’s also not very efficient as it zips up all your files into a single file which is uploaded every day, or whatever your schedule is, rather than uploading only the files you changed.  It works, just slowly. You can also set up backups to local drives and devices if off-site isn’t a priority for you.

For off-site backups, I would give this a serious look:

Mozy:
http://mozy.com/

Unlimited remote backups for $4.95/month.  Pretty insane deal, though you might consider using it for smaller files and do music/photos/videos locally.  I’m going to start using it to offsite all the Retrospect backups from the network, then I think I’ll finally be covered!  Unless, of course, aliens attack or Bush pushes the WWIII button on the way out of office.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, General, Technology, Web

I must have signed up for Reunion.com years ago, but it was so long ago that they didn’t even have a current email address in my account. I never really used it and recently I’ve discovered why. I received an email from an ex-girlfriend who wanted to connect on the service. No big deal, no hard feelings there, so I clicked the link. When I got into my old account, I found three old letters from about 8 months ago from my piano teacher from high school. Nice to reconnect.

I have to say that the commerce model is indiduous. Nearly every time I click on a link, the site sends me to a page trying to sell me some subscription of additional service. To make it worse, a timer at the top of the page tells you exactly how long you have before this “great deal” expires. I feel sorry for the people who can’t see through that. I probably saw the same “exclusive limited time deal” three times in one session on the site.

With 50 million or so users, they must be doing something right. I wonder how many of those are paying. Considering even the great Facebook doesn’t really have a sustainable revenue model, my criticism here could be off, but I’ll certainly not be using the service voluntarily any time soon.

Even better, when I try to close this window in Safari (or I assume any browser) I get a pop-up window that begs me to try a free premium membership for a year. How desperate are these guys?

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Andy Swindler Categories: Marketing, Social Media, Web

Trying to figure out how to make money online? This article highlights a few web entrepreneurs who have enjoyed great success in the Web 2.0 world. It still requires ingenuity, and most importantly sweat, but perhaps this will spark an idea with you or motivate you to implement the one you’ve been kicking around. Technology has made the prospect of getting a prototype of an idea up and running easier in many cases than it ever has been. And then once you’ve proven the value of the concept, you will face fewer barriers turning that idea into a profitable business model than in the past.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Web

In a nutshell, a podmap combines driving directions like you’d get on MapQuest of Google with voice recognition so that you can speak to your destination and get a file with visual and written directions. Like a podcast, you would be able to take this file with you, put it on various devices, etc. I enjoy the GPS navigation system built into my Prius, but the one thing it’s missing is some way to download destinations I look up on my computer rather than punching in addresses manually. Not the end of the world, but I always seem to want just one more feature. Good thing they keep making them better!

Apple filed for a patent back in January 2007, so I’m eager to see what comes of this new technology.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Gadget, Technology, Web

I was trying to share seven photos (22MB) with some family from a recent trip to Austin, TX. This is just slightly beyond the capacity of most email systems, so we need to look at other ways of sharing the photos. I didn’t really feel like posting them on a public photo sharing site like Flickr or even MobileMe. Since I know that the recipients are also Mac users, it seems like a perfect time to use the Public folder on my iDisk. Seems…

It took me several years to join .Mac (now MobileMe) as it was always one major feature short of being worth it. The photo gallery automation with iPhoto (part of Apple’s iLife suite) is fantastic. The automated backup is okay. The iDisk has been disappointing. It’s sluggish compared to FTP. And the ease-of-use that should accompany a solution built into the desktop is compromised by the non-responsiveness of the folder. To a user, it needs to behave nearly identically to other folders or you’d better make it look like something else so they don’t have unrealistic expectations.

One of the inherent issues with networked file servers is that of file permissions. This pertains to which users have access to the files at all. But it also relates to whether or not computers on the network think the file is in use. If another user is accessing the file, it won’t “release” it to another user. The problem is when a user is done with the file, or has logged of the network, or whose computer has crashed. Sometimes the file isn’t properly released for use.

Last night I was having a slew of issues uploading these seven photos. Access denied, copy aborted, etc. Eventually it just hung with a Finder status bar until it actually crashed the Finder altogether. I logged back in this morning, rebooted the machine a couple of times. Only on the second reboot was I able to delete the half-uploaded folders and finally upload the new complete folder without error. What a pain!

I’ve been experimenting with using MobileMe for offsite backups as well. So far, I’m not impressed with the inefficiency of zipping up all your files for upload every time a backup is scheduled rather than only uploading files that have changed since the last backup.

I’m on a MacBook Pro with the latest version of Leopard. 4GB of RAM. Shouldn’t be having these issues. Am I alone? I’m really hoping I just hit Apple at peak load time (makes sense right before Christmas).

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Andy Swindler Categories: Technology

I’ve long criticized Microsoft for rolling out half-baked software and expecting their enormous embedded (and often unwillingly compliant and loyal) user base to do their beta testing for them. Common wisdom says wait for the SP2 (Service Pack 2) release of any of their major pieces of software.

But in the social media world, where new sites are popping up all over the place, the trend is to slap a “beta” label on it to reduce expectations of reliability, then push it out and encourage feedback from the people who are most interested–the early adopters.

Here is a good 101 write-up of launching a tech startup, including a break-down of alpha, beta, and general public release lingo.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Technology, Web