My name is Don Farland and I approved this disjointed, rambling, poorly crafted message.
// February 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Computing
I’m sure many of you have a very different definition of FUN than I do, but when I put these three products together the acronym just came together. The real question is, “Why on earth did these components come together in the first place?”
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// February 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Computing
Why is it that I can’t copy my DVDs to my iTunes library and then watch those videos on my iPod or AppleTV? Now that being said, that is something that I have been working tirelessly to make happen and for the most part I have been successful. Unfortunately, there are still far too many discs that I cannot rip because of the disc’s copy protection. Anyone with small children can certainly relate to the pain of purchasing Finding Nemo for the second time because the first disc came into contact with something either abrasive or super sticky.
Ripping your own DVDs on your Mac is actually a remarkably simple task with the great program Handbrake. This open source application greatly simplifies the process and even includes a number of preset configurations for ripping your movies to a format your players can support. With the previous version of the software (0.9.2) the stack of discs that I could not make available to my AppleTV was rather significant. The new version (0.9.3) has worked wonders at reducing that stack significantly, but there are still DVDs that I cannot load into iTunes. Hell, there are even some DVDs that will not even play on my iMac at all.
Rather than go through the process of using Handbrake, here is a good YouTube video on using the product.
// November 3rd, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Music
Unlike a die-hard musician friend of mine I can see the fun-factor in games like “Rock Band” and “Gutiar Hero”. There are quite a lot of people in this world who couldn’t carry a tune in a basket or even fret a note. Heck, I’m always amazed at how many people have no sense of rhythmn. With games like “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” individuals with no musical talent at all can delude themselves into thinking they can play an instrument. Now thanks to Joe Rybicki, they just might be able to create some real music with those silly USB pseudo-instruments.
In a how-to on MacLife.com, Joe steps through the process of connecting the USB drum kit from the hit game “Rock Band” to your Mac and actually using it as a software based drum kit in Garageband. Essentially, you need one or more game controller drivers for your Mac for either $15 or $95 bucks. The cheaper option would appear to be fine for someone who simply wants an oversized midi trigger device, while the more expensive option responds quick enough to actually act as a software based drum kit. Overall, it is an intriguing option that I might consider if I had the room in my little home studio or even had the game.
// October 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Computing
I made the switch to Mac OS a little over a year and a half ago now and I’ve become fully entrenched with Apple products. About six months later, I bought a 1TB Time Capsule and an Apple TV. My router was failing and my removable hard drive could only hold three days worth of Time Machine backups. The Time Capsule seemed like a good idea. In hindsight, I’m not sure if I may have been better off with a sub $100 wireless router and 1TB Firewire 800 drive.
Over the past year, my time machine sparsebundle file has become corrupted 3 times and each time I was completely unable to repair the disk image. I was forced to erase the disk and start over each time. In fact, I’m starting fresh again right now. This time I plan on documenting my progress going forward. One thing that I think has been a factor in my backup failures is my 200GB iTunes library on an external USB disk. I’m going to leave the disk excluded for now and see if stability improves.
Another thing that any prospective TC buyer should consider is the performance of backups of the wireless interface; it is painfully slow. Anyone with any knowledge of networking should be expecting this, but even I underestimated just how slow it can be. Of course, that being said once you get past the initial backup the updates are much smaller and therefore much faster to complete. If you can connect your system via gigabit for the initial backup then you’ll be fine.
One thing that I am pleasantly surprised about is the stability of the router. All of my previous routers from Netgear, Linksys, and Belkin would occassionally freeze up and need to be power-cycled. For the TC, this has happened only once so far. Regardless, if I had the decision to make over again, I can’t say that I’d do it again.
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