Pem’s Tech Blog

This is the previous gen Mac Mini, not the 2010 or 2011 version.  If I wanted to throw money around, I’d probably get a current gen Mac Mini (with AMD Radeon HD 6630M).  But instead, I’m just upgrading the hard drive.  I had this on my list to figure out for a while, but I’ve now finally gone through with it!

Hardware:
I started with one internal hard drive (120 GB), one external FireWire hard drive (1.5 TB), and an optical drive.  I replaced the 120 GB drive with a new 750 GB 7200 rpm drive, and I replaced the optical drive with the old 120 GB drive.  I used a nifty (but overpriced) enclosure from ifixit.com for replacing the optical drive.  This enclosure also made the “6-pin to 15-pin SATA connector” cable (described in one of their tutorials to give the Mac Mini A1283 two hard drives) unnecessary.  I pretty much just followed a photo-based guide from ifixit.com:

http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_mini_Model_A1283#deviceGuides

http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/12-7-mm-SATA-Optical-Bay-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/IF107-081

I had taken apart the Mac Mini once before, to upgrade the RAM to 4 GB, so although it’s kind of a pain (especially the first step of opening it) and took a long time, it wasn’t that bad, and luckily I didn’t break anything.

Software:
Before opening the Mac Mini, I did the initial software part.  I used SuperDuper to make a backup of my 120 GB boot drive to my 1.5 TB FireWire drive. The FireWire drive has two partitions (using Disk Utility) – one for SuperDuper and one for Time Machine.  I verified I could boot from my SuperDuper backup on the FireWire drive (you hold down Option during boot to select boot device).  Then I opened the Mac Mini and did the hardware part.

When I was done with the hardware part, everything worked happily, and I used SuperDuper to move the FireWire backup to the new 750 GB drive…  Except, it was still by default booting from the 120 GB drive.  And for some reason it wouldn’t let me use Disk Utility to Erase the 120 GB drive.  Of course you’d expect that when you boot from the 120 GB drive…  But Disk Utility wouldn’t let me Erase the 120 GB drive even when I booted from the 750 GB drive or from the SuperDuper FireWire backup!

Eventually I figured out that the normal workaround is to boot to the install disc.  Since I’d just removed the DVD drive, I ended up using remote disc to my primary computer (my giant Windows desktop with a Blu-ray optical drive).  So I used DVD sharing and Remote Install to use my Windows computer’s optical drive from the Mac Mini during startup.

You hold Option when booting the Mac Mini to get to the boot menu.  While in the boot menu, you can connect to the LAN over WiFi (assuming you aren’t already connected via Ethernet).  On Windows, install Apple’s DVD Sharing and run Remote Install from the DVD (or setup.exe).  Back on the Mac Mini, I picked the Mac OS install DVD (Snow Leopard since I didn’t have a physical disc from the Lion upgrade).  Then, when inside the install disc menu, instead of installing, you pick Disk Utility from the menu, and I was able to Erase the old 120 GB drive from there.  When I exited the install disk, it asked which drive to make my boot drive, and I of course picked the new 750 GB one.

Outro
And everything was now working as expected.  I might later replace the 120 GB drive with a second 750 GB 7200 rpm drive, or even an SSD drive…  But if I do, I’ll probably wait a while (maybe a year).  For spending time on stuff like this, I have other ideas, such as set up Mac Mini as a common area media center for elliptical, or set up a third computer as a dedicated Linux box to use for code etc.

Pem (Admin) :: 2011/11/26 (Saturday, November 26, 2011) :: Computers / Tech, Mac OS :: No Comments »

Import Audiobook into iTunes
* from http://www.cnet.com.au/how-to-create-audio-books-in-itunes_p7-339293735.htm#vp
* import CD into iTunes (with standard iTunes), AAC is the successor to mp3, although Apple Lossless is lossless
* Get Info -> Options -> Media Kind is Audiobook, Remember position is Yes,
* Get Info -> Info, specify Artwork, etc
* Rename files, such as (Ch. 1) to (Ch. 01)

Convert Podcast to Music using this same method:
* Get Info -> Options -> Media Kind is Music, Remember position is Yes,
* Get Info -> Info -> Genre -> change from Podcast to your new preference

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/07/01 (Thursday, July 1, 2010) :: Computers / Tech, Mac OS, Windows OS :: No Comments »

The iPad supports bluetooth 2.1 keyboards.  But there’s two keyboards in particular that Apple is initially pushing.

The iPad Keyboard Dock has special function buttons on the top row: home button, search button (redundant since you can just press the home button twice?), brightness down, brightness up, picture frame mode toggle, software keyboard toggle, a mysterious unlabeled button, music/video media controls (track left, pause/play toggle, track right), volume mute, volume up, volume down, screen lock.  One thing I like about it is that the bottom left keys are (Control, Option, Command).

However, the deal breaker is that the keyboard is attached to the dock, and the dock doesn’t fold – so this makes it less portable.

When you checkout from the online Apple store with an iPad, the other keyboard they try to sell you is the Apple Wireless Keyboard.  I’ve used one at a Best Buy display, and I think it’s pretty slick overall (in particular, it’s small size).  However, I’m not sure how well it would fit in my laptop bag next to the iPad, with that raised cylinder.  The other concern is whether the F keys work the same as with the iPad keyboard dock.  I am hopeful that they do, even though they are labeled differently.

However, the deal breaker is that the bottom left keys are (Fn, Control, Option, Command).  The position of the Fn key is confusing for shortucts.

A similar thing that may kill me, regardless of what I do, is that, when I use Mac OS X, I remap Command to Control (and Control to Command), so that most Windows shortcuts (like ctrl+X, ctrl+C, ctrl+V – cut, copy, paste) work the same.  I am doubtful about this being easy to do on the iPad.  I know it’s close-minded, but shortcuts like cut copy paste are for my left pinky finger – not my left thumb!!!

For now, I’m waiting to hear more info about specifically how the iPad works with the specific keyboard keys…  And whether they will release another Apple Wireless Keyboard (for iPad) that doesn’t have the Fn key.  Or another iPad Keyboard Dock, that is more portable.

Update: I still don’t like that the wireless keyboard has a Fn key.  And it looks like you can’t remap the keyboard keys (like I do on Mac OS X, swapping control and command).  So you still have to do (Cmd+X, Cmd+C, Cmd+V) for (cut, copy, paste), which is the Windows equivalent of having to do (Alt+X, Alt+C, Alt+V) instead of (Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) – in terms of the hand positioning (muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts).  However, overall, my biggest gripe is that I want an Apple wireless keyboard without that Fn key.  It really bothers me (in terms of muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts), since it means Control is no longer on the very bottom left!  I think I’d be a lot happier if they put Fn key on the right side of the spacebar.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/04/11 (Sunday, April 11, 2010) :: Hardware, Mac OS, Mobility :: No Comments »

I am interested in the iPad.  The reason is not because it’s awesome (although it is, but so are a lot of other things).  The reason is because they are first to market, and it may be a while before something that is really in the same category comes out.  The general category is, bigger than a smart phone but smaller a laptop.  However, that’s not the entire story.

I’ve pretty much lost interest in single-purpose one-color slow-screen-refresh devices, like the Amazon Kindle, or Barnes and Noble Nook.

Today’s netbooks are still slow, because Intel Atom is slow (and at the same time, Atom’s power efficiency is worse than ARM devices).  There are even some thin keyboard-less Atom tablets (such as Archos 9 PC) (Asus has a rumored Eee Tablet), and convertible Atom tablets (such as an Asus Eee model).  But that’s still a different category – an undersized x86 Windows computer (with an x86 OS), rather than an oversized ARM device (with an ARM OS).

This is the same reason why I would call the upcoming HP Slate PC to still be a significantly different category.  Yes there’s starting to be more overlap in functionality, making it feel somewhat gray.  Yes, there will be a stronger push for x86 keyboard-less tablets too.  But running (Windows 7 on a real x86 computer) vs. running (iPhone OS on an ARM device) is still a completely different experience – even if they are both tablets with screen sizes that are about the same size.  Also, HP Slate PC isn’t out yet (rumors say June).

Another iPad competitor that looked sort of cool is the TouchBook (it’s a small ARM netbook).  And it did come out before the iPad…  But I’m skeptical about the resistive touch screen (it’s also a little thicker, even without the keyboard).  In the end, it’s another ARM tablet that supports Android OS (and other mobile OS’s), although I do love the detachable screen / keyboard design.

The real competitor for iPad (in terms of category) is other similar sized ARM devices.  Later this might include Windows Mobile 7, or even Palm Web OS, or Nokia Symbian (or who knows – maybe even BlackBerry?).  But right now the main known competitor is Android.  That’s in the near future, but not a lot out yet.  Plus, there might be further delays (before we get something that really competes) relating to Android fragmentation and multitouch support?

So I’m definitely considering an iPad myself (for now) – unless I see some really amazing Android Tablet coming out within the next month.  Then, in a year or 2 (or 3), I may also be in the market for an x86 tablet (or convertible laptop).  Maybe a nice x86 tablet with an awesome AMD/ATI Fusion processor

Finally, I would like to admit that the current separation between (x86 with desktop OS: Windows 7, Mac OS X, Linux) and (ARM with mobile OS: iPhone, Android, Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry) may become even more gray.  Because both Android OS and Chrome OS support both ARM and x86.  For example, the WePad is x86, yet it’s going to run Android.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/04/11 (Sunday, April 11, 2010) :: Hardware, Mac OS, Mobility :: No Comments »

On Windows, try: echo hello | clip

On Linux, try: echo hello | xclip

On Mac OS X, try: echo hello | pbcopy

For example, you might do (cat myFile.txt | xclip).  This would basically allow you to edit the clipboard directly.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Mac OS, Misc, Windows OS :: 1 Comment »

DropBox is an awesome easy way to sync your files with the cloud and with multiple computers.  To start, just install it, point it to a data folder, and let it automatically sync your files with DropBox in the cloud.  Please click my referral link:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEyODU2ODk

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/12/18 (Friday, December 18, 2009) :: Internet / Web, Mac OS, Windows OS :: No Comments »

Edit -> Preferences -> iTunes Media folder location –> [folder]\iTunes_Media
* check Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library
* check Keep iTunes Media folder organized

File -> Library -> Organize Library, check Consolidate files, OK
=> consolidates your files into [folder]\iTunes_Media, can take seconds or hours depending on how many files it has to copy
=> when it’s done, you can delete the original files

iTunes Database files will still remain here, including (for Windows 7): C:\Users\[you]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl

This was the way to go when upgrading from (iTunes 8 to iTunes 9), since it used to be “iTunes Music” centric organizing, but now it’s “iTunes Media” (more generic).  Or when moving to a new computer.  Or when moving the location of your iTunes library.  Let iTunes organize the files for you, and consolidate them.

Here’s a really long tutorial for this with iTunes 9, posted 2009/09/21 (for moving your files to a new location, or to a new computer): http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/09/27 (Sunday, September 27, 2009) :: Mac OS, Windows OS :: No Comments »

Well it just came out, and since my Mac Mini was purchased recently, I only had to pay $9.95 instead of $29.

I think it sounds like a great deal.  Although to be a skeptic, I might ask, which is better:
A) release a free service pack every year for 5 years, then sell a new version on the 6th year for $100

B) release a a service pack every year for $30

So maybe you can argue that “B)” is closer to what Microsoft did with Windows XP vs. Vista?  But I only say that for the sake of argument (devil’s advocate).

Overall, I’m enthused to try out Snow Leopard.  I think the low cost is awesome, and the focuses on real improvements (like performance) (rather than random feature bloat) is also great

Also, as far as new features goes, I am excited about out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007, seeing as it’s what most corporations use.

They definitely got my $10, and with no complaints

Although keep in mind I wrote this post after I ordered it, but before the DVD arrived in the snail/paper mail

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/09/04 (Friday, September 4, 2009) :: Mac OS :: No Comments »

What’s the best part about Mac OS X?  Is it the fact that it’s different than Windows?  No, let’s be honest, the best part about Mac OS X, and the only thing that makes it useful, is the fact that you can run Windows on it.  Let’s be honest, the only thing useful about a Mac is that you can run Windows on it.  Okay, sarcasm aside, of course this means I had my few weeks of fun with Mac OS X, and now it’s time to look at (dual-booting with Boot Camp) and (virtualization with Parallels and/or VMware Fusion).

Fortunately (thank god), I can use my same (Windows 7) boot partition both for dual-boot and for virtualization.  Here’s the summary of how I set it up:

1) get ISO and/or DVD of Windows 7

2) run Boot Camp in Mac OS X to create the partition, simple / self-explanatory (I gave mine 35 GB of hard disk space)

3) boot from Windows 7 DVD, format Boot Camp partition (mine was 35 GB) (so it will be NTFS), install Windows 7, do the usual install/update stuff

4) inside Windows 7, insert Mac OS X install DVD, and it will run the Boot Camp setup / install wizard, so that you will have a Boot Camp control panel in Windows

5) reboot back into Mac OS X (you can select from the Windows Boot Camp control panel to restart and boot Windows, or you can hold down command or something during the boot: later I will check if you can make it a 5 sec count-down timer like my Vista boot loader does)

6) install Parallels and/or VMware Fusion 2.0 (I did Parallels Desktop 4.0), create a new virtual machine, point it to the Windows 7 iso or dvd-drive, and make sure to select Boot Camp partition when it asks.  I left the default 1 GB RAM 1 CPU for now.  It gave me warnings that I will need to reactivate MS Windows and MS Office, and that Windows 7 isn’t officially supported by Boot Camp yet (I ignored the warnings).  I let Parallels do its thing, and eventually has you log into Windows and run a virtual disc setup.exe file to enable the Coherence mode.

7) to shutdown Mac OS X, it says to shutdown the virtual machine (Parallels with Windows) first

Okay somehow this broke my Boot Camp.  I can’t seem to boot natively into Windows anymore via Boot Camp???  Startup Disk only shows the Mac OS X disk???  Never mind, shrug, somehow rebooting multiple times, with the Mac OS X install DVD in the drive caused (Startup Disk) to show it again.  I also went to the Boot Camp wizard inside Windows (inside Paralells) and selected boot from Windows there.  After all this, I also finally got it to show the boot menu by pressing (ctrl, win, alt, ctrl, win, alt, over and over, during boot-up)

9) boot (Windows 7) with Boot Camp, looks good , boot (Mac OS X) then open Parallels virtual machine pointing to the same (Windows 7) partition, looks good , enter Coherence mode and open OneNote.  God’s in his heaven- all’s right in the world

Now for the crazy stuff…  I wonder if it’s going to break my notes if I do this: (Mac OS X runs Live Mesh native.  OneNote running inside Parallels points to Live Mesh folder for notes).  Arg, this is probably a dangerous idea.  Maybe I should redo this to be running Live Mesh inside the (Windows 7) partition, and point my OneNote notebook to that copy…

Btw, I will post some screen shots later, and probably also try out VMware Fusion with the same Windows 7 partition (hopefully it’s okay to run all 3 from the same disk)

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/08/08 (Saturday, August 8, 2009) :: Mac OS :: 1 Comment »

Here’s what I am using (as of 2009/07/18):
* most of my hard drives are primarily for Windows and use NTFS; if necessary then I can use macfuse on Mac OS X
* my Mac Mini’s internal/boot drive will stay HSF+, (Mac OS X Extended (Journaled))
* my one OS X Time Machine hard drive will be NFS+, using MacDrive on Windows

The rest of this article is the details and background info…

Notes from simple CNET video, regarding native support:

* NTFS is standard for Windows
* HFS+ is standard for Mac OS X
* FAT32 is cross-platform
* FAT32 can not create a file bigger than 4 GB

Mac OS X: options to also write NTFS:
* macfuse
* Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X
* NTFS-3G

Windows: options to read/write HSF+:
* MacDrive: read/write, not free
* HFSExplorer: only does read

Notes based on: http://cnettv.cnet.com/format-drive-mac-os-x-windows/9742-1_53-50074180.html

So why would anyone want a file bigger than 4 GB?  Some obvious examples:
* large video file
* system backup disk image file, such as (Acronis True Image, or Norton Ghost)
* iso disc image (standard DVD is 4.7 GB, dual-layer is 8.5 GB, blu-ray is much more)

Mac OS X, More Details:
One catch is that Mac OS X Time Machine requires HFS+

Mac OS Extended is the same as HSF+ or HFS Plus

Mac OS X (Journaled): better, plus Mac OS X Time Machine requires journaling

HSF+, not case sensitive: By default, both my Mac Mini’s internal drive, and my recent purchase pre-formatted for Mac OS X external drive, were both not case sensitive.  They both came as and still are "(Mac OS X (Journaled))”.

UFS: Unix File System:
Another twist is the UFS file system, which is supported by Mac OS X.  UFS is case sensitive.

Case sensitive?
* UFS : yes
* NTFS: no
* Mac OS X Extended: no
* Mac OS X Extended, Case Sensitive: yes

Because UFS is case sensitive, this might be a theoretical concern for (compiling something for unix on Mac OS X) or (for using a drive with both Mac OS X, and Linux such as Ubuntu)

One reference says (If this kind of case-sensitivity is important to you, you can create a UFS partition or disk image and use that for your sources) — http://developer.apple.com/unix/crossplatform.html

However, at this point I am planning to just ignore that, and leave all my drives as not case sensitive (NTFS is not case sensitive) (my Mac OS X drives are not case sensitive).  Maybe I will worry about it later if I start running Ubuntu on one of my home computers.

One reason is that the default is (not case sensitive).  The other is that I’ve read some rumors suggesting it might cause some incompatibility problems with certain software.

Mac OS X Disk Utility doesn’t call it HSF+:
* Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
* Mac OS Extended
* Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
* Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

As explained in my article, I am keeping the default: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

I feel like it could reduce confusion if they would just call it HSF+ instead of “Mac OS Extended”?  But then again, it is common to have more than one name for the same technology standard: consider (HyperTransport was originally LDT) and (FireWire is the common name for IEEE 1394).  And I guess Apple thinks they are making things simpler by using a more “friendly” sounding name.

When installing Mac OS X, you can choose UFS or HSF+:
I found this referenced in some Apple articles, such as: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1410?viewlocale=en_US

I’ve read there might be some theoretical scenario where you want a case sensitive file system on Mac OS X, such as for compiling certain unix code.  Maybe.

However, right now (2009/07/18), my Mac Mini OS drive and Time Machine drive are both HSF+, called Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  So that is my plan, unless at some point I hear about some good reason to use a case sensitive format, such as UFS or (Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), which means HSF+ case-sensitive journaled).

Pem (Admin) :: 2009/07/18 (Saturday, July 18, 2009) :: Mac OS, Windows OS :: 1 Comment »