Category: General

Mac addicts probably already know this, but the MacWorld 2006 keynote is available online. It used to be possible to watch the keynotes live, but this has not been possible lately. At least the delayed version remains and it is good entertainment (mostly marketing hype).

I do enjoy the opportunity to check out new products. As things in my world go, we purchased a new iMac desktop for a kind of Christmas present and Apple announced a new iMac during the keynote presentation. Supposedly nearly twice as fast. Oh well, the “old” one is still too fast for me.

I thought the new iLife 06 products have educational potential. The iWeb softare appears to be an easy way to author web content and a new feature of iPhoto allows sharing of image collections. The new opportunity to create videopodcasts within iMovie may also provide the foundation for projects.

Check out the streaming version of the keynote – you can skip the first fifth or so and see the products I mention here.

I turned off my original server today. It was a Mac PowerPC 6150 operating at 66 megahertz. It ran on the 7.6.1 operating system and used Webstar 3.0 server software.

As is the case with other “characters” of legend, I really don’t know how old my server was. The oldest file I could find dated from 1996, but I am not certain the original page served from the machine still exists.

The expression “they don’t make ’em like they used to” really applies to this machine. Early on, I remember the fan went out and the machine shut down automatically because of the heat. With the exception of that one equipment problem and the time power to the campus was shut down during the flood of 1997, the machine ran for probably ten years without a problem. Imagine turning your desktop machine on, starting some program that continually accesses the harddrive, and then coming back 10 years later to see if everything is OK.

The machine was still willing to try, but new web content is simply too complex, built of too many components. Each component, no matter how small, takes a channel and the server software would only handle 10 channels. It takes time to open and close these channels and at 66 megahertz to send data through the channels there were simply too many delays for viewers. Not everyone respects “experience.”

I do not think I will be able to recycle this machine. Perhaps I will find a nice place in the corner of my lab and just let it rest. I once thought we might retire together. I would box up my stuff, turn off my server, and walk out the door. I guess not.

I am fascinated by the new AJAX applications (e.g., gOffice). I don’t understand exactly how software of this type is written and I am fascinated by those who spend what must be a tremendous abount of their time on projects with no obvious compensation (I do recognize the value of satisfying the creative urge, but I personally can satisify this drive with only a couple of hours of time).

My newest interest in Writely.

For the uninitiated, this type of application resides on the “net” and operates on your machine within a standard browser. It is similar to what I used to understand the term “thin client” to imply (a machine with no harddrive requiring that all apps be downloaded into memory as needed).

So, Writely allows you to access a browser whenever and from where ever you might want to work. Writely has two features I did not understand to exist in gOffice. First, you can store files in RTF format and you can get them to your personal machine when you want. Second, Writely has been developed to encourage collaborate efforts – i.e., you can work on a document remotely with colleagues and not have to send the document back and forth (the copy you see is the existing version of the document). I would think an app of this nature would of interest to K-12 teachers wanting to engage their students in collaborative writing activities.

This is an attempt to regenerate one of the posts I created during the holiday break (before I messed up the database).

Cindy found an interesting automator script in MacWorld that generates a 20 x 30 inch poster made up of 72 or 96 images. She decided to create a poster for each of our children (22-30 year old adults) from our collection of digital images. You need to be running Mac OS 10.4 to make use of this automator script.

The following is a miniature version of one of the posters she created. The result of the process is a PDF file. The cost to print such a file commercially will probably be about $25.

Since this is after the holidays, I have a second image that gives you a better feel for what the final product looks like.

Just for the record, the first script she downloaded did not work. Luckily, some time had passed between the time she initially downloaded the script and when she first tried the flawed script. When she downloaded the script a second time and it worked perfectly. Perhaps the original script was flawed and the problem had been reported by others. Read the article associated with the link I have provided to get a general overview of the process, but use the instructions associated with the download itself if you decide to create your own poster.

This procedure may have classroom value in displaying a “collection” of images on a specific theme. For us, it was fun to try to remember the date and situation associated with each image.

I have always enjoyed operating my own server. This situation is not a necessity for me or for most others with an interest in exploring Internet services, but it is fun and it is a way to develop a little better understanding of how things actually work (or frequently what “issues” can cause problems). I have the advantage of working at a university which provides me the opportunity to gain access to the Internet AND to attach servers to the Internet.

This blog runs on WordPress software. For WordPress to work, the server must also provide access to MySQL (a database). I use a Macintosh computer (which means I am taking advantage of the UNIX components built into the Mac operating system – this includes the Apache server software). A Mac server is very easy to operate. MySQL and WordPress are open source resources that can be downloaded. I have installed both several times. Sometimes the process is easy and sometimes it takes me a lot of trial and error. One of the problems of not spending huge amounts of time operating servers is that I rely heavily on trial and error to get things to work and because the time span between doing the same thing can be lengthy (e.g., upgrading WordPress), I do not seem to get better at it. Perhaps this challenge could be overcome by keeping notes on my efforts, but I tend to believe things continue to change (new operating systems, small changes in the applications) and the process is always slightly different.

WordPress has released a nice documentation site that may provide potential hosts the insights they need to get started.

Lately, I seem to be running into a major technology problem each day. Today, all my Microsoft applications refused to open unless I paid money. It took me a little while to identify the problem. Evidently near the end of 2004, someone (this typically means I am blaming my wife) loaded “Office 2004 Test Drive” on my Mac. Evidently, today was the first time I opened a file created with a Microsoft product on this particular machine in the new year.

I do not use the Office 2004 Test Drive applications but the installation of this product must have somehow modified my Office v.X applications (or supporting files). I removed the Office 2004 Test Drive file and this turned out to be a mistake. I should have run an uninstall program in the “Test Drive” folder to remove Test Drive and the altered Office v.X and then reinstalled my Office v.X files (luckily I could find the installation disk or I would have been forced to pay a ransom to Redmond).

In case, you encounter a similar problem you can download a copy of “Test Drive” (DO NOT INSTALL) and run the uninstall program. I have no suggestions if you cannot locate your original install disk.

If you make frequent visits to this blog, you probably noticed that several weeks worth of posts disappeared. This was my fault. I operate several servers and took a short cut when setting up a new machine. I copied a version of my database administration tool from one machine to another. For some reason when I returned from vacation it looked like I had also copied the databases. So – I deleted the databases on the new machine. It turns out that the config files sets a virtual host path and I was actually deleting the databases from the original machine. This meant that I eliminated all of my blog entries.

I do back up my material (evidently on Dec. 7). The problem with my backup technique is that the tool I use assumes the database structure still exists and all the tool needs to do is reload the data. There is probably a lesson here. My favorite technology commentator (Leo Laporte) recently discussed the down side of specialized backup software in comparison to simply copying key parts of the hard drive to an external disk. The file created by the specialized software may not be readable by any other application. This was similar to my situation. Luckily, I had saved my database information (mysql) out as an sql file (a text file containing the data and file structure information) several months ago. I was able to use this old information to recreate the database and then use my specialized software to reload everything to the point of my last backup.

Anyway, I will attempt to recreate some of the missing posts within the next week or so.

New Year’s resolution – backup!