Mac

Restoring iPhoto from a Time Machine Backup

Posted on April 20, 2010

I am doing my first even restore from a Time Machine backup.

The reason for the restore is that I messed up my MacBook iPhoto library trying to merge it with the one from my Mac Mini. I was using iPhoto Library Manager and instead of it following my instructions of “Do Not Duplicate” it duplicated. That caused my iPhoto library to double in size and actually completely fill up my hard drive.

To rectify the situation I copied the bloated library to an external hard drive then deleted my local copy. From there I did a restore from Time Machine to the day before this escapade started.

This situation has really got me thinking on how I can better manage my photos between the two computers. Maybe Dropbox and and Google Picasa are in order here.

Note: After a quick Google search it seems that there is a setting in the iPhoto Library Manager that if not checked WILL duplicate the photos even if you check not to in iPhoto itself. I have no idea why this is there or what use it is but it is a pain. Mine is now checked.

Blogging on My Mac with Windows 7 and Live Writer

Posted on January 20, 2010

Windows-7-parallels So I have taken to doing more blogging lately after a very long hiatus. As apart of my step back into blogging I did another search for desktop blogging applications that would work on the Mac as well as Windows Live Writer works on Windows. Unfortunately IMO there is still nothing that comes close.

My love for Windows Live Writer has pushed me to what may claim to be an extreme work around, but never the less, it is what works for me and I am happy.

What I have done is installed Windows 7 in Parallels and run WLW in it. My Macbook runs great with 1GB of its 4GBs of RAM allocated to Windows. It only begins to slow down if I happen to be running Parallels, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop at the same time (DM and PS are running in OS X). I usually do not have those open when wanting to blog though so I really do not run into trouble.

Some may ask what would push me to run a completely different operating system just to do the occasional blog post?

There are several reasons for this.

Desert The first would be that WLW actually downloads the images and CSS from your blog and you are typing your post in the exact format that you blog is in. This is really helpful when you are doing formatting items such as H tags and images. It truly is WISIWIG and it makes for faster posting of more attractive posts.

Jellyfish Speaking of images WLW has the best image editor of any other desktop blogging tool I have seem. All you do is drag and drop the image into your post. From there you can resize the image by grabbing a corner and dragging. Once you are done dragging the corner the image is resampled as opposed to just being resized. I have not seen any other blogging tool do this.

Lighthouse Also available are a whole bunch of effects you can give the images such as drop shadows, photo frames, and reflections. Along with that you can set custom margins for the images so that your text does not run into them. Finally you can set the images to link to pages, the original size of you image, or to nothing at all. It really does make incorporating images into your posts easy.

There are several other features that WLW has but the above mentioned ones are those that I use the most. They make it worth it to run Windows on my Mac ;-) .

Blogging From Windows 7 in Parallels on the Mac

Posted on January 30, 2009

Windows-7-in-Parallels This morning I was doing a fresh install of Windows XP in Parallels on my new MacBook and decided to go ahead and try to install Windows 7 on my iMac at the same time. At the time of writing this I have finished the install of Windows 7 but am still doing all of the updates on XP to get it running. Windows 7 installed incredibly fast in Parallels 4.0 and the installation of Parallel tools went without a hitch.

I have not had too much of a chance to play with Windows 7 yet, but from what I have seen so far it blows the doors off Windows Vista and XP.

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WordPress Releases Blogging Client for the iPhone

Posted on July 22, 2008

Hot off the press – WordPress has released their blogging client for the iPhone. In fact I am typing this post on my iPhone right now.

I have been waiting for this since the iPhone 2.0 firmware release when Typepad released their blogging client. I downloaded it but never used it since I don’t have a Typad blog.

So far this seems to be working great. The add photo section works cool although it adds the photo to the bottom of the post. Preview is awesome since you get to see you post formated in your blogs theme.

I think with this app I am going to be blogging a whole lot more :-) .

P.S. I originally uploaded images from my iPhone to this post but it was not working. That was an issue with this blog not the app. Also, I have noticed with this post that this template is not very WordPress Gallery friendly – I realize that – i am looking for a new theme as we speak as I cannot stand this one anyway.

My iPhone 1.1.1 Update Went Smooth – installer.app is Gone

Posted on September 28, 2007

I decided to take the leap and update my iPhone to the latest 1.1.1. update. I knew that it was going to kill installer.app and all of the goodies that I had down loaded with it. That wasn’t small price to pay though as I am convinced that all those gadgets were slowing my phone down. It was really starting to get frustrating.

The first thing I did after the update was to make a phone call to make sure at least the phone worked. Calling 611 had the automated teller blaring in my ear – I guess they really did improve the speaker volume. From there I decided to see what other goodies awaited me.

I noticed the new iTunes icon. I checked it out but probably won’t be buying anything from there since I usually just rip from CD’s. If did want to buy online I would probably go wit Amazon instead since there MP3 downloads are cheaper, a better bit rate, and DRM free.

The one thing I do notice is that my iPhone seems a whole lot zippier. I really do think that installer.app and its gadgets were really slowing it down. I am not sure if I will reinstall it when it is update since it is nice to have it working fast again.

Anyway, I’m updated. I will probably update my wife’s iPhone tonight.

I Dumped My Dell with Vista for a Mac Mini

Posted on May 30, 2007

It is official. I have replaced my Dell Dimension that is sporting the latest and greatest OS from Microsoft (Vista) for a Mac.

As you may know I have been using a MacBook at work for the last 2 months and have really liked it. I was messing around with installing OS X on my Dell “to Test” and decided that instead of messing around with something that is not supposed to work that I should just buy a Mac.

So 2 weeks ago I bought a 1.83Ghz Mac Mini with a Gig of RAM.

I was a little concerned at first that the Mac Mini would not be able to completely replace the Dell in the area of video editing. This concern quickly melted away as I edited and burned a 1 1/2 hour video of my kids for my mom without a hitch. I can only imagine the hoops that I would of had to jump through to get Vista to do the same thing.

I would have to say that the nicest part of having a Mac for the last 2 weeks is my time has been spent discovering the various programs that are included with the Mini instead of trouble shooting issues with Vista.

It is so weird that only a year ago I vowed never to buy a Mac because they were overpriced. Now that I have used one I realize that you get what you pay for. It is the same reason that I drive a Japanese car instead of one from a U.S. automaker.

I already have the plan to pass this Mac down to my kids so I can score an iMac ;-) . 

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McAfee VirusScan Killed My MacBook

Posted on April 21, 2007

mcafee.pngMan, it just took me over an hour to figure out why my MacBook would not get past the login screen. Part of that was trying to figure out how to boot into safe mode on OS X.

The whole reason for the stall out of my machine was the McAfee VirusScan for Mac that I installed yesterday. I had not rebooted my machine since I had installed and could not get it to go past the login screen. It would just sit there with the beach ball spinning.

I finally booted into safe mode and re-download the program to to get the unistall script.

This is the first major issue I have had with my MacBook since I got it and to be honest it kind of spooked me. I don’t consider it an Apple issue as it is clearly McAfee that doesn’t quite have it right.

I was really surprised that I had that issue as I use McAfee on my PC’s and it works great. Anyway, I am off to the Mac store now to get whatever it is that they recommend is best for my Mac.

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The More I Use OS X, The More I Hate Vista

Posted on April 13, 2007

index_ataglance20061108.jpgGod, I think I am becoming a fanboy. But it is true, I prefer OS X over Windows Vista ssssssoooooo much. Why? Because it work without all the little stupid stuff that windows does.

Here are a couple of the big things that I have noticed:

First, on my windows box with my fresh install of Vista Business Premium it still takes a long time for windows to boot up. Also, while booting the screen will black out several times while it transitions from one screen to another. My MacBook boots up in a fraction of the time and has nice fading affects between screens.

Second, OS X is just smart when I am not. I was working on a file in Photoshop the other day. Not thinking about it I noticed that I had misspelled the name on the file while browsing the folder in Finder. I clicked on the file and renamed it. Then I realized that I wanted the file in a different folder. I clicked and dragged it to the new folder.

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Image Manager for WordPress 2.1+

Posted on April 11, 2007

Picture_2.pngAs you know I have been searching hign and low for a Desktop Blog Editor for Mac that works half way decent. I recently tried Ecto but was not impressed.

The biggest item that has been missing from all the Blog Editors is the ability to resize images easily within the post. So instead of looking for a desktop client that could do this I looked for an image manager for WordPress.

I found a great one.

The name is quite simple – ImageManager. ImageManger replaces the included imag upload feature that is included with WordPress. It gives you ability to upload and image which creating a thumbnail. It also allows you to resize the thumbnail and apply style to. When you are done manipulaing the image you just click OK an the code is automatically entered into you post.

The above image was added to this post with ease.

Next I am going to look to get the photo border added to my CSS file as you can add classes to the images also.

It looks as though I am back to using the online editor now.

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