CFL bulbs are a no-brainer for "utility" areas, but they're less reliable than I had hoped

The average home is incredibly inefficient, and nowhere is this more obvious than the ubiquitous electric lightbulb. Compact fluorescent (CFL) and LED lights are an order of magnitude more efficient at converting electricity to lumens rather than heat, but making the switch is not simple. The limitations, pricing, and sheer variety of lighting options are daunting.

1 kW No One Could See

When I moved into my house, I was dismayed to find more than 1 kW of outdoor lighting. The previous owners had installed 150 Watt flood lights in every fixture under the eaves. You could probably land an airplane in my driveway, even in the fog. But these lights were completely invisible to the occupants (us!), and were often left on for long periods of time.

This is actually a fairly typical situation, with many homeowners opting for 100 W incandescent bulbs inside as well. I have long been a believer in 40 and 65 W bulbs, and preferred specialty 25 W bulbs for bedside lamps. And I’m dismayed by the sheer number of bulbs and fixtures all calling out to be filled: Both the master suite and children’s bathroom had 8 light sockets above the mirror, each with its own 100 W bulb!

Since incandescent bulbs convert most of their electricity into heat, rather than light, the average house has a lot more in common with an Easy Bake Oven that most homeowners are willing to admit. Although they would be hesitant to leave a hairdryer blowing all day long, they don’t notice their kitchen lights turning just as much electricity into heat!

Quick Fixes

Immediately after moving in, I replaced many of the “utility area” incandescents with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. The porch, eaves, garage, and basement were the first areas upgraded, dramatically reducing power consumption and waste heat.  I also unscrewed every other bulb in the bathrooms, and no one has complained yet.

Next, I replaced some of the most difficult to reach bulbs with CFL’s in hopes that they would last longer and produce more light. This includes the dramatic, but insanely placed floodlight in the cathedral ceiling of our living room. It required an extension ladder to reach, so I certainly hope that bulb lasts the advertised 8000 hours!

No Perfect Alternative

One result I can share right off the bat is that today’s products really are cutting-edge. There are many circumstances where an energy-efficient alternative is simply not good enough to be accepted by the whole family. Less enthusiastic family members will not appreciate the long warm-up times typical of CFL bulbs, the dim output and weird coloration of inexpensive LEDs, and the strange behavior of dimmer switches.

I spend a lot of time changing out switches...

Rather than switch to CFL bulbs in the kitchen, I installed a high-tech electronic dimmer in hopes that we could throttle back the power usage of its 7 recessed lighting cans. This experiment ended in failure, since the dimmer was often pushed to the max.

Once CFL bulbs begin to start faster, I experimented with the “dimmable” variety came away unimpressed. They don’t dim all that much generally and were incompatible with my fancy electronic switch. I finally removed it, swapping in a plain old switch and a boatload of CFL bulbs. The whole kitchen now uses 105 Watts rather than the 525 the lights previously drew, and it’s brighter too!

We must also consider the cost of upgrades like this. CFL bulbs are definitely on the mass-produced/bargain and of the spectrum, with questionable quality and reliability. They’re now inexpensive enough to casually purchase and install. LEDs, on the other hand, are just barely becoming attainable, much less affordable. Sadly, energy efficiency is sometimes still a game for the rich.

Stephen’s Stance

Swapping out of box full of 100 to 150 W outdoor floodlights was a slam dunk, in my opinion. The replacement CFL’s produce more light, less heat, and draw less power on the whole than a single bulb before. The same goes for replacing utility lights, which are seldom used and often left on. But it is far more difficult to attack the core lighting used by family members every day. That is the topic of my future posts.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | How I Eliminated Over 2 kW of Lighting at Home
This post was categorized as Everything, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

It’s that time again, when everyone who thinks they’re a pundit (that would be everyone with a blog or Twitter account) has to make predictions for the coming year. But predictions are perilous: Get it right and you look like a mere trend-watcher; get it wrong and you look like a fool. It’s such a hassle! So I’m doing something different this year: I’m going to make predictions for 2009 now that it’s over, and reflect on just how smart I am (not) to have made them. Or something.

What I Would Have Gotten Right

I definitely could have predicted a lot of what happened in 2009. I mean, these were slam dunks!

1. Twitter rocks the world – I wasn’t early to Twitter, but I spent the early part of 2009 evangelizing its benefits to companies and co-workers alike. Considering how common Twitter is today, it’s hard to believe how roundly criticized and misunderstood it was this time last year. Yet here we are, on the verge of 2010, and Twitter has seeped onto our business cards, presentation templates, and web sites. I might not have predicted how stable (!) Twitter got by the end of the year, though.
2. Apple’s Macs and iPhones rule – I switched to the iPhone and the Mac in 2007 and 2008, respectively, but it looks like I wasn’t much of an iconoclast after all: By November, half of the Tech Field Day delegates were using MacBooks, and the Windows and Blackberry holdouts have started vocally defending their operating system choice. Pretty much like Mac folks used to do way back in 2008.
3. The recession is a serious pain – Companies put the brakes on spending and hiring, many even shifting both into reverse in 2009. This came as no surprise to humans capable of thought. The impact on enterprise IT companies was similarly predictable: Although most were able to survive, the impact of 2009 will continue to be felt for years. I might have predicted it would be worse, though I’m glad to say I would have been wrong.
4. EMC, NetApp, HDS, HP, and IBM continue to quibble – Surprise: Big company bloggers spend way too much time criticizing the products and actions of each other and way to little time talking about the true value of their own products.

Non-IT slam-dunk predictions: Obama was reviled by the right; the war in Afghanistan continues; people do stupid stuff in the name of reality shows.

What I Probably Could Have Predicted

Although some details would likely have been missed, I think I would have seen these coming.

1. Cloud compute and storage hits the enterprise – I was a believer in the cloud this time last year, and I bet my future on it by taking a position at enterprise cloud storage provider, Nirvanix, in March. I would have predicted that enterprise buyers would be putting serious thought to buying cloud products, but the scope has surprised me. We’re talking enough petabytes that the non-cloud players felt compelled to strike back with the private cloud pitch. Awesome!
2. Sun and Data Domain were acquired – My money would have been on Dell, IBM, or HP as buyers for this pair, but EMC wouldn’t have been outside my guesses. Still, Oracle buying Sun and vocally committing to keep it going, SPARC and all, would never have come to mind. But I wouldn’t have guessed against it either, so I’ll give myself a point here!
3. Cisco and EMC buddy up – I’ve long thought an outright merger of these two was in the cards, but even the recession couldn’t make the financials work. A partnership would have been on the list, and Acadia came as no surprise to anyone.
4. Cloud outages and data loss – I definitely could have predicted that high-profile cloud services would fall over throughout the year, and that some would lose data. Not all are enterprise-grade, after all. But the outages at Google, Rackspace, and Amazon, and Microsoft’s Danger data loss, surprised me. Don’t those guys have their acts together?
5. IT conferences falter – I spoke at Interop in 2009, but it lacked the 20,000-strong crowd it once had. Storage Decisions and Storage Networking World managed to fill their halls, but the old-school IT conference has lost its luster. Although VMworld remains strong, attendance was definitely off.
6. FCoE and SSD are still starting – I’ve been lukewarm on Fibre Channel over Ethernet and Solid State Drives, but I’m a bit surprised that storage vendors didn’t push them harder in 2009. I might have guessed there would have been more customer uptake to match the buzz.
7. SMB storage is hot – There’s a hole in the storage market between $1,000 and $20,000, and companies like Drobo and Iomega are rushing in to fill it. Now that ESX has solid iSCSI support, I expect a world of innovation here. (Oops, that sounds kind of like a 2010 prediction!)

Also in the predictable category: Goldman Sachs and Bank of America thrived while others fell; Ford is the strongest of the remaining US automakers; Boeing finally got the 787 off the ground.

What I Never Would Have Guessed

I’m not perfect, even in retrospect. Some of the Tech news from 2009 was just completely off the wall.

1. Microsoft Bing: This time for sure! – Seriously, Microsoft should stick to in-house thinking instead of trying to copy its rivals. Yet somehow, miraculously, Bing appeared and did not suck. In fact, I’m hearing regular (non-techie) folks around town talking about using the search engine. I’ve even used it! Could they actually have a winner?
2. Windows 7 rocks – Really? Seriously? Could Microsoft have come up with a solid replacement for Windows XP?
3. Ship it! – It’s not even 2010, and enterprise storage buyers can go out and purchase NetApp’s OnTap 8, EMC’s FAST, EMC Atmos Compute, and unicorn tears. Well, maybe not unicorn tears.
4. Still no GDrive – Seemingly every company has a cloud storage platform, from Amazon to Rackspace, Nirvanix to EMC, so why not Google? Could GDrive join Duke Nukem Forever as the most famous vaporware of the decade?
5. The executive shuffle – Dave Donatelli was supposed to lead EMC, not HP. Alan Atkinson was supposed to launch another startup, not take over Xiotech. At least NetApp was gentle.
6. Mac OS X (still) lacks iSCSI and ZFS – Come on, Cupertino, what’s wrong with you guys? I’ve been hyping ZFS for years, and iSCSI is commonplace. Yet Snow Leopard is stingy with both. Makes me want to hiss like one of those blue folks in Avatar.
7. Gestalt IT is a success – On a personal note, Gestalt IT didn’t even exist this time last year, and now we have a successful IT infrastructure blog and social media event. Amazing!

Other total shockers: Everyone loves Michael Jackson again; digital Beatles tunes are available everywhere but iTunes; Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize arrives 10 years early.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | My 2009 IT Industry Predictions
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

For the most up-to-date information, see my iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide!

This post is part of my series focused on integrating the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange using ActiveSync:

• iPhone OS 3.0 information:
  1. First Look: iPhone 3.0 And Exchange ActiveSync Integration
  2. How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0
  3. How To Access LDAP Directories In iPhone OS 3.0
  4. iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect
• How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync
1. A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas
2. Can the iPhone Sync With Multiple Exchange Servers?

I’m a long-time iPhone user and new Mac switcher, but since I use the phone for business (read Exchange) email, contacts, and calendars, I was stuck syncing it to the (work) PC instead of the (home) Mac.  This really wasn’t optimal, as it meant I needed to load all of my songs and movies on the work machine, which is a serious no-no for my “keep ‘em separated” computing preferences. But the iPhone has to be synced to a single machine, and since I needed to be able to keep my contacts and calendars up to date, I was stuck.

All this changed with 2.0′s over-the-air sync ability, though. Once you enable Exchange ActiveSync (or MobileMe, for that matter), you no longer have to tie the iPhone to Outlook. So now I am able to sync my work contacts, email, and calendar to Exchange and my songs, ringtones, apps, and movies to my Mac! Joy!

I first noticed this shortly after my 2.0 upgrade and ActiveSync activation. I docked the iPhone to the Mac to download some photos with iPhoto, and I noticed that iTunes would let me “sync” it there, even though it was “paired” to the PC. Although I had selected “manually manage music”, I couldn’t drag and drop songs or videos, but I noticed that the calendar, contacts, and mail sync settings were now grayed out. This got me thinking, so I decided to take the plunge and blow away all of my content in order to really sync the phone to the Mac. Sure enough, my mail, contacts, and calendars remain connected to Exchange, but everything else now lives on the Mac.

I wonder if Apple considered this implication when they released Exchange ActiveSync. After all, it would seem to tie the phone more strongly to Microsoft but actually has the exact opposite effect. I don’t need a Windows PC at all anymore!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | iPhone and Exchange: Push Email? Great! Switch to Mac? Priceless!
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Although some shortcomings have appeared, I’m pleased with the Mac overall. It definitely met my expectations and continues to meet my needs, mixing portability and performance in an excellent package.  I am impressed by Apple’s hardware design and component choices, especially when compared to other computers with similar specifications that I have used.  And, as noted by Tom’s Hardware, the specification of the machine was reasonably priced, especially since I purchased it at a substantial discount and upgraded it myself.

This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.

• How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
• Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
• Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
• Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
• Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro

1. The Value Quotient is High

The value of a computer system is determined by two elements: Its specification, in terms of the components used, and the net price.  Macs are known to be pricey but often include high-end components and materials in their construction.  Focusing solely on the core interchangeable components of my Mac, evaluating it as a generic PC, the overall value for the money is very high.

My MacBook Pro contains a high-spec NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics card with 128 MB of dedicated GDDR3 video memory, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 “Merom” CPU, Intel’s “Santa Rosa” PM965 chipset, built-in FireWire S800 and USB, a slot-loading 8x DVD-RW drive, gigabit Ethernet, Wireless-N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam, and slick features like an LED-backlit display and keyboard and infrared remote control.  My system’s MSRP was $2000, but I purchased it for $1524 (after receiving the rebate check).

Although PCs are available for less (I bought a family knockabout laptop for $435 recently!), a similar spec laptop from any major manufacturer would cost at least this much, even a year after this model MacBook Pro came out.  In my case, I am comparing the Mac to the Dell XPS M1330 laptop I use for work, which arrived the day before the Mac.  The Dell is a “thin and light” model with a 13″ screen, but feels almost the same weight as the Mac and is actually somewhat fatter with its 9-cell battery. The Dell retailed for $1700, including the inferior 8400M GS graphics and no gigabit ethernet.

Judging by these objective observations, the Mac was clearly a good value and features a strong set of components.  Note that both machines feature the flawed NVIDIA graphics chips, as do nearly all high-end notebooks, so I can’t fault anyone for that particular component choice.

2. Performance rocks

Even though my MacBook features the Merom CPU clocked at a modest (by 2008 standards) 2.2 GHz rather than the latest 2.4 GHz or more Penryn, the system as a whole just flies.  Mine is packed with 4 GB or RAM instead of the stock 2 GB, and my upgraded 320 GB hard drive is slightly quicker than the stock, both of which improve overall performance somewhat.  But even tasks that aren’t memory-intensive are super-quick, thanks to the 800 MHz front-side bus and solid system design.  The system is snappy in OS X, encodes video with ease, and is subjectively faster than my similar Dell when using Windows Vista Ultimate in Boot Camp.  The Dell has the same chipset and CPU, but is clocked at 2.0 rather than 2.2 GHz and has only 2 GB of RAM, so comparisons are not exactly apples-to-apples, but the Dell is noticeably slower.  

3. The Display is Gorgeous

The wide, LED-backlit 15″ screen is just gorgeous.  The off-angle performance is so good, even with the backlight turned all the way down, that the Mac suffers from serious over-the-shoulder “eavesviewing” issues.  My Dell is pretty much invisible off-angle, even without the privacy screen supplied by my company, but the Mac shows your photos and documents even at extreme angles. Not that I’m complaining, though – this performance just makes it that much more beautiful when I’m alone. There’s no need to constantly adjust the screen angle for optimal viewing.

4. The Chassis is Sturdy

The Mac really shines when one compares its sturdiness to the competition.  The Dell is flexy and plasticky, as is just about every non-ThinkPad PC notebook I’ve used recently.  But the Mac raises the bar even compared to my favorite laptop of all time, the brick-strong HP OmniBook 800.

The only poor spot is the nifty magnetic latch.  Although it works well most of the time (and exists – the Dell has no latch at all), it doesn’t lock closed as cleanly as I would like.  There is a gap around the edges, and lifting the closed Mac from one side tends to make the latch disengage.

5. Input is Solid

I’m a stickler for a good keyboard and can’t fault the Mac here.  It’s not exactly a Model M, but the keys feel good and are arranged and sized reasonably.  Even adjusting to the Mac keyboard layout hasn’t been much of an issue, since most functions remain in similar positions between Mac and Windows.

The trackpad is especially strong. PC notebooks normally have perplexingly tiny trackpads, so I’m always running out of space, but the Mac’s is generously sized and highly usable. It’s easily four times larger than the Dell’s!  I do wish there were two ”mouse” buttons, though.  Although OS X and Windows in Fusion supports two-finger-tap as a right-click, Boot Camp frustratingly does not!

6. The Apple Remote Could Be Improved

Let’s start by stating that I have never owned a PC that came with a remote control, so the Mac deserves kudos for even including one, though the 2008 models don’t. But the remote is just odd. Although it’s usable enough, it’s not integrated, hardware-wise, with the system. It’s clearly a throwback to the glossy white plastic Apple look of a half-decade ago, so like the power brick and DVI adapter it seems totally out of place next to the brushed aluminum MacBook Pro. And, judging from its size and shape, I expected it to dock in the ExpressCard slot of the Mac like a MoGo mouse, but it’s slightly too fat for that. Also, an IR remote seems out of date in these Bluetooth days. So, Apple, how about a dockable, Bluetooth, matching remote next time?

7. Battery Life Isn’t Great

Battery life has been about three hours in my hands, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t as good as I hoped. I ended up buying a second battery for the Mac for transcontinental flights. I did the same for my last Dell, of course, so this isn’t news. On the bright side, the Mac battery was cheaper and far more readily available than the Dell – I just dropped by the bright, cheery Apple store in Palo Alto during my last trip and picked one up instead of waiting for Dell to deliver one to my home. I still can’t get hot-swap to work, though, since my Mac refuses to suspend to disk.

8. Upgradability is Mixed

Upgrading the RAM on a MacBook Pro is just right, but swapping out the hard drive was much more difficult than it should have been. Disks should be user-replaceable, even in laptops, and the regular MacBook gets this right. The Mac also has poorer expandability than most PC laptops, since its Wi-Fi (sorry, “AirPort Extreme”) card is buried inside and it lacks a slot and antenna wiring for a 3G cell card. The fact that the Pro only has an ExpressCard slot isn’t that novel in today’s world, however, but the regular MacBook’s lack of one was a major factor in my choosing the Pro.

9. It’s Hot and Loud

My first impression was that the fan was deafening and the bottom was toasty. After using it for a few months, I have either gotten used to both or they aren’t as bad anymore. The machine still gets pretty hot on the bottom under heavy use, and the fan still makes a loud “whoosh”, but neither is unbearable or unusual when compared to other PCs, like my previous Dell XPS M1210.

10. Light Sensors are Confounding

I was intrigued by the idea of the MacBook Pro’s ambient light sensor, which would dim the display backlight and unique keyboard backlight under changing light conditions. But this was the first feature I disabled after actually using it. The sensor is located under your left pinky when typing, so the display suddenly dims and brightens as your hand passes over it. So I just adjust the backlight manually.

Then there is the keyboard backlight. The key cap markings are dark enough to be difficult to see in bright light, but the sensor won’t let the light come on, even when you press the hotkey to turn it on manually! I ended up installing Lab Tick to turn it on manually within OS X, but I expected more from Apple engineering. The light sensor is worse than useless.

11. USB is a Disappointment

As I noted in another post, the lack of a full-power dedicated USB port is a special disappointment. The 15″ MacBook Pro has just two ports, like most modern PC notebooks, but both are compromised. The one on the left lacks the power to spin up an external hard drive, and the one on the right is shared with the internal iSight camera. At least the FireWire is blazing fast and fully-powered! But I expected a better design from Apple.

12. The AC Adapter Is Obnoxious
    My biggest complaint is the “elegant” MagSafe AC adapter. Count the flaws:
    • The poor strain relief on the thin cable is known to fray and burn
    • Third-party replacements and alternatives are not available thanks to Apple patents
    • The cord-wrap “ears” aren’t large enough to actually hold the entire wrapped cord
    • The fact that there are three different identical-looking adapters with different wattage outputs is a nightmare waiting to strike the unwary
    • The iPod-like on-brick plug just barely hangs on when the weight of the brick is hung from a vertical wall outlet
    • Glossy white?!?

The AC adapter is a perfect example of the form-over-function flaws always cited by Apple critics. I expected better, and Apple refuses to admit the defects even as these things spark and burn.

Again, I’m happy overall with the Mac and would definitely buy one again. In fact, I think it’s about the best computer purchase I’ve ever made, even including the iPhone and my beloved OmniBook 800 and Portege 3010 subnotebooks. The flaws are minor compared to the overall strengths!

(Ok, there are twelve pros and cons, but ten rolls off the tongue better!)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on PC/Mac Integration.

• Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
• Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
• Yes, FireWire is Faster Than USB
• How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac's Screen
• Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards

Setting up Bluetooth for sharing wasn’t 100% straightforward on either Vista or OS X, but both have the same capabilities when it comes to file sharing – you can right-click on any single file and send it to a connected Bluetooth PC from Explorer or Finder, respectively.  Both have similar security capabilities as well, though Bluetooth is not exactly the most secure protocol.

Bluetooth file sharing has two major drawbacks, however:

1. You can only send one file at a time
2. Speed is limited to about 50 KB/s, so you won’t be sending large amounts of data this way

Setting Up Your Bluetooth PAN

Bluetooth settings are located in two different places within the System Preferences panel in OS X.  Basic setup is located under the Hardware header in the Bluetooth panel, while file sharing over Bluetooth is in the Sharing panel under Internet & Network.

Windows Vista has a Bluetooth control panel.  Access it quickly by typing “bluetooth” in the search box – it’s hard to find otherwise.

1. First, on the Mac, open the Bluetooth panel and check the “On” box.
2. You should check ”Discoverable” for now, but I suggest not leaving this enabled on either computer except while you are pairing the devices, since you don’t want random headsets, PDAs, and computers to try pairing.
3. I also like to check “Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar” so you can easily turn it on and off.



4. Next, enable Bluetooth on the PC using the Bluetooth Devices Control Panel.  Click Options and check “Allow Bluetooth Devices to find this computer” (for now), and “Show the Bluetooth icon in the notification area”.  Notice how similar these control panels are?
5. Now, pair the Windows system to the Mac by selecting the plus sign in the OS X panel to bring up the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.
6. Set up the PC as “Any Device”.  You should see the PC listed, click Continue, and enter a passkey on both sides to add some security to the connection.  Now the Mac can connect to the PC, so let’s set up the connection in the other direction.



7. Click “Add” and go through a very similar process of discovery and passkey entry to allow the PC to initiate connections with the Mac.

Enabling File Sharing

Now that our personal area network (PAN) is set up, we can enable file sharing on both machines.

1. In OS X, file sharing over Bluetooth is controlled by the Sharing panel, along with all other sorts of file and screen sharing options.  Select the checkbox next to “Bluetooth Sharing” to turn it on, and configure the options as shown below.
2. I highly recommend selecting “Require pairing” for both browsing and receiving, since you don’t want to deal with random file transfers from un-paired devices.
3. OS X defaults to placing incoming items into the “Downloads” folder.



4. On the PC, sharing of files is enabled in the “Share” tab.  Simply click “Allow remote devices to…” at the top.
5. I suggest not sharing printer or modem connections here unless you really want to.
6. Also, note that the default directory for incoming files is in the “Bluetooth Exchange Folder” under “Documents”.

Sending Files

You are now ready to transfer files.

1. On the Mac, locate your file in Finder, control-click it, select the “More” menu, select “Send To” item.
2. The first time you do this, a dialog box will pop up asking for the name of the target system.  Later, OS X will add this to a pick list in the finder menu.



3. On the PC side, you will be asked whether you want to accept the file.  Click Yes and watch the transfer commence!

Sending files from Vista requires one less menu.

1. Right-click and select “Send To” and “Bluetooth device”.
2. The Bluetooth File Transfer Wizard window will appear, allowing you to select a target and enter a passkey.

Once this is all set up, it’s pretty simple to use.  Just turn on Bluetooth on both systems and you can zap files back and forth whenever you want.

So there you have it – a simple way to transfer files.  Although it’s not super simple to set up, it works great!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
This post was categorized as Apple. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Exclude and Ignore

Out of the box, Time Machine will copy everything on your local drives to whichever drive you designate.  This is probably preferable to forcing the user to select what to back up, but Apple ought to have set some reasonable defaults in the “Do not back up” list, since the same set are likely to be relevant for most people.

Excluding files is simple:  Go to the Time Machine preference panel and click “Options”.  The “Do not back up” list will drop down, and you can add items to it by clicking the “+” button or simply dragging and dropping them there.

Here are my suggestions for what to exclude:

• Just about everything Ryan Block suggests
• Other apps: EyeTV Archive, TiVo Recordings, Roxio Converted Items
• /System – When you click this, OS X will ask if you also want to exclude other system stuff – say yes.  Since the Leopard boot CD (which you have if you use Time Machine) can automatically restore everything after you reinstall the OS, you really don’t need this.

Hide From the Spotlight

The next inexplicable decision Apple made was to allow Spotlight to index your Time Machine drive.  I can see why some people might want to be able to search their backup using Spotlight, but this is confusing at best.

Let’s say I’m Joe Average and I want to locate last year’s tax return, but I deleted it from my disk.  When I use Spotlight to find it, one of two things is going to happen, and both are confusing to Joe:

1. If I don’t have my Time Machine drive connected, I won’t find it.  Even though it still exists, I will give up and assume it’s lost.  Imagine my surprise, then, when I run across it another day (when I do happen to have my Time Machine drive connected) and am searching in Spotlight for something else!
2. If I do have my drive connected, I will find the tax return and OS X will let me open it.  But it’s read-only, so I won’t be able to save it.  This will be a double head-scratcher since the Save As dialog box will point to a read-only copy of my whole disk!  So I’ll be totally puzzled at not being able to save anywhere until I figure out that I’m looking at my backup!

So indexing a Time Machine volume is just plain confusing.  The best case scenario is that Spotlight finds 8,000 different copies of everything you search for and you are smart enough to know which is the real current version.

I say shut it off.  Go into Spotlight’s preferences window, click “Privacy” (which, by the way, is totally the wrong name), and you can exclude your Time Machine disk.  Oddly, Spotlight wouldn’t let me exclude just “Backups.backupdb” – I had to ignore the whole disk.  This was no problem for me, since I have a disk dedicated to Time Machine, but this might prevent Joe from following my advice.

By the way, my understanding is that Time Machine does not use Spotlight data itself.  It uses FSEvents, which is a separate daemon, so you can safely shut Spotlight off entirely if you want and still be able to use Time Machine.

Update:

Shortly after I wrote this piece, Apple posted two video tutorials on how to restrict Time Machine and Spotlight.  While they don’t advocate removing anything in particular, they do show how to do it in elegant fashion!

• Restrict Time Machine
• Restrict Spotlight

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Tuning Time Machine
This post was categorized as Apple, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.

• How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
• Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
• Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
• Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
• Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro

Do Not Want!

First, let’s talk about what not to buy:

1. If you want the best price, do not walk into your local Apple or Best Buy store and pick up a system.  They always charge full retail plus sales tax (where applicable).  Of course, the friendly selection and purchase process at the Apple store might be worth a few hundred to some people, but my own visits were simply reconnaissance - helping me pick which model to buy and choose between the glossy and matte screens.
2. Do not buy a model near the end of its life.  Check the MacRumors Buyers’ Guide to see whether the model will be replaced soon.  Your best deal will be on discontinued models, but if you want the latest system, remember that Apple generally does not discount current models as they age.  A notable exception was the recent price drop on the top-of-the-line MacBook Air with the solid-state disk.
3. Do not expect to get a dime knocked off a build-to-order system from Apple.  You can sometimes get interesting configurations from resellers at some discount, however.
4. Buy the minimum RAM configuration.  Apple is notorious for gouging on RAM upgrades – they currently charge $200 for 4 GB of RAM, twice as much as you would pay for the chips alone.  And it’s easy to upgrade RAM in almost all Apple systems.
5. Don’t bother spending extra for a larger hard drive.  Here again, you can get a much better deal if you shop around, and you can probably buy a bigger drive than anything Apple offers, too.  My MacBook Pro is packing 320 GB, and it wasn’t that hard to upgrade.
6. Don’t waste your time looking for a great deal on MacBook batteries or power adapters.  These things are notoriously unreliable and never discounted much.  Just buy them from Apple.
7. Finally, since customer support is such a major factor in the Apple switch, only buy from authorized resellers.  You don’t want to get shafted with a grey-market device when you need service.

Getting Your Deal

Ok, so what should you look for?  Here’s my take:

1. My best advice:  Consider an “outdated” system.  My MacBook Pro is the previous model, without the multi-touch trackpad or Penryn CPU, but it was manufactured in April, two months after the new model was introduced.  Apple continues making old models, and MacMall and MacConnection blow them out for about 20% less than their original price.  This is your best source for discounted Apple computers!
2. Pick your system and configuration and stick to it.  Find out the model number – I bought an MA895LL/A, which is a Late-2007 15″ MacBook Pro with a 2.2 GHz CPU and matte screen.  It can get really confusing with different product generations sharing the same common name, but you can’t go wrong with the official MA/MB model number!
3. Check the Holy Trinity: Amazon, MacMall, and MacConnection.  Price the whole thing out, including shipping and tax if applicable.  One of these three will almost certainly have the best deal.
4. If you qualify for an educational discount, find out what the price would be and use this as a benchmark.  For current systems, this is probably the best price.
5. Apple’s online clearance store sometimes has good deals on refurbished systems.  But you have to keep checking and act fast!
6. Watch out for rebates.  Although they’re unreliable, and you have to stay on top of them to make sure you get the money, this is the primary discount vehicle for Apple systems.  So you have to grin and bear it.
7. Consider bundles.  Amazon offers discounted AppleCare, MacConnection offers free VMware Fusion, and MacMall offers free Parallels.  If you want these things, this can seal the deal.  But I bought Fusion and left Parallels on the table at MacMall, and you can add AppleCare at any time in the first year.

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on the MacBook Pro.

• Don’t Be Jealous Of The New MacBook Pros!
• Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
• SanDisk ExpressCard Flash Media Adapter: Nifty MacBook Pro Accessory!
• How I Get 7 Hours of MacBook Pro Battery Life
• Panic! Green Light and MacBook Pro Keyboard is Half Dead!
• Low-Power USB Ports Haunt My MacBook Pro

My initial disappointment that the 15″ MacBook Pro has just two USB ports, one on each side, was tempered by the fact that lots of other notebooks have the same problem.  Where my old Dell XPS M1210 had two ports on each side, my new XPS M1330 has just one per side. On the other hand, the Mac does feature a pair of FireWire ports, one 400 and the other 800 and both using full-size connectors, while the Dells each have just a single mini 400.

But, as many have discovered, not all USB ports are created equal.  There are three things to consider when it comes to USB ports:

1. Low-speed, full-speed, and high-speed - Most folks know that the old slow USB standard was updated with something often called USB 2.0.  But, given that nearly all controllers support both the old and new standards these days, this consideration is largely irrelevant.  One thing that may surprise you is that modern controllers support “virtual” USB ports for each speed – connect a low-speed device in a high-speed port, and it is connected to a different bus than would be used by a high-speed device connected to the same port.
2. Hidden hubs - Most people don’t realize that most devices have internal USB hubs hidden inside, sharing bandwidth between connected peripherals and internal system components. In practice, this means that a device’s speed can vary depending on which physical port you plug it into.
3. Power - Not all ports are supplied with the same amount of electrical current, either.  If a peripheral uses a lot of power, it can fail to work in one port and work fine in another.  Disk drives are especially hungry, so many vendors supply them with “Y cables” that plug into two ports at once.  This is a big problem for add-on cards, too, since most PCMCIA / CardBus / ExpressCard slots don’t supply much power at all.

I haven’t had much trouble with this in the past, but these issues reared their heads with my new MacBook Pro.  It seems that both of the Mac’s USB ports are limited:

1. The left-hand port (by the MagSafe connector) does not offer enough power to spin up my Maxtor OneTouch Mini 4 hard drive. This is a shame, since this high-speed port is not shared with any internal devices and thus should be faster.  Low-speed devices using this port, however, have to share bandwidth with the internal BlueTooth transceiver.
2. The right-hand port offers enough power for every drive I’ve tried, but shares high-speed bandwidth with the built-in iSight camera.  Low-speed devices like my KVM‘s keyboard and mouse cable share a hub with the internal keyboard and mouse.

Although neither port is really perfect, it seems that I will tend to use the right-hand port more when I am traveling since I won’t have to worry about power.  Because I’ve already found myself juggling connectors, I’ll probably end up attaching a powered hub to the left port to use when I’m at home.

None of this is really critical – the system works fine.  But I’m somewhat disappointed that Apple would design in a frustration like this.  How many non-technical folks are going to buy a USB drive and assume it’s flaky because it doesn’t work half the time?  And how many will visit the genius bar when they notice the pattern of left-side/right-side?  The MacBook has the same power issue, too.  For the record, my Dells work fine…

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Low-Power USB Ports Haunt My MacBook Pro
This post was categorized as Apple, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Update: My MacBook Pro is now rocking a Toshiba 640 GB hard disk drive!

Read on for details on swapping a disk in a MacBook Pro, finding a great deal on the drive, and how to get Boot Camp and VMware Fusion to work again after you do it!  Surprisingly, this was the hardest part…

This post is part of my series focused on the MacBook Pro.

• Don’t Be Jealous Of The New MacBook Pros!
• Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
• SanDisk ExpressCard Flash Media Adapter: Nifty MacBook Pro Accessory!
• How I Get 7 Hours of MacBook Pro Battery Life
• Panic! Green Light and MacBook Pro Keyboard is Half Dead!
• Low-Power USB Ports Haunt My MacBook Pro

Now for some particulars and lessons learned:

• The MacBook Pro is not an easy machine to install hardware in!  Although the RAM is readily accessible, all other components are sealed inside that sleek silver case, and it was not meant to be opened.  It is certainly doable for most people, provided they have the right tools, but closing it back up again is tricky!  There are 19 screws, both Phillips #0 and Torx T6, and the correct screwdriver is a must-have.  Apple must use some serious gorilla snot on the LED/IR cable to attach it to the drive inside, as it took much fussing to cleanly remove it.  And getting the front tabs “clicked” took some fussing and more pressure than I wanted to exert!
• I chose a Verbatim SmartDisk 320 GB FireWire/USB Portable hard drive as a donor.  It contains a very nice Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT drive that should be compatible with most mainstream notebooks since it’s just 9.5 mm tall.  This is a modern unit with two 160 GB platters, 3.0 Gb/s “SATA II” interface with native command queueing, and is fast and quiet.
• Why buy an portable drive instead of a bare hard disk?  Because Best Buy had the Verbatim on sale at $129, while the bare drive itself (sitting just down the aisle) was marked $179, that’s why!  Plus, the case can be re-used (see below).
• My MacBook had a 120 GB Fujitsu MH2120BH drive, which is a 2-platter 1.5 Gb/s SATA unit with modern perpendicular recording technology.  It fit nicely in the leftover Verbatim external drive case!  Sadly the case is flimsy compared to the very nice metal Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini I use on the PC side.  But at least the FireWire interface is fast.
• I used SuperDuper to clone the Mac’s internal drive and then booted with the FireWire drive just to make sure it worked.  Very nice!  Then I cracked the MacBook and swapped the drives.

You might also be interested in my post on upgrading the hard disk drive in a new Mac Mini!

Some notes in particular for folks like me who Boot Camp and VMware Fusion and upgrade their drives:

• I chose Winclone (an OS X app) to back up the Boot Camp partition prior to the drive swap.  Worked like a charm, creating a 22 GB image of my 55 GB partition.
• To keep everything “native”, you must use Boot Camp Assistant to repartition the new drive after the upgrade.  But Assistant requires you to use GPT to partition the drive, and Verbatim shipped it with APM, so I had to repartition it in Disk Utility before using it.
• I wanted to have two partitions – one for OS X and another for my Home directory.  This is standard storage industry best practice and what I do on my Windows machines.  But Boot Camp Assistant can’t handle this, and OS X doesn’t make it easy either.  So it’s all one partition now.  Boo!
• The new Boot Camp partition has to be as large or larger than the old one for Winclone to restore to it.  I wasn’t using all my space and wanted to reduce it but couldn’t.  So even though I “only” have 22 GB of data in my Boot Camp partition, I had to devote 56 GB to it.  I’ll resize it later if I can.  Either way, I’ve still got over 200 GB free in my OS X partition!  Update: A utility called Camp Tune claims to allow you to resize your Boot Camp partition.  I’ll test it and report back!
• VMware Fusion works great with Boot Camp partitions normally, but falls on its face when you replace the drive like I did.  Fusion kept trying to use an invalid configuration for the new Boot Camp partition, and there is no easy way to make it work again after you’ve changed it.  But I found the answer – you have to delete /Users//Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp, reboot into Boot Camp, and restart OS X before Fusion will correctly detect and configure the partition!  This is crazy stuff, but it works now!

All in all, I’m really enjoying the Mac.  Many OS X features are great (though some are lousy) and the hardware is superb.  But it is the ability to run Windows, both natively and using Fusion, that really seals the deal for me.  This really is the ultimate laptop, with a nice desktop UNIX, serious Windows performance, and now as much RAM and disk as anyone is likely to need.  At least until the 500 GB drives arrive next month…

Greg Ferro just did exactly the same thing, and I got a kick out of the name of his post!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I just solved the problem.  The old Apple Extended Keyboard, as revered by Apple fans as my IBM Model M, continued the function key mapping past F12, adding F13, F14, and F15 where Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break is on an IBM 101-key layout.  Then they mapped F14 and F15 to dim and brighten the screen, respectively.  See the problem?  Yeah, the IOGear hotkey is “dim dim”!

This post is part of my series focused on PC/Mac Integration.

• Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
• Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
• Yes, FireWire is Faster Than USB
• How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac's Screen
• Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards

It turns out that this is easy to fix.  Leopard’s Keyboard & Mouse Preferences panel includes a tab to remap Keyboard Shortcuts.  Down at the bottom of the list is “Display”.  Expand it and you’ll see the two mappings in question – just un-check them and you’re good to go!

While you’re there, marvel at how none of the other function key shortcuts match up to their functions on the pre-2008 MacBook uses!  It’s a really bizarre oversight on the part of Apple to map bright/dim to F14/F15 and to F1/F2 on the same computer at the same time, depending if you’re using the built-in keyboard or not!  Apparently, the company shifted all the mappings around for the late 2007 desktop and early 2008 portables, too.

By the way, about that KVM – it’s pretty good, especially for the money.  I previously used a GCS62, which is a PS/2 in and out model with no audio, but the GCS632U is more suited to weirdos like me that like to use a PS/2 keyboard and mouse with a modern computer.  It takes PS/2 in but sends USB out to the connected computers, and includes audio, too.  It’s rock-solid, unlike the Belkin Flip I tried before, but I do wish the audio cable wasn’t captive to the video like it is – it’s just not long enough for the Mac.

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac’s Screen
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.