We cover the iOS 5.0.1 release — the platform’s first OTA update. We explain the basics of how SIRI works and why outages occur. We discuss Adobe’s halt of movie/TV Flash player development and what it means to the industry. We delve into the differences between redundancy and backup when it comes to data protection, why you need both, and how to get some for yourself. And we take listener calls with questions about old laptop disposal and comments on iPod decommissioning.
Do you guys have a more detailed description of what your RAID setup looks like? I’m kind of interested to know what GWCers are setup with in this regard.
In quid pro quo fashion, I’ll share my current setup first.
ASRock E350M1 AMD E-350 APU (this is a mini-itx board with integrated cpu)
8GB Ram
4x 2TB Western Digital EARS Hard Disks (SATA2)
Freenas 8.0.1
I went with this setup because I’ve become a ZFS fanboy and getting it to run on Linux hasn’t been easy (enough). We’re currently using SuperDuper! to facilitate a backup to the NAS. I wasn’t able to get Time Machine to work when I tried it.
I don’t yet have an offsite storage solution. As mentioned in the cast though, I’m inclined to say that I need one.
Hey Chuck!
How about some of that photo magic voodoo you do and show some pics of the new lady MIRI standing triumphantly next to her stunning sister M5? And I think a photo up MIRI’s blue skirt isn’t asking too much either.
~Shooter Out
So let me get this straight…
- Apple comes out with iPhone
- Google comes out with Android (which has automatic over-the-air support since at least the first one I had, Android 1.6)
- Apple sues Google over “Slide to unlock” technology (among many others, but that was the stupidest I recall off-hand)
- Apple adds automatic over-the-air OS updates
- … I see (YET ANOTHER) counter-lawsuit coming!
Linus Torvalds for US patent technology lawsuit president…
The streaming gaming service… OnLive http://www.onlive.com/
Unfortunately my 1.5 mbps (500 actual at best), is insufficient for it. Says you need (I think) at least 1.5 mbps (actual)
Kind of the funny thing about this is it’s not “who had what first”, it’s more like “What do I see others using that I think belongs to me?”. It’s a matter of looking at your patent portfolio and trying your best to describe your competitors technologies in your terms. It’s a tragic business, but it’s stuff like this that made Google buy Motorola’s mobile division.
Patent law probably deserves to be defined by technocrats, but I doubt it’ll happen because technocrats typically aren’t interested in playing politics.
The problem I have with Flash is probably about 95% of the time it’s used on the web, it’s completely unnecessary and like using a fire hose when you need a straw.
Interestingly I was dealing with Flash vs HTML/JS/CSS again today, at work. I’m a web programmer and was programming a website a graphic design company had designed and they sent me a Flash applet they wanted used for the homepage slideshow. So then, years later they want several new slides added to the slide show and it reached a point where a bug in the applet became apparent; didn’t display correctly when more than 9 slides. So I contact the graphic design company for a fix (because I don’t program in Flash and was never given the source either). And of course, they had lost the source code too.
So the customer had to decide if they wanted them to re-program the Flash applet, or have me try to re-create it using this weird “HTML5 Standard” stuff they weren’t aware of… /sigh
So I do the programming in HTML/JS/CSS and went so far as to create a second homepage for their site with the bugged applet and HTML5 approach… (just the rotating slide show thing on the homepage)
HTML5: http://www.mayerfabrics.com (~40 MB of memory)
Flash: http://www.mayerfabrics.com/DefaultFlash.aspx (~95 MB of memory, no to mention extra steps for plug-in installation, slower performance, etc)
If you can HTML5 over Flash… DO EET
Yeah. Patent lawsuits are so stupid… “Convergent evolution” and the fact they’re awarded for practically anything! I had to deal with a patent at work recently and dead seriously, the way their patent was written, they could’ve contested they they owned the technology of the “if decision in a web-based app”
Easiest and free backup solutions (2 gb free, or more space with pay accounts)
www.Dropbox.com
Anything you put in your Dropbox folder, completely automatically uploads to cloud servers (and sync’s between other computers linked to same account)
And you can automatically roll-back to previous versions of any of your files for like 30 days as well.
Operate Touchscreens wearing gloves…
http://lifehacker.com/5412625/make-any-pair-of-gloves-work-with-a-touchscreen
I also read once putting a little super glue on the tip of a glove works, but haven’t tried it myself yet.
I have an iPod shuffle. 
I listen to it in the car. It is the only iPod where I can operate it without having to look at it the whole time, so I love having a control button I can feel. I wish it had a screen, just a little one.
I love my shuffle its a slightly older 2nd gen but all the same it does the Job
It was a gift when I left my Job about 3 years ago but I use it everywhere, in the car, doing housework, doing DIY, in the garden, at the airport its great because its small enough to fit anywhere and cant get bent or damaged in your pocket, the battery lasts for ages and oh yes of course i can operate it without looking at it. It dosnt have a screen but i dont care i havent needed to see what im listening to since ive had it
I busted my charger cable a while back but i bought this neat little jack to Dock it with my laptop
This Podcast reminds me I really need to formalise my backup solution. I’ve managed to lose 2 laptop hard drives within a year, its not so bad because its a works laptop so fortunately it didn’t cost me anything to replace but i lost some non essential data
So far I have:
500GB external HDD
2TB Network Harddrive
8GB Flash Pen Drive in a Fire-safe
I know most of the really important stuff is on all three devices but i cant really say for sure what im going to lose if either the External or Network drives fail.
Thanks for the cast it was interesting to understand how GWC is put together… now how do I explain to the wife I need another hard drive… 
Question about raids: If you have a raid that’s 2 1gb drives, does it have 1gb of usable storage space?
BTW, thanks for the explanation, I’m looking at implementing some of this stuff in the near future.
DIY iPhone Gloves (also supports Android :))
from Make Magazine
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/diy-iphone-gloves.html