Mini Mac(k)

The transition from PC to Mac is pretty much a done deal!  The last piece was getting another external hard drive to act as the data store for all docs, music, vids, pictures.  We have two external hard drives hooked up to the Mac.  One is the hard drive for the Mac, and the other is the backup to the root external drive.

The internal hard drive of the Mac stays clean this way.  We are using Chronosync as the vehicle to run backups from the root external drive to the backup external drive once a week.  Once it is all set up, it is great because there is little to think about as the backups happen as frequently (or infrequently)  as you schedule them with the Chronosync SW.  I had originally thought of mirroring the drives but then thought a scheduled backup would be better so that in the event of a drive failure, the backup drive would not mirror that data loss!

My overall impressions of the Mac are very positive.  The OS seems a lot more stable, and generally much faster (some of that can be attributed to the memory and processor).  It is taking a little time to learn how to navigate through Mac-land but I am slowly figuring out where to customize things and just how powerful this OS is.

One of the most impressive things with the Mac is the speed of the Firewire 800!!!  I transferred about 120G of data from the Mac to the external drive in about 1 hour!  That is just unbelievable.  That is part of the reason I wanted the external drive option - there is no loss in speed compared to the internal drive when editing music, pictures, movies, etc.

So far, big thumbs up!!!  

Re-Purposing an Old PC for Streaming TV

AS the Mac conversion moves forward, it is time to figure out what to do with an old desktop PC that is not stable enough to handle certain critical functions.  Dilemma, dilemma....

The idea crossed my mind a while back about trying to make the PC a stand alone unit for streaming Internet content from certain sites.  We have a Wii which is great for being able to stream Netflix but unfortunately, there seems to be some  proprietary issues with not being able to access Hulu via the Wii.  I looked at other options like Apple TV, or Boxee, etc...The issues was that each product has some sort of arrangement with certain content providers, and not with others.  The only way around any of this was to handle the streaming via a computer.

The big picture is to get rid of cable TV and use Netflix, Hulu, etc to watch what interests us and consequently save $$ from having to pay DirecTV each month.

Step 1 was to make sure the hardware could handle the streaming to the TV...we had to upgrade and install a graphics card on the PC, and then add a USB Network adapter so that the re-purposed PC that now sits next to the TV in the living room, can talk to the wireless network.  With the new graphics card, it was super easy to hook the PC straight to the TV via a HDMI cable.  Once it was all hooked up, it was time to install drivers and then connect to the secure wireless network...then came the true test:  turn everything on and try to stream something and see what the picture quality was like.

We were pleasantly surprised, the content streamed via Hulu was good quality (not as good as straight HD broadcast but still good).  The other pleasant surprise was that there was no drop in network while streaming - so the content was able to be watched without the start/stop that I was originally concerned about...

At first glance, it looks like it might be a viable option in being able to move from traditional cable TV options to TV via the Internet...here is to being cautiously optimistic.....

Full Timer Conversion to Mac Underway

I have been grumbling about MicroSuck and PC's for the last few years and kept wondering what kind of limitations a full time move to the world of Mac would impose.  The idea was to fully convert without creating a drive for a PC-like environment on the Mac.  

Now that tax day is behind us (that was my mental to-do before being able to 'play' with the Mac), it is time to fully embrace change!  Unlike the government promises of Hope and Change (or the myriad of other promises by either party - after all I am an equal opportunity indie launcher of criticisms), this is going to be real change (and still some hoping that data is not lost or mis-placed).  By my calcs, this still puts me way ahead of any bureaucratic entity that calls itself 'government'.

back to my converting....Microsuck slowly started to corrupt applications one by one.  It started with QuickBooks - so all of the financial data that we had been tracking diligently for taxes was subsequently lost. Not only was QuickBooks corrupted, but so were our data files.  Next on the hit list was HP Document Mgr....next was iTunes...and OHHH that hurt!  Fortunately the music files were still intact, but unfortunately the libraries and folders that we built for playlists were 'gonners'.  The tickie tockie of the clock was at volume 11 (Spinal Tap theft) while we tried to get our taxes completed before TurboTax was impacted.  Fortunately we were able to cross the finish line with our taxes submitted - it was close as the PC did have a few blue screen moments!

The craziness is that this desktop is about 18 months old so apparently shelf life for PC's is limited - mostly due to SW issues (thank you MicroSuck).  

We bought a Mac-mini and I ordered a memory upgrade on-line via a 3rd party and subsequently saved myself about $150 compared to if that would have been ordered via Apple.  The memory upgrade was very very easy and took no more than about 3 minutes.  Me thinks I have transferred most of the data over to the Mac but there are a couple of gaps I am trying to figure out (most notably GPS and workout data from rides).  

I am curious to see the impact on my professional life...all of my work is usually done via PC apps so it is a bridge yet to be crossed.

Once everything is done, it will be time to figure out what to do with the old desktop that is exponentially larger than the mini mac - Apple surely does not how to make their product sassy and ergonomic!  More to come but for now, it is time to think about how to retire the desktop anchor...maybe a file server...maybe just a rebuild with a new OS like UNIX?  hmmm....will have to noodle on it...

okay, now I feel better...btw - did I mention I am not impressed with MicroSuck?