The Year of the Geek

I love technology, obviously.  I love my computers, my iPod, my PSP, televisions, and I love my cell phone.  I’ve had a cellular phone since my junior year in high school around 2002.  My parents and I had a plan with Cingular (remember them?) and we used our phones in normal emergency cases or cases where we needed to ask something ASAP.  Minutes were scarce, and texting was totally out of the question, it was $0.25/text or something, and texting on my original phone; a Nokia 5120, you remember…the phone that EVERYONE had, was a real pain anyway.

Hi, remember me?

Finally in 2004 or so we got fed up with Cingular’s shitty service (me being in NY for school also made this easier as we needed some method of communication) and the lack of minutes, etc., I decided to drop my grandmothers Cingular plan (she got it for us) and pay for my own Verizon Wireless family plan.  It cost a bit more, but we got nice new LG vx4500s, 700 minutes, and a MUCH better network. It was a big step.  That was 5 1/2 years ago and after 5 different phones I’m still with Big Red.  I have come to upgrade many things with my plan and demand much more from them, but not much else has changed.

My phones with verizon

There is a progression of my Verizon phones.  “But you said 5, that’s only 3!” You’re right, and I’m sure you knew I wasn’t going to write about my cell phones since 2002 without a reason, right?

Right.

In September I was eligible for a new phone on my “new every two” offer.  Psyched, I took to the interwebs and researched phones that I would love to have vibrate in my pocket when people decided to call me.  I looked far and wide, and read review after review of phones.  I went to the store and used the many phones offered, and used friends’ phones as benchmarking.  I came to 2 conclusions while doing this:

1. I wanted a phone with a touch screen. I don’t know why, I think it’s the “new thing” but I wanted a touch screen dammit.
2. I wanted a full QWERTY keyboard. I do a shit-ton of texting now, and this became mandatory now. I didn’t know if a software keyboard would be alright for me, so I wanted a REAL keyboard.

With those in mind I nixed my previous idea of obtaining the LG Dare (a rather pretty touch screen phone, but NO keyboard) and instead opted for the new LG touch screen phone, the LG enV Touch (vx1100). I used the voyager for a little while from a friend, and I kinda liked it.  When I started to test out the enV Touch I wanted it badly.  It was everything I needed, beautiful screen, nice tactile keyboard, and even an HTML browser; which came in handy when I opted to get the unlimited data plan for it.

After using the phone for about a month I started noticing weird issues where the phone would turn itself off randomly, or reset to default screens or just not receive calls (it wouldn’t ring, it would just say I had a missed call). Verizon told me it was defective and sent me a new phone, free of charge of course, since it was still within 30 days from purchase.  The second phone was even worse!  It was to the point where I didn’t get ANY phone calls on it for days, and I would only text because that was truly the ONLY reliable means to contact me.  Mind you, when the phone worked it was actually a great phone and texting device. But I got fed up and called Verizon about it.

Fuck you enV Touch

Now here is the side note, during my time owning the phone, Verizon came out with the DROID, Motorola’s Android-based smart phone.  Reading reviews and playing with the system, I really really wanted this phone. I’ve become increasing interested in getting all of these mobile applications and using my phone for other things besides texting, calling, and occasionally searching Google for a place to eat. The issue was that I couldn’t upgrade because I just did, but if you have proper cause (which I’ll explain in a minute) you can get an early upgrade for your device without any penalty. I had to figure out a way to make my shitty phone turn into a DROID, and quickly.

I called Verizon and stated my issues about the phone.  I informed the woman that this was my second one in 2 months, and I do not want just a refurb that is going to end up doing the same damn thing.  I informed her that I have actually read reviews on THEIR OWN WEBSITE about people returning their phones 5 times in 3 months and still having the same issue. So I tell her I want a different phone, no bullshit.  Finally she tells me, “This falls under our 2 in 90 rule [or some shit].  If you return a phone 2 times the next time you return it you get a choice of a different phone from a matrix.”

Woah. Wat?

Apparently some phones can only allow you to get some other phones when you exchange them.  Usually these “matrix phones” are refurb or pre-used pieces of shit or other phones “similar” to the current one (like the LG Chocolate Touch).  I say “No, I want to choose my own phone like I was upgrading.” I inform the woman of my current status with them; I’m up-to-date on my payments, never missed a payment in 5 years, etc. After being on hold for a few moments the woman comes back and tells me that because of my continued loyalty to them they will give me a phone exchange for ANY phone they have at the store! All I have to do is pay the price difference of the phones and renew my 2-year contract.  Fine. Signed, sealed, done!

I arrive at my store and to my amazement, it’s not a phone exchange (meaning I’d have to give my enV touch back in exchange for the DROID) it’s an early upgrade.  I keep my enV Touch (which is not really a plus, but whatever) and get the DROID at the upgrade price.  After paying my $300 + taxes I walk out of the store with the DROID.

DROID, bitches!

Review of the DROID (Kinda)

So after having the phone for a bit now I’ve come to really love this phone more and more. Just a quick review (because this really isn’t a review blog) should suffice.

The screen on this phone is BEAUTIFUL.  It’s huge, bright, responsive, and just amazing. The Android interface is actually very intuitive and easy to work with.  The apps for it are pretty good; I wish some of them were a bit more refined with some things (the facebook app sometimes loads the browser for some things, which I think is a bit weird, but that’s not the phone’s fault, it’s the app).

It comes with a pre-installed 16GB microSD card.  This is enough space for plenty of apps and music and if you need more go buy a 32GB card! I love that it uses microSD as storage instead of non-removable internal storage.

It’s one of the few android phones with a real keyboard.  The keyboard is very flat, so it’s a bit tough to get used to typing on, but it functions very nicely.  Even when not using the real keyboard the virtual one is surprisingly responsive and easy to type on, much better than the one on the enV Touch.

One thing that surprised me was it’s feel. Yeah, the feeling of the phone.  What do I mean? It doesn’t feel like a piece of plastic that’s going to fall apart in your hand if you squeeze it. It’s heavy, sturdy, and just really solidly build.  You could probably bludgeon someone to death with it, that’s how it feels.

Its also a very quick phone.  Apps are pretty fast to load, websites load nicely (over wifi and Verizon’s network).  It doesn’t feel laggy that much at all.

I know there are a lot more things to talk about with this phone, but I’m not going to go into it too much.  I’m sure I’ll blog more about how much this thing kicks ass, and how much I prefer AndroidOS to the iPhone’s OS, but that’s going to be for later.

So, fuck the iPhone and AT&T, give me my DROID!

Sometimes it’s tough to stock a lab full of computers with software. You want to get the best software of course but that usually means the most expensive. Sometimes the expensive programs aren’t even the best either.

The lab is primarily used for video editing and 2D/3D graphic design. These are three very expensive fields when it comes to software. For video editing we use Final Cut Studio 2. We have a lab license which allows us to run 5 copies at any single time; this license costs us a one-time upgrade fee of around $2000. Of course we had to have Final Cut Studio before that so you need to factor that cost into it also. I’m not sure how much it was originally, but I’m guessing between 2 and 5k. Now, we don’t pay a yearly fee or anything, it’s installed, and it works. No fuss. Is there anything else out there we could use, something free? Maybe cheaper?

In short, no.

There really is nothing like Final Cut Pro out on the market. (And don’t tell me Adobe Premiere Pro because I’ll just have to punch you in the face) Avid is around, it’s been around, it will probably always be around; but it’s not FCP. Avid is a whiny little pain in the ass that doesn’t work if it doesn’t get it’s way, not to mention it’s about $2000/license. No thanks. So FCP is something we’re stuck with it looks like, no big loss. (I know there are open source editors out there, but they’re just not as good and intuitive as FCP is at all, so don’t bring that up.) With respect to Adobe, we do have 1 license of After Effects. It hardly gets used, but it’s really a good program from what I’m told.

Next is 2D graphic design. This one is a bit simpler. We use Adobe Creative Suite 3 (no, we didn’t upgrade to CS4) which comes with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Acrobat Pro. We’ll ignore Flash for now because we really can’t use anything else that I know of. Photoshop is the standard graphics/photo editing software, the weapon of choice for graphic designers if you will. Without this piece of software your digital media lab (or in this case, my lab) is a laughing stock of the DM world. However, there are freebies out there, although they might not be as good they sure as hell will do the job well. GiMP and GiMPShop are around and have been for a long time. This Linux counterpart to Photoshop gives users who cannot afford the price tag from Adobe the ability to make beautiful graphics like the pros. It’s tools are almost 100% similar, and it’s interface can also be with the help of GiMPShop. I would show screen shots comparing the two, but I can’t seem to get GiMPShop to run on my laptop. (BTW, the two run with X11, not natively.)

InDesign and Illustrator are programs I am not so sure about replacing, I’ve never tried alternatives to them. I know there are a few out there though. Inkscape is one that looks like a promising Illustrator replacement, it’s free too! For InDesign we have Quark of course; although Quark is rapidly getting replaced my InDesign, and one called Scribus, another open source replacement. I’ve never used any of these so I cannot speak for them, but if you’re looking, try them out!

Dreamweaver is for web-development. It’s more of a helper for most new developers. It’s gotten a lot better over the years, but it’s still nothing that cannot be replaced by good ol’ hand coding with TextMate or whatever editor you prefer. These are all wonderful, some are free, some are not. However, for true web editing I have to give props to Coda by Panic. I’ve mentioned before that I love this program. I do. I really think this is probably one of the best code/web/css editing programs on the market, ever. It’s beautiful, and it’s functional. It’s also $99. Does this bother me? No. Each penny of that $99 is worth it. If you’re just doing web stuff, don’t go near Dreamweaver, get Coda, as a matter of fact, get multiple copies of Coda to give to friends. That’s how much I love it.

Look at this beautiful CSS editor! I can also edit the code of the CSS and ANY OTHER CODE WITH CODE HINTING!

Now we come to 3D graphics. Our choice program in the lab is Autodesk Maya 2008 Unlimited. Maya is the “industry standard” for 3D graphics, right with 3D Studio Max; both of which are now owned by Autodesk…weird huh? Maya comes with so much stuff that it’s very hard to find a comparable program. Some difficulties come up with licensing (you need to be running a license server if you have a set number of licenses, and you need to make sre you get Unlimited or Complete. The difference is just what kind of fluids or fur you get, whatever. I like Maya to a certain extent. it’s powerful and fairly easy, but it’s licensing is annoying, and it costs a good amount for upkeep. We need to constantly upgrade if we want the bugs to go away (because lord knows you don’t want to keep fixing your software after the first service pack which we paid a few thousand dollars for in the first place) and if we want service for the license we bought, that’s also more money.

Maya's starting interface.

To replace Maya many people opt for Blender; Maya’s open-source cousin from the Dutch. Blender is completely free, and it does a lot of the things Maya does. It really is an excellent replacement for Maya; however, it’s got a steeper learning curve than Maya. While Maya may still be considered difficult to grasp anyway, Bender is like a nightmare to some 3D artists I’ve known. So if you can learn Blender (which by the way has all documentation online free as all good programs should) you will probably be very happy with the results.

A random screenshot from Blender 2.4 from Wikipedia.

Besides these main programs I have taken liberties to find free versions of other programs for my lab machines as replacements to troublesome or other non-free programs. Adobe Acrobat 9 has a nasty issue with network users on Mac OS, it crashes…all the time. I’ve taken Acrobat off and replaced it with a PDF plugin for Safari and Firefox. If someone wants to use Acrobat Pro, which is VERY rare here, then they can ask me to install it for them, for now Preview works just as well. AppFresh is a free program that checks all of your programs for updates and allows you to install them at once. very handy for updating the lab machines. And I can’t forget my favorite free buddies Carbon Copy Cloner and DeployStudio, without these FREE tools I would have be dead trying to deploy the lab and backup systems.

So, if you’re on a tight budget and you’re looking for cheaper alternatives, try out some of these. They might end up being better for you in the long run. If you have any other programs to suggest, drop a comment, I’d love to try some new programs out. Just remember, sometimes you don’t get what you pay for.

With Windows 7 RC1 being released to the public soon (not just developers) I thought I’d write a little something about my impressions of Windows 7 since I’ve been using it.

A few months ago Windows 7 build 7000 came out, I signed up for the beta and downloaded it.  I figured I’d give it a shot.  I had been using Windows XP on my MacBook Pro for a bit and I wasn’t really into Vista much so I decided, what the hell.  I installed the 32-bit version on my computer (I know my laptop is 64-bit but there’s a weird issue with installing 64-bit windows on this version of the MBP, can be fixed but didn’t know at the time) and began using it.

The first thing I noticed was the look and feel of the OS.  It’s very aesthetically pleasing; much nicer than XP and a small step up from Vista.  I noticed that the taskbar at the bottom was now like the dock in OS X, programs show up there when running (icon only) and you can “pin” the icon there permanently for later use; also, if you mouse over the icon you get a small snapshot of the window or program running, clever.  Windows 7 ups the graphics a bit in some visual effects which drastically challenges your graphics card at times, but of course the effects can be disabled; however, I only noticed this issue with it when attempting to run Windows 7 in Parallels (note to self, don’t try again).

Another thing I noticed about 7 is that it’s fairly speedy and responsive.  After installing my MBP drivers on the system the computer runs very nicely; no hiccups, no glitches, no lockups, very solid.  I began testing some small duties on it after a bit: typing, searching, surfing, etc.  I have yet to install and heavy programs like Premiere Pro or Photoshop yet, but that’s only because I don’t need to…I use Mac OS for that.  The main use of my Windows install is for Steam.  I installed steam and Left 4 Dead (among other games) and the games play fine.  I have had only one lockup playing Left 4 Dead and I don’t think t was a Windows issue.  The game loads FAST so I have no complaints about that.

I’ve also been using the latest Windows Media Player on it; another program which I used to avoid at all times.  The new WMP is pretty nice; it plays what I want it to play, and it looks better.  I even like how it organizes your music when loaded up with album art.

One surprising thing I was very happy to find was when I was repairing my girlfriend’s Sansa View media player.  In Windows XP you can load it up like a regular drive, or using windows media player, it only gives the option to open or play, thats really about it.  I was shocked to see that when I plugged the player into Windows 7 it gave me a window with the correct product, the ability to update the firmware, sync pics music and videos, play, etc.  This made me very happy to see it had built in Sansa support (and if it didn’t at first it downloaded it from the internet!).  It made it so much easier to fix the player and organize the music on the player.

Now Windows 7 isn’t completely without it’s problems.  While the interface is beautiful it does do some work on your graphics card at times.  I have an ATI Radeon x1600 with 256MB video memory in my MBP, the graphics did hang sometimes (not too much) but it was definitely doing something.  It might also be about the drivers, ATI has released some Windows 7 beta drivers, but again they are only beta.  Another thing I noticed was that I couldn’t install some programs; MacDrive and Symantec EndPoint Protection.  This is possibly the case in Vista also, but it did kinda suck that it wouldn’t install them.  The system also still complains a lot about security issues which gets annoying after a bit, but you can decrease the sensitivity of the annoyances to a certain extent.

So, the good definitely outweighs the bad here and I’m looking forward to seeing Windows 7 when it’s complete.  I believe that if this beta is this good, then Windows 7 has a damn good change of being “the next XP.” Overall, I’m very happy with Windows 7 and I’m very happy to see a Microsoft OS that functions well and is easy on the eyes.

Note: I am running Windows 7 build 7000, I have not installed 7100 or RC1.  I may have to update if anything changes with later builds, but for now I’ll leave it at this.

This entry is a little late, but I think it’s something to mention.

If you’re any sort of tech with multiple computer that need to be imaged every so often you know how much of a hassle it can be.  If you have a NetBoot system running it’s a breeze; however, this ease usually comes at a cost (money cost that is).  Mike Bombich, founder of Bombich software has created some useful Mac applications over the years. One is Carbon Copy Cloner, a program which I use all the time and find to be one of the fastest, easiest, and safest methods of cloning any drive (to either another drive or a disk image).

The other program which I use very often is NetRestore and NetRetore Helper.  NetRestore and it’s helper are VERY easy-to-use GUI interfaces to create a MacOS netBoot image and netRestore image for deployment over multiple machines.  My lab has 10 Macs in it which don’t get updated all at once sometimes, and at the end of each semester the computers all have a lot of left over student files and different versions of some software running.  NetRestore makes it very simple for me to make a clean, updated image of a lab machine, then just boot from the network from the other machines and it takes care of the rest. It’s usually 100% automated, and completes all computers in about 2-3 hours.

What makes these pieces of software better than say, Norton Ghost or SuperDuper! or whatever? They’re 100% free to use.  Yep, no charge at all.  No catch, no signing up for anything, no logging into the site to download, NOTHING.  The only thing you’d have to deal with is an advertisement on CCC’s progress screen.  Very small price to pay for this software.

So, why am I writing about NetRestore now?  Well, because I like it and I would definitely reccommend it to anyone who needs to deploy multiple Macs.  But I am writing now because NetRestore has reached it’s end of life. On November 17, 2008 Mike Bombich posted a letter on his site explaining the reasons for ending NetRestore.  It’s very funny when I am sad to see a program go away, but it’s sad to see such a good program go away.  I also find it ironic that of all the software I have never paid for, I have actually donated money to Mike Bombich for all of his hard work for his free programs. That’s how much I like this software.

Even though NetRestore has reached EOL, I will still be using it on all of my lab machines until it stops working on them.  Thanks Mike for all of your hard work, and I’ll continue using CCC for all of my cloning needs:-)

Visit Bombich.com for more info on CCC or NetRestore

Just a short note: In his letter, Mike Bombich reccommends a site called DeployStudio,  I have yet to use this to deploy the lab, but the program does seem promising and nice.  I’ll use it someday and maybe give a review.  Until then, Bombich’s NetRestore will be king.

I figured my first post should be kind of an introduction about me, but I’d rather not be all personal. My idea of talking about me is telling about the technology I use and enjoy using, this includes computers and server technologies.

My primary system is a work-issued MacBook Pro. I use this for everything, and I usually take it everywhere. It’s loaded with Mac OS 10.5, and all of the design and coding software I need. Now, I did have a choice in the matter of taking the new Mac, or keeping my old Toshiba. I chose the Mac due to the fact that I really do like Mac OS. I enjoy the feeling of using it, and I enjoy the speed, stability, and of course the look of it. I also felt that it was time or an upgrade to a computer with multiple cores and more RAM (2gb in this guy). I’m not here saying that Mac is better than Windows, blah blah, I’m just saying that I prefer the OS as well as the hardware. In my field [Digital Media] Mac’s are almost essential. And since I’ve started using my Mac I’ve found that the programs designed for Mac OS are really pretty good. Example below.

For all of my web editing, from HTML to PHP and CSS, I use Coda by Panic. Coda gives me the ability to edit my sites either locally or remotely, nothing new there. It also has an excellent CSS editor built into it, a great code editing IDE, and even code reference manuals. I can even use terminal from the same window. Now, Coda is Mac only, and I’m sure there are Windows programs like this out there, but I never found them. The closest one to come close was Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver is terrible now. Coda is also a beautiful looking program as opposed to the utility look of Dreamweaver. I’ve noticed that Mac programs all seem to look very nice, and offer the same (if not more) functionality. Why do Mac developers focus on looks as well as functionality and PC developers don’t? I don’t know.

I run a lab full of 10 Mac Pros. These computers are all tied to our main server, BAM. BAM is a 4 year old XServe G5 attached to a 4 year old Apple RAID unit with 3.5 TB of space. I’ve never managed a Mac server before this job. I’ve managed Linux servers of various flavours, as well as several Windows servers, everything from 98 to 2003. I never liked Windows servers, as easy as they can be to manage, I hate the system so much. Linux and I usually have a decent relationship, if I set it up myself. Of all of the Linux servers I’ve set-up and run, not one of them has died on me. The Mac servers and I have a love/hate relationship. First, I love the ease of configuration of most things (web, DHCP, NetBoot, etc.); however, I’ve also noticed that some of the more advanced functions tend to need a little “linuxesque” configuration. This is not a hug problem for me of course, but Apple tends to change standards for their own system. Files are not in the places they should be, they are moved or use different syntax, and it drives me batty at times. I have had a server fail on me because of updates that were done on the system. This resulted in me having to completely re-install the system. Granted, this probably was caused by the previous sysadmin’s massive hacking of the system to get it to “do what he wanted,” but it was still a massive headache. Once I installed and configured the system myself, I have yet to need even a reboot. I’m not really on-the-fence about using Mac servers, they are excellent machines, and I think they make great servers…especially because they all come with great tech support through Apple;-)

As for web technologies, I am a Web 2.0 junkie. You might notice in the Papers section I have a few papers about Web 2.0-tech, that’s not a coincidence of course, it’s my chosen field of study. So, because of this, I have used many different systems. This site uses the wonderful WordPress, it’s easy, sexy, and stable; everything I could ever need. I chose WordPress over some others such as Drupal mainly because Drupal is highly advanced, and has so much built into it that I will never use. Don’t get me wrong, Drupal is an excellent system that gives users so much functionality and so much customization, but I would use it for a larger, more needy site. My lab actually uses Drupal for it’s main site, and it works fine. WordPress is great for this site and myself because it’s simple, clean, and I can actually edit most of the looks and plug-ins myself, a big selling point for me.

As for social networking, I use Twitter, Facebook, and sometimes Livejournal. I have a limit on these now. For instance, I only have a MySpace account in order to see other friends’ pages, that’s all. My Twitter updates my LiveJournal as well as my Facebook, and I’m debating on closing the LiveJournal anyway. It’s pointless to have 2 blogs.

So there you have it. Some information about me and my tech. I’m going to try to make a point to actually review programs and systems on here, we’ll see how far that goes.