Backing up my MBP

After reading a post from Scott Kelby's blog (under Dead MacBook Crisis: Day 9), I decided that it is time to create a bootable backup using SuperDuper!

I excluded my iTunes library as I do not have enough free space and because of the fact that Time Machine takes care of backing up my iTunes library.

WWDC 2009 thoughts

We are pretty close to Apple's WWDC 2009, and, for the first time, I am really very anxious about it.

Here are some of my thoughts about the forthcoming WWDC 2009:

• I really want the official release of iPhone OS 3 for many reasons: official Greek language support and new APIs. I have some ideas and I would like to start programming ASAP!
• I would also like new iPhones to be announced and, preferably, to be immediately available. I want to get an iPhone and it would be nice to get the latest one.
• It would also be nice if Apple announces when Snow Leopard (a.k.a. Mac OS X 10.6) will be available. It is said that it would be faster than Mac OS X 10.5 which is a nice thing :)
• I do not really care about other hardware announcements (apart from the iPhone...) although I think that new iPods may be announced.

Shake your tree today (by Chase Jarvis)

Chase Jarvis wrote a wonderful post in his blog. Is is called "Shake your Tree today" and you can find it here.

It contains ideas on what to do when you get stuck. It is about photography but can you also apply his ideas to programming.

• Shoot personal work.
• Set free that idea you've been holding onto.
• Learn about video.
• Connect with your peers.
• Walk around with your camera.
• Rent a piece of equipment you've been wanting to learn about.
• Put together a book of your work.
• Do the thing on your list that you most dread doing.
• Remind yourself that the gear you can't afford is not the barrier keeping you from success.
• Read up online about the history of photography and it's masters.
• Admit to yourself that you don't know about something you've been pretending to know about.
• Go sit in front of the newsstand at some mega book store.
• Make a list of 5 clients you want in the next 24 months.
• Rent a medium format film camera and shoot two rolls of 120.
• Look through the pictures in my portfolio and appropriate an idea.
• Take 100 pictures with your iPhone.
• Refresh your website with at least one new picture.
• Take a picture of something wherever you are when you read this post.
• Quit your day job (!!!) if you hate it and can live without it.
• Concept, shoot, and edit a short film (video) in a single day.
• Show somebody your portfolio or a selection of pictures.
• Back up your work. It's not that hard and it'll probably save your arse at some point in the very near future.

Go check the full post and its comments.

Ken Rockwell about Macs

Look what Ken Rockwell says about Macs and Windows:

"Last week a colleague asked if I knew how to fix his virus-dead computer. I responded "Buy a Mac." I was right: he was on a windows computer, which are designed to get viruses so that you have to replace them every couple of years."

"I remember back when I had a job and my employer's crappy $4,000 windows laptop was in for one of its usual repairs for the week. I continued to work unimpeded on my personal Mac.

When I met my boss and handed him all the paperwork he wasn't expecting to get, he said "I thought your computer was in the shop?" "Yes," I said, "so I did this all on my Mac." He had no idea that all our secret and proprietary hoop-de-do files worked even better on my Mac than the windows crap Tektronix used, like most computationally more foolish US businesses."

"If you want to get something done, get an Apple. It's all you'll need for a very long time."

Travel Photography: Tread Your Own Path

Now that summer is coming, I think (and hope) that most of us will go out for vacations and photography :)

If I can only recommend one single book for Travel Photography, then I would recommend "Travel Photography: Tread Your Own Path" by Steve Davey.

You can also find more info about the book at Scott Kelby's blog.

iPhone Best Practices

Jessica Kahn from Tapulus, a company that develops iPhone applications, made that slide for her presentation for the Stanford iPhone Programming course.

You should watch the whole video :)

Half-Star ratings in iTunes

Type the following command in Terminal.app and press return

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

Then, you will be able to set half-star ratings in iTunes :)

PS. If you decide that you no longer want half-start rating in iTunes, replace TRUE with FALSE in the command.

10.5.7 update is here!

I am downloading the combo update – I always prefer the combo version as I find it a more reliable way to update Mac OS X.

All new apps must work with iPhone 3.0

Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0. If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved. Existing apps in the App Store should already run on iPhone OS 3.0 without modification, but you should test your existing apps with iPhone OS 3.0 to ensure there are no compatibility issues. After iPhone OS 3.0 becomes available to customers, any app that is incompatible with iPhone OS 3.0 may be removed from the App Store.

from Dave Cross' blog

"You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either." - Galen Rowell (found it @ Dave Cross' blog)

Macessity LapTuk Stand!

Bought one of these for my MacBook Pro. I bought it from OWC because it was cheaper :) (actually, shipping was cheaper)

Its official web site is @ macessity.com.