Snow Leopard Install - Perfect!

I was down to about 4 GB space on my MacBook before I started the install of Snow Leopard. I fully expected it to tell me that I needed to clear up some space, but it never did.

I did a backup before the install, just to be safe.

Put the install disc in, and told it to install.

An hour later it said it was installed and wanted a restart.

Came right up without any hiccups at all. Checked software update, and to my surprise there weren't any updates.

Two things I noticed since the update. First, the speed of the system is screaming. Noticeably faster. Secondly I now have over 15 GB of space on my drive. This install saved me over 11 GB of space.

Nice job Apple!

Keeping it all in Sync

As I continue to research the use of the Cloud for my information, I realize that I need to keep my Apple MacBook, my iPhone and the Cloud, in this case Google, all in sync.

Google and Apple have done a remarkable job at making this possible. I would like to see syncing applications for everything that I use, but right now, syncing up calendars and contacts is possible and easy.

There are limitations with Calendar. I would like all my calendars to sync, but at this time only one works. That is fine, since I decided to put my global calendar on all devices. There are also a couple of ways to go with calendar sync. Google has created Google Sync which will do this task, but I decided to create a calendar that could be shared on my Mac and my iPhone.

We will be using CalDAV for this process, and Google explains how to do this step by step. You can also do this in Sunbird if that is what you are using.

On the iPhone you can also add a CalDAV Calendar. This means that anything you change on your computer, Google Calendar, or iPhone will be updated. Three ways to update a single calendar. This is all done using CalDAV Calendar Sync. Here are the step-by-step instructions.

Using Google Sync will sync Calendars and Contacts. I went through the steps and it didn't take the first time, which cost me about 3 hours of head-scratching. On try number two I had perfect success and everything is staying in sync. Make sure you check that this Exchange account is actually added to the iPhone. It will be in Settings-Mail, Contact, Calendars under a name you assigned. If you don't see it, do the steps again. For the iPhone you can get the step-by-step instructions from Google.

The step above does keep my contacts in sync between Google and my iPhone, however, any contacts that I add directly to my computer will not automatically hit Google or my iPhone. This requires a sync with the USB cable from my computer to my iPhone. You can sync with Google during this process as well. This works on a PC as well.

So there you have it. You can keep your Calendar in sync using Google Sync or CalDAV and you can keep your contacts in sync by using Google Sync.

A Cloud is only as good as the data that you store in it. Now you can have access to that all important contact and calendar info.

Anti-Virus - the responsibility of the OS creator?

Hell Yes! It has driven me nuts for years that you purchase Microsoft Windows and then you need to go out and purchase an anti-virus application.

Five days ago, I was reading about Windows 7 and how great it was going to be. Okay, I'm open to that. Three days ago I read that if you use Windows 7 XP mode that this leaves the system wide-open to security issues. Come on Microsoft. It is your job, your responsibility to make sure that the operating system is secure, no matter how it is used.

Apple has not had issues with viruses. We can argue why, but I will continue to give credit to the underlying Unix operating system. Today it is leaked the Snow Leopard is going to include anti-virus functions. Anti-Virus built into the OS. Yes! That is the way to do it.

The responsibility for the security of our operating systems is not ours, it belongs to the manufacturer of the operating system. Thank you Apple. Microsoft...Wake the hell up!

Here is some more reading on why Windows will never be secure...

http://www.itworld.com/security/75601/why-windows-security-awful

Do we need an Operating System?

I think the obvious answer to this question is yes. We need an operating system, but for what? I am in the process of experimenting with using Google as my resource for everything.

Obviously I'm blogging using their technology, I use Google Docs for sharing documents with associates at work, I share photos and video using Picasa, of course my email is GMail, and I just set up my Calendar. All of this begs the question, "Does it really matter what my computer is, or do I just need a browser?"

With Google Chrome OS coming, I am curious as to what they think the future really holds.

Earlier this week I was convinced that a web-only universe wouldn't work. I like having my own data on my computer, but as I continue to look at the way I need to share information and the way my kids (ages 16 & 11) work with technology, sharing and a web-centric universe makes sense.

My biggest issue is that I like having control over my data. I like the desktop applications that make working with data easier, and I like having that data on my computer. I am also a FileMaker database programmer, and as of yet, I am unable to do that kind of work on the web. I make my living as a Final Cut Pro Editor and obviously a desktop OS is needed for professional editing applications. That being said, most everything else I do, does have a web counterpart.

I'm not a Microsoft fan and so I focus on Apple Computer and Linux as my choices for computing. Primarily an Apple user, I find that OS X has almost everything I need out of the box. This holds true for Ubuntu Linux distributions as well, load it and go.

I needed an office application and I went with NeoOffice (free) to handle my office document needs. I need to share these documents and the easiest way to do this is with Google Docs. This Office/Docs solution is perfect. I can do major formatting on my desktop, load it to Google Docs, share it and start collaborating. I would do everything on Docs, but I don't care for the latency issues and it is not yet at the point where it operates as well as a desktop application.

Email wouldn't happen for me if it wasn't for GMail, but I rarely use the web interface. I like to download my mail to my machine and deal with it when I get a chance. Using Apple Mail I have a ton of rules that manage my mail for me, sort it out and let me know when certain people write me. Here I prefer the desktop app, but I like the stability of GMail and the flexibility of their system. Of course, I use the Web interface whenever I am not next to my computer, but with my iPhone I simply check mail on it instead of the web.

Photos & Video need a place to live before they get shared, but what value is a photo if it can't be shared with others. Picasa is fantastic. The video quality is not as good as I would like, the photos are great. I love the fact that I can simply share everything from an album in iPhoto to Picasa with a couple clicks of a mouse. Desktop is necessary, but value is in sharing on Picasa.

I think at this stage in technology we need a combination of technologies. I don't believe that you could live your computer life with just the web. There needs to be a computer that you place your data on before you move it to the internet. Is that going to change? Maybe. I am convinced that you can't live without the internet. If you want to share information then you need to have the internet at your service.

Will we ever be able to live our lives with just Cloud computing? This would mean all data in the cloud...email, documents, photos, video, everything would need to live on some server on the internet, and not live on a desktop computer. Think NetBook with only the ability to connect to the internet, and no local storage. Will it use a Browser or will something like Google Chrome OS be the answer?

I don't see this happening yet, but I do believe it could happen. Will it be free or cheap? Will Google master this universe or will Apple and Microsoft jump into the game? Only time will tell. I will say that our computer experiences are better with Cloud computing than without it.

BD