Lion update

I see it's been a while since my last post. Now that I've been using Lion for some time now, I can speak more about it.

Of course there are the common rants about Lion. Rosetta is a big one, but that's not really Apple's fault, they gave developers plenty of time to update their software. This causes people to grumble about having to spend more money to buy newer versions of their applications. But did you have to update to Lion in the first place? It was a well known fact that Lion didn't support Rosetta anymore, so if you upgraded and don't want to spend the cash, time to roll back that install to good ol Snow Leopard. SL is still a great OS, nothing wrong with sticking with what works. If it aint broke...

I really hated the resume feature of Lion personally. When I restarted my computer or application, I did it to clear the work space, not so I can continue with the mess I had before. If that was the case, I wouldn't have restarted. Of course there are plenty of applications that can solve the resume problem and even some command line tweaks if you are a do it yourself kind of person. TinkerTool (http://bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html) for example is one of many applications that can help you rid your self of a few "features" of Lion and tweak a few other settings. For just a resume fix, try Resuminator (found on OSXDaily.com - http://bit.ly/v0xRev).

Speaking of OSXDaily.com, if you are a Mac or iOS (iPod/iPhone/iPad) user, then you should visit this site often for a ton of great tips, tricks, and news.

I have recently acquired an iPhone 4S, so my trusty Captivate went to the Mrs. Which leads me down another rabbit trail. Got to remember to send my old Captivate to a trusted kernel dev for that platform. But back to the 4S for a sec. Now I get to learn how to use Siri, which is supposed to make my life so much easier. Hoping to wire my home into my network so I can use Siri to adjust my lights and temperature from the couch and the road by just asking about it. Thanks Siri Proxy Devs (http://bit.ly/u8wFCC). I'll post more on that in the future.

Guess it back to work time, so in case I don't get back to you all, have a merry Christmas everyone!

[Review] OS X: Lion

I installed Lion last Friday morning and so far everything is doing great. As with all OS upgrades, there are a few patches and fixes to get rolling to get all the software working as it did before. PowerPC software is out for sure (no Rosetta for Lion) A quick trip over to OSXDaily.com and it will show you how to check to see if you're running any PowerPC software that for sure won't be supported. Fortunatly for me and most of you, this shouldn't be an issue. If you find that you do have an app or two, try the vendor's website or MacUpdate.com

Here are some issues that I ran into:

Java isn't included and is now a separate download. It can be found on Apple's website: Java for OS X Lion

Right off the bat, I noticed that "Library" directory was missing from my users folder. No worries, it's just hidden. A quick terminal command easily corrects that:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

Another issue I ran into was the my Truecrypt wasn't working. A simple install of the latest MacFuse took care of that issue. It can be found at here: MacFuse 2.1.9.

More to come..

[Review] My first Time Machine experience

Today is the first time that i have ever had to use Apple's Time Machine software. A computer was brought into work to have the files from the client's old Mac to be transferred onto the new one. I opened the external hard drive where the backup files were and did a quick look over. I noticed user directories and applications along with misc documents. At first thought is that i hope there is a "backup" type file that will know where all these files go so that the applications will work once they are moved over.

Then it occurs to me, hey this is a Mac, and Apple really knows how to make an experience a good one.  I opened the Migration Assistant from the Utilities folder on the new Mac and one of the options was from "Time Machine".

It immediately recognized that this hard drive was loaded up by "Time Machine", from another version of OS X i might add, and gave me options to move the "User" and the files to their correct locations.

Within 10 minutes i had the whole process complete without any problems and the client now has 20+ gigs of applications and documents restored to the same folders as he had originally.

Just Magic, Apple.