OS X Time Machine Lacking in Options

My time tested method for backing up my laptop was to run a Bash script that would rsync various directories to my Linux server at home.  The nice things about this were:

• I was in complete control of what got backed up and how.
• I could work on things just as easily on the Linux server as I could on my OS X based laptop.
• Copying things back over to the laptop was a cinch.
• I could schedule it to run as frequently or infrequently as I wanted by using a chron job.

This method of backup worked wonders for me, but my wife did was not onboard with using Linux.  I was intrigued by the osX86, so I hacked a mac.  It works great!  It is stable, fast, and easy to use.  I had not been able to use time-machine for backups before, but I thought I would give it a shot.  I set it up on my laptop to backup to the desktop and when I say I set it up, there was very little to configure.  I know that is the idea, to make it dead simple for everyone, but at least give me an advanced options pannel or something.  Here are some of the things that bother me that I would like to change:

• It tires to backup my laptop when I am away from home, and this would not be a problem if it were not for the resources that it uses.  It seems to access the disk so heavily that it slows other applications.
• You can exclude some directories from being backed up, but that is about the extent of the options.

I am not going to be one of the people that complain about a problem and don't suggest possible solutions, so here are some things that I would like to see.

• Backup only when connected to my home network (can be recognized by subnet).
• Allow choice of how a directory should be backed up.  Some I would like to be backed up more often than others, and some I would only like a working copy (shorter history).
• Schedule backups to only happen durring certain times, or not to occur when the computer is very busy.
• Allow for backing up to a local temporary directory when I am away from home and then commit that when I return.
• Allow to chose a server based on location.  So it would back up to one server when I am at work and another when I am at home.

Again, this is just a list of ideas of features that would be nice to have.  I am sure that there are programs out there that do all of these things, and to that my original backup methods do just that.  I would like to see some of these options to be available for my wife's computer.  So Steve Jobs, I hope this helps.

Droid applications

Here is a list of the applications on my Droid.  I have been asked by a few people about recommendations for cool apps, so I thought the best place to start would be just listing the ones that I have installed on my phone.

• Advanced Task Killer Free - I used this more when I first got my phone, but after a while I have begun to realize that it really does not make that big of a difference in the overall performance of the phone.  I still give this a go every once and a while when it starts to feel kludgy.  <-- I am now using ES Task manager for this.
• Amazon - never used...
• Astrid - I use this all of the time with an online service that I thought I wouldn't like but have come to love RTM
• Barcode Scanner - I have used this a handfull of times and it works well.  I even used it at a big box store to look up a price.  It found their website and tada...
• ConnectBot - used for remote ssh sessions
• Detexify - draw with your finger on the screen and it gives you the LaTeX code for it.
• DockRunner - because I did't want to spend $30 on the charging dock.
• DroidLight - I use this at least twice a day!
• ES File Explorer - tool that I don't use often but is a must have when you need it.
• ES Task Manager - I use this to close down programs that are running in the background.  One of the flaws of the Android platform as I see it, is that there is not a clear way to close a program as opposed to having it run in the background.  
• GDocs - I hope to use this more as I move away from using MS office
• Gmote
• Goggles - cool concept but not very useful
• Google Sky Map - again cool but...
• gStrings - program for tuning a guitar, but I assume that it could be used for any musical instrument.  
• Google Voice - very nice
• GTalk Updater - wish I didn't have it
• IP Cam Viewer Lite - used for nanny cams when we are out
• IP Machine
• Key Ring - keep my vic card and such on it, and my wallet it thiner.  Now I don't even get odd looks from the cashiers anymore as I am guessing more people are using them.
• Labyrinth Lite - I found this after my family was talking about the old game at christmas.  Even my grandmother enjoyed this game.
• Listen - used on the bus to listen to npr stuff.
• Locale - handy for making sure my ringer is turned off and such  <-- No longer free and I don't feel like it is worth the $10 that they want for it now.
• GPS Plug-in
• Sync Plug-in
• Tweet Plug-in
• Maps - has the navigation that has been useful running around town
• Maverick Lite - cool, but unused as a compas
• Metal Detector - fun party trick
• MountUSB - used for adding music to droid
• My Tracks - cool for tracking exercise distances
• NetCounter
• NetTools
• OpenSudoku - fun
• Orienteer - allows to see raw GPS data
• OurGroceries - my wife has the iPhone/iPod version and this makes shopping a lot easier
• Pandora - I only use on wifi, but I love Pandora radio
• Photoshop.com Mobile - only used once, but it works
• Pkt Auctions eBay - might use more if I wasn't broke
• Places Directory - used to find food while traveling
• Power Save - nice widget that provides the same functions that are built into 2.1
• RTM - the official app for the RTM website, it is a pay service (yearly) but I am starting to think that it is worth it.  Their to do list is fantastic, by far the best I have ever seen.
• The Weather Channel - check for dress every morning
• Twidroid - used all the time.
• Whack-A-Droid

I am making this list for my own reference as I am going to unlock the phone and load the nexus one rom to it.  I will add a post to update on how that goes.

Suggested chat program...

A friend recently turned me onto a program that can intergrate many of the chat services that we use into one window. I liked that iChat does this somewhat, but it lacks some features that I would love to have... Primarily I hate having separate buddy lists for various accounts.

The program is Adium (http://adium.im/) and it supports a lot of differnt chat protocols, including Facebook. I think I may try it out in the coming weeks, but I welcome comments from anyone that is currently using it. If it means that I can use Facebook to keep in touch with people without having to see one more Mafia Wars or Farm update I am game to add another piece of software...

On a side note, I just figured out that I can block all posts from an app on Facebook! This may not be news to the rest of you, but I don't care that "a sheep wandered off of your farm while you were looking for the golden craps dice!"

Making my mac do what I want... NOW!

So I am going to have to come back to this later and add more to it, but the basic idea is this:

I used to use a program called Quicksilver to search for things on my mac and to launch programs that I don't want to keep lying around in the dock. I noticed that it made my machine slower to login and it could hog resources...

I decided to try out the native OS X solution, the spotlight, and much to my delight it was speedy and pretty well done. Since it is already running by default, it is not using any more system resources. Then I thought, what if I could search google and the web from it... So I found this:

Google Importer 1.0.1
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/spotlight/googleimporter.html

I will try and followup on how well it works...

WELL, that was short... At least the website saved me the trouble of downloading it, becasue when I tried it informed me that it was not compatible with OS X Leopard (Tiger only). So now I have to find another way to search quickly. I have heard some negative reviews of the google desktop search... Oh well :-(

Cooks and Programmers

For those of you who may not know I have a background as a professional chef, and I am now working on my PhD in computer science. The pastry chef who made the cupcakes for our wedding used to be a programmer, and I read an article today about a guy who was a programmer and is now considering a career change to being a food writer. Maybe I am going at this backwards, but at any rate, he has a very cool blog called No Recipes which is a nicely done site that should be checked out.

http://www.norecipes.com/

Maybe I should start doing some posts of my own culinary adventures...

IChat google Talk troubles

So I all of a sudden started having intermittent trouble logging into talk.google.com with Apple's iChat. Just before conceding I remembered a bug that I discovered in Leopard where any password with a '?' in it would be rejected. So I decided to change my very easy password to something different, when I did this I noticed that the new passwords had a minimum requirement of 8 characters. Once I changed it I no longer got the log in error! So If you are having iChat problems try updating your Google password, because I worked instantly for me.