I’ve been using GoToAssist for a couple of weeks. It’s the only remote-support service I’ve found that has a reasonable price and doesn’t require the client to download anything. Just a couple of clicks and I’m in! Way better than VPN or LogMeIn or iChat or anything!
Author: jjmarcus
Apple Specialist, Mac Whisperer, Cloud Wrangler - Your Remote CTO
Cash for your gadgets
http://www.gazelle.com/
Enter your gadget model (e.g. “iphone 3gs 16gb”), tell ’em what condition it’s in and whether you have the original cables (e.g. “good, makes calls, no to A/C & cables”), and they’ll tell you what they’re gonna pay you ($190 in the previous case). You say “Great!”, they send you a box, you send them the gadget, they send you a check.
If you’re a non-profit organization, Gazelle will give you a page through which donors can send their gadgets, and Gazelle will give the money to the non-profit.
Stellar.
Frost Mobile Expanded to Include Text Messaging
Yet another reason I love banking at Frost:
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We are excited to introduce the addition of text messaging to Frost Mobile, our mobile |
I just tried it. If I have a payee named, say, Bob Brown, I can give him the nickname “bob,” and text “pay bob $200.” Done! I love that. Boffo, Frost!
Rackspace’s newer, more affordable services + backup calculations
For the longest time, I had the perception that using the top-shelf service of San Antonio’s own Rackspace came solely at a top-shelf price. But their non-Exchange Rackspace Apps email service, at $2/user/year for 10GB email accounts, is the price level I’ve been seeking for non-free (read: non-Google Apps) hosted email. It’s a number my clients can quickly figure.
I have not yet tried the apps myself, but I wanna get these bookmarks up now, cos I think I’m going to be referring to them a lot:
http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/rackspace_email/
http://www.rackspace.com/apps/backup_and_collaboration/online_file_storage/ Now, the data backup service — http://www.rackspace.com/apps/backup_and_collaboration/data_backup_software/ — is through Amazon S3, currently the go-to host for unlimited online storage. S3 exact pricing is found at http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing but we can sum it up as $0.15/GB (gigabyte)/month storage, and $0.10/GB transfer each way. So… Say you have 50GB of data on to backup. It will cost 0.15×50 = $7.5/month storage, and 0.1×50 = $5 to get all your data backed up the first time. Now, let’s suppose you change 200MB (megabyte) of your data each day. That’s 0.2×0.1 = $0.02/day, or 0.02×30 = $0.6/month. And after 5 months, you’re paying another $0.15/month for storage. OK, that’s an easily affordable fee for most healthy businesses to afford. But what if you have more? Say, 400GB: 0.15×400 = $60/month storage, and 0.1×400 = $40/first transfer
0.1×1 = $0.10/day for backing up 1GB/day, which after an average month is an extra $3. 60×12 = $720/year, growing by $36/year, is going to be totally fine for some, but it’s enough to give many business owners pause. Nevertheless, it’s among the cheapest cloud storage out there, excepting services such as Carbonite. I’ve been recommending and installing Carbonite $5/month “unlimited” service, but I was disappointed to run recently into their 200GB ceiling, above which they throttle upload to 1GB/day. So maybe we use Rackspace for the bigger data stores. OK, enough numbers. I just needed to get those up here. Point being, Rackspace has some good stuff to look at, and I’m going to see how it goes with them. A couple of clients have already signed up. And, BTW, apropos of a previous post, I like Rackspace’s “What is…?” page, too:
http://www.rackspacecloud.com/what_is_cloud_computing
http://www.rackspace.com/apps/backup_and_collaboration/online_file_storage/ Now, the data backup service — http://www.rackspace.com/apps/backup_and_collaboration/data_backup_software/ — is through Amazon S3, currently the go-to host for unlimited online storage. S3 exact pricing is found at http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing but we can sum it up as $0.15/GB (gigabyte)/month storage, and $0.10/GB transfer each way. So… Say you have 50GB of data on to backup. It will cost 0.15×50 = $7.5/month storage, and 0.1×50 = $5 to get all your data backed up the first time. Now, let’s suppose you change 200MB (megabyte) of your data each day. That’s 0.2×0.1 = $0.02/day, or 0.02×30 = $0.6/month. And after 5 months, you’re paying another $0.15/month for storage. OK, that’s an easily affordable fee for most healthy businesses to afford. But what if you have more? Say, 400GB: 0.15×400 = $60/month storage, and 0.1×400 = $40/first transfer
0.1×1 = $0.10/day for backing up 1GB/day, which after an average month is an extra $3. 60×12 = $720/year, growing by $36/year, is going to be totally fine for some, but it’s enough to give many business owners pause. Nevertheless, it’s among the cheapest cloud storage out there, excepting services such as Carbonite. I’ve been recommending and installing Carbonite $5/month “unlimited” service, but I was disappointed to run recently into their 200GB ceiling, above which they throttle upload to 1GB/day. So maybe we use Rackspace for the bigger data stores. OK, enough numbers. I just needed to get those up here. Point being, Rackspace has some good stuff to look at, and I’m going to see how it goes with them. A couple of clients have already signed up. And, BTW, apropos of a previous post, I like Rackspace’s “What is…?” page, too:
http://www.rackspacecloud.com/what_is_cloud_computing
Article: The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash – Charlie’s Diary
The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash – Charlie’s Diary
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/why-steve-jobs-hates-flash.html
(via Instapaper, which is soooo cool. Just bought Instapaper Pro [iTunes link] for the iPad. Makes reading the web fun and practical.)
I’ve about had it with on-site servers, especially the over-spec’ed variety. IT people think they have users over a barrel, and it’s only a matter of time before people wise up and discover how much they’ve been robbed, by technicians who don’t advise people about the most cost- and time-efficient uses of technology. I reserve judgment on whether the consultants don’t keep themselves educated out of laziness or selfishness.
I just spent two days bailing a business out of a wrongly configured server (it’s always DNS) — and that server was hosting their mail. I set ’em up with Google Apps, just because I needed them to have email while I was retooling their server. I’ve asked them to hang onto it for a while and see how they like it. At the very least, it’s still going to be the best method for calendar syncing. Meanwhile, I am anxious to work with them on finding alternatives for those time-worn, ubiquitous, and bothersome legal-practice apps such as Timeslips and Pro Docs. (A search for something like “legal” in Google Apps Marketplace is always fun.)
Looking for good videos to explain “cloud computing”
Salesforce has a nice one: http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/
It’s amazing how many pencil-sketch cartoons like this look like they’re going to be helpful and elementary, and then they start using terms like “infrastructure.”
Reservations about cloud services
While I fully understand the pros of a web-based “cloud” solution, I also consider the cons. These being: 1) if our internet connection goes down, so does our database, and 2) less data security as the database would be stored on someone else’s server. We could still copy data over to laptops for use away from the office – it just wouldn’t be updated/synced with the office database until return.
I really really really encourage you to examine the online CRM options, such as SugarCRM, and the ones listed in the Google Apps marketplace (which is where I look to find services who are keeping up with the Joneses).
Online apps are, without question or doubt, The Future. I cannot state this strongly enough. The services being designed now make both life and business transactions so easy and flexible. Businesses who don’t buy into this future are wasting money and productive time — consider the cost, time, and often frustrating effort of designing a custom database from scratch, on an expensive platorm for which you have to buy a seat for each workstation. With the online apps, there’s nothing to install or update, and you can use it outside the office. User training is way faster. I started using an online invoicing solution called Freshbooks recently, which has changed my life; check out the list of online CRM add-ons that integrate with their service. I understand the reservations about internet going down and such, but that brings up the larger issue that, just by dint of email, if you have a single internet connection, and it craters, it’s likely to bring your business to a halt, or at least a stall, anyway. Which is why everyone should have at least one backup connection, preferably starting with an iPhone or Android phone. The second one could be something like a MiFi, although some of the Sprint phones let you turn them into a wifi hotspot for a few computers, which is awesome. You knew I was going to say the next thing, but the most amazing and satisfying alternative second internet connection is an iPad with 3G. I’m very excited about how iPad and Android tablets are going to change the landscape, and online, cloud-based, Software-as-Service solutions are big, snow-peaked mountains in that landscape.Got the iPad
3G model, with 32GB, arrived Friday. I activated it, absurdly decided to sync most of my hundreds of apps (most of which I very quickly deleted), and immediately headed out camping in Meridian State Park… where there was no reception. Ach! Fortunately I had grabbed a book and a couple of comics, and one game that the kiddo liked (Angry Birds (iTunes link)).
Managed to grab some wifi on Saturday in front of the Meridian Public Library, for some more apps and syncing mail and RSS feeds (Feedler (iTunes link)). It’s safe to say the tablet is way more fun when connected to the internet.
Got back to my happy-fast wifi and now I’m completely pleased.
modulR iPad accessories: iPad Wall Mount, iPad Car Mount, iPad Shoulder Strap, iPad Kick Stand, and more to come in Summer 2010.
Do I need to maintain my Mac?
What do you think about “Clean My Mac” from http://www.macpaw.com/?
It seems like an impressive app that could do a little too much in the wrong hands. I’m on a laptop and could use a little cleaning up and like the idea of dumping excessive language files and PPC binaries. Would love to hear your thoughts.
In answering, I’m going first to name, but not spend time defining, the various tasks involved in maintaining Mac OS X. Then I’ll discuss the software that I use to perform those tasks.
Oh yeah: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE backup your entire hard drive before doing any of this. Heck, even before you read this article.
Maintenance Tasks
Before anything else, it’s important to know that, since Panther and even more since Tiger, Mac OS X does most of its essential maintenance in the background. It runs the daily, weekly, and monthly Unix maintenance scripts on a more fluid schedule, remembering to do them even if your Mac was asleep when they were officially scheduled. Also, ye olde venerable “disk defragmentation,” familiar to many 90’s-era Mac and PC users, is somewhat automated but mostly much less necessary, for reasons Apple spells out in this kBase doc.
One task that used to be more commonly recommended to fix lots of issues with OS X is “Repairing Disk Permissions.” I used to use Disk Utility to run this when someone said their Mac was running slow (and they had clearly adequate RAM and processor), but because developers have had time to become savvy about OS X’s file-permissions scheme, the task is less likely to do or fix anything. Still, I usually turn it on as an option when I run the software that I’ll describe below.
Also in Disk Utility one will find “Repair Disk,” which since Tiger can be run while a machine is booted — all other activities are halted — to tell you if the volume data on your startup disk is screwed up.
Finally, a step that still seems relevant to keeping a Mac running smoothly is deleting cache files, specifically the Font, Kernel, and Application Caches. I have found lots of miscellaneous, weird problems — from apps crashing to fonts not rendering — resolved by a cache zapping. Also, since the dawn of the World Wide Web, web browsers have occasionally needed their caches cleaned. Safari features Empty Cache as a menu item in its “application menu,” i.e. the menu to the immediate right of the Apple, which in Safari is called “Safari.”
Cleanup Tasks
This is a more nebulous topic, since different people need different things on their hard drives. Also, as drive capacity has increased, now to way more than most of our clients need, many drives wear out with plenty of unused space. But of course, the idea of removing unneeded 0s and 1s from your storage is always appealing. It’s gratifying to let slough away PPC binaries, the OS 9 System Folder, Previous Systems, obviated applications, additional language support and fonts, yadda yadda yadda.
Maintenance and Cleanup Apps
Several programs have appeared over the years to automate these maintenance tasks and more. The crucial thing to know about these applications is that they are only graphical interfaces (GUIs) to the very simple Unix commands that make the tasks happen. I learned back in 10.1 to type:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthlydiskutil repairPermissions(note the capital “P”), andfsck -yf(that last from single-user mode, accessed by booting while holding down Command-S).
Those commands accomplish much of the aforementioned tasks, and do it without installing, much less buying, anything. The apps save one from having to remember this stuff, but as the tasks are rarely required, paying $15 for an app seems kind of weird. That said, many apps will let you run a full-featured trial.
(An aside: I wonder if some Mac developers could benefit from the iPhone App Store model and start looking at $1-$3 tags for certain smaller desktop apps; would sales go up?)
A search for “maintenance” at MacUpdate.com yields the most established titles. Of these, I actively used Cocktail for a while, but since the free Maintenance and Onyx from Titanium Software came about, I have seen no reason to use any other tools. Maintenance is the simplest thing going: one window with a few checkboxes; turn on the ones you want and hit go. Onyx takes the hood off a lot of system services and features, and lets you run the same tasks as Maintenance to boot. They will both wisely ask to run “Verify Disk” before they do anything else. That takes a few minutes, but it’s well spent.
This is a good point to mention that, if Disk Utility’s Verify or Repair functions find something that they cannot fix, you will need to pick up an application such as Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro. These are each pricey but rock solid, and they repair the dramatic damage or corruption of your volume information that can cause data loss.
To bring your Mac to a space- and performance-saving English-only state, I’ve always liked Monolingual. A MacOSXHints user posted an Automator script for 10.4 that strips the languages and also PowerPC code from applications, but I want to examine it before I use it in 10.6. Here’s another, also older, article and another app for removing PPC from Universal Binaries.
Regarding CleanMyMac specifically, I haven’t used it, and with a 200MB cleanup limit on the trial, I have little need to put $15 toward that. (I’m not knocking the developer’s price, just… well, see above.) Monolingual should do the language diet for you, and to maintain stability, I would greatly encourage you to download Intel-only versions of your apps. Remember, too, that Snow Leopard is itself Intel-only, so the Apple apps are not Universal.
You will backup before running these apps, right?
jjmarcus tech solutions 
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