Chart of remote desktop solutions

Amy Rinehart sent me this link to a very helpful chart of remote-desktop solutions currently on the market, which platforms they support, what protocol they use, how strong their encryption is, etc. Remote screen control has become a major interest not just of nerds, but increasingly of iPad and other mobile users in general. After trying Copilot from Fog Creek for a while, I myself have landed on GoToAssist as an affordable and easy-to-implement tool for servicing clients (as of writing, this link from twit.tv gets you a discount; thanks, Leo!). I’m anxious for Citrix to release an iPad app for GTA.

Begin forwarded message:


The link to my chart is:

Thank you so much!

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

Reaction to today’s Apple announcements

Apple TV

1) At $99, they’re likely to sell a gajillion!
2) I love the ability to stream data. Curious if it will confuse people to have to work it through iTunes.
3) Netflix. Awesome.
4) I’m gonna be disappointed if they don’t allow other apps and services like Pandora.
5) Micro USB means they’re trying to make it hard to hack, which is annoying and hopefully not a dealbreaker. I need to get non-MPEG content on there.

iPod touch
With a mic and two cameras, that thing becomes an awesome communcation device, no AT&T contract required. You could do wireless off of a Mifi or whatever and have VoIP and Facetime everywhere.

iPods nano and shuffle
Very smart updates. 

Ping??
I just have no idea what to think.

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

Prepare a new hard drive for Time Machine

If you plug in an external drive that you want to use for Time Machine backups on macOS, and your Mac doesn’t automatically present you with the option to “Set Up,” then:

  1. Make sure the drive is on
  2. Click on Spotlight, the little magnifying glass at the top right of your computer screen
  3. Type “disk”
  4. Double-click on Disk Utility
  5. In the left sidebar of Disk Utility, you should see a line with the generic volume name and thumbnail of your external drive, e.g. “LaCie” or “WD” probably with a yellow icon. Click that line
  6. Click the Erase button on the right
  7. Set the Name to “Backup” (if you like, put your name in there too)
  8. Set the Format drop-down menu to “APFS” if it’s not already
  9. Click the Erase button
  10. You’ll be asked if you’re sure. Yes, you are sure.

Now, if you haven’t previously chosen a Time Machine backup, your Mac may ask if you want to use the new volume for backup. Say yes. If it doesn’t:

  1. Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Time Machine
  2. Click Select Disk
  3. If there’s a lock at the bottom left of the window, unlock it with your password
  4. Click the Options button at bottom right. If there are any items listed under “Exclude these items from backup,” remove all of them except for the grayed-out “Backup” drive
  5. Click Save
  6. Click on “Backup” (or whatever you called your drive)
  7. Click Use Disk.

Time Machine will start backing up your computer. It will give you a broad idea of how long it will take. Whether it’s a couple of hours or overnight, just leave it until it’s done. From then on, Time Machine will continue to back up the entire computer every hour.

On Airport

“Unplugged all Airport satellites — wifi now works from the Airport Extreme. I guess I will try replugging in the others one at a time.”


Ok, here’s the root idea, with details below: you do have to start with one base station as the hub, the master. Test basic connectivity and range. 

Then plug in and reset ONE Express. When you get that one green-lighted, stop. Then use your network for a few days and see how it feels. 

Test network range, speed, and ease of connection with all devices, e.g. taking a computer or phone away from the house, using a different wifi network, then bringin’ ’em home and seeing if they hook back up without you having to kick ’em in the pants. Also, test any peripheral services such as AirTunes — playing audio wirelessly from iTunes and other applications; you gotta know about Airfoil (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/)! — and printing to a printer plugged into the Express’ USB port.        

Then call me to discuss. 

Now, some details, sort of psychological:

Networking is a real arcane process. You gotta either know what’s up, or do what the software tells you. 

Airport devices are actually easier than other manufacturers, but they are still the least Apple-simple items in the consumer lineup. You have to be ready to reset all of them to factory defaults and start from scratch one airport at a time. It’s also important to know that Apple doesn’t sanction using more than three airport devices on a given network. Multiple base stations (comprising both Extremes and Expresses) should be connected as an atom looks: a nucleus with satellites, as opposed to in a chain or series, which configuration I have found unreliable.

The most crucial recommendation I can make about configuring a wifi network is to have patience, about 3 or 4 hours worth on your first try with multiple base stations. You’ll get it, you just have to turn the puzzle pieces around a couple of times.     

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

Links to the free iPhone/iPad apps I download for everyone

Google Mobile App – Now with Google Goggles!
AppBox Lite – Gotta have a level app, perfect for hanging pictures
LED Light for iPhone 4 Free – Best pocket flashlight I’ve ever owned
Amazon Mobile – Try the Amazon Remembers feature.
Dragon Dictation – It’s so great to have voice dictation on every iPhone 4S now, but owners of older phones will be glad to have Dragon.
Flipboard (iPad only) – Fantastic display of news articles as well as your Facebook and Twitter feeds
Google Translate – Translate via text… and voice dictation.
Google Shopper – one-touch product scanning is pretty cool.
Apple Remote – To control iTunes and your Apple TV
SoundHound and Shazam – These magical apps recognize songs just by listening to them, and their new feature is to display the lyrics as the song progresses, karaoke-style. Fantastic!

 

A couple that more people might wanna get into:
Simplenote… hey, where did Simplenote go? Oh, here it is, revved up just a touch with tags and stuff.

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

Note: I put Siri Assistant on this list back in 2009 – So good, Apple bought ’em and the rest is iOS history.

Picking an internet service provider in San Antonio

For the record, my order of preference for ISPs in South Texas is:

1) Time-Warner – very fast, decent customer service, not AT&T

2) Grande Communications – often very fast, offer Fiber-to-the-Home in some places, good pricing, sometimes excellent (but sometimes bozo) customer service, and at least they’re not AT&T

a distant last) AT&T …
… Let me tell you, these jokers are probably the worst company we have to deal with. If they have even the smallest opportunity to screw something up, they will. I’m serious:

Call to change your billing address, they cancel your internet service. We ask them to install internet, and they put it dangling smack dab in the middle of the office and charge our client a mysterious $300 for moronic work, and then we have to come back and arrange things logically and have to charge for another couple of hours. We ask AT&T to troubleshoot a modem, and they log onto my client’s #$^%@! server, and change the IP address — a huge no-no — which shuts down file access, and forces me to make a bloody emergency call to set right.

Plus their internet is like 1/3 the speed of everybody else’s. At one of my clients’ office, it feels like a dial-up connection, and they say they can’t make it faster.

For the love of all that’s good and right in the world, do yourselves, your employees and loved ones, and your IT contractor a favor, and don’t make us use AT&T’s crappy internet.

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

Taiwanese TV explains Antennagate

Awesome cartoon with Jobs as heir of Vader.

Taiwanese TV explains Antennagate

NMA News, the Taiwan TV station that recreates news events as ‘fly on the wall’ 3D animations, has applied its gift to Antennagate. It starts slow, but really gets going when the lightsabers come out. Bonus: Gizmodo is mistakenly referred to as “Gizmondo.” Hat Tip: Thanks, Michael Logan!

J2 Consulting ~ j2mac.com/calendar ~ 210.367.3420 

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog

BBOD, the feared “beach ball of death”

> I am having BBOD “beach ball of death” issues.
I’m going to phrase generally, for the sake of a blog post:

Please check Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities/). Look in the System Memory tab first (low memory is the usual cause of beach ball). If the green slice of free memory is small, reboot.

Then look at CPU. If you have more green or red or blue than black, reboot. Finally, storage: again, if hard drive available space is small (below 10% of capacity), then we need to clear some space, possibly downloading Disk Inventory X from http://www.derlien.com/.

If, after check CPU & RAM, you’re still seeing the BBOD, we have several possibilities:

1) We could reinstall Leopard, but the G5 in question just recently got that upgrade, so I think it unlikely that that would fix it.
2) We can cast a baleful eye on your hardware, particularly your hard drive. It’s fairly likely that, on this older machine, the system disk is bad, and that makes for a lot of real bad BBOD. Changing a drive out is easy and cheap on a Power Mac or Mac Pro, and might be a worthy idea anyway. Here’s a link: http://amzn.to/SeagateBarracuda500GBonAmazon

3) I’m gonna say to any G5 user that it’s time to upgrade. This may not be in the budget at the moment, but it should definitely be a priority. Snow Leopard is an important update for productivity, stability, and future compatibility. Call me to discuss!

P.S. It is worth noting that, whenever I pick up my laptops — on which I’m always running 10 apps and 17 web pages, along with countless other 3rd-party utilities — I’m almost guaranteed to encounter the BBOD. And both laptops are current-generation units with 4GB RAM and plenty of disk space. But my iPad… Always smooth, cos I can only keep one thing open on it at any given time. And it keeps me focused on the task at hand. I know the tablet doesn’t work in a production environment, but I find the change in paradigm interesting.

Posted via email from J2 Tech Blog