I just discovered that iMovie ‘09 – part of Apple’s iLife ‘09, can now move the Project files to external drives. Before, it could move Event files but would keep the Project files local.
Not sure if ‘08 did it too and it just wasn’t obvious to me, but I like that I can now keep both the Project files and Event files on the same drives.
Here’s something I learned the hard way.
Turns out Mac OS X’s Time Machine can backup external drives!
Why did I believe the contrary of this? I’m not sure…
Time Machine by default does not backup external drives, but it can easily be removed from the “Do not back up” list.
I’ve been using a Drobo as my live storage drive, and a Firewire disk for Time Machine backups.
Using a single drive based system for backups is not so great, but with Drobo’s seemingly unlimited storage (provided I keep feeding it hard drives), I wanted to use it for my main storage with the idea of buying a 2nd Drobo to replace the Firewire drive eventually.
While reimporting pictures into iPhoto, I noticed that some pictures have a watermark on them, which I do when I upload to websites for sharing as I’ve had my pics stolen before. But I always leave the originals in iPhoto untouched.
Somehow when I initially did the watermarking and uploading – I must have trashed the wrong folder. And because I was dumping all my pictures into Drobo for the initial processing is when this mishap happened. I do however keep a copy of (some) of my unwatermarked originals on my website as it’s how I do watermarking now, and I had assumed the originals I’m looking for were there. My assumption was wrong.
I didn’t lose the pictures, but they are permanently watermarked and downsized now. 
So now I turn to my external drives and Time Machine to help me with this problem in the future.
Another item I didn’t know, is that Time Machine will happily use any HFS+ drive WITHOUT formatting them, and allow you to keep other data on it. So I immediately changed my “Time Machine Disk” to Drobo as I move things around (and no, Time Machine will not make backups of the Time Machine drive to itself).
Items I don’t care about or can easily replace, such as temp download files, ISOs to software I have on disk, etc will stay on Drobo (altho RAID – no archival backups).
Items such as pictures, documents and such that I DO want being backed up are being moved to the Firewire drive. Yes, a single drive for initial storage still makes me nervous, but should it fail everything will be backed up on the Time Machine drive as well. I will replace the Firewire drive with another Drobo eventually.
After experimenting with and not being happy with a couple of Motorcycle mounts I’ve tried for my iPhone – I think I found a solution. At least for my Motorcycle… this won’t work on the Scooter.
I’ve realized that the iPhone’s touch screen seems to work under some materials, including plastic. While maybe not as reliable as direct contact, I realized it works good enough in the Map Pocket of most Tank Bags! At least when I’m not wearing gloves – which is OK, forcing me to pull over to mess with the phone is not a bad idea! I already pull over for phone calls – even tho I have a bluetooth headset.
This mod came to be because I wanted to track some of my rides (better sat reception), and be able to see information at a glance.
iPhone with Bluetooth Dongle (for tunes) in a Cortech Super Mini Tankbag.
(yes, my iPhone is cracked, it works fine tho)
Other than the ugly Bluetooth Dongle, it looks like it’s just simply my iPhone in my tank bag. Hidden from sight is the USB Charging cable routed thru the bag.
The Map Pocket is actually Two Pockets in one, the main “Map” pocket, and a secondary Document Pocket, which made hiding and routing the cable that much easier! I made a small cut at the top to feed the charge cable via the Document pocket, which then connects to my bike via a USB to 12V Port Adaptor. The other end simply comes out the Document pocket access flap, attaches to my iPhone, then iPhone goes into the main Map Pocket access flap.
I also routed the cable around a clasp buckle with some zip ties and added a piece of Velcro on the USB connector to attach to the inside of the Map Pocket as shown, to keep it tidy and hide it all when not in use.
I’ll update with better pictures on the bike when it stops raining.
This will do for my Motorcycle – altho I may still get a mount that better protects the phone from crashing and the elements for when I go offroading. 
I just received my Rx of Wiley-X “Jake” Riding glasses, with a gradient tint.
So far I like them allot! I had broken my previous (normal) Rx glasses, and was using my old Rx until I realized that all the scratches where doing me more harm than good, especially with my Astigmatism, “night blindness” / light sensitivity, so I had stopped wearing them and have been without glasses for a few weeks.
The Rx is GREAT! The “climate control” face “gasket” so far seems good – altho I haven’t been able to test it out while riding yet, the gradient tint will indeed need some getting used to.
I was expecting the top part of the lens to be darker, while the bottom to be completely clear, but they seem decent regardless.
Visibility and clarity is great! It seems that the tint allows me to see more detail, especially on brightly lit items, such as items in direct sunlight, and even light sources and car headlights at night.
Tested them driving in a car at night, and they don’t make things too dark, just a slight tint, which is great! I can see safely at night (altho only tested in city driving so far)! I was expecting the tint to block out more of car headlights – but it still does a good job at killing blinding glare. It’s odd that I’m actually able to see the light source for once – and not just a big blob of light!
Indoors with natural light – they are great! Kills overall glare but doesn’t make things dark, even with normal indoor lighting they do very well.
Altho wearing them indoors is going to take some getting used to, my brain tells me I’m wearing sunglasses but taking them off doesn’t make much of a difference – if anything taking them off makes things too bright at times.
I’m expecting to get weird looks if I wear them indoors in public, might get a 2nd set of “normal” frames with Transitions as I’ve already been asked to remove my glasses by a security guard at a bank, they where my old Rx, normal frames with Transitions just walking in from being outdoors, I can just imagine the problems they’ll give me with an always tinted lens in a “sunglass” frame. :-/
Man, I’m really bad at this! I do have updates, but damn if I remember to post them! I’ll back-publish a few items, and see if I can get myself to post normal updates as they happen.
I blame Twitter! 
I think someone’s anxious to go camping!
Oh, right, that’s me!
Donno when tho…
Just getting everything I think I may need, getting the bike ready, etc. Hopefully soon!
On Saturday I was riding up and down the coast, doing some exploring – riding my DualSport (Yamaha XT225) but not doing anything offroad – altho I did end up in the dirt and doing a water crossing on a paved road!
So I end up in Zuma Beach, and for some reason there’s dead-stop traffic on this 2 lane road (one lane in each direction with a broken yellow line), which seems is going into a parking lot. I’m not interested to go to the parking lot, so I proceed to pass the traffic on the opposite side (left of the broken yellow line). Near the intersection (can only go straight or left) I move back into the correct side of the street as I get ready to make a left – just then a Sheriff on an ATV motions me to come over to him. Which I do…
He starts asking me about my bike (the Dual Sport), price, how I like it, etc.., so we start talking as I have nowhere to be, I could chat for a minute. He then tells me the reason he “pulled me over” was because I was on the wrong side of the road.
Surprised at that, I tell him that I recall that I was able to do that on a broken yellow line. And that I wasn’t aware of – and that I wasn’t intentionally breaking any laws.
“You can’t do that when traffic is parked”
Wait, what?
I look back and realize that indeed – they are “parked”. They all seem to want to enter the parking lot that is closed off apparently due to an emergency as just then an ambulance pulls out.
He tells me it’s not a big deal – and takes off as someone called for him.
And I’m left with “WTF???”
I *KNOW* I wasn’t breaking any laws! And when he started talking to me about my bike, I figured it was just camaraderie between DualSport motorcycle riders (he was on an ATV but owns a DualSport).
Altho I wonder if he thought I was “cutting in line”, which would then make sense for him to stop me, but he left before I was able to ask him. He did ask me where I was going and realized I didn’t intend to go to the parking lot. But he was cool about it.
Would have liked to talk to him a little more and find out if that was the case.
Thanks to a Ram Mount (Finger Grip) my friend Mike gave me, a bluetooth dongle, and replacing my 12v to USB adaptor with one rated at 1Amp for both my bikes, my bikes are now iPhone compatible (to my friend’s dismay)!
One of the reasons why I wanted an iPhone was because my GPS was getting insanley annoying and doing stupid things like insisting I exit a FWY just to get right back on at the next entrance! Uh, wait, what??? Oh and here’s the weird one, the iPhone screen is easier to see in sunlight than the GPS’s! Go figure! I thought glass would be harder with the glare! (well, as long as the sun is not reflecting off of it I guess).
Once the new iPhone was released with GPS and I noticed that – even tho it doesn’t do turn-by-turn (yet) or tracking (yet), it is enough to replace my previous GPS for my everyday needs. Until the iPhone gets tracking abilities I’ll need to swap it out with my old one when I lead rides on Fridays. No big deal.
Plus with a bluetooth dongle and my Chatterbox Bluetooth Helmet Headset, I can listen to my tunes and take a phone call without wires — altho wind + road noise may make me pull over for the call, which is a good idea anyway!
And yeah, I’m not very happy with Apple that I need a separate bluetooth dongle to listen to tunes. But at least the dongle was cheap enough. For those interested, it’s a Jabra A120s available at Fry’s in Burbank for $25.
(I also had to replaced one of my bike’s built in 12v power port, and add one to my other bike)
Trying out wordpress online now, altho I do love Movable Type – I just don’t have the time to maintain it, I hardly have time to post as it is! Was thinking going back to Live Journal, which I still might… just wanted to give Word Press online a try first. And the fact that there an iPhone app for it now gave me more of an incentive.
Wow, that was annoying!
My deathly silence was due to a problem with my Movable Type install and my utter laziness to research and fix it.
I may backpost some entries to the dates that I had meant to post them.
