Tricks… Indeed.

So a odd day - I still am not getting mail at the office so that leads me to probably pick up a Post Office Box here soon, but I had hoped today would reveal some cash in the pocket, sadly no such luck - but I did get some more server research done in the realm of upgrading to a 8-Core Xeon server - needless to say it’s very appealing.

My mood has been odd lately, I keep finding myself angry, for no reason, it’s unusual for me, as I tend to go for down in the dumps vs anger - but for whatever reason I keep finding myself just furious - so not entirely sure what’s going on, but I take time to cool down before I leap into situations which I’m already wearing a little thin on (re: clients overdue) and work to come at the situation calmly - so far haven’t killed anyone.. but the week is still young.

Anywhoo - the kids are starting to knock, Halloween is in swing, so off I go to help fatten up the youth of america Have a fun/safe/happy Halloween.

A Trick? Come-on, where’s my treat?

So - Halloween eh? Seem’s today is a trick more than anything lol - woke up to my bank account being much lower than I have down it would be, turns out some things I had been billed for last month just cleared, and some deposits still have not made it in (Yay for old Credit Card Processor!) - but hopefully over the next 2 days things will get better and better, as tonight one of the big ones should clear, which is good and bad, as it goes to PayPal directly, not to my WAMU account - yay? I dunno, Wamu’s recent “Online Banking Upgrade” quite frankly has a few good points, but the removal of a way to see pending holds on deposits and withdraws sucks.

I guess one thing positive about this morning (Roger don’t hit me) is I got IMAP support turned on for my Gmail account, so now if needs be I can utilize IMAP, so one positive thing, I am hoping more will follow here shortly, going to try for the 3rd time this week to square away some bills with the kMan, with the power outage yesterday that affected most of downtown, never got to get together with him to get the check - and considering his invoice with me is due Friday, I am hoping I can get things rolling ASAP with that, but sadly I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out and I fear for the worst, but hopefully with the billing system being all converted soon, I can have less worries on things.

Server related, I think if I can hold out a few more months, I may have some server alternatives - but I think long-term I am going to have to ditch the Friends server, unless funds really start coming in on a more regular basis, I think my paper invoices got out, but I think with the recent mail switch to the new building by means of a “Mail Forward” has more or less screwed the pooch for my mail, so I think I am going to need to snag a PO Box to get mail sent to, unless I go today and there is a pile of checks, which is what I am hoping for - but again, like many things not really expecting to happen.

Anywhoo - keep me in your prayers, things just are all over the map for me, my sleep is all out of wack, my brain is all over the map, its just all a tad nutty, but hopefully… Lord willing, it’ll all pan out here very soon. Happy Halloween folks.

New Day, New Possibilities, New New (thats right, x2 New)

So a new week, a new day - and I am still excited about things coming along, and wether or not I get a call back about a job, I still want to push forward with what I have, as that’s what I have to work with at the moment but some good things in the works, just hoping they’ll pan out over the next few days.

The budget is coming along, not perfect still, but soon I hope - I am hoping to pick up some checks here today if at all possible, my big desire is that a few of the “big ones” come in that I’ve been waiting for, if so, that should stabilize things for a while, I am hoping some other projects come in and really help replenish my reserves a bit - but as always, time will tell - I am also hoping a friend will be nice enough to kick down some $$$ for recent assistance in a server migration, but sadly that may not come, but a man can hope!

Server work wise, getting ready to lay out a firm plan for a PHP4/PHP5 hybrid system for customers, I still need to do a few more test runs and app tests of things, but it looks promising! Also looking at a long-term data center growth option, there are a few very very appealing options wither some prime bandwidth - but that comes with a cost, which I am not against paying, but making sure a quality plan is in place, and that this new DC and NOC are well staffed and qualified, as I don’t want to jump into bed with another company only to find that 12 other people are in the same bed, and my customers suffer.

So lots to do, lots to read up on, lots of bills to chance, bills to pay, and potatoes to eat (I really am craving potatoes), but the day is off to a good start, morning shower shortly, followed by some traveling I am thinking! Okay, off to it!

Faster, Cleaner, Fun-er

So, you guessed it, I am still awake, working away here, getting things all lined up to bring the iMac back to full production status, I am about 1/2 way transferring back over from the Linux box 47.3GB of “Music” which includes iTunes purchases and such, slow going, but it’s going the big one to worry about is Pictures, lots of digital negatives there.

I have been playing with Leopard for about a day now, like most folks out there toying with new features, though unlike a group of folks out there, I can’t really say I have found any “quirks” that are show stoppers. Granted while copying from a NFS mount I can’t seem to unmount disk images of installs, so I have a LOT on the desktop right now waiting for the data to get copied over but so far everything is running smoothly, all my common apps like Textmate which I am blogging from, Transmit for FTP works fine, I have honestly yet to find a application that gives me any problems, and most folks report that CS3 is working fine, so when that bridge comes up here, I’ll cross it without fear!

New features are nice

• Spaces - It is pretty spiff, I enjoyed it on the MBP however on dual monitors, each “Space” is split into 2 sections (one for each monitor) so if I have 4, there are 8 windows to drag apps into, it’s pretty clever
• Stacks - Some people are finding this very troublesome, but I think its just another feature you can take or leave, and for me, I enjoy it, for downloads and documents (the defaults) it works great, but for me I also have my stock photo purchases, projects folder, and “Desktop” as files get dropped/saved there all the time, it’s pretty handy.
• Time Machine - While I don’t “hate” it, I am not 100% in love with it, the use of a NFS mount would of been better, but just means I need to get a good sized drive to use on my iMac, and I need to clean off the portable drive for the MBP.
• Mail - Lovely - the new features aren’t a “MUST” for me, granted the To-Do’s will most likely sync into the Dash via Missing Sync (or so is my hope) but it’s speed has greatly increased, so much so that I imported my Thunderbird email, and have 1 less app to install.
• Frontrow - Looks good, apparently it shares the layout of the AppleTV device, but it’s workable - not that I use it that much, as I tend to use VLC and full screen it on the secondary monitor, but its a nice touch up none the less.
• Overall UI- Seen a number of complaints about this, folks upset about the transparent menu bar, or the dock, “blah blah blah” people are entitled to their opinion, don’t get me wrong, but at the same time aren’t Mac folk supposed to be this super “progressive” thinkers I mean come on the ad is “Think Different” but instead some folks have been spooked by the new look - all I can say is, deep breath people, it’ll be okay.

But so far so good, I am sure there’s a slew of features I could go on about, and in time, maybe I will, currently doing Software Updates for iLife06, just finished the last one, but it all is looking super good, more later I am sure, more to do while the copy continues it’s long journey of copying

First Blog from Leopard (iMAC)

So it is done, with only 1 casualty to speak of, the Movies folder, which thankfully doesn’t usually contain anything of monumental importance, so not a loss just a “Doh!” moment as I realized it wasn’t there.

So far so good - got Adium moved over and it moved without a hitch, included logs, settings, themes, icons, the works, same with Mail, Firefox, Textmate - and now just need to get the LARGE data moved over, going to leave the big one rolling here in a minute once I get the other random downloads/reboots done - but it has gone super well - very very happy indeed.

More later on an “official” review from me, really not any complaints thus far, but I wanted to gage it on the iMac’s speed since it is my primary workstation, though the Laptop is very chipper now and may be getting some more loving use soon

LostFruit -> Leopard

So I am going to start me a Leopard upgrade on my iMac (lostfruit) the MBP (myfruit) is doing well, and of course I’ve already started fiddling with scripts, tweaks, etc. one thing I love is you can now choose what app is run when a DVD is inserted! For a long time I liked VLC over DVD Player as it could handle dual monitors better, I haven’t gotten to test things yet on dual monitors, but I have to write a Applescript to handle VLC auto-starting my DVDROM, it’s a pretty simple script, just need to write it, and put it in place.

I have been working for the last day or two, to really clean up Lostfruit, it’s my oldest Mac in house, and thus has the most …. “Data” on it (read: Junk) - but on top of that its the home for iTunes, Business Email, Books, Photos, Negatives, etc. SOOOOO - A quality backup has been a big thing, and while my weekly script covers the big boys, Mail/Pictures/Music/Docs - it didn’t cover everything I want to be 100% sure I have, everything, and anything I need (first time upgrading this badboy!) of course iLife was a odd one on myfruit, as its part of the “restore” disks with Mac’s not a separate disk to install things with (iLife came pre-installed), same with the iMac - so some magic to work via Terminal but it’s easy enough.

Probably another hour or so before I get it rolling, need to get some large folders over, and then with everything shut down and server sessions moved to myfruit, I’ll do one last rsync of all critical things, and when that’s done (shouldn’t take long) I’ll drop in the DVD, say a prayer, and move forward - but I think one thing that’ll change, I am going to drop Thunderbird, unless it magically runs better under 10.5 than it does under 10.4, but my plan is to migrate email to Mail.app - the new version is pretty snazzy, and have it all in one place and easy to access/manage.

No word back on the job, kind of hoping to hear something first of this next week, but there’s always that chance I won’t get anything back at all - but such is part of the game I suppose, but there is a few more options out there if not, and it’d really help get my cash flow up, and things really rolling for me, and help me get some things taken care of in my personal life (Re: Payoff Car, Get Apartment, Buy a Cheesecake) - so hopefully things happen, if not then its continuing this nose to the grindstone bit with hosting, and work hard to get customers coming in!

Anywhoo - I am off, just wanted to take a quick break and post something, but now it’s off to the wonderful world of upgrading! (Yay!) Next time I post from this station will be using 10.5! Hooray!

So far so good…

So tomorrow I think I will give the full treatment to the iMac - on the MBP it’s going smoothly, heck even Firefox runs a world quicker, all apps seem a lot more chipper, the big things like the Adobe CS3 Suite are still on the “To Install” list along with other apps, but all in all, it’s going well with no burps.

I do like the new features, and the tabbed terminal, awesome. I can’t wait to see what it does in dual monitors with things like Spaces - but time will tell, must get a backup done fresh tomorrow on the iMac and see about clearing off one of the 250GB drives I have to use in the USB enclosure for Time Machine.

Anywhoo - live from my bed, Captain Sleepy Signing off.