troykitch.com

I discovered the solution to the WordPress registration problem. You will now receive an email with your chosen user name and password when you subscribe to this site. The problem is with the last WordPress upgrade (2.3.1). With some hosts (including Bluehost, my host), this upgrade broke the auto-generated email. I don’t know why, but it did.

Here’s the solution if your interested: What you need to do is open up pluggable.php (which is located in the wp-includes folder in your WordPress installation on your host server). Look for line 228 and comment it out (to comment out a line on a PHP file, use //). It will look like this:

// $phpmailer->Sender = apply_filters( ‘wp_mail_from’, $from_email );"

Then save the file and you’re good to go. The only thing I don’t like about this solution is the email format. Instead of receiving an email from ‘wordpress@viewfromthedock.com,’ you will now receive an email from ‘viewfro3@box361.bluehost.com.’ What an ugly address! I’ll have to see if I can change this to a more user-friendly address.

This is the second post in a series comparing task management applications that are based on the ‘Getting Things Done’ process. I’ll begin with a look at bartek:bargiel’s iGTD 1.4.5.6.

I started testing this application out many months ago, right about the time that I started to learn more about the GTD process. This little application was then generating (and continues to generate) a lot of buzz: it's powerful, it's free (well, it's actually donationware, so it's a nice idea to give the developer some cash if you intend to keep using it) and it integrates nicely with many other Mac apps (e.g. it can synch with .Mac, synch with an iPhone, and meshes nicely with QuickSilver, the very capable and elegant data management and application launcher).

The Poland-based developer who created this program (who apparently developed this on his free time; he has a day job according to his profile) integrates the core ideas of the Getting Things Done model very well. The application is updated and improved with amazing frequency — it seems that every time I launch it, there's a new version available. I don't know when this guy sleeps.

I find the user-interface of iGTD to be both interesting and daunting. I admit I have a weakness for lots of options, and in this department iGTD excels. That's the interesting part: it presents you with an amazing amount of control for organizing your stuff. But all of these options come at a price. There are so many choices that it may make your head hurt. Check out the first screenshot (on the left) to see what the application looks like. At the simplest level, iGTD organizes your 'to do' items in two main ways: via 'contexts' and 'projects.' A context is simply a way to denote 'where I will do this task.' In screenshot #1, you'll see that the context for the item 'post iGTD review' is the 'computer.' In other words, I will post this review only when I'm at my computer. I can then add this item to a 'project' of my choice. In screenshot #1, I'm about to add the 'post iGTD review' item to the 'my website' project. This simple bit of organization allows me to quickly see what I have to do by context and what I need to do by project. I can choose which view I want by selecting the appropriate button on the menu bar of the application. When I view my items by context, iGTD displays what project each item in that context belongs to. When I view by project, I see what context each item in that projects belongs to. Make sense? You may want to download the trial from the developers site and try it out to better understand this. By way of example, I could have two items in my 'at the computer' context. When I sit down at the iMac, I say to myself, "Let's see what I'm supposed to do while I'm here at the computer." I see that I have two items: one is to post this review. The project for that item is called 'my website.' The other item is to 'back up my data.' The project for this one is 'mac management.' So, iGTD offers a a handy way to organize, particularly when you're dealing with a lot of items. I like how iGTD manages contexts and projects. It makes sense. But let's take a step back — the first thing your supposed to do if you follow the 'GTD workflow' is to transfer all those dozens or hundreds of things you have 'to do' from your head to the computer. For that you use the 'inbox.'

The inbox is simply a collection point for all your 'to do' items. When you're ready (that is, when you're done entering items and your brain is empty), you can start processing and categorizing those items to help you get better organized. I found that the easiest way to do this with iGTD is to drag items to the appropriate context (drag 'get groceries' to the 'errand' context, for instance ... and note that you can create whatever context you want), and then double-click in the 'Project' field for that item and choose a project to add it to (or create a new one). These ideas (placing your tasks in an inbox, then sorting them by contexts and projects) is a core idea of the GTD process, and all the apps I'm going to look at more or less follow similar organizational lines. Now I want to discuss a few finer points about iGTD in particular.

Remember when I said the interface was both interesting and daunting? I want to hit on the daunting (or potentially confusing) aspects of this program. For starters, iGTD allows you to assign 'priority' and 'effort' for each of your items. Power users may like this, but I found it to be tedious. I tried setting both 'effort' and 'priority,' but it quickly became cluttered and confusing as the task list grew. Do I need both? What's the difference? The 'effort' bar (seen in Screenshots 1 and 2) seems like overkill to me, but perhaps those of you with a penchant for extreme organization will enjoy it. If you don't like or need to numerically prioritize and/or visualize your 'effort level' for each item, you can always ignore these functions. The application doesn't care.

iGTD also allows you to add start and due dates to items which, of course, is critical for managing tasks across time. This works great and is easy to do in iGTD. But there's more. With iGTD, you can also mark items as 'pending' or 'waiting for' (this is graphically represented in iGTD by a little Play/Pause button that shows up in a column right before the name of each task. Personally, I think the terms 'pending' and 'waiting for' are too similar. It confuses me. Start dates and due dates are enough. In fact, due dates are enough for my needs.

I'm also not comfortable with the sorting functions available below the task list (see the drop-down lists that say 'Current & Future' and 'All Tasks' in Screenshot #1). There are just too many options. From these drop-down lists, you can choose from 'Current & Future,' 'Current,' 'Future,''Maybe,' and 'All' ... and once you make this choice, you can further filter your tasks by choosing one of these options: 'All tasks,' 'to do,' 'to wait for,' and 'delegated.' This exemplifies the problem for me: there are too many views, filters, and organizing fields. Who might need this level of fidelity and amount of power? Probably people using this app for business, where one is faced with managing many projects over time that involve many different people (and for this, iGTD offers the ability to delegate ... perhaps this is when one might deploy the 'waiting for' tag). I could go on about the confusion factor when delving into dates, reminder tags, notes, links and time tags, but suffice it to say that this is likely going to be the point where some people may say "my head hurts."

I forgot to mention that you can also right-click on each item and get even more options (as seen in Screenshot #2). Here, you'll find the 'Maybe' tag, which is peculiar to GTD. It means 'maybe I'll get to this someday.' I like that. I always have some items that I want to do in some vague, undefined time and place in the future, and it's nice to be able to track these items without cluttering up your concrete time-sensitive items. When you mark an item as 'Maybe,' by the way, the 'play/pause' button changes to a little question mark in a blue bubble. What about the other choices you get when you right-click on a task? Suffice it to say that there are many more options, and the best way to see it is to try the free demo for a week or so. In my opinion, the developer did a fine job in offering up so many methods and shortcuts and sub-menus, etc. to organize your data, but I reiterate that it may be too much to easily grasp for many users. Here are a few more screenshots for you to peruse [screenshots removed]:

The first of these three is an image of the 'QuickAdd' box (screenshot #3). This is an example of excellent system-wide integration. I can be surfing the web, hit the F6 function key (provided iGTD is running), and this handy quick-entry box will pop up. I like this, but as you'll see in the screenshot, I'm still not sure what to do with those 'pending' and 'waiting' checkboxes. Screenshot #4 shows yet even more options available from the Dock (with a right-click on the Dock icon). That reminds me, iGTD ALSO offers a menu item up in the Mac menu bar. This is yet another way to quickly add your data, synch your data, and categorize your data. Finally, screenshot #5 shows the iGTD Services menu. Why show this? Because I love Apple's Services menu, and it's surely one of the least used features on the Mac.

The useful Service item here is this: if you highlight some text in whatever program you are currently using, you can go to the Services menu (click on the program name in the Apple Menu Bar and choose 'Services' - it's available in every application you use) and choose iGTD. Here, you'll find 'Put to iGTD inbox.' iGTD does not need to be running. What this will do is open up iGTD, create a new task in your inbox, and place the highlighted text in the 'Task Notes' field of iGTD. That's handy — you can't use the F6 key to enter new data, after all, if iGTD is not running. But you can always use Apple Services. (Take a look at your Services menu. You may be surprised at how many apps offer little time-saving shortcuts here).

The Verdict

1. Could I figure out how to use the application with minimal fuss (preferably without referring to documentation)?

I could figure out the basics, but some aspects of the program baffle me.

2. Was I still enthusiastic about using the application after a week of use?

I was enthusiastic for several months, then my usage trailed off. I was only using a fraction of the programs power, and that bugged me. I got tired of looking at all those options and blank fields that I just didn't require for my basic life organization needs.

3. How well does the app integrate into the Mac OS?

Extremely well. From the Services menu, to the Menu Bar item, to the Dock menu, to the function 'hot keys,' to the integration with tons of other apps, iGTD is extremely integrated, and extremely powerful. According to the developer's website, iGTD integrates with Quicksilver, LaunchBar, Safari, Firefox, Camino, BonEcho, Opera, Apple Mail, MailTags 2.0, Microsoft Entourage, NetNewsWire, endo, Journler, Yojimbo, DEVONthink Pro, Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, TextEdit, TextMate, TextWrangler, Finder, PathFinder, EagleFiler, MacJournal, Mori, WebnoteHappy and VoodooPad Pro.

4. How well could I manage all of my tasks (work, home, play, etc.)

Very easily, but it got confusing when I started to organize by dates, pending, future, maybes, etc. However, I want to caveat this: you don't have to use all of the available options and power features. And remember, we're talking about a free application here. Maybe you could live with a few too many options for the cost of a donation to the developer.

5. How did the program 'feel?' How 'Mac-like' is it?

It feels complex and heavy. I tend to initially like complex and heavy applications (probably just because of the 'gee whiz' factor, as in 'gee whiz, look at all the things I could do with this'). But I find that, after some time, complex and heavy just weighs me down. It comes down to the difference between what I could theoretically do with a program and what I really am doing with it in reality. Perhaps some aspects of iGTD wouldn't be so confusing if I were better versed in the semantics of GTD. But I'm a novice, and I think the winner in this war of GTD-based task organizers will be the one that doesn't require a customer to know much about GTD. It should simply make sense, shouldn't feel bloated and it should be a pleasure to use — the elusive Mac-like quality.

In conclusion: this will remain a strong GTD task management contender for the Mac because it is rich in features, looks great and is free. When you consider that this is made by one person, as opposed to a powerhouse Mac software company (like OmniGroup's OmniFocus ... which I'll look at next), it really deserves to be a contender. It's a great piece of software. If you are a GTD wizard, you will likely love this program. If you are not, you may find it's a bit like using a chain saw to cut butter. The last word: iGTD Version 2 is now being developed (you can try an Alpha release of it by visiting the developer's site). It'll be worth another look once this new and improved version hits the streets.

By the way, I better add that 'GTD' and 'Getting Things Done' are registered trademarks of David Allen & Co. I don't want to get sued.

I've decided to get better organized in 2008, so I've been trying out task management solutions for the Mac.

What I'm looking for is a well-designed application with powerful features that cleanly integrate with the Mac operating system. I want to be able to group my varied tasks into project groups that are easy to view and are logically organized. I want tag my list items so they are easy to find and search. I want one central place where I can quickly see what I have to do today and what I have to do next. I want a central place to store everything in my head. Above all, I want to enjoy using this application. No, more ... I want an application that makes me want to use it. A tall order, perhaps, but this is what the Mac user experience is all about.

Seeking Alternatives to Apple's Mail/iCal

Unfortunately, I think Apple missed the mark with their improved Mail/iCal 'to do' management introduced with Mac OS X Leopard. Granted, it's better than what existed in Mac OS X Tiger and all other previous OS X versions (which, essentially, was nothing). But it's still not there. I tried using the 'Apple option' for a couple of weeks before I abandoned it. While the Mail/iCal solution is simple and well-integrated and may be enough for many people, it's just not working out for me. It doesn't feel right. I don't like the overly simplistic to-do list in Mail. I can't group items into bigger categories or projects. I can't tag items. I can't easily archive completed items. I don't like how it integrates with iCal. As for iCal, the to do list view is fine is you just have a few items, but it quickly becomes unwieldy and hard to read as more are added. I could go on. Suffice it to say that Apple's offerings seemed underpowered to me, so I moved on.

The good news is that there are an overwhelming number of third-party task management applications out there for the Mac user (there are also a number of plug-ins available to enhance Mail and iCal task management and a host of web-based solutions to help manage your life). That's the great thing about the Mac - the third-party developers who make applications for Mac OS X are unmatched on any platform. I truly believe that.

 

The bad news is that it's hard to know where to start because there are so many choices. My solution? I chose to focus on a peculiar subset of task management applications based on a system called Getting Things Done. Why? Because many geeky mac users that I respect are oddly enthusiastic about this model, and have been for quite some time.

Getting Things Done on the Mac

If you follow the mac community buzz, you may have heard of David Allen's 'Getting Things Done' framework for, well, getting things done. Over the course of the past year, it seemed I couldn't escape the chatter about this revolutionary way to manage one's daily and long-term tasks. Intrigued by the noise, I checked out an audiobook of 'Getting Things Done' from the library. Allen's ideas are indeed innovative and clever.

In essence, GTD is a systematic way to organize your thoughts that begins with dumping out the contents of your brain in an 'inbox,' then organizing those things along the lines of when you plan to get to them (e.g. today, next week, someday), in what context you will do these things (e.g. at the computer, at work, on the road), and how you group these things (into different projects). GTD is way of capturing all these little bits of 'things I want to do' and 'things I need to do' so you don't have to worry about remembering them all. Once you get all those thoughts down, GTD offers up a nifty way to organize it in a meaningful way over time.

At some point, Mac developers who adhered to the GTD model began creating clever applications and scripts to capture this process. While I haven't closely followed the evolution of this development, I noticed that it seemed to really get going in mid-2006 ... and this most certainly had something to do with organization guru Merlin Mann of 43 Folders, whose tireless efforts helped to popularize this system, particularly on the Mac platform.

Over the course of 2007, I came to associate GTD with Mac task management as more and more applications based on this model began to appear. Over time, I've watched as available mac-based GTD programs evolved from the relatively simple (see kinklessGTD) to the increasingly sophisticated (see OmniFocus, iGTD).

The 2008 showdown

As the options continue to evolve and refine, I think we're heading for a final shake out in 2008. My prediction: this will be the year for the Killer Task Management Application for the Mac, and that application is going to be based on the GTD model.

This will be the year when a small handful of really great Mac-based task managers vie for the mainstream — you may never have heard of GTD, but if these task managers are successful, you won't need to know anything at all about David Allen's system. All you'll have to do is pick your favorite and start getting organized.

Here are the applications that I will compare: iGTD, Cultured Code Things, Midnight Inbox, coalmarch Park and OmniFocus from OmniGroup.

As the dust settles over the next year, I think that one application will stand out above the rest. I've made my choice, but I'll save my opinion for the end of this series.

How I will review these apps

To keep things simple, I evaluated these power organization apps with a few questions in mind:

 

• Could I figure out how to use the application with minimal fuss (preferably without referring to documentation)?
• Was I still enthusiastic about using the application after a week of use? 
• How well does the app integrate into the Mac OS? 
• How well could I manage all of my tasks (work, home, play, etc.) 
• How did the program 'feel?' How 'mac-like' is it?

 

This last point may need a little clarification. You may have heard or read that a particular program is 'mac-like.' What this means is this: Apple software is generally renowned for simplicity, consistency, lack of clutter, and a great user interface. A 'mac-like' application, then, exemplifies these qualities. I also consider a program to be 'mac-like' if the interface is instantly familiar and obvious because it's similar to other Apple programs I use, such as the Finder or iTunes. Last but not least, a good mac application should integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Mac OS.

In the next post, I'll begin the comparison.

I recently completed a project that began with installing VMware Fusion on my Intel iMac and (unexpectedly) ended with an old Compaq Presario laptop running Linux. If you’re an adventurous type and wish to reclaim an old PC, or if you just switched to a mac and now have an old PC collecting dust, read on. In my case, a friend donated an old Compaq laptop to me (she switched to an iMac) so I could use it to test out websites on Internet Explorer. It did the job … but just barely. Windows XP just doesn’t run well on 58MB of RAM! My workflow went like this: launch Explorer, go for a snack, take a bathroom break, play with the cat, then arrive back at the laptop to either (a) load the page I wished to preview or (b) discover the machine had inexplicably froze.

Thankfully, my intel-based iMac is now handily running Windows XP and the old laptop is now obsolete. Or so I thought. On a whim, I installed Ubuntu Linux on my iMac (again, using virtual machine wizadry) just to test it out. I was amazed - it was fast, enjoyable, and very useable. One nice thing about Linux is that the OS shares the same Unix underpinnings as Mac OSX, so if you’ve been using X for a while, you’ll feel fairly comfortable in the new environment. When I started learning more about Linux, I was surprised at the dozens of ‘flavors’ of this OS and the vaster number of open source (free) software applications that run on it (all of which can run on Mac OS too, by the way). I am in awe that there are so many people out there developing this stuff out of sheer passion and dedication. How cool is that?

It was then that inspiration struck. Why not install Linux on my old Compaq paperweight? What a great way to use an old machine, and to learn more about Linux (and Unix) - skills that will make me a better Mac user too. I was not dissapointed. Linux turned my Compaq into a very usable machine that is suprisingly responsive (I won’t say it’s speedy - but it runs like lightning compared to running Windows). For the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed using a Compaq (despair over a Compaq drove me to switch to a mac in 2000!). I now have a risk-free platform on which I can learn about Linux and develop my Unix skills. It also serves, simply, as an extra PC around the house. True, I can also learn Unix commands via the Terminal on my mac (on Mac OSX or using a virtual machine to run Linux), but it gives me greater peace of mind to explore the inner workings of Unix on a totally separate machine. I can try things I would be hesitant to try on the mac. And if I really mess something up on my Compaq (and I already have), I don’t really care. I just reinstall the operating system and try again.

The Linux version I’m using — Puppy Linux — is under 100MB, so it’s quick to reload. A warning to you, though: it took me (a Unix novice with no prior Linux experience) several days of experimentation to get everything up and running on the laptop. Now that I have the process down, I can reformat the partition of the hard drive and reinstall a clean version of Linux in about 15 minutes. But you should know that you may have to get under the hood and expirement to get it working (here, I’m mainly talking about the drivers for your USB plug-ins, network connection, or printer) … but that’s what makes it so much fun. It’s a good way to learn.

To be fair, I think my experience had a lot to do with the Compaq and my inexperience and little to do with the Linux packages I tried (searching user forums, I discovered that many people aptly refer to these old Compaq laptops as ‘craptops’). If you are installing Linux on a newer laptop (newer than my Presario 1200 running at 500Mhz with 58MB RAM) or perhaps on a laptop of higher quality, you may have no trouble at all. I had plenty of trouble. And that leads us to the first rule to follow before you start any project like this: backup any data on the target machine that you wish to keep! I’ll post about how I choose a Linux version to install and the steps I took to get it running very soon. I want to end on this note: you will not get a laptop out of this that can run all your mac or pc applications. You’ll be using freeware versions of applications that do much of the same thing. So what’s it good for? You get a machine for light text work, email, and web browsing on a machine that was formerly unbearable to use. You get to experience an operating system that is increasingly used around the world because it’s free and it works well. And you get a platform on which you can learn Unix. Not bad for a PC I formerly considered trash.

I had two problems with this website over the weekend.

First, I was unable to view or send files to this site for over 48 hours. I was able to see my files via the online 'control panel' of my web host. However, I could not connect using HTTP (viewing from a web browser) or FTP (transferring files using an FTP application). I only had this problem for this specific website. My internet connection was working just fine, and I could connect to my other sites without a problem.

Second, when I viewed the files for this site via the online host 'control panel' of my web host (during the period of no-access, I could still see the files this way and only this way), I discovered that my style sheet...the one I had painstakingly and lovingly created over weeks...was zero kilobytes in size. All of my CSS information was gone. My most recent backup was a week old, and I had changed a lot during that week. Mea culpa. I probably will never know why this file was erased. It could have been an FTP transmission error, it could have been the fault of the (previous) company hosting this site. The point is it does not matter – I should have had it backed up.

I'm happy to say that my problems are solved. My connection is up and running on a brand new web host. I decided to switch to a new host as a result of this bad experience. I also have my style sheet back in order, which I had to manually re-create. Here are the lessons learned.

Lesson #1

If you're having a weird connectivity problem, check your router first (if you have one). It turns out my problem was not with my service provider, but was with my router. For some reason it was blocking my access to this specific server space on my web host only. My host (1&1) never figured this out, and I wasted a weekend talking to tech support. All they could tell me was that it must be my problem because they could not find any errors on their end (more on how they told me this later).

My solution was not as simple as resetting the router. I tried this early on. I unplugged it, then plugged it back in. I rebooted my mac. I tried to force a change to my external IP address in case that address was being blocked by 1&1. Nothing worked. Then, over two days later, I thought, 'Hey, what if I plugged my Ethernet cable directly into my primary mac?' If you are a network-saavy person, perhaps that would have been the first thing you might have tried. For me (definitely not network-saavy), it didn't occur to me to take the router entirely out of the equation. Why? I had online access for all my macs in the house through this router, and I could access all sites ... except this ONE SITE. I thought resetting it would fix any issues.

At any rate, my connection worked just fine after I connected my ethernet directly to my mac, and now I had isolated the problem to my router. The lesson here is this: if you try resetting your router and rebooting your mac and you still have a connectivity problem, it's worth a shot to take your router out of the loop to see if that helps (and thus isolate your problem). This is easy to do and it's a good first step before you call tech support. In my case, I discovered that there was a firmware update available for my router (I'm using the Linksys WRT54G). Once I updated my firmware, the problem was solved. I'm not sure if the fix was the firmware or because the firmware wiped out some corrupt settings or data. In either case, I learned that there is no way to tell if you router is up to date unless you go online and manually check. There's no auto 'check for update' feature in this wireless router model, at least.

Since we're talking about routers, I'll add that a hardware router is your best firewall defense - it effectively hides your internal addresses and devices from the outside world. In other words, all the outside world sees on my home network is my router - nothing else. It's worth getting one, in my opinion; and it's necessary if you want wi-fi in your home and/or you are sharing one connection with multiple macs). The built-in Mac OS firewall is good (don't forget to TURN IT ON - it's not on by default when you install Leopard!), but you're first and best line of defense is a hardware router. My Linksys was cheap ($50) and it's worked well for me, save for this weekend. When I'm in the market for a new wireless router, I think I'll go with an Apple product. Why? Ease of setup, ease of configuration. Period. If you have a Linksys, you know what I mean. The browser-based interface isn't very intuitive. (Note to Linksys wireless router owners, check your web-based admin panel for the link that says 'firmware update' if you find you need such an update. It's pretty straight-forward).

Lesson #2

Choose a web host carefully.

Cheapest is not always best. I know this to be true, but I admit I choose 1&1 because of the price. I have to say it worked well for me until I needed support. I called 1&1 three times this weekend. Each time, a live person answered the phone within a minute. That was impressive, but my experience went downhill from there. When I called 1&1 on Friday, I was told to wait four hours before trying to connect to viewfromthedock.com and it would probably work. When I tried to get a bit of an explanation of why this might be so, I was told that I must have been trying to connect to my files too many times in too short of a period of a time. Because of this, my IP address was temporarily blocked. I thought this was strange, since I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. Alas, twelve hours later I had the same problem. I called 1&1 again. This time I was asked to try a 'traceroute.' The tech support guy then proceeded to explain how to do this on a PC. When I said I was on a mac, he told me to forget it and that my issue would be sent to 'Level 2' tech support. I was also told I would be contacted. Lastly, he told me to wait for 24 hours until I tried to connect to my site again. Quite frustrating. I was annoyed that I still could not transfer files to my site. And I was annoyed that my use of a mac seemed to stop tech support dead in their tracks - this despite me telling him that I knew how to do traceroute and could take a screenshot for him of the result. By Sunday night, I had still not heard from anyone, so I called again. This tech support helper seemed to have no prior knowledge of me ever contacting 1&1. I don't blame him, of course. I do fault whatever tracking system they are using. All he could tell me was that the problem was likely located at my computer, not with 1&1. This was actually quite helpful, and led me to the router solution. I then switched to 1&1 to Bluehost.

Why? I had actually been pondering a move to this hosting company for a while. This gave me the push I needed. Bluehost is known for good customer service, and they are known to be mac-friendly. The biggest reason for me, though, is that they support Ruby on Rails development. 1&1 does not officially support this. Since I'm trying to learn Ruby on Rails, it made sense to jump to a host with good built-in support. Price-wise, it's not that much more expensive if you sign up for the two-year package. I'm not crazy about the two-year lock-in, but it did lower the price to the equivalent of $6.95 a month. That equates to $50 more than 1&1 for a two year time block. Not too bad. The control panel is a little confusing. My friend Brandon, a Bluehost user, pointed this out. The vote's still out for me. I can say that I love the ease with which one can backup files and databases with Bluehost. As you might imagine, I checked out this feature first! I'll post on my Bluehost experience more at a later date after I've used it for awhile. I think the web is lacking good third-party reviews of hosting services. If you've ever searched for an independent review of a web host, you know what I mean. Search engines generally return dubious 'top 10' lists — I say 'dubious' because I don't trust these sources.

Lesson #3

Transferring a WordPress installation from one host to another is surprisingly simple.

The easy part is copying all your WordPress files from the old server to the new one. There's nothing to it: you just copy them over. The more difficult part is transferring your MySQL database. Conceptually, it goes like this: you copy all of your files over. Then you export your MySQL database that holds all your WordPress posts, comments, etc. Then you import that information into a new MySQL database on your new host. Lastly, you change your WordPress configuration file so it properly points to this new database (if you use Wordpress, this is the same wp_config.php file that you modified when installing WP. I've included four screenshots here to illustrate what this looks like. Note that your host may have a set-up that looks different than mine, but the options will be the same if your host uses MySQL and phpMyAdmin. For a quick checklist, check out these Wordpress Codex instructions.

Lesson #4

Develop your site design locally on your mac, then transfer the finished theme over to your live site. Fortunately, this is easy on a mac. Why did I not do this for my site? I actually did, but once I uploaded my 'finished' theme I decided to totally change it. I was lazy, in short. I decided to just kept editing my live WordPress installation directly on the server using the Panic Transmit. The easy mac solution for running a virtual server on your mac is called MAMP. It's dead simple to set up. It includes a dashboard widget that allows you to easily start and stop your local server. What a cool tool. And it's free.

That's it for this post. Oh, and don't forget to back up your data .

I encountered yet another Dvorak bug today. For the benefit of those (ok, probably all of you) who do not know what Dvorak is, it’s an alternative keyboard layout. It’s generally considered faster and more efficient than the standard QWERTY layout.

I can certainly type quite fast and, since the Dvorak keys are not in the same place as the QWERTY keys, I learned to type without ever looking down … it wouldn’t help anyways. Never needing to look down is a plus in my book. Anyhow, it turns out that TextExpander does not support the Dvorak-Qwerty keyboard layout. Dvorak-Qwerty is a Mac OS option (available via the International/Input Menu preference pane) that allows one to type in Dvorak but still access the command shortcut keys in their designated QWERTY positions. That means that I can type in Dvorak, but still use the QWERTY Command-C/V/Q etc. The tech support guy (who responded to my query very quickly, I should add) said that the add this support to the feature request list, although he was not authorized to say if it would or would not be fixed to add this support.

So what’s the bug? When the keyboard setting is DQ (that’s short for Dvorak-Qwerty), TextExpander cannot expand text. You type in the short cut, and your shortcut is replaced by … nothing. You just get an empty string where your expanded text should go. This is frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only Dvorak user out there, though I’m sure I am not. A great feature of the Mac OS is the built in Dvorak support with QWERTY command keys. While Windows supports Dvorak as an option, it does not (and apparently will never) support the QWERTY command function.

Even though I use this alternate layout, I am a slave to Mac keyboard shortcuts (the QWERTY style shortcuts). The Mac OS has long supported this, recognizing the need amongst mac users to have command-C map to the ‘C’ character printed on the physical keyboard, even though it’s not the ‘C’ character in the Dvorak layout is located where the I character is printed. Make sense? Windows does not have this. I was using a freeware program called Hotkeyz on my Windows (work) machine to remap my keys. This solved the PC problem beautifully. But, alas, my IT staff made me take it off because of my workplace ‘no shareware or freeware policy.’ Blah.

Anyhow, most mac programs work fairly well with Dvorak-Qwerty. Except for TextExpander, and except for Adobe CS3 (actually, I don’t believe Adobe products have ever supported Dvorak-Qwerty … and except for Mac MS Office (which I don’t use - iWork handles Dvorak quite well). What this means for me is that I have to turn Qwerty on when using Photoshop, because Command-C otherwise does not work. I could re-learn the shortcuts for the remapped Dvorak keys, but I don’t want to. I like the shortcut keys mapped to what’s printed on the keyboard. Besides, I’m so conditioned to type the Command key shortcuts that it would take major reconditioning to learn the alternate locations. The bottom line for me is this: I know there aren’t many of us out there, but there are people out there that rely on Dvorak-Qwerty. The combo, exclusive to the mac, is one of those little things that makes my mac experience better than my work-a-day PC experience. I can’t imagine it would take much of a code fix to support this feature … it is built in to the OS, after all. So, Adobe and Smile on My Mac … please support the DQ keyboard layout!!

By the way, I found this nice little freeware app that fixes one annoying DQ layout problem - the inability to use command+shift in DQ

Now that I've finally settled on a layout for this new site (after toying with it for a few weeks), I am going to polish it up so I can offer the basic design as a free Wordpress template. Trust me, it needs some serious polishing. But I think it's almost there. I've got to know Wordpress pretty well during the exercise of designing 'View from the Dock'. I'll share some of what I learned in Wordpress in future posts. Next, I'm going to migrate this design to RapidWeaver. The RW site will be a little different, because I want to offer it up with user-controlled colors and such.

I've been using Wordpress and RapidWeaver for about the same amount of time. In future posts, I'm going to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each. In the end, I hope to provide a good overview of the capabilities of each platform. I can say that, while I really love the countless ways I can modify and tweak a Wordpress theme (this site began life as the Kubrick Default theme that we all start out with when installing WP), I miss the simplicity and style that RapidWeaver offers. However, RapidWeaver isn't quite as extensible or as easy to bend to your will. Which is the better choice? The answer, of course, depends on your needs. Certainly these two platforms are not the same animal, but they do offer roughly the same capabilities — I know that some might argue that WP is a blogging platform while RW is a web design tool that includes the ability to add blogs ... While this is true, I've found that both packages can, more or less, do the same thing. More to come on this. I've spent pretty much this entire weekend on this site design, so I'm going to call it a night and get away from the mac for a while.

With the advent of Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, backup is now easier than it’s ever been. Using Time Machine is a simple process: you’re asked if you want to use it on an external disk as soon as the disk mounts. You choose ‘Yes.’ Then, you choose which folders to exclude from the backup (which is not very intuitive — you have to add folders to subtract them from the back up). At any rate, that’s about it. You’re done. The only thing you have to remember to do, if you’re using an external drive, is to turn it on (that’s if you don’t leave your computer and external drives on when not in use to save power). That’s nice. That’s easy. Time Machine, as you likely know, allows you to go back in time to recover lost files. This is a welcome addition to my backup scheme.

But it’s not the end-all of backup for two reasons:  it’s not a bootable clone and the backup is stored on a local drive either inside or next to your primary mac. The bootable part is important if you want to be able to keep on working if your primary drive dies. Having your most critical data stored somewhere other than home is important because fires, floods, and terrible things can happen.

Here are a few additional steps (in addition to using Time Machine)  I take to keep me covered for almost any scenario. First, I ensure I always have a bootable clone. I use SuperDuper, the popular little backup app that allows you to make an exact mirror copy of your primary drive. Because SuperDuper makes your backup bootable, and because it’s an exact replica of your drive, you can keep on working if your main drive dies. (note that SuperDuper is not yet Leopard-ready as of the time of this post)

If you have more than one mac in your home, the bootable backup is even handier. Say that you have to send your iMac in to get repaired after a hard drive failure. It’s gone for two weeks. But, during this time, you need to keep working with the applications and files that were on that computer. No problem. All you need to do is plug in your external drive to one of your other macs and boot up from that drive (Preferences: Startup Disk). It’s not going to be as fast as using your primary mac, and the cloned copy might be a few days old … but, trust me, it beats the alternative. Alternatively, if you’re in the middle of some critical work that you must finish and you don’t have a second mac, a bootable clone allows you to keep on working on that machine. When you’re done, then you can send in your imac for repair. Of course, if you have a macpro, then you probably have more than one internal drive and you can fix your dead drive all by yourself. The key to backup, of course, is frequency and consistency. You need to do it often and on a set schedule.

That’s why I paid for SuperDuper instead of using the free built-in Disk Utility or the free Carbon Copy Cloner. It has a ‘Smart Update’ feature. Those other two do the job well, but the don’t have this feature. This means that SuperDuper only replaces what is needed to make your backup identical to your source disk. you’ll appreciate this feature immediately if you have a lot of data. For me, it means each backup takes about 15 minutes for 120GB of data. A full Not-Smart update, by contrast, can easily take an hour or more. As an aside, SuperDuper is popular for other reasons as well: it is beautifully and thoughtfully designed, it does one thing and does it extremely well, and the application’s instructions and explanations are very easy to understand. And do you know why it’s called ‘SuperDuper?’ It only occurred to me yesterday that the Duper is short for Duplicate. That may have been obvious to others, but it only just occurred to me. Now let’s just hope the SuperDuper team get the Leopard-ready version of their software working very soon.

So, now you have Time Machine and SuperDuper. Should you put them both on the same drive? Not if you can help it — you can easily do this with disk partitions, but if that one disk goes, you’re going to lose the whole disk … not just one partition. Having said that, I did place my SuperDuper and Time Machine backups on the same drive. My reasoning? I never worried about having only one disk when I only used SuperDuper … so I’ll take my chances and place them on the same disk. The odds of that disk and the internal drive of my iMac both dying simultaneously are, I like to think, pretty remote. I am using a 500GB Lacie d2 Quadra with two partitions. For SuperDuper, I alloted 200GB. My iMac drive is 230GB. I figure if I get up to 200GB of data on this disk, it’ll either be time to think about archiving some stuff or deleting some apps/files … or it’ll be about time for a new mac. So 200GB is big enough. I used the rest of the disk space for my Time Machine partition. Instead of using Time Machine to back up the entirety of my iMac internal drive, I only set it to back up the user folders. This setting should give me a lot of space to go pretty far back in time for my files only. For the apps, if I have to restore them, I’ll use my SuperDuper clone.

But what happens if you have a fire, flood, theft, etc. and you lose your external drive backups and your mac? You’re screwed. Unless, that is, you employ some sort of off-site backup scheme. While there are now a slew of online companies which offer external backup locations for your stuff (for a modest monthly fee), you may ask yourself if this is secure. (There is a good wrap-up of current services in the December 2007 issue of MacWorld, by the way). It very well may be secure and I’m sure this is a viable option, but I haven’t ventured to try this yet. My current solution is a bit convoluted, but I think it keeps my data pretty well distributed. My main off-site strategy is this: I bought a tiny little 160GB Iomega external drive. Not only is it quite small, but it purportedly has some patented bump-and-drop protection built in, which can’t hurt. I back up all documents and photos from all my macs onto this drive using the free SilverKeeper backup software — just the things I absolutely, positively would be devastated to lose in a worse-case scenario. I then take this disk off-site and store it securely at work. You might also consider storing it in a fireproof/waterproof safe at home, but I’m not crazy about that idea. In the case of a fire, this safe could get quite hot. While the papers inside may not mind, I think a hard drive would. You might also consider storing it with a trusted friend or family. Note that I don’t back up my iTunes library to it — it’s huge … and it’s already backed up to my iPod (always with me) and my Time Machine and SuperDuper clone.

Finally, I employ a few odds-and-ends backups. I use a simple automator script to ‘sync’ calendar, address book and mail to an external server where I host my websites. This Lifehacker.com post will show you the basic idea. If you subscribe to .Mac or use a different synching application, this wouldn’t be necessary. But this is a cheaper way to go and it gets the job done. I also selectively backup some files to my gmail account (you could also use an external server for this) just for convenience - my wife’s Rapidweaver backup, for instance, and some writing projects that I may want quick access to on the go.

So, putting it all together, this scheme isn’t too complicated. Time Machine is automatic. SuperDuper clones are automatically scheduled for every other day (or will be, once the shareware is Leopard certified). Automator synching is manually done once a week (I just need to click a button to sync — Chronosync might also be an easier way to do this. I’ve heard great things about it, but I don’t have any experience using it). Once a month, I update my off-site Iomega disk. This certainly isn’t the easiest methodology, and I’m sure it’s not the best methodology, but hopefully it will give you some points to consider to develop your own backup scheme.

I thought I'd share a few photos taken this evening after I returned home from work. Greetings from Hawaii.

(p.s. if you click on the image you'll be taken to my flickr page)

So, I talked my wife into accompanying me to the Ala Moana mall in Honolulu yesterday for the Leopard launch. No, I didn’t actually buy Leopard (see last post - plus, Amazon.com has it for a cheaper price with no tax). I did, however, get a nice Leopard T-shirt (as did my wife), and I picked up a LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external drive and iLife'08. We only waited for about an hour and a half. Was that worth a free Leopard T-shirt? Yeah, sure. Of course, there are already people selling their shirts on Craigslist and Ebay. Last I checked, they were going for between $30 and $50 … but I’m keeping mine.

And here are a few photos from the opening. It was a lot of fun. There were probably about 200 people in line at the opening bell at 6pm (although I couldn’t actually see the end of the line, so it may have been more) and enough security to manage a sizable rock concert. It was a bit disconcerting as we entered the store. We were about 20 or 30 deep in the line, so as we were part of the first group to enter, we were greeted by a sea of Apple employees clapping and ecstatically cheering for us. Very energetic. Disconcerting. I couldn’t believe how many Apple employees they squeezed into this little store.

I was impressed, though, by the organization of the event. As I walked in, I was asked if I was there to buy Leopard. I said no, but I wanted a hard drive … and my escort pointed to the back of the store and said, ‘John will take care of you.’ Sure enough, there was John at the back of the store, grinning and waving at me to come on down. Now that’s customer service. Three Apple people tried to grab me on the way out to explain how Leopard worked, but I declined. I’ll come back when there’s more room to hang out.