mamaLove

The Big Merge

Over the past few days, the husband and I have merged our music and our photos. Gasp! Combined we now have over 7000 images in our iPhoto library and our iTunes library ridiculously large. Unfortunately, he never really kept his music organized, so now there are a bunch of file with no album, track #, genre, etc. That frustrates me because I like having all that data in the music file. It makes it easier to create smart playlists for syncing to the iPod. So this weekend I will be spending some time trying to clean up all the music that he imported to my iTunes library.

We definitely have a variety of music styles in there from alternative to rock to country to jazz to kids music for Amelia. We even have some latin music and hip hop. And don’t forget all my podcasts, audiobooks and holiday music. There’s a lot in there that I have to weed through now.

Thankfully, merging the photo libraries was easy since he didn’t really use any of the “features” of iPhoto. I use keywords heavily and I give most photos titles. I use smart albums and create descriptions of the albums. All this makes it easy to keep track of what’s been exported to Amelia’s photo gallery. So importing his pictures was easy. Just exclude all duplicates and we’re good to go.

The only issue with merging iTunes, is that only one account can have iTunes open at a time (we’re storing the library in the /users/shared folder). So anytime we use it, we have to make sure we quit when we are done, so it doesn’t get locked in case the other person needs to get in.

I know what I’ll be working on this weekend. Organizing our music library. Fun times! Of course he’s out of town on his annual guy trip, so it’s just me and the baby for a few days. I’ll have plenty of quiet time after Amelia goes to bed to work on that between knitting and catching up on All My Children.

Posted to At Home, Geekery, Mac Love | 1 Comment »

Computer Girl

Amelia loves trying to click the keys on the keyboard. It’s a struggle to keep her away from the thing. We really need to start introducing her to the computer just so she knows it as a tool and not as a toy. It’s just difficult right now because she doesn’t quite understand enough to get it, but she sees us on the computer enough to be interested. She will click the touchpad and the keyboard keys endlessly as any toddler. Here she is trying to be a computer girl.

In other news, I’m in the process of trying to export my posts and comments from Textpattern, because at long last, I want to migrate everything over to Wordpress. I use WP for my knitting blog and I really like it. Ease of use although I don’t know much about templates. I’m just tired of having to mess with HTML and WP templates are easy if you download a pre-made one, and tweak it like I did for wifeKnits. I found a script that I tweaked, that will take my TXP posts/comments and create a movable type import format file. I’m hoping that will do the trick and I won’t lose all the comments that I’ve built up over the years like I did when I transferred all my knitting posts.

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Needing Content/Critiques

I’ve never really had a problem of trying to find content for my site. I usually have such a simplistic style site that I usually have to cut back on content. Now with my new layout, I’m find I have holes in my sidebar where I need more content. It’s kind of sad.

Of course now that it’s up, I’m not too comfortable with it. It feels too cluttered. Funny how it never felt that way when it was in development, but now that it’s live, it’s a little overwhelming. I have a feeling it may not last too long. Or if it does, it’s only because I’m tired of working on the site and need a break for a while. Ha!

As you can see, I have an empty spot down next to my true mom confessions link. Just not sure what to put there. I may end up taking out the img and replacing the spot with something completely different. Any ideas? More pictures possibly?

So what do you all think? Please be honest, because I really need the critiques. Just don’t be too harsh.

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Restructured

I’m working on a re-design of the layout. I’ve decided that for the amount of content I put into each post, it doesn’t make much sense to have a two-column layout like I currently have.

So I’m working on a more modern looking, yet fun design. I really like it, even though I’ve been staring at it for what seems like eons. It’s somewhat colorful, yet techy-looking with the rounded corners that seem to be popping up everywhere. My skills in CSS have definitely been put to the test as I’ve been converting this Photoshop layout to HTML. But I’m close to pushing it out. Right now I’ve loaded it up in the Textpattern install on my Mac, so I can get my templates all set up. Then it’s just a matter of uploading the images and a bit of copy and paste.

I’m also going back to working on a redesign of Amelia’s photo gallery, which has been on hold for a while. I was trying to go for a fluid design but for some reason it’s just not working the way I want, so it might have to be a bit more static. Which is fine, but it means I’ll have to redo some of the CSS. Then I have to finish the pages and the programming since the site uses php and the Flickr API to generate the gallery. Still at a loss as to what the name will be. I’ll have to ask the family and see what they think.

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I’m Horrified

There is an article at MSNBC that talks about how technology is being used as a tool of power and control in situations of domestic violence. It’s a very informative article and the things discussed are some I never would have considered.

But what gets me are the comments that were made on this article. Many of them are extremely negative and supportive of the abuser’s actions because they somehow interpreted the article to be about spying on a cheating spouse. That the husband had a right to spy on his wife if he thought she was cheating and that she was probably asking for it. The issue isn’t about a cheating spouse. The issue is about an abusive relationship and how the husband used technology to keep track of his wife’s actions. Just another way of exerting control and power over her.

How they managed to take this article and turn it into something completely different and controversial amazes me.

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Testing Flock

Ok, so I’m testing out Flock. I use Flickr a lot and I like the integration with del.icio.us and the ability to easily do blog posts. It seems to work a lot like Firefox and a lot of the FF extensions are available for Flock, so it may become a new thing for me. Yes, I recently switched over to Camino but I’m trying out all solutions to see which is best for me. Got to give them all a try.

If this works out well, I will be moving my quicklinks back over to del.icio.us. Heck I may do that anyway, just so they are in a central repository.

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Testing Flock

Ok, so I’m testing out Flock. I use Flickr a lot and I like the integration with del.icio.us and the ability to easily do blog posts. It seems to work a lot like Firefox and a lot of the FF extensions are available for Flock, so it may become a new thing for me. Yes, I recently switched over to Camino but I’m trying out all solutions to see which is best for me. Got to give them all a try.

If this works out well, I will be moving my quicklinks back over to del.icio.us. Heck I may do that anyway, just so they are in a central repository.

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Cables in the Wall - It’s Unheard Off!

I don’t remember my father cutting any holes in the walls when running new cable except where he wanted the cable to come out to the plate.

This is a house probably built around the same time that my current house was built. So why is it that cable companies insist on going through the closets. To me, cables hanging in the closet is almost as tacky as they are hanging in the room itself. Why can’t they go through the wall?

We called the cable company to come out and install a new cable outlet in our living room. The guy comes out and says, oh, well drop it down in your closet and run it through the wall to the other side, trying to make me think I won’t see the cable. Duh! It’s hanging in the closet. My closet, that I use everyday. Of course I’m going to see it. Heck this is something we can do. The reason we called was because we wanted it run through the wall.

I just don’t understand the big deal. My dad used to do it all the time. Speaker wires, tv cable, etc. I remember yelling to him up in the attic from the floor telling him I could hear the cable but couldn’t quite see it yet, then when I saw it, grabbing it and yelling that I got it.

I’ve never heard of cables going through the wall from one side to the other, till I got to this house and there were cables hanging in every closet. Yuck! Why have they gotten so sloppy with cable installation?

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Upgrading/Downgrading to Nano

I decided to upgrade my iPod. But it’s sort of a downgrade also. I currently have a 15GB 3G iPod and I just ordered a 4gb Nano (Product) Red. So it’s an upgrade to a newer iPod, but downgrade in disk space. But that’s okay. I’m looking forward to some features in the new one that I don’t have in my current 3G.

For one, I think I’m really going to enjoy the longer battery life. My current iPod will play for 8 hours. The Nano should play for 24 hours. Right now, I can charge up and listen to music all day at work, but that kills the battery and I don’t have enough juice to listen on the way to and from work. Yes, I have a car charger, but it makes a horrible hissing noise if I try to charge it while I’m listening to it. Don’t know if that’s just the nature of it, or my archaic device. LOL!

I’m going to enjoy the color screen. I’m sure it will be easier to see the screen while driving, so it will be less distracting. I won’t have to spend as much time trying to see what I’m doing when I should be watching the road.

The size is so small! My husband just got one last night and it’s so tiny. I love that it is about 1/2 the size of my 3G. Granted it isn’t the classic Apple white, which I’m disappointed about. I would have preferred one in the trademark white, but since it isn’t available, I chose to go Red.

Also, my current iPod doesn’t keep the location of my podcasts like it does with Audiobooks. Apparently it doesn’t support that. So that will be a great feature to have since my podcasts are about 45 minutes long and I don’t normally have time to sit and listen to a whole episode at one time. But it’s too distracting to listen to at work, so I’d like to switch over to music then jump back into my podcast on the drive home.

It will be interesting trying to weed out my library so I can fit podcasts, audiobooks and music on 4GB, since I’m so used to 15GB. My entire library fits on my 15GB. But I think I’ve got 2GB of unplayed podcasts to sync. I may have to do one podcast at a time, till I get caught up to current episodes.

Anyway, now I sit waiting for my new little piece of technology to be shipped, and to hurry up and get here so I can start playing.

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Upgrading my eMac

I have an old eMac (2004, but still) with a 40gb hard drive. It’s been driving me nuts because I have to keep everything on an external HD. Well, during the holidays, we were rearranging and my husband dropped my external HD onto the floor. Thankfully the case cushioned it’s fall because it worked fine. But it got me thinking that I need some sort of backup system.

So, today I went and bought a new 250gb HD. Yep. I plan on taking the plundge and attempting to replace my internal HD on my eMac. I’ve already replaced the CD drive with a DVD burner so I’m familiar with taking it apart. Pray I have success.

My plan is to put the new drive into my external enclosure. Format it and use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the system to the new drive. Boot to the new drive and make sure everything works. Then swap the drives. Once I’ve booted to the new internal drive, I plan on moving all my data from my existing external drive to the internal and using the external for backup.

It’s going to be tricky, but I’ve been reading plenty of info online on how to do it and I feel confident (albeit nervous) that it will go okay. Then I shall revel in the increase of space. I will finally be able to use my Home directory as it was meant to be used – to store my photos, music and documents. It will also make it easier to use several applications that depend on the iPhoto and iTunes libraries being in the default locations. Currently I also have some applications installed to the external drive because of the lack of internal HD space. It will be nice to have all my applications in one place. And maybe, just maybe, Photoshop will run a little better and not slow down my entire system.

So wish me luck. I will post my experience once I’m done and hopefully it will be a success story.

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DVD Burner

I have successfully installed a DVD Burner in my eMac computer. I’m so happy you have no idea. I also burned a music CD via iTunes and a DVD Backup of all my audiobooks (also via iTunes).

Hopefully, all future attempts at burning will be just as successful. I feel so much better knowing I can burn backups of my data again.

And it was so easy to install. It only took me about 30 minutes and I followed the wonderful instructions at MacWorld. I’m so glad I found this article or I would never have had the courage to try it.

Posted to Geekery, Mac Love | 1 Comment »

More upgrades

I’ve ordered a DVD burner for my Mac. Yep, it’s an internal, I got the Pioneer DVR-109, which was highly recommended as most compatible in the Apple Support Forums. I thought it would be a good upgrade and since I can’t burn CDs with my current burner, I might as well upgrade. Hopefully this will fix my problem. I think it will. If it doesn’t, then I know it isn’t a drive issue, but a software issue. But I’m not sure. The drive doesn’t respond when any application tries to write to it. It won’t get past the initialization step in iTunes. Finder and Disk Utility return an error saying the drive didn’t respond. I can’t wait for my burner to get here now. I downloaded the instructions on how to install the drive from MacWorld. Very simple, easy to follow instructions with pictures. Shouldn’t be too difficult. I’m not afraid of hardware work…I know Macs are different, but I’ve built several PCs over the years, so at least I’ve worked with computer hardware before.

I also got a new skin for my iPod. I wanted something a little slimmer than the ActionJacket I already have. So I got an iSkin eVo. I got the Artic color, so it blends in, rather than go outrageous and get some weird color, although I did like the blue. LOL!

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New Music

We’re having XM installed in my new car. We already have it installed in my husband’s truck and have been just moving it between vehicles when we go on trips. No more! I’ll have my own to play with. Can’t wait to start programming my favorite channels.

And yeah…I haven’t had a chance to take a photo of my car yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll post a picture. I have to send one to my family, anyway.

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