Author: Kent

Reader, writer, arithmeticer. Proprietor of Newsome.Org, a tech, music and life blog.

How Cult of Mac Went From the Top of My Reading List to the Bottom in a Single Post

It would be hard to overstate how much I have historically liked the website/blog Cult of Mac.  Simply stated, I have long felt it was the single best source for Apple-related news, reviews and videos.  I usually read it first when I open up Google Reader to consume my news of the day.

Until this week, when I saw a post entitled MacKeeper is 911 for Your Mac.

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Until that moment, I assumed Cult of Mac was a clearinghouse of sorts with respect to all of the things (apps, websites, etc.) that apear in its stories.  The inescapable problem with the above post is that a lot of people- and I mean a whole lot of people- not only disagree that MacKeeper is a good app, they think it is somewhere between unnecessary and nefarious.  Need some examples?  Here’s a thread from today on the Apple Support Community message boards (the first stop for Apple-related questions and troubleshooting).  This is not an isolated response, and it’s not limited to the Apple Support Community.  Here’s a page that goes to great lengths to warn users away.

The comments to the post as well as on Cult of Mac’s Facebook page evidence the controversy.

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A couple of important things, in the interest of fairness.  One, Cult of Mac is not alone in recommending MacKeeper.  Two, I have never tried MacKeeper, and have no first hand knowledge of whether it is the greatest thing ever, the worst thing ever, or somewhere in between.  My problem with Cult of Mac is simply this: if you are the premier source for Mac news, you simply cannot toss up a post recommending MacKeeper (or any other controversial app) without addressing the significant anti-MacKeeper sentiment that pervades the internets.  Especially when readers might think (rightly or wrongly- I have no idea) that you are getting a cut of sales driven by said post.

If MacKeeper is wrongly maligned by these other websites, then gut it up and tell the readers why.  Debunk the criticisms, but don’t just willy nilly recommend the app, without comment.  Users at least need to know there is a vigorous opposing view.  I would like to be able to trust any app I see recommended on Cult of Mac, but if they don’t want to do the work to give us the full story, I can’t and won’t do that.

2012 Kemah Kids Triathlon

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Delaney finished 2nd in the 2012 Kemah Kids Triathlon, this past Saturday in Kemah, TX.  She was a minute and 16 seconds behind the winner, Heather Welsch- who won her age group at the 2011 USA Triathlon Junior and Youth National Championship.  That’s some pretty good competition.  In addition to finishing 2nd in her division, Delaney finished 6th overall, which means that only 5 kids, including boys and girls and all age divisions, beat her.

Check out the video on YouTube (it won’t let me embed it, because of some of the music I used).

Access Denied: What Good is a Cloud If You Can’t See It?

With all of the hoopla over Dropbox, the reinvention of SkyDrive and the release of Google Drive, it would be easy to envision millions of people, all over the world, happily installing, accessing and using the cloud, in one or more forms.

Except for the unfortunate and frequently overlooked fact that millions of the people who could most benefit from the cloud can’t adequately use it.  These same people also happen to be people who you’d think would be among the most likely to pay for additional space and upgrades.  I’m talking about the big chunk of corporate America whose IT departments block access to the cloud.

People who try to visit Dropbox and end up here:

SkyDrive?  Box?  SugarSync?  Same thing.

Google Drive?  Yep, except it’s even worse.  The only way to block Google Drive is to also block Google Docs.

So not only can folks not access Google Drive, they can’t access anything they already had in Google Docs.

I don’t use any of the cloud services in connection with my day job (not because I am afraid of them or don’t think they are useful, but because my IT department tells me not to), and wouldn’t even if my IT department trusted me enough not to block them.  And while it would be nice to be able to move non-work stuff around via the cloud, it’s not that hard to do it via my laptop.

But I see this as a huge issue for the cloud providers.  No matter how badly someone may want to use one or more of the services, many people- and many potential paying customers- have that choice made for them.  I’m sure there’s money in personal and small business use, but there’s almost certainly bigger money up and down the halls of corporate America.  None of us who are old enough to read this awesome post are going to live long enough to see corporate America embrace the cloud (at least not the professional services part of corporate America), so the best chance the cloud has to penetrate that market is the iPhone route.  Corporate IT departments ignored iPhones for a while, then tolerated them and ultimately were forced by user demand to embrace them.

There is another issue for both the cloud providers and their users.  Not only is access to the cloud blocked, but media served from the cloud is often also blocked.  Take for example the photo I posted from SkyDrive in my recent post.

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The cloud is looking for a way in, but, at least for now, it’s been cut off at the pass.  Or the firewall.

Google Drive: The Good, the Bad and Where is the Embed Option

DISCLAIMER:  I wrote this post over lunch, in real time, as I installed and experimented with Google Drive.  It may be that some of the good things I mention won’t work as well as they seem to at first glance, and it may be that some of the limitations I note below are either already addressed (though clearly not in an obvious manner) or will be addressed in the future.

Google Drive was finally released today.  It will clearly shake-up the cloud space, and, as I noted yesterday, has a huge built-in user base, thanks to Gmail.  My initial impressions are mixed.

The Good

1. It’s Google.  Say what you will about Google mining our data and whatnot, but if I am going to put my life in the cloud, I want a name associated with the service.  For security, backup and general reliability.  I’ve used Gmail (via Google Apps) for a long, long time and it is definitely reliable.  In sum, I just trust Google to take care of its equipment and my files.

2. It integrates well with your local file system.  My most important requirement for a cloud service is the ability to drag and drop files via Windows Explorer or Finder.  This works well with Google Drive, just like it does for Dropbox and SkyDrive.

3. It integrates well with Gmail and some (but not all- see below) other Google apps.  Emailing from Google Drive is as simple as selecting File>Email as attachment.

4. You can buy as much space as you need.  Paid plans range from 25GB for $30 a year to 100GB for $60 a year to 1TB for $600 a year all the way up to 16TB for $9600 a year.

The Bad

1. Google Drive space is usable by Google Docs (which I use a little) and Picasa Web Albums (which I don’t use at all), but not by Gmail (Google did bump Gmail storage up to 10GB today and paid Google Drive users get another bump to 25GB) and, most disappointingly for me, Google Music.  I want some place I can store and access everything.  Every.  Thing.  Not just some things.  This may be a licensing restriction, forced on Google by the obsolete, empty bag holding, cat stuffing record labels, but it still sucks.

2. There seems to be no way (so far) to play audio files from the cloud.  I tried to play an MP3 and was greeted with this joy.

This is not good, and puts Google Drive at a disadvantage compared to other services, including SkyDrive, which elegantly streamed a video in my test last night (via the iPad app; perhaps this will be a feature in Google’s forthcoming iOS app).  Sure, you can sync your computers and play audio and video from the synced folder, but I am trying to consolidate my stuff in the cloud, not put it everywhere.

If videos streamed from Google Drive, I would almost certainly buy some space, to create a private YouTube for home videos, if nothing else.

Update 1:  Happily, it appears that you can stream videos from Google Drive.  I uploaded a video this evening, clicked on it from Google Drive on the web, and it streamed (just like a YouTube video).  So a private YouTube is possible.

Where is the Embed Code?

3. You can’t embed photos, audios or (I presume, but have not tried) videos in sites other than Google+.

I think Google+ is a beautifully written and robust platform (I’m not just saying that because my friend Louis ended up in that screen cap; I really mean it).  The problem is that I don’t want my cloud service to dictate where I share things.  Even those who  actually have active Google+ circles have to share from Google+.  There should at least be a Share to Google+ option within Google Drive.

The Bottom Line

If Google Drive extended at least to Google Music, and allowed easy sharing (e.g., direct link or embed code) on other services, and streamed audio and video files, I would strongly consider buying a 1TB plan and moving all my stuff there.  Sadly, it doesn’t –  at least so far.  I’ll take a wait and see approach, but based on what I see so far, I don’t think Google Drive is trying to fill the specific need I have.

This leads me back to the other horses in the cloud derby.  SkyDrive (the surprising new entry and maybe leader) and my old standby, Dropbox.

Corrections as errors are discovered and updates as they occur.

 

Sky Drive Just Became a Contender in the Cloud Derby

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With the rumored launch of Google Drive only somewhere between days and infinity away, the other cloud services (you know, the ones that actually exist) are going into overdrive trying to give us reasons to keep (or in some cases start) using their services.  Dropbox (my long-time cloud service of choice), just added additional sharing and viewing options.  Microsoft, whose generous 25GB of space has been hindered by Microsoft’s inability to properly market its online offerings and an arbitrary file size limit, followed suit today with some new features and, most importantly, a Mac (that’s right) and Windows desktop app.

I’m determined to consolidate my cloud use into one primary service.  Dropbox is clearly an option.  SugarSync is too, though I want something less complicated.  Box is not, simply because it makes it too hard to move files to and from its cloud.  Obviously, if Google Drive actually launches, it will be a contender.  In fact, if its space is consolidated and usable across all Google services (including Google Music, which but for the 20,000 song limit, would already be my music service of choice), Google Drive is probably the odds-on favorite, which tells you a lot about the baked-in advantage Google has when it comes to,  you know, the internet.

But let’s not count Microsoft out.  SkyDrive has a lot to offer.  Here’s a real time walk-through of my installation and experimentation with the new SkyDrive.

First, if you already have an account, you need to visit the SkyDrive site and get your “free upgrade,” which preserves your 25GB of space.  SkyDrive will soon limit free users to 7GB.  It’s easy to do, so do it.

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Now, let’s get the desktop app.  Without boring you with a bunch of nerd talk, desktop apps are important when it comes to integration with your current file system (i.e., Windows Explorer or Finder) and syncing between computers.  I’m installing the Mac app, but I assume the Windows experience is similar.

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Once you install the app, you get a Menu Bar item (good) and a Dock icon you can’t remove from the dock (Microsoft needs to fix this, but it’s not the end of the world).

The first time you run the desktop app, you can select the location of your local SkyDrive folder (this works much the same as with Dropbox).  I wanted to put my folder on my second hard drive, as opposed to my main SSD that I try (with only some success) to reserve for the OS and other system-related stuff.

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Then it’s off to the races.  Click on the Menu Bar icon to access your local SkyDrive folder.  Looks very Dropbox-ish.

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I’m going to drop a jpg in there.  Very nice.

Now let’s try a big file and see if that file size thing is still a problem. Doesn’t seem to be.

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No right click>get public link feature, like Dropbox.  Looks like you have to go to the web interface (accessible via the Menu Bar icon) to do that.  Here’s the picture I added a moment ago.

It’s easier with Dropbox, but again, not a huge deal.

Now, I’ll install the app on my laptop and see how syncing works.

Perfectly.  The files started downloading as soon as I installed the app.

I am very impressed with SkyDrive.  I wish there was an option to buy space in more than 100GB increments.  100GB at $50 seem like a pretty fair deal, but I have lots more than 100GB of data I need to safely store/backup.  I will be interested to see the Google Drive space options and price.  I expect Google Drive will be at least as cheap, if not cheaper, but for some (me definitely included) Google’s insistence in weaving Google Docs and, especially, Google+ into every offering is a bit of a negative.  In other words, the race is on, and there is a dark horse making its move on the outside.

SkyDrive is a well designed service that is clearly in the running to be my preferred cloud service.

Great job Microsoft!  It feels good to get to say that again.

Calling All Germaphobes

Here’s a very helpful- and somewhat scary- infographic (that there is a fancy word for picture) from Keeping It Kleen.

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My big germ thing is shoes.  It completely boggles my mind that most people (us included) walk around inside their houses with their shoes on.  The same shoes that walk in all kinds of who knows what day after day.  There is a tree in front of our house.  Lots of birds congregate there.  There is always a big pile of bird poop on the sidewalk.  People walk across that sidewalk on their way to our door.

If I could go back in time, I would ban shoes in my house.  I’m not kidding.

Songs Named South Carolina

Just because I was born there and all.

I’d never heard of Truckstop Darlin’ until I did a Spotify search for songs named South Carolina.  Great song.  Sounds a little cleaner on Spotify.

The Flirtations were formed in 1962 in New York, by four women from South Carolina.  Lestine Johnson and sisters Ernestine Pearce, Shirley Pearce and Betty Pearce.

I don’t know anything about this band, but this song has a cool vibe.

Likewise, I know nothing about the band Tennis, but this one also has a cool sound.

Last, but not least, The Outlaws.

 

Evening Reading: 4/20/12

Here’s today’s evening reading. The most interesting things I read today, a cool picture and the overheard quote of the day.

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Now I know why so many of my cool videos are blocked in Germany: YouTube faces massive music royalty bill in German copyright case.  More from the always read-worthy, TechDirt: Totally Clueless German Court Says ContentID Isn’t Good Enough, YouTube Must Block Infringement By Keywords

I actually use my Chumby, unlike 90% of the other ridiculous gadgets I have bought on impulse: Chumby halts hardware sales, long-term support looking mighty unlikely

So I guess this means I can eat whatever I want, since I’m a goner anyway: He Who Sits the Most Dies the Soonest

Great walk-through by the creator of one of the best shows on TV: Graham Yost walks us through Justified’s third season

Who cares?  Seriously, dogs, cats, ferrets and whatnot do not need to ride next to me on a dadgum plane : Be Ready For A Hassle When Flying With Your Snub-Nosed Dog

Google+ is a ghost town for the average user not named Scoble, but a mention of Yahoo Pipes (the best thing Yahoo ever did) makes me love this post: 4 Ways To Get Your Google Plus RSS Feeds

OQOTD: “How appropriate! Willie Nelson’s statue unveiled at 4:20 on 4/20.”

Bonus video:  The awesome Bill Nye dancing to his theme song AND performing She Blinded Me with Science.

Enjoy!