Computing & Technology
Itunes match – almost very good
February 3, 2012 | 
Author I signed up for Itunes match as it seemed a quick and easy way to get all old ripped songs that were in the Itunes library in higher 256kbps versions and essentially ‘backed up’ within Apple’s infrastructure. When you switch it on it checks your library and finds out which songs are already in the Itunes store and matches them to yours. You can then update yours to the higher rate versions. Tracks which aren’t in the catalogue are uploaded. It is a bit of a faff to update them as you have to delete the songs out of your library that are matched and redownload them. If you switch on icloud status in the view options then you can order by whether the album is matched or not quite easily. Using a smart playlist isn’t very helpful as when I tried it the delete option wasn’t present so I couldn’t just delete them all and re-download them in bulk. Out of about 5000 tracks 3500 were matched which wasn’t too bad. The matching is a bit inconsistent as often whole albums were matched apart from one track or partial albums were matched. This was annoying as it means either not bothering to update them to the higher bit rate or faffing around with re-ripping or hoping a re-running the match would find them.
Updating and re-downloading took a while. I chose to put songs into the trash so I could retrieve them later if there was an issue. Luckily only one track wouldn’t download for some reason. I was using Itunes and playing other songs at the time so I wonder if that was the issue.
When re-ripping unmatched tracks I discovered an annoyance. Re-ripped tunes are not automatically uploaded to the cloud even if they are a higher bit rate. I chose ‘replace’ when re-doing them so I’d expect itunes match to do just that as sometimes re-ripped tracks were then marked ‘matched’. In the view options there isn’t a way of seeing what version is in the cloud without deleting the local copy. If it is the higher rate version then you’ll see the bit rate stay the same when the download icon appears. If it is lower then you ‘ll see it change to the lower rate. To get the higher rate saved it means having to delete the old album then re-rip so that itunes thinks it is new and will upload the higher rate version. Total nuisance and to me unnecessary.
Itunes match really needs the following enhancements: option to update cloud version to higher bit rate when songs re-ripped, easy one click ‘update and download matched songs with higher bit rate versions’, easy way of seeing at a glance whether there is a difference between the tracks stored locally and the cloud, manual match when matched albums are missing the odd track.
Automation is cool with ifttt
I have been noodling around with ifttt for a few weeks. It is a great little doodad for setting up simple automated events. If this happens then do that. It seems an ideal way of bringing together multiple channels of activity in one easy interface. So far I have done a simple one to tweet when the temperature is below freezing. That has been working well so I thought I’d try something else.
I have now added another to tweet when I update my blog to compare its performance to twitterfeed which has been flaky of late. It does have a wordpress channel in it but it uses xml-rpc which I’ve never been that fond of. I used the feed channel instead which should be safer as it just uses the standard rss feed.
Let’s see what happens…
Reverting to the old tweetdeck
The new version of tweetdeck is hideous to use. Simple things have become virtually impossible to do. Luckily there is a solution! I followed these instructions and downloaded adobe air, the old tweetdeck air file and bingo! You just have to remember to uninstall any old versions of tweetdeck you have lying around otherwise you will have a problem. Worked first time for me and I’m happily on the older tweetdeck.
I tried seesmic but the silverlight plugin tries to install it in the downloads folder for some unknown reason. I did copy it into applications which worked for a while but then went wonky. It has all the features of tweetdeck but the user interface looks awful in comparison and it is very slow. Shame really as if it looked like tweetdeck and had its features it would be great. It also had a smaller footprint than tweetdeck – it can be a bit of a bloater. I also tried echofon which if it had 2 tabs side by side it would have been fine.
Hopefully tweetdeck will have the sense to release an update which has all the functionality restored that they have removed.
Getting isync back on lion
For some reason apple has removed isync from lion. For those of us without an iphone this is rather annoying. I have used isync for years. It sort of generally works ok. I tried syncmate but that was useless as it only works with s40 nokia phones and my N8 is an S60. I tried it but it just hung when trying to sync. I uninstalled it and then later it popped up to remind me I hadn’t sync’ed! Not impressed with an application that leaves bits of itself lurking.
I had a quick google and I found this article on nokia support forums which had a solution.
I downloaded the sync from there. It is the last version that was made. I then went onto nokia’s site and got their add in for the N8.
After pairing my phone via bluetooth I loaded up isync and copied it into the applications folder. I then loaded the nokia package. After that I added the N8 as a device back into isync. It worked perfectly! All the calendar items I had have popped into the new calendar. Contacts have appeared in address book (never use it). I have no idea why apple have dropped it.
Rebuilding a digital life from the pieces
I hate it when a computer dies. Everything is backed up (theoretically) but it is still a trauma to go and get back everything especially when you are updating operating systems at the same time. You also find out any holes in the back up regime such as slow restores. Even on a fast connection some of the restores are taking hours when they should be done much faster. Nothing you can do but set them off and wait!
First up was to get Itunes library back. Need music to suffer the rest of the hassle! That wasn’t too bad as I happened to have copied off the library onto a removable drive (wish I’d done my photo library at the same time…) so it was easy to import into Itunes. Music on and now for the rest….
Lion is horrible when you first start it. No drive icons on the desktop so you have this feeling of being lost in the ether. Took a while to find them in finder preferences. Feels more sensible when you have them back. Loaded the tablet driver with tablet scroll mouse. Things started to feel more normal again. Got most of the software back on that was missing.
Email was more tricky. For some reason your user’s library area isn’t shown in finder so my cunning plan to restore my local folders straight back into the new thunderbird profile was scotched. I had to resort to noodling into terminal and doing a unix copy to achieve the same thing. Works fine but it would have been so much easier had I been able to see the library folder. You can see it with an option click sometimes but within a program save dialog that isn’t going to be available.
Worst problem I had was stored passwords and finding out some bugger has changed Xmarks so you can’t back up passwords without using lastpass or somesuch. It wasn’t working at all and I had this horrible feeling I was going to lose all stored passwords which would have been a disaster. Luckily firefox sync is actually included in later firefoxes. It used to suck. Now it doesn’t. Set up the laptop which has a copy of everything on it as I’d been using xmarks. Synced with FF. Added the new computer and bingo! All saved passwords and bookmarks etc returned.
App store is quite good for finding software but it seems to be more expensive than just getting the same product from a company’s website. Not been able to find exact replacements for some things.
New tweetdeck is awful. No reply all and the block user and other user functions are two clicks instead of one. Also it seems to have stopped loading the last 200 tweets when you start it up so there are large gaps. I thought this had been fixed ages ago. It had but they have put it back! Growl doesn’t seem to be picking up tweetdeck or thunderbird as potential notification sources for some reason. I forget how I got it to work before as it was such a long time ago.
Latest Iphoto has some facial recognition guff in it. You can’t turn it off. It just slows it down. I quit Iphoto while it was still doing its facial scan so it crashed immediately when I tried to start it up again. Crashed several times until I rebooted the whole machine. Then it would start and restored its windows. So frustrating that it has features I do not want, that cause problems and that cannot be switched off. I sent a report to apple with a request for an off button… I may move to aperture instead. It has the same facial recognition features but you can switch them off. Seeing as Iphoto though a car light cluster was a face it really is useless anyway.
New keyboard is much nicer though. I went for the wired as I can’t be bothered with bluetooth keyboards or mice. Flat battery at an awkward moment. No thanks. Not even unpacked the new mouse. Used the old one I had from the G5 which I didn’t use either. Tablet driver isn’t always loaded fast enough so sometimes when you first start using it there is a delay before it picks it up. New screen is nice and whole machine performance is really good which I’d expect from a quad core compared to an ancient G5…got another 4GB of memory to go in. 4 memory slots and no need for matched memory either so it is a lot less awkward. Apple wanted a phenomenal £160 for another 4GB. Macupdate wants about £30 for the same.
I hope this mac lasts 7 years. I don’t think I could face having to do it all again much sooner!
Foscam webcam – easy peasy.
My old dlink webcam gave up the ghost after many years reliable service. I had a quick look around for another dlink but they were kind of pricey. I’d never heard of foscam before. I chose ones of those mainly because they were supported by Security Spy which is the webcam recording software I have used happily for many years. I ordered the foscam and then did absolutely noting about setting it up until today. I wish I’d done it earlier. It was so easy!
I plugged it into the mains and plugged it into the nearby network switch. Checked on my router to see which ip address it had picked up. It had found one without a problem. The dlink was more problematic as it was by default set to a fixed ip so you often had to mess about changing the subnet on a machine to find it and then alter it to be the same subnet as your main network was using. No such fuss with the foscam. I reserved the ip for it in the router control panel so it wouldn’t wander around. That’s the beauty of dhcp. The set up cd has a doodad for finding the ip of the webcam. I didn’t use it as the cd wouldn’t read properly. The software is also available from foscam’s site so wouldn’t have been a problem if I had ended up needing it.
Setting it up with Security Spy was straight forward. A similar model was already supported so I chose that and it found it quite quickly. Motion capture works fine and without much messing around.The ptz function in Security Spy seems to be backwards so you have to remember to move it the opposite way round.
The only annoying thing with the foscam is that when you are in the web interface for it a lot of the changes mean the webcam reboots. It makes it more time consuming than it should be. I haven’t updated the firmware away from what was already on it. I will see how reliable this one is first. If it works, leave it alone! The PTZ functions are quite cool but I have it with a fixed field of view so I set it to stay still and also not to return to centre when rebooted. I also switched off the wireless interface and added a password to the admin control panel as it is initially blank. The interface is very similar to the dlink one so it was easy to work with. Works fine on a mac with firefox too. It has other features such as mail alert, motion capture alarm and dynamic dns amongst others.
This webcam also has night vision so it will be interesting to see what lurks after dark.
Priorities and going the extra MILE
There are many ways of prioritizing what you need to be doing. Many advocate starting with the biggest job or the hardest task. But neither take into consideration what is important, what is relevant to your goals and what will make a difference. I’m a fan of Limoncelli’s simple system – important due soon, important due later, not important due soon and not important due later method. If you’re over worked then the not important tasks are basically binned. Anything important and due soon is done immediately. The rest are ignored until the due soons are all done. Obviously some of the laters will switch to soon over time. The main mistake people make with prioritization is to do tasks that are less important just because the deadline for them is close. If they’re not important now don’t do them.
An interesting new method which I found on the simpleology site which they call HIME – High Impact Minimal Effort system is to do the tasks that have the most impact on your goals first and choose the ones requiring least effort. I call it MILE – Most Impact Least Effort. Being lazy but still wanting to achieve as much as possible it seems to be the most logical way of choosing what to do. The Pareto principle – 80% of results arrive from 20% of effort seems to be a good reason why such a method would work well. I’d much rather just do the 20% that brings the results than waste time with the other 80% of tasks that have little to show for them.
Why I’m a giffgaff convert
For all of my previous mobile phone ownership history I have had contracts of one kind or another. I have always believed that they offered better value as you had a subsidised phone and cheaper service costs. Unfortunately it looks as though times have changed in the last few years. Typical cost of ownership over the now 2 year contracts are generally into £400-£800 for many phones and plans with not that great features. 24 month contracts are just too long. Typically I have found most phones have become unreliable long before this and wouldn’t commit to anything longer than 18 months.
My contract was up with o2 recently. They have also changed their upgrade policy so you can no longer remain with your current tariff which is a pity. My current one offers unlimited internet (new ones don’t), include MMS in text allowances (new ones don’t), free voicemail (new ones don’t – minutes are used first then it is chargeable). A similar tariff with inferior features would now be costing more than I pay now. Paying the same and not having a new phone seemed foolish in the extreme.
I had a look around the usual suspects but I have found o2 has the best coverage for me. I’ve tried t-mobile before and although their customer services people are quite good the reception is just so patchy it isn’t usable. Orange have awful CS now so I wouldn’t even consider them. Vodafone are just plain over priced. I even considered joining the dark side and going to three but previous experience of them would make that a leap too far.
Luckily these days there are plenty of virtual operators. I was almost ready to sign up to CPW’s own service when someone mentioned Giffgaff. I had never heard of them. They’re an online only operator with no call centre and community based first line support. Sounds flaky in the extreme but has actually been just as good, if not better, than a standard network service. If I kept the same number of minutes, texts and data etc I’d pay half what I was paying with O2. If I moved to a ‘goodybag’ which reflected my actual use then I’d save even more. £25 quid a month. Or £300 a year! MMS aren’t included but there are other ways of sending photos or sharing them onto facebook via email which would be included in the unlimited data allowance. Voicemail does come out of minutes or is charged at 8p a time. 0800 numbers are genuinely free to call too which is another bonus.
So I called up o2 and got my PAC so I could move. Unfortunately the operator proceeded to tell me some absolute whoppers about giffgaff. Including saying they charged for customer services – they don’t but O2 PAYG customers are! I was amazed at some of the rubbish the person came out with. What was worse it was so easy to check. Pop along to the community forums and ask. Within minutes there was a flurry of helpful replies. O2 by this point still hadn’t responded to the email I’d sent several days earlier asking for the PAC. I had to phone them and wait around on hold to get one. It used to be available from their website but it seems to have disappeared.
The strangest thing of all is that Giffgaff is actually a wholly owned subsidiary of O2. They’re being rude about their own offspring.
Giffgaff runs on the O2 network so I have exactly the same coverage and features as O2. All for a fraction of the price. They have had some glitches with goodybags and activations recently but I seem to have avoided most of the bother. You can queue up a goodybag to start when the current one ends so there is no need to scramble to buy another when one has nearly run out. I think doing this would avoid most of the trouble people have experienced. And you need to leave a bit of credit after buying a goodybag for features which aren’t inclusive eg MMS or calls if you’re text only etc. There is also an auto top up feature which will top up a preset amount if you reach £3 remaining. I have set it to do this once per month. I’m assuming I won’t need it very often. If you’re used to having a contract it is quite odd doing things such as topping up and checking credit balances and having to remember to make sure you have credit when you just get charged at the end of the month without having to think.
Number port also worked fine for me. Others have had problems but I was all up and working by mid afternoon with only a couple of hours spent in the twilight zone where neither old or new provider worked.
The best part of being PAYG is that there is no contract. If the service doesn’t live up to expectations then you can leave and go elsewhere without having to give much notice. This is maybe why PAYG customers actually receive better deals as operators know they can and will go elsewhere. Contract customers inside contract are captives. You can treat them like dirt and there is nothing they can do until the minimum term has passed.
We’ll see how this pans out. If they turn out to be useless then I’m off. Easy.
Facebook dilemma – social or business?
Up until now I have only really used facebook for socialising with actual friends that I actually know and generally have met. This seems to put me in a minority. Until recently there wasn’t really the choice about who saw what. Friends had access to everything unless you spent ages creating custom lists for things like photos and such like.
Luckily facebook seem to have implemented some half decent privacy controls with easy access to altering how you interact. I have changed all my content to be custom so that I can exclude more casual acquaintances. This is particularly useful as some people you have more of a business relationship with so you don’t really want to see all those embarrassing school photos or other content which you wouldn’t generally talk to them about. This way you can mix business and social life with fewer problems.
I still wouldn’t allow current work colleagues or clients on facebook as one careless word could be the end of more than just a facebook friendship…
Automagically publishing to facebook revisited
For some time it has been easy to tweet new blog posts. If you want to do the same with facebook then it seemed to require either setting up a shell of an application to install to post with or letting an application have rather a lot of access to your facebook information. I have recently been on the lookout for another plugin that will do it easily and quickly. Facebook page publish requires an application to be created so that was binned immediately. I also tried one which involved linksalpha but the list of abilities it wanted was quite long. I wasn’t sure it really need access to so much facebook information. That was quickly deleted. It was also annoying as it required a minimum 8 character password and seemed to be very slow in creating an account.
I also had a look at wordsocial. That didn’t seem to want to have quite as many rights as linksalpha’s. It was really simple to set up but there remains the nagging doubt of having a service that is embedded into a blog via a plugin.
I then returned back to twitterfeed which I use for updating twitter and added a facebook wall publish too. Saves a lot of bother as it means only one place to check! I have tried several other automated tweeters, plugins for wordpress and the like but twitterfeed seems to be the easiest to use and maintain so I am sticking with it for now.
Posted in Computing & Technology | 
Tags: Facebook, publish, twitter, twitterfeed, wordpress | 
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