Creating a Disk Image of Your iLife '11 DVD

Let me begin with a disclaimer. I do not endorse or approve of software piracy. However, I do believe that the legal owner of a software title should be entitled and able to make an archival copy of the original software media for safe-keeping.

After being inconvenienced and financially disadvantaged more than once after misplacing or damaging my original application installation disks, I have made it standard practice to create a copy of any software title that I purchase; especially the expensive ones. These copies are stored in a fire-proof location, separate from the original disks, just in case they are needed at a later date for a fresh installation.

Roxio's Toast has been my go-to application for creating back-up copies. It has never failed to provide an accurate copy of an original application CD or DVD. That is, until now.

I recently acquired the latest version of iLife from Apple. The updates to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand installed without issue and brought many new features that make using our Apple computers even more enjoyable. The problem I encountered was when I tried to create my back-up copy of the iLife '11 DVD. Toast gave a valiant effort, and spun the DVD for quite some time, but it eventually returned error codes and messages that suggested the disk was copy-protected. The same result was obtained whether I tried to duplicate the DVD, or create a disk image. Bummer.

The obvious fall-back was to use the capable, but sometimes intimidating, Mac OS X Disk Utility. The Disk Utility app offers several powerful features for managing your Mac's disk drives; an indispensable utility application! It's also entirely capable of making your computer completely unusable if you are not careful. Hence, the "intimidating" description.

After opening Disk Utility with the iLife '11 DVD in the optical drive, I selected the DVD from the list of mounted disks in the column to the left. Then from the Disk Utility menu, I selected File->New->Disk Image from "iLife '11 Install DVD." Again, error codes and messages that suggested the disk was copy-protected. How could I get around this "feature" from Apple?

Back to the Disk Utility menu, but this time I selected File->New->Disk Image from Folder, and selected the iLife '11 Install DVD as if it were a folder. I chose an image name that's meaningful; usually the default DVD title. I also use the "Read-Only" Image Format to prevent accidental changes to the copy. A compressed format is also read-only, but it takes more time to create and to open the final image. After hitting the Save button, I was happy to watch Disk Utility successfully create a copy of the iLife '11 Install DVD.

With a good disk image having been created, I was able to burn the file to a DVD for safe-keeping. Only time will tell if Apple will allow iLife '12 (or other software titles) to be copied in this way, but for now I am happy. I've got my archived copy of iLife '11 safely put away.

IOGear GCS632U KVM Switch Hotkey Mode

I've really enjoyed the use of my IOGear MiniView Micro USB Plus 2-Port KVM Switch for a couple of years now. I'm not certain why IOGear felt the need to give the device such an elaborate name. We'll blame their marketing folks for that.

While I'm passing out blame, there's an important usability problem to pin on IOGear's technical writers. Let me explain.

The IOGear Model GCS632U KVM switch is a really great device for sharing a single keyboard, video device, and mouse between two computers. The switch is conveniently operating system independent; I use mine to share a keyboard and mouse between a Microsoft Windows 7 and a Ubuntu 11.04 machine. It operates on built-in code, so there is no special software required on the host computers. Best of all, there are a few user-configurable settings to customize the user experience. The features are accessible via a special key sequence that will place the user in "Hotkey Mode". You can read more about the settings in the IOGear device's User Guide [PDF].

One of the configurable features is to change the default port switching key from Scroll Lock, Scroll Lock to Ctrl, Ctrl; the change that I wanted to complete. The User Guide provides specific instructions to make this change by first placing the device in Hotkey Mode. To do this, the user must "(1) Press and hold Num Lock key for two seconds; (2) Press and hold Minus key [ – ] for one second; and (3) Release Minus key [ – ] and within one second also release Num Lock key."

With such precise timing specified in the manual, one might suspect that this was a really, really critical point. In fact, I spent way too much time trying to get the exact timing down just so I could simply change the default port switch key. Boy was I mistaken, and the technical writers sure made it much more difficult than it needed to be.

For those of you who have been trying unsuccessfully to enter Hotkey Mode on the IOGear KVM switch by following the manufacturer's instructions, here's the trick. You only need to press and hold the Num Lock key for about one second (e.g. "one thousand one"), then casually press the Minus key and immediately release both keys at the same time. You should see the keyboard's Caps Lock and Scroll Lock status lights blink alternately signifying that you are in Hotkey Mode. Then you can configure the KVM switch as desired.

I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took for me to get this key sequence down right. Hopefully by sharing the information here with you, I will have saved you some time and trouble.

Some Things Never Change

If you've read some of my posts in the past, you know that I prefer to avoid discussions on topics of religion or politics. There are plenty enough other blogs which cover these topics, that I don't see a need to join the fray of controversy. However, I must disclose that this post presents one person's observations of a society that is divided on political matters. An observation that was made about people in the United States by an author almost 80 years ago. With that disclosure out of the way, here's the story.

My wife and I enjoy visiting the Eastern Caribbean, and our travels have resulted in a genuine interest in the history of the islands and their inhabitants. That is what led me to recently gift my wife with a vintage book written by Desmond Holdridge. The story is a non-fiction, first-person account of Desmond and his wife, Elizabeth Hamlin Holdridge ("Bet"), who as newlyweds made their first home on the island of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands ("USVI").

The book is titled Escape to the Tropics, copywrite 1937; published by Harcourt, Brace and Company (New York) and printed by the Quinn & Boden Company (New Jersey). For the first seven chapters, Holdridge does a splendid job of explaining how he and Bet interacted with the people of the USVI. It's a very entertaining account of island life in the early 1930s. Then the story takes an odd twist as Holdridge travels to British Guiana in search of Paul Redfern, a pioneer aviator who is believed to have crashed his plane in the South American jungle while attempting a long-distance flight from the United States to Brazil in 1927. Overall, it's a good vintage read, but this is not intended to be a book review, so let me get to the point of my blog post.

In the first chapter, Holdridge explains why he and Bet decided to "escape to the tropics." The Depression had drastically changed their lives in the United States, and they were looking for a new start. Holdridge writes of his friends' opinions regarding the administration, the Federal Government, and politics in-general. I found his observations to be rather profound, especially when considering the current state of our society's growing political division. It made me realize that some things never change.

It's best to let Holdridge's own words demonstrate my fascination with his perspective. The following text is taken from select paragraphs of the first chapter, beginning on page 10 of the book.

"All about us and all around the earth, near the forty-fifth parallel of latitude, the two most obvious ways of managing the vast, stupid, pathetic masses of mankind were feinting for advantage as antagonism deepened to a death struggle whose outcome will be peonage for most of us, no matter who wins. Karl Marx against Frederick William I; Stalin against Hitler; the State against the Man; the machine against the hand; the mind against the soul; our rich friends hysterically looking under the bed for Roosevelt and our poor ones ready to exchange their freedom for a cheap automobile and a comfortable place to defecate.

We both thought that these places where myriads of people lived together in a life not seen before -- stigmatizing as Fascists all those who said some of the things were good, and damning for Communists all those who said some of the old things were bad -- were perilous places, because an ugly and unnecessary sacrifice to human stupidity was impending."

"It was a rather trying period. Many times I sat down at my typewriter and, instead of getting on with the business of producing something, anything, on it, I would worry about the dividing line that was appearing in all the things and people I knew. A very good friend with whom I was on terms of long standing intimacy was also quite wealthy and it seemed that every time I visited him he was in a bigger froth over what he called 'this damn Communistic trend.' One evening he lashed himself into a great fury and, holding an imaginary bridle in one hand and an imaginary blade of some sort in the other, he roared, 'Ride the bastards down, that's what! Ride among 'em, slashing right and left.'"

"Another equally good friend was poor and, together, we watched the progress of the Austrian civil war, a thoroughly dirty business, to my mind. But this friend was passionately in favor of the left wingers. 'I hope they kill every one of the bastards!' he said, referring to the yokels supporting the right wing.

Since then they have both become more so. The rich one helps run, as an amusement, a newspaper full of absurd propaganda about the sanctity of the Republican party; the other is a lesser priest of the New Deal. Neither one will love me for mentioning this matter, but had I listened seriously to the rich one, I should have been so revolted as to become a Communist, and listening to the poor one would have inevitably made me a Fascist. As it was, they made me want to get out of it, for both kinds of men will, sooner or later, be at each other's throats. Nor did I like the contours of the worlds they wished to construct, and I thought too well of both to take sides."

"I made an honest effort to understand their perspective worlds, which is more than most of the people who damn their viewpoints do."

Upon reading this part of the book, I found myself very closely aligned with the thoughts of the author. His observations of his friends almost 80 years ago, were very much like my observations of my own friends today. Yes, it is true. Some things never change.

Engineer's (Humorous) Conversion Table

1. Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2. 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton

3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

5. Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

6. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong

7. 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling

8. Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon

9. 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz

10. Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower

11. Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line

12. 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake

13. 1 million-million microphones = 1 megaphone

14. 2 million bicycles = 2 megacycles

15. 365.25 days = 1 unicycle

16. 2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilomockingbirds

17. 52 cards = 1 decacards

18. 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 FigNewton

19. 1000 milliliters of wet socks = 1 literhosen

20. 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche

21. 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin

22. 10 rations = 1 decoration

23. 100 rations = 1 C-ration

24. 2 monograms = 1 diagram

25. 4 nickels = 2 paradigms

26. 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 IV League

Facebook: The Bane of Society or Just the Next Thing?

Earlier this week, a friend of mine with a young teenage daughter sent me a link to this article... "Facebook is Spreading Like the Plague". The premise of the author's message (and I paraphrase here) is that Facebook is evil and will be the ruin of mankind. You can read the article and make your own assessment of the author's message, but I believe that my succinct summary is pretty accurate.

My friend does not currently use Facebook, and this article made him hesitant about allowing his daughter to use the service. He was also concerned about how prevalent social media services were being used at his workplace. As you might suspect, I have a different point of view.

How many times do you think this article, or some version similar to it, has been written in the past? I’m guessing that the same argument has been made by concerned parents for:

SMS / Text Messaging

MP3s and portable music players (e.g. iPods)

GameBoy

DVDs

Internet Forums

Mobile Phones

Instant Messaging (IRC/IRQ)

AOL

Email

CDs

Handheld Video Games

CompuServe

Prodigy

Video Tapes

Philip's Cassette Tapes

BBSs

Usenet / Newsgroups

Citizens Band Radio

8 Track Tapes

Color Television

45 rpm Records

Black and White Television

Amateur “Ham” Radio

33 rpm records

Telephones

Radio

78 rpm records / Victrola

Newspapers

.

.

Books

.

.

The Wheel

.

.

Fire

Okay, maybe I’m am being a bit of a smart alec, but I think that you get my point. There is always some new technology, some device or service, that is going to sap the life and intelligence out of our children and ruin our society and culture as we know it. These arguments are also often made in regards to the use of these same types of technologies in the workplace.

I believe that whether you are referencing your children or employees, it all comes back to an appropriate level of supervision and a reasonable amount of control. Facebook only consumes every waking moment of some children’s and adult’s time because it is allowed to. If a parent or supervisor is concerned about how much time their child or employee spends online, they only need to establish some house rules regarding the hours that it is permissible. It is no different for Facebook than what it may have been for any of the other items in my list above.

As a proponent of new technology and a self-proclaimed early adopter, I probably lean towards giving my kids more leeway on these matters. Our family's rules are generally based upon the children’s performance at school and with the successful completion of their household chores. If they can maintain exceptional grades, get their chores done, and still get adequate sleep and exercise, we generally don’t care about their time on Facebook (or Xbox, or texting, or…).

My wife and I originally established Facebook accounts to monitor our own children. That was the deal; the kids could sign-up for Facebook as long as they friended us. There has been only a couple of instances where we suggested that they delete a comment or photo. It has actually been a good life lesson and social experience for them. Interestingly, once we were on Facebook, my wife and I both discovered many old friends, some who were monitoring their own children. It has been fun to reconnect and we have also found that the service is a very good way to communicate with extended family; much better than our previous attempts at mass emails, family websites, or periodic newsletters.

If employees in the workplace are spending too much time using these services, then it is quite possible that they don’t have enough work to do or they simply lack the self-discipline to control their own behavior. I would classify that as a supervision problem; not a problem with the technology.

It can be difficult determining if these technologies are beneficial or detrimental in the work place, especially when they are first introduced. It’s not too hard to argue that a little music from Pandora in the background may help some people be more productive. The use of Twitter / Yammer could help people share information and improve productivity. Time maintaining a LinkedIn profile may help business development efforts.

There are no hard and fast rules. With notebook computers and mobile email devices, many believe that employees work far more hours per day than what was expected in the past, so allowing someone to watch a couple of YouTube videos while they eat their lunch, or maintain their Farmville crops before starting their long commute home may actually help the company keep the employees happy and working hard(er).

The best part of social media for me is learning how to leverage it for use in my day-to-day work. I can provide examples of projects and business development opportunities that were only possible because of my connections on Facebook and LinkedIn. I believe that anyone who is not leveraging those sites today is really falling behind. And I mean “leveraging” by joining groups, making new contacts and engaging in discussions, not simply creating a profile and then never going back to the site again.

So is Facebook the bane of society? Nah! It's just the next thing. Just wait. It won't take long for parents to identify something else that is sapping the intelligence out of their children and they will all forget about how awful Facebook is.