AppleTV upgrade

I was an early Apple user. I learned the basics of programming on and Apple ][ and bought a Machintosh 128 the day it came out in 1984.  Hell, I even had a Lisa. Over the years, Apple has had some ups and downs but always seemed to get back on track, better than ever. When Jobs left they certainly made some interesting decisions. The Clone Wars were a mess, OS 7 and 9 were stable but they didn't really do anything special. When Steve came back into the fold, he adopted an ever forward attitude, focused on innovation and even removed the "museum" of previous Macintosh models from the Cupertino campus. He took back control of the hardware manufacturing and the new operating system promised to bring more power to the user. Apple has since introduced many very successful new computers the ubiquitous iPod, tons of great software and many other wonderful innovations. Since the emergence of the new Apple, I have purchased several computers, phones, ipods, an AppleTV, gone to WWDC twice and even spoken at Apple events on podcasting and workflow. Life has been good.

Over the past few weeks though, Apple has hit a some rough spots. The Mobile Me debacle, the iPhone 3g activation issues, curious activity on the iTunes App store... and a few other bumps in the road have brought the naysayers and critics out in droves.  It's been very un-Apple like. My very first clue that something was amiss at Apple this time was when the first AppleTV was introduced. It seemed very cool and the idea of having iTunes as a source of video content was damn near thrilling. On the music front, iTunes had revolutionized an even revitalized the music world. Surely a revolution in home video was on the horizon. Not so much. I have had a 40GB Apple TV for a little over a year now and I was annoyed almost out of the gate over the interface and drive size. I felt like it had been rushed to market. The iTunes video library was barren, the interface was difficult to navigate and it just seemed silly to produce a device designed for video with such anemic storage capacity. Over time the iTunes store added more movies and TV shows, the new OS (Take 2) has YouTube, local streaming, Flickr and .mac gallery capability and the interface is much MUCH better. The drive size still bugged the crap out of me. Today, I finally did something about it. There have been some AppleTV drive upgrade hacks out there for a while and they all sorta work. My buddy, superbiff and I decided to try it with a shiny new 250 GB drive. We started with the most common approach found at endgadget but that was a wash. We also went down the path shown at appletvhacks, but that too failed. It seems these were older hacks that didn't fly with AppleTV 2.0 or later. We looked around and found this step by step guide for Take 2. It worked like a champ.

Before superbiff got here, I had started the process of opening up the unit and pulling the drive out. That was pretty uneventful apart from the small tear I made in the rubber base.  
Next came the creation of a drive image. That was easy enough using the dd unix command. Finally, creation of the partitions on the new drive and copying the image over to it. We installed it and my drive capacity is now a wonderful 228 GB.

So, I'm sure Apple will get over this current hump and restore credibility thier once proud, unofficial slogan of "It just works". Even in this little exercise I could not help but notice how beautifully designed the interior components of the AppleTV were. It was so easy to open it up, work on and reassemble without doing any damage to the case or the internal components. The only tools I needed were a #8 and a #10 torx drive. As we worked on the upgrade, I was googling with with my MacBook to find tips to assist with the upgrade, texting my wife on my iPhone as she visited her grandmother in the hospital. When all was said and done, we hooked up the Apple TV and watched a bunch of LEGO Mindstorm videos on YouTube while it started syncing up to my iTunes Library. At the end of the day, these recent bumps in the road have been pretty insignificant in the big picture. As for my newly expanded AppleTV, it just works.

Urban Assault Cruiser

So... in a previous post I mentioned that I was on a quest for red tires for my bicycle. I found them and with the help of a couple of frineds, they have been installed on the bike along with a few other tweaks.

I have never been much of an outdoorsy guy but last year while searching for a birthday gift for my wife, I developed an interest in "beach cruiser" bicycles. It turns out there are many many style choices out there from companies such as Kustom Kruisers and Nirve. During that process, I stared thinking that it would be cool to get a bike too so my wife and I could ride together. I ended up picking up the Kosmopolitan from Kustom Kruisers for her because it fit her in so many ways. Since I was not sure what or even IF I wanted a bike, I decided to go cheap and turn to Craigs List. I did a search for "cruiser" and found a result that read "Custom matte black beach cruiser - $50". After reading the description, It was clear the seller was being a tad sarcastic so I emailed him to see if he still had it. The next day I went to see him and it was exactly what I needed. A simple, old cruiser style bike, spray painted black (he did a nice job) that, If I decided to do so, I could make it into something that was a reflection of me. He was a funny guy who pretended to wipe a tear from his eye as he said "I'm going to miss my Urban Assault Cruiser". I laughed, handed him 50 bucks, loaded up the bike and went on my way. I started the process of making it my own this weekend with the red tires. I also installed he stock seat from my wife's bike since it was still brand new and MUCH more comfortable that old worn out seat that came with my blank slate purchase. I'm not sure what I will do next. Maybe a set of apehangers or a silver chain. I am open to suggestions. For now, I will enjoy some leisurely rides around the neighborhood on my fancy new red tires.

Web 2 point Oh my god please shut up!

Web 2.0. Are you kidding me?!??! Why are we versioning the web anyway? (Thanks superbiff). Web 2.0 is just another useless, this makes me sound cool, now chicks will dig me buzzword. Who ever coined it, please go away now. You have out stayed your usefulness. 

Having been a corporate animal most of my professional life, I have heard a ton of them. TQM, Think outside the box, synergy, leverage, paradigm, paradigm shift, Next Generation (NextGen if you're REALLY cool), viral, new media, honest work (okay I made that one up)... anyway you get the idea. The point here is that none of these has ever had a shelf life of more than an internal review cycle (Why did I just say that?!?!). They don't last becasue they have no legitimate value. These terms are really nothing more than a euphemism for "hey the way we have been doing things has been a total train wreck so lets call it something different, create some brand new powerpoint slides to show the process and pretend the last 18 months never happened". I dunno, I think I'd rather just handle that situation with a good old fashioned "blamestorming" session.

To tech or not to tech?

As I get older and we are besieged by more and more technology, I find myself less motivated to be bleeding edge. I have made my living for 25 plus years and an integrator/developer/user of the latest and greatest technology. I was one of the people who giggled like a school girl when Steve Jobs announced the almighty iPhone at Mac World 2007. I went to the Apple WWDC 2007 JUST to get an advance copy of OS X Leopard. These are just 2 recent examples of a long history of geekery. This year has been a little different. While I am still an avid technology user (this blog is a testament to that), I find that I no longer get that tech high when a new widget comes out. Maybe I have reached the saturation point. Maybe I just don't feel compelled to integrate yet another device or piece of technology into my "digital life". It just seems that every day there is some new technology that never existed and we cannot possibly live without. These days I seem to take more pleasure being out on my motorcycle or finding red tires (yes red) for my bicycle. Well, I did just get a DVR. Maybe Im full of shit. I wonder if I'll actually keep this thing up to date?