MacAppetite (Sean and Ryan) has released (and mega excited) its first iPhone app to Apple’s iPhone AppStore. If you are a delicious user and an iPhone user I say this is a must have application for your iPhone. It stores your delicious bookmarks on your iPhone, you can search your bookmarks and look at your bundles right on the iPhone.

Go directly to the iTunes Store and take a look at Red Delicious.

Having all my Windows machines backing up successfully now it was time to get my Macbook to be backed up. Looking at Apple’s Time Machine (OS X included backup software) it looked like it would only backup to Apple’s Time Capsule (Apple’s Wireless Hard Drive), but searching the Internet I found how to have Time Machine see a Windows Share. Tell me why would that not be default?

Synergy is one of the best open source utilities I have used in a long time. It allows you to share a single keyboard and mouse with multiple computer, including between Windows, Mac and Linux.

What you do is set it up and a “master” computer with the keyboard and mouse then set it up on your other computers. I set it up on my Tablet PC, I placed my Tablet PC with the screen swiveled around so it looked like the Tablet PC was just another screen. See the pic below.

What I really like is I can put the Tablet PC to sleep and it does not effect the master computer and when it wakes up I don’t even have to reconnect, it just works. Oh yeah, it allows copy, copy and paste between computers!

Tablet PC Spun Around

It sounds like an old country song, but getting an easy backup strategy on a home network can be difficult. I find the backup software that comes with Vista and Windows 2008 server junk. My home network consists of Windows desktops, Windows servers, OS X and one Linux box. This weekend I messed up my main Vista computer and found the backup strategy I was using was flawed. What I was using is Windows Backup and making an image of the computer to an external hard drive. My backup routine consisted of taking the external hard drive from computer to computer and making backup images when the feeling hits me. As all the data from all the computers is saved to the network drive (which is also backed up), computer images only need to be made periodically.

What happened is I used the same external hard drive to backup my Vista machines and my Windows 2008 Server. When I went to restore my Vista machine, the restore software only could see that I had backuped the Windows 2008 Server and would not pickup my Vista computer backup, even though it was still there on the hard disk. Unlike the backup software in Windows XP, the Vista/Windows 2008 Server backup will not backup to a network share, so I decided to find an alternative solution. BTW: Tried the backup in Microsoft OneCare as well (which I use for AV and other features) but it does not make computer images but does allow to backup to a network share. If Microsoft would combine the features of Windows Backup and backup in OneCare it would be actually pretty good for home users.

What I found was Acronis TrueImage 11 Home. It is $49 per computer and well worth it. Even if you only have one computer at home I would pay the money. The installation is painless. After I installed Acronis I quickly made a full system backup to a network share. When Acronis backs up you can set the size of the backup files, so I selected 4.7 GIG so I could then burn a copy of the backup from the network drive to DVDs. After you make a full system backup you can then schedule incremental backups of the image, plus you can set it to backup just Application Setting and/or just data a few times a week. Acronis also makes a boot disk so if you computer dies and you need to re-install you boot from the CD/DVD and then feed it the backup discs.

I recommend after a fresh OS install and installing any programs purchased that needs activation (MS Office for example), make a base backup image. This way when you restore you don’t have to worry about Vista or Office needing to be activated as it already is already in the backup.

Having various computer at home backing up systems is very important. So no data on the desktops so I can re-image them quickly if I need to, all systems backup to a central spot on the network and I and offload the backups to DVD when I need to.

In summary, after anti-virus software I would recommend a good backup software, and for me that is Acronis, it will save your data and many hours of frustration.

[I do not work for or know anyone at Acronis, they just make good stuff.]

When traveling in New Hampshire this summer I was pleasantly surprised at how many places offered free Wi-Fi. Even the KOA campground I stayed at had excellent reception to my campsite even though my mobile phone service was very poor (as it should be being in the middle of the White Mountains).

I know many people say leave your laptop and phone behind on vacation but it was more relaxing being able to check email before breakfast and before supper (yes only twice a day) and make sure things were running smoothly back home.

As I drove though New Hampshire I found all the outlet malls, the “bed and breakfast”s, small and large motels/hotels all had free wireless Internet. I hope Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia tourist destinations follow suit. I bet it is because New Hampshire has a large influx of people of Massachusetts and free wireless Internet is a requirement.

Here are some pics of the Lost River in New Hampshire.

First there was the Commodore Amiga, my all time favorite computer. Then I was drawn into the world of Windows. I really do like Vista x64 on a kick butt computer. But now I want to do iPhone development. So to do that I got to do the development on ObjC on OS X. I have created a web site on my Mobile Me account to journal my learning experiences and rants (good and bad) about my adventure with my new computing platform.

Please visit Ryan’s Mac Site

I have decided to create a space that links to all the various web sites I participate in. This site will have links to my Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and all the other sites I have data on. One of the reasons is the new iPhone 2.0 has many new features to push content from the phone to these social media sites and I wanted one place I could go browse all the stuff.

From time to time I will write about some things that either interest me or annoy me. That is what blogging is all about.