One More Reason I Love My Mac

I have posted before about my fantastic MacBook. My trusted machine is approaching its fifth birthday, and still does just about everything I ask it to. I rarely turn it off. When I am done working, I just close the lid and it quietly goes to sleep. Open the lid, and with no fanfare, I am ready to get back to work with virtually no delay. I have left my MacBook in sleep mode for several days, unplugged, running only on battery. Even after several days, very little battery is consumed.

This morning it occurred to me that I had not rebooted my machine in a long time. I wondered how long. A quick Google search told me how to find out. Open "Terminal" and type "uptime" at the prompt. Your computer will dutifully tell you how long it has been running since the last full startup. My MacBook has been running continuously for 85 days! That's right, almost 3 months. In my "PC Running Windows XP" days, I would have considered 85 hours something to be pleased with.

Imagine, a five year old computer running for 3 months without a hiccough! Thank you Apple.

Why I Got an E-book Reader When I Already Have an iPad

My wife and I love to read and we have built a sizeable library over the years. However, since last year we have been reading mostly ebooks. Sure, we love books, but the love affair is more about the content of the books than the physical objects, so we are pretty satisfied to have started building an e-library. Quite frankly, we were running out of room for physical books and we are both pretty serious about the environment, so not cutting down trees to print books is a bonus.

Last Christmas I gave my wife a Kobo Touch, and that how she reads most of her books on her Kobo. I have been reading on my iPad. This Christmas I asked for a Kobo Glo. I was quite pleased that my lovely wife put one under the Christmas tree for me.

I love my iPad, but I have to tell you, I am enjoying reading books on my Kobo. For a long reading session, my iPad quickly gets too heavy. The Kobo is much lighter and easier to hold for the long haul. It is small, light, and nice to hold in one hand. The e-paper screen is much easier on the eyes, especially after spending a full work day staring at a backlit computer screen. One of the reasons that I stuck with my iPad is that I like to read in bed. With the iPad, my wife could turn out the light and go to sleep, and I could continue to read without disturbing her. The new Kobo Glo features a fantastic light that Kobo calls ComfortLight. It beautifully and evenly illuminates the page in a way that is much kinder to the eyes than a traditional tablet back light.

The battery life is just great. I received the Kobo on Christmas day, and have read it more that I think would be usual (I have had a nasty cold, so I have spent extra time curled up in bed with a good book). After a month, the battery is still at 65%.

One final observation. When I am reading on my iPad, I find that I am easily distracted. The iPad dings to tell me I have received an email, and I close my book to read it. I next thing I know, I am off browsing the internet and my book is forgotten. With my Kobo I can enjoy a long, uninterrupted, relaxing session of just reading. Beautiful!

How to Create an EPUB

My regular readers know that I participated in Nanowrimo, the National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November, I wrote a novel. I recently finished editing my first draft and I wanted to share it with some friends and family to get some feedback. While my novel is not War and Peace, it is quite a few pages, and it wouldn't be practical to print multiple copies. The good news is that all of the folks that I want to read my first draft have a tablet or e-reader, so I decided create an EPUB formatted book to send to them.

Fortunately creating an EPUB is quite easy for a Mac user. If you don't already own it, download Pages from the App Store. This fantastically full featured word processor is only $20. Even if you never intend to create an EPUB, Pages is definitely worth the price.

If your document wasn't originally created in Pages, open a new blank word processing document and copy and paste your book into it. You can also import documents from Microsoft Word or a generic RTF file. Converting your document to an EPUB is simple. Select File > Export > ePub. Complete the form, giving your book a title, author, and select a genre, and click next. Name the document and press export. It should only take a few seconds, and you will have created your first EPUB.

Following these steps creates a very basic EPUB. If you want a more professional document with chapters and a table of contents you need to do some formatting before you export. First, you need to create a paragraph style for your chapter headings. Click the paragraph styles button (the round button on the extreme left of the formatting bar with the ¶ symbol). Click + at the bottom of the paragraph pane to add a new style. Call it Chapter Title. Next, go systematically through your document and format your chapter titles by highlighting them then clicking the paragraph style drop down (next to the paragraph style button) and selecting Chapter Title. Finally, select Insert > Table of Contents. A pop up window will open. In the Paragraph Styles box, uncheck everything except Chapter Title. Save your document.

Now, when you export your document, it will be neatly formatted with chapters and a hyperlinked table of contents.

Your newly created EPUB can be opened on a Kobo, Sony eReader, or Nook. It can also be read on an iPad or Android tablet with e-reading software. If you use a Kindle, you will need to convert your EPUB to the MOBI. The easiest way to do this is using the free Calibre software. Complete instructions can be found HERE. Enjoy reading an sharing your ebooks.

Microfibre Cloths

Over the years I have purchased a number of microfibre cleaning cloths to clean and maintain my electronics. Until recently I bought them at a local electronics store, or in the computer department at Staples. They were not cheap; I think the cheapest I found was about $6.00. I was willing to pay the price, particularly to clean my iPad and iPhone. Nothing else removed fingerprints as well or as quickly. They lasted a long time, but I did change them periodically because I didn't want to risk them picking up grit that would scratch the more fragile screens on my laptop and TV.

All that changed recently. I was in the cleaning section at Costco buying dish soap (another bargain, 4 L of dish soap there costs just a bit more than 600 mL at the grocery store), when I saw a box of eight microfibre cleaning cloths for under $10.00. I brought home a box to try out. They are different from the electronic cloths. They feel kind of soft and fluffy like a nice bath towel. When I tried one out, I was blown away. The fluffy surface must increase their surface area. Two swipes and my iPad looked great. My laptop is getting a bit long in the tooth, but a thorough cleaning with one of these cloths made it look like new.

I now have a cloth in my desk drawer, one in my headboard in my bedroom, and one in my computer bag. I did a presentation for a customer the other day, so I gave my laptop and iPad a quick clean before I went in. It was great to not have to show my customer a grubby screen.

By the way, they are also great for cleaning eye glasses.

Three Finger Salute for the Mac

Welcome back to the blog. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been participating in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. The goal of the event is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month. Everyone who writes 50,000 words wins. The good news it that I won! In fact, I blew it out of the park, hitting the 50,000 word mark on November 21. I have spent the week or so since then editing my first draft. The bad news is, the event was so time consuming that it kept me away from blogging.

So here I am, back with a short post to whet your appetite.

I am sure that any longtime Windows user know the three finger salute. The app you are  running locks up. Maybe the misbehaving app locks up your whole computer. Hold down these three keys, Control, Alt and Delete, simultaneously, and you may be able to close the bad app and regain control of your computer.

Is there a Mac equivalent? It turns out that there is. Say it with me everyone: Command, Option, Escape. What does it do? It opens the Force Quit dialogue box. Scroll to your misbehaving app, then klick "Force Quit".  Usually this will shutdown the bad app and restore full control to your computer. There is another way to reach the Force Quit dialogue box. It is quite rare for a troubled app to completely lock down a Mac. Usually you can mouse out of the bad app. If you can, mouse over to the Apple Menu (top left of the screen), click the Apple, then select Force Quit.

If you are running a full screen app, the Apple Menu may not be on your screen. It can usually still be accessed by moving your mouse to the top left, causing the menu bar to drop down. If not, say it with me again people: Command, Option, Escape!

Stay On Line During a Power Outage

We were lucky not to be among the many who lost power in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But it started me thinking. I am dependant on my computer and internet access to work. So I did some reading, and have some thoughts to share about staying on line during a power outage.

I use my iMac for much of my creative work, and I do have it plugged into a UPS. But the power requirements of a desktop computer are just too high to keep it going for a sustained period of time. The UPS serves mainly to protect the computer from damage by a sudden loss of power. But I'm willing to compromise, so my blackout strategy will centre on using my laptop. I've set up the software on my UPS to shut down my desktop as quickly as possible after a power failure.

Of course, my laptop has an internal battery, so it will keep running for several hours. If I need more time than the built in battery can supply, I have a large deep cycle battery and a DC to AC inverter to top up the laptop charge. I have used this setup at an Amateur Radio Field Day, and it kept my laptop working for twenty-four continuous hours, and still had power to spare. If you don't have a deep cycle battery, you can always plug your inverter into your car. Just be sure to leave enough power to start the car! No inverter? You can use your UPS to top up your laptop battery.

So we have the computer taken care of. What about the internet? It is unlikely that the power outage will take out your cable or DSL internet connection, at least in the short term. Phone and cable companies have super backup power, and can operate for hours or days without mains power. But you still need your modem and/or router powered to get online. Probably the easiest way to keep in operation, at least for the short term, is to plug your modem and router into a UPS. UPSs are designed to keep a computer powered for a short while, but modems and routers draw a fraction of the power needed to keep a desktop computer and monitor running. So a UPS will keep you on line for hours. To conserve more power, unplug the modem/router when you are not on line, and plug them back in when needed. Just keep in mind, it could take several minutes for them to reboot and reconnect.

If your cable or DSL go down, or you run out of power for your modem/router, you can turn to your smart phone. Many newer smart phones offer internet tethering. In fact, my iPhone on Rogers can offer a WiFi hotspot, and with LTE, the connection is as fast or faster than my home internet. If you can't tether, at least your smart phone still gives you access to email, and the web on a small screen.

These tips will keep you on line and in communication with the world for hours, or even a few days. Of course, if the power is off for long enough, the cable, phone and cellular networks will eventually die. If that happens, maybe it is time to take a break from the connected world. Curl up in a sleeping bag, and while the daylight lasts, read a book. When the sun goes down, grab a good night's sleep.

Resurrecting An Old Computer With Linux

I've given thought to picking up a netbook as a spare computer for web browsing and checking email. There are several models available for comfortably under $300. But I found a nifty alternative that didn't cost me a cent. I resurrected an old computer with Linux.

My daughter handed me an old Compaq nc6000 laptop that a friend had given to her. This machine (which a web search revealed to be about 8 years old) had been running Windows XP, but it would no longer boot up. In its time, it was a pretty smoking little machine. With a Pentium M processor at 1.7 GHz, and 1.25 GB RAM (it was originally shipped with 500 MB, so I guess someone upgraded it). Rather than fight with reinstalling Windows, along with a suitable antivirus, and finding software, I decided to have a shot at setting it up with Linux.

My first inclination was to install Ubuntu, since it is one of the most popular and widely supported Linux distributions. But I have had problems in the past getting video to work on some machines under Ubuntu, and I definitely wanted to use the machine for video. So I settled on Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, but includes all of the  non GNU (but still free) software needed to run video. Linux Mint comes in a variety of flavours, and I chose the LXDE (light X desktop environment), since it is the lightest of the options, and I didn't want to bog down this older computer.

I downloaded the ISO file from the Linux Mint website, and burned it to a CD. As a test, I booted the computer into live mode. It appeared to work fine. One small problem, the computer did not have a built in network card. I happened to have a Asus N10 USB WiFi adapter in my tech box. The adaptor is nice and small, so I could easily use it and leave it installed. After firing it up, it connected to my network on the first try.

Next, I ran the installer program, and did a full install to the computer's hard drive. It was surprisingly fast, and the complete install was done in about 20 minutes. I put it through its paces. Video was fine. WiFi worked. I loaded a few MP3s, and the sound worked fine. The built in speakers were nice and loud. I went to YouTube, and confirmed that streaming video worked great. Finally,  I popped in a movie DVD, and it too worked just fine.

Linux Mint by default installs a host of software. I started Firefox, and installed one of my favourite plugins, X-Marks. X-Marks synchronizes bookmarks between browsers on different machines. Once installed and configured, all of my bookmarks were available. Thunderbird is the default email program. It took just a few seconds to install and synchronize all of my email accounts. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that Dropbox was installed by default. I was able to configure and sync my account in a few minutes.

I have two other key needs for my spare computer, an office suite, and a stand in for iTunes. These needs were ably met with included software. LibreOffice is the default office suite included with Mint. It has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, and a database. I found the word processor to be very capable and full featured. The spreadsheet and presentation software, while not quite as fully featured as Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint, were quite useable.

Rhythmbox is the included iTunes stand in. It performed most of the functions that I demand of iTunes, including organizing music, ripping CDs, and playing MP3s. It proved much more limited when asked to sync with my iPod. I could transfer music to the iPod, but there was no way to sync apps, contacts, and photos. But since I only intended this machine as a spare computer,  I can live with this limitation.

In conclusion, I was able to use Linux to set up an eight year old computer, to give me most of the functionality of a new netbook. It can serve as a useful spare computer, at no cost. I have been using this computer for a couple of months, and it has been totally up to the task.