How to Be Efficient, or: the Blind Leading the Blind

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It’s ironic that computers, whose very purpose for existence is to increase your efficiency, are so very incredibly efficient at making you waste time. Like any good tool, if you decide to make it do something, they will do it quickly and well – get my work done? Sure! Find ways for me to get loads of dopamine by obsessively checking social websites, email, and various other time sinks? Absolutely! With great power comes great responsibility and all that, and if you aren’t too careful, you’ll find yourself where I have been, far too many times – wondering how you got derailed from the middle of your project about 20 minutes ago.

Rather than gnashing your teeth and spending another 20 minutes reading up on the benefits of Neo-Luddism, turn all that great power towards defeating the time-sink beast. 

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Creating Symlinks to shared folders and volumes

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I like to keep resources for current projects organized in specific folders on my hard drive, but for projects in which I’m collaborating it makes a lot more sense to keep them on the server, where everyone working on the project can pool their resources.

Creating an alias to something mounted on an AFP shared, however, won’t work that well. It’ll work from within the Finder, but if you use some other application that is setup to automatically pull up the project folder (like, for example, Transmit) it will just error out. 

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iPhone Error 3014: Just because I’m panicking doesn’t mean you should.

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Udate: It’s come to my attention that a number of people are wondering what, exactly, it means if your phone DOES give you an error of 3014. 

In my case, it was caused by Apple’s servers being overloaded, and iTunes couldn’t complete a connection to verify the update – IE, if iTunes can’t talk to the server, you won’t be able to update your phone. The other thing to note is that even just a slow internet connection can muck up your update, or any firewall issues. Bottom line, make sure that your computer has fast, unrestricted access to the internet.

A couple of days ago I, like many other millions of iPhone wielding techies, gleefully downloaded the latest update to the operating system, iOS 5. And it promptly bricked my phone.

I knew something was wrong the moment iTunes informed me, with clinical detachment, that an error of number 3014 had occurred and to please try again.

This is the sort of thing that makes ice trickle down my back when I’m at a client’s house – interrupted installs are never a good thing, in the same way that half-baked meatloaf is never a good thing.

But this wasn’t a client’s phone. I was in the inner sanctum of my office, so to speak, where computers go to be healed, not corrupted. So I spent a few moments frowning and poking and only then did the ice start to trickle on the spine.

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Should I upgrade to Lion?

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It’s not so surprising that I get a lot of questions about whether or not one should upgrade their computer to Lion, Apple’s latest offering for folks with a qualifying Mac. Presumably, one of my very reasons for existence would be answer questions like that. But it is interesting (to me, at least, and I’ll admit to being easily interested) how many clients ask that question with a sense of excitement in their voice. This includes a pleading undercurrent that over the years I’ve learned to recognize as needing the subtitle of: I really really really want this shiny new toy, please please please?

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Copying DVD’s to your computer – or iPhone, or iPad, or whatever

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I get a lot of questions about how to get videos onto your iPhone or iPod or iPad or iMac or what i-have-you. There’s actually a really easy way to do this, and it has an added bonus of letting you get your current DVD library stored on your Mac. Outside of potentially saving space in your house, it has the benefit of having all your movies instantly available, and if you connect to a large display or a TV, well, that’s pretty darn convenient. Movies, much like music, are one of those things where a strong argument can be made for letting your computing devices take over. Saves you space, and makes it a great deal easier to find what you want.

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Security basics

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Lets be clear: if you have a computer, security is an issue. I could go further and say that if you are alive security is an issue, but lets stay out of any such lofty philosophical attempts.

Instead, let me explain – I say this because one of the most common questions, and one of the most temperature raising debates in geek gatherings, is the good old: Do Macs get viruses? (One could say: ‘Do Macs get virii?’ but while sounding cool they would also be wrong.) Laying aside the literal answer for the moment (no) allow me to point out that what’s really being asked there is: Is my Mac secure?

Hence the first sentence of this piece.

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