Even better idea: NO TimeCapsule.

They are not warrantied if you have to crack the case to service them, and Apple hasn't come up to snuff with data recovery options if a TC fails entirely.

So if, say, files are deleted from the TC that you need back you must take the HD out to access the files natively - poof, your warranty is void. Deleting files from a local volume puts the files in the trash. Deleting them from a networked location deletes them right away. You must be bale to access the Hard Disk from time to time as a matter of course.

I find this combo works best:

1 x Apple Airport extreme
1 x USB powered hub
n x external USB Drive cases + high quality SATA drives (choose how many you need). I have one running for my wife's macBook, and use an internal 1TB drive for my Mac Pro. I can add as many extra USB drives to that Airport Extreme any time I like...2, 3 TB if I like. So form time to time I can take a Time Machine back up offline and toss it on the shelf for the yearly protected backup in case the live backup dies for any reason.

http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/features/harddrivesharing.html

TC does not give you that flexibillity and couple that with Apple's lack of support for failed TC's other than to wholly replace them - what about your data! God forbid your laptop/desktop AND the TC die the same time...I've been through it once with a client and Apple's Genius bar staff did not handle it well in my mind.

Regards.

JB

I remember putting forward a thesis in an old GIS class that was a bit too grand for the time I was able to spend flwshing out the particulars, but it was essentially to start creating a map layer for the North America (yes Canada and Mexico too, cuz pollution travels no?) that we could then query for whole categories of pollutants and land use restrictions. One purpose was to make the data saleable to insurance industry for rate adjustments (yes they screw people over for where they live, but they pay good money for the data too), and have publicly available data to show what kinds of pollution was airborne vs ground-situated...accounting for such things as subsurface hydrogeology etc, etc...lots of fun to be had!

But seriously, these days, with PlaceBase being bought up by Apple, wouldn't it be nice to have a single large repository of data that federal/state/provincial/Municipal agencies could use to scope out where the next location would be for that great Green project that keeps running into NIMBY restraints?

I find that that data is well guarded when it makes no sense to do anything but open it up, let the public know what's in the ground and in the air...and to move on to either fixing it up or using the areas for other projects.

Twould be nice.

In our environment, a large government shop, our data volumes are capped at around 1 TB of storage for that very reason. Between the SAN, and the tape backups...they just simply have to create a physical cutoff point for data storage due to those onerous recovery periods.

There is nothing wrong in our shop with having TWO 1 TB volumes, but you will never get approved to have one single 2TB. Problem solved...at least for file storage. Database backups are managed via other mechanisms like replication.

I find it's the other way around for me. One reason: VM usage. I can trick out my machine with as much RAM as I need in order to run the various Virtual Machine scenarios I am working with...Windows 2008 AD setup tests, Visual Studio compatibility testing etc. I have 8GB of Ram and can go up to 32 GB if I like. We can't even use that much on our test builds of Windows at work unless we go Win Server. Keep in mind I'm trying to stay with desktop OSs

The one machine is so productive for me now, that I've just packed up four windows PCs and a Compaq Server (pre-HP, yes old) with an external drive tower and gave it all away. I have so much shelf space left now that I don't need to keep a lab around. I would have done the same with a windows box doing VM work...but quite frankly there were limitations in performance when using more than four VMs on anything other than a bare bones Windows Server setup. I'm a windows systems admin in a large windows shop by day, so there's no fanboy to yell at.

Cheers!

Another perspective might be that Mac users are connoisseurs of the the OS, preferring to taste multiple experiences, and are far more proficient at the tools unique to each platform, whereas pure windows users are, well unilingual.

Unless of course it turns out that many of them actually start lots of large companies that employ lots and lots of people. Nah...I guess that never happens eh?

Here's a nice link that easily explains how immigrants only ever take away jobs.

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/249/Why-Immigrants-Are-More-Likely-To-Start-Companies.aspx

Which web sites? I'd love to test your observation as I have multiple VMs with various IE versions installed on various WinXP flavours.

Please tell us.

http://www.zefrank.com/redalert/index_better.html

My favourite.

"...the colors corresponded to the skin colour taht the terrorists would most likely be on a given day."
"And I remember an intern at the time that said "wouldn't it be problem if you printed it out on a piece of paper and it was a white terrorist?"
" A white terrorist...'"

JB

Well the obvious solution to that is that everyone respect and honor as best as possible the established standards. It makes backwards compatibility far easier if a browser must "flip modes" to respect say, current or past specs, rather than worrying about version "x" of browser "y" etc.

IE is moving towards that now, thankfully, but it also creates the awkward backwards looking issues you describe. The solution? For you possibly this: http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/using.html

You can package older or newer versions of IE inside a standalone EXE, and run that as needed. Very handy. Licensing costs I can't cite, but I've seen the demos working for FireFox and MS Office and it's super useful.

JB

You heard it here first.

Now please discuss.

What, no third option? There is no third option!

With apologies to the iMac setup adverts.

Funny you say that...I just ponied up for the pro options. For 19 bucks more I have MPEG 2 support and everything is pretty grand.

I agree nagware is pretty silly in this day and age...perhaps Apple will douse it.

Perhaps...but in MacOS X, the bastion of QuickTime, I have Perian and Flip4Mac WMV codecs installed that , voila, make QuickTime play everything under the sun. I too thought there were perhaps shortcomings but the whole setup merely adds the plugins to Quicktime that are required. Who knew you only needed a plugin? So hard!

It's there, so it must be possible. I suspect noone has bothered to do the same on windows, ergo it's not "possible" to do now, but not impossible to implement.

What I was referring to with regards to the player has to do with video manipulation of existing and readable files. regardless of the codec support, Quicktime *handles* video playback better than many other options out there.

and what is the alternative you propose?

Apples, Oranges.

I can run any internet app or network protocol handler on a mac (from OS 9 to 10!) and that app will "own" the protocol just as I want. That's why MS was sued...they prevented you from using any other protocol helper by tying you to theirs. That's monopolistically anti competitive. It was wrong, and will always be wrong.

Apple has a revenue model tied to a device that could not go to market unless the INDUSTRY providing the content was provided a pound of flesh - as in DRM. Steve Jobs stands alone in the wilderness having PUBLICLY espoused dropping ALL DRM in favour of open formats (pick your poison) that were not locked. What you are complaining about sir, is that we could have had a world where Apple was forced to use *your* choice of format (say, DRM'd wmv?) and pay a royalty to MS, or to Real, or to whomever, Borg Inc? They chose to usurp the world order in favour of a dominant model that was won fair and square, and now they want to kill all DRM forever, which means that you can buy music from whomever, and play it on whatever. All Apple requires is that you use iTunes to manage your Apple devices. boo hoo...now that you can buy MP3s on iTunes you can move that music to whatever other program you like and then play it on the device you like. Inconvenience? Yes, but it's Apple's playground. They helped tear down the fence that kept you locked in. They are under no obligation to makes iTunes sync with any other device. Although it'd be rally nice.

You have your wires crossed. You just argued in favour of the BORG instead of against it.