It's not all about the future! But...Caveat Emptor!

Regular readers to the Apple Harvest will know that I'm a relative newbie to the Apple brotherhood. I first started using computers at university in 1980, first on ICL 1900/2900 machines, then on a VAX 11/780 and various micros - Superbrains, PETs, and BBC Model Bs. In my first job in the real world I started to use the original IBM PC running DOS alongside IBM 360s. Up until 1998 I was still designing and writing programmes for Windows. I'd never even seen a Mac close up until about 2004, and certainly never used one.

I bought my first Mac in 2008 and have never looked back. Until just recently...one of the downsides of being so late to the party was that I missed out on enjoying some of the classic Macs of yesteryear. But such is the engineering and design quality of the Mac that a machine that now sits on Apple's official obsolete list can still find a place in a modern Mac based network. And you can pick them up at silly prices!

The last PC I bought before my first Mac was an Asus R1F tablet. In 2007 that laptop was pretty much state of the art, and well suited my needs. While it does still work, it has no place in a contemporary office. It takes over forty-five minutes from power up to being in a position to do anything vaguely functional.

ASUS R1F tablet

Why would I mention that? Well, some three or four years earlier, Apple launched the 17inch iMac G4, the 'iLamp', which in my mind is probably the most beautiful computer ever designed. I recently bought a 2003 G4 for about £100. It sits in my bedroom, linked in to the main Apple Harvest network. Within a minute of pushing the power button, the machine is ready and waiting.

Good as new - G4 17inch iMac

I bought my G4 through a Mac specialist on eBay with a good reputation but even when you go through these channel you need to be diligent. The machine arrived a couple of days after putting the order through but on getting it out of the box and starting to set it up, I realised there was something wrong. Although specified as having both Airport and Bluetooth adaptors fitted, a quick check of  About This Mac showed neither were in place.

I contacted the seller, and very soon received a reply, excuse and apology, with instructions on how to return the machine. The next day a courier arrived an took the box away, and about a week later (this all happened over a bank holiday weekend) the replacement came. Everything appeared to be OK regarding connectivity but there was now a problem with the CD/DVD burner - it looked like there was one fitted but I couldn't get it to accept a DVD.

I didn't want the hassle of sending the whole kit and caboodle back to the dealer for a second time so I ordered a replacement DVD drive and downloaded the replacement instructions from iFixit. On receipt of the new drive I began the task of installing it. In fact there was a DVD burner installed - but the cable hadn't been connected (or it had come loose). I attached the connector and put the machine back together, booted up and nothing happened. Nada, zilch - cold sweat and that feeling of panic began to set in, until I realised I hadn't flicked the mains switch. Yes, it happens to even experienced computer users from time to time!!!!

I confess, the G4 is an extravagance. It isn't permanently switched on, unlike most of the other Macs at Apple Harvest HQ, and it's really only getting used to surf the internet and run iTunes. But heck, you'd struggle to get a tablet for that sort of price, never mind a fully functional piece of engineering history and a magnificent art deco item to boot!

Managing Your Menu Bar

More and more OS X applications are using the menu bar to enable access to their settings or specific features. Even on the shiny new 27" iMac at the Apple Harvest this was becoming a real problem, but on the 13" MacBook Air things were far worse. I hate to think what it would like to use an 11" MBA! There have been a few utilities to help overcome the problem - I've been using AccessMenuBarApps for a couple of years with some success, but now there's a new kid on the block which is spot on for the job.

Bartender really solves the problem of an overcrowded menu bar using such a simple set of concepts that it's a wonder that no-one thought of doing it before. It's a beautifully executed app  and it doesn't take a lot of looking after once you have set up the initial configuration. Most importantly it allows you to take control and ownership of what goes into your menu bar (and where) rather than the apps themselves (and their developers).

Bartender in action (from developer's website)

Basically, Bartender allows you to set up a secondary menu bar which sits hidden underneath the system menu bar (or can float around wherever you wish), and allows you to decide which icons sit in the main menu or which can be delegated to the secondary bar. Icons can be hidden if they aren't used very often, and reordered any which way you want. Rather than trying to describe all the features here I suggest you download the trial version from the website and have a play. I seriously doubt that you will go for the full 4 week trial period before you commit to buying it. And when you do decide to shell out, it'll be one of the best £10.17 ($15) you'll have invested in your Mac - especially if you're a laptop owner! Astonishingly some people are whinging about the price for such a "simple" app. Seriously, if it was that simple someone would have written it a long time ago!

If you don't believe me or the developers, just take a look at some of the reviews recently published in Macworld, MacLife and Cult of Mac. If you'd prefer a video, here's one on YouTube. For reference, Bartender is no longer in beta but is fully functional and currently on V1.0.6

Rotting Fruit at the Apple Harvest

The second disaster of the year occurred last week at the Apple Harvest farm. At the beginning of the summer (for those of you in the UK who have forgotten, summer is the season when the weather is supposed to improve) I had to replace the display on my MacBook Pro which cost me about £500. I had hoped that it may have been a loose connection due to wear and tear from being hauled around the world, but it was not to be.

Then, last week, the internal hard drive on my iMac failed. Initially the machine just hung so I was forced to switch off and restart. Unfortunately the machine never rebooted. I linked up the MacBook Pro using a Firewire connection and ran Disk Warrior which appeared to do the trick. About three hours later exactly the same thing happened, only this time even Disk Warrior gave up.

While it was still possible to access the hard drive, and there appeared to be no loss of data, trying to use the disk as a start-up drive was no longer possible. Being a forth generation iMac (April 2008) it is of course not only out of warranty, but not trivial to upgrade.

I've looked into the cost of repairs and it looks like it's going to cost between £150 to £200, and probably means a week without the machine. Neither of these is a particularly attractive option at present.

However, given the cost of external hard drives at present I decided to purchase a 750Gb Seagate FreeAgent Pro desktop drive with the Firewire 400 interface. I already use a 500Gb Seagate FreeAgent drive as my Time Machine disk, so I'm familiar with the make. I made the purchase through Amazon and the cost was under £60 including next day delivery using Amazon Prime.

Setting up the new drive was a breeze, restoring the Time Machine backup from the old disk (about 250Gb) was fairly quick, and despite a couple of glitches I have a fully functional system again. I don't really notice any difference in the restart time as it isn't something I do very often - I tend to put the iMac to sleep at night.

The glitches are that the Hyperspaces programme that I use to help manage Spaces crashes out when I try to set the preferences, and when I attempt to share the iMac screen from my laptop it goes into an infinite loop, which is an interesting effect but not much use to man nor beast. Finally, the iMac wouldn't play with my Belkin Wireless USB hub anymore, but that was easily solved by removing the hub from the network as it now surplus to requirements. I'll live with these problems until Snow Leopard arrives later today and see what effect that has.

Next time I'll post my experiences with Snow Leopard installation and my first impressions of using it, both on the iMac and MacBook Pro. I'll hang on before trying it on the Hackintosh ! Two hardware failures in a year are quite enough thank you!