Christmas Letter Goes Here

Hi, everyone! Here is where our little Christmas update is going to go once we write it. Rest assured, it won't be filled with news of our incredibly brilliantly accomplished children or photos of our immaculately clean home or cute stories of our world travels. But perhaps you'll feel caught up and mildly entertained anyway! Here's hoping ;)

Oh, and if you have a few minutes while you're waiting for the good stuff, consider backing up your computer. See recent posts below for some how-tos and whys...

(Just FYI, this is Fedora, who rarely contributes content--if you're not feeling sufficiently amused, apologies, and please check back, when our real update is posted by our actual blogger.)

iMac Repair Post #2 -- the Backup Regimen

We're taking a brief break from the chronicle of how our iMac got its new hard drive to describe our backup regimen. Here's what I want my backup strategy to accomplish:

• Survive the failure of any single hard drive.
• Be able to restore all our documents, especially media files (music, photos, videos).
• I'm not interested in restoring my system files, as I prefer to re-install the operating system over restoring a whole system backup. This recovery takes more time but results in (even on a Mac, and especially true on a Windows machine) leaner, speedier, and more stable machine.

The Main Ingredients
The two main ingredients to our backup strategy are Mac OS X's built-in Time Machine feature and a HP MediaSmart EX 485. But alas, as simple as Time Machine is, backup is a little more complicated than just hooking the two up and turning Time Machine on -- mostly because we also have to take into consideration how our media applications (primarily iTunes, iPhoto, but include a host of other less commonly used applications for accessing our music, photos and video) need to use the files.

For all our documents except for our media files -- music, photos, and videos -- it is actually just plug and play. The HP MediaSmart comes with software that makes it look like a Time Machine disk. To set this up:

• Plug the iMac and the MediaSmart into the same switch (in our case, a Linksys WRT54G)
• Install the HP MediaSmart software on the Mac
• Login to the HP MediaSmart Server Control Panel using the MediaSmart's admin username/password (same credentials you use to manage the server itself)
  
• Decide how much space you want to set aside for Time Machine backup (we're using 500GB).

Once you've down this, fire up Time Machine and select the 500GB disk named "Backup to HP MediaSmart Server" as your Time Machine backup disk.

Note: I've heard plenty of horror stories from folks trying to use generic SMB volumes for Time Machine backups. Do so at your own peril, and read up on best practices before you go down that treacherous path.

In the Time Machine Options... window, I've chosen a few directories not to backup:

• The Backup to HP MediaSmart Server disk itself
• The external hard drive containing my virtual machines and photos -- more on this later
• System Files and Applications

Time Machine then goes to work, automatically and continuously backing up all our documents, applications, application settings, and local mail directories.

For our media files, here's what we do:

Music files live on the HP MediaSmart server, managed by iTunes.

• I let iTunes manage the contents of the directory, so there's a folder called iTunes inside the Music directory, and iTunes is mostly ok with pointing to that directory -- provided you make that volume available automatically when you login. Use System Preferences | Accounts to make that happen.
• I let the HP MediaSmart automatically backup the contents of the Music folder to multiple hard drives automatically.
• Finally, I sync the entire contents of my Music library to my 80GB hard-drive based iPod once in a while.
• This means our music library lives on at least 3 hard drives: two inside the HP MediaSmart server, and one in the iPod.
• Since the audio files live on the HP MediaSmart server, most any client can access the music -- our Tivo, other PCs and Macs (via iTunes or Windows Media Player), my iPhone (via HP's iPhone app), and authorized folks on the Web (via HP's Flash-based streaming app).

Photos and videos live on an external hard drive, managed mostly by iPhoto, and which I manually sync to the HP MediaSmart

• I have a Photos directory on an external Firewire 800 hard drive.
• The iPhoto library lives on this external drive.
• We currently have >250GB of photos and videos.
• We use an external drive for performance reasons. iTunes is ok with files living on a slow-to-access network drive, but I doubt iPhoto and iMovie would be ok.
• After loading new photos with iPhoto, I sync the files to my HP MediaSmart from the Terminal:

rsync -avnr --progress /Volumes/MyExternalDisk/Photos/iPhoto\ Library/ /Volumes/Photos/iPhoto\ Library/

• In the above -- MyExternalDisk is the name of my external drive; Photos is the name of the folder the HP MediaSmart exports to the iMac.
• As with Music files, I let the HP MediaSmart duplicate all photos in this directory to multiple internal hard drives.
• So our photos are also on 3 hard drives: the external drive connected to the iMac and 2 drives inside the HP MediaSmart server.
• In addition to this backup, I usually upload photos to Smugmug, where we have an unlimited account which lets us upload anything we want. But we didn't start using Smugmug until about 2.5 years ago, so the archive there is incomplete.

I'm told the new HP MediaSmart servers will do a better job of automatically scooping up media files, even when they live on a Mac. Hopefully folks like me who own the EX485 will get that improved media syncing next year.

Next up: because we don't backup our system files, restoring the OS and applications requires a bit of manual work which I'll describe in the next post. Is it worth the manual tweaking? I think so.

Even on a Mac, systems accumulate crud over time, and a fresh install gets your system back to its factory-fresh -- read: speedy -- state. A factory fresh install of Snow Leopard feels snappier than one that started as 10.4.x and eventually made its way to 10.6.x. This is of course even more true for Windows machines, which I'll routinely rebuild every 6-12 months as a matter of system maintenance completely independent of backup needs. We'll see if Windows 7 makes this unnecessary, but, as one of the new Mac ads point out, this seems unlikely:

iMac repair post #1

As promised, here is my first in a series of posts about our experience getting our beloved iMac fixed. We got our iMac in April 2008 off Craigslist from someone who was planning to get a Macbook instead. She originally bought it in the fall of 2007 and had bought an AppleCare extended warranty on it. Boy, am I glad she did -- and that the warranty was transferrable. (The seller was a paralegal and had carefully highlighted the clause authorizing transfers in the warranty agreement -- nice!)

After transferring the warranty online, I promptly forgot all about it. Until, of course, when the hard drive started acting funny last Friday. Since the original warranty had expired, I was sure glad we had gotten AppleCare. We don't usually buy extended warranties on our consumer electronics or computer parts, but this purchase turned out to be a good gamble.  (At the store while picking up my machine a few days later, I asked how much it would have cost to just pay out of pocket for the repair. The reply: $85 to troubleshoot, plus around $300 for the 320GB drive. Ouch!)

Sometimes we would see that question mark at boot time. Once or twice, I got the machine to boot, but it will take 10 minutes. "What is this," I thought, "a Windows machine?"  :-)

Next stop: Google. 

• I tried rebooting while holding down various keys down to reset the Mac's PRAM and NVRAM. No dice. 
• I tried booting from the Mac OS X installation disc which came with the machine to run Disk Utility, which "saw" the drive. I tried tried running Disk First Aid, which took about 15 minutes and failed halfway through its session. Uh-oh.
• The next time I booted from the OS X installation disc, Disk Utility didn't even "see" the drive. Double uh-oh.

Next station: AppleCare tech support. I called in Saturday morning.

The technician had me basically repeat the above. When that didn't work, he tried to have me boot from a utility CD-ROM which came with the AppleCare Protection Plan. It had TechTool Deluxe on it, a diagnostic utility, but it wouldn't boot for some reason. During one of our reboot-while-holding-down-the-option-key sessions, the Startup Manager launched and "saw" the drive.  So we selected it and the iMac got through about 1/3 of its boot sequence in 5 minutes.

At that point, we gave up, and the tech support rep made an appointment for me to take it down to my local Apple Store later that afternoon. It's nice that he was able to do this so I didn't have to.

Overall, the session lasted a little under an hour and would have been way better if (1) the phone connection had less delay (call center in India?) and (2) the technician  had listened more instead of just walking through his troubleshooting checklist without listening to what I had already done. Overall, I'd give them a B for the overall phone tech support experience.

  

Next post: the Apple Store repair experience.

Our iMac is back, as good as new

You do not want to see this icon when you boot your Mac. It means your Mac can't boot off its internal hard drive.

The best case is that the disk's volume data (essentially, your hard drive's table of contents) has somehow gotten corrupted or the Mac has forgotten which disk to boot, both of which can be fixed with special reboots or Disk Utility from your Mac startup CD or DVD.

The worst case (as it was for us) means that your hard drive is dead and needs to be replaced.

In my role as "tech support for my friends and family", I've gotten a bunch of questions about what happened and what my backup regimen is. So over the next few posts, I'll describe what happened, what I did to restore our data, my experiences with Apple tech support, and what we do to backup data.

Here's the Reader's Digest version:

• After a call with Apple tech support where we tried various reboots and software-based repairs, I took the iMac down to the local Apple Store and they replaced the drive with a brand new one.
• We had a Time Machine backup on the HP MediaSmart server, so we didn't lose any data.
• After restoring from Time Machine (my first successful computer restore experience ever, I think) and a few application re-installs (most Mac apps don't need this, but I'll name names for the few which do), we're back in action. Hurrah!

Details coming soon, but if you have not backed up, please please please do so. This is 100x true for the drive with your completely irreplaceable videos and pictures. These days, even Quicken data doesn't seem that sacred to me -- but our pictures and videos absolutely are. (Thankfully, our photos were on an external drive which is itself backed up to two separate drives in the MediaSmart server, so they weren't on the drive that failed.)

Our family does not have a physical disaster emergency prepardness plan (yes, I know -- it's on the list with getting our trust notarized), but we do have a data disaster plan. You should too, if any of your data is important to you.

Snow Leopard

So I've upgraded to Snow Leopard on two machine (my latest generation work Macbook Pro and my home, slightly older iMac). The upgrade process itself was very smooth: the installer does all the work, reboots the machine a few times, and freed about 20 gigs of space on my boot disk. Can't remember ever seeing that any software upgrade.

Only a few things changed, none of them dramatic but all of them useful in their own way. It boots, sleeps, and resumes even faster than before. Day-to-day use feels marginally speedier -- mostly because it the Finder and Safari are both faster. I have not encountered any apps that won't launch or devices that don't work. I was a little worried about the scanner in my Canon Pixma MP500 because the Apple site reported it did not ship with Canon scanner drivers baked into Leopard, but the Canon software worked just fine.

On the flip side:

• iPhoto 08 won't play videos anymore. This one makes me mad, because Apple should have caught this trivial-to-fix bug in their own product family.
• Symptom: If you find the files in the iPhoto library from the Finder, they'll fire up just fine. But if you double click on videos in iPhoto, nothing happens.
• I'm surprised they didn't fix this in 10.6.1. I hope they fix this in the next week or two. Handling photos and videos is one of the reasons I switched to a Mac in the first place.
• My Logitech mouse's special buttons don't work. The Logitech forums speculate that an updated version of Logitech Control Center is coming soon.
• Suggested workarounds seemed to work for me the first few days but have since quit working (the Control Center stopped recognizing my MX700 mouse).

Other than that, I'm pleased overall. It does seem a little lame that Apple is charging as if this was an upgrade rather than a dot release. But I guess by comparison, it seems like way smaller a rip off than what Microsoft is charging for Vista Service Pack 2, er, Windows 7.

Also, not looking to the complete re-install Microsoft is going to force me to do to upgrade from my Windows 7 Release Candidate.

Update on 9/15/09: For some reason, the Logitech workarounds worked the 2nd or 3rd time around. I ran the installer from inside the Logitech Control Center 3.0 package, rebooted, and it recognized my MX700 mouse. Then copying Expose from the /Applications/Utilities folder to /Applications got the Expose mouse button shortcut working. OK, Apple, it's all you now: get your own products to work with your own operating system, please.

1 week, 3 round trip rides, 72 miles by bike

So I survived my 2nd full week of commuting. This week was somewhat warmer (low to mid 80s) but nothing really to complain about (aside from the bother of slathering on sunscreen sometimes before both the inbound and the outbound trip).

My legs are complaining but not as much as last week. I'm generally taking the Canada route to work and the Alameda route home. Alameda is shorter (11.5 miles versus 12.8 miles), not as hilly, but has much more street traffic -- making certain streets a little scary to ride on.

Here is a typical ride, complete with route map and elevation change. Gotta love the free iPhone app (available from MapMyRide.com) which tracks the rides (though I'm told there are better paid versions, which I'll investigate later).

Interesting things I've seen on my commute, partly because I'm now on a bike and partly because I'm just seeing more since it's a much longer ride:

• A zebra crossing painted on Canada that has horseshoe symbols in it
  
• Quite a lot of, um, evidence of horses along Canada, but no actual horses on the road -- though I have seen a half dozen horses in corrals along the side of the road
  
• Two Tesla Roadsters, my electric motor-powered brethren (alas, still have not convinced any of my wealthy coworkers to buy one)
• Two small vineyards (one on Canada and one on Alameda)
• A sign offering tractor-related services
  

On the way home, I find myself wishing I lived 2-3 miles closer to work. But the workout is good, and I must say it's a complete different "feel" arriving at my destination on either end. I'm much more alert and I feel like I've achieved something just by getting where I'm going.

One last thought in reflecting on Week 2: there is a sense (read the biking boards, for instance) that the electric motor is "cheating". While I understand why True Bikers believe that. If the bicycle is meant to augment human power, then adding electric power certainly spoils the purity of muscle + mechanical advantage = motion.

But I'm not in it for the Purity of Biking or glory or training so I can race. I'm in it primarily for the exercise (and the long-term health benefits thereof) and the sense of accomplishment. So I feel like my electronic steed helps me decide to bike more often than not. So the bike doesn't feel like cheating to me: it feels like the enzyme which lowers the activation energy so that the reaction can actually complete.

Besides, my flavor of electric bike doesn't have a throttle that just hauls me along: it's still quite a bit of work, as I'm guessing somewhere between a quarter and half of the power the system generates is consumed hauling itself around. After all, a good road bike weighs 15 pounds, and my bike weighs over 60 so something's got to move the 45 extra pounds.

As Insik suggests, I'll have to try the hills on a road bike a few weeks down the line. Stay tuned for the experiment, maybe in October.

My new ride

As promised, here are a few facts & thoughts about my new ride, the Giant Twist Freedom DX.

First, the facts:

• Giant calls it a hybrid bike, presumably to liken it to the hybrid cars like the Prius. Though for the rest of the industry, a hybrid bike is a cross between a road bike (think Tour de France racing style) and a mountain bike, so this is a little confusing.
  
• Like the Prius, the bike turns battery power into torque to help propel the bike and rider forward. In theory, the harder you pedal, the more assistance you get.
  
• Unlike the Prius, the batteries do not regenerate while coasting downhill.
• The bike has an electric motor integrated into the front wheel.
• There are four settings: Off, Eco, Normal, and Sport.
• Sport mode assists the most and Eco the least.
• When the assist system is Off, you get to feel what it's like to pedal a 62-pound monster of a bike. I assure you this is no fun, and I only have the system off when I'm rolling downhill.
• Unlike some motor systems like the BioX (my brother just got a bike with one of those), there is no electric throttle -- so you can ride it like a moped. No peddling = no go.
  
• You switch manually between the two batteries.
• Giant estimates the range thusly; these numbers seem a touch optimistic to me. Either that, or I'm a lot fatter than their test rider. In practical terms, a single battery lasts me about 30 miles, or call it a commute and a half on a route like this one with a few hills.

Now some thoughts after a couple training rides and 3 round-trip commutes:

• Overall, I quite like my trusty new steed. It will help me get in shape, and having the electric assist available will get me onto the bike more often than not.
• Without it, I probably would not have started commuting by bike. 
• I'm proud of the distance I've biked and look forward to some pounds coming off.
• Never before has arriving at work or at home seemed like such an achievement!  :-)
• The bike is a beast. Something about the size of the frame makes it seem very large. The good thing about this is it feels more stable on the road. But it is a 60+ pound monster, no two ways about it.
  
• How's it feel? The best way to describe how the bike feels is to say that it "flattens out" the terrain. Mild uphills feel like flat terrain; steep uphills feel like moderate uphills.
• I still have to work hard to get up 5% grades like Ralston Avenue -- but the electric assist makes it do-able for me without having to hop off and walk, or take a break.
• Riding position. The bike's geometry puts you in a very upright riding position, which takes pressure off your wrists and back since you're not hunched over.
• OTOH, sitting up straight with a loose T-shirt on basically turns your body and T-shirt into a sail. When the wind is blowing against you, this is not good. :-)
• This posture also makes it harder to get the right kind of leverage when peddling up big hills -- it's hard to come off the saddle and put your whole body into the effort.
  
• In general, I like this riding posture because it's relaxed and doesn't make my arms numb after a long ride. This is why I didn't get the very cool folding Swiss Bike with the BioX conversion kit like my brother -- the Swiss Bike's geometry has you bent over more, and I wanted a mostly comfortable posture for the commute.
• Sidebar: if you do want a Swiss Bike + BioX combo, visit the great folks at Velolectric Bikes in San Carlos. Very friendly and knowledgeable.
  
• I'm glad I got the 2-battery version. Giant makes a cheaper and lighter 1-battery version, but I've had a battery run out of juice on half of my rides, and being able to flip to the fully charged backup battery is a huge relief. The thought of biking up the 92 pedestrian path on my 60+ pound monster with no electric assistance brings tears to my eyes. :-)
• The saddle bags are useful but you need to pack carefully. The built-in saddle bags are really designed to protect the battery packs. But you can get a change of clothes and your lunch into them if you pack carefully. I've been wearing a backpack to carry stuff that won't fit (like my laptop), but am investigating ways to mount something on top of the racks to get the weight off my back and prevent the sweaty back phenomenon.
  

OK, more later. Leave questions in the comments if you have them.

New job -- and a new ride

So I started a brand new job today (very exciting) -- and even managed bike to and from the office (very sore but personally gratifying).

Some factoids about my new job and my new ride:

• Brand new job: Andreessen Horowitz Fund
• Brand new office: 2875 Sand Hill Road
• As psi points out, it may be outright illegal for a venture capitalist not to occupy a Sand Hill address.  :-)
  
• Total commute length: between 12-13 miles (Google Maps guesstimate until I get a bike computer)
• Furthest I've ever gone on a bike in 1 day: true
• Total commute time: about an hour each way
• Commute route: Home > Canada Road > Whiskey Hill > Sand Hill Road
• Commute vehicle: Giant Twist Freedom DX electric bike (more on this in a later post)
• Weather: just about perfect: cloudy and low 70s on the way in, sunny and mid-70s on the way back
• Number of bikers I passed: 2
• Number of bikers who passed me on their non-electric road bikes: 5
• To the bikers who politely passed me: keep riding -- you are inspirational!
• Must get my RPMs up   :-)
  
• Number of joggers who passed me: 0, thankfully
• Muscles that are most sore: thighs, calves, butt, and my right arm (from dragging my beast of a bike up the stairs at work)
• Calories burned: 1,354 says this calculator
• Primary motivation: get in shape
• Other motivations: see cool sights, reduce carbon footprint (though given my trusty Prius gets nearly 55 mpg on the trip to/from work, this is pretty marginal)
  

Speaking of cool sights, here are some I saw today:

• A black limo following an older Indian gentleman on his bike (a foreign dignitary? a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a backup crew?)
• A house right on the banks of the Crystal Spring reservoir -- wonder who lives there?
• The Pulgas Water Temple
• Various entrances to Filoli
• A horse park
  

Strangely, they're closing Canada Road this Thurs, Fri and Monday, so I'm going to try and bike in Tuesday and Wednesday. Stay tuned for more on the bike commute saga. And on the new job.

Ciao for now, must go nurse my legs. :-)