iCloud vs iTunes App Store Part 2: What families should know

iTunes Store, App Store, and Mac App Store accounts should be setup on a different email address and should be shared by the family. I believe this isn't exactly allowed by the Apple User Agreement but I know it works and would almost be impossible to enforce. If you don't share this account with the family, you run the risk of purchasing the same Apps multiple times. In order to purchase a song or app one time, you need to share this account. 

A family can share the iTunes account

Of course there are times when this is not advisable. One day your children are going to grow up and leave the nest. They may should have their own iTunes account instead of sharing the family account. Remember, it should not be the same ID (email) as any iCloud account. Never break that rule. 

If your marriage is on the rocks, maybe it would be a good idea to separate out the iTunes account. I can see the iTunes Library going to one spouse in future divorces as more and more money gets tied into the Apple Eco System. 

There is currently a ten iOS device limit for an iTunes account. If you have more than 10 iOS devices tied to one account, which sounds crazy but a family of four could easily exceed, it may be good to divide the family up into two accounts. These decisions will have to be made by you. For the most part, one iTunes account per family should work just fine.

There is a five Mac limit for your iTunes account that gets tossed in here as well. You can authorize up to five Macs (Mac Book Air, iMac, etc.) to play your iTunes content and no more. If you plan on selling one of your Macs, you must go into iTunes and "De-authorize" that computer before wiping the hard drive and selling the computer. You may forget to do this or your hard drive may crash leaving you without a way to "de-authorize" the account. in that case, you get a one time per year magic Mac eraser. You have to "de-authorize" all of your Macs at once, not device specific like the iOS devices, and then "re-authroize" the Macs you want.

Confused yet? It gets worse. There is iTunes Match to deal with and AppleTV's. I *think* there is a five Apple TV limit to your iTunes account but there is some people that swear it works against your iOS limit. I just don't know because if you add all my iOS devices in combination with Apple TVs, I don't come close to ten. So beware.

It's gets even worse. If you decide to associate an iOS device to an iTunes account and then decide that was a bad idea and try to associate that iOS device with another iTunes account, you will have a 90 day wait period to complete before you can authorize that iOS device on the new iTunes account. Aggravating to say the least.

It is a confusing mess that is hard to keep up with but if you follow the rule that everyone has their own iCloud account and everyone shares an iTunes account on a different email/identity then you should avoid most problems. Have fun!

iCloud vs iTunes App Store: what families should know

The time has come when more than one person in a household has an iOS device. A couple of iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macs, etc. What do you need to know about iCloud, iTunes Store, App Store, and Mac App Store? A lot unless you are made of money and love chaos.

Each person should have their own iCloud account

I make no guarantees regarding the legality of what you are about to read. In fact, some of this may go against past, present, or future Apple User Agreements. I am not aware of any problems arising from these setups but it is better to state this up front.

It is more complicated than you may at first think when it comes to setting up accounts with Apple for all the different services and stores. I am going to help you understand what you are doing before you do it so you don't cuss yourself years later for not doing things differently.

Lets get Eric's rule of iCloud memorized. Every person needs their very own iCloud account. There are no exceptions to my rule. A husband and wife should NOT share an iCloud account. A single person, teenager, whatever, must have their own iCloud account. iCloud controls a lot of person and device specific details that should not be shared between people. Email, documents and data, Keychain, Find my iPhone, Photo Stream, Photo Stream, and Photo Stream.

If you snap a photo it goes directly to your photostream unless you have this option turned off. Most people have Mac's that import the Photostream photographs to their iPhote library in order to backup their iOS device photographs. In this day and age, it is best to keep your photogaphs seperated from your parents, spouse, or children. It just gets messy and you are exposed to double the information and it will cause you to go crazy. Of course, for those celebrities taht love to take photographs of themselves in the bathroom mirror in less than appropriate clothing, this should not come as a surprise that you need your very own iCloud account.

Next blog, setting up iTunes Store, App Store, and Mac App Store accounts.

1Password: Secure Your Digital World

1Password @1Password is the most trusted name in Password Storage Programs and for good reason. Their software suite is unrivaled in the category. It enables users, people like you and me, to never remember hundreds of passwords. It allows you to remember only one password, which is the key to as many passwords as you can stand. Sound exciting? It gets even better. These people are walking Einsteins in the cryptographic world. You should read their blog if you are the least bit interested in how secure your data is.

1Password Lock Screen

One way to get your data into 1Password is to manually enter in the user names, passwords, web site addresses, etc. The alternative way is to just visit the web sites as you normally would and 1Password will collect your login data for you automatically. Going forward, you make just two clicks of the mouse, and it will take you to the site and log you in with ease.

Passwords can be custom or randomly generated up to 50 characters in length. You now can have a different password for every web site you visit. Amazon.com gets hacked? No problem. Log in and change your password and know you are safe. 

I have been using this program on my Mac, iPad and iPhone and have enjoyed its features. The 1Browser on iOS is a great experience and not awkward like I expected. It has managed to replace Paypal and Amazon's apps on my iOS devices because with 1Browser, I get the normal web viewing experience with automatic login.

It doesn't stop at login information. It will store just about anything including credit card information, passports, identity information, etc. You can get a 30 day free trial, and if you decide to buy there is a 100% money back guarantee. I doubt you need 30 days or your money back after using this program.

Data is sync'd via numerous methods, DropBox being the most popular, across all of your devices if you desire this method. It is compatible with Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, etc.

All you have to do is remember one password, and I believe we can all manage that.

Box Culvert Lifting Pins Best Practice

Precasters perform dangerous life threatening tasks every day. Each day we get a little more comfortable standing near a 56,000 lb. piece of box culvert suspended in the air or standing next to a 17,000 lb. transport bucket holding freshly mixed concrete ready to empty into a form you are standing next to. Why is it that we take lifting so lightly? You have your material certifications and safe working loads (SWL) for your lifting anchors. The SWL far exceeds your products weight and there is an additional 4:1 built-in safety factor.

Read more here: http://www.ericbarger.me/technical-writing/technical/box-culvert-lift-pin.html

Editing Firework Photographs

Let's discuss how to edit photographs of fireworks when there is smoke shown due to the light from the fireworks. The smoke may keep you from realizing you took a great photograph. I am using the latest version (3.4.5) of Apple Aperture, my choice for photograph editing and cataloging. Let's get started.

Kingston, TN - July 13, 2013

The first photo is the untouched raw. The smoke from the fireworks doesn't look too bad in this photo but you can definitely see it and it detracts from the photo.

Focal Length - 40mm
Exposure - 5 seconds
ISO - 100
f/13

Untouched RAW photo straight out of the camera

When dealing with RAW photographs, I have a routine I run on every photograph. It is just my bare minimum editing technique. For this photo, I used the "Auto Enhance" button and white balanced - a quick routine, as I don't like to touch my photos very much. You can now really see the smoke stand out in the photo.

After auto enhance

To remove the smoke, I then clicked on the "Black Point" button in the curves section. It is the dropper on the left. Notice the Loupe view and where I clicked on the smoke. This will kill the reddish smoke. I will lose some detail, but that is the sacrifice I have to make.

Using curves to "erase" the firework smoke

The final result with the only other modification being a 5x7 (landscape) crop.

Photograghy friends: Glide Strap by Custom SLR

Cameras are heavy and they get heavier the longer you carry them. I recently picked up the Glide Strap with Silver C-Loop by Custom SLR. After several days of use, I can honestly say I love how this strap does not strain my neck and shoulders! 

Glide strap and c-loop shown above

I personally have always carried my camera in this fashion but the factory strap was not long enough and definitely did not allow my camera and lens to glide effortlessly up to my eye. I suggest you check out the Glide Strap with C-Loop if you suffer from neck and shoulder strain after a photo shoot. It will make all the difference. 

The combo is priced at $64.95 + S&H and that doesn't make it a bargain, but it is worth every penny.

Mac Mini as Your Office Computer

Most of us have a computer at our desk that does not resemble the huge clunky boxes of 2004. Since the Mac Mini came out, I have had one somewhere in my office or on my desk. I slowly started adding minis in my production facility where the weather environment was harsh. The minis are essentially outside under a roof throughout the year. Somewhere along the way I started adding iMacs in the office and after my first mini, I have had an iMac on my desk, at least until the Fusion Drive appeared in Apple's lineup.

My Mac Mini on my desk at work

It was then that a new computer was needed, and I wanted to try out a new mini with Fusion drive. I would need an Apple Thunderbolt monitor, which I picked up with my mini. Going forward my future costs of computing just dropped because I won't be replacing the monitor anytime soon. I have been running on this mini for several months, and it feels faster than the 27" iMac I used previously. It does everything I need, and I thorughly enjoy knowing that if something catastrophic happened with it, I am only out a third of what a new iMac would cost.

I run everything from Microsoft Excel, VMWare Fusion for my virtual machine (which I now rarely use, if ever), AutoCad LT for Mac, and Pixelmator with absolutely no problems whatsoever. It has run everything I have thrown at it marvelously including some iMovie projects which I thought for sure would slow it down. The inclusion of the Fusion Drive that is part SSD (Solid State Drive) and part conventional hard drive is the best of fast performance with big storage. 

When you get right down to it, small business owners/managers/office people who love new technology and use new technology don't need the lastest and greatest. We just need something that will last us and perform day in and day out without problems. 

My advice would be to get a Thunderbolt monitor from Apple and pick up a Mac Mini. You won't be disappointed with the life you will get out of this little workhorse. You see more cables compared to an iMac, which is the only benefit an iMac has over the mini, in my opinion. I cannot stand clutter, and the iMac is absolutely the epitome of clutter free; however, the mini is a solid second place.

Analysis of Inflow and Infiltration from Unsealed Septic Tank Access Ports

Watertight tanks are generally overlooked as a solution to inflow and infiltration (I&I) problems in municipal and decentralized wastewater systems. The use of watertight tanks can dramatically reduce treatment costs, reduce overflow events and help contain the ever-increasing problem of inflow and infiltration. Ideally, the amount of treated sewage effluent should be less than the amount of total purchased water. Activities such as watering the lawn, washing the car and consuming water all account for effluent wastewater being less than purchased water. If the opposite is true, then the sewage collection system is experiencing infiltration.

Continue reading...

Mac Mini Wiki Server for Small Business

The Mac Mini makes a great sales tool for small businesses when combined with OS X Server. I just said OS X Server. I am sure this can be done without the Server edition but it makes it so easy and OS X server is inexpensive to purchase. 

Mountain Lion Server Wiki Setup Screen

Enabling the Wiki server, which is very easy to do, allows your sales staff to place various information at their fingertips from their iPad or iPhone, on the go, or in the office. Having access to your work in some capacity outside of a Google Spreadsheet is a must have in todays business environment. 

When Apple touts OS X Mountain Lion Server as the server for everyone, I wouldn't quite agree with this statement. There are some services I would like to run that I can't get going for various reasons. One example comes to mind, Virtual Private Network (VPN). I want to setup a VPN in Mountain Lion Server for me to use while on vacation (I have to make the NSA earn their money) so bad I can taste it. I have not had any luck getting the service working as of today. But this is talk for another day.

Wiki Server
The Wiki service allows myself to pull up customer information before I walk in their office. Want to remember everyone's name, check on the status of any current jobs, or update the entry with new and relevant information once you have left the office? You need a Wiki! It's a handy tool for small businesses that can't afford expensive CRM software and don't want to use a spreadsheet or document to track this information.

Wiki Setup
Once the server is setup, which was not much more than a few clicks of the mouse, you are ready to start Wiki creation and editing. It did help to have an Apple Airport Extreme as my router as OS X Server configured the service with the router without my intervention. Setup requires you to define users, add those users to "groups" if you wish to have Wiki's viewable by some and not others in your organization, and then create the Wiki's.



One cryptic screen shot below that shows one of our many Wiki's. You can't tell much by them because I blurred out the entries, even small businesses need secrets, but you understand the value. Accessing this information from an iPad is super easy and very valuable.

Internal Corporate Wiki Screen Shot

Monetize Your Web Site: Make Money with Google Adsense

I have been using Google Adsense on a few of my personal web sites for a very long time. It is safe to say at least seven years off the top of my head. You can see how I have implemented Google Ads on one of my web sites at www.InstallUniversity.com.

I have optimized the site and now feel I have a strong working formula for what works for my site. I use the banner ads and normally just use text only ads. I never had much luck with fancier ads. You most definitely want to try and get your first ad placement above the fold. The fold is shorthand for anything you see before you have to scroll down the page. 

I have a modest amount of web traffic that helps me pay for the site and a little more to pay for my other sites that do not have the following www.InstallUniversity.com has.

Independence Day is upon us, so take this long weekend to get your web site earning money. 

• Set up a Google Adsense account
• Insert Google ads in your site
• Create content on no less than a weekly basis, daily if you are just starting out.
• Once you have a lot of content, find a forum on the web and participate. You will be surprised by how much web traffic you will generate from an online forum. That is how Install University got started.

It really is that simple. The biggest issue is getting people to your site. It will always depend on fresh and new content. You will have to write a lot of articles that people want to read. I recommend you get your content up and running and then find a forum to subtely promote the work you have done. Staying active in the forum(s) will be the key to your early success in most cases.

Real earnings from a real adsense account

Final Concrete Density: Don't forget the steel...

Precasters give out heavier weights of products to customers to ensure the customer will be ready to lift whatever comes their way. When it comes to logistics of getting precast products to the job site, a weight closer to reality is used in order to maximize delivery capacity. This creates two different weight classes used by precasters, customer weight and shipping weight.

To further refine the process, precasters should start taking into account the final concrete density that includes steel reinforcement to get an idea of average concrete density. When loading out a truck, maximizing what is on the truck becomes paramount to maximizing profit, reducing environmental impact, and helping to control driver overtime along with many other relevant business aspects.

Find out how to calculate the final concrete density and download a free tool to boot. http://precastworld.com/papers/precast-math/final-concrete-density.php

#5 Rebar on 6" centers each way

Mac Mini as a Time Machine Storage Drive

Time Machine
No one knows better than me that deleting all of your wife's emails, twice no less, can be a very bad thing! Apple should rethink account deletion equating to email deletion. Since I am a very good husband that wants to stay married, I decided to have no less than three backups of my wife's computer. I opted to have two clone backups and one time machine backup. A mini resides in the house that has an external hard drive which takes care of the backup automatically. A clone backup is complete copy of your entire hard drive at one given point in time. I use CarbonCopyCloner for clone backups. SuperDuper! is also an option that I used up until OS X Lion.

Plug in an external hard drive to the remote mini. Initialize the drive if needed. Go to the Mac you want to backup and open time machine in System Preferences. Turn Time Machine on and select the hard drive listed on the mini. Your done. The lure of Time Machine is the ability to roll back versions of files themselves in a no hassle environment. A valuable feature and one that can save your bacon over a clone solution.

The down sides to Time Machine are the limitations, starting with virtual machines. Time Machine will not back up a virtual machine and thus you don't get a real "backup" of your system. Bummer. I have also had bad experiences with Time Machine when the hard drive reaches capacity. Instead of intelligently deleting files that are old, Time Machine breaks down and just stops backing up my system. These issues were more prevalent on Lion and I have not experienced this on Mountain Lion. Hopefully, Mavericks, will continue this streak of "just works."

Mac Mini as a Security Camera Server

Security Cameras

Maybe the second most important task the Mac Mini performs is to administer a portion of our security cameras at our office. We have many cameras and rely on Security Spy by BenSoftware for the muscle behind our hardware. We have two computers that crunch the data. A Mac Pro that acts as the central computer for our entire security camera operation and storage. A mini setup as a processing machine for three camera's that run continuously and only record motion events. Analyzing video is a CPU intense task and utilizing a mini for cameras helps reduce the peak load on the Mac Pro. 

I have been a paid and satisfied user of Security Spy since 2007 and with that experience I am going to give a quick run down of a simple system below. I won't be posting any cool screen shots since it would reveal secure information but you can visit Ben's site to see what Security Spy looks like from the inside out. It is nothing short of amazing.

DIY Video Surveillance

Security and surveillance does not have to be professionally installed, complicated, or expensive.  A  video security system that alerts your phone and sends your email with photographs the instant something changes in your work place can be an easy do-it-yourself project.  You just need the following: camera, computer, network, and software to run the system.

Purchase good network camera’s that are built for surveillance.  Will your camera be inside your plant or office out of the way of mother nature?  If you are going to monitor your office or indoor manufacturing facility, save money and purchase an indoor camera.  If your camera will have a view of the sun at any time or it will be outside, purchase an outdoor camera to keep your imaging chip from being damaged by the sun and to maximize the life of the camera. An outdoor camera enclosure may be necessary for outdoor cameras if rain or snow will reach the camera.

You get what you pay for and a $100 network camera will give you $100 photographs that look like blurry cell phone images/video you see on the evening news.  Spend $200 - $1000 and get great cameras that will deliver high resolution photographs and video quality that you see on your HD television. Axis is the brand that I can recommend for any company looking to buy the best product on a modest budget. Axis camera’s have performed at my company for well over six years with no problems and have two arrests to show for it. Power over ethernet (POE) cameras will need a POE switch. POE cameras do not need to be plugged in to a 115v wall outlet. They get their power from the ethernet cable via the POE switch. These days, this is the standard.

This camera tracks all license plates and concrete products as they leave our facility.

The next item that will be important is a computer.  If you are going to have four or less camera’s running and are only going to record motion, than you should be able to run the system off any computer purchased within the last 12 - 18 months.  If you are going to run six or more camera’s, I recommend you purchase a computer with major CPU power (latest generation Mac Pro would does this job with no problems) and several big hard drives or just pick up another mini to help get the job done. At this point, another mini would probably fit the budget a lot better. The more camera’s you use, the more processing power your computer needs to keep your system running at it’s best. The more you record and the longer the history you keep, the more hard drive space you will need.

A network.  You will need a basic local area network which your company probably already has.  This is how your camera will communicate with your computer and ultimately the internet to alert you of possible activity.  Network’s are easy to setup and if you don’t know how, just grab the first available teenager you find and in 30 minutes or less, you will be ready to go.

A security software program should be chosen for it’s features and ability to perform.  I use Security Spy, previously mentioned, and have been very pleased with the ease of use and feature sets it provides.  A recording schedule can be customized that allows you to only record motion events between certain times (i.e. between 8 pm and 6 am M - F and all day Saturday and Sunday).  You can choose to record a set number of seconds before motion was detected and after the motion stops. Or record continuously taking shots every one second, two or five etc. Continuos recording will reduce your hard drive space rapidly.  

A good security program will send your cell phone a text message alerting you that a motion event is taking place in view of one of your cameras. An email will be sent out with one to many photographs of the camera view recording the motion. You should also be able to log into the system from any computer around the world via your web browser to adjust settings and watch live.

You may want to watch for safety reasons, or training purposes, or maybe you are trying to catch the vandal who is stealing your tools and equipment at night. $1000 can easily get your system setup and running with everything you need including several high quality cameras.

Don’t forget to inform your employee’s of what you are doing. Some states require notifications to be placed in plain site on your employee news board. Check with your state officials to make sure you follow the rules. Good luck!

User Experience with a mini as a security camera server: A+
Price: Varies

User Experience with Security Spy: A+
Transmit Price: Varies but reasonably priced

Recommendation: If you want a camera over your front door to keep an eye on your UPS packages, I can't say enough about this software. If you want instant alerts to your phone of thieves trying to walk off with $100,000 of inventory, I can say it works wonderfully.

Which Office Suite to Use? Depends...

Most people will automatically say you should use Microsoft Office (MS Office). In fact, most people may not even know that free or paid alternatives to MS Office exist. Take a few minutes and get to know the two biggest free alternatives.

OpenOffice, LibreOffice and MS Office
OpenOffice and LibreOffice are both free alternatives to MS Office. Both OpenOffice and LibreOffice have pluses and minuses. OpenOffice converts documents to MS Office much better than LibreOffice. LibreOffice pretty much does everything else better than OpenOffice besides exporting documents to MS Office.

If you deal with spreadsheets on a daily basis, I still recommend and use MS Excel. Excel is unparalleled in this arena. This is the only Microsoft product I still use. 

Two questions to ask if MS Office alternatives are for you.

• Do you collaborate using MS Office documents on a daily basis?
• Do you work in spreadsheets often? 

A yes to either of the above will signals you need to have MS Office. If you get a no to both of those questions you can feel free to use OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or any number of office suites that you choose. 

You can be like me and use Excel for spreadsheets and then choose any number of Word Processors that play well with MS Word files. I have not used MS Word in 7 years and I handle almost all of my word processing efforts using, Nisus Writer Pro or Pages. 

I also use Keynote for presentations, but I don't prepare a lot of presentations these days. I feel that sending out the material a head of time for review is good enough. I just don't believe in presentations at work.

Good luck!

Cutting the Cord: HDTV over Antenna

My house has been a long time satellite subscriber. We were with DirectTV for seven years and left them because the move to High Definition (HD) from Standard Definition (SD) was going to cost our first born and an additional three arms and two legs. During that time we lost our TiVo and had to use a regular DirectTV DVR. I know that sounds really dumb to some but it is the difference between a Blackberry and a iPhone. The TiVo is just so much nicer. 

We then went to Dish Network and got a wake up call when we used their DVR. It was like using a Windows 3.1 interface. It didn't matter though because we had HD like everyone else! Everything was going fine until we decided that paying almost $70 a month for two DVR's was crazy seeing how we just don't watch that much TV. I watch Downton Abbey and Madmen. Sports is a given but sometimes sacrifices must be made.

I had been talking about getting an antenna to pickup the local HD television broadcasts. I had talked enough about it and went to Wal-Mart and picked up three antennas. I got two indoor and one attic antenna. After trying one indoor antenna I threw in the towel because it could not keep a signal for all of three seconds. I then assembled the attic antenna and had my neighbor hold it in the air in the living room by the TV. Bam! Golf never looked so good and I don't watch golf.

I instantly jumped into "man" mode and went to work. My first problem was figuring out how I was going to get a coax cable from the attic to the basement. All of my coax cables are pulled back in a not so organized fashion to one place in the basement. I decided I needed a big drill, some coax, and I would use the coax outlet in the garage wall to get back to the basement. I got in the attic which was 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, took my measurements, and drilled a 3/4" diameter hole. I used a flexible fiberglass rod to run down the wall taking a coax cable with it. I coupled the existing coax in the wall outlet to the new coax I dropped down the wall.

I then located the other end of the coax in the basement with a "tone" tool. After that was done, I coupled the coax with a splitter and sent it to our three TV's. All that was left to do was mount the antenna in the attic. I got back up in the attic and mounted the antenna as high as I could. It ended up being about seven feet above the ceiling. I pointed it in the general direction I thought was correct and tightened everything up.

I got out of the attic and cleaned up. I got in trouble with the wife for crossing the threshold, the space between the laundry room and the rest of the house, while dragging insulation everywhere. After taking a shower, I got right to work on testing everything out.

I could not believe it. Going through a splitter and using no amplifier, I had crystal clear HD images on my TV. I turned all three TVs on thinking that I might need to place a preamp inline before the splitter but it turned out to not be the case. Now we have 14 stations coming into our house for free with the majority of them in HD. 

I used the GE (General Electric) Attic Antenna at Wal-Mart for $40. I would recommend this antenna. I live around 43 miles from the majority of the broadcast towers in Knoxville, Tennessee. This is saying something because East Tennessee is not known for being flat and where I live is no exception. 

A photo of the antenna used

This brings up the next point. What I am going to do for a DVR? Once the wife turns me loose, I would like to go with www.Simple.tv or a TiVO unit. You bring your own HDD and can stream up to five devices in your house including your iPads and iPhone. I am not sure what I will be streaming since I don't watch much TV but it is a fact that pausing or rewinding live TV is a convenient necessity these days. I should note that SimpleTV can not pause live TV, it just records. Also, we dare not run out of Curious George episodes or our little man may go Al Capone on us.

Stay tuned as I will be reporting back my results going forward including inclement weather performance and much more (SimpleTV I hope).

GV Mobile + 3 for iOS

A long awaited release of GV Mobile + version 3 hit the iOS App Store today. For me, this was a great day. I have purchased this app enough times that Apple really should rethink how they run their own App Store when they railroad a developer. I purchased this app once, twice, thrice, and now for the fourth time all with a smile. GV Mobile, as it was originally called before Apple pulled it from the App Store, was great. The developer Sean Kovacs, had both a head start on the competition and a great iOS app.

Apple pulled the app from the App Store for reasons that appeared less than stellar and forced Sean to release the app on the underground app market. The release of GV Mobile on Cydia prompted me to jailbreak my iPhone and gladly put the money down once again for the app. After sometime GV Mobile returned to the App Store but the catch was Sean had to rename the App due to App Store policies. Apple could not even bend a rule for a developer they screwed over, hard. GV Mobile + became the apps new name. 

Here we are a great deal of time later and after eight months of development version three is out in the wild and I could not be happier. This app is so much better than Google's official app I can't understand why they just didn't purchase Sean's work and hire Sean to code their own app. Without going into all the features I will instead post a few highlights and recommend GV Mobile + if you decide to purchase a Google Voice app. 

Dialer screen

My favorite feature in the app is the ability to forward my phone number to other numbers attached to my Google account. Sounds like an automatic feature, but with Google's official app this is not an option and you must login in through a browser to set the forward number. This is not convenient when you are stepping on a plane for vacation and realize you forgot to forward your phone to your office.

Call or message by touching the icon in the lower left hand corner of the screen

My now second favorite feature Sean has created is his own Push notification service. I trust Sean more than I do NSA Google on this one. This app has auto and manual setup to enable this feature. It takes two minutes. In fact, it took me about five minutes and I was having difficulty because Sean's servers were overloaded from all the new app activations. Understandable and not a big deal.

All your Google folders at the swipe of a finger

My third favorite feature is the new VoIP option that is included. This means when I am out of the country, in a building where I have wifi but no cellular service, or I just feel like cutting back my minutes, I can call with just a data connection. It works so good that there is little doubt this is the future for all phone traffic.

VoIP as a call option

I get asked a lot why I use Google Voice. I am not the biggest Google fan by any stretch but sometimes they get it right. It is simple, Google Voice allows me to separate my business life from my personal life. As a small business owner, when you go on vacation you just want to turn your phone off but you can't because you are afraid you are going to miss an important call. The alternative is to forward your Google Voice number to your office. This elimnates the worry you will miss a call. You also get two phones in one. No more two phones to separate work calls from home calls. 

My only real con to using Google Voice is the inability to not receive SMS messages. With GV Mobile + the ability to send media is an option but the recipient receives a web address they must visit to see the photograph. It works but it can be a bit awkward.

For $2.99, GV Mobile + is a solid investment for an iPhone app.

Mac Mini as an offsite Backup and Environmental Reporter

The MacMini has a lot of uses, especially in small businesses. Using a mini to back up your core documents to an offsite location is a great use of a mini.

Offsite Backup

This is arguably one of the most important tasks I have a mini setup to perform. I am one to believe you can't have enough backups and backing up everything in our office is a top priority. It can be unreasonable to expect one to transfer all of our backups from one site to another due to bandwidth restrictions and the shear amount of data to transfer. I keep it simple on the offsite backup. Daily sync's from work to a secure offsite location (fire protection included) that backup the core files that I feel we cannot operate without. Another feature I added was reporting temperature, dew point, and humidity of the area the mini is in. 

A simple Automator routine combined with Transmit from Panic Software can work wonders for a small business. Several days throughout the week at a specified time (launched by an iCal alarm), Automator opens Transmit and "sync's" all of our core files to our offsite location. To get the first sync off to a good start I copied all the files from work on a portable hard drive and copied them to the drive at the offsite location. I check in on the server once every other week to make sure everything is running smoothly without error messages popping up. From time to time, every six months give or take, I will have to remotely restart the mini.

In this workflow Transmit is doing the moving and shaking but doesn't store any data on the internal hard drive of the mini. It syncs from work to another offsite location of a Synology storage device. In essence, the mini is just doing the moving and not the storing.

Environmental Sensor
I installed a THUM (Temperature Humidity USB Monitor) to monitor the atmosphere around my mini. If the temperature gets to cold or warm, I get an email alert. If the humidity gets to high or low I get an email alerting me to the condition. In my case I am specifically concerned with humidity. What makes the mini great is the compact size small enough to fit in small enclosures that offer superior protection.

The THUM software also can log these data points on time intervals from every 10 seconds to every 60 minutes. It stores the data points in a plain text file that is tab delimited. The Mac version of the software is handicapped compared to the Windows version. I have wrote the company asking for better functionality with no success. I own and run two of these hardware sensors and highly recommend them for those who require environmental information.

MacTHUM Program Window

User Experience with offsite backup: A+
Transmit Price: $34 US as of June 25, 2013

User Experience with THUM: B+ (give me more options)
Transmit Price: $120 US

Recommendation: If you need offsite backup and environmental controls, Panic and the THUM will do a great job if you can use Automator.

The Mac Mini: The Little Mac that Could

I am going to be running a series on the Mac Mini and several uses for one at home or in a small business. With the new Mini's being more powerful than ever and having the ability to run headless with confidence it is becoming a must have gadget to take care of some critical tasks and not so critical tasks in your life and work.

Here are the upcoming articles:

• Offsite Backup and Environmental Reporting for Small Business
• Security Camera Server
• Wiki Server (requires OS X Server; easy to get running)
• Time Machine Back Up
• Your office computer

Get your reading glasses ready because it should prove to be a fun series to read.

Apple's New Airport Extreme 802.11ac Base Station

New Apple Airport Extreme 802.11ac
Apple unveiled a new redesigned Airport Extreme on June 10, 2013. A radical change in design was an understatement if you happened to be watching the keynote live that day. It is a tower. A square tower to be more precise. Instead of smaller or slimmer (more flat), they went taller. 

Going larger and taller does seem to make more sense after having a few minutes to soak it all in. With the new Airport Extreme supporting faster connections speeds 802.11ac, the likelihood of the device shrinking in size was unlikely. The faster the transfer speeds, the more antennas you have to cram in the router. The taller the router, the better the wireless footprint will be. Almost seems too easy to predict but yet there is no way anyone would have predicted this shape. Same for the new upcoming Mac Pro as well.

I purchased a new router to test out and use. My initial testing after having the Airport Extreme N (with guest network ability) shows the reception on my iPad Mini and iPhone 5 have improved in the one part of the house that had no wireless coverage. The iPad and iPhone don't support the ac standard but the footprint the new Airport Extreme lays down is superior to it's predecessor  Looking for an extra 20 - 30 feet of coverage in that house of yours? I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this new router by Apple.

Airport Extreme 802.11ac on the network table

Yes the router is faster! Yes it is different yet better than before! Boo I don't have a single device that can take advantage of the new gigabit wireless speeds everyone is talking about.

Biggest and best feature wasn't the new router at all
The best feature of the day was when I plugged in the router and was ready to import my configuration file from my old Airport Extreme N into the new Airport Extreme ac. The setup was automatic! This has been the best experience ever when replacing or upgrading routers. 

Magic Router Transition

I simply clicked on my wireless icon in the Menu Bar, selected the new router, and it went all Apple and within 2 minutes I was up and running on my new router just like magic. It was able to import the current configuration file from the old Airport Extreme, reset the old Airport Extreme to factory defaults, and I not one of my devices so much as hiccuped asking for new passwords or permission to connect to the new Airport Extreme. All with one click of a button!

User Experience: A+
Price: $199 US
Recommendation: If you need a new router or just need more footprint, then don't hesitate to pick one up if you have the money to do so.