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iTunes Genius is Brilliant
Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
– Thomas Edison
I’m not sure about the ingredients, but I’m sure iTunes Genius is brilliant.
– Me
My need for music is closely tied to length of my commute. And the soundtrack of my current 10 minute commute is sports talk radio combined with obsessive repeats of my favorite track of whatever CD is loaded in the player.
Make that past-tense. The soundtrack of my commute was sport talk radio combined with obsessive repeats. Because I’ve discovered how easy it is to make and burn a Genius playlist to CD. And now the soundtrack of my commute comes courtesy of iTunes Genius.
- Select a song in iTunes.
- Click on the Genius button in the lower right.
- Modify tracks as needed (delete for an audio CD, or increase for a MP3 CD).
- Click on the “Save Playlist” button on the upper right.
- Find the Playlist (named for the original song), right-click and “Burn Playlist to Disc”
- Enjoy
Time Capsule Repair
Symptoms of Failure
Our problems started with Time Machine backups starting, but not completing. We were also having difficulty shutting down. When I dug deeper, I had similar problems with the sparse bundles in Disk Utility. The problems went away when I switched Time Machine over to a different hard drive.
Why Repair?
Our backup strategy called for hard drive cloning every two or three months with Time Machine for incremental backup. I considered staying on the external drive, but it was an effort to even get a weekly backup on the external drive. And the Time Capsule is so nice when you have laptops. This was also an opportunity for me to upgrade to a 1TB hard drive.
The Repair
The repair went smoothly with an assist from the internet. Brandon Hansen’s Hard Drive Repair for Time Capsule was particularly helpful. If you are comfortable installing a hard drive or card in a computer, then you probably have all the skills you need.
After Action Report
My fan power connector was found disconnected during the repair. I may have done it myself during the disassembly, but I can’t help but wonder if the problems were caused by over heating after the connector came loose.
I had no problems accessing the old hard drive using my USB hard drive adaptor. Disk Utility reported a bunch of errors when repairing the sparse bundles, but was successful in the end. I don’t expect to need the old data, but I’ll keep it for a few months just in case.
Leopard Configuration IV
- Map the Caps Lock key to a second Control key via System Preferences.
- To be Continued …
The full configuration list can be viewed at my MacBook Configuration Log.
Leopard Configuration III
- Configure Apple Mail to properly share folders with FastMail
- Start Mail
- Select the appropriate IMAP folder
- From the Mail menu, select Mailbox → Use This Mailbox For →
- Clean some of the unused cruft from my Finder Sidebar. Select the Sidebar in the Finder Preferences and clear:
- Devices → iDisk
- Shared → Connected Servers
- Places → Documents
- Set the display to a 2.2 gamma
- Change my default shell to /bin/zsh:
chsh -s /bin/zsh - To be continued …
The full configuration list may be viewed at my MacBook Configuration Log
26 Apr: Leopard Configuration part IV
ExpanDrive +1
After a boffo ExpanDrive review from John Gruber, I decided to take it out for a test drive. It only took 20 minutes for me to send Magnetk their money.
My upgrade to TextPattern 4.0.6 was greatly simplified by ExpanDrive. I simply mounted by webhost home directory, examined the updates in emacs, edited my htaccess, moved some files and I was in business.
Leopard Configuration II
- Pick a new desktop background via System Preferences
- Change the Login Window background image:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture /Users/dwight/Documents/Wallpaper/Balto.jpg
A picture of Balto in Central Park during the Gates. - Keep the dock from sliding around as icons are added:
defaults write $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock pinning start - To be continued …
The full configuration list can be viewed at my MacBook Configuration Log.
16 Mar: Leopard Configuration part 3
Leopard!
Well, enough dilly-dallying about. It was finally time to upgrade to Leopard. Rather than upgrade in place, I decided that this was my excuse to update my hardware a bit – I upgraded from the stock 1G Ram/80G disk to 4G RAM/120G disk (3G addressable/7200 rpm).
With my new hard disk in place, I started the clean install. After defining a new primary user and importing user settings, I was back in business. Now it was time to start the configuration process:
- Name the computer:
sudo hostname -s truckasaurus
sudo scutil ––set ComputerName truckasaurus
sudo scutil ––set LocalHostName truckasaurus - Remove the hard disk icon from my desktop via Finder Preferences
- to be continued …
8 Mar: The hostname command only affects the LocalHostName – and that only temporarily. Use scutil instead.
8 Mar: Leopard Configuration part 2