Posts in the "software" category - Chris Hardie

I've been using the CrashPlan automatic backup system for my home computing devices for almost a year now, and I offer up this review. Prior to using CrashPlan, I have to admit that my backup strategy for home computers left much to be desired.  Over the years I had tried various combinations of home-grown scripts and syncing tools that broke too easily or didn't offer enough flexibility in recovery, crusty third-party software that seemed to take hours to configure and then never quite did what...

I've had a few days to play around with Google's new social network offering, Google+, and I thought I'd share some initial thoughts. First of all, kudos to Google for "going for it" in the Facebook era.  They're one of few players who actually has the resources and skill to make a serious go at a viable alternative to Facebook, and you've got to admire the effort.  If the success of the movie The Social Network tells us anything, it's that Facebook has become mainstream and popular, and as generations...

I asked on Twitter yesterday if anyone would like to compare the "Notifo" service to the "Prowl" application for handling push notifications to iPhone and other mobile devices.  No one answered, and so here's my brief rundown comparing the two. If you don't already know about push notifications, a brief primer: they're basically just like text messages, except they can be routed/categorized in ways that make them useful to individual applications on your phone.  Instead of getting a generic...

In June, a delegation from Summersault attended the YAPC::NA Perl Conference in Columbus, Ohio for a few days.  My second YAPC conference, it was an interesting experience full of inside jokes, engaging discussions, more inside jokes, and good food. I was only scheduled to give one presentation ("How to talk, or not talk, to your clients about Perl") but after hearing some of the opening remarks at the conference that spent too much time and energy, IMHO, declaring that "Perl is not dead!" I signed...

I offer this account of trying to address a known (and I would say, severe) bug in the iPhone 4 mail software, in case it's helpful to others: Ever since I upgraded my iPhone to IOS4 (the latest version of the phone's operating system), the Mail application has been flaky when it comes to syncing mail messages via IMAP. Duplicate messages, empty/blank messages, messages dated 12/31/1969, messages that are deleted and then re-appear, and so on. At first I thought it might be my phone hardware,...

A number of mainstream magazines and newspapers have recently published reports on the increasing threat of "cyberwarfare," the significant resources being devoted to fighting that "war" and what we're doing to protect the critical national asset that is our digital infrastructure. Unfortunately, most of the responses (and the ones favored by the Obama administration) are focused on paying insanely large amounts of money to private contractors to create and deploy complex technological solutions...

I've written before about how RSS feeds and website content syndication can make a big difference in how you take in content online.  If you haven't played around with a feed reader service or tool (like Google Reader), you should really give it a try. But now it's time to explore the darker side of RSS feeds (or, for those of you stuck in the 1990s, web browser bookmarks): despite making your continued content consumption more efficient, it's still too tempting to subscribe to too many of them,...

I love the Sonos multi-room music system.  It's a ridiculous luxury to have and I could fill up another blog post apologizing for it, but it's too much a fulfillment of the dreams I had as a kid about what the households of the future could be like to pass it up.  "Wait, you mean I can have N-Trance's Set U Free blaring in every room of the house at once, perfectly in sync?  OMG!"  I used to do this with FM transmitters, spaghetti audio wiring, and various mediocre gadgets - not any more. But...

Lest we not forget the times when using expensive proprietary hardware and software without exploring more open alternatives comes back around to bite us in the rear, I thought I'd highlight two issues currently being mentioned in the local press. 1) The Pal-Item reports on a meeting happening today about technology in schools: The Richmond Community Schools Board of School Trustees has scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday to learn more about the school corporation's technology needs...Technology...

I'm just getting started with developing applications for the iPhone / iPod Touch, and one of the first real hurdles I encountered was that Apple didn't make it easy by default to use their iPhoneOS SDK on non-Intel Macs. With some Googling around I was was able to find a variety of articles that mentioned workarounds, but the comprehensive solution was spread across lots of blog post comments, forum postings, etc. So, for my own reference and hopefully as assistance to anyone else who might be in the same...