I do not by any means have any negative feelings about SquareSpace and I still recommend them to anyone who is interested in a simple all in one solution for their website. I (as a developer) have decided that I would like to try new things and have migrated to a hosting provider which supports multiple platforms for me to play with.

I am also working on a site in Ruby on Rails which is not supported (at least to my knowledge) by SquareSpace as they do their own content management.

The Apple Macbook starts at $999 in the US and $1149 in Canada. I got mine for $1099 through a back to school package with my local Futureshop.

2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor

2GB DDR2 Memory

160GB hard drive

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics

Standard keyboard

White polycarbonate shell

So in general comparison to the rest of the laptop world right now, this laptop, like other Apple computers, is overpriced for its specs, but that’s something you expect when you buy Apple. Other than the price, its about an average laptop for any student that’s just going to be IM’ing, using Facebook, or email.

I’m a big Ubuntu fan, and I really enjoy Windows 7 but when I began using OSX I began to rethink how I felt about how a friendly operating system should look and feel. The application dock at the bottom of the screen is something that I have emulated on other machines, but always caused things to slow down – the dock in OSX was created with the operating system so it doesn’t have the same effect – it runs smoothly and has little effect on system resources. So is OSX all that its cracked up to be… well sort of. There are a few things that your average Windows user will become confused by, but nothing that would totally hinder their ability to use the computer. It’s very pretty and functional, so it gets the ‘thumbs up’ in this area.

The keyboard that comes built into this laptop has a very nice feel to it. The button travel is just the right distance and the spaced layout between the keys is pleasing both to the eyes as well as to the touch. But one thing that I have to comment on is the fact that everything is different!! As a Windows/Linux user I’m used to having a function (Fn) key for secondary key options, a Ctrl and Alt keys, as well as a Backspace and Delete keys. The functions performed by those keys are handy and I use them all the time when writing or developing software. The ‘Delete’ key on the laptop is actually a backspace, I find not having a delete key that does a forward delete very frustrating. I later found out that ‘Fn + Delete’ does a forward delete, but I shouldn’t have to go looking for key combinations to find out where standard functions lie. Many other functions are mapped to different keys and different key combinations, but they go against normal use of a computer and subsiquently get thumbs down here.

The white polycarbonate shell mentioned above, has a very nice look to it and is very much a contributer to the Apple sex appeal that so many people have lusted for, and I love it. There are unfortunately a few negatives about it. As a ‘shell’ it feels flimsy wherever two pieces meet – on the edges along the top sides of the computer. The edge of the plastic where your wrists rest as you type is very much a right angle, making it pointed and uncomfortable.

There are many other things I could say about this machine but I’ll answer the question many of you are reading this article to find out: is buying an Apple computer really worth it?

Yes.

I really enjoy OSX as an operating system and the newest revision of it, ‘Snow Leopard’, is launching very soon. I enjoy the keyboard, despite it scratching my wrists and enjoy how much care Apple has taken to make all of its i-Applicaitons compatible with eachother.

If your curious about Apple computers and don’t know if you want to take the plunge to pay $2000, this laptop is a great starting point.

One thing I feel obligated to mention is that I am extremly new to OSX and I am told that after 2GB of RAM it really opens up. I bought the model with 2GB of RAM, so perhaps if your buying one and can afford the upgrade, go for the 4GB of RAM and send me an email to tell me about it!

There are a number of different ways to get a compact disk onto a computer without an optical drive. You do need one in the beginning, there’s no psychic way to transfer the disk, but after that, you wont need one again until you have another disk you want to move over.

So here’s a list of what you’ll need to pull off this little hack.

- Your mini-laptop (the one without a cd-rom drive, duh!)
- Another computer (one with a cd-rom drive and some usb ports)
- A flash drive larger than 1gb (1 gb will work more often than not)
- Patience

To start, you need a program that will allow you to make what are called ‘disk images’,
these ‘images‘ are just that… a picture. To be exact its a copy of the information on the disk at a particular point in time, kinda like a real picture… except its data… and not people…. you get the picture.

There are a number of programs that allow you to make these images.
PowerISO, DaemonTools, MagicISO, Alcohol%120, and many.. many more, in fact  the internet is filled with them, and chances are your computer came with one that was meant to burn the images to new disks.

Personally, I use PowerISO because its free version allows you to do practically everything you may want to do with a disk, and a little more, so it gets thumbs up from me.

This is where its going to get a little technical, but don’t worry, I’m going to hold your hand and explain everything in detail so that when you’re done you can have that merit badge of geekyness.

Ok, so at this point, you’ve got your spiffy “My Collection of Cool Games” disk handy and another computer, yes you do need another computer for this, unless you’ve got a external cd-rom drive handy… in which case stop reading now because….. your already done???

So first install PowerISO on both computers. Your going to use different program functionality for each different computer, so it must be on both computers. This is where the flash drive can come in handy, if you have the internet (and you do cause you’re reading this) you can download PowerISO on both computers at the same time… if you don’t have wireless or another way to download the program onto both computers, put it on that flash drive you’ve got there and transfer it over.

If that’s a task that boggles your mind, again, stop reading and consult your closest 12 year old. 

After installing PowerISO on both computers, your going to begin what we in the geek world call ‘making a disk image’… So stick your copy of ‘My Collection of Cool Games” into the computer with the cd-rom drive (as if that wasn’t blatantly obvious)… and open PowerISO (click the part that says use unregistered).

WARNING: What your about to do IS illegal in some places, Some people will tell you that copying disks is not illegal if you own a copy of it… but they’re wrong, it’s still illegal.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, towards the top of the program is a button that says “Copy”, its a picture of a disk with and arrow pointing to the generic windows logo for a hard drive. Click that button. It should open a menu that gives you a few options. Select the button that says “.iso file” and make sure you have the proper source drive selected in the top drop down menu. There is no particular reason I suggest you select .iso, I just have foud that it is accepted by the geek culture as a standard format for disk images. Click the “…” button when you’re ready and select the option for your desktop, or another folder of your choosing, this is where the program will save the image of the disk.

This is one area where things can go wrong…

If your disk contains any strict copy protection or any other things to prevent people from enjoying their media the way they want to, PowerISO may stop working and stop your fun there. There are other ways to get around the copy protection, but I will not be going into details on that here, as I believe that it would cause more trouble for me, than good for you.

After PowerISO is done with the disk, plug in your flash drive and copy the new disk image from where ever you saved it, on to the flash drive. Then plug the flash drive into your mini notebook, and copy it somewhere on to it, such as an “Images” folder off of your main C: drive, or another folder of your choosing.

And now, you shuold stop to enjoy a moment of accomplishment, you have just broken the law. The police have been notified and are on their way. Joke. You can also be assured that 25% of the complex computer stuff is behind you and that you only have 75% more to go (hehe).Back to work….

When you open PowerISO again, you’ll see all sorts of buttons along the top. But this time, we’re going to be paying attention to another one…

And this is where its going to get REALLY complicated.

PowerISO and many other disk mounting programs have different ways of ‘mounting’ (yes mounting, and no, we’re not going for a horse ride..) what your mounting is the disk image to a virtual drive. To de-complicate the overyly complicated, PowerISO tricks your computer into believing that there is a cd-rom drive, when there really isn’t. (Get it? We’re tricking your computer!!)

So to direct your attetion away from my clever writing and back to PowerISO, you’ll see that they’ve cleverly made a button that says “Mount”.. (click it).

This is going to bring up another menu and allow you to do all sorts of complicated auto-run settings and set how many drives it’s lying to your computer about. Make sure that in the number of drives is set to one. You can have a few if you’d like, but you only really need one.

Now in that same menu, you’ll see something like “Mount Image to Drive D: <no media>” or something like that. This is the virtual drive that you set up. So next we have to tell PowerISO what disk to use, so click that, and navigate your way around the innards of your computer to where ever you saved that disk image from before, select it, and click “Open”.

Thats it.

If your disk has an auto-run feature, wait a moment and it will likely start up, if not, dont be afraid to go into “My Computer” to figure it out.

To use another disk, do the same things all over again, you only need to mount the disk that you want to use at that time, so dont be afraid of the “Unmount Drive [D:]” part in the PowerISO “Mount” menu.

One other tip, if you are using PowerISO, chances are that it installed what are called shell-scripts when it installed. These scripts allow you to right click on any disk image and mount/unmount them anywhere. So if you want to mount a disk thats on your desktop, right click it, navigate to the PowerISO menu, and mount/umount to your hearts desire.

Hope this helped.

Just as an asside… not to encourage movie piracy or any other illegal activities, but this method works well for DVD’s too! (providing they aren’t copy protected)

Coles Notes Version:
1.Copy disk onto computer with optical drive using PowerISO
2.Copy new disk image to computer using flash drive
3. Mount using PowerISO, and enjoy.

IIS6 Management Console and Compatability.

This feature is added through your Windows features, like IIS, but is not added by default. This may solve some of your problems.

The NETWORK SERVICE user.

In XP it was ASPNET, in Vista, its NETWORK SERVICE, this may not be a huge problem for many people but I totally forgot about it. (give it full permissions if your only developing)

Last but not least…

The last thing that may cause you some trouble are the permissions (surprise) of certain folders like the TEMP folder on your C: drive. You may need to change permissions on that folder as well as change the system folders. This site explains about how to do two of the above things, one thing that they do that I do differently is I changed my path from %Systemroot% to just C:, because that’s where I want it to be. Yes, the system root is often C: anyway, but I also use multiple drives and my sometime change my root, so me making it C: now, will save me any headaches later.

Oh, one last thing…. don’t forget IISRESET!!

http://kellystrickland.net/world-of-warcrack

I have been a Final Fantasy fan for years now, playing more of them than I care to write down. When I got my iPod touch last Christmas, I was hoping to find some tactics game like the ones on the GBA and DS (and the original PS). Sadly, I found nothing.

Then there was Crystal Defenders, and to me, it was just another tower defence game on the iPod, a genre that was crowded then, and even more so now. But, my biased love for the Final Fantasy (FF) series made me fork over the hefty $7.99 (plus tax) for the download. The game was everything I hoped for, and of all the app’s on my iPod, I play it more than any other.

There are a number of similarities in all tower defence games, multiple unit types, different maps, and of course, the baddies. But there are a few unique’s that make this game great. First and foremost are the obvious Final Fantasy Tactics character models (for both you and the enemies), which are cute and friendly. Knowing the units from the previous games, made it feel like a classic FF game. The game also features the summonable monsters that we all know and love which allow you to deal massive damage to your foe’s, but at a cost.

There are 3 difficulties of game play, which are broken up into waves, each wave having 4 maps. Upon starting the game, you pick a wave and then you select a level to play. You then, like any other tower defence game, try to stop the baddies from getting through. The game features a unique scrolling system that reminds me of a joystick, and makes me believe that if other companies followed suit, we could see many classic games come the way of the iPod. There was also a recent update that added in play via landscape mode and changed the character models. The new models don’t quite look like the original Tactics models anymore(boo-urns!) but they are still pleasing and give the game a fresh look.

The price is a little steep, but I defiantly got my $8 worth out of this title. True to the Final Fantasy name, your going to get hours of enjoyment out of it, just try to get over 3000 points on every level before moving on to the next, and you’ll be challenged. This game truly is endless fun and I recommend it to anyone who loves their chocobo’s, or even just tower defence games.

This week I decided to get a friend of mine to write a post on her new experiences on tea, Kelly Strickland of kellystrickland.net

- Kelly