tag:hivelogic.com,2005:/feed/Hivelogic2009-03-24T13:57:00-04:00tag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7202009-03-24T13:57:00-04:002009-03-24T13:59:08-04:00Bainbridge Studios<p>This week’s <span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed sponsor is Bainbridge Studios, a small creative services firm based in Seattle, focused on delivering clean, intuitive identity and web design solutions for small business clients nationwide. Principal Tom Carmony has been designing for the web since 1997 and developing brands and corporate identities since 2001.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/sponsor-bainbridge">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7182009-03-18T11:05:00-04:002009-03-22T09:32:25-04:00Starbucks VIA Review: Just Stir and Enjoy?<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3556/3364893427_0181f86a17_o.jpg" width="468" height="325" alt="Starbucks VIA" /></p>
<p>A few months ago, Starbucks announced that they’d found a way to create an instant coffee, called <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/coffee/c17-instant-coffee.aspx">Starbucks <span class="caps">VIA</span> Ready Brew</a> that tastes as good as fresh-brewed coffee. Named “VIA” after the Italian word for “road”, meant to conjure the idea that you can enjoy this coffee wherever you go. “Starbucks <span class="caps">VIA</span> Ready Brew is different,” the company says. “The magic is in a proprietary, all-natural process that we spent years perfecting.”</p>
<p>While most of the media and many of the coffee-lovers I know were skeptical, I was actually optimistic and, truth be told, a bit excited about the prospect and potential for high-quality instant coffee.</p>
<p>So how does it taste—what’s the verdict?</p>
<p>In a word: it’s good! But there’s more to this story.</p>
<h3>My Past Life as a Coffee Geek</h3>
<p>My friends know that I love green tea (<a href="http://www.adagio.com/green/sencha.html">Adagio’s Sencha</a> is a great place to start if you’re curious). I drink it every morning, and it’s the primary way I get caffeinated these days. But it wasn’t always this way. I used to drink quite a bit of coffee.</p>
<p>In fact, I’d always considered myself to be a coffee purist. Back in the days before Starbucks was on every corner—before there <em>were</em> any Starbucks storefronts in Florida, even—I was overnighting freshly roasted beans and using an expensive burr grinder for preparation in—what else—a french press. I was discovering a whole new world of flavor, traveling the circuit of big roasters, from Starbucks to <a href="http://seattlesbest.com/">Seattle’s Best</a> to <a href="http://www.peets.com/">Peet’s</a>, trying them all. I even discovered a <em>coffee underground</em> made up of little-known local purveyors, running giant roasting machines out of dingy warehouses, garages, and otherwise abandoned shopping plazas. Talk about fresh roasted, these beans were just hours old when they hit the grinder and met my french press.</p>
<p>I had a thermometer to check the temperature of the boil. I only drank the coffee black. I had special mugs for “cuppings.” I would even heat the mugs with steaming water to prevent the coffee from cooling too fast when poured. I would remark about the delicate oil that forms on coffee’s surface when its prepared correctly (something you’ll never see with coffee made in a drip machine).</p>
<p>But despite all that, I actually have some history with, and a special place in my heart for instant coffee.</p>
<h3>Pusan, South Korea, 2000</h3>
<p>In 2000, I was visiting Pusan, South Korea with my wife, her mother, and her brother, spending time with their extended family. We stayed with them in their homes and lived, as they liked to call it, “Korean Style.” This meant both sleeping and sitting cross-legged on the floor, eating rice with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi">kimchi</a> and clam soup for breakfast, live octopus for dinner, and partaking of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soju">soju</a> late into the evening. The works.</p>
<p>And, to my surprise, living like a Korean also means drinking instant coffee. That’s right, as a whole, the entire nation of South Korea loves instant coffee, prepared with a heavy dose of sugar and powdered creamer. At home, in fine restaurants, and in vending machines on every block, instant coffee is a ubiquitous and quintessential part of the South Korea experience. Brands like <a href="http://www.koamart.com/shop/28-1283-powder_tea_leaves-maxim_coffee_mix_mocha_gold_mild_20pks.asp">Maxim</a> dominate this space, but American varieties like Folgers are available as well. In fact, as we quickly learned, a big jar of instant coffee makes the perfect gift when visiting family and friends.</p>
<p>At first, I was baffled. Why would this country with its deep, ancient traditions and venerated culture embrace something that seemed so disposable, almost devoid of character. Then it hit me … it’s about the preparation. Asia is well known for its love of tea, and if you think about it, preparing instant coffee is a lot like brewing tea. No new techniques, devices, or tools are required. It’s affordable, portable, easily stored, and available pre-mixed with creamer and sugar. And somehow, the <em>instant-ness</em> of instant coffee seems to meld perfectly with a culture that’s at once outwardly fast-paced, formal, and competitive, but privately peaceful, calm, and warm.</p>
<p>And would you believe me if I told you that upon returning home—eager to make a press pot of “proper” coffee to shake our jet lag—that it was “Korean Style” coffee I was craving?</p>
<p>It’s been about 9 years since I spent those weeks in Pusan and Seoul, but I still keep a small jar of instant coffee and powdered creamer in the back of the cupboard, you know, just in case.</p>
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3639/3365715476_d6aec3a310.jpg" width="468" height="311" alt="Starbucks VIA" /></p>
<h3>Acquiring Starbucks <span class="caps">VIA</span></h3>
<p>Last week I was at my local Starbucks, talking with the Barista about <span class="caps">VIA</span> and asking when it might be available here. She was actually surprised that I was so interested in trying it. I guess she’d been exposed to the same skepticism I’d seen. She explained that it was only available in select areas right now, specifically Chicago and Seattle.</p>
<p>Realizing that my interest was genuine, she introduced me to the manager who, it turned out, had a similar experience in Russia to the one I’d had in South Korea: they love instant coffee there too.</p>
<p>“Hmm,” she said, tapping her chin and furrowing her brow a bit, “don’t go anywhere.” She disappeared into the back room and returned, handed me two individual packets of <span class="caps">VIA</span>: <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/coffee/p96c29-colombia.aspx">Colombia</a> and <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/coffee/p97c30-italian-roast.aspx">Italian Roast</a>. It’s not for sale yet, she told me, “But give it a try. I prefer the Italian Roast.”</p>
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3615/3364893395_e02479aa24.jpg" width="468" height="311" alt="Starbucks VIA" /></p>
<h3>The Taste Test</h3>
<p>The next morning, it was time to give it a try. I decided to try the Italian Roast because it was the manager’s favorite. I just followed the instructions printed on the packet, starting by emptying the coffee into a mug.</p>
<p>The grounds were incredibly fine (Starbucks calls them “microgrounds”) far finer than any expresso roast I’ve ever seen, and completely <em>unlike</em> the Folgers instant coffee grounds you’ve probably seen, which are huge and gnarly by comparison.</p>
<p>There wasn’t much aroma from the grounds, but once I stirred in the recommended 8oz of boiling water, I could detect that familiar smell of brewed coffee. It wasn’t as intense as as you’d get if you brewed a whole pot of course, but it was there.</p>
<p>I didn’t add any cream or sugar of course. Things like this are best tried in their original state. So then, I gave it a taste. And you know what?</p>
<p><em>It was pretty good.</em> On the whole, a nice experience.</p>
<p>Sure, I’ve had <em>better</em> coffee. Fresh roasted, burr-ground, french pressed, yeah, that’s better. Sitting in <a href="http://stumptowncoffee.com/">Stumptown Portland</a> talking with <a href="http://duncandavidson.com">James Duncan Davidson</a>, yeah, that was a whole world better. But generally speaking, Starbucks <span class="caps">VIA</span> is about as good as the coffee I’ve made here at home in our drip pot. It’s as good as most of the coffee we make with our <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B000AQSMPO/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Keurig <span class="caps">B60</span></a> single cup machine (my favorite K-Cup coffee is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001CHFSP2/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Black Tiger</a>). It’s as good or better than the coffee you’d find in a decent restaurant. It’s much better than any coffee I’ve made in a hotel room, while camping, or while on a road-trip. And of course, it’s far superior to any instant coffee I’ve ever tasted. The Colombia was good too, but I agree with the Starbucks manager: the Italian Roast is the better of the two.</p>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>At $9.95 for a box of 12, that’s a cost of about $0.83 cents a cup. That’s about twice the cost of a K-Cup ($0.42), and a whole lot more money than a cup of coffee from a french press or drip maker. But for a completely portable, long-lasting, instantly-brewed cup of good-tasting coffee anytime, it’s well worth the price.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to wait for it to arrive in your town, it’s available from the <a href="http://www.starbucksstore.com/products/shprodli.asp?SkuList=193583,193590,193765,193772&CCAID=SBXCOFVIAB">Starbucks online store</a>.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7192009-03-17T12:35:00-04:002009-03-18T12:37:22-04:00[Sponsor] Scrum'd<p>This week’s sponsor is <a href="http://www.scrumd.com/?ref=hivelogic">Scrum’d</a>, a brand-new app by <a href="http://www.adsdevshop.com/?ref=hivelogic"><span class="caps">ADS</span></a>. Scrum’d provides simple project management for agile teams, allowing you to focus on results, rather than the process of achieving them. Inline editing, heavy use of drag-and-drop, and an inline help system are just a few of the things that make using Scrum’d a breeze.</p>
<p>Scrum’d is free for the first 30 days, so you can try it out with no strings attached.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/sponsor-scrumd">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7162009-03-09T11:12:00-04:002009-03-09T11:20:31-04:00Sponsor the Hivelogic RSS Feed<p>Hivelogic turned 9 years old last month. Since I started the site back in 2000, I’ve published over 700 articles, most of which are still available <a href="/articles">in the archives</a>. I’ve done my best to inform, entertain, and help the community that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. I’m humbled that you have kept coming back, reading articles, listening to the podcasts, adding great comments, and in turn, you’ve become a part of a reasonably-sized, dedicated, and focused audience of developers, designers, geeks, podcasters, photographers, and Apple fans.</p>
<h3>A New Focus</h3>
<p>I’m grateful every day that I have an opportunity to write something that’s helpful. Lately, I’ve been focusing on this goal, writing and linking to articles that are <em>useful</em> to people, that help them discover quality, lead more effective, simpler, and more mindful lives. It’s becoming a mantra for me here as I prepare to choose a topic to write about, an article to link to, or a product to review. I find I’m spending more time doing research and being more thorough when I’m in production mode, and I hope the results show that.</p>
<h3>Weekly <span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed Sponsorships</h3>
<p>Now you can help support this site and my work here while reaching my audience at the same time. If you have a product or service that you’d like to promote, you can <a href="/sponsorship">sponsor my syndicated <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed</a> on a weekly basis.</p>
<p>Hivelogic receives about 100-125,000 views per month, and the <span class="caps">RSS</span> feed is read by an estimated 25-30,000 interested, intelligent, and savvy individual readers per month.</p>
<p>I actually soft-launched the <span class="caps">RSS</span> sponsorships a couple of months ago by announcing it in <a href="http://twitter.com/danbenjamin">my Twitter feed</a>. I was really surprised by the great response, and sold the first couple of months rather quickly. I’m hoping I’ll have the same kind of success by announcing it here on the site.</p>
<p>There are still a few sponsorship opportunities open for March 2009, and plenty for April and May.</p>
<h3>How It Works</h3>
<p>The cost is $300 for a one week sponsorship until the end of March 2009, when the price will go back to the normal price listed on the <a href="/sponsorship">Sponsorship page</a>. There is only one sponsor per week.</p>
<p>At the start of each week, I’ll publish a promotional post describing your product and services, which will go out to all of this site’s subscribers. This post will link to the <span class="caps">URL</span> of your choice, taking visitors directly to your website.</p>
<p>The post stands out visually from other (non-sponsored) posts and is <em>sticky</em> ... it will remain on the main page of the site all week long, regardless of how many times additional I post or articles I write, meaning that every visitor will see it for the entire duration of the week both in their <span class="caps">RSS</span> feeds and on the site itself.</p>
<p>If you’re interested, please <a href="/sponsorship">check out the Sponsorship page</a> for additional information, or with questions and comments.</p>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>Making this change was a big step for me. Changing the dynamic of this site — even slightly — isn’t something I take lightly, but it’s part of bigger plans I have for Hivelogic in 2009 and with your help, I’ll be able to continue to create useful content, and get a couple of <a href="http://hivelogic.tv/">new projects</a> off the ground as well.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7152009-03-07T19:06:00-05:002009-03-12T09:15:37-04:00NewerTech Voyager Q Follow-Up<p>Since I wrote the <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/newertech-voyager-q-review">review of the NewerTech Voyager Q drive dock</a> last week, I’ve received a lot of great questions both via email and in the article’s comments. Rather than answer them individually, I thought it might make sense to address them here in a quick follow-up article.</p>
<h3>What drives should I use with this thing?</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php">NewerTech Voyager Quad Interface drive dock</a> accepts 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives with <span class="caps">SATA I</span> or II interface, but not the venerable <span class="caps">IDE</span> interface (more on this below). It seems like every drive manufacturer has had both production and quality control issues over the years. I’ve had good luck with drives such as this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001Q9EKU0/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Hitachi 1TB drive</a>, and also with the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001NGOIJO/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Seagate 1TB drive</a> (both cost about $100USD as of this writing).</p>
<p>If I was buying a drive today, though, I’d probably consider the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B000XZ5JBW/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Samsung Spinpoint 1TB drive</a>, which has a good reputation and is a bit more energy efficient.</p>
<p>Some people might suggest that going with a cheaper drive makes more sense, because this is “just” for backup. Generally though, I like to buy quality items even when they’re a bit more expensive, especially when it comes to saving and preserving data that’s valuable to me.</p>
<h3><span class="caps">SATA I</span>/II? <span class="caps">IDE</span>?</h3>
<p>As I’ve mentioned, the Voyager Q uses drives with a <span class="caps">SATA I</span>/II interface, but does not support the <span class="caps">IDE</span> interface. Most Macs (starting with the PowerMac G5 in 2003), and many PCs made within the last 5 years have <span class="caps">SATA</span> drives, but some still (even today) have <span class="caps">IDE</span> drives. This means that if you have a stack of old <span class="caps">IDE</span> drives sitting around, this dock won’t help you use them.</p>
<p>If you’re not looking to use legacy drives from older systems though, this is less of an issue. I do have a few <span class="caps">IDE</span> drives kicking around, but they’re too slow and small to be of any value to me, even as a tertiary backup, and I’ve long-since retrieved any data I want from them.</p>
<h3>How do you store/transport drives when you’re not using them?</h3>
<p>You could get a <a href="http://www.wiebetech.com/products/cases.php">Wiebetech protective hard drive case</a>, which is like an anti-static, high quality, old-school <span class="caps">VCR</span> tape enclosure. They also make a fancy James Bond-style hard-shell waterproof case if you’re into that kind of thing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.notio.com/">Michael J.</a> suggested this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B000HDJT4S/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">compact portable hard drive case</a>. “Ted” suggested using this <a href="http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00638">5-bay hard drive storage unit</a>, which is made from paper. I wonder if a warm (or hot) drive could set it on fire. Probably not.</p>
<p>You could also use anti-static bags from <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1776681">here</a> or <a href="http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productID=3970">here</a>.</p>
<p>For the record, I’ve been (carefully) handling and storing hard drives without special precautions other than common sense since the mid-80’s, when I used to build and upgrade dozens of PCs and Macs a day, and in the years since as I’ve done upgrades or repairs. I’ve never had one fail for this reason.</p>
<p>Now, I’m sure some uber-geeks reading this will cry foul here, saying that the handling of the drive didn’t cause it to fail <em>right away</em>, but that it created some kind of latent problem which only appeared months or years later. Please hold your calls and letters: I will admit that this is a possibility.</p>
<p>So if you’re <em>really</em> concerned about it, get yourself an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B00004Z5D1/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">anti-static wrist strap</a>. It’s only $10. Make sure that your workstation is free of charge as well, use the anti-static bags above, and maybe you’ll be OK. You might also reconsider using any kind of drive dock at all.</p>
<p><strong>Trivia:</strong> Fans of the TV show <a href="http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index"><span class="caps">LOST</span></a> may find it interesting to learn that anti-static bags work by creating something called a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage">Faraday cage</a>. The <span class="caps">LOST</span> character <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Faraday">Daniel Faraday</a>, played brilliantly by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Davies_(actor)">Jeremy Davies</a>, was “named after” Michael Faraday, the inventor of the Faraday cage. The bags are slightly conductive and prevent localized charges from reaching the drives they contain when the bags are touched by people. If a the anti-static bag isn’t closed, though, it won’t help, so keep that in mind. And if you’re going to the trouble to get an anti-static bag, you should probably also consider getting the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B00004Z5D1/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">anti-static wrist strap</a> I mentioned above.</p>
<h3>Why not just use a normal enclosure?</h3>
<p>It’s true that I could pick up an inexpensive <span class="caps">USB2</span> or FireWire 400 enclosure for each of the drives I use for backup rotation. I could even spend more and get a FireWire 800 or multiple-interface enclosure. But I have a few reasons for wanting a device like the Voyager Q.</p>
<ol>
<li>I have a handful of drives that I need to backup, and I use a rotation system for each of them. This translates into a small army of drives. Buying that many enclosures (especially to support multiple interfaces, see below) would be far more expensive than a Voyager Q. </li>
<li>Using the Voyager Q’s toaster-like dock mechanism is more convenient than plugging and unplugging a myriad of external enclosures and associated power and interface cables. For me, simpler is better.</li>
<li>The Voyager Q does a better job of cooling drives than most of the inexpensive drive enclosures I’ve seen (although I bet there are some that do a great job nowadays).</li>
<li>I need a device that will work with all of the machines I currently use, or will own in the relatively near future. Today, my main machine is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B0017J7T7A/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">15-inch (2009) MacBook Pro</a>. I have a MacBook Air from work. I have an older white-plastic MacBook in the closet, in case I need an emergency spare. I also have an original G4 Cube, the best Mac ever made, prominently displayed on a shelf in my office, but in full working condition. My wife has the first generation Intel iMac. And although I suspect my next machine will also be a MacBook Pro, I’m not positive. I don’t want to spend money today on single-interface enclosures that won’t work for me tomorrow, and buying multiple-interface enclosures for this many drives would be expensive.</li>
</ol>
<p>There’s more, actually, but that’s enough.</p>
<h3>What is your backup system? How are you using the Drobo/LaCie/Voyager Q?</h3>
<p><strong>The MacBook Pro:</strong> My main machine is a 15-inch (2009) MacBook Pro. I clone its internal 320GB drive — where I keep documents, music, movies, and code — using <a href="http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html?ref=hivelogic">SuperDuper!</a> and the Voyager Q. I have two drives which I rotate for this backup.</p>
<p><strong>The LaCie:</strong> I store all of my photographs, video, and podcast recordings on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001KFH6HY/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">LaCie 2TB 2big Quadra</a>, set to <span class="caps">RAID 1</span> mirror mode. Although this mirror does provide redundancy, it’s not the same as having a true backup, especially not an offsite one. I have two drives in SuperDuper! cloning rotation for this backup as well.</p>
<p><strong>The Drobo:</strong> I currently use a <a href="http://drobo.com/products/drobo.php?ref=hivelogic">Drobo 2</a> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001CZ9ZEE/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Amazon link</a>) as my Time Machine backup for the internal and LaCie drives. I’ve got a few <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001IEZX3G/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Western Digital 1TB Green Power drives</a> installed, and so far, they have been working fine. I also use the Drobo for temporary storage when moving or migrating large files, and I’ve experimented with using it for a network storage drive with both the DroboShare and the Airport Extreme. I don’t backup the Drobo.</p>
<p><strong>Miscellaneous:</strong> I like to keep a few additional archives of media, old files, ancient backups, and other miscellany handy as well. Accessing this data via docked hard drive is much easier and faster than multiple-DVD backup sets.</p>
<h3>The Backup Procedure</h3>
<p>I use the same manual procedure for cloning all of my drives. The backup drives are named after the drives they clone, using numbers to identify which member of the set they are. For example, the LaCie, named <em>Storage</em>, has two cloned drives, <em>Storage Clone 1</em> and <em>Storage Clone 2</em>. Naming them in this fashion tells me instantly which drive is docked and where it belongs in the set.</p>
<p>I use SuperDuper! to clone each drive at least once a week (usually more often), and rely on Time Machine for the in-between time.</p>
<h3>Any problems?</h3>
<p>Lots of people ask about problems with dust, drives disconnecting, failure to sleep, etc.</p>
<p>All I can say is that so far, I haven’t run into any problems with the Voyager Q. Things seem to “just work” the way one would expect them to. I eject and insert drives in a careful way, drives spin down and wake back up when you’d expect them to, etc. This is all taking place over FireWire 800 for the most part, with the Voyager Q last in the chain. Your experience using a different interface (or a different scenario) may vary.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Hopefully this follow-up article has helped answer some of the questions people have about this handy device as well as my backup routine.</p>
<p>Sure, I’m a little bit crazy with the backups and the redundancy, but then again, I spent about 8 years in IT and you can take it from me: hardware fails, and it never hurts to have a good backup … or three.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7142009-03-05T09:21:00-05:002009-03-05T09:24:32-05:00Basecamp's Pricing Evolution<p>Robert Dempsey <a href="http://blog.adsdevshop.com/2009/02/27/how-to-price-your-app-learning-from-basecamp/">tracks Basecamp’s pricing evolution</a> with a compilation of screenshots from their pricing page, going all the way back to April, 2004.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/basecamp-s-pricing-evolution">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7132009-03-02T11:11:00-05:002009-03-09T20:44:15-04:00Review: The NewerTech Voyager Q Drive Dock<p><img src="/media/voyager-q.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>If you’ve read Hivelogic over the last few years, you already know that I’m a <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2008/04/regarding-backups">backup fiend</a>. My setup has changed a bit since I wrote that article, but the emphasis is still the same: I really like <em>redundancy</em> when it comes to backing up my data.</p>
<p>I use a <a href="http://drobo.com/?ref=hivelogic">Drobo</a> for Time Machine and media backup. I store my photo and video libraries on a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001KFH6HY/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">LaCie 2TB 2big Quadra</a> with <span class="caps">RAID</span> mirroring. And I backup the LaCie and my MacBook Pro’s drives using <a href="http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html">SuperDuper!</a> to external drives. Yes, you read that right … I backup my <span class="caps">RAID</span> drive, mainly because it’s used as primary storage, and as a rule, all primary storage should have a backup.</p>
<p>Why so much redundancy? I’ve spent many years around computer hardware and I’ve seen just about every kind of failure you can imagine. Drives are almost always the first thing to go. And with the cost of hard drives dropping every day, it makes sense to have good backups with multiple copies.</p>
<p>But external drives are expensive — in many cases far more expensive than an internal version of the same size drive. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to use the cheaper, internal drives as external storage, with the added ability to rotate them out and create a better, more reliable backup solution?</p>
<h3>Enter the Voyager Q</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php">NewerTech Voyager Drive Dock Quad Interface</a> (<a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2ES2HDK/">$99 at Other World Computing</a>) is one of the latest generation of <span class="caps">SATA I</span>/II hard drive docks, and in my opinion, the best looking and easiest to use. The Voyager Q sports every interface available (USB2, eSATA, FireWire 800, and FireWire 400), so you can use it easily with just about any machine, unlike most of the other available drive docks (like the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001A4HAFS/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Thermaltake BlacX</a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B00180MMZC/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Vantek</a>, which support only <span class="caps">USB</span>). I’ve got a handful of machines and don’t know what machine I’ll have several years from now, so having multiple inputs means I’ll be able to connect the Voyager Q to pretty much any machine I’ll have in the future. Having both FireWire and <span class="caps">USB</span> ports has the added benefit of being bootable by both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs as well. Handy if you clone your boot drive in case of an internal-drive failure.</p>
<p>Unlike a lot of other drive docks on the market, the Voyager Q actually looks like it belongs on your desk instead of in a workshop or lab. It’s made from high quality black plastic, with a silver inset where you insert the drives. The four rubber feet are industrial strength and factory-attached so they won’t come off when you slide the Voyager Q across your desk. The included cables, one for each port, are also high quality. There’s a hinged flap that folds down when you insert a 3.5-inch drive, so things look nice and neat when you don’t have a drive inserted.</p>
<p>There are two FireWire 800 ports as well, which means you can daisy-chain the Voyager Q to your other FireWire devices easily. My drive-chain currently includes the LaCie, the Voyager Q, a Drobo, and terminates into an M-Audio Firewire Solo recording interface which I use for podcasting. Each device works perfectly this way, and I have only one cable to plug in to the MacBook Pro for access to all of those devices when I’m docking up.</p>
<h3>It Just Works</h3>
<p>How do you use the Voyager Q? Just plug it in using the interface of your choice, insert a 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive into the top (they can only go in one way), and the drive mounts automatically. You can now partition, format, and access the drive just like you would with any normal external drive. Of course you can access the drive using any port you’d like as well. This is really handy if you happen to have used up all of your FireWire ports — just plug the drive into an available <span class="caps">USB</span> slot, and you’re all set.</p>
<p>The Voyager Q also lets you hot-swap drives. Just pull the drive out or use the eject level on the front of the device (make sure you’ve ejected or unmounted the drive in your operating system of choice before you eject it).</p>
<h3>Fast, Quiet, and Cool</h3>
<p>I’m a big believer in ambient noise, so I’m not fanatical about devices being silent. While that’s true, I don’t care for noisy devices, either. Without any mechanical parts, the Voyager Q itself doesn’t make a sound. There are no fans to make noise, no bearings to wear out. The only noise you’ll hear is the sound of the hard drives you use spinning up when you dock them, or clicking quietly when you access them. There’s really not much of a need for a fan, either, because most of the hard drive is exposed to the air of the room itself, which does wonders to reduce and eliminate heat, assuming the room itself isn’t very warm.</p>
<p>Drives that have become too hot to touch in other enclosures, even ones with great fans like Weibetechs and Drobos don’t even get warm when you use them with the Voyager Q, and less heat means a longer lifetime for a hard drive.</p>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<p>The NewerTech Voyager Q is exactly what I was looking for. Easy to use, multiple interfaces, compact size, industrial strength construction, and quiet operation. At $99, it’s not the cheapest device out there, but it’s made well and sports every interface I’ll need for the forceable future.</p>
<p>And thanks to the Voyager Q, I even have a new offsite backup solution. I just make a clone of my data onto a spare drive, and drop it off to a friend over lunch once a week, and he does the same, with two drives in rotation. In a worst case scenario, I always have at most a one-week-old backup available at any time. Sure, you could do the same thing with a safety deposit box, but Tex-Mex is better when shared.</p>
<h3>Update (7 March 2009)</h3>
<p>I’ve <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/newertech-voyager-q-follow-up">written a follow-up to this article</a> answering a handful of the questions I’ve received via email and in the comments below.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7122009-03-02T07:17:00-05:002009-03-02T07:20:23-05:00The Facebook Twitter Story<p>Here’s <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009031_743025_page_2.htm">the story</a> behind the failed Facebook acquisition of Twitter.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We said it’s not worth it. Don’t treat us like children.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Though the deal is over, the article explains that the two companies continue to talk, just not about an acquisition.</p>
<p>And the interesting thing is, Twitter still doesn’t actually generate any revenue.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/the-facebook-twitter-story">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7112009-03-02T07:10:00-05:002009-03-02T07:21:16-05:00Telecommuting: Once a Perk, Now a Necessity<p>I’ve been “telecommuting” (or “working from a virtual office” or just plain “working from home”) for five or six years now (and <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2008/03/offices-and-the-zone">writing</a> <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/01/open-offices-reduce-productivity-and-increase-stress">about it</a>, too). I wouldn’t want it any other way. And <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_10/b4122066051680.htm">now it seems</a> like the current economy is pushing even stogy, corporate America types to give it a try too:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As the recession bites and companies look to save money on real estate costs, what was once a cushy perk is now deemed a business necessity. And that, along with a few choice enticements—voila!, a shiny new BlackBerry—is how companies are selling it to employees, whose emotions range from ecstasy to befuddlement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Maybe these economic troubles will have a bit of a silver lining and usher in some positive changes in the way people work.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/03/telecommuting-once-a-perk-now-a-necessity">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7102009-02-27T19:03:00-05:002009-02-27T19:08:29-05:00Increase speed, drop down and reverse direction!<p>Check out this <a href="http://vimeo.com/3281558">great video for Röyksopp’s <em>Happy Up Here</em></a>. The coolness really starts at about 55 seconds in.</p>
<p>And if that’s not enough Space Invaders for you, there’s always <a href="http://video.aol.com/video-detail/futurama-futurama-403-space-invaders/1862865985">this excellent scene from Futurama</a>.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7092009-02-27T18:57:00-05:002009-02-28T09:41:14-05:00The Science of Watchmen<p>This is a video of James Kakalios, University of Minnesota physics professor and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/1592402429/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">The Physics of Superheroes</a>. He talks about his work on the movie <em>Watchmen</em>, using quantum mechanics to explain some of Dr. Manhattan’s abilities.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/the-science-of-watchmen">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7082009-02-26T08:53:00-05:002009-02-26T16:30:15-05:00[Sponsor] CrimsonJet<p>This week’s sponsor is <a href="http://crimsonjet.com/?ref=hivelogic">CrimsonJet</a>, creator of two of the best selling apps in the iPhone App Store’s music category. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285700010&mt=8">Drum Kit</a> is a realistic looking multi-touch drum set on your iPhone, and was featured in <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/gallery/ads/">Apple’s latest iPod Touch TV ad</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287960761&mt=8">Anthem Music Videos</a> is like Pandora, but for music videos. Feed it an artist and it will find music videos by similar artists.</p>
<p>CrimsonJet also makes <a href="http://appstatz.com">Appstatz</a>, a web app for iPhone developers to track their app sales using aggregate data from all of its users to help you gauge real-world sales performance.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/sponsor-crimsonjet">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7072009-02-25T09:04:00-05:002009-02-25T09:11:00-05:00Becoming Productive in Xcode<p>One of the biggest obstacles developers face when learning to write applications using a new framework isn’t necessarily comprehending the new programming language itself. More often, the challenge is getting acclimated and becoming effective at using the new tools and IDEs that go along with the framework. Fortunately for those of us interested in building Mac and iPhone apps, Mike Clark has just released a set of screencasts entitled <a href="http://pragprog.com/screencasts/v-mcxcode/becoming-productive-in-xcode">Becoming Productive in Xcode</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s a lot you can do with Xcode, and it’s easy to get distracted by all the knobs and levers. By learning how to use Xcode in a truly productive way, you’ll spend less time being frustrated and have more time to focus on your application.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These are at the top of my list of screencasts to watch next.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/becoming-productive-in-xcode">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7062009-02-24T09:49:00-05:002009-02-24T09:56:40-05:00Donald Duck in Carbonite<p><img src="http://www.starwars.com/img/vault/collecting/20090223/donald_sm.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>So now you can buy Donald Duck frozen in Carbonite for $195.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mickey Luke, Minnie Leia, Goofy Chewie, and Donald in Carbonite are each being made available in an edition size of 600 each, and will be released around the second week in June. 500 of each will be available at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with the remaining 100 of each being sent to Disneyland.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What’s next, Chip and Dale (Disney’s chipmunks), re-enacting the “dawn of man” monolith scene from <em>2001</em>?</p>
<p>It is kind of cool though, and they’re selling them here in Orlando …</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/donald-duck-in-carbonite">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7052009-02-24T09:20:00-05:002009-02-24T09:27:42-05:00Tropicana Is Ditching Their Crap O.J. Packaging<p>I’ve been thinking a lot about branding and packaging recently for reasons that will become obvious in the near future, and in doing so, I find myself reflecting on the crap packaging that Tropicana had come up with for its orange juice boxes.</p>
<p>The trouble I had with the packaging wasn’t that it was ugly (it was), or that it resembled a generic store brand, but that I couldn’t tell the difference between the <em>types</em> of juice. I almost left the store a few times thinking they were out of the kind we drink (Low Acid), only to swing back by on the way out and realize, after several minutes of re-reading the fine print, that the juice was right there, hiding in plain sight.</p>
<p>Idea for Tropicana: If you want simple, how about an all white package with the word “Tropicana” at the top, the kind of juice (e.g. “No Pulp”, “Low Acid”), and a picture of an orange below it.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/tropicana-is-ditching-their-crap-o-j-packaging">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7042009-02-24T09:16:00-05:002009-02-24T09:19:19-05:00Space Invaders for the iPhone<p>My friend Charles Starrett drops a really quick “review of Space Invaders for the iPhone” over at <a href="http://ilounge.com">iLounge</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The game offers a faithful recreation of the arcade experience, providing a simulated cabinet mode with on-screen joystick, button, and arcade-style display; touch/drag and tilt controls are also available, along with four different screen modes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I love classic arcade games, but at $5 <span class="caps">USD</span>, I’m on the fence about this one.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/space-invaders-for-the-iphone">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7032009-02-24T09:07:00-05:002009-02-24T09:28:49-05:00Safari Beta 4<p>Apple has just released a new public beta of <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">Safari 4</a>. It’s said to be the “fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows” and even better with integrating <span class="caps">HTML 5</span> and <span class="caps">CSS 3</span>, and browsing with Coverflow.</p>
<p>More interesting to me than JavaScript rendering speed are some of the new built-in features like history search, better tab management, full-page zoom, and the built-in developer tools we’ve been seeing in the nightly builds.</p>
<p>And hey, Windows users: Safari 4 drops the “Apple look and feel” in favor of the native Windows title bar and borders, so your visual user-experience will now suck in Safari just as badly as in all of your other apps. Sorry, just kidding.</p>
<p>The downside, though, is that it’s not a drag and drop install like the Webkit nightlies, but rather a full-blown installation package. If you want to revert back to Safari 3 after installing the beta, you’ll need to run the included uninstaller.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/safari-beta-4">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7022009-02-24T09:02:00-05:002009-02-24T09:06:48-05:00Snow Leopard Screenshots<p>I’m generally not one to link to <a href="http://news.worldofapple.com/archives/2009/02/23/a-look-at-build-10a261-of-snow-leopard-images-video/">unofficial screenshots of an unreleased operating system</a>, but I’m making an exception here, primarily because of a <em>lack</em> of any major changes to the user interface. As most of you know, user interface is very interesting to me, and I pay close attention to what Apple is doing in this regard.</p>
<p><a href="http://daringfireball.net">John Gruber</a> and I speculate about a significant interface refresh for Snow Leopard in <a href="http://thetalkshow.net/">Episode 29 of The Talk Show</a>. We’ve heard it might be called “Marble” internally at Apple.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/snow-leopard-screenshots">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7012009-02-23T06:48:00-05:002009-02-23T07:01:27-05:00The Safari Cookie Issue: Fixed<p>I’d left Safari for Firefox (technically <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minefield/">Minefield</a>) because of an incredibly frustrating little bug, which I described in an <a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2008/12/being-randomly-logged-out-of-websites-when-using-safari">earlier post</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve experienced an issue where cookies seem to get clobbered despite selecting the “keep me logged in” option, and I’ll find that I’ve been suddenly logged out of the site I was on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A few people had recommended removing any Web Clip dashboard widgets, but I didn’t have any installed. Instead, my solution was to move to Firefox and hang out there until Apple figured things out.</p>
<p>Firefox on Mac <span class="caps">OS X</span> isn’t as bad as the kids say, really, especially if you use Minefield (the nightly build), which is quite a bit faster. But even at its best, Firefox always seems just a little bit clunkier on the Mac, even if it does render pages really quickly.</p>
<p>No matter though, because it seems that <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3438">Security Update 2009-001</a> fixes the Safari cookie issue:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This update addresses a non-security regression introduced in Mac <span class="caps">OS X 10</span>.5.6. Cookies may not be properly set if a web site attempts to set a session cookie by supplying a null value in the “expires” field, rather than omitting the field. This update addresses the issue by ignoring the “expires” field if it has a null value.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Developers often use cookies to verify that you’ve been successfully logged in to a website, and sometimes set empty an <em>expires</em> field values so you can remain logged in for an extended period of time. The problem seemed to occur because Safari was picky about how developers created the cookie. If they used a null value instead of just omitting the field, there’d be trouble.</p>
<p>I can verify that the fix worked on all of the Macs I’d had an issue with, so it may be worth a shot if you’re still experiencing Safari-related cookie issues.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/7002009-02-19T14:50:00-05:002009-02-19T14:51:13-05:00[Sponsor] Pragmatic Studios<p>A big thanks to this week’s sponsor, <a href="http://pragmaticstudio.com">The Pragmatic Studio</a>. They offer hands-on training courses on Ruby, Rails, the iPhone <span class="caps">SDK</span>, and other timely developer topics. You’ll learn directly from expert developers, and come away ready to quickly turn your idea into an application. The next public courses are being held in February and March, and they teach private courses on demand. <a href="http://pragmatic.tv">Video tutorials</a> are also available on a variety of topics.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/sponsor-pragmatic-studios">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6992009-02-13T17:24:00-05:002009-02-13T17:26:56-05:00The Problem with Rating Systems<p>Stevenf (of <a href="http://panic.com">Panic</a> fame) talks about the problem with rating systems:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As soon as an app has been rated more than once, it becomes mathematically very unlikely that it will ever see a 1 or 5 star overall rating again. So, it’s nearly pointless to have scales of 5 stars, 10 stars, or 100 stars, when all you really need is: “Liked it, Didn’t Like It, and Neutral”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I couldn’t agree more, and I give his post <strong>5 <span class="caps">STARS</span></strong>.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/the-problem-with-rating-systems">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6982009-02-13T17:11:00-05:002009-02-13T17:19:26-05:00My Video and Slides from Acts as Conference 2009<p>As mentioned <a href="http://blog.railsmachine.com/articles/2009/02/13/video-and-slides-from-acts-as-conference/">earlier</a> on the <a href="http://blog.railsmachine.com">Rails Machine blog</a>, I delivered the closing keynote for this year’s <a href="http://actsasconference.com">Acts as Conference</a>. It was my second year keynoting at <span class="caps">AAC</span>, and like last time, it was a great experience and a great privilege.</p>
<p>This year, my talk was entitled <em>Distraction, Attention, and Simplicity</em>. I’ve embedded the slideshow and video from the presentation below.</p>
<h3>Slideshow</h3>
<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_1026177"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/danbenjamin/acts-as-conference-keynote?type=powerpoint" title="Distraction, Attention, and Simplicity (Acts As Conference Keynote)">Distraction, Attention, and Simplicity (Acts As Conference Keynote)</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=aac2009-modified-1234561639934807-3&stripped_title=acts-as-conference-keynote" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=aac2009-modified-1234561639934807-3&stripped_title=acts-as-conference-keynote" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/danbenjamin">danbenjamin</a>. (tags: <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/dan">dan</a> <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/benjamin">benjamin</a>)</div></div>
<h3>Video</h3>
<embed src='http://aac2009.confreaks.com/player.swf' height='277' width='468' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' flashvars='image=images%2F07-feb-2009-17-00-keynote-dan-benjamin-preview.jpg&file=http%3A%2F%2Faac2009.confreaks.com%2Fvideos%2F07-feb-2009-17-00-keynote-dan-benjamin-small.mp4&plugins=viral-1' style="margin-bottom: 1em;" />
<p>You can’t tell from the video, but I was wearing one of my favorite T-shirts, <a href="http://insanelygreattees.com/shirt/futurism">Retro Futurism</a>, from <a href="http://insanelygreattees.com">Insanely Great Tees</a>.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6972009-02-13T09:00:00-05:002009-02-13T09:21:09-05:00Microsoft to Open Retail Stores<p>Clearly, if Apple has had success with retail storefronts, Microsoft will too.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/microsoft-to-open-retail-stores">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6962009-02-10T10:42:00-05:002009-02-10T10:47:05-05:00Favicon Generator<p>A favicon — short for favorites icon and also known as a <em>shortcut</em> or <em>bookmark icon</em> — is the 16×16 pixel square that appears in the location bar of your web browser when you visit a website.</p>
<p>They can be a little bit tricky to create without a fancy plugin. Fortunately, there’s Project Fondue’s <a href="http://favicon-generator.org/">Favicon Generator</a> which takes any <span class="caps">GIF</span>, JPEG, or <span class="caps">PNG</span> image and converts it to favicon format for uploading to your website. The site even generates the code you’ll need to use to link it if you want them to host it for you and add it to their gallery (there’s an opt-out option as well if you’re the private type).</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/favicon-generator">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6952009-02-10T07:11:00-05:002009-02-10T07:17:36-05:00[Sponsor] HelpSpot<p>This week’s sponsor is HelpSpot, <a href="http://www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/">help desk software</a> that makes it easy to track, assign, and manage help desk requests from multiple sources. Affordable, easy to setup, downloadable, or hosted.</p>
<p>As a Hivelogic reader, you can get $100 off your next HelpSpot help desk purchase. Use the code <strong>hivelogic</strong> through March 1, 2009 to receive your discount.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/sponsor-helpspot-feb">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6942009-02-09T09:54:00-05:002009-03-13T11:07:44-04:00The AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G<p><img src="http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/dx/af-s_dx_35mmf_18g/img/pic_001.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Looking for a prime lens that will approximate the excellent 50mm focal length on your DX Nikon?</p>
<p>Check out the brand new <a href="http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/dx/af-s_dx_35mmf_18g/index.htm">Nikkor AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8 G lens</a>. This 35mm lens is equivalent to a focal length of 52.5mm in FX (full frame) formats. Other features include a Silent Wave Motor, an aspherical lens, a metal mount, and Nikon’s nice seven-blade rounded diaphragm for creating nice bokeh.</p>
<p>You can buy it from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B001S2PPT0/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">Amazon</a> and if you use that link, I’ll get a kick-back.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6932009-02-04T12:30:00-05:002009-02-04T21:36:47-05:00Why Your Avatar Matters<p>There are more resources available today for building a personal brand than ever before. Anybody can start a blog for free, sign up for social networks, create podcasts and internet TV shows, and be a part of the Big Conversation in hundreds of different ways.</p>
<p>But getting recognized—getting <em>heard</em>— is actually tougher than ever. Although there are so many different avenues, networks, tools, and channels available for creating the unique voice—your personal brand—standing out from the crowd is just that much more difficult.</p>
<p>One way you can stand out, especially on sites like Twitter, is to have a great avatar. A great avatar will help people remember you instantly. And you should use it everywhere, across the board. Use it on your blog if you have one (you should). Use it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, <em>everywhere</em>. Even if people don’t automatically remember your name or your website, they’ll remember your avatar and make an association. When they see it again later, on another network or site, they’ll be more likely to pay attention, to <em>friend</em> you, and maybe remove a few of those degrees of separation.</p>
<h3>It’s About The Face</h3>
<p>It’s been proven that human beings (and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all">crows</a>) are wired to recognize and remember faces, and <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050104114623.htm">it starts in infancy</a>. And even though you might not be good at remembering people’s names, you always remember their face. Even if you haven’t seen somebody in 10, 20, or 30 years, and despite the affects of time, you’ll almost always recognize them when you meet them again.</p>
<p>So it only makes sense that if your goal is to have people recognize you, you’ll want them to see your face.</p>
<h3>Use It Everywhere</h3>
<p>My current avatar was created by <a href="http://bearskinrug.co.uk">Kevin Cornell</a>, an incredible illustrator, as a part of the work I did for the <a href="http://alistapart.com">A List Apart magazine</a>. Before I had it, I used a picture of myself that I took by setting the timer on a camera I’d placed on a shelf in front of me. But the new avatar is much better. It’s an awesome drawing and looks pretty much exactly like me. If you’d only seen my avatar and hadn’t met me in person and I walked into the room, you’d know instantly it was me.</p>
<p>I use my avatar everywhere, here on Hivelogic, and also for every social network I belong to. I use it in Flickr, as my buddy icon in iChat, in Facebook, and even in my Google groups account. This kind of consistency creates familiarity.</p>
<h3>Great Avatars</h3>
<p>So what exactly makes a <em>great</em> avatar?</p>
<p>I think the most successful avatars are the ones that help people connect with you (and your brand) on a personal level.</p>
<p>Take a look at a few of the avatars of some of <em>the most followed people</em> on Twitter:</p>
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3322/3254202284_34a6cdefa6_o.png" width="468" height="99" alt="famous-twitter-people" /></p>
<p>In order: <a href="http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ">Shaq</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/ev">Evan Williams</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/scoble">Robert Scoble</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/leolaporte">Leo Laporte</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/techcrunch">Michael Arrington</a>.</p>
<p>It’s no coincidence that the most successful Twitterers often use their own likeness (a photo, sketch, or caricature) as their avatar. They do that so that <em>people will recognize and remember them</em>. In the case of somebody like <a href="http://twitter.com/wilw">Wil Wheaton</a>, many people already know what he looks like, and his avatar is a fun, likable caricature. <a href="http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ">Shaq</a> just uses a picture of himself.</p>
<p>It’s worth pointing out that the people on Twitter with the most followers are the ones who could probably get away with having a meaningless, impersonal avatar, but generally speaking, they have <em>the most personal</em> avatars around.</p>
<p>Now take a look at these avatars, from a few of the people in my list (some of whom might fit in the “tons of followers” category as well):</p>
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/3254202300_cb74af6c7d_o.png" width="468" height="99" alt="friends-twitter" /></p>
<p>In order: <a href="http://twitter.com/d2h"><span class="caps">DHH</span></a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/gruber">John Gruber</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/duncan">James Duncan Davidson</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/sushimonster">Jina Bolton</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/simplebits">Dan Cederholm</a>.</p>
<p>These are some examples of avatars that <em>work</em>, the ones that make me feel like I know who I’m talking to. I think that it’s especially important for people who <em>aren’t</em> already famous public figures, celebrities to use an accurate representation of who they are.</p>
<p><a href="http://simplebits.com">Dan Cederholm</a>, who was in my list above, has a well known brand with a great logo. He could have used that logo in Twitter. He also could have used a photo of himself. Instead, he’s using the illustration Kevin Cornell did for him. But look at it. It’s fun, it has personality, and if you’ve ever met Dan or seen him talk, you know that the avatar captures something about him that even a picture might miss.</p>
<p>My friend and <a href="http://thetalkshow.net">The Talk Show</a> co-host <a href="http://twitter.com/gruber">John Gruber</a> of <a href="http://daringfireball.net">Daring Fireball</a>, also pictured above, could have used his website’s logo, but instead he’s using a picture of himself. Clearly his Daring Fireball brand is well known, but by using his own picture, he’s saying <em>this is me talking</em>. When I go to Daring Fireball, I’m getting Mr. Gruber’s take on Mac nerdery. But on Twitter, I feel like I’m talking directly to John the <em>person</em>.</p>
<h3>Have a Business? Make a Separate Account</h3>
<p>Even if you’re trying to promote your own small business, you should <em>still</em> use your own face instead of your logo for your own personal twitter. When you show up to <span class="caps">SXSW</span> or a local meet-up, people won’t be looking for you, they’ll be looking for your company’s logo, and you’ll have to do that much more explaining. Your potential clients might use the same social apps you use too, and if they do, they’ll probably follow you (which opens up a whole other can of worms, doesn’t it?).</p>
<p>If you really want to get your logo or company brand out there, create a unique Twitter account for it, and keep them separate. Tweet about personal stuff with your friends on one, and business-related subjects on your company account, which <em>should</em> sport your awesome company logo.</p>
<p>Great avatars actively tell us something about <em>you</em>.</p>
<h3>Great Avatars Are Cheap</h3>
<p>A great avatar doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. In fact, it only takes about 10 seconds to create a good one, and it won’t cost you anything. If your computer has a built in camera, just snap a picture of yourself (on the Mac, many of us have built-in iSight cameras and software like PhotoBooth). If you want to get a little bit more creative, grab a point-and-shoot or dSLR camera, put it on your shelf, set the timer, and smile. Crop the photo (using something like Preview) so we can see your face (or at least part of it if you want to get all artsy) and resize it to 128×128 pixels (most sites will do a good job of resizing it to the scale they need). That’s it, you’re done.</p>
<p>Check out the jumble of avatars Twitter shows you in the sidebar when you’re on the site:</p>
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3498/3253402169_1924fcbdbb_o.png" width="177" height="178" alt="Picture 12" /></p>
<p>Some of those little bitty icons are instantly recognizable to me as <em>actual humans</em>. The rest force me to think or try and remember who they are. There are some cool logos in there, sure, but are they people or companies? It can be easy to forget.</p>
<p>Consider how cool would it be to show up at a conference, at a gathering, or even on the street, and have them say “Oh yeah, I recognize you from your Twitter avatar!”</p>
<h3>A Word About “Bad” Avatars</h3>
<p>I’ve intentionally not pictured, linked, or otherwise mentioned any specific avatars that I don’t think work well. Instead, allow me to offer some tips about things to avoid if you want an avatar that really speaks to your friends and followers:</p>
<ol>
<li>Don’t use those Flash-generated Japanimation style avatars. You know the ones I’m talking about. They all look too similar, which means they’re not unique enough to distinguish you from the rest of the millions of people who are also using them. Yes, I get that you can customize them, but they’re <em>still</em> too much like all the rest, and in the end, a simple photo of yourself is even <em>more</em> unique.</li>
<li>Don’t use inanimate objects or pets. Unless you’re joking, marketing a product, or psychically channeling your hamster.</li>
<li>Don’t use a generic avatar. The worst thing you can do is not customize your avatar, and use the generic avatar provided by the social network. A grainy, blurry photo of your dog is better than that.</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course these are just guidelines.</p>
<h3>Special Cases and Exceptions</h3>
<p>I probably could have gotten away with using the Hivelogic logo from my site as my avatar. My cat is pretty cute, so I could use a picture of him. I think I was a cute kid, so I could use a picture of myself at age 4. But using a current photo or caricature of myself communicates far more about who I really am, today, than any of those other options.</p>
<p>That said, if you already have a very strong brand and association— and I don’t mean if you <em>think</em> you have one, I mean if people stop you on the street to tell you that you do, which is very rare—then it’s probably just fine to use it.</p>
<p>One example of this is <a href="http://twitter.com/codinghorror">Jeff Atwood</a> of <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/">Coding Horror</a> fame. Atwood’s blog is very well read, and he’s a good success. Part of his success is the existing association between his writing and his pre-existing avatar (which I assume <em>isn’t</em> actually what he looks like). So if your brand is already established, then of course you should use it because at that point, people may already expect to see you reference it.</p>
<p>Another example would be <a href="http://twitter.com/JasonCalacanis">Jason Calacanis</a>. He’s using a picture of some bulldogs as his avatar. I have no idea what Calacanis looks like in real life. But as I’ve mentioned, he has about 60,000 followers, so there you go.</p>
<p>Lastly, if your intent is to hide your identity, or to create a make-believe personality or facade, then these rules probably don’t apply to you.</p>
<h3>Be Real</h3>
<p>If the point is getting <em>your</em> voice out there, being heard, being recognized, and creating a brand for yourself, you want to make it personal. You want to make it yours. So don’t hide behind a squiggle, swoosh, or a picture of your dog. You can be more real than that.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6922009-02-03T09:20:00-05:002009-02-04T06:57:18-05:00The Shipwrecked HMS Victory Is Found<p>The <span class="caps">HMS</span> Victory, which mysteriously disappeared along with its crew of 1,100 men on a stormy night in 1744 has been found.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s the solution to one of the most intriguing naval mysteries in history, it went down with the most famous admiral of his time, it has the largest collection of bronze cannon in the world onboard and research suggests that it has one of the largest shipments of gold and silver that will likely ever be found on a shipwreck.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In its day, the <span class="caps">HMS</span> Victory was the most powerful warship in the Royal Navy.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/the-shipwrecked-hms-victory-is-found">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6912009-02-02T17:33:00-05:002009-02-02T17:48:48-05:00Smart Sleep<p>I’ve almost always had a notebook computer of some kind, but I’ve recently switched back to using one as my primary machine (in this case, a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B0017J7T7A/ref=nosim/danbenjamin-20">MacBook Pro</a>).</p>
<p>And while I’m loving it, I’ve run into a little issue with the way the newer MacBooks handle sleep mode. By default, newer MacBooks (and the last generation of PowerBooks) will go into “sleep & hibernate” mode, where they save the contents of <span class="caps">RAM</span> to disk every time you close the lid or put them to sleep manually. This is a good thing, generally, but it takes a bit of time, sometimes a minute or so, for them to <em>actually</em> go to sleep, indicated by that ghostly, pulsating light (a solid light indicates they’re still writing out the contents of <span class="caps">RAM</span> to the disk).</p>
<p><em>Wouldn’t it be better</em>, I was thinking to myself, <em>if this machine would just go into sleep & hibernate mode</em> only <em>when the battery was really low and I’d be at risk of the machine crashing if it ran out of power?</em></p>
<p>The answer is yes, and now, with the free <a href="http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html">SmartSleep preference pane</a>, you can choose exactly how your MacBook (or PowerBook) goes to sleep.</p>
<p>This utility isn’t new, but it was new to me, and it’s quite a bit easier than trying to remember the commands to type into Terminal.app when you’re on a plane and needing to swap batteries.</p>Dan Benjamintag:hivelogic.com,2005:Article/6902009-02-02T10:10:00-05:002009-02-02T10:16:23-05:00[Sponsor] Peepcode<p>This week’s sponsor is <a href="http://peepcode.com/?r=danbenjamin">PeepCode Screencasts</a>, professional video tutorials for web developers. Don’t waste days trying to learn from a search engine. Learn fast in an hour with a PeepCode screencast on <a href="http://peepcode.com/products/productivity-for-programmers?r=danbenjamin">productivity</a>, <a href="http://peepcode.com/products/git?r=danbenjamin">Git source code control</a>, <a href="http://peepcode.com/products/rails-from-scratch-part-i?r=danbenjamin">Ruby on Rails</a>, the <a href="http://peepcode.com/products/meet-emacs?r=danbenjamin">Emacs text editor</a> and many other topics.</p>
<p>Save 10% this week with the Google Checkout coupon <span class="caps">DAN</span>.</p>
<p><a href="http://hivelogic.com/articles/2009/02/sponsor-peepcode">[permalink]</a></p>Dan Benjamin