Connecting an external hard drive to an Xbox 360 using a Mac

Premise:

I own an Xbox 360 that I use as my primary entertainment centre. I use it to play games, watch Netflix, and watch movies streamed from an external hard-drive from my MacBook.  That's right! You read it correctly... streamed from an external hard-drive through my MacBook! Gross!

In the beginning, streaming movies from my MacBook was a fairly easy solution.  Especially considering I was using a great piece of software called Rivet.  What I really wanted to do was connect the external hard-drive directly to my Xbox 360.

How I did it:

First thing I needed to know was how to format the drive so that the Xbox can read it.  It turns out that the Xbox 360 supports reading drives that have the HFS+ file system format... much better than the antiquated FAT32 file system!!

I used my MacBook Pro running OS X (10.6) to format a Maxtor 320GB external USB hard-drive using "Disk Utility" found in the "/Applications/Utilities/" folder.

Formatting the drive:

1. Run Disk Utility
2. Select the drive you want to use
3. Select the "Partition" tab for the drive
4. Select "1 Partition" under "Volume Scheme"
5. Give the drive a meaningful name like "Media"
6. Select "Mac OS Extended" from the "Format" choices
7. Click the "Options" button and select "Apple Partition Map"
8. Click "Apply"

 

Now copy some media to your newly formatted drive to test on your Xbox 360.  As long as the media type is supported, your Xbox 360 should be able to see any videos, music, and photos on the drive.

Windows users can use a program called MacDrive to format an external drive as HFS+ but I won't go into details because I only use Windows if I'm forced to by gunpoint. ;)

Enjoy!

Facebook: Where did my friends go?

The Premise:

As of late I have been wondering why many of my friends and family have become fairly quiet on Facebook.  I don't see much activity from them in my news feed.  Then I came across something that explained what's been going on.

I take no credit for following information but I really wanted to share it.

The Problem:

You have probably noticed that you are only seeing updates in your news feed from the same people. Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and everyone else seems to be ignoring you?

The problem is that a large portion of your friend/fan list don't see anything you post.

The Cause:

Facebook has a news feed setting that, by default, is automatically set to show only posts from people who you have recently interacted with or interact the most with. So unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within a few weeks or vice versa - you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!

The Fix:

On the homepage click the "Most Recent" option on the top-right of the news feed, then click on the drop down arrow beside it and select "Edit Options...", click on "Show posts from" and change the setting to "All of your friends and pages"

Choose "Edit Options"

Change to "All of your friends and pages"

Now you should be able to view all of your friends/fans again. However, you will not show up to a large portion of your friend list unless they make the same setting changes.

Now you know. ;)

Google? Are you ok?

Foremost... my name is Blair and I am a Google Fanboy!

I use Google's wonderful offerings for almost everything I do online.  I use Gmail for my email needs and Google Apps for my consulting business. Wifey and I share Google Docs and Google Calendars to help keep organized.  I read all of my news feeds using Google Reader.  I develop web applications using Google App Engine.  I use Picasa for my image sharing need and this blog is powered by Blogger!

However, as of late I've fallen victim to some issues I've only read about online.  One afternoon I found myself looking at a server error page for about six hours instead of my email inbox!!  Everyone around me at the time that also use Gmail were unaffected.  You can imagine how annoyed I was.

Lately, I have also noticed that my general Google experience has become less than optimal.  In Gmail, loading pages and performing actions on emails such as archiving take noticeably longer than they used to. My Google calendars sometimes don't load and adding events takes a while.  I've had my web applications on Google App Engine not be available and some spreadsheets in Google Docs show odd behavior when editing.

On one hand I take my hat off to the fine developers and the hard work that goes into these free online utilities.  On the other hand, considering I use these tools for personal, work, and business needs, it is important that they work consistently well!  Not being able to access my email for over six hours was unacceptable!

These recent issues have, unfortunately, shaken my faith in the stability of the products I so love.  I've started looking into alternatives and that makes me sad.  I tell myself that perhaps the folks at Google had their fingers in too many pots and were working on too many new things at once.  This may be the case considering there are some services like Google Wave being discontinued.  Perhaps Google has recognized the need to refocus on stability of their most heavily used products.

I would hate to have to jump off of the Google ship after all this time.

Abundant dreaming is forcing me to express myself

As of late I find myself dreaming much more than I am accustomed to... much much more!

From what I have read, I know I need to focus on the feelings and emotions in my dreams and not so much the content.  If I concentrate on the feelings that I am experiencing during my dreams then I should end up with a good idea of where my subconscious thoughts are.  I've started doing this and I am beginning to understand how I am really feeling about my life.  So far it is less positive than I had hoped.

Reflecting on my dreams has helped me realize that there are things on my mind that I can't seem to resolve.  Some are things that have been said to me recently that I haven't figured out how to deal with.  Some are questions I have started asking myself that I can't seem to find answers for.  Some are relatively old issues that have resurfaced because I didn't truly resolve them at the time.

I am usually a lucid dreamer and remember many details of my dreams when I wake.  I have been like this for most of my life and have yet to decide if this ability is a blessing or a curse.  Regardless, I know that it will help me make sense of what is going on with me right now.

A technique that has been successful for me in the past is expressing how my dreams make me feel.  Sometimes this involves writing about them and usually speaking about them with others. This time I strongly feel that it would be best if I resolve this on my own.  To do this I know I need to express myself much more than I do.  My expressions may come in the form of blog posts, Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, or perhaps something as simple as writings in a notebook (as I used to do before I became such a webaholic).

I am very excited (and extremely nervous) about what I am about to learn about myself.

How to change the default Python version on Snow Leopard

Premise:

• I have a MacBook Pro (Leopard) that originally came with Python 2.3
• I upgraded to Python 2.5 (required for projects I work on)
• All was well for quite some time until...
  
• I needed to upgrade the OS from Leopard to Snow Leopard
• Snow Leopard installs Python 2.6, but I still need Python 2.5 (and my installed modules)
  
• What to do?

Post Snow Leopard upgrade:

After the upgrade I found that my current Python version was indeed 2.6 as I expected, and was surprised (and glad) to find that my original 2.3 and 2.5 versions were still intact:

bkelsie$ ls -Al /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/
drwxr-xr-x   8 root  wheel  272 28 Dec 11:23 2.3
drwxr-xr-x  11 root  wheel  374 28 Dec 11:23 2.5
drwxr-xr-x  11 root  wheel  374 28 Dec 11:23 2.6
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    3 28 Dec 11:23 Current > 2.6

I also found that the Python 2.5 modules I installed were also intact:

bkelsie$ ls -Al /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/ | wc -l
      12

How to change the default Python version:

It turns out that in Snow Leopard, "python" is not a symbolic link to the current version.  It is a selector!

bkelsie$ which python
/usr/bin/python

bkelsie$ ls -lA /usr/bin/python*
-rwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  86000  7 Jul  2009 /usr/bin/python
-rwxr-xr-x  5 root  wheel    925  7 Jul  2009 /usr/bin/python-config
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     75 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/python2.5 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/python2.5
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     82 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/python2.5-config -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/python2.5-config
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     75 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/python2.6 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python2.6
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     82 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/python2.6-config -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python2.6-config
-rwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel  86000  7 Jul  2009 /usr/bin/pythonw
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     76 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/pythonw2.5 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/pythonw2.5
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     76 28 Dec 11:23 /usr/bin/pythonw2.6 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/pythonw2.6

A quick read of the python MAN page helped me figure out how to change the current version:

bkelsie$ man python
 
 PYTHON(1)                 BSD General Commands Manual                PYTHON(1)

NAME
     python, pythonw -- an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language

SYNOPSIS
     python ...
     pythonw ...

DESCRIPTION
     To support multiple versions, the programs named python and pythonw now just select the real version of Python to run, depending on various settings.  (As of Python 2.5, python and pythonw are interchangeable; both execute Python in the context of an application bundle, which means they have access to the Graphical User Interface; thus both can, when properly programmed, display windows, dialogs, etc.)  The current supported versions are 2.5 (provided for backward-compatibility with the Python 2.5 family), 2.6 and 3.0, with the default being 2.6.
     Use
           % man python2.5
           % man python2.6
           % man python3.0
           % man pythonw2.5
           % man pythonw2.6
           % man pythonw3.0

     to see the man page for a specific version.  Without a version specified,
           % man pydoc

     and the like, will show the man page for the (unmodified) default version of Python (2.6).  To see the man page for a specific version, use, for example,
           % man pydoc2.5

CHANGING THE DEFAULT PYTHON
     Using
           % defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Version 2.5

     will make version 2.5 the user default when running the both the python and pythonw commands (versioner is the internal name of the version-selection software used).

...

So it was as simple as telling the OS which version to use:

bkelsie$ python --version
Python 2.6.1

bkelsie$ defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Version 2.5
bkelsie$ python --version
Python 2.5.4

bkelsie$ defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Version 2.6
bkelsie$ python --version
Python 2.6.1

 Trying to set the version to one that is not installed results in the default being chosen:

bkelsie$ defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Version 3.0
bkelsie$ python --version
Python 2.6.1

So now whenever I want to change my current Python version I just run the handy little one-liner!

I hope this was helpful. :)

New Year's Evolutions

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2010!

Like many others, for a very long time, I was a New-Year's-Resolutions-maker.  I would sit down, think seriously for some time, then write a list of the things I was going to accomplish in the coming year.  I would even craft elaborate plans about how I was going to achieve each item on my list.

However, as the year progressed, I would lose focus or interest and many of my resolutions would become distant memories until the next new year. :(

I've decided to break this cycle! From now on, I make New Year's "Evolutions"!

Why?  Because every success I've had in my life has come as a result of being willing to change!

For my New Year's Evolutions:

• I will evolve to reach the end goals
• Evolving takes an indeterminate amount time, so I will not feel pressure to complete evolutions within a given time frame.  They will be done when they are done
• Evolution usually leads to something better so any progress I make will be a positive change in my life
• Evolution is natural so the changes I need to make to fulfill an evolution should also feel natural
• I will get the help of as many people as necessary to achieve each evolution
• I will evolve faster by being willing to make changes to changes I've already made
• ... you get the point

I've always hated making a New Year's list.... until now. ;)

Important life lessons learned

A recent survey question asked me,  "Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned?"

Here is how I responded

• Family first!
• Everything happens for a reason, even if you don't know or understand the reason when the thing happens.
• Do what makes you happy.  If you are happy, everything else just falls into place.

I had a hard time limiting myself to three so here are a few more that bubbled to the top of my mind:

• There are very few problems that cannot be fixed.  Some just take more time and sometimes the fix isn't always what you want it to be
• Do your best, because it is the best you can do
• You cannot control what other people say and do

A following question was, "Why are these so critical?"

• Because this is life... and as far as I know, I only get one shot at it
• Friends and acquaintances come and go, but family is always there
• Great families are made of people that help each other out
• Sometime things happen in our lives that we aren't happy with, but after all is said and done, somehow, some way, what happened, needed to happen
• Because, at the end of my life, I can't imagine what it would feel like thinking I wasn't ever truly happy in my life

I really enjoyed answering those questions and for no reason in particular, I felt like sharing them. :)

H1N1!! What have you done!?!

The rant you are about to receive is brought to you by the letter H and by the number 1.

I turn on the TV and it's "H1N1 is believed to be responsible for [X] deaths so far!"
I turn on the radio and it's "Get your vaccination at the following clinics....hurry!"
I read my news feeds and it's "H1N1 H1N1 H1N1 H1N1..."
Someone is sick and it's "Do you think they have H1N1?? OMG!"

AAAAAAAAARGGG!

Ok.  I understand that there is a very bad flu virus going around that has the potential to cause major complications and possible death for some people.  As far as I know those in the high-risk category include people who already have health complications, young children, pregnant women, and adults over sixty-five.  But isn't that true for every other flu virus we've seen so far??  I swear I've heard this same sort of thing every year.  Every fall, when cold and flu season hits I distinctly remember hearing about how you should get your yearly flu shot if you are in the higher risk categories.

So why is everyone freaking out about this one? I'm not sure. Maybe it's because someone gave it a scary name: "H1N1"  It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.  It's the name of the chemical the government accidentally released that is turning the human race into rampant zombies.  Even better is how "regular" influenza viruses are now getting their own name.  I recently had a case of the flu and was told it was probably "H2N3".  What!?

What makes me sad is how we are reacting to this piglademic.  I find myself scared to cough or sneeze. People look at you like you have the plague.  We now cough into our inner elbows instead of our hands (like we were taught all of our lives).  There are hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere!  I can't count how many times I've smelled a rubbing alcohol-like aroma in the air.  Hand sanitizers come in travel, small, medium, large, and industrial sized packaging.  You can get it plain, with aloe, scented, colored... the list goes on.

But most importantly, that started this whole rant, was a recent experience I had with someone I meet with on a regular basis.  We just finished having our meeting and were getting ready to part ways.  As always, I extended my hand to have our usual parting hand-shake.  I was denied.  Instead he offered to bump elbows or upper arms.  It was one of the most awkward moments I've ever had.

  Unknown - 2009

Here lies our beloved Hand Shake

A symbol of friendship, respect, and courtesy, it was loved by many

Tragically, it was struck down by H1N1

RIP

As far as I am concerned, we are one step closer to bubble suits and decontamination stations!

Happy Halloween!

I've always loved Halloween!  Creatures, monsters, vampires, witches, goblins, ghouls, demons, zombies, blood, mayhem,... *sigh*... how could I not love Halloween?

This year I decided to re-submerge myself in the darkness and came up with a simple yet effective costume for freaking out the hordes of trick or treaters that will be hammering on my door for goodies.

Happy Halloween!

Who do you really want to be? Revision 2.

To move forward in my quest to figure out who I really want to be I need to start working on some of the items on my list.

I firmly believe that I have a better chance of succeeding if I keep things easy so initially jotting down ideas/tasks is a good way to start.

Who I really want to be (version 1.2)

Social

• Happy, someone who finds it easy to smile
• Figure out what keeps me from smiling
  
• Thoughtful of others
• Honest, caring, and supportive person
• Enjoy more of the simplicity of life
• Plays board games with the family
• Buy some board games and pick a game night
• Have a down-to-earth group of real and honest friends
• Attend more events / join more groups to meet more people
  
• Spend more time nurturing relationships
• Easily know what is important

Financial

• Work less
• Financial independence
  
• Debt free
• Make an appointment with a Financial Planner
  
• Home owner
• Talk to a broker to know where I stand and project a time-line
  

Health

• Physically fit, regular physically activity
• Join a gym
• Get a trainer to set up a program
  
• A member of a casual sports team
• Swim more
• Join local leisure center facilities that have pools
• Plan once-a-week swimming with my little one
  
• Practice Yoga
• Join a beginners class (perhaps at the same local leisure centers)
  
• Less illness
  

Goals

• A decent fisherman
• Purchase fishing gear
  
• World traveler
• Purchase a world map and plot places I want to visit
  
• Find a calling/charity/cause to be fully passionate about
  
• Read more books
• Read at least 15 minutes before bed every night
  
• Music lover
• Play an instrument
• Worry less
• More time outdoors

I think that's a healthy start.  As a "todo" list type of guy I'm excited about my new tasks.  I plan to cross off items as I complete them and, as always, continue to evolve my list.

Until next time...

Links to my previous entries:
The Beginning
Revision 1