mtnsloth’s posthaven

Cocoatech recently released Path Finder 6 for OS X.  Cocoatech has posted some youtube videos that explain the product. Here is a link to the introductory video. 

I'm not sure exactly when it was released (I think today), but it is on sale during its release week for $5 off . . . so for $35.  Cocoatech allows you to try the software for 30 days, but don't take too much time if you want to take advantage of the introductory offer.  However, if you use Hazel, you may want to be sure the additional functionality of Path Finder is worth the price of admission as there is some overlap between the two products.

In any event,  Path Finder is the best of the Finder replacements for OS X, and this upgrade is just about mandatory for any OS X power user. For anyone with a history on the PC, Path Finder is the spiritual descendent Peter Norton's Norton Commander, a DOS file utility that featured a dual pane view that allowed you to see both source and destination folders at the same time; and it included many useful tools.

A Windows app with similar functionalty is Total Commander, and it costs $44, and has no where near the polish of Path Finder. So. Even at full price, you shouldn't feel too put-off by Path Finder's regular price of $40.

I used to post favorite albums to the big blog. However, until I can redo that section to work with music that is available from sources other than just Amazon, I think this will have to do. No. I haven't fallen out with Amazon, but I do prefer better than MP3 quality digital downloads. That eliminates both Amazon and Apple from my preferred music vendor list.

Hotel California / The Eagles:  after more than 30 years, it is still an impressive album

Of the Marsh and the Moon / I Ching:  a Chesky Records classic. Ambient, World, New Age . . . I recognize the need to classify music, but I think such labels do at least as much harm as they do good.

Both links are to high quality DRM-free FLAC downloads; and HDtracks pricing is reasonable . . . especially when compared to the DVD-A or Blu-ray alternatives.

The price of these active monitors recently dropped from $799 to $349. I've had my eye on them for some time as an upgrade to a pair of M-Audio BX5a monitors for one of my workstations; and decided that the price drop was reason enough to finally pull the trigger. There is not enough room behind the workstation for even a bookshelf speaker, so monitors have had to be the way to go. Note that these won't work with a stereo receiver or AVR that lacks a pre-out; and, even then, you will need some means for controling the volume. I'm using mine with a headphone amp that has pre-outs in addition to the headphone jack.

These suckers are big . . . really big. If you don't have a large desk or don't have a pair of beefy speaker stands, then this is too much speaker for you. Here is a shot of a BX5a perched on top of a Prodipe Ribbon 8.

The back of the speaker:

As you can see, inputs include an unbalanced RCA plug (for consumer equipment) and balanced XLR or 1/4" TRS plugs for pro gear.

I'll post a review on gdgt.com in a few weeks when I get some more time with these speakers.

I have some CDs that are . . . uhhh . . . 30 years old. I last touched many of these CDs 10 years ago when I ripped them with iTunes to put on my first iPod. A couple years ago, I invested in dBpoweramp to deal with an imported CD that had one track I just couldn't rip with iTunes. Last year, I began to (very) slowly re-rip my CD collection to FLAC for use with the hard drive attached to an OPPO univeral media player in the living room. I also convert the FLAC files using dBpoweramp's audio converter to Apple Lossless (ALAC) format for use with iTunes.  Both file types are a pretty big upgrade from the 128- and even 256- bit AAC rips of years gone by.

Today, acting on one of my New Year's resolutions, I picked up the pace of the re-ripping project. I was determined to get through at least a quarter of my classical CD collection. One short-cut, for the Apple side of the house, is to rip the CDs on both the Mac and PC. However, I ran into an entire CD that I couldn't rip with iTunes. That is where dBpoweramp is really saving the day; and, while It is taking some time, it looks like I am going to get all the tracks off this failed/failing CD. We'll see . . .

LATER:  Yep. It worked!

I had more than 1GB but less than 3GB of free space on my iPhone 4 when I began the upgrade to iOS 5. The upgrade went OK, but the restore process after the upgrade went awry. And, in a most un-Apple-like manner, the dialog box is less than helpful. :(

"Continue Restore" just repeats the restore, and I got the same error. No joy there.

I opted to Google the error code . . .

There is a thread going in Apple Community Support that is more helpful than Apple's official support document regarding these sort of errors.

To avoid the error, it seems that I would have been better off reconfiguring my iPhone BEFORE attempting the upgrade. As that is what I was effectively forced into doing in the end anyway; and doing so would have saved at least an hour. In my case, the solution would have been just removing all music from the phone; as I have had to restore it all anyway.

>,<

I'll bet some of the problems reported with the upgrade have been due to impatience. The screen should not blank out . . . as it does during the lengthy restores. This could easily fool someone that is not paying attention to iTunes status messages; and a premature disconnect would probably result in lost apps and music. Exactly matching many of the problems that I have seen posted over the last 24 hours.

Yep. You have to enable the Genius feature in iTunes if you want to use Match with iCloud.

Gdgt has a better spec sheet than Apple does!

Engadget has a nice comparison chart of the iPhone 4 versus 4S