Comics About Systems

For some time I've been looking for a way to combine my interest and knowledge of computer systems and my love and production of comics. I've finally managed to do it. 

The new Fusion TV network has published the first of my InfoComics. These InfoComics are geared not towards sysadmins, but rather to the general public. They attempt to explain everyday technology that we all talk about, but which most people probably don't really understand. And they do so using simple language and, hopefully, fun and memorable pictures.

So please go check out my first InfoComic, "What Is Google?" 

Online File and Photo Services

A while back I was struggling with iPhoto performance issues, and with the silliness of Apple's iOS-iPhoto-iCloud integration, when I heard about a new online photo storage service called Everpix. With the idea of ditching iPhoto in favor of a cloud solution, I signed up for an Everpix trial. And I liked it a lot. If not for their lack of PNG support, which, as a cartoonist that uses PNGs extensively, was something of a non-starter for me, I probably would've paid for an upgrade.

This week Everpix sadly shuttered their service. 

In the weeks between my discovery of Everpix and its demise, I spent an unreasonable amount of time researching the numerous various players in this now crowded field. There is a plethora of file-based services like Dropbox who are now vying for your photos. And there are also a bunch of photo-specific services a-la Everpix.  

I don't have time to write the lengthy article this topic really deserves, but I thought it might be useful to some folks if I shared my notes on each service I tried. This list covers file services as well as photo-specific ones; my end goal was to find both a cloud-based file service and a photo service, but if the two could be combined, all the better.

Google+

Pros: Free; does video; unlimited storage; does iOS Auto Backup; does cool processing tricks; organizes; I already have an account.
Cons: More data for Google; interface can be frustratingly inconsistent; not really photo-centric; backup not happening reliably in background; images not stored full quality.
Killer Feature: Tons of cool tricks and unlimited storage for free!
More Info

Google Drive

Pros: Hooks into Google Docs.
Cons: Limited space; costs money; only syncs from within Google Drive folder (no symlinks); doesn't sync Mac OS metadata; not really photo-oriented; not well integrated with other Google services.
Non-starter: What's the point?

Everpix

Pros: Great interface; great organization options; great sharing options; does iOS Auto Backup.
Cons: Costs money; only does JPEG — no PNG or video.
Non-starter: JPEG only? Seriously?
More Info

Dropbox

Pros: Decent interface; very reliable; deep hooks into iOS ecosystem; does iOS Auto Backup; preserves Mac OS metadata; super easy to set up and use.
Cons: Costs money; adding all photos would make it quite expensive; all syncing from within Dropbox folder, not other folders in OS (mitigated with symlinks); munges some photos on iOS.
Killer Feature: Reliability & deep iOS hooks.
More Info

Cubby

Pros: Will sync folders anywhere in filesystem, not just in Cubby folder; decent interface; acceptable iOS clients.
Cons: Paths to sync folders break easily; not reliable; costs money.
Non-starter: Sync folder paths break. I'm paying for this?
More Info 

Loom

Pros: Good iOS and web interfaces; organizes by device; does multiple formats and video; does iOS Auto Backup.
Cons: A bit buggy on iOS; lacks features; costs money; young startup in a competitive field might not be around forever; suffers from being too new and not very useful yet, but one to watch.
Killer Feature: Really nice, basic photo galleries at an affordable price.
More Info

Flickr

Pros: 1 TB of storage; the original photo sharing service; owned by Yahoo, so presumably a safe bet.
Cons: Video not included in iOS Auto Backup; interface is weird, perplexing; video size limited (though very reasonably).
Non-starter: Video not included in iOS Auto Backup.
More Info

Bittorrent Sync

Pros: Free; peer-to-peer (no cloud); any sort of document; full quality images; fast & efficient transfer; works with iOS and computers; does iOS Auto Backup.
Cons: Currently, iOS does not allow for images to be opened in other apps; not really photo-specific; no web interface; complicated to set up.
Killer Feature: Peer-to-peer sync without the cloud!
Bonus: Images on iOS stored full quality!
More Info

Apple Photo Stream

Pros: Works great on iOS; Auto Backup is seamlessly integrated; galleries are free and unlimited, work well and force you to self-organize.
Cons: On the Mac you must currently use iPhoto to manage Photo Stream, which is terrible; no web interface; no video; limited to the last 1000 photos.
Killer Feature: Truly seamless iOS integration!
More Info

SugarSync

Pros: Syncs folders anywhere in filesystem; mounts cloud storage as WebDAV mount point on desktop.
Cons: So-so interface; loses sync paths easily; costs money.
Non-starter: I cannot abide by broken sync paths, especially if I'm paying.
More Info

PictureLife

Pros: The most iPhoto-like, this service is the closest thing to iPhoto-in-the-cloud that I’ve found; supports multiple formats; video; good organization and search; pulls photos from social networks like Facebook.
Cons: The web interface is a bit shiny for my tastes; costs money.
Killer Feature: iPhoto-in-the-cloud!
More Info

Conclusions

If I were going to pay for any of these service, I would certainly start with Dropbox. It's just the best and I use it all the time for file services. In fact, I plan to upgrade my Dropbox to a paid plan, I'm just waiting to pull the trigger. [Update: Trigger pulled.] If I were going to pay for a photo service, Dropbox might just suffice. It's not an iPhoto killer, but its basic functionality might be good enough to avoid the additional expense of a photo-specific service. Then again, to really support all my photos in Dropbox I'd probably have to pay even more for additional storage, at which point a separate dedicated service for photos becomes appealing.

If I were going to pay for photo management as an additional service, I would go with PictureLife. PictureLife is the most iPhoto-like, and it does most of the things I want from such a service — video, multi-format photos and organizing — at an affordable price. Since what I’m really after is iPhoto-in-the-cloud, PictureLife makes the most sense for me.

(Note: I've done the math, and it would be $20 cheaper per year to get a 100GB Dropbox plan for files and a 100GB PictureLife plan for photos than to get a 200GB Dropbox plan. So if it's more convenient for you to separate them, that's the way to go. Then again, if it's less convenient for you, going all-Dropbox is only slightly more expensive.)

Since there is no perfect photo service yet, no iPhoto killer, and since it's really anybody's guess what, if any, of these service will be around in a year, I'm opting to do things on the cheap. So for now I'm using a 100GB Dropbox account for files and Google+ for my photos. It's not perfect; the photos are not stored full-res and there are some bugs and interface quirks. But Google+ does so much so well, the size limitations aren't that big a deal to me, and the free price and unlimited storage make it a no-brainer.

I'm also using Bittorrent Sync to keep certain image and project folders in sync between all my devices, primarily because images in its iOS client are never downscaled like they are in virtually every other service. In Bittorrent Sync my images always look amazing. And that's kind of important.

Update:
This is a rapidly evolving field; services are changing their apps and adding functionality on an ongoing basis. If you see any erroneous information in the above article, please let me know in the comments.  I'll do my best to make corrections.

To wit: there have been some changes to the Flickr service which were mentioned in the comments. I've updated the article accordingly. 

New Hotness: Late 2013 MBPr

I have received my 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This is my first new computer in over four years. Normally I get one about every three, but this time around I decided to wait a while and see how things went. They did not go well.

Basically, my old, beloved 2009 17" MacBook Pro has been dying a slow death over the last year as I've awaited the new hardware with increasing impatience. As of the other day it was freezing every few hours. And that's when not in use.  To complicate matters, I even had a hard drive in it die a month or two ago. Enough, I say!

So when Apple finally announced the latest 15" MBPr, I... Hesitated...

To be honest, my enthusiasm for getting new computers has lessened as I've gotten older. These days, I think of setting up new hardware as something I do for work, not on my free time. It doesn't help that the hardware has largely stabilized in terms of form factor: today's MacBook Pros look pretty much just like they did four years ago. And spending this rather large chunk of cash is never easy either. But what's a systemsboy to do? I needed a new machine. Bad. 

So I bit the bullet. I got, essentially, the top of the line, but with the second-fastest processor. So:  

I also upgraded the storage to 1TB. (Hint: the storage is really the pricey upgrade, so if you plan on upgrading the storage you're better off just getting the higher-end machine with the dedicated graphics and faster processor for only a little extra green.) The upgrade made this a build-to-order system, so I had to order online and wait for it to ship from China.

I was very pleased when my machine arrived three days earlier than Apple's best estimate.  This put it in my hands at the end of a long weekend rather than mid-week, which was awesome.

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But the biggest surprise was how much I've ended up loving this machine so far. Yes, it looks mostly the same. But in almost every respect it is far superior to my old machine. While it may look similar, it feels vastly better to use.  

For one, it doesn't crash every few hours. It's amazing how quickly you can get used to this sort of thing and start to just think of it as the norm. But when it goes away, man is it nice.

It's also much, much faster. With a newer processor featuring more cores, speedy flash storage, a faster graphics card and 16GBs of RAM this thing really feels fast. Everything just happens instantaneously, and copying the vast store of files from my backups has been as quick as I've ever seen it. When you wait four years, you really feel the speed improvements, and it's very nice.

This new machine is lighter too. Much lighter, in fact. I pick it up one-handed all the time and compared to my old 17" it feels like nothing.  This wasn't something I really thought would make such a difference, but the overall effect is that I use — and want to use — the computer more, because doing so is much less physically burdensome.

The battery lasts a really long time too — about 6 hours for my own personal general use case. Gone are the days of sitting tethered to my power cord. Now I go power free most of the time, which also makes the thing much nicer to use. 

There are even little things I've noticed that really add up: this machine doesn't get as hot as easily as my old one, and the fans are quiet during normal use; the sharp edges along the sides — which I noted when I wrote up my 17" machine — have been softened ever so slightly, and the finger notch for opening the display is also softer and shallower. These subtle things are instantly noticeable, though, because they're so much a part of how the machine feels all the time as you use it. These little improvements make a huge difference! 

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Finally, the screen. I was worried the retina display would be something of a mixed blessing. I'm quite used to the screen real estate of the 17", and I must admit I missed it a bit at first. But the retina display is strikingly good. Because of its greater pixel density, I'm able to scale the resolution to increase the screen real estate and show more content without making things hard to read. And it just looks gorgeous. Also, it's quite bright and the glare problem of older models seems to be largely solved: I haven't noticed glare once after using it all around the house.

So I have to say, now that I have it, I'm pretty excited about my new MacBook Pro. Waiting the extra year to upgrade has made the new machine seem like a huge leap, and in a way I'm glad I waited. Then again, I suffered for this, so we'll see what happens in three years.  

Systems Pain Points: An Exploration

The first of what looks to be a great series on why computers suck is up on Ars today: 

It's the Little Things

"All computers suck. It's just you find one that sucks in a way you can deal with." Is that really what developers want?

Not only is this awesome, but it's also proof that John C. Welch can write without saying fuck every fifth word. 

Yay. 

Quicklook Full-Size

I'm poking around in Mavericks and found cool new functionality in Quicklook.  If you're using Quicklook to view an image, by default it will show you the entire image. If the image is larger than will fit on your screen, it will show you a scaled version.

But, in Mavericks, if you press the Option key after Quicklook has opened, the larger images will zoom in to display at the full resolution of the image.