27.12.12

How to move your iTunes library to a NAS | TUAW

How to move your iTunes library to a NAS | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Given how many functions iTunes is actually used for these days (iOS syncing, app shopping, and book, music, and movie buying), it's easier than ever to forget what it was originally used for: listening to music. But of course that's still the software's main function, and if you want to move your entire library over to an NAS -- which stands for network-attached storage, or a hard drive that connects up to a local area network -- then this writeup from Ars Technica has you covered.

The easiest way to share an iTunes library in this way is simply to move the mp3 files (and then re-add them to whatever installation of iTunes you're using), but as Ars says, that will lose all of your collected metadata so far. If you want to actually keep all of your extra data, however, you'll need to actually move your folder location in iTunes to your new NAS folder, and then tell iTunes to copy over all of your collected music and data.

Note that because of the differences between file systems (some may be case-sensitive and some not), just moving your iTunes files location may cause a few issues. And of course having a larger or more complicated library can be problematic as well -- if your library is due for a cleaning, it might be worth it just to say goodbye to the data so far and move on. But iTunes can be resilient if you do your homework before trying to make the move.

There are other ways to do this as well -- you could just share your library from one computer to another with the built-in library sharing feature on your Mac. Or you could move a hard drive around (which might be handy if you need the library in a few different networks, like home and work), keeping your entire library on there. There are plenty of cloud options as well, which will only become more and more easy to use as time goes on.

iTunes may be used for all sorts of other operations these days, but it's still a very robust and powerful music listening and organization app as well.


Categories

iTunes Mac
Given how many functions iTunes is actually used for these days (iOS syncing, app shopping, and book, music, and movie buying), it's...
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IainBrown

IainBrown
@Brian Gray Not true. I have my iTunes Library on a NAS with no issues whatsoever and it is over 4TB (yes, terabytes). Your issues may have been the NAS (I use a BuffaloTech). Now, backing up this bad boy... That's a whole other story :)

Brian Gray

Brian Gray
@IainBrown @Brian Gray How much of your library do you sync to an iOS device? That is the main time in which iTunes runs into problems. The other problem is maintaining the library, like editing album art and changing meta data. I have not tested with other NAS devices, but my Synology is one of the fastest on the market. The problems were definitely related to iTunes on the Mac, because it works perfectly with a PC.

Brian Gray

Brian Gray
I have been running my iTunes library on a Synology NAS for many years, both with the Mac and PC version of iTunes. I would not recommend this for Mac users. The Mac version of iTunes becomes massively unstable with its media library on a NAS. It crashes so frequently that it can take a dozen or more attempts to sync a large media library. (I have 30GB library syncing to 32GB+ devices.) It is better with smaller devices syncing only a portion of my library, but not much. The PC version of iTunes is fine with the media library on a NAS. I am now forced to use a PC to host iTunes-- it is orders of magnitude faster and never crashes.

Lik

13.12.12

Liferay Portal - a free and open source enterprise portal

Liferay

Jump to: navigation, search
Liferay
Developer(s) Liferay
Stable release 6.1 (6.1 GA2) / July 31, 2012; 4 months ago
Development status Active
Written in Java
Operating system Cross-platform
Type Enterprise portal, content management framework, content management system, community
License LGPL License [1] and proprietary[1]
Website http://www.liferay.com

Liferay Portal is a free and open source enterprise portal written in Java and distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License[2] and proprietary licenses.[1] It is primarily used to power corporate intranets and extranets.[citation needed]

Liferay Portal allows users to set up features common to websites. It is fundamentally constructed of functional units called portlets.[3] Liferay is sometimes described as a content management framework or a web application framework. Liferay's support for plugins extends into multiple programming languages, including support for PHP and Ruby portlets.[4]

Although Liferay offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic website installation and administration.

Liferay Portal is Java based and runs on any computing platform capable of running the Java Runtime Environment and an application server. Liferay is available bundled with a servlet container such as Apache Tomcat.[5]

Contents

10.12.12

Steve Jobs - bycycles for the mind



" I think one of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation.

So, that didn’t look so good.

But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts.

    And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our
minds.” ~

           Steve Jobs

Bicycles For Our Minds by Michael Mulvey — Kickstarter

Bicycles For Our Minds by Michael Mulvey — Kickstarter

Steve Jobs believed "the computer is like a bicycle for our minds". This is a poster series illustrating that wonderful metaphor.
  • Launched: Dec 5, 2011
  • Funding ended: Jan 4, 2012

What People Are Saying

"Steve Jobs’ talk comparing computers to “a bicycle for our minds” is definitely one of my favorites. Apparently, Michael Mulvey feels the same way, as he launched a Kickstarter project to create a graphic and prints of the quote."
MG Siegler, TechCrunch columnist

27.11.12

OS X Lion: Enable One Finger Drag Gesture « Navin Peiris

OS X Lion: Enable One Finger Drag Gesture « Navin Peiris 


Lion doesn’t come with the same one finger click-and-drag gesture that used to be in Snow Leopard, and instead the user has an option of enabling a three finger drag gesture through the system preferences. This post shows you how to re-enable the one finger drag gesture.

To enable one finger drag, go to System Preferences, click on Universal Access, and then the Mouse & Trackpad tab. Now click on the “Trackpad Options…” button available at the bottom of this screen. Enable the second option, which is named “Dragging” and select the desired dragging behaviour from the drop down list:
After this you should be able to do one finger click and dragging just like in good old Snow Leopard :) .

thoughts on “OS X Lion: Enable One Finger Drag Gesture”

  1. Thank you, this has been driving me crazy!

20.11.12

Top Ten Internal Website Goofs

Top Ten Internal Website Goofs

by Frank Roche on September 6, 2006

Corporate internal websites can be useful, but are often headache inducing. Employees are required to use them, but are often unable to find what they need. It’s often the little things that break down. And we’ve seen them all. With that in mind, we assembed our list of the top ten internal website goofs:

10. Poorly scaled. Otherwise useful tools are not scaled up for use with thousands or tens of thousands of users. If the only way to find your meeting in your meeting organization software is to click ‘Next’ four or five times through the list of every meeting your company is having today, then the software simply isn’t scaled for the demand.
9. Inability to navigate without a mouse. Don’t get me wrong, computer mice are handy tools. But so is the keyboard. In fact, there are users who simply can’t or shouldn’t use the mouse (e.g., blind people and carpal tunnel sufferers, respectively). And, quite simply, there are employees who prefer to use their keyboard. Browser technology is sufficiently advanced that there’s no excuse for making a website unnavigable without a mouse.
8. Not cross-browser compliant. Internet Explorer may be your corporate standard, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other browsers users might want to use. Some browsers have disability-friendly tools (e.g., Firefox and Opera) that make it possible for users with disabilities to get around the internet. Don’t make it harder for them by making your site unusable by their tools of choice. Cross-browser compatibility can be difficult to achieve, and you’re always going to have to make some choices about which browsers you support, but more is better.
7. Inconsistent look and feel. You click a link on your corporate site, and you’re suddenly transported…somewhere. The logo’s the same, but the menu’s changed. Or the page title says it’s an internal department, but there’s nothing remotely similar in the look of the site to make you think it’s related to your company at all, let alone a part of the company. Not good. Users need to feel like they know where they are. When the look and feel of the site changes unexpectedly, it confuses your users.
6. Multiple navigation schemes. You’re looking for a link to today’s cafeteria menu. But is it in one of the many dizzying menus? One of those tab thingies? The quicklinks? Those sidepanels with extra info? Who knows? The more ways there are to organize info, the less likely you’ll be able to guess where your particular info is hiding.
5. Too much information on the front page. Too much info. Too many links. Tiny fonts. Too, too…busy. Company portals need to be scannable. No one has the time to or interest in reading everything available. Everyone’s just looking for the first link that catches their eye that could possibly be the thing their looking for. Sure, there’s a lot to your company, lots of information, and a lot of people to please. But the point of a portal isn’t to provide everything you possibly can squeeze in there. The point is to make a clear, easy starting point where employees will be able to navigate themselves to everything.
4. Poor role awareness. You see a link. It looks vaguely like what you’re looking for. You click it. You go to a page that says: “I’m sorry. You don’t have access to this feature.” Or maybe you get a popup with an error message. This is just not ok. Do not waste your user’s time. The user should never have access to a link to something he or she is not allowed to use. If they don’t have access, don’t give them something to click.
3. Missing information. This is especially problematic when combined with #5. A user can spend over a half an hour trying to hunt down info that should be there, but just isn’t. If your company offers a shuttle service, employees should be able to find the schedule. If you have a cafeteria, the hours it’s open should be easily available. If you provide an emergency weather phone number, it should be on your site.
2. No clear way to tell where I am. A complex portal website must have a clear and easy way to identify the user’s location in the portal. The portal should have breadcrumbs at the top of the page. The company logo should always be in the upper left corner, and should be a link to the home page for the portal. Links in the menu should not use different labels than the title of the page it will take you to. Every time you confuse your user, you slow him down. You slow your user down, they have less time for actual business concerns.
1. No clear way to find what I want. The biggest culprit of all is lame, poorly implemented, useless search. Your users need to be able to search or browse for what they want quickly and easily. So, you’re not Google. Fine. Hire them. Or spend some serious effort on making clear, clean browsing trees for your users to poke around in. When you go to a mall, and you don’t know where a store is, you check the mall map. When you go to a portal, and don’t know where your info is, you need a similarly straightforward way to navigate to that info.
Fundamentally, a portal should speed your users up. It should move them quickly to the info they want. It should be friendly to people with disabilities. It should be flexible to the myriad ways people do things. It shouldn’t get in their way, slow them down, or confuse them. After a half hour of battling with an uncooperative portal, your user is going to be tired, cranky, and uninterested in whatever it was they were originally doing. And that’s not good for business.
Want to learn more about good design? Consider the following resources:

10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites | Smashing Magazine

10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites | Smashing Magazine


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We all make mistakes running our websites. However, the nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes among large organizations.
Most of the clients I work with are large organizations: universities, large charities, public sector institutions and large companies. Over the last 7 years, I have noticed certain recurring misconceptions among these organizations. This post aims to dispel these illusions and encourage people to face the harsh reality.
The problem is that if you are reading this post, you are probably already aware of these things. But hopefully this article will be helpful to you as you convince others within your organization. In any case, here are our 10 harsh truths about websites of large organizations.
(Smashing's note: We're working on the brand new Smashing Mobile Book on best practices, techniques and design strategies for mobile. Interested? Pre-order now and save 20%!)

1. You Need A Separate Web Division

In many organizations, the website is managed by either the marketing or IT department. However, this inevitably leads to a turf war, with the website becoming the victim of internal politics.
In reality, pursuing a Web strategy is not particularly suited to either group. IT may be excellent at rolling out complex systems, but it is not suited to developing a friendly user experience or establishing an online brand.
Screenshot of Zeldman's website
Zeldman urges organisations to create a separate web division.
Marketing, on the other hand, is little better. As Jeffrey Zeldman puts it in his article Let there be Web divisions:
The Web is a conversation. Marketing, by contrast, is a monologue… And then there’s all that messy business with semantic markup, CSS, unobtrusive scripting, card-sorting exercises, HTML run-throughs, involving users in accessibility, and the rest of the skills and experience that don’t fall under Marketing’s purview.
Instead, the website should be managed by a single unified team. Again, Zeldman sums it up when he writes:
Put them in a division that recognizes that your website is not a bastard of your brochures, nor a natural outgrowth of your group calendar. Let there be Web divisions.

2. Managing Your Website Is A Full-Time Job

Not only is the website often split between marketing and IT, it is also usually under-resourced. Instead of there being a dedicated Web team, those responsible for the website are often expected to run it alongside their “day job.” When a Web team is in place, it is often over-stretched. The vast majority of its time is spent on day-to-day maintenance rather than longer-term strategic thinking.
This situation is further aggravated by the fact that the people hired to “maintain” the website are junior members of the staff. They do not have the experience or authority to push the website forward. It is time for organizations to seriously invest in their websites by hiring full-time senior Web managers to move their Web strategies forward.

3. Periodic Redesign Is Not Enough

Because corporate websites are under-resourced, they are often neglected for long periods of time. They slowly become out of date with their content, design and technology.
Eventually, the website becomes such an embarrassment that management steps in and demands that it be sorted. This inevitably leads to a complete redesign at considerable expense. As I point out in the Website Owners Manual, this a flawed approach. It is a waste of money because when the old website is replaced, the investment put into it is lost, too. It is also tough on finances, with a large expenditure having to be made every few years.
Screenshot of Cameron Molls Article
Cameron Moll encourages web designers to realign their website rather than redesign.
A better way is continual investment in your website, allowing it to evolve over time. Not only is this less wasteful, it is also better for users, as pointed out by Cameron Moll in his post Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign.

4. Your Website Cannot Appeal To Everyone

One of the first questions I ask a client is, “Who is your target audience?” I am regularly shocked at the length of the reply. Too often, it includes a long and detailed list of diverse people. Inevitably, my next question is, “Which of those many demographic groups are most important?” Depressingly, the answer is usually that they are all equally important.
The harsh truth is that if you build a website for everyone, it will appeal to no one. It is important to be extremely focused about your audience and cater your design and content to it. Does this mean you should ignore your other users? Not at all. Your website should be accessible by all and not offend or exclude anybody. However, the website does need to be primarily aimed at a clearly defined audience.

5. You Are Wasting Money On Social Networking

I find it encouraging that website managers increasingly recognize that a Web strategy is more than running a website. They are beginning to use tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to increase their reach and engage with new audiences. However, although they are using these tools, too often they do so ineffectively. Tweeting on a corporate account or posting sales demonstrations on YouTube misses the essence of social networking.
Screenshot of Microsoft's Channel 9 website
Microsoft dramatically improved its image amoung the development community by allowing Microsoft staff to speak out via the Channel 9 website.
Social networking is about people engaging with people. Individuals do not want to build relationships with brands and corporations. They want to talk to other people. Too many organizations throw millions into Facebook apps and viral videos when they could spend that money on engaging with people in a transparent and open away.
Instead of creating a corporate Twitter account or indeed even a corporate blog, encourage your employees to start Tweeting and blogging themselves. Provide guidelines on acceptable behavior and what tools they need to start engaging directly with the community connected to your products and services. This demonstrates not only your commitment to the community but also the human side of your business.

6. Your Website Is Not All About You

Where some website managers want their website to appeal to everybody, others want it to appeal to themselves and their colleagues. A surprising number of organizations ignore their users entirely and base their websites entirely on an organizational perspective. This typically manifests itself in inappropriate design that caters to the managing director’s personal preferences and contains content full of jargon.
A website should not pander to the preferences of staff but should rather meet the needs of its users. Too many designs are rejected because the boss “doesn’t like green.” Likewise, too much website copy contains acronyms and terms used only within the organization.

7. You’re Not Getting Value From Your Web Team

Whether they have an in-house Web team or use an external agency, many organizations fail to get the most from their Web designers. Web designers are much more than pixel pushers. They have a wealth of knowledge about the Web and how users interact with it. They also understand design techniques, including grid systems, white space, color theory and much more.
Post from Twitter complaining about being a pixel pusher
Treating designers as pixel pushers wastes their design experience: post from Twitter complaining about being a pixel pusher
It is therefore wasteful to micro-manage by asking them to “make the logo bigger” or to “move that 3 pixels to the left.” By doing so, you are reducing their role to that of a software operator and wasting the wealth of experience they bring.
If you want to get the maximum return on your Web team, present it with problems, not solutions. For example, if you’re targeting your website at teenage girls, and the designer goes for corporate blue, suggest that your audience might not respond well to that color. Do not tell him or her to change it to pink. This way, the designer has the freedom to find a solution that may even be better than your choice. You allow your designer to solve the problem you have presented.

8. Design By Committee Brings Death

The ultimate symbol of a large organization’s approach to website management is the committee. A committee is often formed to tackle the website because internal politics demand that everybody has a say and all considerations be taken into account. To say that all committees are a bad idea is naive, and to suggest that a large corporate website could be developed without consultation is fanciful. However, when it comes to design, committees are often the kiss of death.
Illustration showing why design by committee fails
Design by committee leads to design on the fly.
Design is subjective. The way we respond to a design can be influenced by culture, gender, age, childhood experience and even physical conditions (such as color blindness). What one person considers great design could be hated by another. This is why it is so important that design decisions be informed by user testing rather than personal experience. Unfortunately, this approach is rarely taken when a committee is involved in design decisions.
Instead, designing by committee becomes about compromise. Because committee members have different opinions about the design, they look for ways to find common ground. One person hates the blue color scheme, while another loves it. This leads to designing on the fly, with the committee instructing the designer to “try a different blue” in the hopes of finding middle ground. Unfortunately, this leads only to bland design that neither appeals to nor excites anyone.

9. A CMS Is Not A Silver Bullet

Many of the clients I work with have amazingly unrealistic expectations of CMS (content management systems). Those without one think it will solve all of their content woes, while those who have one moan about it because it hasn’t!
It is certainly true that a CMS can bring a lot of benefits. These include:
  • reducing the technical barriers of adding content,
  • allowing more people to add and edit content,
  • facilitating faster updates,
  • and allowing greater control.
However, many CMS are less flexible than their owners would like. They fail to meet the changing demands of the websites they manage. Website managers also complain that their CMS is hard to use. However, in many cases, this is because those using it have not been adequately trained or are not using it regularly enough.
Finally, a CMS may allow content to be easily updated, but it does not ensure that content will be updated or even that the quality of content will be acceptable. Many CMS-based websites still have out-of-date content or poorly written copy. This is because internal processes have not been put in place to support the content contributors.
If you look to a CMS to solve your website maintenance issues, you will be disappointed.

10. You Have Too Much Content

Part of the problem with content maintenance on large corporate websites is that there is too much content in the first place. Most of these websites have “evolved” over years, with more and more content having been added. At no stage has anybody reviewed the content and asked what could be taken away.
Many website managers fill their website with copy that nobody will read. This happens because of:
  • A fear of missing something: by putting everything online, they believe users will be able to find whatever they want. Unfortunately, with so much information available, it is hard to find anything.
  • A fear users will not understand: whether from a lack of confidence in their website or in their audience, they feel the need to provide endless instruction to users. Unfortunately, users never read this copy.
  • A desperate desire to convince: they are desperate to sell their product or communicate their message, and so they bloat the text with sales copy that actually conveys little valuable information.
Steve Krug, in his book Don’t Make Me Think, encourages website managers to “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” This will reduce the noise level on each page and make the useful content more prominent.

Conclusions

Large organizations do a lot right in running their websites. However, they also face some unique challenges that can lead to painful mistakes. Resolving these problems means accepting that mistakes have been made, overcoming internal politics and changing the way you control your brand. Doing so will give you a significant competitive advantage and allow your Web strategy to become more effective over the long term.
(al)

11.11.12

blogger label categories (code for) ~ The Blog Doctor.

Everything About Labels in Blogger. ~ The Blog Doctor.

CLASSIFY LABELS


Perhaps you would like to group your labels? To do this login to Dashboard and click on layout. Then click on Add Page element link in sidebar and in popup window choose Html/Javascript option. Paste the following code in it :



CATEGORY A






  • LABEL 1





  • LABEL 2





  • LABEL 3





  • CATEGORY B






    • LABEL 4





    • LABEL 5





    • LABEL 6





    • CATEGORY C






      • LABEL 7





      • LABEL 8





      • LABEL 9





      • Replace 'CATEGORY A' etc. with relevant category of the labels grouped under it. Save Page Element