External HDD ideas... a must read for those thinking of one!

Sorry if there is a topic out there that discusses this but I couldn't find it and got tired of running searches... I also posted this in the software section of Tiger by mistake...
Ok... my bro recently had his Maxtor One Touch II 200G drive crap out on him and we tried recovering it... no luck, he lost everything on it. Here is the kicker... he had it for less than 2 years and the warranty thru Maxtor is only 1 year? What a joke... seems they install OEM drives in the enclosures which usually only carry a 90 day warranty at best.
So here is my personal advice to ANYONE out there looking for a nice, reliable external drive....
BUY AN INTERNAL HDD! ... yes, get an internal because they all come with at least a 3 year limited warranty (Seagate now offers a 5 year on all their drives). Then buy an enclosure to suit your needs... USB... FIREWIRE... whatever floats your boat. Pop the hdd in and configure it with Disk Utility and there ya go!
Now, if the drive acts up and you run out of ideas on what to do with it... do an RMA with the manufacturer? If within the 3 or 5 year time period, go through the proper procedure to file a claim with the manufacturer that the drive has malfunctioned... they will send you a new drive and you send the old one back (sometimes they provide a return slip but you may have to pay for shipping back)... THAT'S IT!
I have done this a few times in the past with older drives on my PC... but I got a 300G Maxtor Drive from CompUSA (it's been quite a few months) that had $60 worth of rebates... so it cost me $90 + tax! Then another $30 for the enclosure... so there is my advice and/or thought on external hard drives. Hope it helps!
Ciao

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/External-Enclosures/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW934AL1KS/

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A must read for webdynpro guys

Hi,
this link is a must read for all those who wannna learn webdynpros.
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/webdynpro?rid=/library/uuid/49f2ea90-0201-0010-ce8e-de18b94aee2d#1
And, pls send me more of this kind if you have any
regards,
Rahul.
null

Hi Rahul,
Please go through these Links also,
webdynpro applications and tutorials
<a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/webcontent/uuid/28113de9-0601-0010-71a3-c87806865f26?rid=/webcontent/uuid/8921447c-0501-0010-07b4-83bd39ffc7be">Getting Started</a>
<a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/developerareas/webdynpro">Webdynpro Java</a>
<a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/webcontent/uuid/28113de9-0601-0010-71a3-c87806865f26?rid=/library/uuid/49f2ea90-0201-0010-ce8e-de18b94aee2d">Webdynpro Sample Applications ans Tutorials</a>
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/thread?threadID=139467
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/thread?threadID=200852
Very useful
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/5c/1b76bc3da0504e8b535cf3e154eaa7/content.htm
Value help in webdynpro Applications:
Please gothrough these documents,
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/391ee590-0201-0010-1c89-f1193a886421
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e038cf90-0201-0010-0a9a-ec69262a1564
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/cf40cf90-0201-0010-4a85-e5a207b900d8
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/2833ce90-0201-0010-f1af-d3cfe1155b16
https://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/pub/wlg/5508
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/58a7e390-0201-0010-abb1-8eec7eb7a2ec
webdynpro UI's(pdf)
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/library/webdynpro/Developing%20Web%20Dynpro%20User%20Interfaces.pdf
Regards,
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Shared external HDD minimum 2TB (or server) for 4 Macs with time machine backup?

I work in a small design studio running 4 macs we need to put all of our work on one central harddrive that everyone can access. But then we would also like one Mac with an external harddrive attached to back up the contents of that shared drive. I have spoken with the people in the business centre But they dont seem to understand what I am trying to do.
I appreciate any ideas you may have.
So far what i have been sugested by the business centre is airport exterme with external HDD attached. But when i ask about using time machine to back up that HDD they get confused.

I have found on my server log the following information:
07/29 13:33:13 WDShareSpace daemon.warn afpd[3105]: volume "WD_Backup" does not support Extended Attributes, using ea:ad instead
What is the "Extended Attributes" and how do I use "ea:ad" instead?

A Must Read for all current and future Final Cut Pro X users

Take a breath people, as this article states, Final Cut Pro X IS NOT an upgrade to Final Cut Pro 7, it is an entirely new program. Much like Final Cut Pro 1 was the start of a new revolution in NLE video editing, Final Cut Pro X is the beginning of a new revolution. Anyone that has a clue of what they are doing or talking about when it comes to professional workflows knows you can't expect to switch to a new product and a new workflow from day 1. There is an evolutionary process to this, just like there was when the first Final Cut Studio came out, and then version 2 and then version 3 or any new version of OS X for that matter. It will take time for third-party developers to catch up just as it did with every other major release. In the meantime, you don't change a major piece of your workflow that your business or jobs depend on until that major piece has been out, tested and guarunteed to work for YOUR workflow, PERIOD! If you've purchased final cut pro X already, take this time to start learning a new way of looking at editing, a new way of working while the software catches up to the standards and features that every professional desires. If you havn't purchased it yet, either do so knowing what your getting right now, or simply wait for the evolutionary process to run its coarse.
This is the way the world of software works people, anyone that doesn't understand this, frankly, doesn't have a clue.
http://library.creativecow.net/adcock_gary/FCPX/1

Original post: "Anyone that has a clue of what they are doing or talking about when it comes to professional workflows knows you can't expect to switch to a new product and a new workflow from day 1."
Even this shows ignorance of the professional marketplace. The fundamental workflow of the professional editor hasn't changed in 80+ years: The shots get delivered to the Editor, the Editor edits the shots and delivers the results. While I can see how editing software can change the way this fundamental workflow is accomplished, it will not change the fundamental workflow of movie making or programme itself. And therein lies the massive problem with FCPX! However Apple decides to redefine the workflow of how the professional editor edits, it must also provide the basic tools which allow the Editor to take delivery of the shots and make delivery to the other personnel involved in making the film. In a professional environment there are others with whom you must collaborate, when was the last time you saw film or TV credits where only one person was listed? Apple has decided NOT to incorporate in FCPX the fundamental tools which allow for the accepting and delivery of materials within the professional environment using internationally accepted standards. Apple has also left out a range of other essential features required by professionals.
FCPX is an excellently placed product. It's exactly what the makers of wedding DVDs, youtube contributors and the serious home enthusiasts has been lacking; an easy to use yet powerful and semi-automated video maker. It's an iMovie Plus, a Final Cut Express X, it fills a hole in the market and will be of benefit to hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people (far more potential customers than the relatively limited market of professional editors!). Unfortunately, what it is NOT is a Final Cut Pro X!! Because except for wedding DVDs, p*rn movies and a few other very simple editing jobs, it is unusable for the vast majority of professional editing situations.
It seems to me there are two reasons why so many people are so angry about FCPX. The first is that it is called Final Cut Pro X (Final Cut Professional 10) and has been marketed to everyone (including professional editors) as an upgrade from FCP7, this is at least misleading and at worst probably borders on misrepresentation. The second reason is that new features like iMovie import and Vimeo and Youtube export have been given prominence, while at the same time basic professional functionality has been removed. This is a very clear indication that the Final Cut software has been repositioned towards the prosumer market and away from the professional market. This is a real kick in the teeth for those who have built their careers and business around this software and Apple has made the situation worse by marketing this kick in the teeth as a major improvement?!
I've seen messages in other threads from happy amateurs telling the professionals to stop b*tching as FCP7 still works and they can continue using that version. This again demonstrates ignorance of the highly competitive nature of the professional editing marketplace. You need to be doing it better and more efficiently than the next editor. FCP7 has been in need of an update for a few years now, the longer professional editors stick with FCP7, the further behind the competition they will fall. It seems clear that for the foreseeable future FCP7 is Apple's last professional video editing software which means a considerable outlay for Editors, to buy new systems, new software and retrain themselves and employees. It's likely that the release of FCPX and the way it has been marketed will make life very difficult for many editors and may even ultimately cost some their livelihoods.
<Edited by Host>

[Solved]External HDD only mounts as read only

Okay, I have a general log, but I'm not completely sure what all information you need. Ask and you will receive.
So I run udiskie through i3, works great, but my file systems get mounted as read-only, which is..not great. It's pretty irritating. So I thought, hey, let's just chown that shit, right? No. It's a read only file system.
Anyway, so I did killall udiskie, tried mounting it manually and all as demonstrated in lsblk, and it's still read only, for some interesting reason. (Sorry the lsblk log isn't clean). If there's some other output you'd like, let me know...
I run the thunar file manager, which is alright, but it doesn't auto-mount (I tried setting it up, googled it a lot, it just didn't auto-mount, and udiskie looked like it worked fine until I realized it was all read-only).
In lsblk I ran sudo thunar to view the drive, since permission was denied to myself. It was still read-only, meaning it's not necessarily a udiskie problem? I could mount my other flash drive alright it appeared, but when I did it with udiskie it was also readonly.
The flash drive was made with dd, so it had two partitions, the second one mounted fine, the first one not so much, and with udiskie it just mounted what looked like the second one with more files (So maybe both? I was a bit confused).
lsblk: http://pastebin.com/WdJbky9j
udiskie -a: http://pastebin.com/RT2sQE01
On a side note, those awesome arrows on the side of my terminal thanks to zsh and oh-my-zsh? They're just empty rectangles in rxvt-unicode, and I have no idea why. They display fine in pastebin. If anyone happens to know what I'm missing there, much obliged.
Solution:
Actually understand NTFS in linux (Working on it)
Install ntfs-3g
Last edited by Rojikku (2014-07-02 02:06:18)

lsblk -f: http://pastebin.com/KeHpDtF6
Anything I could say would be repetitive of the data. >>; But for record purposes, btrfs and the external is ntfs.
Edit: I don't have ntfs-3g installed, FYI. It seemed like an alternative to udiskie and I dislike installing things frivolously. I noticed another user fixed a somewhat similar problem like that, would that be my issue?
Last edited by Rojikku (2014-07-02 01:37:24)

External HDD ideas ...

Sorry if there is a topic out there that discusses this but I couldn't find it and got tired of running searches...
My bro recently had his Maxtor One Touch II 200G drive crap out on him and we tried recovering it... no luck, he lost everything on it. Here is the kicker... he had it for less than 2 years and the warranty thru Maxtor is only 1 year?!?! What a joke... seems they install OEM drives in the enclosures which usually only carry a 90 day warranty at best.
So here is my personal advice to ANYONE out there looking for a nice, reliable external drive....
BUY AN INTERNAL HDD! ... yes, get an internal because they all come with at least a 3 year limited warranty (Seagate now offers a 5 year on all their drives). Then buy an enclosure to suit your needs... USB... FIREWIRE... whatever floats your boat. Pop the hdd in and configure it with Disk Utility and there ya go!
Now, if the drive acts up and you run out of ideas on what to do with it... do an RMA with the manufacturer?!?! If within the 3 or 5 year time period, go through the proper procedure to file a claim with the manufacturer that the drive has malfunctioned... they will send you a new drive and you send the old one back (sometimes they provide a return slip but you may have to pay for shipping back)... THAT'S IT!
I have done this a few times in the past with older drives on my PC... but I just got a 300G Maxtor Drive from CompUSA that had $60 worth of rebates... so it cost me $90 + tax! Then another $30 for the enclosure... so there is my advice and/or thought on external hard drives. Hope it helps!
Ciao
G5 DC 2.0 --- Glad to be a convert! Mac OS X (10.4.6) Smokin' G5! -- 2.0GHz w/1.5G RAM - 300G & 160G hdd - 20.1" LCD widescreen

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/External-Enclosures/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEFW934AL1KS/

A must read for everyone....

The moderators have asked me to leave this forum and not return. I will respect their wishes and do just that.
What I won't tolerate is their complete lack of any answer to the honest and legitimate questions I have posed to them. In particular, as to why these moderators here are the only ones who claim that the GeForce 4 chipset based vga cards require so much power.
Show me some proof. Maybe an article on a PC vendor's website or a magazine article that backs up your claim. Even a vga card vendor or retailer that lists the power requirements???
You have failed miserably in the fact that you completely play dumb and ignore my questions. Maybe you are that dumb, I'm not sure.
You owe it to every person who comes here looking for help, to give them truthful statements and advice. If you can't, then don't say anything. There are many posts here where people ask for help on their vga cards and the knee-jerk response is "you need a bigger power supply". Syas who? Back it up!! Look through the threads and note how many people you have said that to whom go and spend their money on a new psu, on your recommendation, just to post that they STILL have the same problem.
The moderators here just regurgitate the same lame questionable solutions.
My advice to anyone seeking help here is to do your own homework before wasting money on these "solutions". Join another forum not related to MSI. Find one for NVidia. Or a general tech support forum like techimo. Even ask your local coputer parts stores.
I am not debating the benefits of having a large power supply.
I am, however, questioning your intelligence level and your commitment to helping others versus stroking your own ego.
I will now leave you in peace to say whatever you like about me, but rest assured, after I am done, someone from MSI will be examining this board and it's propensity for distributing inaccurate solutions as related to their products. I am sure MSI will be thrilled with their reputation being associated with inadequacy and unhappy customers
Elzie

Quote
The moderators have asked me to leave this forum and not return. I will respect their wishes and do just that.
No one asked you to leave other than invite you to visit another forum
Quote
What I won't tolerate is their complete lack of any answer to the honest and legitimate questions I have posed to them. In particular, as to why these moderators here are the only ones who claim that the GeForce 4 chipset based vga cards require so much power.
It has been a known issue and has become one of the top solutions to many problems in and out of these forums. In fact, I would say approximately 50% of the time it is an inadequate power supply.
Ever Since the Athlon XP there have been serious issues with inadequate power supplies.
It became obvious that with the current peripherals populating today's PC's the power requirements have increased in performance based systems. Add a GF4 to the mix and it can cripple many supposed 300w power supplies.
If you called my reseller he'd tell you straight out that his tech recommends two or three brands of PSU that are rated over 400w with a AMDXP and GF4 combo, but won't tell you about the combined power requirement because it's like a trade secret.
Telling that to the layman or n00b usually results in a blank stare and that "I don't get it look" I often get from my coworkers when I try to explain anything technical.
Unfortunately, the generic answer from many PC shops is you must have at least a 300w power supply, and again we have the dilemma, whereas there is no set standard, and some will handle the requirements, then, other claimed 300 watters fail miserably and often cause damage to the PC.
Many of these shops don't build the high end systems that we often see in these forums and if they do, it's with tried and true hardware that works together.
There are times when we are wrong but in this medium (forum) it is virtually impossible to be correct in diagnosis all the time, as we cannot be present while troubleshooting.
In troubleshooting PC's and building them yourself without knowledge of these things, leads to many different outcomes.
1. you get lucky and the build goes well because you did a little homework before doing so.
2. You have problems that lead you to a medium such as this where you will get varied replies just as you would if you were to call a technician. Possibly solving your problem or leading you down the wrong path.
Ad infinitum.............
Either way, you take the risk of something not performing properly.
Symptoms can be the same for several problems that are encountered. The power supply is more often the solution than not. So my reasoning at least, is why not eliminate the problem before it happens. Remove it from the equation, and if you play your cards right when you purchase the PSU (that may not be the problem).
and you make sure you know the return policy should you not need it, you can then return it, and get your money back.
These are the risks you take when putting together a system or upgrading, novice or not.
You claim to be skilled in troubleshooting, but are you that naive in believing it's that cut and dry?
Neither I nor any of the other mods will tolerate your arrogance and insults to our intelligence, perhaps it is you who need to change your perception.
Offer your skills and help instead of your utter lack of respect. If it is a fight you are looking for, this is not the place or the medium in which to do it, and you have underestimated your opponent.
Quote
Show me some proof. Maybe an article on a PC vendor's website or a magazine article that backs up your claim. Even a vga card vendor or retailer that lists the power requirements???
Below are a couple of things that come to mind, I do not have all my links as I lost them in the great IBM 60GXP crash of 2002
Inadequate and Deceptive Product Labeling:
Powersupply Calculation
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/guides/power_supply/
Quote
You have failed miserably in the fact that you completely play dumb and ignore my questions. Maybe you are that dumb, I'm not sure.
I won't even go there, I will just play dumb, for your sake
Quote
You owe it to every person who comes here looking for help, to give them truthful statements and advice. If you can't, then don't say anything. There are many posts here where people ask for help on their vga cards and the knee-jerk response is "you need a bigger power supply". Says who? Back it up!! Look through the threads and note how many people you have said that to whom go and spend their money on a new psu, on your recommendation, just to post that they STILL have the same problem.
You're right about truthful statements and advice, I never, nor have any other Mod, lie to anyone and the fact that you are insinuating we have lied, is a testament to your ignorance and arrogance in this matter.
Quote
The moderators here just regurgitate the same lame questionable solutions.
My advice to anyone seeking help here is to do your own homework before wasting money on these "solutions". Join another forum not related to MSI. Find one for NVIDIA. Or a general tech support forum like techimo. Even ask your local computer parts stores.
I agree with you in part and I can see where you might see them as lame.
And the advice you give in the above quote is good advice, it's always good to get other opinions so you can make a better educated decision, and I invite any user to visit the other forums and then come back to share the experience with us.
Quote
I am, however, questioning your intelligence level and your commitment to helping others versus stroking your own ego.
I believe I already addressed this one before except the ego part.
I don't get that part, only that the ego is obviously present in YOUR posts.
We don't work for MSI but volunteer our time (of which I have spent/wasted too much of my Saturday evening on this reply) This is a user to user community and we are just other users like everyone else but with privileges that allow us to moderate, not solve everyone's problems.
If you do not feel comfortable with the advice then it is ones prerogative to get another opinion or try another forum. We do hope that the user shares the outcome to benefit the community and later use it for reference.

What external hdd bus should I use for FCP 7?

Howdy! My colleague and I are editing a film in FCP 7, and media handling has become somewhat, complicated, shall we say. So we decided that we're both going to buy external hard drives, and keep them in synch using something like Super Duper, or Carbon Copy Cloner. I've been doing some research, but I'm still unsure as to what connection I should use? We're both using MacBook Pro's with firewire 800 ports, and USB 2.0 ports (No thunderbolt). Since these drives are going to be used exclusivly for video and audio, how fast of a connection should we have so that the connection doesn't cause a bottle neck? I know that Sata III can do up to 6.0 Gb/s, but I also know that a hard drive can't utilize that much bandwidth. So will USB 2.0 slow it down, or would it be fast enough? Or should I opt for firewire 800?
This is the hard drive I'm looking at getting, and I'll put it in an external encloser:
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145475&nm_mc=EMC -IGNEFL082611&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL082611-_-EMC-082611-Index-_-InternalHardDrives-_- 22145475-L0B
Thanks!
Paul
P.S. is 5200rpm's enough, or should I get 7200rpm?

If you plan to use the drive for editing/rendering media files, you'll need a 7200rpm drive and a Firewire or eSATA connection.
If you're only using the drive for backup purposes or general data storage, USB and 5400rpm will work.
-DH

Woot! Must read for people learning Java

awesome anonymous inner classes :)
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Main
     public static void main(String[] args)
          JFrame frame = new JFrame();
          frame.setSize(400,200);
          JPanel panel = new JPanel()
               public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
                    super.paintComponent(g);
                    g.fillOval(0,0,40,40);
          frame.add(panel);
          frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          frame.setVisible(true);
}wrote it myself

Surely the access specifier isn't silently
changed from private to package.
Unless you can come up with very strong evidence,I
am quire sure the presence of inner classes doesnot
affect the accessibility of a class' fields. Noteven
under the hood.This statement is correct.
No modifier is changed.
A package protected accessor (with the name
access$nnn - where nnn is some number) is generated.
This provides read-only access for the package, and
as mentioned, if such data is critical, sealed
packages and security manager should be used.
If you find yourself doing this:
if
(foo.access$000(outerClassInstance).equals(GREEN))
code]
Then thats your own damn problem.And all these people in these articles are idiots who should ve contacted Schneider
http://www.ftponline.com/javapro/2004_03/online/rule2_03_17_04/
http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Publicizing_of_private_data_when_using_inner_classes
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-1998/jw-12-securityrules_p.html
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4097812

GOT THE NEW MICRO FIRMWARE TO WORK!! Worth reading for those who've had proble

So to recap, my problem with both the 2.xx firmwares was as follows:
I have USB . proprietary on my system. I also added an ALi USB2.0 PCI card for the speed boost. USB . and 2.0 both worked fine with the .xx firmware. However, as soon as I upgraded . worked fine. The Micro was recognized as an MTP device, etc. etc.
The added USB 2.0 ports were another story -- the device was recognized by WinXP SP2 as an "unrecognized device" and by Creative not at all.
Anyway, my "revelation" came when I tried to manually identify the Micro as an MTP device by electing to choose my own driver. Everytime I tried this, it would start installing and then my computer would crash and suddenly reset. This is what caused me to think that the USB 2.0 card might be causing a conflict, even though none was identified by Windows. A conflict that only apparently arises through MTP use. Don't ask me why.
Anyway, I opened my system up and just moved the USB 2.0 card to another slot. LO AND BEHOLD, as soon as the card was reidentified by the system (and assigned a different memory address due to its new physical location on the board), so was my Zen!! It now works perfectly with my 2.0 card.
Anyway, so far so good. Hope this helps someone else.

Anecdotally people have a lot of problems with the ALI chipset, so it's good you've got it to work

An extensive look at the Zen Vision:M for those considring buying one (plus my firmware wishli

 Well first, I want to say that this is the 0th mp3 player that I have owned. This is definitely the best and most powerful player I have ever owned. With that said, its not perfect either, hence the purpose of this review. As I did on this board with the Zen Micro, I write this review in hopes that Creative will listen. Hopefully, creative will read this and take it to heart.
SOUND QUALITY:
 This is what any music device should be about right? Nothing else matters if the sound quality stinks. I used to own Creative?s Zen Micro. The sound on it was great but the bass was lacking. The best sounding mp3 player I?ve ever owned was Iri'ver?s old H20. With its customizable SRS settings, it still stands out against all others I have encountered. If that Iri'ver was the best, I am happy to say that this little device is a very close second. Creative included a bass boost function, and paired with the customizable EQ settings, the sound is amazing. It knocks the micro out of the ballpark.
MENU NAVIGATION:
 The menu on this thing is very familiar to that of other Zen players, including the micro. That?s not a bad thing since the navigation system is the most popular among most mp3 players of this class. I used to own Phillip?s HDD 6330, and that player and the 5th generation iPod have something that the Vision:m lacks. I have all of my music specifically organized by genre. I would like to go into the genre folder, and select a song by title, not by artist, then title. On the 5G iPod, and the HDD6330, the first menu option when going into the genre folder in ?All Titles?. So, all you had to do was select genre / all titles and you had every song in your library from that genre. This player lacks that ability.
 I will give praise to Creative for its side alphabetical bar. This has made scrolling my library very much easier. This is a very innovati've feature to use. I also give them props for making the main menu customizable. If Creative will add that one thing, its menu system would be unmatched and close to perfection!!!
FEATURES:
 Creative has built a host of features in this thing as they do with a lot of their players. The FM radio is good and the voice recorder is good. Now lets get to the good stuff. The Vision:m actually lets you choose your own background. Not only that, but for the picture you do decide to use, its lets you edit its brightness and color tone. This feature definitely comes in handy. I selected a nice picture of me and my son at the town fair, and it was way to bright. The letters on the screen were hard to read no matter what theme I used. Upon selecting a picture to use as background, the player gives you the option to raise or lower its brightness and color tone. I lowered the brightness and changed the tone and now, the background looks great. Creative should have gone that extra mile and gave the player the ability randomly select a new background every day.
 Also, I am liking the content password feature that gives you the ability to hide video and picture folders. Basically, if I wanted to, I can create a folder on my Vision:m, put some porn in it (come on, that?s what this is really about), and on the player, set it the folder to ?protected?. On the players System settings, set the option to hide all protected folders to ?hide? and you are all set. To unhide the folders, go back into System Settings and select it. Upon selecting it, you will be prompted for the password. I also like the fact the Creative include a calendar and organizer into the player. It?s nice however unnecessary it may be.
USER INTERFACE:
 I have got to give creative its pro
ps.
Those who criticize Creative for copying iPod really have no idea what Creative has done! Its ergonomic design is the best I have seen since the iPod!!! It is designed for one handed thumb use. One of the problems with the micro and other players like it is the fact that its touch pad was too sensiti've and by simply holding the player, it was a good chance you would accidentally access a function, when the hold switch wasn?t on. The only thing that?s touch sensiti've here is the scroll pad. Creative brilliantly included two side buttons along the thumb pad, which you can easily press with your thumb. This is not copy-catting. This is innovation! Add to that, the other outside buttons that surround the thumb pad are NOT touch sensiti've. They are clickable buttons. The chances of accidental button pressing are greatly minimized. My only problem with the setup is that Creative foolishly assigned the scroll pad buttons to song skip access. That?s fine and dandy when you are in the ?Now playing screen?, but when navigating the menu, it'ss a slight discomfort. The side buttons would be extremely useful when navigating the menu system. Especially with one handed use.
VIDEO and PICTURES
 Well, the one feature that sets this player apart is its ability to play video right? Well, when I first got my player and through my content on it, I threw some videos (less porn) that were on my computer on the player. They played flawlessly with no video conversion necessary. They included a downloaded episode of ?BattleStar Galactica?, ?Boston Legal?, and ?Prison Break?. They all played beautifully. I don?t know if the player?s CPU can handle it, but I would love the ability to fast forward or scan through long video files a lot faster. Selecting ?Seek To? from the menu helps a lot, but its not fast enough. Also, I would like for Creative to add quicktime or .mov support if its possible (legally). My digital camera and cell phone records video clips in .mov format. I also have lots of trailers on my computer in quicktime format. It would be nice if I can simply drop some of the clips on the player without converting them first.
 The Pictures show great on this player. You can't scroll through them as quickly and as crisp as with the iPod but there is a reason for that. The ipod scales down and convert photos so they can be shown on the screen. The Creative doesn?t do that. Simply drop the picture on the device and it will be displayed. The benefit to this method is that the player allows you to zoom in on the photos which is a very nice feature and an adequate trade
In. It makes transferring pictures faster also. Add to that, you can switch the folder view and thumbnail picture view to vertical scroll. Speaking of which, where is the USB OTG? This would be a big plus if you had it.
 The AV out works great also. I don?t have a/v cables that connect to the player on hand but I did have red and black audio cables that would connect. I stuck the jack in about half way and connected the red on to the video in port on the TV and it worked. I still highly recommend purchasing the a/V cables for it.
PLAYER DESIGN:
 What can I say. So, it looks like the iPod. But should we really fault Creative for that? iRi'ver?s H300 was the first mp3 player to have support for photo?s. When the iPod photo debuted, you could very well have accused Apple of ?copying? iRi'ver. The only way this player copies the iPod is the fact the screen is the same size and dimension. Oh, and the controls are on the bottom. Kind of like the same way Apple ?copied? iRi'ver. I emphasize the word copy because both of theses players were in development at the same time. Creative released their player a short time after Apple. There is no way Creative could have thrown a player this functional and feature heavy together so quickly. The fact that the players look similar is mere coincidence. Other than that, like the 5G ipod, it'ss a beauty. The fact that the buttons glow gives it an extra coolness. I give creative props for its new interface which rocks and what I like to call?The Thumb Click? Oh, and Creative, the next time you release a player, you can keep the so called ?sync adapter?. I don?t like it one bit. Find a way to build the outlets into the player without compromising is size!!! Its just one more thing I have to keep up with.
SOFTWARE / COMPUTER INTERFACE:
The last time I dealt with Creative?s software is when I had the Micro. It was clunky but functional. I like what they have done this time around. Still the familiar software but more organized. My only problem is when syncing. I edited an id3 tag on my computer and synced the library again. The software failed to sync the song, listing it as an error. The only way to correct this was to delete the song from the player and re-sync it.
ZEN CAST ORGANIZER NOTE:
 Creative, I say this with the best intentions not to be taken the wrong way. You guys need to scrap the current beta software and go back to the drawing board. Do you guys even realize the potential you have with ZCO? First off, when using the sync organizer, it works, but it can't handle video. It is ridiculously slow when handling video. The syncing software in explorer works a lot better. And then ZCO doesn?t show all of the podcasts available on ZenCast. It brings up internet explorer. What you guys need to do, is go back to the drawing board and design software that expertly organizes my entire media library with extreme simplicity. Have a section for music, pictures, video, and zen/pod casts. The Music section can have the option of connecting to an online music store, the video section can have the option of connecting to an online video store, and the ZenCast, to to the Zencast website, where you can easily subscribe to any zencast without bringing up the browser.
 Lets say you guys strike a deal with?.say?..NBC. and NBC makes its episodes of ?Book of Daniel? available on the Zen video store. I should be able to purchase a season pass, and every time I sync my player, it will automatically download and/or sync the latest episode. The possibilities are endless!!!
BUGS:
I have only noticed two bugs with this player. It seems that the Vision:m has an obsessi've compulsi've need to display album art for every song played. Even songs with no album art associated with them. Since my library is organized by genre and not by album, the player simply picks another album art from the folder ad displays that art for a song with no album art. Creative please fix this because its annoying. Also, one almost unnoticeable bug. The ?song time? count at the bottom of the progress indicator in the ?Now Playing? screen seems to have a hard time counting seconds in some songs. Its too slow and eventually catches up. Then counts regularly, and speeds p again. At first I thought the problem was with VBR mp3?s but it does it with regular 28 kbit rates.
Overall Creative has built a very good player and is currently the best out there. I was a fan of the micro and am now A HUGE fan of this one. This player has yet to crash since I have had it, considering that the micro crashed 3 times by this point of my having one. In fact, this looks to be the most stable player I?ve owned as well. I want to personally thank the Creative development for making a player so superior to anything else out there and at such a competiti've price. I will stomp for your company and brand every chance I get. But You have to meet me half way. Outside the Geek world, your brand is barely recognized. You need to set up a huge base of operations in the US and heavily promote your brand. Not just in magazines and one or two city billboards, but on constant TV commercials, get some music artists on TV promoting your player. Come on guys, really show Apple that you are serious about taking them on. I realize that this costs money to do, but you have to spend money to make money right?
Below is my Firmware Wish List I prioritized them starting with the most important thing. Please try to get to some of these issues.
- fix album art bug
- make a main menu option for Zen cast. This shouldn?t be in the video folder.
- Add the ability to browse by title in the Genre folder.
- Add support for .mov format to video please.
- USB On the Go would be a nice addition as well
- Add the ability to randomly select a new background from a pre selected group of photos every time the player is turned on or each day.
- SRS if possible. It sounds wonderful on other players.
- Make side scroll pad buttons to be used for navigating menu system.
- A small game or two wouldn?t hurt, but add more coolness to it.
Thank you for listening

wow, very nice review Makes me want to get a vision for myself.
WebKnight wrote:

Add the ability to randomly select a new background from a pre selected group of photos every time the player is turned on or each day.
I would love that feature. I can't stand useing my computer with a single wall paper anymore (I have 500 anime pics that i rotate between every 2 mins ) If you could make the vision rotate background every x minutes or every time the player is turned on, it would be totally amazeningly sweet!!!! (i might have to go out and buy one then :P)
I just hope that creative has better firmware support with the vision than they have had with the touch.
Once again, great review

For those thinking of an SSD for your older MacBook Pro....

...I just bit the bullet and am thrilled! I have a late 2008 15" MBP (5,1). I bought 4GB ram from OWC (www.otherworldcomputing.com) for $35 (!!) and a 240GB SSD. The installation of the RAM was simple (you need the right screwdriver -- I picked up a cheap tool kit there as well). Since I have Lion, I downloaded the Lion Recovery Assistant and put it on a flash drive. After the RAM was recognized, I rebooted to the flash drive (holding down the "option" key) and the recovery drive appeared. Clicked on it and got a menu. First, I chose disk utilities to format the SSD, then exited back to the menu. Then, I chose to restore from a time machine backup. 3 hours later, I was in business.
The machine boots in about 30 seconds. Apps open instantly - one dock bounce. Launchpad is smooth. The unit does not get flaming hot anymore, just a bit warm. Battery life is improved (with an old battery, too).
I did this a few months ago on my 2007 MacPro (I bought the small SSD because I only use it as a boot drive -- my data resides on a separate HDD in the second bay, with back-up drives in bays 2 and 4).
Yes, the price of SSDs is still high, but I breathed new life into my MBP and have no regrets! Feels like a new machine!
Any questions about my experience, let me know...just thought I'd share because I know lots of folks are considering the move to SSD.

Adrian - I have one from OWC (otherworldcomputing.com). I also have one in my 2007 MacPro as the boot drive. Very, very happy with the performance (in fact, my MBP only gets warm...not incredibly hot). They have a compatibility guide and install videos. I also bought 4GB RAM (along with the correct screwdriver), which helps. The only downside is size and cost. I put a 240GB drive in because I don't keep that much on my MBP. If you need a larger drive, the cost goes up considerably. Lion is humming along, very fast and smooth. No regrets. If your drive is doing fine, you may want to leave well-enough alone. If you feel it's sluggish, the SSD and additional RAM may do the trick....
I read today that Samsung is coming out with some, but no ETA or prices quoted. OWC is a great company with purchase from, based on my experiences...

Expdp all the tables execept 3 and filter for those 3 in one script

Hi ,
I want to take export as follows.
1) all tables except table a,b,c
2) Export of table a with filter condition specific to a
3) Export of table a with filter condition specific to b
4)Export of table a with filter condition specific to c
I have to do this in EXPDP Script.
Can we achieve this ??
Thanks,
Pramod.

Hi,
+1) all tables except table a,b,c+
+2) Export of table a with filter condition specific to a+
+3) Export of table a with filter condition specific to b+
+4)Export of table a with filter condition specific to c+
All above in one export command.
anyway
create one script like TABLENAME,TABLENAME, SO ON EXCEPT THREE TABLES
and just copy and paste the ouput after TABLES= parameter in export command
2. use QUERY paramter to specific filter or show us what is your condition.
above both example available in ASKTOM site.
Regards,
Taj

How do I copy a TM backup to an external HDD with an existing TM backup (for another machine)?

Hi,
My question relates to the use of Time Machine for two different Macs ... I have two Macs: a MacBook Pro (ML) and an iMac (SL). I use Time Machine for both.
Unfortunately, the external HDD (A) drive I use for the backup of my MacBook Pro is on the way out. I am now in a situation where I need to copy this Time Machine backup to another external HDD (B) which I use for the backup of my iMac.
I have decided that I would like to use external HDD B for all future backups of both machines from now on. It is a 2Tb LaCie drive with one partition. Therefore, I would like to copy the Time Machine backup data from external HDD A to external HDD B. Since both TM files/directories have identical names, I am looking for some advice of how to do this without 'deactivating' any of the backups or corrupting them, or screwing with permissions.
In case this is known to be problemmatic, would it be 'better practice' to partition the external 2Tb HDD drive into two partitions, then just use one partition for each backup? Is there an advantage/disadvantage to partitioning the drive? Will this approach make it 'less confusing for Time Machine' and reduce potential problems?
Any advice would be great!
Thanks,
Mark.

Don't bother trying to copy a TM backup file. Just connect the other good drive to your MBP and create a new full TM backup on that drive. I do suggest you create a separate partition on that good drive for each Mac you will be backing up to it.

Limiting Space used on external HDD for Time Machine

I'm really clueless on how this works and I would appreciate your thoughts on this. I recently bought an external HDD and I want to limit the allocated space for TM to only half of the capacity. I recently formatted the external HDD to FAT32 in order for me to use it with my other systems.
Is it possible to make this work? I saw an article wherein you can create a disk image in the external HDD, will that work?
Below are some specs of my external HDD:
Objective: Use Time Machine on my 1TB External HDD while limiting the space to only 400MB for back-up.
External HDD Settings: Iomega External HDD formatted as FAT32 and Master Boot Record

Hello,
Here is the best solution I can think of without using any extra software to alter your Time Machine settings.
You could use Disk Utility to divide the 1 TB external HDD into two partitions (400 GB + 600 GB).
(/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app)
Warning: Using Disk Utility to divide the drive into two partitions will erase everything on them.
Once that's done, when you reconnect your hard drive to your computer, and open Time Machine in System Settings, you could assign Time Machine to the 400 GB partition.
Here is the catch though, Time Machine cannot backup to FAT32, so you would have to format at least the 400 GB partition as "Mac OS Extended Journaled" with Disk Utility. If you want to use that drive with other non-Mac systems, best solution would be to share it over the network.
That is the best I can think of for your problem. Hope that helps.

External HDD ideas... a must read for those thinking of one!

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