Ok, so I’m putting this blog post together for those of you who have a 2010 model 15″ MacBook Pro (Model Identifier MacBookPro6,2) - which is what my below experience has been with, however, I’m thinking that most MacBook’s will exhibit similar issues. I have spent a few hours more than planned today trying to get my new SSD to work with my Mac for various reasons.

I purchased myself a nice new OCZ Vertex 2 SSD as my Mac was due a rebuild and on the back of recently having bumped my memory up to 8GB RAM, it was an obvious choice to continue my quest for speed and performance out of my machine. Thinking the process would be relatively straightforward as I was planning a clean install, I ran a Time Machine backup of my original disk before replacing the old HDD with my new SSD.

Upon attempting booting from the retail version of the Snow Leopard DVD, I noticed that my mac was getting stuck on the grey Apple startup screen and going no further. I also noticed that the CPU was caught in a race condition and generating a lot of heat.

My next step led me to discover that macs like to see a disk created with a GUID as opposed to a MBR, so I connected my SSD to an external enclosure, booted into OS X from my original HDD and performed the following in Disk Utility:

Disk Utility > Disk > Partition Scheme > Assign Partition > Options > Set to GUID

From here, I replaced the SSD as the primary drive for the machine and proceeded with a reboot, from the Snow Leopard DVD. Again, I was presented with the same Grey Apple screen and CPU race.

Next, I attempted to boot from the OS Install DVD which came with my laptop (it features OS X 10.6.3 (as opposed to 10.6 on the retail DVD) and strangely enough, the machine began to work through the boot and install process without any problems.

I’m not sure of the fact that I had set the disk to a GUID system made any difference in the end, but certainly if you notice this type of behaviour whilst installing an SSD into you MacBook Pro, I would certainly suggest changing to GUID and also using a disk that has at least 10.6.3 on it.

I can also say that if you’re considering an SSD but unsure if you will really see the benefits from the upgrade, just go ahead and do it. The speed differential is very noticeable – and if you’re running an SSD in combination with a lot of RAM and 64 bit mode enabled you will be seriously impressed by the performance you see.

I have put some thoughts out hosted / cloud desktops here before and I decided that I should revisit today, in light of Aussie telco / ISP AAPT’s announcement today that they are deploying hosted virtual desktops to their entire workforce. This is a significant announcement I believe – as it is one of the first large scale rollouts of a hosted desktop solution to happen here in Australia.

Whilst AAPT are hosting this solution themselves on a Sun / NetApp / VMWare solution – and not on a public cloud, it is still in essence delivering a ‘cloud desktop’ to their staff.

Given my position working with a leading cloud solutions provider, I regularly get approached by various vendors offering hosted / cloud dekstop solutions. I like the idea, but have yet to find a solution that absolutely hits the mark, be that on price and service, enough for me to decide it was an absolute must sell to my clients. I do still keep my ears peeled and see if I can fit a solution into any of the clients I’m talking to, but I still believe that Software as a Service type solutions are a better fit than cloud desktop in the vast majority of cases.

I will be watching with interest to see how AAPT’s project goes and certainly keep my eyes and ears open to solutions that are either out there, maturing and developing, or systems that are new to market. If you are a cloud desktop provider and have something cool and exciting to offer, please do get in touch!

I have been battling for quite some time with constantly running out of RAM on my MacBook Pro. Whilst I have 4GB of RAM – it’s just never enough (8GB upgrade going to be happening on my upcoming US trip methinks!).

However, I got tipped over the edge whilst trying to do some work today and decided to look for a quick fix. One of the suggestions I saw was to boot my OS into 64 bit mode. Given one of the key features of Snow Leopard Technology is the fact that it’s built as 64 bit from the ground up, it always puzzled me that they didn’t enable a 64 bit kernel by default. Of course, the reason behind this is to try and increase compatibility with non 64 bit hardware etc, but it still is a pain.

In order to enable a 64 bit kernel, you can approach this a few ways. The quickest and easiest way is to hold down the 6 and 4 keys just after you power up your Mac. This will boot you into 64 bit mode for that session only (ie. next time you reboot you will be back to 32 bit mode).

In order to verify that you have booted into 64 bit mode, go to Apple > About this Mac and click on Software, where you will see the 64 bit kernel flag set to yes, as per below:

But, it would be good if you could make this a more permanent fixture, right?! This can be done pretty easily by firing up Terminal and editing the following file:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

In here, you will need to add the following kernel flag

arch=x86_64

Which should leave you with a file that looks like the following:

Once you have done this, you should notice a decent increase in performance and far better memory management

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking around the subject of hosted desktops recently. Anyone familiar with Cloud Computing concepts will be well aware of two main cloud computing areas – Software as a Service (something along the lines of Salesforce.com or Google Apps) or Infrastructure as a Service, which is generally considered server infrastructure as a service (think Amazon AWS). AWS is a really, really good IaaS platform, but it’s very server & storage centric. For example, all the standard Amazon AMI’s (machine images) are for server OS’s (Windows 2008 server and the likes).

People are comfortable and familiar with the concepts of having their email or server infrastructure in the cloud, but not so much with the concept of having a desktop in the cloud. What if you had your Windows 7 or Mac OSX instance running in the cloud, available and accessible to you everywhere? Do you see this as being a problem? Are you comfortable with the concept? The same types of questions will arise for cloud desktops as they do for cloud email / storage solutions, namely:

• Is my data secure?
• Who owns my data?
• Can I get my data back / move it if I want to?
• Where is it hosted?
• Who has access to my data?

But, my question is, do you have other concerns about you desktop living in the cloud? All of the above questions I can easily address (and I do every single day!). I can think that network connectivity and latency will be key concerns. But what else? Method of access will be a concern, especially for corporates thinking of moving desktop infrastructure to the cloud. What do they do with all their existing hardware? What do they give their staff going forward, netbooks & thin clients?

And what about cost? In the past few weeks, I have spoken to several companies considering a move to hosted desktop solutions. But cost is a concern and this is something that I’m currently trying to evaluate and understand fully. Is a hosted desktop solution really cheaper in the long run than in-house infrastructure? Sure, you don’t need the capital outlay upfront that say an upgrade in desktop os, or hardware would be, you don’t need to pay for power and maintenance, but you do still need to pay for an access terminal.

And another key question – is hosted desktops really cloud computing? To cloud computing purists, the cloud revolves around SaaS as opposed to IaaS. Is hosted desktops something that is here to stay, or simply a stop gap measure for people until all relevant software can be packaged as a SaaS offering.

I will do a deeper dive into the technical aspects of hosted desktops in the near future, but for now I’m really interested in feedback via comments or email on peoples thoughts on this concept.

I’ve been using a new model MacBook Pro quite a bit recently and I have finally figured out what all the hype is about the MacBook Glass Trackpad. There are so many different shortcuts and time saving tips that make this a true joy to work with and really does leave you scratching your head wondering what the hell every other laptop manufacturer out there is doing.

I thought I would share some of the tips I’ve picked up recently as I know that a lot of people aren’t aware of these features.

• One finger is for regular movement of the cursor.
• Two fingers in either an up-down or side-to-side motion functions like the scroll bar allowing for easy navigation within an application, on web pages and in other documents.
• A turning of your fingers rotates objects such as photos while a pinching motion will zoom in or out on the page or object.
• Three fingers swiping side-to-side works like as forward and backward navigation and is just outstanding for web browsing or even navigating around within the Finder.
• A four-finger swipe side to-side brings up the application switcher, (similar to Cmd-Tab).
• Four fingers swiping up clears the screen of all open windows for easy access to the desktop, while a swipe down opens up the Expose view of all open windows.

This is just a quick test post using the wordpress plugin for my new iPhone.

I’m so in love with this phone it’s awesome and makes my life on the road a million times better and more productive, plus it keeps me entertained too!

You may remember back to last year, when Estonia, one of the most internet savvy, connected countries in the world, came under a widespread and well documented cyber attack, originating for the most part in Russia, and in response to some political moves that were being made in the country at the time.

I’ve just read an interesting paper, written in non-technical terms on the background and implications of the event, both on Estonia, and also on the wider world as we face into a new era of potential cyber warfare. If this sounds of interest to you, I suggest that you take a read.

Is anyone else having problems subscribing to new feeds in Google Reader today? I’ve tried to subscribe to three different feeds, and each one of them has been giving me problems! Not something I’m used to in the usually flawless Google Reader!

Ever wondered how to build a submarine fibre optic cable? PIPE Networks are a large carrier / IXP here in Oz, and are in the process of building a much needed submarine cable between Sydney and Guam. I’ve met with Bob, their Network Architect and he told me about some pretty crazy and cool stuff that they are doing, and it looks like the project is going to be a huge success for them.

They have decided, rather unusually for such a project, to be very open and transparent about how they are going about it, and you can find lots of details over on their website which includes a blog that you can subscribe to in order to stay up to date with the project!

For a very long time, I have longed for a decent to-do list. Better again, one that was online, allowing me to access it from anywhere. I’ve tried out a few different solutions over the years, but none have really worked for me.

Today, I discovered Remember The Milk, a very cool, Australian developed website, that is rapidly growing in popularity and features. There are currently over 500,000 users of RTM, so I’m guessing with those kind of numbers, there must be something exciting going on!

So far, I’m very impressed, I can hook it into my Google Calendar, allowing me to view as well as create tasks there, as well as create tasks via email and the web etc. Only thing that I would like to see is a Google Desktop plugin, but, I think I’m going to be hooked regardless!