Using external hard drives between OSX and Windows

If you commonly use both a Mac and a Windows based machine, you might have tried to share data between them using an external hard drive.  Normally you will run into a few problems when attempting this.  If you originally formatted the drive using Windows, it likely will have an NTFS file system.  This file system can be read by OSX, but will not allow for writing or deletion.  If you formatted the drive using OSX, it likely will be HFS+ or Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  This file system will not be readable by a Windows machine.  The third less likely case is that you have an older external hard drive or for some reason formatted it using a FAT32 file system.  This file system can be read/write/deleted from both OSX and a Windows based machine.  The problem with this file system is that it is an older technology, and can become very fragmented over time.  It also suffers from poor performance, reliability, and efficiency.

Overview-

1. FAT32 – Its old, slower and somewhat unstable.  It will work on both Mac and PC fine.
2. NTFS – It will work fine in Windows, and requires a program like Paragon NTFS to be read in OSX.
3. HFS+ – It will work fine in OSX, and requires a program like Macdrive to be read in Windows.

The final decision should depend on if you are using primarily one OS, or share time equally on both.  Macdrive is a proven solution, and if you are primarily a user of OSX I would recommend using this option along with HFS+.  Finally, I’ll add a bit of even more tech confusion if I didn’t do that already to you.  There is another option which is in the works called MacFUSE, created by a member of Google.  This should allow you to use NTFS along with many other file systems in OSX.  It is a bit more complicated then some of the other options, but I thought I would mention it rather then leave out this potentially exciting product.

Wakesurf on Jefferson

My friends love finding new sports to do behind the boat, and wakesurfing has become a staple over the past few years. This is a shot of Tim Warrick carving a line with an amazing sunset over Lake Jefferson in Southern Minnesota.

-DPollitt

Tired of advertisements with a bit of weather on the side? Try SimpleWeather.com

I typically start my day off with a quick glace at the weather report, just incase a tornado is about to hit me on my morning moped commute.  Weather.com has been a trusted website for many years, and I think they do have very accurate and good weather information.  The problem is that the amount of advertising has become increasingly annoying overtime.  Currently I find it even hard to figure out where the advertisements end and the reporting begins.  I use Firefox web browser, with the Add-On Adblock Plus.  This combo is supposed to remove most of the advertising found on pages like weather.com, but still I find the page filled with useless crap-possibly not advertising, but none the less it’s junk.  So, a friend recommended SimpleWeather.com to me, and I found it to be a refreshing change from the weather.com barrage of links.  Give it a shot for yourself, I think you will be suprised how simple it can be

-DPollitt

Bicycle Tutor – Bike Repair and Maintenance

I recently got a new bike and soon wanted to start adjusting and playing with all the different parts I could.  I figured out that I had no clue what I was doing, so I searched for a good website to teach me how.  What I found was Bicycletutor.com.

The website is full of short tutorials to help walk you through each step of bicycle repair and maintenance.  The most helpful part that I liked was the fact that the website provided not only a video tutorial, but also a matching description of each step.

-DPollitt

Waterton Lakes International Peace Park

A shot I took while in Canada’s Waterton Lakes Park. It was quite an interesting park, with a Swiss Alps style theme, plenty of mule deer, and Columbian Ground Squirels.

-DPollitt