Welcome to the new SuperDuper!—the backup app Mac users have sworn by for over 22 years, brand new from tip to tail
Executive Summary v3.9 B3 is now out, with additional polish and tweaks to our cloud handling, some fixes for dark mode and the like. It will be offered as an automatic update for existing v3.9 Beta users, or you can dow…
A few weeks ago, The Tracking Angle posted a YouTube video comparing two turntables, using the same arm, cartridge and phono preamp. The two unit sounded surprisingly different to my ear, given the only change was the ac…
I’m sure it’s clear from everything I write, but I am, as they say, an Old. Part of that involves going through many technological transitions: computers; cars; TV; cable, satellite; cell phones; BBS systems; internet; t…
I’ve probably mentioned on the blog before that I’m a big fan of electric cars. Starting in 2013 with a first generation Tesla Model S P85, both Z and I have been powered by electrons, with two leased BMW i3s and we’ve n…
One year after my Dad’s death, I was flying back home, out of the first COVID-19 hot zone in the Northwestern US, listening to people cough, feeling the tension in the air. It was the same flight I caught rushing home, a…
Over the years, Shirt Pocket has been hosted on a number of local Unix-based systems. As I recall, it started out on a Cobalt Qube, then moved to a Power PC Mac mini, then the original “tall” Intel Mac mini, and finally…
I don’t talk about it much on the blog, but I get an enormous amount of support email. The quantity can be overwhelming at times, and without some automation, it would be nearly impossible for me to do it alone. Which I…
As we plug along with our Catalina changes, I thought I might write a quick post talking about some other stuff I’m enjoying right now. Because, hey, why not. Coffee Related Software Development and Coffee go together li…
On March 7, 2019, I unfortunately lost my Dad (which is why support has been a bit slow recently). I thought I’d post my eulogy for him here, as delivered, should anyone care. He was a good man, and will be missed. Good…
Off-topic alert! Over the past few months, I’ve been enjoying brewing beer at home with a Pico Pro. No doubt purists scoff a bit at the automation involved during the mash and boil, but it’s a relatively small part of th…
Our previous was the biggest day of climbing before the Maratona, but today wasn’t much smaller, with three passes to traverse on the trip from Canazei to Corvara. And once again, we’d be doing some of the passes that wo…
Re-reading the last two blog posts, it’s pretty clear I’m both out of blogging practice and at a loss for words that might actually describe this experience. Part of that is due to the nature of what we were all doing: h…
When you’re pushing a way up a climb, going 12kp/h or whatever you’re managing, panting and aching, it’s humbling to think about how quickly your typical professional cyclist can manage the same thing. Of course, it’s th…
My original plan was to blog about the Maratona dles Dolomites, and the week leading up to it, while it was happening. It’d been a while since I’d written things with any regularity, and it seemed to be a good way to get…
For SuperDuper! users, I’ll cut quickly to the chase here: we should be releasing an update this weekend that resolves the few issues that inevitably arise when a new update comes out. Thanks for your patience as we work…
There’s a certain way I like to release a version of SuperDuper, or any application, really. It goes something like this: We plan a healthy mix of fixes, tweaks and features. Those new features are designed and implement…
So, I don’t usually put general how-tos up here at Shirt Pocket Watch, but since I found this more than a bit frustrating and hard to diagnose, I thought someone else out there would benefit from what I found. For years…
I’m not going to make a commitment to blogging more this year, although perhaps I should, because I’ve been remiss (and busy). I am up on Twitter as dnanian, though, so feel free to follow me there for the occasional sel…
I think the last time I wrote about the Squeezebox was in 2005 (yikes!), but it’s time to virtually attaboy again: the Slim Devices folks have recently released the Squeezebox Boom, and it’s pretty darn great. (I might b…
For nearly two years, I’ve been using the PC version of the Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard, and I’ve been quite happy with it. I’ve always been a huge fan of the feel of the IBM Selectric typewriter keyboard - perfect key…
There are times when our inability to truly talk to our animals, to reason with them, can be truly frustrating. And, alas, truly dangerous. Last weekend was one of those times. Having successfully negotiated the power-fa…
It’s been really busy around these parts, and I haven’t had enough time to blog, alas. But I wanted to point out a few notable recent releases for people who might be interested. iPhone AutoSync Ben Gottlieb of Stand Alo…
A quick post: it’s been a year since we lost Ketzl, and a day short of a year since Taiko joined our family. He’s been a big help dealing with the loss, and has grown into a fine—though rather enthusiastic—young dog. I c…
It’s a few weeks later, but Zabeth and I are back from our two week vacation, and so things around here are returning to normal: the Shirt Pocket Support “autoresponder” is turned off (since I’m able to respond more quic…
It’s not easy to look at the iPhone, let alone touch the thing, and not be enchanted. It’s all planes and subtle, refined curves with a radius (and texture) that feels great in the hand. It’s not light, but not heavy eit…
Big couple of days here, in a good way. New Graduate First off, Zabeth graduated from Tufts Veterinary School on Sunday — she’s now Dr. Zabeth. Pretty cool stuff. It’s really an incredible accomplishment, and Z worked ou…
For those who haven’t heard me blather at length about all things SuperDuper! and Shirt Pocket, there’s a 45 minute interview of me up at MacVoices. Remember: the game rules require you to drink every time you hear me sa…
My friend Jonas Salling has started blogging again, and that’s always a good thing. He’s got some recent posts up there as he tests the WiFi support for Clicker, and the results may surprise you! Jonas is one of the hard…
A little tip for those of you who might have installed Seagate SATA drives into your 3GB/s capable G5, MacPro, NAS device, or whatever. Looks like recent Seagate drives ship with a jumper installed that limits the drive…
Taiko and Zabeth were out walking the other day and ran into a neighbor out for a stroll with his own dog. He asked a bit about Ketzl, and Zabeth asked about his previous pups, and during that discussion he said “you kno…
While I’m posting about music, I just love the album A Girl Called Eddy. Erin Moran (aka Eddy) has a beautiful voice and great songwriting chops. A melancholy pop album that’s pretty amazing from beginning to end, with s…
How, exactly, did I miss Sloan over the last 10 years?
I freely admit, right at the start of this post, that I switch cell phones too often. A lot of this is because I try to do a lot with my mobile phone, mostly mail and web based. And I want the thing to work well with my…
It looks like Ben Gottlieb, the world’s most productive developer (and recently married man, has taken his first Mac application and won Iron Coder V with it! Big congratulations to Ben on his well deserved win — Mac use…
I love the convenience of the iTunes Music Store: it’s well organized, easy to find stuff, and generally nicely done. But, after experiencing the restrictions (which aren’t bad within iTunes or iPods, but quite awful wit…
I’ve listened to This American Life for years on NPR: it’s a great radio show. And now, they’ve managed to add a TV version to their portfolio. It’s on Showtime, and is both new and remarkably faithful to the original vi…
I’ve just heard that Rich and Kerri have lost Rufus, their nearly 14-year old dog. Buddy was 13. He’d had a very good run. (Most of it through the water!) He was, hands-down, the best dog I ever knew, or had even heard o…
tv is in the house — two of them, actually — and, well, it’s good! I’m not using it for music much — my library is much too large for this device, and navigation of large collections, as has been said elsewhere, is quit…
The other day, I was pushing at the limits of my existing Infrant ReadyNAS NV setup, and needed to increase its size. Normally, this would be a huge project, but with the ReadyNAS it was incredibly easy to do. You see, t…
Many of you probably know that, for some reason, iSight cameras can get into a weird state where they start causing serious errors with FireWire drives. The symptoms usually include a bunch of I/O errors while copying to…
It’s really easy to quickly outgrow your internal drive if you’ve got a substantial iTunes library. And, with all that metadata involved, the last thing you want to do is lose your ratings, comments, whatever. Don’t desp…
Some time ago, I switched from MarsEdit to ecto. Mostly, I did this because I liked writing posts with “real” formatting — that is, using the RTF editing view that ecto offered. At the time, I was only allowing myself 15…
It wasn’t that long ago that HP had the absolute worst OSX drivers of any major peripheral developer. Their scanners barely worked, their printers sort of worked, the software they loaded was pretty shamefully buggy, fla…
A few weeks ago, we took Taiko in to get his hips x-rayed to ensure there aren’t any problems to look forward to, and for a small adjustment — a necessary nip-and-tuck. The big guy pulled through just fine. When I went t…
Hopefully no one out there noticed, but — for the first time in three years — Zabeth and I managed to get away for a two week vacation at Red Mountain (in Rossland, BC). It’s not too bad a trip, about three hours north o…
It’s hard to believe another year’s gone by, but dates rarely lie, and there it is - the 31st, soon to flip. Rather than turn inward and reflect on events here, I’d like to turn outward and thank each and every reader; a…
Wow. It looks like SuperDuper! 2.1 has won another Macworld Eddy! Back-to-back awards for SuperDuper! in 2005 and 2006, and one for netTunes in 2004 — w00t! Thanks, Macworld — and thanks to all the users, too! The softwa…
Well, one year ago today we released SuperDuper! 2.0, and the past 12 months have gone quickly indeed. In that time we’ve released a number of great updates, and I’ve communicated personally with thousands of you through…
I’ve got a huge backlog of topics that I’ve wanted to post about, and hopefully I’ll be able to get down some more extended thoughts soon. But here are some “Hot Dots” style quick thoughts… Working Toward Phone Nirvana O…
No doubt you’ve noticed that I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit recently. It’s been rather busy here, with various projects taking time as we hurtle through fall toward winter. Taiko’s quickly growing into his paws, and…
Taiko’s in the house. And he means business.
A few quick pictures of Taiko as I prepare for the rollout of the new netTunes and launchTunes this week…
The original plan was to bury Ketzl in the front yard, under her favorite bush. I had wanted to do that pretty badly, and pretty irrationally — it was a purely emotional thing, without considering the practical matters…
One of the problems with Bluetooth mice and the Mac is that virtually none of them supply drivers. So, your mouse might have a gazillion handy-dandy buttons, but you’ll only get the wheel + right/left click. For USB mice…
With a puppy in the house, my routine has changed from the back-breaking (but rewarding) work of taking care of Ketzl to watching the new arrival like a hawk, ensuring that no inappropriate fluids or solids meet floor or…
At my feet, a puppy. Sleeping soundly after an anxious first night away from the pack, legs twitching ever so slightly deep in dreamland. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. There were supposed to be two, curled up next…
In the end it was respiratory, as we knew it would be. As I wrote yesterday, Ketzl had a bad night, and we couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. But we should have known. After each loss of function, Ketzl became…
A rough night. Ketzl, after a relatively calm day, decided that last night was a good night to demand water every two minutes and cry until she got it. This is pretty irrational behavior, and we’re concerned that DM has…
With Ketzl on the decline, every day bring a new challenge, a new obstacle to overcome, a new way to show her how much we love her by making her life the best we can, given the circumstances. As DM has moved forward, it’…
Ketzl loves cows. I’m sure this is related to the fact that Berners were farm dogs, and cattle herders (or descended from them), but whatever — cows make her excited and happy. A state I try to induce as often as I can…
A quick follow-up to my review of the Roomba and US Trilobite. As I mentioned in the review, Europe has a newer version of the Trilobite — v2.0. The description of the 2.0 version from Electrolux indicated 200 changes fr…
Zabeth and I are off to Chicago for a friend’s wedding, which means Shirt Pocket support is going to be a bit slow until the 5th: sorry to all those who are waiting more than a few minutes for answers… This is actually t…
A few weeks ago, Zabeth and I were sitting with Ketzl the evening after her last physical therapy appointment. The session at Sterling Impression hadn’t gone well. As Ketzl has declined, we’ve adjusted her exercises, swi…
Long term diseases — Ketzl, at 9, has had DM for 3 years, a third of her life — are tough on memory. Tough because now is so much more vivid than then. And when I remember Ketzl after her battle is finally over, I don’t…
When I was a kid, I used a bunch of string, clothespins and pulleys to rig up a gizmo that was supposed to automatically make my bed for me. The idea — which I think I got out of a book (Thanks, Jake!) — was to attach th…
Despite being down and mostly out with a cold/flu, I’ll be appearing on The Tech Night Owl LIVE tonight, May 4th, talking about SuperDuper!, netTunes, launchTunes, and desperately trying to not cough up a chunk of lung…
And in that spring moment, after the long walk down the hill, There was nothing but the cool, sweet ice cream And the wonderful, gloriously crunchy cone.
Yesterday, Ketzl and I took the drive out to Shelburne Falls and visited the nice people at Eddie’s Wheels. And while it was good to say “Hi” to them, the main purpose was to get K’s cart retrofitted. Her previous cart w…
This coming Saturday at 7:30 am on Boston’s Fox 25 (repeating on the 23rd at 8 am), Pet Keeping with Marc Morrone (check your local listings) is doing a piece on animal rehabilitation. I’ve been told that Ketzl is going…
I was reading Wil Shipley’s recent post about his horrible Comcast DVR experience, which has some kind of Microsoft DVR software on it, and it amazed me how lousy it was, compared to my Sony VGX-XL1 Media Center PC. I kn…
Well, today — March 16th, 2006 — is Ketzl’s 9th birthday. It’s a milestone I really never thought Ketzl would reach, but I suppose I shouldn’t be so pessimistic: I didn’t think she’d make it through to last spring, nor t…
I’m usually a bit reluctant to recommend TV Shows, because you never know whether future episodes are going to meet the expectations set up by past ones. But, quite a few in, it really seems like AMC’s Hustle is a winner…
More months pass, and I’m happy to say Ketzl’s still with us. She’s still in good spirits, but slowing down as the disease continues to take its inevitable toll. Her front is weak enough that our walks require me to hold…
Those who know me know that I’m relatively obsessed with coffee… a harmless vice. I always grind my own beans, but over many years I hadn’t found a really great grinder that wasn’t dedicated purely to espresso. Good ones…
Looks like the fine folks at Bare Bones Software have released Yojimbo, an great new take on the organizer-cum-database that many have tried, and failed, to do well… The Yojimbo team has done a great job, addressing many…
It’s hard to believe another year is gone, but belief has nothing to do with it. A few hours and *poof* — goodbye, 2005. It’s been a big year for Shirt Pocket, with a number of product releases, none bigger than v2.0 of…
I know it’s more of a Thanksgiving kind of post, but the best gift we got this year — even though most of it happened before Christmas — was another year with Ketzl. A year ago, we were well post-DM-diagnosis. Ketzl had…
Let’s talk, for a moment, about acquiring music. As you might guess from netTunes, I’m a bit of a music fanatic. I’ve bought a lot of music in my day, and expect to buy a lot more. But, I rarely listen to “music radio”…
Egad, could it be another post about the Sony Media Center? I believe so! I ran into a rather unusual problem with the VGX-XL1’s changer that I wanted to document here, in case someone else hits it in the future. What I…
Let me be the second to announce that SuperDuper! 1.5 — the old version — has won a 2005 Macworld Eddy! Bruce and I are incredibly happy that the editors at Macworld found us worthy of this honor: thanks to all, and to a…
The rollout’s going well, though it totally killed my entire birthday — I’ve been SuperDuper!ing from about 7am until now (11:43pm), non-stop except for a 40 minute break for dinner. People seem to be really liking it, t…
PRESS RELEASE: Shirt Pocket releases SuperDuper! 2.0 Heroic System Recovery for Mere Mortals - Better, Faster, Scheduled! Weston, MA – November 22, 2005: Shirt Pocket, creator of the 2004 Eddy Award Winning netTunes, ann…
Somewhere in the world, it’s November 22nd. SuperDuper! v2.0 emerged from our engineering labs and was placed into the hands of our first external testers one year ago today. Over this past year, we’ve released — on aver…
I come before you today to sing the praises of Bruce Lacey, my collaborator on SuperDuper! Bruce doesn’t get a lot of direct play in these pages, mostly because it’s my personal blog, but SuperDuper! wouldn’t exist at al…
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I’m a fan of the i-mate SP3 Windows Mobile Smartphone. Mobile phones are one of those things that are difficult to generalize: your reaction to the phone is likely based entirely on…
Yeah, clichéd title, sorry. Well, the Computer America show went pretty well last night — it’s amazing how fast an hour can vanish. For those interested, here’s an archive of the show that’ll be up for about a week. Than…
Most of you probably don’t know about it, but I contributed to the OSX portion of Slim Devices’ Squeezebox — I wrote the Preference Pane, Installer… basically, a lot of the Mac-specific stuff. I’m happy to see that Dean…
I’ve posted before about my personal “boat anchor” that keeps a Windows machine close by — Microsoft Money. There was just nothing close enough on the Macintosh to allow me to move. I was a bit more successful replacing…
Hey, looks like Jonas Salling has released Salling Clicker 3.0, with both a Macintosh and Windows version! Very cool — here’s hoping that one of the hardest working men in shareware gets lots of new customers.
Well, summer’s almost over, and I haven’t done a Ketzl update for a while. So, here’s perhaps more than you wanted to know. (As with previous posts of this nature, I hope the details involved help others who might find t…
When I left Windows for the Macintosh years ago, there was one thing I didn’t count on: there are no good personal finance programs available for the Mac. Yes, there’s Quicken 200x, and I tried it for six months (and hav…
The Pavlov’s Beep post got me thinking a bit about how user expectations can set a product up for failure out of the gate… and that made me think of the late, lamented (by some), lambasted (by many) Newton. Ignoring the…
In the first Bang & Olufsen multi-line cordless phone system — the 6000 series — the designers and developers clearly had a problem. Basically, when you picked up the phone, it took a while to actually “connect”, somethi…
So, conventional wisdom about Bang & Olufsen is, as far as I can tell, overpriced, bad sounding junk for the “Jet Set”. (“Jet Set” being a particularly old fashioned way of saying “stupid, snobby idiot”, given the contex…
I remember back when Ketzl was a pretty young puppy, we always used to wonder if she had a bark at all. She never felt the need to let out a full “Woof!”, and pretty considerately used what we termed “mini-woofs” to get…
Be gentle to my server, but here’s a quick little (3.5MB) movie of Ketzl in her wheelchair at the beach in Chatham, MA over Memorial Day.
Our Bernese Mountain Dog, Ketzl, is a great girl, but she’s been through a lot in her 8 years. Even knowing that Bernese have a tendency toward health issues didn’t quite prepare us for: Entropion (eyelids turned slightl…
It’d been a few months since I’d left Compuware and set out, once again, on my own. Shirt Pocket was initially formed to create products for PDAs, a market segment that I’ve always found interesting… hence the name. I wa…
So, I’ve been avoiding blogging. More than that: I’ve been avoiding making eye contact with blogging. But it keeps jumping up and down, waving its arms frantically, desperately trying to get my attention, insisting that…