Leopard Server Time Machine Restore experience

I've been setting a Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server at the office and yesterday I ran into some issues setting up Open Directory that I couldn't fix.

At first I thought I'd have to rebuild until I remembered that I had set up Time Machine on the server. So I popped in the Leopard Server DVD and booted to it. I chose the Restore option from the Utilities menu. I restored from the backup made about 4 hours previous, in order to ensure it was from a time before I had messed anything up.

Rather than doing a compare and copying the files with differences (which is how Time Machine create backups), the restore wiped my hard drive and copied the entire fileset from backup.

Once rebooted though, the Software Update service failed to start automatically. I tried to start it in the Server Admin console and got a CANNOT_START_SERVICE_ERR message. I also noticed, in Server Admin, that Software Update had no logs files. That piece of information made me wonder about what Time Machine was not backing up, and therefore what had not been restored.

I found this piece by Devin Lane on Time Machine exclusions, and yes, /var/log is an standard exclusion.

Once I recreated the /var/log/swupd directory, where Software Update stores logs, Software Update started normally and recreated it's log files.

Also, even although I restored from 4 hours ago, Time Machine did not remove the backups made less than 4 hours ago, and the resulting 1st backup set was a whooping 15GB.

BlackBerry GPS Navigation options (part 2)

Garmin Mobile for BlackBerry 4.0.1

Garmin, one of the biggest players in the dedicated GPS market, has 2 products for the BlackBerry. The first, for BlackBerries with built-in GPS, sports at $99 one time fee. The catch: if you buy a new BlackBerry you must purchase the Garmin Mobile software again. The other product, is for BlackBerries that lack built-in GPS but have Bluetooth. That product is $149 per year and includes a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Since I'm using a BlackBerry 8800 with built-in GPS, I'll be reviewing the first product. Garmin offers a 7 day trial and I put this through it's paces on our week long trip to Texas.

I started by downloading (http://getmobile.garmin.com/trial) the trial software directly onto the phone. It took about 10 minutes but I only had 1 or 2 bars of coverage at the time.

Once the Garmin software was launched, I was struck by how much it looked and behaved like a Garmin nuvi GPS device. This might seem obvious so I'll restate it a different way. Garmin Mobile for BlackBerry doesn't behave like a BlackBerry application. In fact the BlackBerry menu button is completely disabled throughout the entire application.

The Garmin gets right down to the navigation business with the first option being "Where to?". It allows you to enter addresses, cities, intersections, airports or search from over 6 millions points of interest. It had no trouble finding any of the addresses we gave it, including one rural address. After setting out the Garmin will offer voice turn-by-turn directions and does speak street names, although the speaker on the 8800 seemed the limit their usefulness. In fact, my wife uttered the question, "what did it say?", on more than one occasion. The Garmin also displayed a tendency to over-navigate by directing you to stay on the same road at major intersections.

I spoke to a Garmin support representative to gather information for this review, and he confirmed what I already suspected. Garmin Mobile for BlackBerry will try to download information about your entire route when you enter the destination at the start of your journey. This makes it far less likely to lose your map because you hit a cellphone deadzone. In fact, I drove the entire way from Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth without losing the map.

The map, however, is a little spartan. Since Garmin Mobile downloads so much information about the route, and there's very little need for side streets off the highway or minor intersections, information for these locations is not downloaded or displayed. When you do get on city streets, however, the map becomes more detailed. In the map view, it also shows the distance to next instruction, ETA at destination, and compass direction.

Other Notes:

• Garmin Mobile has many different vehicle types that it will optimize routes for. Car, Pedestrian, Bicycle, Bus, Truck and Taxi. We only used the car setting.
• By default, it will avoid U-turns but you may also avoid toll roads, highways, traffic jams, unpaved roads and the like.
• Garmin Mobile automatically switches to "night" colors which are darker. The darker scheme worked much better after dusk. We only used it once at night and the automatic switch happened at 8:10pm. I have no idea how it worked out that time.
• Speaking of driving at night, it was very useful to see the road curving on the map before I could see the actual road. Made my driving smoother.
• Although I had a car charger, I was able to use Garmin Mobile for 6 hours while on battery and since have some charge left.

Concerns:

• Garmin say they will "work with you" if your BlackBerry is lost or damaged. No guarantees that they won't try to extract another $99.
• We had one trouble spot with the maps. A road closure due to a bridge being replaced was not known and Garmin Mobile kept trying to navigate us over the non-existent bridge. We had directions from a local resident and knew how to get around it. Garmin Support's answer wasn't all that great, merely telling me that if Garmin didn't know about the closure, neither would anyone else. In other words, we're just as bad at this as everyone else.
• Garmin Mobile doesn't have "Find along route", like some Garmin nuvi devices. In other words, it can't tell how close the next gas station is on your route. It can tell where the closest gas stations are, but they are in every direction.
• So far it's only supported in the US & Canada.

Overall, I found Garmin Mobile to be a pleasing experience and while it will take you through places that locals wouldn't go via, it does get you to your destination.