Atop half dome

When I was much younger, I think around nineteen years old, I climbed half dome in Yosemite National park. I did it with my brother and sister. It was really fun. You don’t have to be a hard-core rock climber to scale half dome. After the Spring rains the park attaches cables to the side of the rock so just about anyone can go up it. I’ve have always wanted to return.
This Summer I took my two daughters to Yosemite. My intention was to show them Nevada and then Bridal Veil falls. Sadly I could only go as far as the observation bridge. I am too overweight and out of shape to even make it to see the falls. Luckily my younger daughter had enough of this “hiking” so we turned back. My older daughter wanted to go on and see the falls up close. We spent the rest of the day at Mirror lake.
But I felt I let my older daughter down. I asked her if she wanted to ever go to the top of Half Dome. She enthusiastically said yes. We set a date for the following summer to make our attempt. She reminded me I’ll need to do a lot of training to get into the proper shape.
Now Summer is long gone. We’re well into Fall. I’ve finally started getting into shape. Thirty minutes a day on a treadmill is how I am starting. I’m not sure if I’ll be ready by this Summer, but I wont know if I don’t try.
As a side note. While at Mirror lake, we heard a helicopter. It’s never a good thing to hear a helicopter in Yosemite. It is almost always the sign of something terrible has happened. We found out later that week a man had fallen off the cables leading to the top of Half Dome. It’s a dangerous thing to do, so care should be taken.

Home Server

I listen to a lot of Leo Laporte’s podcasts. I really enjoy all of his work. But listening to his Windows Weekly podcast is becoming more and more difficult.

Leo and his cohost sometimes talk about Windows Home Server. An OEM version of Windows designed to manage the ever increasing notion of having more that one computer in your household. The product does seem to fill a a nitch. But what bothers me is Leo never mentions how Apple is solving this same problem. And how Apple’s solution is much better for the home user.

So what problems is Windows Home Server trying to solve? Mainly aggregation of content. A single place for your media so they can be accessible from multiple computers. It also offers a place for backups to go. Sometimes I think Leo is disappointed in Apple for not offering a similar product.

It is an antithesis for someone to expect Apple to require a server (a separate machine running separate software) for these abilities. If you want to share pictures, you turn on picture sharing in iPhoto, and they automatically appear on other machines in your network. If you want to share music, you turn on music sharing in iTunes and your music automatically appears on other computers in your network. No server necessary. That means no configuration necessary. That is the Macintosh Way.

Apples backup solution (Called Time Machine) is just as simple. Plug in an external hard drive and it asks you if you want to backup to it. No server, no configuration necessary. Sure it is not centralized, but for storage of backups that isn’t even encouraged.