WibbleBlog

So my attempt to replicate Apple’s services has some hitches it seems.

DAViCal requires the PL/pgSQL language be installed for it’s database functions to run. That isn’t installed by default on bluehost and since I’m not a postgres superuser I can’t add it. Annoying.

Another point against MobileMe is that I can’t host wordpress (the horror!). But then again I could host it for free elsewhere. Tricky.

So I was suckered and signed up for MobileMe trials which end in December. I’ve been playing with it a bit and it is very slick.

Problem is that I’m a control freak. I like the webhosting I have at the moment and I can’t really justify paying an extra $150 a year just for shiny Apple goodness (I know, I know). So, what are my alternatives? Can I do everything that Apple offer for less with open source tools.

Let’s look at the components of MobileMe and what my current alternatives are.

• Mail – Lots of webmail choices (three pre-installed with bluehost)
• Address Book – Most webmail programs have some sort of address book
• Calendar – phpicalendar
• Photos – Gallery 2
• iDisk – Most web hosts provide a “Web Disk”
• Backup – Plenty of backup software out there that will write to a network drive
• Back to My Mac – ShareTool

The first three can be almost addressed by using the Horde suite which was pre-installed on my web host which has all of those features (and more). The calendar doesn’t share quite as nicely as with MobileMe and you don’t get two-way sync, but they are working on it. Also I can’t figure out how I might sync my address book with that. In fact my solution currently is to use Roundcube for webmail (which again is pre-installed) and phpicalendar for calendar sharing (only one way). Mail “sync” is achieved if you want it by using IMAP (which isn’t quite the same thing I realise). A good looking solution for shared calendars (that goes beyond what MobileMe is providing) is DAViCal which when I’m feeling brave I’ll try to install.

Online galleries abound, but I’ve found Gallery 2 to be the best. There is a plugin for iPhoto and Aperture for those so inclined (my wife manages to use iPhoto to upload to our Gallery site (OzPhotos.net) so it clearly works fine!

iDisk is just a WebDav share and most web hosts provide some kind of interface to set up a “Web Disk” which provides the same functionality. Finder can hook up to WebDav shares (exactly how iDisk works) but bear in mind this bug. An alternative is to use a fuse client to do file sharing over ssh (as long as your host provides ssh access). MacFusion, for example, is one I’ve tried, though I’ve found it a little flaky. ExpanDrive might be worth a look (also based on macfuse) and I’ll give it a try sometime (now that I’ve remembered it’s name after N pointed it out to me months ago).

Backup – just use whatever backup software you like to a WebDav or an sshfs share.

Back To My Mac – this is the most flashy piece of MobileMe using Wide Area Bonjour with MobileMe providing the DNS backing for the service. In theory one could muck about with ssh forwarding and proxy settings to achieve the same thing but it is much easier to pay YazSoft $30 for ShareTool with a nice user interface. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good.

So what is the conclusion? Sure these options aren’t as slick as Apple’s, but then again I’m not entrusting Steve with all my data, I get a lot more disk space and much more control (try hosting three domains on MobileMe) for less money – Bluehost currently costs me about $7 a month.

All up I just can’t justify MobileMe. Now if I had an iPhone, that might be a different matter… But then again, iPhone might lead to iDivorce :)

Looks shiny. Like the cartoon.

I refuse to try it on Windows. Once the Mac version arrives, I’ll give it a whirl.

It is based on Webkit FPS, what is holding up the Mac release?

So I’ve found time to tidy up after my database loss debacle.

I’ve also consolidated both blogs into one wordpress install, using Virtual Multiblog, so that I don’t have to mess around so much for upgrades.

I’ve also added a photo-blog to try to encourage me to think more about my photography. I intend to put up one photo a week – either one taken that week or one that has some relation to something that happened in the week. We’ll see how it goes.

<sigh>How many times does this have to be said.

I’m considering setting up a RAID 1 set with removable drive caddies and three drives so I can offsite a backup once a week. So I searched around to see if this would work and was a reasonable thing to do.

Two results. (1) Don’t use hardware raid – you’ll be screwed if it is your mobo that goes and not a disk. (2) A lot (a lot) of people think RAID is a backup. I can’t count the number of “Should I use RAID or Time Machine” questions.

Is this because some manufacturer has been pushing RAID as a backup tool? I suppose it is in the sense that it provides backup hardware.

On another note, this was posted with MacJournal (courtesy of the August 2008 MacUpdate Promo Bundle ).