iPhoto Recovery

I should know better. I thought I did know better!

I back up my two main drives on my desktop Mac at work every night. Good for me. But, uh, it turns out I wasn’t backing up another external drive which had some key files on it. Very key files. Like the iPhoto Library for every photo I’ve posted to CoD. 

Yesterday when I tried booting iPhoto it showed that I had a very svelte library with exactly 0 photos. Ahem.

I could see the photos were still on the disc but iPhoto couldn’t see them. Well, let’s cut to the chase. Here’s what I did to get them back.

Used Data Rescue II to find and restore a previous (but overwritten) version of the AlbumData.xml file and the Library6.iPhoto file. Then used iPhoto Library Manager. It reported that there was an error in the xml file at line 37621. It suggested I read through the Help file to figure out how to deal with that. The help file is excellent. My hat’s off.

Turned out I’d imported a photo with a problematic keyword. So I deleted the keyword entry at that line from the xml file and ta-da, iPhoto Library Manager suddenly showed all my albums where the error message used to be.

Booted iPhoto. Whoops. Back to the drawing board. I was moving a little too quickly. Copied the AlbumData.xml file over again. Opened it in TextWrangler again and removed the problematic keyword again.

This time in iPhoto Library Manager I used the Rebuild Library . . . command. Now my library is happily rebuilding itself and iPhoto is busily re-importing all the photos and metadata. The photos were always there. It was the potential loss of the metadata - and hours of organizing all this work as it came in over the past year - that had me a little freaked.

But all is well. Thanks to some very helpful tools . . . and a bit of good troubleshooting.

Now it’s time to get Leopard installed on the desktop so I can take advantage of Time Machine.

Helping the girls with their homework . . .

. . . isn’t like it used to be.

Cait’s in Paris studying political science. She’s doing a paper on FUNA’s work to expose the killer of Victor Jara. All she could find as a reference was a documentary video on YouTube in Spanish. Lulu and I sat here in Toronto watching the clips. Lulu dictated translations of key passages, I emailed them back to Cait in Paris.

When that was done I turned my attention to Olivia. She’d been studying for a science test here today but left her homework when she went home to her mom’s for the night. I texted her on her cell to let her know. She called back and we worked out a solution. I’ve scanned her 8 pages of hand written notes to a pdf file and am emailing it to her.

Technology has changed everything.

Flying

Lulú and I are at the airport, about to board a flight to Amsterdam. We’ll have tomorrow to get over our jetlag and most of Friday free. Starting Friday evening I’ll be in committee meetings almost non-stop until late Tuesday evening.

Then we’re off to Paris to visit our daughters. Yes, we are looking forward to our trip!!

Better YouTube Experience

YouTube video quality really sucks. Well, that’s mostly true. I started seeing really great quality YouTube content on sites other than YouTube and wondered how to get the high quality version . . . which uses Quicktime codecs, instead of Flash.

Here’s a super easy answer . . . at least for Mac users. Visit this page, drag the bookmarklet to your Bookmarks bar. Now each time you visit a YouTube page just click on the bookmarklet and if there is a better quality version, it will load.

Found this on OSXHints.

Al fresco

Spring is truly here. Forget the robbins. My first major sign is the ability to eat outdoors. And tonight we were sitting out on our little front porch, smiling and really enjoying this long-awaited moment.

We had a super lazy day. No travel. No anxiety about work deadlines. Olivia is away in Montreal.

A luxurious morning in bed. Huevos rancheros!! Shower. Then a long walk through High Park, along a bit of Lake Ontario and then back up Roncesvalles. We had “home made” ice cream at Film Buff and sat on a bench beside the street to enjoy.

We picked up really delicious chicken shwarmas at Ali Baba’s, brought them home and ate out on the porch. Read a bit, felt very lazy and by 8:00 were back in bed cuddling. Fell asleep and we both woke up around 1:00 am. We’ve been up for a few hours now reading and snacking. I think our schedule is going to be pretty messed up. But we’re having a great time!

Travel Plans

We’ve got some travel ahead of us . . . something more than the frequent (this time of year) shuttle back and forth between Toronto and Montreal. (I was there four times to teach classes and then Lulu and I went last weekend for pleasure . . to visit friends and family and see Manijeh dance.)

I’ve got an AES convention coming up in Amsterdam. Last year I’d wanted to take Lulú to the European convention but it was just too expensive when we added the additional person in the hotel room to the extra flight. The price in Vienna nearly doubled with an additional person. Ouch. Not what we’re used to in the spacious New World.

This year I cast a wary eye again, assuming Lulú wouldn’t be able to go. But then I found a great charter flight price . . . and the hotel rooms were only a bit more expensive when you added the additional person. Hmmmm!

The thing that made it a no-brainer? Cait’s in Paris right now for the second term of her third year in university. And . . . Jimena happens to be there as well! What are the odds? It’s an opportunity not to be missed.

I’m about to book the flight. Air Transat will let us both fly into Amsterdam and out of Paris for a total of less than $1200. Air Canada? Over $5000!

Inheritance

My dad is getting ready to sell his mom’s house now that she’s had to move into a home. Various items are going off to family members. I’ve been curious about the old stereo console in the living room. I hadn’t heard it since before I got interested in audio. But I have heard some great systems since. I was curious about this one.

Dad just called. He confirmed it had tubes (took a while to warm up, then he peaked inside and could see the glow). It’s an Electrohome. Still, it could be a dud. I went off to Google.

Turns out Electrohome was a Canadian manufacturer. And this guy thinks his unit sounds great. That’s not the same model but it’s very encouraging.

Then I found this post in a forum from a guy who had inherited a similar model.

Judith and I are really enjoying this classic Electrohome console we inherited,..placed in the dinning room
We just finished hearing Handel’s Messiah..on CBC2, as guest moved in and out of the dinning room, the console played majestically!

Link to Story

I love the coincidences here.

I don’t really have room for it and I don’t know how the heck I’ll get it to Toronto, but I’ve decided I must have that console!

Juno Awards Songwriter’s Circle

I’ve heard/read people say that Jeremy Fisher looks like Bob Dylan but sounds like Paul Simon.

I don’t know folks. I’m listening to him sing a new song right now on the Juno Songwriters Circle and it sure sounds a lot like a combination of “All Along the Watchtower” and “Hurricane”. And the first tune he sings in the Canada Live podcast “Left Behind” is very close to “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”.

I’ll give him one thing. Dude’s got huevos . . . . and I can’t help but bop along to some of his tunes.

Alex Cuba - we’re going to hear more from him. I’m intrigued by his idea of doing an album of Canadian songs in Spanish.

James Ehnes

I’m listening to James Ehnes on CBC Radio 2 performing Bach at the Juno Awards Classical Music Showcase.

Wow. I now James’ playing very well having worked on several of his CDs. But hearing him today, I feel he’s reached a whole other level. Amazing technique and musicality.

Postscript: The audience, quite properly, went wild. And Katherine Duncan’s first comment was the same as I wrote above: “wow”.

Bloggin’ Elsewhere . . . for the Moment

Got one of those “call me as soon as you get this” emails this morning. Suddenly I was filling in. I’m really enjoying my temporary gig!