How to Force Empty Trash on a Mac
For the last few months, I’ve had some Time Machine files in the Trash on my Mac that would not delete. The files were stored on a first generation Drobo and were taking up enough space that the Drobo was essentially unusable. I tried from time to time, but no matter what I tried, they wouldn’t go away.
This morning I did some research and it turns out there’s a simple little trick to force empty the trash on a Mac!
All you have to do is hold the Option key down when clicking on Empty Trash. A problem on my back burner was solved in under a minute, and I gained a lot of much needed storage space.
You can also use Terminal and the command: rm -rf ~/.Trash/* t
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Steve Jobs Impressed by Lytro
On the first episode of GadgetReport.TV, I said Lytro’s light-field camera was my favorite innovation of 2011. A new book called Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky tells a story that suggest Steve Jobs may have thought the same thing.
The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.
Who knows if Apple and Lytro reached a deal, but a Lytro can take an immediate photo without the need to focus so it makes sense that Apple would want that tech in future iPhones.
Adam Lashinsky’s new book about Apple is based on interviews with Apple insiders. In 2008 Fortune cover story, Lashinsky predicted Tim Cook would succeed Steve Jobs as Apple CEO. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.
Read MoreClassic Apple iPhone 4 Case
I pray to sweet baby Jesus by way of Saint Steve Jobs that this concept for an iPhone 4 case gets made! I’ve never wanted a case for iPhone 4 because I regard the 4 and the 4S as the most prefect piece of industrial design humanity has enjoyed so far.
But THIS! This idea from a design firm called Les Forges MDK is the only external case for the iPhone 4 or 4S that can be justified.
Here’s To the Crazy Ones Animation by Neal.TV
No single person, living or dead has had a more important impact on my life than Steve Jobs. I’m just learning animation. This is my second one. I wanted to do something in memory of Steve Jobs. Some people like to listen to Linus quote Luke 2 on Christmas. I want to hear Steve Jobs toast The Crazy Ones who change things.
I uploaded in 1080p so watch full-screen.
Read MoreVocal iPhone Dictation App Mentioned on Rush Limbaugh May have Made 17-Year-Old Developer Very Rich in a Day
You might be shocked to learn one of the main inspirations behind GeekBrief.TV is Rush Limbaugh. I listen to a lot of NPR, but I also grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern. While Rush over simplifies and over generalizes the positions of the people he opposes politically, there are a couple of non political things he does on his show that happen randomly and I love them both. Rush is a huge Apple fan. He reads Apple rumor sites and it’s awesome when he gets giddy about a new release. The other thing he does from time to time is talk about the media business and his how he came to dominate radio ratings.
Today he started his show talking about an amazing new App for iPhone 4S called Vocal. It works with a companion Mac App and give you the ability vocally control a Mac and dictate into writing applications from the iPhone. Rush spent a good fifteen minutes raving about how great it is. Listeners were emailing asking questions because they couldn’t find it in the App Store. Rush talked about the App more and referred listeners to the developer’s website, spelling out the URL: http://mtrbts.me/vocal. To help listeners find the right App, Rush told listeners it was developed by Matt Roberts. He said, “You’ll know you’ve found the right App if it’s by Matt Roberts. He also recommended listeners go to Matt’s site to watch the demo video I’ve embedded below.
In all, Vocal probably got about 20-minutes of air time on a show with 20-Million listeners.
I watched the video planning to write a post about the App. I had no plans to include details about Rush, until I clicked on Matt Roberts Twitter link. Matt is a 17-year-old student in Australia who had never heard of Limbaugh until today. Matt says, Limbaugh’s listeners are making up a majority of his support requests. 
http://twitter.com/#!/ma_ttie/status/149623075246313472
I think it’s very cool that we live in a world where a 17-year-old can build an App that can get 20 minutes of praise on a show that is supposed to be about conservative politics!
Read MoreBlogging from a Genius Bar
I’m sitting at the Genius Bar waiting for Time Machine to restore the Mac Pro from a Drobo. I’m not sure it’s going to happen before the Apple Store closes. My backup is on a first generation USB Drobo which doesn’t exactly do snappy data transfers.
My Genius has been fun. He’s done some work with Leo Laporte during South by Southwest and makes appearances on the NSFW Show.
Over the last week, Apple ran a battery of tests on the Mac Pro and can’t find a problem with the hardware. They wiped the boot drive and the new goal is to start from scratch. I fear this isn’t going to fix the problems I’ve experienced with this Mac since the very beginning. It has (4) 15,000 rpm SAS drives I’ve never been able to write to. I always end up working around the drives that should be AWESOME by writing to Drobo Pro.
Since getting this Mac, which we paid over $10,000 for, it’s been a constant source of frustration. I made Genius Bar appointments, took it in and I’ve been told to change some configuration or another. I believe they replaced the RAID card twice. I get the very heavy and hard to carry Mac Pro back and try to produce a video on it. It fails and I go back to the Drobo Pro work around. Then I’m focused on a project and live with the work around until the frustration becomes too much. I make another Genius Bar appointment and the circle of frustration continues. I even tried emailing Steve Jobs about it, but it was after he was so sick.
My gut says this Mac has a bus problem. Data doesn’t make its way through the machine like it should, but the tests don’t reveal a problem so I’m discouraged. It’s kind of like those stories you hear about a person going to doctors over and over again because they have a problem. They know something is wrong with them, but it isn’t something doctors are able to diagnose.
My goal was to restore the software and attempt to edit video here to try and replicate the problem after they’ve attempted to fix it, but I doubt the restore from Time Machine will finish today. I’ve been here three hours and it’s still Preparing to copy.
This Mac Pro should sing when processing video, but instead it makes me cry. I think it’s a lemon, but I’m not pushy enough to convince the Genius Bar to replace it.
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