The BigLig Thinks

I had a user ask me how to install some old software on their Air that they only had on CD.

I thought I'd post my reply up here to remind myself that I actually write quite a lot for my work. (And IMHO this is rather good.)

First thing to do is to see if the software is available for download from the hardware manufacturerís web site.

You should do this anyway even if you have a Mac with an optical drive, because the CD that comes in the box is inevitably going to be out of date.

If not, then you need another machine with a CD/DVD drive. On that machine you can do one of three things:

1) Share the optical drive over the network.
Go to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1777and follow their very good instructions.

2) Make a disk image and copy it a USB stick.
Takes a little longer, but this is really useful for any optical you might need to use more than once, or when you might need to access the disk on the Air when away from the other machine.
I have a portable USB drive with all my CDís stored on it as images.
On a Mac, this is super easy.
Start Disk Utility.
Select the CD in the left hand list.
Press the New Image button.
Say where to put the image and what to call it.
Once the image is made, copy to a USB stick, then move the stick to the Air.
Double-click the image file on the Air (you can leave it on the USB stick or copy to the Air's disk) and it will mount just as if youíd put a CD in.
On Windows, there isnít a built in tool to make a disk image, but if you have CD-burning software installed it often has this as a feature. It's usually called something "Make ISO image" or "Create Image".
If not, there is a lovely little piece of free software you can use at http://alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm.
Download the appropriate version for your Windows, install it, then right-click the CD in My Computer and choose "Create Image from CD".

3) Copy the files from the CD to a USB stick
Quick and dirty.
Open My Computer or the Finder, select the files on the CD, Edit Copy, go to the USB stick, Edit Paste.
I left this method to last because sometimes software expects to be on a CD, and sometimes a Windows PC doesn't read a Mac disk very well, and so on, and so forth so it might not always work.

Hope this helps someone.

BTW, while we're on the subject, isn't the Snow Leopard reinstall tool that comes with an Air beautiful?

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... you're reading an interesting article about Warren Ellis's toolkit (http://warren.ellis.usesthis.com/),and he mentions an app he likes, and you think "I could use an app like that", but iTunes won't let you buy it, because you've had it for four months, and have never opened it.

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Nothing like telling a few people that "Oh, just google Biglig, you'll find me" to make you realise that:

a) your blog is inedible muck, and there isn't enough of it.
b) your tumblr is just reposting photos other people find. (and is the source of the majority of your Facebook and twitter posts via a robot)
c) your picassa is full of photos of you looking fat.

That should be Flickr, rather than Picassa, of course, but I'm stuck with biglig.geo (yes, I'm very old, I used to have a Geocities account) and so the curse of Yahoo strikes again.

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SPOILERS AHEAD. Don't read this until you've seen Playtime. Don't do anything until you've seen Playtime.

Done? OK.

At the beginning of Jacqueline Tati's 1967 masterpiece, Playtime, we, the audience, are a little guilty. We know that Tati doesn't really want to make another Hulot film, but we really do want him to, and so his backers (swines that they are) have forced Playtime to be a Hulot film.

Playtime begins in a large building, and we move through it, meeting the wonderful characters who are in it, but not really paying attention because we are looking for Hulot. Of course, Hulot is not seen until quite late in Vacance or Oncle, but we are impatient. We demand Hulot! Tati knows this, so...

...very soon we are in a very wide shot of a very large room, full of people, full of characters, and then, in the back of the shot, we see the tiny figure of Hulot cross the scene. Of course, we can't see him very well, he is dwarfed in this huge space, but it is obviously Hulot: the gait, the costume, the umbrella. Hulot doesn't do anything; but we have seen him. It is a Hulot film. We relax, and now pay full attention to the other characters. Now we are no longer searching for Hulot, we really get into things. Tati knows this, so...

...very soon another wide shot in a long room, but this time we are looking at the characters, who we are enjoying, especially as we now suspect that the ninth American is the heroine, when there is a loud noise. Hulot has walked into the back of the scene again, but we didn't see him, because this time we weren't looking for him; we don't notice him until he drops his umbrella and we all look at him. The characters do too. Then he walks away, agin without doing anything. We realise with a start that we were enjoying the film without Hulot: that Tati was right all along. Tati knows this, so...

... We finally leave the building, along with the heroine, and she gets on a bus. The scene empties out, and there is Hulot again, walking past the camera and away from us. Someone sees him, chases after him and cries "Mr Hulot, hello!". We realise that Hulot's adventures are about to begin. Tati knows this so...

...Hulot turns round and it is not Hulot. It is an Englishman, Smith, who happens to be dressed like Hulot, to walk like Hulot, we have been fooled the whole time. "i think you've made a mistake" says Smith. It wasn't Hulot before, just someone dressed like him: we are right back at the beginning. We want it to be a film about Hulot but it isn't and indeed, we are fools to think that it has to be. Tati knows this so...

...soon we see the faux-Hulot get on a bus, but this time we are not fooled.we know it's not Hulot. His name is Smith. The bus makes its journey, a crowd gets off, the faux-Hulot, however, has caught his umbrella handle on someone else's umbrella, that of a tall man in a tweed coat. That's the kind of thing Hulot might do, we think, except he would be funnier, and we sigh a little, and feel a little foolish that Tati has effortlessly fooled us half a dozen times already. Tati knows this so...

...the tall man, in the tweed coat, turns round and unhooks his umbrella and gives a little bow to the faux-Hulot, and of course, how utterly perfect, it is Hulot.

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I really need to look at the photos Instagram takes at full size more often. This one's rather good, even though I say so myself. I'm biglig on Instagram, as you'd expect. This was taken at Marsh Lock in Henley, just below the fish ladder. A lovely spot.

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