MacSmarticles

LibreOffice: Worth Using

2011-12-19T17:29:00.002-05:00

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A quickie:

Due to the mandatory 'contribution' for Open Source NeoOffice, the Mac optimized version of OpenOffice.org, I have been testing LibreOffice for many months. At this point I can say:

Get it! I like it!

The current stable version is 3.4.4. Today there is also a new 3.5.0 beta 1with a long list of minor updates.

I'm using LibreOffice 3.4.4 with Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion without the bombing that occurred in many early versions. It has all the features, and niggling annoyances, of OpenOffice. If you're into writing directly into, as well as editing inside a capable but free office suite, this is sweet. The output format is the OpenDocument world standard. But it is capable to doing all the major other format exports as well, including that mess of Microsoft formats. I've found RTF is still the best all around standard, even today, in order to deal with all the legacy word processor users out there.

NeoOffice: Donate if you like it, or compile it from source code yourself. But LibreOffice does a very nice job completely replacing it IMHO. And yes, LibreOffice would like your donation as well!

:-Derek

[What exactly is LibreOffice? It is a branch off the original OpenOffice Open Source project. It is now generally considered to be superior to the ongoing OpenOffice project, which has become bogged down in politics, corporate noise from Oracle and migration of volunteers over to the more ambitious LibreOffice Open Source project. Unlike NeoOffice, LibreOffice is offered in compiled form ready to use. Of the three current flavors of Open Office for Mac users, LibreOffice is consistently at the edge of the progress curve. Its problem in the past has been instability. However, I've found that problem to have largely been solved.]
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Steve Jobs Dead From Pancreatic Cancer At Age 56

2011-10-05T20:13:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, had died today of pancreatic cancer at age 56.

Last night I saw Cars 2 in 3-D. In the credits, at the top of the ‘Thanks To’ list was Steve Jobs.

Considering the joy and creativity Apple computers have given me for the last 20 years I also have to put Steve Jobs at the top of my ‘Thanks To’ list. What a remarkable man.

Rejoice that Steve Jobs helped all of our lives and revolutionized the computer community.

Enjoy the next life Steve. (^_^)/

Rosetta Is Gone From Mac OS X Lion: The Options, Including A Second Boot Partition

2011-07-20T16:23:00.000-04:00

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It's official (although never officially stated, that I know of):
Rosetta is dead and gone in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

I just finished an exhausting search to find any hopeful news of a workaround. After all! There's a workaround for installing Front Row, which was also killed in Lion. (See HERE for the Front Row fix). So why not Rosetta? If you scour through the Lion notes over at MacInTouch you'll find that there is nothing stopping you from installing Rosetta from a Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 DVD. However, it won't work. The best explanation is that Rosetta requires PowerPC framework files from within the System, which were also deleted from Lion. IOW: There aren't any APIs for Rosetta to access. It's inert. It's a dead parrot. Why were the APIs removed? That's a matter of speculation. One guess is that Apple are preparing to allow Mac OS X to run on ARM processors, similar to iOS. (And iOS at this point is just base Mac OS X compiled for ARM with a different GUI on top). (Yes it is! Do your homework and don't argue with me kids. Sheesh. ;-)

The Options

If possible, you could pay for new versions of your applications. Apple left PowerPC CPUs behind in mid-2006. Maybe you should leave behind your old PowerPC apps at this point. But this often difficult or impossible. Some old PPC applications simply don't exist any longer. Or upgrading an app can be is EXPEN$IVE! Or stupid companies like INTUIT have been too lazy to drop their old PPC Carbon code and go to Cocoa Intel CPU processing code. (0_o)

What are the other options?

Virtualization

What I have found as one good alternative is to attempt running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in VIRTUALIZATION via Parallels or VMware. 10.6 Server has been legally running in virtualization for a couple years with Apple's approved. According to its new license, 10.7 Lion client is now legally able to run in virtualization. So why not try running 10.6 Snow Leopard client in virtualization? I haven't done it yet. But if it works, that would be the quickest and easiest way to access Rosetta and the PPC apps it supports. Note that I am not saying this is exactly 'legal'. However, I don't personally expect Apple cares at this point in time.

Second Boot Partition

Personally, I've been using another alternative for years. I call it 'The Other Partition', or just as meaningfully 'The Other Volume'. For intermediate Mac users it's dirt easy to do. You repartition your boot hard drive to have TWO (2) partitions. You can boot from both of them as long as each of them have their own installed operating system. If your Mac hardware can run on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, then why not install Snow Leopard onto one of the partitions?! Then custom install Rosetta onto it as well and all your Rosetta compatible apps will run on it. Install them all into the Applications folder on the Snow Leopard partition! You simply reboot your Mac with the Option key down, choose your Snow Leopard partition and GO!

Therefore, with a reboot, you can run all your oldie but goodie PPC/Rosetta applications. No, it's not convenient. It's merely FUNCTIONAL, which is actually what you want.

What else is a second boot partition good for? I've been using it to repair my main partition every month. It's far easier and more effective than running Disk Utility from a boot DVD. I can also run on it every other hard drive utility I own! That includes DiskWarrier, TechTool Pro, Drive Genius, blahblahblah. I consider it essential.

How do we set up this second partition?

If you're like me, you like to do a low level format of your boot drive every now and again anyway. So after the format, choose in Disk Utility to create two partitions.

Another utility to try is Drive Genius. It has a tool called Repartition that will allow you, if you have enough hard drive space, to add another partition to your already working boot drive. I suspect there are other such utilities as well for Mac.

Please share if you find other useful options for PPC application users running Lion!

:-Derek
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IPV6 Testing Follow-up #1

2011-06-12T18:20:00.000-04:00

Now that IPv6 Testing Day is over, a huge chunk of the Internet that cares now has a good idea what problems they have. I heard back again from the great Jason Fesler of test-ipv6.com with further details about the current state of IPv6 and its impact on users. He suggested reading the following two articles posted at his site:

test-ipv6.com views on 6to4

About the "v6ns" test

The first article discusses the 'transition mechanism' (aka make-shift patch job) to provide internet IPv6 compatibility called 6to4. You can read more about it here:

6to4

The second article makes a brief reference to the OpenDNS IPv6 Sandbox, which did NOT work for my Mac. You can read about configuring your Mac to use this sandbox here:

How to Use the OpenDNS IPv6 Sandbox

Despite my FAILed test results, I am going to continue using this sandbox in hopes that either they get it right or I figure out what they're not telling me might be wrong at my end. Today I am adding references to their sandbox in my router settings. Below is a grab of the resulting setting inside my Airport Extreme Base Station. Note the separate line specifically for adding IPv6 DNS Server addresses. Update your router after adding the addresses:

NOTE: This is the stuff of geeks. Do not play along unless you have the experience and patience to deal with its high level of geekiness. At this time, I am not going to teach how to create the proper IPv6 settings beyond what I have already posted. Also be sure to refer back to CNET's article which I linked in my original IPv6 post.

Gradually the clunky stuff will be resolved. But it would be no surprise to find that even after the drop dead date, which IPv6 goes manditory.

Question: So when will IPv6 be manditory?
Answer: There is no actual set date at this point. However, to quote Wikipedia:

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) suggests that all Internet servers be prepared to serve IPv6-only clients by January 2012.

IOW: Expect there to be a rush to get everyone up to speed starting this fall. It's going to be another 'OMG' panic to get everyone IPv6 capable by New Year's Day.

Question: Are my router, operating system, DNS servers and web browsers ready to do IPv6?!
Answer: It's time to go RTFM! Please do not go around asking other people this question. If you can't find the FM, then check out the websites of your providers. Here is a list of possible answers you will discover there:

A) Yes, everything is adequate. Enjoy.

B) Your router needs a firmware update. Everything else is fine, but be sure you have the latest software updates.

C) You are SOL buddy! Your router is too old and/or your router provider isn't customer satisfaction oriented enough to care. BUY A NEW ROUTER!

D) Your operating system is too old to have a clue about IPv6. Either buy an upgraded version of the OS that is compatible with your hardware. If your hardware is not compatible with the required operating system version, you're SOL buddy! GO BUY A NEW COMPUTER!

Question: Is my Mac compatible with IPv6?
Answer: If your Mac can run at least Mac OS X 10.3.3 and above, you're mostly fine.

Question: What about Mac OS X 10.2.x Jaguar?
Answer: Mac OS X 10.2.x has IPv6 compatibility included. I says so right here:

http://learning.infocollections.com/ebook%202/Computer/Programming/Open%20Source/Cocoa.Programming/0672322307_app04lev1sec5.html

To quote:

The inclusion of IPv6 in Mac OS X 10.2 keeps the Mac up-to-date with other operating systems and ensures continued access and compatibility with the Internet.... Many of the networking APIs in Mac OS X have been improved to support IPv6.

Wikipedia disagrees, for whatever that's worth.

HOWEVER! You have to turn IPv6 on and configure it. Here is a brief article describing how to enable IPv6 on Mac OS X 10.2.x Jaguar using the Terminal:

IPv6 Day - Mac OS

Question: Is ye olde Mac OS 9.2.2 IPv6 compatible?
Answer: No. You're hosed.

Question: What about Mac OS X 10.0 and 10.1?
Answer: No. You're hosed.

Question: So is Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard totally RadiKewl with IPv6? It has to be! Right?
Answer: Nope! It's NOT. Here is a relevant article over at Wikipedia, as 2011-05-28:

Comparison of IPv6 support in operating systems

To quote:

DNS name resolution in Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) fails for hosts with a CNAME record.(Many publicly-accessible hosts have CNAME records.) No public APIs work to get the IPv6 host address.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard also has no support for IPv6 relevant 'DHCPv6' or 'ND RDNSS'.

And what is DHCP? The short answer is that it allows your computer to be handed an IP address by your router or your ISP's own routers. In the case of DHCPv6, you can be handed an IPv6 address. Without DHCPv6 you CANNOT be handed an IPv6 address. Right now, this situation is of minor concern. Check back in January 2012.

Hopefully, Apple will provide an update to their routers, as well as Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, that will rectify the situation. If Apple do not include DHCPv6 in 10.7 Lion, you will have the opportunity to scream bloody murder at them, always a good time for one and all.

And what is ND RDNSS? ND stands for 'Neighborhood Discovery Protocol'. (Why isn't it abbreviated as NDP? Ask the dweebs who abbreviated it. I hate acronyms!) What about 'RDNSS'? That stands for 'Recursive DNS Server'. There's lots more techy information about the IPv6 Neighborhood Discovery Protocol here:

TCP/IP IPv6 Neighborhood Discovery Protocol (ND)

At this point in my article, I have to defer to greater experts than I to explain these finer details of IPv6. What I could find about Recursive DNS Servers was down at the source level of technical papers, which is far beyond the scope of my intended audience.

Let me therefore refer you to The TCP/IP Guide ('A TCP/IP Reference You Can Understand!') for further details. This is the starting page for their section on IPv6:

Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) / IP Next Generation (IPng)

CLOSING COMMENT:

If you, like me, are now buried in a mountain of acronymic alphabet soup, haunting your waking thoughts as well as your darkest nightmares, I highly recommend going to the grocery story and wreaking revenge through the buying and consumption of your favorite brand of alphabet soup. You may also find various brands of crunchy alphabet oat cereals. As you consume the these alphabetic nutrients, think to yourself about chewing up all the nasty tech acronyms, protocols, processes, code and nomenclature. Get into a nom nom rhythm and think of yourself as the master of what you once thought was unfathomable. No letters are your equal. Technology is nothing more than another human creation. It gets complicated. It gets buggy and obtuse. Persistence, the march of your nom nom teeth on every delicious bite, will get you through. Patience will help you spoon down a whole bowl full of techy goodness.

And hopefully other people, such as myself, will help translate geek-speak into the vernacular, enabling all of mankind to comprehend and put technology to work toward the improvement of our tech enabled lives!

(Cue the marching band...)

;-Derek

IPv6 Testing (revised 2011-06-09 3:00 pm ET)

2011-06-08T13:59:00.016-04:00

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Hi kids. Today, 2011-06-08, is IPv6 Testing Day. Below is some information about it as well as some useful information as we progress toward manditory use of IPv6 across the Internet. I hope you find it to be a good starting point in your testing.

Today a collection of web companies are trying out IPv6 on their servers to see how it runs, or stumbles, or crawls. Therefore, it is likely there will be some messed up stuff going on across the Internet. Here is a good article on the subject. It is specific to Macs, but actually applies across all platforms:

Preparing OS X for World IPv6 Day on June 8

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20069757-263.html

Some of the problems you may encounter during these tests

include:
• Internet servers not responding
• intermittent connectivity after delays
• unresponsive browsers if you use a built-in search field
• slow loading and pauses in downloads, as well as incomplete downloads; and
• slow or incomplete actions for Internet-related activities that aren't Web browsing, such as syncing and e-mail.

Here are some Apple support articles on the subject:

About World IPv6 Day
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4668

IPv6 troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3802

What is IPv6?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4669

Configuring IPv6 in Mac OS X v10.6.7 or later
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4667

You can find further related articles using this search link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&src=support_site.home.search&locale=en_US&q=IPv6

Here are some IPV6 pages to try out in order to see if you have an IPV6 configuration problem somewhere in your computer or your router:

1) The IPv6 test page:
http://test-ipv6.com/

2) The IPv6 ONLY (no IPv4) test page:

http://ipv6.test-ipv6.com

[NOTE: Thank you to Jason Fesler. He runs the test-ipv6.com site and has been extremely helpful sorting out my own test results. As I have revised this article it is primarily thanks to his help that it has become more accurate and useful.]

This is going to be the usual 'oops the geeks messed it up' routine whereby normal people are at the mercy of geeky people who themselves are at the mercy of those who invented all this stuff. IOW: Chaotic.

I am used to all this after 20 years in the industry. It's nothing new. I expect it. So hang in there if you have IPv6 problems. All of us have about a year to sort it all out before it's manditory. Talk to your router maker, your OS maker, etc. and find out how to get it all working, if it isn't already.

In particular, IPv6 is going to be a bit of a PITA for people with very old equipment and operating systems. There are likely ways to work it out, such as OS updates and router firmware updates.

MY RESULTS!

With the help of Jason Fesler (noted above) and my own insights, I was able to get an IPv6 functionality score of 7/10. One of the points off suggested that I was unable to access IPv6 pages, which proved to be wrong. Therefore, I'd personally put the score at 8/10.

Do I consider this a total 'success'? OF COURSE NOT! I'm seeing lots of back patting articles about what a success IPv6 testing was on June 8th. Clearly it was NOT entirely a total success. Read on...

What I did:

1) As per the CNET article, I made certain that my Mac was properly setup to use IPv6.

2) I changed my router to use IPv6 Mode: Tunnel. I'm using Apple's Airport Extreme Base Station. Here is the setting:

The alternative settings you do NOT want are:
'Link-local only' (which is strictly for use on LANs, not the internet), and "Host". The host setting is NOT for normal users. It is for those using their 'router' as only a server host to the Internet. If you connect to your router to get to the Internet, you do NOT want the Host setting. If you are using Mac OS X Server, check for details on hosting in its documentation.

After applying the 'Tunnel' setting to my AEBS I got THE YELLOW LIGHT on my router. Here is what it looks like in the settings:

The light indicates that your router has an 'IPv6 Relay Error'. If you click on THE YELLOW LIGHT icon, you get to the details pane:

Don't Panic! This isn't your fault and is one of the bugs still to sort itself out on the Internet. For now, you might as well ignore the problem by clicking on the check box next to 'IPv6 Relay Error', then go to the bottom right of the pane and click on the 'Update' button. The router will then turn OFF the yellow light so you don't have to deal with this particular error any more.

Note, once the entire Internet is forced to go IPv6, we'll have to start worrying about IPv6 Relay Errors. Therefore, expect to see this issue appear again within the next year. If we're lucky, our ISPs and the rest of the Internet will get it right and we can ignore these errors forever. Crossed-fingers.

3) Next up: Your DNS Servers. I've been using OpenDNS.com for my DNS servers. I'm not going to go into details about how you set up a 3rd party for your DNS servers. Just suffice it to say that you can, as opposed to the default DNS servers your ISP provides automatically in your settings.

I was very sad to find that OpenDNS.com is not IPv6 ready. I was pleased to read in their blog that they are testing an 'IPv6-compliant DNS sandbox'. You can read about it here:

OpenDNS.com: now reachable over IPv6

I tested their DNS sanbox. It too failed. I got a 0/10 consistently when testing with it. I attempted to post a comment to them on their blog. They never posted it. Then never posted anyone's comments! To me that implies that everyone else failed as well. I haven't heard from them via eMail either. Disappointing. There is always the possibility that something was wonked at my end. However, my success when NOT using their IPv6 DNS sandbox suggests otherwise.

Instead, I bit the bullet and let my ISP set my DNS servers. I use Time Warner's RoadRunner. They've pulled severely dirty tricks on their customers in keeping with the Marketing Moron tradition. Therefore, I DON'T TRUST TIME WARNER. But for the sake of testing, I let their deceitfulness slide and used their DNS servers.

Success! This is when I got an 7/10 IPv6 test score. Time Warner's DNS servers are pretty much IPv6 ready. Kewlness.

If there had been enough time, I would have tested every other DNS server I could lay my hands on. Instead I had an evening of dining and romance. Sorry. No doubt there will be ongoing testing and reporting about every DNS server. At some point the hammer will meet the anvil and the lagging DNS servers will either die or be forced to get with IPv6. No doubt that will be fascinating to watch. Hopefully you will find it all just works. Imagine that.

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As of this revision of the article, IPv6 Test Day is over and I have nothing more to add. If I discover further details regarding IPv6 and the Mac, I will provide further articles.

Share and Enjoy,

:-Derek

The Death Of MobileMe: What's Being Lost

2011-06-06T22:31:00.005-04:00

At today's WWDC keynote, Apple announced a new FREE service for Apple users called iCloud. It requires Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, arriving in July. It integrates three (only three) aspects of MobileMe and adds in six further services. What you essentially get is 5 GB for web space to use for syncing all your Apple devices, freeing you from having to use your computer as a digital hub, mostly. Now iCloud is your digital hub. You also get a free Apple eMail account with plenty of space, far more than I currently use. Read all about it here:

Apple iCloud

Apple also posted a notice today that all current MobileMe users can access all of its services through June 30, 2012. That's over a year! Very kewl. You can read the death notice and transition details here:

MobileMe Obituary

MobileMe Transition

But then what?

Here is what is being lost with the death of MobileMe:

1) Your Public folder. No more sharing with others of anything.

2) Your website. This includes the web page for your Public folder AND any website you may have running within your MobileMe space.

3) 15 GB of web space. iCloud only gives you 5 GB. Yes, you don’t have to waste your 5 GB on photos and iTunes. But how about VIDEO and your massive hard drive BACKUP and the backups of bookmarks etc. from other apps. Apparently there is no option to even buy further space. That means you’re kicked out the door, seek web space elsewhere.

4) Your iDisk. It could hold ANYTHING with full control of the directories. Entirely gone.

5) Your Gallery. No more pictures and videos to share with grandma, or the grandkids, or anyone else. This is besides the loss of your Public folder.

6) Your Groups. Not that I personally care, but so long to that option!

Thankfully, I’ve got my own dedicated 24/7 server running on the Internet using Mac OS X Server. I can make up for the loss of all of the above on my own at home.

But how many other people have their own Internet server? Isn’t this Apple CHASING AWAY customers? Aren’t they FORCING people to look elsewhere for these services?

IMHO: Bad move.

Dear Apple,
Please take the next year to change your mind. Please provide an option to preserve ALL of the above, or at least direct users to comparable services.

In a future article, I'll provide my own list of alternatives. Stay tuned.

Planamesa Charges For NeoOffice 3.2: "Required Donation" vs Requested Donation

2011-04-21T13:12:00.002-04:00

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Please Note: I am not a lawyer and an only provide here my personal speculation about this situation. Therefore, nothing I state here is definitive. I have to leave the resolution of this situation to legal experts.

This past week, Planamesa revealed that they are charging $10 or more for a compiled copy of NeoOffice version 3.2. NeoOffice is derived from OpenOffice and therefore must adhere to the licensing required by OpenOffice in its derivative products.

What has created controversy, and what may be a matter of illegal behavior, is that Planamesa call the payment they 'require' a 'donation.' It is not possible to require a donation. A donation can only be freely given and cannot affect your access to anything covered by a donation. In other words, NeoOffice is required to be free to everyone who wishes to NOT provide a 'donation.'

Having reviewed the licensing for OpenOffice, I have found that Planamesa us provide open, or 'free', access to all source code using and derived from OpenOffice source code. They have in fact done that. Instructions for downloading and compiling NeoOffice v3.2 source code on a properly configured Mac is provided HERE.

Is Planamesa able to request donations? Obviously they are. Is Planamesa able to require payment for NeoOffice? Yes they are. This is made clear by reading through both the OpenOffice license, GNU LGPL v3 (Lesser General Public License) required by the Free Software Foundation, as well as their 'Free Software Definition'. As is stated in the Definition:

“Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.”
. . .

Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere.
. . .

When talking about free software, it is best to avoid using terms like “give away” or “for free,” because those terms imply that the issue is about price, not freedom.

It is well worth reading through the details of each of these relevant documents in order to understand the intended meaning of 'free' software, as opposed to software for which a fee cannot be charged. The only thing required to be 'free' in both senses is the source code for NeoOffice.

Before reading through these documents, I was as confused as any neophyte as to the specific meaning of 'free' in the context of Open Source software. For most computer users, there is no comprehension of the difference between 'source code' and 'compiled code'. Planamesa continue to adhere to the GNU LGPL v3 license when they charge money for the compiled version of NeoOffice 3.2. It was through their kindness to the computer community that they did not previously charged for compiled versions of NeoOffice and that the compiled version 3.1.2 of NeoOffice through Patch 8 remains free of charge.

What is clearly wrong is their continued use of the word 'donation' when applied to what is undeniably an actual charge for compiled NeoOffice v3.2. There is no such thing a 'required donation'. Let's delve into the obvious. Here is one definition of 'donation' taken from Apple's provided New Oxford American Dictionary:

donation |dōˈnā sh ən|
noun
something that is given to a charity, esp. a sum of money : a tax-deductible donation of $200....
• the action of donating something.

ORIGIN late Middle English : via Old French from Latin donatio(n-), from the verb donare, based on donum ‘gift.’

Compare this definition to that for the word 'charge':

charge | ch ärj|
verb [ trans. ]
1 demand (an amount) as a price from someone for a service rendered or goods supplied : the restaurant charged $15 for dinner | [with two objs. ] he charged me 20,000 lire for the postcard | [ intrans. ] museums should charge for admission.
• ( charge something to) record the cost of something as an amount payable by (someone) or on (an account) : they charge the calls to their credit-card accounts.

Clearly, Planamesa are asking a CHARGE for their software. The 'required donation' phrase is incoherent as there is no freely given 'gift' involved at all. The CHARGE is MANDITORY. A DONATION is NEVER manditory.

Anecdote Corner:
I recall visiting a church in England where everyone was queued up to pay the 'donation' to get in and look around at the architecture. Being a dirt poor student at the time, I said to the lady at the booth that I was not going to give a donation. She became thoroughly huffy and rude, attempting to shame me into handing over the requested specific donation. I said no. After her mental attack had ended, I was of course allowed through the queue into the church, as is ever the case when one does NOT provide an actual 'donation'.

Is it possible to download the compiled version of NeoOffice v3.2 without gifting Planamesa a donation? No it is not. That is because a charge is required, NOT a 'donation'.

That's extent of the contention over NeoOffice v3.2 at this point. Of course this is complicated by Planamesa's NeoOffice project being nonprofit, essentially a charity, which by definition only accepts payment as donations, not charges. But a 'donation' is NOT what they are 'requiring', obviously. One cannot 'require' a 'donation' at any time unless one is a crook using deceitful verbiage, such as might be the case with the Mafia requiring a 'donation' for their services, meaning that you either pay up or you won't get the services.

The simple solution is for Planamesa to return to the actual way one runs a nonprofit organization and only ASK for a donation.

Meanwhile, I will be downloading and compiling the FREE source code for NeoOffice v3.2 myself. Amusingly, once I have done so, according to the GNU license and definition of 'free software', I too am able to charge money to anyone who may wish to have my compiled copy. Please send me $10 for each copy you would like and I will provide you with a URL from which you can download it as a .DMG file. (This is offer is not intended to be a factual statement ;-).

Does my charging for compiling OpenOffice's and Planamesa's code sound fair to you? What if I instead called it a donation but I wouldn't give it to you until you paid up? According to the applicable GNU licensing, I can charge you money for my compiled code. It's legal. But is it legal if I change the name of that charge to a 'donation'? Or is it merely a question of mangled and destroyed semantics?

It's going to be interesting to see what happens in this case. I'm wondering if the EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation) will speak up on the matter. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, if you'd like to entirely steer clear of this strangeness, I highly recommend using LibreOffice, another OpenOffice branch project, which is entirely free of charge, donations requested.

[Clearly, I have over-explained my point of view regarding this matter. But I consistently find that in this sort of situation it is extremely useful to be more than clear. Thank you for your patience.]
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RIAA Shows Its True Colors

2011-03-26T22:35:00.006-04:00

For years I have made it clear that the music industry has been busy destroying itself through it's parasitic and disrespectful behavior toward both its musicians and its customers. Their behavior fits perfectly into the biznizz (as opposed to business) concepts of Marketing Morons and Marketing-As-Management. The general problem with this self-destructive practice is outright hatred toward their clients, accompanied by corresponding behavioral acts of Abuse.

The response of clients to Marketing Morons and Marketing-As-Management is reciprocal abuse. When someone hates us, we humans tend to hate them back and provide our own corresponding behavioral acts.

The largest music corporations use a group they created called the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) as their lobbying and persecution arm of what I call the Corporate Oligarchy. Part of what the RIAA lobbies against and persecutes is reciprocal abuse from their clients. The trail of client abuse against the recording industry is long. The first large client revolt occurred with the creation of Napster. The revolt continues today with the Gnutella network. In response, the RIAA has been prosecuting individual music sharing users as well as large organizations, attempting to point their finger at them all as the actual culprits in the decline of the music industry.

Nothing says what the RIAA is really about better than what they recently did in their court case against LimeWire:

Judge: RIAA request for trillions in LimeWire copyright case is 'absurd'

The music industry’s contention that file-sharing software maker LimeWire owes it trillions of dollars in damages for enabling the illegal distribution of 11,000 copyrighted songs is “absurd,” a federal judge has ruled.

In response, Ray Beckerman, lawyer representing the defendants in the RIAA music piracy lawsuits, has said:

“The RIAA’s argument was totally absurd, and contrary to the statute.... Even the RIAA had never made that argument until late in the case. If I were Judge Wood, I would have ordered them to show cause why they should not have been sanctioned for making [such] a frivolous argument.”

Judge Kimba Wood, judge in the case has stated that the RIAA's damages request amounts to:

"... more money than the entire music industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877."

Such is the level of insanity among the companies represented by the RIAA.

My personal response to RIAA abuse and madness is to boycott their company products and to instead support independent musicians and music companies who still support ART instead of customer abuse. I am also supportive of the victims of recent the RIAA's abusive and inflated royalty fees, Internet radio.

Please support independent music, if only to provide musicians their livelihood and to create a more user and musician friendly music business of the future.
--

When YouTube videos go BLACK: The Adobe Shockwave Player Mess

2011-02-19T09:25:00.000-05:00

--
Two recent changes in the Internet world have conspired to create a problem for Mac users attempting to play YouTube videos. The problem: You attempt to play a YouTube video but all you get is a black, inert rectangle. It's dead. Nothing happens.

Rather than pull your hair out, reinstall everything or think your Mac is broken, here is what's going on:

I) Adobe just recently caught up with the real world, nearly 6 (SIX) years LATE, and started providing a 64-bit version of their Shockwave Player. Gee thanks Adobe. About time, don't you think?

The problem is that you must have Safari running in the same mode as the version of Shockwave Player you have installed. Therefore:

A) If you install the 32-bit version of the Shockwave Player plug-in, you must run Safari in 32-bit mode. You can do this in Safari's Get Info box.

-OR-

B) If you install the 64-bit version of the Shockwave Player plug-in, you must run Safari in 64-bit mode. Be sure to check if this is the case in Safari's Get Info box by verifying that you are NOT running Safari in 32-bit mode.

II) The other half of the problem is that Google forgot to tell anyone that they are now offering videos on YouTube in .SWF format. This is the Shockwave format, NOT the Flash format .FLV. Therefore the videos play using the Shockwave Player plug-in, NOT the Flash Player plug-in.

Once you match up your bit versions of Safari and Shockwave Player, you'll find your YouTube functionality is fine. Adobe warn about this incompatibility problem in one direction, but not the other. Google don't warn you at all. (No wonder both companies have legions of anti-fans).

Also keep in mind that Adobe is in the midst of a flood of security flaws being discovered in their software. This problem is particularly critical with the Shockwave Player, Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat because the file formats they play are universal on the Internet. This means that it is CRITICAL to keep up with the entirely IRREGULAR releases of security updates from Adobe. Totally ignore Adobe's idiotic quarterly 'In-Band' schedule for releasing updates. Scheduling security updates is for fools. (I'm talking to you too Microsoft!)

Here is where to keep track of Adobe's latest security holes and updates:

Adobe Security Bulletins and Advisories

Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Blog

You can pick which version of Shockwave Player you would like to download and install (32 or 64-bit) HERE.

I regularly rake Adobe over the coals at my Mac-Security blog.

You can read about 32-bit mode versus 64-bit mode at Wikipedia.org.

And yes kids, all of the above indicates that we are still in The Stone Age of Computing.
(0_o)

:-Derek

--

Adventures In MacPorts: Installing MPlayer 1.0rc4 and Myst Online: URU Live Again

2011-02-11T18:53:00.004-05:00

--
MacPorts is only for advanced Mac users. Even advanced users will find MacPorts diabolical at times. My experience today was a very frustrating adventure. Its goal: To install the new MacPort of MPlayer version 1.0rc4.

I've been playing with MacPorts for a few years and am pleased to see the list of available ports continually growing. They have afforded me some terrific UNIX functionality that does not ship with Mac OS X. But learning about what MacPorts are, how to install them and how to use them is difficult. The learning curve is steep, the documentation is minimal, the help you'll find online is flaky and MacPorts itself can be imperfect and daunting. I am loathe to tell the tale of my adventure today because it will cause many to run away screaming with fear! But MPlayer is a big deal program and someone has got to publish on the net how to install it in spite of MacPorts HELL! So let me be your guide:

Porticus

A couple months back I installed the very latest version of MacPorts. To access the ports listing and install them I use a clunky but useful free program called Porticus. There is a paid shareware alternative, but it has fallen into disrepair and is too expensive. The one thing wrong with Porticus is that you have to force it to "Reload Ports" after every installation. It pretends to do so by itself but FAILs. This sort of annoyance is entirely typical at the hacker level of users. But I got used to forcing Porticus reloads and otherwise enjoy it.

MPlayer

Knowing the new version of MPlayer was available, I checked Porticus and joyfully found it available as a MacPort. However, it had a couple prerequisite installations. When this occurs, the ports you don't yet have installed are listed in red. Therefore, I set about installing them. Unfortunately, the first of these ports was impossible to install! It consistently FAILed with errors that said what was at the source site was an HTML file and that the MD5 check didn't match. Therefore, I looked around in the MacPorts directory and what I discovered blew my mind. Someone had tossed in a bizarro HTML file that essentially said the equivalent of "Sorry sonny! You can't get there for here!" Check this out:

[html stuff...]
This space is managed by SourceForge.net. You have attempted to access a URL that either never existed or is no longer active. Please check the source of your link and/or contact the maintainer of the link to have them update their records.
[html stuff...]

This note was included at part of the MacPorts installation and the note was WRONG. Because this stupid note was tossed it there, I could not install the prerequisite port and therefore could not install MPlayer! There was no way around it!

Except I am used to developers and hackers being a PITA. I went looking for what I wanted on the net anyway and sought out a way to install it in spite of the MacPorts bungle. And I succeeded. And yes kids, garbage like this proves that we remain in The Stone Age Of Computing. (0_o)

The impossible-to-install port file was libmad-0.15.1b.tar.gz. I Googled it. I found it. Here it is:

MAD (MPEG Audio Decoder)

Despite the dumbass note stuck in MacPorts, the file is at SourceForge, is downloadable and is installable, dammit!

After downloading the file, I tried a couple ways to install it myself. First I used the Terminal, using the instructions in the included ReadMe. Then I tried the same thing using the X11 CLI. But I was a dope to bother with it because the installation was put into the wrong location, not into MacPorts where I wanted it. Therefore, I went looking around. At first I thought I'd have to post a ticket to the MacPorts group about the problem. I went over to the MacPorts Guide and checked the tickets section. There I read about the Problem Hotlist page and checked it out. Skimming down the page I found this section:

Fetch failures

If fetch failed for a port, you can still get the distfile from anywhere else. For example, the main MacPorts distfiles mirror contains most ports' distfiles, or maybe the homepage of the software lists alternative download locations for source tarballs. Just download the distfile and save it to ${prefix}/var/macports/distfiles//. Make sure you get a file with exactly the same name (watch out for .tar.gz and .tar.bz2!) If a port clean --all has been done the distfile directory will have been removed. The directory for each port is created at the beginning of the fetch phase.

Note: Checksum failures after a fetch are typically a separate issue. See the FAQ.

Yeah well, I knew that libmad was NOT at the MacPorts distfiles location on the Internet. Beats me why. However, I was pleased to see that I could bypass the idiotic note about libmad and replace it with the actual file. After searching for the correct directory, which is NOT clear from the documentation quoted above, this is where I successfully put it:

/opt/local/macports/distfiles/libmad/

Having trashed the moronic (am I out of derisive adjectives yet?) MacPorts note, I replaced it with the libmad-0.15.1b.tar.gz file.

I then went back into Porticus and successfully performed the installation of libmad. That then allowed me to successfully install MPlayer. I then verified that MPlayer was there and started in reading the man page. Consider me happy-smiley-shiny and ready to play with MPlayer. :-)

Nightmare much? I run into ridiculous chaos like this regularly. It is part of hacker level work on any computer platform. Code developers are brilliant. My lame skills only let me bludgeon through code writing. But much as I envy great coders, they are not necessarily good at other organization skills. To succeed as a hacker level user you have to be patient and tenacious at overcoming other-people organizational deficits. You have to learn to out-think the software and the developer.

Myst Online: URU

I had a similar nightmare last month getting the Myst Online: URU Live Again MacPort installed and running on my Mac.

As an early Myst adopter, I have been a fan of the sequels ever since. Cyan create my kind of games. Sadly Cyan succumbed to the biznizz anti-ethic of focusing on money rather than the customer experience as the bottom line. This is consistently how great companies become derelict. (Apple have been a success, even in hard times, by keeping the customer as priority #1). This lead Cyan to focus only on the Windows PC market for their final project in the Myst series, the online game entitled URU. Considering that the original Myst was developed using Apple's Hypercard, this was a huge slap in the face of Mac users! Eventually a barely working Mac version was offered. Then URU rolled over and died. Thankfully, a transition was created to make URU a free public game. A new server was found and so URU lives again.

Thank kind people for providing a way to play URU online via MacPorts. There are two options for installing and running URU, one using WINE and another using Cider. I was unfamiliar with Cider, which is a Windows gaming engine for Macs from Transgaming. You can read about Cider HERE and HERE.

I installed the WINE version but totally FAILed to get it running. Yes kids, WINE is another one of those flaky, annoying, tweeks required, poorly documented hacker level technologies. If you pay for it via CrossOver, it can work very nicely. But installing WINE via MacPorts and getting it to work can be very infuriating. I ended up deleting the URU WINE installation by hand.

Then I installed the Cider version. URU now works beautifully! Then, since URU takes up over 3 GB of disk space, I used symbolic links (NOT aliases!) to move the whole thing over to an external USB drive with total success. Since I am running on a MacBook 2GHz, I don't have the best of graphics hardware. In particular, the roving 3D wire-frame characters, most of whom are real players, resolve poorly. But everything else in the game is incredibly beautiful and fun to use. I'm enthralled. If you're into the Myst series, I highly recommend the Cider URU MacPort.

. . .

If you found this article useful, I'm pleased. If it made your hair stand on end, I'm not surprised. There is a temperament one has to develop in order to deal with today's level of hacked together software. If you can't get there, then don't worry about it. Instead stick with the more user-friendly software, of which there is plenty. Some day The Stone Age Of Computing will transition into something much more humane, or so we hope.

:-Derek
--

When Apple Support FAILS: How To Calm An IRATE Part 2

2011-02-04T16:26:00.004-05:00

Going back a few weeks and a few articles, I discovered that there is no way to actually talk to anyone at the Apple iTunes Store. Therefore, if your email pleas for help go unresolved, you're left out in the cold. But there are further steps to take if your are willing to spend the time, money and patience to pursue them.

Apple has always had an excellent Customer Support department. It's a toll call. There's a firewall of operators you have to get through, but if you stick to your guns you can make it through and talk to someone nice, sane and incredibly helpful. Here is the protocol:

1) Go to the Apple.com site, go to the bottom of the page and click on 'Contact Us'.

2) Skip everything else and look in the upper right area of the "Apple - How to Contact Us" page where you will find the "Corporate Address" including the corporate office PHONE NUMBER. (Today Apple Corporate's number is 408-996-1010).

3) Deal with the fees and make the toll call...

4) When an operator answers, say only one thing: "Customer Support Please!" That's all. Do not ask for 'tech support'. Do not chat with the operator. Do not tell the operator about your situation. Never mention 'iTunes'. As soon as the operators hear 'iTunes' they blurt out a rant that there is "NO PHONE SUPPORT FOR THE iTUNES STORE!" I had one particularly nasty operator hang up on me when I attempted to talk reason with her. Don't bother! They're pre-programmed. You only only only ask for "Customer Support Please!"

5) You will then be connected in short order (or you should be!) to a kind, friendly, helpful and compassionate human being. I love these folks. Explain in detail your situation. Explain why this is important to you. As ever, be entirely honest and patient. Their job is to help you and to resolve all Apple customer problems.

Note: The call may take a lot of time. When I spoke to Customer Support they had a difficult time themselves getting anyone at the iTunes Store to talk to directly. If the call drags on longer than you'd like, simply ask that Customer Support call you back when they have solved the problem. Also ask them for their direct number. They will give you their toll-free direct number. They will call you back. They have never let me down.

In my situation, Apple were eventually able to talk to a human being at the iTunes Store. Sadly, that person blundered the situation yet-again(!), and I had to call back my Customer Support representative for further assistance. I get the impression that the iTunes Store has been contracted out to a bunch of minimum wage kids. IOW: pray for patience.

Once it was evident that the Level 1 kids at the iTunes Store were incapable of resolving my simple problem, one of their Supervisors contacted me via eMail and we sorted it out right away, the way it should have been solved in the first place. The Supervisor was intelligent and thoughtful. Problem solved, case closed. I was delighted.

Remaining Question: Why-oh-why was it so excruciatingly hard to interact with anyone competent at the iTunes Store? It took me 2.5 WEEKS to solve my very simple problem.

Sad to say, Apple does NOT run the iTunes Store like they run the rest of the company. "ALL SALES ARE FINAL" and "THE ONLY SUPPORT IS EMAIL SUPPORT" are IMHO rude and ridiculous walls put in the way to prevent what is typically the best-in-class Apple customer experience. BOTH of these impediments must be removed or competent Level 1 people must be provided. Polite and friendly dimwits are not acceptable.

CONCLUSION:

When you interact with the iTunes Store, you are NOT dealing with the Apple you know and love. You're dealing with a polite but deranged organization that damages Apple's reputation by way of blatant user-hostility. The Level 1 kids there could not have been more polite! How nice. But they also could not have been more obtuse and difficult. That I had to go all the way up to Corporate Headquarters to have a very simple problem solved was, let's be serious, completely INSANE.

I know the argument that Apple make very little money via the iTunes Store and I expect that is correct. But professional businesses don't let polite but incompetent minimum wage kids loose on their customers. The state of iTunes Store support is horrific. I wish you a far better experience than I had.

Sleepimage: How To Remove Gigabytes Of Unwanted Fat

2011-02-04T14:23:00.006-05:00

Mac OS X 10.5 & 10.6 brought with them a new feature called the 'sleepimage' file. You can find it here:

/private/var/vm/

You can get there in the Finder by using the Go menu: Go to Folder: Then type in the above path.

Inside this folder is all your vm or Virtual Memory. It includes all your 'swapfile's, which you should at this point leave be, and your 'sleepimage' file. The sleepimage is as large as the amount of RAM you have installed on your Mac. In my case, using my MacBook, it is 3 Gigabytes in size. What if I could removed that file 'forever' and have 3 GB more of freed space on my boot volume? For app addicts like me, that means a lot more room and a lot lower chance of banging my free space for virtual memory to zero, which in turn forces a reboot to free up the VM, which is annoying.

Before I tell you how to perform the undocumented tricks, let's find out what the sleepimage file is for, because you might well want to keep it! I'm quoting here from Apple's online PDF manual "Mac OS X, Security Configuration For Version 10.5 Leopard, Second Edition."

When your computer goes into hibernation, it writes the content of RAM to the /var/vm/sleepimage file. The sleepimage file contains the contents of RAM unencrypted, similar to a swap file.

The document then goes on to tell you how to turn on "Use secure virtual memory" in order to encrypt what is saved into the sleepimage file. And that's all Apple says about the sleepimage file.

Thanks to information provided by Jeremy King over at the MacRumors Forums (Apple Hardware : Notebooks : MacBook Pro : Sleep Image???) I learned one way to empty the sleepimage file by turning off Hibernation Mode. It requires using the CLI via the Terminal. If you are not yet well versed at using the Terminal, please do your homework first. I'm not going to explain the meaning of these commands.

Hibernation Mode Settings:

Disable

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

Enable

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

Always Use

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1

If you disable Hibernation Mode then reboot, you should find that your sleepimage file is empty.

But there is another method that may be helpful for the CLI averse, which includes me. You must follow my method exactly or die. I've never had trouble with it, ever. However, I've heard hearsay reports that someone or other did something sort of like this and blew their system, resulting in the inability to boot into Mac OS X. This sounds like BS to me. But never underestimate the 'wetware' factor. Having said that, I provide no guarantee of anything at all if you follow my method. Just know that it works perfectly for my purposes. Here goes!

1) Go into the Finder Preferences, under the Finder menu, and check ON "Show all filename extensions". You may have already done this. I have it on all the time.

2) Open TextEdit and create at new document.

3) Save the document file with the name 'sleepimage'. I like to save to my Desktop. Note that TextEdit will put an extension, such as ".rtf", on the end of the file.

4) Go to this saved file and REMOVE the .Extension from the end of the file name. For example, ".rtf"

5) Verify in the resulting finder box that you do indeed want to "Remove" the file extension.

6) Go into the 'vm' folder using the path I provided above.

7) Click on the 'sleepimage' file inside the vm folder and send it to the Trash. You will have to provide both your Administrator ID and Password in the resulting Finder window in order to do this.

8) Drag into the vm folder your 'sleepimage' text file. You will again have to 'Authenticate' this action by providing your Administrator ID and Password.

9) Click once on your new 'sleepimage' file and Get Info for it, IOW Command-i.

10) Check ON 'Locked' in the sleepimage Get Info window. The purpose here is to prevent Mac OS X from changing or removing this file. You are the boss-of-it.

11) Empty the Trash to remove the obese old 'sleepimage' file.

You're done.

Instantly you have back ALL the disk space that was eaten up by the sleepimage file. And it won't come back. Well, probably not. There are always the random ghosts, cosmic rays, or karmic fates that make computing strange at times. I have had the sleepimage return from the dead on one occasion and I have no idea why. I put my MacBook to sleep one night and it woke up with a live sleepimage file back again. Thus the term 'Ghost in the machine'. So I killed it off again, replaced the sleepimage file, and was back in business.

LOGIC:

I'm a quirky gizmologist who enjoys breaking things, playing with them, then putting the back together again. I'm a trained hacker and geek. If you are not, then I'd suggest taking the more logical approach, using the CLI method for turning OFF Hibernation Mode in order to clear your sleepimage file. It's short and simple and follows proper protocols. My method is a hack. If you want to play around and are confident you know what you are doing, try my hack for fun.

Share and Enjoy,

:-Derek

Why Adobe Flash Is Naughty and Requires Spanking

2011-02-02T14:16:00.002-05:00

There is a phrase among We-The-Technos that has been coming up in conversation a lot more often lately. That phrase is "TechTardiness". For Mac users, TechTard inspired anti-Apple hate is nothing new. By design or by error, the Macintosh platform has consistently been misrepresented in the press for decades, thus the extended phrase "TechTard Journalists". Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal used to be among them. But like so many others, he got a Mac, tried it and found that it really is superior to the alternatives. I'm always pleased and full of praise when any of us cures our ignorance and moves beyond a regrettable past.

Recent among opportunities to cure ignorance is coming to terms with Adobe Flash. Despite a shocking amount of published data regarding Flash's incredibly poor performance and its blatant dangers on the Mac platform, TechTardiness remains in full force. This past week there was an amazing addition to the chorus of ignorance from Patrick Lo, the Chairman and CEO of Netgear. His bizarro, crude and insightless comments are covered here:

Closed Apple headed for trouble as Jobs's ego bites: Netgear CEO

Patrick's obtuse slamming of Steve Jobs , (who is currently out ill from Apple, how brave of Patrick), includes this gem:

What's the reason for him to trash Flash? There's no reason other than ego.

For everyone's benefit, here is a list of reasons why Mac users trash Flash:

1) Adobe Flash eats the Mac's CPU alive.

2) Adobe Flash inexplicably continues to chew on the Mac's CPU after each Flash file has stopped playing.

3) The more open Flash files, running or not, the more the Mac's CPU is devoured.

4) Adobe Flash bombs Mac web browsers, particularly Apple's Safari browser, due to memory leaks.

5) Adobe Flash is the most dangerously insecure software for Mac. This is according to top Macintosh security experts such as Dr. Charlie Miller. (The #2 and #3 insecure software for Mac are Apple's QuickTime and Adobe's PDF format).

6) Adobe maintains an unrealistic quarterly 'band' system for providing Flash Player security updates. Every month during this summer, extending into October of 2010, a new 'out-of-band' security patch was required for Flash Player.

CONCLUSIONS:

All of the above Flash problems are verifiable by anyone with Google and the willingness to do their homework.

There are reasons why Flash blocking add-ons are extremely popular for Mac web browsers.

The next time someone denies or ignores all of the above, just laugh at them. There's FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt); And then there's DOS (Denial, Obfuscation and Stupidity). Neither are good for your health.

And Further More:

For smirkers who like to brag that their PDA/Smartphone can play Flash, don't forget to tell everyone the following:

A) How well does Flash play on your gadget?

-and-

B) How well does its battery survive playing Flash?

The answer at this point in time is: Poorly.

I personally am open to Adobe repairing all these problems and making Flash a friendly member of the computer community. However, Adobe has consistently been in denial mode, despite a mountain of easily verifiable evidence to the contrary. IMHO Adobe is strangling their own baby. That bodes poorly for Flash's future. I wish it were not so.

The Worst App Developer Award Candidate: xhumans

2011-01-22T16:12:00.014-05:00

[...While I wait for Apple to fix my very simple iTunes Store problem, now entering day #14...]

Introduction: I'm not interested in a libel suit. But I have to say there are some very shady developers at the iTunes App Store. Today I ran into one astounding developer I have to share. Judging from everything I have seen about these guys, they are my candidate for The Worst App Developer, the makers of 'Chatroulette! ~2.0':

xhumans

eMail address to contact them:

staff@xhumans.com

How to find ALL their Apps at the iTunes App Store:

• Search for 'xhumans' inside the iTunes Store

-OR-

• Follow this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=304320852

Why am I picking on xhumans?

The main reasons I consider them a candidate for "the worst app developer" are the remarkably consistent one star reviews they receive for their various apps. I've provided several at the end of the article for your amusement. Here are a few one star user reviews from one of xhumans' more poplar apps, NarutoTube costing $2.99. These reviews are in chronological order from the past year:

Don't download you will only get a blank red screen
by Dvcyr - Version 3.0 - Apr 28, 2010
If you buy this app you will not be happy. It's a blank red screen. No videos to watch. No upgrade to fix the problem.

This app suks balls
by J krazy - Version 3.0 - May 11, 2010
Yea good job making a app that doesn't work douche bags...

Videos never change
by Obamaslama spaceburrito - Version 3.0 - Jan 22, 2011
U find these videos on u tube n there's only 4 vids it's a scam

According to the iTunes App Store, xhumans have 847 Apps. Most of them have bad reviews, but not all of them. I did find a few apps where a third of its reviews were positive, hovering between three stars and 2.5 stars. The developer claims that their 'TubeWorks' series of apps has an award winning interface. From the graphics, I would guess that xhumans won the 'Double Tap Grand Prize' in the 'Mobile Video Awards category'. Apparently not all of their apps FAIL.

Most xhumans apps are offered within a few categories. Let's visit the most prolific category:

THE TUBEWORKS APPS

If you read descriptions of the TubeWorks, Apps they are nearly all identical. However, each description contains one unique word, the name of the 'Tube'. Here is a general transcription. I use '[ ]' in place of the each app's tube name:

[ ]Tube - best [ ] videos!!

Description

Kick back and watch some of the best [ ] videos on the App store.

[ ]Tube is the premier place for [ ] videos. We hope you like it!

We hang out in the chat room a lot... Drop in and let us know if you need any help with anything or you just want to chat. [chill.]

Also, follow us on twitter to see what we're up to:
twitter.com/xhumans

Features:
- enjoy a spectacular selection of [ ] videos
- suggest your favorite videos to [ ]Tube and make [ ] history
- chat with other [ ] fans
- TubeWorks' award-winning interface
- exceptional application graphics and professional sound production

download now if you're a real [ ] fan!

NOTE: A Wi-Fi connection is required to watch videos.

The graphics on the TubeWorks pages are nearly all identical as well. The result is a profound sense of the generic.

Then there are the scattershot names. Here are my favorites:

SodiumTube

HeliumTube

UndertakerTube

NymphTube

MothTube

CougarTube

ToadTube

ArmadilloTube

WeaselTube

CERNTube

GPSTube

PHPTube

CandleTube

BadmintonTube

SleepTube

OldTube

TubeTube

When you apply these names into the xhumans generic description you get lines like this:

Kick back and watch some of the best sodium videos on the App store.

UndertakerTube is the premier place for undertaker videos. We hope you like it!

Tube is the premier place for nymph videos.

- suggest your favorite videos to OldTube and make old history

- chat with other weasel fans

download now if you're a real sleep fan!

... The dangers of lazy marketing. In all fairness I must state my pleasure at finding they do not offer JarJarTube, CelebrexTube, or CelebrityRehabTube, indicated a molecule of taste.

MORE APP CATEGORIES

Fans of [ ]: Designed for fans of such things as Drinking, Sloths, Rumpelstiltskin, Badminton, Bunnies, Crows, Gophers, and of course Sodium.

iCodes for [ ]: For those who seeking input codes for games such as Girl Wars and Epic Pet Wars.

THE ODD PRICES:

You can either have:

1960sTube for $0.99

-OR-

1960Tube for $1.99

Your choice!

Then there's this gem:

ChearleadingTube @$2.99

(0_o)

THE LEGENDARY BARGAIN

I've saved the best xhumans app for last! Its name is 'A5000•HD Radio by Gatsby'. The cost is $59.99. That is not a typo. Here are a few lines from its description:

A magnificent radio with the finest music for your iPhone. A radio made for the few. You know who you are. You lead a life of privilege and luxury. It is your way. You are one of the elite. One of the chosen, the few. In a world of commonality, you soar high above the crowd in your private jet. You relax on your private beach far from the masses, your magnificent yacht anchored just offshore. A bevy of impeccable sports cars await you at your estates around the world. The world's most beautiful people obey your every command. Because this is who you are. Now. Leave the others far behind. Make your mark. Own a legendary radio that defies the expected. Download the radio that others only dream of. Yes, you deserve the best. Gatsby. Find Luxury Radio.

Here is what you get for $59.99, you impeccably privileged person you!

=======ABOUT THE RADIO=======
12 High Definition Digital Streaming Stations - featuring Gatsby approved content.
12 International audio experts - our panel of exceptional judges.
A team of renowned software developers.
==============================

Gatsby
Paris London New York Los Angeles Tokyo

Before you buy your luxurious 12 station Gatsby radio, I have a stunningly elegant bridge in Brooklyn I'm willing to part with for a mere pittance of its true aesthetic worth...

Needless to say there are no reviews at the iTunes App Store for the A5000•HD Radio by Gatsby, inferring perhaps that no one has yet purchased it. I wonder why?

FINALE

As promised, here are further one star xhumans app reviews. These are all 100% real, direct from the iTunes App Store:

AirTube:

Waste of $
by twilight0900000 - Version 3.0 - May 29, 2010
Don't buy it because when I opened it. Blank screen and freezed my iPod. It's a virus

PokemonTube:

It don't work
by Macoleny - Version 3.0 - Jun 8, 2010
u get 1 star for takeing my money

WTF
by B-rad-g Indiana rox - Version 3.0 - Aug 21, 2010
I paid for this app and nothing happened

RunescapeTube:

Weak sauce
by 80s Nut - Version 3.0 - Mar 2, 2010
Good idea but it doesn't work it just crashes

doesn't work
by lalfjhrhjhdjhdhdhsh - Version 3.0 - Mar 30, 2010
I try to open the app but all I get is a red screen with a black bar on top
this is stupid I want my dollar back lol

Don't buy
by Bbdbsdjdi - Version 3.0 - Apr 23, 2010
I want my money back it won't work do NOT buy this app

Horrible App
by Crusada - Version 3.0 - May 4, 2010
The videos have NEVER been updated and the chat is always empty. Waste of a dollar.

BollywoodTube:

Rename it to Bollywood porn hub!!!
by Anonr - Version 9.0 - Aug 10, 2010
My gosh, I was hoping to catch some movies this app, but it's useful, it has snippets of adult rated porn!!! The makers should not mislead users like this. The description doesn't even say anything about the content.

Chatroulette! ~ 2.0:

Don't get this app!
by Britatit - Version 2.0 - Apr 8, 2010
I'm glad I wastes my money on staring at a white screen, yup cool. Needs an update asap.

White screen
by Fun dude - Version 2.0 - May 14, 2010
Loaded toched the screen and still nothing

Bull
by Sulio - Version 2.0 - Nov 10, 2010
How can you just take away the pictures. It' like all of a sudden no pics and no users. When people purchase something they generally want what they paid for.

ScaryTube:

Major bug
by Christian Duncan - Version 9.0 - Feb 15, 2010
It keeps quitting on my... Don't wast ur money

iCodes for Racing Live:

This app is garbage
by Sikmade - Version 2.0 - Nov 13, 2009
All it does is give u codes from a website.... When u add ur code u don't get any invites!! Wish I could get my dollar back but at least it's only a dollar! Don't waste ur time buying it....
Read the reviews cuz one review gives the website to go to for all the codes.. Add me though 21S1U

~~~~

A finalé word to the 'team of renowned software developers' at xhumans: You have got to be kidding guys. Keep it up and I venture you'll get yourselves 'expelled' from the App Store.

When Apple Support FAILS: How To Create An IRATE!!! Part 1

2011-01-20T20:39:00.006-05:00

Consider me IRATE and disgusted with Apple today. When you learn why, you'll be disgusted with Apple as well. Get this:

THERE IS NO WAY TO TALK TO A HUMAN ON THE PHONE AT THE iTUNES STORE.

It is entirely impossible.

Apparently there is also no way to interact with a human via eMail at the iTunes store either. All I have received back from them is ROBO-EMAIL. IOW: Everything I have heard back from them has been 100% mechanical in nature. Their iTunes Store email support FAILS the Turing Test.

I went through the usual three levels of tech support at Apple today in a vain attempt to talk to anyone who could solve the simple issue I had at the iTunes Store. Every single level of support told me exactly the same thing:

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK TO ANYONE AT THE iTUNES STORE.

Therefore, if their mechanical email support at the iTunes Store FAILs you, there is NO RECOURSE except to call Apple Corporate: 408-996-1010, open 8 am to 5 pm Pacific Time.

And so I shall. Consider me a crusader in ending this insanity. More to follow...

Grand Opening Deal Heaven, Grumbles and Gratitude At The New Mac App Store

2011-01-07T05:03:00.014-05:00

--
I own RapidWeaver version 4. Recently I looked into upgrading to version 5. The cost is $39.00 from the Realmac Store.

Today, January 7, 2011, I checked out the Mac App Store via the niffy kewl App Store app that is installed with Mac OS X 10.6.6. Wow. RapidWeaver 5 for people that don't already own it is $39.99. Such a deal! The regular price at the Realmac Store is usually $79! They call it their "Special Introductory Pricing". So for $0.99 more than the upgrade price, you can own RapidWeaver 5 ! ! !

Another deal: Apple's iWork costs $79 for the whole show in one go. At the Mac App Store you can buy each of the three pieces for $20. The grand total is $60! That's nearly $20 in savings!

There are other such deals at the Mac App Store. If you've upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6.6 then run, do not walk, to the Mac App Store, via the App Store app sitting in your Applications folder and on your Dock, and check out the bargains. Yeah, the timing sucks because it's immediately after the holidays, (mine is Christmas), and we're all dirt poor. But you'll be tempted!

GRUMBLES:

• I'm running into Mac App Store errors where I can't download certain items. "We could not complete your request. There was an error in the App Store. Please try again later. (@@errorNum@@)". Well doesn't that just suck. The iTunes App Store has similar intermittent problems.

• In order to rate or review any application at the Mac App Store you have to have BOUGHT it at the Mac App Store. Compared to the policy over at MacUpdate and VersionTracker/CNET, this is not good, at least not for a newbie store. I found this very disappointing. Therefore, expect to see me still hanging around at the usual Mac app sites.

• I enjoy the layout and features of Apple's App Stores, both via iTunes for iDevices as well as the Mac App Store. However, there really is nothing to help you find all the BARGAINS. Maybe a bargain will be featured in the store interface, but probably not. That's not good. I'd like a specific DISCOUNTS section directly on the front page of both App Stores. Therefore, expect to see me still hanging around the usual bargain alert Mac app sites.

• There are some gotchas as well that are important to avoid. One example is Apple's iLife application collection. There are five components: iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb. However, at the Mac App Store you can't buy the whole set. There is no such thing as iWeb or iDVD at the Mac App Store. That's not good. And the à la carte prices for the three available pieces do not impress me. The full suite goes for $49. The three available pieces from the whole go for a total of $45. So for $4 less you get gypped out of iDVD (which I consider essential) and iWeb (which admittedly may not be worth $4). Gotcha.

• The Mac App Store has no 'Wishlist'. Why?! I love that feature on the iTunes App Store and use it regularly when I don't have ready cash or I want to research an app's functionality as well as reviews. I want to do exactly the same thing with Mac apps. So add the functionality Apple!

• Apps that are $0.99 for my iPod Touch are typically marked up to $4.99 for the Mac, much like the price difference for iPad app versions. There are cost concerns when writing for a much larger size screen. But $4 worth? On the other hand, I could be paying $4.99 for the iPod Touch versions. So maybe I'll just shut up.

GRATITUDE:

• Unlike at restaurants, where a la carte equals price gouging, at the Apple App Stores à la carte usually (with one exception noted above) means price savings. iWork is a great example. Everyone I know loves Keynote and Pages. But no one I know likes Numbers. Therefore, paying $40 by dropping Numbers out of the suite is a nice deal for many people compared to having to pay $20 more to have Numbers included.

• I like having prices for apps provided right up front. The sad Marketing Moron approach to application sales is to bury the price to the point of unobtainable, unless of course you hit a 'BUY' button, which is entirely insane and counter intuitive. You just want the bloody price man! But Apple's approach gives you what you want right where you want it when you want it. The price is right there with the name of the app AND the star rating. Killer.

• Apple's à la carte approach in the App Stores is inspiring developers to think à la carte. Therefore, we are starting to get web apps you can download from the Mac App Store, just like at the iTunes App Store! An example is the Twitter app. It's free! Download it and run just it, not a whole freaking web browser. That's a good thing. I know this approach is going to eat up more disk space in your Applications folder, but face the convenience factor and enjoy.

• The influence of the iTunes App Store means that lots of formerly iDevice-only apps are arriving for the Mac! That means lots of the kewl games like Angry Birds. Thanks to Apple devices like the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad you can use the same gestures as on iDevices to operate these applications. Yes, the Mac really is becoming another iDevice. I like it.

SUMMARY:

This is a nice start to the Mac App Store. This is a very welcome addition to the Mac universe. It does not actually kill off the alternative app sites like MacUpdate and VersionTracker/CNET, which I still highly recommend. It also extends the à la carte and smaller app approach of iDevices over to the Mac, which is terrific for both pricing and functionality.

The Mac App Store has got the expected version 1.0 syndrome. But Apple have the successful iTunes App Store as a model with which to clean up problems. Other grumbles are going to have to catch Apple's ear before either of the App Stores are perfection.

These are the days when even the most lead-headed Windows box user has Apple-envy. I'm a board member and presenter at the local Windows PC user group. I've seen it. People come up to me and talk about it. Apple envy is real. Keep that in mind the next time you run into a misery mongering anti-Apple troll. They're just as envious as the rest. This is how the computer community evolves beyond Microsoft.

:-D
--

1:30 Samples @ iTunes Store

2010-12-10T01:45:00.002-05:00

~~
Tonight I first noticed 1 minute and 30 second samples up on the iTunes store! Via Ping I learned about Ladytron's new single 'Ace of Hz', heard the 1:30 sample and grabbed it. Having a minute and a half to judge a tune sample is so civilized compared to a mere 30 seconds. Thank you Apple!
~~

AirPrint Hacktivator

2010-11-24T10:13:00.003-05:00

--
iOS version 4.2.1 provides a new feature for Apple iDevices called AirPrint. It works directly with a series of HP HPQ ePrint printers.

However, it AirPrint was also designed to work with a wide variety of Bonjour shared printers on a LAN. That functionality was included in the beta test versions of iOS 4.2, but was removed before public release. The reason why has not officially been stated by Apple. I discuss some details about the situation below. But first I want to point out THE SOLUTION:

A hack that returned full AirPrint functionality was devised a couple weeks back. Thankfully, one developer put the hack into a simple little freeware application called AirPrint Hacktivator by NetPuting. It works beautifully. The website provides a simple video demonstration. Essentially you must set up printer sharing for any printers you wish to use with AirPrint.

I have been able to set up and use two printers I have connected to my AirPort Extreme N Base Station via a connected USB hub:

1) A Lexmark Z715 using driver version 1.0.5, supplied with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. (The driver is not included with 10.6 Snow Leopard and not supplied by Lexmark).

2) An Epson Stylus C84 using the GutenPrint driver version 5.2.3. (I was unable to get it to work with Epson's own latest driver for the C84).

Both printers were setup for sharing on my MacBook running 10.6.5, hacked with AirPrint Hacktivator. My MacBook has to be running and awake for AirPrint on my iPod Touch 4, running iOS 4.2.1, to see the printers. Apparently, AirPrint accesses the printer drivers installed and setup for sharing on my MacBook. The print job is then sent via Wi-Fi over to the Apple Extreme N Base Station. The print outs are nothing fancy but are perfectly adequate.

Note that the only control you have via AirPrint is which printer to use and how many copies you with to make. That's it. There are no other options at this time. Therefore, it's a quick, no frills way to make a print out from an Apple iDevice.

That AirPrint works via printers connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station was a surprise to me! No where in Apple's original statements about AirPrint was this functionality stated. I tried it. It worked. I'm extremely pleased.

So why was this great functionality deliberately removed from Mac OS X 10.6.5?

Originally Apple had stated that AirPrint would:

... automatically find printers on local networks and print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software.

Now Apple only state AirPrint functionality with the afore mentioned HP ePrint printers. My net friend Daniel Eran Dilger wrote about this situation in his AppleInsider article 'Inside AirPrint: Apple's printing system for iOS.' To quote:

A rumored controversy, however, maintains that Apple's soon to be released AirPrint has run into a patent issue, reportedly from App Store developer.

We know that Apple's patents for AirPrint are pending. They were reported in September by AppleInsider in their article 'Apple's ambitious AirPlay, AirPrint plans detailed in patent applications'.

When I find out more about the apparent legal tussle over AirPrint technology, I'll post.
--

The Simple Adobe Flash Problem

2010-11-09T19:01:00.023-05:00

--
Disclaimer Intro: I've never had it in for Adobe. I own a number of their programs and enjoy them. What I have it in for is dishonesty, deceit, bad programming and bad business. Sadly, Adobe have become diligent at all four. Why? Because they're suffering from what I call Marketing-As-Management. Their eye is entirely off the ball. They can no longer manage themselves. They can no longer invent. They can only sell. And as this downward spiral deepens, they become infiltrated with what I call Marketing Morons (as opposed to mavens) who consider the customers to be an annoyance and treat them as such. This is how companies die. And while companies die, they perpetrate crap like this:

Now What?

Once again Adobe have had a tantrum about criticism of Flash. And once again, Adobe have lied and attempted to bullshit us. Check out this bit of surrealism:

Adobe’s Next Flash Excuse: If You Want To Save Power, Don’t Turn On Your Machine

I posted a few bits of relevant information today over at this MacDailyNews article:

Adobe CTO tries defending the indefensible Flash pig

I'm summarizing my comments here for others to use and consider:

1) Q: "What's the name of that flash blocking plug-in?"

For Safari (and works with other browsers) use:
ClickToFlash

For Firefox use:
Flashblock
and/or
NoScript

I'd recommend NoScript at all times in any case. JavaScript (aka ECMAScript) has become the Bubonic Plague of the Internet.

2) Q: "If I use Click2Flash and just never click, does that save as much battery power as not installing Flash at all?"

YES.

Just keep in mind that when you do click to run a Flash video, the only way to stop the thing is to close that page in your browser or move on to another URL. If the Flash (playing or not!) remains in a background window or tab, it is STILL running and is STILL eating your CPU and therefore your BATTERY. The more Flash pages you have open, the more Flash is chomping your CPU, therefore your battery.

Therefore: Close all Flash pages ASAP after you've watched them.

3) The Clear Distinction:

Software that is sitting in the background, not being used, is supposed to be silent and not access the CPU. This is what is called "Good Programming".

Software that sits in the background, not being used, not playing anything, not actually doing anything, that STILL accesses your CPU and eats up CPU cycles is called CRAPWARE. This is called "Bad Programming".

Flash is Bad Programming.

And no, it's NOT the fault of the person who wrote the Flash ad or the Flash video or the Flash animation.

It's ADOBE'S FAULT. Only Adobe can fix it. Adobe refuse to fix it. Adobe are insistently Bad Programmers.

It's that simple.

4) "But I still want Flash on my iDevice!"

No you don't.

Note everyone: Flash still runs like a 1-legged cow on Android. Don't let Adobe fool you. If Adobe ever get off their lazy asses and fix Flash so it actually works nicely on hand held devices, then we'll talk. Until then, you don't want Flash on your iDevices. Be glad you don't have it.
--

How to get spam! How to trample a troll!

2010-10-29T05:34:00.011-04:00

--
Apologies for letting this blog lapse. I've been busy on my other three blogs and my two Yahoo Groups and my story writing, blahblahblah.

This short article teaches you how to get spam:

Publish your email address on a webpage on the Internet. Like this:

mlosuno@yahoo.com

Spam spyders crawl around the Internet all day looking for published email addresses. When they find one, such as above, they automatically put it onto an 'Active Email Address List' and it's sold to every spam rat on the Internet around the world. In a remarkably short period of time the owner of the email address is pummeled with spam.

It is also an effective way to let an anti-Apple troll know just what you think of their deceit. I encountered this particular unimaginative misery mongerer over at MacDailyNews today.

Trolls tend to come in two categories:

1) PAID. Indeed there are desperate companies who are unable to compete in business and instead pay people to FUD, rumor monger, spread boring old myths, and other deceitful garbage. And as per usual, there are no-self-esteem humans willing to take the money and do the dirty deeds. Imagine my cynicism.

2) PSYCHOPATH. I've found myself having to read about this particular derangement of the mind lately in order to understand why my country, the USA, is becoming irrelevant. Psychopathic organizations, places where psychopaths coalesce and cook up loony control conceits, have become de rigor in politics in the USA. My all time fave is Project for the New American Century, aka PNAC. They are the gang of over-the-edge Neo-Conservatives, aka Neo-Con-Jobs, whom Ronald Reagan named 'THE CRAZIES.' They invented the Iraq War in 1997, published their manifesto in 1998, became the George W. Bush administration cabinet, invented the plethora of lies that sunk the USA into that illegal war of choice, deliberately destroyed the US budget for the sake of their philosophy of 'Starve The Beast', corrupted Fox News, invented and threw money at The Tea Party, on and on. My cynicism overfloweth.

Compared to government level loons, computer community trolls are little munchkins. But they enjoy doing their best to create misery in others. Often it is an extension of their own masochism. So strange. As ever, the best cure is laughter, and of course letting them know you see behind the mask, or curtain, or whatever subterfugal game they like to play. Sheesh.

How to get on the Do Not Spam list:

I remarkably and accidentally discovered how to stop getting much, if any, spam: Report EVERY spam you receive to a spam source blacklisting group. My favorite is SpamCop.net. I've been a paying member there since 1998, the year they began. Because I am so remarkably attentive to reporting to them every single piece of spam I receive, over time the amount of spam that I personally receive at my email address has dropped to perhaps 3 per week. I have to assume that the spam rats share amongst themselves a Do Not Spam list because they know that dedicated and altruistic people such as myself will turn them in to the authorities. At SpamCop.net I have a consistent record of turning in every piece of spam I receive within 10 hours. I suspect I've helped kill off hundreds of spam rats. You're welcome.

Check out SpamCop.net if you'd like to join in. It's free. But I prefer to support them with funding, which in turn provides me with easier access to their website.

Now back to your regularly scheduled enjoyment of living. My enjoyment this week is working on the backstory of my Steampunk story series. It's going swimmingly.
;-)

QuickTime Preference PAIN

2010-05-23T15:10:00.037-04:00

I've held off writing this article in hopes that Apple would finish QuickTime Player X, the version included with Snow Leopard. But that has not happened, thus my rant.

Let's start by stating the situation:

1) You install Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and find in your Applications folder 'QuickTime Player' version 10.0 build 113. It's 64 bit. It has some nifty new features and is also missing A LOT of previous features. You can't upgrade it to a 'Pro' version. It has no Preferences available. There is no System Preferences Pane for it. It is essentially this kind of fun thing to play with that is incomplete and includes some bugs. The very worst bug forces QTX to dreadfully slowly cache an entire movie before you can scrape around through it. For this reason, I have set up all my QT movie files to play in the Open Source freeware application Movist instead, a vastly superior media player that incorporates FFmpeg.

The features missing from QuickTime X are numerous. It's not ready for prime time and is by no means a replacement for QuickTime 7.

2) Unknown to you, and without ANY prompting from Apple, your Snow Leopard DVD includes a copy of QuickTime 7 for you to install. If you want all the Pro features, and even some of the normal old features of QuickTime you must install QT7. In fact, I tell everyone to install QT7, I am so disappointed with QTX. Once you do, you've got absolutely everything you expect from QuickTime. It works perfectly. The only meagre drawback is that it is a 32 bit application, which means an unnoticeable slowdown compared to QuickTime X.

3) But sadly, Apple didn't bother to include the QuickTime Preference Pane for QuickTime 7 in their installer either. This is a very stupid and annoying oversight. If Apple had finished QuickTime X within a reasonable time, I would not have complained. As a result, you can't access all the preferences of either QuickTime X or QuickTime 7. Shame on Apple!

There is no complete solution to this PAIN in the Preferences at this time. Again, Shame on Apple!

Thankfully, there have been efforts to help overcome the incomplete nature of QuickTime X.

MacOSHints posted a helpful article entitled "Changing QuickTime X hidden preference settings". It discusses two CLI (character line interface) applications included in 10.6 that access QuickTime X preference settings. You can read the manual pages about each of them inside the Terminal application by typing:

man qtdefaults

and

man mediastreamsegmenter

The article also points out a set of AppleScripts, called QuickTime Player X Hidden Preferences Scripts, you can install that are accessible whenever you are using QuickTime Player X. You can read about them and download them from celebi23 HERE. The scripts are donationware. Note that these scripts do not cover all the available QTX settings. Refer back to the CLI application above for the full set.

Here is a list of the scripts included with QuickTime Player X Hidden Preferences Scripts Version 2.2.1:

Allow simultaneous recordings
Always show titlebar, controller
Automatically show subtitles and closed captioning on open
Autoplay movies on open
Disable rounded corners
Keep playing full-screen even when you command-tab out of QuickTime
Never show the titlebar
Never show titlebar, controller
Recent items
Shorten the delay after which the controller fades out to one second

Another, more simply and familiar solution is the third party 'QuickTime Player X Preference Pane' from MegaByteComp. The program is freeware. You can read about it and download it HERE. I've been using it for several months and like it. MegaByteComp also provide it combined with their 'iTunes Preference Pane' as their 'SnowLeopardCombo Preference Pane'.Here is a list of settings included with QuickTime Player X Preference Pane version 1.2:

Rounded Corners
Allow Simultaneous Recordings
Autoplay Movies
Show Closed Captioning & Subtitles
Exit Fullscreen Mode on Application Switch
Show Inspector At Launch
Titlebar & Controller Fade Out
Number of Recent Documents

So what other hidden QuickTime X preference settings remain? Here is my personal shortlist:

Accessible from the qtdefaults CLI application:

Legacy Codecs Enabled - enable or disable legacy codecs in the export settings.
Transport Settings - either allow QT to automatically determine the best media streaming port and protocol or set it yourself.
MIME Settings - read or reset the MIME types being handled by the QuickTime plug-in.
Media Keys - read , add or delete media keys used to play back encrypted movies.
Download cache - empty the cache being used by QuickTime.

Accessible from the mediastreamsegmenter CLI application:

Segment media for deployment using HTTP Live Streaming using MPEG-2.
Produce live or video-on-demand streams, including the addition of encryption.

BTW: Apple recently allowed the release of a downloadable version of QuickTime Player v7.6.6 for Snow Leopard 10.6.3. Previously you could only get it if you'd already installed the version on the Snow Leopard DVD then ran System Update. You can download it HERE. It is highly recommended until such time when Apple finish QuickTime Player X. Don't hold your breath.
--

Adobe's Festival of Deceit:Apple's Flash ban"has nothing to do with technology"

2010-04-29T17:37:00.020-04:00

^
Prologue:

Through my background at Eastman Kodak and Rochester Institute of Technology, I've had friends and acquaintances inform me about the Adobe work culture for well over a decade. I know full well that it can be a contentious place to work, with brilliant and kind people mixed in with ignorant and arrogant people. The ignorance and arrogance has consistently been the bane of their progress within the ever evolving computer environment. Adobe's response to the Apple versus Flash technology debacle is entirely in keeping with the Adobe work culture. The difference is that this time Adobe aren't infighting; They're outfighting in public with Apple, the company that is historically their biggest supporter. As a result, Adobe's very worst characteristics as a company are hanging out for everyone to see, creating what I consider to be quite an embarrassing spectacle. Toss in blatant deceit from Adobe, who are entirely unwilling to correct their technological errors in Flash, and we get to watch Adobe essentially punching itself in the face, giving itself a very swollen black eye. I wish they'd stop and get some perspective. But the now clichéd adage about insanity applies: Adobe keep punching themselves, expecting Apple to change. (o_0)

Adobe's Festival of Deceit

That the spirit of the current age of politics, deceit, is oozing into the computer community is extremely disturbing. We've had endless FUD and troll warz from haters within the community since the genesis of the personal computer. But to have a computer company itself directly lie to the public about its own incompetent technology is something new. Typically the deceit is perpetrated as an undercurrent via 3rd party sources, or it has been veiled in mere suggestion or innuendo. This time around we have the CEO, the guy at the very top of Adobe, directly lying to the public, vainly, insanely, hoping his authority will make the deceit more believable. Seeing as we don't live in Stalinist Soviet Union or Red China, sorry Mr. Narayen but we not only notice you're wearing no clothes, we can say it in public and not get killed.

So what am I on about?

From VentureBeat.com:

Adobe CEO says Apple’s ban of Flash “has nothing to do with technology”

The Wall Street Journal interviewed Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in order to hear his response to Steve Jobs' critique of Adobe Flash technology and why it will not, in its current state, be permitted on an Apple battery driven device (apart from MacBooks). Quoting from VentureBeat's coverage of the interview:

• If Flash crashes on Apple hardware, that’s “to do with the Apple operating system.” (As a former Unix hacker, I have to ask: Huh?)

• On Jobs’ claim that Flash drains mobile gadget batteries: “Patently false.”

Apple technology pundit John Gruber wrote a smart-aleck response to Narayen’s claims: “Who are we supposed to believe, Shantanu Narayen or our own lying Activity Monitors?”

How could any experienced Mac user not concur with John Gruber's snarky observation? How is it possible for the CEO of Adobe to be so entirely ludicrous? This is NOT politics, where rhetoric can spin mental spells of illusion in ignorant minds. This is technology, a field of endeavor that is ruled by empirical, objective observation.

Objective observation: I just played an Adobe Flash movie on my Mac OS X computer. The Flash movie finished playing. Therefore, it should not be accessing my CPU. And yet there Flash is, in my Activity Monitor application, eating my CPU alive, causing the fan in my MacBook to madly spin to keep the CPU within its temperature tolerance range. I can use two simple solutions to solve the problem. Either (A) close the web page containing the offending Flash video, or (B) quit the web browser containing the window with the offending Flash video. The results in either case are the same: Flash stops eating my CPU alive. The end. Observation concluded.

I can then go back to that exact same Adobe Flash movie and repeat exactly the same problem, over and over. I can then switch web browser applications and repeat the results over and over. I can then go to someone else's Mac OS X computer and repeat the same results over and over.

In science, these are called 'Repeatable Results'. What then follows is the Conclusion.

Conclusion:

Adobe Flash movies, in coordination with the Adobe Flash Plug-in running in any web browser, can create CPU race conditions on occasions when the Flash movie is observed to not be playing. Therefore, the code in either the Flash movie or the Flash Plug-in is poorly written and requires repair.

Whenever this condition is caused on a battery-run computer device, the obvious result is the needless, pointless draining of the device's battery. Therefore, in order to maximize the battery capacity of a computer device, it is important to NOT play poorly coded Flash movies via the Flash Plug-in.

It's that simple, that provable, that obvious.

To say that this battery draining CPU race condition 'has nothing to do with technology' is a blatant lie.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen: You are lying to the public, your customers.

Adobe Board of Directors: Why do you tolerate your CEO lying to the public?

Adobe shareholders: Why do you tolerate the CEO of Adobe lying to the public?

Adobe engineers: Why haven't you repaired this race condition in Flash technology?

As far as I am concerned, if Adobe got off their lazy backsides, and off their deceitful soapboxes, this entire matter could be cleared up. Flash code could be repaired to stop the CPU race condition forever; Apple could invite Adobe Flash onto their battery driven devices as a good citizen. Adobe: Make it happen.

Stop the deceit.

Just Make It Happen.
--

The Kitchen Sink Search using Spotlight:Every housewife's dream

2010-03-20T00:41:00.008-04:00

--
Spotlight users. Are you tired of the same old default newbie searches using Spotlight? Are you so sick of Spotlight's limitations that you've installed both EasyFind and Find Any File and use them avidly? You're not alone! Now there's a quick and easy solution! And it's right there on your Mac. A dream come true! No shipping and handling fees! No state taxes! No VAT! No salesman will call.

Apple defaulted Spotlight to be for newbie Mac users. I'm ain't no newbie, and I bet you're not either. I bet you regularly look for files in your Library folders just like me. You know, those basic things like Sounds, Fonts, Desktop Pictures, preference files, Internet Plug-ins, QuickTime components, Scripts, StartupItems, Widgets, Logs, bookmark files; all the stuff required day to day by intermediate and advanced Mac OS X users. Why is Spotlight such a PITA to use?

I got fed up and created a permanent solution. Here is the recipe:

1) Open one Finder window.
2) Hit Command-F to turn it into a Spotlight window.
3) On the top line choose 'This Mac'.
4) Leave the next line saying the default 'Kind' is 'Any'.
5) Hit the + button.
6) Hit the + button again.
7) On the new 3rd line choose: 'Other...' / 'System files'. Be sure to check ON 'In Menu' for future use. Hit OK.
8) Next to 'System files' choose 'are included'.
8) On the new 4th line choose: 'Other...' / 'File invisible'. (I know. Unintuitive name, eh?) Be sure to check ON 'In Menu' for future use. Hit OK.
9) Next to 'File visibility' choose 'Visible or Invisible'.

Here is what you get:

Setting this up every time is entirely annoying and time consuming. So hit the 'Save' button and save it for future use! I dragged mine to the top of the Finder window for easy future access.

I love it!

When you first hit the icon for your saved Kitchen Sink Search, Spotlight dumps everything into the window space below. But thankfully Spotlight is no longer slow as a snail nor does it go into Sit & Spin mode. IOW, we don't have to care.

Type in what you're looking for in the search box and it will show up below. It will look EVERYWHERE, just like good old Find did in the olden days. You want it? You got it. No more 'why can't Spotlight find what I want?' whining. It found it. The good old days are back again. Time for a parade. Etc. At last Spotlight makes sense.

BTW: This isn't really some miracle discovery. Apple provided all this functionality. They just hid it nicely away where newbies can't find and abuse it. There is some logic in that. But now you can be a power user again without feeling like Apple is forcing you to be a baby user. RadiKewlness.
--

MPAA Enforces DRM Infection:RealDVD Dead

2010-03-04T04:24:00.007-05:00

We all, or most of us, know DRM is a disrespectful slap at consumers by members of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). We're all criminals. Therefore we naughty, mere customers have to be CONTROLLED and prevented from our mischievous ways by having our video DVDs locked up as unable to be copied, no matter what. If the source disc gets scratched, get screwed! Dumbass customer trash.

This is what I call the 'Marketing Moron' attitude and it's a brilliant way to destroy your reputation with the people who pay you money to keep your biznizz running, the customers. Screw thy customers at thine own peril! Marketing Mavens on the other hand insist upon treating customers with deserved respect.

In a fit of idealism, RealNetworks released a program called RealDVD that stripped out DRM from movie DVDs and allowed customers to exercise the 'fair use' of their purchased and owned movie media. In other words, the program allowed customers to perform the #1 Rule of Computing: Make a Backup. And what are Movie DVDs but digital computer data!

Therefore, sensing such terrible good intentions toward movie DVD owners, the MPAA sued RealNetworks in order to kill off RealDVD. Wednesday a settlement in the case was announced whereby RealDVD is no longer sold, RealNetworks pays MPAA members $4.5 MILLION, owners of RealDVD are refunded and the MPAA in return drops their legal action.

It's a LOSE/LOSE/WIN solution where YOU LOSE, RealNetworks LOSE and the MPAA WINS, at least from their point of view.

Score another one for the biznizz oligarchy that rules the USA. However...

The outcome from treating your customers as criminals has weathered the test of time: Good respectable customers turn on disrespectful companies and burn them, one way or another. It is one of the most sick and sad calamities of the Internet that DRM actually PROMOTES and INSPIRES movie piracy. I dare anyone to reliably prove otherwise. Thus the term 'Marketing Morons'. Smooth move there MPAA. It's called self-destructive behavior. The actual result of DRM is Lose/Lose/Lose all the way round.

Adobe Retaliates Against Disabling Adobe Updater

2010-02-17T02:14:00.007-05:00

--In the very recent past, it has been possible to disable Adobe's idiotic and annoying Adobe Updater system, well known to be the single worst installation system in the entire computer community. Disabling this POS has been hailed and suggested across the net for nearly two years, including here at my blog. It has been recommended to instead HAND INSTALL every Adobe update with the individual update packages. The results have been far superior to letting the Adobe Updater system do it for you.

Sadly, Adobe have now retaliated and caused even their individual updater packages to REQUIRE a present and functional Adobe Updater system. Otherwise the installers will freak and act like they don't see anything to install. This is the case with this new Flash updater and has been proven to be true for the new Reader updater.

The solution is to UNLOCK any Adobe Updater folders you may have locked in order to stop its functionality. Search for all 'Updater' folders and make sure they are unlocked. Another option is to toss them all in the Trash and empty the Trash. The updates will now work.

After the update process, in order to stop Adobe Updater from doing its annoying periodic pop-up on your screen and nag-at-you routine, again LOCK all 'Updater' folders until the next time you need to perform an Adobe update.

Is all of this one big PITA? Of course it is. What is the ultimate solution? Don't use Adobe if you can help it.

How the mighty have fallen.

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Blu-ray Ripping For Mac Hits The Net

2010-01-25T21:03:00.021-05:00

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For a couple years now there have been tools on the Windows side of the computer community for ripping Blu-ray discs to your computer, then turning them into whatever you like for whatever purpose you like. As of this month, those tools have begun arriving for Macintosh. I am most pleased.

Here is a starter (IOW incomplete) article over at MacWorld:

Blu-ray ripping on the Mac

WARNING NOTE: If you have a Blu-ray writer, it is CRITICAL to be aware of Sony's Blu-ray DRM schemes. Here's why:

On Blu-ray burners that both read and write Blu-ray movie discs, Sony, who invented Blu-ray, have perpetrated 3 (THREE) forms of DRM, aka Digital Rights Manglement. One of the three requires an Internet connection to Sony whereby Sony perpetrates surveillance on your Blu-ray movie burner/player. If at any time Sony deem that you are performing anything questionable with your Blu-ray movie burner/player, Sony will BRICK your burner. It will NEVER work again. Sony will NEVER unbrick it. At least that is the consistent story I read on the net.

Then add to that the fact that Sony are terrible software writers, resulting in Sony's brick-job more than occasionally bricking YOUR ENTIRE COMPUTER! I wish this was an urban legend, but it's not. Sony can brick an entire Windows PC, by accident of course. Big oops. I have no idea what you do to solve this idiotic catastrophe, apart from reinstall your system and restore the rest from backup. As for your Blu-ray movie burner/player, toss it in the garbage, get another one, be smarter next time.

Remember that I am talking Windows here. Bricking has never yet happened on a Mac because there has not been, up until now, any way to use a Blu-ray movie burner/reader on a Mac. Also let me reiterate that this problem does NOT apply to just burners that are incapable of also reading Blu-ray movie discs. I hope that is entirely clear. Blu-ray burners that do NOT have Blu-ray movie disc reading ability do NOT have any DRM at all. None. Let me know if I am being too vague here. Get the distinction?

THEREFORE! Whenever you are dealing with Blu-ray movie burner/reader drives, you must at all times cover your butt against DRM killing your device forever.

Why I despise DRM and champion hacking around it and eventually destroying it all together:

Because DRM, certainly in this case, prevents you from making a backup of your media.

For me that is the sum total of the problem. What is the #1 Rule of Computing. If you read my stuff you know. So repeat after me: Make A Backup.

Therefore, DRM in the case of DVDs and Blu-ray is EVIL and IMHO illegal. If you are prevented from backing up your computer media, and that's what Blu-Ray movie discs are, then your rights to use your media are being broken. Needless to say, never share commercial media you own with anyone else. That's piracy, which is illegal as well. Follow the license that comes with your media, except when it comes to making a backup. IMHO no one ever has the right to prevent you from making a backup. Hopefully this fact will be proven in a court of law very soon.

(Well, except of course I expect the current democracy-dementing US Supreme Court will kiss the ass of media corporations and provide them with yet-another, anti-constitutional, anti-citizen, special right to hurt their customers. Such is the corrupt political/marketing-moron era we live in).

Now get out there and backup your Blu-ray movies! And don't pirate. It's very naughty.

[***BTW: All Mac user group members are able to receive a discount on MacWorld magazine. Talk to your MUG leaders about how to obtain this discount from IDG. I'm also happy to report that you no longer have to receive a tree version of MacWorld! Hurray! You can download it and read it in Zinio Reader instead. I've been doing it for months and love it. MacWorld is my very favorite Mac magazine, very useful for both novice and professional users.]
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Happy Shiny Microsoft Store

2010-01-04T05:58:00.001-05:00

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TechTracker Goes Oblique PART II

2009-09-20T22:46:00.006-04:00

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TechTracker PART II

Aaron Smith came to the rescue and sorted out my purchase problems at VersionTracker.com. It was most kind of him to personally give me a call with the good news. That was within a couple days of my posting Part I of this blog entry. He is one of the creators of VersionTracker and MacFixIt.

The lowdown:

MacFixIt is now, indeed, totally free for all. My brain is at fault for believing VersionTracker was following with the same. VersionTracker Pro continues on for those who enjoy its dedicated VersionTracker Pro application and all the perks of the VT site. I of course happily paid up to continue my subscription.

What went wrong:

Billing went out to previous VersionTracker Pro and MacFixIt Pro bundle subscribers, charging them for another year of both. Not only was this wrong, but the theoretical price charged for the update was also wrong. TechTracker caught the problem a bit late, but refunded the cost of MacFixIt Pro to everyone last week. Thank you.

What remains wrong:

1) CNET tech support. Please note that TechTracker has its own support staff whom I very much appreciate. When I can through to them, they have always come through for me. What is terrible is the CNET support staff. In the past I have had them insult me, treat me like a dimwit newbie, spew incorrect information at me, and act like utter idiots. I very much hope this changes. But the fact that they 100% ignored my requests for correct information regarding all the blunders at the VersionTracker site does not bode well for them. I find this very sad. I hope CNET sort this out rapidly and permanently. I like their parent company CBS and have consistently supported their work, much as I have supported TechTracker. CNET, however, have a lousy reputation these days at most of the boards I visit.

(If you've followed my Mac-Security blog you know how much I did not enjoy CNET's recently posted anti-Mac security FUD article. I ripped it to shreds through a series of four articles).

2) MacFixIt Pro is STILL listed on the TechTracker purchase page. $24.95. No such thing guys!

3) The Bundle of VersionTracker Pro and MacFixIt Pro is STILL listed on the TechTracker purchase page. $59.95. Again: No such thing guys!

Here is where I found #2 and #3 still listed at the TechTracker site:

https://secure.versiontracker.com/account.php

Aaron Smith provided me with a toll phone number to reach him. I'll be calling him this coming week to see if he can have #2 and #3 corrected.

I'm too nice a guy to ask for compensation for putting up with and sorting out this mess for TechTracker.

In the film industry, smart directors have an assistant called the 'Continuity Girl'. The reason a girl is typically used is because women tend to have a better eye for inconsistencies between camera shots. The most famous Continuity Girl was Alma Reville, who worked with Alfred Hitchcock. She eventually became his wife. Personally, I do not want to become anyone's wife, but apparently I am playing the role of Continuity Girl for TechTracker. **sigh**

I'll post Part III when the TechTracker purchase page is sorted out.
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What is NOT 64-Bit in Snow Leopard?

2009-09-20T21:17:00.008-04:00

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Mac OS X Snow Leopard is first the entirely 64-bit OS for Mac. That is to say, the operating system itself has nothing whatsoever that is 32-bit.

But Mac OS X has been able to run 64-bit code for many years with all the benefits, depending upon the hardware on which it is run. This started the day the G5 PowerMac was released in June of 2003. This is very useful information to have at the ready the next time an Apple-hater questions when Mac OS X went 64-bit. Also point out to haters that all consumer level PCs are sold, by default, with 32-bit Windows installed, NOT 64-bit Windows. However, ALL Macs are sold 64-bit, period. There are no 32-bit Macs.

All Mac hardware went 64-bit in September 2006 when the Mac Mini Core Solo was discontinued. Be sure to ask any hater when IBM derived PC hardware went entirely 64-bit. You'll drive them insane. The answer: NEVER. At this moment in time there is no foreseeable date will all PCs will be 64-bit.

So what ships with Mac OS X Snow Leopard that is still 32-bit? Not much. I went through every application and here is what I found:

1) QuickTime 7.x, if you custom install it. QuickTime X is 64-bit.
2) iTunes. This includes updating to iTunes 9.0.
3) DVD Player 5.2.
4) X11 2.3.4.
5) Podcast Capture 2.0.
6) Grapher 2.1.

The end. Let me know if you find other stragglers.

There are a couple easy GUI ways you can tell what mode is being used:

a) Do a Get Info on an app and see if there is a check box for 'Open in 32-bit mode'. If there is, the app is 64-bit by default.

b) Run the app and check it in Activity Monitor. Look in the 'Kind' column. If the Kind says only 'Intel' then it is running as 32-Bit. Otherwise it would say 'Intel (64 bit).

One very kewl thing about Mac OS X is that the kernel runs 32-bit processes NATIVELY. However, 64-bit Windows has to run 32-bit processes in emulation. That means they run more slowly than they do in 32-bit Windows. Emulation speeds suck compared to native speed. Your haters won't like that either.

Then of course finish your 'mine is bigger than yours' contest by pointing out that Macs are capable of running both 32-Bit and 64-bit Windows natively at faster speeds than PCs. (Google it for yourself to verify). Then suggest, in a friendly manner, that they defect from the PC and Get A Mac. Statistics consistently prove that they will be happier when they switch to their 64-bit Mac.

:-D
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TechTracker Goes Oblique Part I

2009-09-10T19:10:00.007-04:00

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TechTracker Part I

I'm a big fan of TechTracker. I've enjoyed talking with one of its creators and back everything he has accomplished. It is a GREAT organization. Or it was until CNET bought it. Since that time it has been what I can only call a mess. And the mess is getting bigger this month. Real big.

TechTracker created VersionTracker.com and MacFixIt.com. I have been a paid member of both for yonks. Their services are great and matched by no one. But last year they started revamping their system and their servers. The ongoing transition has been very difficult to endure. Let me give you an example: The VersionTracker database has tags for applications that are compatible with Snow Leopard 10.6. Except the tags aren't showing up in the user interface, and their support staff don't know why. WTF?!

Then last week a sequence of events started that must be one of the strangest stories going on over the Internet. This will twist your mind:

1) A couple months back TechTracker announced that there services would become free for all. Nice! They offered a refund to all members, prorated, for the amount of time left on their accounts. I got 10¢!

2) Then at the stroke of midnight, September 7th, I had my VersionTracker Pro account cut off. Dead. Gone. I was an ordinary citizen again. Huh?! Did I miss something? So I wrote TechTracker about it early that morning. I wrote twice. I never heard back from them! All I got were auto-bot notes with an incident numbers. I got two of those auto responses for each of my support requests. Very weird, like their bot was stuttering.

3) Then about three hours later I got a message that both my VersionTracker Pro and MacFixIt Pro accounts had been renewed, and I had been automatically charged $64.74. HUH?! So both Pro services were still available?! WHAT?! I checked around their confusing website:

The cost for the bundle of VersionTracker Pro and MacFixIt Pro really is still listed there at their site, despite their claims to be making them free. What planet am I on?!
There is a bundle listed for both services together. The cost is $59.95, not $64.74. So I was charged more because why?
Verification of the continued existence of VersionTracker Pro was found on a separate page on the site and in their VersionTracker Pro software. So, I was misinformed? But I wanted verbal, human verification as well.

Happily, the charge announcement email I received has an 877- number where I can call for support. Except no one is there, ever. I have called about 10 times, using every possible phone prompt variation, always during their pacific time business hours. The only option is to leave a message. And you know what that's usually worth! But today I gave up and left a message. I also sent yet-another email request for support early today. I did not even receive an auto-bot response. Spooky.

What could be going on? Someone murdered their support staff? Possible. More likely they all went on vacation for the week and turned off the auto-bot on the way out the door. Other possibility: My ripping to shreds last week of their diabolically stooopid anti-Mac security FUD article about Mac OS X security inspired them to treat me poorly. Revenge for speaking truth to dopiness? Oh CNET. Living down to my lowest expectations? I hope not.

What to do, what to do. I'm going to give it another week before I cancel my subscriptions over a the TechTracker sites. Its a cliff hanger! I'll let you know what response I receive from TechTracker, if any. If I kill off my TechTracker accounts I'll let you know and cry on your shoulder. I love those guys. This trouble is making me sad. :-(
==

Snow Leopard 10.6.1 Update - Where? Click Me

2009-09-10T18:55:00.003-04:00

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I made the title for this article link to where you can get the downloadable version of the 10.6.1 updates, both client and server. Somehow Apple has not gotten around to adding these updates to the regular downloads page. Very strange. So you have to go here instead:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/

You'll also find there the new Security Update 2009-005 for Tiger and Leopard. For now I am going to skip reviewing the security fixes as I am gearing up for a big boring article summarizing the past month and a half of security patch trends, similar to what I did last month.

I finally got my claws on the client version of Snow Leopard. Tomorrow I expect to test out the Server version.

Blethering:

No iPod Touch with camera on 9-9-09?! I'm betting it is a marketing manoeuvre, one that will push forward in time my purchasing the iPod Touch.

I've noticed a lot of updates to software I thought was dead, all to make them Snow Leopard compatible. Kewlness.

What's up with TechTracker? I'm in total confusion as to what CNET have done to them. I'm getting the idea that even TechTracker is confused. I think I'll write an article about it! Coming up!
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I Quit TWIT

2009-09-08T08:05:00.008-04:00

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I'm surprised that Leo Laporte, of This Week In Tech fame, declares himself a Snow Leopard 'HATER'. Listening to the TWIT podcast discussing Snow Leopard's release made my ears bleed. Not because of fanboi-ism. It was because Mr. Laporte's slam treatment was based on nonsense. What few facts he knew about Snow Leopard he actually avoided discussing.

Examples:

Mr. Laporte got QuickTimeX all wrong. At one point I heard someone in the gang say they thought Apple was going to still offer a 'Pro' version of QuickTimeX. <--NO.
Mr. Laporte went into troll mode about Grand Central with no explanation of what it was or why he didn't like it. <--HUH?
Mr. Laporte said Snow Leopard was a marketing move by Apple to counter 7ista. But his explanation was again in troll mode. He said nothing at all that backed up his claim. Instead he did the usual troll move of saying Snow Leopard is a 'service pack', meaning that it was a lame patch job reminiscent of Microsoft. <--NO.

Want more examples? I can bore you with them in the comments if requested.

Conclusion: I quit TWIT. It's been a long time coming. Dvorak is of course a useless toad, possibly the most deliberately dishonest and worthless 'prominent' technical writer in the business. So I ignore his wheezes. But to have Leo Laporte behave as an ignorant troll in public. Not acceptable. Me = sad, but that's enough for me.

Earlier in the year I stopped my Pogue worship. He got the hoax known as 'HD' Radio very wrong in his article and video on the subject. We did a back and forth by email that disturbed me. So I'm on sabbatical from his work for an extended period of time if only to allow myself to forgive him for recommending BAD TECHNOLOGY to his readers. <--See, I'm still upset. But Pogue got it right with Snow Leopard in his review. I'd take Mr. Pogue over our pair of HATE MEDIA trolls twins any time.

Shame on you Mr. Laporte. Dvorak's dullard dopiness has corrupted your synapses. So long and thanks for all the happy techy memories.
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The 'How To Install Snow Leopard' Debate

2009-09-06T17:29:00.008-04:00

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Apple have taken a new approach for installing Snow Leopard. Sometimes it is backfiring, which is disconcerting. I don't have my claws on Snow Leopard yet. It's in the mail. But here is my POV so far, as I posted at MacDailyNews:

From every reviewer's point of view, the new approach Apple is taking is to lead users to install ON TOP OF their current OS installation. For ordinary users, there isn't a clear method for making a clean installation via the DVD.

There are a couple problems with this approach:

A) What if the current OS installation is corrupt, or that volume is damaged? It most likely means problems after the new OS installation.

B) What if Apple's list of NOT-compatible applications and extensions is incorrect? Well, it IS incorrect! The result has been that some good applications are sequestered by the installer and some bad applications are left in place. The worst examples are bad .KEXT files left in the system that are causing the Sit-And-Spin problem for some users after the installation has rebooted.

How is Apple supposed to solve both these problems?

A) Test and repair both installation volume. The repairs provided by fsck/Disk Utility are NOT adequate for this task.

B) Apple has to have tested EVERY application and .KEXT file that runs in Leopard. (Apple are not supporting installation over Tiger, although it has been found to usually work). Good luck with that one. There is no registry at Apple for applications. Apple literally has no way of knowing all the software available for Mac. It's not going to happen.

Therefore, this new approach is going to have problems now and in the future.

Meanwhile, I can verify that a CLEAN INSTALL is the very very best way to go in all cases. It has solved major problems for me many times. Sorry Apple. Nice idea! But not practical or supportable.

Conclusions:

If you have the time and stamina, I suggest a CLEAN INSTALL of Snow Leopard. Performing an install over Leopard (or Tiger) and running into a problem is rare. No need to blow the problem out of proportion. But the problems are happening.

Therefore, of course I am going to suggest the #1 Rule Of Computing: MAKE A BACKUP of your ENTIRE boot drive before performing ANY installation of Snow Leopard. Carbon Copy Cloner is free to use these days. Get to it! You will not regret it.
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Safari 4.0.3 Intel Tiger Installer Bug

2009-08-12T00:48:00.005-04:00

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Intro: If you didn't read the comment I added to my last article about 10.5.8, please do. The script problem I described is isolated to only the Intel Combo updater for 10.5.8. So far I have found no reports of problems using the normal Software Update updater for Intel Macs.

Today's problem:

This one has also been verified. It is apparently restricted to the Intel version of the Safari 4.0.3 updater for Tiger.

Symptom:

After installing Safari 4.0.3, you run it and find Safari locks up while loading a web page. The lockup consists of going into permanent sit-and-spin mode via the twirling lollipop of doom.

Solution:

Restart your Mac AGAIN. Problem gone. QED.

This is the second time in a week Apple have distributed an update with a faulty script. I think someone over there needs a vacation.

I'll discuss the security content of the update over at Mac-Security.
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Mac OS X 10.5.8 Intel Combo Updater Script Bug

2009-08-10T11:45:00.010-04:00

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The Mac OS X 10.5.8 Intel Combo update installer is buggy and is causing an unusual problem. My suggestion is to wait until the problem have been sorted out.

If you want the rundown on what's going on, check out MacFixIt.com, who are keeping track of it all.

Personally, this is the first time I have had any major trouble with an Apple update. I got hit by the damaged permissions bug in the installer. That fact that I was updating Mac OS X 10.5.8 Server did not make the problem any more pretty. The first symptom I had was being unable to run certain applications. Example: MacTracker throws up a warning box that my administrator account does not having sufficient permissions for a variety of directories. I don't suggest trying to fix these permissions problems as apparently they go into the ACL level, and unless you are an expert, (I'm not), I'd move along to one of the currently suggested fixes:

The current best suggestion for performing the installation of Intel 10.5.8 via the Combo update installer is below. Please don't fall over when you read it. I know. No normal user will tolerate this:

1) Repair the volume.
2) Repair the volume's permissions. Ignore the never-fixed permissions you see over and over and over. That was a bug from the 10.5.7 installer. (o_0)
3) Download the Combo installer from Apple's site.
4) Boot the volume into Safe Mode.
5) Install using the Combo 10.5.8 installer.
6) Let the Mac go through its 2x restarts.
7) Do NOT NOT NOT then repair permissions.
8) Reboot into Safe Mode again.
9) REINSTALL the Combo 10.5.8 installer AGAIN. (Yes, again.)
10) Let the Mac go through the 2x restarts, again.
11) NOW repair your permissions.

At that point you 'should' be OK. But don't take my word for it.

Simply put: Part of the installation process involves permission changes involving a database on the Mac. Part of the script for the installation is wrong and does not finish the process correctly. You have to perform the installation a second time for the script to use the permissions database correctly. If you only install once, then repair your permissions, you're actually damaging the permissions, giving them wrong settings. The second installation will solve the problem, as long as you have NOT repaired your permissions yet.

Happy me lives on the bleeding edge and did not know about this mess. I followed the usual rules, which messed over my server update. I then compounded the problem by trying to compensate for it by DIY permissions repair. Despite the fact that I set everything so it 'looks' good in the GUI, down deep in the ACL settings I made scrambled eggs. I am now going to have to reinstall the OS from scratch. Thankfully I am used to such stuff. But your Aunt Mabel is going to scream bloody murder if she has to perform this dancing act. Hopefully Apple will update the installer script ASAP.
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I Predict! Windows 7, Apple and the Enterprise

2009-07-24T14:10:00.010-04:00

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I was dismayed to read the article "Windows 7 Release May Put the Brakes on Apple Enterprise Growth" over at eWeek today. Apple doom FUD has been scarce over the last couple years. Much of this happiness has to do with Apple's record growth during the current period of recession. Therefore, reading this article intrigued me.

Background on the subject:

"The Enterprise" is a computer niche that is entrenched in using Windows, certainly on the client side. When I was at Kodak, we also used UNIX as the server backbone. Macintosh computers have historically been used only for specialized purposes, or employees have insisted upon bringing in their own. I've been one of the latter. Typically, such employees end up providing their own technical support. Despite the superior usability and simpler technical support requirements, enterprise IT staff in general avoid having anything to do with Macs. There are exceptions. We had some very Mac friendly staff at Kodak. I know Princeton University does as well. These days integration of Macs into the enterprise is a requirement at educational institutions. But it is Windows that typically runs the show, even if it is not used as the backbone.

The continued growth of market share of Macs in the enterprise has been of concern to many IT staff. Gradually the lack of enterprise software suites for Mac has become irrelevant thanks to web page interfaces for client users. There are also the usual people devoted, for one reason or another, to championing Windows in the Enterprise. I personally can't comprehend this point of view and I work with both operating systems. Then again, I despise the CLI and many adore it. Diversity rules, as ever. Each type of computer has its fans and its specialized purposes in any environment.

Below are the comments I posted after reading the article at eWeek:

Setting aside the olde tyme Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt routine in the article, here are some actual factors involved in Apple's enterprise growth:

Mac OS X Server: The big factor for me has been the maturity of Mac OS X 10.5 Server. It has had a fumbling, bumbling time as bugs have been solved. However, my impression at this point is that Mac OS X 10.6 Server will be the best server OS Apple has ever offered, which is saying a lot. I'm looking forward to it. 10.6 Server will hit the market before Win 7 client, a year before Win 7 Server. Since we're predicting into the nebulous here, I predict a Home Run!

Software: The biggest factor, as Mr. Reisinger pointed out, is business software. There has been very little migration of major biz SW suites to Mac OS X. If Apple can continue growth in the niche, we can hope that changes.

IT intransigence: The myth goes that it takes more time to support Windows AND Mac operating systems. False. The myth goes that Mac OS X is difficult to learn after working so hard to comprehend Windows. False. Instead there is the laziness factor. True. However, Mac OS X has a learning curve, even for experienced Windows users. Apple typically provide better, more efficient and powerful methods for getting things done. But without a guiding hand to point them out, some people give up using the line "I can't do stuff on a Mac that I used to do on Windows!" False. The problem is the transition. And if you have intransigent IT staff unwilling and unable to help, it can appear easier to fall back on what you know. Thankfully, new Mac users who stick with it typically end up never wanting to go Windows again if they can help it.

Vista Service Pack '7': The hoping and praying that Windows 7 is somehow something new and different compared to Vista is nonsense. Not one review I have read regarding the beta has agreed with that premise. Therefore, I see no point in any argument that Windows 7 is going to save Microsoft or knock Apple any which way. Windows 7 has a few very lovely, imaginative and powerful new features which should make Microsoft proud. But these features have been put on top of what is a desperately needed patch job for Vista. The usability of Vista will increase as well the speed. But it's still Vista at the core.

64-bit: Apple provide a 64-bit operating system that causes no compromises. Everything 32-bit still works natively. Sadly, 64-bit Windows 7 maintains the same old driver incompatibility problems and only runs 32-bit operations in emulation, if at all.

Apple's Disinterest: Years back Apple got burned in the enterprise niche, mainly due to the lack of software, and gave up bothering. Very slowly Apple has noticed that enterprise demand is rising. But they have not yet provided a full dedicated team of experts to support the niche. This can be annoying. It will be interesting to watch what Apple do as their market share continues to rise.

Microsoft Marketing: It's as if all the marketing mavens working with Microsoft got up and left the room. What's left is incompetent and dishonest. That Microsoft want to put their new stores next to Apple stores is suicidal. But there are many who believe marketing plays a much smaller role in the enterprise niche and that Microsoft's dominance, as well as development and support concentration, is enough to sustain their continued presence. I personally expect that is the case. But there is always the employee voice speaking up to management. This voice is responsible for a lot of Apple's enterprise growth, and I suspect the pressure to drop Windows will continue.

My prediction for the future is that the benefits of having a diversity of hardware, software and operating systems will become ever more evident. This will require easy interfacing between every type of computer. Apple have made slow but steady strides in this respect. However, Apple still receive deserved criticism for some of their not-ready-for-prime-time solutions. This is one reason I anticipate the improvements in Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard. I believe Windows 7 will be a nicer operating system than Vista. But what puts me in suspense is Snow Leopard Server. Apple have taken the time to get it right this time. Will it be terrific?! It's time for me to start fishing around for rumors and underground reports, always a fun endeavor for research hounds.
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Double Agent ;-)

2009-07-09T14:52:00.016-04:00

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Warning! Personal blether ahead, versus the usual tech-only stuff.

Background: I started using IBM PCs in 1988 and have kept up with the technology every since. I started using Apple Macs in 1991, ditched my PC and now have four Macs resident in my house. I run Windows on my MacBook using Parallels Desktop.

My Clock Is Melting: The last few months for me have been fascinating locally regarding computer user groups. I spent over a decade in Rochester, NY, USA in their local Mac user group called Apple C.I.D.E.R. They're one of the oldest Apple UGs in the country. They're brilliant. What I learned there was astounding, from mickey level on up to professional techy geek level. Meanwhile, their PC UG was a bit wanting. Then circa 2001 I move one city over to Syracuse, NY, USA. Oddly, their CNYPCUG is brilliant and their Mac UG is a bit wanting. I think the MUG is on the ascension again, but I basically lost interest.

Meanwhile, I like CNYPCUG and they like me, we got together and had a baby! Well, actually they asked me to run for election to their Board of Directors and I said yes. That was March. I got elected in April. I gave the meeting presentation for May, which was based on my Internet shopping article. I gave the meeting presentation for June, which was about Internet security. In July I took over the spot of shareware presenter at each month's meeting.

I find this situation very surreal. How do I explain this in my resumé?! It's also a fascinating exercise in restraint, me being a vehement and long term soldier in the Computer Warz, fighting for sane computing. IOW I don't like Microsoft, to put it mildly. I am also a black belt at eviscerating anti-Apple trolls. Therefore, at CNYPCUG I have to mellow and focus on the huge range of techno topics both Mac and PC users share. And I like it! I'm all overflowing with a rush of gushing praise for my friends at CNYPCUG. Thank you for not lynching me, yet.

Yes, here is the occasional Apple bashing within the group. But what makes things even more surreal is when members of CNYPCUG go on a jag against Microsoft!! Whut teh? There I am, armed to the teeth with ammo, but instead I just relax and take it all in. It's a wonderful mode I've discovered where I let myself help folks where I can help them, and let the rest be what it's going to be, with or without me. Isn't there a song about that? "Let It Be, Let It Be! Le...."

This situation reminds me a lot of my friends at a local church whom I very much enjoy and value. It's great to be with nice people, but I cringe when they start quoting the latest vehement HATE MEDIA political propaganda. Sorry, no Christianity to be heard. Lies and ignorance a plenty. But what can I do? Troll trampling doesn't work in such situations. No one is amused, certainly not me. I simply state my opinion when requested and "Let It Be, Let...."

So does this mean I've been tamed? Will I pace forever inside a cage? Will I STFU out in the wide world? I'm a positive anarchist! Of course not. I'm a catalyst, a change agent, a PITA to the mediocre status quo, resplendent in the virtue of honesty, ever questioning 'THE TRUTH' from every source, especially me. It is the bit of diversity I contribute to the world of human thought. I value obnoxiousness in the spirit of fun and enlightenment. Being the fool is everyone's fate. I expect it and use it for positive change. It could happen! ;-D
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Comparison Shopping On The Net

2009-05-03T15:40:00.016-04:00

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Recently I was shopping on the net for an ink cartridge. I realized that my travels through the various shopping comparison sites would make a useful article, so here we go.

The shopping comparison sites were chosen both at random and by suggestion from friends. Their quality covers the spectrum from useless to very good. I found none of them to be perfect, resulting in my deciding to use the top two for future shopping. But I also found that the quality of each site changes with time. Also, some sites are better than others depending upon what one is interested in buying.

The example object of interest I use for this article is the Epson T043120 High Capacity Black Ink Cartridge for the model C84 printer. The cartridge sells for $34.19 plus tax, with free shipping, from the Epson.com store. This is the cost I used in my comparisons. My goal is to find a cheaper price from a reputable company. It is important to note that there are third party 'equivalent' cartridges one can purchase, which for my purposes I absolutely wanted to avoid.

My list of shopping comparison websites, in no special order:

1a) MacBuy @ MacWorld.com (which uses PriceGrabber as its back end).

1b) There is a PCWorld.com equivalent called PCW Shop & Compare.

2) PriceWatch.com

3) PriceGrabber.com

4) BizRate.com

5) ResellerRatings.com

6) Shopping.com

7) Shopzilla.com

My criteria for judging each site:

A) Number of product suppliers polled for results.
B) Number of price comparisons provided.
C) Whether a TAX and SHIPPING calculator is provided.
D) Accuracy of results.
E) Whether a designation of product quality/source is provided.
F) Whether a price history graph is provided.
G) The number of user product ratings provided.
H) The number of seller ratings provided.
I) Whether result lists are sortable.
J) Whether the site has a Scam Factor. For example, does it appear web shops are paying for results?
K) User-friendliness of the site interface.
L) Whether further bells and whistles are provided.

To simplify my results, when I like the results provided, a site receives a *DING* rating. When I don't like the result, a site receives a *FAIL* rating. Mixed quality sites received no rating. All the links below are search results for "T043120", the model of my object of interest.

MacBuy @ MacWorld.com

The Good: A lot of polled product providers: 41. An excellent number of comparison results. Simple tax and shipping calculator they call "BottomLinePrice". Excellent designation of OEM type versus all other product types. Excellent number of user ratings: 18. I like the ratings form they provide as well. Excellent number of seller ratings, often in the thousands. The list is sortable by Price, Seller Rating, BottomLinePrice. No scam factor evident. Featured sellers are clearly marked. Very user-friendly. Excellent product descriptions provided. Easy access to user reviews. An "Availability" listing at the seller. *DING*

The Bad: MIXED accuracy. The previous week's listing of Amazon's price was dead wrong, too low by nearly $4.00. Meanwhile, this week's listing of Tiger's price is accurate. No price history provided.

PCW Shop & Compare @ PCWorld.com

The Good & The Bad: Very similar to MacWorld.com but with a compacted interface. Oddly missing is the "Availability" listing. It's also less intuitive which link to hit to access the seller's page. Therefore, I'd rather use the MacWorld.com interface.

PriceWatch.com

The Good: Free shipping listed. Third party products clearly marked.

The Bad: Very few sellers listed. No shipping and tax calculator. No sorting. No price history provided. No product ratings. Low number of seller ratings with no responses from the seller. Wrong pricing provided for ABCink. $28.85 shipped was listed. Actual price was $30.85 shipped. Major scam factor: Only subscribing sellers are listed, literally making this site worthless. *FAIL*

PriceGrabber.com

The Good: Correct pricing at Adorama of $35.26 shipped. "Free Shipping!" listings provided.

The Bad: Amazon is listed, but no pricing is provided. Poor and wrong product descriptions. This can result in incorrect purchases. For example, an imitation cartridge was incorrectly listed as "Description: Genuine EPSON DURABrite ink cartridges are long lasting, water resistant and excellent for double-sided printing." *FAIL*

Comment: The failure of this site is odd considering that the superior MacWorld site uses it as a source of data. Stick to the MacWorld.com version.

Bizrate.com

The Good: Lots of seller reviews (65). Long list of price comparisons (76). Accurate. Sortable by store, store rating and price. No scam factor evident. Shipping and tax calculator.

The Bad: Confusing interface. Minimal product description. Unfortunately few product reviews (2). No price history.

ResellerRatings.com

The Good: Hurray! An excellent price history graph! Free shipping listed. In stock listed. All list items are sortable. Long list of comparisons. In stock listing. A shipping and tax calculator called "TruePrice". Accurate. No scam factor evident. Excellent user interface. *DING*

The Bad: Inaccurate product description. The listed number of pages the cartridge can print is wrong, taken from the smaller version of the cartridge. Inconsistent listing of OEM versus third party versions of the product. Apparently it relies on the seller to provide the description and many don't bother. Very few user product ratings (3). But this varies between products. Many products have a lot of ratings. The shipping and tax calculator is not perfect. I found inaccuracies. No direct Amazon listing, even when it was the best buy.

Shopping.com

The Good: Shipping and tax calculator.

The Bad: MASSIVE disappointment. Poor product descriptions. No price history. No list sorting. Mediocre number of comparisons (29). Confusing mess of products listed that did NOT fit my criteria. Includes eBay listings. Is that good or bad?! For me it's bad. Scam factor evident in the avoidance of many obvious sellers, such as direct Amazon. No product reviews!!! Not all sellers are reviewed. Terrible interface. *FAIL*

Shopzilla.com

The Good: Shipping and tax calculator. List sorting by total price, store, store rating. Adequate product description. Good designation of OEM versus third party versions. Long list of comparisons. No scam factor, with 'featured stores' clearly designated.

The Bad: Minimal number of product reviews (2). Not accurate. SuperMediaStore had the product for $1.00 cheaper than the listing. The Tiger Direct listing was accurate.

Conclusions:

My favorites were:

ResellerRatings.com

MacBuy @ MacWorld.com

BizRate.com

Between the three of them you get a good picture of the product and sellers.

None of the sites are optimum. All have faults. Therefore, it is wise to use at least a couple of the better sites for results.

These sites require the cooperation of the users for product and seller reviews. Ideally they should include the cooperation of the sellers as well for follow up on user complaints. Getting this to happen is a great accomplishment.

The usability of the interface helps a great deal. Some features, such as those at Bizrate, can be missed if you don't go searching around.

Accuracy is key. Inaccurate price listings are an instant FAIL.

If a site his minimal reviews of sellers and product, what is the point of the site? Sorting out bad product and sellers from the good is essential.

Equally, if a site doesn't provide an adequate product description, what is the point of the site? In my example, buying the wrong ink cartridge can damage your printer to the point where you might as well trash it and get a new one.

Tossing in useful perks is frosting on the cake. I like price histories a great deal.

The sites that most disappointed me were:
Shopping.com
PriceGrabber.com

PriceWatch.com

Postscript:

Keep in mind that the results from comparison shopping sites change weekly, if not daily, to reflect changes at seller sites. Therefore, be prepared to jump on a good deal ASAP.

Also be sure you use a reliable seller for your purchase. Some places like Amazon are just about always reliable. Some places like Tiger Direct can mess up your order or cause you hassles. Some places I won't name have niffy-kewl banners on their site showing 'approval' from various 'consumer agencies'. But if you read the customer reviews at the comparison sites you'll discover the place is actually a rat hole! So as ever, buyer beware.
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Retrospect 8 For Mac At Last Released After Epic Negligence

2009-03-23T01:49:00.006-04:00

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It's official! Retrospect 8 for Mac has been released.

What's the big deal?

Retrospect was long thought to be on the road to total abandonment by ECM, the company that bought Dantz. It languished at version 6 for Mac, which was strictly PPC native, for nearly a decade. Despite it remaining one of the most powerful backup programs available, it was essentially forgotten for Mac because of its stagnation.

Retrospect 8 has to be the very last of the 'Must Have' programs for Mac to run natively on Intel CPUs. It has also had a face lift. (Version 7 was only ever made available to Windows users). Personally, I'm glad to have it back, so to speak. But it's going to have to reestablish its reputation in the Mac market.

Below is the announcement I received tonight from EMC Insignia/Dantz.

Share and Enjoy!

:-Derek
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~~~~~~

Dear Retrospect User,

Retrospect 8.0 for Macintosh has been released and is available for immediate upgrade from the Retrospect.com website.

The total list of new features and changes are too long for a simple email, but you can read all of the details from the following locations:

Upgrading to Retrospect 8.0
http://www.retrospect.com/upgrade/matrix/#mac

Retrospect 8 Product Details
http://www.retrospect.com/products/software/retroformac/

What's New and Getting Started Guide found at:
http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9711&p=2

Retrospect 8.0 Read Me:
http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9710&p=2

Changes from 6.1 to 8.0
http://kb.dantz.com/article.asp?article=9712&p=2

Retrospect 8.0 Training Videos
http://www.retrospect.com/en/supportupdates/macvideo/

Thank you for using Retrospect for Macintosh
_______________________________________________
RDU_Announcement mailing list
http://list.dantz.com/mailman/listinfo/rdu_announcement
Retrospect Support: http://www.emcinsignia.com/support
Retrospect KB: http://kb.dantz.com
Retrospect Downloads: http://www.emcinsignia.com/updates

Clarification: The birthday of the term '7ista'

2009-02-18T01:49:00.007-05:00

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So when was the term 'Windows 7ista' first used? April 18, 2008.

Why did I invent the term? I wanted a new category in my Documents folder for storing news about Windows 7. Knowing that 7 is mainly a patch job on Vista, I tossed the two OS names together for the sake of satire. Or was it sarcasm? Anyway, once I saw it I realized how it made sense in more ways that one. I also enjoy making up new words, which has a long standing tradition in the English language. My brother Graeme, a master at word invention, inspired me in the process when I was a teeny.

Flattery: Checking Google I've been happy to see the term has caught on, or more likely has been invented via parallel cognition. There's even a 7ista logo out on the net created by Harry Sachz. Thank you Harry! Enjoy:

Windows 7ista: Another SIX Versions

2009-02-07T14:21:00.008-05:00

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Some corporations never learn. Here we go again:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2340338,00.asp

1) Windows 7 Home Basic - (To be sold only to 'emerging markets', aka the poor)
2) Windows 7 Starter - (As opposed to ?)
3) Windows 7 Home Premium
4) Windows 7 Professional
5) Windows 7 Enterprise
6) Windows 7 Ultimate

"... according to Microsoft, the new versions try to strike a balance between complexity and what customers will actually require.

"When you have a customer base of more than one billion, two options can't satisfy all of their varied needs," according to Microsoft. "For that reason, we will continue to offer a few targeted SKUs for customers with specialized needs: For price-sensitive customers with small notebook PCs, some OEMs will offer Windows 7 Starter. For customers in emerging markets, we will make Windows 7 Home Basic available. Businesses have two recommended choices: Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise. Windows 7 Professional is recommended for small businesses and Windows 7 Enterprise is recommended for mid- and large-sized businesses that have a Software Assurance Agreement with Microsoft."

...Blah blah blah...

Meanwhile: Apple offers one version of Mac OS X.

And yes, the Windows delay in adopting 64-bit computing continues:

"Except for Windows 7 Starter, each version will be available in either a 32-bit or 64-bit version."

Macs and Mac OS X have been 64-bit enabled for several years.

Microsoft still have nothing to say regarding costs of the six versions, nor do they predict any release date.

The article at the link noted above has 31 screen captures from Windows 7ista beta 1.
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Cleaning Your Mac's Screen: The Most Excellent Cheap Way!

2008-11-30T00:03:00.013-05:00

What is going on with the cost of computer screen cleaners? I was in the Tips n' Deals area at Other World Computing, a great place to be, and had an aneurism when I saw the price of iKlear Apple Polish Wet Dry 10 packs: $7.50. ChaChing. That's 75¢ per wipe. No tanx.

There is a cheaper, drastically cheaper, method of cleaning that works wonderfully. Go buy Pledge Multi Surface spray and use a clean, lint-free pure cotton cloth. I use ripped up old cotton towels. In the USA you can get the small size bottle of Pledge Multi Surface at Family Dollar for a low cost. Today at DrugStore.com they're offering the 16 oz size on sale, BOGO, two for $5.29. That's 32 oz, enough to clean your screen hundreds of times, for several years, for less than the cost of a mere 10 iKlear cleaning packs. Deal.

How to use: First, turn off your computer. If you are using an external monitor, turn it off on its own. Never spray the screen. Only spray your cloth. You don't need a lot of spray, otherwise you get a wet mess. Once the cleaner has been applied to your screen by your cloth, wipe the cleaner off with a second clean dry cotton cloth. Don't scrub your screen. Use a very gentle polishing motion until your screen is shiny and clean.

What you NEVER want is anything with alcohol or ammonia. They ruin plastic. I've investigated all the common cleaners available at the grocery stores these days in my part of the world and only Pledge Multi Surface qualifies. (There used to be a similar cleaner from Dow, but the formula was sold off to another company and contaminated with alcohol). Also NEVER use paper. I don't care what anyone, including Apple, say to the contrary. Paper is a great way to scratch your screen. Read ahead to learn why.

What does Apple say?

How to clean an LCD panel
Cleaning your computer screen

For many years Apple has suggested everything I suggested above. The only difference is that they currently say to use 'a clean, soft, lint-free cloth or paper'. This is remarkably vague and in my humble opinion includes bad advice. 'Cloth' could include materials that can scratch plastic. Paper naturally contains a component of plants called lignin, which itself can contain minerals, and minerals can scratch plastic or sometimes glass. So stick to the clean, soft, pure cotton on my advice.

Apple also suggest water as an option. If you use water, another personal suggestion: Don't use tap water. The problem again is minerals. Stick with distilled water. All scratchy minerals have been removed. It is as pure a form of water as you can buy in the store. And for all you scientists out there, deionized water does not qualify. Sorry.

I of course cannot guarantee the results you will get from my money saving advice. But I've been using this method since 1992 on all my Macs and have had only excellent results on both glass and plastic surfaces.
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Why 'HD' Radio Isn't HD

2008-11-24T20:06:00.031-05:00

Those of us experiencing the new USA HDTV, the over-the-air TV technology standard, have discovered one fundamental thing: If your reception before HDTV was lousy, it will still be lousy with HDTV. Sure, you get a far superior picture when it works. There's no more snow or image flipping etc. But what you get instead is DIGITAL BREAKUP. Is that preferable to the image and audio noise from before? No it is not. It is in fact extremely annoying and frustrating. With digital media streams you either have the data, or you don't. It's either on or off. I live near the center of a city, down hill from the TV towers. My over-the-air TV reception has always been crummy. I bought a well reviewed Philips amplifier antenna to help, and it does. But I still get intermittent Digital Breakup. With certain local TV stations I wish I could simply turn off the digital signal and go back to analog. What I typically do instead is watch them via my cable TV connection, which is often a lot better.

Despite the same-old-stuff of bad reception, I am pleased that at long last the USA has moved to digital TV. The standard we are using in the USA is very good and, when it works, it is a nice improvement in picture and sound quality over analog TV. I like the technology.

Meanwhile, however, to accompany HDTV in the USA is something called "HD Radio." It uses either AM or FM radio bands to transmit digital audio to specially updated digital radio receivers. Good golly. It's digital, so it has to be an improvement over analog radio, right? Well, you're still going to get the usual prime problem: Digital Breakup. But it has to sound better than analog radio, right? It does away with radio reception noise! Unfortunately, 'HD' Radio has one gigantic problem, one that in my opinion, completely nullifies any point in bothering with the technology: 'HD' Radio is SEVERELY COMPRESSED, resulting in a remarkably worse sound quality than the analog radio audio it replaces. This is a big letdown. You can stop chanting the mantra 'If it's digital it's better.' In this case it most definitely is not.

So what is this meagre technology, and how was it allowed to happen?

You can thank the FCC, the US Federal Communications Commission. If you've followed the work of the FCC over the last 8 years you know they have developed a terrible reputation. That is, unless you're a corporate lobbyist. Then you're probably happy as can be. Wikipedia has good coverage of the story:

HD Radio

The short history is that the FCC accepted a proprietary technology invented by iBiquity to be the standard for US digital radio. The 'HD' moniker is actually meaningless. It is NOT by any stretch of the imagination 'High Definition.' How these two letters were tacked onto the name of this atrocity is beyond comprehension. I consider it a marketing scam that should be persecuted under false advertising laws. The FCC doesn't care. The compression used within this digital standard is so drastic that the resulting audio quality is seriously worse than what we are currently used to with AM and FM radio. If you have listened to MP3 audio, 'HD' Radio on the FM band sounds about as good as 128 Kilobit per second MP3 audio. It's fine if you're listening to talking. It's terrible if you're listening to music.

One sick thing going on where I live is that our National Public Radio station, who play classical music most of the day, are pushing for listeners to move to 'HD' Radio. Serious classical music fans, such as myself, are appalled.

And there's another downer: 'HD Radio' is being allowed to ride on top of current AM and FM band radio. It takes away 1% of the signal strength of the analog bandwidth, resulting in poorer analog reception. So no matter how you look at it, 'HD' Radio has lowered the quality of modern radio.

Thankfully, at the moment, the FCC has no plans to replace analog AM and FM radio with this digital dopiness. Let's hope it stays that way until such time as the FCC pulls its head out, dumps the iBiquity format, catches up with modern technology and approves a digital audio format that is either as good as or better than CD quality, no kidding, no false advertising, no scam required.

Digital Progress: I'd personally like to see the CD audio standard tossed on the garbage heap of history. It should go the way of 8 track tapes. It compromises high frequency sound quality far too much to satisfy audio purists. The free, Open Source, cross platform program Audacity is able to save 96000 samples per second audio, over twice the current sampling rate for standard CDs. The improvement in treble quality is dramatic. There is essentially no more sawtooth or square wave distortion of high frequency sound. Anyone can record this quality digital audio on any computer equipped with an audio card. 96000 samples per second should be the new digital audio quality standard. CDs will be replaced by DVDs for playback.

Considering the state of the art of audio quality available to anyone with a computer, over-the-air digital audio should have enough bandwidth to keep up. Having a worse than retrograde digital radio standard foisted upon us, in the form of the fraudulently named "HD Radio," is a sad and stupid joke. Shame on the FCC.

The best way to kill off the iBiquity 'HD' Radio scam is to vote with your dollars and completely ignore it. Stick to purchasing analog-only AM and FM receivers. Another step to take is to write to your federal representatives and ask for a superior technology that reflects modern digital quality. You can also write directly to the FCC and kindly tell them to catch up with the computer world. Replacing an analog technology with a lower quality digital technology is not acceptable.

BTW: Even lower quality digital radio standards have been foisted upon the citizens of Europe. The public response has been a resounding yawn. Receivers have been gathering dust in the shops. I hope the same dust gathers here.
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Change the one-hour interval of Time Machine backups

2008-03-02T21:05:00.003-05:00

At a recent Mac user group meeting a member pined for a way to change the one-hour interval of Time Machine backups in Mac OS X Leopard (10.5). Solution found!

TimeMachineEditor: Version 1.2.1 was just released. Here is it's site LINK.

And it's FREEWARE! To quote:

TimeMachineEditor is software for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that lets you change the default one-hour backup interval of Time Machine. You can change the interval or decide to make a backup once a day, once a week or once a month.

This is useful if you don’t need to backup every hour and don’t want the performance penalty. This is also especially useful if you manipulate lots of data within one hour as you would spend the whole day backing up.

And here is the download LINK.

That should do ya! Thank you TimeSoftware!

:-Derek

2008-02-11 - Update Day Deluxe

2008-02-12T16:18:00.002-05:00

Apple let loose a slew of updates today. Most are for Macs, but the Apple TV 'Take Two' update was also released. Before I go through the list, let me review what I have found to be the best possible approach to updating your Mac OS X system.

1) You guessed it: Make sure your BACKUP is up to date. If you haven't made one, go back one article and read it.

2) Repair your boot volume structures. I repair all my volumes once a week. But performing repairs just before any update is critical IMHO. If you are on 10.4 and above you can perform a verification of your boot volume from Disk Utility. If it shows any proble

ms, then you need to boot from another volume to perform the repair. I use AppleJack, which runs while you are in Single User Mode. It is very easy to use and provides some other good features, including number 3:

3) Repair your boot volume permissions. Don't underestimate how important this is. Also don't underestimate how badly your permissions can be damaged. There are some developers who provide installers that leave an incredible mess in their wake. One of them is Adobe. In general, if you install anything it is very useful to repair permissions both before and after the installation in order to avoid permissions related problems.

Beyond Apple provided repair tools and AppleJack there are several very good 3rd party repair tools. I will no doubt review some of them in the future. For now I will only mention my personal favorites. DiskWarrior is terrific at what it does. It is safe and provides excellent basic repairs to volume structures and files. TechToolPro is another of my favorites. It does a lot of what DiskWarrior can do and a lot of things it can't. It's best unique features include checking all your computer hardware and optimizing (defragmenting) your volumes. SpeedTool Utilities offers, among other things, a terrific method for finding and mapping out bad sectors on your hard drives. For freeware, Onyx does a useful verification of your system, but no repair.

4) It may be helpful to check what problems are being reported about any particular Apple update at MacFixIt.com. I have been a member there for many years and have always found it useful. But keep in mind when you read the reports that it is extremely common for Mac users to have problems with update installations because they have not followed steps 1 - 3 above. If a Mac user's system is a mess, it is no wonder an update leads to problems! So read MacFixIt with a grain of salt, as we say. The best information you will learn from MacFixIt is how to remove a bad update and return your Mac back to its former state. Of course, if you have a thorough backup that's easy.

OK, time for the list. I am not providing a list of the features in these updates, but you can find links to detailed information as well as installer files at:

Apple Support Downloads

1) Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2. This includes both client and server versions of Leopard. There are separate updates for Intel and PowerPC Macs. - Sadly 10.5.2 doesn't solve all Leopard bugs and it still doesn't complete the promised Leopard feature set. But it is a significant update. This is the second update for Leopard. (Windows Vista has had how many at this point? None? Apart from monthly security updates, Vista still has had no system updates).

2) WebObjects Update 5.4.1 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. - If you don't know what WebObjects is, don't worry about this update. You do not need it. WebObjects is an incredible free technology Apple provide for creating powerful websites. It also has a very steep learning curve if you aren't already a programmer.

3) Leopard Graphics Update 1.0. You must install the 10.5.2 update before making this update. The update provides stability and compatibility.

4) Security Update 2008-001. This update is for both Intel and PowerPC Macs. You can read details about all security improvements provided by Apple at this page:

Apple Security Updates

I also maintain a separate blog covering Macintosh Security issues at:

Mac-Security.blogspot.com

5) iLife Support 8.2. This update provides stability and performance improvements for all iLife applications.

Let me finish off the list with a quick review of all the other updates from this past month:

- iMovie 7.1.1

- Front Row 2.1.2 for Leopard

- iTunes 7.6 for both Mac and Windows

- Pages 3.0.2

- Keynote 4.0.2

- iWeb 2.0.3

- ProKit 4.5 for Apple's professional applications: Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express

- Braille Display Update 1.0 for Leopard

- iPhoto 7.1.2

- QuickTime 7.4.1 for Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Windows

After your Mac updates: Remember to perform a permissions repair on your boot volume. Apple have had a very good record recently of cleaning up permissions after their installations. But they aren't perfect. I've had people rant at me that this final step is not necessary. Experience proves them wrong. It only takes a minute, and I guarantee it will save you future headaches after a sloppy installation.

Also out today is an update for the Apple TV:

Apple TV 'Take Two' update: To access this update, go to the Settings/Software Update menu in the Apple TV interface. You can read about the new free features of this update at:

Free Apple TV Update

This past month Apple also provided the 'January '08 Update' to the iPhone. You can read about it and watch a video at:

Apple iPhone January '08 Update

Share and Enjoy!

:-D