http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php Mac OSX help and discussion forum website. en Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:16:38 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/ambience/misc/rss.jpg http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=41 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:58:23 GMT A couple of years ago, a little girl in our daughter's elementary school wrote what she was thankful for on a leaf-shaped piece of construction paper. All the class' leaves were displayed by the school office.

Written on most of the leaves were things like, "I am thankful for my mommy" or "sister" or "my dog" or "our house."

The little girl wrote, "I am thankful for squirrels." Her mother worked at the local grocery store as a checker, she was very young and outspoken about how she hated to be tied down with two daughters. She would say that she was always happy when she was traveling with just her backpack on her back.

She had divorced her husband; she didn't like to be tied down, she said. He also disappeared from his daughters' lives then; but I don't know what happened there.

One day, the mom left for Africa and her daughters remained behind to be raised by their maternal grandmother. This year, they are in a new elementary school, so I probably won't ever learn more of their story, but anyway I'm glad the squirrels are there for the little girl. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=41 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=40 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:48:51 GMT That's the latte I unwittingly ordered this morning while having coffee with my women friends.

I always order non-fat, and easy on the foam. I've noticed the last few weeks that my coffee is cold by the time I get to the bottom of the giant cup, so this morning I also ordered extra-hot, lol. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=40 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=39 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:02:53 GMT I know today she will be back to her usual self, but we talked on the phone last night and she was... I know today she will be back to her usual self, but we talked on the phone last night and she was SO kind, and even (dare I say?) loving! This has happened only a handful of times in my life so I know better than to let myself feel warm fuzzies... next time I speak with her it will be brutal again... but for a few minutes I "suspended belief" and imagined to myself that this is what's it is like to have a mom. :)

She even said she was going to send me my meds that I can't get here in Canada. She offered - I didn't ask for her help. The only time I had asked her to help me with getting my meds, she sent me a used, expired bottle in a package with a knife and an old, used-up lip balm. (Her way of saying she doesn't want to be bothered.) So I'm not counting on her help.

But I've been smiling last night and this morning, even though I know this behavior of hers not real or permanent. My husband thinks it's all very sad but I'm glad to accept the happiness I feel right now! ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=39 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=38 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:09:07 GMT I've been interested in the iPhoto Books that you can order from within the iPhoto app and ever since this option became available in my country, it was only a matter of time before I "went the whole hog", so to speak. :D

I'd investigated this option in iPhoto before but had trouble understanding why I was seeing so many yellow triangles with exclamation marks in them. This was way back when tho' and I soon became serious about creating then ordering one of these books so I could have it in my hands and determine if it was worth it.

I have it now and it was certainly worth the wait. The quality is excellent and I really couldn't be happier about how it turned out. In the first couple of days I was asking people to check their hands were clean before I gave them the book to look at and while it hasn't been out for a few weeks, I still feel the same about keeping it in the condition it was when I unpacked it ;)

The thoughts behind my doing this was to give my son (soon turning 17) some sort of "keepsake" about a part of his youth, a part that will fade in time and something that he can pass on to his kids. The problem I had was which aspect of his youth to pick?

For the past 3 years he has been rowing for his school and for a club in the last year. This year he quit and with the cost of fuel I am not complaining. So I chose rowing as the theme for the book. I looked at the rowing photos in my library and flagged the ones I would like to use. Then I clicked on the "Book" icon at the bottom of the window and chose the format from the window that appeared.

My book was created in the left column and I proceeded to get to work. I'd say it took me a few goes to get it ready for order, in other words there were no error alerts. I had to fiddle around with page formats and by the end I had a book that was ready but wasn't the absolute best I could have done. I say this because I was worn out a bit with all the work I needed to do trying to figure out my errors and why certain photos wouldn't work (yellow triangle/exclamation mark).

Seeing as how I was learning the ropes I was prepared to submit the order rather than working to achieve a book I was 100% happy with. There are many more stories in my iPhoto library and many more possible books so I didn't expect to get it right the very first time.

I went for the "Hardcover book with custom dust jacket cover" format that measures 11 x 8 1/2 inches or 28 x 21.5 cm. It looked fantastic on my screen and as I clicked the "Order" button I confess to feeling excited about the whole thing.

The expected shipping time is 10 days and my book arrived on the 11th day. The packaging was a sturdy cardboard box in an exaggerated form of the actual book. I carefully opened up the box and inside it was another cardboard box. There was no packing material inside the main box, so the inner box rattled around while I was opening it.

The inner box is the resting place of the book. It's grey/white in colour and has the apple logo on the flap. It's actually a fold-up box (much like a DVD posting box is) and can be opened up flat it you wanted to do that.

With great anticipation I opened up the flap, taking care not to tear any corners and I could see my book inside a plastic bag. I was happy that my book was protected like this and I took the book out of it's bag and held it in my hands and started at it.

The large photo on the dust wrapper looked fantastic and the quality at first glance was really good! I was concerned that my photos wouldn't look as good as they should but my fears were put to rest as I turned page after page and saw that the photo printing quality was as good as I'd hoped for.

When our son arrived home from school I showed him the book and explained that it was for him to keep forever and share with his kids. He liked it and I didn't expect him to show much interest as he is still young after all so it was agreed that I would look after it for now.

I hope to sit down one day and do another book, maybe there's a few in the future I can order if I have the money. For the minimum of pages allowed I think it came to just under AUS$50 all up. This is a lot of money for a book of this type but as the content is personal it is a small amount to pay for such a gem of a keepsake.

I keep the book safe in its special Apple box and it never ceases to amaze me whenever I look at it.

]]> Spawn_Dooley http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=38 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=37 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:01:27 GMT Why is it, when you tell a group of people that you are from Texas, there are always a few people... Why is it, when you tell a group of people that you are from Texas, there are always a few people who respond with, "Yee Haw!" ?

When in other countries, why is it that most people from the U.S. introduce themselves as Americans, but Texans always introduce themselves as Texans?

Why is Texas great as a noun, but not-so-great as an adjective (Texas Justice, Texas Chain Saw Massacre)?

Do people really think that most Texans live like in the TV show Dallas? :)


p.s. Don't Mess With Texas was an anti-littering slogan targeting mostly the men in Texas who used the roadways, especially truckers. It quickly became the informal state motto. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=37 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=36 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:28:22 GMT We've had some great spring weather recently, lots of rain and lots of warm sunshine too. There's a lot happening, with planting to do and general upkeep/weeding.

The poppies we planted months ago are in full bloom and we have a permanent indoor display. The sweetpeas are growing strongly and have already produced their first flowers but it'll be a few more weeks until there is anything substantial.

The garlic is starting to show signs of rust but we're not worried about that. We have tried to plant as much as possible and hope to harvest enough to last through until next planting time. I can't wait to hang them up and need to learn how to plait them properly.

I planted organic carrot seed and they have come along well and I hope to build on what I learnt last summer, which was pretty much the first time I took carrot growing seriously and benefited from it. The little seedlings are only a few centimetres in height and it's too early to thin them.

We have silverbeet which is looking quite lush and is ready to pick, spinach we grew from seed is also growing well and the beans we planted a month ago look strong.

Our onions are doing well as are the spring onions and the potatoes have sprung shoots at last.

The bad news is we had to pull the brocolli out as it bolted but at least we did manage to grow our very first cauliflower and it was yummy!

There are corn kernels sprouting in their little organic pots, which we can plant straight into the ground, pots and all. We are still learning about corn and hope to grow a decent crop this year.

Lastly, the tomatoes won't go in until closer to December as the weather here is finicky and you never really know if the frosts have gone for good until it's nearly Christmas. Despite this, all the nurseries have been selling tomato seedlings for the past couple of months ... we also hope to successfully grow our own capsicum and chillies. We did manage to grow only the one capsicum plant last summer and it produced a smallish capsicum before the weather became too cold.

So, exciting times ahead ...

Here's a couple of photos showing some of our crop from last summer:


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch ]]> Spawn_Dooley http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=36 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=35 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:22:19 GMT I was in a shoe store with my daughter the other day. We were trying to make our way to the boots... I was in a shoe store with my daughter the other day. We were trying to make our way to the boots which were against a wall, but the display was blocked by ladders against the wall (and other island displays).

While I was trying to peer past the ladder to see the boots, a female employee pushed past me and went up the ladder.

She had on a micro-mini dress, high boots, and bare thighs. I knew because the top of her thighs were about two feet from my face.

I kept averting my eyes, but as she reached way up for, I guess, a box of shoes, her skirt hiked up to places where I was embarrassed for her, and I looked away just in time.

My ten year-old behind me, however, has much more curiosity than modesty, and she watched the whole show with great interest. She announced later that the lady was not wearing any underpants.

The store was pretty crowded, too. I wouldn't be surprised if someone snapped a pic and posted it somewhere on the web. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=35 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=34 Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:11:23 GMT We all know how important it is to have strong core muscles, and that back injuries and/or pain are... We all know how important it is to have strong core muscles, and that back injuries and/or pain are helped by exercising the core muscles.

But my physiotherapist told me something interesting today that I didn't realize. If you've had a back injury, your core muscles in front do not remember to tighten automatically when you pick up light objects.

You consciously tighten the muscles to pick up heavy things, but after a back injury, the muscles have forgotten how to tighten automatically. And you've forgotten how to breathe at the same time.

So I am doing exercises to practice breathing and tightening my core muscles. It's kind of like rubbing your stomach and patting your head. Who knew it could be so awkward?

If you haven't had back injury, breathing and tightening are automatic, but with an injury you have to make your body remember with practice. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=34 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=33 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:10:59 GMT I've been thinking about this pearl of wisdom the past couple of days .... A lot has happened in my life and until now, I've always thought in retrospect; "it didn't kill me but I certainly don't feel stronger for it ... "

Until now ... over the past 3 weeks, I've had to deal with something that was about a year in the making, was psychologically and emotionally draining and which took place not in the real world, but in the virtual world of the internet and forums like this.

Now it's finally come to a head over the past 3 weeks, with my worst fears bearing fruition.

But the good news is that I can finally draw parallels between the old saying "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." and my own personal struggle that I finally grabbed by the horns but lost the battle.

Or did I? ]]> Spawn_Dooley http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=33 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=32 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:32:10 GMT July 11, 2008. Slowly, the time ticked away. 8AM seemed so far away, but yet it was approaching. ... July 11, 2008. Slowly, the time ticked away. 8AM seemed so far away, but yet it was approaching. Excitement filled the air as the people in line were hyped up on energy drinks and coffee given out for free by Starbucks. Whenever I'm in line for any Apple event, it's interesting seeing all the people who love Apple and Apple products, coming together to be among the first to handle some of the best technologies the world has seen. I'm always blown away who complete stranger become friends over Apple products. Being an Apple user now for 3 years, I'm shocked at the openness of people. One couple next to me bought everyone in line donuts. Everyone is sporting their old iPhones, talking about their experiences, their problems that they had with the old iPhones, etc. Even at 6AM, people seem alert and high spirited. I'm always blown away by the products, but even more blown away by the people who really love the products and how they want to share their enthusiasm with others. It's really amazing that not only does the technology we buy keep us evermore linked than ever before, but the products themselves facilitate a unique linkage of their own - keeping people not only in touch and connected, but also providing a true physical bond with the people that are around us at such events because of a product. No wonder there are books out there like The Cult of Mac, The Cult of iPod, etc. There is no other specific company in the world that can generate this type of bond. If you have been to any of these events, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, go experience one of these events for yourself. You will meet some interesting people. Who knows, maybe make a friend or two. ]]> searay345 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=32 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=31 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:47:19 GMT i for some reason i can sign on to my computer and turn it back on when it sleeps but when i try to... i for some reason i can sign on to my computer and turn it back on when it sleeps but when i try to do something where it asks me for my administrative name and password the info i put in doesn't work. anyone know what to do about this? how can i reset it? ]]> Samowaiian http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=31 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=30 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:26:21 GMT My husband travels for business 3-4 months out of the year, and the family time that our daughter... My husband travels for business 3-4 months out of the year, and the family time that our daughter and I have with him is limited and very precious. We have a trip planned - he will be away on business and we will join him when he's done and have a family vacation and all come back together.

The problem is, there will be people from his work still hanging around, and they want to "do stuff" with us. I want our little family to have time together exploring and talking and just being together, just us! When you add a coworker/friend in the mix, my husband spends 1/2 of his time talking to that person, because of course, he has to.

One particular woman has done this before and she's really insistent again that she wants to "see" us all and spend time with us. This makes me sad and upset.

I told him I don't want other people around. I don't know what he can tell her, though. I'm not as nice as he is. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=30 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=29 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:36:05 GMT If you are new to the Mac, you might get confused about how Macintosh programs work. I wrote a... If you are new to the Mac, you might get confused about how Macintosh programs work.

I wrote a detailed explanation on this here: http://www.mac-help.com/forums/showp...19&postcount=2

It was written kind of fast, so there are a few over-simplications in it obviously (like 1:1 relationship between Preferences files and applications. USUALLY, but not always) but the content is valid. ]]> ljuvefreya http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=29 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=28 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:57:01 GMT Quick reminder: References to /Library, /Applications - refers to folders at the root of your first... Quick reminder: References to /Library, /Applications - refers to folders at the root of your first harddisk, which is generally the top right disk icon on your Mac.
References to ~/Library - the ~ means "your home folder", so if you want to find ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iphoto.plist you would open Finder and click your user name in the left panel, or open your harddisk and the folder "Users" and then the one with a house icon. Inside it is a special "Library" folder for you. The reason we use ~ is because its used in the industry, and it doesn't hurt to know industry expressions, its also what you'll find references to in other articles, so remember ~ = YOUR folder.

My previous post on things you should do before a problem occurs

What do you do when there is a problem or crisis?

1) Calm down. Your computer works on the principle of "you do something, I do something". If you don't do anything, nothing will get worse.
If the problem is weird noises from the computer itself, smoke or similar then just turn the computer off, even if you have to do it the "bad way". As long as it is off, nothing further can happen and you have plenty of time. Disks don't "rot" as such.

2) What is occuring? What symptoms do you see? Error messages? What did you just do, as in literally? Install a program, reboot? Run a program? Delete a plist file? Edit something? What was running at the same time?

3) Read error messages, dialogboxes and similar carefully. Don't dismiss things, the computer won't continue until you press Next or OK.

If you think you need external help:
If possible, you can do a screenshot (a picture of your screen saved as an image file) by holding down Cmd+Shift+3 (there are other variants too, if you know them, use them). You should find a picture on your desktop named ImageN where N is a number. Consecutive presses of Cmd+Shift+3 makes more pictures, it does not overwrite existing ones. These can be handy to send to people who can help you.
If possible/preferable, you can open these pictures in Preview, drag an outline over the image and then use its "Crop" feature to remove unwanted parts of the picture, whether personal information or to make the picture smaller.

If its a log or similar, its usually not a problem to post it in its entireity on this forum, but on chats, that is usually a problem. If you want to use instant messenger (iChat, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, IRC etc) to get help, you should copy your text and paste it into a site like http://pastebin.ca/ by just pasting it into the big box, filling out the few boxes below and click Submit. You'll get a URL that you can give people and they will see your log text. No spamming or cropping or missing important information.

You can also Google snippets of the error message or similar. Just type the error into Google and see what you get. A tip there is to start specific and then remove words. For example, if "Word 2008 error problem no printer available message" doesn't work, drop unecessary words.

Better example: Word 2008 no printer available

Don't forget to use the Apple help system, as it has more info than you might think, also on troubleshooting.

And don't hestitate to ask here obviously ;)

4) When you ask here, include as much information as possible, as per #2.
DON'T write: "I get an error listening to music! Help".
DO write: "I double click on songs in iTunes but nothing happens! Help!"
Include things like version number (program name->About program name. Example: iTunes -> About iTunes".

If you are a computer novice, avoid the temptation to "help out" by dropping things you think we might not care to know. Add it anyway :) You never know ;)
"I installed GraphicConverter 5.x yesterday, but I don't see why that should cause WMV files to no longer work with Flip4Mac" is not good thinking.

5) [COLOR="rgb(46, 139, 87)"]Typical problems and quick fixes:[/color]
- My application crash when I try to start it, behaves erratically, or refuse to save settings!
Fix: Did you create an extra account (as per #2 here) or do you have an extra account on your Mac? If so, you should login to it and see if the program misbehaves there too. If it does, you should consider trashing its Preference file in /Library/Preferences or at worst reinstall/redownload it.

However, if it works fine there, or you have no extra account to test with, it could be your profiles preference file that is damaged. Just go to ~/Library/Preferences and find its file there. For example: iCal won't remember the settings I set? Quit the program if it's running, then go to ~/Library/Preferences and look for com.apple.ical.plist and throw it in the trash. When you start iCal again, it should work. You will hardly ever lose any data files, calendars, email, contacts etc doing this, but you might need to configure the program again, like sharing in iPhoto if that was the file you trashed etc.

- installed Apple software update, something failed/power went/ran out of battery (tip, always install updates with your laptop connected to charger) or something crashed?

Fix: Download the relevant combo updater from www.apple.com/support and run it. Use disk utility to verify and fix permissions.

- Sometimes when I want to rename or delete a program on my Mac in the /Applications folder, I am asked for username and password. Other times, I am not? Why?
Fix: If you share your Mac with others, and they also have administrator account, or the program itself changes its permissions, you don't "own" the program anymore. If you need to do something on something you don't "own" (the owner is whoever caused the object to exist there) you need to confirm your action because it has potential consequences for whoever put it there. Just go ahead and enter your credentials, its nothing to worry about, just part of MacOS X security and safety features.

- I found a hack/fix/super cool thing/tip/advice, but it asks me to put it or modify things in /System/Library.
Fix: doing anything in /System/Library is a very bad idea.
This folder is reserved by Apple for MacOS X to work. If you come from Windows, this is kind of the equivalent of C:\Windows\System32, yet even strictlier off-limit. You should probably ask for advice before you put anything here, or read #6.

- I don't need Safari/iChat/iCal/Mail.app or other Apple bundled tool. Can I delete it?
Fix: I would generally recommend that you not delete it.
However, see #4 in my previous blog post. Archive and put it in a different folder if it bothers you. You could create a folder in /Library called "Applications I don't use" and put it there.

6) Firewire Target Disk mode:
You can use any firewire cable that works for harddrives etc, FW400 is good. This can be useful for Firewire target disk mode.

Firewire disk mode lets your Mac act as a simple harddrive to another Mac. Simply plug your Macs together directly using a firewire cable. Boot the problematic Mac by holding down the letter T when you hear the chime. Eventually, a huge Firewire symbol will bounce around the screen. Meanwhile, it should appear as a normal harddrive on the other Mac.
Use this to repair permissions, perform disk checks, repair missing system files etc, make backups etc.
When you're done, eject it and turn the problematic Macs power off and on. ]]> ljuvefreya http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=28 http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=27 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:10:34 GMT *In A Dark Time * In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I... In A Dark Time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood—
A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks—is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is—
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind. ]]> SwampWitch http://www.mac-help.com/forums/blog.php?b=27