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User:macintosh (posted by [info]vorpal)
Date:2009-12-22 23:41
Subject:Dashboard: what's the point?
Security:Public

Do any of you use it? I've been trying, on and off, for awhile now to try to justify its existence by finding some type of application for it, but I've been largely unsuccessful.

The only possible niche I've found for it is to run informational widgets to conglomerate a lot of ready-to-display information (e.g. weather, CPU usage, etc) on the screen at once and quickly without having to launch full-fledged applications or visit a bunch of web pages. I'm also trying it out now for lightweight versions of one-shot applications, i.e. applications I'd launch to use once quickly and then quit (calculator, dictionary, thesaurus, and stuff like that).

What do you all think?

12 comments | post a comment



User:geekygabe
Date:2009-12-22 23:19
Subject:Tennessee
Security:Public

Once again I have brought my pale-ass self to Oak Ridge. They're used to exotic particles, so I don't feel like I'm endangering anyone here. (Yet: although Derrick, his mom, her friend Jane, and I all had soup at Panera Bread [om, om, om] for dinner and no one slurped, Derrick is crunching his ice while we watch Michio Kaku.)

Being sans Wi-Fi atop this hill on which the Dodson home sits, I'm relegated to typing on the iPhone. I have no bars of signal, but somehow my stream is getting out. The view up here, though, is nice.

Speaking of "up here": I forget how tall I am sometimes. This house has many full-length mirrors, and while dressing this morning I was struck by the 76-inchness of me. I don't really think about relative height in everyday life. Derrick's mom is tall and said she has always used that to her advantage when dealing with people.

Dream: I was approaching the city of Atlantis, in its heyday when the Ancients were at their prime. Multiple rings were emitting event horizons and kawooshes. Displayed throughout the city were award trophies that Stargate: Atlantis had won. They were shattering into clouds majestically (not destructively). I felt this surge of pride in my chest and marveled at what the Ancients had accomplished. The whole time, the theme music from Star Trek: Voyager was playing. Oh, and as the trophies shattered, they made the same sound you hear while the camera pans through the planetary ring in the latter's opening credits. Ringapalooza. Good times.

We stopped by the local National Fitness Center today to find out their guest policies. Turns out they're affiliated with Gold's, so the daily rate is discounted. BodyCombat tomorrow night. Spinning (not RPM, but I've been curious about non–Les Mills cycling anyway) Saturday.

Oooh, TNG is on. "Is anybody out there?"

5 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]anestel)
Date:2009-12-21 14:28
Subject:Unwanted talking - solved
Security:Public
Mood: frustrated
Music:Super Junior - HAPPY TOGETHER | Powered by Last.fm

Okay I don't know how the kid did it but a kid I was babysitting got ahold of my computer for all of 45 seconds yesterday and ever since it like...says out loud whatever I am doing. If I open up a new page in firefox it goes "firefox has a new page" etc with any and every program. If I scroll over the dock it says dock. It's driving me nuts and I went through system preferences but I can't figure out how to turn it off. :/ please help.

edit

Apparently it was voice over in universal access. :D

2 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]jennomac)
Date:2009-12-21 02:00
Subject:
Security:Public

I'm trying to upload pictures through iPhoto and I keep getting

This message )

I have plenty of space on my harddrive so I don't understand what it's trying to tell me that there's no space.

Is there something I can use to upload pictures besides iPhoto?

3 comments | post a comment



User:geekygabe
Date:2009-12-20 23:33
Subject:Greetings from Mississippi
Security:Public

Derrick and I left College Station this afternoon for Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Jackson, Mississippi, is the halfway point. We had lunch at Jason’s Deli before we left, and we had planned to have dinner at the Jason’s Deli in Shreveport, Louisiana, but it didn’t work out. We pulled up to the deli, and they were closing down at 6 p.m. That’s four hours earlier than normal, and it’s not any sort of holiday. Oh well. We kept going and made it here a little after 9 p.m. Having had no dairy servings today, I got a vanilla milkshake and a grilled-cheese sandwich off the kids’ menu at Sonic. A tasty indulgence. I refuse to feel guilty. Besides, Oak Ridge and Knoxville both have gyms that offer Les Mills group fitness classes, so I should be all set. No RPM to be found, though, but I’ll try a non–Les Mills spin class just for shits and giggles. (I distinctly remember packing my cycling shoes, but if I forgot gym socks, that means that [info]danthmanes is somehow a prognosticator.)

As an Audible.com subscriber, Derrick downloaded unabridged versions of Dune, Children of Dune, and Dune Messiah to help pass the time on this 15-hour-each-way road trip. It’s such a blast! I haven’t read the Dune novels in a long time, and as I listen along it’s amazing how much I can remember verbatim. Ah, Frank Herbert. You were a rare gem. About four years ago I read The Butlerian Jihad, The Machine Crusade, and The Battle of Corrin—the prequel novels by Herbert’s son and Kevin J. Anderson—and so many more in-universe books have come out since. I need to catch up.

I brought a couple of seasons of Stargate: Atlantis on the trip, so I may pop one of those in while I wind down. Oh, we finished watching the first season of Fringe last night. I see a lot of parallels between it and Alias, but since it’s a J.J. Abrams vehicle, I’m not surprised. And I’m hooked. All this cool parallel-reality stuff is neat, and that driving, Rambaldi-type mystery is part of this series, too.

The most recent Better Off Ted that I saw had the hunky Ted in a casual gray t-shirt at home. I freeze-framed that bitch and found that it’s an actual shirt, not a prop. It’s a J. Crew t-shirt, but it was no longer available on jcrew.com. In a cruel bend of fate I found it on eBay—in a medium, too, dammit—and the sale had ended earlier the same day. Rats. I must find this shirt. Because clearly, if I don a shirt that Jay Harrington wore, I will transmogrify such that I am of equal hotness. So say we all.

Last-minute bonus: the TV Guide Channel just profiled Ty Burrell (the adorkable dad Phil Dunphy on Modern Family). I shall sleep well, my friends.

5 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]tsuzukeru)
Date:2009-12-20 17:18
Subject:Help for Last Minute Xmas MacMini Display Shopping!!
Security:Public

ok, i know this issue can be found many places online... but my current situation is a little different as i have less then a week to figure out what i'm going to do and only one store that i can purchase from. where i live i can only purchase from best buy or else i usually order online. usually its never an issue but this time b/c xmas is friday i have to get the item from best buy ONLY.

here's my situation: at the last minute i was handed the job of deciding the best display to get for my sister to hook up to her mac mini. the mac mini is a previous generation so it doesn't have the new mini-display, instead it's hooked up using a dvi to hdmi adaptor right now. the display that, after my own research, i've decided on is THIS ONE.

so is my choice good or bad? anyone else have better options that i should consider? (remember, i HAVE to purchase it in store at best buy so any suggestions must be available in stock at best buy using the 60914 area code.)

any responses would be so helpful! ^___^ thanks!

(x-posted, sorry)

5 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]chuckvideo)
Date:2009-12-20 09:41
Subject:Titanium Powerbook battery issue
Security:Public
Music:How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the bkgd.

I just bought a new battery for my older Titanium Powerbook and the new battery will not charge. After a night of being plugged in to charge, the power connector glowing orange all night, I wake up to a 0% charge and the computer immediately dies when I disconnect the power cord. The old original battery still charges and lasts a few minutes, so I know the Powerbook is still capable of charging.
I've tried the trick of unplugging the Powerbook and removing the battery and holding the power switch for five seconds, which didn't work, but is there another way I can have the new battery be recognized by my Powerbook? I suppose there is the rare chance that the new battery is bad, but I want to try all my options first.

1 comment | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]kiodane)
Date:2009-12-18 17:25
Subject:Let's make a happy community about reviewing Apple Stuff
Security:Public

 I want to let you know that I have created a few communities (because I couldn't decide on what spelling to use) that are meant to seed discussion about the relative merits and weaknesses of Apple products and acknowledge that while no human construct is perfect, we choose to spend our time, money, and attention on these devices and software.

All are welcome, except those who can't play nice.

Feel free to join the community on the user profile pages, and get to discussing!

Pick your favorite spelling or more:
[info]apple_critic 
[info]applecritics 
[info]critics_of_aapl 


And to be honest, if none of these go anywhere, I'm not too upset.  I just thought that while outsiders, noobs, and die-hard PC users may deem any Mac user as a "Mac Lover" which may be true, but it doesn't mean we "hate" everything else.  I myself use Windows and Linux on a daily basis, and each has it's merits and finesse that are unique.  And other platforms adopting those elements is not a failure of adoption, but a win for all users!

So, if you happen to like Apple products and you've got something you want to share, a cool feature, a point of frustration, come share it with us.  Maybe someone can help out or you can help them out!

If you think you want to help moderate one of these communities, I'm welcome to help too.

(cross-posted a bunch of places)

8 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]niftyspoon)
Date:2009-12-18 13:21
Subject:Macbook Pro Battery Life
Security:Public

I've had my Macbook Pro 15-inch for roughly a year and four months, and the battery health is already at 24% with 137 charged cycles.

Is this normal? The laptop won't even last an hour without being plugged in -- and this only happened recently as it was able to work at 3 hours just a few weeks ago.

I don't have Apple Care and my warranty is over. :(

13 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]rredhead)
Date:2009-12-17 22:50
Subject:iMovie and Time
Security:Public
Mood: aggravated

I went through all of my movies and listed the times that I wanted from them. For example, I want :34 to 1:45 of a clip. But iMovie doesn't display the times for each of the frames. I want to cut clips based on time. How I can do that in iMovie?

I'm finding iMovie very difficult to deal with. It's not at all like their video tutorials. *sigh*

2 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]landocalrissian)
Date:2009-12-17 22:00
Subject:AirPort issues
Security:Public

I have a three year old iMac running Mac OS X 10.5.8 and I've been having some trouble with my wireless connection for I'd say close to a year now. Apparently it's a known issue: the wireless signal appears to be strong, but the connection has dropped. It often, but not always, happens when I am streaming videos or music. Most of the time, turning AirPort off and on will solve the problem, but it's really only a quick fix for what I'm guessing is a larger problem.

Anyway, the problem has been getting worse and worse over the past few days and I'd like to solve this once and for all. I read that changing the channel used by AirPort can fix things - or downgrading the AirPort firmware - and that these things are done using AirPort Utility. Problem is, AirPort Utility is "unable to find any Apple wireless devices". I'm using a Linksys router so this may be the problem.

My questions are: is there any other way to change the channel, and if not, and how can I get AirPort Utility to recognize my Linksys router?

My apologies if any of this is unclear - wireless-related issues are not my forte haha. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I ended up having to call Apple tech support and they had me delete my System Configuration folder. Everything seems to be okay for now. Just passing on the info for anyone else who may have the same problem.

2 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]jerricurrl)
Date:2009-12-17 19:26
Subject:FTP client suggestions
Security:Public

Should I shell out for Fetch, or is there a good free FTP client?

14 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]tehstasrprjktrs)
Date:2009-12-17 18:40
Subject:Camera/ Photo Booth
Security:Public

What could be the problem here?

It was working fine last night, I installed some apple updates today but that is all I could think of. I am careful with my laptop so I don't think its been knocked around too badly, I'm not very computer savvy so the easier the explanation the better. I have restarted twice with no fix. Thanks!

PS-- Is [www.4chan.org] safe as long as you do not following external links?

4 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]foxmagic)
Date:2009-12-17 09:27
Subject:Removing language files
Security:Public

What's your favorite free app to delete foreign-language resources from your Mac?

To clarify - I'm talking about the resources that let your Mac run applications in Arabic, Japanese, Korean, German, Russian, and other languages. Since I only ever run Mac applications in English, I like to delete these resources to free up huge amounts of space on my hard drive. I used to use Monolingual, then I switched to Delocalizer, but now that I'm on an Intel Mac it wants to install Rosetta (because Delocalizer is a PowerPC program) and I want to keep Rosetta off my Mac, so I'm looking for whatever the best program is these days.

2 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]jackal)
Date:2009-12-17 01:22
Subject:iPhone + iMovie rotation bug
Security:Public

I posted the iPhone + iMovie rotation bug (discussed here previously) to [info]apple_critics and included screenshots.

See: http://community.livejournal.com/apple_critics/3047.html

11 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]jackal)
Date:2009-12-16 17:10
Subject:new Bryce for mac
Security:Public

Has anyone tried the new version of Bryce for mac? The new version 6.3 was just released.

I just got the announcement message/link in email --> http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=128866

post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]evagabor)
Date:2009-12-16 04:45
Subject:
Security:Public

can anyone recommend a case for the 13" white macbook? i was thinking about getting a speck hardshell case but i've heard they're hard to remove and leave scratches all over the computer so i'm wary of buying one.

9 comments | post a comment



User:geekygabe
Date:2009-12-16 00:57
Subject:Feline Mortality and Stuff
Security:Public

  • Bad Gabe, bad. Tonight I was walking around Pier Two (World Market), waiting for Derrick to drive in from Houston for dinner. Looking at cards, I saw a cute, fat tabby in a Santa hat. And then in slow-mo, a wave of “Ohhhhhhhh, noooooooooooo” washed over me. December 14 was Dead Tabby Day. This was the 10-year anniversary of her ascending to a higher plane. Or, you know, becoming formerly friendly feline fertilizer. Of all the years to forget to honor her memory. Apparently I didn’t last year, either, but I did in 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, and 2002. Beware the mismatch between a toasty engine and a cold kitty, yo. Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of ...
  • With glee (lowercase and roman, at least until Wednesday night, when my ancient [but not Ancient] Italian slanting will subdue it) in my heart, I watched Better Off Ted. I need to go rewind to the scene of him at home in his pectastically form-fitting gray t-shirt. That man is gorgeous. Watching that scene, I kept thinking back to 1998, when I saw Fox Mulder in the X-Files movie (the good one) wearing a similarly moan-inducing, pec-enhancing t-shirt.
  • Men of a Certain Age is somber and a little fun. I watch it mostly for Scott Bakula, whom I found hot as Captain Archer (my general dislike of Enterprise notwithstanding, hot is still hot).
  • I don’t know what I was expecting. The Lifetime Movie Network is on our channel lineup, and TiVo suggested that I would like “Mom, Dad[,] and Her.” Probably because Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett on Stargate: Atlantis) was in it. Today I started to watch it. But before Carson even appeared in the movie, I had to stop it. It was horrible. I deleted it. Everything that was human in me died that day. All that’s left now is ... nah, I’m good. (Not just because a new Undergear catalog arrived in the mail, either.)

5 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]sarcastic_puto)
Date:2009-12-15 12:37
Subject:MBP WiFi is not working, Apple refuses to fix it... what can I do?
Security:Public

Hey everyone. I'm having a really frustrating time with the Apple guys and I need advice.

Any help at all would be great. )

19 comments | post a comment



User:macintosh (posted by [info]lucypevensie)
Date:2009-12-15 14:27
Subject:iBook G4 startup mishap
Security:Public

Said iBook G4 (10.4.11) makes the usual "whirrrrr" noises, then the startup chime, then .... nothing. No grey screen, no further happy computer whirrs or buzzes. The problem has developed slowly (there had been a few times I'd have to restart once to get it to work, but now ....)

I've tried:
resetting the PRAM/NVRAM (after holding down the reset keys for a minute or two waiting for the "second startup chime", decided that probably wasn't going to work)
resetting the PMU (to no avail, though that did work once)
reseating the battery, using a different adapter, and squeezing various corners of the machine (hey, you never know)

About half the time, the force-shutdown has been punctuated with what sounds like something spinning down (a high-pitched whirr ending with a click) -- but only about half the time.

Is there anything else I should try before I take it in?

2 comments | post a comment


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