They finished with the MacBook on Thursday, which was very nice. Unfortunately, it’s a clean install of 10.5. I had 10.4. It’s like buy XP and getting Vista for free. 
Instead of rebuilding everything I think I will look at trading this one in and getting a new one. Until then I don’t have a proper computer. This is on the Mac Mini for the TV and there’s the work laptop, but I don’t really consider either one a good hometop.
Archive for the ‘Mac’ Category
Mac Harddrive Fixed
Sunday, August 24th, 2008Mac Laptop Harddrive Died
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008The Laptop hard drive died last night. RIP little drive. I was working on the computer when it locked up so I turned it off. When it came back on it showed a flashing folder icon with a question mark in the middle.
Booting off the external backup hard disk let me run attempt to diagnose the issue. I reset the PRAM and tried to repair from the Install CD. Nothing recognizes the drive. One time I heard it boot up and it ticks softly like the head is stuck or something.
Fortunately, it’s been 11 months since I got my first Mac and it’s still under warranty until 9/14. Double luck struck when I looked up Apple Repair Shops and the only one for 200 miles in any direction is less than a mile a way.
This morning I took it in. They verified everything and said, if it were just the hard drive, that it would be ready on Friday. Pretty amazing. I expected 2 wks and shipping around. I asked if they could fix the fan, which has gotten extremely noisy; almost to the point that I would buy one and replace it myself.
I’m temporarily using the work computer for internet at home. It would be great to say I didn’t lose anything. What with the NAS, Drobo, backup hard drives and stuff. But I had not copied my system disk in 6 months or more. That hurts. Passwords, settings, installed programs, serial numbers, photos, etc. And the time to set all that crap up again. That’s what I hate the most. Maybe, this time I’ll schedule the System disk backup job.
Apple Mac Sales Continue to Show Strong Growth
Thursday, April 24th, 2008…
Numbers released Apr. 23 showed Apple (AAPL) started the year on a strong note. Its earnings rose 36% on a 42.5% increase in sales in the fiscal second quarter. The results were boosted by near-record sales of Macintosh computers. Apple sold 2.29 million Macs, just shy of the 2.32 million it sold during the previous period, putting the company on track to surpass an annual record of 7 million units.
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Apple Continues to Ripen
CoM: Apple IIgs Original Hardware Laptop
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008Amazing Apple IIGS Original Hardware Laptop
Hacker Benjamin Heckendorn, better known as Ben Heck, has shoehorned the motherboard of an Apple IIGS into his own custom-made laptop case.
The Apple IIGS Original Hardware Laptop has a 15-inch color screen, built-in CompactFlash as a pseudo hard drive and stereo speakers.
The amazing piece of engineer has a glowing blue logo that flashes yellow when the disk is busy. Heck even made his own keys for the board, laser-etching each key.
It seems like it must be in danger of bursting into flames at any moment, but Heck says it puts off no more heat than a pocket calculator.
Released in September 1986, the IIGS was a powerful computer for its time, with advanced color graphics and stereo sound — the GS standing for “Graphics†and Sound.â€
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Zoom
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008I noticed a Mac feature I sorely miss on XP. Recently, I cranked up my resolutions and cranked down the font sizes. You can see more at one shot and most of my stuff is text. Hmm.. do I even read text or do I just look for word and letter patterns. Anyway, It’s pretty good. The icons are smaller and the interface is much cleaner. The one part that sucks is graphics on a web page. These are typically setup for 1024 X 800. They look much smaller. This isn’t a problem on the Mac. I hit a button on the 7 button MS mouse and it zooms up 75%. Click, look, click, back to normal.
You don’t even think about it. It’s how your eyes normally work. You don’t use 5 ft focus on everything. Near and far things would be blurry. Your eye adjusts its lenses and the shape of the eye to bring things into focus no matter what the distance is. Once you also get used to this on the computer, it’s really hard to let it go, because it’s so natural.
BTW, Vista is supposed to have this capability too, but I couldn’t tell you where it is.
Apple’s Switching to Mac Videos
Thursday, February 7th, 2008Mac Mini Update
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008The Mac Mini came in last night and I didn’t notice. It spent the night in front of the door and I discovered it when I was leaving for work. Love the enormous green privacy hedge sometimes. I set it aside and opened it when I got home from work.
This thing is awesome. It’s so small. If you’ve seen those external hard drives at Best Buy, the big ones from Maxtor, that’s about the right size, but not the shape. Inside it is a laptop drive a 1.66 dual core. It’s so small, because the power supply is not in the case. The PS is a huge white brick with a really long cord. That’s not a big deal, because it’s not using any juice. I’m running it through the Kill-A-Watt. It’s downloading files and playing PandoraJam and using 21 W.
The package included iLife 08 and Leopard in drop-in disks. So, now I have a copy of the new Leopard. Maybe that will go on the MacBook, though Cover Flow on regular files in Finder could be really useful in the Mini.
Right now, I’m downloading and installing; VLC, Adium, Firefox, PandoraJam, etc. Performance is good. I don’t notice any difference yet to the MacBook, which is a 2.0 Core 2. Later, I’ll upgrade the memory. Turns out the Mini uses the identical memory I pulled out of the MacBook at Christmas. So, 512 meg will become 1 gig. Free upgrade.
God, there’s no sound at all and no vibration. If the light weren’t on in the front you could not tell that this thing was running.
If only the “box” holding the ISOs hadn’t died I’d be playing a movie through VLC right now.
Mac Mini
Sunday, December 30th, 2007My desk felt kind of empty without Adam’s Mac. Before it left I had begun using it to play movies. The built in DVD player is great, though for some reason it won’t play all DVDs. I suspect the studios have been fraking with the DVD standard and old players don’t work on new discs. They are so considerate. I had no problem connecting to the XP box and playing music or through the Internet and getting Pandora.
Two years ago I made a Windows box to play movies and maintain a network connection. It eventually failed due to heat issues. For several months it worked, even if it was a little noisy.
So, I began wondering if a Mac could perform the same function. How would you hook it to the TV? What kind of remotes would work? What does the UI look like? Etc. It seems Apple has been working on the computer set-top box problem. See the Apple TV. The Mac Mini might be just the thing.
A little research revealed that it connects easily to new DVI equipped HDTVs and they offer an adapter for $20 that has S-video and RCA video. Front Row is the UI that Apple TV has and should work on any recent Mac. An Intel Mac should have no problems playing video on HDTV. The Mini is tiny and cute. It also has no storage. Recording TV is possible through a $150+ device.
The UI still remains an issue that I will have to work out. It depends on the storage solution. This is an expensive or thorny issue.
Right after Christmas one of the Mac stores put out a clearance 1st gen Intel Mini for $488. It seemed like the lowest price I was going to see. So, I got it and an adapter. We’ll see how it goes.
A 700 MHz Mac could play standard def TV, but I don’t know about the requirements for HD. I think a 1.25 G4 with AGP video could probably do this. A 1.25 G4 would be about $500 plus $150 adapter (old, nVidia 5000 or Radeon 9000). $650 for an old minimum requirements Mac or $600 for a new dual core. Come on! I settled on a low end 2nd gen Mini with 1st gen dual core processor for $500.
This is a Core Duo (1st gen dual core) 1.66 MHz with 512 meg on 40 gig running Leopard (not Tiger).
Now, if I could just get the damn storage solution to install Windows. I tried 3 times already and the motherboard only recognizes 120 gig. Almost all my hard drives are way bigger; 3 500s, 4 200s, a 250, a 320, and probably more.
Fortune: Apple MacBook is Amazon’s No. 1 top-selling computer
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007Despite fierce competition from machines with more than twice the memory and price points hundreds of dollars lower, Apple’s (AAPL) white 120 GB MacBook has captured the top spot on Amazon’s (AMZN) list of bestselling computers this Christmas eve.
Helped along by rebates ranging from $75 to $150, three Apple-brand notebooks are on the top 10 list this morning. The other bestsellers are the 80 GB MacBook (No. 7) and the 120 GB MacBook Pro (No. 10).
Apple MacBook is Amazon’s No. 1 top-selling computer
Fortune
MacBook Upgraded
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007Oh, I almost forgot the 3 gig I put in the MacBook. It was 1 gig and I could see where I was pushing that sometimes. 3 gig from OWC for $75. That was by far the cheapest price I found. Pulling the old sticks and adding the new ones is something anybody could do.
Burning a DVD on Mac
Sunday, December 16th, 2007Recently, I needed to burn a CD of photos. Well a DVD really, 7.5 gig. Windows XP provides for burning a CD like this, but not a DVD. This boggles my mind. why do you need a separate overly complex program like Nero just to make a big “floppy” disk.
So, I looked on the Mac. This functionality is built in. The Mac’s install programs are little CD images in the .dmg format. .iso, a CD/DVD image is similar. Windows, even Vista, doesn’t know an .iso file from a whole in the head.
This is how you do it. Use Disk Utility to make an .iso file. Then double click the .iso file to mount it and just copy your files into it. Now, burn this .iso file to disk using Disk Utility.
Scripting on Macs
Saturday, December 15th, 2007Have you ever wanted the computer to execute a series of actions. Maybe all the files in My Documents should be syncronized to a backup folder after Word closes. Or you want to rename all the pictures your camera took. Or you want to rotate a whole bunch of photos. Or play a slideshow with one click. These task on Windows takes some programming skill. I’ve written programs and scripts to do three of these. Several hours of development and testing were involved. It was satisfying, but I was left wondering why such simple tasks are so difficult.
Particularly, the file renaming. I would think anyone with, by now, thousands of photos would want something more meaningful than DSC000023.jpg or 2007-05-12-0012.jpg, etc. The best you can accomplish with Windows is MyFileName (1), MyFileName (2),.. Since, we’re on this topic there’s one more thing that should be in modern operating systems. That is the ability to read the EXIF data from camera files. I don’t care if it requires a license fee. MS and Apple should pay it and move on.
While these activities require programming skill in Windows they do not on Mac. There are two ways you can script actions; Automator and AppleScript. If the program has the right hooks it can be manipulated by Automator. That gives this scripting ability to non-Apple programs.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has started a series on Automation on the Mac. It should be a good overview of what you can do with Mac scripting and how to do it.
I am astounded that with all the copying MS has done of Apple, they have not copied Automator. Their tool that is roughly analogous is Visual Basic Script/CScript/Window Management Instrumentation (WMI), which has several long standing defects and which MS seems to have abandoned 5+ years ago. These tools are pretty much limited to the Windows Operating System and a few MS products.
My Nephew’s eMac
Sunday, December 9th, 2007For Christmas I got my oldest nephew a Mac. No I didn’t spend $1000 or more. I scoured the internet for a used Mac that would be self contained to keep my cousin from buying anything extra. What I found was a large market for old Macs made 8 years ago to present. I picked an 2002 eMac with upgraded memory and OS X.
It arrived on Friday and I’ve spent the last few days configuring it and looking it over. I have to say I’m very pleased. This is an old white G4 700 MHz model with 512 Mb in a 17″ monitor and a DVD Reader/CD Writer on a 40Gb hard drive. The System Profiler shows that one of two memory sticks are installed. The eMacs can hold up to 1 Gb and another stick of this PC133 is super cheap now that’s 2-3 generations old. The hard drive is probably the original since it’s a 5400 rpm drive. The memory has been upgraded, because these originally game with 128 Mb.
About 10 gig is taken up by OS X and the basic apps. Right now it has 28 gig left for music, movies, games, and homework. It’s possible to add an external USB drive for more room. Transfers won’t be fast through the USB 1.1 interface, but it will work.
An Apple keyboard and mouse were included. They are USB and the keyboard has a pair of USB connections on either end. There are three USB ports. Two are taken by the keyboard and mouse. There’s also Firewire, modem, ethernet, mini VGA, microphone and earphone jacks, and power.
The case is fairly seamless. I had to look for the power button on the side with all the jacks. It doesn’t stick out and I couldn’t feel for it. There are several silver dime size hex nuts around the monitor on the sides. This is probably where you unscrew it to work on it. I didn’t notice until I started trying to figure out how to add more memory.
For a while I struggled to get the CD open. There are now buttons on the computer for this. Apple keyboards have and eject key. This kicks the door open. CDs are tray loaded as opposed to slot loaded on my MacBook.
The condition is excellent. A few colorless scratches in the plastic on the back and a slight bit of extra brightness on the monitor. These are things you would only notice if you were looking for issues. The color seems faded, if white and clear plastic can fade.
The only issue I have is the weight. This thing is really, really heavy for its size. I would guess 40-50 lbs in 2 ft3. It’s easy to underestimate it.
So, how does the G4 compare to the Core 2 Duo? The OS X UI is a little slower, but not drastically. Certain tasks take longer, like installs. This could be from the old ATA-66 5400 rpm drive too. There’s a little lag in Expose and Dashboard, which could come from the built in 32 Mb 5 year old video card. There’s a little more delay when switching between certain apps like Firefox or Safari with a lot of tabs. These both consume 100+ meg.
Nothing was too slow and everything opened. The best comparison is Windows XP then, 2002, and now, 2007. It runs faster on newer hardware, but it’s quite useable on the hardware available when it came out. Of course the OS X I’m using is Tiger, 10.4.11, not Leopard,10.5.1.
I’m really quite amazed. This is a computer with everything built in and good enough to run Web and Word on a current operating system and it only cost $170. To top it all, it’s an Apple product. When it came out this model cost someone $1000-$1100, as much as my MacBook costs now. For some comparison, an XBox 360 cost $400+. An iPod Touch costs $300. A new 19″ monitor alone costs $170. Vista Home Premium costs $110+
This is a good deal for a kid or older person who doesn’t want or need a modern computer. The interface is as cool as Vista’s, more stable, and more secure. I would recommend this to someone who needs a computer for basic tasks, but can’t afford the price of a new computer. It’s worth the sub $200 price tag.
Making Grandma’s Slideshow DVD
Monday, December 3rd, 2007These are the specifications for the Slideshow DVD I made for Grandma’s Birthday party. Some things I would have done differently. There are some minor mistakes, because I was new to Mac. The biggest one is iPhoto.
The photos are kept on an XP box through a shared folder. This is ok, but not ideal because I have to take the XP box if I want to work on the slideshow. That’s a little leftover desktop only thinking. The laptop has been quite liberating and there have been several times I used it w/o network or power. iPhoto. Don’t use it. It’s much easier to open a Finder window and drop photos into iDVD.
iDVD with the ‘07 Macs is good and provides several templates that give you an animated menu with music. The template I chose let me drop a couple of photos in predefined slots making the menu more custom. Then you can add a slideshow or movies.
I made a slideshow and then drug photos onto iDVD. That part was really easy. The first step was creating a connection to the XP box. I love UNC paths, but that’s not how Macs work. There were instructions on the Internet to create an Automator script. It worked well. After you have some photos dropped in from the network share, iDVD will run this script one it’s own next time you open the project.
To add music the instructions are weird. You have to create a playlist in iTunes. Thus, the songs have to be in iTunes. Then, pick the playlist from a menu. You can define the time per photo or let the computer calculate it based on the songs.
The movie came from my cousin’s DVD camcorder and iMovie didn’t recognize her camcorder through USB. So, I copied the DVD and was left with the time consuming task of find a file format that iMovie would work with that didn’t require and expensive license. Those instructions have been posted. Once the movie is made it’s easy to add to iDVD.
The last little trick is to burn an image of the DVD. DO NOT BURN A DVD. I learned this the hard way. iDVD tries to burn at full speed, which is almost always a bad idea unless you want useless half burned disks. There’s no way to control the speed in iDVD. Use DiskUtility to burn the image. It will let you burn at half speed. Oddly, mine won’t verify correctly if I burn at the lowest speed, 4X.
The DVD came out to 2 gig and took about 3 hours for iDVD to render all the fade transitions and transcode the mpeg 4 movie to mpeg 2. This is on a Core 2 Duo with 1 gig of memory doing nothing else.
How to Convert vob Files for iMovie
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007iMovie is pretty good, but lack some major features. If you have a DV camera it works well, but if the camera isn’t supported or you only have the DVD it can be difficult to get a file format that works with iMovie. It took me hours to find the right settings to convert the .vob files from my cousin’s DVD Camcorder. Good luck to anyone else with this issue.
First, you need to get OpenShiiva. It will convert the VOB file to an mp4 format that iMovie likes.
Start OpenShiiva and modify the settings on each tab as follows.
Files
Input File: Pick your .vob file
Output File: Pick your .mp4 output file
Debugging: xvid altivec, libmpeg2 altivec, multithread should be checked
Crop & Scale
Uncheck all
Luma bicubic/chroma bilinear
Video
Encode Video, XviD should be checked
No changes to other settings
Subtitles
Uncheck all
Track 0 (0×20)
Audio
Decode AC3 Audio, Encode Audio should be checked
Track 0 (0×80)
Uncheck the rest
Processing
Click Go! This takes a while. My MacBook Core 2 Duo processes 9 frames/second.
After the file is done, open iMovie. The File\Import Movies… and pick the mp4 file you just created. This will take a while as iMovie copies the file and parses it into thumbnails. From here you can edit the iMovie project like normal.