Showing posts with label Macintosh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macintosh. Show all posts
Sunday, March 3, 2013
DTrace...
A nice resource for using DTrace on Macs, BSD, or Solaris. DTrace can be used for many things, but I know it mainly for performance troubleshooting...
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The GIMP Goes Native...
If you're an amateur photographer who likes to edit your photos, but you don't want to pay for PhotoShop, then you may already be familiar with the GIMP – a capable photo editor that is free, open source software. It's available for many platforms, including the Mac – but until now it has always required the X11 system to be running on the Mac.
Well, now the GIMP has gone native – you can download a .dmg file that installs a version of GIMP that runs natively on OS/X. Yes, it includes both single- and multi-window views. No more X11 and it's associated oddnesses. Just native OS/X application goodness!
Well, now the GIMP has gone native – you can download a .dmg file that installs a version of GIMP that runs natively on OS/X. Yes, it includes both single- and multi-window views. No more X11 and it's associated oddnesses. Just native OS/X application goodness!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Mac Hacks...
Here's a nice collection of little OS/X hacks. One example, from many: have you ever wanted to change your keyboard's repeat rate? Now you can!
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Mac vs. Windows...
The directions for Macs are ridiculously simple: basicly (a) turn on your computer, and (b) pick the McDonald's WiFi network. For Windows, on the other hand...
Four years ago, at the end of the day I started working for ServiceNow, I brought home the shiny new Mac PowerBook that they issued me. I hadn't used a Mac before, so I was anticipating a complicated effort to get the Mac connected to my WiFi at home. I even had a plan: I'd get on the Internet with my Windows desktop first, then start Googling when I ran into issues. Note the assumption: based on all my experience with Windows, I expected to run into issues.
Instead, here's what happened: I opened and powered up my PowerBook. After logging into it, I got a polite message saying that it had detected my network at home, and would I like to connect? I say “yes”, of course. Then it came up with another message saying that it had detected that my network was secured, and would I please tell it the key? I entered the key, and then I was connected. Just like that! Even better: now when I come home at night, I just turn on my PowerBook and I'm connected, no muss, no fuss. Furthermore, this nifty little feature remembers every WiFi network I've ever been connected to, automagically reconnects all by it's lonesome. It's so freakin' easy compared with Windows!
There are lots of complicated reasons why Macs are easier to use, and there are lots of things that Windows does better than a Mac.
First and foremost amongst what Macs do better: a controlled hardware platform. All Macs, because they're all made by Apple, have a known and controllable hardware kit. This makes it far easier for Apple to do things like the WiFi magic described above.
First and foremost amongst what Windows machines do better: competition. Windows laptops, perfectly good ones, can be had for about half the price of a Mac laptop – that's competition at work.
It used to be true that there was a far wider variety of software available for Windows computers. This gap has been narrowed considerably by the advent of free open source software, and eliminated completely by the fact that modern Mac machines can all run Windows software directly (on Windows itself in a virtual machine running on OS/X).
So it all boils down to a personal decision about what's important to you. My own decision: I'm never buying another Windows machine for my own personal use, period. I'll buy Macs, their competition if it ever comes out, and Linux machines. I've used Windows machines for over 20 years, and Macs for 4 years, and there's no doubt at all that I'm more productive, and happier, with a Mac. Enough so that I'll gladly pay the price premium...
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Mac OS/X Tips and Tricks...
An excellent collection. I've been using a Mac for almost four years now, and most of these were new to me. Better yet, a dozen or so are things I want to add to my back of tricks!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sparrow...
According to this review, Sparrow (a $10 app at the Mac store) is a very nice email client for GMail users on the Mac. I'm pretty happy with the web interface myself, but I just might give this a whirl...
Friday, January 28, 2011
Mac Software Recommendations...
Quite a few things on this list that are new to me, and sound interesting...
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Heart-Stopping Geek Experience...
Recently I purchased a Mac “Mini” for my wife. In general I am very pleased with this purchase – the price was right ($800), it reuses components from her old Windows PC (screen, audio, keyboard, and mouse), and it was easier to move her data from her old Windows box to her new Mac Mini than it would have been to migrate to a new Windows computer. And then, of course, she's got OS/X (Leopard) – sleek, beautiful, and zippy – instead of some monstrosity of a Microsoft operating system. Best of all, Debbie (who previously expressed nothing but hatred for her computer) actually likes her new Mac Mini!
But early this morning, as I was attempting to enable file sharing on her new Mac Mini, with a single erroneous click I managed to (temporarily) completely kill it. The steps I took were these: in System Preferences I went to Sharing and added her Mac Mini's hard disk as a shared folder. That worked. Then I noticed that Administrators were granted read only access, and I wanted to limit access to my account – so I removed Administrators from those granted access. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?
Any Mac-heads reading this are probably laughing at my expense right now. What I know now, but didn't know then, is that enabling and disabling access to shared folders operates directly on the file system permissions for that folder. Since the “folder” in this case was the entire disk drive, what I did was to remove access permissions for all Administrators from that disk. And Debbie's account is in the Administrator's group. Oops. Suddenly her account had no access to the disk. Nothing worked. I rebooted the system, and all I got was an unadorned dark blue screen with a mouse pointer. I could do nothing whatsoever.
Of course, I figured all this out only later. At the moment it occurred, I didn't have the faintest idea what I'd done. And truth be told, it is kind of dumb for Apple to allow the Sharing settings to affect basic operations that have nothing to do with sharing...
So I started troubleshooting in the usual way. I Googled for information, and very quickly found out about booting from the installation CD and using Disk Utility to repair permissions on the disk. Whew! Sounded easy! So I grabbed the CD, inserted it, restarted the computer, held down the “C” key to force it to boot from the CD, and started it back up.
Nothing. Just the evil blue screen again.
Back to Google, where I discovered that it's common for wireless keyboards (which I was using) to be unable to use the pre-boot key combinations that allow OS/X to boot into troubleshooting, repair, and installation modes. Well, that's fine – I've got several wired keyboards lying about. So I went grubbing for one with a USB connector and dang it, I didn't even have one! All my wired keyboards use the old-fashioned PS2 connector. I really had no choice – I drove 20 miles into town to go buy a new keyboard. At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday, there isn't much choice about where to go. First I tried Target, but all they had was wireless keyboards. Next I drove another 10 miles to Wally-World (Wal-Mart), and they had several to choose from – all much fancier than I actually needed, so I just picked up the cheapest one they had and hurried home...
When I got home, I plugged in the new keyboard and rebooted, holding down the “C” key, and voila! – it booted from the CD. I was saved!
Well, not quite so fast. First I ran Disk Utility, and used it to first repair the disk drive, then to repair permissions. Both of those completed successfully, pronouncing the disk to be in fine fettle. So I rebooted with the hard disk, and … nothing but the blue screen of horribleness...
Back to Google, where after a frustrating marathon session of searching I found nothing but an obscure reference to permissions on mounted volumes. This gave me the clue that finally saved the day. It turns out that for the purposes of sharing, finder, and some other things, mounted disk volumes are exposed to the file system in the
and that object turned out to have no read or execute permissions for the group. This is the sort of thing only someone familiar with Unix command line operation would be comfortable fixing. Just FYI, here's what did the trick:
Just that little magic incantation, and my wife's Mac Mini came back to life.
Whew!
One little side note… If I had failed in my efforts to fix it myself, I'd have been forced to take the busted-ass Mac Mini into the local Apple store. There, I'd have had to sidle up to the “Genius Bar” to have one of the Apple “Geniuses” (generally pimply kids with baggy, falling down trousers and metal studs and rings penetrating various parts of their bodies). The humiliation of this possibility was a far better motivator for me than the thought of the Wrath of Debbie (my wife). It would be like a Toyota engineer being unable to figure out how to change his car's spark plugs, so he pays the neighbor's 14 year old daughter to do it for him. Oh, the humiliation!
I'm so glad I avoided that!
But early this morning, as I was attempting to enable file sharing on her new Mac Mini, with a single erroneous click I managed to (temporarily) completely kill it. The steps I took were these: in System Preferences I went to Sharing and added her Mac Mini's hard disk as a shared folder. That worked. Then I noticed that Administrators were granted read only access, and I wanted to limit access to my account – so I removed Administrators from those granted access. Sounds innocent enough, doesn't it?
Any Mac-heads reading this are probably laughing at my expense right now. What I know now, but didn't know then, is that enabling and disabling access to shared folders operates directly on the file system permissions for that folder. Since the “folder” in this case was the entire disk drive, what I did was to remove access permissions for all Administrators from that disk. And Debbie's account is in the Administrator's group. Oops. Suddenly her account had no access to the disk. Nothing worked. I rebooted the system, and all I got was an unadorned dark blue screen with a mouse pointer. I could do nothing whatsoever.
Of course, I figured all this out only later. At the moment it occurred, I didn't have the faintest idea what I'd done. And truth be told, it is kind of dumb for Apple to allow the Sharing settings to affect basic operations that have nothing to do with sharing...
So I started troubleshooting in the usual way. I Googled for information, and very quickly found out about booting from the installation CD and using Disk Utility to repair permissions on the disk. Whew! Sounded easy! So I grabbed the CD, inserted it, restarted the computer, held down the “C” key to force it to boot from the CD, and started it back up.
Nothing. Just the evil blue screen again.
Back to Google, where I discovered that it's common for wireless keyboards (which I was using) to be unable to use the pre-boot key combinations that allow OS/X to boot into troubleshooting, repair, and installation modes. Well, that's fine – I've got several wired keyboards lying about. So I went grubbing for one with a USB connector and dang it, I didn't even have one! All my wired keyboards use the old-fashioned PS2 connector. I really had no choice – I drove 20 miles into town to go buy a new keyboard. At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday, there isn't much choice about where to go. First I tried Target, but all they had was wireless keyboards. Next I drove another 10 miles to Wally-World (Wal-Mart), and they had several to choose from – all much fancier than I actually needed, so I just picked up the cheapest one they had and hurried home...
When I got home, I plugged in the new keyboard and rebooted, holding down the “C” key, and voila! – it booted from the CD. I was saved!
Well, not quite so fast. First I ran Disk Utility, and used it to first repair the disk drive, then to repair permissions. Both of those completed successfully, pronouncing the disk to be in fine fettle. So I rebooted with the hard disk, and … nothing but the blue screen of horribleness...
Back to Google, where after a frustrating marathon session of searching I found nothing but an obscure reference to permissions on mounted volumes. This gave me the clue that finally saved the day. It turns out that for the purposes of sharing, finder, and some other things, mounted disk volumes are exposed to the file system in the
/Volumes directory. When I looked in there, I found this:/Volumes/Macintosh HDand that object turned out to have no read or execute permissions for the group. This is the sort of thing only someone familiar with Unix command line operation would be comfortable fixing. Just FYI, here's what did the trick:
chmod go+rx /Volumes/Macintosh HDJust that little magic incantation, and my wife's Mac Mini came back to life.
Whew!
One little side note… If I had failed in my efforts to fix it myself, I'd have been forced to take the busted-ass Mac Mini into the local Apple store. There, I'd have had to sidle up to the “Genius Bar” to have one of the Apple “Geniuses” (generally pimply kids with baggy, falling down trousers and metal studs and rings penetrating various parts of their bodies). The humiliation of this possibility was a far better motivator for me than the thought of the Wrath of Debbie (my wife). It would be like a Toyota engineer being unable to figure out how to change his car's spark plugs, so he pays the neighbor's 14 year old daughter to do it for him. Oh, the humiliation!
I'm so glad I avoided that!
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