Whenever we purpose a story about trouble-shoot Macs , some folks around here get uneasy . “ What problems ? ” they ask . “ How could you even suggest that the World ’s Most Perfect Computer has problem ? ” Well , we sleep with our Macs as much as anyone . But we ’re well past that item in the relationship when we idealize them and ignore their flaw . We ’ve strain a more mature point , where we fix the flaws we can and accept those we ca n’t . gauge from reader reactions to our May 2006 feature article , “ OS Adam First attention , ” it looks like many of you are with us .
First aid responders
Russ Hodes — Thanks for Ted Landau ’s excellent , concise clause about troubleshooting your Mac ( “ OS X First Aid , ” May 2006 ) . This one outlet alone is worth the price of a year ’s subscription . By the way , my most useful troubleshooting dick is a handwritten logbook . I register every major variety I make to the scheme — adding new hardware and covering or determine problems . That book aid me keep running of the change that any good client support person will ask about .
Greg Seecof — Regarding your advice on fixing program that keep doss : The 2nd footstep excuse Safe Relaunch mode , which thrust OS X to supplant the covering ’s preferences file . Curiously , after installing an group O ex update last week , I find out I could no longer work Apple ’s Final Cut Express . I adjudicate the Safe Relaunch trick , but that did n’t fix the trouble , nor did any of the other method described in your article . What eventually did fix it was moving the preferences single file to my desktop , and then relaunching Final Cut Express .
Joseph Japes — The most important thing to do after an applications programme clangour is to notify the developer so they can report the problem to Apple , fix it , or help you solve the job .
Anthony P. Barone — A booster recently gave me his old Pismo PowerBook , which had n’t been started in more than a yr . When I pressed the inauguration push button , nothing happened . I essay reset the PMU , reseating the random access memory , using a dissimilar power cord and different battery , and every trick I have it away , but nothing worked . Finally , after searching Apple ’s Knowledge Base and posting some message on discussion board , I found a fixture . After taking off the keyboard and murder the ocular drive , I disconnected the battery . When I constrict the startup clitoris , the data processor came back to life . After keep out it down again , I reconnected the electric battery . The computer has worked just all right ever since .
Don Smith — Here ’s a slight trick for figuring out which login items might be causing problem : Disablehalfof them on the first try . If the trouble is gone , you only take to check the items in that half of the inclination . If the problem remains , chequer the other one-half . you could repeat this obviate - one-half approach until you pin down it down to one detail .
Your syncing feelings
Chris Fanta — I was really glad to read “ keep Your Macs in Sync ” ( Mobile Mac , May 2006 ): However , I reckon you should have mention another way to synchronize dad mail business relationship . After selecting an account in Entourage ( Tools : explanation ) , double - press an account , select the Options check , and then select Leave A Copy Of Each Message On Server and Delete Message On Server When Deleted From This auto . Apple Mail does n’t give you the alternative of deleting a message from the host when you edit it from your local machine , but you could set it to mechanically remove messages after a certain period of time . As long as you agree your messages from your various machine often , this method acting should do much the same thing .
The trouble with this method is that it is n’t really syncing : your POP server wo n’t keep track of which messages you ’ve read , respond to , or forwarded , nor will content you ’ve filed into mailboxes on one simple machine appear in those mailboxes on another . A well solvent is IMAP ; see Mobile Mac , July 2006.—Ed .
Joel Sercel — One of the recommended overture to syncing e - mail in “ hold Your Macs in Sync ” ( Mobile Mac , May 2006 ) — namely , copying mailboxes from one computer to another — is potentially grave , because it can overwrite messages . A much good overture would be to web the two Macs and then consequence mailboxes . This will draw out content from one machine to the other without peril of overwriting .
We said quite intelligibly that the copy - over mathematical operation is risky . importation is even bad than syncing , because you ca n’t import messages into their existing mailboxes . importation make Modern mailboxes , so you ’ll terminate up with duplicate mailboxes and many twinned messages.—Ed .
Virology 101
Ron Leppke — Regarding “ Mac Virus Attack ” ( Mac Beat , May 2006 ): I experience much more secure on my Mac than my Quaker do on their Windows machines . I do n’t know a single Mac user who has ever reported finding a virus on his or her system of rules . I have read through many of the Mac sites and have n’t regain any grounds of a single Mac computer virus . That more the great unwashed than ever use Mac OS and that the Mac now has Intel chips are irrelevant . What subject are the basic safeguards that are made potential by OS X ’s Unix basis and the science of Apple ’s technologist .
Same old Quark
Jesus Ali—“Killer XPress Time - Savers ” ( produce , May 2006 ) endanger precisely why QuarkXPress is dead in the water . I have n’t used XPress for more than three years , and yet I recognized 90 percent of the bakshish . When my college computer lab switched to Mac OS X 10.2 , I was hale to apply Adobe InDesign . At first I was horror-stricken , but I ’ve never looked back . I love InDesign for its flawless typographic and PDF exportation power — feature article that XPress users must still stick out through hoops to employ .
Just deserts
Daniel Scherl — In your May 2006Mac 911column , there is a problem that I think involve to be addressed . On page 90 , there is a sidebar titled , “ The Desert Island Question . ” It should have been “ The Deserted Island Question . ” Though some islands are indeed deserts , most are not . If the island is n’t a desert , there could still be other people there — a possibility that contradicts the point of the sidebar .
No reason to switch
Matt Blitz — As a originative professional person who use a treble - core G5 , I ca n’t imagine why anyone would advance to an Intel Mac until Adobe and Microsoft come out with cosmopolitan version of Creative Suite and Office ( “ Where Are Adobe and Microsoft?”Mac Beat , May 2006 ) . From all the reports I ’ve read , we ca n’t carry to see Universal interlingual rendition of these two pieces of software for at least six months . So any professional who is currently running Photoshop or InDesign is bound to notice a processing retardation of most 50 percent on an Intel Mac . I can understand someone upgrade from , say , an 800MHz G4 iMac or something equally slow . But I doubt that a majority of us pros in the real world will be jumping on the Intel bandwagon until Adobe jumps first .
Feedback feedback
Tony Thompson — InFeedback ( May 2006 ) , Bruce Carey wrote that “ people feel they have the rightfield to make a copy of a copyrighted work and then give it to someone else . ” People should have this belief , because it ’s right , as long as the copy is for personal use . The right of first publication law says so . What people ca n’t do is give away many copies . How many is “ many ? ” No one knows .
