Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with X

The processor cost of upgrading

WhackyparseThis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:21:49 -0800

Upgrading from OS X 10.4 to 10.6: Does it use more CPU? I have a Mac Mini 1.66GHz that suffers from overheating problems when placed under stress. I'm looking at upgrading for the extra utilities such as Time Machine and Quicktime Pro, but i am concerned that a newer OS may place more pressure on my weakened computer. Does 10.6 run the computer harder than 10.4?

I'm going to bloody well fix this Xbox myself.

Frasermoo — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:11:33 -0800

Help me fix my Xbox 360. I'm looking for documentation on a tried and tested fix for the red rings on the 360. Having been through multiple consoles, I've decided to try the X clamp fix myself. Has anyone here done it themselves? What instructions did you follow? Was it successful?

Buggy finder OS x 10.5.8

cg2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:43:43 -0800

Buggy finder in OX 10.5.8 Recently my finder has gotten really buggy - even though I have disabled spaces and expose they will spontaneously launch. Also when I open folders in the finder they will flash repeatedly before stopping and letting me click into them. I also have a hard time renaming files by clicking into the file name on the finder. Does anyone have any ideas??? Thanks!!

Need formula to calculate a lease rate factor from a %.

thinktwice — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:05:45 -0800

Need formula to calculate a lease rate factor from a %. I'm not quite sure why I can't get a straight answer on this. So here goes.
Equipment lease have some variables.
Term in months/yrs i.e. 24, 26, 48, 60, 72
Advance payments 0,1,2 (mostly first month or first and last)
end of lease term option $1 Purchase Option, FMV, 10 PUT etc...
Rate factor (usually expressed as a 4-6 digit decimal)

For the purposes of discussion of this specific problem we will be using a 36 month lease, $1 Purchase option, 2 advance payment lease, and 11% rate. Equipment price will be $10,000 as when we get the monthly payment the rate factor can easily be obtained by moving the decimal 4 places to the left. i.e. $300.00 gives a rate factor of .0300.

Using a FinLease calculator from ParanzaSoft we get a monthly payment of $318.91 or rate factor of .0319

Using the FinKit calculator from the same company we get a payment of $321.57 or .0322 factor.

Whatever calculation FinKit is using seems to more closely model the bank's actual rate sheet.

I am wondering why there are such large discrepancies, even within the same software company's different products, and if there is more straightforward method using Excel. (read not with a HP17b - if so is there a HP 17b emulation method in Excel or, more importantly, for OS X)

I would interested in the following formulas
$1 purchase option, FMV @ 10% and 20% residuals.

I have asked several people about this and get wildly differing responses. No wonder we have a financial crisis on our hands.

Really weird Snow Leopard font problem

ferdinandcc — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:51:19 -0800

I just upgraded to Snow Leopard, and since then, some of my fonts are MAJORLY screwed up in iWork '09 (Pages, Keynote and Numbers). Specifically, my entire extended family of Hoefler Text.

Here's a screenshot of what my Hoefler Text fonts look like inside Pages:
http://www.ferdinandcc.org/hoefler1.png

(The menu should read as follows: Engraved, Engraved 2, Roman, Roman Alt, Roman SC, Regular, Italic, Alt, Italic SC, Italic Swash SC, etc.)

And here's Hoefler Text in action (Hoefler Text Regular appears fine, but Italic looks screwed up):
http://www.ferdinandcc.org/hoefler2.png

The fonts worked just fine under Leopard, and also work fine in my other apps I've tested them in (TextEdit, Pagehand, Scrivener), and they also show up just fine in Font Book and Fontcase.

Here's what I've tried so far to repair the issue:

1. I reinstalled the fonts. Didn't work.
2. I used AppZapper to get rid of all traces of iWork, then reinstalled iWork off the disc. Didn't work.
3. I repaired disk permissions. Didn't work.
4. I entirely deleted ALL Hoefler Text font files out of both my user/library and my /library. This is where things got really weird. When I deleted Hoefler Text, it quit appearing in Font Book, TextEdit, etc. but in Pages, et. al it was still there!
5. I purchased FontDoctor and scanned my font folders. No problems there. However, when I copied all my Hoefler Text fonts to a folder on my desktop and then scanned that folder alone, it said the fonts were incompatible with this system (but if that's the case, then why do they work in every other application on my Mac, including Font Book?)

Note: the file type is PostScript Type 1 outline font.

These fonts are very important to me, as they're part of my organization's corporate branding guidelines and are used in all our documents and publications!

jumpy mouse disease

krautland — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:47:01 -0800

my logitech mouse is jumping around frantically on os x. it's behaving completely normally one second and then it's off somewhere entirely different the other. lots of details inside. I purchased a logitech RX720 mouse a while back without realizing it was meant for windows only. being the hackjob that it is logitech's own control center refused to accept it accordingly and the site didn't provide any drivers. not to worry, macs still let you use such mice, they just don't have customizable a right button. alas, I wanted that right button, so I installed steer mouse, which I was assured was much better. fast forward a week of perfect behavior and my mouse is back to jumping around.

here's what I've tried thus far:

- I have changed batteries.
- I have uninstalled steer mouse and just used 10.4.11 to run the mouse.
- I have changed the surface below the mouse (it's an optical mouse. I tried a black mousepad, a yellow folder, a white piece of paper).
- I've tried to look for obvious smudges though I avoided looking into the laser hole for obvious reasons. or am I being overly cautious?

I'm ready to throw this dreck into the can and accept that this mouse (which sadly I can no longer return) needs to be replaced. other mice previously worked well with my mac book pro. I don't know what the issue is.

you are this little logitech mouse last hope. share ideas of suggest a painless death for it because I am ready to go postal on it.

Please help with an easy Filemaker problem!

smersh — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:38:16 -0800

How do you create repeating fields in Filemaker so that I can organize my karaoke songs by disc instead of by artist? I'm bought a few karaoke games for the PS3 and I want to create a database for people to be able to flip through to find the song they want.

My knowledge of Filemaker is a bit limited, but I know this is possible: Basically, I want to create a database that lists each song and artist by disc so that it's easy to find what a person wants to sing next.

The Music Library template that Filemaker 10 comes with is close to what I want, and I've modified most of the fields to suit my needs.

Here's my problem:

On the right-hand side of the Music Library template, it has the option to type out the track names. If you press return, it'll automatically create another field to write another song name. I want to use that AND create a field for Artist name as well.

I just can't figure out how to auto-create the Artist field over and over in the same fashion as the Track field.

I hope this is making sense to you (it should if you check out the template and create a couple of tracks). Basically, I want to create a field for Artist, then Track name and then have those two fields repeated. Right now, the template is Artist-centric. This way, it'd be disc-centric (essential since there's twenty artists on one disc).

Thanks for the help

How much is "some" in C programming?

joshrholloway — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:45:51 -0800

How much of C do I need to learn before moving on to Cocoa, and what's the best resource for learning it? I'm very interested in programming for the Mac and iPhone, but I have no real prior programming experience. On the recommendation of an AskMeFi answer, I bought the latest edition of the Hillegass book. However, it states something like "this book was written for those who already know some C programming and something about objects." So how much is "some"? What resources will best help me learn the parts of C I need to know before moving on to Cocoa? I want to hit the ground running, so if there is a good crash course out there, what is it?Are there any video resources?

Kerb-what?

liquado — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:14:25 -0800

Please hope an OS X/Open Directory/Kerberos n00b -- I can't reset the directory administrator's password in OS X Server 10.4. I'm helping a local school with some connectivity issues between their 10.4.11 server, and their swanky new 24" iMacs with 10.5.6; all kinds of permissions issues that are, according to Apple, related to an unconfigured DNS/Open Directory situation.

I know basic OSX Server configuration, but I am very unfamiliar with OD. I'm following these instructions from Apple successfully so far, but I'm hitting a brick wall were either:

a) someone has set the username/password for the diradmin user prior to my attempt to do so, or

b) the password has never been set, but the server is not allowing me to set said password.

Assuming the former, I found these instructions on resetting the diradmin password, but...I'm stuck at, "Open Workgroup Manager using your administrator username and password and navigate to the Open Directory Master node." I see no node. There's no node, dammit!

If it's the latter, any ideas why it will not allow me to set the password from the server admin OD panel? It asks for it to be set up each time, but doesn't appear to set it.

Any advice SUPERLY appreciated.

Zebra label printer. Mac OS X. Solution?

reeddavid — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:19:40 -0800

Need OS X print drivers for the Zebra Z4000 thermal label printer. Does anyone have a working solution cheaper than this $225 driver from Peninsula Group in UK? CUPS does not support zebra (and besides, I need some product-specific functionality in order to configure the size, length and type of labels). This printer was discontinued in 2004 and was replaced with the Zebra Z4MPlus, which was subsequently replaced by the Zebra ZM400. I can't find Mac drivers for any of them besides the aforementioned expensive option. I think Endicia might be able to print postage labels on this printer, but I want to be able to print from other applications as well.

How do I make one X server display everything the same as another X server?

mathlete — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:42:51 -0800

How do I make one X server display everything the same as another X server? I have an X server with two screens, say foo:0.0 and foo:0.1. I have another X server with two screens, say bar:0.0 and bar:0.1.

I want screen bar:0.0 to display everything on screen foo:0.1. In other words, if anything is sent to foo:0.1, it should also be sent to bar:0.0. I'd prefer not to change either X configuration.

Is this possible? If so, what's the best way to do this?

Quicktime movies won't delete!

musofire — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:03:55 -0800

(Mac OS 10.5) Is Quicktime hiding files from me? When Quicktime plays a movie file for me, it shows up as a "Recent" file in the Quicktime menu. But even if I throw the file in the trash, and delete the trash, it is still somehow able to play the movie. I can't find the file by searching for its name. But yet, there it is.

Where are these files hiding, and how can I find and delete them?

OS X 10.5.6 Dock remains hidden

the_binary_blues — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:20:33 -0800

I have OS X 10.5.6 and Logitech V470 bluetooth mouse. 1. When I hide the dock it stays hidden and there is no way for me to get the dock to reappear without turning off autohide 2. My courser works sporadically a. sometimes it will only work on some area's of the screen b. sometimes it won't recognize clicks Are these related? and can I fix this? will the plist file removal work?

my computer is:
I have a macbook 2.16GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
with 2GB of SDRAM
running OS X 10.5.6

Free de-duper for mac?

catatethebird — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:37:56 -0800

What is a good FREEWARE duplicate file remover for mac os x? I just switched from windows to a new macbook pro, and I've got a lot of dupes - music, pics, and other documents and files. I only want to delete exact duplicates, not different versions of songs or pics that were edited and left under the same name.
I used Doublekiller in windows because it compared checksums, and allowed you to see the location of each dupe and choose which to delete. I haven't been able to find anything similar for mac.
If there are no freeware programs that do this can anyone reccomend a (cheap) paid app with those capabilities?
Searches don't lead to anything that seems to do quite what I want.

Make my mac a speed demon!

wongcorgi — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:47:40 -0800

Performance tuning OS X, how/where to start? I just picked up an Macbook Air and have read a lot of stories about beach balling, and poor performance in general. I did get the faster CPU and SSD model but I'd like to squeeze as much as I can out of it.

Are there any guides to help tweak OS X for maximum performance? Such as anything like Service Control manager for Windows, and the associated guides (ie. Black Viper's).

I've done a lot of tweaking on the windows side and wouldn't mind killing non essential stuff like printing, bonjour, ipod , etc..

Is this the command to list running services (i found this for 10.3)...?

"/sbin/service --list",

rockin' remote desktop style

crapples — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:02:13 -0800

My friend and I want to be able to work on the same Garageband file on a server somehow. Is there a way to set up one of our machines as a server that both of us can access? We are not on the same network (in fact we are a thousand miles away from each other). We are both using OS X Leopard.

How can a script ask for user input under X?

ghost of a past number — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:18:19 -0800

What's a good way to make a script pop up an input box under X? Bonus points for blind password entry support and visual integration with XFCE. I want to make a shell script that requires a small amount of user input --- a username/password pair for an openvpn connection --- that will be launched from a pannel button in XFCE.

I'm looking for a way to pop up an input box, collect the input and return it to my script without going to the trouble of writing a full-blown X application.

I know there are graphical openvpn front-ends out there, as well as ways to store the login credentials, but I keep coming accross this question from time to time and would like to find an reusable solution.

Installing Direct X for XP

fantasticninety — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:29:18 -0800

Can anyone help me install Dirext X on my Windows PC laptop? I've been trying to install Direct X 9 on my Windows PC laptop and it's not working. I download the 20 kb file to the desktop which is supposed to link up to the internet to download the real file and it doesn't connect properly.

Is there a link to the actual Direct X 9 which I can install?

I've installed this one and it's not enough to play the game.

I can't get this one to install.

Could I run this game on a Mac if I bought Boot Camp? In other words, does Boot Camp come with Direct X 9?

Thanks so much for anyone who has the patience to waddle through this.

Software for .gpx files on a Mac

jcdill — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:50:32 -0800

Software to process and display (map, etc.) .gpx files on a Mac I don't have a GPS yet, although a friend is sending me her old unit. Today I went on a mountain bike ride with a group, and someone else had a GPS with him and recorded our ride. After the ride, I downloaded the .gpx file from his GPS to my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.5.5). I uploaded the file to a site (mapmyride.com) to map the ride, which was cool. I'd like to map the ride on my Mac, and also map the altitude changes, etc. It would be super to find software that was open source or freeware.

How to make finder display a previously ejected usb deivce

alitorbati — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:05:57 -0800

How do I make my mac recognize an already plugged in usb device? If I attach a usb device to my mac, it automatically shows up in my finder sidebar and when I am finished using it, I can simply click the eject button next to it.
If I don't disconnect the device, is there any way to make finder refresh the 'Places' heading? Is there any way to make the device show up besides unplugging it and plugging it back in?

Onomatopoeia x

Penelope — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:19:46 -0800

Onomatopoeia for letter X I'm writing a book and need an onomatopoeia word for the letter "X". Googling has got me nowhere. Any literary types out there that could help me out? Thanks!

Where does mac store thumbnails of photos and videos?

guptaxpn — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:33:01 -0800

Where does mac store thumbnails of photos and videos? e.g. Finder thumbnails an SD disk I have plugged in that I pulled out of my digital camera. (where are those thumbnails?) e.g. A folder of movies are thumbnailed.

Mouse Logging in OS X

wackoacko — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:35:32 -0800

How-to log mouse coordinates in OS X? Want to log all mouse movement in OS X and save it to a text file. Think mouse-logger rather than key-logger.

Can get coords with applescript but can get it to work system wide...

How to record webcam video in OS X (w/o iSight)

phaedrus441 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:28:12 -0800

How can I record video with my (no iSight) webcam in OS X? I have a Macbook Pro with a Dell SP2208WFP monitor that has an integrated webcam. I always keep the laptop stowed away, and can use photobooth, Skype, etc. with the monitor's webcam, but how can I record video from it??

IS there a way to password protect one app from running on OS X ?

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:04:19 -0800

Is there a way to password protect one application from running on Mac OS X? Ideally, I would like to keep Adium from ever running without an admin authentication being provided immediately prior to it running. Specifically, I would like to prevent either Firefox or Adium from running, even when I am logged in, assuming I have quit both applications before walking away from the computer. Please do not tell me to setup seperate user accounts, I know how to do that. I am asking how to lock firefox and adium out from running without admin privleges.