Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with X

Is this configuration of street names unique?

ricochet biscuit — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:21:48 -0800

This recent question on street names brought to mind something I have wondered about for years: in my old hometown, there are three consecutive parallel streets called Tuxedo, Huxley and Wexford. As a word-obsessed kid, I reflected on the relative rarity of the letter X in English and guessed there was likely no other place on the planet where three adjacent streets all had names with an X in them. Can anyone think of away to confirm or deny my childhood suspicion?

Does this feature which exists for Word for Windows exist in Mac Word?

professor plum with a rope — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:15:24 -0800

If I'm using Word for Windows, I can double click at the bottom of a page to create one big page. But if I double click at the bottom of a document inside Word on MacOS it opens up the footer prompt. Does Word for Mac have a similar "join pages" feature?

MacOSX: Create a new user, move safest bits over from my old user?

sdis — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 08:47:03 -0800

MacbookProFilter: I migrated my old user onto my new macbook, and carried with it a bunch of problems (slow startup, rapid battery life loss, etc.). Is there a clever, systematic way to migrate chunks of my user account to a new user? I don't exactly need to find the culprit(s) that are causing all the issues; I just want a machine that works well, but I'd rather not just delete all my preferences and passwords and start over from scratch completely if it's not necessary. Is there some app or guide that shows precisely which parts of a user account are 99% safe to migrate?

Can you annotate folders in OS X?

bluefly — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:02:42 -0800

On my work computer (Mac OS 10.7.5), I usually organize my projects by putting all the files related to a single project in a single folder. I try to give the folder a descriptive name, but sometimes this is difficult if there are two projects that are kinda similar. Is there a way (either natively or using some tool that I can download/buy) to annotate folders with a longer description? I'd like it if I could search these annotations in Spotlight. Right now, I just have an Excel sheet with the list of folder names and their descriptions, but sometimes when I'm working quickly, I wish I could just right click and write a quick sentence to describe the project. And it would be cool to right click or hover or whatever on a folder and get its description. Some tool/feature like this should already be invented; what is it?

for the love of god, make VLC 2.0.2 work on my finicky mac minis

bhance — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:23:48 -0800

Help me make the finicky mac minis play well with VLC I have several mac minis, all the same model (mac mini aluminum, macmini4,1 - Intel core duo 2.4) running OS X 10.6.6. Yes, they're behind a few versions, frozen there for a specific app incompatibility. This cannot change. And they've all got nvidia geforce 320m's in them.

All but a handful of these mac minis run VLC 2.0.2 (pointed at multicast streams) just fine, with no errors. The two that don't give me an error: "Your video output is not supported. Your mac lacks quartz extreme acceleration, which is required for video output."

Yes, I've Googled this to death, and the solutions haven't worked - i.e. try prior VLC versions, try adjusting screen resolution, try setting specific output modules under preferences - output modules etc. All those links in the VLC forums that you may be about to add here, I've seen them, and tried them. Still failing.

No, there is literally no difference (software or hardware) between these mac minis and the rest that I can find.

Has anyone else seen this? Anyone have a fix?

Clicky clicky

littlerobothead — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:32:29 -0800

Moving windows or palettes around in Photoshop CS5.1 on Mac OS X 10.7.3 is a total nightmare. This is the only app giving me this problem. Halp. This is a Macbook Air with Lion 10.7.3 on it. I use an Apple Magic mouse. The problem is that when I attempt to drag any window or palette around the Photoshop workspace, it's as if I've released the mouse button too early. The window moves a few pixels and then jumps back to it's original location. I've dumped my PS settings, fiddled with the mouse Control Panel; I've got no ideas at all at this point. My other machine is a 24" iMac that's otherwise identical in terms of setup and it does not have this issue.

By the way, the Macbook Air does this even when I'm using the trackpad.

Any ideas before I pull all my hair out?

Help me with me new (used) MacBook Pro

dbirchum — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:30:45 -0800

Inherited a MacBook Pro! Looking for some help/guidance for a PC user. Greetings all. I have been a lifelong PC user (out of necessity - cost/affordability of PCs). I used a Mac for a couple of years when I was in university (15+ years ago) and loved them. I vowed to get one again when I could afford it. Long story short, I have always opted for the cheaper PC versions for my home computers and I currently have an aging laptop and fairly new desktop.

Anyway, I recently "inherited" a Mac computer from my brother in law! I helped him move this weekend and he gave me his "old" Mac laptop for assisting him (and doing all of the heavy lifting). He recently purchased a MacBook Air which he is in love with and he also has an iPad 2, so there was no need for him to have the older Pro. Granted, he did say it has been giving him some "issues" recently (he didn't elaborate) and that the battery no longer performs that well (which I am ok with as I will mostly be using it plugged in).

Anyway, I am completely new to the Mac world. I literally plugged it in the other night, turned it on, went through the set-up process and checked my email through Safari. Everything went smooth thus far (I think).

Without sounding like a total idiot, I didn't even know what "type" of MacBook Pro it was (what year it was released, how old it was, the monitor size, if it was one of those aluminum ones, what version of OS it ran, etc). I did some basic Google searches and found out (with the last 3 digits of the serial number YJX) that it is a MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.4 from 2008? (I think). I know it is running Mac OS X 10.5.8 (as I checked it last night).

Therefore, as a long PC user and relatively new to the Mac environment (I have an iPhone and had several iPods including a Touch, so I am not completely new to the Apple, iTunes and the App world), is there anything I should know? I am finding the layout of the file management system a little weird, but I am sure I can get used to it.

I did an "update" last night (under the Apple icon for the software update) and it now seems to be up to date (I downloaded ALL of the recommended updates). Some of the things that I am wondering:

- Are there any basic scans that I should do to see if this Mac is running smooth and there are no underlying issues with it? (as I said, he noted that he had been having some issues with it lately)
- Are their any basic tests I can do to see if the battery life is a problem (and if it is, can I buy a battery and replace it myself?)
- Is there any software that I should get for the Mac (including an apps I should buy from the Mac store)?
- I have been hearing that Macs don't get viruses as often as PCs. Is this really true? Or should I get a virus scanner and/or Malware scanner?
- I am trying to get iChat started, but I can't (it seems to have skipped the initial set-up stage – I wasn’t given the option to set it up) and I don't know how to get back to set it up
- I want to check out the Mac App store but I don’t think I can from my computer/software. Is this the case?
- Is this the reason why I can’t use FaceTime?
- What about accessories? Do I need a keyboard cover/protector, etc.

Again, I am looking for BASIC information, as I have this beautiful machine sitting home waiting for me to play with it and i have NO idea what to do?

Anyway advice would be appreciated (and please be nice)...Thanks!

I'm sorry Dacoit, I'm afraid I can't do that ...

dacoit — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:04:03 -0800

Please hope me! Far from home and locked out of my Mac due to international language keyboard issue. Thanks for reading ... and here's a puzzle for you advanced Mac-heads out there:

I'm visiting Istanbul and learning Turkish, so I've had my (recent model) MacBook Air's keyboard set to "Turkish-QWERTY", and my account login password was a Turkish word ("hoşgeldiniz"). All of which worked great until the other day when, before writing an email in English, I switched the keyboard setting back to "standard US".

Oh no! Ever since, every time I try to log in to my Mac I get rejected. That's because the US keyboard can not, in any way, make the ş in my password. And the big catch-22 is that it seems to be impossible to switch back to the Turkish keyboard without first logging in!

I can't believe that something so simple would brick my computer. Worst of all, I don't have any kind of system recovery chip, and I'm in Istanbul where there's no Genius Bar. And finally, just to round things out, I have the flu and am running a 102º fever. Help ...?

Starting GeekTool in the background?

tommasz — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:09:52 -0800

I have GeekTool v3.0.1 running on 10.6.8. How can I get it to start up on login and just run in the background? I added it to my startup items and it starts up just fine but it starts up in the "edit" mode and I just want my geeklets to run, not edit them.

I have the version installed from the Mac App Store that isn't a Pref Pane but a .app, if that's significant.

How do MRI and x ray work

Postroad — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:48:03 -0800

MRI ...what it shows and x ray missed Had inflamed right knee. Orthopedist took x ray and said nothing there to be cause (gave Cortizone shots etc) and sent me for physical therapy..did nothing, so went to new doctor. He sent me for MRI. Discovered I had fracture. Question: why doesn't x ray show fracture?
Doctor said I need brace on knee for some two months and if that did not fix things, knee replacement. Question: how, after two months, can he tell if it worked or not unless I get another MRI?

fix my chrome!

HuronBob — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:00:52 -0800

I'm using Chrome (14.0.835.202) on os x (10.7.2). For a while now, I've noticed that, typically, when I do a google search, wanting to just check the wikipedia page for that search term, I type the term in, along with the word wikipedia (such as "whatever wikipedia") in the past this always brought me to a search page with the whatever wikipedia page as the first hit, and now the following happens: for a second or two I get a result page that will show, as the first search item, the wikipedia page for "whatever," but, within a couple of seconds, the search result page changes (with my doing nothing) with other search results at the top (I just went through the first 8 pages of search results for "metafilter wikipedia" and the metafilter wikipedia page doesn't show up at all (although it did flash for a second before that result page refreshed and changed without being asked to!). This used to work like a charm for me, what's changed and how can I change it back? Things are normal in firefox, it responds as I expect it to...

Help me reverse engineer this UFO

Bohemia Mountain — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:07:57 -0800

Can you help me setup my airport wireless network without an actual H.G. Wells time machine? So my roommate moved out and took his airport extreme base station with him. I used to have an airport station of my own, but gifted it to a friend over a year ago. A friend at work brought me a new-in-box original UFO style Airport base station from 2001. It's the model that still has the built in 56k modem. It is 802.11b compliant. So I had a fun unboxing time with the original packaging, plugged it in to my dsl, and it works just fine. I can see the 'Apple Network xxx blah' connect to it and get online just fine.

The trouble is that even through Airport Admin Utility, I can't actually get in to the base station to update the firmware, set a network name, security etc. Scanning for the base station doesn't come up on my MBP using the utility. My MBP is running 10.6.6, and I have an old macbook running 10.4.11. The older macbook can see it in airport admin utility but it pops up an error saying that it doesn't support that base station. I would like to be able to access it, update it's firmware, and set it up securely.

I tried using the install CD for the airport setup, but it requires OS 10.1 so that's a no-go. I've been searching for the original software/system CD for my old macbook, but I can't find it, otherwise I would just back up that machine, and start from scratch simply to set-up this base station. I don't want an unsecured network. Any ideas on what I can do here? (extra detail, I've tried connecting with my macbook wireless and via ethernet cable directly to the base station, hasn't made a difference). Sub-question: anyone in Pasadena, CA running OS 10.1 who wants free beer and eternal thanks from me for coming over to help? :)

Is it possible to mix the live iSight video stream?

SteveLambert — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:42:00 -0800

Using OS X, is it possible to show a photo in my live iSight video stream? (not using iChat) I'd like to create a live video stream on my site without using uStream or some other service. I'd also like the ability to switch to a photo or slide show and back to video.

I imagine there's some way I can mix the input of that video feed before it gets uploaded. I'd like to find the simplest, unbranded way I can do it without writing a program myself. Any ideas?

I realize what I want may be unfeasible so any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!

The problem is, I googled Google in Google Chrome. I destroyed the internet.

aristan — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:46:16 -0800

Yes, I've tried forcing an unexpected reboot, but I can't access Google, Gmail, or Twitter. Weirdly, Microsoft.com, Hotmail, Facebook, and Bing (and obviously AskMe!) all load with no problem whatsoever. And it's only affecting this computer (the only OS X machine) on the network! The problem is, I googled Google in Google Chrome. I destroyed the internet. But I'm hoping I'm wrong.

Today, when I got home from work, I wasn't able to access my email, search on google, or view Twitter in browser or via the Twitter app. This is only affecting my computer, which also happens to be the only OS X machine in a mostly Windows house!

I tested in Firefox 4, Chrome 10.0.6, & Safari 5.0.3. Running OS X 10.6.6. In Chrome, I receive the error "Error 102 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED): Unknown error." Safari gives me "Safari can’t open the page “http://www.google.com/” because Safari can’t connect to the server “www.google.com”."

What I've done so far, though not in any particular order:
- Uninstalled new programs (which happened to be Firefox 4)
- changed DNS servers from OpenDNS back to my dsl provider's (Windstream)
- flushed DNS in terminal
- removed all Wacom Tablet drivers because this one guy on the internet swore that was the problem.
- restarted the router and modem
- tested connection on speedtest, no problems found.
- tested connection on pingtest, didn't work (lost all packets).
- ran network utility and ran ping on google.com, no packets lost, all sent and received. Repeated for Yahoo.com, same results. Repeat for Bing.com, lost 1 packet out of 10.
- ran network utility and ran traceroute for google.com, no route to host. Same results for yahoo.com. Repeat for Bing.com and got proper traceroute.
- cleared browsing data in all browsers.
- Rebooted the system several times, even after that one time where all I did was empty the trash.

Apple.com and Amazon.com work sometimes, but sometimes they don't. Google sites (google, gmail, etc), yahoo, and twitter never work. Microsoft and Bing always work.

Who's number 2?

garlic — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 07:33:52 -0800

According to Representative Mike Pence, Planned Parenthood is the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X. Who's the second largest? How far down the ordered list by dollar amount would you have to go to find a large scale family planning organization that doesn't also provide abortions, which Pence says is the goal of his amendment?

Not breaking the law

bhb — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:44:31 -0800

I’m looking for an old, rare mp3. iTunes is a no-go. Help? I’m looking for a specific song: New World by X. iTunes has a live version, but that’s not what I’m looking for.

I don’t want to straight rip it:
a.) That’s crappy
b.) I can’t find a P2P, because I am no longer a devious teenager

Does anyone know how or where I could pay for this one song?

Safari Password Recovery

Samizdata — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:09:43 -0800

Safari Password Recovery - I want to recover login information from a site I used on Safari on OS X 10.4. There is a site I would like to be able to access from another machine.

[caveat]I have an old Sawtooth PowerPC, so an OS X upgrade is out of the question.[caveat]

There is a password protected site I used to visit on the Mac, using various versions of Safari under OS 10.4. They will be changing site addresses soon, which breaks the stored credentials. I would like to be able to see the site at the new address, but I suspect the password is stored in a cookie, as I can find nothing about the site using Keychain Access. I would just recover/change the password via the site, but I cannot access my account information, due to the domain change underway, and I no longer have access to the email account I used on the site. Also, it is, ahem, an invite only site, so that's out too.

I've not dug my paws deeply enough into cookies on the Mac to know where to look or much about cookie storage via Safari. I would try XMarks, but it is not available for 10.4.

Any suggestions, oh Mac-savvier group mind?

Good program/script/anything to organize movie downloads on OS X Mac?

Patbon — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:43:04 -0800

Looking for suggestions for how to automate the process of tagging/renaming downloaded movie files on a Macbook so that they're not long strings of technical nonsense. Some background:
I've been using the excellent tvnamer utility for a while now to organize my tv downloads from Usenet on my Mac. tvnamer takes care of renaming all my files so that the filenames are easily readable by humans. Example "Its.Always.Sunny.in.Philadelphia.S06E12.HDTV.XviD-FEVER.avi" becomes "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia [6x12] - Dee Has a Baby.avi". It accomplishes this by comparing information in the original filename to an online database of TV show information. Additionally, tvnamer will also move these files to my NAS under the appropriate folder (ex. TV > Always Sunny > Season 6)

What I'm looking for:
What I'm looking for is a similar tool/utility/app/script that can be used for movies. This would be something that parses the filename, determines what movie it is, then renames it accordingly. For example turning "Unstoppable.2010.R5.V2.LiNE.AC3.XViD-iNK" into just something like "Unstoppable 2010". Bonus points if it can automatically organize the movies into some useful folder structre (by year released or something), but all I really would like is the renaming.

Not looking for any suggestions on scripts to write myself, just searching for existing solutions.

I think Lynx broke my Mac's Internets

XerxesQados — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:03:08 -0800

I decided to test my website in Lynx for OS X, but for some reason it loaded a version from May. Now, whenever I load the front page from any other browser on my computer, it displays that old version. This doesn't happen when I view it from my phone or any other computer, so it's definitely my computer, not my site. But I can't imagine what it could be. Anyone know what I might have done? Yes, I have:

- Tried clearing my browsers' caches.
- Tried rebooting.
- Tried from a different Wifi connection.

Nothing worked.

Help Me Record a Live Screencast that is Stored In the Cloud

Merlin144 — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 10:28:04 -0800

What (if any) solutions are out there to record a Live Screencast, and have this screencast stored *in the cloud* immediately? Specifially, I have a slooow internet connection and I am recording training videos (screencasts) while giving training over the web. My connection is fast enough for the screencast, but it will take FOREVER to upload these videos!!
So - I need a solution that can capture my screen and store it on a website, or S3, or comparable, without having to UPLOAD it. Also, this is on OS X, not windows.

Any ideas?
I know about all the usual screencasting softwares eg camtasia/screenflow/etc. I'm looking for something different that specifically meets the need above. Thank you!!

It burns! It burns! (my lcd projector lens)

craniac — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:24:38 -0800

Our classroom lcd projector was left on for too long and the lens was burned, according to our tech. This makes everything it projects have a yellowish tinge. Is there any way to adjust the output on a mac mini to compensate for this? I have to run off to class but I can include specifics about the projector in just a moment.

Boot Camp Hell

bad grammar — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:14:45 -0800

Mac OS X 10.6.3 and Windows 7 not getting along in Boot Camp. I installed Snow Leopard on my older (2006) MacBook (from 10.4.11), then used Boot Camp to install Windows 7 Home Edition, 32-bit. I have a 2 GHz Intel processor and plenty of free disk space, I thought. Windows seemed to install smoothly, but when I returned to Mac OS X, there is something very wrong with it.

The wait cursor (aka the "spinning beach ball of death") appears with almost every action and hangs for as long as several minutes, though most applications eventually work, it is impossible to do anything. The clock is also off.

I tried logging back into Windows and shutting down to make sure that was not still running, then restarting in Mac OS X. The beach ball problem persists.

Since I had been running upgrades and installations for hours, I wondered if letting the hardware cool for awhile would help; I'll see how Mac OS X is feeling in the morning.

Should I (a) quit processes that are still running, and how can I find them? (b) use Disk Utility to adjust the size of the partition and repair the HD? (c) start up from the Snow Leopard DVD and repair the HD from there? (d) wipe everything and reinstall both Snow Leopard and Windows 7? I have backed up all my files on flash drives.

Since the MacBook is 4 years old it may be time for a new one, but I am not happy with that outcome, my wallet being already dented by +$350 worth of OS software (I had to buy Mac Box, not having upgraded to Leopard, and I did not own a previous version of Windows).

If I buy a shiny new MacBook computer with Snow Leopard all ready to go, can I expect to have this much trouble installing Windows 7 in Boot Camp?

In OS X, How do I disable the Cmd-F1 display mirroring keyboard shortcut?

kpmcguire — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:39:34 -0800

In Mac OS X, how can I disable the Cmd-F1 keyboard shortcut? I use a Macbook Pro, with an external monitor hooked up, and set to extend my display.

I keep accidentally hitting Cmd-F1 when I mean to hit Cmd-1. Cmd-F1 toggles display mirroring. All my windows are then moved into one desktop. When I toggle display mirroring again, everything is mostly fine, except all the windows that were on the other monitor are now all in one, so I have to reorganize everything.

This isn't really that big of a deal, it doesn't take long to organize everything again, but I am really surprised that there isn't an easy way to disable this. Googling has failed me. It seems like every other shortcut is editable/disable-able, except for this one.

Here are few caveats:

1) Please, don't recommend anything related to Spaces. I've tried it, and I can't stand it.

2) This only seems to happen when I am using Fireworks (which is a job requirement.) I've tried remapping the Cmd-1 key, but it never seems to take. I would also consider this problem solved if you can tell me how to successfully remap keyboard shortcuts in fireworks.

3) Is it possible to disable display-mirroring system wide? I can only imagine using it give a presentation, and I don't think that's something I'll ever do.

Tell me more about my gay genes!

Tchad — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:31:32 -0800

So I'm gay. Turns out a lot of folks in my extended family are as well. What are the odds? Has anyone studied extended family charting specifically? So I'm gay. Turns out a lot of my extended family are as well.

I had an long conversation with a distant cousin the other day. She was talking about problems my 2nd cousin (my father's first cousin's daughter) has had since she came out as a lesbian. We then started talking about various family members and she threw something my way that blows my mind.

Turns out, out all of the offspring of my Grandad's generation (there were 9 of them born between 1895 and 1910 who lived into adulthood and had kids) there are 30+ people in my generation, 10+ of whom are gay and a number of whom are closeted for a number of reasons. There were a handful in the last generation as well. None of us has a gay sibling. Maybe everyone's family is like this and I just know all of these distant people, but this seems like it should be interesting to somebody besides me.

Has this been written about? Where can I find good, solid scientific links on homosexuality in family lines? Yes, I have googled, and am working my way through the links there, but I would really appreciate more info if you guys know of specific studies/articles.

Also (but not necessary): So what should I do? My inclination is to call a research institute and try to corral everyone into genetic testing, but that seems like a stretch, as does my fantasy of a gay family mafia!

Sorry for the breathless-ness of the question. I grew up with a lot of homophobia, it is something I try to recognize and avoid, and so this THIS! got me really excited - the information I am getting could really put a huge dent in the fear and misrepresentation on that side of the family and maybe even help Science! at the same time.

Bare-Bones tl;dr: Links to extended family tree genetic research as it relates to homosexuality, please.

Upgrading a Tiger Macbook to Snow Leopard

Bwithh — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:05:39 -0800

Hi there - I am about to upgrade a Black Macbook laptop running Tiger OS X to Snow Leopard (using a $29 Snow Leopard upgrade disk I bought off Amazon.com) (yes, I know this is sort of late in the day). Do you have any tips? Is there anything I should watch out for? I thought this was straightforward but googling about it brings up irksome computer magazine articles which suggest it isn't so straightforward. These articles also tend to suggest all kinds of additional technical and other software steps I should take, like individually checking every program I have on the Apple Support help database to make sure it works OK under Snow Leopard and then making a copy of the entire hard disk. It kinda seems like overkill to me.
I was just going to back up all my document, music, photo and video files on DVD disks anyway. shouldn't that be enough? I don't want to overcomplicate things.

What tips do you guys have about this situation?
Thanks for any help!!!!