Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with macintosh

Looking to easily record streaming audio on my mac OSX 10.6.

citybuddha — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 06:57:31 -0800

I would like to record streaming audio from realplayer and other apps on my Macintosh running OSX 10.6. I am looking for something that is very easy to use. What do you suggest?

Old MS Word Easter Egg?

Admiral Haddock — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:16:37 -0800

I dimly recall a MS Word dictionary (or thesaurus) Easter Egg (I think) that I stumbled upon in college a million years ago. Does it ring a bell with any of you? In my freshman year of college (93-94), whatever version of Word I used on Mac System 7 had an Easter Egg (I think) in the dictionary or thesaurus. I want to say that if you typed "Bill Gates" the recommended spelling was a two-word phrase along the lines of "obstreperous Lissajous." "Lissajous" was definitely in there, as far as I can recall, though I don't remember the other word.

Does this ring a bell with anyone else?

Google Screen goes blank on many common sites

chicaboom — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 21:12:05 -0800

I was having trouble with my iMac computer lagging and one of the things I did was restart in Safe mode (holding down shift). It now seems to be ok. I also have mediocre vision so have resolution at 1280 x 800 as my usual preference. The Issue: since the safe boot, Chrome pages go to a white screen after a few seconds on most sites such as Facebook and Amazon among others. I see old posts on Google but no real fixes. I looked at many google help links like this among others. Has anybody else had this problem? (Chrome does this when I change the view back to a more usual setting like 1344 x 840, for example. Any thoughts?

What was this "Game"?

Admiral Haddock — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:56:17 -0800

When I was in college in the mid-90s, I had a "game" (broadly defined) for my Macintosh Quadra 650 (aw yiss!) that was labeled ITA Choco. Here's what seems to be a site by the creators (partially in Japanese, partially in 404 errors). What was the point of it? And what does the site say? The game was sort of like an early predecessor to QWOP, in that you controlled the limbs of (maybe) a woman, and there was a little garden gnome bopping about. By moving her arms, you could make the gnome climb on your shoulders or head. The woman may have been sitting at a table with a cup of coffee on it. The game was essentially black and white, with a painterly look to it, much like the home page image on the site I linked to.

I can't remember getting it to do anything in particular. I'd move her arms, and the gnome would bop about. And then I'd get bored and play Blobbo or Snood.

Does anyone else remember this game, or know what I was supposed to be doing? I do actually still have a copy of it on a backup disc, but I can't play it on my Mac Pro.

Renting or borrowing Macs - Bay Area

divabat — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:51:34 -0800

Is there an avenue in the Bay Area for renting or borrowing a Mac, especially for (grad) students? I am taking a Sound Arts class this semester that involves jamming on my instructor's computer with Garageband. Which is awesome - but I don't have a Mac at home to continue jamming and can't afford one currently. I will be needing it until end April or early May. I'm not sure my school offers tech rental (it's rather small). I have also looked at MacinCloud, which looks nifty, but I'm waiting to find out if they have Garageband support.

Looking for portable Firewire drives that daisy chain correctly

alms — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:33:06 -0800

I'm looking for bus-powered portable Firewire drives that daisy chain correctly. Desired size is 1 terabyte. By "daisy chain correctly" I mean that I should be able to attach two or three of the drives to my computer in a daisy chain.

I'm asking this question because I made the mistake of buying a pair of Western Digital My Passport Studio drives. After two weeks of fussing I found out that you can't put more than one of these drives in a daisy chain. You can only daisy chain them with different drives. Yeah, right.

Well, that's not what I want. I don't want a bunch of different drives. I want to have two or three, bus-powered, portable, 1 TB Firewire drives, all the same model, that I can daisy chain to my Mac. Reliable, fast, and good looks also desirable.

In case it matters: I'm using a MacBook Air with a Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor. (As far as I know, USB 3 is not an option. Feel free to let me know if there's an economical Thunderbolt to USB 3 adaptor. That would give me many more drive options.)

Opera doesn't want me wasting my time

Nattie — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:32:44 -0800

Opera won't load Facebook on my computer about 75% of the time. It tells me "Internal Communication Error: You tried to access the address http://www.facebook.com/, which is currently unavailable." I am using a Mac. Facebook is not down, and other browsers work fine. I was excited when I saw this question, but I don't have those lines about Facebook in the output. All I have are the question and answer section lines, but not the hardcoded ip address.

I am not using any extensions. Why won't Opera connect to Facebook? It seems completely random when it will let me connect. A while ago I tried editing my bookmark for Facebook to just be "http://www.facebook.com" so there aren't any weird redirects, it's not going straight to https, etc. Sometimes I will just open another tab, press the same bookmark, and it will connect. Sometimes it won't. Sometimes I try typing it out by hand and it will connect, sometimes it won't. It feels like nothing I'm doing is actually effecting anything, and it's just random.

Why won't Facebook load on my computer?

southern_sky — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:14:30 -0800

I can load any website on my MacBook except Facebook. Facebook will not load on any browser (Chrome, Safari, or Firefox) -- they all give error messages. Safari says "The server where this page is located isn't responding." Apple tech support says it's a Java problem and I just have to wait until an Apple software update allows Java again, but that seems wrong. It seems to me that, if it were a Java problem, lots of Mac users would be in the same boat and complaining that they can no longer access Facebook, but my Google searches tell me this is an uncommon problem.

Things I've tried:

-upgrading to Snow Leopard
-Switching to public DNS servers
-Clearing cache, cookies, etc.
-Restarting router
-Repairing permissions
-Using "https" instead of "http"

This doesn't happen to me only at home -- if I take my laptop to a friend's house or coffee shop and use their wireless connection, I still can't access Facebook and get the same error messages. Nor does Facebook load when I use my Android phone as a mobile wireless hotspot or when I use my Sprint wireless card. Conversely, I can access my Facebook account just fine from my phone and from my partner's Dell laptop. Again, Facebook is the ONLY website I can't access... everything else works fine.

Has anyone ever heard of this problem or have any ideas about solutions?

Suddenly erratic touchpad on MacBook Pro

Navelgazer — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:00:32 -0800

My MacBook's touchpad went wrong this morning. Everything I do is suddenly like fighting with a ghost. Mac forums are useless. No problems (of this nature) with the machine before, had it since January of 2012. Running Lion. As of this morning, the touchpad acts extraordinarily erratic. moving my cursor, the pad seemingly cannot tell whether I am using one, two or three fingers, leading to unintentional swiping and pulling up the dashboard, etc. But it does this when nothing is touching it or nearby as well.

This problem comes and goes, so for a few minutes at a time things seem fine, and then become completely unusable. I have cleaned the touchpad, reset the PRAN, done everything the forums say to do, and while some of it might seem to solve the problem for, like, literally one minute, it keeps coming back.

Time and finances are tight, so unless I absolutely have to take it to the store I'm not going to. FWIW, I'm in DC, and it's pretty damn hot and humid here, but this has never happened before.

Thanks!

Spinning Beach Ball of Doom

luciddream928 — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:19:28 -0800

Mac Lion Filter: Autosave in Word = GIANT FAIL. I have a 2007 Mac with an SSD card so it's really fast. I normally don't have problems with it. Specs (if it matters) are: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Lots of memory. I don't even use 1/2 of it.

Exit Leopard, Enter Lion - now Word for Mac 2010 is an absolute disaster.

I don't always remember to save as I go (though I've recently discovered that losing work lights a fire under my butt). Since my Lion upgrade, Word for Mac has been fickle at best, downright $#!@ at its worst. I've been using special characters and crazy formatting (subscripts, tables, line drawings) for a statistics class, and sometimes it just locks up with the spinning beachball of doom whizzing in the middle of my screen. I have autosave set to save every five minutes, which in reality, saves every zero minutes.

Is it Lion? Is it Word? Word-with-crazy-formatting? Maybe they just don't play nice?

Remember the name of a Pre-OSX Mac game where you swung around dots with a bar?

peripatetron errant — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:43:45 -0800

This old Macintosh game sprung to mind, but until Google has metadata for game mechanics, I will have a hard time finding it. Do you remember its name? In the game, you controlled a bar rotating around one of a series of dots. There were other dots on the screen, generally in a grid. Pressing a key, you could latch onto the next dot that your bar passed. Around some dots were good things, around others were bad things. There were a bunch of game modes, some about hitting other players (it had local multiplayer), some about being the first to get somewhere or rotate around all the flagged dots. I think there were Windows version(s) of this game, but I don't know for sure.

I remember a game, maybe the same one, where there were some crazy powerups. One would make everything leave trails, providing a trippy experience that would confuse the other player.

All the databases I've found let you search by name, or maybe by operating system (Wikipedia included) but I don't recall either! The version with the trippy powerups, if it was the same, was certainly in color.

Current Mac automatic iTunes rating software.

immlass — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:01:24 -0800

Looking for software to automatically rate songs in my iTunes library on my Mac (Mountain Lion). I have Autorate, but it hasn't been upgraded in three years and no longer works reliably with my iTunes library as of my upgrade to Mountain Lion. I've also searched Doug's Applescripts and come up dry. Difficulty: large library (18K local songs) + iTunes Match (made no difference with Autorate but has been an issue with other metadata apps).

Real-time captioning software for webinars?

theatro — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:57:43 -0800

Asking on behalf of a friend: she runs a weekly GoToMeeting webinar that now needs to be captioned in real time. Is there a good software solution? Details: My friend T runs a weekly webinar for clients of a particular software she supports. Since that software is intended for use by Centers for Independent Living, and since Federal law requires that CILs be staffed by at least 50% people with disabilities, a number of the people using the software are Deaf.

T needs to find a way for the weekly webinars to be captioned in real-time. She's pretty sure her boss wants a software solution, rather than hiring a company to do the captioning for them. Some quick web searching turned up a couple of possibilities, but they are PC-only, and she is a Mac user.

The webinar software they use is GoToMeeting. She's a Mac user, currently using Snow Leopard (10.6.8), but planning to go to Mountain Lion (10.8) whenever it comes out. She doesn't have Parallels installed, though she tells me that seems to be one potential solution (that or something like VirtualBox or Boot Camp) that would let her run Windows on her Mac.

Does anyone out there have experience with software for live-captioning GoToMeeting webinars? What do you suggest?

Can this old CD ROM be resurrected?

foxy_hedgehog — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:59:02 -0800

Dear AskMe tech folks- there's an older CDROM out there that was designed to play and display on the IBM 286, Mac II, and Mac LC. Is there a tool, emulator, or hack out there that would allow me to play and view it on my current Apple (running OSX)? The catch here is that the CD doesn't just have an early video game on it, for example, which might be easier to render- it has a lot of photos. I'm fine with not being able to copy and save them, new skool style, and maybe take screenshots instead, but I'm afraid they'll be wildly distorted.

Ive seen this question but am afraid I don't have the chops to understand the basics of what the poster is talking about.

If you have any experience with this sort of thing and have advice to offer I'd be grateful!

How to include self-taught tech skills in my resumé?

patnasty — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:21:14 -0800

Resumé filter: how do you tailor your resumé when you're applying to a job in which you have relevant (self-taught) skills, but no prior work experience in the field? So I'm in the process of making a major transition in my writing career, both in medium and geography, and in the meantime, I need to get a day job to pay the bills.

Over the past few years, as the owner of a couple of old and out-of-warrantee Mac products, I started teaching myself how to do some basic diagnostics and repairs. Pretty soon my friends were bringing me all their post-Applecare Macs when they had problems, and I got pretty good at it.

So I figured that working with Macs must be more lucrative than slinging lattes or walking dogs, so I took the online training course, passed Apple's certification exams, and am now a licensed AppleCare Mac Technician. (So I've got that going for me, which is nice.)

So now I'm in the position of applying for my first non-writing/editing job in many years, and the first computer/tech related job of my life. My question is, how do I draw up a resumé for these kinds of jobs when my prior work experience is pretty much unrelated? How do I include the various computer skills I've gained as a self-taught hobbyist?

How to transfer mail into a folder on my mac, with Apple mail?

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 28 May 2012 08:36:30 -0800

My online mailbox is full. I want to move some of those messages to a folder on my computer, using Apple Mail in system 10.6.8. There's doesn't seem to be an obvious way to create a new folder in Apple Mail, under the section On My Mac. Can you tell me how to do this? The account is IMAP and private mail service.

A content filter that warns and reports instead of blocking?

eschatfische — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:55:37 -0800

The Windows Live Family Safety content filter has a neat optional feature: instead of completely blocking a web page that might be inappropriate, it can display a warning that the user can then click through to visit the site if they really need to, and then a notification is sent to the parent or admin that they clicked through the warning to get to the site. Is there a similar system available for Mac OS? Specifically, I'm looking for something that will initially prevent content inappropriate for a school or work environment from loading, but allow the user to make their own decision to view it if they believe that the filter is blocking materials incorrectly - and then only get notifications as an administrator of what users have gone ahead and loaded despite the warning.

Can I trust eBay ?

devious truculent and unreliable — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:44:30 -0800

Buying a pre-owned Mac in the UK. Where should I go ? Need another iMac for editing with Final Cut Pro. Can I trust eBay ? Or is it worth paying extra for the reassurance of a good machine. And if so, from where ? Suggestions please.

Looking for a book on the history of Apple/Macintosh

dbirchum — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:31:50 -0800

Looking for a good book on the history of Apple/Macintosh. Greetings all - outside of the Steve Jobs biography, are there any other recommendations for good books on the history of Apple? I am really interested in learning more about the company and would like to read another account (besides the Steve Jobs one). I have searched Amazon and noticed several options, but I am wondering if anyone has any good recommendations.

I am particularly interested in the start-up of the company and the history of the Macintosh computer line. Not sure if there are any recent books that also focus on the evolution of the iPods as well?

*Bonus Side Question* If there are any other books or resources (websites, etc) that are just about Apple's advertising campaigns or the history of advertising, that would also be great. Thanks!

ALT plus...F this!

dust of the stars — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:37:40 -0800

Please hope me, a PC user now working on a Mac: I find I cannot live without ALT+n, where n="f" key for file menu, "e" key for edit menu, etc. Forced to use a Mac at work after 15+ years of steady PC use. I relied on the ALT+"some character" keyboard shortcut and miss it terribly. For example, hit ALT+"f" and the "File" dropdown appears, then you use arrow keys to select the item you want, hit RETURN to activate it, and you're golden. On the Mac, there doesn't seem to be any equivalent, and I have scoured many a blog post. Yes, I can work on memorizing specific shortcuts for specific commands. But there are many of the commands don't have shortcuts. I know I can assign shortcuts for any command, but I don't want that labor, especially because many commands are seldom used. I just want to be able to open any dropdown so I can examine what's there and make my choice--without using the mouse.

How can I give Final Cut Pro as a gift?

theatro — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:26:27 -0800

I want to give someone a copy of Final Cut Pro X as a gift. But since there's no physical package anymore, I can't figure out how to do it, and I'm feeling pretty dumb. I thought maybe an iTunes Gift Certificate, but Apple.com says "iTunes Gift Cards and Certificates can be redeemed for songs, albums, audiobooks, videos, and games on the iTunes Store. They cannot be used to buy Apple products." Help? There's a different gift card option called the "Apple Gift Card," but for the Apple Gift Card options, it only lists buying things from the physical Apple Store or buying things online from "the Apple Online Store," and as far as I can tell that only means Apple.com's store (which doesn't carry Final Cut Pro--the buy link is for buying it from the App Store).

There are also what seem to be App-Store-only gift cards, but the highest denomination I can find for those is $50--and I worry, because often there's a limit as to how many gift cards you can use in one transaction. And does Final Cut Pro, which is sold through the App Store, count as an App technically? Or do they separate "Apps" vs. "Apple products" somehow, like that quote above?

Anyway, I have unexpectedly stumbled into an entirely new experience for me, the information elsewhere is conflicting, and I am all at sea. Please tow me to shore!

Floppy Disk Preservation

skbw — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 09:33:50 -0800

What is the best way to preserve 3.5" floppies? As I just happened to be messing around with MacPaint last night on my fully operational 512K (OK, sorry, I'll stop now), it occurred to me that some of my original disks are more valuable than gold, at least to a certain kind of gold aficionado. I am familiar with Low End Mac and old computer sites in general, and of course I run everything off copies. But what do you personally do to preserve your old software for the ages, other than keeping it clean/dry/away from huge magnets? Thanks!

Going from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.5, but in an awkward way.

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:07:45 -0800

How to fix this problem: upgrading a Mac from 10.4 to 10 .5 but "manually"? More details inside! Upgraded a Mac mini from 10.4 to 10.5. However, the person chose archive and install vs upgrade and they didn't select the option to move the settings to the new system. Or something.

So here's the issue. There's a Mac computer with fresh install of 10.5.8 on it. There's also a Previous System folder on the same machine, same disk, which has all the user accounts, settings, docs music, photos etc, from the previous 10.4 system that was on the computer. How can one completely move all those user accounts, settings etc to the 10.5 system in the most painless way possible? There is no backup of the system on another drive or disk (yes, insane, but there you go).

Steve's Office is as Messy as Mine

LastOfHisKind — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:13:05 -0800

Can you identify the random bits of technology in this photo of Steve Jobs' home office?

Cheap way to get Universal install disks for Mac OS X 10.5

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:01:04 -0800

Most cost effective and legal way to Universal install CD for Mac OS X 10.5, to upgrade a PowerPC Mac? Yes, a PowerPC machine is a deadend. But the person who needs it doesn't need a lot of bells and whistles for the next year or so, just something that can run a newer version of iTunes.

I've looked on Amazon and Ebay, where the price is more than the original way at the OS's release. We're talking $175 for what was originally a $129 upgrade.

Looked on Ccraigslist and not getting any nibbles.

Any ideas? Would prefer not pay over $50. Considering that the newer OSes are $30, paying more for an older OS is odd.