Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with macs

Power Button on iBook G4 Inoperable -- what now?

fantine — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:56:48 -0800

To transport or not to transport, that is the question! I have an iBook G4 that has been my primary computer for a few years now. It contains the bulk of my 30 GB + music collection among other things. My main computer is now a MacBook. Though the Macbook has a great deal of memory, it doesn't have enough for all my music, so I have yet to get that off my iBook.

A while ago, I spilled soup on the iBook G4 and many of its keys no long work (though I've been able to operate it just fine with an external keyboard). This includes the power on/off button, so I have not closed the screen, put it to sleep, or turned it off for several weeks now.

Now, however, I am heading home for Christmas break and am not sure what is the best course of action to take. I don't mind leaving it at school, but I do plan to acquire an external hard drive for my music (sometimes I've been planning on for a while, just haven't had the funds), so I could possibly bring home the iBook G4 in the car to transfer the music over break. However, I have always been told to close or shut down a laptop before moving it, and it makes me nervous to imagine a 4 hr + car ride in which the laptop could be jolted. Also, its battery life is not that great and it will certainly go to sleep from low battery within two hours.

Is there any way to wake up an iBook G4 without using the power button? I know that shutting the laptop and re-opening it *usually* brings forth the login box, but sometimes it doesn't on the G4. I don't want to bring back my G4 if it means it will enter an eternal sleep.

Apple Macs: Is it possible to boot my mac mini remotely?

telsa — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:54:46 -0800

Apple Macs: Is it possible to boot my mac mini remotely? I use my mac mini as a media center displayed through a 46" tv along with apple's bluetooth keyboard and a USB mouse. The setup itself sits nicely inside a glass shelf; however, everytime I'd like to turn it on, I have to physically get up and press the little button in the back of the mac mini.

I use this quite often as I'm living abroad and can watch US television through slingbox. Is it possible to remotely boot my mac mini through the keyboard or some kind of remote control?

Has Apple backed me into a corner of infinite regress?

Lutoslawski — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:18:23 -0800

What's up with my itunes/quick-time/OS?? I can't play my music! So for some reason my iTunes will not open because apparently I need Quicktime 7.3.1 or later. Ok great. So when I attempt to download the new Quicktime from the apple site, it won't let me install it because my OS is too old. I have OS X 10.4.11.

When I click 'update software' and try to get quicktime that way, it says there is an error and it can't download it.

What do I do??? Do I need to buy a new OS? I have a PowerBook G4, if it matters.

Please hope me, metafilter, I'm nothing without iTunes.

Can I use a software program for a more up-to-date version of OS X than mine, without upgrading my entire computer?

world b free — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:42:34 -0800

Can I use a software program for a more up-to-date version of OS X than mine, without upgrading my entire computer? Basically I bought a computer game that they made available only for the newest version of OS X. Is there some way I can get it to play without upgrading anything? Maybe some kind of "emulator"? I wouldn't know where to begin looking, so maybe you guys can help.

Help me keep the riffraff out of the (SSH) tunnel

COBRA! — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:54:48 -0800

Please help an idiot lock down SSH access to a Leopard machine. In simple terms, how would I go about restricting SSH access to a Mac running Leopard so that it will only accept connections from a known location (specifically, a co-worker's house, where she logs in using Timbuktu)? I'm a database guy working outside of my sphere of knowledge here, so simple is good.

Help me avoid weekly tech support calls.

killjoy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:18:55 -0800

I have two G4 PowerBooks that I've wiped, packed with RAM and installed Leopard on. Now how do I make them as parent-friendly as possible? So far I have:
- installed basic apps like FF, VLC, Word, Toast, Quicksilver
- disabled Spaces
- put regularly visited sites in the FF bookmark bar
- placed important apps and folders in the dock and enabled parental controls to lock it
- setup ichat for future troubleshooting adventures

Are there any other apps/fixes that might be helpful to my smart but not very tech-savvy parents? Any Firefox add-ons that might come in handy?

Why do professionals in music and art like to use Macbooks?

rintako — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:20:19 -0800

Why do professionals in music and art like to use Macbooks? Many music artists such as DJs and design artists like to use Macbooks for their work? Why do they prefer Macbooks over (for example) a Dell when the Dell is much cheaper and can be more easily upgradeable at a cheaper cost.

I have heard that Macs can load certain software at a faster speed such as Photoshop (3-5 seconds faster probably) but that still doesn't justify a $200-$300 difference.

A tv tuner for macs?

wfrgms — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:19:04 -0800

Can you recommend a good, reasonably priced, external HDTV tuner that will work with a friend's iMac? A friend would like to add a tv tuner to her iMac, but isn't sure what to buy. I know there are USB HDTV tuners out there, but do any of them work well with Macs?

She's not looking for anything elaborate or costly. She'd just like to tune over the air HDTV on her iMac, and watch a few shows. Some software PVR functions would be great.

Side question: I use Windows Media Center with my own FusionHDTV5 card, which works well. Is there a comparable product for Macs?

Sorry if any of this is clueless, I know nothing about macs...

Bank checks are compatible with Macs...aren't they?

hal_c_on — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:56:17 -0800

How do I print my own checks? Here are things I own:

1. New iMac
2. Printer
3. Copy Paper if I CAN use it.
4. A *FEW* dollars to buy TOTALLY BLANK CHECKS.
5. A little more money to buy a commercial product that would help me accomplish this herculean task (if NECESSARY).

Here is what I DON'T want to do:
1. Use a PC.
2. Use windows through bootcamp/parallels/virtual pc through my Mac.
3. Have someone print the constant parts of the checks (my info, bank info, micr, numbering, format, etc) and then use my mac/printer to print the variable elements (recipient, amounts, date, memo, etc).
4. Use Photoshop or any graphics program to customize each individual check. No thanks

Here is what I DO want to do:
1. Use my mac.
2. Use my printer.
3. Use any kind of non-customized paper.
4. Print a LOT of them to ONE recipient.
5. Printing three checks per page would be preferable...but hey I'm more than willing to negotiate on this.
6. Save TONS of money by doing this myself.

How the heck do I do this? I've been using a Mac for 7 years now, and I can tell you what one needs to come close to counterfeiting money (not that anybody should) using a Mac. But I still have no idea about how to print checks using a Mac.

Here is what I know:
1. There are TONS of commercial programs for PCs that allow one to make checks from TOTALLY blank checks or pre-printed and customized checks.
2. The commercial programs for Macs (OS X if you want to be anal about it) that I have found only allow one to print the variable information (recipient, amount, date, memo, etc) on the checks. That is NOT what I am looking for.
3. The MICR toner/ink situation is covered.
4. I'm not worried about the security of these checks. Seriously. No worries.

So how do I do this?

I really like metafilter, and LOVE askme...but if you cannot contribute anything that would bring me closer to the solution, please do not post. I would be happier having this be a TOTALLY empty post, rather than 10 people talking about "yeah man, you should switch to PC".

I'm not doing that to be mean, I just know there's a mac fiend on here who would be so bothered by this question not being answered that he would figure it out. I have researched this issue for a LONG time, and I still can't find a solution, and I do not believe that this hasn't been solved a long time ago. I just don't know where to find the answer.

Just to make it clear, ANY help would be appreciated; bs comments like "get a pc", or "dude, you're screwed" would NOT.

Thanks mefites you guys are awesome.

Downloading torrents while I'm away?

raygan — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:56:04 -0800

What's the best device I can buy or build for under $300 that will download (over bittorrent), serve, and maybe even play my video files? I've moved to a new home with a new wireless network, where my primary computer is a MacBook. This doesn't work out well with the large volume of bittorrent downloading I'm accustomed to doing, as I can't leave the laptop at home downloading, and don't like to leave it running all night either. Also, I'm out of storage.
I'd like to get either a NAS with built in torrent downloading, or buy or build a little server to sit on my network to do this. Extra life points if I can hook it up to my HDTV's VGA port and play videos, but this isn't super important. What IS important is:

-Price is a big factor
-Reliable and easy to use bittorrent downloading
-large, cheap, preferably expandable storage
-Plays nice with Macs.

I can't find much of anything in the way of reviews online of the bittorrent-capable NASes, and as a Mac fanboy I'm clueless with building computers or configuring Linuxes, though I'd be willing to tinker.

Any recommendations? I'm particularly looking for first hand experiences with solutions that have worked.

Can older macs be made Airport Extreme Capable?

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:47:52 -0800

Inherited an Airport Extreme Basestation with Gigabit ethernet and would like to enable a B&W 400mhz G3 and 400mhz G4 AGP to use this wireless network at the faster speeds. Is this possible? (this is anon because it's a gift to people who know me and read Askme) I know the G4 is Airport capable, but can it use an Airport Extreme Card at the Extreme speeds? Apple sells refurbished Airport Extreme cards on their site and was wondering...

Would A PCI card work better? If so, which? Or can these older macs successfully use a USB 2.0 wireless adapter?

On the wireless network they would be accessing a printer, other computers and the internet.

Um, sure, I guess I can support 30 macs...

COBRA! — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:55:20 -0800

Help me become a Mac Boffin. So, two weeks into a new job, it looks like the focus of my work has shifted a little. Instead of just working on the database conversion I planned on handling, I'm also responsible for the care and feeding of 30 Macs, and making some system-wide decisions.

I'm a comfortable Mac user, but most of my deeper technical experience has been with Windows. And some areas, like Mac networking, are pretty foreign. I'd really appreciate any resources or tips that would help me assault the learning curve, both with OS X and with bigger-picture IT decision-making.

Help me get a small business network of Macs organized

jeffxl — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:42:00 -0800

Some clients of mine have a small consulting business that is rapidly expanding. What started as 1 desktop computer has turned into 4 desktops, 4 laptops (and recently 2 iPhones), and they'll soon be adding some more desktops. They're moving some of the computers out of their home office, and into a "real" office next week and I'm really trying to nail down a good setup for them. I'm looking for your advice on how you've organized a smallish network of Macs, allowing anywhere access of Files, Email, Calendar and Address Book. Ever since this network started expanding, they've wanted the same thing: To access their files and email from anywhere, and to have a common Calendar, and to have a common Address Book. By "common", I mean, able to be accessed from any computer (laptop or desktop) whether online or offline, and whether on site or off. This had been a little tricky to handle, and has turned into a nightmare since I moved across the country (read: has turned into phone-tech-support hell).

First, a brief (well, I tried to be brief, anyway) background of the last 4 years, so you know what I've tried:

Email
I used to have them all set up with IMAP accounts on the hosted web server we use, until that web server crashed, losing all of their mail, which really upset them (sensibly). I switched web hosts and downgraded them to POP accounts, so they'd always have a local copy of their mail (which proved useful when they wanted to access things offline). This was fine, until they started complaining that they couldn't tell if someone in the organization had responded to an email at another computer. For this, I set up a Gmail account for them, and had all of their email forward to it. Then I set up accounts in Gmail so they could respond from the appropriate account, while having all their mail in one place, accessible from anywhere. They used this occasionally. At some point, I tried switching them over to Google Apps for your domain, which sounded perfect for managing things, but it ended up not working due to weird POP access issue, where GMail would only download messages once, meaning only one computer got the message, instead of all of them. Apparently this is a known issue, but was not known to me until it was too late, and I ended up wasting a weekend switching them over and back. I have since read about the "recent:username@gmail.com" trick to prevent this, but have not decided to switch them over to GAfYD, again.

Calendar/Address Books
I first had them set up on Entourage/iCal/Address Book. They all used Sync Services to sync the Address Book and Calendar to .Mac, and all the other computers got the information from that. This worked pretty well for a while, aside from when they decided to turn sync off (and then complain to me that it wasn't working). But then the Calendar cancer started: at first, one computer started getting many duplicate events. This was easily remedied by finding valid data, and reseting the sync with .Mac. This happened every 3 months or so. Then, a month ago, something like 15,000 duplicate calendar entries propagated to other computers, and all hell broke loose. I ended up finding a script to clean out all the bad data, and fed up with sync, I thought I'd get them to give Google Calendar a try. This has been working fine as a calendar, but now they're not sure what to do with their Notes/Tasks that Entourage used to handle.

I got all their data into GCal, and they seem to be satisfied with it, aside from the fact that it can't be accessed while not online. This was further complicated when they went early adopter on my ass, got an iPhone before I did, and wanted their calendar and address book to sync to it via iCal. I assume they can point their phones and other computers at Google's Private iCal feed to get all that data, and it will stay available. I assume this will work, but it has yet to be set up. I suppose the Address book will still have to do the sync via .Mac.

Files
Initially, I had their computers networked using their main workstation (G5 Tower) as the central-file-server, and had the others automatically mount the G5's hard drive for file sharing. This got confusing for them, as their computers are a mess, with folders and files scattered everywhere and structures duplicated between machines. They'd get messed up figuring out whether the files they were looking at were on their computer or on the G5. Also, from time to time the computers would just lose contact with each other, which would require a phone call to me to get them back up. (It was nothing too odd, just rebooting, typing in the address of the computer again, etc, aside from the time the ethernet cable got moved from Port #1 to port #2 on the G5, and the static IP settings I set up got messed. They still don't know how it got switched. Unreal.)

When the latest Airport Extreme came out, I thought AirDisk would be the ultimate solution, but it turned out to be nothing but trouble again. First, the speed was horrible (even wired into their network), and second, MS Word bombed every time you tried to save to the AFP disk. This was apparently a known, fairly common problem with AFP disks and word, so I tried connecting via SMB instead, which worked for a while. That failed in the end, though, since the easy-peasy Airdisk shows its seams when trying to use SMB instead of AFP. They had so many connection problems, that we finally ditched it and went back to our previous solution.

Based on the information I've given, does anyone have any advice? Do you see completely boneheaded things I've set up? Better solutions? What do you use?

Also, would OS X server make their lives (and mine) easier, in any way, or is that just adding unnecessary complexity to the equation?

Building my own Mac?

Aanidaani — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:48:40 -0800

I am going to be buying/building a new computer soon to replace my Powerbook G4 and I am debating whether to get a Windozer or a new Mac. I thought I might be able to build my own X86 machine and install OSX on it using something like OSX86. Has anyone done something like this? I really enjoy OSX but I am fed up with Apple's subpar graphics chips and their expensive customization options. I want to get a new desktop to replace my Powerbook and, if I choose to go with Windows, I can build the computer myself. However, I recently read about projects that allow users to install OSX on X86 machines (admittedly illegally), so I thought this might be a good solution: I build the computer myself and install OSX on it. I just wondered if anyone else had done this or has any experience with such a setup. Or am I stuck with buying Apple's beautiful, expensive hardware? Thanks!

Misbehaving technology!

soviet sleepover — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:39:50 -0800

Help me troubleshoot my printer &/or computer, which is refusing to print! I suspect it's something simple, but there's... I have a Powerbook & a relatively new (<1yr old) Samsung ML-2010 laser printer, but unfortunately not much computer savvy. The printer will happily spit out test sheets, but nothing else. Now, when I hit the print button, it starts out with "printer not responding;" last week it would get as far as something like "Gimp--printing 21%" before the printer stopped responding. I've tried all the usual I-don't-know-anything-about-gadgets tricks: cursing, turning the printer on and off, restarting the computer, taking the toner cartridge out and shaking it back and forth gently, etc. Where should I go from here?

Very basic Curl question

Grod — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:58:50 -0800

Very stupid question. Can I use Curl to download every image in a directory? (some idiot, knowing we needed 100+ images, put them in some web gallery rather than on an FTP server and I'm stuck on a Mac here) How?

Hot-swap?

jonathanbell — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:47:13 -0800

Hopefully simple question about hot-swapping between PCs and Macs. So I bought an 80GB USB 2.0 Firelite drive. Before I start using it in earnest, I'm wondering whether it can be used on both PCs and Macs without any problems. The drive will normally be moved between two PCs running XP, but there's the possibility of also plugging it into an OSX G5. All my directories, etc., will be set up on a PC. My question is, what will happen when I plug the drive into the USB port on a Mac keyboard (and is this USB 2.0)? Will filenames, etc., be unaffected?

DV Deck FireWire Problem

jtron — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:25:28 -0800

My Mac won't recognize my DV deck... This has been thus for the last week or so. It may have been coincidental with my installation of 10.3.9.

I've tried resetting FireWire by unplugging the computer for 5 minutes, I've reset the nvRAM and PRAM, I've trashed the Preferences, and I've reinstalled 10.3.9 from the combo update. Still nothing, although the computer recognizes my iPod and my camcorder.

I have a Quicksilver 733 MHz G4, and the deck is a JVC SR-VS30U. My 3-year AppleCare Protection Plan ran out a month ago; without being able to interface with this deck the utility of this system drops precipitously, and I can ill afford repairs, a new computer, or a new deck.

I'm hoping that wiping the hard drive and installing Tiger will solve the problem, but I have plenty of work that needs to be done before Tiger arrives.

My mac has crashed; restore disk is not working.

LittleMissCranky — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:23:15 -0800

If anyone can help me with my Mac problem, I will be eternally grateful and may even send brownies. Really, really good brownies. My mac has really taken a bad turn. It's a G4 PowerBook. Earlier this evening, it started to have problems opening programs. The icon would bounce in the bar for a long time, the little annoying spinny circle would spin, but the program wouldn't open. Force quit didn't work. I powered down and restarted, but the same thing happened. I powered down again, and this time I got stuck at the grey apple screen indefinitely. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it. I tried booting from the install CD, but it didn't work. I could get the computer to read the disc, and the computer was responding to movement of the mouse, but clicking (on either the trackpad or a wired mouse) didn't do anything. Without clicking, I can't use the restore CD.

I also tried to firewire boot to an iMac to try to at least get a couple of highly critical files off of it, but the iMac didn't recognize it.

Please help if you can. I am sitting here quietly trying not to lose my shit.

Windows Media Player Problems

scazza — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:31:44 -0800

Windows Media Player will no longer load in Firefox or Safari. I have reinstalled twice, I remember seeing similar problems with WMP and OS X on AskMe or MeFi (I can no longer find where I saw it) without an answer, help!

I need to concatenate ~32000 jpg files into a movie. Impossible?

metaculpa — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 16:10:28 -0800

I need to concatenate ~32000 jpg files into a movie. Impossible? [mi] I can do this either on PC or Mac, but the issue is time. The iphoto -> iMovie conversion looks like it will take about a day (literally), and I need to do this much quicker (if at all possible). Obviously, the problem is memory - the jpgs add up to a gig or two. In any event, I'll need to be able to turn sequentially labeled files into a movie at 10fps, with minimal user interaction once I've set up the process.

I'm happy in shell or (ha!) DOS, but I can't figure out what to use - mplayer? Premier? Thoughts? If y'all are curious, I'm reconstructing the molting of a caterpillar from our video tracking system. This will tell me how well they molt in different, um, circumstances. (Like having an intact brain, or not.) Hot stuff! (TIA)

How can I convert a MAC AVI file to MPEG?

shotsy — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 22:48:39 -0800

I have an AVI file on a mac. I would like to convert it for use in After Effects and eventual burn onto DVD. I can handle the second part, but I'm having trouble converting the AVI to MPEG. (More Inside) My stumbling seems to come from the way the audio is encoded. with the divx plugin I can get video in QT but no audio. I have the pro version of Quicktime, and access to a PC, so if it would be easier there (though I don't have any video software on that), it is an option as well. Many thanks.

OS X - Hard drive copy doesn't match.

Dick Paris — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:10:11 -0800

OS X stumper: My internal boot drive (160 GB) "info" reports 12.4 GB available, 136.63 GB on disk. A bootable (120 GB) clone shows 55.42 GB available, 55.24 GB on disk. I've run Disk Utility and Disk Warrior, repaired and rebuilt and the report persists. (I checked the disk used with "WhatSize" and, while I've not done the math, the rough aggregate of disk used appears to be more in line with the clone, which is what I expect. I am not sure when this apparent mis-reporting began but I know it was recently.) Googling has failed me. What is going on and how do I fix it?

Help with using a Windows specific GPS product on a PowerBook

BuddhaInABucket — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 17:43:31 -0800

I have had a gigantic crush on this product ever since my friend got one. Small (big!) problem though- the software for this specific GPS watch only runs on PC, and I have a PowerBook! (+) The important features for me are the speed and elevation tracking logs and the satellite-overlay feature that draws where you ran on a real image of your location.
If you have any personal experience with products of this nature and you'd like to make a recommendation, that's cool too.

Fixedsys 9 Comparable Font For Mac Terminal?

mrbill — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 23:03:27 -0800

Font search! My favorite font for use with the putty SSH client on a Windows machine is fixedsys 9. I'd love to find a version of this font that I can use with Terminal on my Macs at home - but so far I've been unable to find one.

fixedsys.org supposedly had a version at one time, but what they've got available now looks horrible in Terminal (after adding it to the system w/Font Book). Any suggestions?