Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with osx and macs

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 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?

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.

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!

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.

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!

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?

Question on X11 support in OS X.

George_Spiggott — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:11:53 -0800

Question on X11 support in OS X. [+] Like everyone and his wildebeeste, I'm thinking of getting the new Mac Mini, as it's the right price point to be worth having just for the things it comes with, even if I don't buy all my applications again just yet. I use Linux most of the time now and I'd like to continue using a Linux machine as needed but I'd like to disconnect the display and keyboard and get it out of the room. Since X11 is network transparent, and since OS X offers an optional X11 display server, I can presumably relegate my Linux box to the closet and continue to run the apps remotely on the Mac desktop.

The question is, is anyone out there doing this? Running X11 apps remotely on the OS X desktop? Does it work well for you?

Is there any way I can get a Vivicam-30 to load on to Mas OS 9 or X machines?

Wolof — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 02:11:37 -0800

Is there any way I can get a Vivicam-30 to load on to Mas OS 9 or X machines? Read the history of my attempts to do so over here. Ta very much!

Can I configure Garageband differently on two different OSX user accounts?

skylar — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 11:18:47 -0800

On my Mac OS X 10.3.5 machine, I have two user accounts. Is it possible to set up the Garageband music software so that one of the user accounts contains only the original installation of Garageband loops and effects... and the other user account contains the original installation, plus all other loops and effects I've installed from subsequent Jam Packs?

Universal "Now Save"-style autosave utility for OSX?

nakedcodemonkey — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 19:23:04 -0800

[Mac] Back in the System 7 days, Now Save (part of the defunct Now Utilities) allowed for configurable autosaving. Even though NowUtils was often a buggy nightmare, that autosave was such a handy feature, especially after a crash. Despite claims to the contrary, modern applications and OS X still do periodically crash and the unsaved work gets disappeared *groan*. Although a few applications offer their own autosave option, VersionTracker shows no sign that a universal utility exists for OS X. Any suggestions for a good substitute?

Office for OSX

b1tr0t — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 09:23:47 -0800

Office for OS X: I've never had trouble sending documents from Mac Office to PC users until this week. Now PC users frequently complain that they cannot open my documents at all. What is wrong? (I've got a properly licensed copy of Office/X)

Mac Defaults to QuickTime

ascullion — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 07:17:25 -0800

Potentially-really-obvious-mac-question-filter. Why does Safari want to open MP3 streams in QuickTime no matter what I do - and how can I stop it?

How do I turn off mouse gestures in Firefox for OS X?

Mo Nickels — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 07:45:30 -0800

Going Insane: How do I turn off mouse gestures in Firefox for OS X? I've installed a couple of extensions which control gestures, but so far, nothing works. I hate gestures. The keyboard is faster.

Mac OS X Program to Show DV Camcorder Input Full-Screen?

josh — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 07:55:56 -0800

Is there a program for Mac OS X that will take the input from my DV camcorder, and display it so that it takes up the whole screen? (iMovie shows the input only in a window.)

OS X 10.3, older fonts, and unusual glyphs.

adamrice — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 13:20:21 -0800

OS X 10.3, older fonts, and unusual glyphs [more inside] I'm using Panther, and I've got a lot of older postscript fonts from at least the System 7 era. These contain a number of "high-ASCII" characters, like =, that I cannot get at under OS X for some reason. The fonts bundled with OS X show the characters and let me type them as before, but in the older fonts, they're somehow off-limits. Typing the appropriate key combination leaves a blank space, and the "character palette" does not show the font as having the character. And yet, for some reason, the character is visible in the "keyboard viewer."

Has anyone encountered this problem? Any ideas on solving it? Thanks in advance.

Workaround for .htc for Macs

pjhagop — Tue, 04 May 2004 12:56:18 -0800

I'm in a bit of a pickle - the developers of a website I work on have used HTML Components (.htc) to drive the dynamic portion of the site. User testing revealed that it's working on Windows with IE 5.5 and above, but it's not working on any of the Macs we're used, which are running OS 9 and OS X, and have IE 5, Netscape and Safari browsers.

Short of re-coding the entire user interface, does anyone know of a workaround for our friends on Macs?

Networking Windows and Mac OSX 10.3

benjh — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 18:01:25 -0800

What is the best way to network my Windows and Mac OSX 10.3 machines? [more inside]

I have a home network set up, but I can't seem to share my whole hard drive with my Windows machine, only public directories. On the flip side, if I set a folder for sharing on Windows, the Mac doesn't automatically detect it, I have to set it to connect to that folder.

Ideally I'd like to be able to access either machine's hard drive no matter which machine I have connected. I'm thinking Firewire networking might be a good solution for this (and faster than my 10/100 switch) but can't seem to find any decent instructions. If I try networking via Firewire, can I restrict so I am only sharing with machines on my network, since Windows file sharing frightens and disturbs me. Well I meant to put it inside. Ah well. Sorry about that.

Cataloguing Video Games

the biscuit man — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:34:35 -0800

Is there any web site or program for OS X that allows you compile a list of your video games, similar to either DVD Aficionado or Books? Thank you MeFi!

Can anyone recommend a good Mac OSX native word processor that isn't MS Word?

Prospero — Sun, 21 Dec 2003 19:52:15 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good Mac OS X-native word processor that isn't Microsoft Word? [more inside] I'm usually fine with using Word X, but now I'm handling a fairly long document that needs relatively complex formatting (different headers and footers in different places; suppressed headers for first pages of chapters; etc.), and Word's usage of "sections" to handle all this stuff is driving me nuts.

My previous word processor of choice, WordPerfect 3.5, tied formatting changes to pages, not to "sections", and allowed you to suppress formatting elements for individual pages. (It also created files that were about half the size of Word's bloated files.) But WordPerfect for Mac is no longer supported by Corel, and a series of conversion filters between WP 3.5 running in OS 9 and Word running in OS X is too much to wish for.

So is there any word processor out there that has better ease of use than Word and runs native in OS X? Compatibility back and forth with Word would be nice, but if it were easy enough to use, and I could convert this file I'm working on from Word to this other processor with minimal loss of formatting, then even if I couldn't convert in the other direction I'd be willing to turn my back on Word.