Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with osx and os

Choose Details in OS X

reenum — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:43:43 -0800

Mac OSX Filter: How can I change the details displayed for files in a directory while in list view? This may be a really easy question, but Google has failed me thus far.

When I used XP and viewed directories as lists, I could go to View and then click on 'Choose Details' to pick which file info I wanted displayed.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this on Mac OSX.

The reason I want to do this is because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and the title in the file info is often more instructive than the filename.

Is there any way to 'Choose Details' on Mac OSX?

Seeking a permanent solution for my Wacom tablet woes.

iamkimiam — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:09:30 -0800

Sometime around the beginning of this year, my Intuos2 Model 0608-U 6"x8" Wacom tablet driver stopped loading upon login and restart. I reinstall it every time I login/restart. All of the tips, tricks, workarounds suggested by both Wacom and Apple do not work. I am running Mac OS 10.5.7. Is there anything left to try? The tablet works after I reinstall. I have tried uninstalling, disk repair, permissions, reinstalling (various versions of the tablet driver) in all possible combinations. Is anybody else having this problem? What has worked for you?

I'm looking for a permanent solution that does not cost $$. I will reinstall indefinitely if I have to, but it is getting tiresome. Thanks!

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

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.

Noooo! Your trypical Macbook Pro crash story.

drpynchon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:57:43 -0800

OS X crisis.. Please help with a system that won't boot Mac gurus. So I finally got around to installing the last security update to OS X 10.4.11 on my MBP (C2D) and after reboot my system hangs. It sits there on the grey apple screen and spinning thingy. The interweb reports that this is not uncommon so I followed the typical advice of loading Disk Utility off install DVD. Ran, found some glitches in the permissions and disk and repaired them successfully. It can see and mount the drive as well as report the free space and all that. Still a no go -- again hanging on the boot screen as my fan starts to whirl.

Considered Archive and Install but after selecting my hard drive volume and the Options button, it reports that it can't perform A&I and must erase the contents of the drive. GAH!

This sucker has some seriously important work that was recently completed on not yet backed up. Help me restore and I will be indebted to you forever.

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?

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.

Ugly bittorrent ratio needs a facelift

alitorbati — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:03:31 -0800

Is there any software of Mac OS X that will protect my bittorrent seed/leech ratio? I'm looking for something like GreedyTorrent, but for mac. Obviously, freeware is preferred but I'm willing to hear any suggestions. Please don't use this post to encourage me to seed more. I seed as much as I can on one of my computers but my mac just won't do it.

Also, can anyone suggest any reasons that my mac is extremely finicky about seeding any torrents I get from what.cd? I'm using Transmission, if it matters.

Thanks!

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.

Man Attempting to Move Leopard

indiewizard — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:41:38 -0800

Great MeFites, I come bearing but a humble request. I bought a MacBook Pro about six months before Leopard was released. When it finally came out, I installed it on a partition on an external drive, which I would boot from (because OS X is awesome like that, amirite?) so I could test out all my apps. Now I'm ready to commit to Leopard full-time - what's the best way to go about transplanting my Leopard partition? In my head, I would copy everything precious to the external drive, and then go into Disk Utility and select "Restore" (I'm not in front of my Mac right now, so I don't know the exact option, but it's a tab that comes up in the main pane when you select the root drive in the left-hand pane), where I would select Leopard as the source, and my internal drive as the destination. However, the internal drive is just slightly bigger than the Leopard partition - would this present a problem?

Also, what are my other options? Specifially, Carbon Copy Cloner comes to mind - is this what I need?

Also also, I would like to merge my Adium chat logs - any programs available? If this isn't possible, I'll settle for simply copying them to my Documents folder, and using Spotlight.

A thousand thank-yous in advance.

How do I setup a blog within OS X on an EarthLink-hosted domain?

Lucy2Times — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:16:17 -0800

Resources for setting up a blog under OS X on a domain hosted at EarthLink. Does anyone have experience starting a blog on a domain hosted at EarthLink? I think WordPress might be the way to go. I'd like to do this on a Mac running OS X 10.5.4. I'm not looking for heavy database integration or fancy backend scripts of any kind. I'd just like to post text, links, and photos, and some Google AdSense ads. I'd like to be able to tweak the formatting of templates with my own banners, buttons, etc. This doesn't seem like anything major, but I've been unable to find clear tutorials, etc. on how to make this happen. Thank you very much for any assistance you can provide.

Installing Vista from Upgrade in Bootcamp

Aanidaani — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:39:08 -0800

Has anyone tried installing Windows Vista in BootCamp (On a Mac) using an upgrade disk? I've installed Vista perfectly using this guide on a computer I built myself, but I want to do it on a new Mac. I'd like to install Vista on a Mac using BootCamp, but I don't have a full copy of the OS. I do have a legal upgrade disk, which I've used to install the full OS as described in the link above. I'd just like to know if the same thing is possible on a Mac, or if there is a guide to doing this. Thanks!

Help Me Morbidly Count Down the Remaining Days of My Life!

WCityMike — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:16:04 -0800

I would basically like to rip off, wholesale, some command-line script which will provide me a countdown -- only in days. No years, months, minutes, or seconds. Unfortunately, adapting an existing script is beyond my ken. This idea of Kevin Kelly's inspired me to perhaps try something similar to motivate me towards working more diligently towards long-term personal goals, but I'm not an iGoogle user. I'd like to instead set it up as the result of a shell script which I can then pipe through GeekTool onto my Mac OS X desktop.

The only problem is that there is a lot of Googlenoise out there clogging up the results, and I can't seem to find the kind of script I'm looking for. I did find a countdown script that would tell it to me in years, months, days, horus minutes, and seconds -- but I really would prefer a days-only readout, similar to that depicted on the page. And I see various Javascript to include on webpages -- but I'm looking for something to be done locally, and I can't use the Javascript and then pipe it through lynx or links, since when I bring up such a page using either, the Javascript result doesn't seem to show. (I doubt lynx or links has Javascript support, do they?)

Anyway, can anyone point me towards a shell script that will take the present date, subtract it from a future date, and tell me the number of days between then and now?

I should add that I'm an idiot savante when it comes to shell scripting and Perl ... more of a splicer than anything resembling a programmer. I can sometimes look at code and grok a little of what it's saying, but telling me to embed the Doohickie:Flippa library into the Perl output by piping it through the black hole matrix into my Bananaphone is going to make me look at you blankly.

Thanks!

Vista Remote Desktop from a mac

shawnzam — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:07:36 -0800

I am using using the Windows Remote Desktop Client(1.03) on my mac (OS X 10.4.10 PPC G4) to connect to an iMac running Vista Business and am having some trouble. It freezes up but in time it will regain a connection. I have had the same problem when connection form other macs. Any clues... Thanks in advance.

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!

How to make X11 applications show up in the Dock?

jpf — Tue, 01 May 2007 10:47:23 -0800

Is there a way in to make Mac OS X X11 applications show up in the Dock separately? I make frequent use of several X11 applications. It bothers me that there isn't a way to access an X11 application from the Dock without clicking on the X11 icon and then selecting the appropriate application. Is there a way to do this?

How can I move my OS X desktop icons to the left-side of the screen?

apetpsychic — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:06:07 -0800

Is there any way to have desktop icons in OS X sit on the left side of the screen instead of the right? I can move them to the left side, but the grid makes it so I can't sit the icons right against the left side - there's a huge gap, instead.

Burning DVDs in iTunes

BlzOfGlry — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 16:41:48 -0800

OS X Newbiefilter - Burning a DVD in iTunes on OS X - Will the disk be readable on a PC? I'm trying to burn a couple of DVD's of a very large playlist through iTunes in OS X (it's my mega playlist of Coachella 2007 artists, if anyone cares), and it's not 100% clear if said DVD is going to be readable by a Windows XP PC.

OS X identifies the format of the disk as HFS +, but the help files say that the normal Finder 'burn folder' uses a hybrid format, which will be readable by windows. Is this the same for iTunes?

I know 100% that I can do it in OS X using Toast or another similar program, but honestly I don't own any of them, and I'm guessing that would take some messing around to burn my smart playlist from iTunes?

I'm mailing these disks to a friend, and I don't have immediate access to a PC to test any of these theories. Any suggestions to accomplish this with minimal cost/hassle would be appreciated.

Differences between US and Japanese version of Mac OS X?

p3t3 — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:03:22 -0800

Are there significant differences in the retail versions of Mac OS X sold in North America vs those sold in Japan? I'm living in Japan and helping a friend set up a Mac that was given to him. It's a G4 cube that was never used and still has OS 9. I was going to pick up a cheap copy of OSX 10.3/4 from the likes of eBay or something, but I am finding much cheaper deals back in the states.

Now I know that both the US and JP versions can be configured for the preferred default language to use with menus, etc.. But I was wondering if there are any other parts of the OS that will always remain in the original language, and if so, would these make it hard for a non-english speaker to be running an english version of the OS? (I'm guessing he'll use it mostly for web browsing, iTunes, and not too much else).

Issue reinstalling OSX 10.4 (Tiger) on my MacBook Pro

freshgroundpepper — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 03:50:59 -0800

I've got a MacBook Pro that currently has Max OS X 10.4.7 installed on a single partition (no boot camp). I'd like to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall OSX 10.4 from scratch, but I'm running into some issues. I've got an ADC (apple developer connection) membership, so I've got a couple of OSX install DVDs lying around. The two OS X install discs that I can find are a 10.4.3 and a 10.4.6 disc. Both discs say on their packaging and on the "readme" PDF that they require a Mac with PowerPC G5, G4, or G3 Processors. They don't say anything on them about the build on them being Universal or that they support Intel processors.

When I insert either of them and click on the "Install Mac OS X" icon, I get an error message saying: "Mac OS X 10.4 cannot be installed on this machine. Please consult the documentation for the list of supported Macintosh computers."

I assume that this error is because the disc seems to be a PowerPC only disc and not a universal/intel one. I've also tried to just boot with the DVD in and holding down "C" (so that it boots from the DVD drive instead of the hard drive). The disc spins up but then it launches back into OSX.

I think that the 10.4.3 disc came with my ADC membership, so it could make sense if they sent out a PowerPC only one for that. I'm almost positive that the 10.4.6 disc came with the MacBook Pro, but that doesn't seem right because it's not compatible with my system.

Do the Intel-based macs come with a DVD that is Intel-compatible? Am I just not finding the right disc, or did my Mac not ship with a disc that I can actually reinstall with? For anyone else with a MacBook Pro (or other intel mac), did you get a disc that specifically says that it's universal/works with Intel processors?

Extending the useful lifetime of a 12" 867 MHz PowerBook G4?

nthdegx — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:20:59 -0800

Do you have ant ideas for extending the useful lifetime of a 12" 867 MHz PowerBook G4? The machine, now running 10.3.8 runs noticably slower than it did in its 10.2 days. I'm thinking of reverting. I'm highly tempted to give Mac Ubuntu a try as it claims to run on G3s, so I'm hopeful this will improve the system's performance. Any thoughts on this? Also, any ideas for tarting up the scracthed aluminium shell? Any other thoughts or tips? RAM is already maxed.

OS X on non Apple hardware viable?

wackybrit — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:44:19 -0800

Is it viable to use OS X on non Apple hardware for daily, full use? I own tons of Apple hardware but am tiring of it. The selection is, frankly, pathetic. I thought the switch to Intel might improve matters, but it's still under-par. Regular PC notebooks have higher resolutions and more features at the same sizes, better upgradability, are cheaper, etc.. and desktop PCs are streets ahead in raw hardware stakes (A Mac Mini at 2GHz with an upgraded HD would be great, but, nope.. t'is not avaiable).

Using OS X on non Apple hardware appears to have become a popular hobby but as I'm not into BitTorrent or the whole downloading thing, I'm weary of experimenting immediately as it'll be a hassle to get. I know this is not legal license-wise, but as I have lots of Apple hardware, always buy their latest software and stuff, I have no ethical worry about that.

What I'm wondering is.. is it worth getting it and using it on non Apple hardware on a daily basis? Or is it still just a big experiment / toy? Is anyone here using OS X on non Apple hardware as their main machine?

Switch. And Switch back, you know, whenever you damn well please.

Tikirific — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:17:17 -0800

This may be slightly premature, but would it possible to install Windows onto one of the new Macintel platforms and so have an OS X/XP dualbooting machine? I realize the computers in question aren't exactly released to the public yet, but if anyone is familiar with the hardware inside (and hence are aware of Windows' ability to drive those components) I would really like to know whether it's possible. It being Intel architecture, I would assume that it's at least feasible, but since Apple is preventing OS X to be used on generic PC systems by way of a hardware security block, I was wondering if anyone had heard of a similar restriction on running other OSes on a Apple box (or, whether the use of proprietary components inside an Apple would prevent this anyway).

How do I setup my new Mac to run Linux and Windows applications too?

pwb503 — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 17:37:46 -0800

I'm about to get a brand new PowerBook and would like to be able to run OSX, Linux, and run Windows applications. VPC is one option, but isn't there a Linux version that will run Windows applications? If so, what is it, how well does it work, and how best should I setup the computer to use it? Dual boot? Boot from within OSX? Multiple partitions, one for each OS? Since this laptop will be brand new, I'd like to take the opportunity to get everything setup right. Oh yeah, I'd also like to give OpenOffice a try (on the OSX install), any words of wisdom for me there?

I keep losing my application icons in OS X.

ssmith — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:52:32 -0800

I keep losing my application icons in OS X. Is there a way in OS X to "rebuild the desktop" like you did in OS 9? Several of my applications (iTunes and After Effects for examle) won't keep their custom icons - even if I reinstall the program.

It's also causing other problems as well. Safari insists that I don't have iTunes installed, so I can't follow links to the music store for instance.