PowerBook stuck on an endless loop
Yesterday I applied the latest updates available from Apple to my PowerBook, and for some reason or another something went awfully wrong..
The updates that killed (temporarily) my PowerBook were: Security Update 2008-002 and the Safari 3.1 Update. After the combine 100MB+ download, Leopard asked to restart, like it always does. Thinking not much of it, I said go ahead and thats when everything went crazy..
The updates seemed to installed correctly, but one thing caught my attention: Instead of carrying out the install with the normal blue background, it was been done with the Leopard "cosmic" backdrop, "Odd".. I thought..
It took a while to restart..and then grey Apple screen, a restart, grey Apple screen, a restart, so on and so forth. Things didn't look good at all. Couldn't boot into Single User Mode, nor Verbose Mode. Things were definitely looking bad. Left it as it was overnight, decided to deal with it later on the next day.
Today I got my OSX Disk out and booted off the DVD. Did the usual repair disk/permissions savior moves, no dice. Only thing left to do... Archive and Install..
So I went ahead and took that route and I gotta say I'm happily back home. Sure I gotta install a crap load of updates again, and today, my internet is acting extremely SLOOOOOWWW. Nevertheless, its god to be back within OSX with all my files and apps intact.
What cause this? I am not too sure. I would say that mysterious "Safe Mode" boot that happened once out of nowhere had something to do with it. Hopefully it was just "one of those days.." Lets see if when I update back again everything is nice and dandy..
Labels: Apple, Computer problems, Leopard, OSX, PowerBook G4, Troubleshooting
Posted by Sebastian at 3/19/2008 04:32:00 PM | 13 comments read on
Remove that warning message within MSN Messenger on OSX
Never give out your password or credit card number in an instant message conversation. To help prevent infection by a computer virus or worm, never accept or open any file or link in an instant message until you verify its authenticity with the sender.
The first time I saw that warning message while trying to IM somebody, I thought to myself: "Awww how thoughtful of you Microsoft, looking out for me like that.." The second time it was more like "Yea man..I know". By the third time, I was looking desperately within the prefereences to turn that annoying message off.
Turns out you can't turn the message off by conventional means. I guess Microsoft believes that Messenger users have the memory span of a Goldfish, hence the ongoing warning message "feature". Fed-up of been treated like a Goldfish, I decided to finally get rid of that annoying warning message..
- Make sure MSN Messenger isn't running.
- Go to the MSN Messenger.app inside your Applications folder, and select it.
- Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Show Package Contents.
- Navigate your way from folder to folder: Contents > Resources .
- Double-click on the folder that corresponds to the language you currently use. For me: English.lproj
- Find the file: InstantMessageWindow.strings
- Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Open With > Other..
- Choose TextEdit and hit Open
- Scroll-down till you reach the line that starts with IMWarning = "
- Delete all the text inside the quotes. the end result should be IMWarning = "";
- Save the file and relaunch Messenger.
- Enjoy the lack of that pesky warning message.
Labels: Apple, Messenger, MSN Messenger, OSX
Posted by Sebastian at 3/10/2008 11:46:00 AM | 10 comments read on
When will Apple say "Goodbye" to the Combodrive?
Today Apple released the long awaited updates to the MacBook Pro, and tagging along we also got an updated "non-Pro" MacBook.
Looking at what's new with these updates, one can quickly point:
- Penryn-based Intel processors
- 17" LED-Backlit display option
- Bluetooth 2.1 on the MacBook Pro line
- Multitouch trackpad on the the MacBook Pro line
- Better video cards on the MacBook Pro line
- More storage accross the board
This discrepancy would've been OK circa 2003, but not today. I mean, how much does it really cost Apple to include a DVD-RW burning on the entry-level MacBook? Nowadays I'm betting the price different between a super- and combodrive is nonexistent. It's understandable the storage difference, even the slower CPU, but this?
What's the point of shipping iMovie with all its HD-editing glory when u can't burn the content to a DVD so you can watch it on a TV? Maybe Apple has a warehouse full of combodrives since 2003 collecting dust and they wanna get rid of them any way possible. Perhapsd eep inside the Curpertino-HQ somebody still thinks that Combodrives are useful? Who knows..
To me this is just a greedy move. There's no "cutting-corners" excuse that will hold up today with the prices of DVD-RW DL Drives. So when will Apple say "Goodbye" to the Combodrive? By the look of things, not any time soon.
Labels: Apple, Combodrive, Mac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro
Posted by Sebastian at 2/26/2008 09:59:00 PM | 6 comments read on
10.5.2 is Out! - Quick Impressions thus far
Going against my speculations of when it would be out ( I said a week ago), Apple finally released the long awaited 10.5.2 update to the masses of Mac users anxiously awaiting yesterday. Weighting in at a hefty 353 MBs (for the combo updater), it sure brought some fixing goodness for the Leopard. So how was it?
- The delta updater was around 180 MBs on my 12 in. PowerBook running 10.5.1 with every other update installed.
- The installation took a while (significantly more than any other OSX update I have done to date).
- First time I see "Patching files" as an Updater status.
- My PowerBook rebooted twice in a row, before going to the desktop (Intel Macs only reboot once so I've heard).
- The dock and menubar were slow to appear once the Mac reached the desktop.
- There's a new Time Machine icon on the menu bar next to the volume, bluetooth, etc.
- It's now possible to disable the transparency on the menubar. (Not available on my 12 in. PowerBook with an Nvidia GeForce FX Go 5200)
- Stacks can finally be viewed as lists, or just show a folder icon instead of the contents (nice!)
- After the 10.5.2 update there was a Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 available (48.9 MBs).
- Even after the suppose Airport fixes, my Airport performance is significantly weaker than it was on Tiger.
- Another Airport Bug: After a machine restart the Mac doesn't rejoin the network as it should.
I have change the wireless encryption from WEP/SSID Broadcast: OFF to WPA/SSID Broadcast: ON to see if I can pinpoint what is going wrong with my wireless after 10.5.2
Besides the Airport issues, 10.5.2 has been behaving well thus far. I recommend updating if you are running Leopard, especially if you are a soon to be Aperture 2 owner.
Labels: 10.5, Apple, Leopard, Mac, OSX
Posted by Sebastian at 2/12/2008 08:25:00 PM | 14 comments read on
