1. Force Mail in 10.6 to only copy e-mail addresses

    December 8, 2009 by jim

    In Leopard when I copied an email address via the Mail App that's all that was copied. In Snow Leaopard the person's name is copied, along with the email address inside of brackets. This change is really annoying in Snow Leopard. Here's to get back to Leopard goodness.

    Quit Mail if it’s running, then enter this command in Terminal:

    defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO

    If you try this and decided you prefer the default version, quit Mail and run this command in Terminal:

    defaults delete com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard

    Via MacWorld

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  2. Fake Steve Jobs on Google Chrome OS

    July 9, 2009 by jim

    It's funny because it's true. Read it. Pure genius.

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  3. Solid State Drives: The Intel X25-M is king

    June 24, 2009 by jim

    The only SSD drive that I can recommend at this time, after extensive research, are the X25-M drives from Intel. I have one of them in my MacBook and Mac Pro. They are used for the OS and the applications. I only have the 80GB version, but how I have things set up this works fine for such a small drive. Let me come back to that, but first point you to a few articles. I'm linking to the conclusion pages. You can dig further into them if interested.

    Update: August 30th, 2009

    (more…)

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  4. Replacing a Samsung hard drive under warranty

    May 11, 2009 by jim

    My Mac Pro is configured with four drives. The OS and applications reside on an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD (solid state drive). A 500GB drive act as my "documents" folder to keep the SSD as free as possible. Two Samsung HD103UJ 1TB drives are in a RAID 1 configuration. The system sees this as a single terabyte drive. RAID 1 means that anything copied or deleted from the RAID gets copied or deleted from both drives. I only put the photos and videos I shoot onto these drives.

    It's important to realize that RAID is not backup. But it does give me immediate redundancy. Should one of the RAID drives fail I still have the second drive. I actually have more versions of my photos and videos on two other drives. Theoretically I don't delete anything from these drives, just add to them. I also do not overwrite anything on these drives.

    Well, the failure time has arrived. One of the RAID drives has failed so we'll see how much of a hassle Samsung puts me through to replace my drive. Samsung is not very clear on registering their drives. You used to be able to register drives online. My 500GB docs drive is also a Samsung and it's registered online. There is no way to register the newer drives online. They've stopped doing that. But they don't bother to tell anyone.

    (more…)

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  5. How fast is a solid state drive (SSD) drive in a Mac Pro?

    April 10, 2009 by jim

    How much faster is a Solid State Drive (SSD) than a hard drive when it comes to launching applications? This video shows about 20 applications being opened at one time on a Mac Pro Quad Nehalem 2.66. The first part of the video shows the stock Western Digital 7,200 RPM drive. The second part of the video shows an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD at the same task.

    Video thumbnail. Click to play.
    Click to play

    Just to see how it improved my MacBook (CoreDuo 1.83GHz with 2GB RAM), I put this SSD into it. It was like a different computer. I was amazed at how fast and responsive it became compared to running off a hard drive. I opened approximately twenty applications and was able to switch seamlessly between them, something that would have ground my MB to a halt if it was running with the HD.

    80 GB is kind of small, but considering a notebook is not my main computer, I can get away with limited HD space. When needed I can also attached a portable hard drive. I've also contemplated adding an Optibay and the stock HD from the MacBook for more storage, but right now it's not an issue. For a couch surfing / road warrior machine I can make do with the >50GB remaining on the SSD.

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  6. Unibody Late 2008 Aluminum 15" MacBook Pro Fans Gone Wild

    March 1, 2009 by jim

    Update: After opening a case with Apple about this and then taking it to the Apple Store in Cleveland (Legacy Village) I was able to demonstrate these problems to the Apple Genius and he arranged for me to return the MacBook.

    I've been using the MacBook over the weekend before I return it on Monday so I can move things off. A new wrinkle has appeared — the MacBook now wants to turn on after being put to sleep or even shut down.

    Two nights in a row I shut the MacBook down, only to awake the next morning to discover it had turned itself back on shortly thereafter. "Wake from Bluetooth event" is not enabled. I tried resetting the SMU again and checked power settings to make sure a wake command was not in play.

    One guy found that a missing file lead to some instances of MacBook waking from sleep when it's not suppose to. My MacBook was missing this file but his fix did not work for my MacBook.

    This MacBook has some serious issues. Luckily I got in under the 14-day return period. Props to Apple Genius Rex for his help.

    Now back to the original post from March 1st:

    I can't figure out the fans on my MacBook Pro. The lowest normal speed for the fans in 2,000 rpm. They will spin up at times for no apparent reason to 5,000 or 6,200 rpm with nothing really taxing the CPU while it's also pretty cool, usually around the high 30's or low 40's celsius.

    The other night I was converting a movie with Visual Hub, with the process taking 80% of the CPU and the temp reaching 75 c with the fans staying at 2,000 RPM until about half way through the eight minute conversion. This is a time I would have expected the fans to kick in much earlier than they did.

    I have reset the SMC previously with no effect. Coming from a Polycarbonate MacBook this machine is much nosier, but also much cooler running.

    Check out the videos I made showing iStat and Activity Monitor during these episodes. Thanks for any feedback. I'm coming to the end of my 14-day return period and wanted to verify if my MBP is operating like others.

    Thanks for any feedback. (more…)

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  7. Enabling Remote Disc on non-Air Macs

    February 22, 2009 by jim

    In order for my MacBook to share the DVD on my G5 over the network, I had to add the following commands to the MacBook:

    In terminal

    defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser EnableODiskBrowsing -bool true

    defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser ODSSupported -bool true

    Simply turning on DVD or CD sharing won't work without the above commands.

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=455975

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  8. The end of MacBook kernel panics

    February 1, 2009 by jim

    Well, let's hope so…

    My MacBook, an original white 1.83GHz Duo Core, was upgraded to 2GB of RAM from the stock 512MB. It ran pretty well until I upgraded to Leopard. Soon after I was having frequent kernel panics. Eventually DiskWarrior was needed to bring my MB back to life after some serious corruption.

    I put the original 512MB of RAM back into the MacBook. It ran kernel panic free for several days. I had run Memtest in the past and it never found any problems.

    This was enough to try new RAM. I looked up the receipt for the RAM. It was no longer under warranty. I paid $176 for it almost three years ago. Today that same 2GB cost $30.

    Several days after installing new Crucial RAM (the original 2GB was some other brand purchased at NewEgg) I have not a single kernel panic. There is no way I could have gone this long without a KP on the old RAM.

    It's still a wonder to me that the RAM simply went bad. Trying to remember way back I think my MacBook did have kernel panics from the start, but they were pretty infrequent.

    Update

    It has been more than two weeks since installing the new RAM and not a single kernel panic. I was in Italy for eight days with the MacBook where it got quite a bit of use. I have regained the confidence I lost in my MacBook.

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  9. Making phone calls on an iPod Touch

    December 22, 2008 by jim

    Until the day you have persistent wifi availability this isn't going to replace your cell phone, but it's a neat trick. I'm hoping we can use this in Europe to place phone calls in a pinch.

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  10. Track a stolen laptop with Adeona

    December 15, 2008 by jim

    I've tested this on my MacBook and it works. With the Mac version you can even have photos of your thief sent you you. Watch the video below to get started and then download the software. It should take you about 10 minutes to get this installed and running.


    More Mobile Videos at 5min.com

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  11. Keys out of order on MacBook, DiskWarrior to the rescue

    October 25, 2008 by jim

    My white MacBook is from the first run of 1.83GHz machines from May of 2006. I don't depend on it for anything more than couch surfing and on-the-go computing. It has been back to Apple several times early on for issues, but once those were resolved the machine has been pretty reliable.

    Until now.

    (more…)

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