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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

NYR

Member
Hey peeps,

Planning on buying a new Mac and installing Windows 7 via bootcamp asap.

However, I need a full copy of windows 7. I don't mind buying one, but I noticed a lot of online retainers sell OEM copies for a lot cheaper. Will a legit OEM copy of windows 7 work with bootcamp or should I buy a retail copy?
 
NYR said:
Hey peeps,

Planning on buying a new Mac and installing Windows 7 via bootcamp asap.

However, I need a full copy of windows 7. I don't mind buying one, but I noticed a lot of online retainers sell OEM copies for a lot cheaper. Will a legit OEM copy of windows 7 work with bootcamp or should I buy a retail copy?

OEM will work just fine.
 
ana said:
I'd like to see something. it's crazy how bad SCII chugs at 1920x1200...but with the same graphics settings at 1680x1040 (or whatever that resolution is), it's smooth as butter. at least a 20 frame difference. makes no sense.

and considering I can just boot into bootcamp'd windows and play at 1920x1200 with just about everything on High, Apple is long overdue for a good graphics update.
 
I just realised that when you open About This Mac, then click the Version number, it switches between serial number and build number.

New things everyday!
 
Anyone need a copy of OSX 10.5? I am selling a copy I no longer need.

I finished writing my HDD w/ 0's 7 times a few minutes ago. I am now installing Tiger on it in preparation to sell it to Gazelle. I had some great times with it, but I return back to Windows for now with my new rig.
 

pj

Banned
I have a login item on my mbp that connects to a USB hdd connected to my mac mini. It works fine, but it opens a finder window to the drive every time it connects. Can I make it not do that?
 

jts

...hate me...
pj said:
I have a login item on my mbp that connects to a USB hdd connected to my mac mini. It works fine, but it opens a finder window to the drive every time it connects. Can I make it not do that?
Make an applescript along these lines:

Code:
delay 2
	tell application "Finder" to close Finder window "XXX"
end tell

Save it as an app and put it on the login items.

If it is an applescript that you're already using to connect to the USB hdd, you just need to edit it to add this.
 

Chris R

Member
What is the best CSS/JavaScript/JScript editor available? I'm using Coda now and it seems decent (haven't really got it down pat yet). Just wondering if there is anything better out there before I buy Coda.
 

Kryten

Member
Help me GAF. I'm a Mac user in a Windows environment and mostly, things are perfectly fine except that I need to access/write to an SMB share on one of our servers pretty regularly and my method needs improvement.

What I want - can I have a Finder based (i.e. under Places, ideally) alias that is basically just a direct alias to the SMB share, with authentication popping up if needed (or keychain access)? It's driving me batshit trying to figure this out. I've gotten as far as a desktop alias but that's a link to a mounted volume, not the SMB share (which I think I need to have this work).

Yes, I can CMD+K to get there. Yes, I have a saved share link in there. But I'm LAZIER THAN THAT.
 

pj

Banned
Does anyone else have shitty video quality with HDMI? Over HDMI, the video on my new mini will flicker in bright spots within generally dark images (lights, people's faces). It's not god awful, but it's noticeable and really annoying. It also has some slight screen tearing. If I switch to mini displayport -> dvi -> hdmi, then the same video will look just fine.

jts said:
Make an applescript along these lines:

Code:
delay 2
	tell application "Finder" to close Finder window "XXX"
end tell

Save it as an app and put it on the login items.

If it is an applescript that you're already using to connect to the USB hdd, you just need to edit it to add this.

That's a good idea, thanks
 
Is there some key configuration that brings up a task manager like windows? I was loading hearts of iron iii which was taking forever and I had no way to exit out which was annoying.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Is there some key configuration that brings up a task manager like windows? I was loading hearts of iron iii which was taking forever and I had no way to exit out which was annoying.
Command + Option + Esc will bring up the Force Quit window. You could also open Activity Monitor if you wish.
 
my trackpad on my macbook has become a pain to use after the last software update

it seems to stick and keeps highlighting text all the time when I just want to scroll or move the cursor and tends to drag my bookmark links from the safari menu bar

its so damn annoying after a few days of this I had to ask if anyone else has this issue or is my trackpad broken?
 

ericexpo

Member
Anyone here have a SSD in their MBP or any recommendations for a good sub $200 SSD?
I just want it to be a boot drive so i was thinking around 60GB should be more then enough
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
H.264 GPU Decoding in Flash Player on Mac OS X is live

We just pushed a few minutes ago a new version of the Flash Player 10.1.82.76 containing a nice feature that was in beta until now called "Gala". Yes, H.264 GPU decoding in Mac OSX is now officially enabled in the Flash Player.

You should notice now a nice difference when playing H.264 content on your Mac in terms of CPU usage. We rarely enable new features in security releases but we really wanted to enable such a cool feature. For more details about it, Tinic already posted about this.

Of course, you will not see the tiny top left white rectangle anymore, we removed it.

Noe that we are actively working on improving even more the video experience in the Flash Player, more about this soon.

To download the latest version, you know where to get it ;)

It may take a few hours to get propagated, so make sure you double check the version.

You can check what version you have here and if you need to download the new version you can get it from here. H.264 decoding will only work on OS X 10.6.3+ and requires either a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M GPUs.
 

Jasoco

Banned
I click the link to check my version and it says I have 10,1,53,64 installed and that the newest is the one mentioned. So I click the Download Center link and it says "You are running Chrome which has the latest version built in." What? No I don't! Fuck. This is why I was against having Flash built-in. There's no reason to build it in. Every computer has it already.

How do I update in Chrome? Or do I really have the newest version?

If I go to Firefox, it says I have the same version and lets me download the update. Safari won't even go to the Download page. And Chrome thinks I have the newest version right after telling me I didn't.

After downloading the installer in Firefox and installing, Firefox gets the new version, but Chrome is still stuck with 10,1,53,64. Fuck!

I hate Flash. I wish it wasn't still needed.

Edit: From Adobe.com:
How do I install the latest version of Flash Player in Google Chrome?
Chrome users don't have to download new versions of Flash Player. Chrome automatically updates when new versions of Flash Player are available, to protect users with the latest security updates.​
LIES! BLATANT LIES! Chrome hasn't updated it. When will it do that? Why can't I just install it like a normal person?

Edit: Apparently you can disable the built-in Flash in Chrome to get it to use the one you update manually. WTF? This is stupid design. Let's see if it worked...
 

itsinmyveins

Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
So what are the useful "must have" programs for a Macbook Pro? Is Bean the word processor of choice if I want a free one? Give me suggestions!
 
itsinmyveins said:
So what are the useful "must have" programs for a Macbook Pro? Is Bean the word processor of choice if I want a free one? Give me suggestions!

I dunno, I think QUick Office is too slow to open for me. I'd like something that's light and quick. I'm probably going to resort to MS Word later down the line for uni as it seems the only app compatible with stupid UK universities formatting
 
I'm having some problems. When I plug in a USB mouse, no matter the kind of mouse it moves normally but the left and right click on it do absolutely nothing. The cursor moves on the screen fine but none of the clicks work. I can usually get my logitech working if I go into the control panel for it but none of the other ones. This has only been happening for the past week or so. Does anyone know what would cause something like this to happen?
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
I'm having some problems. When I plug in a USB mouse, no matter the kind of mouse it moves normally but the left and right click on it do absolutely nothing. The cursor moves on the screen fine but none of the clicks work. I can usually get my logitech working if I go into the control panel for it but none of the other ones. This has only been happening for the past week or so. Does anyone know what would cause something like this to happen?
If it's a Macbook, it might be the touchpad. I had the same problem recently, turned out I accidentally pressed the touchpad mouse button down constantly with the external keyboard cord :lol

If it's not something as trivial as that, then you can always visit a Mac shop to try and resolve this. One common issue is the Mac cords breaking, they're not made to last, I suppose. So if you've got the USB mouse plugged into an external keyboard and that has a broken cord, some guy at the shop will certainly find out and help you somehow.
 
wmat said:
If it's a Macbook, it might be the touchpad. I had the same problem recently, turned out I accidentally pressed the touchpad mouse button down constantly with the external keyboard cord :lol

If it's not something as trivial as that, then you can always visit a Mac shop to try and resolve this. One common issue is the Mac cords breaking, they're not made to last, I suppose. So if you've got the USB mouse plugged into an external keyboard and that has a broken cord, some guy at the shop will certainly find out and help you somehow.

It's a macbook pro and I'm just using a mouse with. It happens if I'm using my wireless mouse or if it's a wired mouse, doesn't seem to matter. Couldn't get it working this morning but after several reboots it's finally going again. Weird.
 

pj

Banned
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
It's a macbook pro and I'm just using a mouse with. It happens if I'm using my wireless mouse or if it's a wired mouse, doesn't seem to matter. Couldn't get it working this morning but after several reboots it's finally going again. Weird.

This happens to me sometimes. I can always fix it by clicking anywhere with the trackpad. After that, my wireless usb mouse works fine.
 
pj said:
This happens to me sometimes. I can always fix it by clicking anywhere with the trackpad. After that, my wireless usb mouse works fine.

That doesn't work for me. I'd left and right click with the trackpad when it didn't work to see if it was something with the system but the trackpad worked prefectly fine. It was only the external mice.
 

Futureman

Member
can I put my MacBook Pro to sleep while it is performing an intensive task, like exporting a bunch of photos?

Is this advised against, or is it fine and the computer will pick right up where it left off?
 

moowear

Member
Not sure if this has been asked but a new mac user here;

I usually archive my music using the format hd:/audio/artist/album/songs and i'm trying to do it the same way on a mac.

However i noticed that even if i have it organized that way, itunes has what appears to be a copy of those files and it looks like this:/music/itunes/itunes media/music/artist/album/songs.

question is, does itunes keep another physical copy of those songs and is there a way that there is only one set of the files? Not sure if i'm wording this correctly but any thoughts are welcomed.
 

Ulairi

Banned
I finally moved my dock to the right side of the screen. It really shows to me what a horrible interface the dock is when camped at the bottom of the screen. I didn't realize how much screen real estate is taken up with that thing.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Ulairi said:
I finally moved my dock to the right side of the screen. It really shows to me what a horrible interface the dock is when camped at the bottom of the screen. I didn't realize how much screen real estate is taken up with that thing.
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.
 

Legendbyname

Neo Member
Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.

I have a dual-monitor setup with my main display being on the left. Therefore I have my dock placed vertically on the left side. Took a little while to adjust, but it just makes so much more sense.
 
moowear said:
Not sure if this has been asked but a new mac user here;

I usually archive my music using the format hd:/audio/artist/album/songs and i'm trying to do it the same way on a mac.

However i noticed that even if i have it organized that way, itunes has what appears to be a copy of those files and it looks like this:/music/itunes/itunes media/music/artist/album/songs.

question is, does itunes keep another physical copy of those songs and is there a way that there is only one set of the files? Not sure if i'm wording this correctly but any thoughts are welcomed.
Yes, the setting is in the preferences.


Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.
Doesn't that logically mean you should keep it at the bottom then, where you read your icons from left to right?
 

Ulairi

Banned
Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.


A lot of people don't change core system settings like that. One of the things I like about Windows 7 is how the task bar doesn't take up screen real estate but now that I switch the dock to the right side of the screen and have it set to hide I'm hot hovering over it, I'm liking OS X a lot more.
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.


I have it on the left side, it was a little strange at first, but I can't go back to having it on the bottom.. same goes for windows7
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Doesn't that logically mean you should keep it at the bottom then, where you read your icons from left to right?
You don't read icons, though. But you read a web page from left to right. The dock gets in the way of that, if it's on the left.

At least, that's what makes sense to me.
 

Jasoco

Banned
Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.
I make more use of the empty space next to the Dock:
2jfnsy.jpg

Yes, I also keep all my main HD's on the left bottom corner so I can see the icons on the edge of the screen.
And the memory in the bottom right so I can see how much is free in the corner.
The uptime and loads are just to balance it all out. I used to have weather there until the script broke. :(
Date, time, music all Bowtie and the rest is GeekTool 3. The usual shit.

That's why I like it at the bottom. I've tried other configs, but since I don't actually keep all my apps in the Dock, none of the side configurations make sense or feel right to me.
 

mollipen

Member
Bboy AJ said:
It baffles me why people with wide screen monitors dock at the bottom. Ridiculous. Plus we read left to right. Docks should be on the right side of the screen, vertically.

Having the dock on one of the sides makes things goofy with Adobe CS apps and their windows. Plus, I don't know... bottom center seems to be way more logical, since the distance between where my mouse usually is and where the dock is is closer that way versus the dock being on the side.
 

bionic77

Member
N00b OSX question (from a guy using the OS for almost 5 years now). When I am running my older laptop for a long period of time I notice that sometimes it starts to slow down and I attribute this to the large amount of ram devoted to "inactive memory". As soon as I restart the whole system is fast again, but I was always under the impression that the ram was automatically managed so that this shouldn't be an issue.

Anyone have an explanation or solution?

edit: Some specs of the system in question. Core Duo, 2 gigs of ram, MBP from early 2006.
 
Hmm, I guess my battery is about to die...

Some Specs:
MacBook Pro 15" Late 2008 model (15 months old)
full charge capacity (in mAh): 2969
cycle count: 479
status: check battery

The problem:
When I'm running on battery, my MacBook Pro suddenly turns off at 8-10% batterystatus. It doesn't save any state to the RAM, so when I push the power button the machine does a clean start. iStat is telling me that my battery health is around 65%, but to me it feels more like 20%, since the specs aren't that solid anymore. Guess ~500 cycles and especially~3000mAh isn't that good anymore, compared to when it was new. I did a SMC and PRAM reset yesterday, but it was good for nothing.

So I already made an appointment at the genius bar for next weeks monday, but still, I wonder if anyone in here ever experienced this and if I'm right assuming that the battery is the reason for the failure happening or different things like the logic board.

Thanks!
 
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