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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Alright, so my system just started doing this terrible grainy thing, and nothing in the display settings fixes it. Checked the resolution, the color options, everything I can think of. Its not just on system stuff either, its on all programs and even web content.

7JnHU.png

dz5YQ.png



Any ideas?
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Reading books on the computer sucks.

I feel like you ask this every month. :)

True. The reason I want iBooks is not purely to read, but to import (if possible) my annotations/highlights from my books when using the iPad. I've already made a copy of that backup - haven't tried it yet, but I wonder if iTunes on another machine would be able to recognise this if I copied the backup into the appropriate folder. Some of the files in there are my books with those annotations. I want to keep those annotations and notes, hence this need for iBooks. It actually has little to do with reading new books.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
True. The reason I want iBooks is not purely to read, but to import (if possible) my annotations/highlights from my books when using the iPad. I've already made a copy of that backup - haven't tried it yet, but I wonder if iTunes on another machine would be able to recognise this if I copied the backup into the appropriate folder. Some of the files in there are my books with those annotations. I want to keep those annotations and notes, hence this need for iBooks.
Apple is just way behind in features for their books. Amazon has a website where all your Kindle notes and highlights get synced and can be read on any device.
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Apple is just way behind in features for their books. Amazon has a website where all your Kindle notes and highlights get synced and can be read on any device.

I know. I should have stuck with them, but the damn bookshelf UI in iBooks seduced me and it became my main reading (haha I meant to say need) app. Anyway, there is no reading why this can't be done. I'd say it's reasonable to presume a Mac version is on its way to coincidence with Lion's full screen mode, but can't understand why it's not out already. The Kindle for Mac came out in early Jan
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
Just say what you meant instead of playing silly guessing games. What the hell.
Yeah, you're about the last person on Neogaf who can say that and get away with it.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
No, I think sometimes even when you're trying to be helpful and set things straight you can be a little too abstract or vague.. seemingly just to make them feel stupid.

I don't know, these painmeds are getting to me.
What's a good freeware way to defrag my HDD?
 

giga

Member
The_Technomancer said:
Alright, so my system just started doing this terrible grainy thing, and nothing in the display settings fixes it. Checked the resolution, the color options, everything I can think of. Its not just on system stuff either, its on all programs and even web content.

[MG]http://i.imgur.com/7JnHU.png[/IMG]
IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dz5YQ.png[/IMG]


Any ideas?
Did you install something recently or change your color profile? System wide color banding is related to graphics.

Try creating a new user profile.
 

Jasoco

Banned
It looks like something that would happen when the color depth is turned down. Though I'm dating myself back to the days of 16-bit and 256-color monitors.
 
FUCK ME

FUCK ME ITUNES

I know there is a simple explanation, but filing out the Artists field in Get Info KEEPS autofilling the WRONG NAME

I'm trying to type The Black Keys, but it keeps autofilling to the black keys

How the hell do I stop this shit (yes, other than buying the album)
 
Mecha_Infantry said:
FUCK ME

FUCK ME ITUNES

I know there is a simple explanation, but filing out the Artists field in Get Info KEEPS autofilling the WRONG NAME

I'm trying to type The Black Keys, but it keeps autofilling to the black keys

How the hell do I stop this shit (yes, other than buying the album)
It means you have some track tagged with "the black keys" as the artist. What I do is select the "t" and change it to "T", then do the same for the "b" and the "k". It can be a PITA but there you go.

Edit: Also I think you can start with a space, put in what you want and then delete the space.
 

AlexMogil

Member
Mecha_Infantry said:
FUCK ME

FUCK ME ITUNES

I know there is a simple explanation, but filing out the Artists field in Get Info KEEPS autofilling the WRONG NAME

I'm trying to type The Black Keys, but it keeps autofilling to the black keys

How the hell do I stop this shit (yes, other than buying the album)


Search for everything with the black keys and rename them "The Black Keys". Also look for songs that have Sort By fields populated.

Additionally I remove The, A, and An before every album and group. Some of my music players sort this stuff incorrectly.
 

Kjellson

Member
So I got my MacBook Pro last friday and it's great! Thanks for answering all the questions I asked before!

Anyway, there are some things I'm wondering:

1. My mom's MacBook has the feature to go to the top and the bottom of a page by sliding three fingers on the pad up and down, but I can't find that in my settings. Doesn't MBP have that or something?

2. FaceTime isn't working right. I can't call my friend's iPhone and if he calls me from it it says I'm busy. We can call each other from our Macs though. Anyone had the same problem and fixed it?

3. Some YouTube videos doesn't work. It starts with a Play button for some weird reason

Hk83Bl.jpg


And then nothing happens.

Qlr1Zl.jpg


That's all it does. The video doesn't start or anything. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Made the pictures smaller.
 

bh7812

Banned
I have decided after wanting a Mac for a long time and after my extremely positive experience with my iPad that I am going to finally buy me a Macbook this week. I have read off and on about Macs for the last few years so I've got at least some idea what to expect but I was just wondering if anyone here can point me in the direction of something highly recommended I can read that can explain the main differences between Windows and Mac OS? I want to be as familiar with it as possible before I get the Macbook though I understand there's going to be some things I'll need to adapt to and some transitions I'll have to make. Also, can I use any USB mouse with a Mac or Apple only?
 

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Flash on OS X (at least with FF) is still fucked, I guess. I have to occasionally kill "Firefox Plugin Process" to make the browser stop beachballin', that's not supposed to be that way. Tends to happen when I close Flash'd tabs or navigate somewhere else (for instance, when I go from a 720p YT video to Google). You suck, Adobe (although Adobe Ideas is neat, heh).
 

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
bh7812 said:
I have decided after wanting a Mac for a long time and after my extremely positive experience with my iPad that I am going to finally buy me a Macbook this week. I have read off and on about Macs for the last few years so I've got at least some idea what to expect but I was just wondering if anyone here can point me in the direction of something highly recommended I can read that can explain the main differences between Windows and Mac OS? I want to be as familiar with it as possible before I get the Macbook though I understand there's going to be some things I'll need to adapt to and some transitions I'll have to make. Also, can I use any USB mouse with a Mac or Apple only?

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Any mouse you like.
 
So I'm thinking about eventually purchasing a Magic Trackpad, but I'm not sure if I can justify it. If I already have a MacBook Pro with a trackpad, is the extra space worth it? I'm also thinking about eventually using a Griffin Elevator so that I can use my very nice Microsoft Keyboard, so still having a trackpad would nice.

Also, opinions on the Elevator? I feel like it would look kind of awkward.
 
Mr. Wonderful said:
So I'm thinking about eventually purchasing a Magic Trackpad, but I'm not sure if I can justify it. If I already have a MacBook Pro with a trackpad, is the extra space worth it? I'm also thinking about eventually using a Griffin Elevator so that I can use my very nice Microsoft Keyboard, so still having a trackpad would nice.

Also, opinions on the Elevator? I feel like it would look kind of awkward.

Look at the M-Stand..the trackpad is also worth it. I have a magic mouse and it's retired to my closet now
 

NekoFever

Member
Has anyone had an issue with the trackpad on a MacBook Pro intermittently not recognising two-finger clicks for right clicks? It's only started in the last few days and I thought it might be a hardware issue because it seems to be reliable if I turn on tap to click, but I installed MagicPrefs and have that handling gestures and it seems to be back to working normally, so I'm 90% sure it's a software thing. All other trackpad gestures have no issues.

If I let OS X handle it, it'll work fine for a while and then suddenly stop, then maybe work 1/10 times. I can't see a pattern to it at all.

I'm on a 2011 MacBook Pro.
 

Jasoco

Banned
What does MagicPrefs do that BetterTouchTool doesn't BTW? One thing I like about BTT is I can also assign hot keys to open stuff and run scripts and all kinds of crap. It keeps me from needing DragThing for much longer.
 

NekoFever

Member
I don't know, to be honest. I just went for it because it let me duplicate the non-working built-in functionality, which is all I wanted.
 

mrkgoo

Member
bh7812 said:
I have decided after wanting a Mac for a long time and after my extremely positive experience with my iPad that I am going to finally buy me a Macbook this week. I have read off and on about Macs for the last few years so I've got at least some idea what to expect but I was just wondering if anyone here can point me in the direction of something highly recommended I can read that can explain the main differences between Windows and Mac OS? I want to be as familiar with it as possible before I get the Macbook though I understand there's going to be some things I'll need to adapt to and some transitions I'll have to make. Also, can I use any USB mouse with a Mac or Apple only?
You know, back in the day there used to be a lot of t hinge I,d warn people about my own experience switching, but these days, I'm not sure how much is that relevant seeing as windows 7 is supposedly very mature and more mac-like in some ways.

Still, there really aren't that many differences on the surface - most are cosmetic.

Something's to watch out for:

- close window and close application are different things, although sometimes when you close the last window of an application it will close the application (for apps that have no purpose without a window - for example a calculator app).

- the green button is not a maximise in the sense of maximum screen real estate. It's best to think of it as a 'smart resize'.

- something I vividly remember doing as a windows user was to only operate one app at a time, carefully closing apps i'm not using. This was probably because of an older computer and the task bar being pooh back in the day, so i'm not sure if it's changed with Windows 7. I member looking at a mac user and being disgusted at the crazy number of apps open, littering the desktop with windows. What I found out was how good multitasking and memory management was on the mac that eventually I worked in the same fashion.

- the mouse pointer has a strange acceleration curve that you will initially interpret as a lack of sensitivity. It's not, and after a little while you'll get used to it if you d on't cave and try to find an app that will 'fix' it. Depends on your own ability to conform to a new 'feel', though.

- trackpad on a mac is better than a mouse.
 

Milly79

Member
What is the average temperature for a Macbook? Mine generally starts up at 50-60c while I have the fans running at 3500 rpm. I have a feeling it's nothing, but I've noticed it has become more sluggish over time (which I'd assume will happen, regardless), but it bothers me to no end.

I'm also looking for a more lightweight browser. I love Safari and I typically never switch default browsers, but I have a feeling this may be somewhat of the cause.
 

Ashhong

Member
Talking about the CPU? Mine is regularly over 60-70c, and 90c whenever flash or something is on. Fans run at 3000rpm for me.

Right now cpu is at 74c and fans at 3000 and I'm just web browsing. I have tried Firefox and Chrome and neither have helped my temps. I gave up worrying about it.
 

Milly79

Member
Ashhong said:
Talking about the CPU? Mine is regularly over 60-70c, and 90c whenever flash or something is on. Fans run at 3000rpm for me.

Right now cpu is at 74c and fans at 3000 and I'm just web browsing. I have tried Firefox and Chrome and neither have helped my temps. I gave up worrying about it.

Okay, well I guess it's a regular thing then. Was just worried as I want to keep my Macbook for a few more years before upgrading.
 
Milly79 said:
What is the average temperature for a Macbook? Mine generally starts up at 50-60c while I have the fans running at 3500 rpm. I have a feeling it's nothing, but I've noticed it has become more sluggish over time (which I'd assume will happen, regardless), but it bothers me to no end.

I'm also looking for a more lightweight browser. I love Safari and I typically never switch default browsers, but I have a feeling this may be somewhat of the cause.
Mine's usually about 50 with fans at 2000. If there's anything flash or mildly intensive it goes up to around 80. Seems pretty standard, so I wouldn't worry about it.
 

bh7812

Banned
mrkgoo said:
You know, back in the day there used to be a lot of t hinge I,d warn people about my own experience switching, but these days, I'm not sure how much is that relevant seeing as windows 7 is supposedly very mature and more mac-like in some ways.

Still, there really aren't that many differences on the surface - most are cosmetic.

Something's to watch out for:

- close window and close application are different things, although sometimes when you close the last window of an application it will close the application (for apps that have no purpose without a window - for example a calculator app).

- the green button is not a maximise in the sense of maximum screen real estate. It's best to think of it as a 'smart resize'.

- something I vividly remember doing as a windows user was to only operate one app at a time, carefully closing apps i'm not using. This was probably because of an older computer and the task bar being pooh back in the day, so i'm not sure if it's changed with Windows 7. I member looking at a mac user and being disgusted at the crazy number of apps open, littering the desktop with windows. What I found out was how good multitasking and memory management was on the mac that eventually I worked in the same fashion.

- the mouse pointer has a strange acceleration curve that you will initially interpret as a lack of sensitivity. It's not, and after a little while you'll get used to it if you d on't cave and try to find an app that will 'fix' it. Depends on your own ability to conform to a new 'feel', though.

- trackpad on a mac is better than a mouse.

I thank you too for your advice and suggestions! I read the stuff on Apple's site which was very informative and I have a much clearer idea what to expect with the Macbook. The only question I have left is: I understand with Mac that not all programs completely close out when you close the window, like how Windows does it and that with some programs I need to close the application as well. That sounds easy enough..I just wondered if there's a way to know which programs I'll need to both close the window and close the application with when I run them? Is the number of programs I need to close both window and application with high enough where I'd best get used to that concept?

Just came to mind...can I use older Mac software with the newer Macbook Pros? Kinda backwards compatibility is what I'm getting at. I have the first You Don't Know Jack game still and would like to install it on there if I can.

Overall, I think the Mac will be a very good purchase and I will love it. It seems there's a lot of programs that are only on Mac that aren't on Windows.
 
bh7812 said:
I thank you too for your advice and suggestions! I read the stuff on Apple's site which was very informative and I have a much clearer idea what to expect with the Macbook. The only question I have left is: I understand with Mac that not all programs completely close out when you close the window, like how Windows does it and that with some programs I need to close the application as well. That sounds easy enough..I just wondered if there's a way to know which programs I'll need to both close the window and close the application with when I run them? Is the number of programs I need to close both window and application with high enough where I'd best get used to that concept?

Just came to mind...can I use older Mac software with the newer Macbook Pros? Kinda backwards compatibility is what I'm getting at. I have the first You Don't Know Jack game still and would like to install it on there if I can.

Overall, I think the Mac will be a very good purchase and I will love it. It seems there's a lot of programs that are only on Mac that aren't on Windows.
If you want to stop using a program completely and not just have all it's windows gone then right click on it's icon in the dock and click quit.
 

ngower

Member
So my date and time keep resetting when I boot up again, and my e-mail/Twitter passwords have to be reset.

What's going on with my computer? I've never had this happen before and it happened twice in less than 24 hours.
 

mrkgoo

Member
bh7812 said:
I thank you too for your advice and suggestions! I read the stuff on Apple's site which was very informative and I have a much clearer idea what to expect with the Macbook. The only question I have left is: I understand with Mac that not all programs completely close out when you close the window, like how Windows does it and that with some programs I need to close the application as well. That sounds easy enough..I just wondered if there's a way to know which programs I'll need to both close the window and close the application with when I run them? Is the number of programs I need to close both window and application with high enough where I'd best get used to that concept?

Just came to mind...can I use older Mac software with the newer Macbook Pros? Kinda backwards compatibility is what I'm getting at. I have the first You Don't Know Jack game still and would like to install it on there if I can.

Overall, I think the Mac will be a very good purchase and I will love it. It seems there's a lot of programs that are only on Mac that aren't on Windows.

Yes, the number of apps is high. Perhaps more than not.

No big deal. It's very obvious. The dock is a unified task bar, shortcut bar, and notifications system. All running apps have an icon that appear in the dock. All running apps are also indicated by a glowing spot beneath them, in case youhave a shortcut to an app permanently in the dock.

Quitting an app is easy with many ways to achieve it. You can right click on the dock icon and select quit, you can left click and hold and select quit. You can select quit from the app menu. Or my favourite you can hit cmd+q. You'll find that you'll probably use keyboard shortcuts a lot more if you don't already.

Two of the greatest features of mac OS x:

Spotlight: mac OS x's unified search box. It instantly finds files, apps, folders - anything on your computer. Just start typing and it comes up with solutions live. It doesn't just search file names, but text within emails and documents as well. And it's not just a search box. You can type words and the dictionary will be searched to give you definitions. You can type equations and the calculator will solve them. And best of all, it can be accessed with the keyboard "cmd+space" and thus can be used as an ultrafast app launcher (cmdspace, first 2-3 letters of your app, enter and your app is running).

Time machine: you may select to have an external drive as your computer time machine backup. Once you do, you can forget about it. Whenever it's plugged in, it will make an accumulative backup of every change you've made since the last backup, or if left plugged in, make a backup every hour. It periodically erases recent backups, but will leave a series such that there's a backup for every hour the last 24 hours, a backup per day for the past month, i think it was, and weekly backups before that until the drive is full (and then erases oldest backups). The backups only have incremental changes with whole files, but is presented to you as your entire system - at anytime, you can view what your computer looked like on a given day - restore lost files, or 'reinstall' old apps. A complete restore can be performed if your computer dies, or if you buy a new mac. And theres zero configuration and maintenance. You just plug in a drive and you make it a time machine drive. Complete backup solution for consumers. The only decision you need to make is to turn Time Machine on.

Another difference that you may find annoying in the switch: the menu bar for apps is a single bar that changes to the app you have focus on. It's meant to save space by not having a redundant men bar on the top of every window.
 
mrkgoo said:
Quitting an app is easy with many ways to achieve it. You can right click on the dock icon and select quit, you can left click and hold and select quit. You can select quit from the app menu. Or my favourite you can hit cmd+q. You'll find that you'll probably use keyboard shortcuts a lot more if you don't already.
you forgot one method:

BetterTouchTool + whatever gesture you like :)

right now, I quit by pressing down with 4 fingers.

<3 BTT.
 

mrkgoo

Member
ngower said:
So my date and time keep resetting when I boot up again, and my e-mail/Twitter passwords have to be reset.

What's going on with my computer? I've never had this happen before and it happened twice in less than 24 hours.

You mean booting after shutting down?

I believe there's an internal battery that will power the clock if no power is available. I also thought that maybe there was another backup system I. Place, if you left a machine plugged in. Obviously depends on the model of mac, and anther you're referring to a complete shutdown, or just rebooting from n.

Look up PRAM clock or battery for mac.

Maybe your PRAM is corrupted and needs clearing? It's the parameter RAM and contains some settings related to stuff like mouse speed, and time and date. You can reset this by rebooting and holding a key combination down. Look up 'resetting PRAM' on the apple support pages.
 

mrkgoo

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
you forgot one method:

BetterTouchTool + whatever gesture you like :)

right now, I quit by pressing down with 4 fingers.

<3 BTT.

The ultra best thing about mac OS x is how very little you need to add to the default setup - that a mac really does come with a lot. I under stand the awesomeness people get from BTT, but I don't use it myself - I like to use default stuff where I can, particularly for system stuff. Nothin wrong with third party, but third party stuff has a bigger potential to break with software updates than default stuff. Not to say that it always breaks, or that apple stuff never breaks - it's just a quirk of mine.
 

Jasoco

Banned
LyleLanley said:
If you want to stop using a program completely and not just have all it's windows gone then right click on it's icon in the dock and click quit.
Or just get into the habit of using the keyboard for a lot of things.

I use:
Command+Q (Quit an application)
Command+H (Hide an application instead of minimizing all of its windows)
Command+Tab (Switch between apps is actually faster than mousing to the Dock most of the time)

I also have other custom key combos set up for launching other apps and scripts via BTT. I just wish they could make it possible to have application specific hotkeys. (The author says it's not possible and that they have to be global.) I also wish they ran AppleScripts inside the app like DragThing instead of having to launch the Script file. DT is able to actually execute the script itself so you don't have to wait for the script to open up in AppleScript Runner. Though with my SSD, it's not a big deal anymore as it's just a simple .05 second wait now.
 

bh7812

Banned
Thanks again for all the help and advice, I think this transition while it's still going to take time will be easier than I thought it would be. I know a lot of people don't take the time to simply say thank you for help anymore generally speaking so I wanted to take a second to do that :) The help and advice are greatly appreciated!

WOW at Spotlight and especially Time Machine..Especially the Time Machine feature puts Windows' System Restore to total shame. I'd hope they come up with equivalents for both eventually but I'm sure impressed at how the Mac can do both of those.
 
question about time machine. So if i have FCP, photoshop, office etc it will back-up all that? and if i get a new mac i could be up and running in no time off the time machine back-up?
 

mrkgoo

Member
bh7812 said:
Thanks again for all the help and advice, I think this transition while it's still going to take time will be easier than I thought it would be. I know a lot of people don't take the time to simply say thank you for help anymore generally speaking so I wanted to take a second to do that :) The help and advice are greatly appreciated!

WOW at Spotlight and especially Time Machine..Especially the Time Machine feature puts Windows' System Restore to total shame. I'd hope they come up with equivalents for both eventually but I'm sure impressed at how the Mac can do both of those.

No problem. Nah, the transition is no issue at all - really, an operating system is an operating system is an operating system. YOu'll be fine in a weeks time. I just wanted to give a heads up to some of the things that might be initially jarring and have you running in here going, "this sucks because it's not like windows!", when really it's neither worse nor better, just different. By having that in mind, the differences aren't really that big at all. You WILL be reaching for the top right to close windows!

And to be honest, I have never used Windows 7 - I don't know what it incorporates anymore (I've heard the task bar and aero is very similar and even better in some ways to MAc OS X dock now). Just realise we've been enjoying a lot of this stuff since Windows XP :)

It's not that there aren't solutions for Windows (re: spotlight/Time Machine), or that the Mac OS X implementations are the best - it's that they DO work, and they are out of the box - perfect for consumers.

I Big JG I said:
question about time machine. So if i have FCP, photoshop, office etc it will back-up all that? and if i get a new mac i could be up and running in no time off the time machine back-up?

As far as I understand, it backs up nearly everything. The things it doesn't are typically caches, some system files that can be regenerated and so on. It restores apps.

However, depending on the install, some apps may require reactivation - as some apps base activation off the hard drive UUID, which changes with a new computer (unless Time Machine changes it specifically to the original UUID - I don't think it does).

By default, it will also not back up things that are stored on external drives. And you can also specify folders you specifically do NOT want backed up.

Although I haven't restored a NEW mac from another Time Machine, I assume it works similarly to restoring a new Mac from an old one. When you start a new Mac, it gives you the option to connect an old mac and transfer everything over, and another option to use a Time Machine backup.
 
Can anyone speak to the pros and cons of building a "Hackintosh?"

http://lifehacker.com/#!5672051/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-mac-and-install-os-x-in-eight-easy-steps

I'm intrigued.
 

dc89

Member
Never built a hackintosh. Nor would I want to really, just my opinion.

I guess it could be cheaper than a Mac and more customisable.
 
Jimmy Stav said:
Can anyone speak to the pros and cons of building a "Hackintosh?"

http://lifehacker.com/#!5672051/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-mac-and-install-os-x-in-eight-easy-steps

I'm intrigued.
they can be a chore to maintain. every time an OS update comes out, you have to wait and worry. other than that, it'll perform fine. I dual-boot my Dell into OS X sometimes. Everything works as expected.

Just make sure you get a mobo and GPU on the white list.
 

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
I run a hackintosh (Intel Q6600, Intel BadAxe2 motherboard, ATI 5770) and it's been great. I'm running a more custom version tailored to my motherboard specifically so it has some perks over other solutions. I can update OSX without fear of breaking anything, outside of graphics. If I ran an nVidia card it wouldn't be an issue, but as it stands I have full graphics acceleration in OSX along with dual monitor support, even with DisplayPort.

I didn't build my computer with OSX in mind so I kinda lucked out. Having an Intel motherboard makes things a lot easier since Apple also uses them, but anything that has a good community following should be ok.

If you're really serious about it, just do a lot of research on the most compatible hardware since that's the hardest part.
 
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