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[mrkgoo]

So I've had my Macbook Pro for about 4 months now and I'm as comfortable with it as I was with Windows, but one thing I can't get over is that if I have multiple windows open I have too hit expose to see what I have open and it just feels so inefficient. Any programs to remedy this?

Holy moly, first I've heard of expose being inefficient. What do you propose to see all your open windows? How does Windows do it? What are you trying to do that makes it inefficient comapred to what you were doing in Windows?

How are you hitting Expose? Four-finger swipe down?

 

[SpanishExplorer]

I hit expose and it feels like windows open all over the fucking place and I can't manage them as well I could in Windows where it's all neatly showing on the bottom.

 

[SpanishExplorer]

How are you hitting Expose? Four-finger swipe down?

Holy shit I didn't know about the four-finger swipe down :O

 

[LCfiner]

I hit expose and it feels like windows open all over the fucking place and I can't manage them as well I could in Windows where it's all neatly showing on the bottom.

well, I never liked the old windows taskbar because a window title isn’t enough for me to know what’s actually inside the window. I need to see it. (vista and win7 are better at this showing thumbnails of windows)

but, going back to your issue, you might feel more comfortable using dock expose that is new to 10.6. hold down the mouse button on any icon in the dock and all windows for that app are exposed. and you may also want to set the option in system preferences (under dock) to minimize application windows into the dock icon (instead of on the right side of the dock as separate icons)

also, just right clicking on an apps dock icon shows you a list of all windows for that app.

that might help you out a bit :/

 

[mrkgoo]

Holy shit I didn't know about the four-finger swipe down :O

Expose is actually a series of functions not just 'all windows'.

Before the F8-F11 keys were commandeered by media functions, they were:

F9 = All windows
F10 = Application windows
F11 = Show desktop
F12 = Dashboard

F8 has now become spaces.

They're actually still there, but they're hidden as the true F keys and requires Fn to be held. That said under Snow Leopard, you can access "Application windows" by holding down the icon of the application you're running - this limits expose to only the windows that are in your active application.

If you find it inaccessible, you can flip the function key actions back to F-keys by default (and hold fn to access media keys). Or you can activate hot corners to quickly access the different expose functions.

Consider using command+tab to application switch if you need to. It will automatically toggle between your last used application. Keep hitting tab while holding command to cycle through open applications (hold shift to cycle backwards).

OR use 4-finger swipe to access the same thing. Swipe 4-fingers left/right to switch applications, and tap 4-fingers again to access your last used, or use 2-fingers to go through.

Also, swipe four fingers UP to access desktop.

If you need more organisation, consider using spaces. Keep certain apps in certain spaces and they won't show up on all-windows expose. You can even assign applications to automatically open in their own space.

 

[Ghost]

wow better touch tool just saved my new mac experience, gestures are great but I really love it for the increased mouse sensitivity. The maximum mouse sensitivity on the apple settings is like dragging a spade through jelly.


Thanks for this thread guys, its a big help.

 

[mrkgoo]

wow better touch tool just saved my new mac experience, gestures are great but I really love it for the increased mouse sensitivity. The maximum mouse sensitivity on the apple settings is like dragging a spade through jelly.

It's mostly about the acceleration rather than sensitivity. A lot of Windows users coming to Mac find it awkward. I did too when I started, but I grew to like it. I like going between super accuracy and super speed. Some people never give it a chance because they find it too distracting. Mostly a preference thing, however.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

Flash is fucking up severely on FF. Mans just trying to watch some porn before I head out and FF has crashed about 4 times already. I do have the beta flash so that might be it..ummmm

Man, Safari sucks, Chrome isn't secure enough for my likings at the moment I might have to switch back to Camino

 

[Jal]

Are there no go to top/end of page shortcuts in mail/itunes/iphoto? i got bettertouchtool to set up three finger swipe up down but cant seem to find any shortcuts.

 

[Massa]

So the latest version of HandBrake removed the PSP preset. I tried using the iPhone/iPod Touch equivalent and while it works it seems to be much slower.

Sigh.

 

[Mar]

Say I have a program that's configured to launch on startup. How do I ensure that program doesn't start next time I turn the system on, so I can go into the sysprefs and remove it from there before it ever gets to run again?

I'm reading around the internets and it seems that holding shift at some point during the boot will disable startup items. But there seems to be some contention over exactly when I should hold it down, as different times disables different things.

I'm assuming I hold it down as my account auto logs in... Yes?

 

[LCfiner]

Say I have a program that's configured to launch on startup. How do I ensure that program doesn't start next time I turn the system on, so I can go into the sysprefs and remove it from there before it ever gets to run again?

I'm reading around the internets and it seems that holding shift at some point during the boot will disable startup items. But there seems to be some contention over exactly when I should hold it down, as different times disables different things.

I'm assuming I hold it down as my account auto logs in... Yes?

directly from Apple Help in the login items pref pane

"To temporarily prevent login items from opening when you log in, hold down the Shift key while clicking the Log In button in the login window. Continue to hold down the Shift key until you see the Dock.

To permanently stop an item from opening automatically, select it in the Login Items list and click the Delete (-) button."

 

[Mar]

directly from Apple Help in the login items pref pane

"To temporarily prevent login items from opening when you log in, hold down the Shift key while clicking the Log In button in the login window. Continue to hold down the Shift key until you see the Dock.

To permanently stop an item from opening automatically, select it in the Login Items list and click the Delete (-) button."

Thanks, I'll give it a bash tonight when I turn my MBA on.

 

[mrkgoo]

Ok, this is kind of scary.

Tonight, I plugged in my external drive and tried to do a Time Machine backup as I normally do. I noticed, however, that it was unusually fast.

Checking the console log, it shows it finished fine, but only backed up a few KB. This was NOT right, asI had just downloaded a few songs. Checking in the history for my backups, it was clear it was NOT backing them up, even if I forced a backup - it simply thought they were, but it wasn't transferring any files. I disconnected the drive.

So I restarted my computer and reconnected the eternal drive. Time machine went about doing it's thing. Whew, I thought - the pull down menu said backing up x of 594 MB... Looks ok, right?

WRONG. After it got to 594MB, it continued upwards. "Backing up 800MB of 800MB" - the numbers were BOTH increasing. It got to "3GB of 3GB", before I decide to cancel the backup. Something was not right. Then as it canceled, it started deleting something off the external - no backups were being erased, but something was clearing out space - it continued to free up. Time Machine ended up clearing up over 40GB of space, without removing any backups. ?!?!?

I started the backup manually again, and again, it's moving both eh current and maximum values at eh same time. I suspect it will probably redo that 40GB. It might be ok, it might not. I have no idea. And having no idea means having no trust. In my backup system.

This frightens me.

I looked back in my backup history by looking at the backup.backup files - it was clear it had NOT been backing up for the past few days, perhaps even a week, even though it was telling me I HAD been backing up. How can I trust this?

 

[Burger]

Ok, this is kind of scary.

Tonight, I plugged in my external drive and tried to do a Time Machine backup as I normally do. I noticed, however, that it was unusually fast.

Checking the console log, it shows it finished fine, but only backed up a few KB. This was NOT right, asI had just downloaded a few songs. Checking in the history for my backups, it was clear it was NOT backing them up, even if I forced a backup - it simply thought they were, but it wasn't transferring any files. I disconnected the drive.

So I restarted my computer and reconnected the eternal drive. Time machine went about doing it's thing. Whew, I thought - the pull down menu said backing up x of 594 MB... Looks ok, right?

WRONG. After it got to 594MB, it continued upwards. "Backing up 800MB of 800MB" - the numbers were BOTH increasing. It got to "3GB of 3GB", before I decide to cancel the backup. Something was not right. Then as it canceled, it started deleting something off the external - no backups were being erased, but something was clearing out space - it continued to free up. Time Machine ended up clearing up over 40GB of space, without removing any backups. ?!?!?

I started the backup manually again, and again, it's moving both eh current and maximum values at eh same time. I suspect it will probably redo that 40GB. It might be ok, it might not. I have no idea. And having no idea means having no trust. In my backup system.

This frightens me.

I looked back in my backup history by looking at the backup.backup files - it was clear it had NOT been backing up for the past few days, perhaps even a week, even though it was telling me I HAD been backing up. How can I trust this?

Have you tried actually using time machine (the application) to see if you can recover an individual file, or the changes made to a file to see if it works, or if you get some sort of error ? That's what I would do.

 

[Alfarif]

Maybe someone can answer my question, as I'm not at home, and it just hit me that it would nice to find a solution to this while I can. I just transferred all of my old Macbook's information to a new Mac Mini, and everything went as smoothly as most everything Apple related except for one hitch: Safari doesn't show up in my Spotlight results. This is annoying, as I open up everything on my Mac via Spotlight (Cmd+Space), and I hate dragging my mouse to the dock to click anything. However, on my Macbook, it works the same as it always has.

Craziest part is that if I click on Show All results, Safari.app isn't in there. Safari.app doesn't show up in Spotlight either, and it doesn't find Safari.app under search results if I search the entire Mac via Finder. This is only on the Mac Mini. Everything else I use, however, opens just fine via Spotlight. So what's the disconnect? If need be, when I get home, I can provide pictures.

 

[mrkgoo]

Have you tried actually using time machine (the application) to see if you can recover an individual file, or the changes made to a file to see if it works, or if you get some sort of error ? That's what I would do.

Not entirely sure what you mean. I'm not about tocheck all 100s of 1000s of file for integrity, bu what I did check seemed fine. There simply were none of my files on my time machine from the past week or so. It's like time mahine decided there were nochanges.

Anyway, I set it up to do what it wanted overnight and it seemed to do a proper backup 115 gb, nearly half my capacity. I have no idea what is in that 115 gb. Man, I wish timetracker worked for snow leopard. It didn't fill in blanks, so despite having files created in the past week, none of those are in my backups save for this last one.

When I enter iPhoto an use time machine a lot of thumbs are missing. I rbuilt my iPhoto library and did a new time machine backup and it backed up a new 38 gb. No idea what is goin on really.

Maybe it's time to just go buy a new drive an start a fresh time machine.

 

[mrkgoo]

Found an Apple thread detailing similar symptoms:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2178861&tstart=0

Apparently, if you verify a disk, then it does something that essentially prevents Time Machine from backing anything up until a restart. Time Machine will give no warning, and it will report every backup as successful, but simply not transfer files. Dangerous.

 

[jasonng]

So a new problem, occurred after installing Windows 7 on my iMac. For the record, I wiped a previous partition and made a new one for the new OS.The problem I'm having is that I have no sound with Windows. Actually according to sound configurations, the sound is playing but it's VERY low. Even when plugging in my headphones, I can't hear a thing.

I haven't installed Bootcamp on it because it tells me it can't install over a 64 bit OS on my machine (??). I can live without Bootcamp but maybe that's why I don't have sound? The only thing I haven't tried yet is to do a complete reinstall of Windows. Can anyone help figure out what we went wrong?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

So a new problem, occurred after installing Windows 7 on my iMac. For the record, I wiped a previous partition and made a new one for the new OS.The problem I'm having is that I have no sound with Windows. Actually according to sound configurations, the sound is playing but it's VERY low. Even when plugging in my headphones, I can't hear a thing.

I haven't installed Bootcamp on it because it tells me it can't install over a 64 bit OS on my machine (??). I can live without Bootcamp but maybe that's why I don't have sound? The only thing I haven't tried yet is to do a complete reinstall of Windows. Can anyone help figure out what we went wrong?

Yes, you will need the Boot Camp sound drivers to get louder sound.

 

[Burger]

Found an Apple thread detailing similar symptoms:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2178861&tstart=0

Apparently, if you verify a disk, then it does something that essentially prevents Time Machine from backing anything up until a restart. Time Machine will give no warning, and it will report every backup as successful, but simply not transfer files. Dangerous.

Scary stuff indeed. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[jasonng]

Yes, you will need the Boot Camp sound drivers to get louder sound.

When I install Bootcamp, I get this error:

"Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model"

Am I boned?

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

When I install Bootcamp, I get this error:

"Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model"

Am I boned?

Yes, you'll have to install a 32-bit OS.

 

[Burger]

Yes, you'll have to install a 32-bit OS.

You can hack your bootcamp partition/drivers to allow 64bit on older Core2 macs. Google.

 

[Seagoon]

Can someone recommend an application (free would be nice ) along the lines of Cover Sutra?, I have an old copy from a Macheist deal but I'm sure there are newer, nicer programs out there.

 

[LCfiner]

Can someone recommend an application (free would be nice ) along the lines of Cover Sutra?, I have an old copy from a Macheist deal but I'm sure there are newer, nicer programs out there.

actually yes I can.

Tunesart


Free, as in beer and pretty decent featureset.

 

[Seagoon]

Thanks for that - downloading it now.

 

[Saya]

Does anyone know of a, preferably free, program which allows me to make awesome looking charts and graphs?

 

[kittel]

Does anyone know of a, preferably free, program which allows me to make awesome looking charts and graphs?

grapher.app

 

[DJ Crimson]

This is a pretty noob question but I haven't really had to use something like this since I previously had a iBook... I bought a HD monitor a while back and planning on getting a Mac Mini. What cable do I use, for the picture to show up on the monitor? There's HDMI and some other port in the back of the monitor.

 

[LCfiner]

This is a pretty noob question but I haven't really had to use something like this since I previously had a iBook... I bought a HD monitor a while back and planning on getting a Mac Mini. What cable do I use, for the picture to show up on the monitor? There's HDMI and some other port in the back of the monitor.

the new Mac minis have a mini display port and a mini DVI port.

you just need to get an adapter to go from mini-DVI to DVI (or HDMI). or an adapter to go from mini-DP to DVI or HDMI

you can get all these at monoprice.com for cheap.

 

[Chris R]

Apple includes a Mini-DVI to DVI-D adapter in the box with the minis. This is important to note, as a DVI-I cable WILL NOT work with it. I had to go out and buy a Mini-DVI to VGA adapter to run my mini.

 

[DJ Crimson]

Thanks, this is the model I'm getting: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006HU49Y/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I can't afford the newer ones unless you guys have any recommendations if I should look for a different model for around the same price (350-400 new/used).

 

[Jal]

Can someone recommend an application (free would be nice ) along the lines of Cover Sutra?, I have an old copy from a Macheist deal but I'm sure there are newer, nicer programs out there.

I know you've already d/l tunesart but there's also Bowtie

 

[Chris R]

Thanks, this is the model I'm getting: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006HU49Y/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I can't afford the newer ones unless you guys have any recommendations if I should look for a different model for around the same price (350-400 new/used).

The lowest end new one is only 600$ new, and you can knock a lot off that price if you are a student. I think it is just nice to have a little extra horse power, not to mention that it will save you the 30$ to upgrade to SL

 

[LCfiner]

Thanks, this is the model I'm getting: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006HU49Y/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I can't afford the newer ones unless you guys have any recommendations if I should look for a different model for around the same price (350-400 new/used).

that’s an old one and uses a straight up DVI port.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I had a question about iTunes... I see they have some the house seasons in hd on sale and I was thinking about getting them. All videos on iTunes are still DRM protected so I need an apple device to play them right? If they are has there been any talk of removing it so it will be like they have for music now?

 

[LCfiner]

I had a question about iTunes... I see they have some the house seasons in hd on sale and I was thinking about getting them. All videos on iTunes are still DRM protected so I need an apple device to play them right? If they are has there been any talk of removing it so it will be like they have for music now?

video isn’t letting go of DRM anytime soon.

so you would need an Apple TV to watch them on a television. Or use an iPod and the Apple dock and TV cables.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

video isn’t letting go of DRM anytime soon.

so you would need an Apple TV to watch them on a television. Or use an iPod and the Apple dock and TV cables.

Hmm... I forgot about tv cables for an ipod. I'll see if monoprice has any cheap. The biggest deal is not being able to watch it on a tv but with that I might be able to get over it. Thanks.

Edit: There's no component out or anything with ipod to tv cables right? But I guess it would down convert any hd to ipod resolution anyhow. Does the video look ok running off an ipod on a tv?

Edit 2: Needing a $50 universal dock makes me Nevermind just need a $50 cable instead. :/

 

[commissar]

Reinstalling win xp on my MBP, got me thinking perhaps I should upgrade my OS 10.5 (leopard) to 10.6.

Two questions:

If I upgrade from 10.5->10.6 will I have to reinstall bootcamp/windows?

I can't for the life of me find my mbp install disk
If I buy the 10.6 upgrade, can I install everything fresh off that? (ie. not need the original 10.5 disk).

Cheers!


edit: don't know how component is on an lcd sorry, but video off my phone on an SDTV looks fine
The cost of the cable is mitigated IMO by having a universal USB wall charger & the flexibility with docks & stereos.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I'm having some issues with my SD card / macbook pro

I seem to have enough memory to move images to the SD card but it keeps giving me an error message that the card is full

1.84 GB available in a 2 GB card wtf?

folder of 120 images files need to move is 4.4MB

where is this error coming from?

 

[mrkgoo]

Reinstalling win xp on my MBP, got me thinking perhaps I should upgrade my OS 10.5 (leopard) to 10.6.

Two questions:

If I upgrade from 10.5->10.6 will I have to reinstall bootcamp/windows?

I can't for the life of me find my mbp install disk
If I buy the 10.6 upgrade, can I install everything fresh off that? (ie. not need the original 10.5 disk).

Cheers!


edit: don't know how component is on an lcd sorry, but video off my phone on an SDTV looks fine
The cost of the cable is mitigated IMO by having a universal USB wall charger & the flexibility with docks & stereos.

You don't need your old 10.5 disc.

 

[Jal]

I'm having some issues with my SD card / macbook pro

I seem to have enough memory to move images to the SD card but it keeps giving me an error message that the card is full

1.84 GB available in a 2 GB card wtf?

folder of 120 images files need to move is 4.4MB

where is this error coming from?

Move everything to your MB then format the card?

 

[R2D4]

So is this the catch all Mac thread? Ok. Well I bought an Airport Extreme and want to hook up a hard drive to it. The catch is I don't have a Mac computer available. I take it I need to format the drive to HSF+ or whatever it's called? Is that possible in Win 7? I want it to be a network drive for two Win 7 machines. I'm sure it's documented in the instructions but I wanted to use advice here as backup.

 

[RubxQub]

So is this the catch all Mac thread? Ok. Well I bought an Airport Extreme and want to hook up a hard drive to it. The catch is I don't have a Mac computer available. I take it I need to format the drive to HSF+ or whatever it's called? Is that possible in Win 7? I want it to be a network drive for two Win 7 machines. I'm sure it's documented in the instructions but I wanted to use advice here as backup.

I find it interesting that someone who spends most of their time on GAF criticizing others is asking for help. Lighten up, buddy!

Pretty sure the harddrive doesn't need to be formatted to anything special to function. It should just be as simple as connecting it to the USB port and running the Airport utility to setup access.

 

[R2D4]

I find it interesting that someone who spends most of their time on GAF criticizing others is asking for help. Lighten up, buddy!

Most of my time. Ha. Hardly. And I'm just being a smart ass when I do it.

Pretty sure the harddrive doesn't need to be formatted to anything special to function. It should just be as simple as connecting it to the USB port and running the Airport utility to setup access.

Well I'll try that. Thanks.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Is there a way to download the shows you buy? I bought House in HD and I quit iTunes before it finished downloading and now it's not in my download list and I don't know where to get it from. If I try to purchase it again, will it try to charge me again? Am I SOL?

Edit: Ok, I figured it out.

 

[mrkgoo]

Is there a way to download the shows you buy? I bought House in HD and I quit iTunes before it finished downloading and now it's not in my download list and I don't know where to get it from. If I try to purchase it again, will it try to charge me again? Am I SOL?

Go to your account (View account or click on your account name in the top right of iTunes). You should see a place to continue your download. Maybe you have to check your recent purchases.

edit: It's at the top of your accounts page.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I have a second question, is there any word of iTunes having videos in 1080p? And another question was what resolution are tv shows recorded as? If they come out on bluray will I get anything by getting that over itunes version?

 

[mrkgoo]

I have a second question, is there any word of iTunes having videos in 1080p? And another question was what resolution are tv shows recorded as? If they come out on bluray will I get anything by getting that over itunes version?

As far as I understand, the iTunes versions are 720p. Blu-Ray are vastly superior, being 1080p, DTS sound, maybe even 7.1 (iTunes are 5.1 max, I think). It's all in the file size - I downloaded Up in HD, and it was about 3.3GB - I'm sure Blu-ray are MUCH higher (in the tens of GBs).You also get a bunch of extras such as commentaries, special features etc on a Blu-Ray (iTunes Extras don't seem to compare).

That said, it's not THAT big a deal, unless you're viewing on a really good home theatre set up. Also, downloading HD stuff off iTunes will give you an SD version to sync with your iPod touch/iPhone.

Found an Apple thread detailing similar symptoms:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2178861&tstart=0

Apparently, if you verify a disk, then it does something that essentially prevents Time Machine from backing anything up until a restart. Time Machine will give no warning, and it will report every backup as successful, but simply not transfer files. Dangerous.