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Topics - kbeartx

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 6
1
Tech / Leopard help needed
« on: July 20, 2011, 04:29:59 PM »
I'm posting this from the library.

Will add more detail later, as my time is about to expire

kbeartx cool.gif

2
Tech / Safari generally faster than Firefox
« on: February 22, 2011, 01:38:07 PM »
In the last couple o' muntz, I've been watching various TV show episodes at IMDB, Fancast, and HULU rather often, and recently experienced a LOT of stalls, causing frequent pauses and or glitches in both in the audio and video, making the vids hard to watch.  It seemed to be worst at HULU, so I began a correspondence with a helpful Tech there over the past several days.  

Yesterday, with a flash of insight, I decided to try watching a streaming vid using Safari 3.1.2 instead of Firefox 3.6.13, which I have been using almost exclusively as my Browser o' Choice for several years.  BINGO!!!! The streaming stuttering, pausing, and glitches are all but gone - major improvement in viewing experience!  Subsequently, I have been doing everything web-related with Safari, and it seems that SFR is overall somewhat zippier/snappier/quicker than FF in all things.  

Note that this is my subjective impression, no measurements were taken nor animals harmed during my experiment [except for me checking that the two browsers used approximately the same amount of CPU cycles while playing the same video at HULU].

Anybunny else noticed similar?  NB, I'm still using a G5 PPC and 10.5.4, FWIW.

Kb cool.gif

3
Tech / Any remedy for when iTunes can't find CD info online?
« on: January 21, 2011, 12:23:10 PM »
So that I can listen to it on my iPod, I'm importing an audiobook from CDs and partway through, iTunes says it can't find the CD in the online Gracenote database, so the tracks are generically named, Track 1, Track2, etc. instead of chapter names, as w/ the rest of the book that was previously imported.

Is there any way to manually inform iTunes that this CD is part of a series? Or another way to access the Gracenote db?

Note that iTunes has already imported CDs 1-13, complete with the chapter names, of this audiobook, but has choked on CDs 14, 15, and 16 so far of the 20 disc set.

There seems to be nothing wrong with my internet connection, it's broadband TimeWarner Roadrunner, FWIW.

Kb cool.gif

4
Tech / Weird, recurring, extremely annoying problem...
« on: January 08, 2011, 11:02:45 PM »
This is something I've been putting up with for a long time, and recently it's become way less tolerable..

The problem:  if I go to rename a file in List View the Finder, I click once on the filename to highlight, then click a second time and wait for it to change color to show that it's editable [as opposed to edible], and more often than not, partway through the few seconds it takes to type the new name, the filename 'un-highlights' entirely and the result is a garbled or at least incomplete rename and the Finder 'interpreting' a few keystrokes as instructions to move to another alpha character in the list.

Activity Monitor shows that there is frequent, massive disk reading and/or writing while this is happening and Quick Look Server is using most or all of the CPU capacity.  I've tried Force-Quitting Quick Look Server but it instantly reappears at the very top of the CPU list.

I'd love ideas about how to troubleshoot this further, maybe advice on reading a particular log file and what to look for.

Remember that I'm still using a PPC G5 and OS 10.5.4.

TIA,

Kb cool.gif

5
Tech / Can't copy a file b/c the name is too long??
« on: July 05, 2010, 04:28:50 AM »
I downloaded a few Music Videos from YouTube [using Download Helper, a nifty little freeware plugin, and Firefox 3.6] and after they'd completed and I checked 'em out, I tried to copy them to a folder wherein I store Music Videos.

Currently, this folder is located on a 500GB LaCie external and connected via USB2 through a powered hub, and I received the msg shown below.

Investigating, I decreased the number of characters in the filenames.  Same result.  I put the files into a folder, tried copying the folder, no joy.

I can copy the files, without alteration, to both of my other drives [internal].  All 3 drives are formatted Mac OS extended [journaled].  There is ample free space on all of the drives to hold the files in question.

What's goin' on here?

Kb cool.gif

6
Tech / Advice requested, please
« on: June 21, 2010, 07:12:13 PM »
....short of opening it up and looking at it, that is....

My situation is this:

My formerly trustworthy G4 MDD has died.  I suspect the power supply, since no lights or sounds or any activity at all is evident when the power button is pressed and the PMU reset had no effect whatsoever.  There are four IDE drives installed inside this Mac and altogether they total about 750 GBs.  While not overfull, there is a LOT of data on these drives I'd prefer not to lose forever.

I have a LaCie external drive* [as far as I can determine it's a model d2 Quadra 500GB] shown here: http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11156, but nothing I find on their site or in the d/l-able documents they provide contains the answer to my question about what kind of drive is inside the enclosure.  Note that this enclosure has external connections for USB, Firewire, and eSATA, but I'm not concerned with those options at this point [FWIW, it's currently connected to the G5 via USB-2 through a powered hub and works just fine].

Another wrinkle is that my Number One Son has just gifted me with his 'old ' peasea for Father's Day, since he recently assembled a new one for his own use, and he's requested a HD from me so that he can complete the setup of this machine for me  [loading the OS, etc.] cuz he transferred the HD from the old machine to his new one.

I'd like to remove one of the drives from the MDD for this porpoise, but I want peruse what's on each of the drives before I do so, and I was hoping to use the external to fire up the drives one-by-one and have a look-see, and if need be, copy some data to my G5's HDs before I convey it to my NOS for installation into the peasea.  I do not have an IDE controller in my G5, it's SATA-only, with two drives: the original 150 GB and a 750 GB I added.

I used to have an external USB-only enclosure I used for similar porpoises in the past and it was quite easy to open and swap IDE drives out of and into this box.

Has anybunny had the occasion to open and swap drives in a similar LaCie enclosure?

Is there any way I can determine [such as by 'reading' the cryptic data supplied in the More Info Hardware section of About this Mac] what kind of drive this enclosure supports?

Perhaps some other utility SW can 'tell' me what I want to know?

One option I contemplate is emailing LaCie's support staff; thot I'd ask here first...

TIA,

Kb cool.gif

*Many, Many Thanks, Mama Moose!

PS- reason why I'm not pursuing the Fixing of the MDD are:  the only use it's had for the last year or two are as a second comp for my roommate to use so that we can play World of Warcraft together, but it cannot run the newer 'expansions' to the game and still would not even if I fixed it.  And the peasea will most definitely run the WoW expansion paks [as will the G5], b/c my son had been running them on it until he put together his new one.

7
2009 / QuickTime 7.6
« on: May 13, 2009, 02:33:03 AM »
Having been burned in the past [not so often since OS-X matured], I have become skeptical, rather than blithely trusting Apple to work out all the 'gotchas' before going live with its various and sundry software updates [I do NOT use Software Update to check for or install any updates].

I was offered a free download of a music video as part of iTunes' weekly Tuesday offerings], and was presented with a QuickTime upgrade to v.7.6 [I'm currently running QuickTime Pro 7.5.5 with OS-X 10.5.4].

I tried searching at MacFixIt and the TS forums [which returned an error msg, FWIW] and other than some probs w/ the d/l process, there was nothing I saw that scared me off.

Does anybunny have any knowledge of / personal experience with the stability [problems or issues or lack thereof] of this particular upgrade?

I'm also wondering if this will require another $29.95 fee for me to retain the features/functionality of QuickTime Pro...

Kb cool.gif

PS -I noticed that this update was released several months back, so I might have missed a prior discussion here, but a search on "QuickTime 7.6" turned up no info...

8
An Irish college student created a false Maurice Jarre quote in response to his recent death, posted it on Wikipedia without attribution, and many worldwide news organizations used the quote in their obituaries of Jarre.  

After a month, he publicly admitted he conceived this affair as a test, and the Media failed.

Article here.


Kb cool.gif

9
2009 / App/Utility to monitor Internet activity
« on: April 14, 2009, 02:34:31 PM »
I am looking for a Freeware/Shareware program that will allow me to view a summary of all outgoing/incoming 'net traffic involving my Mac - I imagine a window displaying the programs currently running that are communicating w/ internet servers and status info about the various 'interactions' taking place.

For example, this is the kind of data I'm interested in seeing:

=====================================================================
Firefox
          Techsurvivors.net
                  Downloading requested page, 734Kb at 24.4 Kb/sec, est. 11 sec. to completion

         Yahoo.com
                  Waiting for server, 17 sec since page request acknowledged

Mail
        Google.com
                   Uploading [1] messages, 46% of 1,045 Kb, est. 47 sec to completion  
        Grandecomm.net
                   Downloading [3] messages, 28% of 8134Kb, est. 111 sec to completion

World of Warcraft
         Blizzard.com
                    Downloading Update 3.1.1.6.406b21, 22Mb of 742Mb at 663 Kbps, est. 6 hrs, 22 min to completion
====================================================================

I checked at Pure-Mac and did not find anything suitable before I ran out of attention span/patience; I've had similar experiences wading through the lists of offerings at Apple.com.

Anybunny know of something that will provide what I want?

TIA,

KB coolio.gif
 


10
2009 / What is 'syslogd'?
« on: January 18, 2009, 07:37:11 AM »
Over the last few days, my G5 has been periodically sluggish.  When I checked activity monitor, it showed syslogd at the top o' the list, using 88 % of CPU and 2.6 GB of VM.

KB coolio.gif
Any knowledge of this?

KB coolio.gif

11
Community / Banner Typo
« on: November 07, 2008, 02:40:00 PM »
also, 'virus-free' is a compound modifier, and so should get a hyphen.

KB coolio.gif

12
Community / Any clues about what "ex ped" means?
« on: November 06, 2008, 07:03:00 PM »
I have five years of formal Latin education, and it does not ring any bells for me, nor does it appear on any of the dozen or so websites I checked that feature Latin abbreviations.

TIA,

KB coolio.gif

13
2008 / G5 won't shut down or restart:
« on: October 28, 2008, 08:57:22 PM »
My main Mac [G5 dual 2.0GHz, 3.5 GB RAM, Leopard 10.5.4] is getting wonky lately.  The Menu commands Log Out, Restart, and Shut Down are inoperable.  No Freeze or Lockup, but nothing happens.  I booted in Safe Mode and there was no change.  Fast User Switching does work, but still no Log Out, Restart, or Shut Down if I use an account other than my main one. Just about everything seems to work OK generally, and I customarily leave the Mac running 24/7, but it concerns me that things might be degenerating under the surface.

Tried using OnyX to repair persimmons, did not appear to be doing anything and I canceled it after an hour or so. The Boot Drive passed the Smart Status check.

Normally, I would run DiscWarrior or boot from a System CD to continue troubleshooting, but I don't have these now [the G5 was purchased used w/ Leopard installed but w/o the DVD, and I have not upgraded DW since Panther].

Short of buying stuff right now, any tips, suggestions, and specific advice will be welcomed.

While composing this post, I realized I can try to boot to a bootable backup [but I suspect it will fail since I can't restart w/o employing the hardware...]

KB coolio.gif

15
2008 / Anybody play World of Warcraft?
« on: October 20, 2008, 05:24:25 PM »
I've gotten into this game recently, and I setup both my G5 and G4 to play it along w/ a buddy.

There was a big upgrade recently, and while the G5 still plays WoW just fine, the G4 will not.  

After uninstalling and reinstalling all the WoW-related files I could find, the Launcher comes up OK but it chokes soon after login w/ an error msg that says 'could not verify game files' and refers to a page on the Blizzard support site that mentions viruses, trojans, and recommends uninstalling and reinstalling.

Sofar, the support site has not been useful, I have not found anything relevant to this, and right now it is down.  

I suspect that something in the upgrade caused WoW to no longer run on Panther [10.3.9], but it's just a hunch, I have no evidence.

I do not have Tiger or Leopard install CDs to see if this is the case.  I suppose it's also possible that the G4 is too slow by WoW standards, the Requirements say G4 933 Mhz or higher, and the game was working fine before the upgrade even though my G4 is a dual 867.

Wondering if anybunny can confirm or refute my theory about Panther, and/or has any other insight into this matter?

TIA,

KB coolio.gif

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