Messages

1

Tech / Using DiskWarior from a clone won't work!

« on: July 10, 2010, 03:28:40 AM »

I think my problem is that I use Carbon Cipy Cloner for all my clones. From what I understand from the group, SuperDuper! doesn't have this problem.

MM

2

Tech / Using DiskWarior from a clone won't work!

« on: July 08, 2010, 06:05:37 AM »

I depend a lot on DiskWarrior. However, I tried to apply DW to the boot drive by opening the clone and running DW form there.(I am trying to avoid having to run DW from its disk.) However, that won't work! When one clones a boot drive, the clone shares some files with the clone. Therefore, DW tries and fails to unmount the boot drive thinking that it it must unmount the clone. To solve this I have created a bare boot volume on my system and moved DW in it. Now, I can  run DW from the bare system without any conflicts.

MamaMoose

3

Tech / i5 Vs. i7

« on: July 07, 2010, 03:24:59 AM »

I second tacit's comment. I just bough a 17" MBP with an i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM,  and 500GB of  solid state memory. I see three places where the system is much speedier: the i7 processor, the 8 GB of RAM, and the SSD. For the latter, there is no extra delay as unlike a mechanical hard drive there is no delay due to finite rotational speed.

It was extremely spendy! I am writing this from my jail cell where I am awaiting trial for robbing a bank to pay for the MBP  I hope the judge is a Mac user.

MamaMoose

4

Tech / Experiential Aspects of Time

« on: June 20, 2010, 12:33:15 AM »

Fascinating lecture! But, he is talking only about humans and and their perception of time. I believe because we age then die, our perception of time is a major driver in our lives..

But, the laws of physics, at least in the microscopic world, indicate that the laws behave perfectly well whether time goes forward or backward. This invariance under time reversal breaks down in the macroscopic world. Stars are born and then die. Certain elementary particles die a time period after they are created. Here then thermodynamics plays a role in defining what I call physical time.

So, I believe there are two types of time: 1) human time driven because we note that hings in nature are born, live a certain finite time, and then die. 2) On the other hand there is physical time. This is time where as one moves from the microscopic world to the macroscopic world, thermodynamics plays a key role. For example, entropy. What differentiates the two types of time is quantum mechanics.

At this point if you are not as confused as I am about the meaning of time, then you are ready for lectures in general relativity, the Higgs boson, and the God particle.

MamaMoose

5

Tech / FireWire Target disk mode to update laptop

« on: June 16, 2010, 06:00:01 AM »

It just dawned on me how I can use Disk Warrior without running into the problem I stated above. I will put a bare system as a volume  into one of my drives. Then I will add Disk Warrior. (I will delete it from all my other volumes). Now, when I want to repair a disk, I will boot into the Disk Warrior 'volume", and run it from there. Since none of the other volumes are bootable, I will not have a problem. Also, when I backup using CCC, there will be no Disk Warrior on any the volumes involved.

P. S. Kris thanks for your thought about Spotlight. I will try your suggestion. TNC



MamaMoose

6

Tech / FireWire Target disk mode to update laptop

« on: June 15, 2010, 10:22:19 PM »

One problem that I have with Carbon Copy Cloner is that the clonee shares files with the original cloned. So, for example , if I boot into the clonee in order to run Disk Warrior on on the original cloned OS, Disk Warrior fails as it "sees file on the clonee that it thinks are active in the cloned.

My question is will Super Duper have the same problem? Even if does not, I still have to clone to an external drive, then clone the external drive to the internal drive of the MacBook Pro. Isn't there an easier way?

MamaMoose

7

Tech / FireWire Target disk mode to update laptop

« on: June 11, 2010, 11:04:52 PM »

Occasionally, I need to make a copy of my latest boot drive onto my laptop boot drive before I travel. I had been using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the Mac Pro's drive to the MacBook Pro. This gave me a bootable version of the OS on the laptop. I think I have been doing this the hard way! I can connect a FW 800 cable between the Mac Pro and the lap top. If I go into FW target disk mode, the volumes on the laptop appear on the Mac Pro's desktop. Now to update the volumes on the laptop, can I just drag and drop a copy of a Mac Pro volume (including Boot) onto its sister volume? Is the update done? Or do I erase the copied volume first on the Mac Pro and then drag and drop?

Can someone unconfuse me about this? No suggestions allowed of a two-by-four applied to cranium  , please.

Thanks,

MamaMoose

8

Tech / I want a second desktop for a specific project

« on: June 05, 2010, 12:39:19 AM »

Currently my Desktop is very crowded. And, now I have a long-tern project requiring more activity and more open files and folders. My question is how do I set up a second Desktop that is clean and lean. I would like to switch into this desktop while working on my long term project. Yet, when necessary, I can switch into the original desktop.

Do i need to set up another secondary account? Do I have to reboot when switching into the secondary desktop and vice versa? Will Time Machine support both accounts? Is there software that does this automatically?

Thanks for any ideas, suggestions, or comments,

MamaMoose

9

Tech / You need to Restart your computer

« on: March 28, 2010, 09:37:58 PM »

Bill,

Welcome back. I agree with others in that there is a high probability your problem is with the dead PRAM battery. I believe the system can't  boot without the battery. It doesn't make any sense that there is no replacement for the original battery. Check with Google as there are many new batteries that are avialable to replace old  discontinued batteries. If you have the spec for the battery, The new battery should have the same voltage, current draw, and size. As long as current draw is larger than the spec you should be OK. Somewhere the battery specs are available for the battery that went into your Mac. Also, check with the Apple Forums - someone there may have an answer for you.

MamaMoose

10

Tech / UPDATED: Fixed problem with MAIL

« on: March 26, 2010, 10:02:44 PM »

Kimmer,

it makes no sense to me to jump to 10.5. IMHO, you would be better off to jump to Snow Leopard IF you have an install disk because of improvements available in Snow leopard that are not available in Leopard. If you do stay with 10.5,  before you have installed the version you have,  download from apple.com the latest COMBO updater. Once you have upgraded, immediately run the Combo Updater that installs all upgrades up to and including the latest one. In any OS installation, make sure you select Archive & Install so as to preserve  anything you will need from 10.4.11.

Tom C.

11

Tech / Ghosts in the machine

« on: March 26, 2010, 06:51:38 AM »

I had a strange experience the other day. I woke my system and instead of my usual desktop I got this strange rectangular array of rectangles covering my entire monitor (23# Cinema Display). When I tried to select something, my desktop appeared and a small version of the rectangular  array appeared. What happened? Was someone trying to reach me from the other side? Was this some nefarious trick by Microsoft to get me to switch to Windows 7?  Was this Al Qaeda trying to penetrate my highly classified computer which contains secret, documents on how to prepare pork dishes?

Seriously, what was the source of the phenomenon. Is it a hidden part of the OS? Thanks for any help

MamaMoose

12

Tech / Cool Freeware/Shareware thread

« on: March 20, 2010, 09:09:51 PM »

I would like to change the color of folder icons. Right now I have Color Labels an old piece of sftware that works by placing a folder over one of its color bars. However, it sometimes fsil to take. Can I use Fasticns to do this?

MamaMoose

13

Tech / Remember the Power button on keyboards

« on: March 20, 2010, 03:38:10 AM »

Simultaneously selecting Control+Eject, brings up a window that allows Shutdown, Restart, Sleep, and Cancel.

MamaMoose

14

Tech / Cool Freeware/Shareware thread

« on: March 20, 2010, 03:34:08 AM »

XABD,

Does the On-line Color Scheme Selector have a stand-alone app. Or must it be accessed from the Web.?

MamaMoose

15

Tech / Scroll on Magic Mouse hanging

« on: March 17, 2010, 07:51:17 PM »

Paddy,

According to the preference Pane,  the mouse batteries are at 54%. So that's not the problem although I will install new batteries. After 55 years working with electronics nothing surprises me especially trusting a software "meter".

XABD,

The Magic Mouse does not have a scroll wheel. I tied everything including a soft touch, a hard touch, and throwing the damn thing against the wall. For the latter, nothing happened except the mouse sulked for a few hours. I also tried washing my scroll  finger and then dipping it into alcohol. Again nothing happened. The scroll works via a capacitive effect and it may be at my age (77) I don't have enough electrostatic charge! I did tried rubbing my hand on my cat and also shuffling my shoes on the rug. Didn't help. So tomorrow, I am off to the doctor where they are going to hook me up to an electrostatic sphygomometer. The doctor did warn me that lack of charge could be due to a genetic effect or to old age.        

MamaMoose