Blog R.I.P., Mac Support Site Lives On

I have decided, after much deliberation and thought, to discontinue this Mac Support Site Blog, and only continue my actual Mac Support Website. This is due to time constraints, etc.

I will leave all the information that's currently on this blog on the Internet for some amount of time, and I will update my Mac Support Website from time to time, but I will no longer be maintaining this blog. It was good while it lasted, but nothing lasts forever! Farewell!

P.S. You can also check out some other cool sites I will continue to maintain at LifeisaPrayer.com.

Running Mac OS 9 (Classic) Applications in Mac OS X

I received this email today:

"My grandpa just bought a new Mac with OSX 10.3.4 on it. He has Canvas 3.0 that he could run on OS 9 but now, OSX will not run Canvas anymore and he asked me for some help. I know a bit about Mac's but I'm mainly a Windows user. He has a copy of OSX 10.3.4 and OS 9. So, do I have to install OS 9 from within OSX to run the old programs or ... what is the solution?"

My response:

To run older OS 9 applications in OS X (any version), you will need to make sure you have Mac OS 9 (any version, preferably 9.2 or later) installed on your Mac and Classic installed in OS X. For detailed instructions, read these Apple Knowledge Base Articles:

• Mac OS X: How to Use Mac OS 9 Applications
• Troubleshooting the Classic Environment in Mac OS X

Pixar's 'Incredibles' DVD a Smash-Hit Success

Today, I noticed on MacMinute that The Incredibles DVD has already sold 5 million copies ÄîIn its first day on the market. I am happy to say that I am one of those 5 million purchasers - at Wal-Mart, you could pick a copy of the 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD for $11.99!

I personally attest that not only was the movie incredible, but Pixar also did an incredible job on the DVD. 'Jack-Jack Attack' was very entertaining, and so was another short made to look like an old 'Incredibles' cartoon. You'll have to see them for yourself - I can't adequately describe them in words. The other bonus footage is pretty fun, as well, and the menu structure, design and transitions are simply icing on the cake.

Google Labs: "OS X Rocks" - New 'Google X theme' [UPDATED]

Today Google Labs has released 'Google X' - an alternative home page for the Google Search engine that features a dock-like interface for clicking on different sections to search - News, Pictures, Video, Froogle, Local, etc. It even includes Magnification

I played around with it, and it's pretty cool. The icons will magnify as you move your mouse over them, while other icons move to make room for the bigger icon. It's not 100% as fluid as Dock magnification, but that's acceptable; not even Google can match Apple's Quartz engine ;-)

UPDATE: It seems Google has pulled Google X from its site. No reason has been given. I will post again if I can find more information.

Linux Creator Linus Trovalds Switches to Mac (...Hardware, that is)

It would seem that the creator of Linux is using a dual-processor G5 as his main Linux-running computer now. From CNET News.com:

Torvalds, who initially created Linux for the Intel x86 platform, revealed to the Linux Kernel Mailing List in February during a discussion on kernel size reduction that his main desktop machine no longer featured an x86 processor.

"My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970)--it's physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don't think you can call it a Mac any more ;)"

It doesn't surprise me when I see many people using Mac laptops and G5s who don't even run OS X -- don't get me wrong; I still think OS X (especially Tiger, when it comes out) is the de-facto standard OS for the masses, but the hardware is also much more stable and better than any X86 on the market. This means that people running Linux or UNIX workstations may find it advantageous to purchase a high-end Mac G4 or G5; Mac software works great, and Mac hardware runs like a dream.

New Mac Help Articles - Startup Sound and Right-Clicking

Lately I've received a few questions in my email concerning right-clicking on Macs and disabling the startup 'Chime' or 'Bong' sound, so I've finally found some time to post them on my Mac Support website.

Here are the links:

How to Right-Click on a Mac
How to Mute or Turn Down the Startup Sound

Choosing a Drive to Burn to in iDVD 5

From my latest Mac Help Article, Choosing a Drive to Burn to in iDVD 5:

With the release of iDVD 5.0 (in the iLife '05 suite of Apple's apps), Apple finally enabled disk image burning and burning to external drives. Unfortunately, you cannot currently choose which drive you'd like to burn your DVD to if you have more than one DVD-burning optical drive. According to a reader of this website, the Hack/Easter Egg I explained here fulfills this role!

If you would like to choose which drive to burn to on a multi-burner Mac with iDVD 5.0, please read the following directions. iDVD will remember your drive selection, so you need not follow these procedures every time you'd like to do a new burn (unless, of course, you need to switch drives).

For the rest of the page (including step-by-step instructions), click here.

Show and Hide Drive Icons on Mac OS X Desktop

I was recently asked via email:

"I have a quick Mac question. Is it possible to hide the hard drive icon from the desktop? In both OS9 and OSX. If you can, how can the administrator access it or restore it?

This is, in fact, very easy to do. When you are in the Finder (click on the Finder icon in the Dock to be sure), click the "Finder" menu and select "Preferences...". Once the preferences window shows up, click on the "General" button at the top. You can control what you see on your Desktop by checking or unchecking the items under "Show these items on the Desktop:".

You can choose to view or hide Hard Drive icons, CDs, DVDs and iPods, and Connected Servers.

This may be useful for you if you like a perfectly clean Desktop or if you would rather not have a user see the hard drive or other media connected to your Mac (maybe, say, your child or a friend who is using your computer). There are also many other useful options you can choose in the Finder Preferences, including how long it takes to open spring-loaded folders, what view windows open in by default, Finder window sidebar options, and more.

Search Mac Help for "Finder Preferences" for more information.

Use Your Old PowerBook or iBook's Trackpad for Scrolling

In addition to SideTrack and uControl, you can now install a replacement mouse driver on a pre-2005 G4 PowerBook or iBook and scroll using the trackpad the same way you would with a new PowerBook G4:

From Apple.com:
"Scrolling through web pages or large documents on a trackpad can challenge even the most nimble fingers. That Äôs why every PowerBook G4 features a new trackpad with scrolling capability. Just drag two fingers over the trackpad to scroll vertically and horizontally or pan around any active window. Change this feature to suit your needs: Customize your trackpad settings or turn off scrolling completely via System Preferences."

If you go to this website (iScroll2), you will find a downloadable installer that enables this new scrolling functionality on older iBooks and PowerBooks, as long as you have a new kind of trackpad (use this utility to check if you have a supported trackpad). To install the trackpad driver, go to this website and follow the directions for downloading and installing the driver found on the page. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it works great for me! I love being able to scroll horizontally using the trackpad like I can with my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 while I'm at my desk. Kudos to the author of that web page!

Review: Assignment Planner (for school, work and more!)

About one year ago, I found a gem of an application. I was browsing apps on MacUpdate.com when I noticed one app that looked promising: Assignment Planner. I downloaded a beta version, and, although it was fairly rough at the time, it looked nice and was helpful for me.

The App

I emailed the app's developer, Logan Rockmore, with some suggestions I had (things like allowing people to use the keyboard to create new entries and enter information, tabbing between fields, making it integrated with iCal, etc.), and Logan was very appreciative of the help and worked with me to squash every bug I found and implement every feasible feature I could imagine. This app is free -- it shows a 'please donate' screen when you start it up for a few seconds -- and it runs very well on any Mac I've used it on.

It is very easy to manage your courses, your GPA, your assignments, and integrate everything with iCal (enabling iPod-syncing!) using this program. I have been using it for over one year now, and I have only had occassional problems with the spinning beachball, but most problems have been solved with the version 1.3 release; those that have not been solved will be soon enough, I'm sure, because Logan really does care about this app, and he tries to make it the best Schoolwork management app possible. Here's the app's description (from MacUpdate.com):

"This simple application stores all of your Courses and Textbooks, and allows you to add homework assignments to any of them. Easy completion is included, so you only have to view what homework you have left to do. You can even integrate your assignments with iCal and move them to your iPod, for carrying around school. This is a simple and easy-to-use application thats great for College or High School students."

The Verdict

I agree 100% with everything he has to say. It is a simple app that takes up very little space and works like a Mac program should. It is a must-have app for any student who uses a Mac and needs to keep track of assignments. You can download the program here.