Macs

Reinstalling Lion

by

On Saturday the [wikipop]MacBook[/wikipop] was getting a bit clunky and on investigation the hard disc was found to be damaged and needed wiping/formatting. Just what those girls do to the poor thing, having previously destroyed the old [wikipop search=”iBook G4″]iBook[/wikipop]’s disc, remains a mystery.

After backing up to the [wikipop search=”Time Machine (Mac OS)”]Time Machine[/wikipop], downloading the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and installing that on an old USB hard disc we were ready to boot from the external disc and wipe the internal disc. The wiping did not affect the recovery partition that [wikipop search=”Mac OS X Lion”]Lion[/wikipop] creates and so that was used for the reinstallation.

The process seemed to go without a hitch until the point when the computer should have restarted which it failed to do:

It repeatedly downloaded the installer but then hung showing either 5+ Hours remaining or Around 0 seconds to go. The download was restarted half a dozen times each with the same inconclusive result. Fortunately [wikipop]Tim Minchin[/wikipop] was hosting the Comedy Prom on TV and his Lullaby helped to relieve the frustrations:

Having shut down the MacBook for the night I tried it one more time on Sunday morning. It seemed to stall yet again but while I perused the support forums for any advice there was a reassuring [wikipop]startup chime[/wikipop] and it leapt into life and started the installation process. Once installed Martine sat in bed retrieving the backed up stuff which, to her alarm, reinstalled thousands of old emails.

But in the end, albeit with a little frustration, the whole disc-less wire-less installation did not fail us.

Skitching 9000 Spams

by

I just noticed that we have reached 9000 spam comments.

Thanks to the wonderful Akismet they are all caught and dealt with appropriately…apart from those that I cut out and keep to preserve their wonderfulness.

I captured the image with Skitch which has just been acquired by Evernote who have made it available for free.

Setting the [wikipop]FTP[/wikipop] upload to your own domain (as opposed to the built in Skitch offering) took a couple of attempts.

The Directory setting requires yourDomain/directory and the Base URL requires the full URL to find the images. The above example assumes you have created a directory called images to store them in. Skitch uploads the image then reads the full URL for you to copy to the clipboard….http://www.yourDomain.com/images/someImage.jpg

Apple! What were you thinking? And other one star rants.

by

With the arrival of Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) the App Store has seen a flurry of one star reviews…some of the more lucid ones consider all changes a personal affront and complain that they break the industry standards…

Alas the opportunity for such one star rants has not existed for very long so we need to fill in the blanks from the past…


I have just purchased [wikipop search=”Macintosh 128K”]the new Macintosh computer[/wikipop]. Where are the arrow keys and control key? How am I supposed mark out and edit a block of text? These Control key combinations are an industry standard…

I have just purchased the new [wikipop search=”iMac G3″]iMac[/wikipop]. Where is the [wikipop]floppy disk[/wikipop] drive? What use are these new fangled [wikipop]USB[/wikipop] ports? Will anyone ever develop any
peripherals for them? Why can’t we have industry standard [wikipop]SCSI[/wikipop] and [wikipop]Serial ports[/wikipop]?

Etc. Etc. You get the idea.

Just over a week ago we installed Lion on our modest iMac (2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128MB) and the MacBook (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB). Apart from the lack of AirDrop on the iMac all seems as expected. No slow downs or crashes as some one star reviewers have seen. Even the 2TB Western Digital external drive continues to chug away. Natural scrolling seems natural although the addition of a trackpad is probably a good idea… Which seems to be the point some people are failing to get. [wikipop]Steve Jobs[/wikipop] likes to quote the ice hockey player [wikipop]Wayne Gretzky[/wikipop] “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been”. Watch a young child using an iPad

and it is pretty clear (never mind the sales figures: iPads=9.2 Macs=3.95 Millions in the last 3 months) just where the puck is heading. Of course some people may prefer marking out and editing blocks of text with some obscure control key combinations.. so perhaps this process started with the first Mac which failed to provide such keys to force programmers to think in the new graphical way rather than continue with what they already knew. Today’s children will grow up finding the idea of dragging a mouse around on a desk to manipulate something on the screen as equally silly and archaic even if it was once an industry standard…

Wireless MIDI controlling GarageBand

by

NOTE: This post is from 2011 An updated 2023 version is available here.

MIDI controllers control MIDI devices. They do not make sound no matter how high the volume is set.

One of the main requirements for having an app distributed through the App Store is that the app should work as described. So one star reviews claiming “it does not work” should be ignored.

If you have a Mac you have everything you need:

  1. Launch your MIDI app (in this case Pad MIDI on an iPod Touch)
  2. Launch the Audio MIDI Setup utility (found in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder)
  3. If you are seeing the Audio window select Show MIDI Window from the Window menu
  4. Double click the Network button to show the MIDI Network Setup Window
  5. Join a Session by connecting your device
  6. Launch GarageBand which will find all MIDI connections
  7. Play the app to play Garageband

 

Then It Bash Me…. HTML Porn Arched In Their Heads.

by

Not sure which was the more surprising; that someone should charge for an app to Learn HTML (presumably for people who are unable to type HTML Tutorial into Google) or that it should only be available to adults because of its…

Frequent/Intense Sexual Content or Nudity, Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor, Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence, Frequent/Intense Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

But never mind all that nonsense we have the spam comment of the day to entice us:

There be obliged be a through for my kids to practice at familiar with what they learn in class. Then it bash me – songs!! Come down with a refrain common hoop-shaped and arched in their heads and they’ll not in a million years forget detract a ado for each of my English games, using (Insert link to your product here) merely the idiolect used in distinction! This is the first it! How are you?

Twinkle Twinkle Magic Trackpad

by

The Trackpad Magic app lets you play various instruments with the Magic Trackpad or MacBook’s Trackpad. It also features a variety of graphical effects and several [wikipop]musical scales[/wikipop]. Pressing the T key shows a grid to aid note finding. Pressing the I key cycles through the scales. The Doe Ray Me scale puts the G in the middle of the trackpad. With the C on the left edge you can pick your way through [wikipop]Twinkle Twinkle Little Star[/wikipop]. Turning off the grid and doing it blindfolded in the dark earns extra points 😉

Planet Panogaea

by

More bizarre one star reviews on the app store. This time for Panogaea. It is claimed that it does nothing and is a scam.

Admittedly having a web site which is still under construction does did not inspire confidence (The site is now up and running) but it all seems to work as described…

You can just click and drag directly in the image (using the Command and Control modifier keys) to make the changes. Full documentation and examples are available from the Help menu.

An Introduction to Panogaea from Kevin Gross from the official Panogaea support site.

UnMac Apps from the Mac App Store

by

Mac users have come to expect a certain standard and consistency from their software. OK we can tolerate the non-standard interface once in a while but some things are just assumed. Until today’s launch of the Mac App store. What we have are a lot of ports from the iPad/iPhone school of app development with no consideration for, or perhaps even an understanding of, how such apps will be used and be expected to work on a Mac. Sadly these are supposed to have been vetted by Apple before being allowed into the store. With no demo/trial versions available from the store you do not know what you are getting until you already have it. So please can we have apps that…

…ask if you want to save your unsaved work when you Quit them?

…have an Edit menu and an Undo?

…comply with click and drag norms instead of leaping back several decades with a click, move and click again interface? These probably worked fine with a couple of fingers on a touch screen but not so good on a Mac – even with a Magic Track Pad.

…accept images dragged into them rather than having to Open them from the File menu?

…give us a clue what we are supposed to do? There is a Help menu on the Mac. I posted instructions for PinBall HD this afternoon… A couple of hours later it had been well used…

It also seems a bit hit and miss which apps are marked as installed. Those you acquire through the App Store are but those from other sources are not; yet some of my Apple apps are marked as installed Aperture, Garageband etc. although not from the App Store while others are not iWorks etc. If we are going for seamless updating surely all installed applications should be noted and updated as and when.

Update:
It seems software purchased directly from Apple through an Apple account is recognised as installed by the App Store; if purchased elsewhere it is not recognised.

Mac Pinball HD controls

by

At least a copy of Pinball HD from the Mac App Store means that I no longer have to steal borrow the girl’s iPad to get my daily fix of The Deep table:

Alas there does not seem to be much in the way of instructions or a high score table (not that I ever get on it!). Thus far I have figured:

Down arrow: To pull back trigger/launcher (moves slowly – keep pressing to get any power)

Left & Right arrows or shift keys: left & right flippers

C: Toggle camera view Zooming, fixed perspective, fixed looking straight down

Esc: Exit full screen

⌘F: Enter full screen

Space: Nudge the table (use with caution)

Enter: Toggle pause

You have got the mission…

Update: The app was updated on January 26th, through the App Store, rectifying many of the problems with the early version – but still no high score table 🙁