Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks December 2002

It's pick on Microsoft time again. Not because they are big and powerful, but because their advertising employees are too dumb and lazy to do it right. As most of you know MS did a reverse-switcher ad. That's not bad; in fact, it seems that we have gotten under their skin (that's not easy as it's pretty thick). The fact that the person doing the ad made it up is just bad advertising. When the ad was released, she made several mistakes. The first was that she used Microsoft software which imbeds certain information about the writer in the document. The second was using a stock picture of the woman who was supposed to be the switcher. Using a stock picture is like using a sign that says, "something rotten here." The funny part to me is that there are reverse switchers. They like the PC world and all that is MS. So, how hard would it have been to find a switcher and use a real person?

Dell is going to sell Apple iPods so all those strange dudes can have music. This is really funny–Dell, who told Apple to fold up and go away is now going to sell iPods. What an interesting world we live in today.

iMac Video Problem
Steve Riggins brought up a problem that we had already seen in the PMUG office. iMacs that had been running fine started having some really odd problems after installing System 10.2.1 and System 9.2.2 on them. When booted up they would not have video, or the video would come up with strange colors, smeared text or a combination of these problems. In the PMUG office, we had been experiencing this even in earlier versions of OS X. The fix is to update the firmware for the machine to the current version. So how do you do that when there is no video to see the screen? Lucky for the PMUG office, most of our machines have a VGA port installed in them. We were able to hook up an external monitor and download the firmware patch using Software Update. Once the firmware patch was run, all four of the machines went back to the correct display. Several of the help areas on the internet have now reported the solution we used. This seems to be for iMacs with the slot loading CDROM drives. The big problem is with the folks who do not have FireWire ports in their machines. If you have the FW ports then your machine has the external video port hidden under that oblong plastic port on the back of your computer just above the RAM door. Those that do not have this port and their video is not working at all, basically are stuck with the purchase of a new motherboard. Apple says it's not their problem because they put a warning in the Readme file on the Jaguar disk. I want to know how many of the Apple guys read the Readme files that come with the System software.

Utility smarts
Old utilities are a quick way to corrupt your files beyond repair. Do not use old utility applications to try and fix a computer you have updated with newer operating Systems. Everyday I hear from and talk to people about problems with their software and systems. When I suggest running a utility to check on their data I hear "yeah, I've got a copy of that somewhere around here." This usually means they have never used it and have no idea what it looks like when it runs. They also have very little idea what system was on their machine when it was purchased. In fact, I have had several customers totally destroy their data using Norton 3.5 on a HFS+ volume. Now the fact that the utility software was 4 years old didn't even make them give a second thought to running it. I want to make this as plain as possible, as clear as can be and as in your face as I can. When you buy a new version of a system you need to update your utility software shortly after that. The failure to do that can cost you everything you have on your hard drive. You really need to backup your files before you run any of these utilities due to the fact you may lose all your data if something goes wrong. Current versions of DiskWarrior (2.1.1), Norton Utilities (7.0.2) and TechTool Pro (3.0.8) can be ordered from the companies that produce them.

Although Apple is saying that you will not be able to boot to System 9 on new machines issued after January's Macworld Expo, there are a lot of programs from the old days that will not work without booting directly with OS 9. Please remember that Classic is not–I repeat–not System 9. It is a lite version of the program, it does not allow many of the extensions that used to run under OS 9 to run. If the software is fairly current then there is a good chance it will run under Classic, but if it is old software it may very well break. Those of you who are thinking about retiring System 9 altogether should be reading the vendors' sites to see if the current software you are using under Classic is being updated to OS X, or if you will need to convert over to software that runs natively in OS X. Some newer software runs fine after it has been installed under Classic, some won't even install if Classic is not present and running under OS X.

Software notes
Intuit has released an update to its Quicken 2003 software taking it to release version 3. This revision includes updates to tax calculation tables for the Capital Gains Estimator, scroll wheel support, and fixes for a number of bugs including problems with QuickFill, printing memorized reports, Reports and Graphs, and Save A Copy. This version works with 9.2.2 and OS X. Contact www.intuit.com for more information or to download the revision.

Dantz, the owners of Retrospect, have released a driver update for Retrospect 5.0. The new driver is version 3.1. Drivers tend to add new supported devices or new functions to already supported devices. Contact Dantz at www.dantz.com for more information.

Getting rid of software in OS X that you no longer need is a pain in the–well–you know. Macintosh users are accustomed to removing old software by dragging the application and supporting files to the Trash, but that may not work in OS X. Now many programs that have been written for OS X have uninstallers built in–you just need to run the installer again and this time pick "uninstall" under custom install choice. Software that does not have an uninstaller may be a problem because most of the files that are installed are not easily removed by the end user. If the software does not have an uninstall you may want to contact the maker and ask them how to remove it.

Iomega has released new software for their Zip drives for use in OS X and with their new 750 Zip drive. However they may be a day late and a solution short with this drive. The drive only holds 730 megabytes of data and that's just not enough in these days of CD­RW drives burning up to 700 megabytes on a 40 cent disk. Most of us have been burned at one time or another by the dead or dying Zip cartridge or reader. I'm not sure where their market for this small a drive is, but in order for me to buy an external storage device it has to hold alot more than 730 meg of data. Contact Iomega at www.iomega.com for software and information.

Here's how to make your life as painful as possible on your computer. Choose a password that is long and easy to screw up for your OS X log in. For those of you who only have one computer and no one uses it but you, use the KISS method. Use your name with no capitals as the users name and use a simple password with no caps as your password. Write the password down because most likely you will forget it.

Copies of backups
I was the guest speaker at the AppleVan meeting in October. The topic was viruses and backing up your data. One of the things I tried to express at that meeting is that one backup is not enough. You should have at least two and preferably three backups of your data. Never, ever keep all the copies of your backups next to your computer. You can have a copy there for when you need to go back to an older version. If you have a thief break into your house, he's not going to go through what he's stealing; they throw it all in a bag or box and they are gone. That means the computer and the backup disappear together. The sad part is your backup is in a garbage can somewhere and will do you no good at all. You should also be prepared with a copy in case of fire or flood when you are not at home.

So here lies the catch of backups. You need to make sure that one of the backups is not in your house. In order to get this out of your house, trade with a friend or place it in a safety deposit box.

Thank Yous
To finish off this year I want to thank all those people who help out around PMUG. So here's to the folks who help set up the chairs and move the tables at the General Meeting; the members who offer to carry boxes from the vendors' cars and Janet's membership stuff in and out of the Cultural Center; all the folks that help make MacCamp a success every six months by running wire, moving furniture and listening to me drone on at the Friday night intro; all the Swap Meet volunteers who help with everything from table assignments to cleanup after the meet; the helpers that get PMUG event information out to the press and write things for MouseTracks, the editors and proof readers. Here's to the review writers, the PMUG college instructors, store helpers, people that answer questions and clean the office. That's what makes a User Group–special people helping people. Thank you each and every one.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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