Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks May 2003

Anyone who believes that ranting about OS X will change anything does not understand Steve Jobs or how completely rebuilding a computer operating system works. Anyone who knows me knows I do not like change in my life. Having spent the last ten years making a living on Apple systems I know inside and out, only to have Apple change everything, is not what I wanted to see. However, it’s not what I want that counts, it’s what the market wants and it seems to want OS X. The world at large does not want to know how “Mac Users” did things. People want to sit down at a computer and have a basic idea of how to run it. System 10 gives everybody an equal footing in that area. It is a fairly easy to use interface, in a great looking package. Many users have no cares about old systems working with new systems, or even old printers and scanners working at all.

As with the move from System 6 to System 7, the machines and their CPU speeds are going to have to make up for how much processor power System 10 uses to look pretty. I really believe Apple is now paying for that crushing blow to Intel when they introduced the 5 gigaflop G4 processor (can’t be exported product line) that made the Intel machines look bad. Intel has thousands of people they can throw at a project to show up their competition. They have done a great job of this. Apple needs to get the same kind of pressure on IBM and Motorola that all those folks at Intel had. The problem is Motorola and IBM have their own agendas and Apple tends to come in last instead of first. Unless Apple does something like buy Motorola or IBM, they have very little power to get that program moving. For those who think we could move to the Intel chip and stay current, you must understand that all the code for all the programs would have to be recompiled to get it to work. This would make a lot of unhappy software companies who just got through making their product work with the current OS X. Plus (and this is no easy fix) drivers for almost every device would need to be rewritten. That’s a lot of devices to be recoding drivers for.

GET APPLECARE
At this time I am suggesting all PowerBook and iBook owners get AppleCare if you are still under warranty. The reason for this is some motherboards are failing for no apparent reason. The cost of replacing the motherboard is very close to buying a refurbished unit. Problems such as the motherboard’s backlighting and FireWire ports dying suddenly are all good reasons to extend your warranty to the full three years, but there are even more reasons. During past software updates many people noted that the update damaged their batteries in some way. Battery life went from around 2-3 hours to 5 minutes. I see macfixit <www.macfixit.com> has a topic of the problem with iBooks whose monitors get lines then die within a short time. This seems to point to the video chip, but no one is sure. You may be able to get a few minutes to get data off your hard drive by booting into Open Firmware (Shift-Control-Option- Power key during startup) then typing reset-vram (hit the return key) then type reset-all.

For all of you with towers and iMacs, the FireWire damaged port issue may affect your machine as well as PowerBooks and iBooks. It affects every Mac with FireWire ports. There are many reports of damaged FireWire ports and to avoid this, it is recommended that you do all FireWire swaps by shutting down your computer to remove or connect FireWire devices. Apple really needs to address this quickly before it builds up to a major bad press problem. I have seen people blame the device(s), and the cables but the basic fact is it should not be happening.

First generation iMac owners: your batteries are starting to die. If you are going to have any repair/upgrade work done be sure and arrange to get the battery changed at the same time. This will keep you from paying another $65 shop fee when the battery dies. If your battery is dead, think about adding RAM at the same time you get the battery changed. Many of these older machines are running 64 meg to 96 meg of RAM and can be upgraded to 160 meg or more depending on your needs. Please note that people who have not updated their firmware to at least 1.1 on the older iMacs will need to do so to see the added memory when using 256 Meg chips.

SOFTWARE NOTES
Want to safely keep that long story or art masterpiece you’ve been working on? Then learn to “grandfather” your documents. It’s really very simple; each day you work on it, do a “save as” and rename the document with both a new name and unique date. Yes, after awhile you will have more copies than you need but then you can throw away the really old versions or even save them off to a CD or whatever back-up device you have. Sometimes the computer just gets confused and when it does that, it may hang up in the middle of your work and corrupt your file. If you have been saving the document over and over again with the same name there is a really good chance that you will have to start the document over again.

Apple released a new version of Java (1.4.1) in March which may not work with programs that need the old version. Do not install this if you are using a program that needs a specific version of Java.

Apple puts out some great software but it may not be what you need. Take iPhoto for example—it is an easy to use product but very flat file as a database for your pictures. Janet’s sister has been living in Egypt for a year and has gotten her iPhoto file up to 3000 pictures. If she works in iPhoto for very long the computer slows down to a crawl and she needs to quit iPhoto and relaunch in order to get back up to speed. The reason for this is iPhoto was never meant to be used on massive photo collections. iPhoto only knows about one folder and you have to keep everything there. That’s not bad if you’re dealing with 500 pictures, but as this number grows, the program has a hard time tracking everything. Combined with that is the extra space taken up with any picture you have modified. This is both good and bad. The good part is because iPhoto creates a separate photo to edit, you can revert back to the original at anytime; the bad part is now you have two photos the program has to deal with. There are some third party helpers out there that allow you to create other folders you can tell iPhoto to use. However when you do this only the folder you are looking at is in use. You need to switch folders if the picture you want to look at is somewhere else.

Alsoft is getting DiskWarrior 3.0 ready for shipping. This version of the program CD will boot into System 10. Please check the alsoft.com website for current information. We are still waiting to hear when TechTools 4 and Norton Utilities will ship (these should boot into OS X). As many of you know, the only way to currently check the latest Macs is to boot from an extra FireWire hard drive with System 10.2.4 and updated versions of the utility programs installed on it.

Apple has pulled the plug on developers testing advanced copies of Safari due to several leaks to the public. As most beta testers know, there is a public beta and a nondisclosure beta. They put things that they want to test in the non-public beta so they can see how it works. None of the nonpublic beta is ever supposed to be handed out, due to the fact it may never be incorporated into the product. People who are issued this software have signed nondisclosure agreements and can be taken to court if it can be proved they leaked the product. This is a great reminder that programs can end if people do not play by the rules. It also sounds like the Beta 2 version is about to appear for public testing.

There are so many new products for System 10.2 you need to look daily to keep up with all the new ones. I would suggest a daily look at versiontracker.com and macintouch.com for updates or what’s new and revised.

If you’re having problems getting USB to work on an older Beige Mac running 9.2.2, here is a solution found on Macintouch (.com) that may help. From: Steve Major
1. After installing MacOS 9.2.2
2. Go into your Extensions folder and move out the following extensions: USB Authoring Support, USB Device Extension, USB Software Locator and USBAppleMonitorModule. Put them on the Desktop; you will need them later.
3. Install the Apple USB Adapter Card Support 1.4.1 software.
4. Move from the Extensions folder to the Trash the following extensions: USB Authoring Support, USB Device Extension, USB Software Locator, and USBAppleMonitor. (You won’t be able to delete them because they are “in use.”)
5. Drag the extensions you removed in step 2 from the Desktop back to the Extensions folder.
6. Restart the computer and empty the Trash.
This procedure seems to put back the missing pieces/old versions that allowed the MacOS to use a PCI USB card. While I can’t confirm that it will enable every USB device, I can state that it has worked with many USB devices I’ve encountered including: floppy drives, zip drives, mice, keyboards, wireless optical devices, and USB cameras.

Sometimes you see a printer that says it will work with a G3 processor, but right after that it says G4 recommended? Well if you have one of the early G3 machines I suggest you leave it on the shelf. You’re never going to be real happy with the speed of that printer. Even worse is if you have a beige G3 with an add-on USB card. Many of the USB devices say the USB must not be an add-on, it must be built into the computer.

While we are on the topic of G3 beige machines and USB card support: You have to have the drivers to make things work. Installing Apple’s 1.4.1 card support is what allows the machine to see your USB devices. When you start up from a CD ROM like Norton Utilities, DiskWarrior, or TechTool your USB card support is not loaded. If you have a USB keyboard, it will appear dead, and the same goes for the mouse. If you start up with the shift key down to disable extensions, the same thing happens. So you need to hang on to those old ADB keyboards and mice so you can do problem solving. Also affected is holding down the C key to start for a CDROM, holding down the command and option keys to rebuild the desktop; well you get the idea. Now if you’re running an iMac with built-in USB, all these things should work just fine unless you have your mouse and keyboard plugged into a hub and not the Mac. You see, the USB extension only looks out to the first device (which is the hub) it does not look past that until all the extensions load. Please don’t try and outsmart the computer, it only knows what it’s been told to know. It really pays to have the latest update of Stuffit on your computer. One of our members was having trouble expanding a file from the Apple site. After getting a error -127 trying several times to use the unstuffed file with a old version he downloaded the current version and everything worked fine. Names withheld to protect the guilty parties.

ONLINE GAMES
I have several customers who are using a website called Pogo.com to play games on their computers. This web site features a wide play list of people who want to play every thing from Rummy to Scrabble and Bridge. However, a couple of the games require Java to play the game. It does not seem to matter which browser they use, the games that require Java all say “you need a newer version of Java” than the one they are using. Word Whomp™ is one of the examples. Do any of you have the same problem using this web site? Note: you may have to pay to play some of the games. (Probably only works with Microsoft’s version of Java.— Bill)

FAMOUS FACES
Al Gore on Apple’s board of directors? That’s right! The man who claims to have been misquoted as “the guy who invented the Internet” is now an Apple board member. Yes, I do know he used to be Vice President of this great country of ours and is a user of Macs. What does he bring to the Apple board, other than a press release and lots of humorous stories? I haven’t a clue of what his industry leadership talents are so it’s wait and see what happens.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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