I Can Empty the Trash

It's the little things that make life pleasant.  Ever since Leopard came out, I've been having a problem with database files showing up in my trash that I couldn't delete. After researching, I learned that it was something to do with the way Safari and Mail handled RSS feeds and a permissions issue.  If I closed Safari and Mail, I could empty trash.  I posted about this a couple of months ago on this blog.  I'm noticing as of the last software update, that this is no longer a problem.  One more little annoyance checked off the list!

All I Wanna Do is Empty the Trash!

This is starting to get annoying. It's happening on all my Macs since I made the switch to Leopard.  Mail and Safari are creating these files that end up in the trash and can't be deleted until I close Safari and Mail.  I've read that it has something to do with permissions and the way that those programs handle RSS feeds. I can't find a solution that works to make this stop happening. I was hoping that 10.5.2 would fix it, but no such luck.  Can you help me?  It's Tuesday, which is trash day in my neighborhood.

WAN Driver built-in to MacBook Air

I restarted my MacBook Air with the Sierra Wireless Card still in the USB slot (yeah, the ONE USB slot...)  Usually, I run a program called Sierra Watcher to recognize the card and provide wireless access on my Mac.  Lo and behold, when my Mac restarted, I got a dialogue saying that I had a new network device installed.  I clicked on the link to network preferences in the dialogue and found that all my AT&T information was already entered so I just clicked on a button called connect.  Guess what? It worked!  I did not realize that my Mac would natively support the Aircard without the Sierra Watcher program. Is this a new feature? Am I the only one who didn't know? Does this work on other Macs too?

Update:  Thanks to Kevin Tofel at JK On The Run I learned that native OSX support for the Sierra Wireless card has been a feature since Tiger.  Color me clueless!

Apple Software Update?

What gives with the latest Apple Software Update?  I accepted the update on my 12" Powerbook and on restart I got hung with the setup assistant running over and over again.  About the third time of entering the information, I figured out, "this isn't going to stop, is it?"  I checked Apple's support site and found this knowledgebase article. I'm all better now. Thank you.

It's a new year, baby!

2007 was a good year for CPA's.  As long as Congress keeps mucking around with the Internal Revenue Code, the prospects look good for 2008, too.  I'm starting 2008 with a fresh start for my beloved BlackBook.  I've been getting some odd errors on start-up where Leopard wants to "fix" my system and then restart.  Like so many things I try to "fix" around my house, Leopard's fix is always temporary.  

Plus, I'd accumulated too much stuff on my hard drive. I can't even figure out what all this stuff is.  I just love a fresh install. Everything is snappy. There's so much free space on my hard drive.  I feel like I've got room to grow, and buy, and record things, and take pictures.  A fresh install opens up so many new possibilities and opportunities.  

Plus, the fresh install frees me from the bad choices I've made that I don't seem to get rid of. Like the time I tried Pocketmac for Windows Mobile so I could use my Blackjack with my Mac.  I never could get that silly program to work, and I never could could totally make it go away.  Fresh start to the rescue!

Of course, there's the downside to the fresh install. No matter what I back up, I always seem to remember after the fresh install something that I forgot.  Like, I just finished redoing my business website billmirandacpa.com from scratch because I used iWeb to create it and forgot to back up that silly domain file in my user/library.  Then, after I reformat the drive and reinstall OSX, I realize I did it again!  This time, my Time Machine backup came to the rescue.  Thank you, Time Machine!  Even though, I gave my computer a new name, I could still access the Time Machine backup from before and find the forgotten file.  

I also need to create a better system for saving registration keys to all my software.  Every time I reinstall, there's a mad scramble to find those lost registration codes.  If you saw my stacks of paper and disorganized computer files, you'd understand why I have issues with this. In the spirit of new year's resolutions, I'm open to suggestions for self-improvement.  Please help me if you have ideas on how to manage this task.

In honor of this fresh install, I'm using Boot Camp again and I'm loading my unused Vista on my BlackBook.  I've been using Parallels but I haven't been as happy with it since I upgraded to Leopard.  I've decided to give VMWare Fusion a go.  I'll let you know what I think.

Tell me about your new beginnings by posting a comment or catching me on Twitter as Taxman45.  Let's be friends in 2008!  Have a great new year!

Just so you know I'm not crazy...

The definition of insanity, so I've heard, is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. It's been sort of like that for me with "back to my mac." I'll admit, my interest in making this work is probably exaggerated by the fact that it doesn't work more than an actual need to always be connected to my various macs. Still, it does serve an important business purpose for me, and I'm interested in getting it working reliably from different locations. Last night, as my wife and I watched "Ghost Hunters Live" (talk about a beat down -- why couldn't they show us the d*mn ball moving?) I had a glimpse of greatness. B2MM was working in all its remote access glory. I've been to the mountain and drank from the koolaid. But, B2MM is a cruel mistress. This morning, all is back to dysfunctional reality. Oh well...

What was Apple Thinking?

This back-to-my-mac thing is a disaster. I think if more people tried to use it, there would be a lot more uproar about how badly it works. One minute it works, the next it doesn't. Within your home network, shared computers show up automatically and screen sharing or file sharing is no problem. That's a nice feature that uses bonjour (according to Apple Support). When you try to connect with a computer on a different network, a different technology is involved. This technology is called wide area bonjour. Here's where the fun starts. Based on my experience, remote computers come and go from the shared computer list seemingly at random. You can sometimes trigger this behavior temporarily by turning B2MM off in the dotmac preference panel and then turning it back on. Connections may work one way and not the other, or they may not work at all. Connections that work tonight, may not work tomorrow morning. In short, this feature is a disaster that is definitely not ready for prime time. Even if it works, security experts say it's not secure. I'm baffled at why this feature is even in Leopard, given it's current state. Is this something that sounds good in ad copy but they didn't think anybody would use? I'm really interested in this feature and I've got an open case with Apple Support that I hope leads to a resolution, even if it means buying some new Airport base stations. But, I'd say it's alpha stage at this point. Don't upgrade from Tiger just because B2MM sounds interesting!

Leopard and the Sierra 875U Wireless Card

Here's some good news. The Sierra 875U Wireless card provides HSDPA connection on the AT&T Wireless network via USB. I didn't even think about it not working after the Leopard upgrade. You can imagine my relief that it works just fine, including the OSX Sierra Watcher application. Curiously, there is no section for shared computers in Finder when using this card. I'm beginning to realize just how limited the application of Back to My Mac may be.

Back to My Mac...I wish!

Yesterday, B2MM (back to my mac) worked great from office to home. Today, I couldn't see home macs at all from the office. Yet, when I got home. I can see the office mac but can't connect. Apple Support is working with me on the case, but we haven't isolated the cause, much less the solution. I'll be following this story as it develops. I really want this to work. Stay tuned!

"Get back, Get Back...."

"Get back to where you once belonged." I'm betting leftover pasta that Sir Paul isn't trying to figure out how to make the "back to my mac" feature in Leopard work. For me, it's a quest, like the search for the Holy Grail. ("I'm not quite dead, yet!"). Last night, from home, I was unable to see my computer at work. I tweaked and tweaked to no avail. I have an Airport Express at home as my router and a Netgear router at the office. The Netgear router has UPNP turned on, whatever that is. Anyway, today at the office, I had a grand time connecting with my home computers using back to my mac. Success!

Sadly, when I got back home, I discovered it was a case of unrequited love. Office can see home computers. Home can't see office computers. Bummer! Is Leopard just an insidious plot by Apple to sell us all terrabytes of hard drives for Time Machine and a pair of Apple Extreme base stations for B2MM? I'm beginning to wonder! Anybody having luck with this? Do tell!

UPDATE: I show up at work today and what was working no longer works. I got no B2MM! I'm depressed.

Maybe we need to call it Perpendicular...

Parallels is sort of running cross-ways with the new cat right now. Oh, you can use it, but it's taken a bit of a step back from the seamless technological wonder that it was and is under Tiger. First, I was having a problem in that my XP disk image won't mount on my Mac desktop. I scoured the forums at parallels.com and thought I found a fix (see #17) in the thread.) Installing the macfuse program and restarting did get me an icon for a mounted drive on my desktop, but when it doesn't show any contents when I click on it. So close, yet...well, you get the idea.

A seemingly related problem has to do with associated files to run with Mac programs from within the Windows XP image. I try to keep my XP disk image as small as possible, so why install two copies of Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Office? In Tiger, I could set Parallels so that if I clicked on a PDF file, for example, it would launch Acrobat Reader on my mac to view the file. Or, I could use Preview if I wanted. In Leopard, I can still designate file types to open with mac programs, but I kept getting an error that programs could only launch files on disks with assigned letters or shared folders. The files were in drives with assigned letters and shared folders. So, I guess for now, we need two copies of Acrobat Reader.



Don't get me wrong, Parallels is still a great program, and it is very usable under Leopard. Today, the Parallels team announced a new beta version that will improve Leopard compatibility. However, Dwight Silverman warns that people are having problems with this initial build, so you might be advised to wait a bit longer.

Check out that Finder icon...

It appears that Apple is taking a bit of a poke at MSFT with the PC icons on Finder. Look closely, that's the BSOD on a biege monitor. credit: phillymac via Twitter.com and hack41 on flikr.com

I'm in Mac Heaven!

I made a visit to the Apple Store at Willow Bend at bought the iMac 24" for my office. It's absolutely beautiful! I upgraded to 2GB RAM, which should be plenty for my needs. It came with Leopard in the box but Tiger was installed. I got Leopard installed and did a basic configuration, but I'll have more to do on Monday. I brought home the Mac Mini that was on my desk and have it set up in the study at home. I've been installing the Leopard family pack on all our Macs. I was surprised at how well it runs on my wife's PowerBook G4 with 1.67 GHz processor and 1.5 GB RAM. That's still a great machine. Surrounded by Macs and getting to know Leopard. It's all good!

One curiousity is that I could not see my Macs at home from my office, even though I have them configured on the same dotmac acount. I need to research this more, but I'm guessing that they maybe have to be on the same network once before you can connect back to them. I want this "back to my Mac" feature to work. Any ideas?

More Leopard News

It came! I have the box here. My Fedex driver was happy that I was here. She said the dispatcher told all the drivers they had to keep coming back to try to deliver Leopard if people weren't there on their first attempt. That's not normally how Fedex operates. Interesting. I called one of my local Apple Stores. She told me that if you buy a Mac after 6 tonight, it doesn't come with Leopard installed but you get the Leopard disk. In case you're wondering. I know that a 24" iMac keeps calling my iPhone and saying it wants to come home with me.

Apple Store North Park Tonight

Mrs. Taxman's face lit up with excitement when I floated the possibility of going to North Park tonight. For totally non-tech reasons, mind you. But nevertheless that could put me in the vicinity of the Apple Store tonight for the big Leopard launch party. The Geekbrief.tv squad says they'll be there. So, maybe I'll get to meet Cali (aka Laura) and Neil. Maybe that 24" iMac will come home with me. I dunno.

Happy Leopard Day! Wait?

"Today is gonna be the day that I give it all back to you..." Sorry, that was Oasis. Not Steve Jobs. Fed Ex says my Leopard family pack will be here by 10:30 AM. I've been encouraged to wait awhile to install it by Dr. Mac and others. Wait? I'm not familiar with that word. So, I Google it. Okay, "sit in one place and anticipate or expect something." I'm not going anywhere until Fed Ex comes. Check. "Look forward to the probable occurence of." I'm definitely looking forward to installing Leopard and it's probable that I will. Check. "Wait before acting". Surely, they didn't mean that definition! There's gotta be a loophole. "the act of remaining inactive in one place while expecting something." Not much work is getting done today. Check. It's also a radio station and a cool song by the Beatles (which is maybe my theme song for the day). "Wait, til I come back to your side. We'll forget the tears we cried." So prophetic. It's all gonna be good even if we have to cry while installing. So, I'll definitely "wait". It just may not be the way Dr. Mac intended. Happy Leopard day!