h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The noble Macgee (an Apple discussion board regular) is disheartened that nobody has any Mac problems that need fixing here.

I've promised to create a serious thread for him,, so if you have any problems with crashing HD's , flashing ?'s or disconnecting modems and the like, PLEASE post them so I can fulfil my duty!

Cheers

Rod

PS - I'm off to bed, it being near the witching hour in Australia, so its OK if your computer doesn't break down for a few hours.

Cheers

Rod

Here's one for you. Have you anything to add to F92144?thread=197258 ?

Amy the Ant

I've posted some thoughts over there Amy, but some more info from the original poster would help.

Cheers

Rod

Have you seen http://www.apple.com/switch/ads/ellenfeiss.html Ellen yet?

Donna

Hi Donna

No, I've still got to download QT 5.2 for streaming vid.


Thanks for reminding me.

Checked out oldfogey's link to http://homepage.mac.com/keepitfree/ yet? I love it.



Cheers

Rod

My "Software Update" thingy on OSX is not working the way it should. I did it a few weeks ago, and it downloaded and installed some "security update". Now I *know* there is an update on the Apple site to update my OS to the most recent version (I currently have 10.1.5 or something like that), but when I click on the "search for updates" or whatever the button says, it just runs and runs and runs and never finds anything and never stops until I hit cancel.

What's up?

I'm especially wanting to find this update, because people over at the Microsoft boards have told me that my latest version of IE will continute acting screwy until I update my OSX.

*argh*

Mikey

G'day Mikey,

various things can cause problems with the 'Software Update" process. In some circumstances, for example, it needs to quit all running applications (including "background" ones that you may not even be aware are operating) but finds it can't do so. In one case I remember it getting confused about actually updating itself! In other situations its support files become corrupted etc etc.

Usually though, the problem is simply that the server at the Apple end of things is misbehaving, or overloaded etc etc. This is especially likely with major System software updates.

Never fear. There is an easy answer. You can download the 10.1.5 "update" directly from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=122011

For a good listing of OSX updates take a look at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106713

Generally, recent Apple software updates can be found directly at http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n75150

Cheers

Rod

That was a great link and he did a good job on the site. I've already signed the petition and contacted Apple. I also paid for my first year of .Mac - until I can change my email everywhere. Then I cancel.

Donna

When the time comes, don't forget you have to actively cancel. The small print indicates that they will keep on billing your credit card until eternity (or until they decide they don't want to run .mac any more) if you don't.

I'm not going to bother with it. I already have anti virus software, my ISP provides free website & HD space which is much quicker for me to access, and the thought of a special chatroom just to talk about .mac services really doesn't thrill me, even with 24 hour replies from their "moderators". As for the email address, well its a pain, given their previous promises ("never have to change an email address again"), but I generally only use it for the Apple boards and a few mailing list subscriptions anyway. People may well have to change them anyway when Apple decide to change the service again.

Are they letting you use the .mac discussion groups?

Cheers

Rod

Rod,

Of course, I didn't read the fine print. Thanks for pointing that out! I may have to keep it for a while. My iDisk has saved the day for me many times.

I don't know if you've heard of GIS (geographical information system). It's a long story, but at the engineering company I work for we have recently gone into using GIS with ArcView - where we can overlay AutoCAD site plans onto GIS aerial photographs. Needless to say, the file sizes are huge and many email servers won't transmit them. By the time I get done putting in the arrows and captions on them, they are even larger. So I simply upload them to my iDisk and email the link to the client.

My boss is in his 70's. He doesn't want to know HOW I do it, as long as I do it.

Donna

GIS eh. yes, I know a bit about GIS. I spent a long time trying to badger (unsuccesfully) various people into producing Mac compatible soiftware that would let me use GIS data (used by the government mapping agencies here) for mapping Indigenous land information last year (sigh). MapInfo were always promising a Mac version, but it never seemed to eventuate. (they had one early on, but it disappeared sometime around OS8) Don't suppose you know of anything that will do the job these days?

For big file transfer I usually just use Fetch to upload the files to my space on my ISP's server. I have used iDisk too for the same purpose, but its a much slower transfer (and not really any easier) for me (with a phone modem)

Cheers

Rod

Rod,

Nothing for Macs & GIS that I know of. I've been searching. No AutoCAD for Macs anymore, either.

I should try using my web server as a download site. I've never done that before, but it can't be that difficult. I have a year to learn because I'm not renewing the .Mac at twice what I paid this year.

Donna

Hi Rod,

I'm trying to install Appleworks 6.23 on an iBook with 320Mb ram and Mac OS9.0.4, VM is off.
My current version of AppleWorks is version 6.0.4 which came on my software discs with the iBook. I'm in the UK, so my older version is International English, and the version of 6.23 that I've just downloaded is the same.

Funny things are going on when I try to update to 6.23 the updater box appears saying:

'It appears to this updater that you have multiple versions of AppleWorks 6'

This is not true, I have only ever had the one version, that being 6.0.4. So then it says:

'A "select folder" button will be available'

I cannot see one anywhere, there is only 'Quit' and 'Update'.

'It is recommended that you click this button to confirm the proposed "update location"'.

Well I would if I could see the button in the first place, but it isn't anywhere. The only options are 'Quit' and 'Update'. If I click update, it tells me that the updater was unable to find an International English version of Appleworks 6 in the specified update location, and that I should specify the location using that location specifier button, that isn't there.

I've run Sherlock to find any phantom Appleworks 6 apps on my hard drive, and there is only the one.

Any idea what's going on here?

OBC

Hi OBC,

A couple of possibilities comes to mind:

1) I know that if you shift Appleworks 6 out of the Appleworks folder you can run into update problems. If you have moved it, try putting it back there.

2) Creation date mods can also cause problems when updating Appleworks 6.04. Check that it reads May 19, 2000 , 12PM. If not you could either dump the existing version and re-install it from your software install disks or , perhaps, try setting it to this using FileBiddy or another file maintenance tool.

My own inclination would be to shift any personal stuff out of the existing Appleworks 6 folder (and perhaps from the relevant Application support folder in the System, folder), re-install 6.0.4 , and then run the updater (with only the MacOS (All) extension set running).

Cheers

Rod

And it will henceforth be known to all as File Biddy .

"And it will henceforth be known to all as File Biddy"

Damn, I'd been saving that name for a piece of software that I've always been going to write which would make lamingtons and dusts on the top of the bookshelf!

Now that I've let it out by accident I'll never get it back again!

Cheers

Rod

OK, this is ON topic

Running OS X 10.1.5 on an iMac Graphite SE 600MHz 256 megs RAM. Everything was running quite nicely until I decided that it would be handy to have email working without having to boot into 9 or classic.

I configured the Apple mail application with all the proper numbers & stuff and it worked for a bit. Then it decided it didn't want to play anymore. Fine, I told it. Take your ball and go home.

So I downloaded Eudora and got that up and running just fine. It worked for even longer, until it decided it didn't want to play anymore.

Now everytime I shut down or restart I get an Unresolved Kernal Trap and it crashes.

Any eye deers?

Donna

No eye deer heer - sorry.

Donna - Hi

Usual stuff:

Have you booted single user and run 'fsck'?
In what way did Mail.app and Eudora not want to play?
Was Classic running at the time?

I hear you're banned from posting to the Apple boards, but you can presumably still read them. It's worth looking for posts by William Kucharski on this topic (in Mac OS X). Also if you don't know about 'fsck' search the KB.

I'll look in again if I can, but am going to be away for a few days and therefore restricted to dial-up