10/03/2011

[macsupport] Digest Number 8471

Mac Support Central

Messages In This Digest (19 Messages)

Messages

1a.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "Daly Jessup" jessup@san.rr.com

Sun Oct 2, 2011 6:58 am (PDT)




On Oct 2, 2011, at 5:30 AM, Bill B. wrote:

> At 9:20 PM -0700 10/1/11, DaveC wrote:
>> The answer is, of course: increase the font size. Of course, there is
>> no way to do this for The Menu Bar.
>
> You can do it with MacPilot and TinkerTool

Bill, could you explain how to access that option in TinkerTool and/or MacPilot? I haven't been able to find it. In MacPilot's Help file, in fact, "use bigger font for UI" is listed as a "requested feature." But maybe the feature is called something else in practice?

Anyway, I'd love to do this as well, and would appreciate knowing where the feature is hidden in those utilities.

Daly
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Messages in this topic (8)
1b.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "Bill B." bill501@mindspring.com   kernos501

Sun Oct 2, 2011 9:39 am (PDT)



At 6:58 AM -0700 10/2/11, Daly Jessup wrote:
>On Oct 2, 2011, at 5:30 AM, Bill B. wrote:
>
>> At 9:20 PM -0700 10/1/11, DaveC wrote:
>>> The answer is, of course: increase the font size. Of course, there is
>>> no way to do this for The Menu Bar.
>>
>> You can do it with MacPilot and TinkerTool
>
>Bill, could you explain how to access that option in TinkerTool and/or MacPilot? I haven't been able to find it. In MacPilot's Help file, in fact, "use bigger font for UI" is listed as a "requested feature." But maybe the feature is called something else in practice?
>
>Anyway, I'd love to do this as well, and would appreciate knowing where the feature is hidden in those utilities.

I'm sorry Daly. I had forgotten that the Menubar font size is the one that cannot be changed. There's some talk that Silk could do it, but it is not compatible with Snow Leopard or Lion.

The only option at this time is to activate Zoom in the Mouse (Scroll Wheel) or Trackpad preferences. It's not ideal, but works. With time, one learns what the Menus are, even if they are too small or blurry. I have trifocals with one area set for my computer screen distance. It's still not ideal, but one adapts.

MenubarClock will allow you to set the Font-face, Font-size, Font-color and display style of the Date and Time in the menubar. I have mine set for 18 pt, Dark, dull, red (Cayenne) which is very easy to read. 20 pts is the maximum without cutting of parts of the text. It reads now Sun Oct 02 11:34 AM. I'm not sure if it works with Lion.

http://www.objectpark.net/

Bill

--
____________________________
Sent using Eudora in 10.6.8

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1c.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "Jim Saklad" jimdoc@me.com   jimdoc01

Sun Oct 2, 2011 11:01 am (PDT)



> A new Mac frequently means higher display resolutions that were not possible in previous Mac models.
>
> Oh, boy!", one thinks, time for bigger monitor(s)!
>
> But along with that greater real estate comes the discovery that fonts seem smaller. They *are* smaller. A 12 point Geneva "M" (for example) is smaller when viewed on a higher resolution screen than when viewed on a lesser-resolution one.

You introduced the issue of also getting a bigger monitor. If the physical size of the screen is increased in the same ratio as the pixels-per-inch resolution, the physical size of the 12-point font would stay the same.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@me.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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1d.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "Jim Saklad" jimdoc@me.com   jimdoc01

Sun Oct 2, 2011 11:02 am (PDT)



>> The answer is, of course: increase the font size. Of course, there is no way to do this for The Menu Bar.
>
> You can do it with MacPilot and TinkerTool
> Bill

Are you sure? I just tried it with TinkerTool with no effect. *Window* title bars changed; *screen* menu bar did NOT.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@me.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Messages in this topic (8)
1e.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "Keith Whaley" keith_w@dslextreme.com   keith9600

Sun Oct 2, 2011 1:38 pm (PDT)



Jim Saklad wrote:
>
>
> > A new Mac frequently means higher display resolutions that were not
> possible in previous Mac models.
> >
> > Oh, boy!", one thinks, time for bigger monitor(s)!
> >
> > But along with that greater real estate comes the discovery that
> fonts seem smaller. They *are* smaller. A 12 point Geneva "M" (for
> example) is smaller when viewed on a higher resolution screen than when
> viewed on a lesser-resolution one.

> You introduced the issue of also getting a bigger monitor. If the
> physical size of the screen is increased in the same ratio as the
> pixels-per-inch resolution, the physical size of the 12-point font would
> stay the same.
>
> --
> Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@me.com <mailto:jimdoc%40me.com>

Nossir!! I disagree. I just checked that out on my own display.

I usually run my iMac's monitor at 1024 x 768 (stretched.)
I just switched to a resolution of 1680 x 1050.

The text on my open MacSupport list message window most definitely got
smaller. Significantly.

Oh, wait a minute! I switched screen resolution without changing monitor
size. Of course the font would get smaller. My physical display
territory didn't change.

In the case Jim reports on above, the OP reported that he DID increase
his monitor size. I take back my contention. I introduced a new factor.

I thought of deleting my response, but decided to leave it. Surely
someone else will be led down that path, as I was, and make the same error.

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Messages in this topic (8)
1f.

Re: Monitor resolution and font size

Posted by: "DaveC" davec2468@yahoo.com   davec2468

Sun Oct 2, 2011 2:39 pm (PDT)



>Nossir!! I disagree. I just checked that out on my own display.
>
>I usually run my iMac's monitor at 1024 x 768 (stretched.)
>I just switched to a resolution of 1680 x 1050.
>
>The text on my open MacSupport list message window most definitely got
>smaller. Significantly.
>
>Oh, wait a minute! I switched screen resolution without changing monitor
>size. Of course the font would get smaller. My physical display
>territory didn't change.
>
>In the case Jim reports on above, the OP reported that he DID increase
>his monitor size. I take back my contention. I introduced a new factor.
>
>I thought of deleting my response, but decided to leave it. Surely
>someone else will be led down that path, as I was, and make the same error.

-=-=-=-

The bottom line is that for some of us the menu bar font needs to be
an adjustable option.

I'm making this suggestion at the OS X feedback page:

<http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html>

Anyone else who would like to make the suggestion also, please do.

Cheers,
Dave

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Messages in this topic (8)
2a.

External Hard drive back up

Posted by: "raoullefere" raoullefere@yahoo.com   raoullefere

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:00 am (PDT)



This may have been covered before, but my search of the archives doesn't reveal it being done so that my question is answered, at least the way I'd like. (Self absorbed, probably, but…) Also, the kernel of my question seems mostly to be a favorite subject of debate, but not answers on the Net at large. So here goes:

My last two Macs have been towers with multiple internal hard drives. However, as Apple seems hell-bent on making this sort of setup an option only for those better heeled than I and/or, frankly, needing more computing power than I do, I succumbed this last upgrade (when my g5 died) and bought an iMac (2010 3.2 GHz i3 21.5", to be precise). It does everything I need it to, except this:

Backups.

I've been in the habit for years now of keeping two internal drives, one for use, the other for backups and with a partition with a clone of my operating disk (I have my system running on one partition in the internal 1tb drive and do my best to store things on the other partition, leaving room for OSX to do its virtual memory thing). Now, though, that's not an option (at least without some serious tinkering to the iMac, which Applecare and/or the warranty probably would not care for). So I resorted to an external drive (FW 800), settling on a Newertech enclosure because it had a FAN, for crissakes, which I thought needful to keep the drive cool, since my plan was to leave it on along with the mac, which means 24/7 for the most part. And then the enclosure (not the drive itself, a Seagate Barracuda 2TB) died. I know this because I put the drive into a OWC Mercury elite enclosure aluminum job (fanless, natch) that I thought was dead (apparently that time it *was* the drive, which doesn't seem to cotton to being mounted vertically) and was back in the backup business.

Now, here are my questions:

Is it a poor idea to leave this fanless wonder on all the time? Do I need to fire it up, make my back ups, clones, what have you, and then shut it down? I'm aware that this sounds petty, but it will be irritating: in addition to Time Machine, I use another program to make daily backups of my critical files (work and psuedo-work), which I transfer once a week or so to a flash drive. Except for that, the whole process is automated: I have a miserable memory for doing things like this on a daily basis and fear certain universal laws will cause me to miss backing up right before the Big Crash.

If the OWC Mercury won't do for round the clock operation, is there an enclosure that *will* stand up to being left on all the time?

I have even vaguely considered picking up another elderly g5 and backing up through gigabit ethernet, but that seems like a monstrous power hog for this purpose. I have an old 'Quicksilver' g4 with a SATA card in it, but its CPU is flaky and I'd really need to get a card that supports multiple internals (or keep buying ATAs for the G4's system, which doesn't sound like a good time: spoiled to the SATA cables, I guess), which might be more expensive than an old g5 (haven't checked) with worse cooling (which mostly sucks, dust, hair, and god-knows-what into that stupid underside intake on the Quicksilver).

Of these, what's my best option? (other than buying a Time Capsule, I guess. I already have an Airport extreme, so I could hook a drive to it via USB, but same problem)

Thanks for any help in advance.

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Messages in this topic (3)
2b.

Re: External Hard drive back up

Posted by: "Randy B. Singer" randy@macattorney.com   randybrucesinger

Sun Oct 2, 2011 4:24 pm (PDT)




On Oct 2, 2011, at 7:00 AM, raoullefere wrote:

> Is it a poor idea to leave this fanless wonder on all the time? Do
> I need to fire it up, make my back ups, clones, what have you, and
> then shut it down? I'm aware that this sounds petty, but it will be
> irritating: in addition to Time Machine, I use another program to
> make daily backups of my critical files (work and psuedo-work),
> which I transfer once a week or so to a flash drive. Except for
> that, the whole process is automated: I have a miserable memory for
> doing things like this on a daily basis and fear certain universal
> laws will cause me to miss backing up right before the Big Crash.

External case kits have the same problems that assembled external
drives are currently having just about across the board. That is
that the over-1TB mechanisms that they now employ run hotter, and
require more current, than these cases can accommodate. (Check the
user reviews for case kits on Amazon and NewEgg for the huge number
of failures users have been experiencing, especially after a few
months use.)

Currently it is very hard to find a reliable brand of external hard
drive. Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, LaCie, Iomega, etc. have
all been experiencing varying levels of problems with their external
hard drives.

The thing to do is to check out the user reviews and go for a case
that users have found to be really reliable, especially long-term.
(Many cases only give up after 6 months to a year.) The problem is
that the reliable case kits, especially those that include FW800, are
ridiculously expensive. That's why I've been recommending assembled
external drives from Other World Computing lately. Their external
drives are both reliable and reasonably priced. I can only assume
(hope?) that their external case kits are just as reliable as the
cases that they use for their assembled external hard drives.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________

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Messages in this topic (3)
2c.

Re: External Hard drive back up

Posted by: "Daly Jessup" jessup@san.rr.com

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:34 pm (PDT)




On Oct 2, 2011, at 4:24 PM, Randy B. Singer wrote:
> The thing to do is to check out the user reviews and go for a case
> that users have found to be really reliable, especially long-term.
> (Many cases only give up after 6 months to a year.) The problem is
> that the reliable case kits, especially those that include FW800, are
> ridiculously expensive. That's why I've been recommending assembled
> external drives from Other World Computing lately. Their external
> drives are both reliable and reasonably priced. I can only assume
> (hope?) that their external case kits are just as reliable as the
> cases that they use for their assembled external hard drives.

I have been running a 2 GB Enterprise class Seagate 2 TN drive for about seven months without a hint of a problem. It is in an OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro enclosure.

For about two years I have also been running two 1-TB drives (also Seagate but not "Enterprise class") in a wonderful WiebeTech dual-tray enclosure.

All of this was quite expensive, but I think worth it. I HIGHLY recommend WiebeTech as a source of enclosures, if you have a little extra cash to spend.

Daly
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Messages in this topic (3)
3a.

Re: QuickTime Nag Screen

Posted by: "Michael Stupinski" stupnski@tiac.net   mstupinski

Sun Oct 2, 2011 8:18 am (PDT)



Just to update everyone with the solution to the problem I stated in
the quoted request, I found that the culprit was a widget named 'AM
1710,' whose purpose was to play a stream from AM old time radio
station. I couldn't identify which of the offered plug-ins I needed
to make the widget work, but a little research showed that I can play
that stream from iTunes via the 'Radio' choice, so I discarded the
widget. Once I did, the 'nag' window disappeared for good.

The reason I never made that association between the nag screen and
the widget was that the screen was generated whenever I opened the
widget window and always opened behind all open windows.

..........Mike

On Sep 28, 2011, at 8:59 PM, Stupnski@tiac.net wrote:

> For the past week I've been finding, at apparently random times, a
> dialog window open on my screen that displays the QuickTime logo on
> its left and says:
>
> "Additional software is required for QuickTime to playback this
> media. It may be available from the QuickTime Components page. Make
> sure your internet network connection is active, then click the
> continue button to check for the software."
>
> I have not attempted to playback any media (at least not any that
> failed to play), and the window sometimes appears quite soon after I
> start up the computer. I think it only happens after Safari has
> been running, however.
>
> Clicking the referenced 'Continue' button took me to a screen
> displaying what appear to be plug-ins. Unfortunately I can't list
> them here because I dismissed the dialog this time without clicking
> on that button.
>
> Has anyone seen this who can explain what it is, and what may be
> causing it to display?
>
> Thanks,
> .................Mike

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Messages in this topic (5)
4.

Why is Mission Control driving me crazy?

Posted by: "DonaldC" doncant@verizon.net   doncant2003

Sun Oct 2, 2011 11:06 am (PDT)



Do I totally misunderstand how Mission Control is supposed to work? I would hope that I could set up each desktop panel so that it would have some consistency, that is for example, Safari on desktop 1, Mail on desktop 2, Calendar on desktop 3, etc. - and that all would remain consistent. Even when I keep unchecked in System Prefs "Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use," the darn thing keeps switching my apps around. I know I must be doing something wrong - Apple couldn't be this foolish - but I just can't figure it out. My memory tells me that I didn't have such problems with Expose.

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5a.

Re: Looking for Applescript help

Posted by: "Alan Fry" ajf@afco.demon.co.uk   alanjohnfry

Sun Oct 2, 2011 11:13 am (PDT)




On 1 Oct 2011, at 16:56, DaveC wrote:

> >We must have some members who can help. Why not give it a try?
> >
> >Otto
>
> OK:
>
> I am using a script to mount a volume. It tries to mount the volume,
> and if an error is returned, it mounts a different volume.
>
> The script works, but any error is reported to the users via a dialog
> and waits for input (clicking the "OK" button).
>
> I would like to expand the script to eliminate the displayed message
> and requirement for input from the user.
>
> The script is:
>
> try
> mount volume [pathname1 here] as user name "user1" with password "pw1"
> on error
> try
> mount volume [pathname2 here] as user name "user2" with
> password "pw2"
> end try
> end try
>
> How might I modify this so that it doesn't display the error and
> doesn't wait for input?
>
> If it matters, I'm using Snow Leopard.
>

I guess you want to connect to servers on your local network? So the line might be something like:

mount volume "afp://HDname.local/username/" as user name "username" with password "pword"

is that roughly right? And the problem arises when the remote machine is off or asleep and the 'afp' server unavailable as a result? Then a 'Connection Failed' dialog appears which you have to dismiss by hand?

Sadly there is no way within AppleScript of suppressing that dialog. It is just not possible. You can sometimes in AppleScript bracket a function with 'ignoring application responses/end ignoring'. But if you try that in this case it suppresses not only the dialog but the 'mount volume' function as well.

I think the only way round the problem is to find out before using 'mount volume' if the the [pathname1] server is available or not. If it is, then use it, if not, then test the [pathname2] server similarly. If both servers are down then I suppose you would have to put up a dialog to that effect and quit.

To the best of my knowledge there is no way of testing server availability with AppleScript directly, but you can do it easily enough with a shell script. I have tried this out here on my small network and it is a feasible approach. In my case the remote 'afp' server here has a numeric address (got from System Preferences/Sharing) of 192.168.2.3. The line:

ping -c 1 192.168.2.3

returns '1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss' if the server is up and '1 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss' if it is down.

The problem devolves then to one of extracting the packet loss figure from the string returned by 'ping'. That could probably be done by AppleScript (with some difficulty) but very easily by Perl. If it were me I would do the whole job in Perl which is so much more straightforward than AppleScript. Perl is of course part of the standard MacOS install, so there are no problems arising from its use.

From Perl the shell script (ping) can be called directly, and the 'mount volume' function called from MacPerl::DoAppleScript qq( script ).

That is probably going far enough since I may or may not have properly understood your aim. If I have it would not be any great matter to write a workable script ad I would be happy to help (on or off list as you wish) if you would like to pursue this approach.

Anyway I hope these thoughts will be some help.

Alan Fry

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Messages in this topic (6)
6a.

Re: Audio Players for non Mac Supported Format

Posted by: "Tod Hopkins" hoplist@hillmanncarr.com   todhop

Sun Oct 2, 2011 5:33 pm (PDT)



You could set Quicktime as your default player for the formats in question but that does not give you "juke box" functions. Songbird is an open source alternative to iTunes which, I suspect, can be set to handle audio as you are requesting.

Cheers,
tod

On Oct 1, 2011, at 10:56 AM, The Wizard who eats Gizards wrote:

> Hi folks,
> I have come to the conclusion that one never appreciates what one has, but nevertheless, I'm looking for audio players for Mac OS X 10.6.8 that play unconverted formats in their original form, without requiring them to be imported into a new directory (thereby taking up more space) and leaving the playlist intact after the program closes. iTunes does this with all the formats it supports. It gets the file directly from the location where the file is, it doesn't require I import it into iTunes. And when iTunes quits, the playlist is there still when I want to listen to the songs. I don't have to go looking for it again. There are programs that do one, but not the other. As it stands now, I convert the other formats and then open with iTunes or I go hunting everytime. Does anyone know of an app that has the full compliment of features. Thanks.
>
> Rick
>
>

Tod Hopkins
Hillmann & Carr Inc.
todhopkins@hillmanncarr.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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7a.

Post Message

Posted by: "Betty Jenkins" bboopj@yahoo.com   BBoopj

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:27 pm (PDT)




Recently my iMac computer developed a problem with Yahoo. I can open mail and check email just fine. Approximately after five minutes, when the computer pings the server for new mail, I get a Keychain pop up box with the error message that The Yahoo! POP server "pop.mail.yahoo.com" rejected the password for user "xxxx" Enter you password again or cancel.

Once again I enter the password and save it and the cycle repeats in another five minutes.

Thanks,
Frank

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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7b.

Re: Post Message

Posted by: "Denver Dan" denver.dan@verizon.net   denverdan22180

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:34 pm (PDT)



Howdy.

Frank, what program are you using for your web browser?

If Safari, then you might be able to fix the password problem by
launching the Keychain Access program and then using the Keychain First
Aid command found under the Keychain menu (when it is launched).

If you are not using Safari, note that not all internet aware
applications use Keychain to store passwords.

Denver Dan

On Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:59:06 -0500, Betty Jenkins wrote:
> Recently my iMac computer developed a problem with Yahoo. I can open
> mail and check email just fine. Approximately after five minutes,
> when the computer pings the server for new mail, I get a Keychain pop
> up box with the error message that The Yahoo! POP server
> "pop.mail.yahoo.com" rejected the password for user "xxxx" Enter you
> password again or cancel.
>
> Once again I enter the password and save it and the cycle repeats in
> another five minutes.
>
> Thanks,
> Frank

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8.

odd messages

Posted by: "Louise Stewart" veggie236@earthlink.net   pudgybulldog

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:43 pm (PDT)



I keep getting these messages when I'm on Facebook. What do they
mean? I always click "Stop."
++++++++++++++

Safari is no longer responding because of a script on the webpage
"Facebook (80)" (http://www.facebook.com/). Do you want to stop
running the script, or let it continue?
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9.

Lion - Multiple Monitors Tip

Posted by: "Denver Dan" denver.dan@verizon.net   denverdan22180

Sun Oct 2, 2011 7:46 pm (PDT)



Howdy.

I don't have two or more monitors on one Mac so I can't explore this
tip.

This is from a MacWorld short tip.

10.7: Dual Monitor full-screen app trick

Sep 30, '11 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: Anonymous

<http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110908164921875>

Denver Dan

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10.

Nocturne: darken the Menu Bar

Posted by: "DaveC" davec2468@yahoo.com   davec2468

Sun Oct 2, 2011 9:32 pm (PDT)



In my search for a means to grow the Menu Bar font (still ongoing), I
found Nocturne:

<http://docs.blacktree.com/>

It's free.

You can set the menu bar text and icons to be high contrast, make the
menu bar background opaque and black. You can also make it fade away
until you need it (like the Dock). I didn't think I'd like it until I
tried it.

Dave

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11.

iPhone 5 Appears Temporarily On Cinncinatti Bell Site

Posted by: "Harry Flaxman" harry.flaxman@comcast.net   hflaxman001

Mon Oct 3, 2011 3:45 am (PDT)



As the subject says!

Looks like '4g' speeds will be a reality with this one!

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/10/01/iphone-5-appears-temporarily-on-cincinnati-bell-website/

Harry

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