Written by: hexley on Friday April 18th 2008, 5:41 am
iTunes has gone from a simple music management application to a full-fledged media management tool. Gone are the days of just managing your music files, iTunes now takes on the roll of managing video, audio, and can even help organize pdf files.
With all the power iTunes offers, it can become overwhelming. iTunes desires to be your default player for near all media types. An amusing audio clip from Family Guy or The Simpsons ends up getting imported into iTunes. This audio clip then relentlessly follows you around and makes its way to your iPod and iPhone on your next synchronization.
Let’s see what we can do to keep iTunes clear of cruft, and only contain the data you want imported into it.
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Written by: hexley on Wednesday April 16th 2008, 3:35 am
It’s just a clock, how in the heck can it be used to tell you if your system is locked up? To be honest, it really can’t. However, I have used this tactic since way back in the OS 9 days, and it still works pretty darn well under OS X.
First I will start with the basics, customizing the clock, what you can change, and why you may want to. After a small history lesson in how OS 9 was not as smartly multi-threaded as OS X, I can then explain just how you can use your clock as a visual aid to tell you if your computer is stuck.
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Written by: hexley on Sunday April 13th 2008, 7:03 pm
A few days ago, one of our readers sent in an email asking if I had any idea why Internet Explorer would not load web pages in his installation of Virtual PC. Every now and then I will take an interest in a users problems and see if I can not help them troubleshoot the issue.
We had a few rounds of email, over the course of a few days, in the end, I was unable to help. A solution was found, but not by myself, rather the user figured it out on their own. The solution was simple, and one I usually try as a first step, as should everyone. This time, it never crossed my mind, as I wrongfully assumed the user would also try this method as a first step.
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Written by: hexley on Wednesday March 26th 2008, 7:00 pm
Filed under: Misc
If you have not noticed yet, we have some very nice new icons to lead into each tutorial we post. At first, we were going to create single icons, for each category.
In talking this over with a friend, he suggested the “cube” idea that we are now using. Currently, we have most of the icons we need for future tutorials. We lack a few for broad topics like “hardware” and are in brainstorming mode to figure out how to fill those holes.
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Written by: hexley on Monday March 10th 2008, 2:35 pm
Filed under: Misc
The good folks over at Inside Mac Radio gave us a call a few weeks ago and did a short radio slot with me.
You can download just the interview portion, or you can listen to the entire InsideMac Radio podcast. The OS X Help interview is short; if you have a spare 10 minutes, give it a listen.
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Written by: hexley on Friday March 07th 2008, 10:05 am
Filed under: Misc
The following post can apply to anyone, Macintosh or PC user. It is important because I noticed 12% of our email newsletter subscribers email addresses end in aol.com.
If your email address also ends in aol.com, more than likely, you are being taken advantage of. Paying for something that is otherwise free is never a good feeling. Spare five minutes of your day; when done, at the very least, I think we can save you $120.00 a year.
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Written by: hexley on Thursday March 06th 2008, 12:01 am
Most Macintosh users have a clock and some other small icons in the upper right corner of their screen. These items are generally referred to as “menulets”. If you are running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you probably see a clock, a small speaker, a magnifying glass, and perhaps a few other items.
The items you have as a default will largely depend on your computer. Laptop users will almost all have an Airport icon, and sometimes a Bluetooth icon.
What many people have not learned is that those menulets can be repositioned, deleted, and customized.
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Written by: hexley on Wednesday February 20th 2008, 1:30 am
Now that the site has been up for a few weeks I am better able to gauge the level of experience of the users we are targeting. Of the many emails that have been sent in, there is one reoccurring theme.
Everyone buys hardware to hook up to his or her computer; many times that hardware comes with software. This software, at times, can cause more trouble than it is worth.
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Written by: hexley on Tuesday January 29th 2008, 10:39 am
Whether you are a Macintosh user, Windows, or Linux, you need a web browser of some type to get on the Internet. Your browser of choice is the application you use to view websites. With most people using Windows, you are going to get a good deal of advice to install Firefox. Let’s talk about why that may be a good or bad idea.
All versions of OS X come with Safari, which in my opinion is a great browser for OS X. You are free to install any number of other browsers, such as Firefox, OmniWeb, or even some of the lesser-known alternative browsers.
Windows PC’s have Internet Explorer as their default browser. Over the years, Internet Explorer has gotten a bad reputation, and most people have moved to Firefox. Many Windows users, who do not know or understand the Macintosh, will tell you to use Firefox. The trouble with this advice is they are assuming the default browser, Safari, is as poor an experience as Internet Explorer.
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Written by: hexley on Tuesday January 08th 2008, 5:00 am
Filed under: Misc
I look at my computer as a reflection of myself. I can even make analogies about my computing setup being similar to an early twenties girl accessorizing for a night out on the town.
All to often, I walk up to a clients Macintosh and see the dock, looking just as it did when Apple set it up at the factory. The one that really kills me is seeing the little spring icon on the right of the dock that takes you to Apples registration pages. I have seen this icon on computers several years old.
I can take only one thing away from these experiences. Users are afraid of messing something up, so they just leave it well enough alone.
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Written by: hexley on Sunday January 06th 2008, 12:06 pm
Filed under: Misc
Welcome to the new site. If you have been here before, you probably remember the site being a public tech support forum. We hope you enjoy the new direction the site has taken on, if you have any questions, please drop us an email.
The site is exclusively targeted to the Macintosh user who just unpacked their new computer. This does not mean if you are more advanced, you cannot learn a few new tricks. We certainly hope to learn some new ways of doing things from those of you veterans out there.
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