How-to: Read and Write NTFS Windows Partition on Mac OS X

If you're like me (forced to use Wind-bloze at work while using all Macs at home), you may need this to transfer files back and forth using NTFS (not this f*cking sh*t) drives. Modern Macs can read pure NTFS volumes but can't write to them.

Recently Amit Singh, a Google employee, releases a implementation called MacFUSE which makes it possible to use any FUSE (File-system in USErspace) file systems in Mac. And the most useful FUSE is the NTFS-3G Read/Write Driver, which ables system to load NTFS with read and write capability. This is truly the greatest news for dual booting Mac OS X and Windows XP or Vista.

[From How-to: Read and Write NTFS Windows Partition on Mac OS X]

Mighty Mouse scrolling problems and fix

I have this problem too, except my mouse usually has trouble scrolling back up. Pressing down hard on the little scroll ball and swirling it around usually fixes the problem. Apparently, using canned air occasionally can help quite a bit too.

Apple Mighty Mouse Won’t Scroll Down at Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com:

Well, it turns out, when the Mighty Mouse scroll wheel gets dirty, it stops being able to scroll down. Apparently, it’s a common problem, as a quick Google search turned up tons of pages, like this one at MacOSXHints.com.

The fix? Blow compressed air around the scroll ball, or just push on it really hard and roll it around (that worked for me). If you’re lucky (I was), it will start working again. If it keeps doing it, though, I’m going to have Apple replace it.

Shutting down with the newer keyboards

Losing my old Kensington keyboard means losing my power button. But even though I can't power up from the keyboard anymore, I can still shutdown or restart easily:

Apple - Support - Discussions - The ole keyboard shutdown ...:

Hit CTRL (yes, CTRL, not CMD) and EJECT key. This will bring up 'Are you sure you want to shut down.... dialogue box. Once in there, hit enter/return for shut down or hit 'S' to sleep.

And to bypass the dialog:

Apple - Support - Discussions - Power up from keyboard. ...:

Sleep = opt + cmd + eject
Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject
Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject

New Apple Keyboard!

Well, this New Year's Eve, I stupidly spilled coffee into my old Kensington keyboard, while typing away over at GtrOblq. Even though I took it apart and used a hair dryer on it, the bottom row of keys refused to come back to life. So, we did a mad dash to the nearest Best Buy before they closed for New Year's Eve, and I purchased one of those slender, new Apple keyboards. We didn't have time to make it to the Apple Store at La Cantera, because everything closed at 6 pm.

Man, what a great keyboard! I barely feel like I'm typing, and it's so thin that I don't even need a wrist support! Yeah! The front housing is made of Aluminum, so it seems sturdy. I looked at the other Mac-compatible keyboards, but they all came with a mouse and were at least $20 more than the Apple keyboard! So much for that theory that Apple is more expensive.

Applejack: Getting New Features

Applejack, the command line troubleshooting utility for Mac OS X, is undergoing prerelease testing now for version 1.4.3rc3, which adds a new experimental expert mode. From the read me:

+ Experimental expert mode exists, but is currently hidden until it can be tested further. (see Appendix B). The only well-tested options at this point are the memory test using the included Memtest utility, and the option to disable auto login.

This is great, because among other neat features, it adds the memtest utility as well, which will save you the $1 download charge from its developer.

Memtest and Applejack are must-have utilities, IMHO. Memtest saved my butt on bad memory (via the GUI version in the form of rembr), whereas Tech Tool Pro told me my memory was fine. Wrong! Changed it out and my numerous problems went bye-bye!

Memory = the source of many problems!

For the last several months, I had numerous problems with my old G4 AGP dual 1.2, which has been as upgraded just about as far as it can go. The problems included recurrent program crashes (especially Safari) and random kernel panics.

I used a little utility called Rember and discovered that a few memory sticks I had were bad. Tech Tool Pro (grumble, grumble) did not catch these errors, so if you think you're having memory issues, please run another utility (apparently, the hardware test disc Apple ships with newer Macs can catch these problems too). You can also run Memtest (which is really the command-line basis of Rember); the author charges $1 to download it (very reasonable given that you can boot in single-user to test MOST of your RAM).

In my case, Memtest wasn't necessary. Rember caught the defective RAM right away, and I narrowed it down to 2 sticks by pulling them one at a time, restarting, and testing with Rember until the errors were gone.

I had 2 bad DIMMs--one at 128 MB and another at 512 MB. So I ordered 2 new 512 MB sticks from OWC (with lifetime warranty). The new memory checked out fine with Rember, and I've had no kernel panics or other major issues since installing it. The old Mac is rock-solid!

Now, how did this happen? I think a Tiger update somewhere down the line didn't agree with those two older RAM sticks. The lesson is to suspect bad RAM (or other hardware) if you're having weird crashes and random panics suddenly.

ATPM 11.08 - How To: Is Your Memory Failing?

ATPM 11.08 - How To: Is Your Memory Failing?:

Great information on testing your Mac's memory in single-user mode. Memory failure is a common kernel panic problem.

Here's another great link on the same subject at Macworld:

http://www.macworld.com/2006/02/features/speedmemory/index.php

PMU problems? Hope not.

I've started seeing this message:

Jul 27 17:45:09 localhost kernel[0]: ApplePMU::PMU forced 

shutdown, cause = -122

I'd like to think it's a faux pas, but I think I'm reaching the physical and technical limits of what my old G4 can do. Tiger will be the last OS installment on this machine until I can replace it.

I've added a new video card (that powers 2 monitors), several hard drives, an firewire audio interface, a USB 2.0 card, and a processor upgrade. So I'm not surprised to see all these problems cropping up.

I'm also having a lot more kernel panics, freezes, and various application crashes. Not sure what to do next.

iPods have 4-year life, says Apple???

Macworld UK - iPods have 4-year life, says Apple: " 

Macworld Daily News Thursday - July 27, 2006 By Macworld staff

Though some iPods do develop faults, Apple builds them to last at least four years, the company claims. A Chicago Tribune report weighs up the cacophony of complaints regarding Apple's music players"

This is frustrating for me personally. I have two iPods, and this means one is nearing its life-expectancy. I know stuff can't last forever, but dang it...iPods and computers aren't cheap. They need to last longer than 4 years! My G4 (where I'm typing this) is still strong after 6 years now!

Update 7/29/06 - now, they're backtracking with claims of being misquoted, which I wouldn't put past the media:

MacNN | Apple clarifies: iPod lasts "for years" The report quoted Kerris as saying that Apple's iPod is designed to last "four years," but Kerris said she told the reporter that the iPod was designed to last "for years." 

Poot, spark, sputter - ATI Rage 128 PCI

I was all excited when my new Focusrite Saffire firewire audio interface showed up. Until I realized that any significant movement on my second monitor (attached to an old ATI Rage 128 PCI card) caused popping, crackling, and resetting on the interface. Unacceptable. So, I bought (on eBay) a flashed PC version of the ATI Radeon 9200 to run both monitors. It’s a PCI card (for PC) that was professionally flashed to be an AGP Mac version, so it replaced my Rage 128 Pro AGP and the Rage 128 PCI (freeing up a slot for me too). It’s working great and no more pops and crap on my audio interface. Plus, I can see all the neat Quartz Extreme stuff I was missing; note: NO CORE IMAGE support though. The new problem: I couldn’t sleep my Mac anymore. But I remedied this by playing with the ATI Displays utility settings. I turned off a bunch of features that didn’t seem necessary (not sure which did the trick) and my computer would sleep again. Yeah! NOTE: Even though it sleeps again (I also reapplied all the latest ROM and software updates from ATI), occasionally it goes to sleep with a high-pitched whirling sound (I’m assuming this is the fan on the card). Doesn’t do this all the time, but what they hey...this is card is a hack.

Belkin's iTrip - Broken?

iTrip is an attachment for iPods that allows transmitting your iPod’s audio output to an FM receiver.

At first, I thought my iTrip was broken, but I realized I had only forgotten how to set it to a certain frequency. One must play the particular frequency file on the iPod (with iTrip attached of course) until the iTrip begins to flash. Once it flashes, hit pause. Then it’s set and ready to go.

It’s still not perfect. It’s best to use it with another power source in your vehicle, as it will drain the iPod battery in no time. And on days when FM propagation is active, you may have to change to other frequencies. Remember, the quality is going to be no better than FM radio stereo reception, which isn’t all that bad really. If you’re a big audiophile, go with a wired connection option for your vehicle.