10.6.7 -> Trouble with AddressBookSync

I'm not talking about the little applications you can download to sync up Facebook friend profile pictures with your AddressBook database. I'm talking about an app hidden in the Resources of the System Framework that's used to sync contacts between various devices, including the iPhone. Mine inexplicably went nuts recently and was crashing like crazy with every iPhone sync attempt. A Google search yielded practically nothing, so I knew I had a unique problem. I tried all the typical troubleshooting steps to no avail, including a deletion of preference files. So, here's what finally fixed it:

I used Pacifist to copy the System Framework called AddressBook onto my desktop from the 10.6.7 Combo Updater. I deleted the original in the /System/Frameworks/ folder and replaced with this one. I noticed that the AddressBookSync app was smaller in the Updater, so something obviously went wrong in the update process. After copying the new Framework into the proper location from my desktop, I repaired permissions and voila...no more crashes.

1Password Slow Safari Starts and Command Key Sluggishness

I've had these issues for sometime now. Turns out that I may have discovered something crucial about the problems. Rebuilding the datafile, clearing the cache, and removing all InputManagers did not fix the issues, which were reproducible on two Macs. Removing the Internet plugins also did not resolve the issues.

If Safari is starting slow for you under Snow Leopard and you use 1Password 3, make certain that you remove the old InputManager called something like "1Passwd." I was able to start Safari far faster than before. Until Agile fixes the command key sluggishness issue, make sure you lock your keychain after you're done using it. It's a pain in the ass, but your browsing snappiness will return if you like to use key commands like me.

::UPDATE::

Another discovery (apart from the one listed below) can be read here. Turns out that it's the "key icon" in the Safari menubar that's somehow contributing to the command key slowness in Safari. If I disable that in 1Password's preferences, the sluggishness disappears, even with the keychain unlocked. No clue, but that's somehow the culprit. Maybe it will help others. Please let me know here if you're able to reproduce this problem.

First, I can verify that removing the old InputManager left over from the 1PW 2.x days definitely made Safari (ver. 5) start up faster (2 - 3 icon bounces in the Dock instead of about 10). Start up is almost instantaneous now, thank goodness.

Second, this command-key sluggishness (and even clicking the 1P or key icons) I've been going through has persisted (any Command key combination is slow on Safari 4 and 5). This means sluggish behavior for key combinations like Cmd-T to make a new tab, Cmd-W to close a tab, or even Cmd-Q to quit Safari. Very LONG pauses before the desired result follows the keystroke combination.

However, I made a discovery today that I wanted to pass along to you all at Agile, which may or may not help troubleshoot this issue. It's reproducible on my Mac Pro and my MacBook. The sluggishness ONLY occurs while 1PW is unlocked. As soon as I LOCK 1PW again, the snappiness of my command keys in Safari 5 returns!!! Unlock the keychain, back to sluggishness. Completely reproducible on both my machines.

I have rebuilt the data file and cleared caches several times. The only other InputManagers I still have running are DeliciousSafari and the latest beta of Glims (if that's even still an InputManager).

Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[From Slow Safari startup with 1Password enabled (when the Cache is out of date)]

Using Preview to Merge and Save PDF Documents

Neat trick for Preview! Changed a bit since Leopard.

For Snow Leopard 10.6.0, Apple changed the way this feature works in Preview Version 5.0 (501) and made it more cumbersome. Here’s how it’s done in Snow Leopard:

Open a PDF.

Expose the Sidebar.

Drag the PDFs you want to include in the Sidebar area.

Note B: The PDFs all retain their name in the Sidebar (contrast with Note A).

Select all but one of the PDFs in the Sidebar.

Drag and drop the selection into the unselected PDF recipient.

Note C: You only get one chance at this or you’ll need to start over. You can only drop one set of PDFs onto the recipient.

Note D: After doing so, the recipient icon changes to include a Binding Comb on the left edge. Moving the arrow cursor over the combined PDF exposes a circle-left-turn arrow on the right edge.

Save or Save As the PDF. Voilà – one PDF.

[From Snow Leopard Changes Preview’s “Combine PDF” Behavior « blog.gerrior.com]

Why MobileMe ISN'T Worth It

Once upon a time, MobileMe was called ".Mac" (pronounced dot-mac). I bought this service for one year, and though it was cool having an exclusive email address like shane@mac.com, there wasn't much else that justified the $100 I paid. For one (then and now), the storage space was too minimal (you can get free space using DropBox that's the equivalent of MobileMe's paid space). For the same $100 a year, I have a business-level web hosting account with ixweb.

The real deal-breaker for me with MobileMe was the syncing between computers, which NEVER WORKED. My understanding is that it still doesn't work right. The iPhone now makes that irrelevant for me. If you don't have an iPhone then a normal cellular phone or Google probably makes that irrelevant for you too.

It's true that the Find My iPhone feature is tempting, but if Apple was smart about this, they'd recognize that most features they're selling with MobileMe are available free online. They should sell just the Find My iPhone and Back to My Mac features for a cheaper cost; they'd make more money. I'd subscribe for those features, if the price was right.

“Is a MobileMe subscription worth the money?”

Umm… It’s complicated.

[From Why MobileMe is really worth it | Web Services | MacUser | Macworld]

ACL Found But Not Expected Weirdness

If you see a bunch of these messages when repairing permissions, here's how to deal with it:

if you try to repair permissions and get a bunch of acls found but not expected

to fix this some chmod commands need to be executed in the terminal.

Essentially open up a terminal and do the following:

cd /
ls -le

look at the Applications and Library folders in the listing and you should see they have specific ACLs. On one of my machines the Applications folder had 2 and the Library had one. On the other both had just one.

to remove these ACLs do the following:

sudo chmod -a# 0 "/Applications"
sudo chmod -a# 0 "/Library"

[From InsanelyMac Forum > How to repair "ACL found but not expected" message in disk utililty]

Professional Musician Switches From Apple to Ubuntu

A sign that Apple should pay attention to. If people can "switch to Apple," they can also switch away from Apple. It's not impossible to make good, lucrative art with other machines. Making a great, easy-to-use system more difficult to use by subtracting documentation (or changing a great iMovie program into a stupid one) isn't the way to go. Those kinds of decisions aren't what made you strong, Apple.

Then, during my 2009 spring tour, my PowerBook G4 exhibited signs of age, with missing keystrokes, intermittent backlighting, the failure of a RAM slot, and reduced performance. As an alternative to repairing the PowerBook, I investigated what a new MacBook Pro and upgrades for all my software would cost.

[From Create Digital Music » Linux Music Workflow: Switching from Mac OS X to Ubuntu with Kim Cascone]

Why We Use Macs

Unix is 40 Years Old

Thanks goodness Dr. Thompson did what he did. My Mac thanks you, sir!

In August 1969, Ken Thompson, a programmer at AT&T Bell Laboratories, saw the monthlong absence of his wife and young son as an opportunity to put his ideas for a new operating system into practice. He wrote the first version of Unix in assembly language for a wimpy Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-7 minicomputer, spending one week each on the operating system, a shell, an editor and an assembler.

[From Unix turns 40: The past, present and future of the OS | Mac OS X - Page 1 | Macworld]

Ballmer: Macs are a $500 Logo?

This moron just won't get it, will he? Being notoriously WRONG about Apple (especially his blundering iPhone prediction), Ballmer continues failing to understand the nature of true innovation that his company must alway plagiarize and pass off as their own. There's a lot more under the hood with the Mac OS--far more than Windows has, including that latest OS X copy called Vista. The hardware is irrelevant; the little bitten apple logo is irrelevant, though admittedly stylish.

America is a consumer culture that buys a logo; Americans will also pay more if they GET MORE, dumb ass.

Apple gained about one point, but now I think the tide has really turned back the other direction," Ballmer said, via webcast. "The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment -- same piece of hardware -- paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

[From Ballmer: 'Tide has really turned' against Apple in computer market - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source]

Forget Vista and Zune flaws, Apple products impose 'tax'

When your OS market share is falling to a superior product (because your fallible copycat product--Vista--doesn't work), it's time to pull out the big guns and slam the competition. Here's the scoop: Do Macs cost more than PCs? Yes. Are they worth the price difference? YES, YES, YES. I just retired a G4 after 8 years of faithful service. How many PC users can say that?

By the time a PC user buys add-ons, security software, upgrades, downgrades to XP, and wastes hours troubleshooting the most banal OS issues that Mac users never confront, I assert that they've SPENT MORE than a Mac user! Clearly, the Mac is the better deal, in the long run, and it's just a better product. Otherwise, why would Microsoft keep copying--albeit poorly--EVERYTHING Apple does?

Microsoft again pitted Mac prices against similarly-configured Windows PCs from the likes of Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft's comparisons put Apple's hardware at a disadvantage, with the "tax" ranging from 16 per cent, or $100, for the entry-level Mac mini to 25 per cent, or $300, for the lowest-priced iMac desktop.

Microsoft also played the recession card as it knocked Apple's prices. "We're in the midst of difficult economic times - declining retail sales and lower consumer confidence," a Microsoft spokeswoman said. "People are...demanding more substance with their style in a computer. They simply do not have the luxury of spending more for less.”

"Windows PCs are offering the best value on the market," she argued, "while Apple continues to impose high price premiums on their Mac designs, offering only modest discounts of 5 to 10 per cent."

[From Microsoft bangs 'Apple tax' drum once again as Apple announce new products - Mac - Macworld UK]

Maybe this is Microsuck's attempt to make you forget about their crappy OSX copy called Vista (since the Mojave campaign isn't working), or maybe they're trying to make you forget that the Zune recently stopped working because of bad programming.

Here’s the deal. Microsoft botched the code in the firmware for its Zune30GB handheld players. Like a ticking time bomb, the problem started exploding for Zune owners once 2008 started transitioning into 2009. Users worldwide quickly found that their Zunes were completely locked out. Locked out as in "completely inoperable," that is: Zunes began resetting without warning or completely turning off. When a user flipped the power back on, the Zune operating system would begin to load and freeze on the actual loading screen. And no amount of begging, pleading, or cursing could fix the issue for a hapless user.Microsoft was quick on the "solution," which I’ve paraphrased thusly: Wait it out.

[From ZuneGate ’08: What really happened | Macworld]

Silent Keynote Exports

If your Keynote exports are all fury and no sound, follow the instructions below to fix them.

After recording your narration, move to the Finder, Control-click on your presentation file, and choose Show Package Contents. In the resulting window, locate the narrationTrack0.m4a file. This is your narration track. Make a copy and move it to the Desktop.

Open both the narration and video files in QuickTime Player Pro. Select the audio track, select everything in it, and copy. Now select the video track and choose Edit -> Add to Movie. The audio track will be added to the video track.

With luck, the two will be in sync. If not, you might wish, instead, to import the video track into GarageBand and then place the audio track in a separate track and move it around so the two are in sync.

[From A fix for mute Keynote exports | Mac 911 | Macworld]

Preview app: Print non-contiguous pages

Print non-contiguous pages in Leopard’s Preview | Mac OS X Hints | Macworld:

Open your multi-page PDF in Preview, hold down the Command key, and click on each page you’d like to print. With more than one page selected, the File -> Print menu item changes to read File -> Print Select Pages. Choose that, or just press Command-P, and you’ll print the selected pages.

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.

Be careful out there, Mac users

There's a way around everything. The best thing you can do is to use multiple layers of software and physical security. Make it hard on your would-be thief in every way possible.

Use an Open Firmware Password (yes, I know how that can also be defeated). Use a physical lock on your Apple laptop. Use iSight or some other security software to track your computer BEFORE its data is erased (I'd wager few thieves will understand the Mac the way they do PCs). When you're out and about, turn on every security gizmo in your Mac that you can--screensaver password, disable auto-login, enable timed logout, lock your keychains, etc., etc. Use a firewall when you're not behind a router.

In short, protect your data first and your machine second. Make your Mac a less delectable target.

Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD | TheAppleBlog:

To reset your OS X password without an OS X CD you need to enter terminal and create a new admin account:

Reboot
Hold apple + s down after you hear the chime.
When you get text prompt enter in these terminal commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):

• mount -uw /
• rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
• shutdown -h now

After rebooting you should have a brand new admin account. When you login as the new admin you can simply delete the old one and you’re good to go again!

User accounts and file sharing in Leopard

Computerworld - User accounts and file sharing in Leopard: What's new:

NetInfo is no more, and you can now create groups and share any folder on your Mac.

Apple has made some major improvements in Leopard when it comes to creating and managing user accounts, file sharing and remote access. The biggest change, though, is something most Macintosh users may never see because it was accomplished so seamlessly: Apple has retired the proprietary NetInfo database that has stored and managed local accounts since the beginning of Mac OS X.

Make your own fun banner in Terminal

5 Ways to Use the Terminal in OS X, from Useful to Just Fun:

Just type banner followed by a phrase of your choosing to create a huge text banner. For example, banner Welcome to Low End Mac will create a banner out of the phrase "Welcome to Low End Mac."

It's pretty neat to watch it flow across the screen, but you can actually make a printable version.

First let's change directories to your Desktop:

cd ~/Desktop/

Then create a new blank file called banner.txt:

touch banner.txt

Now type your banner command, followed by > banner.txt:

banner Welcome to Low End Mac > banner.txt

The ">" directs the output of the previous command into the specified file. Double click the banner.txt file on your Desktop, and you'll see your printable banner in your default text editor.

Install and Boot OS X Using Thumb Drive

This can be a useful trick if you need to troubleshoot a Mac that just won't boot up. Also, be sure to check out the freeware DasBoot application, which can make a lot of this much easier to do. The key is to also include your favorite troubleshooting utilities on the thumb drive (e.g., DiskWarrior, Tech Tool Pro, etc.).

BradBergeron.com » HOWTO: Install and Boot OS X On a Flash Drive:

You will need a 1GB or larger flash drive. It is impossible to install OS X on anything smaller. After testing this procedure multiple times, the largest free space I had after booting up was 11.6MB.

You will also need the original Mac OS X Install Disc(s) that came with your computer.

Spotlight can do more than you think

Quick math and quick photo location are just a few!

5 Things You Never Knew About Spotlight | TheAppleBlog:

You probably know that you can access Spotlight quickly with the Command-spacebar keyboard shortcut, but here are a few more tricks you might not know exist.

Empty iPhoto Trash, Regain Space

Make sure you empty your iPhoto application's trash every now and then!

iPhoto, the secret disk space thief | MacUser | Macworld

Office 2008 Update Problems

Microsoft continues to have issues with its Office 2008 updates. Don't use Monolingual until they can sort this out!

Office 2008 12.1.2 (#2): More fixes for problems installing; Word bugs - MacFixIt:

Users continue to report issues with installing Office 2008 12.1.2. MacFixIt reader David Badovinac has discovered a somewhat kludgy fix, as follows:

Download the standalone Office 2008 12.1.2 updater
Mount the disk image then control-click the updater file and select "Show Package Contents"
Navigate to Contents -> Resources
Open the script "package_updatable" with TextEdit or another plain text editor.
Remove these lines:

• if not found_valid_version:
• sys.exit(48)

Save the file then close it and reattempt the update.