With OS X Lion, Apple built Disk Utility into the operating system. As a result, you no longer have to go in search of your original Mac disks and boot from them in order to repair permissions on your start-up hard drive. Just hold down Command R when you boot up your OS X Lion Mac. Continue reading
Yesterday, I upgraded my two Macbooks, a mid 2008 White MacBook and a late 2010 MacBook Pro, to Lion 7.2. Because I had read so many horror stories about upgrading from Leopard to Lion, I had almost decided to wait until I bought a new machine. I was thrilled when both machines upgraded perfectly. Continue reading
It’s a sad day in the technology world: Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, the heart and SOUL of Apple, arguably the greatest idea man of my lifetime, died yesterday. He was the Bob Dylan of technology. Whereas Bob Dylan was the mirror that reflected our thoughts and ideas in his songs, Steve Jobs was a mirror that reflected our dreams in the devices he created. Continue reading
My Macbook suddenly started taking 30 seconds to a minute to go to sleep. Nornally it goes to sleep in a few seconds. This is very annoying since it’s our kitchen computer that we are constantly waking and putting to sleep. Googling for an answer, I found many scary, technical nightmares described. Fortunately, my solution was very simple: a stuck print job was causing the problem.
To see if you have any hung print jobs, you need to check your printer queue. Go to the following url: http://127.0.0.1:631/jobs/
You will see all of your print jobs. If you see any that are stuck, or if there are any jobs that shouldn’t be there, cancel them. Then try putting your Macbook to sleep again.
Almost a year ago, I reviewed MotionX – GPS for iPhone. After using MotionX for over a year now and after upgrading to iPhone 4, it’s time for an update. First and most important is battery life. With iPhone 3G, my battery would barely make it on a 3-4 hour ride. Now, with iPhone 4, I can easily ride or ski 4 hours and still have 60% battery left. Also, after a year of using the MotionX GPS for tracking ski tours and mountain bike rides, I have found it to be VERY accurate. And finally, since MotionX can export or import .gpx files ( the standard XML format for sharing track data between GPS devices), it’s easy to share trip data. Thanks to MotionX, I no longer carry a GSP: I only carry my iPhone.
I don’t consider myself a bird watcher, but I do pay attention to birds. I recently bought iBird pro for the iPhone ($9.99). If you’re a bird watcher with an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or an Android phone, I highly recommend this app. Or, if you’re like me, it just might turn you into a bird watcher. Continue reading
When the Mac Archive utility unzips a zip file, it creates a new folder and then unzips the files into that folder. Unfortunately, it leaves the zip file where you downloaded it. If you prefer to have the Archive utility delete zip files after you expand them, you can easily do this in the preferences pane of the Mac Archive utility. Continue reading
If you have an iPhone and you use Netflix, PhoneFlicks for iPhone is a must-have free app. Continue reading
Firebug Lite 3.1 is out. That’s good news for Safari users. It’s good news for all browser users. Up til now, the Firebug plugin was only available for Firefox and Chrome.
Firebug, the ultimate web developer’s tool, helps debug css code, javascript, and more. I use Firebug every day to help figure out css issues; if I had to pay for it, I would.
Now, with Firebug Lite, ALL modern browsers can take advantage of Firebug. Since Firebug Lite runs remotely, you don’t need to install or upgrade a plugin in your browser. Just click on the link to Firebug lite and you’ve got it. The disadvantage is that there is no Firebug button at the bottom of your browser screen to launch Firebug. And, there is no right click to select an element to inspect on the web page. Instead, with Firebug lite, you click on the Firebug Lite link to launch it. Once it’s launched, Control + Shift + C will activate the element selector.
But for those of you whose browser did not have a Firebug plugin, this version brings Firebug to the masses. To try it, go to this link:
http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite
The MotionX-GPS for iPhone is a great GPS and very accurate, with or without a cell/data signal. I’ve been using a Garmin eTrex Vista C for 4 years, but it’s just one more piece of equipment to carry. And since I almost always have my iPhone when I’m skiing, hiking, or biking, having a GPS on my phone seemed too good to be true. But it’s not. Continue reading