Number conversions are always convenient to have around. There are many times when you may need to convert grams to pounds, miles to kilometers, or see the latest exchange rates. In OS X there are some convenient ways to convert numbers that are readily available.

Calculator

The OS X calculator has a decent number converter in it. To access it, enter a number in the calculator and choose an option from the “Convert” menu (any will do, since they all display the same converter window). With the window open, you can select from a number of conversion types. Upon clicking OK, the calculator will change the entered number to the converted value.

Select from a number of conversions with Calculator.

NOTE: If you need to convert currency, be sure to click the “Update” button so the conversion is computed with the latest exchange rates.

Be sure to update the currency exchange rates.

Google

When connected to the internet, you can easily do conversions and other small math tasks using Google, either from the Google home page or from the Safari toolbar.

Google’s calculator is simple and useful. For more information click the “More about calculator” link.

Dashboard

Apple supplies a small Dashboard widget for converting numbers. Sometimes this can be more convenient than launching Calculator or opening a new browser window for using Google. Unfortunately, unless it is already launched Dashboard can take a few seconds to load, even with a fast internet connection.

The Dashboard unit converter is another convenient method.

Terminal

Many times people use the Terminal to remotely connect to other computers, or perform a variety of tasks, and when doing so it may be easier to use Terminal resources for things instead of resorting to other applications. The BSD subsystem in OS X has a command called “units”, which you can use to enter a variety of conversions. To use it, launch Terminal and enter “units”. You will be asked for what you have, and then be asked for what you want, and it will output the conversion in two forms, both as a forward multiplier and reverse divisor.

The “units” command may be useful for Terminal users. For more information on how to use “units” enter “man units” at the terminal prompt.

If you do not enter a number, the converter will assume you mean one of each unit you enter, and show you the conversion factor between the two units.

via Four unit conversion options in OS X | MacFixIt – CNET Reviews.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Mac OS X 10.6 ships August 28

Warning – this is a long post

Friday is the day… Pre-orders are scheduled. Amazon tells me that I should see my copy on Sept. 1 or so, and I’ll be reporting my experiences here in the next couple of weeks.

Most of the changes are under the hood… speed improvements, security improvements and such. The interface will be familiar to 10.5 users… but there are a few really good new features.

Important New Features

The Snow Leopard (SL?) interface will be familiar to Leopard users, but there are some new features that can make life very sweet for some users… here’s a list of my favorites:

1. Automatic location detection
It’s always been up to you as a traveler to change the time zone to match your location. Going into Date & Time has been something you need to remember to do. Not any more.

Now your time zone settings are automatic (you need to set this as a default, then forget it) providing that you can connect with Wi-Fi. iCal can be set to adjust calendar times to the current time zone, too. If you set an appointment to call John at 3pm in California, when you arrive in New York iCal will remind you at 7pm, as it should.

2. Wi-Fi Status
Click on the Airport menubar item, and the strength and security status for all visible networks is displayed.

2. Exposé and Dock Improvements
Exposé makes accessing open documents a snap, as it is not integrated with the dock. Click and hold an app icon in the dock will give you preview windows for all docs open in that app. Select an document or close one, right from the doc. I love it! Exposé has been wasted on me until now, but I can see it will be much more useful with 10.6.

The Dock has a new look, and much slicker menus. The new Options menu contains common options and makes for a much less cluttered menu.

3. ActiveSync and Exchange 2007 support
It makes sense that after iPhone’s new native support for Exchange that the Mac OS will do so as well. Now email, contact and calendar apps from Apple will interface with Microsoft Exchange 2007 server. Now Mac users can have the same abilities as Entourage users, with the Apple apps they prefer. Address Book, iCal and Mail will now play nice. Users won’t be disadvantaged with regards to their Entourage collegues.

4. Preview Improvements
Preview will be able to open multiple PDFs, just like Adobe Acrobat Reader. It can display contents as contact sheets, and can show page thumbnails in a sidebar, more like Adobe Reader. Preview has always been my choice for launching PDFs… it is much faster than Reader. Now there are fewer reasons to use anything else.

5. Replace Text Systemwide, automatically
Word has been able to do automatic substitution as you type for years. Snow Leopard provide a way to make substitutions with the Keyboard preference pane, which will apply to ALL apps, providing that the developers update their apps.

6. Movie and screencast recording
QuickTime Pro now is part of the package, not a paid app. Record movies and screencasts without additional cost. This is great for me, as a Mac consultant… I can record training sessions easily for the benefit of my clients. Hey, maybe I’ll even post them here!

7. AppleScript
The Script Editor app is now called AppleScript Editor. It’s in the Utilities folder, not the Applications folder, so if you’re an AppleScript user, you may think you’re losing your mind looking for the old app in the old location.

AppleScript Utility is gone, but the AppleScript Editor preferences handle it’s functionality.

8. Trackpad Gestures
I have a 2.33Ghz MacBook Pro that’s been been my workhorse diagnostic and repair tool now for 3 years. I can only use 1 and 2 finger trackpad gestures, not the 3 and 4 finger options the newer MacBooks can use. Now all gesture-capable Macs will be able to use all gestures. This won’t work on older Macs, unfortunately. Gestures are not supported prior to 2006 models.

9. Multilingual Macs
Imput Sources is the name of the pref pane that replaces the International pane. It provides controls for working in multiple languages, and allows both right and left reading languages, but the Japanese Kana palette control is gone, appearing automatically when the Kana input is chosen. The Character Palette is now the Character Viewer. These can be available through the menu bar

Most of my clients are business users, and they will really benefit. Mac market share is close to 8%, and Mac usage is much higher. Nearly 25% of businesses have 30 or more Macs in-house, and Entourage is the primary email/contact/calendar app. Now Mac users can play nice with Entourage. This will be big for business users in companies using Exchange 2007. No need for a client license for the Macs, so this will save even more money for businesses who have mixed technology.

Other changes/improvements

ActiveSync is so common, allowing Entourage 2004 and 2008 to sync with the Exchange server, that it is remarkable only in its absence. Apple Mail can connect to an Entourage 2003 server via IMAP, but it’s mail only. Connected to a 2007 server will change all this. No more syncing thru Sync Services (sometimes prone to errors), and integration with iCal and Address Book will make life much easier for Mac users in business.

AppleTalk is gone. Finished. Dead. RIP. Good riddance. It cannot be used by Macs running 10.6, so you will gain a lot of bandwidth on your network. For those running printers, etc. that require AppleTalk, it may be time to look for a replacement.

Finder Changes
Now you can set a magnification slider in the Finder, in icon view. Icons are live previews, and you can play movies, page thru documents, etc.

Using the contextual menu, you can access folder actions in Snow Leopard more easily, to create, and edit them. They will appear in the main menu, under one option, rather than under the “More” submenu.

You can also set default search scope for Spotlight in Finder Prefs, so that a Spotlight search will default to the entire Mac, the current folder, or a previously used scope.

Right-click (or Control-Click) on an item in the trash will allow you to use the new “Put Back” option, returning the item to it’s original location.

Users can add to the Finder’s Sidebar more easily now, using a menu option or a keyboard shortcut. You can still drag items to the sidebar, too. You can change the order of categories, and remove categories if you don’t use them. If you add an item from an unused category, Snow Leopard is smart enough to add the category back.

Security changes include the ability to set a delay between screen saver onset and the password requirement for accessing the Mac. You can set a period of time when the Mac is still accessible with a touch of the keyboard, without password. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It seems to defeat the purpose of password protecting the Mac.

Firewall settings are easier to use, and more secure. No more confusion about port IDs… just select the applications or services you want allowed or blocked. Signed software can be set to be permitted by default.

Sharing prefs now offer a Share Scanner option, similar to Share Printer. I love this one!

Keyboard and Mouse prefs are now 2 separate preference panes. Keyboard prefs will offer more control of shortcuts, and setup of Bluetooth keyboards and mice, in addition to the ability to customize system-wide services (applets), deleting unwanted ones and adding new ones.

Users can use gestures to enter Chinese characters on the MacBook’s trackpad and opened up the multi-touch trackpad to outside developers. Hopefully we’ll see non-Apple apps that can make use of gestures.

64-bit capabilities
Almost all the apps included with Snow Leopard are 64-bit savvy. What does this mean? Firstly, it provides access to more than 4 GB of RAM. Then there are some speed boosts, utilizing the Intel chips’ built-in routines optimized for 64-bit mode.

Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Xeon machines are 64-bit capable, others are not. Snow Leopard will still run 64-bit apps at 64-Bit, but older Macs will not be able to boot with the 64-bit kernel. The main disadvantage of this will be the inability to access more than 32 GB of RAM. I can’t do that in my Mac Pro, and no other Macs can do it yet, so no big deal. In the future, there may more of a disadvantage.

Grand Central is the technology Apple is implementing to make it easier to program parallelization and concurrency into applications. No, I don’t know what that means either, but Apple says that apps will be able to make much better use of the multiple CPU cores in current and future Macs. One of these days we’ll have machines with 16 or 32 cores, and programming to use the separate cores is very complex. Grand Central is designed to simplify this process.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s official. Snow Leopard will ship in 4 days.

Apple Computer, 8/24/09:

Apple Announces Release of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

Apple announced the release of Mac OS X v10.6, Snow Leopard. Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system, Leopard, with hundreds of refinements, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange, and core technologies that take advantage of the powerful hardware in every Mac. It enhances the entire Mac experience in big ways and small, making the Mac more reliable and easier to use.

Upgrade Pricing and Availability

Mac OS X Snow Leopard ships on August 28. The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-to-Date program is available.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Problems after the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update

There are always some problems reported after every software update. More often than not they are in a distinct minority of users, but I like to report the more common ones, with solutions if I can. I’ll update this as more problems come up in the next week or so.

Wireless Network Connections

Several reports are out about connectivity problems with wireless networks after the 10.5.8 update. Some complain about slow connections, others can’t connect to particular devices or services.

First thing, try a restart. This solves a large number of problems, and is the easiest fix.

Most commonly these problems can be caused by PRAM problems, so a PRAM reset is the first solution I’d try. Reboot your Mac and hold down the following keys before you hear the chime: Command-Option-P-R

Keep the keys held down as it resets at least two more times (I hold it for 3 or 4 but it’s overkill, usually), then release the keys and your Mac will boot normally. You’ll have to re-set any custom changes you’ve made with mouse tracking speed, system sound volume, and such, but with a little luck, Wi-Fi connections will be OK again.

Another possibility if your network is hidden, is to log into the router, and turn SSID broadcast on. I’ve seen a report that 10.5.8 may have an issue discovering hidden networks.

You can also remove and re-add the airport interface in System Preferences -> Network. Note the settings BEFORE you delete it by highlighting and clicking the “-” button. Make sure you click Apply to save, then add the Airport interface back by clicking the “+” button, using the settings you noted in the first step. This will release the DHCP lease and get a new one.

If the previous fixes don’t work, try re-applying the Combo Updater. It may work for you, particularly if you boot into Safe Mode, then apply the update.

Permission Problems

It seems that some 10.5.8 updates have had issues with not linking to the permissions database, which results in strange permissions warnings. An Apple Discussions thread on the subject is here. Suggested solutions are:

1. Do nothing.
   As long as the computer is working, a permissions fix is not needed. Granted it would be nice to know that everything is functioning and not run into a problem in the future, but since for the most part these permissions problems are showing otherwise healthy permissions it is more than likely safe to let things be. Still, run a permissions verification and check the files to ensure the current permissions at least give some user/group read access. For the most part you can safely disregard default group changes.

2. Reapply the update (delta/combo)
   Try reapplying the update, which seems to have at least helped the problem for some people, if not fixed it completely. To do this, download and reapply the updater, optionally rolling back to a previous installation from a backup (Time Machine or boot drive clone) beforehand. We recommend if you do this to get the combo updater and then apply it when booted into Safe Mode.

3. Change permissions manually
   If the problem is with only a few files, you can use the Terminal to change the permissions manually, or at least ensure the files are accessible and reporting the proper permissions. We will not go into details on how to change the permissions for files using the Terminal, since each file type may have different permissions and we would need to address each specifically; however, if you are familiar with the terminal you can manually ensure the files are properly accessible.

4. Teach the database new file permissions.
   After you have checked permissions manually, and ensured the files are properly accessible (for the most part, allowing the owner to read and write, and having the group and other users be read only), you can teach teach the updater receipt file the new permissions by running the following command in the Terminal:

   sudo pkgutil –edit-pkg com.apple.pkg.update.os.10.5.8 –volume / –learn FILEPATH

   In this command, the FILEPATH is the full path to either the parent folder of files that share these permissions problems, or to the individual files themselves. This should only be done if you are certain the current permissions are correct for the files in the “FILEPATH”.

   After this command is run, the permissions check should not observe permissions changes the files targeted by FILEPATH anymore.

Thanks to MacFixIt for the solutions.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Apple posted the new updated today, in a 10.5.8 Combo installer and a Server Combo installer, as well as incremental updates available through Software Update. As always, I recommend using the Combo updaters rather than Software Update for System updates, as it seems to provide less chance for instability.

You should back up your system before installation; you can use Time Machine.

Do not interrupt the installation process once you have started to update your system. You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you’ve modified the operating system through other means.

What’s included in this update:
*Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2.

*Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4.
*Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
*Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
*Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
*Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
*Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
*Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
*Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
*Improves overall reliability with AFP.

*Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
*Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
*Improves Sync Service reliability.
*Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
*Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
*Includes latest security fixes.

In addition, Apple posted security updates for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

• Security Update 2009-003 (Tiger PPC)
• Security Update 2009-003 (Tiger Intel)
• Security Update 2009-003 (Server Tiger Universal)
• Security Update 2009-003 (Server Tiger PPC)

These address the following:

• Decompressing maliciously crafted data may lead to an unexpected application termination
• A maliciously crafted website may control the displayed website URL in a certificate warning
• Viewing a maliciously crafted image with an embedded ColorSync profile may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• Users are not warned before opening certain potentially unsafe content type
• A person with physical access to a locked system may use four-finger Multi-Touch gestures
• Viewing a maliciously crafted Canon RAW image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• Viewing a maliciously crafted OpenEXR image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• Processing a maliciously crafted PNG image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• A local user may obtain system privileges
• Opening many connections to an inetd-based launchd service may lead to a denial of service
• A format string issue in Login Window may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
• Signing out of MobileMe does not remove all credentials
• Receiving a maliciously crafted AppleTalk response packet may lead to arbitrary code execution with system privileges or an unexpected system shutdown
• A local user may cause an unexpected system shutdown
• Processing maliciously crafted XML content may lead to arbitrary code execution

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

From MacFixIt today, 06.04.09

Backups have always been a cumbersome thing for most home computer users to take the time to set up and maintain. Before Leopard, you had to install a third-party backup program and deal with proprietary formats, data structure, and compression. Apple recognized these problems with the implementation of Time Machine, and the easy “set it and forget it” method of backing up has been a great option for most home users. However, there are still times when Time Machine will not work properly. It will stop backing up certain items, give frequent errors, or have odd behavior that has the user question whether the backups are working properly.

Since errors and failure can happen in any backup system, we recommend that if you have the available resources (namely, spare external hard drives) that you set up dual, independent backups, and, in doing so, take advantage of more than one way of backing up your system. This will prevent any errors in a backup system from propagating to subsequent backups.

One strongly recommended solution that we advocate is to have both a snapshot-based system such as Time Machine in addition to a bootable clone system as well using a software package such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Doing this will ensure you can both boot and access your most recently changed files in the event of either data loss or hardware failure.

Keep in mind that this is not the same as making a duplicate of your current backup. Doing that may be beneficial in the event of hardware failure, but does not protect against problems happening with your backup software and propagating through additional backups. Instead, having two systems that run separately will ensure that no problems in one backup system are carried over to the other in addition to providing a security measure in case one backup system experiences a hardware failure. External drives are cheap these days, and it pays to have a robust backup scheme that will ensure both hardware and software failures are taken into account.

It’s worth noting that with multiple backups, in many instances one system may attempt to back up another one that you are trying to keep independent. For instance, Time Machine will automatically include all locally mounted volumes in its backups unless you explicitly have it ignore a specific volume (on a related side note if you’re having problems with Time Machine not including some drives, check out our recent article on ensuring drives get included with your Time Machine backups). To keep backup solutions independent, be sure the drives for each backup are not included in the other one. Otherwise, in a scenario where you’re set up to have a cloned drive and a Time Machine backup, the cloned drive will be again backed up to the Time Machine drive, redundantly filling it up.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I always recommend that clients stay up to date with security updates, bug fixes and application updates, but some users have had problems following every OS X 10.5 system update, including the latest, 10.5.7.

To avoid problems, follow the following steps, and you should be trouble-free:

1. Don’t use Software Update. Instead, download the standalone “Combo” updater.

2. Reboot into Safe Mode.

3. Run the Apple Disk Utility application and perform a Permissions fix and hard drive repair.

4. Run the Combo 10.5.7 updater.

5. Immediately repair permissions again using Apple Disk Utility.

If you do experience any odd behavior, please contact me or go to the MacFixIt site for help

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I just had one of these moments… you know, the ones where you say “I didn’t know that!” Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

Macworld.com, April 30, had a great tip. It turns out that Leopard has the capability of presenting preview icons for videos and images up to 512×512 pixels, as opposed to the standard 128×128 ones we’re used to.

Cover Flow

One way that you may know of is to use the Cover Flow option for viewing a finder window. There’s another one, tho that is pretty slick.

Search Window

Open the folder with images you’d like to examine, and enter two double quotes into the Search section in the right side of the toolbar. Change the location setting from This Mac to the current folder, which is within quotation marks to the right of This Mac. Change the search from Contents to File Name.

Spotlight will display everything in the current folder. Change the view mode to icon view by using Command-1 or going to the View menu and selecting As Icons.

On the lower right side of the window, you’ll see a slider. Use the slider to increase the size of the preview icons…

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Possibly as soon as the first quarter of this year we’ll see the release of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Apple says there won’t be a lot of new features in their latest release, but that reliability and speed will be the main qualities of Snow Leopard.

One of the ways Apple will do this is by implementing OpenCL, a recently approved programming standard which makes the power of graphics processors available in a completely new way, and should transform ordinary computers into “veritable supercomputers” according to Computerworld.

Apple is taking advantage of OpenCL first, as it developed the OpenCL programming language, based on the C language used by so many programmers. It allows applications offload a good deal of the work from the CPU(s) to the GPU, or graphics chip.

ATI and NVIDIA are producing graphics chips as powerful as regular CPUs… at least. The latest Radeon HD 4870 from ATI has almost a billion transistors, nearly double what AMD (ATI’s parent company) uses in it’s most powerful Quad-Core Phenom CPU.

These GPUs aren’t even fully utilized by the most advanced games. They are underutilized in the best of conditions, and they are incredibly fast. OpenCL will allow the GPU to accelerate many apps, particularly when the app’s work can be broken down into smaller, parallel calculations.

Graphics and high definition video could see increases from 40 to 100 times, when they are compiled with OpenCL.

I’m hoping for details at Macworld, but Apple promised Snow Leopard no later than mid-2009, and it could come earlier. I can’t wait!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Apple posted a tech note the other day confirming what many users had experienced, and copping to the problem, which is refereshing. They also posted a solution to get around the problem.

It turns out that the update process hangs while “Configuring Installation: is shown in the update window. Apparently, the download is incomplete, but the installer is trying to install it anyway.

The solution Apple suggests is to go to /Library/Updates and delete the contents. Then Software Update should work correctly.

Personally, I find downloading the Combo Updater is a better plan. It eliminates potential problems seen in some past updates, when using the Delta Updater or Software Update either installs files incorrectly or fails to install a file.

If you do have a problem with an update, re-applying the Combo Updater solves most issues. Apple always has a download page for every update. The 10.5.6 Combo Updater can be found here.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.