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Ted Landau July 2006

Apple will offer its first peek at Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) at its WordWide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month. This means it's already too late to expect Apple to add new features beyond the ones already slated. Still, going on the assumption of "better late than never," I've put together a list of improvements that I would like to see in the updated OS. The concept is similar to what other writers have done over the years, although this is the first time I am giving it a whirl.

To … Read more

Ted Landau May 2006

Repairing Disk Permissions. Not exactly a topic that you would expect to spark much controversy. Yet, surprisingly, it is the focal point of a rather heated debate.

The command itself is innocuous enough. It is included as part of the First Aid component of Disk Utility. Apple's Help for Disk Utility states: "User permissions associated with files, folders, or applications can become damaged and prevent a file or application from opening. Permissions problems can also cause your computer to run slowly. Using Disk Utility, you may be able to fix these permissions problems...Repairing … Read more

Ted Landau April 2006

Wow! The Mac media was rife with speculation as to what Apple might announce to honor its 30th anniversary this month. What they did announce (which admittedly was not formally linked to the anniversary) wasn't on anyone's list?not even way at the bottom: Apple released a preview version of software that runs Windows XP on an Intel Mac! It's called Boot Camp. Buried in the announcement and related documentation were several more surprises. Let's take a look at what's going on:

Q. Why is Apple doing this?

A. The short … Read more

Ted Landau March 2006

This month is the tenth (10th!) anniversary of MacFixIt. Hard to believe!! Ten years on the Web is a very long time. That's like 75 in human years, isn't it? MacFixIt was started back before the word blog was in our vocabulary, before podcasts and RSS feeds, when Java still meant a cup of coffee. The World Wide Web itself was still relatively new; Netscape was still the dominant browser and Internet Explorer was just in its infancy. Macs were running System 7 and Mac OS X was not yet even a dream. It … Read more

Ted Landau February 2006

Thinking about getting an Intel Mac? Perhaps you have some questions you want answered before you decide for sure. Then you've come to the right place. But this article is a bit different than some others you may have read. Its focus is on Mac OS X software, rather than the new hardware itself. In particular, it looks at some of the problems you may confront running Mac OS X and related software on an Intel Mac ? and how to solve them. I call this my Intel Mac NSFAQ (not-so-frequently asked questions).

Q. Where is … Read more

Ted Landau October 2005

Take a look at any of Apple's promotional material for Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) and you'll find that a feature that consistently gets a top-billing is Automator. However, I suspect that, if you could check out how many people running Tiger have actually used Automator, you'd get a very low response.

That's too bad. Way too bad. Because Automator is Apple's best ever attempt at a macro-like utility for the masses. With Automator, it is surprisingly easy, and almost fun, to create "quick and dirty" solutions to … Read more

Posted Monday, July 11th

Ted Landau July 2005

One of the great improvements in Mac OS X, as compared to Mac OS and its predecessors, is its superior resistance to disk structure damage. In the "old days," Mac users typically found it necessary to run repair software every few weeks or so -- or risk the arrival of an assortment of irritating symptoms. With Mac OS X, running repair software on a maintenance preventative basis is almost superfluous. Yes, I have had a few occasions when I benefited from First Aid, the repair component built-in to Mac OS … Read more

Ted Landau June 2005

In last month's column, I began a look at some of the "smaller" troubleshooting-related changes in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), focusing on changes to the "unexpectedly quit" dialog. This month, I explore several other troubleshooting enhancements to Tiger.

Safe Boots. Apple introduced the Safe Boot in Panther. Essentially, holding down the Shift key immediately after hearing the chimes at startup in Panther resulted in two separate actions: (1) a disk repair check was done -- as would otherwise require selecting "Repair Disk" in Disk Utility's First … Read more

Ted Landau May 2005

[Note: This is the first of a few columns where I explore the "smaller" changes in Mac OS X 10.4. These are changes that, while they may not get much publicity, are quite relevant for troubleshooting.]

Among the many new features in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), there is one that Apple has never mentioned its marketing material. Probably, this is because it has to do with a topic that Apple rarely talks about anyway: application crashes. I'm talking about those times when the "unexpectedly quit" dialog appears on … Read more