Mac 911

Perplexed by permissions

Christopher Breen — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:00 -0800

Yes, your Mac's permissions are messed up. No, Disk Utility can't help. Here's why.

Dealing with incompatible extensions

Christopher Breen — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:30:00 -0800

The words "System Extension Cannot Be Used" at start up hints that you need to update some of your software.

Bugs & Fixes: iTunes 9.0.3. and the 'remember password' bug

Ted Landau — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:16:00 -0800

This week's iTunes 9.0.3 update means that the application no longer ignores the "Remember password for purchases" setting. That's great, but Ted Landau wishes Apple would have come clean about the bug more quickly.

Troubleshooting a missing Apple TV

Christopher Breen — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:06:00 -0800

You say that your Apple TV and Mac ignore each other? Walk through these troubleshooting steps.

Bugs & Fixes: Avoiding phishing scams

Ted Landau — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:11:00 -0800

Want to avoid becoming the victim of a phishing scam? Your first line of defense is usually a little common sense, Ted Landau writes.

Capturing iTunes Videos

Christopher Breen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:04:00 -0800

You're a teacher who wants to show educational TV shows purchased from iTunes in the classroom. How?

Hide Preview's transparent layers

Christopher Breen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:16:00 -0800

Does Preview display a checkerboard pattern when displaying certain documents? Here's the fix.

Bugs & Fixes: Flash Player and iSight

Ted Landau — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:20:00 -0800

Ted Landau ran into some problems trying to get Adobe's Flash Player to work with an iSight camera. But he managed to find a solution after digging around the Web.

Tips for weathering power outages

Christopher Breen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:03:00 -0800

When the lights go out, what's a Mac user to do? Try these tips.

Bugs & Fixes: Solving 'circular loop' problems in iPhone apps

Ted Landau — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:15:00 -0800

Ted Landau runs into a circular loop problem with an iPhone app, where quitting and restarting the app immediately returned him to the problem in question. Finding a solution led to a series of "what if" scenarios and what to do about them.

Inconsistent Home and End shortcut keys

Christopher Breen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:01:00 -0800

Even if you know the keyboard shortcuts for the Home and End keys on a MacBook, they won't help you in all applications.

Creating DVD images

Christopher Breen — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:31:00 -0800

Reader X wants the low-down on creating disc-less DVDs that can be run like the real deal.

The unbootable Mac mini

Dan Frakes — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:02:00 -0800

Why would a perfectly good Mac mini suddenly refuse to boot? Dan Frakes takes you through the torturous path to the solution, which ended up being obvious in retrospect.

Troubleshooting over the holidays

Christopher Breen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:04:00 -0800

A grab bag of Mac 911 questions and answers.

Bugs & Fixes: Redeeming the code for a Star Trek digital copy

Ted Landau — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:59:00 -0800

Several DVDs now include a digital copy that you can download via iTunes to watch on your iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV. But some owners of the Star Trek DVD may have problems downloading their digital copy.

Bugs & Fixes: Getting EyeTV Live 3G to work

Ted Landau — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:24:00 -0800

Elgato's EyeTV Live 3G is a free Web app that works with the iPhone to stream video content from the EyeTV application on your Mac. Ted Landau walks you through the process of setting it up.

Bugs & Fixes: Apple updates disk repair advice

Ted Landau — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:40:00 -0800

Apple has released a trio of articles that offer new or updated information regarding disk repairs. Ted Landau looks at all three.

Cures for a crusty keyboard

Christopher Breen — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:48:00 -0800

'tis the season to spill egg nog and candy cane crumbs into your keyboard. Here's how to get it out.

Creating diacritics

Christopher Breen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:09:00 -0800

Curious to create ü, é, ñ, and à characters on your Mac? Here's how.

Bugs & Fixes: Safe Boot fixes iWork and iWeb crashes

Ted Landau — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:16:00 -0800

If any of the iWork components or iWeb '09 crash when you run Mac OS X 10.6.2, Safe Boot can help fix the problem.

Capturing critters

Christopher Breen — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:40:00 -0800

You have a yard full of nature waiting to be captured? Here are a few tips for doing just that.

E-mail and the advantages of deception

Christopher Breen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:28:00 -0800

Despite what you learned at Sunday school, lying in the service of preventing spam is not a sin.

Bugs & Fixes: Spin Doctor, Heal thyself

Ted Landau — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:46:00 -0800

Ted Landau runs into some problems using Spin Doctor to make audio files from his favorite LPs. And he's not the only one.

"Locking" an external hard drive

Christopher Breen — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:15:00 -0800

You say you have an external hard drive that you'd like to protect from prying eyes? Here are three solutions.

Bugs & Fixes: Screensavers in Snow Leopard

Ted Landau — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:09:00 -0800

After a little wait, many third-party screensavers are now compatible with Snow Leopard. But there are glitches. Ted Landau has details.

Bugs & Fixes: LaunchBar causes an unexpected surprise

Ted Landau — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:34:00 -0800

LaunchBar is an application (plus much more) par excellence. But a new feature in LaunchBar 5 has caused a headache for bug-finder Ted Landau.

Explaining iPhoto Library size discrepancy

Christopher Breen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:41:00 -0800

Why does iPhoto report a library of 7GB when the Finder says 21GB? There's more to the iPhoto Library package than meets the eye.