http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/ 2010-09-10T13:32:41-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/ http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:07-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/add_spacers_to_the_dock?rev=1266620467 If you like your dock icons to be organized, then this tip of for you. Make grouping of your dock items and separate them with padding spacers like this sample. You have to go to the terminal to do this, so open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and enter the following commands. text/html 2010-07-26T09:49:52-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/address_book?rev=1280155792 To rebuild the address book database delete the file ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/AddressBook-v22.abcddb text/html 2009-12-16T18:40:39-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/apple_mail?rev=1261010439 * Mail Upgrade Problems * Manual email account setup * Migrate to Apple Mail from Outlook * Mail will not search "Entire Message" text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:09-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/apple_quarantine?rev=1266620469 Apple's sandbox for quarantining applications that have been downloaded from the internet or other source. At first launch the system will prompt with a dialog box asking if you want to approve the program launch. In OS X 10.5 the quarantine was applicable to downloaded applications. In OS X 10.6 it has been further expanded to signed applications and added checking file meta tags against known worms or viruses. text/html 2009-12-31T15:25:22-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/appleworks?rev=1262294722 The venerable old AppleWorks Suite still keeps chugging along. It does work in Snow Leopard OS X 10.6, but there are a few things to know. Requires Rosetta Because AppleWorks has not been updated in a long time, it contains old code components and requires Rosetta to be installed to run. Leopard 10.5 automatically installed Rosetta with the OS. Snow Leopard 10.6 does not and is an optional install from the install disk. If it was not installed and you launch Appleworks, the OS will notify yo… text/html 2009-10-16T12:02:35-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/backup?rev=1255712555 Can't say this enough. Backup, backup, backup. Your data should be in at least two places preferably three places with one being off-site. There are generally a couple of strategic ways to plan backups: * * * Online Storage Hard Drives This is the most flexible way to do a backup and in most cases the most efficient in cost and capacity. The hard drive can be another internal drive if a drive bay is available or a Firewire or USB connected drive. In this case it could also be consi… text/html 2009-10-17T11:10:21-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/backup_software?rev=1255795821 The Mac has a number of backup applications available. Some are free and some are commercial products. In a backup strategy there are a few paths. * Cloning * Versioning Cloning Cloning is the process of making an exact copy from one hard drive to another. This is a snapshot in time and is best to make a bootable hard drive as a backup of your entire system. The idea is that if you main hard drive fails, you can boot into your cloned drive and be up and running in minutes. text/html 2010-08-16T09:23:47-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/common_mail_server_settings?rev=1281968627 This is a list of settings for mail account setups for the most common email servers. ISP Address Port Authentication SSL AT&T pop.att.yahoo.com 995 Password Yes smtp.att.yahoo.com 465 Password Yes Comcast mail.comcast.net Password No smtp.comcast.net 587 Password No Sonic pop.sonic.net Password Yes mail.sonic.net 587 Password Yes AOL imap.aol.com 143 Password No smtp.aol.com 587 Password No Earthlink pop.earthlink.net Password No smtpauth.earthlink.net 587 Pa… text/html 2009-11-15T19:18:50-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/device_logins?rev=1258334330 Internet Modem Logins Motorola Surfboards <http://192.168.100.1> AT&T 2-Wire <http://192.168.1.254> AT&T U-verse <http://192.168.1.254> Router Logins Router Address Username Password Netgear <http://192.168.0.1> admin password Linksys <http://192.168.1.1> admin admin D-Link <http://192.168.0.1> admin n/a Belkin <http://192.168.2.1> n/a n/a 3Com <http://192.168.1.1> admin admin text/html 2009-11-23T11:13:01-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/entering_meta_tags?rev=1258996381 While iWeb is a decent Website creation tool, it is designed for the basic user and has limitations. It does not have the capability to create search engine optimization data such as meta tags, alt tags, and custom page titles. Enter iWeb SEO Tool from Rage Software text/html 2010-06-12T16:25:56-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/file_locked_and_cannot_change_owner_or_permissions?rev=1276377956 Unix in OS X has a file flag that is unmutable meaning that you can not change the file properties such as ownership, permissions or delete. You can verify this by issuing the list command with the -aole modifiers ls -aole and see the “unchg” in the file listing like below. text/html 2010-05-10T10:47:38-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/firefox?rev=1273506458 * Import bookmarks * Older Versions text/html 2010-07-09T10:49:48-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/hard_drive_data_recovery?rev=1278690588 When a drive goes bad it is usually a catastrophic failure and not all data is recoverable from the drive, if at all. That is why backups are important. In case a data recovery is needed there are a few options. Software You can attempt to recover your data with software from a dying hard drive if there is not any mechanical problems with the drive. Please see this knowledge base article. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:18-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/high_speed_internet?rev=1266620478 * Device Logins text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:19-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/how_to_add_display_code_in_an_html_page?rev=1266620479 Surround your sample code with an <xmp></xmp> tag pair. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:21-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/how_to_display_code_in_an_html_page?rev=1266620481 Surround your sample code with an <xmp></xmp> tag pair. text/html 2009-09-19T17:46:34-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/html?rev=1253400394 * How to display code in an html page text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:23-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/import_bookmarks?rev=1266620483 Firefox makes it easy to import bookmarks from another browser. Just open Firefox and choose Organize Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu. Then in the bookmarks library window, click on the right most popup menu icon that looks a little like a star. From there you can choose Import HTML... which will then open the normal file browser dialog where you can navigate to the other browsers html bookmark file. text/html 2009-11-12T15:53:08-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/internet?rev=1258062788 * List processes using the internet * Common mail server settings text/html 2009-10-26T21:00:30-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/iphoto?rev=1256608830 * * Choose a different library To choose a different library or location hold down the option key at launching iPhoto to get the following dialog. You can also create a new library at any location you choose from this same dialog. Repair iPhoto database If your iPhoto program is acting abnormally, photos are missing, thumbnail views are not showing up, you can repair the library database. Hold down the Command-Option keys while launching iPhoto. text/html 2010-05-27T10:53:38-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/itunes?rev=1274975618 * Moving iTunes Library text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:26-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/iweb?rev=1266620486 * Entering Meta Tags text/html 2010-05-26T09:47:51-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/iworks?rev=1274885271 Here is a neat little application that will auto save your work. WorkSaver at <http://tristanchadwick.com/worksaver/> text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:27-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/legal?rev=1266620487 Unfortunately, if you put up a website you need to make sure you comply with some laws and protect yourself from others. Terms of Use Should have this on any site as a practice. You can have a lawyer draw one up or get a free one from PriorityDigital.com or get a customized one for your jurisdiction for a $15 fee at FindLegalForms.com text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:28-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/list_processes_using_the_internet?rev=1266620488 To show the applications and processes that are using the internet at the moment. In terminal enter the command: lsof -P -i -n | cut -f 1 -d " " | uniq text/html 2009-09-27T16:51:40-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/mail_upgrade_problems?rev=1254088300 A common upgrade problems arises when upgrading the OS from 10.4 to 10.5. Mail will launch but all mail boxes and messages are missing. They are there but index is not being built. There are two options to fix this. The easy one first. ---------- * Go to Users > [Your User Name] > Library > Mail and move the files titled “MessageRules.plist” and “MessageRules.plist.backup” to the Desktop. * After moving the files to your Desktop, relaunch Mail. * After Mail relaunches Quit Mail agai… text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:31-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/mail_will_not_search_entire_message?rev=1266620491 If you find that Apple Mail will not allow searching emails by message contents because the menu item is grey and not selectable, it is because Spotlight needs to reindex the hard drive volume. First make sure that your drive is not in the Privacy option in the Spotlight preferences. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:32-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/manual_email_account_setup?rev=1266620492 How to manually setup an email account in Snow Leopards Mail app. When setting up an email account like Gmail, 10.5's Mail Setup Assistant provided an option to do it automatically or not via a checkbox in the Setup Assistant. That checkbox is gone in Mail 4.0 in Snow Leopard, and Mail Setup assistant creates such an account automatically. In particular, a Gmail account is always created as IMAP, with seemingly no way to create it as POP. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:33-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/migrate_to_apple_mail_from_outlook?rev=1266620493 Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express do not make it easy to move mail to Apple Mail because they don't export mailboxes or contacts in a standards format such as vCard or iCal format. In later versions of Outlook you can export mbox format which can be imported into Apple Mail. text/html 2010-06-12T16:09:48-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/miscellaneous?rev=1276376988 * Network settings changed by another application dialog bug * Add spacers to the dock * Printing Error - enter name and password for lpadmin group * File locked and cannot change owner or permissions text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:35-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/mobileme?rev=1266620495 Completely reset to fix MobileMe sync issues. The first thing to do is back up all data to a safe location. In iCal users can export their calendars to a safe location either by exporting individual calendars or backing up all of iCal in the File menu, and in Address Book users can export their contacts as a vCard or as an Address Book Archive. For ease, users can select the “All” group and export that, which should include every contact.When the computer's data has all been backed up, users s… text/html 2010-05-30T14:50:01-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/moving_itunes_library?rev=1275249001 Moving between computers is easy. Just copy the entire iTunes folder found in your ~/Music folder. You should sign off from the iTunes Store and de-authorize the old computer first. But what if you want to move your music to a new location on the same computer such as a larger hard drive? The safest way is to leave the iTunes folder and everything inside where it is. Inside iTunes and choose Preferences from the iTunes menu. On the Advanced tab, set the new location where you want the library … text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:37-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/network_settings_changed_by_another_application_dialog_bug?rev=1266620497 Occasionally a system bug will pop up in the System Preferences>Network pane. An alert dialog will display indicating that network setting have been changed by another application. You try to dismiss this dialog and it continues to reappear in an endless loop. Be quick on the draw and you can dismiss the dialog by pressing the enter key and choose another pane with the mouse. Then go the the System Preferences>Security>General and check the box “Require a password to unlock each System Prefere… text/html 2010-05-10T10:50:02-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/older_versions?rev=1273506602 Firefox Older Versions Older versions of Firefox are hard to find on Mozilla's website if maintain at all. Another source is OldApps.com <http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.php> text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:38-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/open_firmware?rev=1266620498 Instructions contained in the BootROM for initializing the startup process and keeping system configuration information. Much can be done via zapping the PRAM Accessing Open Firmware Hold down Command+Option+O+F at system startup - not at restart. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:39-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/permissions?rev=1266620499 OS X uses Unix file permissions which are rather simple. There are many articles related to this. Leopard introduced ACL's or Access Control List. Now things get complex. The finder Get Info window can add ACL's but is poor interface and does not allow access to ACL's options more than the basic Unix permissions. A good GUI to control ACL's is the free Sandbox app. text/html 2009-11-14T19:57:06-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/prevent_caching_of_top_sites_thumbnails?rev=1258250226 Related to another knowledge base article, Safari will create thumbnails of visited pages and create a cache to display in the Top Sites view. This is a real resources and system drag. To prevent this, we just block Safari from writing to the cache directory it places these images in. text/html 2009-11-18T12:50:26-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/printing_error_-_enter_name_and_password_for_lpadmin_group?rev=1258570226 Apple indicates this is a OS update error to 10.5.7 but have seen it elsewhere. When you try to make a change to your printing settings, add a printer or sometimes starting a print job, a dialog box pops up asking for a user name and password for a user in the lpadmin group. text/html 2009-11-03T17:56:39-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/recover_a_dying_hard_drive?rev=1257292599 The Unix program dd is a disk copying utility that you can use at the command line in order to make a disk image. It makes a bit-by-bit copy of the drive it's copying, caring nothing about filesystem type, files, or anything else. Normally, in order to make a disk image, the disk you're copying from has to be able to spin up and talk -- in other words, it's OK to make a copy if the disk is healthy. But what happens when your disk is becoming a doorstop? As long as it continues to spin, even wi… text/html 2010-02-18T15:28:29-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/resetting_the_pmu?rev=1266528509 The PMU (Power Management Unit) or the System Management Controller is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is on the logic board of the computer. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:45-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/robots_txt?rev=1266620505 robots.txt is a plain text file placed in the web root directory to give instructions to internet robots on what is allowed to index and what is not allowed to index on the web site. It is a very simple protocol formed with the first directive for User-agent and the next directives is files or directories to exclude from robot indexing. text/html 2009-11-14T20:08:49-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/safari?rev=1258250929 * Turn off Top Sites * Prevent caching of top sites thumbnails * Security issue with Open Safe Files text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:47-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/security_issue_with_open_safe_files?rev=1266620507 Call it a feature or a convenience, I call it dangerous. Safari will automatically open any downloaded file such as a zip file or disk image. Theoretically, it checks if it is a signed file and thus “safe.” I'm not comfortable with this because it can be used in exploits, usually a social engineered exploit. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:48-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/sidebar?rev=1266620508 Menu *Home *Services *About Us *Contact text/html 2010-07-26T09:46:40-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/start?rev=1280155600 This Knowledge Base is essentially my brain dump of tips and tricks learned along the way in an online reference. You are free to use this information with the acknowledgment that use is not guaranteed or official procedures. Use this information at your own risk. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:51-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/startup_commands?rev=1266620511 Start Up Commands These are keyboard modifiers that are held down when booting the computer. Safe Mode Shift System will test startup procedures and limit launched processes. Single-User Mode Command S Starts only core functions and displays command line. Verbose Mode Command V Shows the startup process. Target Disk ModeT Mounts another computers drive through firewire. Boot from CD/DVDC Start up from a bootable CD or DVD. Select Boot Drive OptionWill display a list of bootable drives… text/html 2009-09-08T18:33:25-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/terminal_commands?rev=1252452805 Terminal Commands These are Unix commands and utilities available at the command line. Command Function Usage dd Recover damaged disk dd bs=512 if=/dev/rXX# of=/some_dir/foo.dmg conv=noerror,sync text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:53-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/turn_off_top_sites?rev=1266620513 This seemingly great feature is loathed by some as well as slowing down Safari and your system. While there is no easy way to turn it off, you can stop it from being your startup page and opening when you launch Safari. Just go to Safari>Preferences>General and change the popup menu for “New windows open with: and New tabs open with: to something else like “Empty Page.” text/html 2009-09-07T22:45:53-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/upgrade_problems?rev=1252381553 Thankfully, it’s a pretty simple fix. But, before we go for the solution, this is a good time to remind folks that you should have a tested back up in place before you start moving files out of your Library folder in relation to a Mail or other system problems. text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:55-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/web_miscellaneous?rev=1266620515 Other tips and notes on Web Development * robots.txt text/html 2010-02-19T17:01:56-05:00 http://www.mymacwizard.com/kb/doku.php/zapping_pram?rev=1266620516 PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory) or NVRAM (Non Volatile Random Access Memory) is a chip on the computer that stores certain system information when the power is off. This information is maintained in the chip by a small battery on the computer logic board. Sometimes the system miss-behaves and resetting the PRAM can correct such problems. These types of problems can be manifested in ways such as external ports not working, time incorrect, CD drives not responding and more.