Posted by JohnnyAppleseed | Under Opinion, Review
Monday May 5, 2008
One of our target audiences for this blog (though certainly not the only one) is people who have recently switched from another operating system to Mac OS X. People who came from the Windows world, especially Windows XP and earlier versions, probably didn’t pay much attention when asked to pick a short username during initial setup, and now maybe you’re sort of regretting that you didn’t pay more attention. Or, maybe you got a working Mac from a friend or relative (or worse yet, an ex-significant other), and you wish that the home directory had your name on it, not theirs. Or, perhaps it’s just that you would like a shorter short username.
Normally we might give you a walk-through on how to do this, but it turns out that there are at least three different approaches you can take to the problem, and there is an article in MacWorld that explains all of them, including the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. So, rather than reinvent the wheel, we’ll just suggest that you head over there and follow their instructions. We would usually prefer the third approach mentioned in that article, even though it’s slightly more complicated, but that’s because we’d probably want to get rid of all traces of the unwanted name.
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Posted by JohnnyAppleseed | Under Crabapple, Opinion, Software
Saturday Apr 26, 2008
We almost titled this, "The post you never saw (because the dog editor ate it)." That’s because we tried out a new editor plugin for Wordpress here in the CrabApple Forest, and discovered (too late to do us any good) that it doesn’t autosave our partially written articles, the way the native Wordpress editor does. So if you make a dumb mistake and leave the editing page, as we did, there’s no draft copy to fall back on. Although we are not motivated to rewrite the entire article, we will refer you to some pages that we had referenced in that article, that we had intended to share with you.
photo credit: emsefThe first page describes how you can create Automator actions that will show or hide "hidden" files on the Mac, including the infamous .DS_Store files. This same tip could be used to provide easy access to just about ANY shell script that doesn’t require user input:
Quick Tip: Show/Hide Hidden Files
If you prefer to do this the old, manual way from the terminal, that’s explained here. The second thing we intended to explain was this:
How to prevent .DS_Store file creation over network connections
That article, from Apple’s support site, shows how to keep your computer from leaving "Mac droppings" (those infamous .DS_Store files) on other computers on networks you may be connected to. Normally you don’t even see those files unless you instruct Finder to let you see them, and that was the point of the first tip above.
So if you follow the advice in the second tip, your Windows and Linux using friends will have one less thing to crab about when you connect your Mac to their local network, either physically or over certain types of remote connections. We are sorry that you missed the witty prose and sparkling commentary of the original article, but we have learned that autosave is an invaluable feature in a blog editor and although the built-in Wordpress editor may not be as flashy as the one provided by the plugin, at least it works and doesn’t let our text fall into the great bit-bucket in the sky.
Now please pardon us while we go off and have a crabfest about how well things are (not) working in Wordpress lately…
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Posted by JohnnyAppleseed | Under Crabapple, Opinion, Review, Software
Monday Apr 14, 2008
One of the sites we visit fairly regularly is called Cool OSX Apps - we subscribe to their newsfeed, and when we see something interesting, we’ll stop by their site. We’ve never had a bit of trouble with them until today, when suddenly Firefox 3 (beta 5) decided that it wasn’t going to permit us to go to their site. Like some sort of overzealous nanny, it popped up an ominous warning in the middle of a black background:
So, naturally we clicked on "Why was this site blocked?", which took us to a big page of information that told us the following:
One or more StopBadware partners are reporting badware behavior on this site.
Reporting Entities
This site is currently (as of 04/14/2008) being reported to StopBadware by the following partners:
Google: reported bad
And on another part of the page…
What is this page?
This page is StopBadware’s information page about www.coolosxapps.net/.
Google has found that some portion of www.coolosxapps.net/ contains or links to badware or otherwise violates Google’s software guidelines.
Some websites intentionally distribute harmful software, while many others have been compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners. StopBadware reports information provided by Google about these sites (see ‘Reporting entities’ to the left) and offers a process to assist webmasters in removing their sites from Google’s list (see ‘I am the owner of this site’ below).
For StopBadware’s guide to understanding Google’s warning pages, see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
For more information about StopBadware, click here.
Our problem with this is that first of all, this gives us no idea as to whether there really is a threat on this site or not. We doubt the site is any more of a threat than it was yesterday, but sometime in the last day or so, someone at Google or StopBadware decided that we, and anyone else who uses Firefox as our browser, should not be allowed to go to that site. As best we can recall, we never asked for this sort of intervention, so we resent it the way we would resent a busybody neighbor who starts giving unsolicited advice about what we should or should not do "for our own good."
The thing is, had we not been visiting this site semi-regularly for the past few months, we might have been genuinely scared off by this dark red warning on a totally black background. Even the colors were apparently picked to convey a sense of impending danger. This in itself is not a bad thing. There are many inexperienced users on the internet and this color scheme will get a new your attention.
We don’t know about anyone else, but we don’t want either Google or StopBadware denying us the ability to access a site, unless they are willing to tell us precisely what they think is wrong. At our age, we’re not going to accept "Because I said so!" from anybody, even if one of the parties is Google.
So, we dug around in Firefox’s preferences, and on the Security panel we found there is a checkbox you can use to turn off this dubious "assistance":
Uncheck the box, "Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected attack site" and you gag the nanny. Should you do this? That’s up to you. We did, because we’re not going to let some entity with unknown motives (be it Google or StopBadware) decide whether we can get to a web site.
There are at least three things wrong with the way Firefox implements this. First, the warning doesn’t need to be dark blood red on black… that’s just over the top, and needlessly ominous. Second, they need to explain EXACTLY why they are declaring a site bad - for example, if the site happens to have one link on it that will cause us problems if we click on it, then tell us about that link and we’ll be sure to avoid it. But, don’t declare the entire site off limits!
And third, the warning needs a button that allows you to go to the site anyway. Even if it says something like "Okay, you’ve warned me, I’ll take the risk" or something like that, there needs to be a way for a user to bypass the warning on one site without turning off the warning for all sites henceforth.
Right now, the only site we really want to block is StopBadware, until they decide that they should give users enough respect to explain why they are warning about a site. The heavy-handed approach used in Firefox 3 is totally repugnant to us.
As a final comment, we know there are bad people out on the Internet, but we fear that we are all getting too many warnings. For example, every time we download some software program from the Internet, the first time we try to run it we get a warning that this is something we downloaded. No fooling! What a useless warning. It doesn’t tell us anything about whether the software is safe to run, it just acts as though all downloaded software is potentially unsafe, so it had better make us click an extra button before we run it - which by now we do mechanically. If there were ever a real threat, we’d probably click right through and let it run.
Haven’t parents been reading the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" to their children lately? Because it looks to us like the makers of browsers and operating systems sure never heard it.
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Posted by JohnnyAppleseed | Under Hardware, Opinion, Software
Friday Apr 11, 2008
Does the world need another Macintosh Blog? I suppose that depends on who you ask. What we have found is that their are two rather indistinct groups of Macintosh users. The first is the long-time Mac user, who’s been using a Mac since before the days of OS X. That user is probably a Mac devotee, the type that thinks that the Mac is the greatest computer ever. That user is the type to try and convince all their friends and relatives to switch to the Mac. They are, in short, the convincers - if it weren’t for them, there would be far fewer Mac users today.
Then there is the other group - the “switchers”, a.k.a. the “recently convinced.” They’ve never known anything other than OS X on a Mac, but they may have struggled with several versions of Windows prior to finally getting a Mac. Now, some of them may be wondering if they made the right choice. For the first month or so after switching from Windows, they will probably experience much wonder and doubt - wondering what they’ve gotten themselves into, and occasionally doubting that the “convincer” friend or family member steered them on the right track.
The problem is that things are done differently on a Mac than on other platforms, and it’s not always in a manner that’s agreeable to everyone.
For example, let’s say that you are having a problem with your computer. Let’s suppose that in some application, or maybe all applications, the characters don’t always appear on the screen immediately as you type them. Let’s suppose that you are asking for help in an online forum devoted to your particular computer/operating system. What do you suppose the most frequent (though not necessarily correct) response would be?
In a group of Windows users, I would expect it to be something like this: “Your computer is probably loaded with spyware and adware, or maybe you have picked up a virus or a trojan horse program that is logging your keystrokes. Go install this and that anti-spyware/anti-adware/antivirus program. If that doesn’t work, reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows.”
Okay, what about in a group of Linux users? “You are probably having a driver issue - type (some magical incantation) at the command line and that might tell you where the problem is …” (I will pause here to note that if you actually do this, you will probably get a screenful of information that would only mean something to a true Linux geek) “… and failing that you may want to run (some other incomprehensible command) or try recompiling the driver.” If you have just switched from Windows to Linux, this will all be about as clear as mud to you, and the geeks will think they are doing you a favor by not just telling you the solution to your problem in plain English (or whatever your native language might be), but instead sending you off on a Google quest or to read “man” pages, often without even giving you any hints about what search terms you should be using, or what “man” page would contain the answer.
So what about on a Mac group? Here’s the advice I’d expect to see: “Go down to the Apple store and buy a new Apple keyboard. If that doesn’t work, take your Mac into the Genius Bar and let them figure it out.”
And that brings me to my first crab about the Mac: Far too often, when you are looking for a solution to a Mac-related problem, the advice that you will be offered can be expressed simply as “Buy Something.” And if that something is computer hardware, well of course it will be strongly suggested that you should buy it from Apple.
That may sound like fine advice to long-time Mac users, but it doesn’t always sit well with the switchers who have just come from the world of “Windows and Gates”, and expect that most problems can be solved with software, and that most of that software is available somewhere out on the Internet as freeware or, at worst (or if you are too lazy to search beyond the first page of Google results), low-cost shareware. If, by chance, you do need new hardware, you can get it from a multitude of suppliers, and if you search the ‘net (or watch the local sale circulars) it will be very reasonably priced.
It would be easy to dismiss the Mac as being a machine designed for high-end users, like an expensive automobile. But that would not always be a correct assumption. In particular, the Mac Mini is a very reasonably-priced machine when you compare the specifications to available Windows boxes, and realize that the Mac Mini includes the latest version of the Mac OS X operating system. And many Windows users have found that a “pre-owned” desktop Mac gives reasonable performance at a fair price. Even if someone splurges for a brand-new desktop Mac, or whatever happens to be the latest and greatest Mac laptop, that doesn’t always imply that they have money to burn.
One of the things we hope to do here at CrabApple Forest is tell you about some of the great Mac Freeware that is out there, that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. But beyond that, we want to try and help people who have switched from Windows fairly recently, and are not long-time Mac fanatics. You really will enjoy using the Mac once you’ve had it for a while, but some things are done differently, and maybe we can help you with the transition.
Personally, I think that the biggest reason the world may need another Mac-related blog is because of this: We didn’t drink the hard Apple Cider - what I mean is, you’ll never catch us standing outside an Apple store in the chilly night air so we can be among the first to get our hands on some new Apple product. We want to put our Macs to use, not dress them up in expensive accessories and brag about them to our friends that still use Windows (well, maybe just a little, but only when the Mac really does do something better than Windows).
So if you are looking for a hard-nosed blog that’s not written by a bunch of Mac fanboys, maybe you’ve found it! When there’s something about the Mac we don’t like, we’ll crab about it. But when we find some delightful new freeware program, or some helpful hint or tip that makes it more of a joy to use a Mac, we’ll pass that along.
Oh, and don’t worry, most of the articles should be more concise than this one - we know you are busy and don’t have much time to read, and my editor has said he’ll chop off my articles if I let them get too long, and start to ramble on…..
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Posted by BigCrab | Under Hardware, Opinion, Software
Friday Apr 11, 2008
BigCrab here - There are two of us involved with this project at the moment. I’m the practical, down-to-earth guy. But the person who started this blog, and who will be doing 99.9% of the writing is, shall we say, a bit more open to flights of fancy. He writes, I proofread (and then yell at him for misusing and abusing apostrophes). I can try to make his writing more grammatically correct, but I can’t improve upon the content. Thus you may, from time to time, see the sort of perversity that follows. I’d like to know where he’s getting whatever Apple Juice he’s drinking when he writes this stuff, because I want some!!! Oh, he starts out okay (if you don’t mind be talked to like a child), but by the time he gets to talking about me in the third and fourth paragraphs, I know he’s been hitting the hard cider. Trust me, I am NOTHING AT ALL like the way he describes me. And, I live in the real world, not some enchanted orchard. But I do come and visit him every so often, and the men in the clean white coats are kind enough to pass along the crumpled slips of paper containing his notes and ideas, some of which are expressed herewith…..
JohhnyAppleseed here announcing the Orchard of Wisdom is now open… The seeds of knowledge have been sown. With the help of my partner BigCrab, we have nurtured the seeds of an idea to where we are today. Welcome to Orchard of Wisdom here in CrabApple Forest!
We decided to open the Orchard of Wisdom because we believe that the tree of knowledge belongs to everyone. But, here in the real world of CrabApple Forest we know that every good Apple comes with a price. You must carefully pick the good fruit to fully enjoy the sweetest Apple of them all, the Macintosh.
We have a whole orchard of Apples but unless you know how to pick and choose the right ones you may take a bite and get a VERY sour, bitter mouthful. Trust and believe I get an earful from BigCrab every time he takes a bite and gets a sour one! He gets so crabby that he storms around the forest making sure EVERYONE know where the bitter ones are. Many people who don’t know BigCrab think that he is just mad at the world all the time. But, that’s not true. Not everything is as it seems here in CrabApple Forest.
The truth is that even though I run the Orchard of Wisdom day in and day out, BigCrab started eating the fruit first! When he took his first big juicy bite of that sweet Macintosh. and tasted the pure perfection of the Apple, he was hooked for life. The next day was a different story. You see, that time he got a nasty bitter taste in his mouth. From that day forward he was committed to let all the newcomers to the forest know where all the bad Apples were. So, if you see or hear BigCrab during your visit here to the Orchard of Wisdom and he is yelling and waving his arms don’t be afraid. BigCrab is just trying to keep you on the path to the Tree of Knowledge. He may seem a bit gruff or odd but really he’s just trying to help you so you don’t have to suffer that bitter taste in your mouth from getting a bad Apple.
I will share with you at a later date how my partner BigCrab and I ended up here in the CrabApple Forest. It’s been a long jorney and it is far from over.
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