OS X usability hall of horrors

We all know that OS X has lots of design flaws, usability errors and half-built zombie components (such as Services, Sherlock, the Finder, and the Dock. I didn't realize how long the list was, however, until I built and configured a Mac Mini for my 70+ yo mother. The act of documenting the build opened my eyes to how bad things are. Of course XP is worse, but, really, that's a feeble excuse.

I don't expect 10.5 to be much better, but I hope I'm surprised. Of course OS X works very well for me, but that's not the point. Here's the list, in no particular order:

1. It’s not hard to put an icon behind the dock, esp. when the auto-arrange option is set for the Finder. If the user can’t control the doc (it's been locked as part of system configuration), the icon may not appear to be retrievable.
2. It’s too easy for users to drag things and make them go “poof” -- with no obvious way to undo this.
3. The options to customize toolbars is too limited. Where’s the Help button?
4. There is NO documentation on how to use OS X in the box or on the machine. NADA. You need to buy a book.
5. The trash should be on the $#!%$! Desktop, not attached to the Dock.
6. The Dock is one big usability disaster.
7. Using the Trash icon to “Burn” a CD is really dumb.
8. The Address Book is a disaster. You can’t customize the Toolbar. It feels little changed from 10.0. The UI is a complete mess. Do you know how to delete an address book entry? Now let's talk about Mail.app integration ...
9. It’s much too easy to lose the main Window in Mail.app.
10. The sequence of steps required to make a ‘Preview’ window “right sized” is obscure and bizarre.
11. Widgets: Oddly enough, if you’re careful, you can put together a good set, but pressing F12 should hide everything else and the Widget layer should be impermeable - so can’t click through to Desktop or other apps...
12. iTunes breaks a number of UI conventions, but the one of the worst is using the ‘smart size’ Green button to switch to the mini-player instead of resizing the main window. iTunes also disregards the existence of the Dock. I think the iTunes developer team dropped several competence grades in the past few releases.
13. Location information for the Dashboard widgets is set by the address card information for the currently logged in user. This is not documented. Cute and stupid. (The address related widgets don’t work outside the US, and they don’t provide any error messages to that effect either.)
14. Open Mail.app. Then open Address Book. Then create an address. Then in Mail.app click on addresses. Note the newly added address does not appear. Eventually it is recognized, but it takes a surprisingly long time and a few application restarts. Shameful.
15. Create a sticky. With cursor at the end of a line, print it. Notice the last word does not print. Wretched.
16. The "stuck" CD/DVD problem. (If a CD has fingerprints or otherwise cannot be recognized properly, it doesn't mount on the desktop, but it doesn't eject either!)

You do get the feeling nobody in Cupertino cares about this stuff any more ...

Yet another OS X bug - iTunes this time

I'm running into a serious bug every hour or so! This one is with Apple's Front Row menu. Music that plays fine in iTunes, and that came from a CD (not the Apple Store) won't play in Front Row -- I get the "not authorized" notice.

I'm thinking very negative thoughts at the moment. Time to go to sleep.

Update: Others have noticed this. $#!$#!$!@%!%

Maybe Jobs should take some of his suspect stock option money and pay for some QA testing.

Update: Here's the main discussion. Tag update didn't work, move Library didn't work, now trying move and Consolidate (takes a long time, so maybe ...). Update later.

Update: Ok, it's fixed. Killer bug though. My iTunes library was in a folder titled iTunesMusic. When all was done the files were in 'iTunes Music'. I did the following:

1. upgraded all tags to most recent standard
   
2. used advanced settings to change location of all music
3. use 'consolidate' menu item which had the effect of copying (so almost ran out of room on drive) all music from iTunesMusic to a new folder called iTunes Music in the parent folder I'd moved everything to.
4. started OS X in safe mode to flush caches then restarted
   
5. started iTunes, confirmed it was using iTunes Music.
6. moved iTunesMusic to the trash
7. Started Front Row which then locked up. Killed front row with cmd-alt-esc.
8. emptied trash and restarted iTunes. (I think Front Row was still trying to use the files in iTunesMusic, which was in the trash.)
   
9. Started Front Row again -- now it works.
   

The MacBook has a flicker problem ...

Alas, hundreds of postings, this being only one of the recent ones: Apple - Support - Discussions - Has anyone got the screen flick problem ....

I can attest my 2 month old Core-2 Duo is flickery, though it's more annoying that intolerable. It's more obvious with the default blue background, less with white background. Better at intermediate brightness, worse with CPU load and heat. Sounds like a design flaw. I'm early in my warranty period so I'll just track it. Apple repair can be shaky -- if you get a repair too early in a defect issue cycle you end up worse than when you started.

Some people claim it's not so obvious when using XP BootCamp, which would be encouraging that their might be a firmware or software fix.

OS X windows file sharing: incorrect password bug

"OS X" "windows file sharing" "incorrect password" - Google Search didn't help me, but I figured this but out on my own.

The bug bites when you enable windows file sharing by account. You have to enter the account password -- but it doesn't work!

I think this bug shows up when you migrate a 10.3.9 account, that itself started life with 10.1, to a new machine running 10.4.x using the OS user migration utility. That seemed like a great idea at the time, but in retrospect OS X does not manage machine migration nearly as well as Mac Classic did.

The answer is to go to each user account and change the password to something different. Then change it back to the original password. This fixes things.

There's a similar "incorrect password" bug that shows up on the Win98 side when connecting to a Mac SMB share. I haven't figured that one out yet, I'll try restarting the Mac and see if that helps. I also used the super-occult OS X Directory Access utility to change my OS X SMB workgroup to match the Windows workgroup.

Note that the Windows workgroup SMB browse name is the same as the Bonjour/Rendezvous browse name (machine_name.local).

Jeez, ever since I started migrating my mother from Win98 to OS X I've been running into a torrent of OS X bugs and usability errors. OS X really does have a lot of issues ...

Update 1/1/07: Well, I got bidirectional file sharing working between Win98 and OS X. What a pain! I'm not sure what did the trick. I used the ultra obscure Directory Access utility to change my OS X SMB workgroup name from "workgroup" to the name used by the Win98 machine, I logged in to the Win98 machine with a username that matched the username on my OS X machine, and I probably did a few other things too. It does work, but really this is ugly.

Sloppy bug in OS X Stickies

This is embarrassing.

Create a sticky with large font size. Type 3 words. Leave the cursor following the last word. Print. The printed output truncates the last word.

That's sloppy.

Update 1/1/07: My 76 yo mother pointed out that she discovered the bug and should be credited on the report.

Mac 101: Apple documents OS X for everyone

Recently I did quite a bit of work to configure a Mac Mini for my mother. I don't know yet how it will turn out, but I've got quite a bit to post about the experience (including a mini-intro manual and configuration directions).

I ended up thinking OS X 10.4, though at least as usable as XP, is not as easy to configure for a novice as Windows 95 was, much less pre-Switcher Mac Classic or MacOS 9 Simple Finder. More about this later, but suffice to say computers today are built for experts. I also was struck by how pathetic the out-of-box OS X documentation is. Have you ever looked at the 'Tiger' PDF? Very weak.

So it's noteworthy that Apple is expanding their Mac 101 site. Their slowly building the documentation, even if it's not on the machines they sell. The discussion of Expose had a few things I didn't know (in bold). Time to force some old tricks on an old dog (me)...

Mac 101: Expos�

# When you want to drag something from a Finder window into a folder on your Desktop but can't see that folder, start dragging the item, press F11 to hide all windows, and drop the item in the folder.
# If you need to drag a file from one window to another, start dragging the item, press F9 to see all windows, drag the item over the target window until the window becomes active, or press F9 again, and drop in your item
# When you need to access something on your Desktop, press F11 to hide all windows for an unobstructed view.
# If you need to copy elements between two windows in the same application, start dragging the item you wish to copy, press F10 to display all open windows for that application, drag the item over the target window until it becomes active or press F10 again, and drop it.

I read some of the others. Did you know you can drag a photo into the edit box for the login picture and make that the login picture?! Apple desperately needs better help/documentation integration.

It's good stuff, but it's still way too esoteric for novice users.

Migrating mail from Outlook Express to OS X Mail.app: Using Eudora

I've read lots of articles on how to migrate mail from Outlook Express to Mail.app. Many confuse Outlook and Outlook Express (completely different products, can't imagine how the confusion arises :-).

This is the one I like best: Mail.app - Importing from Outlook and Outlook Express.

Use Eudora Windows to get the job mostly done, then Eudora Mailbox cleaner to finish the task.

1. To properly import all messages, attachments, and address book entries, the files copied from the Windows computer must be arranged in a specific manor.
2. Create a new folder and call it "Eudora Folder". The Desktop is a good place to create the folder.
3. Inside this folder, create three more folders named "Mail Folder", "Attachments Folder", and "Parts Folder".
4. Move the "Microsoft Outlook.fol" or "Outlook Express.fol" folder into the "Mail Folder".
5. Move the contents of the "attach" folder into "Attachments Folder".
6. Move the contents of the "Embedded" folder into "Parts Folder".
7. Move the "Nickname" folder into "Eudora Folder".
8. Make sure Mail.app is not running, then drag the "Eudora Folder" and drop it on the Eudora Mailbox Cleaner icon.
9. Leave all the boxes checked and click OK. (Filters will not be imported because Eudora cannot import the original filters from Outlook or Outlook Express.)

Blip.tv vs. YouTube

I use Google Video for our family videos, but DI suggests I should check out blip.tv: 10 Reasons Why Blip.tv is Better Than Youtube for Uploading & Sharing Videos on the Web - Digital Inspiration - Amit Agarwal.

Cooler Master NOTEPAL Aluminum Laptop Cooler

Cooler Master NOTEPAL Aluminum Laptop Cooler -Silver

Read about this on Macintouch, apparently it's a good fit for a MacBook. There's a widescreen version too. Reviews, as always, are helpful.

iPod shuffle 1st gen: wipe and reset

Apple - Support - Downloads - iPod shuffle Reset Utility 1.0.1 for Mac

I suspect it might be worth doing this for all 1st gen shuffles. Apple wouldn't have bothered releasing this unless there were some significantly hard to fix firmware problems.

Macintouch reviews online backup for Mac

Backup: Online Backup Services: Backjack is a favorite. Great review. Online backup is the way of the future, but obsessives like me won't rely on it yet. For now I see online backup as an alternative to rotating a hard drive offsite.

So I'd recommend local backup to a big hard drive (or NAS), use an online photo service that will mail a DVD (SmugMug for example), burn photos periodically to DVDs and consider using an online backup service as an alternative to rotating the onsite drive backup offsite.

The cost of backup is very large. Backjack will charge around $1000 a year for a large backup store (!), but that cost may be exceeded by the hassle of dealing with flaky backup software, etc. It's not a good situation now, and everyone is waiting to see if Google will help us out.

Yugma: free web-conferencing for Mac and PC -

DS likes Yugma web conferencing...

Go Yugma yourself, or a colleague - Download Squad:

... It is extremely painless to setup, use, and it is free to do it. Yugma is a web-conferencing tool that has excellent annotation tools, easy controls, and a simple sign-up process. ... Yugma uses a fast-loading Java interface that looks great, responds without me clicking a million times on it, and operates much like a regular desktop app. The tools it sports include a colored highlighter (changeable colors), a nicely done colored pen, and some other gadgets to help you get your point across. I

...Yugma is currently available for Windows and Mac, and will be available soon for Linux.

All very well, but my real interest is remote maintenance of my mother's Mac Mini. You see, Yugma includes "remote support and troubleshooting". Ahh, yes. There's nothing like this for the Mac. I expect it won't be free forever, but if it will do remote support I'd be glad to pay.

I'll give the remote support featuers a test and update this post with my results.

Retrospect Professional's occult configuration files

I'm migrating to a new machine after a disk crash, and thanks to good backups I've got the data I need. Except what happened to that painful configuration data that drives my backup software? Well, as of version 6.5, Retrospect Pro's help file documentation didn't address that minor little issue.

The configuration data is stored in the hidden folder - "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Retrospect" which renders on restore as "Documents and Settings\All Users.WINDOWS\Application Data\Retrospect". Restore that folder, find a file named config65.dat and copy it into the appropriate folder on your new drive. If all the paths are the same, this might work for you.

Dumb.

OS X backup: good review discussion

FreeRideCoding releases SmartBackup - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Nice summary, including the comments.

Apple laptop reliability: Macintouch survey and sleep times

Every MacBook and MacBook Pro(Intel Mac) owner should review the latest impressive Macintouch reliability survey. Early adopters of the new machines basically got it in the back, but are not as outraged as one might expect. It might be they were an unusually savvy group and knew they were taking risks. The newest machines seem to have better than average laptop reliability -- perhaps a 10% rate of big defects in the first 6 months or so of life. This is outrageous by the standards of automobiles but is relatively good for the world of laptops.

One note deserves a lot of attention:

MacBook/MacBook Pro Reliability:

... Apple's MacBooks and MacBook Pros behave differently from their PowerPC predecessors when they are put to sleep, taking up to 30 seconds to go to sleep, as they write the contents of system memory to the hard drive. This enables a more efficient power saving mode of sleep (basically identical to a PC's 'hibernate' mode), but the implementation seems to have some troubles. Many 15' MacBook Pro owners report that their machines fail to sleep successfully, overheating while being carried in bags, eventually discharging the battery completely and potentially risking a fire hazard, as well as hardware damage...

Apple dropped the ball by not shouting this from the laptops. Mac veterans are used to smartly closing the laptop and walking off with it. You can't do that with the new machines. You have to close them and wait for the far-too-small sleep indicator to start "breathing". It's bad enough training oneself to do that, much less the rest of the family!

I suppose the "hibernation" mode reduces power drain on the sleeping machines, but it's a real step backwards and likely a major contributor to device failure.

In addition to the 30 second delay (longer the more memory you install), Spotlight and various background processes, including Bluetooth devices, can all stop sleep/hibernate from occurring. So the basic problem is compounded by a number of bugs and design flaws. I see similar problems on my XP laptop, but this is new for the Mac. Tossing a laptop with a spinning drive into a backpack is not a great thing ...

The authoritative review ends on an upbeat note. I did everything I could to keep my G3 iBook alive until the Core-2 Duo MacBook came out. I'm patting myself on the back now ...

... All in all, we see a distinct trend of improvement for all new MacBook models, which bodes well for the future. Apple's Core 2 laptops are showing fewer problems than the original Core Duo models did when they were similarly young. With their fast, 64-bit, Core 2 Duo processors, higher memory capacity and FireWire 800 on the 15" models, Windows compatibility and competitive pricing, all of Apple's latest Core 2 MacBooks and MacBook Pros appear to be good choices, considering reliability, as well.