TinkerTool System

I came across this via ATPM, an OS X insider site. TinkerTool System does sound appealing, and it's not much money. I'll download and give it a trial. I like when they say:

The latest version comes with a new deinstallation helper for applications or other software components which had been installed by "drag and drop", a tool to eliminate unneeded code support in Universal Applications, and a feature to manipulate the Services menu of Mac OS X

TinkerTool System is very different from other maintenance applications because it never uses any scripts and is fully integrated into the security architecture of Mac OS X. For example, it never asks for your password itself but lets Mac OS X do this when necessary, always verifying whether an operation you have selected is allowed to be performed with your current user credentials or not.

Somehow that language is soothing ...

Update: TinkerTool has a very sophisticated system for allowing evaluation while preventing piracy. So sophisticated it wouldn't let me evaluate it. Delete.

Screenshot Plus: another useful (free) widget

Glory be! If this keeps up I'll have to start using widgets. Sounds a bit more conventient that the built in screenshot options, and it's free.

Screenshot Plus Widget @ osx.iusethis.com

Take screen captures quickly and easily. Screenshot Plus can take full screen captures, grab portions of the screen, and even capture windows, desktop icons, and other widgets. Captures may be saved to the clipboard or to the hard drive, or they may be imported to any application directly from the widget.

Captures may be saved in the formats: png, tiff, jpg, jp2, pdf, gif, bmp, or pict.

Update: Ugh. It just hung with a "loading" message. I suspect it didn't like my non-admin default account. This one is for the trash.

Apple's hardware reliability problems

Apple has significant reliability problems with its new Intel based laptops. The heat issues are disappointing. I wonder if we won't see devices worth buying until Apple switches to the Intel CPUs. If my iBook dies, however, I will buy a MacBook. This Macintouch data is about the best we're going to get from anyone. Emphases mine:

MacBook/MacBook Pro Initial Reliability

... Based on what we've seen in this survey, we'd be cautious buying a white or black MacBook until Apple more effectively addresses the heat, noise and trackpad button issues. We'd be reasonably confident buying a brand new 15' MacBook Pro, but keep an eye out for sleep and shutdown problems, and call AppleCare the moment they appear. We would have no hesitation at all buying the 17' MacBook Pro, with or without glossy display...

The iBook G4 was a remarkably stable machine. Rocky times ahead!

Google's web albums -- Access from OS X

Google now has an iPhoto plugin to facilitate uploads to Google's Picasa Albums. Like much of their OS X work it was a 20 percenter project. I'll certainly try it out.

Update 9/3/06:

I uploaded 600MB of images. Worked great. Obviously I paid the $25 or so for the 9GB limit, but that could go pretty darned fasts. Albums are very simple, no cusomization really. RSS feed for each album; iPhoto renders it as a photocast but only shows the thumbs, no way for iPhoto to get the whole thing. XP users can install Picasa and download an entire album, no way for OS X users to do that. Upload was very fast. Can download full res images. Way they display album is different -- no paging, everything on one page. I kind of like it. Good slideshow. No way to order prints.

Problems with antivirus software: full text indexing

I love full text indexing. I use Lookout for Outlook and Yahoo Desktop Search on XP, and Spotlight (of course) on OS X.

The OS X experience is pretty much perfect -- especially compared to the XP story. Full text indexing on XP has all kinds of performance and usability issues, but the worst appear to be related to antiviral software

I can't find much about this on a google search, just hints that suggest I'm not the only one to notice this. The minor problem is that the antiviral software wastes cycles searching the text indices (files need to be exempted from av and backup). The big problem is that some antiviral software really trashes file i/o (I disable it when doing heavy duty database work), and full text indexing causes massive file i/o. So the combo on antiviral s/w and index building can bring a single CPU XP system to its knees.

Mercifully I run my OS X systems without that vile antiviral software, so I don't run into problems there.

I think this may be one of the reasons that Microsoft decided to take over the antiviral business. It really does have to be built into the OS in such a way that it interoperates with full text search -- in particular exempt some file i/o operations from the antiviral tax.

Nasty 10.3.9 bug: Unintended deletion of parent folder

Apple's not patching 10.3.9 any more, but this is pretty bad.

Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9: Wrong folder moved to Trash when deleting in Finder in column view

Deleting a new, untitled folder without first renaming it (in column view) may inadvertently move the parent folder to the Trash under certain circumstances. This article applies to Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9.

When you create a new folder, the name is immediately editable. If you move that folder to the the Trash via one of two specific methods [cmd-delete is what I do] before entering a name and the Finder window is in column view, then the parent folder will be moved to the Trash...

* Using the Command-Delete key combination in the Finder
* Choosing Move to Trash from the File menu in the Finder

Stop Safari viewing PDFs with Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader is a constant annoyance in Safari and even Firefox/Mac. I doubt Adobe did much testing with non-admin privileges, fast-user switching, firefox/safari use, external drives, etc.

How does minimize use of Acrobat, but keep it around for emergency uses? There's no Acrobat option to turn off Safari integration (another sign that Acrobat is badly written), but you can track down and delete AdobePDFViewer.plugin. (Use Spotlight to find it.)

Then find a PDF and make sure it's set to open with Preview (Get Info, etc, etc).

Unfortunately the next time you start Acrobat it may "repair" its Safari integration and reinstall the plugin. I read conflicting reports. I'll document what I learn.

I wonder how much of its software work Adobe has outsourced, and whether they're really getting value from that decision.