Configuring an OS X Mac box when simplicity is strongly preferred

I configured a Mac Mini for my mother last December (2006), and wrote up my configuration notes as I went along. It was a harder task than I'd expected, the modern Mac is very engaging, but it is not as user friendly as, say, MacOS Classic 6.

Configuring an OS X Mac box when simplicity is strongly preferred

... This is a very terse guide based on notes I took when I was configuring a Mac Mini for my mother's use. I also wrote up a less terse tutorial for here, a PDF version is here.

If you're setting up a machine for someone who needs a very simple and user-focused system you will find some ideas here. If you're not a Mac guru, however, this will not be very readable...

This has worked pretty well for my mother over all. It's been a very reliable setup. She has limited vision, so I paid a friend $25 (to cover his costs) for a massive 19" CTR and we run that at 1024x768. I think the next step for her would be to buy a 39" HD TV and use it as a monitor from 4 feet away ...

I'll point the Take Control eBooks folks to it as I think this would be a great eBook topic:

Expose tips and tricks

macosxhints.com - 10.4: A couple of Expose tips has some interesting tips in the post and comments alike. I didn't follow them all, but I'll give them a try on my Macs and update this with any I like.

My network MFC scanner works with OS X 10.4.9 Image capture

A year ago I bought a Brother [1] networkable multifunction device the MFC-7820N. I wrote a series of short articles all stuffed into one blog post about various issues and solutions for XP and OS X. I like the machine, but it's strictly for geeks. We have a long way to go before this type of device works reliably for the non-geek [2].

Anyway, today I discovered OS X Image Capture will pull in a scan over the network! Neat. I don't know if would always do that or if it's the result of various updates. Anyway, I added a note on how to do it at the end of the old blog posting.

[1] There's no connection to the typewriter company my father new in the 1950s or so. All these old brand names have been bought up by Chinese companies.

[2] I think Apple would have to resell it with their software to make it regular person friendly. At twice the price of course!

Unsanity.org claims every OS X update is a game of russian roulette

It's an incredibly claim, made by a company that specializes in an OS X "hack" (called a haxie). The claim is that each time you apply a significant OS X update you run the risk of being hit by a known OS destroying bug.

It sounds like my usual pre-update practice is not a bad way to avoid this alleged bug:

1. Download full update for major updates so it's stored locally.
2. Do a "safe start" to trigger the routine diagnostics then shutdown.
   
3. Reboot machine into my admin account (no startup items, simple account).
4. Run the update and walk away from the machine.
   
5. When the update is done, restart.
6. After this restart is done do a full shutdown.

By contrast, Gruber's is more minimalist. He logs out, then logs in holding the shift key (suppresses startup items -- I didn't know that one!). My admin account has no startup items so I don't need to worry about them.

Gruber and the Unsanity article both agree that you should not do anything while an update is running. As is often the case, the harsh part of the following is the claim that Apple has known about this bug for at well over a year -- and hasn't fixed it.

Unsanity.org: Shock and Awe: How Installing Apple's Updates can Render Your Mac Unbootable and How You Can Prevent it

... When you see the "Optimizing System Performance" phase of a software update, Mac OS X is really updating prebinding. Updating prebinding has a very, very nasty bug in it (look at _dyld_update_prebinding). If multiple processes are updating prebinding at the same time, then it is possible for a system file to be completely zero'd out...

... I've been tracking this particular bug for about 18 months now. Most of the real "random" failures reported on various Mac OS X "troubleshooting" sites after a user has installed an Apple software update are actually manifestations of this bug...

... Every single time you install an update to Mac OS X whether it be an iTunes update, a QuickTime update, an update for daylight saving time, a security update, an Airport update, or an actual Mac OS X update, you can be hit by this bug. In order to prevent yourself from being smacked in the face by this bug, follow this simple rule: When "Optimize System Performance" appears during the update process do not touch your computer and definitely do not launch any applications. Just back away from your computer box as if it were a swarm of bees...

... The worst sign you've been hit by this bug is an inability to boot after installing a Mac OS X update. Sometimes the little wheel will just keep on spinning. Other times you'll get to the point where you should see your desktop but all you see is a blue screen (because [the] loginwindow is repeatedly crashing due to a missing library). The "easiest" sign is an application will crash either at launch or when you do a specific action and the console.log /Applications/Utilities/Console (or a crash log) will spew out a message about dyld that says: "Reason: no suitable image found." and then sometimes "file to short" [sic]. The file is too short because it is zero-length...

... This bug has been filed with Apple, along with steps to reproduce it 100% of the time (at least in my testing). It was marked as a duplicate, which means the bug was already in Apple's system before I filed it. And since it is duplicate, I don't know what is going on with it. Yes, before anyone mentions it, I know prebinding is deprecated. However, Mac OS X still does it when installing Apple updates...

The full article has some diagnostic steps to try and discusses recovery . I think for most people recovery is to boot in firewire mode, remove data, and reinstall.

If this if for real, and it's really been 18 months, Apple is not showing its best face ...

Phil Bradley's functional classification of Web 2.0 applications

"I want to" Web 2.0 is organized by goal, such as "collaboration" or "communication". It's a handy way to see what's being developed in different domains.

ScanHelper: route scan output to the desired application

Scott Gruby has written a small application to allow OS X users to quickly swap which application should be used for scanning. I'm guessing it looks to the software that controls the scanner like a client application that accepts scans, but it's really a router to a scanning application:

ScanHelper is a small application that places a menu in the menubar that lets you select which application should be used for scanning. Simply tell the ScanSnap Manager to use ScanHelper and then ScanHelper routes the scans to the selected application. You can now easily select a destination right from the menubar. I’m releasing this as free software, but if you like it, please buy my ReceiptWallet application.

This sounds clever! I'm going to try it. Gruby suggests you buy his ReceiptWallet product if you like it.

One Number to Rule Them All

Pogue writes about a unified phone numbers scheme: One Number That Will Ring All Your Phones - New York Times. Free for up to to two numbers.

My thoughts:

1. The real play here is for identity and reputation management. That's where the conquer-the-world ROI Is.

2. Others will do this.

3. Your number lasts only as long as the startup

4. The switching costs are very high. So if you commit and the price goes to $400/year don't cry. Let me repeat: you are signing a contract in blood.

5. It will be buggy and unreliable. That won't fly well.

6. Various vendors have sold this sort of thing for years, but it's always been very expensive.

7. I'd wait for Google.

Update 3/26/07: I signed up with GrandCentral.com after all. Why? Well, in part to preserve a username that I wanted. However, I also figured out why this useful for me now.

Nobody wants to carry two cellphones, but if you get a corporate phone you either need to carry two phones or be tied to a phone number that you lose when you switch jobs. GrandCentral solves this problem. I can get the corporate phone, but publish a number I own that redirects to the corporate phone. The number stays with me, even if the phone doesn't.