Friday, April 30, 2004

Resolving OS X slowdowns following an update

Apple - Discussions - The latest Mac OS X update runs slowly...: "This new update is too slow !

Hi !

From time to time, users post on the forum asking why the latest Mac OS update caused their computers to run slower... At the same time, other users post to describe the amazing speed improvements that this update provided...

This FAQ explains why a small number of users may experience a slowdown after having installed an OS update and provides some troubleshooting tips.

You may also want to follow these steps to boost the speed of your current installation, especially if you write and compile applications on your computer.

I - What may cause this slowdown ?



The previous installation wasn't stable Your previous installation may have encountered minor issues. Installing an update on an installation that already experiences problems is unlikely to solve them and may in fact cause some of them to be more visible. That's why is is important to solve any issues before applying any upgrade.

The installation wasn't optimized Before the 'Installer' quits, Mac OS X optimizes the update. That means that it makes sure that all the files are linked together and prepares them to be used efficiently and quickly. Would this process be interrupted, the installation won't run at full speed.



II - What should I do ?



The first thing to do would be to perform a few maintenance tasks.

1. Backup your data

2. Boot from the 'Mac OS X Install CD 1' and use the 'Installer' menu in order to open the 'Disk Utility'. Then, click on 'First Aid' and repair the hard drive.

3. Restart your computer and use the 'Disk Utility' located in your 'Utilities' folder in order to repair the permissions on the Mac OS X partition.

4. Disconnect your computer from the internet and follow the steps described in the Knowledge Base article n�107388

5. Restart your computer



III - This is still not working !



In that case, you may want to 'optimize' your installation. It is a good idea to do so if your installation wasn't optimized or if you have used lots of third-party installers.

1. Backup your data

2. Disconnect your computer from the internet

3. Open the 'Terminal' located in your 'Utilities' folder

4. Type sudo update_prebinding -root / -force

5. Hit Return

6. Type your administrator password and hit return again

7. Wait until the process completes

8. Restart your computer




You should then notice a speed improvement. Of course, do not hesitate to post on these forums. We would all be very glad to help you ! "

iTunes 4.5 troubleshooting guide | MacNN News

iTunes 4.5 troubleshooting guide | MacNN News: "FJZone.org has published a free iTunes 4.5 guide (119KB PDF) that provides answers and suggestions for 15 problems users have reported with iTunes 4.5, QuickTime, and updating their iPod. "

fix for iTunes update causes iPod to fail to mount

iPod does not appear in iPod Updater or iTunes in Mac OS X

Downgrading from iTunes 4.5

MacInTouch Home Page: "[Mathew] I upgraded to iTunes 4.5, and discovered that it would no longer connect to my jukebox machine, which has my entire music collection on it. The machine is a Linux box running the open source daapd software, which implements the daap protocol iTunes uses. The server also broadcasts via Rendezvous, so it works exactly like a Mac sharing via iTunes.
  Fortunately I had purchased iLife, so I had the iTunes 4.2 installer on CD. I tried to downgrade, and discovered that the iLife installer wouldn't let me, even if I trashed iTunes from the hard drive. The solution to that problem was to go to /Library/Receipts and remove the iTunes.pkg and iTunes4.pkg directories using sudo rm -rf iTunes*.pkg in terminal; having done that, I was able to install iTunes.
  The next snag was that iTunes 4.5 had silently upgraded my music library and iTunes 4.2 wouldn't read it any more. Luckily, since I keep all my music on a central server, I didn't need the local library, and I just trashed it. There was a file called 'iTunes 4 Music Library (Old)', perhaps that was a copy of the old version?
  So, it seems that iTunes 4.5 once again makes an unannounced change to MP3 sharing. For me at least, iTunes 4.5 is a no-go until someone fixes the incompatibility with daapd.
  While I'm writing, my biggest gripe with iTunes is that I can't make playlists of shared music tracks.
"

Monday, April 26, 2004

Beyond Megapixels: great series on digital photography

TheTechLounge - Beyond Megapixels - Part I
This is the first of a three part series of editorial articles examining current digital photography hardware, as well as the author’s views of what is to come. Keep in mind that as this is an editorial, it does contain some opinion and bias, but I have attempted to be as fair and objective as possible.

In the first few paragraphs it's obvious this is a cut above 90% of the writing about digital photography technologies either on the web or in periodicals.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Gmail - First impressions - offsite backups and file transfers and much more .... It's not really email

Gmail - All Mail

Google opened the next level of the Gmail beta to blogger customers. So, I've got mine.

Very impressive. The UI is far snappier than any webmail I've used, faster in some ways than Eudora 6 (which is, admittedly, abysmally slow for a desktop app). Lots of JavaScript. Runs fine in FireFox. Very simple UI of course, but elegant. Very Googleish.

It will come in very handy. I may set up some of my email systems to routinely copy messages to gmail, providing an accessible archive of my email. It will also be heavily used for file transfers. If I want to move a file from one system to another, I'll just sent it to myself. Unlike conventional email, when I send a message to myself via gmail only ONE message is created (not a send and receive message). So Gmail will be a highly efficient mechanism for file transfer and for quick offsite backups.
update

This is exciting. I'm finding many uses for Gmail in combination with Google's usenet postings and blogger postings. I routinely bcc items to gmail, which is becoming a kind of router for files and messages between services. Everything sits in my inbox, where I can search and sort.

Gmail represents a hard data lock though -- Google owns all the data. If there's anything I do that I don't want to lose, I copy it to my own machines. Increasingly, however, I'm throwing data out in one form or another.

Once Google starts integrating GMail (really threaded messaging > traditional email) with RSS feeds (blogger, blogines) ... Well, it's great to have an exciting and innovative company other than Apple in the world. For all his wealth and power, I wonder if seeing brilliance in other places somehow bugs Bill Gates ... probably not :-).
update

It's not really email. It's more of a message oriented file system. There's really one container -- the "ALL" container. Instead of "folders" you have "labels" -- which are categories for items. Items can be messages or files with message metadata. Threading provides a secondary way to traverse the file system. Searches are combined with "labels". The quick keys provide a UNIX like experience -- Google's UI paradigm is a cross between UNIX command line and GUI across all their applications.

Very subversive.