FINISHED: Apple / MacOS Tip a day for a year !

Is it really worth getting little snitch. Does the inbuilt firewall not work on the Mac? Or Even if my router got a firewall is it still worth getting little snitch?
 
Is it really worth getting little snitch. Does the inbuilt firewall not work on the Mac? Or Even if my router got a firewall is it still worth getting little snitch?

The inbuilt firewall is adequate other than some other uses which it fills. :naughty:
 
So you say it good to have little snitch aswell then?
 
OK....
Anyway how you liking snow leopard at the moment then?
 
Is it really worth getting little snitch. Does the inbuilt firewall not work on the Mac? Or Even if my router got a firewall is it still worth getting little snitch?

We in the trade would call this defence in depth. Each product may well work fine but it is always prudent to have different layers, hopefully with functionally different products. You may not feel that an app talking back to the mothership is a problem - it is nice to have the choice.

Chris
 
We in the trade would call this defence in depth. Each product may well work fine but it is always prudent to have different layers, hopefully with functionally different products. You may not feel that an app talking back to the mothership is a problem - it is nice to have the choice.

Chris

Or over kill :)

Firewall on router
Firewall on computer
2nd firewall on computer :) ---- It really does depend on what you are using it to prevent.
 
Sunday 30th August
Tip 290 - Snow Leopard[3] - 64 bit? Activity Monitor.


SNOW LEOPARD ONLY

Snow Leopard is 64 bit........

How do you know that you applications are running in this mode?

Start activity monitor and you will see that the column "Kind" now shows "Intel" or "Intel (64 bit)".
 
Monday 31st August
Tip 291 - Snow Leopard[4] - Can I run Leopard and what about 32/64 bit.


SNOW LEOPARD ONLY

Right here goes....

Snow leopard ONLY runs on INTEL processor machines.

32 bit mode.

The Intel Core Duo processor is a 32-bit processor !

You will have 32 bit Snow Leopard.

64 bit mode.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processors (and Xeons derived from them) are 64-bit processors.


Now SOME of these machines have 32 bit EFI and some 64 bit EFI. This is the bit that boots your computer and is a sort of next generation BIOS.

If your computer has a 32bit EFI it will boot a 32bit kernel but then run Leopard in 64 bit mode. Computers that do this include variant 1 Mac pros and ALL macbooks (sorry Apple made this decision for some reason).

Computers that have full 64 bit EFIs include the last generation 17" macbook pros.

If your computer has a 64 EFI (like my previously mentioned macbook pro) it does not mean that it will actually boot a 64 bit kernel though! My computer is still booting a 32 bit kernel but running Leopard in 64bit.

If you want to see how your machine is running this piece of software will do it:

TIP291a.png


64 bit check

Now what happens when you click on the "Start in 64bit mode" option…..

Well this actually:

TIP291b.png


You can now spend you day playing spot the difference with a lovely 64 bit kernel :)

NOTE: The software has nothing to do with me so use it at your own risk.....
 
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The Intel Core 2 Duo processors (and Xeons derived from them) are 64-bit processors.


Now SOME of these machines have 32 bit EFI and some 64 bit EFI. This is the bit that boots your computer and is a sort of next generation BIOS.

If your computer has a 32bit EFI it will boot a 32bit kernel but then run Leopard in 64 bit mode. Computers that do this include variant 1 Mac pros and ALL macbooks (sorry Apple made this decision for some reason).

Computers that have full 64 bit EFIs include the last generation 17" macbook pros.

If your computer has a 64 EFI (like my previously mentioned macbook pro) it does not mean that it will actually boot a 64 bit kernel though! My computer is still booting a 32 bit kernel but running Leopard in 64bit.

Sounds very interesting, I ran the activity monitor on my MacBook Pro Intel Duo Core 2.4 (15-inch, Late 2008) and this was the result:

Screenshot2009-09-02at131642.png


It does appear to be 64 bit although I'm a little confused :LOL:
 
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I think your macbook pro is the same vintage as mine although it could be the previous one. It will run 64bit but you will have a 32bit kernal. I wouldn't worry about it as it is not going to make much difference at all! You could try the software to see which, if any, of you system are running in 32 bit mode.
 
I think your macbook pro is the same vintage as mine although it could be the previous one. It will run 64bit but you will have a 32bit kernal. I wouldn't worry about it as it is not going to make much difference at all! You could try the software to see which, if any, of you system are running in 32 bit mode.

Cheers mate (y) What software has the option to run 64bit, I have CS4? ill this benefit in 64 bit and how would I tell?
Sorry for being a dunce :D
 
When software is written to take advantage of 64 bits it will basically be able to use whatever amount of ram the system allows. Now on a Mac Pro like mine that will be 6Gb (4x512Mb+4x1Gb) but prior to Snow Leopard each application was run in a 32bit space giving just under 4Gb so Photoshop for example could not use the rest. Now if I change the 4x512Mb for 4x2Gb I will have 12Gb of ram and Photoshop can use whatever is available making it quicker. Computers are quicker with more ram because as their need for memory space increases and they run out they have to save bits of the memory space to hard disk (hard disks are quick but thousands of times slower than ram) so this slows everything down. There are other advantages but the larger address range is the biggest one.
 
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When software is written to take advantage of 64 bits it will basically be able to use whatever amount of ram the system allows. Now on a Mac Pro like mine that will be 6Gb (4x512Mb+4x1Gb) but prior to Snow Leopard each application was run in a 32bit space giving just under 4Gb so Photoshop for example could not use the rest. Now if I change the 4x512Mb for 4x2Gb I will have 12Gb of ram and Photoshop can use whatever is available making it quicker. Computers are quicker with more ram because as their need for memory space increases and they run out they have to save bits of the memory space to hard disk (hard disks are quick but thousands of times slower than ram) so this slows everything down. There are other advantages but the larger address range is the biggest one.

Gothca! Thanks very much, I sincereley appreciate your efforts (y)
 
When you have installed Snow Leopard don't forget to make use of tip 22 ie

De localiser. This will remove all the foreign language files from the OS. This saves 276Mb from Mail alone!
 
It looks as though the Mac Mini won't support 64bit mode even with the Core 2 Duo processor and 64bit EFI...

DB
 
It looks as though the Mac Mini won't support 64bit mode even with the Core 2 Duo processor and 64bit EFI...

DB

I cannot see any reason why it will not run Snow Leopard in 64 bit mode. It might run a 32bit kernel but that is the way that the macbooks etc are supposed to run anyway.
 
Well I installed SL, and assumed I was running in 64 bit mode.
Especially as little snitch stopped working, and so did my Logitech software/extra mouse buttons.

I installed the latest Logitech Control software for my mouse (v3) and upgraded LS to 2.2, it worked, but er something else happened, so I rolled back to 2.1.2 and it worked again. I assumed I was still in 64 bit mode.

Not so, a run of the above software told me i wasn't.

64 bit CPU, 64 bit EFI, but 32bit kernel boot and 32 bit kernel
I rebooted into 64 bit and my littlesnitch stopped working again.
Same with my logitech mouse.

So Ive switched back to 32 bit mode for now until I can sort my mouse out.
 
Tuesday 1st September
Tip 292 - Snow Leopard[5] - NEW Image Capture.


SNOW LEOPARD ONLY

With Snow Leopard, Image Capture has come of age and is now a rather nifty utility.

TIP292a.png


To begin with we select the device that we want to import our images from:

TIP292b.png


The iPhone, memory card readers and cameras will appear under "Devices" whilst network attached devices such as scanners will appear under "Shared".

For now I will select the iPhone.

Now at the bottom of the page we can select either full information or images using the following button pair.

TIP292c.png


If you select images then you will be presented with all the images on your device displayed in a directory type view. If you select full information you will be presented with far more information than you would previously seen. The full information now includes GPS location and EXIF data. These columns are movable and resizable. Once set the columns will appear the same next time the application is run.

We can also rotate the images using the following button pair.

TIP292d.png


Then we select the locate to import images to using:

TIP292e.png


Once you have made your selections click on [Import All] or [Import] for these images to be imported to those locations.
 
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Wednesday 2nd September
Tip 293 - MacOS[137] - CD/DVD Auto insertion.


This one isn't a Snow Leopard tip but one for everyone. How do you adjust what happens when you insert CD or DVD.

Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: CDd & DVDs

TIP293a.png


As you can see you can now click on the drop down menu selector next to the following:

When you insert a blank CD
When you insert a blank DVD
When you insert a music CD
When you insert a picture CD
When you insert a video DVD

The drop down selector gives you the following options:

TIP293b.png


Open Finder - This opens the finder window with your CD/DVD in it.
Open iTunes - This starts iTunes and tries to use iTunes on the contents of the Disk.
Open Disk Utility - This starts Disc Utility with the inserted disc as the target
Open other application... - This allows you to select another application to launch when you insert a disc
Run Script... - This allows you to run a specific script when you insert a disc (I have covered the basics of scripts previously)

Ignore - This tells the system to just ignore that type of disk.
 
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Thursday 3rd September
Tip 294 - MacOS[138] - Quick resolution selector.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences ....

then click on [Displays] or [Color LCD] dependent on which version of the OS you are running and the type of monitor.

TIP294a.png


Click on [Show displays in menu bar] and a small monitor will appear on your menu bar giving you instant access to resolution changes.

Now clicking on the display icon will bring up a sub menu like this one:

TIP294b.png
 
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Friday 4th September
Tip 295 - MacOS[139] - F Keys/FN key on laptops.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Keyboard

TIP295.png


By clicking on the option [Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys] you revert the function keys to acting like they do on a desktop then by holding the [FN] key the function keys do their normal function.
 
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Saturday 5th September
Tip 296 - MacOS[140] - Keyboard illumination (Macbook pro).


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Keyboard

TIP295.png


By clicking on the option [Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions] you can select whether or not the keyboard lights up when it gets dark.
 
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Sunday 6th September
Tip 297 - MacOS[141] - Character viewer.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Keyboard

TIP295.png


By clicking on the option [Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in menu bar] an extra menu icon will appear which is the Character view/Keyboard view selector.

Click on this icon and then click "Show Character Viewer".

TIP297.png


Now by clicking on the left hand pane you can select the category that you want then double click on the character in the right hand pane. This will then be placed into the keyboard buffer and therefore transferred to your current program.
 
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Monday 7th September
Tip 298 - MacOS[142] - Keyboard shortcuts.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Language & Text

Then click on the [TEXT] tab.

TIP298a.png


You can now see in the left hand pane three columns: "On", "Replace" and "With".

If you look at the first entry it is "(c)" which is replaced by the copyright symbol and then the same with the registered symbol etc and all these are ticked. As you go down the list you will get to the fractions and these you will see are not ticked. In order to turn them on simply click on the empty box to their left and a tick will appear then the fraction shortcut will be added. So if you type "1/2" this will be replaced by the single character half.

You can add more shortcuts by clicking on the [+] icon and adding your own.
 
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Tuesday 8th September
Tip 299 - MacOS[143] - Display date in menu bar.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Date & Time

Then click on the [CLOCK] tab.

TIP299.png


Click on [Show date] and the current date will appear in the menu bar with the day.
 
Wednesday 9th September
Tip 300 - MacOS[144] - Software Update frequency/automation.


Click on APPLE :: System preferences .... :: Software Update

Then click on the [Scheduled Check] tab.

TIP300.png


The default for checking for updates is weekly as can be seen by the above image. You can force MacOS to check when you want by clicking on the [Check Now] button but you can also adjust the schedule to check more or less frequently. I normally change this to daily.
 
Thursday 10th September
Tip 301 - MacOS[145] - Shortcut/Alias creation.


It is possible to create a short cut to another location on your computer by right clicking on the folder that you want and selecting "Make Alias". This will create another folder with a small arrow on it. You can then move this "Alias" file to wherever you like. If, for example, you have a folder that your scanner creates it's images in you could create an alias to this folder and place it into your pictures directory. Then when you select the pictures directory you will have a quick jump to the scanned images.
 
Friday 11th September
Tip 302 - Snow Leopard[6] - HP Scanner workaround.


SNOW LEOPARD ONLY

Snow Leopard seems to have broken HP network scanning software and so I have managed to work out a way to scan using a HP network scanner such as my trusty C6280.

Start PREVIEW from Applications.

TIP302a.png


Click on FILE :: Import From Scanner :: <Name of your scanner>

TIP302b.png


Simple scans

If you have one picture on the scanner then click [SCAN]

It will now tell you that the scanner is warming up, it will detect the picture and scan it automatically. (it ignores the "Detect seperate items" box !!!)

More advanced scans

Click on [Show Details]

TIP302c.png


You can now adjust the format, dpi etc and the scannable area.

Then click [Scan]
 
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Saturday 12th September
Tip 303 - MacOS[146] - Align desktop icons.


Click on your desktop.
Click "view" on the menu bar.
Click "clean up" from the drop down menu.
 
Sunday 13th September
Tip 304 - Applications MAIL - Keyboard shortcuts.


With MAIL running we have a number of keyboard shortcuts:

[CMD] + [1] = Inbox
[CMD] + [2] = Outbox
[CMD] + [3] = Draft
[CMD] + [4] = Sent
[CMD] + [5] = Trash
[CMD] + [6] = Junk
[CMD] + [7] = Notes
[CMD] + [8] = ToDo
 
Monday 14th September
Tip 305 - HP Photosmart/iPhone - Printing from your iPhone.


HP have released an application for the iPhone that lets you print directly to your Photosmart printer connected to a wireless network. Give it a try and search for "HP iPrint Photo". Once installed you press the icon and the picture selector comes up. Press the picture and it goes to the print screen - Note if your printer has a 6x4" tray if defaults to this and will only use this!
 
Tuesday 15th September
Tip 306 - Hardware - Macbook (inc pro) - Resetting the System Management Controller.


The System Management Controller is part of the macbook and controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

If you have any problems with any of the above just give this a try....

Disconnect the power and remove the battery
Press the power button in for 8 seconds
Reconnect everything and restart

If you have a computer with a built in battery that you cannot remove then instead of removing the battery press LEFT-HAND [SHIFT] + [CONTROL] + [OPTION] whilst pressing the power button.
 
Wednesday 16th September
Tip 307 - Snow Leopard[7] - Improved battery monitor.


Snow Leopard now has an improved battery monitor. It is not much of an improvement but it now tells you if your battery is in need of changing by displaying:

Replace Soon - Battery still holding small amount of charge.
Replace Now - Battery detected but not charging.
Check Battery - Battery not detected.

If you get any of the above try taking out the battery and cleaning the contacts then putting it back. You can also try TIP306 to reset the system management controller (SMC) which can also fix this.

WHAT IF YOU HAVE LEOPARD OR TIGER!

Click APPLE :: About This Mac then click on "More Info..." then click on "Power" in the left hand pane. Under "Battery Information" you will see "Health Information" which shows how many cycles the battery has performed and below that the condition of the battery which should read as NORMAL.
 
Thursday 17th September
Tip 308 - Airport[8] - Using latest firmware.


The find this out which version you are running just run the AIRPORT application from Utilities and on the front screen it will show your devices in the left hand pane. Click on the device (if you have more than one) and in the right hand pane it will show the version number.

To update this double click on the device listed in the left hand pane. Then if it is not running the latest version there will be a button next to the text showing the version number, click on this and your AIRPORT should download the latest version of the firmware and update itself.
 
Friday 18th September
Tip 309 - Snow Leopard[8] - WOL Wake on LAN/Wake on Demand.


SNOW LEOPARD ONLY

Snow Leopard now has the extra feature of allow your computer to be woken up by another computer on your network in order to access its network features. This is linked in with a AIRPORT Base station or Time Capsule.

First make sure your AIRPORT or Time Capsule is running the latest version of the firmware which must be version 7.4.2 or better. See TIP 308.

Once that is running you need to enable the computer.

Click on APPLE :: System preferences... :: Energy Saver
Click on the "Power Adapter" tab

TIP309a.png


You will notice the option "Wake for network access" and this needs to be ticked.

When you tick it you will be presented with the following warning:

TIP309b.png


Which you can click [OK] to.

WARNINGS

When/If you do this your computer can switch itself on when it wants to so just make sure that you have it in a well ventilated safe location so that it does not start up and overheat.

Also it can start up for short periods to check network access and have a chat with the base station. This is normal but if the computer is located in a bedroom and you are a light sleeper it can get annoying.

And another point, I would not normally allow this on a macbook because the battery in a macbook can be ruined by running flat. L-Ion batteries loose charge naturally and so when the computer's battery goes flat it should have 5% or so left but will drop lower and lower into the danger zone over time. If you leave this option on and the laptop not plugged in it will eventually drain down to 5% and not fire up BUT it will continue to drop naturally and could damage the battery - This is why we NEVER store macbooks with less than half a charge.
 
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Saturday 19th September
Tip 310 - MacOS[147] - Problems with Windows sharing.


I have covered the sharing of files with windows computers before and advised that it is worth sticking bonjour on the Windows computers especially from printing. You should be able to just access files on Windows computers from MacOS machines and vice versa but sometimes problems persist.

So here we have a bit of a check list&#8230;..

Make sure the hardware is working

Yes, a bit of a no brainer this one but make sure they are both accessing the network. The easiest check is that they both access the internet

Make sure the IP addresses are in the same range

I have explained about IP addresses before but just to quickly cover this, there are several ranges of IP address left out of the WWW so that you can use these on an internet network. Also you will notice a SUBNET MASK this tells your computer (simplistically) which computers are local. So if you have your router as 192.168.0.1 (the range from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.1.255 is acceptable) and you have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 then your computers will expect local machines to be in the same range of 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255

So basically pick a subnet such as 192.168.0 and make sure anything with a fixed address is in that net.

Set all SUBNET MASKS to 255.255.255.0

If your router gives a bank of addresses to pass to laptops etc using DHCP then pick a range inside of this subnet such as 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.0.150

Anything with a fixed IP address place in the same subnet but outside of the automatic range such as 192.168.0.90

Make sure the Workgroups are the same

In Windows inside SYSTEM in CONTROL PANEL make sure the workgroup is HOME or whatever you decide to chose.

In MacOS go to APPLE :: System preferences&#8230; :: Network

TIP310a.png


Click on the adapter in the left hand pane that you are using so AIRPORT for me&#8230;.

Click on Location and then click Edit Location

Click on the [+] and a new location called "untitled" will appear change this to whatever your workgroup is called and click [DONE].

If you are running wireless join the relevant network (select it under Network Name).

Now click on [Advanced]

TIP310b.png


under DNS tab click on the right hand "+" and add the IP address of your router. Click on the left hand "+" and add the name of your workgroup as a search domain.

under WINS tab click on the down arrow for Workgroup and change this to your workgroup.

<optional> under TCP/IP change "Configure IPv6" to OFF

Click [OK] in the bottom right

Click [APPLY] in the bottom right

Make sure SMB is switched on

SMB is the protocol used by Windows and Linux machines (mainly) and to switch it on is quite simple.

In MacOS go to APPLE :: System preferences&#8230; :: Sharing

TIP310c.png


At the top of the window you will see "Computer Name", change this to the name you want other computer to see this computer as.

Click on "File Sharing" in the left hand pane.

Click on the tick to switch it on.

Click on [OPTIONS]

TIP310d.jpg


Click on "Share files and folder using AFP" & "Share files and folder using SMB (Windows)"

Click on the account name and tick it, you will need to enter the password.
 
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