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Future updates via Facebook

mark@markburr.com — 2010-12-23T12:38:53+00:00

All future technical updates will now be performed via our Facebook fan page. .

Ever need to send huge emails ?

mark@markburr.com — 2009-01-06T13:48:33+00:00

Email is great but is a real bind when you want to send a large attachment.

FTP is also great, but a lot of people just don’t understand how it works.

I use a service quite regularly called yousendit

www.yousendit.com

Nice and simple.

Type in the senders email address and your return address and attach up to a 100mb file and the end user will receive an email with a link to download the file.

iPhone security flaw

mark@markburr.com — 2008-08-27T19:03:32+01:00

A major flaw in the iPhones passlock security has been exploited.

When your iPhone asks you for the passlock, press the emergency call button, then press the home button twice and it takes you to your favourite contacts. If you have entered email addressed and also web addresses in here, you will be able to access the Mail app and also Safari.

To disable this you need to:

Go to settings / general /home button and tick either home or iPod NOT phone favourites.

Email server is down

mark@markburr.com — 2008-05-22T10:00:36+01:00

Just to let you know that the Domain Devils email server went down at 6pm last night.

They are working on getting it up and running as soon as possible.

Please bear with them whilst this is being dealt with.

Filemaker update

mark@markburr.com — 2007-10-29T07:25:33+00:00

OK, following on from last nights post.

Filemaker v6 works fine with Leopard. v7 to v9 crash on launch. However if you go into system preference and select international and then click input menu and then scroll down and click the USA button.

You will now see a British flag in the top right hand corner of the screen. Click on this and then select the USA flag.

Now, you must launch Filemaker first (not double clicking a database to open it)

Then when launched you must go to the file menu and select your database from the "open recent menu'

Filemaker will now work fine.

I have tried double clicking the documents from the Finder and also drag and dropping (in USA mode) but Filemaker still crashes.

So your database needs to be in the recent menu to work.....

Filemaker does NOT work with OS X 10.5 Leopard

mark@markburr.com — 2007-10-28T17:52:35+00:00

Do not install Leopard (OS X 10.5) if you are using Filemaker.

Filemaker will crash once launched.

Creating a new user to troubleshoot problems

mark@markburr.com — 2007-10-25T20:04:34+01:00

A few interesting problems over the last week with customer machines.

1. G5 tower, OS X 10.4.10 with Quark 6.5. On launching Quark, it would unexpectedly quit. It was then narrowed down to one particular font that when active would crash out Quark. Bypassing Suitcase and manually having this font in the system would still crash Quark.

Create a new OS X user, load font, problem solved.....

2. G5 tower, OS X 10.4.10 > various apps. Icon previews not being saved properly. Viewable on the machine that created them, but not on others. Also not viewing directories properly from an Xserve.

Create a new OS X user, problem solved.....

Once the new user was created, all that then needs doing is to port over the contents from the desktop, email, itunes etc and voila the new user is ready to go.

What was causing the original problems ????? Who knows, but its certainly easier and quicker to create a new user rather than track down the faulty preference/corrupt file..

iMac freezing when mounting a server

mark@markburr.com — 2007-09-14T13:10:53+01:00

Interesting little problem this morning on a client's machine.

Dome iMac G4, the Finder would hang when logging into the server. Everything else worked perfectly on the machine.

A quick run of Disk Utility to check the hard disk out to find the directory was corrupted.

I mounted the iMac over firewire to another machine and fixed the errors.

Then ran 'repair permissions', rebooted and the server problem was cured :)

Adobe CS3 requirements

mark@markburr.com — 2007-08-21T22:08:37+01:00

Don't forget, if you intend on upgrading to Adobe CS3 you will need to be running at least Mac OS X 10.4.8

Broadband speeds

mark@markburr.com — 2007-03-01T07:59:34+00:00

The national average broadband speed is now 2mb, up from 512k a few years ago.

Up to 8mb is now enabled on most exchanges, however you don't always automatically get the upgrade from your ISP. You have to ask for it, and this may mean signing a new contract for a further 12 or 18 months, or it may incur additional charges or indeed the reverse > a price reduction.

If you are lucky enough to be a) close enough to the exchange and b) have a good quality line then you can expect to see download times like the one shown below.

If you need any help or guidance with broadband, then give us a call.

Suitcase Prefs

mark@markburr.com — 2007-01-24T18:20:11+00:00

From time to time, you should be deleting your Suitcase Preference folder. Located in your USER/Library/Preferences folder.

Suitcase can become a little too clever for its own liking and keeps track of fonts even after you have removed them, thus causing fonts issues. The way to cure this is to Quit Suitcase, trash the pref folder and relaunch.

Suitcase will now be fresh as if you just installed it :)

Macbook/Macbook Pro not going to sleep quick enough ?

mark@markburr.com — 2007-01-10T20:30:00+00:00

If you are finding that your Macbook/Macbook Pro takes it time to sleep when you shut the lid, it is down to the new SAFE SLEEP mode. The Mac has to write data back to the hard disk incase your battery runs flat.

To turn off this feature you need to do the following.

Open Terminal in the utilities folder

type in

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

press return

and now type in your system password.

Thats it. Quit Terminal

Sleep mode should be must faster now.

Backup !

mark@markburr.com — 2007-01-08T08:36:59+00:00

I know I go on about this, but backup is so important, and yet I see people all the time who don't do it...

In the few weeks running up to Xmas I saw nearly a terabyte of failed hard drives. Failed to the point of zero data recovery, and all that data wasn't backed up.

It doesn't take long, and it is not expensive to do....

Apple Notebooks: Operating Temperature

mark@markburr.com — 2006-06-15T08:55:59+01:00

The bottom surface and some areas between the keyboard and LCD hinge of your Apple notebook computer can become hot after extended periods of use. This is normal operating behavior. With processor and bus speeds in portable computers often matching, if not exceeding, those of desktop systems, increased operating temperatures in portable computing products are common throughout the industry.
For prolonged use, place your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook or MacBook Pro on a flat stable surface. Do not leave the bottom of the computer in contact with your lap or any surface of your body for extended periods. Prolonged contact with your body could cause discomfort and potentially a burn.
Here are some suggestions for working with your portable computer to address any concerns you may have with the operating temperature:

When using your portable computer, place it on a hard surface, such as a desktop or a tray. A hard surface allows air to flow under the computer to dissipate heat. Placing it on a soft surface such as a towel or pillow (or lap) is not recommended because it does not allow air to flow under the computer.
Under the Energy Saver pane in System Preferences, set the optimization to Better Energy Savings.

The computer's internal fans turn on automatically within a temperature range that is selected to ensure proper operation of the computer.
Apple portable computers comply with temperature limits set in national and international safety standards when used in accordance with the instructions in the user guide. Instructions include the advice not to place the computer on your lap for extended periods.
Make sure you are running the latest system software and have installed all current firmware updates. To find the latest system software, use Software Update or download system software and firmware updates from http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/.

Calibrating your Macbook & Macbook Pro battery

mark@markburr.com — 2006-06-15T08:53:18+01:00

The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) and any model of MacBook or MacBook
Pro has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these
steps to calibrate your battery:
1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring or LED on the
power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is
fully charged.

2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer
during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.

3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power.
You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery
warning dialog on the screen.

4. Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when
the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.

5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.

6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Tip: When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a
reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly
exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the
PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer's memory contents have been saved to the
hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image
on the hard drive.

Bleached out screen

mark@markburr.com — 2006-03-16T10:52:56+00:00

I came across a strange problem today.

G5 Dual Core 2Ghz, linked to a Lacie Photo20VisionII display.

On startup everything was fine, screen was ok, but as soon as it got to the desktop, the screen broke down and looked bleached out, and low res.

Unplugging the screen from the G5 and putting it into the 2nd video port would cure it.

I created a new admin user and logged in, and the problem was gone, so at least it wasn't a hardware issue.

Next step was to rename the preferences folder in the user/library and reboot.

Everything OK, so its a preference.

But trying to narrow it down further could take ages.

I then took the 8 new Apple system preferences and copied them into the old prefs folder, renames it back, and rebooted and hey presto the problem is now cured :-)

Backup, backup !!

mark@markburr.com — 2006-01-20T10:40:34+00:00

A small and tedious task, but still users do not backup !
Can you imagine loosing all of your data, emails, address books, personal data, photographs ???
If your not sure how to implement a safe backup system then drop us a line...

Mac OS X System Fonts & Suitcase

mark@markburr.com — 2006-01-20T10:32:07+00:00

The way OS X handles its fonts can be confusing at best. Expecially if your using Suitcase too. The best thing to do is to deactivate all the OS X fonts and rely on Suitcase for everything. To do this you will need to use FONTBOOK, which is a standard OS X application. Firstly, quit Suitcase if it is running. Now launch FontBook and highlight all the fonts and click disable. Now enable in the OS 9 window (thats if your using OS9) Charcoal/Chicago/Geneva/Monoca.

Mac OS X & Quark 6

mark@markburr.com — 2006-01-20T09:00:03+00:00

Although Quark 6.5 is now out, there are still some very annoying keyboard shortcut clashes between Quark & OS X. The most annoying is the dock clashing with step and repeat. Heres how to fix it. Open system preferences and then click keyboard&mouse, then click keyboard shortcuts. Scroll down and you will be able to change or turn off the dock shortcut.

Mac OS X 10.x upgrades

mark@markburr.com — 2006-01-19T08:49:14+00:00

Installation tips: Before installing OS X 10.3 please make sure your hard disk is in tip top condition. Run the disk utility to make sure there are no disk errors lurking on your hard disk. If there are Panther will not install properly. If the errors are major and disk utlity cannot fix them, then you may need to use something like Norton Utilities, but make sure it is v8, nothing earlier.
Also, don't just assume that Panther will install just perfectly over the top of your 10.2 Jaguar. Make sure that any third party drivers that may be lurking are 10.3 compatible. If your not sure then remove them before hand.
And lastly, do make sure you have a backup before commencing :-)