Ask Jacob

Yes – every new Mac Pro has a Dual-Link DVI port on it to connect your 30″ Cinema Display. There is also a second connection point with a Mini DisplayPort connector. That can run near any display with the proper adapter, even a second 30″ Display.

- Jacob

If your Mac suffers a lockup when connecting a USB device, it is often due to a bad USB device. Or it is a USB device drawing more power than what the port is supplying. Make sure you are connecting it to an internal USB port on the computer, not a keyboard or unpowered hub. If that still causes a problem, see if the device is a USB 2.0 device, your Mac may only have a USB 1.1 port. USB 2.0 devices can draw more power than the USB 1.1 port supplies.

- Jacob

Most times sharing a drive over the network will be fast, sometimes faster that FireWire 800. You must have a Gigabit switch for that to work and good wiring in the building. Also, all your systems, including the network drive, must support Gigabit Ethernet. That will be the fastest and most cost effective way to share a drive over the network. Everything beyond that will have a large start-up cost.

If the 2TB drive is not a network drive or only has 10/100 Ethernet , just attach it to your fastest Mac and use File Sharing to grant access to the other Apple computers on the network.

- Jacob

I could try to reiterate this article but they did good job explaining it. The basic sum of this is you need to use PPTP protocol on your OS X server to allow Windows clients.

The other option would be to use a different Windows VPN client.

- Jacob

Handbrake is specialized for converting your DVDs to iPod friendly formats but it should ultimately work for you. When it matures, you may want to try Videomonkey to convey your video files to something iMovie will easily accept. Currently it is iPod focused but has plans to convert to other formats.

For general video converting you should have both VLC and Perian installed on your Mac to make extra video formats usable. Even if you don’t need them, both these applications are a must for the modern Mac wanting to work with video.

In Handbrake, make sure the checkbox for “Use iPod/iTunes friendly (.m4v) file extension is for MP4″ is unchecked. Then you should be able to export into a MP4 format and it will use the “.mp4″ extension on the end. After Handbrake is finished, use the Import/Movies… option from the iMovie File menu. It should import without any issues.

- Jacob

Probably the simplest way to get that data over is with a PCI SCSI card. This will enable you to install the SCSI hard drive into your G4 and pull all the data from it that you want. It will also allow you to use some external SCSI hardware. Otherwise, you could try connecting both Macs to the same ethernet network and enabling an Appletalk network for file sharing. However, that could prove to be more complicated than it is worth for you.

- Jacob

When booting up from the Windows install disc, the first thing you need to do is format the partition you created with the boot-camp utility in the Mac OS. What you need to do is format the available
empty space on the windows partition with a NTFS or FAT32 file system. Only after you format the partition, will the Windows installer have a place to put the Windows XP files. Here is some info from the
Microsoft install documentation.
• At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
• Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
• All existing partitions and non-partitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the ARROW keys to create a new partition by selecting the non-partitioned space. You can also press C to create a new partition using non-partitioned
• To create the partition with the maximum size, press ENTER.
• If you want to create additional partitions, repeat steps g. and h.
• Use the ARROW keys to select the new partition where you want to install Windows XP, and then press ENTER.
• Select the format option that you want to use to format the partition. You can select from the following options:
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system
• Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

Notes
• If the selected partition is a new partition, the option to leave the current file system intact is not available.
• If the selected partition is larger than 32 gigabytes (GB), the FAT file system option is not available.
• If the selected partition is larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to confirm).
• If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT16 file system.
• If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different partition, you are prompted to select a file system for both the System and Startup partitions.
• Press ENTER.
• After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to install Windows XP.

I cleaned up the Microsoft documentation to help you read through it easier. Hope that helps,

- Jacob

Last time I installed the Macromedia Studio MX software, I recall that there were two serial numbers in the set. One was for the PC version, and the other was for the Mac version. It is possible that you have the two serial numbers switched. Now that Macromedia is part of Adobe, you may be able to use whatever serial number you have to upgrade to the Adobe version of the software. If you contact Adobe directly they can help you find the proper upgrade path, even if you only have the Window serial number.

- Jacob

All music and video files on your iPod will also exist in your main iTunes Library (which indeed takes up space on your Macbook hard drive). You can relocate your iTunes Library on an external drive, but the drive will need to be connected to your computer every time you open iTunes.

One drive to look at that can fit your music and survive a drop or two is the Lacie Rugged Hard Drive.

Follow these three steps.

- Copy your iTunes library to an external drive
- Then set it as your new Library
- Delete your old Music Library from the Music folder.

- Jacob

I am fairly sure it is not an issue with your Apple equipment. This is because I have exactly the same setup in my home and it works reliably. The one exception is that I do not like the equipment Comcast provides. I instead use my own Cable modem. This is the Linksys router I have used for years and like its rock -solid performance.

Before you run our and get a new modem, try these two possible fixes. First off power everything. Let the cable modem sit, without power, for five minutes and then power it on again. After it is fully on and connected to the Comcast network, power on the Airport Base station. Make sure your cable modem is the only Ethernet device connected to the Airport base station and that you have it connected to the WAN port. That is the port off to one side with a dotted circle above it. Now you can connect your devices.

If that fails you may have been given a Cable modem that has its own DHCP / NAT serve and it is in conflict with your Airport’s DHCP / NAT service. Here is the process for disabling DHCP and NAT on the Airport Base Station.

If all my suggestions fail, get the Linksys modem. You may even save money on your monthly bill.

- Jacob

Unfortunately Apple has done it again. They jumped into a new connector format without a thought about the Mac user who has older Mac equipment. The 24″ Apple LED display is a truly great companion to the new Mac laptops. Although they work on all new Macs, the 24″ display is a docking station for laptops. They provide power and a host of desktop features to give you two macs from one. A Mac Laptop tied to a 24″ Apple display is a perfect package, and I would like you to have that experience. Sadly that the new display will not work on your G4 tower. It may be better to just get a low end LCD display for the G4 and then use the 24″ LED display as your MacBook’s docking station.

Here is a nice one but there are many good sub $150 displays.

- Jacob

The FIrewire port is part of your logic-board, so replacing the logic-board would be the standard way to fix that problem. At this point the repair would cost more than your Apple computer is worth. You still have a USB port on your iBook and USB 2.0 is a fine way to connect external drives. Many drives are available with USB 2.0 connections. Lacie USB drives are very popular and would fit the bill.

- Jacob

I use the Apple Disk Utility to securely erase data from my hard drives. You can do this from your OS Install media. Boot up your iMac computer off the disc and open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Under the Erase tab will be a Security button. Click on it and set it to write zeros over your data. This will take a good amount of time, and be sure to check out Apple’s article on Disk Utility’s secure erase options.

After you erase the drive, you can install the Mac OS on it, but it is not necessary for our Mac trade-in program. We format the drives when they come in, but please do erase your drive to the security level that you would like.

- Jacob

I use the Apple Airport base stations for this. They share a printer with Macs and PCs, but you need to install Bonjour on the Windows system.

Look at the Airport express if you just have wireless computers in the house. If some computers have to have an Ethernet connection, the AirPort Extreme is the one you want.

- Jacob