Ask 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

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

Often this issue is caused by a preference change in your Apple computer. Click once on the Desktop and then select “Preferences” from the Finder menu. Under the General tab mark all the checkboxes in the “Show these items on Desktop” section.

- Jacob

It is possible to throw away essential Apple System fonts that will cause your computer to exhibit strange behavior like what you are experiencing. Here are Apple articles on the system fonts for 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard fonts.

Here’s a non-Apple font reference source but still a good article on font management in OS X.

It is recommended that you always use the Font Book to manage fonts because it will prevent damaging font deletion from happening. If you had the system discs, an Archive and Install would fix your problem but as you are missing those disks you will have to reinstall the fonts manually. Look through the lists and identify which two fonts you need back. Copy them from another Mac computer or let me know what they are and I can email them to you.

After that, you will need to install them back to the font folder you deleted them from and restart. If you can not navigate the file system, you will then have to boot the computer into Single User mode and install the fonts from the command line. Although, getting the proper system discs or a OS X install DVD would not be a bad idea, for the next time you have a problem like this.

- Jacob

A fix for this would be to delete the below files from ‘Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration’:com.apple.airport.preferences.plist, NetworkInterfaces.plist, preferences.plist.

After you move those files to the Trash, you will want to restart your computer. This problem can be caused by the installation of FireWall software or other network related software. Let me know how that works for you.

- Jacob

The SpectraView II software is used to calibrate the display itself, and not the video card settings in the Mac computer Displays System Preferences. All you should need to do with the Mac OS preferences is find a baseline setting, then just let the SpectraView II software calibrate the monitor to true color.

- Jacob

It will be hard to bump up the iCab speed because modern websites are resource hungry. You may get some better performance by making sure that your application is reserving as much RAM as you can afford to give it. Here is a link to the Apple’s instructions on assigning application RAM in OS 9.

1. Quit the application if it is open.

2. Locate and click once on the desired application icon on your Macintosh hard disk (not the icon in the Launcher or an alias to the application).

3. Choose Get Info from the File menu.

4. Make sure the Kind: is application program and not folder, alias, or document. If it does not say application program, there is no Memory Requirements area.

5. Select Memory from the Show pop-up menu.

6. Increase the amount of memory allocated to the application in the Preferred Size box by 25 to 50 percent. (Example: change 1000 K to 1500 K)

7. Close the Get Info window.

As for a future upgrade, you will probably want to consider two key elements. Are you willing to buy new applications and do you own any FireWire devices? If you have OS 9-based applications that you must bring over because you do not want to upgrade the software, then you should focus on a used computer with Mac OS 10.4 Tiger installed. This does not include general applications like email clients, web browsers, and basic iLife applications. Those kind of applications will come on a new system, but if you have software that was never written for OS X, then you need to have the Classic application support that is in Mac OS 10.4 but missing from Mac OS 10.5 Tiger.

If you are willing to leap fully into the modern Mac OS and applications, then definitely the new Unibody Macbooks will be right for you and should last you for many years. Unless you need an ultra light computer, PowerMax.com steer clear of the MacBook Air and look at the mid-range MacBooks. They are heavier but will have more processor power and storage. The MacBook and MacBook Air both don’t have FireWire, so if you have a FireWire-based device you will need to look at a MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps
Jacob

You should check the Audio tab in the Skype preferences and make sure that it is referencing the same input / output. It may also be advisable to upgrade your Skype version to 2.7 which should run on your system.

If all the above fails, you may need to try an Archive and Install of the Mac OS to remove any problem USB audio drivers causing a conflict.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Just like with people, a Mac insomniac can have many potential causes of sleepless nights. The first place to look is with expansion cards. More often than not, the problem lies with a PCI, PCI-X, or PCIe card that is doing some low level communication with the rest of your Mac. That communication could be causing it to wake from low power mode. If you have any cards installed it would be a good idea to remove them and see if the sleep behavior of your Mac computer returns to normal.

It can also be due to a software-based problem. A good test would consist of creating a new user account on your system and log into it. Without starting any applications, put the computer to sleep and see if it stays that way. If it does stay sleeping, then there is something running in your main user account that wakes your system, and you should look at your user account’s login items for suspect applications.

If your Mac still fails to sleep in a clean user account, you should see if you have a setting in the Energy Saver System Preferences that would cause the system to wake. Under the Options tab uncheck anything under the “Wake Options” section. Also click on the Schedule button and make sure that there aren’t checked items in that section.

I hope that gets you going it the right direction
Jacob

In this case you have done much of the troubleshooting I would have suggested. I would not rule out the RAM as a cause though, and it would not be a “bad RAM” issue but a problem with the slot or amount of RAM. Your model Macbook Pro only supports 3GB of RAM although it will see all 4GB installed. Try running with a single stick of Apple original RAM installed. When you get a failure, move the stick to another slot. If it fails then repeat with another RAM stick, each time running in just one slot.

Also I assume that with the “re-installed OS 10.5.5″ you did an Archive and Install. If you did not, that full Archive and Install Process can work better than a Combo Update reinstall. I would also suggest that you run the Apple Hardware Test off the install DVD. You restart your system holding down the [D] key with the install disk in the drive.

Hope that helps, some.

Jacob

The iMic is a very decent solution to broken internal audio ports on your Mac computer. The only issue is that the internal headphone jack may have an intermittent short in it that signals your Mac that you have earphones connected. The Mac was engineered so that headphones would override all other audio settings. It is possible that the tip of a 1/8th inch plug is stuck in the headphone jack. Use a flashlight to look inside that port and compare it to the mic port and see if you can identify any foreign material stuck in the port. If you find something, use a paper clip to try and remove it.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

Well my friend, you are not alone in desiring a Jacobimize feature in OS X. The problem is that Apple does not share that opinion and does not even include it as part of its Human Interface Guidelines. OS X has a Zoom button that has many different functions based on the application. It is the little [+] button on top of most windows (Depending on your preferences, it may be Green). This is often used as a toggle between the default window size and the User specified window size. Full screen is only possible if the Application programmers decided to include it. This is one of the reasons I use WriteRoom for composition of long form text.

All the solutions that others have engineered to Jacobimize windows will work most of the time, but not universally as you have found. Unless Apple changes the way the Apple computers Mac OS functions you will have to make do with the lack of a true universal Jacobimize feature. There is hope from an unlikely place though. If the iPhone can be any indication on the direction Apple is taking the OS interface, we may soon see a desktop OS without windows. Just buttons and a navigation dock.

Sorry I do not have better news for you,
Jacob

The Mac OS has a well-developed group of Accessibility Features that can assist people of differing ability. They are a core component of the operating system and can be enabled from the System Preferences. The section to make the accessibility changes in is Universal Access. You will be most interested in the options under the Keyboard tab. Just as with Windows there is a feature called “Stick Keys” that will let you press a series modifier keys one at a time to activate the key combination.

The trackpad will respond to any skin contact point so you should have many control options with the MacBook Pro.

I hope this helps let me know how it works out for you.
Jacob

There could be a few things potentially at the root of this problem but my first guess is that it is a RAM issue. A bad RAM chip would only trigger a crash when the system tries to write and read form that damaged part of the RAM stick. Depending on how many applications you open and what you are doing, your RAM will become fully occupied at different times. That is why it unpredictably locks up on you. If your eMac has two RAM sticks installed, I would recommend that you try to remove one and see if it still locks up. If it does, then put the pulled stick back in and then remove the other stick. Each time only starting up the Apple computer with one RAM stick Installed. Here is a link to the RAM removal and installation Procedures.

If you only have one RAM stick in the eMac, Start by removing that stick and then move it to the other, unused, slot. Start up the computer and see how it behaves. If the problem is still occurring then consider purchasing a new RAM stick. Even if it turns out to be a non- RAM related issue, you will still benefit from an extra stick of RAM installed.

If after all this you have eliminated the RAM as the culprit, I would next suggest that you look at doing an Archive and Install of the Mac OS from the Discs that came with your computer or the most recent Retail Install CDs you have.

Hope this helps,
Jacob

Locking and unlocking a file is done from the info Get Info window. To get there, right-click or [control] click on the file and select “Get Info” from the popup menu. In the General section of the Get Info window are two checkboxes. Check or uncheck the “Locked” checkbox to change the locked status of the file on your Apple computer.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

SuperDocker does not actually replace the Dock application itself but instead contains some scripts that replace visual elements and edits the preference file for the dock. The easiest way to restore your Apple computer dock to normal is with the SuperDocker application. At the bottom right side of the SuperDocker Application window, is a “Restore Dock Settings.” Clicking this will get your Dock back to the way it looks when you first logged into OS X. All your Added items will remain the same but if you had it on the right or left hand sides of your screen, then you will have to use the Dock System Preferences to restore that position.

After that you can trash the SuperDocker application again.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

The problem with the dimming screen could be caused by a few “features” of the Apple laptop design. The first possible cause would be the brightness keys being inadvertently pressed. On all the G4 PowerBooks and later laptops, Apple has included brightness keys as a sub-feature of the F1-F12 keys The icons for raising the brightness is a big sun image and to lower the brightness is a key with a little sun image. The function keys that these are associated with the icons vary from model to model. Depending on the settings your apple computer has, you may need to hold down the Function shift key [FN] to activate the special function of those Brightness keys. It is possible that when hitting a nearby key your finger is also connecting with the brightness keys. I reverse the special function of those keys In the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences to avoid those kind of accidental changes.

The second possibility you have already ruled out but it is often the problem for other users. For others the dimming could be due to Ambient Light sensors. Many newer Apple computers with built-in displays have sensors in them that detect when the room is dark. The computer can then dim the screen when the lights are lowered, so that the user’s eyes are not blinded by the screen. You can turn off this feature in the Display System Preferences. This feature is set by a checkbox, labeled “Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes.”

The third culprit affects desktop Macs more than Apple laptops. Desktop Macs have a small battery to retain sound and brightness settings, among other things. A failing battery in a desktop could cause these settings to reset to defaults, perhaps a failing battery in you laptop or other power system problem could cause a similar effect. Try resetting the PMU and PRAM via these instructions and see if your settings are retained after restart. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431

The issue with Apple Mail changing column listings is a bit trickier. I have personally experienced this problem but not as frequently as you have. It has yet to occur in OS X 10.5 Mail. This seems to be an issue with the 10.4 Apple Mail plist file, and the way it writes those column changes during operation. To my knowledge there is not a fix, other than moving to 10.5, but you can always try some general disk maintenance, like repair disk permissions, to see if that fixes it.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

In my experience, most Mac antivirus programs cause more problems than they prevent. Removing your recent installation of Symantec would be a good first step in troubleshooting this problem. You may also have to do an Archive and Install of the Mac OS after you remove Symantec Antivirus. If the problem continues after you do these two repairs, then I would next look at your PRAM battery. A low voltage PRAM battery will cause many sleep and waking issues. Also you could notice other problems starting up but that is not always a symptom.

In some rare instances, a Power Mac G5 can have problems with SATA drives. I have seen some Seagate drives cause booting and other issues in G5s. These drives were of the Barracuda 7200.10 family. This has not been a problem for many years but it is worth a look if all else fails to solve your problem.

I honestly recommend running a Mac without any Antivirus software. Most times placing a Mac behind a NAT Router is sufficient to protect you from attack. It is a good idea to have a router in between your ISP’s modem and your computer, even if you are the only user of the connection. A NAT Router will take one public IP address and translate that into another internal group of secret IP addresses. This translation makes it very difficult for malicious people to see your computer on the internet and that makes you more safe than having protective software on your system.

You may consider having Antivirus Software installed in your Windows XP virtual machine to protect it from attack but as long as you only use it for a select group of websites you trust and non-networked software, it will probably be safe.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

There are a few plist files that you can try deleting to remove that failed Burn from your sidebar. From your User account’s Home folder look in the /Library/Preferences/ folder for com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist. Move both files to the trash and then restart your Apple computer. If that fails to work, you should boot up off your OS Install DVD and open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select your hard drive and then use the Disk permissions repair function of the First Aid Tab.

The “Trash” is a terrible place to keep any important files, but I assume you know this and it was an accident. Also, this would be a perfect rescue job for Time Machine coupled with an Apple Time Capsule. If you had been using Leopard’s Time Machine you could have gone back in time to when the data was not in the trash and then recovered just those files to your current system. If you are desperate to undelete, then you will need a program like Data Rescue.

With this software you can reboot your system off the CD and then use the undelete scan function to recover as much data as possible from the drive. The main thing is stop using your Apple computer. Every file you get, including this email, could be overwriting your deleted files. Even leaving your computer on could allow those files to be overwritten by system temp files.

I believe this is a preference setting for Finder. It is often overlooked, but the “Finder” is an application running on your Apple Computer. The Finder application is brought to the active foreground when you click on the Desktop or the Finder icon on the Dock. Although it is an integral part of the Operating System, it is still just an application and therefore has its own preferences. The System Preferences under the Apple Menu are specific to the computer in general, the Finder preferences are found under the “Finder” menu. Under the General tab, there are four checkboxes in the “Show these items on the Desktop:” section. I would recommend marking all four checkboxes. Take a look around at the other settings in there; I think you will be surprised at all the options.

Some late-model, used PowerBooks have FireWire on them and those units could be booted into Target Disk Mode (TDM). You do this by holding down the [T] key on startup of the PowerBook. Then you can connect your two Apple computers together with a FireWire cable. The PowerBook’s hard drive should appear on the Desktop of your iMac. You then can use Disk Utility to repair the drive. Also, make sure that your PowerBook drive is not full; it sounds as if you may have a full hard drive and that may be causing your boot-up issues.

If you do not have FireWire or the above does not work, you can try booting up your Apple computer with the [Shift] Key held down. This will boot OS 9 in a limited mode that should help you diagnose the problem. There is a good chance it will also fail, but holding down the [Shift] key turns off extensions and those can often be a cause of a failed OS 9 boot. If that works then you need to sort through your extensions folder to find the culprit.

If everything above fails, then you will need to find a retail copy of OS 9 to boot up the computer and repair or replace the installed OS on the drive. It would probably be best to backup the data off the PowerBook and erase the drive. Then you can reinstall a clean copy of the Mac OS.

It is certainly possible for Safari, or its preferences, to become corrupted over time. The first bit of troubleshooting would be to trash the preference files for Safari. The file is located at:
Macintosh HD/Users/[Your User Name]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist. Quit Safari and drag the preference file to the trash. Then open Safari and see if you still get the spinning beach ball. If you are still having issues, try downloading a new copy of Safari.

If you are still getting issues after reinstalling Safari, you can try another browser, FireFox is a good second browser.

If the problem occurs in FireFox as well, then it is probably a network configuration error on your system. That will take some troubleshooting with your ISP and router. If the problem does not occur in FireFox, you may want to consider an Archive and Install of the Mac OS to replace the failing components of the Operating System that Safari relies on.

You will need to use a program called Keychain Access to do this and it is found on your Mac computer hard drive in the Utilities folder that is contained in the Applications folder. When you open that application, use the Search box in the upper right hand corner to search for “mail” and all your stored passwords for mail accounts should be shown.

What you do next depends on the problem you are having.

If you are trying to check mail but Mail is always sending the wrong password you can just delete the password item in Keychain Access by highlighting the item and pressing the [delete] key. Now Mail will ask you to reenter your password and you can then enter the correct one.

If you want to look at a saved password Keychain is using, you just need to double click on the password item. Then mark the checkbox for “Show password:”, enter your computer’s login password, and then click the “Allow” button. You will then have the ability to see your password and edit it. After you like your edits you can click the Save Changes button.

The flashing question mark of horror… it is not always a day-ending event, it really just means your Apple Mac has tested all the equipment and is ready for the next step. The “horror” comes from the next step being “start loading the OS from this disk,” which is not happening. It could be that your hard drive has died or the OS is corrupted but it can be as simple as the computer forgot what drive the OS is on.

Try restarting the Mac computer by holding down the [option] key, which will take you to a boot loader. After a few minutes all available boot devices will show up. If your Apple computers hard drive is not listed, then you should put in an OS X install or Restore DVD. See if you can see the internal drive from the Disk Utility included on that Install disc, when booted from it. There are some diagnostic tools under the “First Aid” tab in Disk Utilities that may help.

If you are lucky, and can see your drive from the boot loader, then you should select your drive and boot up off of it. After you boot up, use the Startup Disk section of System Preferences to permanently select your hard drive as the boot drive.

If your drive is there but has damage to it, Disk Warrior is the best home drive repair tool for Apple computers.

This may be a situation where dumping your network preferences could help. They are located in the “Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration” folder. You can throw the whole SystemConfiguration folder into the trash and then restart your system. This should take you back to default settings and you will need to go into your Network Preferences and make changes and save them to get things back to normal.

It sounds like you at one time had file sharing turned on and shared a mounted volume.

Your system keeps trying to re-share that Zip disk or thumb drive but it is not working properly. If you do not need to share any files on that computer over the network you can just stop sharing it. Choose Control Panels from the Apple menu, then File Sharing from the submenu. Next click the Start/Stop tab and click Stop.If you need to keep File sharing on, then look at un-sharing those items by:

- Selecting the Zip disk or memory disk in the Finder.

- Choose Get Info from the File menu.

- Sharing from the Show menu.

- Click to deselect the checkbox for “Share this item and its contents.”

That should take care of both problems you are having.

I am glad to help you move over to the Mac computer community. In general, GarageBand will run perfectly on any of the Intel Macs with at least 1GB of RAM. Although GarageBand is a good application, it is geared to simplicity and may leave you wanting more musical options. It is still powerful and you can start with GarageBand and upgrade your projects to Logic Express later.

Depending on what kind of equipment you plan on buying you could get by with a MacBook and not the MacBook Pro. Any of the plastic-cased MacBooks would work for what you are doing, but stay away from the Aluminum MacBooks as they lack FireWire and that is a good interface for studio equipment.

If your budget can afford it, the new Unibody MacBook Pro is an easy choice. In my opinion it is one of the best designs laptops Apple has ever made.

The basic specs of this unit are more than enough power for your audio work at any level, even studio work.

The startup chime is mostly controlled by the Mac computers system volume that was set prior to being shut down or restarted. Under normal circumstances the volume information is stored in the PRAM, and on next boot your Mac will load that information into the active settings and then play the sound. There are times that this is not the case. If your PRAM battery has a low charge, the volume will default to its highest settings. This is the same when you” Zap the PRAM” via holding down the [option] [command] [R] and [P] keys.

Also a software glitch or system crash can have unpredictable results on the startup volume. If you can’t control the startup volume with the system volume controls, then check that your system has a good PRAM battery.

Your system can be kept awake when an application is actively working or crashed, regardless of Energy Saver settings. Older applications in particular have problems sleeping, and this cannot be fixed with “one little pill.” A good test would be to quit all running applications and see if the computer sleeps properly. If it does, then you just need to open application one at a time and put the computer to sleep in order to find the offending application.

If the computer still fails to sleep after you quit all running applications, then you will have to do further investigation. The best tool for this is Activity Monitor, which can be found on OS X Mac computers in the Utilities folder. In Activity Monitor, use the “Show” popup menu to display Active Process. After quitting all open applications, make note of all the non-Apple processes running. One of those processes could be at the heart of the problem. You can then force-quit suspect applications in Activity Monitor, and see if that allows your system to sleep again.

There is an easy way to get your Mac back to a “Factory Fresh” install of OS X. A set of Install / Restore DVDs is shipped with all modern new Macs, and are most often grey in color. Look through the box the mouse came in to find the discs. Insert the disc and restart the computer holding down the [C] key. When you boot up of the DVD you will pick your language. Then, from the Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. In there select your hard drive and use the Erase tab to wipe the drive clean. After you are done, close Disk Utility and continue with the installation from that disk. After you have finished installing, the computer will reboot, taking you back to the original “new Mac” screen.

There are software packages that can prevent your system from sleeping, even when the lid is closed. Two common ones I have know people to use are InsomniaX and SleepLess

Always use caution with this kind of modification as it can affect the stability of your system.

Resetting the PMU is a good first step in trying to resolve a system sleep issue. Here is the link to the Apple’s support site PMU reset procedure for most of the PowerPC Mac towers.

If resetting the PMU fails to resolve your problems you should then remove any added PCI cards you have installed. Some USB/Firewire cards will prevent a computer from sleeping properly. If you still have issues with your system sleeping, try removing all non-Apple RAM and peripherals, as this may interfere with the system’s ability to go into the low power mode of sleep.

It is possible that one of the Mac Mini assisted settings in OS X was turned on. There is an option to invert the color of the screen to help people with visual difficulties. When logged into her account, you need to go to System Preference and select Universal Access. Look in the Display section and make sure that “Black on White” is selected.

This is a common problem between switching from one OS to another. The problem stems from how Windows XP uses the computer’s internal clock. OS X always stores the time as the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in the Mac’s internal clock. Adjustments to the time displayed in the Mac OS are made based on location and Daylight Savings Time settings. With the Windows OS, time is stored as local time. People who live in the GMT zone are the only ones unaffected by this difference in time storage.

Really the best way to compensate for the time difference, is for each OS to manage its time over internet. Both the Mac OS and the Windows OS can manage time based on network time servers. There will be occasional delays between clock updates, because the OS only checks the time server a few times a day. If you can stand to have the Windows OS displaying GMT, then I would disable network time synchronization in Windows and let the Mac OS have the correct time.

Well it helps that you have two user accounts and one of them works. My guess is that one of your preferences became corrupted when you forced your iBook to shut down. If your other account is also an Admin user, then you should be able to login to the working account and edit items in the broken one. You should remove the “Library” folder from the broken account and place it in the shared folder for safekeeping. Then log out of your working account and try logging into your broken account. Without a library folder the Mac OS should recreate a new library folder with the default settings and let you log in. After you get into the formerly broken user account, you can start moving the old library items back into the new library folder. Do that work slowly, one folder at a time. Each time you move a folder, restart the computer. Eventually you should find the broken item and be able to remove it permanently.

A few things may be causing your eMac to forget what wireless network to join. The fist place to look is within your password keychain. In your Utilities folder is an application called Keychain Access.app that will allow you to view, edit, or delete your saved passwords. Search for “AirPort” in the search box located in the upper right hand corner of the Keychain Access window. Delete all entries you find for AirPort. Now when you try to connect to the network, you should be prompted to enter your password. Enter it and save it to the keychain. Test the eMac to see if it reconnects to your wireless network after sleeping.

If that doesn’t work, you can try deleting two preference files. One is found here: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and the other is here: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkConfig.plist. Once you have placed those two files in the trash you will have to restart. After the eMac is running again, go to the Network System Preference and re-enable Airport.

Hopefully one of those two things should work for you and stop the tech support calls.

I have heard of many Mighty Mouse users losing the scroll ball features in 10.4.6 and I would not be surprised if the same problem would affect many other mice. As a first step, repair disk permissions and download and install the 10.4.6 Combo updater. Since you said that you customize and hack your system, I think there is a possibility that some files are not being updated properly in the standard 10.4.6 update. Installing 10.4.6 "Combo" update will replace many more files than a standard update and I would recommend always using the Combo updates if you change system files often. That may fix your problems, but it is likely that you may need to change the scroll speed settings. If there is a flaw with 10.4.6 and scrolling then changing the settings may act as a work around until a later update fixes the problem. If you have the opportunity, try different mice on the system, as it may be a problem with just one kind of mouse.

Let me know how it goes. I tried to keep this short so you didn’t need to scroll down to read all of it.

One of Mac OS X’s best security features is that it requires a password for nearly any potentially hazardous change to your system. It can be annoying, but it keeps malicious software from installing without your knowledge. The Administrator password is created the very first time you start up OS X. If you only have one account on your Mac, then your standard account is the Administrator account and your password will work as the Administrator’s password.

Now Apple knows that people sometimes forget passwords. However, Apple did not want to make it easy to reset a password for security reasons. As a security measure, what they did was to include a password-reset utility in every modern OS X install disc. Boot up off the install disc by holding down the C key on Restart. You will need to have the first disk of your grey restore discs or the OS X install disc in the Macs optical drive. After you pick your language you will see the main installer window. At the top of the screen are a few drop-down menus. Select "Reset Password" from one of the menus. Then select your account and reset the password.

Using a good password in OS X will keep you safe and help you control the changes being made to the Mac. Some people will leave it blank but even then you still have to hit OK before anything will install.

The way Apple has started to handle the default browser/email control does bother me. Not only is it counter intuitive but its obscure placement is almost deceptive. The setting can be found inside Safari. Go to the Safari preferences from the "Safari" menu. Under the "General" section you will see the "Default Web Browser" pulldown menu, it is the first in the list. Any web browser you have installed on your computer will be under that menu. Select FireFox and then close the window. From then on you should not see Safari unless you want to. To change the default email application you do the same from within Apple Mail.

The permanent sleep of your computer is not related to your display. It is a problem with some USB 2.0 cards.. Certain cards will prevent a Mac from going into deep sleep mode and that will keep a Mac in a semi-sleep state perpetually. It will stay that way until you restart the computer. There are many reports of this exact problem and in nearly every case it is not a monitor problem but related to the card. Your solution will work in the short term, but never letting your computer sleep will reduce your hardware’s life-span. Another option is to buy a new card that will work well with Macintoshes. Apple does not have a list of cards that work with deep sleep but they do have a list of USB 2.0 cards that work with the iPod and that list is likely to reflect cards that also work with deep sleep (a href=”http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93405″>Apple Tech Article). I like IOGear and they make a nice USB 2.0 / FireWire card (USB2 FireWire Combo Card).That should get your Mac sleeping again.

Both the PowerBook and MacBook Pro have the ability to operate with the lid closed. In most cases this feature is used for docking a laptop to a full-sized monitor, keyboard, and mouse. If you connect an external keyboard to the laptop with its lid closed and press a key it will wake from sleep. The problem you will encounter is that when you shut the lid to put it away the MacBook Pro will go to the sleep power saving mode. You would have to keep a small USB keyboard connected to it so that you could wake it up and continue to record.Another option to consider is using a small LCD display connected as the primary monitor when inside the case. You can get 7″ VGA displays that would work as a simple Logic Express status indicator. These 7″ LCDs are made for in-car entertainment systems but will work mounted to the top of your recording rig. That, combined with a mini USB keyboard and travel mouse, would let you keep an eye on your recordings. As you know there is nothing worse than finding out that you missed a live recording because your equipment needed you to click another button.Let me know what you end up using and send pictures when you get it set up. I would like to put them up online.Jacob Loeb