Tracking Down the Trouble-Maker

With his latest investigation to find what was taking a large portion of CPU time, David Passell gives us his findings here. "I located it thanks to the Activity Report. It appears to be related to the iAntiVirus freebee. The actual process running is iAVD and it "belongs to root".

David concludes, "When I clicked on it and Quit Processor I received a request to enter my administrator password. After I did that iavd quit and the processor usage went back to a few percent. I think, if possible, I will delete iAntivirus.

Any other suggestions?"
(Click on image to enlarge the view.)

iStat Proves to be Useful

"After reading some of Jim Hamm's comments on iStat I located the widget and added it to my dashboard." David Passell continues, "Yesterday I ran it after noticing the fan on my Mini seemed to be working rather hard. I found that something, I still don't know what, was continuously consuming 95% of processor time. Both processors were being involved. I decided I had better give the machine a rest and shut it down for the night. This morning when I started the Mini I looked at iStat and found more reasonable numbers." Above is the first screen shot. (Double click on it to enlarge the view.)

"As I write this email here is a screen shot of current usage.
I noticed earlier that when the Time Machine backup was running, usage went up to 47%. I just thought it interesting to note and it may have saved my computer to shut it down when it was whirring away.

"Now I keep the CPU Monitor on the screen out of the way so I can spot anything like happened yesterday. The Mini is now nearly silent, as usual." David adds, "Any ideas, anyone?"

Now, Art Gorski has some suggestions: "I've used iStat for years now, and it's occasionally useful as a Dashboard Widget, but can be unnecessarily distracting. Usually, the first sign of a runaway process will be the cooling fans spooling up. iStat won't tell you anything useful, it just confirms what's going on.

"Restarting the computer is unnecessary. Just launch Activity Monitor (in your /Applications/Utilities folder), select all processes from the pull-down menu, and then click on the column header to sort by CPU usage. This will tell you what application is the culprit. If it's not a critical application, use Activity Monitor to quit or force quit the offending process."

Cocoa-Java on Snow Leopard

Applications relying on Cocoa-Java won't work on Snow Leopard. John Carter finds out why. Without warning Apple has completely removed these components from Snow Leopard. He sends us this website from a developer, Fabien Conus, who says, "Since developing software applications is a hobby . . . I cannot make any promise for a new release date, but I will do my best." The applications in question are CocoaBooklet, PDFLab, and Smallimage. We hope these conditions will soon be addressed by Apple, and we hope such creative programmers will hang in!

Using Those Function Keys

Jim Hamm starts out with, "I was 'messing' (technical term) around with Snow Leopard and came across a feature that might be helpful. Say you've got four windows open (or any number, for that matter) and you click Function 9 (fn+9) on your laptop, to open all windows in a miniature version. Put your cursor on any minimized window, then tap the spacebar. That window will pop open to full size. Then start moving your mouse and cursor around. Each small window will pop open in full size. Keep moving your mouse around and around and each window will pop open. When you find the one you want, click it. It will stabilize then in a normal window. You can almost make yourself dizzy as you mouse the cursor around the screen and the windows pop open."

He says on Zee's iMac the key combination in fn + F8.

Trying to do this myself turns up a different scenario. Different Macs have different Function keys. On his G4 PowerBook running Mac 10.5.8 Don's favorite is F12 to bring up his Widgets. On my MacBookPro running Snow Leopard, it's F4 for Widgets, and F3 for that nifty feature Jim describes to play Hide and Peek with your open pages. Yes, it's fun!

Now for a summary of Function Keys, a list of key combinations, and 20+ links to additional info on modifier keys assignments go to this Apple Support page. No need to memorize the whole thing, just click on the tiny Plus sign on the left of the page's address at the top. Click to add it to your Safari Bookmarks. Function keys are very useful.

What's Going On Inside Your Mac?

Jim Hamm files this report today, "If you've installed Snow Leopard, Menu Meter (iStat Menus) is now compatible with this new OS. The new version has been completely revised, and is much better. It sits in the menu bar, and you can click on one of the icons to get a variety of information about your Mac. You can also customize which icons you want to show in the menu bar: open System Preferences, then click iStat Menus. Drag the items from the 'Available Box' into the 'Active Box.' I use the app occasionally just to see what's going on in my Mac, and which app is consuming so much memory. Usually it's Safari. Closing and reopening Safari gets the memory usage back to a much smaller number. If you've not tried this app, it might be worth a look. It also works with Leopard, as well (OS X 10.5 or higher)."

The iStat Nano is a widget: read about it here. The iStat Pro is described on this page. Which do you use?

Watch Out for This

"Tagged.com promises photos but delivers headaches," warns John Carter. "Have you been 'Tagged' lately? Don’t become a victim of this annoying e-mail ploy that automatically signs you up for an expensive voicemail service.

"A radio and TV personality and his wife recently had lunch with another show host and his significant other. After the meal, the first couple received an e-mail from Tagged that said his friend had some pictures available online. They naturally assumed the pictures were taken during their meal together and wanted to see them.

"The catch was that they had to register at Tagged.com in order to view the supposed pictures, according to the e-mail. Once they completed the registration, they received another e-mail saying they had been signed up for a voicemail service. The cost? $14.95/month automatically billed to their home phone number! They immediately called to cancel the service and got a real runaround before they were able to do so.

"Several days later, they received an e-mail from his friend explaining that Tagged is a virus-like program that goes through your address book and falsely blasts out notifications about photos online.

"Snopes.com has a lengthy explanation about the dangers of Tagged. Don't fall for it if you receive an e-mail asking you to register for Tagged. Be sure to let the sender know you received the message, and then direct them to read the Snopes briefing." You can also see what wikipedia reveals about them.

Two More Problems

Another problem, or as we call it, a challenge! John Carter steps up with some enlightenment. "Another program that doesn't work is Smallimage2. It will not launch in Snow Leopard. So if you need to resize an image or lower the compression of a JPG file, use Preview. There are two kinds of Preview applications: the one that comes with the OS and the one that comes with PathFinder. Either one gets the same results. What you don't get is the ability to batch process a bunch of images unless you know how to write a script.

"If anyone knows of an application that will batch process images to resize them and that works in Snow Leopard, please post."

Then, in another email John tells us, "I just updated to OpenOffice 3.1.1. It has a major problem in Snow Leopard (reported by me). In Finder or PathFinder, right click on a document (any type, it seems) and open with OpenOffice. Crash!

"However, if I first launch OpenOffice and then start a blank text document, then close it without making any entries, I can then open any type document in OpenOffice. There is no other way to open an existing document with OpenOffice that I know of. This problem does not exist with NeoOffice!"

Have You Seen the PMUG Library?

Let's take a look at how to make a PMUG book checkout. Roger Lakner has added about 15 books this year, and updates the website. Take a look and consider the possibilities!

See something you’d like to read? Contact Randy Calvert, PMUG librarian and he’ll bring the book to the next meeting, or make other arrangements for you to borrow it. Do you know of a book not listed that you’d like PMUG to buy? Contact Roger Lakner, Ambassador.

Some Difficulties with Snow Leopard

"After upgrading to Snow Leopard, on many occasions, several programs have crashed during a save operation," so begins a report just received from John Carter. He goes on, "The save does not complete and any changes not already saved are lost. The programs in question are: NeoOffice, GraphicConverter, and Screenflick. All programs are the latest version available.

"The only thing that seems to help is to do frequent saves on small changes and not wait to save at the end of all changes/additions. Screenfick is the one program that does not lose the intermediate file during a save operation, but may require several attempts to save before one of them is successful.

"If you have a Canon MP830 printer and you want to do a scan using MP Navigator, forget it. It never seems to finish 'Processing calibration data from a scanner.' But if you scan the document from the front panel of the MP830 using the platen, it works just fine even though it takes a minute or two to warm up the scanner. The application that launches to grab the files from the printer is Image Capture. I have been unable to use the printer's ADF from either the front panel or from MP Navigator.

"Image Capture crashed once setting up for a scan operation (when clicking on the 'Show Details' button). Image Capture also seems to hang occasionally when changing resolution between scans and starting a new scan (message: Scanner is warming up). 'Force Quit' does not show the application as not responding, and pressing 'Cancel' during this time does not abort the process. Using 'Force Quit' caused the printer to hang and had to be powered off only by pulling the plug."

Trying Other Browsers

Do you use other browsers besides Safari? David Passell briefly shares some experience here. "I have been trying other browsers lately: Firefox 3 is now out; I don't like it too well because of the way 'manage bookmarks' is presented. Can't see them all at the same time so I can eliminate duplications (which in my case are many). See it here.

"Opera 10 so far is very good in that regard. See it here. It also has the total visibility of menu bar bookmarks and open tabs. Also, in addition to giving me a way to set up an Operamail.com address, Opera also picks up all mail from my ISP server and displays it as a menu item. It is a great all-in-one browser (a little like the old Netscape). I guess those long days and nights in Norway give the developers lots of time."

Earlier, David was writing about Cookies and Security Preferences. Now he comments, "The largest number of Tracking Cookies came when I first ran Safari.Before that I hadn't had any for a long time. If you eliminate the cookies as you describe it gets them all from Safari, but if you have other browsers they may be waiting if you use them."

Does It Work Now?

David Passell writes, "I have been using MacScan, the possible subject of a future meeting, for over a year and it has detected and removed 50 tracking cookies. Here are the latest for August 31, and September 4. (Double click on images to enlarge them.)

"Tracking Cookies are considered harmless as far as security is concerned, but they may spawn a junk E-mail. Some of you fearless pioneers using Snow Leopard might try downloading the trial version, see if it finds anything, and report back. Here is their address and more info. MacScan - Mac OS X Anti-Spyware Security and Privacy Protection ...
Isolates, detects and removes spyware, keystroke loggers, and trojan horses for Mac OS and Mac OS X."

FREE Photoshop, Photography & Web Classes

John Carter sends great news about free classes. "For those of you with time on your hands between 11 AM and 1 PM, Creative Techs is offering FREE ONLINE courses on Digital Photography, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Lightroom. The course is available using a combination of GoToWebinar and TinyChat. GoToWebinar is where the lessons take place and TinyChat is where you can interact with other students and the instructors." Here's the site for details and info on creative, business, marketing clips along with recent tips.

Using G-3 PowerBook?

Member Sam Jacobs writes, "Does anyone presently in the MAC Users Group still use the old G-3 powerbook? I know that this system is quite old but it is still functional and I know that someone may still use one of these old units. I have a scanner, a label maker, Epson printer and other hard drives etc. Before just throwing it out, I thought that Iwould ask you if anyone is still using this old machine. Since they are not USB connected, I don't know if there is a converter from the old circular connection that would convert the round to a make it work with USB???
Thank you, Sam M. Jacobs (Click on his name to email Sam.)

More on Snow Leopard

First thing this morning we hear from De Prez Allen Laudenslager recommending this article, “Faster, Bigger, Longer: How Snow Leopard Will Improve Your Hardware,” (8-31-09) article from Wired. Longer lasting batteries, bigger hard drive, faster everything, and tweaks gives SL more than $30 worth of new features. Yes!
Then scroll down to the link to “Apple Euthanizes PowerPC Macs with Snow Leopard.” Sigh!

Next Allen refers us to an article on Gizmodo with a list of apps that don’t run on Snow Leopard, followed by comments sent in, so far. Keep informed on your friendly PMUG news blog.

John Carter adds, "GnuCash does NOT work in Snow Leopard. If anyone has installed GnuCash on their Mac and want to continue using GnuCash then I recommend you install VirtualBox, then install Ubuntu 9.04, then install GnuCash in Ubuntu. You can copy your GnuCash file over to Ubuntu and continue using it with no side effects. And since you can run Ubuntu right alongside Mac OS/X (at the same time), you don't lose anything. In fact, you gain all the free applications that you can run in Ubuntu."

And here's today's note (9-1) from John Carter, "Quickbooks 2007 doesn't run on Snow Leopard and Intuit has no intention of supporting QB 2007 on 10.6. Intuit 'may' provide a bug fix for QB 2009 on 10.6, but don't hold your breath.

"Is there an alternative to QB on 10.6?Maybe MYOB Accounting Edge? Accounting Edge has been touted by some as way better than QB for business accounting."

Adventure With Snow Leopard

Taking time out of his busy day John Carter files this detailed report about his adventures with installing Snow Leopard. Got a minute?

"I just finished upgrading to Snow Leopard this morning. Total time under two hours, but that also involves a little extra work. This memo is more about warning others what NOT to do, and that is essentially to NOT go blindly through the upgrade process.




 "I wasn't sure if the upgrade would update my printer drivers unless the printer was plugged in and turned on, so just for safety I plugged in and turned on my printer, including a printer attached to an IBM laptop. Since the laptop printer is shared and the laptop itself is hardwired on my LAN, I was hoping that the upgrade would detect it and allow me to use it as a remote printer.

"During the upgrade I neglected to look for the 'Customize' button before doing the upgrade (it is on the left side of the window and I was only looking on the right side), so I had to go to the optional upgrades on the DVD. So please click on the Customize button, select all the options you want to install (if you don't know which options you want, at least click on Rosetta and X11). I don't recommend installing all the additional language translation, so you should check only those languages that you think you might want or need (primarily for translating from another language to English).

"After the upgrade finished (including the options), I needed to update those applications that I installed using 'fink.' One of those packages is 'GnuCash.' Unfortunately, the fink update failed while looking for dependencies for 'evolution,' which is another mail program that some time ago I thought I would try, but it failed the installation procedure for lack of supporting files (so I never got to try it out, and to this date there are numerous files laying around for evolution that aren't needed). This is a problem I will have to resolve eventually. Fortunately, GnuCash still runs, but the GUI front-end I installed (GnuCash Launcher 2.0) will not run (not supported in Snow Leopard). So I continue to execute GnuCash from a Terminal on the command line. No big deal.

"As for the Snow Leopard upgrade itself, there was one window at the end that showed a list of applications, one of them being Mail. Having no idea what that was about (not mentioned in the instructions), I pressed OK and the window went away. I think I should have clicked on each one of those applications in turn to see what it would do. I suspect that each application would come up and then present me with an option to update for Snow Leopard. Read on to find out why I think this.

"When the machine rebooted and I logged in, I was presented with a large number of update windows (about 7) that flashed across the screen with icons bouncing up and down in the dock. Frantically, I tried to read all the short message - to no avail. Finally, I just clicked on one of the 'Install' buttons that stayed on the screen long enough to read it. That message essentially said that in order to use the application it was referring to that I had to install Rosetta. At that point, I got an installation window that said Rosetta was going to be downloaded. It finished successfully. But I still had a number of jumping 'update' icons in the dock.

"I clicked on each of the update buttons in the dock and was presented with exactly the same install message for each one. My choice was to ignore or to install. Not wanting to miss anything, I installed every one, and every one was exactly the same - so maybe I didn't miss anything.

"Bottom line, I'm going to list a few applications that I frequently or occasionally use.

"What works:

• My Canon MP830 printer works, but I am unable to print to the remote HP Laserjet 3150 printer on the IBM laptop (it says it is ready, but when I print to it, it then says it is busy and doesn't print). The upgrade did not automatically detect the HP printer, so I had to add that printer manually.
• Mail. When I opened Mail, I was presented with a window to do an update. I did that.
• NeoOffice works fine, what I looked at anyway.
• Adobe Reader v8
• Adobe Photoshop CS v8.0.
• Safari took a 'long' time to recreate all 24 images in 'Top Sites' (you might have fewer images), but it works.
• Firefox 3.5 appears to work, but I haven't tried everything yet.
• Skype, Gimp, Fetch
• Coda - after installing a Snow Leopard compatible update.
• Delicious Library - after installing a Snow Leopard compatible update.

"What doesn't work:

• Bento (will not launch) - but I presume that no one is really using it anyway. This is an Apple application designed to allow non-programmers the ability to create small and potentially useful databases. I guess they don't see it as a useful tool after all.
• Cyberduck (will not launch)

"No sense going further with testing. It will either work or it won't, and what doesn't work I'll put out of my mind.

"If you used fink to install applications that do not have a GUI front end (like GnuCash), I recommend that you run the following commands from a Terminal before installing the upgrade:

$ fink selfupdate

$ fink update-all

"I did this out of self-preservation, but it didn't help me regarding 'evolution.' I have submitted a ticket to SourceForge on that issue."

How to Burn Several Times to the Same Disc

A helpful tip comes via John Carter, alerting us to Small Dog Electronics. Their home page posts a long, sort-of-boring-looking list, but go here for directions in how to burn several times to the same disc. This company in northern Vermont also displays their dogs' photos and short intros. John adds, "You might be interested in reading all the tips they have there — when you have time."

Free Old Macs

This just in: David Passell informs us, "I was a Computime yesterday (08/27/09) and they have five G4 Macs and three very old iMACS (no firewire and difficult memory and HD change). They also have the old blue-white monitors; very large and heavy. They were from a school.

"The G4s may not have RAM. The name plate states 400MHz, 128 MB sdram, 10GB HD/Zip/DVD. Copyright 2000. They have 2 firewire and two USB (probably 1.1) ports plus VGA.

"They will give them away to anyone who is interested. I only had room for a usb mac keyboard:). I think they have several of those too. There is another party who recycles PCs who is interested in them only for their HDs."

Anticipation!

Today's the day! As we anticipate Snow Leopard De Prez Allen Laudenslager wants us to know how to do it. He's copied from Daring Firewall an article by John Gruber, "I Believe in Murphy's Law." "How I upgrade to a new version of Mac OS X, from 2007:

So, in short:
1. Do a complete backup clone to an external FireWire drive.
2. Test that the backup is indeed bootable and up to date.
3. Unplug the backup drive.
4. Boot from the installer DVD and perform a default upgrade."

Can you jump from Tiger to Snow Leopard? Read for details and cautions from Wired.

More details are here at Apple Insider.

Note: Your Mac must have an Intel processor in order to run Snow Leopard. See the list of technical specifications from Apple.

Jim Hamm sends some links to articles that will help us check items before installing Snow Leopard. "For example," he says, "is your printer compatible with Snow Leopard?"

From Macworld. From Apple Support. And another from Apple.

Now, whoever is first to put in Snow Leopard, let us know how it went for you. . . Mine was just delivered by FedEx.

Out of Ink? Probably Not

This printer ink secret comes from John Carter. Don't dispose of your ink cartridge when it says it's empty. Watch this:

Adding Video to Email

Maybe you already know how? De Prez Allen Laudenslager writes, "I was trying to send a video clip as an email attachment and it shows up as a thumbnail, way too small to be viewed, as I am composing the message. That really threw me! I checked with Apple and that's normal and when you actually send the email the clip is about 2 inches square and big enough to view. If you save the attachment, then all the features of Quicktime become available.

"After I sent the email, I looked in the sent folder and the video clip looks right (about 2 inches sq) in that copy of the message."

With no experience in adding video to email I turned to Apple's site for help. Anyone else conquered that challenge?