|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
I'm still using the little beta memory management utility that I wrote about here last week, and so far I have nothing but good to report. This little AppleScript application does wonders for preventing slowdown as OS X memory usage gets maxed out and the pageout parade commences. I have only the haziest comprehension (if that) of how this thing works. Something to do with icreasing maxvnodes, whatever that is. However, it definitely does work. I managed 12 days of uptime between my last restarts with very little perceptible degradation in performance over that period, and I only rebooted after USB support finally crapped out, disabling my external keyboard and pointing devices. I'm not at liberty to tell you a whole lot about this utility yet, and it doesn't even have a permanent name, but you'll hear about it when I'm free to say more. In the meantime, it's making OS X much nicer to work with for me. I downloaded the iListen 1.6.1 updater this week. Apparently it's been out for several weeks, but it escaped my attention, and VersionTracker only posted it on the weekend. I've been informed that a 1.6.2 updater is to be released later this month. Anyway, the 1.6.1 update, a 5 MB free download for registered iListen 1.6 users, adds some refinement and probably addresses some undocumented bugs. Aside from the changes and enhancements listed below, my initial impressions are that with the 1.6.1 update installed, iListen seems a little faster and dictation accuracy is improved.
Differences between iListen 1.6.1 and 1.6.0
System requirements:
Note also that the Mac OS 9 version of iListen in this release is 1.5.5. iListen on Mac OS 9.2.2. has not kept pace with the development of iListen 1.6 for Mac OS X., and the new advanced features of iListen 1.6 are not available on Mac OS 9.2.2 Version 1.5.5 is likely to be the last Mac OS 9 based release of iListen. Suggested Retail Price $99 without headset, $149.00 with headset/microphone. (1.6.1 update free download for registered iListen 1.6 users).
For more information, visit:
Safari and web sites Safari issues OS X Odyssey 378 Sue Microsoft? Question: OSX apps do not launch From Krishna M. Sadasivam Dear Charles, I'm writing in the hopes that you can help me solve this rather perplexing problem: My wife's PowerBook G3 is behaving rather flaky lately. She was using Mail for quite some time, until one day, when she tried to launch the application, the icon bounced in the dock, but never opened. I've been trying to figure out what's preventing it from loading. Other apps were launching fine...until today, when we tried to launch iChat AV -- same behavior -- the icon bounces in the Dock, but the program does not load. Other apps, including BBEdit Lite, Transmit, Safari, etc. seem to work fine. (I haven't thoroughly tested by launching each app on my drive, though.) I've tried to delete the preferences for both programs, but that didn't seem to fix the problem. I've also logged into my account on her laptop, and experience the same problem I saw from her account. Ran DiskWarriors 2 and 3, Disk Utility (to repair permissions), but no luck so far. I've also run fsck -y but no luck with that either. We're running 10.2.6 and it has plenty of HD space, and 640 MB of RAM. Any ideas on how to begin troubleshooting this? Thanks!
-Krishna
Hi Krishna;
You've already done pretty much everything I might have suggested off the top of my head. This is a very strange problem. You could try trashing and reinstalling the programs. Perhaps some of our readers will have some ideas.
Charles From Ken. Cavaliere-Klick I'm always amazed by the passion of Mac users. I haven't reached that stage yet, I probably never will. Safari, all of version 1.0, doesn't hit an important site and there's panic in the streets. Safari is hardly mature but it's damned impressive for a version 1.0 anything. I can't count too many version 1.0's this successful. It's not that web sites are completely coded specifically to one browser. Odds are there's a wee little bit of javascript that checks for browser identity and flat out screws things up. Remember Opera and the MSN debacle? Opera retaliated beautifully with the Bork edition. It's that easy to make a browser muck up a page. Of course, there will be pages that need a specific plugin or module that isn't available on anything but a specific browser or a specific platform. It shouldn't be, it doesn't have to be, but it happens. The bottom line when you have to get a job done is to use the tools that get the job done, even if you don't like to tools. Internet Exploder (a deliberate typo) is the last browser I would use on any platform. I have strong anti-Microsoft sentiments. (I didn't switch, I got smart. I bought an Apple computer.) If Safari doesn't render a site, then it's iCab's turn or something Gecko followed by a stern letter to the web master. I've come to realize that Apple computer owners are a flexible bunch. That's they key here. Flexibility. While we are making web designers aware of Safari and its importance to the Apple platform we have to keep moving forward. Safari's day will come. If Safari 1.0 is this good, imagine Safari 2.0. As always, thanks for the great articles.
Hi Ken;
Personally, I can't imagine trying to get along with just one browser -- even (or especially) the supposedly "standard" IE. Right now I have four browsers up and running (none of them IE ;-) ), and I virtually never have fewer than two on the go.
Charles From David Meyer Charles, Ken Heins has some issues to deal with but I suspect they are far less nefarious than he seems to suspect. Web designers generally don't care what browser you use to access the site they design/maintain. They look at the logs and say "90% of my visitors use IE on Windows and 90% of the rest use Netscape on Windows" and then they test their pages against those browsers. My company tests against two versions of IE (on Windows) and Netscape 4 - also on Windows. These three browsers represent over 90% of those who visit our site. My wife, being limited by her resources, tests IE, Netscape 7 and Safari on Mac OSX - because that's all she has available. The corporate site must not only not appear broken, it must work as intended. My wife's site only needs to look like it's working right. I'm told there are a number of unimplemented features, some minor and some far from minor. Is it Java or ActiveX? Well, certainly the latter. VBE? Safari isn't really out of Beta yet. If it is, if they didn't decide to "declare completion" to meet the IE withdrawal, then someone at Apple needs a clue. Still, it's a fine browser even in its not-ready-for-prime-time condition. It will be even better when it meets the entire HTML4 standard and includes most of those other standards that a good many sites take for granted. Dave Meyer
Hi Dave;
I agree. Safari is pretty amazing given the short time it's been on the go. It's currently taking a backseat to Mozilla FireBird for me, but it's a great browser.
Charles From Ian MacEwan Dear Mr. Moore: "Anonymous" claimed that a real estate website that did not allow access by the Safari web browser might violate the Fair Housing Act: "Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act), as amended, prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings, and in other housing-related transactions, based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (including children under the age of 18 living with parents of legal custodians, pregnant women, and people securing custody of children under the age of 18), and handicap (disability)." The only categories of discrimination that I can see that might be made to apply would be: religion - I'm a Macolyte and required to use Apple products exclusively as an act of devotion, or handicap - I've seen so many blue screens that the mere sight of a Microsoft product gives me an anxiety attack. ;-) Anyway, I enjoy your very informative columns and your appreciation of my country.
In Freedom,
Hi Ian;
Thanks for the comment and the kind words about the columns.
Charles From Ken Heins Theoretically a good idea. Just like herding cats is a good idea. I know I don't have the money to sue Microsoft.
RE:
Of course, a lower degree of compatibility could be achieved by disregarding security considerations, such as not inspecting certificates for content other than HTML, as IE routinely does. Perhaps Mr. Heins should sue. If this site that he accesses is crucial to his business, then he can claim that the hosting company is negligent due to sloppy adoption of standards which make their content inaccessible to him. Perhaps we should all sue Microsoft. I don't question that what Mark says is true. My position is that while we (Apple/Safari users/ Mac users) are striving for perfection ( a noble thing) more and more web sites are locking us out, which could have a severe or fatal impact on the future of the Mac platform. I don't have time to deal with the other/larger issues. I never said I had the answer, but I damn sure know the problem. It is easy to say that you shouldn't complain about the problem without having the solution. Ok, as far as it goes, but I don't have the technical ability to solve the problem so some one else will have to do it. That is just the best I can do. It's not my job, I know what my job is. Steve J, cut a deal with Bill G, Ok? Of course, I could sue if I had that kind of money and time. But I have to live my life every day, so I will continue with Virtual PC, and MSIE. It reminds me of my early race car building days. By the time we perfected the damn thing, the season was over and we never raced it. What was our impact on the racing world compared to the inferior pieces of crap we WERE going to race against? Absolutely nothing, because we didn't get out there. We were to busy trying to prove our theoretical superiority, and in trying too hard to do that, failed to accomplish anything at all. Have had Macs since 1988, will keep on until they pry it from my cold dead hands, as they say. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this whole thing is a smokescreen for Microsoft wanting to create a monopoly on the supply of data. I also would bet that this is occurring in many more industries than we think, ie. those that rely on downloaded data from servers. There are probably hundreds of industries that face the same problem as we do. The problem is that the public is not aware of the existence of these industries that supply the very products that we all rely on every day. The real world just does not revolve around downloading some dopey airhead boy band song to an I-pod, like so many seem to think. The name of the song and the band will be forgotten by this time next year, while the ACE Hardware down the street desperately needs web access to product and inventory information, and it would be unbelievably beneficial for them to do it on a Mac, instead of a piece of junk that crashes 3 times a day. I don't think I can or should say more about this.
Ken Heins
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 |
| ||||
|
| ||||||
