MikeChick.net

Last week my Macbook Pro crashed. It would hang on the startup screen with the Apple logo and the spinning gear for about 5-10 minutes then restart it self, and continue to loop. The culprit may have been a recent firmware update from Apple, but I have a hunch it had something to do with me messing around with the permissions on the HD.

Ever since I setup Leopard I was having problems installing software on my main admin account, mike. So I made an alternate account to install software, I figured this had something to do with permissions, so I decided to try adding a custom permission on the entire Macintosh HD to allow “mike” Read & Write permissions. It took like 20 minutes for the permissions to apply to the enclosed items, after it finished I rebooted, and was never able to recover.

Steps to Recovery
First thing I tried was the obvious, Safe Boot, which is Mac’s equivalent to Microsoft Window’s Safe Mode. To do this as soon as you power on your computer start holding the Shift key down. I had no luck with Safe boot, so I was hoping I could boot to CD still in order to run the Disk Repair utility thats built into the startup disk that came with my Macbook, or at the very least reinstall the operating system.

To boot from CD, the steps are similar to Safe Boot only as soon as you power on your computer start holding down the “C” key, once your CD is in the drive of course. This was successful, So I proceeded to load the startup disk. Without Clicking next on the Setup Wizard I chose Utilities from the Menu at the top of the screen and went into the Disk Utility. From here I was able to run a “Disk Repair” and also a “Permissions Repair” both returned no errors, so I was pretty sure the problem wasn’t fixed.

I eventually came to the conclusion I needed to reinstall OS X. Although I didn’t want to lose all my files and settings only thing I wouldn’t be able to recover was my Thunderbird e-mail and folders. As i started the setup wizard I notice the installation method chosen for me by default was called “Archive and Install” after doing some research I discovered OS X will make a directory of all your user’s files and settings from any previous installations of OS X. This is completely new to me, when reinstalling Windows everything will be erased during the re-installation, unless you chose to do a repair install, which I guess may be similar to the Archive and Install. Anyways the installation took a little over an hour, when I was finally up and running again I opened Macintosh HD to find a directory named “Previous System 1″ that contained all my users’ directories, and application folder. So I was able to drag and drop the contents of my old Libraries folder, Documents and Applications over to my freshly installed OS.

So everything is back and better then it ever was. I can now even install software on my main user account. Only problem I had was with Adobe Photoshop CS3. Apparently if you do an Archive and Install on OS X, then the system doesn’t copy the Adobe Unit Types file to the ScriptingAdditions folder, you can read more details in this Adobe Technote.

Conclusion
After this experience I will no longer procrastinate setting up Time Machine to get a backup of my system as frequently as possible. I also know that if all else fails, the Archive and Install method works great and makes it simple to recover files and settings from a previous installation of OS X.

It’s impossible to avoid the life of any lithium battery declining over time. Eventually your laptop that once ran on battery power for 3+ hours will only last under an hour before you need to connect the power adapter.

I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and have been researching the best ways to prolong my battery life and the most efficient way to use my Magsafe power adapter. Here’s what I was able to gather up.

You should disconnect the power adapter once your laptop is fully charged and wait until your system gives you warning as “Now your running in reserved batter power” or “Low Battery” use that as a notice to connect your power adapter. Running a charge through your battery that is already fully charged not only wastes electricity but runs unnecessary energy through your battery which can eventually cause damage.

Best method to prolong your battery life is to calibrate you batter every 2 months to increase the capacity and life, if you use your laptop Daily, Follow as below.

Calibrating a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery
Calibrate the battery in your MacBook every month or two to keep your battery functioning at its fullest capacity.

To calibrate the battery:

1. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter and fully charge the MacBook or MacBook Pro battery until the light on the MagSafe connector changes to green and the Battery icon in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer. You may use your computer during this time as long as the power adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer on and start using it with battery power. When the battery’s charge gets low, you’ll see the low battery warning dialog on the screen. Continue to keep your computer turned on, save your work and close all applications when the battery’s charge gets too low the computer goes to sleep.
   Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer.
4. Reconnect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged. You may use your computer during this time.

I’ve been a Windows user for many years and just recently I’ve started to venture out to different operating systems. I spent some time with Ubuntu Linux, loved it. Then I moved on to OS X (10.5.2 Leopard) and one word could sum up my experience so far, wow! Although my positive experiences with OS X may hold some type of advantage over my prior operating systems due to that fact I am running it on a brand new Macbook Pro. So my following review will be a combination of working with OS X as well as my new Macbook.

The initial setup and getting comfortable with everything in OS X was a breeze compared to Ubuntu. Which for the most part was probably related to the fact OS X came pre-installed on my new Macbook Pro and everything worked out-of-box while I had to install Ubuntu from scratch on my old Gateway 4540GZ. Battling for drivers with my hardware was not fun, so I avoided that nightmare with OS X.

Development
I’ve read that Macromedia Studio 8 does not run well on Intel Macs, even from Adobe’s website. I decided to install it anyways and as far as I’m concerned it runs without a hiccup. I installed MAMP for local development, which is an excellent application for running MySql and Apache that can be controlled within it’s own Dashboard widget. I’m still running Firefox with Firebug and the Web Developer tool bar. One thing that I’m missing is Adobe Photoshop. I was considering upgrading Studio 8 to Adobe CS3 Design Premium, which includes the latest version of Photoshop but I’m having problems installing the trial. From what I understand there may be a conflict with Studio 8 already being installed, so I’m going to have to try to remove Studio 8 and try again. For now I’ve been using Fireworks and The Gimp for all my graphics and to be honest I wouldn’t mind working with them from now on. Of course I’ve been using PS for so long that it will take some getting use to the new apps but for what i used PS for I don’t think that I was utilizing 80% of it’s features. IMO Photoshop is geared towards photographers while The Gimp and Fireworks is more suitable for web design and graphics.

Positives:
The user interface and general OS experience is the best I’ve ever seen. I’m loving all the OS X features such as The Dock, Genie effect (when minimizing windows), Front Row and the nice shadowing effect on all windows and menus makes everything look very nice. Finder, which is Mac’s version of Windows Explorer is great, you can choose between multiple views from tiles or thumbnails to a list view of your files and directories which makes navigating around your computer very quick and easy.

Using Windows I would dread putting my computer to sleep because it would take ages to restore from standby, but with OS X I can shut the lid to my laptop or put it to sleep manually and when I recall the system it loads right back almost instantly, which is needless to say awesome. Installing and removing software has become very simple, basically all you do is drag the application you want to install into the applications directory, and if you want to remove an app you simply delete it form that directory.

I am really diggin’ the built in camera (iSight), the lighted keyboard was also an ingenious idea. I spend a lot of time on my laptop at night, sometimes with no light on in the room so having the ability to turn a light on that illuminates all the keys on my keyboard is quite convenient. At first i was skeptical of not having a right mouse click button, but the Mac’s touch pad is engineered perfectly, to right click (as you would on windows) you simply tap the track pad with two fingers, same goes for scrolling, I just anchor my middle finger and let me ring finger do the scrolling.

Negatives:
Very few if any negatives about OS X but one thing that I’m going to need to get use to is keyboard shortcuts. I find my self often trying to use the CTRL key to select multiple files, save documents and other uses that I built a habit of using on Windows. The Apple key or the Command key (I believe is the technical term) is a new addition to my keyboarding life, I’m starting to come around but it will take some time. I also kind of miss the delete key. There is a ‘delete’ key on my MBP but it shares the same functionality as the backspace key on all my prior systems. I do miss the hard drive LED, I used that quite often to determine if my computer froze or not, but maybe I don’t have to worry about that on OS X. The MBP also tends to get very hot at times, from what I understand it’s case was designed to retain the heat, this way creating less stress on the hardware, which although gives an illusion of bad in reality its good?

Summary
Out of the three main operating systems I’ve used with the past few months, OS X Leopard is definitely my favorite. The visual effects, the GUI and the way everything just “works” is just amazing. I look forward to learning more tricks and becoming more familiar with OS X. Although my positive experiences may have something to do with the new laptop I happen to be running OS X on, I plan on installing both Ubuntu and Windows as a triple boot system to see how they run on the same hardware. My guess is they won’t even compare, but we’ll see.

Screen shot of my desktop:

First, PC World declared the MacBook Pro to be the fastest PC tested by the magazine. Now they took their Mac favoritism to the next level by naming Windows Vista the #1 biggest tech disappointment of the year. Click Here to read the article.

Coming from a long time Microsoft Windows user, it’s sad to say but I do agree with both articles. Considering how it’s almost time for a new laptop, I think I will be making the switch over from Windows to Mac. Most likely a Macbook Pro, this way I can setup a dual boot system with Windows and Mac OSX. This way if I need to use Windows for something it’s still available to me. Plus I did try the Vista OS, and it was a nightmare. After about a week of searching for vista compatible drivers and software patches I gave up and downgraded back to XP. Which is what I’m sure a lot of others did as well.