InterNetWorkingSolutions Support Site - Macintosh

Troubleshooting OSX Kernel Panics - Part 1

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:32:11 -0700

If you see the following on your Macintosh you are having a serious problem caused by a problem with your hardware and/or software.

You should follow these steps to troubleshoot the problem:

Go to the Finder, then to Applications, then to Utilities.
Double click on Terminal.app
Type in the following without the quotes "open -a /Applications/TextEdit.app /Library/Logs/panic.log"

This is your starting point for seeing what has been happening. In many cases this will tell you what is causing the kernel panic.

The second part of this tutorial will address hardware and software troubleshooting.

Macintosh vs. Windows Comparison

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:48:56 -0700

This is the beginning of a series comparing the Macintosh and Windows operating systems.

See what Computer World has to say.

Reading RSS Feeds with Firefox

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:58:06 -0700

RSS which is Really Simple Syndication is a way to have information come to you automatically and easilly.
RSS is commonly used to subscribe to news sites, podcasts, video casts, and on search engines, and portals such as Yahoo which collect information from multiple sources in a single place. Following is an explanation showing you how to use the power of this with the popular and secure Firefox webbrowser. Firefox calls RSS Live Bookmarks and describes them as

Apple Laptop Battery Recall

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 01:20:43 -0600

Just saw this over at Small Dog. Its pretty important to check your laptop.

Apple Battery Recall - EXPANDED INFORMATION
Posted 2006-08-25 17:44 in Apple-News by Ed Shepard

Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances.

The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

1.8 million lithium-ion notebook batteries will be recalled.

This is the second-biggest computer battery recall in U.S. history, after Dell’s recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries. Both companies use batteries made by Sony Corp..

You can read all the information by clicking here.

You can also call 800-275-2273, 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, CDT everyday.

The recall is for batteries manufactured from October 2003 through May 2006.

The Wall Street Journal Reports that Macintoshes are Taking Over the Business World!

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 13:18:24 -0600

Believe it or not the Wall Street Journal has reported that Macintoshes are replacing Windows at a major Japanese banks for multiple reasons including security. See the article here.

Tabbed Browsing in iChat is Here!!

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:13:03 -0600

You use tabs in Safari. You use tabs Firefox. Have you been itching to have them in iChat. Well wait no more. A donationware application called Chax has been released. If you want to see the full list of features head on over to their website. If you cannot wait download it here

Dual Booting Apple Computers with Bootcamp

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:41:18 -0600

Have you ever wanted to be able to run Windows on your Mac? In the near past that would have been an unspeakable question for the Macintosh faithful. Today you can go over to Apple Computer and download software called Boot Camp that allows multiple operating systems including Windows XP and Linux on your computer as well as Apple's OSX. The caveot is that you will need one of the new Intel Based Macintoshes and your own copy of Windows. Now there is nothing stopping you from running Windows programs if you desire but switching back to the Macintosh is as easy as a reboot.

Firefox Password Security Issue

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:12:06 -0700

Many of you have wisely switched to the significantly more secure Firefox browser, especially if you had been using Microsoft's Internet Explorer running on the Windows operating system. Kudos for your wise choice.

Many of you also take advantage of Firefox's password storage for website passwords. A minor security problem exists that allows other users on your computer to see these passwords. From within Firefox if you go to Tools >Options > Privacy and click on the "View Saved Passwords" button and then "Show Passwords" your passwords can be displayed.

Creating an Email Autoresponder with Webmin's Usermin

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:15:01 -0700

So you have been given the go ahead for that delightful vacation in the caribbean. You have made the plane reservations, packed, have all of the arrangements for the kids, but wait!!!!! What about my email while I'm gone. Don't let this ruin your vacation. Since you use the webmin management program you are ready to go. Following is a step by step tutorial on how to setup an email auto-responder in under 5 minutes.

The standard location to access webmin is http://www.yourdomainname.com:20000. Lets go there.

Basic Computer Security

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:06:37 -0700

The internet is plagued with viruses, spyware, and trojans that at best are highly annoying and at worse can compromise confidential information such as your finances. There is a lot of debate about which systems are more secure. Macintosh computers are not beset with the volume of exploits that exist for Windows computers and are generally acknowledged to be significantly more secure out of the box. Regardless of of the computer that you use, failing to use some basic protection and common sense is simply asking for trouble. It has been estimated that an unprotected Windows computer on the internet will be infected in less than 30 minutes. Being safe is relatively easy and affordable.

Listening to iTunes Podcasts

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 22:21:06 -0700

Podcasts are the easiest way to have audio and video content delivered directly to you with next to no effort. Think of it as a way to record your favorite radio and television shows for consumption at your convenience. Follow the directions below and you will be listening to podcasts in under 10 minutes.

The first thing that you will need to do is to get a a copy of Apple 's iTunes. Click here for instructions.
Great, you know have iTunes installed. You will see a window like the one below.

Review of Apple Aperture 1.0

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 12:13:47 -0700

Apple has made its bold debut into the world of professional photography with Aperture. Apple states

"Designed from the ground up for professional photographers, Aperture provides everything you need for after the shoot, delivering the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers.

Featuring a RAW-focused workflow, Aperture makes RAW as easy as JPEG, letting you import, edit, catalog, organize, retouch, publish, and archive your images more effectively and efficiently than ever before. From capture to output, you work directly with your RAW files, never having to first convert them into another format before viewing, adjusting, organizing, or printing them."

About Security Update 2005-009

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 18:48:39 -0700

Apple Security Update 2005-009

This was released recently and is a very important security update for a number of vulnerabilites, most noticably:

Apache2
apache_mod_ssl
CoreFoundation
curl
iodbcadmintool
OpenSSL
passwordserver
Safari
sudo
syslog

Thankfully, fixing this is a matter of going to the "Apple Menu then "Software Update..." and agreeing to all of its install suggestions.

Enabling Root on a Macintosh

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 17:41:21 -0700

This is almost too easy to qualify.From an account with sudo access type the following in the terminal. sudo passwd root Type in a password. That is it!!

Changing the Dock's Minimizing Behavior

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 17:36:34 -0700

The "genie effect" is what happens when you click the yellow "minimize" button. You'll see your window get sucked down into the dock, as though it were being drawn into a funnel. While cool those with slower machines may also find it something of a CPU hog. Luckily, Apple included a way to change the genie effect. Open a terminal session (the Terminal application is inside Applications/Utilities), and type one of the following:

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect genie
defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect suck
defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect scale