Mac tweaks?

[nathanvacha]

never have problems with 002 & ibook combo personally...

did anyone ever say? is there a way to turn off dashboard w/o another program?

[sloanfiske]

You need to open iCal's preferences and check the box that says "turn off iCal alarms when iCal is not open."

and regained access to 1/3 of my entire RAM !

Thanks alot!
MB.

your precious. this makes me so happy you don't even know it

[Silent Kaboom]

Originally Posted by commaKaze

Another thing 5Circle,

There's a free download called "maintenance" that runs via the automator app, you still have to prompt it though which is good cos' it's not running in the background or anything. It's on Apple's website, or go to the Apple on the menu bar, then "Mac OS X Software"...screw that, here's the link...it's freeware, and equivalent to a maintence app you'd pay for like Cocktail, which is also very good, about $10 for lifetime updates. I use both...check it:


Apple - Downloads - Automator Actions - Maintenance

or if you want to pay 10 smacks for Cocktail, here's that:

Cocktail - Overview

I've used both of these apps and liked them, until the last time that I ran Maintenance on my backup G4 1Gdp. It made my boot drive disappear! I couldn't boot with the Install disk either, because my dvd drive wasn't recognized during startup.
I started the G4 in Target Disk mode and connected it to my G5 1.8Gdp and spent the night transferring files from the 2nd hd, which contained the audio files.
Finally, around 6am, it occurred to me that I should remove the 2nd drive and put the boot drive in it's place. Sure enough, that worked.
All of this happened a month or two ago and I haven't been using the G4, since the G5 is my primary audio machine.
Today, I tried to start the G4 and it wouldn't boot. I've spent quite a bit of time today performing a fresh install and going through endless updates and now, here I am, typing this little tale of woe.
The G4 is running fine. I'll put Logic 7 back on it tonight and this weekend I'm taking it to train my new studio partners in the joys of Mac-dom and Logic Pro. (I'm keeping the G5 at the home studio for cpu intensive editing.)

I apologize for the rambling, but here is what I believe is the moral of the story:

ALWAYS repair permissions before and after installing new software. I think that was my downfall.

The beauty of all of this lies in the fact that at no time during the troubleshooting process was I remotely worried about losing data. It was more like a puzzle. While you do hear about some Mac lemons, mine have been great. (and they get faster with each new OS)

BTW, I've also got a G4/400mHz 1G ram (released 1999) running OS X 10.4.11 and Logic Express that I've put through the wringer just to see if I could crash it. Solid as a rock.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that I was in the Macslutz forum. I'll shut up now.
Cheers

[macleodgrant]

a very important one is to deactivate the option for your hard drives to be put to sleep when left inactive in energy saver

[Dysanfel]

Thanks for these tweaks guys!

My OSX knowledge pales in comparison to my XP expertise. Some of these are very good!

[theblotted]

Originally Posted by nathanvacha

is there a way to turn off dashboard w/o another program?

just drag dashboard off'f the dock, and restart.

you can double check to see if any widget's still open or not, by going into Activity Monitor. if still open after the restart, then i'd check System Preferences -> Accounts -> "Login Items", and uncheck/delete unnecessary apps.

[theblotted]

Originally Posted by Silent Kaboom

I apologize for the rambling, but here is what I believe is the moral of the story:

ALWAYS repair permissions before and after installing new software. I think that was my downfall.

The beauty of all of this lies in the fact that at no time during the troubleshooting process was I remotely worried about losing data. It was more like a puzzle. While you do hear about some Mac lemons, mine have been great. (and they get faster with each new OS)

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that I was in the Macslutz forum. I'll shut up now.
Cheers

ditto.

you can geek out over this @ macrumors.com...

[Royer121]

I'll add a small application which helps to have all the tweaks available at a time:

Main Menu:
MainMenu 1.7.2 software download - Mac OS X - VersionTracker

[BaTORN]

krub