Mar 12
Mail
A client called yesterday for help … ”mail has stopped collecting my emails” was the issue. As you would expect in a business environment email is viewed locally using an imap connection to the server. Briefly, the IMAP connection allows access and updating from multiple email clients (including webmail) and ensures that all of your email history is retained on your mail server for safety.
Diagnostics showed:
- the connection with the server was ok
- other email clients could access the mailbox using imap
- there was nothing untoward in the server logs
- stopping and restarting mail.app had no effect
- stopping and restarting the iMac had no effect
The immediate workaround was to use another email client to monitor (and action) urgent emails. In this case the client was able to use his iPhone while we investigated further.
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It looks like this is one of your first visits to my site ... Welcome, and I sincerely hope that you find what you are looking for!
We all visit so many sites that it is hard to keep up to date or even remember where you say something interesting. Can I suggest that, if you use an RSS Aggregator, add my site to your subscriptions.
If that invitation is just so much "Geek Speak" to you, I invite you to click HERE and I'll automatically send you a brief email each time something new is added to Best Mac Tools
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Jan 30
No Home page option
I have just discovered, purely by accident, that you can only install 180 applications on your iPhone. Why, there is a maximum of 11 pages of applications plus the 4 spots on every page.
And how did I find this? Reading an iPhone tips page told me that I could put a Web Clip shortcut on my home page for any website. Just select “+” in Safari and tap “Add to Home Page”. Sounds simple enough, right. No, when I pressed “+” there is no add to home page option.
Much research later, with nothing helping I wondered if a limit on installed apps could be causing the problem. Deleting an unused app brought the menu option back!
Back again!
So, if you’re getting up there with your installed apps it might be time to do a bit of housekeeping.
And here’s a bonus tip… Got something on your iPhone screen that you’d like to share, or just remember? press the Menu button and then, while holding it down, press the On/Off button. Your iPhone will make an impressive camera type noise, flash the screen white and store a “photo” of the screen in your photos. Thai’s how I collected the proof of the limit.
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Dec 31
One of my Macs is a Mini just old enough to have been supplied with a low speed wireless card. It has been deployed as a media center a long way from anywhere and is therefor connected by wireless.
This was all OK until I wanted to stream HD video … can’t be done over 802.11g as at high resolutions this is just not fast enough. Since my local Apple Reseller wanted over $300 (that’s AUD) to supply and fit an upgrade to the internal card the idea was shelved. Until now that is …
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Dec 17
I can appreciate why Apple would change in the behavior of the “Copy Address” command in Snow Leopard’s Mail.app…
Previously, copying an address using the “Copy Address” contextual menu copied only the actual email address — the parts on either side of the @. On Snow Leopard, it includes the name portion, with < > around the email part, so an address looks like Joe Smith <joe.smith@apple.com>.
However, there is a flaw in Apple’s logic… very few, if any, of the places where you paste the copied address understand the longer format and you end up having to edit out the name and <>.
Luckily, Apple implemented the change via a preference setting, AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard.
To set it, first quit Mail, then go to your Terminal, and copy and paste the following command (all on one line).
defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO
When you open Mail again, copying addresses will revert back to the short form again.
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Dec 17
It was good to see the new release of Mac Speech Dictate yesterday that solves the problem of Dictate not working on the latest, top end, iMacs utilising the i5 or i7 Intel CPU chips.
So, if you’ve been waiting for this release or using the pseudo-microphone workaround you should install version 1.5.8 and get back on track.
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Dec 17
Path Finder by CocoaTech includes so many features which significantly enhance Finder that it is hard to imagine a power user who could not easily justify the $39.95 pricetag at the end of the 30 day free trial.
Features such as tabbed file browsing and a file bookmarking, dual pane file browser, the “drop stack” and the integrated compression engine all will make common activities quicker and easier — and that’s what it’s all about when it comes to utilities for your Mac.
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Dec 13
Every now and again I stumble across software which redefines a task or process in a way which goes completely against the norm, or which simply introduces a new productivity improvement. FlySketch is one such application … although I’m not sure that the developer (Flying Meat) actually intended the outcome that I’m about to describe.
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Dec 06
I have to admit to being a Safari convert. I now have my default browser set to Safari and use Firefox as a backup in a couple of situations.
- when I need to use firebug
- for a few administration sites which work best with Firefox
But, there are a few things that I needed to make this decision … I’ve already posted the primary tricks to force Safari to open new pages in tabs, and to always show the tab bar. Continue reading »
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Nov 07
I discovered MacHeist 3 at the very end of its limited life. Luckily I was in time to take advantage of the event and acquire some great Mac applications that I continue to use.
$154 worth of software for free
MacHeist 4 is now underway and as I write there are six days left to obtain six applications for your Mac for the great cost of zero dollars. Yes, this one has been designated a nanoHeist and the licences are completely free — the largest application on offer (Mariner Write) will only be unlocked when 500,000 downloads of the packages have happened. About 110,000 downloads have already been reached.
Interestingly, I have already purchased and used regularly two of the applications on offer — MacHeist is definitely not a giveaway of questionable software.
Anyway, I suggest you get over to the MacHeist page and check it out while the opportunity of quality software for free remains.
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Sep 13
Thanks to The Unofficial Apple Weblog I have added a highlight box that follows my cursor when navigating stacks from the dock on my MacBook Pro.
Open a terminal window and issue the following 2 commands …
$ defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean YES
$ killAll Dock
When your dock reloads, the highlight effect will be in place.
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