Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The problem with iPod Hi-Fi

No video out. And I thought Apple was getting into video with the video iPods.

I just got back from the Stanford Newton User Group. One of our wiser and very tech-savvy members pointed out that a lot of people have crappy speakers in their TVs. The iPod Hi-Fi will give great sound for iPod songs. This member said that one cheap vieo out jack it would have provided great video for iPod videos. And the iPod Hi-Fi already costs $350. What would a video out jack have cost? A couple of bucks?

This member also pointed out that since the iPod Hi-Fi can run on batteries, it might have been nice to be able to carry it without the iPod falling out of the dock on the top.

My comment? When people get enough videos on their iPods, they will want to see them on something other than the tiny iPod display. One lousy video jack woulda done that now.

Networking Mac OS 8.6 to OS 10.4.4...

...was a bit harder than it sounds. I was doing this for a friend of my barber, who needed his business moved to a G5 iMac (OS 10.4.4) from a beige PowerMacintosh G3 (OS 8.6). (The Intel iMacs do not run Classic applications; good thing he bought the G5.) I failed the first time, although I got everything else done, like fixing his DVD player and Sony Playstation setup, and installing Classic on his iMac G5. I found that the OS 8.6 Mac had no Firewire or USB; I needed an Ethernet crossover cable.

Also, I found a very helpful document referenced on the Apple discussion board on how to connect OS 9 to OS 10.3 with Ethernet. Minor changes to this for 8.6 and 10.4.4.

Also, on the OS 8.6 Mac, I had to make Ethernet show up in the TCP/IP and Appletalk Control Panels by turning on Apple Enet in Extensions Manager.

Also, OS 10.4.4 cannot see OS 8.6, but OS 8.6 can see OS 10.4.4. I made the connection from OS 8.6. (I turned on File Sharing in Extension Manager, and then turned on File Sharing, but since I was on OS 8.6 looking at 10.4.4, I bet that I did not need 8.6 File Sharing turned on.)

Also, the password on the iMac had to be 8 characters or less, since OS 8.6 did not understand a longer password. We had to shorten that.

Also, well, then I made the connection. It felt pretty good, considering that this is a connection few people make. It was not trivial.

I installed the Classic apps he wanted and moved all his data (I believe I got all his old email data moved; he now gets email on the iMac). He had a customized version of FileMaker; it ran fine under Classic. His Quicken files run OK under the Quicken supplied with OS 10.4. I must say that Apple did a good job on the PowerPC OS X Macs to get Classic apps to run.

One chunk of data remains: his Palm desktop. His Palm III has no USB. Looks like a job for special cables; I did this with a Palm III clone. I better hurry; the power button on his Palm III is badly cracked.

Another also: He had me reduce his iMac screen resolution to 800x600 (ugh), since he likes his old apps to look big. But I showed him how to increase his resolution again.

ALSO, he will now say nice stuff about me. That's always nice.

P.S. Now he does not have to have the SCSI hard drive on his OS 8.6 Mac yanked out. Yes, that is how some places transfer old apps and data.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Changes to my videos

I just hosted my Movie Trailer video using Flash 8. I like it. Flash video buffers well, I can control the size of the video, and the audience sees a little more information about the state of the video download.

My Quicktime videos have a problem. Firefox is not showing Quicktime video. I am checking into that. The problem seems to be on Firefox's end.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

I saved my barber's Mac.

I am helping people more and more with their computers. Like when I got a phone call last Saturday from my barber, Lash.

"Dave, I was trying to throw some Google Earth in the trash and then empty it." OK, press Control and then click the Trash icon. "Yeah, I did that." Now click on Empty Trash. "Dave, I get a message that says I can't empty the trash because Safari is in use." Wait, how can that be? Unless Safari is in the trash... LASH, DON'T DO ANYTHING, I AM COMING OVER!!!

Turns out he had accidentally moved his Applications folder in the trash. I untrashed it. I still don't know how that happened. That was scary.

Moral lesson: Be careful when you empty the trash on your Mac. I guess.

P.S. I will see if I learn any lessons when I move info and apps from a Power Macintosh G3 to a G5 iMac over Ethernet (there is no Firewire or USB on the Power Macintosh). Will 8.6 apps run on a 10.4 iMac under Classic? Will the Ethernet connection work? Will Dave escape being slowly lowered into the pit of giant slavering razor-toothed slugs? I will find out Tuesday, when I try to help Lash's friend move his business to his shiny new iMac. (I don't think he has a slug pit in his basement, but I have not checked.)