Comments by user "MicrowaveDave"
Registered since: September 30, 2008
No 'Terminal Services' equivalent for OS X Server
I'll give it a go, thanks again. Maybe their website 'Contact Us' emails are all being sent to somebody who quit the company or something, so they don't get read. They're probably wondering why nobody's buying it, not realising nobody can contact them.
Default fonts that make 'I' (upper-case i) look like 'l' (lower case L)
TinkerTool only changes fonts in Cocoa applications, everything else ignores the changes. I've tried it on a few occasions to change system and application fonts with absolutely no success whatsoever.
iChat AV can't video-chat between Mac and Windows computers
"I'de also like to add that this is MICROSOFT'S fault."
Yes, it's definitely Microsoft's fault that they don't provide a full-featured Messenger for Mac. But if you want to blame somebody, it's equally Apple's fault for not providing iChat AV for Windows.
At least Microsoft provide a text-only version of MSN for Mac. Apple don't even care enough to release a crippled version of iChat for Windows. They release Safari for Windows which is completely unnecessary (considering Windows users can already choose between Firefox, IE, Opera and heaps of others) but ignore something potentially useful like iChat.
Skype is peer-to-peer based, so it doesn't work well over dial-up connections, but MSN works very well. I've never actually tried iChat because nobody I know owns a Mac with a webcam. Maybe it won't work over dial-up, who knows, I'll probably never find out.
No 'Terminal Services' equivalent for OS X Server
Thanks Fred! Unfortunately I emailed these guys requesting pricing and other details a few months back and received no reply. Tried them again in early December and again received no reply. Not sure how 'legit' they are.
iTunes ignores the system-wide 'Check for updates' setting
I love your idea about a global 'Don't update ANYTHING' preference which includes third-party software. It would solve a LOT of issues.
OS X can't read or burn Multi Session DVDs
"Can't toast do this?"
I wish it could... but alas, it only shows me that there is a DVD inserted and that the DVD has two sessions but neither can be accessed...
iChat AV can't video-chat between Mac and Windows computers
Changed title from [iChat isn't available for Windows, and isn't MSN compatible] to [iChat AV can't video-chat between Mac and Windows computers].
Changed problem description.
iChat AV can't video-chat between Mac and Windows computers
"Do you even like Apple anymore?"
I'd like it a whole lot better if it actually worked as advertised, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to get things done using only OS X. Three times this week I had to resort to using Windows for stuff the Mac SHOULD be able to do but cannot. It couldn't read a DVD, then it mangled a camera SD card after adding ._resource files and I had to use a PC to clean it up, then I had to use an online banking application that needed Java 1.6 (which Tiger doesn't support, but some of my applications aren't Leopard compatible yet, so I can't use Leopard). It's so darn frustrating. I still like Apple and prefer it to Windows, but there are so many things that need improving. Hopefully the increased popularity will lead to more opportunities for us Mac-loving folk.
"I know very little people who think of videochatting as a necessarry option"
I agree with you that I never thought it was a terriblly necessary option either. That's until my girlfriend moved overseas for a few months to study, and I found out how excellent it is to be able to chat to her face-to-face. When I moved overseas for a few months I could chat to my family face-to-face. Of course we needed to use Windows, because it's virtually impossible to find a Mac in Asia, and I've never come across an internet cafe that doesn't use Windows. Australia hosts hundreds of thousands of international students and gets over 150,000 new immigrants every year from all over the world, so video-chat is becoming extremely popular for people to keep in touch with relatives. Most of my friends use MSN or Skype, but I don't know anybody who uses iChat, simply because nobody at the other end has a Mac.
If Apple released iChat AV for PC, they'd have a chance at conquering the video-chat market before Google get their own multi-platform solution up and running. They already released iTunes and Safari for PC. Steve Jobs believes the iPod Halo Effect is supposed to introduce people to Apple by showing them just how easy to use the software is. If people coud use iChat AV on Windows and realise how good it is compared to MSN, they might just decide it's the final straw that makes them leave Windows behind.
OS X can't read or burn Multi Session DVDs
"Why don't you go buy a hard drive?"
It's not very cheap, convenient or reliable to post hard drives overseas. You can send multiple DVDs for only a dollar or two to almost anywhere in the world. When I receive a DVD full of files from overseas and can't open it, it's rather annoying to have to boot up Windows before I can use it. On multiple occasions I've had to run to the nearest internet cafe so I can copy files from a DVD onto a Flash drive, because the Mac couldn't read the DVDs and a PC wasn't available on-site.
UDF is an ISO standard as described on the Wikipedia page, so all specifications are freely available to the public:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format
"The Universal Disk Format (UDF) <snip> is an implementation of the ISO/IEC 13346 standard (also known as ECMA-167)."
The standard also supports permissions and ownership, but OS X doesn't understand how to read them properly, which is why you get people who can't delete My Documents and My Pictures folders from their Mac after copying them from DVD. I believe you had a similar problem with network copies.
iTunes can't auto-scan folders for new or missing media
"You are, on a regular basis, adding and subtracting *thousands* of files to your iTunes library?"
No, I'm not suggesting that at all, but I do have thousands of files in my iTunes library. For an AppleScript to compare a folder's contents to the existing library items, it's necessary for it to first scan all the items in the library and compare it to newly added items (or missing items). If the feature was integrated into iTunes itself, it would be much faster because the method of operation would be completely different. MediaMonkey takes 3-5 seconds to scan its library for changes, even with over 9,000 files. It reads the folder directory in and compares it to the existing library in memory. iTunes AppleScripts take 5-10 minutes to do the same thing, because they have to request filenames from iTunes one at a time, and it's very slow.
So many Windows using people I know just let all their music, lectures and podcasts download into a single folder, and their music software finds it and adds it to their iPod or MP3 player without any extra effort. If they've finished with a lecture, they delete the MP3 from their music application and it's deleted from their download folder. It just happens without them even thinking about it. That's what computers are ultimately supposed to do, make life easier. So yes, people do use the feature.
iChat AV can't video-chat between Mac and Windows computers
"You can always take your 'paperweight' back to the shop if you don't like how it is."
Smart people don't buy stuff in the first place if they know it doesn't work. That's why so many uni students bypass the Mac and purchase Windows computers, knowing there's help available everywhere, they are compatible with everything, and they can do whatever they want without Apple dictating the terms. They can't use iChat, but that's no big deal because 90% of their friends are using MSN or Yahoo or Skype.
Google just released a Google Talk beta in November 2008 which will hopefully allow anybody on any system to chat using only a browser window:
http://mail.google.com/videochat
Unfortunately it doesn't support PPC, but hopefully that will come in time. I don't feel like spending thousands of dollars buying a new Intel Mac just so it can do something the ten year old Pentium 3 PC I found in the trash can do with a $5 webcam.
Copied files from some DVDs and CDs are given Read Only access
I just did some more research on this matter and it turns out it's related to this other problem:
http://www.aquataskforce.com/view/262
which is better described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Disk_Format
The Mac simply doesn't understand the UDF format which is widely used by many Windows and Linux computers, along with various consumer DVD burners, video cameras and other devices. OS X gets confused when reading files, thinking they have read-only privileges or locked files or different owners, depending on what software was used to write the disc. Other systems don't suffer from this problem because they fully implement the 13 year old UDF standard, but OS X doesn't.
iTunes can't auto-scan folders for new or missing media
iTunes only manages files if they've been manually added and duplicated into the iTunes Music folder. It won't move the files into its own folder for you, it makes a duplicate. So I end up with two copies of each file, one in one place, the other in the iTunes folder. If I turn off the 'Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' setting iTunes won't manage the music, so I have to delete it from iTunes then manually find the file and delete it from the hard drive. If I delete the file first by accident or the file is moved to another location, it stays in the iTunes library and is only listed as missing it it tries to first play the file but can't find it. It's just so confusing dealing with two files all the time, instead of just one folder.
Every single other MP3 and movie management system can scan folders for changes. MediaMonkey, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, SoundJam, MacAmp, MusicMatch all offer this functionality. iTunes can't call itself the best music player in the world if it doesn't offer something as simple as this. It would be so easy to put all my podcasts and music into one folder then let iTunes immediately recognise it, and also recognise if the music was removed. Maybe simply adding a 'Move files to iTunes Music folder' option would be fine, then the music would be managed by iTunes but not still leave a duplicate in another location.
I've tried using AppleScripts but they are all so darn SLOOOOOOW and not terribly reliable when dealing with more than a few thousand files.
Apple probably intentionally never added this feature to discourage people from adding music obtained from questionable sources, and to encourage people to download music and podcasts through iTunes. But there are plenty of legitimate podcasts and sources of music/audiobooks/lectures etc that aren't available through iTunes, so it's a function that really should be added.
OS X can't read or burn Multi Session DVDs
The point is, it was possible to read multi-session DVDs on the Mac for free. Now it's impossible. Even buying BurnAgain doesn't allow me to read Windows UDF1.5 multi-session DVDs, so the DVDs are completely unusable.
Actually, I'm lying, it IS possible to use Windows multi-session DVDs on a brand new IntelMac. You just install BootCamp and boot into Windows. That's progress.
Default fonts that make 'I' (upper-case i) look like 'l' (lower case L)
Wrote on January 20, 2009, 12:42am
"I'm sorry, but this is rubbish."
No need to apologise, it's not your fault.
"When you type in a name, do you type one looking at the letters on the screen, or knowing where you're typing. This can hardly confuse."
I and L are VERY close on the keyboard. It's very easy to accidentally press the wrong button. If you think you pressed shift-i but accidentally press l, the screen shows the same result but the data entered was wrong. It's very easy to understand the problem. As it turns out, the people in the office didn't even cause the original problem, they copied and pasted from an email, and the email was wrong to begin with. Some fonts also have problems with '1' and 'l' and 'I', and 'O' and '0' so passwords can be confused with five different letters. I and l look a tiny bit wider on good monitors, but on older CRT monitors they are identical. Also when printed on inkjet printers with poor quality paper the ink blots a little, blurring everything so they again look identical.
I know a lot about typography, and know that it has the potential to suck. Picking the wrong font can win or lose you a contract, can make it hard to read your product's name, can make people angry and annoyed and can lead to problems with people reading it. The wrong font can also be difficult to transfer from one format to another (some fonts just don't work in 3D logos and some don't work well on TV) and some fonts can make a normal word look rude or obscene (because it changes i to L, or rn to m.) People sometimes take incorrect medications because they can't read the labelling and it looks almost identical to a different drug name with a different effect.
The letter I (capital i) is supposed to look like a stretched 'H' turned sideways. That's it, period. Anything else is an L. Another similar example, often in newspapers I see the word BUM and think What?!? then realise it's actually 'burn' but the worn-out printing press blurred the letters so it's definitely printed as 'bum'. r and n should not be too close together so they look like 'm' - but a lot of font designers ignore these rules.
I was discussing this with a friend named Iona (iONA, not LONA) who won a lucky-door prize at a conference, but couldn't collect her prize because the people were calling out for 'LONA' the entire night and she didn't pick up on it. Her name sounds like 'EYE-Oh-Na' which is nothing like 'LO-Nah.' Because she didn't come to collect the prize, somebody else won an $8,000 holiday package, so she was quite understandably upset. All because some idiot never learned how to write when he was back at school, and inflicted his crappy fonts all over society as some type of revenge. There's some myth that they make I look like l to save printer ink (it saves 1c per million pages printed or something) but I just think it was caused by people who never thought far enough ahead to see a potential problem.
"I understand your confusion, but there are so many simple solutions other than just visually looking for that name."
As usual, you didn't read my post. You really should read the ENTIRE post before commenting - *I* was the one who *solved* the problem, it was my clients who couldn't read the name. You should know yourself that it's easy to skip important details when you don't read things properly. You just said I was confused, if you'd read the post properly you'd know that my CLIENT'S were confused, not me. Anyway. the problem is not the person's name, it's the font issue. They were under pressure, on a deadline, and couldn't find the guy's name amongst the thousands of other names in their address book. It's only one example of confusion caused by this problem, and there are many many more examples, this was just the most recent one I've heard. I wouldn't have got myself into that situation myself, because I don't use Apple Address Book, I despise it. I use a different address book package and select Times as the default font. As you said, there are many simple solutions, one is changing the default font to something better suited to the task.
You prefer Helvetica, I prefer Times. It's personal opinion. You prefer screen fonts, I prefer more legible fonts that also print out better on paper. Each to his own.