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Why not buy 2 Dell Notebooks @ $999 USD each for the price of 1 PowerBook G4 notebook $1999 USD each? That way, he can have a new notebook and have a brand new one for replacement instantly if something ever goes wrong out of warranty.

Considering that repairing the same problem (replacing the bezel, and, hence, the LCD) on a PowerBook G4 (DURING the included 1 year limited warranty) would cost, according to Apple, $1308.95 USD for repair, shipping, handling, and support (Tier 4 repair for "LCD"... this would be out of the warranty because it is assumed that it was "Damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, and misapplication" causing the broken bezel that is explicitly NOT covered under Apple's limited warranty.").

Alternately, he can purchase AppleCare for his PowerBook G4 for $349 USD at the time of purchase, unless he lives in Florida (according to the Apple web page, at the bottom: "This plan (AppleCare) is not available for Florida consumers or where prohibited by law.").

On the other hand, the AppleCare plan only covers manufacturer defects for a longer period than the usual (and a longer period of complimentary telephone support). It still does NOT cover, According to Apple's Terms and Conditions for AppleCare"Damage due to accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider), unauthorized modification, improper environment (including lack of proper temperature or humidity), unusual physical or electrical stress or interference, failure or fluctuation of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, or acts of God;"

Not that Dell, or any other manufacturer's warranty usually covers repairs of damage caused accidentally, but it really wouldn't help the gentleman in this situation to have an Apple PowerBook G4, as he could probably buy an entire new notebook for the $1308.95 USD for repair, shipping, handling, and support it would cost to solve the same problem if he owned a PowerBook G4.

Of course, your entire argument is that it would simply NEVER happen to an Apple notebook because of the quality, worksmanship, design, materials, etc. Interesting, but defects DO happen (browse some Apple forums (such as MacFixIt (here and here (for instance there was a White Spot issue that affected as many as 25% of PowerBook 15" Firewire 800 G4's and an assortment of iBooks... apparently, it's still ongoing (probably a manufacturing and design problem)!))) and see for yourself unless you're into denial in a big way), and probably as often to Apples as to other distributors (Dell, etc.). They ARE manufactured in the same plants with underpaid workers in third world countries as Dells, etc. are manufactured. They are just sold for more to consumers.

There should be a new moderation category called "-1 Apple Advertisement".

Apple knew about the iBook issues in 2001, and yet they continue to pretend they don't exist.

I check all these daily:

MacInTouch
MacNN
MacMinute
MacFixIt
Mac OS X Hints
MacSurfer

Great software update resources:

VersionTracker
MacUpdate
OS X freshmeat

Other great sites:

O'Reilly Mac DevCenter
O'Reilly Mac OS X Page
Apple Mac OS X downloads
Apple Third Party Products Guide

Developer sites:

Mac OS X Developer Home Page
Mac OS X Developer Documentation
Darwin
OpenDarwin
fink

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Well, in the case of lullabud's Ethernet issues, Apple may deserve blame. See the following Apple Knowledge Base article:

Mac OS X 10.2.8: Can't Connect via Ethernet After Installing Update

His other statement (about waiting a few days before installing an OS update) is good advice, echoed by Mac troubleshooting websites such as MacFixIt and MacInTouch. Both offer excellent coverage of (and cures for) issues brought about by Mac OS updates. Reading the troubleshooting reports before installing an update can prevent a lot of unnecessary grief.

I'll also note that Apple's own Discussion Forums) provide a place to seek troubleshooting advice and/or a place to vent your frustrations. Since Apple employees monitor the discussion threads, it's possible that at least some of what's posted there is noted and acted upon.

D.

Check here and here for actual pictures of the spots, and here for a 1280x854 overlay diagram which maps out the exact locations of the spots.

D.

I could reasonably be described as a 'Mac fanatic' I guess, but I won't flame you. I will point out that if your dual G5 is that slow at copying a mere 17 meg file, there must be something wrong. My new 1 GHz G4 eMac is blindingly instantaneous when copying files. Check out Mac OS X Hints or Macfixit for some tips on speeding up your machine. Or get one of the many excellent O'Reilly Mac books.

Like a lot of other people, this update seems to have completely screwed up ethernet networking for me. A lot of the reports I've read (Apple's site Slashdot comment, MacFixit article, MacSlash, etc) suggest that people with dual processor G4s running 400-500mhz are having a lot of problems, and a broken driver for the Intel gigabit ethernet chipset has been blamed -- though I haven't seen anything that conclusively says that this component is at fault. Other reports have come from people running faster G4s & PowerBooks, so if the Intel ethernet driver is a cause, it doesn't seem to be the only cause. All I can say personally is that my dual G4/450mhz is definitely messed up right now.

The best remedy I've seen so far is to restore the pre-10.2.8 version of the AppleGMACEthernet ethernet driver. If you can -- and for most people it'll be too late for this advice to do any good -- make a backup of the .kext driver before updgrading to 10.2.8, then use that to rebuild is things go awry. For everyone else, your best bet is to download it from Andrew McPherson's MIT site, either by establishing a dialup connection, by booting into OS9 and getting it from there, or by grabbing it with another machine and transferring it to your broken Mac by e.g. a burned CD, a Zip disc, etc.

Here are the repair steps, as slightly modified from McPherson's suggestion at Apple's site:

mkdir ~/enet_backup
cd ~/enet_backup
wget http://web.mit.edu/apm/www/AppleGMACEthernet.tar.g z
# note -- doing the above without network access is left
# as an exercise for the reader. i happen to have a flash
# card reader, so can transfer it that way, but I was
# getting pretty desperate before that occurred to me.
# others might want to try burning a CD, or getting
# online from OS9, or a zip disc, or...
# ...in any case, `wget` is about the only method that is
# almost guaranteed NOT to work right now...

cd /System/Library/Extensions
sudo mv AppleGMACEthernet.kext ~/enet_backup
sudo cp -r ~/enet_backup/AppleGMACEthernet.tar.gz .
sudo tar -zxvf AppleGMACEthernet.tar.gz
sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleGMACEthernet.kext
cd ..
sudo mv Extensions.kextcache ~/enet_backup/
sudo mv Extensions.mkext ~/enet_backup/
sudo shutdown -r now

This advice is close to that which McPherson suggested, but he recommended deleting the broken driver, and the commands I give above make a backup just in case. If all goes well you may remove that ~/enet_backup directory, but I have a hunch that somehow you're going to have to end up re-installing it, so keeping a copy around seems prudent to me -- and it's not like it even takes up that much space (well under a megabyte).

Other people have reported success with other solutions. One proposal was to run the command "ifconfig en0 media autoselect", but in my case that didn't work. Others have suggested rebooting, zapping the PRAM a few times, then letting the machine boot again; others have said that that didn't work either.

Replacing the driver, as described above, seems to be the remedy that has had the most success for the most users -- but even still, it isn't working for everybody. In my case, it has allowed me to reconnect to my PPPoE/

Consider yourself lucky that you weren't hit by the 10.2.8 Ethernet bug. This thing has been a royal pain in the ass, and if you didn't make a backup of your ethernet driver before running the update, downloading a copy can be a real headache.

Apple fucked up big time on this update -- this is as bad as the iTunes update that had a broken rm -rf call in a shell script, because while no data seems to be lost here, getting the machine fixed can be non-trivial if you're no longer able to access the network to begin with.

Everyone fucks up sometimes. Yesterday was Apple's turn.

What I was wondering, is if anyone here had tried this update with the M-Audio Sonica USB device.

In addition to the overall functionality of this device, does anyone know if the Apple's DVD player in this OS version now supports 5.1 digital audio out? I've been lead to believe it does with PCI card Audio (such as the Revolution above), but it doesn't seem to for USB digital Audio out.

According to macfixit.com, the screen saver bug re. long passwords is fixed, but the other bug remains: the one which allows programs to be quit while the screen saver is on, as long as 'keyboard access' to the dock is turned on.

I was just about to try to start a post on this very topic.

With all the "buzz" surrounding WWDC it seems MacHack 18 is getting the
short end of the stick news wise. I was hoping you all could come up
with more news/blogs/snippets whatever on the goings on in Dearborn
than I have. I have googled, netnewswired and macsurfered till my eyes
hurt , and these stories are all I can come up with, any help, or
discussion?

PS: Any links to MacMania II blogs score bonus points.

MacHack
18: Experiencing the Unstoppable

by Shawn Platkus MacHack is a conference for professional developers
who make their living developing for the Macintosh platform. The
conference, now in its eighteenth year, has obviously had to deal with
many changes throughout its history.

MacHack
18 Opens with a Keynote Address from Ken Arnold

by Shawn Platkus As is traditional, MacHack 18 opened first
thing Thursday morning at 12:00 am with its keynote address. This
year the opening keynote speaker was Ken Arnold who is currently the
Chief Architect of EventMonitor, In

A Really Long Portage in the
Digital River : AI's Yellow Text : Well, here's one for the record
books: I'm at MacHack , and my access to the 'net is even worse than it
is at home.

MacHack
Report

Macmegasite : I'm now at MacHack with a usable network connection. The
show is a lot smaller than previous years, but still lots of fun.

I was just about to try to start a post on this very topic.

With all the "buzz" surrounding WWDC it seems MacHack 18 is getting the
short end of the stick news wise. I was hoping you all could come up
with more news/blogs/snippets whatever on the goings on in Dearborn
than I have. I have googled, netnewswired and macsurfered till my eyes
hurt , and these stories are all I can come up with, any help, or
discussion?

PS: Any links to MacMania II blogs score bonus points.

MacHack
18: Experiencing the Unstoppable

by Shawn Platkus MacHack is a conference for professional developers
who make their living developing for the Macintosh platform. The
conference, now in its eighteenth year, has obviously had to deal with
many changes throughout its history.

MacHack
18 Opens with a Keynote Address from Ken Arnold

by Shawn Platkus As is traditional, MacHack 18 opened first
thing Thursday morning at 12:00 am with its keynote address. This
year the opening keynote speaker was Ken Arnold who is currently the
Chief Architect of EventMonitor, In

A Really Long Portage in the
Digital River : AI's Yellow Text : Well, here's one for the record
books: I'm at MacHack , and my access to the 'net is even worse than it
is at home.

MacHack
Report

Macmegasite : I'm now at MacHack with a usable network connection. The
show is a lot smaller than previous years, but still lots of fun.

• Using the Combined 10.2.4 update downloaded directly from Apple instead of Software Update
• Running /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility afterwards to Repair Permissions using First Aid on the boot volume

Also remember that in a forum such as this, the complaining voices outnumber the ones for whom the update went smoothly just because it's pretty boring to say "Hey, it went fine for me..."

There's been some discussion about this in MacFixit.

"Due to a lack of functionality in native Mac Intuit products, several users have purchased the Windows release, and now find themselves unable to complete 2002 tax forms."

Of course, TurboTax always worked fine with Virtual PC until this year. Of course, Intuit gave users no advance warning. Scott Gulbransen of Intuit is quoted as saying "It's not that we don't trust our customers." He then immediately contradicts that by saying "Still, we need to protect our business." He then contradicts THAT by observing "Also, our Mac products do not have product activation... only Windows."

Reminds me of the bad old days of copy protection when users of any computer configuration that was even slightly out of the mainstream would find that copy-protected diskettes wouldn't read properly...

(Reposted from my blog, but I couldn't say it any better.)

Trust me: Don't blindly install everything that Apple provides via Software Update.

Specifically, you need to read the instructions for all updates before you begin any update.

I've been reading lots of readers caught in gotchas caused by the Power Mac G4 Mirrored Drive Doors Firmware Update, the Mac OS X 10.2.2. update, and other installations. For many of these users, the problem comes down to neglecting to think about what you're doing. Hell, even I've been guilty of doing this a few weeks ago when I updated my MDD Power Mac to 10.2.2, knowing that it would hose my computer due to a bug with the HP printing software that causes its drivers to hog processing time until your Mac slows to a crawl or kernel panics.

And why did I do it? Because I wasn't thinking. I was caught in that Macintosh mode of thinking where we expect the moon and the stars from anything that Apple provides to us, especially if it's a freebie. It's a different psychology than what some PC users may understand, where caution is much stronger than in the Macintosh world. When most Mac users buy software, we rip the CD from the case, install the software, and damn any manuals or instructions that come with the program. In the earlier years of the Macintosh, this wasn't as much of a problem because of the simpler design. However, this ain't your dad's Mac. It's your Mac, and it's running not only a different Mac OS, but likely has a dramatically different hardware design that requires a little more care.

Professionals and home users need to use some common sense steps for any software update or install:

1) READ the instructions about any software installation or update.
2) UNDERSTAND what the update or install is supposed to do. If you don't understand the purpose of a particular update, don't install it until you find someone that knows and can explain it to you.
3) WAIT several days after an update is introduced before you even THINK about installing an update. If there are real problems with the software itself, this problem will show itself from the many trouble reports you'l see on the Internet. In other words, let other more careless people "beta-test" the updates for you in advance.

Two good places to visit for trouble reports are MacFixit or Apple's Discussion Boards on their Support Page.

4) READ the instructions for the update again.
5) PRINT a copy of the instructions BEFORE you begin.
6) DETERMINE A PLAN to revert the change (if the update allows it)
7) DECIDE if the update is really worth installing.

Remember that users who have tweaked their Mac OS X installation dramatically (read: against Apple's recommended configuration) may experience a bad time. If you have hacked an old Mac (read: not an original G3 or G4) to run Mac OS X, you should already know that you're running the bleeding edge of compatibility.

It's a good thing that we have BSD underneath our Mac OS GUI. It leaves many more possibilities for repairs or changes, unlike in the old Mac OS 9 days where we'd have to wait for Apple to get with the problem and provide a fix. A good example: after the HP printer software problem appeared with the 10.2.2 update, several enterprising people developed several workarounds and temporary fixes while Apple and HP slowly find an official solution.
[Update: The fix is part of the 10.2.3 update.]

Your mileage may vary with any update. Don't experience "Go Fever" with your Macintosh, or things could blow up real good.

I installed it on my PB G4 without incident. To be specific, I was running a clean install of 9.2.2 and 10.2 and then got 10.2.1 via Software Update. So far I have observed no problems whatsoever. I checked MacFixIt and I don't see any other reported issues of this type. Yet, anyway.

Powerbook G4 (version = 11.3) w. DVD

500 mhz

384 MB RAM

boot ROM 4.1.8f5

Here's MacFixIt's summary:

Apple has apparently resolved the potentially serious .Mac security hole we first reported yesterday.

Entering the URL of an e-mail message generated by .Mac's Webmail function on another computer now results in redirection to the .Mac home page; rather than displaying the private message.

iDVD is the DVD production software for Macs, not the viewer. I assume you are talking about the viewer. My answer? I have never noticed nor have I been bothered by interlacing on my movies. Check out MacFixIt, they always have great answers for unique problems.

Yeah, Here is a good article on accessing the hidden folder on an iPod, and here is a (os 9) app to do it for you. I don't know about Windows, but i'd assume you'd just have to be able to access a HFS+ firewire drive (which is basically what the iPod is). (Keep in mind though, i don't have an iPod, so i don't have any first-hand knowledge of any of this).

• Macfixit
• AFP548
• Maccentral
• MacNN
• MacMinute
• As The Apple Turns
• MOSR
• Mac OS X Hints
• Versiontracker
• MacSlash

I had this happen to me... there's a fix, although I don't remember it atm. Since you've obviously got a web browser working, search through the macfixit forums - that's where I found a fix.

1. Using instructions posted on this page, create a disk image of the Update CD.
   
2. Delete the CheckforOSX file from the Essentials.pkg file in System/Installation/Packages folder of the image file.
   
3. Burn the image to a CD using Disk Copy.

Ok, Slashdot gets it wrong on the iPod again. Here's the deal, as can be found on MacFixIt. The iPod has two basic modes, the automatic music management system that syncs with iTunes, and a more manual sort of management method. It will only auto-sync with one "setup" of iTunes, meaning that you can't go to another computer and have it automatically copy all the music that the iPod has but the HD doesn't to the computer. However, you can manually transfer music files back and forth between the iPod and any compatible computer. This all, of course, totally ignores the other major functionality of the device as a plain-jane Firewire HD, which can be used to copy whatever you want between computers.

Work-around for failure to startup from a FireWire drive Dik Gregory found that, after updating to Mac OS X 10.1, his external FireWire hard drive with Mac OS 9.1.1 installed, appeared in the Startup Disk System Preference. In Mac OS X 10.0.x, it did not. "However, selecting it had no effect. My system still booted from the OS X 10.1 system on my Cube's internal drive. To actually boot from the FireWire drive, I needed to first boot from 9.2.1 on my internal drive and then select the FireWire drive from the Startup Disk control panel."

There are some other problems with 10.1 but for the most part I'd say the upgrade is well worth it.

CNET also has a review of OS 10.1. There's some contraversy surrounding The "Free" OS X 10.1 Update that costs you $20. TechTV (formerlly ZDTV) also has a review of Mac OS X 10.1. I'd recommend anyone interested in Mac OS X 10.1 read all these reviews to get full coverage, and unbiased opinions.

This is the real shocker to me. I've been using OSX since the Public Beta and I've been pretty satisfied with it. But is it really ready for everybody?

Today's OSX page at MacFixIt seconds these thoughts and even includes a quote from an Apple employee saying that OSX is still only beta-quality and that apparantly "...Apple has now made beta-quality software the de facto standard on all its shipping Macs."

Personally, I've adjusted well. The only time I have to boot back into 9.1 is to run VPC. I have no need to play DVD's even though my G4 has a DVD player, so I don't miss that. I do miss CD burning on my external SCSI burner, though, and I find it annoying that I can't put my computer to sleep because Apple doesn't seem to support the SCSI PCI card that they installed themselves as a BTO option.

I'm still of the opinion that Apple needs to wait until 10.1 is released (X.I?) and iron out some of the bigger bugs first.

The vanishing RAM thing isn't a huge conspiracy. Read all about it here. Most RAM vendors are apparently replacing "missing" RAM with parts that have proper Mac specs.

Also, someone has written a utility to test and repair DIMMs.

Axe the only UK AppleExpo in favour of *another* US show.

Axe all international OS variations in favour of one (US) version.

Start using the consumer to beta test it's hardware ~ anyone got a Cube? What a peice of shit! Out of the ten I got, 2 were DOA (one had a dead DVD drive, the other had the sleep/restart/shut down problem) another two have got a VGA problem where the only resolution you can select is 640x480! Nice!

What gives Jobs? I forsee the Cube as being one of Apple's biggest farces yet.....watch this space!

--------------------------------------------

You see, I tried to save some money by using generic PC100 memory and it didn't work. The problem I found is that the machine needs 2/2/2 timed memory sticks, and higher quality=better stability. You might end up looking at the PC133 rated memory, going a bit over the specs with generic stuff may help resolve potential timing issues. I was lucky that I was able to exchange the memory I bought for better quality memory and the dealer ate the cost since I had specified that it must be Mac G3 compatible on the purchase order. The frustration of having 4 brand new blue G3's all crashing because of bad memory was a lesson to me, you get what you pay for.

The other area which you must be very cautious in is video cards. The quality of the mac drivers will be critical to your success. Currently ATI is the only one that seems to be in the game right now but those ATI rumors persist.

The things which will work with little hastle are most USB devices, just have to check if the manufacturer supports the Mac. 95% of IDE DMA/33 or DMA/66 hard drives will work, the problem might arise with the apple disk tools not being able to format the drive. I wouln't buy a hard drive any larger than the biggest one apple offers to avoid that potential hazard. Monitors are safe, apple dropped their proprietary monitor connector a few generations ago thank god. Watch out with printers. Some of those cheap as dirt printers on the market are brain dead so without a supported driver they are table art. A postscript printer is the native mac printer type but postscript doesn't come cheap, and it doesn't come with inkjets until they get to large format. If you don't need perfect prints (not doing publishing) just get a printer which is supported. Epson seems to be one of the better injet manufacturers for mac support.

Stuff that doesn't work well: Anything in that braindead cheap group of junk equipment like winmodems. Most add on PCI cards do not have mac drivers even though the mac supports the PCI slot standard. DVD decoders, TV tuners, some SCSI cards. First step would be to check a prospective devices manufacturer driver page. Some devices are supported on the mac but don't ship in a box that comes with drivers or any clue that it might be mac compatible. Lots of multimedia software is the same way. There are many educational and low end multimedia titles on the PC shelves that are hybrid discs with the code for both mac and PC computers on the same disk.

Here are some links to mac news pages which you might like to dig through the archives for. All 3 tend to run feature articles when new OS and hardware come out to gather problem reports and solutions which I find very useful.
www.macfixit.com
www.macnn.com
www.macintouch.com

Well, Apple appears to have bought its own pet graphics-chip maker, so ATI's offerings might just be on their way out for our beloved fruity boxen. ;)
I can't blame them, either--the latest ATI cards have serious issues with lots of Macs. A casual scan through MacFixIt's news archives turn up scores of reported problems. The general consensus I've heard is that ATI's Mac drivers are a big load of rubbish.

Have you tried trouble-shooting?! The OS is fine....you have a conflict somewhere. Do I really need to elaborate?

go to Mac Fixit.
There's been a lot of coverage on the Mac sites because apparently, the company making this formatted it as an ISO disk instead of UDF.

There's a way around the problems if you go to their site and look it up.

PPoE

Originally the NeXT API was supposed to replace MacOS ones. There were two Rhapsody betas released with this goal. This was called the Yellow Box.

When Apple saw that it couldn't convince vendors to port their apps to this, they decided to update the MacOS API, creating Carbon. Nobody is ever going to write software for the NeXT API except for the few software companies that did so before Apple bought NeXT. Witness MacOS X Server - don't see much software written for it, just Unix ports.

In any case, MacOS still doesn't have memory protection, pre-emptive multitasking, or normal virtual memory. Hopefully the current version doesn't run anything in 68k emulation by now.

So instead of hoping Apple will give you the features you need, and paying for upgrades that break your software, just install LinuxPPC.


--
http://www.wholepop.com/
Whole Pop Magazine Online - Pop Culture