On 01.01.2011, at 23:59, Geoffrey Heard wrote:
>>
>> >> 1) The startup process is very slow. I press the power button and Š nothing happens.
Hello Geoffrey,
let me guess, ... you are still using Eudora? Your email client has converted the three dots (...) into S with caron (see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Š>). If you are still using the old Eudora v. 6.2.4 be aware that you loose all control over how certain characters are displayed by the receiver. This is usually no problem between friends and on mailing lists, but it can be different in the business world. I'm sure I once lost quite a few clients in the 90ies when I was once trying out a new version of Netscape, everything looked great on my monitor but what my clients got from me was little more than `~ * # > & ...
Since that time I'm paranoid and I only use Unicode savvy applications (Mail, GyazMail and Thunderbird).
>> After 7 seconds I hear a low click and then a loud chime. It takes 55 seconds until I see the Desktop. I guess this is normal because I have 500 GB hard disk and it is nearly full (I always try to keep about 20% free, now I have 50 GB available). Besides I am running MaxMenus which always need some time to load as well as a few menu bar applications. The Dock is also full (= 86 applications and folders, is that perhaps too much?).
>
> Might I suggest you try "Cocktail.app"
Thanks for reminding me of Cocktail.app. I had already downloaded it but never actually used it. Yesterday I run MacPilot and OnyX which both do similar things as Cocktail.
> then slash about with the app, emptying caches and whatnot (I actually don't understand most of what I am doing, but it feels good), then I do the repair permissions
If you have 10.6.5 and repair the permissions what does your program (or Disk Utility) then tell you afterwards? When I do it I'm told there was a great number of permissions repaired (all Java related). Running it again will tell me exactly the same story again and the affected files are the same.
> Half of what I do probably makes no difference, but it makes me feel as though I have done something and that everything is good as a result, and that's the main thing! :D
You're absolutely right about that. :-)
> the other day I discovered Cocktail.app had an option for removing unused localizations.
I have read many posts from people reporting not being able to start and/or run certain applications (Word and other Microsoft products come to mind) after they removed localizations so I have been reluctant to do this.
When you remove Japanese localization, for example, will you then be able to read Japanese text documents and Japanese web pages in Safari afterwards?
> But in the end, a lot of disk space was freed up.
How much free space did you gain? And how many localizations did you remove?
>>
>> I started up from another disk today and "repaired" them. As I ran Disk Utility immediately again afterwards they were all back again...
>
> These would be the ones that don't matter, according to Apple, I suspect. I've just learnt to ignore them.
OnyX.app writes: "Messages listing incorrect permissions are shown for your information only and can safely be ignored". When permissions are "incorrect" as in this case, maybe they and Apple should use another term, *incorrect* implies that something is "not correct" and if something is not correct on my computer I — as a user — want to fix it. If it cannot be fixed, I ask myself: Should I ignore it? Are they really "incorrect"?
>
>> > No wonder it's slow. Far too little space; no, far too much garbage.
>>> I suggest you get an external FireWire HD and transfer files to there and use it for backup.
>>
>> I guess I could transfer most of the videos, they take up 200 GB on disk.
>
> I'm not sure how far I go along with the "too much stuff on the HD" thing. These things are designed to do the work! Yes, there must be available space on the HD for the machine to undertake work in, but apart from that, it should be able to carry the load.
I agree with you. I think Ben may be wrong about this.
> With 500GB, I would be looking at 50-100GB space, I suppose. But 50GB should be plenty -- I haven't heard that the machine wants a percentage of space, I've just heard that it needs bit of space to work in.
I have read that you should always leave at least 10% free (minimum), or still better 20% to be on the save site.
>
> BUT -- what does Apple say about it?
A good question. I don't know what Apple says, I picked up my knowledge regarding this from books I have read.
I'm also highly skeptical that I will gain more speed by throwing documents away (or transferring them to another drive, to be more precise). What I may perhaps need is more RAM, I have 4 GB now.
>
> I have migrated to a pocket-sized WD USB2 500GB HD for general back-up and for taking with me when I go aroaming with the MacBook.
I bought Western Digital My Book Studio Edition (2 TB) several months ago, mainly because it was delivered with a special backup software which was supposed to work similar as Time Machine. I was curious because I could not use Time Machine under Tiger. This backup software is probably the greatest crap I've ever seen, it's not only useless for backups it's also impossible to get rid of it. It appears as a separate volume on your desktop. You can disable it and then hide it so that it does not appear on your desktop anymore but you cannot delete it from the WD disk. This makes it impossible to use the disk as a startup disk. I've tried to clone my system with different types of software, everything seems to have been copied as it should, but you just can't use the WD disk as a startup disk, i.e. the cloning fails. I have also 2 external 500 GB LaCie disks, they can be cloned and used as startup disks, no problems with them.
Does anyone here have Western Digital My Book Studio Edition with the above mentioned backup software?
>
> For back-up, I am using (on the advice of someone(s) on this list) Carbon Copy Cloner which is very good
I think Carbon Copy Cloner works pretty much like SuperDuper which I used earlier. I have a question regarding this. When you clone your disk do the ICONS appear on the new disk arranged *exactly* as they are on the old one?
In the ReadMe File of Carbon Copy Cloner they say the program ONLY copies FILES THAT APPLE RECOMMENDS backing up. SuperDuper does the same. This means that unfortunately NOT ALL settings are copied. Here are a few examples I have noticed when cloning.
(1) Double clicking on my source disk icon in Finder will show the contents nicely sorted in an Icon View and a picture decorates the background. On the destination disk the icons will turn up unsorted and the picture background is missing.
(2) The settings for Little Snitch, Spark and Scribblet had to be added again manually. Not a big deal, but a bit irritating because I was expecting a real and true cloning.
The drawback with Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper is that they can only backup whole disks. If you want to back up single folders you have to create disk images. The drawback with a disk image is that you cannot search the contents inside (with Spotlight). It drives you mad *knowing* that you backed up some files but you simply can't find them! For this reason I chose ChronoSync which additionally allows me to back up single files and folders whenever I need to.
>
>> >> I have been using Spell Catcher X 10.3.7 (<http://www.rainmakerinc.com/>) for some time and I suspect this software to be responsible for some instability I have been experiencing lately.
>>>>
>> >> Is anybody here using Spell Catcher X?
>
> Tested Spell Catcher the other day. Can't see any advantage over the standard OS X spell checker
The only thing I can think of is a small window that pops up every time you misspell a word. You can then quickly select the right spelling by just hitting a number (1, 2, 3 etc.). This is better (= easier) than using the context menu in the standard OS X spell checker. Spell Catcher has a few extra components like glossaries and Ghostwriter (= key capture facility). The glossaries were a great thing under System 7 and 8, now they have been superseded by Nisus glossaries, "Abbreviation sets" in Typinator and god knows whatnot.
> -- but then, I'm using only English (plus Motu and Tok Pisin -- now in creole mode, c/f Pinker -- but nobody has dictionaries for them).
What about word lists like this: <http://www.june29.com/hlp/lang/pidgin.html> and this one <http://www.ansbach-evangelisch.de/dekanat/kleines-woerterbuch-pidgin.pdf>
You could prepare them with Nisus and then import the words as tab delimited text into some database application (e.g. FileMaker Pro).
Best regards
Ţorvarđur
OS X 10.6.5
MacBook Pro 17''
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