Troubleshoot your misbehaving Mac with Apple’s Hardware Test
Posted by Lab Rat
On those rare occasions when a Mac starts acting a bit uppity, most of us turn to Apple’s Disk Utility as our first attempt at setting things straight. If Disk Utility cannot repair the problem, our next step is usually a 3rd party disk repair utility such as Alsoft’s Disk Warrior. However, there are times when the problem doesn’t stem from faulty software or hard disk corruption. Sometimes the problem can lie in the hardware itself.
If you are experiencing frequent kernel panics or random shut downs, perhaps it is time to take a look at the little-known (and free) Apple Hardware Test app that ships with every Mac.
As most people know, rebooting your Mac from the software restore CD that comes with your Mac by holding the “C” key during will allow you to run Apple’s Disk Utility app. However, if you restart your computer with that same disk in your DVD drive and hold down the “D” key, you will be treated to a bit of nostalgia in the form of Apple’s Hardware Test. (Note: AHT will not run from a standalone OS X DVD, only the software restore DVDs that ship with each Mac).
Apple Hardware Test may seem like Disk Utility’s ugly step-sister, but it serves an entirely different purpose. Looking very OS 9-ish, the Apple Hardware test allows you to run a series of tests on your system’s RAM, logic board, modem (if present) video RAM, and Apple’s Airport Card. It will not test 3rd party video cards, PCI cards, or Non-Apple devices, but you should have tried trouble-shooting those devices already by this point.
There are very few options to choose when running AHT, in fact there is only one. You can either choose to run the basic test, or check the “Perform extended testing” check box. Apple warns using this option will take considerably longer, and depending on how much memory you have, it does make a difference. The basic test on our Mac Pro with 4 GB of RAM took about 4 minutes, the extended test took about 20.
Apple Hardware Test also consists of a version of the Apple System Profiler, and allows you view your computer’s memory configuration, video card info, active communication ports, and basic system info such as your serial number, Boot ROM version, and model number.
All in all we think AHT is a very simple and well designed diagnostic tool that more people should be aware of, and one that all people should add to their trouble shooting arsenal.
Is Apple using the Dictionary Widget to push liberal politics?
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Probably not.
But faithful Macenstein reader Skeezo sent in an interesting link to forum posting over at rave.ca. It seems if one types in the word “Democracy” into Mac OS X’s built-in Dictionary widget, and then switches over to the thesaurus, you are given the following example usage of the word:
Democracy (noun)
“a democracy in Iraq is quite unlikely for now or any time soon”
Whether or not you feel the thesaurus may be technically correct, you must admit it certainly seems like a unnecessarily politically charged and topical choice of phrase to use.
Now, as for whether this is Apple’s doing, or the doing of New Oxford American Dictionary (who supposedly supplies all the definitions used in Apple’s Dictionary widget) is unknown, as there is no other online version of the New Oxford American Dictionary we can use to compare with the widget’s results (Apple secured an exclusive digital deal with the company in 2005). We have sent out an e-mail to Oxford University Press to see if they can clarify the origin of the line.
This is slightly reminiscent of the “Miserable failure” search result Google provided a few years back. If one typed in the words “Miserable failure” on Google’s homepage and then hit the “I’m feeling lucky” button they were taken to George W. Bush’s webpage.
Apple’s programmers have a long history of including easter eggs in various apps for the very bored to find, and it looks like there’s a chance this may be yet another. Thanks Skeezo!
Now THAT’S a memory leak!
Posted by Helper Monkey
Running After Effects 7 (in Rosetta) on a Mac Pro with 4 GB of RAM.
Free on iTunes: Jack Black’s “Acceptable.tv Tutorial”
Posted by Helper Monkey
VH1 is launching Jack Black’s new half-hour comedy show Acceptable.tv by making the premiere episode, entitled “Acceptable.tv Tutorial“, available for free on iTunes.
From the description:
Each week you’ll see five mini TV shows made by the Acceptable.tv team. Watch our funny shows, then vote on which shows you want to return for a new episode. You can also create your own shows for the website and maybe see them on TV. Wanna make a more acceptable TV show? Download our free video of tutorials and let JAck Black teach you - as only Jack Black can. We’re bringing the audience and the creatives together. We’re letting them watch and control each other. In any case, downloading just got a little more acceptable.
You can download the free episode here.
NeoOffice® 2.1 released
Posted by Helper Monkey
NeoOffice.org has released NeoOffice 2.1, a “significantly-enhanced” version of the Mac OS X-native version of the OpenOffice.org office suite that includes Microsoft Office-compatible word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database applications.
“This release is the culmination of many thousands of volunteer hours,” said Patrick Luby, CEO and Chief Engineer of NeoOffice.org. “As a result of this tremendous effort, we are introducing a major new version of a very stable, full-featured office suite for Mac OS X that supports dozens of languages.”
NeoOffice 2.1 is available today as a free download from the NeoOffice website at http://download.neooffice.org/neojava/.
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