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/.
Apple TV – No HDTV required!
Posted by Lab Rat
For those of us who are drooling over the new Apple TV but have read reports that you’d be throwing away money unless you own an HDTV to hook it up to, it turns out a good percentage of regular “SQUARE” TVs will work just fine with the device. Apparently, despite Apple’s literature on the Apple TV saying the words “HDTV” over and over again, if you happen to own a high-end 4:3 TV with component inputs on the back, the Apple TV should work for you.
The folks over at Rouge Amoeba have pictures of the Apple TV running at a 480i resolution on a Magnovox 27″ standard set. It looks like the Apple TV has the 480i option in its setup menu, and the output does not appear to be stretched or distorted in any way. We happen to own a Sony WEGA set with component inputs, and are now very excited about the idea of an Apple TV (and the expanded hard drive hack).
Rogue Amoeba thinks (and we agree) that Apple likely has chosen to not even mention that analog 4×3 sets can work with the Apple TV to avoid confusing consumers. Many sets made in the last 3 years or so contain component jacks on the back, but they are rarely found on sets costing under $500-$700 until recently. Apple likely doesn’t want to face a backlog of returns from angry customers trying to hook up the device via coax on a $150 set.
Macenstein’s “Mac Chick of the Month” (March 2007): DeBranne
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
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To see more of DeBranne, check out the following links!
www.royaltyclothing.net
www.dvxuser.com
Do you think you or someone you know would make a great “Mac Chick of the Month”? Send us an e-mail, or check out our application guide here or on our MySpace page for details.
Due to popular demand, we are proud to offer a Mac Chick of the Month desktop wallpaper to enhance the beauty of YOUR Mac.
Click
to download.
Folks already hacking their Apple TVs
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
The Apple TV only began shipping a few days ago, yet already there are reports of people cracking open the cases to see what trouble they can get into. Faithful Macenstein reader rico has returned from the abyss with a pair of links detailing a couple of warranty-voiding Apple TV hacks.
First up is a posting on Gizmodo. A reader there claims to have upgraded his Apple TV’s hard drive to a healthy 120GB from the unfathomably small 40GB drive that comes standard. No word yet on how he accomplished this, but he claims details will follow.
A more ambitious Apple TV hack comes from the pages of electronista, where 2 forum members say they have managed to get XviD videos to play on the Apple TV. This hack is not for the faint of heart, as it involves removing the hard drive, installing the SSH server Dropbear, the Perian video container, and a “custom” script in order to work. Still, it does look like there could be a very inventive and active hacking community springing up around the Apple TV, much like the Tivo’s of old.
The Future is NOW: Apple begins selling entire seasons of shows on iTunes before they air on Network TV
Posted by Helper Monkey
Perhaps the greatest allure of the iTunes store (or ANY digital media store, for that matter) is the idea of instant gratification. If you want to watch a movie, you no longer have to put on your “outside pants” and actually drive to your local video store, you can park your keister in front of your computer (where it probably was anyway) and with a few clicks, you can begin downloading yourself a movie from the iTunes store. Yes, in just 20 times longer than it would take you to drive 5 minutes to the local Blockbuster, you can be watching a 2-year old movie from the comfort of your computer chair.
OK, so maybe all the bugs aren’t worked out yet, but we’re getting there. The point I was starting to make here was people love instant gratification, and the more instant, the better.
Well, if the idea of “instantly” being able to download your favorite movies, music and TV shows wasn’t fast enough for you, what if you could download TV shows so fast that they got to you weeks before even the networks got them?
Well, the future is now. Literally. You can now purchase entire seasons of shows before they air, and begin watching them NOW. Unlike Apple’s “Season Passes” of old, where you pre-purchase an entire season of a television show but have to wait each week for a new episode to arrive, some networks are now offering the entire run of their latest mid-season shows on iTunes NOW, before the episodes air.
Case in point, NBC’s optimistically titled “Andy Barker, P.I. Season 1” starring Andy Richter. The first 6 episodes of the former Conan O’Brien sidekick’s show can be purchased and viewed NOW on iTunes, even though we are only a week into its actual airing. While there is a chance NBC is offering the full season NOW because it doesn’t expect to actually AIR the full season, we’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt as we are big fans of Richter. (He reminds us of “TV’s Frank” from Mystery Science Theater 3000).
So get clicking and purchase Andy Barker, P.I. now. It’s the closest thing to time-travel we’re likely to experience until Apple unleashes OS X 10.5’s Time Machine.
Apple iRack
Posted by iGor
