Tag Archives: Snow Leopard

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Video… Finally!

I was finally able to get video from my new iPod Nano to upload to YouTube. How’d I get there?

While researching the problem, I found that loads of folks are having problems like this, and for some of them, it appears to be related to Google Gears. I tried to install Gears, and the installer and Google Gears site indicate that OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard ain’t supported. 🙁

In one of those notes, however, someone mentioned that they had success using their YouTube credentials, rather than GMail-based credentials. Sure ’nuff, that seemed to work.

It’s a sample size of one, so YMMV, but below is our first video from the Nano to YouTube. Enjoy!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak, Photography

OnOne : An Update

Man, the folks from OnOne seem to be all over this Snow Leopard issue with their license activation.

Waiting for me this morning was an e-mail from customer support (sent about four hours after I reported the problem) indicating that my license had been reset. I jumped into Photoshop, and sure enough, I was able to get my license working again.

Thank you OnOne — that’s some mammoth customer service!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

More Snow Leopard Weirdness

As part of my day job’s schedule, I have Friday’s off. Typically, it’s my day to run around town, visit the bookstores and execute some coupon action. This morning’s no different.

However….

I went to print my coupons to my crusty trusty Okidata B4100 laserprinter from Doc Oc this morning only to find…. there’s no printers installed! Yep, it appears that when Snow Leopard installed, it scrogged both my Oki and my Epson R1800. Bummer.

The Oki’s got a really flakey driver install path — don’t use the drivers that Apple provides, use ours — so I always have to remember that little step, lest I have printing heartaches.

So, no biggie. The Oki’s printing, although I haven’t reinstalled/checked the R1800 yet to see if it’s printing is better than it was under Leopard. More on that, I’m sure, to come this long holiday weekend.

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Another Leopard Wart

I have VMWare Fusion on my Mac for one reason, and one reason only: connectivity to my day job’s office. I don’t use it often, but when I do, it’s usually important.

Tonight, I’ve been trying to hit some of my lesser used applications after loading both my MacBook Pro and Doc Oc with Snow Leopard, and switching both of them to 64-bit mode. When I hit VMWare, it yelled at me:

VMWare Warning

We are not amused.

I went to VMWare’s site, and found them proudly touting experimental support of VMWare on the 32-bit kernel, and apologetically saying that VMWare running on the 64-bit Snow Leopard kernel is hard: “The transition to the 64-bit kernel of Snow Leopard is a major undertaking and something that we are taking seriously as we plan future products.” I’m sorry that it’s hard, but I expected more.

And I’m sure this is coming across as whiny, but I look at it this way. I have 64-bit ready hardware that I paid a gob of Benjy’s for. I have a 64-bit ready OS that’s been at the public dev forefront for many, many months. Yet, still I can’t get the kind of 64-bit love for my tools and toys as I could on the Windows platform. (Shudder.)

I get that not every app needs to be 64-bit. I mean, do I really need a 64-bit LOLcats screensaver? (OK, so maybe I do, but that’s a problem on my end!) But when big tools like VMWare and Photoshop are lagging on this front after so much lead time, well, I guess I expected a bit more than nebulosity at this stage of the game. I’m not knocking the tools — they are great — but I do have a bit of a struggle with the product planning. None of this 64-bit stuff should’ve been a surprise to anyone.

It’s simple. I drank the Kool-Aid, and want my gear to live up to the hype. I want it to just work.

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Update on Snow Leopard

I’ve committed Snow Leopard to Doc Oc, but not without a few things to ponder.

Despite it’s 64-bit yellings and screamings, the OS is designed to boot in 32-bit mode out of the box. How big a deal is that? Well, I don’t really know. There’s loads of rantings out there talking about whether it matters or not. I look at it this way: if my OS is 64-bit capable and my hardware is 64-bit capable, why wouldn’t I run in 64-bit mode? From Apple, there’s no way to permanently change which way you boot. But, there’s unofficial ways. Here’s one. MIssion solved.

That leads me to my color calibration puck. I have an Eye-One Display2 from X-Rite (well, it was GretagMacbeth when I bought it), and it appears that the code that runs it only runs under Rosetta, which means it’s PowerPC code, not Intel. I never realized that, and wouldn’t have except that Rosetta isn’t installed by default with the OS. I’ve read about the puck not being detected, but I didn’t have that problem on the MacBook Pro, and now it’s all nice and calibrated.

All in all, things have gone pretty smoothly, although I won’t do the server for a couple of weeks — gotta bake the new goodies on the gear!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Forty-Five Minutes

Yep, 45 minutes to install Snow Leopard on the MacBook Pro. Not bad, in the big scheme of things. However, there are some warts.

The first is that the reminder application from X-Rite that prompts me to profile my screen every now and then requires Rosetta to run. Boo. The other is that iStat Menus is not yet Snow Leopard compatible (per their site).

Neither of these are show stoppers for me (although I’m curious if I can calibrate my monitor with the current X-Rite software; there does not seem to be any mention of any issues with a quick look on X-Rite’s site).

Stay tuned kids… Doc Oc is next!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

The Leopard Has Arrived!

My copy of Snow Leopard has just landed on all fours on the doorstep. Less than five minutes after FexEx dropped it off, I have begun installing it on my MacBook Pro. There are rumors running rampant that it could do an upgrade in as little as 15 minutes. When I inserted the disc and began the installation (which had very few options), the installer said it had 45 minutes to go, and now it’s up to 54 minutes. I suspect the 15 minute upgrade will be nowhere to be found. 🙂

Stay tuned for more as I get through the upgrade, and start getting some first impressions.