How (not) to make a slideshow in iPhoto

As you can see in this tutorial on Apple's site, you can quickly view photos in a slide show with the button at the bottom of the window. You can set the order, pick a theme, add music, transitions, etc. But don't get too far because you can only play that slideshow on your computer, you can't publish or covert it to video (unless you use a screen recording program).

In the same tutorial, you can see there is also a Slideshow Project you can create which can be exported. The only downside is the way you have to arrange photos is a small strip at the top of the project window rather than a proper iPhoto album.

So the lesson learned is if you plan to publish a slideshow, make a project, don't do one on the fly.

People do funny things with Apple products

First there was this guy who turns an XBox into a killer MacOS video editing workstation.

Now this other guy has made a greeting card out of an iPhone.

Relocating iPhoto Library

From Basics4Mac:

Once you have your new external hard drive, you can move your iPhoto library to it. This will free up the space on your main hard drive and let you grow your iPhoto library to thousands of photos.

This has been updated with instructions for iPhoto '09. Instructions for iPhoto '06 and '08 are still included.

Upgraded to Snow Leopard, Can't Scan

After upgrading to Mac Snow Leopard OS everything seemed fine until trying to scan from our HP Photosmart C7200.

I suspected a driver update was in order, and found this article on Macrumors.com. The HP utilities were still not working after installing. Then I read this article on HP's website.


The article says:

New with Snow Leopard, the Scanning interface to these HP Inkjet All-in-One devices is now built into Snow Leopard and supported with the Apple Image Capture application. There are three ways to perform scanning from your HP All-in-One:

Preview program
Image Capture program
System Preferences > Print & Fax

It sounds like a positive thing, but I think they're also saying indirectly their own suite of apps are now totally useless?

I uninstalled all the HP-ware and am now using Image Capture. Hopefully that will be good enough going forward.

VMware Fusion 3 Coming

From VMware.com:

VMware Fusion 3 – the Best Way to Run Windows on the Mac – Now Available for Pre-Order

VMware Fusion 3 with More than 50 New Features will be Available Worldwide on Oct 27

PALO ALTO, Calif., October 6, 2009 — VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today announced that VMware Fusion 3, the best way to run Windows on the Mac, will be available worldwide on October 27 and is available for pre-order today. VMware Fusion 3 makes it easier than ever for users to move to the Mac and to run Windows applications – including graphics-intensive games – alongside Mac applications, with a Mac user experience.

VMware Fusion 3 will include more than 50 new features and enhancements, delivering a better-than-ever Windows on Mac experience.  Key highlights include: 

• Optimized for Snow Leopard. Built from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion 3 leverages Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s advanced architecture with a new 64-bit core engine and native support for the 64-bit kernel, delivering even better Windows on Mac performance.
• Ultimate Windows 7 Experience.  VMware Fusion 3 will be the first to enable the full Windows 7 experience, side-by-side with your Mac, complete with Windows Aero and Flip 3D.
• Switching Made Easy. VMware Fusion 3 will make it easy for users to bring their entire PC to their Mac in a few easy steps – wirelessly or with a simple Ethernet cable – allowing customers to protect investments in existing Windows software, and to keep using the programs they still need.
• Best-in-Class 3D Graphics. Support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 will enable users to run their favorite 3D Windows games and applications – all without rebooting.

I'll be putting my order in!

BusyCal Debuts

From Macworld.com:

For many Mac users, Apple’s own iCal application is sufficient when it comes to scheduling their lives, but for those irked by its limitations, there are alternatives. BusyMac’s new BusyCal 1.0, released on Tuseday, is a dedicated calendaring program that aims to exploit the opening left by iCal’s own shortcomings for power users—BusyMac even goes so far as to bill it “iCal Pro.”

I've been using BusySync which lets you sync iCal with Google Calendar. Works pretty well. I'll take a look at BusyCal but I'm pretty happy what I have now.

Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect [Finally home again!]

I hadn't heard back yet, so I stopped by the Topanga Apple Store Friday night. The Macbook Pro was ready to go. New motherboard, and a new battery too. Can't complain except the whole repair service could have been a few days shorter. Total days from drop off to pick up: 12.

So far so good. The Apple Genius warned me they might have to wipe the hard drive, but it didn't come to that. I'm glad to not have to waste a day reinstalling everything and other day or two downloading all the frakking updates.

Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect [Fixed, at the store, but can't pick it up yet!]

So I watched my Macbook Pro get shipped from Houston to Canoga Park (aka Topanga). Fedex site says it was delivered and signed for.

I call the store to see if I can pick it up. At first they can't find it. But then he says it's there but they haven't "checked it in yet". They have to check it in, and run tests on it to make sure it is okay. I thought the repair center was supposed to take care of that. Hmm.

Waiting for Apple Store to call...

Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect [Fixed, shipped back to store]

Over the past week I've been obsessively checking my Macbook Pro's repair status. This morning it finally changed from "On hold" to "Repair Completed". Woohoo!

It's on it's way via Fedex from the repair center in Houston, TX to the Apple Store in Topanga where I dropped it off. Should arrive tomorrow.

Macbook Pro NVidia 8600 Defect

I thought I'd escaped this, but it finally caught up with me. My Macbook Pro has an NVidia 8600GT and as we found out last year, most if not all of these chips have a defect that can cause it to no longer be functional.

The good news is that Apple's policy is to fix the problem for free even if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty.

I took it to my local Apple Store. They ran a test on it in the back to confirm it was indeed the NVidia problem. I signed some paperwork and off it went.

I'm number two in the queue.

That was Sunday August 30. It's now September 8th and still no word other than "On hold - Part on order" when I check my repair status. I've read accounts claiming repairs taking from just several hours to a few days. One said two weeks.

Broken iPhone replaced at Apple Store

Last week the ringer switch on my iPhone 3G came off. I checked online to make sure it was still under warranty. It was, so I dropped by the Apple Store my next time at Topanga Mall.

They were swamped, so I had to make an appointment to come in later. If you have an issue like this I highly recommend doing this instead of walking in.

The Genius Bar was busy when I got in, but it worked to my favor as they helped me get through quickly so they could get back to other more needy customers. I walked out with a new iPhone in about 30 minutes.

CompUSA revives with open Internet policy

From Electronista.com:

Following its bankruptcy and sale to Systemax, CompUSA has quietly been reopening new stores with a very different policy on Internet access. In a talk with Wired, Systemax's Technology Products chief Gilbert Fiorentino has confirmed both that there are now 30 new CompUSA stores but that the new shops have a largely open Internet policy that puts every computer in the store on an Internet connection. Shoppers are reportedly encouraged to use demo units to check prices and reviews, and are unrestricted from ordinary tasks like checking Facebook.
...
A revived store faces difficult economic conditions but may thrive with the recent liquidation of Circuit City, which both reduces CompUSA's immediate competition and opens the door to taking over the now-empty retail space of its former challenger. Circuit City had faced a similar crisis of high maintenance costs and losses to Best Buy but was unable to find a company willing to take it over in time to avoid a complete collapse.

Conficker Awakens, Starts Scamming

From NetworkWorld.com:

The Conficker worm is back in action and stumping security experts once again. One of the most craftily designed pieces of malware recently got an update and is finally starting to behave like other worms.

Time Warner Changes -- But Keeps -- Bandwidth Caps

From PCWorld.com:

Time Warner Cable decided it wanted to play with bandwidth capping, but after intense backlash from customers, the company has backed off its original plans.
...
Despite the outcry and Time Warner's response, the caps are still likely to be implemented, which spells bad news across the board.

Pick your passwords well

From Slashdot.org:

Robert David Graham writes:
"The hacker who broke into phpbb.com posted the passwords online. I was sent the password list, so I ran it through my analysis tools and posted the results. Nothing terribly surprising here; 123456 and password are the most popular passwords as you would expect. I tried to be a bit more creative in my analysis, though, to get into the psychology of why people choose the passwords they do. '14% of passwords were patterns on the keyboard, like "1234" or "qwerty" or "asdf." There are a lot of different patterns people choose, like "1qaz2wsx" or "1q2w3e." I spent a while googling "159357" trying to figure out how to categorize it, then realized it was a pattern on the numeric keypad. I suppose whereas "1234" is popular among right-hand people, "159357" will be popular among lefties.'"

Gears of War DRM Bug

From ArsTechnica.com:

Gamers who tried to play Gears of War on the PC Thursday ran into a slight snag: it seems that the digital certificate that allows the game to run expired on January 28, 2009. Basically that means if you keep your PC's clock up to date, you can no longer play the game. The official Epic forum is ablaze with complaints about this issue, as the still-kicking community becomes enraged.

...

Epic Games is aware of the issue, but don't expect much hard news about what to do about the inability to play the game. "We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved," a super moderator posted on the forum. "Sorry for any problems related to this. I'll post more once we have a resolution." (Microsoft is the publisher, and GoW is a Games for Windows release.)

Until then? You can either fiddle with your computer's clock or not play. Neither choice is much fun.

Boot Camp Print Screen = fn+shift+f11

I keep forgetting this, so here's the link to Apple's Knowledge Base.

• Boot Camp Print Screen = fn+shift+f11
• Boot Camp Print Window = fn+alt+shift+f11