On March 3, 2015 I finally got my Mac Pro late 2013 to sleep/wake reliably – more than 1.25 years after Apple released it. The latest version of the Apple Thunderbolt firmware is required, Yosemite 10.10.2, and Areca 8050 Firmware & Boot Rom V1.52 2014-12-26. As well I need the latest version of Promise Pegasus R4 Firmware: 5.04.0000.36 otherwise it reported that the disk was not ejected when waking up. Here is a screen shot of my current Energy Saver […]
Problem I need to be able test software changes before applying them to my production machine. I also don’t want to duplicate my current hardware environment or make the job too labour intensive. I could just clone all my software to another disk and reboot. But to move back a forth between the clone and my production environment was a process I found too tedious – requiring a reboot each time I needed to check things. Solution I have decided […]
Over the years I have developed preferences for how my machines are configured. Every time I get a new machine or reload the OS, I have to remember to make the following changes, so I finally decided to document them to make the job easier: Old Mac: First if selling an old Mac here is what I need to do: Remove any licensed software Deauthorize any iTunes for this computer Use Disk Utility and erase all drives other than the Macintosh […]
To prepare for my new Mac Pro 2013 I decided to prepare a new Areca 8050 from OWC with 21 TB of storage. OWC did a good job of shipping the equipment and I had reviewed some other posts knowing that the configuration may be problematic, so I downloaded the User Guide in advance. Here are my recommendations for anyone like myself new to the installation: a) Use Firefox not Safari b) Upgrade the firmware For the record here are […]
To force spotlight to index a removable media: Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy Add the remote drive – this specifies that the drive should NOT be indexed.m Close and reopen this screen. Then remove the removable drive from the Privacy screen. Check spotlight (Command+Space) and it should be indexing the drive.
Until Apple returns basic functionality to the dumbed down versions of 2013 iWork products, here is how to return the defaults to the 09 iWork versions. The following example is for Pages, but works with Pages, Numbers, Keynote … 1) In the /Applications folder delete Pages.app and empty the trash 2) select any Pages data file (from your Documents Folder for example) and press Command+I 3) In the Info Panel, select “Open with -> Other”, then select Pages.app from the iWork 09 […]
A few quick notes on how to change the Print to Web Receipts Folder for Dropbox: In Finder: Go to \Library\PDF Services Add alias “Save PDF to Dropbox Web Receipts” pointing to DocumentsDropbox\Web Receipts All web receipts will now be synced via Dropbox. Inspiration for this came from The technical times of Michael Andrews: OSX has a nice button on the the print dialog box labeled “PDF”. This allows you to open, fax, and save any printable document as a PDF. […]
I was quite honoured to win best in show for one of my Palouse shots – Farming Chocolate. Read all about it.
If you sense that your hard disk should have more free space, and you have emptied the trash and cleared out obvious problems to no avail, then follow these steps: Open Finder. Press Command+F Left of the word Search > select the drive A drop down below the word Search should be changed to “File Size.” Other criteria are: “is greater than” and the size in MB – say 500 or 1000 Finder will then display all files exceeding […]
Pippin has officially joined the family – making his way from Montreal to the island on July 11, 2013. He is tiny, just over 3 lbs but growing fast. Not exactly enthusiastic about Bryher – but on July 17 they had a nose touch together and it was uneventful. So we are optimistic that everyone is going to get along. Click the picture for a larger version. Bryher is now 14 weeks and continues to grow like a weed. […]