macOS and Mac Software: We still exist!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > macOS and Mac Software: We still exist!

TACD: Oct 27, 2000

Kommienzuspadt posted:

It doesn't have to be its focus per se - It just has to be able to allow me to import and format figures at least better than MS word.

Though, that said, if I'm already married to MS Word because of EndNote, would Pages be a better solution? Odds are good I'll continue to draft the raw text in Word just because of EndNote, so maybe I'd be better served with software that focuses on layout instead.

I haven't tried using it, but I found an EndNote plugin for Pages that seems to have been updated for the most recent Pages version.

# ? Feb 15, 2014 20:49

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# ? May 9, 2024 11:02

binarysmurf: Aug 18, 2012; I smurf, therefore I am.

carry on then posted:

If .doc/.docx compatibility is at all important, you are stuck with Word. Sorry to say, but no app outside of Word, I've found, can properly handle even moderately complex .docx files without some changes. You could look into Pages for page layout, but I just think you'll spend as much time babysitting the transfer and formatting in Pages as you would doing that formatting in Word itself.

I totally agree with this. Pages did not like my Word 2010 CV at all. If Word compatibility is necessary, then Word is your best option.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 06:28

rookieone: May 25, 2004; A small town never forgets

here's a super nerdy workaround to buying MS Office: Use OnLive's free virtual desktop through Bluestacks

http://lifehacker.com/5925101/run-microsoft-office-for-free-on-your-mac-or-pc

You don't need to buy a license and use any virtualizing software or Bootcamp.

I wanted to try it but I'm being blocked by OnLive.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 13:02

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Honestly, I'd rather put the tip of a needle into my urethra than rely on bluestacks for anything important.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 17:57

FlashBangBob: Jul 5, 2007; BLAM! Internet Found!

Last Chance posted:

Honestly, I'd rather put the tip of a needle into my urethra than rely on bluestacks for anything important.

I had a catheter once.

# ? Feb 16, 2014 18:07

camoseven: Dec 30, 2005; RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

I just installed Windows 7 on a new Bootcamp partition on one of the new MacBook Pros. I've got almost everything working except for the microphone. It kinda picks up my voice, but then the feedback goes crazy and it stops working. I'm trying to use it with Teamspeak 3. Anyone have any ideas on a fix?

# ? Feb 16, 2014 23:04

JHVH-1: Jun 28, 2002

camoseven posted:

I just installed Windows 7 on a new Bootcamp partition on one of the new MacBook Pros. I've got almost everything working except for the microphone. It kinda picks up my voice, but then the feedback goes crazy and it stops working. I'm trying to use it with Teamspeak 3. Anyone have any ideas on a fix?

You would get feedback if the speaker was playing the same thing that the mic is picking up. I don't know jack about Teamspeak but if it has an option not to play your own voice then turn that on or try headphones

# ? Feb 17, 2014 03:27

kode54: Nov 26, 2007; aka kuroshi; Fun Shoe

Thanks for poining out Dashlane, which I have migrated my passwords over to on OS X, Windows, and Android. Of course, it looks like I'll have to pay them $29.99 per year to keep those three synchronized. And no Linux version yet, which I'll probably need when I'm on my laptop, at least until I eventually get either a rMBP or a MBA.

Also, back on the subject of Cog, I forgot that I already ported Hively Player (HVL/AHX) to it, and I also just ported LazyUSF to it, and eventually removed all the recompiler bullshit and replaced the RSP with a different core. So yay.

# ? Feb 17, 2014 03:42

camoseven: Dec 30, 2005; RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

JHVH-1 posted:

You would get feedback if the speaker was playing the same thing that the mic is picking up. I don't know jack about Teamspeak but if it has an option not to play your own voice then turn that on or try headphones

Yea I put on some headphones and it works fine now. I can use it without headphones when I'm running OSX, but it seems like I have all the same settings. Oh well, headphones aren't the worst!

# ? Feb 17, 2014 15:55

gnrk: Apr 1, 2008

korora posted:

For journal articles LaTeX produces much better-looking output and Google says it works with EndNote (I use BibTeX so I can't speak to it personally). There is some learning curve but honestly for most things LaTeX is really easy and anything that's not easy is easily Googleable. In my experience most journals have a .tex template and accept PDFs but I have heard that varies depending on your field. You could always write in TeX and pandoc to a docx.

This. If you want to put some time into learning something new, you'll never complain for lack of word processing options once you have a handle on LaTeX.

# ? Feb 17, 2014 21:37

Pollyanna: Mar 5, 2005; Milk's on them.

So I'm trying to use Wine/Wineskin to run the La Mulana 2 demo, and I'm running into some trouble. The game initially didn't have sound because it was missing XAudio for some reason, but I fixed that by installing XACT through Winetricks. Now I've got sound, but I'm still unable to get any response from my keyboard. There's some mention of dinput, but that seems to be for joysticks and controllers, not the keyboard, and I don't see any other errors.

Last Wine run log:

code:

fixme:heap:HeapSetInformation 0x0 1 0x0 0
fixme:imm:ImmDisableIME (0): stub
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x32f2ac,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:d3d:debug_d3dformat Unrecognized 0x53425141 (as fourcc: AQBS) WINED3DFORMAT!
fixme:d3d:wined3d_get_format Can't find format unrecognized (0x53425141) in the format lookup table
fixme:d3d:debug_d3dformat Unrecognized 0x53425141 (as fourcc: AQBS) WINED3DFORMAT!
fixme:d3d:wined3d_get_format Can't find format unrecognized (0x53425141) in the format lookup table
fixme:wbemprox:client_security_SetBlanket 0x47b53354, 0x213858, 10, 0, (null), 3, 3, 0x0, 0x00000000
fixme:wbemprox:client_security_Release 0x47b53354
fixme:wbemprox:enum_class_object_Next timeout not supported
fixme:dinput:JoyConfig8Impl_GetConfig (0x213e18)->(0, 0x206f148, 0x00000001): semi-stub!
fixme:dinput:JoyConfig8Impl_GetConfig 	flags |= DIJC_GUIDINSTANCE
fixme:d3d:resource_check_usage Unhandled usage flags 0x8.
fixme:d3d:resource_check_usage Unhandled usage flags 0x8.
err:ole:CoUninitialize Mismatched CoUninitialize    ## This is apparently an error, but doesn't cause anything to break AFAIK

Last X11 run log:

code:

WineskinX11: main(): argc=12
Waiting for startup parameters via Mach IPC.
WineskinX11: do_start_x11_server(): argc=12
Attempting to use pixel depth of 24
[1101005.632] WineskinX11 starting:
[1101005.632] X.Org X Server 1.13.0
[1101005.632] Build Date: 20120921
[1101005.632] _XSERVTransmkdir: ERROR: euid != 0,directory /tmp/.X11-unix will not be created.
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension SHAPE
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XTEST
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension SYNC
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD    ## Notice how this appears to load, but the program still doesn't respond to the keyboard...
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension PseudoramiX
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension RENDER
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension RANDR
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension RECORD
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension X-Resource
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XVideo
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
[1101005.635] Initializing built-in extension GLX
[1101005.640] x: 0, y: 0, w: 1280, h: 778
[1101005.664] (II) GLX: Initialized Core OpenGL GL provider for screen 0
[1101005.884] noPseudoramiXExtension=0, pseudoramiXNumScreens=1

Engine Used: WS9Wine1.7.12
Hardware:

    Hardware Overview:

      Model Name: MacBook Pro
      Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,2
      Processor Name: Intel Core i5
      Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
      Number of Processors: 1
      Total Number of Cores: 2
      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
      L3 Cache: 3 MB
      Memory: 8 GB
      Boot ROM Version: MBP91.00D3.B08
      SMC Version (system): 2.2f44
      Sudden Motion Sensor:
          State: Enabled

Graphics/Displays:

    Intel HD Graphics 4000:

      Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 4000
      Type: GPU
      Bus: Built-In
      VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
      Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
      Device ID: 0x0166
      Revision ID: 0x0009
      Displays:
        Color LCD:
          Display Type: LCD
          Resolution: 1280 x 800
          Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
          Main Display: Yes
          Mirror: Off
          Online: Yes
          Built-In: Yes

EDIT: There's an interesting issue now, where starting notepad.exe lets me type into the text field, save it to a filename, etc., but running the command line shell and trying to type into it doesn't work.

Wine run log without Command Line Shell:

code:

user.reg is not a valid registry file
fixme:imm:ImeHandleNotify WM_IME_NOTIFY:IMN_SETOPENSTATUS
fixme:imm:ImmReleaseContext (0x1005e, 0x16c088): stub

Wine run log with Command Line Shell:

code:

fixme:imm:ImeHandleNotify WM_IME_NOTIFY:IMN_SETOPENSTATUS

What would cause the Command Line Shell to not accept keyboard input?

Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Feb 17, 2014

# ? Feb 17, 2014 22:16

Molten Llama: Sep 20, 2006

camoseven posted:

Yea I put on some headphones and it works fine now. I can use it without headphones when I'm running OSX, but it seems like I have all the same settings. Oh well, headphones aren't the worst!

Apple's level of interest in Bootcamp drivers ends where the chipset makers' reference drivers begin. And, unfortunately, most reference drivers suck.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 02:06

Jose Oquendo: Jun 20, 2004; Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie

So I've got this weird issue with Something Awful. I just did a clean install of 10.9 on my iMac to hopefully fix some other issues. Anyway, when I log into the forums with any browser, the text looks weird. Here's a sample:

This is how it looks on my Macbook Pro and my work iMac, which is how it should look.

You might need to open the images in a separate tab to see the difference. It's happening on all the browsers so it's some sort of global setting but I can't find it. Any help would be appreciated. I went through all the options on the SA control panel and I couldn't find any relevant settings.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 04:34

carry on then: Jul 10, 2010; by VideoGames
(and can't post for 10 years!)

Open Font Book and see if there's any issue/conflict with Verdana. It looks like it's falling back on Arial in that first screenshot.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 04:39

Jose Oquendo: Jun 20, 2004; Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a boring movie

It was disabled. Weird. As soon as I enabled, the page refreshed and looked normal. Thanks man!

# ? Feb 18, 2014 04:44

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

I've got a Mini running 10.4.11 that I don't use for much, and I wanted to make it into a little media server. What's the cheapest and simplest path to upgrading OS? There's lots of stuff that 10.4 just doesn't do.

App store is telling me I can't download Mavericks without at least snow leopard, I guess.

BigFactory fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Feb 18, 2014

# ? Feb 18, 2014 15:59

beefnoodle: Aug 7, 2004; IGNORE ME! I'M JUST AN OLD WET RAG

I have to replace a failing hard drive on a mind 2011 Mac Mini. I've got an external backup via Time Machine; what's the shortest path to restoring it onto the new drive? I have other Macs and other external drives to help the process. Does internet recovery come into play here? If I need to get files onto it before installing the hardware, I'd rather learn that before I start into tiny screw hell.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 16:16

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

BigFactory posted:

I've got a Mini running 10.4.11 that I don't use for much, and I wanted to make it into a little media server. What's the cheapest and simplest path to upgrading OS? There's lots of stuff that 10.4 just doesn't do.

App store is telling me I can't download Mavericks without at least snow leopard, I guess.

The first question is: how much RAM does it have?
Even if you're just going to have it serve content, some of the later versions will quickly become really sluggish unless they have some room to play.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 16:59

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Tippis posted:

The first question is: how much RAM does it have?
Even if you're just going to have it serve content, some of the later versions will quickly become really sluggish unless they have some room to play.

It's got a gig. I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading (if that's even possible. I've never tried to open it).

It's a 1.86 ghz dual core processor.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 17:04

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

BigFactory posted:

It's got a gig. I wouldn't be opposed to upgrading (if that's even possible. I've never tried to open it).

It's a 1.86 ghz dual core processor.

Too old, it'll won't run Mavericks as it has an outdated graphics chip. Best you can do on that machine is OS X 10.6.8. If it had a Core 2 Duo, it could run 10.7.5.

It also will only go up to 2 GB of RAM, the procedure to open it involves using a putty knife, easier if you have two, you could try taking it to a Fruit Stand if you don't want to cut your fingers.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 17:46

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

beefnoodle posted:

I have to replace a failing hard drive on a mind 2011 Mac Mini. I've got an external backup via Time Machine; what's the shortest path to restoring it onto the new drive? I have other Macs and other external drives to help the process. Does internet recovery come into play here? If I need to get files onto it before installing the hardware, I'd rather learn that before I start into tiny screw hell.

If that's a Mid-2011 Mini, it's pretty easy to open; there's a black plastic disc-shaped cover on the bottom, you just need a strong wrist to twist it to the open position; then take the cover off and the RAM is right there, but you're going to need a special tool to shift the logic board enough (after removing a few other parts) to let the hard drive come out. The procedure to remove the drive is here.

Your best bet is to swap out the old drive, put in the new one, boot from a USB flash or hard drive, install Mac OS X, then when it's rebooting and doing its initial setup it'll ask if you want to restore from a Time Machine backup, hook up your TM drive and let 'er rip. You'll reboot one more time and your drive should be restored to the point of the last backup.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 17:54

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

If you don't have the disk yet then seriously consider an SSD. It will feel like a brand new computer.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 17:58

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Binary Badger posted:

Too old, it'll won't run Mavericks as it has an outdated graphics chip. Best you can do on that machine is OS X 10.6.8. If it had a Core 2 Duo, it could run 10.7.5.

It also will only go up to 2 GB of RAM, the procedure to open it involves using a putty knife, easier if you have two, you could try taking it to a Fruit Stand if you don't want to cut your fingers.

Is there a cheap or free way to upgrade to 10.6.8? Not looking for files, but if 10.4 is ancient, 10.6 is still pretty old. Does Apple give it away or are they charging for it?

# ? Feb 18, 2014 17:58

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

BigFactory posted:

Is there a cheap or free way to upgrade to 10.6.8? Not looking for files, but if 10.4 is ancient, 10.6 is still pretty old. Does Apple give it away or are they charging for it?

You can order a Snow Leopard installation DVD at the Apple Store:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

It'll set you back $20.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 18:10

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

Caged posted:

If you don't have the disk yet then seriously consider an SSD. It will feel like a brand new computer.

Or you could roll your own Fusion drive by buying the dual drive kit for that Mac Mini from iFixit, put in an SSD and a platter, and enjoy the extra space AND capacity.

Edit: and the increased speed/system responsiveness that the SSD offers.

Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Feb 18, 2014

# ? Feb 18, 2014 18:40

Last Chance: Dec 31, 2004

Binary Badger posted:

Or you could roll your own Fusion drive by buying the dual drive kit for that Mac Mini from iFixit, put in an SSD and a platter, and enjoy the extra space AND capacity.

Sounds like a good way to spend a weekend! :thumbsup:

# ? Feb 18, 2014 18:43

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

Or that. I had no idea it was possible to do.

Are there any pitfalls with a DIY fusion drive - does it survive OS upgrades etc?

# ? Feb 18, 2014 18:59

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

Caged posted:

does it survive OS upgrades etc?

Yes, I upgraded a few DIY Fusions from Mountain Lion to Mavericks without issue.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 19:08

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

You can also do Boot Camp, but the Windows partition will stay wedded to the platter drive, it will not enjoy any benefits from the Fusion portion.

Caged posted:

Or that. I had no idea it was possible to do.

It's easier to do the dual drive / Fusion deal on the new 'unibody' Minis; it is also possible to do on older Minis as well, but only as far back as the Early 2009 Mini; Fusion Drive support starts with Mac OS X 10.8.3 (or more accurately Core Storage support) so if your Mini can't do that, no Fusion for you.

Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Feb 18, 2014

# ? Feb 18, 2014 19:25

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

Binary Badger posted:

You can order a Snow Leopard installation DVD at the Apple Store:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

It'll set you back $20.

Cool, thanks.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 19:35

beefnoodle: Aug 7, 2004; IGNORE ME! I'M JUST AN OLD WET RAG

Binary Badger posted:

If that's a Mid-2011 Mini, it's pretty easy to open; there's a black plastic disc-shaped cover on the bottom, you just need a strong wrist to twist it to the open position; then take the cover off and the RAM is right there, but you're going to need a special tool to shift the logic board enough (after removing a few other parts) to let the hard drive come out. The procedure to remove the drive is here.

Your best bet is to swap out the old drive, put in the new one, boot from a USB flash or hard drive, install Mac OS X, then when it's rebooting and doing its initial setup it'll ask if you want to restore from a Time Machine backup, hook up your TM drive and let 'er rip. You'll reboot one more time and your drive should be restored to the point of the last backup.

Ok, thanks, and it is a mid-2011 mini. That ifixit page is what had me dreading tiny screw hell. Off to create a bootable flash drive. I have the Mavericks installer saved somewhere.

Caged posted:

If you don't have the disk yet then seriously consider an SSD. It will feel like a brand new computer.

Yep, a Samsung SSD is going in.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 20:43

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

Make sure the SSD is flashed to the latest firmware level, which is EXT0BB0Q for the 840 basic and DXM05B0Q for the 840 Pro.

I believe that since Samsung provides SSDs and SSD controllers for many Late 2013 Macs that came out last October, and since the revision dates of both those firmwares for Mac were also released at the end of October, that Samsung did get tips from Apple on how to best optimize their hardware to work with Mac OS X and that should be reflected in that new firmware.

So you should be fine installing the Samsung SSD with that in mind, and as long as you activate TRIM using either the app (Trim Enabler or SSD Chameleon) or the Terminal commands you should be covered there as well.

Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Feb 18, 2014

# ? Feb 18, 2014 21:59

Neurophonic: May 2, 2009

Binary Badger posted:

You can also do Boot Camp, but the Windows partition will stay wedded to the platter drive, it will not enjoy any benefits from the Fusion portion.

It's easier to do the dual drive / Fusion deal on the new 'unibody' Minis; it is also possible to do on older Minis as well, but only as far back as the Early 2009 Mini; Fusion Drive support starts with Mac OS X 10.8.3 (or more accurately Core Storage support) so if your Mini can't do that, no Fusion for you.

Not 100% true, I preplanned my boot camp drive and built a partition for it on the SSD before making the Fusion happen. Works just fine and I only need a tiny Windows install for audio measurement software so didn't even really impact my day to day OS X usage either.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 22:09

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

I stand corrected on the SSD part, then.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 22:44

AlternateAccount: Apr 25, 2005; FYGM

Would putting a Linux distro on an old Mac Mini and letting it serve content that way not be a decent plan?

# ? Feb 18, 2014 23:00

Thanks Ants: May 21, 2004; #essereFerrari

If you aren't/can't run OS X then sell it to someone who will pay way over the odds for it on eBay and buy a tiny PC / NAS for the same money that's newer and faster.

# ? Feb 18, 2014 23:06

online: Jun 23, 2010

Is VLC or MPlayerX better?

# ? Feb 19, 2014 05:00

brap: Aug 23, 2004; Grimey Drawer

MPlayerX by a large margin, in my opinion. VLC has a clumsier interface and hotkeys. Make sure to get MPlayerX off the web site and not the App Store.

# ? Feb 19, 2014 05:05

Mu Zeta: Oct 17, 2002; Me crush ass to dust

I use both. Once in a while I find a video where the volume plays really low on mplayer while it works fine on VLC.

# ? Feb 19, 2014 05:28

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# ? May 9, 2024 11:02

JHVH-1: Jun 28, 2002

Neurophonic posted:

Not 100% true, I preplanned my boot camp drive and built a partition for it on the SSD before making the Fusion happen. Works just fine and I only need a tiny Windows install for audio measurement software so didn't even really impact my day to day OS X usage either.

I did something similar on my macbook pro. I have Win 8.1 and OS X on the SSD and I use bigger platter drive for my steam games, iTunes library, etc.
At one point I used vmware fusion to get the install going easier using the tip here http://8na.de/?p=124

Bootcamp didn't play nice with my mid-2011 model and the windows installer not loading via CD, but the VMWare method is pretty handy once you get it working. I even used the technique again later so I could add the second physical drive and boot the windows from the SSD and have it show up as D:\ so I can install steam games from inside vmware.

# ? Feb 19, 2014 07:48

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