Hard drives die. And when they do, it’s a royal pain in the butt. To make it a little less painful, drive manufacturers have included a self diagnostic utility on modern hard drives. It’s called Self Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology or SMART. (My, aren’t we clever?) In this post, we’ll go over how to check the status of your hard drive using SMART on OS X.
Here’s a link where you can listen to the show from Monday, July 16. You’ll need RealPlayer in order to listen to the stream.
http://wpr.org/ideas/noteslist_idcall.cfm?noteslist=69665
If you’d like to get an MP3 copy (that works well with iTunes/iPod) you’ll need to be a WPR Member. It’s quick, easy, and you’ll be doing your part to enable Wisconsin Public Radio to continue to bring us all such great programming.
Here’s a link the the MP3 download page for members.
Yes, it’s true. If you get an iPhone, forget trying to do almost anything else. It will consume every last bit of your attention. I just got mine today, and I can’t say I’ve been exceedingly productive. Too many buttons to explore! I’m hoping this wears off after a while…
Truly an amazing device. I finally have a phone that doesn’t hate me.
At the moment, there are no circulating viruses for Mac OS X. That does not mean, however, that there never will be or that Mac’s are somehow immune to viruses by design. For now, we’ve been lucky enough that the virus writers haven’t targeted Macs yet.
While I do believe that OS X does offer some inherent protections from the kind of Windows viruses that are constantly showing up, anti-virus software is still a very good idea. In this article, we’ll talk about a free anti-virus program called “ClamXav” and how you can put it to work for you.
Kevin had called in asking about iPod battery replacement. Here’s the place I bought mine from:
They’ll sell you a tool and the battery, as well as take the old one in for recycling. Keep in mind though, there’s a fair amount of force involved to get your iPod open. If you’re not good with tools, you might want to send your iPod in.
Frequently, the question comes up, “Why do so many web pages look funny on my older (Mac OS 9) Mac?” I also frequently see folks using Internet Explorer or asking about it when using OS X. Here we’ll talk a about the state of web browser’s on OS 9 and IE for OS X.
The Keychain is perhaps one of the least understood parts of Mac OS X, yet it’s something you’re using every day.
What is the Keychain?
The Keychain system came about to satisfy a problem. The people who wrote applications, such as your e-mail or your web browser, thought it would be a nice if their app would store your password or other information so you wouldn’t have to type it in each time it was needed. The problem is, how do they store it?
In this article, we’ll find out just what the keychain is and then talk about some of the neat tricks you can do with it.
In previous posts, we covered a way to make a complete and total backup of your Mac. That’s great, but it can take a very long time to complete, and it’s not very automated. A good backup system needs to be non-intrusive and automated so it can happen regularly.
Here we’re going to cover a method of backing up your personal data that can be done every day with very little trouble. Used in concert with the occasional “ultimate backup” we covered earlier, you’ll be in great shape if something ugly happens.
Continue reading
July 16th is the date! From 11:45 to 12:30, I’ll be on WPR with Larry Meiller to answer your calls about all things Apple. You can join the program live by calling 1-800-642-1234 or 263-1890 in Madison. You can tune in on any of these stations in the Madison area:
You can also tune in on-line via iTunes. If you’re on a PC without it, you can also use Windows Media Player.
After the show, I’ll post follow up explanations and details about items we covered on the air.
