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Macintosh miscellany

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MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

17:04 / 21.06.07

Is anybody here experienced with older versions of FileMaker? I have FileMaker 5.5, and due to lots of cutting-and-pasting I have a huge table full of different fonts and font sizes. I want to select every piece of data in the table and set teh font and font size all at once.

11:51 / 06.08.07

Help!

I have acquired some music files (best not to mention how) and they are annoyingly in mpc and flac formats, which means my itunes won't play them. I've tried googling for free conversion programs but am hopelessly bamboozled - do any of you mac gurus have any suggestions? (am operating mac OSX 10.4.10). I would love to find a program that can convert a range of different audio files to mp3 so I don't have to clutter my computer with too many programs...

Thanks!

Happy Dave Has Left

14:18 / 06.08.07

FLAC Frontend

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

12:49 / 07.08.07

You may want to consider xACT, which is a very handy Swiss Army knife tool for audio conversion on OS X... it does include FLAC.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xact

15:59 / 07.08.07

Brilliant - xact did the trick. thanks so much!

10:10 / 08.08.07

Hey, bit of a trivial question, but does anybody know of a nice cheap/free Mac application that I could use to put together a mix CD wherein tracks overlap / fade into each other..? Without turning them all into one huge "DJ mix" style file I mean?

Was quite shocked to discover recently that none of my various music apps can actually do this, whereas I used to do it all the time on Nero on my ol' PC...

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:36 / 08.08.07

Hmmm - you can reduce the gap between tracks to 0 in iTunes, and you can crossfade in playback, but I don't think that would be reflected in the CD itself...

Oh! Me! Me! I have a Powerbook G4 and an external iSight. Is there a program like Photo Booth (or, indeed, Photo Booth) that makes it easy to take photos with the iSight?

11:28 / 08.08.07

I'm not sure i underrstand, Haus. Do you mean a program that is similar to Photo Booth but is not Photo Booth? Why will Photo Booth not suffice?

Or is Photo Booth hard to get hold of if it isn't bundled with the mac?

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:34 / 08.08.07

Well, it may be very easy to get hold of, but I don't know how. I don't have it on my Mac, which came without a camera, I didnt get it with the iSight and I haven't found another download path. If there is one, Photo Booth would, I think, work very well.

12:18 / 08.08.07

Well, I could probably send you a copy, assuming that it just requires the .app and nothing else, which seems likely. You'd think that there would be some sort of shareware to do that, but everything seems to be either for recording and streaming video, or for some sort of special purpose.

iMovie will record straight from an iSight; you could always take stills from that.

semioticrobotic

12:22 / 08.08.07

You could always grab a software restore disk from someone with Photo Booth on a Mac, then grab the .app off that with something like Pacifist. I checked Apple's Web site but haven't found much information regarding the program (aside from technical documentation).

19:22 / 08.08.07

Photo Booth.zip (2.3Mb) - see if that works.

19:23 / 08.08.07

(It's just the .app zipped - stick in Applications and try it out.)

23:18 / 08.08.07

Rizla: Roxio Toast 8 now has crossfading abilities built in (you used to have to get Toast with Jam...) and will also no doubt perform (and who knows, maybe exceed...) everything your old Nero would do, regarding all your burning needs. It's about £60, and I'd say well worth it.

09:48 / 23.08.07

Sorry if this has been asked already (I have a feeling it has, but a search turned up nothing), but im trying to get soulseek for my Mac. I heard Nicotine was the job for me, but when i downloaded and ran it, an icon appeared in the dock for a short while and then disappeared, nothing else. any ideas? (i am running the correct OSx btw)

Happy Dave Has Left

10:05 / 23.08.07

Looks like it's an X11 type app, meaning it's not Mac-native and thus a bit harder to get up and running.

However, this chap seems to have found something which will help you out.

10:38 / 23.08.07

Or you could try SolarSeek...

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

18:15 / 10.09.07

Is there any way to listen to .ram files on a Mac without installing RealAudio, which is the most bilious pile of cancerous resource-hogging spyware-installing extension-hijacking filth I have ever had the misfortune to deal with?*

00:12 / 16.09.07

To MattShepherd: HAS A CODE!, I work with Filemaker at my occupation - and as far as I know, font sizes and the such doesn't matter in Filemaker; it's the output that matters. When copying, into indesign particularly, I just switch off the "Keep Swatch & Styles" option so that it pastes into the document's fonts.

Even so, pasting into the filemaker itself should automatically change the font - check your preferences, perhaps?

However, if you're looking to output the whole shebang (write a file) to import it into a document and the such, then I suggest to create a guideset - a bit fiddly, but you'll get the hang of it and be able to output any (or all) files in the format you want.

03:43 / 16.09.07

Wolf_Larsen: I use SoulseeX which works a treat. You need Panther or higher to run it though.

09:28 / 17.09.07

Well, I can't say I've ever had any problem with RealPlayer on the Mac - it's far, far better than the Windows version, it just sits there and plays stuff and doesn't seem to do anything else. Certainly mine does that.

10:17 / 17.09.07

What fridgemagnet said. I spent a good few months trying to find ways to play rm files without realplayer. The closest i got was adding some helix files to mplayerOSX, but that never worked. I am a bit un-l33t though, so that might work for you...

I guess you could get parallels and run Media Player Classic (which will play anything), but that'd be a bit stubborn, and you'd need a copy of windows, which, depending on your point of view, may be a lot worse than installing a Real product.

22:10 / 19.09.07

As i've jsut moved house and am waiting for the real internet to be connected, i'm currently using my mobile phone as a modem. I'm limited to a certain amount of MB download per month and i want a way to keep track of how much i am using. Is there anything built into my mac (osx tiger) that will tell me this, or is there a program (a small program! we're talking 125 MB a month here!) i can get that will tell me this stuff?

01:00 / 21.09.07

I got a Mac Powerbook back in March and it's been running well except for one odd problem that it's had since the start. About 1/3 of the time I start it up, when it gets to the blue screen where it should load OSX, it will flash a bunch of black squares then inexplicably shut down. Normally if I start it up again, it'll work fine, anyone know of a fix, it'd be much appreciated.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

08:18 / 21.09.07

My RealPlayer rancor has been imported from PC experience. You're saying it's not so horrible on the Mac?

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:36 / 28.09.07

Which of these is a sane response to finding the 60GB hard drive of your PowerBook frustratingly small in terms of having to manage your iTunes library from a hard drive and having to clear space every time you want to digitise a chunk of video?

a) Just grin and bear it.
b) For £130 or so, you could get an upgrade to a 160GB hard drive. This will improve performance, and will allow you to store large files temporarily without moving files around and then LOSING THEM LOSING THEM DAMN DAMN DAMN - you'll even get a 2.5" IDE drive to use as an external drive, to boot. The performance bump from the very final PowerBook 12" model to a Macbook would not be so great - and the Macbook's shared graphics may actually _harm_ your video editing fun. Also, you like the 12" form factor, and the MacBook pro is a chunk bigger and heavier - with this minor fix, you can wait it out and be happier, later with a better model Macbook (possibly afer the upgrade to LED screens) or an as-yet-unreleased Macbook Pro.
c) Realistically, Intel's latest shared graphics will be hella better than a GeForce 5200, and the added processing speed of a dual-core processor and 2GB RAM will make a real difference to the quality of your computing experience. You can pass on your Powerbook, or even get a couple of hundred quid for it on eBay, further defraying the cost, and get a machine that is still small enough, but represents the current state of the art in laptops. The only thing that yoou need worry about are video editing and gaming, and since you don't use your Mac for gaming at present, where's the problem?
d) You used to carry around a bigger and heavier laptop than a MacBook Pro, and it didn't kill you. _Plus_, a MacBook Pro will not only resolve all the problems you have at present, such as they are, it will also remove one you haven't even thought about yet - using Windows on it, with its DirectX 10 graphics card, you don't need to have two computers any more - this can be both your gaming/work PC and your Mac. So, in the medium term, that's actually a _saving_. Isn't it? Further, with lower power demands than a desktop PC and an LED screen, you will in some remarkable and perverse way be doing your bit for the environment.
e) Sever the spine and destroy the brain. It's the only way.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

17:27 / 28.09.07

a). With an external hard drive for backups.

If you can't manage with 60GB, it's only a matter of time before you'll fill the 160GB and then you're back to square one.

ONLY NICE THINGS

18:29 / 28.09.07

Dude, I have over a terabyte of external storage. The problem is more presence than quantity. The issue is specifically i) the demands of my iTunes library currently meaning that I have to use my PC to sync with my iPod (the storage of which tops out at 80GB), and ii) the digitising of large amounts of video creating large files that stretch the capacity of my Powerbook to hold it and the files already on it until such time as it can be moved around.

Oh, and the problems with OSX only having read access to NTFS disks. That's a bit of a pain in the hole, but what are you going to do?

We're The Great Old Ones Now

15:44 / 30.09.07

Is anyone else just almost unbelievably honked off at the lack of PDA functionality on the iPod Touch - most especially because it seems to have been a purely commercial neutering of the technology? And has anyone figured out what, apart from an iPhone, might fill the gap?

ONLY NICE THINGS

18:18 / 30.09.07

Depends which bits of functionality you want, really. Is it the touch screen interface, the 8GB of media storage, the mobile web browser - what matters, alongside the PDA functionality?

I was very much hoping for a Newton when they announced the iPhone, and almost got it, which is in a way worst of all.

18:29 / 30.09.07

does anyone know how i can get a copy of x11 for 10.4? i'm trying to get ardour running...and i need x11...

We're The Great Old Ones Now

08:18 / 01.10.07

Meh. I want a PDA which would sync seamlessly with my Mac, and which doesn't look like some kind of early startrek datacorder. Basically, I wanted a phoneless iPhone, since the iPhone is surprisingly bulky at 14mm and isn't on my network.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:20 / 01.10.07

Yes - I am down on the iPhone for essentially the same reason. I'm nobbed off, personally, that PDAs in general are built into phones these days, because I am anti-convergence generally. As a result, I have settled for an old Palm TX, which is actually quite a cute device, but I actually like stylus input, not least because it feels like the way the future's meant to feel. However, it probably fails on the datacorder front. The HTC touch is stylish and gorgeous to the touch, but runs Windows Mobile, a ghastly nonsense, underneath its seductive claim that it will let you finger it and then do anything you want.

Stephen Fry does quite a good job of reviewing current smartphones here, which might help if, like him, you seek convergence. However, Palms and Winmob devices all sync like pigs with Macs (unless you use the bundled Palm Desktop, in which case you may as well just end it all now). Symbian devices apparently work well with iSync, so something N95ish could be an option, if you don't mind a basically phonelike form factor, the bulk and the monstrous convergence.

I have fiddled with my conduits to the point where Mac synchronisation works pretty well, and iSync with Tiger does do a lot more of the heavy lifting that previous iterations of OSX, but in the end you might want to save yourself the hassle and factor into any decision a license of the relevant version of Missing Sync, which I used and found very rewarding with a Pocket PC - almost the only rewarding thing about it, in fact, apart from a pleasingly solid cradle.

There's an embryonic discussion of mobile connectivity and handheld devices here.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

09:50 / 01.10.07

Oh, yes, I have enjoyed the whole Palm/Missing Sync experiment, and come to the conclusion that I don't have that much time in my entire life... but also, I think you and I are heading in slightly different directions. Stylus entry doesn't fly for me, and I quite like a bit of convergence, because I am a tech junkie and if there is no convergence I need a separate bus for my gear.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:33 / 01.10.07

Well, that's about the sacrifices you are prepared to make. I usually travel with what I feel is necessary from laptop, PDA, phone, camera, iPod - at some point I will probably add a foldable bluetooth keyboard to that, and carry around the laptop slightly less, but that's the basic mix. If travelling light, there are functionality sacrifices that can be made - the PDA replicates some of the functionality of the laptop, although less efficiently, the phone replicates some of the functionality of the PDA and the camera, although less efficiently. I favour partially redundant systems over convergent systems, because it helps me to customise my technology load to circumstances. If I don't expect to need to add addresses or calendar entries while standing around but I do expect to want to watch DVDs and write, for example, the laptop and the Phone (to be used as a Bluetooth remote) works. PDA plus phone gives me a better mobile browser and note-taking device than phone by itself, and so on.

However, personal tastes vary on this one, and I can certainly see the temptations of the convergent model. In which case, probably the N95 is the convergentiest item out there; although I find it a bit blocky, it's smaller than it might be. It sounds, however, as if you might want just to hang around until the iPod Touch is unbroken, probably at the point where a lower-end Apple touchscreen media player is released.

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