Archive for the ‘tech’ Category
Apple Mail now prefers port 587 for Gmail SMTP
If you’re using Apple Mail, and Gmail, and your emails seem to be getting stuck in your Outbox, Read the rest of this entry »
Leopard’s shortcomings
Update: 12 October 2009 Okay, this post is pulling a ridiculous amount of traffic, and obviously for the wrong reasons, so I am retitling it.
Update: 3 September 2009 [Snow Leopard's arrival] Dear visitors, please note that this post is not about how to downgrade from Snow Leopard, or Leopard, to previous versions of OS X. I mention this, as Snow Leopard’s release, interestingly, has brought to this post many people searching on “Leopard downgrade”, and related terms. For the record, since writing the original post, I have upgraded to a Macbook, an environment in which Leopard seems to function rather better. Given what I’ve read about Snow Leopard, I expect to wait for 10.6.2 before upgrading.
Original post commences: Given all the buzz (to put it mildly) around Mac OS X Leopard, I was quite looking forward to the “upgrade”. I obviously had not taken into account the reality distortion zone that surrounds all things Apple.
Used to be the world’s best operating system
Now, as Leopard has soured for me, the extent of that distortion zone has become clearer: bloody hell, it’s vast. I’ve compiled a list of problems in Leopard over a few weeks, as things irritated me — and the list just kept growing. At the same, I’ve started working on another Mac still running Tiger at work — and haven’t missed Leopard for one moment.
Tedious Windows troubleshooting
You have a broadband or ADSL or DSL or cable or LAN Internet connection, but Outlook Express (or another program) still insists on bringing up a box saying Dial-up Connection whenever you try to send/receive mail. And neither sends nor receives mail. Read the rest of this entry »
On macs and wordprocessing
First posted on a Guardian CIF forum:
(Mac user speaks)
Macs are ridiculously expensive and far from perfect, and service pretty shoddy here in SA (but then most service is here) – but every time I use a win machine for even a few minutes I’m glad I switched. mostly, on a mac, I can forget about the computer, and focus on the work. Linux I used extensively a few years back, but felt too much time was spent in enforced geekery. might go back, tho, if mac prices don’t drop.
my specific gripe though, is Word. I have to use this program for editing work for two reasons: a) it’s the standard b) track changes. Yes, there’s Open Office, but it’s slow and unstable on the Mac. Read the rest of this entry »
weird networking problem resolved
Nearly went berserk this evening trying to surf – some pages would load, others would not. Mac OS X network diagnostics has a row of five ‘lights’ showing the functionality of one’s internet connection – and those marked ’server’ and ‘internet’ were switching from red to green apparently randomly. Web pages would sometimes load – but only after I’d reloaded umpteen times. But my ISP’s home page showed up alright – so I started to think maybe the problem wasn’t local – but ‘out there’. I deleted the first of the four DNS servers I had listed in network preferences (system preferences / network / built-in ethernet) – and bingo: all was well, after an afternoon and evening of frustration.
