azurite | Entries tagged with macs

The day before yesterday I got about 3 hours of sleep. Dad called me shortly after I'd finally managed to fall asleep without the help of a sleeping pill. He was mad that I was letting the mugging get to me in this way, and told me to get my ass out of bed and start to DO things. Exhaust myself each day, give myself more tasks than I could possibly handle, and stop being afraid.

It worked. I spent a chunk of the day doing some computer stuff (catching up on

30kisses stuff, including Hall of Fame banners, which has been my real crime the past few months)-- sure, not wearing me out physically any, but I did do a bit of cleaning as well. Yesterday was the real accomplishment-- I woke up at 6:30am and decided "Hell, if I'm already awake, I might as well stay awake." It looks like it's a continuing thing, since I'm awake now, too. So I went downstairs and made myself a nice (albeit a bit greasy) breakfast of eggs and sweet bread, got the newspapers, and settled down to read. It was nice to have the table all to myself-- one of my issues with living with my grandparents is that sometimes they act like I'm not here at all, and it bothered me-- I didn't feel welcome at the kitchen table, where we usually eat, because the only place for me to sit was often occupied by Baba's foot, a pile of newspapers, or a bunch of dinner implements.

Grandpa was pretty surprised when he came down about an hour later; he thought I'd up and left for San Francisco. That kind of surprised me too, for him to think I would just leave my room a huge mess, the light and fan on (I only had the light on at 42%, and I always leave the fan on the lowest mode because my room's the hottest in the house, and we don't use AC) and not tell them in advance or even leave them a note. That and I told them several times that I wasn't leaving until the end of the month....

Anyway, so I decided my project of the day would be to take one of Baba's suggestions from a while ago and switch the position of my bed and my endtable. ( Getting busy with it )

Never a shortage of things to do. No sense putting off for tomorrow what I can do today. Never a dull moment. Why become a lay-about? Etc. etc.

Also, from Mac|Life magazine (which I'm contemplating not renewing my subscription for, considering it's $24.95/year for 12 issues, which is OUTRAGEOUS for a magazine with 16 pages of non-stop advertising between pages 48 and 49): why I'm a Mac user:

Apparently that brain-scarring video is an actual Microsoft ad.

I LOL'd.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Northridge, CA
Current Music: JigginJonT - F-Zero Silent Progression (Remastered) OC ReMix

Apple finally released the long-awaited and very-much-needed 10.5.2 update to Leopard, the newest "big kitty" in Apple's line of OS X operating systems.

The only problem is, there are STILL problems. Well, it's probably impossible for any given update, on any given OS, to solve ALL the reported problems with the previous version of said operating system, but I was hoping that at least supposedly-dinky things (especially those things that had been FINE in Tiger, 10.4.x) would get resolved in Leopard.

The problems I've been experiencing with my MacBook Pro (2.2 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB HD) include:

* Problems syncing my Motorola RAZR v3re using iSync. For some reason it keeps syncing OLD information that is not on my iCal (e.g. last semester's schedule). I'm not sure if iSync is interfering with something in the phone itself, and the phone is copying over old data (e.g. from last year), but it's really annoying not to have my alarms on my phone. I've already tried to do this, and it's STILL fucked up. In 10.5.1, I already tried deleting the device from iSync, but it's done no good. If there's a way to reset calendar data on the V3re, I don't know what it is... I don't have the manual(s) on me, and the on-phone browser help... DOESN'T help. Not surprising, frankly, but it pisses me off more because this is A NEW PHONE.

* Problems creating PDFs from Word documents (and presumably other programs); the Adobe 8.0 PDF printer simply "couldn't be located" and the only work-around I found was something that spit out the PDF but kept the PDF printer in a perpetual "paused" state.

* I have an HP 1210xi PSC (All-in-One) that I bought with my original MacBook Pro two years ago. Two years isn't that old for a printer (I feel), but HP seems to think it is, and has "no plans to release a fully-featured driver for Leopard." Fully-featured meaning I can actually DO what I paid for the printer-- printing, scanning and copying! Supposedly I can print, but from my experience, it's only with the printer directly connected into USB, not via Bonjour (using my AirPort Extreme Base Station). I can't test whether or not 10.5.2 fixed this problems; Apple says they released more drivers for compatibility with this very issue, though; they just didn't specify which drivers.

* Firefox would "hang" (not respond, crash, whatever you like to call it) a lot more in Leopard than in Tiger. Of course, Firefox has its own updates, and recently updated to 2.0.0.12, so it's entirely possible that the hangs are program-specific and not related to 10.5.x at all... but I doubt it, because I've had no such problems on any PC I've used (and I use Firefox all the time at work), and not on older Macs (like the iMac at work which uses 10.4 or 10.3 or something. In any case, it still has Sherlock). Plus, forum threads I found about the issue mention something about Leopard incompatibility with certain DNS servers...? It sounds bizarre to me.

* Dashboard has been a right BITCH since I updated-- sometimes I have widgets that won't go away, even when I click the X in the corner in Manage Widgets mode, and sometimes I have widgets that never "update" (e.g. weather, Apple Store updates, etc.) Very annoying. Sometimes a good ol' fashioned restart helps... but I'm always afraid it'll happen again during a period when I really need my widgets. People came up with odd solutions, like using the Leopard install disc to "Archive & Install," while others did some sort of Terminal command. A restart did the trick for me, so I hope 10.5.2 means I won't have to worry about those other potential solutions-- I don't want the problem to be an issue anymore. So far, so good... I've gone into Dashboard a few times and not had any issues.

* Finally, since I couldn't get my phone to work with iSync, I tried my iPod-- I didn't know it had Calendar, Address Book, etc. capability until I started playing around with iTunes one day. But it seems to have the same problem as my phone, grabbing dates that frankly ARE NOT in iCal. To make matters worse, when the alarm goes off, the iPod will stay ON, which means my battery drains a lot sooner. I'd like ONE device or another to just WORK with iSync, PLEASE? I'll have to test this when I get home, since I don't have my iPod cable with me. Maybe iPods ought to be able to sync with Bluetooth?

But I guess in the long run, all of this is stuff I was never able to do with any PC I ever owned or use, and compared to the problems I see every day in the Walk-In Center with spyware, viruses, and other B.S., the Mac is still a godsend. So for all my bitching and ranting, I still love my Mac. :)

Current Mood: annoyed

( New desktop. Oh yeah. )

Man, I wish I were in S.F. right now. I read the Macworld Expo update, and... gawd, I am so stoked for 2008. Not like I'm going to dash out and buy an iPhone (not until it's no longer attached to AT&T without hacks involved) or a MacBook Air (...this laptop is new enough for me. Until it breaks, I'm using it. Plus, I happen to like having an optical drive and a huge hard drive...), but DAMN. Apple just... kicks ass. Have I mentioned lately? You really oughta switch.

I personally think if I could have gotten a single measly day there and been back here... it would have been worth it, just for Steve Jobs' keynote speech. Sure, he flubbed a few times, but it sounded SO fun. And a play-by-play just isn't quite the same as being there, in the flesh. (Yes, the play-by-play had to suffice; it made me jealous) So I have a goal for 2009 (besides graduating in the Spring, that is): Go to Macworld Expo 2009. Network, network! (Who knows, maybe I could impress someone important and get a job at Macworld? Tee-hee.)

What else I'm excited about: the Time Capsule, the companion hardware to Leopard's Time Machine. It basically acts as the AirPort Base Station I spent $179 on, but it comes with a hard drive, supports 802.11n Gigabit Ethernet. A 500 GB (the smallest version available) is $299. I think I paid $250 for my 120 GB MyBook Pro external hard drive, so in terms of pennies per GB, it's very much worth it, in my mind. For die-hard downloaders, there's a 1 TB (!!!!!) version for $200 more. It ships out in February... around the same time as the new student-licensed version of Office 2008:mac, which I've been wanting, because Office 2004 on the Mac is kind of a bitch. Plus, I want more templates than Pages can offer. I didn't realize until today, when I had to make a flyer, that Word is really better than Pages for that. I hate still being Microsoft's bitch in any respect... but with all the years gone by, they have made a powerhouse of a word processor.

What I'm dreaming of: it would kick ass if more companies (including the ones that make $9.99 cheap games for Best Buy, Target, and the like) got on board with Cider to make games Mac-compatible. With Cider, there's only one source tree to manage (from what I read), so it's not like there's a whole overhaul involved. Basically, you take your game and wrap it in something that's friendly to Macs. Nothing changes about the game, the interface, etc. Of course, Cider has its limitations, and since it's not for end-users, it's not like I can just download something and all of a sudden be playing Doom again (*sigh* I miss killing Imps! And NO, I don't want Doom 3! >_< I like my pixellated pigs, thank-you-very-much). But I'd love to be able to play Riddle of the Sphinx, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and similar Egypt-puzzle games (my favorite) again without going into Parallels. In reality, Parallels has felt like a waste of money to me, because... well, what the hell was I using Windows for? I hardly ever go into it. Blah. I hope there's an update that gets my games working again (in the meantime).

What I should be doing: the

30kisses update. I've already got the T-Z stuff from

a_white_rain, though I have to sort through it all to put it in the right order-- by fandom. Today's the first day when my sleep schedule's semi-normal (and my computer hasn't been overheated), so I'm going to get it done-- especially since I said I would do it by yesterday. I'll also have to combine that with Phase Five of the Claims List Purge-- but as for the actual completion of the Tags Removal and putting the dead claims into the Memories, I'll need help. Mod Squad, you still around?

What I'm testing the waters with: Scrivener, a... humungo writing program JUST FOR MACS (eat that, Windows biznatches!).

dqbunny, you might like this one. If you try it too, we can compare notes. :D I'd also like to try MarsEdit2, a blog publisher. I use xJournal now, and have Phoenix as a backup, but frankly, one of them is always lacking SOMETHING. I wonder if MarsEdit would make a difference. I already know it's compatible with LJ; the question is if it supports all those tiny little features that aren't necessarily blog-platform-cross-compatible (e.g. stuff you'll only see on LJ and its off-shoots, not other blogging platforms like Blogger, etc.) For some reason, I'd get my panties in a wad if I couldn't change security settings or screen comments by default. I'm still kind of PO'd that xJournal doesn't support Location (okay, my location hasn't changed in the past two weeks, but still).

Anywho, to work, to work!

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: One Minute - Kelly Clarkson (My December Deluxe Edition)

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I figured out how to get my AFP share here at CSUN working again on Leopard (Mac OSX 10.5). Apparently CSUN's Sundial servers use cleartext (!) for the passwords, and while Tiger (10.4) let you get away with that, but Leopard doesn't give you the option. So I had to go to ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleShareClient.plist.

If you installed Developer Tools (an optional install for any Mac OSX 10.4+ package), you can double-click the file and it'll open up the Property List Editor, where you'll change the afp_cleartext_allow value to "Yes," "True," or "1" (never use the quotes). What you see will depend on what editor you open it up in; because I didn't have the PLE, I used TextWrangler, where the text appeared as XML, and I edited the false tag in question into a true one. I saved the file (it has to retain the original filename with NO additional extension, e.g. txt, rtf, etc.) and tried to reconnect to the server, and PRESTO! It worked. Yayz.

It also worked for SMB shares

So, besides here on LJ, where do you get your nifty 100x100 icons? Tell me all your resources, folks, I'm feeling in need of an icon overhaul. Actually, I want Mac icons, Christmas icons, Hanukkah icons, cat icons... can anyone point me at a place that just has a PLETHORA of icons, the way FFnet has a plethora of fic? I'd rather wade through bad icons than badfic.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: 宇多田ヒカル　★　Sakura Drops (DEEP RIVER)

I came back from the OS X 10.5 - Leopard release "party" a short while ago, and I have to say, if Mom hadn't convinced me NOT to buy 10.5, I'd probably be using it right now. It's not like I really have the money for it, and I know I can get it cheaper online, but after I played with it at the Apple store, I REALLY liked it. Anyone that knows Macs or has watched tech news lately probably knows about some of the more bragged-about features, but after the "list of 300" was released today and I really got to see them in action, I've made up my own list of favorites:

* Quick Look - a freaking GODSEND. Because I design webpages a lot, sometimes I have templates or half-done pages lying around my hard drive. I'd like to be able to look at those files WITHOUT having to open up a new tab in Firefox, or open up Dreamweaver. Quick Look lets me do this easily *AND* even better, I can use the iTunes-style Cover Flow in Finder to let me browse through a whole folder of HTML files quickly and easily.

* Google Maps built into Address Book - This will be immensely handy for me. I like to keep all my contacts in my Address Book for easy Syncing to my Facebook and to my phone. Now, when I have to go somewhere, a map with directions is only two clicks away.

* Dictionary with built-in Japanese <-> English support. WOW. HOLY WOW. The only thing this is lacking is support for romaji, but that's okay, because Japanese input on the Mac only takes two clicks, anyway. You type in a word either in English to translate it fully into Japanese, or you type it in Japanese to read the English meaning. I didn't test out any pronunciation or additional features, but the Dictionary's gotten a great makeover, including more dictionaries, reference materials, and WIKIPEDIA! All in one click!

* Spaces - I'm one of those people that has about 15 things going on at once; iTunes and iMovie, Firefox and Thunderbird, Dreamweaver and Photoshop... with Spaces, I can designate a Desktop for each application (or group of applications), so when I want to work on one thing, I just access that particular desktop, and there's no more clutter. This is built into the OS, but I imagine you can't overload the computer with too much, anyway. Nonetheless, I don't think I've ever had memory issues with the Mac in terms of running multiple programs (unless I was running Windows!).

I've already written an article about it which I hope'll get into the Sundial; I'm also writing one on "Dumbledore is gay!?" though I'm not 100% sure of the angle to take on it.

I managed to find (with the help of the LJ Support Staff) my Private entries, including what I started of "Sight Unseen," my

30kisses fic for #13: excessive chain. Not sure exactly what inspired me, but it's a pretty interesting idea-- just a bit long. It might be 2-3 parts when finished. I thought I'd written something for Girls' Club (#11: gardenia), too, but all I seem to have is the planner file I made with Mamono. Anyway, re: Sight Unseen, would people like to see the short blurb I have so far, or would they rather wait until I'm done?

If you haven't answered my quick and easy poll on FFX and FFX-2, please do so now! And if you can, tell your friends and ask them to participate, too.

I really want to play a game now, so I think I'm going to turn off iTunes and try my hand at Bejeweled or Diner Dash. It's been a while since I've had "fun." If only I could get Yu-Gi-Oh! Online on the Mac... ;_; I wanna duel!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Marika Matsumoto　★　Without you (FINAL FANTASY X-2 Vocal Collection RIKKU)

Hmm, some quick updates:

-Working steadfastly on WikiFic. Thanks to Platonides over at the wikimedia-l, I got the Infoboxes working, but I still need to grab a BOATLOAD of templates from Wikipedia to get everything looking nice-- for example, a lot of flag-related graphics and templates. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated-- it's really just a lot of C&Ping. You do need to have a WikiFic account though, but it takes all of 5 minutes to sign up and get started.

-Working on creating "Ultimate Armor" for my party in FFX, and I'm discovering few people think Break HP or MP limits are useful at all-- which means the armor I already created for Auron and I think Rikku is fairly useless. I've never gotten to the point where I actually fight SIN (I keep dying whenever I fight those Behemoth-type monsters inside Sin, as I recall from the last time I got this far, on my old memory card which is now lost to the ages), so I hope that by capturing more monsters and leveling up (to get the items I need for the Ultimate Armor), I'll be able to survive Sin.

-iWork and iLife have both been updated to '08! That better mean when I get my new laptop, those are installed... since I don't know what I'm going to do with my old laptop (this one), I'm not sure if I should get the family pack ($20 more) of either version yet. I know 5 Macs, but the question is, should I really give "free" iLife and iWorks '08 if I do spend the extra $40 on the two Family versions of the pack?
Here are the nominees:
(1) Mine
(2) Mine 2, possibly to be given to Grandpa, sold to Mom, or sold for parts
(3) Erin's
(4) the iMac at work in the Walk-In Center (which is a bit old)
(5) Shawn's

Speaking of the boyfriend, he's fabulous- complimentary, has a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't mind games (I got him to play both Bubble Bobble and Scrabble tonight-- hah!), and we both vented about work to each other without any awkwardness or hard feelings. He's also super-thoughtful, though I can't really say how. ^_~

I really ought to be getting to sleep now though... for one, my tooth has been hurting pretty bad since this morning or so (I somehow doubt it's mental, no matter how much I wish it were), and the Orajel I got at Rite Aid earlier is totally numbing the right side of my face. I also have to walk to school tomorrow since Baba & Grandpa have a doctor's appointment (I hope it's not too hot or too gloomy tomorrow morning). Two more weeks and three days till my first surgery... school starting, and who knows what other mayhem!

Current Mood: pleased

Work wasn't bad.

Met Shawn after work; we hung out and snuggled. It was nice.

Found out at my cousin Josh and his dad Jim were in a plane accident (not sure where, though it sounded like Arizona...) on their way to a long-awaited fishing trip. They escaped fine and swam out to a rock (makes me think this was a hydroplane, not a 737 or anything), but the conversation just before I was leaving for dinner with Melina had me scared and pacing-- I hate "phone calls at weird times," because they always spell death for my family-- that's how it was with my sister, my uncle, and countless other relatives.

Had a decent time at Islands with the other NSCS members from Philly; we're going to be at the Clubs & Orgs fair and hopefully plotting ways we can make use of what little we learned there. I was one of the few (if any) that finished the survey post-convention, and I gave the leadership crew there an earful! But I hope it actually does good/helps.

Finished reading my latest book, "Secret Society Girl." It was an incredibly juicy read, very much targeted toward college students, something that I think is a rare find these days. Even better, there's a sequel, "Under the Rose," which is already out! To Borders!

Actually, I'll probably read "Shopaholic and Baby" first. I've already read 2 books in the past 2 weeks (HP being longer than SSG should give me some more credo in saying that), which is a pretty good record, if I do say so myself. :)

Re: computer -- still planning on getting a new one, since 512 of memory just isn't cutting it, and I really don't want to risk anything else breaking by putting a larger module in the one slot I do have working. The question is, when will I have the dough to get said new computer, and what horrible things will I be thinking I could have gotten with said money AFTER it's been too long for me to do anything about it (besides regret it)? At least Erin (cousin) is looking into getting her friend who works at a third-party retailer to see if I can get a good deal on THIS one.

The backup did finish, by the way-- it must have been at least 36 hours though, since it wasn't done until around 6:30 or so AT LEAST. The only error I got was something weird about my Parallels VM, but all the "necessary" files seem to have copied over fine, so I'm not too worried. Even if that is somehow messed up, I can always reinstall and redownload everything on that half, which thankfully is not a lot.

When you can't sleep, what do you do? Any of these:
-Light incense
-Drink warm milk
-Meditate
-Listen to classical music
-Something else?

My usual routines aren't working, so I'm looking for advice in other areas. I know my sleep schedule isn't the best anyway, but trying to change that hour by hour (trying to go to bed at progressively earlier times) hasn't worked too well, either. I haven't fallen asleep at work yet, but it's weird being off the meds that normally knock me out an hour after I've taken them (at night). However, my mood is fine and I don't feel stressed, and that's primarily what said meds were for. I guess if I'm really a lunatic and there's a problem with my sleeping, I should get Lunesta or something.

I do have an eye appointment on August 9th (relatives arriving on the 11th and 18th; wonder if I'll have a stylish new pair of glasses by then?), and I need to make an appointment for my wisdom teeth before school starts on the 23rd (YARGH!)... ugh, medical stuff SUCKS.

I want mochi.

Current Mood: awake

So I finally finished posting my old journal/diary entries back from high school, when I had an account at FreeOpenDiary. I'm still missing a chunk of time from August 2002-December 2003 (starting mid-January 2003, I started posting here on LJ), which I imagine is when I was posting on my Greymatter blog on my domain at the time, rosedreams.org. I can't find archives of it (as I can for my old Updates blog, which was also Greymatter-run), but there might be CDs or other back-ups lying around that I might be able to find. We'll see.

In any case, I'm doing what I said I would, and highlighting some of my favorite entries from back in the day. I really was quite different then, I think...

I hated Valentine's Day then, too.
Mme. Sweet, purveyor of fine quotes and assorted catchphrases
One day I'll be on the Billboard 40 alongside Weird Al
Oh, the irony.
Post 9/11
What it feels like for a Mer
Easily flattered! (FLocked)
There are some good people out there... somewhere
The beginning of Mer's Grand Adventure
First kiss, first boyfriend, a first time for everything

I'll edit this entry and add more later, but I'm running out of battery yikes gotta go bye!

ETA OT: So I'm plugged in here at the food court in front of the bookstore... though to call it a food court is a misnomer, since all the "restaurants" (besides Burger King which REALLY doesn't count) and Jamba Juice closed for renovation-- next Fall it'll reopen with new places like Panda Express (blargh) and El Pollo Loco ("The Crazy Chicken." Yes, I really want to eat you) and "Juice it Up" which I've never heard of.

Anyway, I decided to try and make my business card, so I thought, "Why not open up the Image Tricks program that came with my BeLight Business Card Composer 4 software?" And WOW is it killer! There are some Pro features that I can't take advantage of until I register, but even the free ones are pretty cool. Simple sliders and color adjusters can produce ALL kinds of cool effects with images or just with lines and dots! I took an image of the "Book of Secret Arts" (A Yu-Gi-Oh card) and I ended up making some REALLY cool designs with it. Hehe! But I got to thinking, what sort of an image really DEFINES me?

Post an image (preferably small; that is: bigger than 100x100 but smaller than 1024x768) that you think defines "me" (without being a picture of me, of course) and I'll do the same for you.

Hopefully I can come up with something that I can use on my business card this summer. :}

Current Mood: nostalgic

My right eye hurts (good god I hope I don't have another eye infection. The last thing I need is to miss school/work from being legitimately sick), but AT LAST! I am done... not with WDKY25, sadly, but with my Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon VHS/DVD Inventory. It's as done as it's going to get-- I couldn't find images for 10 volumes of VHS tapes (mostly the Edited versions) in the Sailor Moon SuperS series, and I have yet to add images for the boxed sets for S and SuperS, or the "Dream Set" for the movies. And I wanted to edit the info so that the "volumes" also mentioned which episodes were on which volume, because there's almost always a difference from VHS to DVD.

Maybe I'll get around to posting the new page up on Epiphany/Mare Serenitatis whenever I get around to working on that again. :P

I didn't get to go shoe shopping with Adrianna today. ;_; She never called. I wanted to call her early this afternoon, but to my dismay, I discovered I didn't have her phone number! I swore I did before, so something must have happened and I deleted it. :( Alas, no double-points at DSW for me.

I did go out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe with Baba, Grandpa, Elliot, and Erin. The service wasn't all that great, but the food (Jumbo Spinach Tortellini with artichoke hearts) was pretty tasty. Elliot and I had fun trying to remember the 14 Leadership Traits. Apparently there's an acronym for it I never learned in ROTC: JJ DID TIE BUCKLE. See if you can figure out the Leadership Traits from that (no Googling, now!).

Also, I spent a while listening to

akavertigo's awesome awesome ideas for "Reconstruction." I tell you, it shall be a KILLER story! I can't wait to actually read all of it. When all of it gets written. :D

AND I got up to the Watchtowers in Bevelle in my new FFX-2 game... damn watchtowers NEVER rotate the way the guide says they should! I must have done this at least a hundred times, but I can never get the platforms to go the way I need them to! And the dumb guidebook "names" the towers, instead of using the Glyphs to identify them, which would be LOADS easier. Can anyone help? I already have 3 Ribbons, but... I WANT ANOTHER ONE! :P

For the record: LJ Phoenix gives me a RealBasic NilObjectException error that prevents me from opening the program 5/6 of the time. I'm pretty much back to using the Web Update form of LJ because the error annoys me so much. *sigh* To find a client that does what I want *AND* works on a Mac... why can't someone just make Semagic for the Mac!? >_> Or maybe I should download it for the Windows VM and try and force myself to use it more often (lately I only use it for "The Ultimate Guide to Sphere Break"), so I don't become such a bitch about Windows (which I have been, lately. But seriously, Apple's commercials trump Microsoft's new "WOW" Vista CMs ANY DAY OF THE WEEK).

So I think I'll go to bed now and pray my eye doesn't become some sort of snot ball in the night.

P.S. Today Daylight Savings Time starts. Did you set your clocks forward? (Except you Arizona-people. ~~Weirdoes.~~)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Home - Northridge, CA, 91324
Current Music: ★ All-Classical WGBH ★

Okay, so I'm considering giving up on the Mac client for LJ, iJournal. It's crashed so many times in the past few days-- I lost a nearly-completed update for

weekly_ygo, and that REALLY pissed me off. But it's also just randomly frozen or crashed a few times before.

Now, the great thing about Macs is that while the applications can range from superb to batshit craptacular, the operating system usually remains unaffected. Only once or twice have I needed to "cold reboot" the whole Mac-- and that was usually due to reheating.

Anyway, I need to find a new client. I used xJournal before, but I didn't like that either, because it didn't have security settings. Here are my needs for an LJ client:
* auto-save or backup function for entries (i.e. auto-save of drafts, or save as file for offline editing/viewing)
* security settings (set entries to Private, Friends Only, Public, or Custom)
* select userpic (this should be a given)
* add tags (especially helpful would be the ability to select tags from a menu of already-used tags, or tags already IN use by my journal)
* location (not 100% necessary, but nice)
* auto-detect music (from iTunes)

Because I use a MBP, I can't use anything made for OS9 or lower, or for PowerPC Macs. Rather than download every single blog listed in LJ's downloads section, I thought I'd ask if any other Mac users (

mklutz?) could recommend something. Right now I'm using the Performancing extension for Firefox, but it's not made exclusively for LJ, so there are MANY features I don't have access to.

I think I'll make another post later... probably just using the web interface. I still have to update WYGO, and of course I want to talk about the first day of the elementary school visit the other Exchange Students and I had. So... "I'll be back."

Okay, so in trying to clear off some space off my HD, I've burned a few CDs and DVDs. One of them was of NANA the anime, episodes 1-10. I was downloading a batch download (all that was available) of episodes 1-13 using Tomato Torrent for Mac. But apparently Tomato doesn't allow one to pick and choose the files WITHIN a torrent to download, which bothers me (now). So I heard Java-based Azureus could do what I needed.

I tried to download the *.jar from their site, and nothing happened when I clicked on the finished download. I read their FAQ on their Wiki, made sure I had the latest Java for the Intel Mac platform, and clicked again. Nothing, even after I'd installed it. Then I went hunting around and found a link to an older (by maybe one minor release) download of Azureus, using a DMG. I opened that and dragged the install file to the Applications folder, like I do with every other application, BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. I tried dragging a torrent onto the program icon... I tried double-clicking a *.torrent associated with Azureus. NOTHING.

GAAAH! Help! What the heck do I do? What am I doing WRONG?

ETA: Okay, so I managed to find a DMG binary for the latest version of Azureus, which I downloaded and have been happily using. I trashed Tomato Torrent. I can't risk having what happened with NANA 1-10 (all the Ureshii files were corrupt, likely because Tomato & Finder both told me they were complete, but they were not) happening again. So now I'm downloading 1-6 again from IY&oki fansubs -AND THEY ARE DAMN GOOD FANSUBBERS- using Azureus, and all is well. But I need more DVDs, because... my HD is getting all filled up again. :P Bad Mer. I'm just glad deleting stuff on the Mac is *SO* easy! None of that horrid "Add/Remove Programs" bunk as on the Windows. Speaking of which, I do have a host of torrents on my Windows half that need to be completed... alas, I don't think I have the room to even try and start them (as starting torrents often tells your computer 'hey, reserve this space for these files,' and that's why Finder told me the NANA episodes were big enough to be complete). So I have some drive cleaning to do.

Maybe I *WILL* just end up getting another external drive. I can't believe I'm saying this, but 80 GB really isn't a lot. I mean, with all my full-sized photos and music, it adds up. And I'm starting to really LIKE the way everything's organized (when initially, it scared the crap out of me because I couldn't find anything, and it made no sense). It's not perfect, but it's suitable. And Spotlight usually finds anything I need. Of course, programs take up their share of space on the Mac too, and the way the OSX envrionment is designed, sometimes it's hard to tell just how much space one program is taking up. But since they don't have a Universal Binary of Photoshop yet, I deleted the trial; if I need it DESPERATELY, I can use it on my Windows VM. In the meantime, I'll wait until CS2 comes out for Intel Macs, and then get rid of the one on my Windows side.

Current Mood: aggravated

I ended up talking more about Halloween than I actually DID on Halloween. I made pumpkin pies from scratch though, and they turned out well.

My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul
the_sweet goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as A She-Devil.
a_white_rain tricks you! You get a scratched CD.
atlantian_magic gives you 9 yellow vanilla-flavoured gummy bats.
baine gives you 1 purple vanilla-flavoured gummy worms.
cutieme4u tricks you! You lose 4 pieces of candy!
dqbunny gives you 18 softly glowing coconut-flavoured gummy bats.
guardian_kysra tricks you! You get a block of wood.
kitesareevil tricks you! You get a used tissue.
lazzchan gives you 6 orange grapefruit-flavoured gummy bats.
mklutz gives you 6 milky white apple-flavoured gummy bats.
rhapsody_dragon gives you 1 mottled green strawberry-flavoured wafers.
the_sweet ends up with 37 pieces of candy, a scratched CD, a block of wood, and a used tissue.
Go trick-or-treating! Username:
Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern.

:( When I tried to include more people after S, it just gave me the first 10 anyway. Bah, people were mean to me this year! No postcards for you!

Speaking of postcards, I'm sending out a batch tomorrow (though they may not actually do anything but languish there, because tomorrow's a national holiday). I'm sending to:
-The Walk-in Center at school
-The Call Center at school x2
-Jimbo
-Katia
-Stephanie
-Neko
-Kysra

I want to send something(s) to Mamono, Ely, Megs, and Stef, but I don't think I have your addresses, guys! If you're okay with me having it, please drop me a comment!

If there's anyone I've forgotten, or you haven't given me your address up to this point, let me know! Comments are screened by default.

Also, if I mentioned that I did send something to you, did you get it yet? I'm looking at you

atlantian_magic...

Edit: I posted new pictures up on MySpace (just a few). Next up is my LiveJournal scrapbook, though I have yet to find any sort of functional exporting utility that works with iPhoto. I like uploading mass amounts of pictures at once, not clicking, searching, lather, rinse repeat. If anyone knows of one (that works with iPhoto 6), let me know. The only two I found don't work with the newest iPhoto, and the support people never got back to me. :P

I also wanted to upload my journal/photos from before I had 'Net, but I still have some configuring to do. iWeb doesn't come with a built-in FTP for anything other than .Mac, which I don't really need considering I have my own domain and such. So I have to use Dreamweaver (since I published the iWeb site to a folder within my Sites hierarchy)or Transmit, an FTP client for the Mac. I also need to edit some photos, because some are still the placeholder images.

I was going to upload some videos, but a) it looks like I didn't actually take videos of something I thought I took a video of; b) the videos I DO have are quite small and facing the wrong direction... maybe I can edit them in iMovie? and c) are too big for MySpace, so I'd have to post them elsewhere.

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Stand Still (Louie DeVito Mix) - Aubrey

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January 2016

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Page Summary

Wake-Up Call
Almost perfect, but not quite
Lady Ballz!
I R Teh Smart
Big kitty!
Begin at the beginning
Should be sleeping, can't. Not Snorkacks this time, though.
Aah, nostalgia
I shouldn't be awake
New LJ client for Mer
...The hell?
Trick or what?

Page generated Jun. 9th, 2025 03:17 pm

MILES to GO || before I sleep

lovely // dark // deep

Entries tagged with macs

Wake-Up Call

Almost perfect, but not quite

Lady Ballz!

I R Teh Smart

Big kitty!

Begin at the beginning

Should be sleeping, can't. Not Snorkacks this time, though.

Aah, nostalgia

I shouldn't be awake

New LJ client for Mer

...The hell?

Trick or what?