from Matthew's Apples
by Matthew Frederick Davis Hemming
February 2003
William's Sitelog Errors
Thanks for the little Mac-centric guide to constructing favicons. Now that I've actually figured out what the heck those errors were in my site logs, it'll be neat to make some for all of my pages. Be well.
http://www.metalbat.com
-William
That is exactly what motivated me to learn about favicons in the first place -- dozens and dozens of 404 errors in my Apache logs. One upshot of the entries favicons make in your logs (once you get rid of the 404 errors) is that you know when visitors running Microsoft Internet Explorer have bookmarked your page.
-Matthew
Martin's Cracked TiBook
...I have a few questions about your Powerbook 667. My case is cracked, just below where the hinge is, on the main case, above the esc key, and running down the side of the irDA port. This messes up my sound, looks bad, and means the screen is a bit dodgy when changing the angle. Was your mac under warranty when it was replaced? I think I will try and bug apple for a replacement. Only problem being that it and its contents are mission critical and I really don’t want everything killed, or to have to part with it for a month...
-Martin
You can certainly try for a replacement, but be forewarned that Apple can be a hard nut to crack. My casing cracked in much the same way as yours did about one month after purchase. What made my situation a bit special was that Apple didn't come to pick up my PowerBook for repair as arranged. In fact, they failed to pick up the PowerBook on a total of five separate pre-scheduled occasions. How, you ask? Because my home address had initially been entered mistakenly in their computers as being within the United States, and so the database rejected my Canadian postal code as a malformed zip code; it turned out that my entry could not be corrected without dissociating any attached open tickets (like the issue of my broken PowerBook), which amounted to erasing my file. Nice database system, Apple. In the end, I wrote an impassioned letter to the Vice-President of Something or Other at Apple Canada...In my letter I argued that in the course of the two months while my PowerBook was sitting in a sealed box waiting to be shipped out it had depreciated: not only was my valuable warranty running out, but in the intervening time Apple had upgraded the model of PowerBook I bought (from 500 to 667 MHz processor, from 100 - 133 MHz system bus, etc.)...So, you're welcome to take a run at them, but just keep in mind that I did have specific circumstances to lend weight to my case. Your mileage may vary. Results not typical. About parting with your PowerBook: there is never a good time to be separated from what may be your prized possession, and most useful tool. I can tell you this, though: I have had to send the second PowerBook away for repairs (FireWire port burnt out by faulty self-powered pocket-drive), and I did get it back in fairly short order (8 business days). Of course, I live in continental North America, so you might have a bit of a different experience shipping from the United Kingdom. Also, Apple will want to charge you a stupid amount of money to back-up the data on your PowerBook. I strongly suggest that you back-up all of your data yourself beforehand, and don't count on getting anything but a reformatted drive back.
-Matthew
George's Dual Monitors
Matthew, I'm taking a shot in the dark here but I'm having a lot of trouble finding out how to get my G4 350 AGP to run two monitors. I saw that you do so on your 450. I have the ATI Rage 128 Pro card running a 17" monitor and I have a 15" monitor I'd like to add so that I can put my Photoshop and GoLive pallettes on it. If at all possible could you refer me to a source that explains this process and tells me what type of additional (PCI?) video card I will need. At the typical places like MacMall, etc, the only video cards I can find are high end deals. I just need something simple to run the cheapo 15".
-George
You will almost certainly be wanting a PCI card (the other option is to
buy a dual-headed AGP card to replace the AGP card your machine shipped with). Unfortunately, finding a "minimum solution" in PCI video cards is well nigh impossible. You don't have to get a $600 gaming video system though -- there is a middle-ground: I'm using an ATI Radeon PCI card with 32 MB of onboard Video RAM to run my secondary display, which allows me to run at 1152 x 870 @ 75 MHz with Millions of Colours, which should be more than sufficient for your needs as you describe them. Prices range from around US$ 90 to US$ 130, which is pretty hard to beat, at websites like this one or this one. The process is simple: shut down your Mac and open her up. Ground yourself by touching an unpainted metal part of your computer (such as the power supply) and then insert the card into the slot: place one corner into the well, and them shove (carefully but firmly) the other end down level. If you have dual PCI busses (5 - 6 slots), put the new video card on a different bus than your primary AGP card (for example, if the AGP card is in A (noted in tiny type on the motherboard, A1, A2, etc.) then put your PCI card in a B slot). If you have a single bus (3 slots), put the new card anywhere you want. Personally, I like to leave a little room between cards if possible, for the sake of cooling airflow. Close your machine and attach a VGA monitor (or LCD monitor with a DVI-VGA adaptor) to the VGA port on the rear of the video card. Turn on both of your monitors, and then boot up your Mac. One you've booted up you can open the Monitors control panel and choose your preferred resolutions, colour depths, and designate a "startup monitor" (the one that displays your booting info) and a "main monitor" (the one with the menu bar on top) by dragging the little icons around. If you run into any difficulties, remember that you can always just unplug the second monitor from the video card in order for your Mac to ignore it, for troubleshooting purposes. Hope that helps, George.
-Matthew
Wylie's Leading Space Boot Variable
I just wanted to drop a line of thanks for the info on getting debian set up on you mac. I just finished getting woody set up on a powercenter 120, and the info you have here on OF and such was invaluable...one small thing I'd suggest that could be tweaked is that you point out that there is a leading space in front of the boot-file variable....
-Wylie
I'm glad you found the page useful. My aim in posting those notes was to spare someone a few of the several hours of frustration I had experienced. I've recently installed a fresh Woody system on the 9600 I wrote about, and it was a very, very smooth experience compared to some of the struggles I engaged in with Potato. Woody rocks. Thank you for the note about the leading space. I'll integrate that tidbit when I next update my Apple pages. Thanks for taking the time to write, Wylie.
-Matthew
 |
 |
| Some images on this page may be ©1984-2006 Apple Computer, Inc., and are reproduced here without permission. The contents of this page are not endorsed or approved by Apple Computer, Inc. in any way. The original content was written by Matthew Frederick Davis Hemming and has been put in the public domain: you may reproduce the text in whole or in smithereens, for any purpose whatsoever. |