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Content Tagged with User:marc + apple
When Apples go Bad
Last night, after a nice weekend of varying activities (yoga, studying, yoga, sleeping), the plan was to lie in bed and read some Apple Developer Connection documentation for a while and generally learn more about some stuff I’ve been working on lately.
So, it was with some dismay that I sat down with Samantha’s PowerBook G4, clicked on Safari and got … nothing. The icon bounced twice and then stopped. System logs showed nothing, and the application appeared to be all fine in its folder in /Applications.
Uuuuuh. Now what? Oh yes, the System Console, in /Application/Utilities. It gave me the following very helpful message:
2006-08-20 22:32:29.825 Safari[249] Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
So what was wrong with mine? Some searching around the Intarwebs suggested that it might be a permissions thing. So I fired up the Disk Utility and that said that a bunch of permissions were all wrong (how did that happen?) and fixed them.
Still no dice with Safari. There was another button on the Disk Utility to “Verify Disk”. That did not go well. Lots of red text and scary messages, and finally “exiting”.
So, in the end, I had to actually boot the PowerBook into single user mode (when the machine is booting up, hold down CMD/Apple + S), and run
/sbin/fsck -fy
to get everything working again. It took running this program twice to get everything fixed, and even then, one of the sub-nib files in the MainMenu.nib/ directory for Safari.app was still corrupted, and had to be copied from somewhere else. Luckily, we’ve got another PowerBook G4 here in Beijing, or I would have had to harrass somebody overseas for the file.
None of this is particularly new, shocking, or difficult to figure out, especially for those who have run various flavours of Unix for some time. I’ve just grown so used to my PowerBook being extremely reliable (in three years of owning a Dell Laptop running XP, I never once had half the average uptime I get on my PowerBoook) that it’s so shocking when there is a problem, I’m taken off guard.
There is an interesting point to be made here though, and that is that there no way Samantha would have been able to figure out and do this by herself. She still would have had to go to an Apple Geek Lab (or whatever they’re called) – of which there are none here in Beijing – and get somebody to look at it for her, or beg a friend (who might not have known what s/he was doing and suggested “wiping and reinstalling everything”). As nice as it can be to use, personal computing software still has a long way to go.
Taking the Fun out of Buying a new Computer
In normal times, buying a new computer is a rather fun experience. In addition to the endorphin rush caused by plonking down a huge wad of cash for such a small – but often 好看 (that’s Chinese for good looking) – piece of hardware, you get to take it home and play with it and discover all the new and fun things that are different about the new toy. Even if it’s still running Microsoft Windows, your new vendor has probably come up with some new set of stuff to include with the machine. Or, far more common with me, my last attempt to finally come up with the “ultimate organisation of my hard disk™” was a miserable failure, and I’m excited about trying out something new.
So, imagine my disappointment when I recently upgraded my 15” Powerbook G4 to a shiny new 15” Macbook Pro.
In short, my upgrade experience was:- Plug in new computer, run through annoying Apple registration sequence (Tip: If you indicate in one of the first steps that the computer will not be connected to the Internet, you can make it so that the registration will not be sent).
- Run migration wizard from the old Powerbook to the new Macbook Pro (this involves clicking a few buttons and connecting the two machines by FireWire).
Yes, about an hour later (35GB of iTunes and image data takes a while to transfer from one 5400RPM laptop drive to another), my new machine, appeared exactly the same as the old one. My desktop, my language settings, all my files, SSH keys, svn and source enlistments, and more.
What’s worse, all of the software on the old machine was Universal Binaries, so I didn’t even need to install any new software. It if weren’t for the fact that JustLooking compiled in less than 30 seconds instead of well over 2 minutes, I might not have even noticed right away.
I did also notice after a bit of experimenting that I can finally watch HDTV movies (720p and 1080i) at more than 2 frames a second, and that instead of being completley unable to play Civ IV, I can now play it at 1900×1200 with all features and whizzy 3D goodies turned on. I’ve also noticed that the fabled heat problems of the MBP have not materialised on my machine. After a copule of hours of gaming, the machine is no warmer than the G4.
However, the upgrade itself was a complete and utter disappointment. No temporary disruption in productivity, nor any hours spent trying to figure out how to migrate all of my data over. In short, no excuse to do anything other than just go back to work.
Thanks Apple. Jerks.