[DM-MUG] Fwd: [TMC-NLC] Mac 911 by Christopher Breen

[Victoria L. Herring]

>Migrating to a new Mac
>
>
>Reader Sam Sellars is trading up, but wants to do so cleanly. He writes:
>
>*I’m getting a new 27-inch iMac and want to transfer all the e-mail,
>calendars, and documents over to it from my MacBook Pro. However, I’m afraid
>to move everything because my laptop has crashed a couple of times and I’m
>concerned that some of its files are corrupt. Am I paranoid?*
>
>I’m not licensed to make such determinations of your psyche, I’m afraid. So
>we’ll call you cautious. Let’s try to bring some perspective to that
>caution.
>
>It’s important to understand that this isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition.
>When you fire up your new iMac you’ll be offered the option to transfer the
>data from your old Mac to your new one. Should you agree to this you can
>transfer—over a network or Firewire—some or all of the contents of your user
>account, your applications, network and computers settings, and files stored
>outside your Home folder.
>
>Specifically, within your user folder, you can choose to copy the contents
>of your Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and
>Sites folders. (You may see other folders that are also currently stored in
>your Home folder.) Nothing in these folders should cause your Mac to crash
>(though a corrupt library or file could cause an application to misbehave).
>The contents of the Library and System folders at the root level of your old
>Mac won’t be transferred to the new one as the new Mac will have its own
>fresh copies.
>
>However, regardless of whether you choose a selection of these folders or
>all of them, the contents of the Library folder within that user folder will
>also be transferred. And this Library folder is where I’d focus my
>attention.
>
>It’s possible that there’s something in it that’s mucking up your MacBook
>Pro. One easy way to find out is to create a new user account on your
>laptop, switch to that account, and see if your MacBook Pro crashes in the
>way it has previously. If not and you can predictably make it crash in your
>regular account, the ~/Library folder is suspect.
>
>More often than not, however, application crashes are due to a problem with
>a specific application and kernel panics (the big crashes that bring a Mac
>to its knees) are hardware related. Given that, you might not wish to
>migrate your applications but instead install fresh copies. And before
>jacking in a dozen peripherals, try running the new Mac with just its mouse
>and keyboard. If it fares well, feel free to use your peripherals. If it
>then crashes, look for updated drivers and, failing that, unplug the
>peripherals, plug in one at a time, test each one, and try to determine
>which is doing The Bad Thing.
>
>Or, do as I do. Run Software Update on the MacBook Pro to be sure it’s
>completely up to date and then migrate everything on it to the new Mac.
>Afterwards, if it doesn’t work as you’d like it to, whip out the iMac’s
>installation disc and take it back to like-new condition. At that point you
>can use some of these hints for a more selective migration.
>
>
>
>When permissions won't be repaired
>
>
>Reader Jason Brunk is concerned about permissions that just don’t seem
>repairable. He writes:
>
>*I have a Mac Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.5. When I repair permissions,
>there are about a dozen items that are listed as repaired. But if I repeat
>the process, either immediately or a day later, the same list is repaired
>all over again. What gives?*
>
>I can say with some confidence that the messages you see repeated time and
>again contain the word *Java*. You might also see *Warning: SUID file
>“System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/
>Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent” has been modified and will not be repaired.*
>
>Apple tells us “don’t sweat it” in its KnowledgeBase article, Mac OS X: Disk
>Utility’s Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely
>ignore<http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1448>.
>After listing scads of these messages, the document ends with:
>
>*You can safely ignore these messages. You can also usually ignore any “ACL
>found but not expected
” message. These messages can occur if you change
>permissions on a file or directory. These messages are accurate but are
>generally not a cause for concern.*
>
>**
>
>**
>
>Importing iPhone clips into iMovie
>
>
>Reader Jason is new around here and needs some help with the
>iPhone-to-iMovie workflow. He writes:
>
>*I’m new to Macs and can’t seem to copy videos taken on my iPhone over to
>iMovie. The Mac seems to want to open iPhoto and sees the videos as a
>picture. Is there anything I’m missing?*
>
>Just a basic understanding of how iPhone movies are treated by a Mac and new
>and older versions of iPhoto and iMovie. It’s like this:
>
>Shoot a movie with your iPhone or 4G iPod touch and then attach the device
>to your Mac via the sync cable. By default, iPhoto and iTunes open. Check
>iPhoto’s Library pane and you’ll see your iPhone listed as a camera. Again,
>by default, its contents will appear in iPhoto’s main window. Movies you’ve
>captured with your iPhone will appear with a small camcorder icon in their
>bottom left corner. Select those movies and click the Import Selected button
>and the movies will be imported to your iPhoto library.
>
>When you launch iMovie it will likely ask if you’d like to update thumbnails
>for videos in your iPhoto library. Let it do that by clicking the Now
>button. When iMovie’s done you should see the clips you’ve recently imported
>into iPhoto.
>
>This describes how it was done prior to iLife ’11. If you have the latest
>version of iMovie you have a more direct route. iPhoto will still launch and
>you can still import your iPhone and 4G iPod touch movies into it, but you
>can also import movies directly into iMovie ’11.
>
>Launch iMovie ’11, attach your iPhone or 4G iPod touch to your Mac, and
>click the Camcorder icon that appears just above the Event Library. In a
>short while iMovie will recognize the iPhone or iPod touch and produce an
>Import From window that includes all the videos on the attached device. At
>this point, import the clips just as you would from any compatible camera or
>camcorder. Select the clips you want and click the Import Selected or Import
>All button.
>
>In the sheet that subsequently appears, choose the event you want to place
>the clips in (or create a new event). If you like, enable the After Import
>Analyze For option and choose Stabilization and People, Stabilization, or
>People from the pop-up menu. Click Import to begin importing the clips.
>
>
>
>Converting e-books for iOS devices
>
>Reader Duane Campbell would like to read some older e-books on his iPad. He
>writes:
>
>*I have some old electronic books in different formats. Some work on my iPad
>and others don’t. Is there a way to convert them so I can read all my books?
>*
>
>Just so you’re fully up to speed, you should know that the iBooks app
>supports electronic documents in the PDF and EPUB formats. To get these
>documents on to your iPad, just drag them to your iTunes library and they’ll
>be filed under Books in iTunes’ Source list. Once they are you can select
>them for syncing in the Books tab that appears when you connect your iPad to
>your Mac.
>
>For those e-books that aren’t available in these formats, there’s
>Calibre<http://calibre-ebook.com/>.
>This free open-source utility can convert from a wide variety of formats
>(CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB,
>PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT) to a not-quite-as-wide variety of formats
>(EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, SNB, TCR, TXT). For our
>purposes you care only about EPUB.
>
>In addition to its ability to convert formats, it can also rescale font
>sizes, detect and create chapters and tables of content, and grab metadata
>(title, author, description, and cover image) from the Web. Within Calibre
>you can also choose to sync converted e-books to your connected iPad,
>iPhone, or iPod touch.
>
>
>[Macworld Senior Editor Christopher Breen is the author of "Secrets of
>
>the iPod and iTunes (6th edition)," and "The iPod and iTunes Pocket Guide
>
>(4th edition)" both from  Peachpit Press
>
>
>and
>
>
>"Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Essential Training (video)" from lynda.com
>
>Find Chris' books at  www.amazon.com and www.peachpit.com. Get special
>
>user group pricing on Macworld Magazine! Subscribe today at http://
>
>www.macworld.com/useroffer


-- 
Victoria L. Herring, Gallery: 
http://gallery.journeyzing.com/  [images, 
ordering site];  Blogs: 
http://blog.journeyzing.com [JZ]; 
http://www.herringlaw.com [lawfirm];  Ft. 
Dearborn-Chicago Photo Forum Int'l. Competition 
Award of Excellence, 2010 
[http://www.chicagophotoforum.org];