Mac on Nanikore

Tell me the file Apple

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:19:35 +0000

Like a lot of people, I’ve been bitten by a problem syncing my iPod to my Mac, in that I see the following error, and the sync stops wherever it was. For me, after a bit of tinkering I found it seemed to not like one of my photos very much, towards the end of the sync, and if I get a few more minutes to take a look at it, I’ll figure it out, but really, what kind of an error message is that? It knows what files caused it to stop, so why won’t it tell me what it is? Tsk. Insecurity and fear of loss of job seem to strike again. Just tell me the file Apple.

MacOS X 10.4.2 and Samba problem

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 14:06:01 +0000

I’ve just finished about a 45 minute troubleshooting session, I’ve discovered why my Mac wouldn’t connect to my Linux box to let me back it up. After going through the Mac logs and trawling through some web sites, I found the problem - a bug in the OS X Samba client when used with certain versions of the server - specifically 3.0.14 and variants of it, which just happens to be the version I have on my Fedora Core Linux box. The workaround is to use the command line rather than the ‘browse’ function, and then update the Linux Samba server as soon as possible.

The reason I mention this is because as I’ve found quite often, when troubleshooting an OS X problem, never forget that it’s closely related to BSD, and those people really know their hard core stuff. The BSD page I found is here, the Samba bug note is here, which is then referenced on an Apple Support discussion, which illustrates why it’s better to follow BSD pages.

.Mac bye bye

Tue, 28 Sep 2004 16:54:25 +0000

After 2 years of using .Mac, I finally say goodbye to it next month.

Unlike many who felt that the USD100 was too much for the service, I actually found at first that it was worth it. However, recently I realised it was more effort and nuisance than it was worth. At first I wanted to use the online backup feature, but as my home directory is huge now - much bigger than my iDisk space - I no longer use it much, and back up to another hard drive and DVD. As I thought about it I realised that even though I use my Address book, iCal and iPhoto a lot, I barely use the online abilities.

On top of that, my @mac.com account was a spam magnet, bringing in almost 99% of spam in my inbox. I wont be sad to see that go. Also, I used to use the photo gallery a lot, but now I just use my own Gallery software I set up, so I’ve barely used that of late either.

I think the final straw was the poor support I got from .Mac when I asked why my 2000yen voucher for renewing last year never arrived. They said it had (it hadn’t nor had it been cashed, as they confirmed, and had actually expired) and when I said that I wasn’t happy with that reply and said it was things like this that make people leave, the support person helpfully sent me detailed instructions on how to unsubscribe. No negotiation, or ‘I’ll look into it’, just a point to the door. Ah well, in truth, the decision had already been made.

I should say though, that I do think .Mac has a place, but ultimately I don’t think it’s for me anymore. Therefore, if you contact me on my @mac.com account, stick a comment on here and I’ll get back to you.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

neal — 2004-09-29

Yup, I’m using mine at the moment but I can already see that when I get my own site sorted that it will come to an end. There has been a lot of discussions on various sites about the level of service and space etc. I think it is a bit of the old apple creeping back in, ipod and itunes are the flavour of the month so they forget about other areas of the company until it needs a radical rethink or rebuild because only the most dedicated mac users are still there. Shame really.

neal — 2004-09-30

spooky…..

Dear .Mac Member,

We’re excited to announce that your .Mac membership now comes with 250 MB of combined .Mac Mail and iDisk storage. And, in another move designed to make life easier as traffic grows heavier and files grow larger, we’ve increased the maximum email message size to 10 MB.

Wow, if that works with my .mac I wonder if it works with anything else…. I would like a car and a house and loads of money and and and…..!!! ;-)