JOHN SAWYER CJS  If iPodRip crashed on three different Macs, assuming you used the same iPod or iPhone on each of those Macs, this may indicate a problem with that iPod or iPhone, instead of the iPodRip app.  
(Version 1.3.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Once installed, if Safari is still running, you may have to quit from Safari and re-launch it for ClickToFlash to work  
(Version 1.6b2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Lots and lots of applications require you to enter a Mac OS administrator password, especially newer ones, since they use Apple's "Installer" app, which always requires the user to enter an admin password.  
(Version 13.0.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I think you mean "end table" and "heat sink"?  
(Version 2.14)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I've been using multiXFinder in OS 10.5.7 ever since 10.5.7 was released. I haven't had any problems with it.  
(Version 0.3.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  But it's unlikely that everyone working on web browsers would want to work with everyone else, making compromises, etc. There are definite differences in each browser, reflecting different ideas and techniques used by each set of developers, and so far I've found that to be better instead of worse--it gives people more choice. I agree that when one set of developers figures out some useful feature, etc., other browser developers should try to emulate it, but sometimes various approaches aren't mutually compatible. I used Camino until some time earlier this year, when my personal favorite at the moment switched to iCab--it's fast, can save web pages as single files, in Safari webarchive format, as well as other formats, etc.--all other browsers, except Safari, save web pages by splitting them into little files and placing these files into folders--I find that messy, and it's one of the main reasons I stopped using Camino, since I save a lot of web pages.  
(Version 1.6.8)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  As far as I've seen, Leopard has no undo for emptying the trash.  
(Version 1.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Come on. RCDefaultApp does a lot more than that.  
(Version 2.0.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Now, I'm seeing the GlimmerBlocker checkerboard pattern in blocked ads in iCab. So this seems to confirm that GB is working in iCab?  
(Version 1.3.5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Has anybody found that GlimmerBlocker works with any web browser, not just Safari, due to its proxy approach? The developer's descriptions mention just Safari, but I've been trying out iCab for about a week, and though iCab has only simple built-in ad blocking, and no add-on adblock software available for it, I seem to be seeing pretty complete ad blocking while using iCab, on a par with what I saw with GlimmerBlocker and Safari. I've turned on GB's option to show a checkerboard pattern for blocked images, and though I was seeing this pattern when images were blocked in Safari, I'm not seeing that pattern in iCab, so maybe iCab's built-in adblocking is better than I thought? But on another Mac I'm using, that doesn't have Glimmerblocker installed (it can run only OS 10.4.11 max), its copy of iCab is showing ads that my GlimmerBlocked Mac's copy of iCab isn't showing.  
(Version 1.3.5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Dana:

I think you're only partly clear on what Glims is doing, regarding this "redirection" of links. It's not a redirection as such, and it's done in collaboration between the Glims authors, and Amazon, etc., so those links ARE working just as the site owners intend. But I do agree with you, that the Glims authors possibly should include an option in Glims to allow you to turn off this feature, for people with personal concerns like yours.  
(Version 1.0b17)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Also don't forget that Architect's developers have a website (fancy that), where they sometimes post info on their progress:

www.slightlypretentious.com

Right now, one big problem they're dealing with, is that now the time is approaching when Snow Leopard will be released, so they're trying to decide whether to release a Leopard themer, which may be incompatible with Snow Leopard (and thus disappoint people who will be upgrading to it), or wait until Snow Leopard is released, and release a Snow Leopard themer shortly after that, then a Leopard themer later.  
(Version 1.0b2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  How are the developers of Architect/Facade changing theming in the way you describe? ShapeShifter isn't free--it's $20 "shareware". If you mean they're changing theming from a programming viewpoint, they're not responsible for that--Apple changed how things are done in Leopard, and any programmer who creates a theming utility for Leopard needs to accomodate that. That's why ShapeShifter doesn't work in Leopard.  
(Version 1.0b2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  According to the developers, who discuss (sometimes) Architect at www.macthemes.net, both Architect and Facade are still in active development, but school, home, family, people leaving the company, etc. have delayed them again. They've stopped giving release dates, and are now just saying "soon", "when it's ready", etc.  
(Version 1.0b2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  This looks good--almost identical to ASM. Too early after installation for me to report any bugs, etc., though I notice the app icon at the right end of the menu bar, doesn't have a vertical separator between it and the menu bar icons to its left, like ASM has. I haven't decided yet whether I prefer the separator; maybe making it an option would be a good idea.  
(Version 0.3.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  The name the developer has given this utility can be confusing. Paragon Software's commercial "NTFS For Mac OS X" has a similar name. And, after you download this freeware utility, you find the developer has renamed it to "NTFS Mac", so she should rename it in this MacUpdate listing too, preferably to something other than "NTFS Mac" since that's also too similar to the name of Paragon's utility.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  My mistake: MoreCamino isn't supposed to be placed in your OS X user-level System Preferences' ~/Library/PreferencePanes folder--as the directions on this download page say, it's supposed to be placed in ~/Library/Application Support/Camino/PreferencePanes. But it takes the form of a regular prefpane, which if you double-click on it, asks if you want to install it into OS X's System Preferences. The programmer shouldn't have let it do that, but the thing is dead now anyway, so it's a moot point.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Yes, it's dead, Jim.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  More on the MoreCamino prefpane not loading: its copy in OS X's System Preferences won't load, but its copy within Camino's preferences, does. Go figure. I don't know why the author had it appear in both locations--to me, it doesn't make sense for it to appear in OS X's System Preferences.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Under OS 10.5 (at least 10.5.6), the MoreCamino prefpane doesn't load--an alert appears saying "Preferences error. Could not load com.hoopyfrood.morecamino preference pane."  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I agree--there should be an option for sleeping "Only if any of the following apps is NOT running".

The utility "Narcolepsy" has this option:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27258/narcolepsy  
(Version 1.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  System Preference's Privacy pane doesn't always work, where Spotless does. Also, Spotless gives you more options.  
(Version 2.0.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  PlaintextPaste doesn't appear to work under OS 10.5/Leopard--its SparkPlug prefpane doesn't appear in System Preferences, nor do its additional paste commands appear in Cocoa application Edit menus.  
(Version 0.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Ideas about what kind of trial period to offer, split roughly 50-50, with about half of users wanting a specific number of trial uses, and the other half wanting a specific trial period. I prefer a specific number of uses, so I can try something once a month, if I'm that slow to evaluate it.  
(Version 2.3.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Entertainment? Amusing fiction?? Not science???

Prove it! I want to see the end of the world. When it's done, I'll sit down and watch some more TV...  
(Version 2.0.6)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Regarding the OnyX developer's use of an installer, instead of just distributing OnyX as an application: I emailed him about this in June 2007, and he replied:

"OnyX is translated in 18 languages. 18 Read-me files + 18 License files...!! With the installer, you have just one file and these files are automatically displayed in the language of the user. Also, the user is obliged (theoretically) to read the license and that, it's very important!!"

Apparently the system language-specific files he refers to, get installed into the OnyX application itself, since they're not to be found anywhere else on the drive it gets installed onto. His reasoning is reasonable, but I still think it would be fine to distribute OnyX as an application containing all the language files, even though that would make it somewhat larger, since the extra size wouldn't be a real problem. More inconvenience is caused, in my opinion, by having to install the app, then drag or copy it out of the Applications folder and into a folder of one's choice, if that's what one wants to do, and I suspect many of us do, as others posting here say--it would be better to be able to just drag it out of the mounted disk image it's distributed on, and skip the installer step. But Joel is the developer, and this is a minor inconvenience compared to the value of OnyX.  
(Version 2.0.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Gershwix 2.5 is NOT compatible with OS 10.5 or later, since ShapeShifter, which is required to install it, is not compatible with OS 10.5. I haven't seen anything from the Gershwix author as to whether he plans an update to make a version that will work with one of the Leopard theme installing utils, nor does it look likely that Unsanity will release a Leopard-compatible version of ShapeShifter.  
(Version 2.5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Wow--he's THAT Jesus? Back already? And laying low until he figures out what his next move is...  
(Version 3.2.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  MJSICKEL:

I tried your suggestion of holding down the Option key while resizing a Finder window's columns, and it didn't resize columns in any other Finder window. Is there something I'm missing? I'm using OS 10.5.6.  
(Version 3.2.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Guillaumek is right. For example, if a Mac user receives a Microsoft Office document from someone, then forwards it to someone who uses a Windows PC, that Windows PC can become infected. Thought this raises the issue whether Mac users should do the work that Windows users should do for themselves.  
(Version 1.1.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  What was the exact sequence of words you entered on the command line? It's supposed to be:

applejack AUTO restart  
(Version 1.5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Josh:

Yes, a processor-specific build is faster than what you get when you just strip code from an app, that's meant for another processor than the one you intend to run the app under.  
(Version 3.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Flash1296: while it's true that some recoveries, with any utility, don't result in getting back the files one is looking for, my experience recovering hundreds of drives using Data Rescue and other utilities, is that most of the time (statistically), recovery is at least mostly successful, and more than half the time completely successful, but as you say, if someone is trying to recover deleted files, they need to try to recover them immediately. But the main purpose for utilities like Data Rescue is to recover files from crashed drives, rather than recovering trashed files, though it can often do that too if they haven't been overwritten yet.

And as you say, a good daily (or more often) complete drive backup is better than trying to recover data. I remember in years past when some people suggested that drive recovery utilities had become so good (even though they hadn't yet), that backups might not be necessary. I always wondered where they got that idea.  
(Version 1.2.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Maybe it's called PhotoRec to get the attention of people who have problems with their camera memory sticks, who might not have realized they might be able to use it to recover their photos, if it had some generic name.  
(Version 6.9)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I don't think we can blame IBM for what Microsoft does...(I know they used to be called "IBM PCs", but that was some years ago).  
(Version 11.4.2)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Dan Frakes wrote an article on how to change the shortname under OS 10.5, which mainly describes the same Control-click or right-click on the user's account in the Accounts prefpane, but he includes some recommended extra steps:

http://www.macworld.com/article/132693/2008/03/changeshortusername.html  
(Version 1.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Time for the references to this utility's old name, "Font Cache Cleaner", to be changed to its current name, "Font Finager", in the product description above.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I don't think clearing all the cache locations by entering commands in single user mode is going to be practical for too many people, since there are a few too many such locations, so for now, cache cleaning utilities like Leopard Cache Cleaner, Onyx, Cocktail, etc. are the tools of choice. But if a Mac won't start up properly or stay running long enough to allow a user to run one of these utils, it can still be done in single user mode, by just entering the same commands as one can enter in terminal--rm [pathname] (I won't list the entire set of commands here, for fear of either not getting them exactly right, or getting them right and still having someone wipe large parts of their drive's directory and blaming me). If the drive that need cache cleaning won't boot, then you'd have to boot from another drive, and use one of the cache cleaning utils to clear caches on the problem drive, but LCC is the only one I know of, that will let you clear the caches on any volume other than the startup volume. I suggested it to the author.

To be able to repair permissions in single user mode, when OS 10.3 was released, required the author(s) of Applejack to do some research and experimenting (someone else figured it out for him), and they finally came up with a clever workaround, since Apple did something screwy with the "diskutil" routine starting with OS 10.3 that normally prevented permissions repair from being executed in single user mode. So, even if one issues the command, in single user mode, to run diskutil's permissions repair routine, which is mostly all Applejack had to do prior to OS 10.3, it still probably wouldn't work, because whatever limitation or oversight Apple introduced in 10.3, probably still exists. Apple has no interest in repairing permissions in single user mode, even though they've stated no reason to actively prevent it, so they haven't dedicated any useful amount of resources to fixing this bug. So, Applejack's workaround would still be necessary, and it's doubtful its commands could be entered in single user mode, at least in any semi-convenient fashion (take a look at the extra stuff that's displayed onscreen when Applejack prepares to do permissions repair--you can get some idea of some of the stuff going on behind the scenes, not shown as enterable commands). So, for the time being, utils that can repair permissions, like Disk Utility, Leopard Cache Cleaner, etc. are the only choice.

I'm not sure what commands are used to accomplish the other things Applejack does.  
(Version 1.4.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Of the tasks that Applejack performs, I suspect updating it to get permissions repair to work as OS 10.5 expects, without causing some disaster, would be the hardest task (not sure how hard, not being much of a programmer). It took a couple of the Swiss army knife utility authors (OnyX? Leopard Cache Cleaner? or both?) a few tries to get that one right.

I suspect there may also be some new cache file locations, and maybe some old ones no longer in effect, requiring some changes there too, but not as big a job as permissions repair.  
(Version 1.4.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  steelcut and ambient:

I just doublechecked your Mac's firmware numbers, and you're right, the model ID shown in the firmware version that the updater has installed on your Macs, doesn't match your Mac's official model name (17 Inch Late 2006 CD)--IM51 is the model ID for the 17" and 20" with a Superdrive, and IM52 is what you'd normally expect with a 17" CD model. Also, IM51.0090.B03 isn't one of the numbers Apple shows at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237, even for non-CD models--it shows IM51.0090.B09 as being what firmware update 1.2 installs for both the 17" and 20" Late 2006 models (which is a further oddity--if you installed firmware update 1.3 and got firmware IM51.0090.B03, it seems that the 1.3 update might install a variation of the 1.2 update on models that don't support the 1.3 update). But since the 17" Late 2006 CD model is just a 17" Late 2006 model with a Combo drive instead of a Superdrive, their logic boards are probably identical, or close enough (maybe the only difference was the model ID originally in their firmware), or some production runs may have used these two logic boards interchangeably. So, it's likely that these inconsistencies aren't anything to worry about. Still, it's debatable whether it was a good idea or a bad one, for the updater to change your Mac's model ID to a technically different model's. It's even possible that your 17" CD model's firmware originally showed IM51 as its model ID, if it contained a non-CD model logic board all along.  
(Version 1.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Apple is sometimes lazy about properly identifying which updates apply to which Mac models. Your Macs are "Late 2006" models, and even though the display size is different, the logic board, etc. are similar enough so that this firmware update applies to both. If the firmware update wasn't appropriate for your Mac model, its installer wouldn't have installed it. Any problems that occur after any firmware update aren't due to a mismatch between the firmware update and a given Mac model, but due to bugs in either the firmware update itself (which means both some 17" and 20" models may experience similar problems), or your System software, leftover cache files (clear them out using something like Leopard Cache Cleaner), etc.  
(Version 1.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  This doesn't seem to be working under OS 10.5.2.  
(Version 2.0.5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  You mean "the developers' hobby rather than their vocation". An avocation is similar or the same as a hobby.  
(Version 2.0b21)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  For OS 10.5, use Malcolm Hall's utility, also named "Sleep Display".  
(Version 1.0.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  That's quite a bug. Fortunately it's supposed to be fixed in version 3.1.  
(Version 3.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Sorry to not cite sources. Mine was the Macfixit main page for today (Mar 19 2007), but articles on the Macfixit home page become accessible only by paid subscription after a few days (a day or two?), so I didn't want to have people trying to look up that citation several days from now, and being told they couldn't access it.  
(Version 2.8.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  That was a pretty quick fix for the printing & ssh bugs I reported earlier! (Then again there were people reporting it directly to the developer).  
(Version 2.8.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Latest reports are that the current version of Instant Hijack conflicts with Apple's Security Update 2008-002, preventing some printers from working, and interfering with some ssh operations. Either don't install Security Update 2008-002 until Instant Hijack/AHP is updated, or remove Instant Hijack after installing the current version of AHP, until it's been updated.  
(Version 2.8)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Yum. Diskwarrior 4.1 CD updater. I am no longer slightly miffed.  
(Version 4.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Actually, the only real conflict between Diskwarrior 4.0 and Leopard, besides its not being able to rebuild directories on an OS 10.5 FileVault or an OS 10.5 disk image file (there were some other minor issues that didn't damage data), is that since DW 4.0 uses OS 10.4's permissions repair routine, instead of OS 10.5's routine, running DW 4.0's permissions repair option will damage permissions on an OS 10.5 startup volume (and possibly non-startup volumes that have been exposed to OS 10.5, but I'm just speculating about that), and this damage can occur regardless of what you're started up from while you're running DW 4.0--OS 10.4, 10.5, or even the DW 4.0 startup CD.  
(Version 4.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I'm not sure what you mean by "install Diskwarrior". Diskwarrior is a standalone application, not requiring an installer. Normally, it's recommended that you run it while the Mac under repair is booted from the Diskwarrior CD, so in that situation, there is positively nothing Diskwarrior-related that gets installed. If you drag a copy of the Diskwarrior application to a hard drive, you haven't really "installed" Diskwarrior--you've just copied its single icon to the hard drive--and as far as I know, running it from a hard drive, doesn't install anything further onto that hard drive either.  
(Version 4.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Too bad the link doesn't even download anything any more, but instead sends you to a 404 page, in Czechoslovakian.  
(Version 0.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Wow. I haven't used Monolingual for a couple years, but I see that even the latest version, 1.3.8, still has as its defaults, settings that will cause many of the problems that people have been complaining about for years--deleting architectures that are actually needed, etc.

Monolingual's readme file does say "you should not strip the System frameworks if you want to use Rosetta", but I can tell many people don't read the readme file. Even so, Monolingual's defaults shouldn't be set to delete things that the readme file says you shouldn't delete, as if the developer is saying "do my work for me, and change the settings to what they should be". A minor quibble is that I don't understand why the developer switches to using the term "System frameworks" in this part of the readme, about not removing architectures, since some users who don't know the terms, won't automatically know the developer is using somewhat synonymous terms.

I guess the developer knows what he's doing when he runs this app himself, so he assumes his knowledge must be being telepathically transmitted to anyone else who uses it.  
(Version 1.3.8)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Downloaded Onyx 1.9.4b1 today, using Speed Download, and got about 35k/sec transfer speed, less than a tenth of the speed I normally get from other downloads. That's been the case ever since I first downloaded Onyx. I can wait, but I wonder why some people get the download at full speed, and not other people.  
(Version 1.9.4b1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  No no no! Speed Doubler and RAM Doubler were very useful utilities! I installed Speed Doubler on many Macs, and rarely had a conflict, and always saw a very noticeable speed increase. RAM Doubler was effective at its job of "doubling" RAM. I know both utils caused some problems for some people, but not the large majority, and when there were problems, it was often possible to prevent them by doing a few things (I forget exactly what, but not usually a big deal).  
(Version 2.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  But the weekly script takes a long time to run, often ten minutes or longer.  
(Version 2.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Interesting. One of my info references is MacTracker, the utility that lists specs on all Macs Apple has released. It shows the most recent Macbook Pro, is still the Late 2007 model, and that's the name Apple shows in their specs database as being the latest model too. So maybe Apple actually released an "Early 2008" sub-revision, which they don't consider different enough from the Late 2007 models, to list them as a new model--maybe all other specs between these two models are the same. But I think most people would agree that a model that doesn't run OS 10.4.x, would qualify as a new model. Guess Apple thinks different.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Sounds like Apple may have messed with the settings for how long to wait before the keyboard responds to a keypress, and how long to wait before judging whether that key is being held down longer than a single keystroke, and thus to repeat. And if it got stuck repeating, that's another thing.  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Easer: are you sure your Macbook Pro runs only Leopard? I know Apple's current specs page for the most recent Macbook Pro, the Late 2007 model, shows it comes with Leopard (as do all new Macs now), but the Late 2007 model was released prior to the release of Leopard, and so I suspect that specs page originally listed Tiger as the version of OS X that it came with. Have you tried installing the generic OS 10.4 onto your Macbook Pro (in other words, not using an installer disc that came with a different Mac model than yours), and then updating it to 10.4.11?  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  real_macinfo: We already know that Safari doesn't automatically add a web page's URL to a saved copy of that web page, and that DownloadComment's purpose is to add that capability.  
(Version 1.2.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Hmm. Tried Pacifist 2.5.1 again, under OS 10.5.2, and it didn't crash the second time. Difference was, the first time, I dragged a package installer to the Pacifist icon, in the Finder, to launch Pacifist, and while Pacifist was scanning the package, it displayed the Pacifist registration dialog. My copy isn't registered (shame on me), so I clicked the "Try it" button, and Pacifist crashed. The second time I tried it, I didn't drag the package to Pacifist to launch it--instead, I opened Pacifist, clicked the "Try It" button, and it didn't crash; then I opened the same installer package I had before, via Pacifist's "Open Package" button, and it opened properly.

So, I tried a third variation: launch Pacifist, click its "Try it" button, then drag the package to the Pacifist app icon. It opened the package without crashing.

I tried a fourth variation: with Pacifist not launched, I dragged the installer package to the Pacifist application icon, in the Finder. Pacifist launched, displaying its registration dialog; I didn't click the "Try it" button, but instead waited for the scanning process to complete. When it did, Pacifist crashed.

So it seems Pacifist 2.5.1, at least under OS 10.5.2, crashes at the end of the package scan, if you launched Pacifist by dragging the package to the Pacifist app icon in the Finder.

I tried the crashy opening variation with Pacifist 2.0.1, and it didn't crash, but 2.0.1 doesn't start scanning the package until you dismiss the registration dialog, so maybe that difference will point to a fix.  
(Version 2.5.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Pacifist 2.5.1 crashes for me too, on authorization, when run under OS 10.5.2. Pacifist 2.0.1 didn't crash when I tried it.  
(Version 2.5.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  umijin:

You refer to a version number "10.3.6". There was no Office 10.3.6. "Office X" was the first version for OS X--it started at version 10.0, and its most recent version is 10.1.9. "Office 2004" was the second Office release for OS X--it started at version 11.0, and its most recent version is 11.4. Did you mean your version of Office is 11.3.6, instead of 10.3.6?

But you're right--Microsoft Office AutoUpdate often doesn't work. Still don't know why.  
(Version 11.4)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Word staying at 11.3.8 after the update to 11.3.9, is normal. Not all components of Office get updated during these overall updates. To check if an Office update has been applied, do a Get Info on "Microsoft Component Plugin", that's in the "Office" folder inside the Office application folder--it will show the Office version number.  
(Version 11.4)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Lighten up--it's just meant for fun.  
(Version 3.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Winswitch 3.2.1 doesn't work under OS 10.5--it shows in the menu bar, but it lists no user accounts.  
(Version 3.2.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Cinebench's tests will also make your computer's graphics chip and processor chip very hot, so don't be surprised if you feel the bottom of a portable computer getting significantly hotter during the tests.  
(Version r10)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  One odd thing about Cinebench's interface: the buttons in Cinebench's window appear to be grayed out, but they're clickable.

The "Info" section that appears in the upper left corner, won't always show accurate info about your Mac. It sometimes gets the "GFX-Board", as it calls it, wrong--for instance, showing an iBook G4's ATI Radeon 9550 as a 9600; and showing OS 10.4.11 as 10.4.9; and doesn't show the name/type of processor, nor its MHz speed, at all. These fields are editable, allowing you to fill them in/correct them, so Cinebench can keep a record of the tests you've done.

Also be aware that it can take Cinebench a long time to complete its tests, so be patient while it doesn't appear to be doing much.  
(Version r10)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  I say stick with GC's current GUI--nice and clean, like the Mac's original programmers/human interface guidelines people intended. It's refreshing to see an occasional reminder of how unbloated a UI the Mac used to have.  
(Version 6.0.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Butler is great--I've been using it for years. But the blog entry linked to above, doesn't really explain why the current versions of Butler are in a "transient" state, expiring frequently. There may be a reason, but they haven't explained it very well if at all. The basic reason is probably the standard one for software in transition--they're concerned about bugs (including ones they don't yet know about) in these transitional versions, causing trouble if people keep using them even after an official release version is available.  
(Version 4.1.5 Transient)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  The fuss here isn't with MacUpdate's description of Apple's Security Updates, but with Apple's descriptions--I thought that was pretty clear from my posts. We already understand that MacUpdate can't provide any more info on these updates that Apple doesn't provide. MacUpdate is a great service, and I like it more than Versiontracker, which has slow, buggy web site sofware.

I'll concede to neonblue2 above, that at least Apple provides a link at the bottom of each Software Update description, to the Apple article that contains a fuller description of each update. But that's worthwhile only as far as it goes--I wouldn't call those articles complete either. To find further info, the user has to frequent web sites like Macfixit, Macintouch, Apple Discussions, etc. But my main point is that not giving a complete description of everything that an update updates, right in the Software Update description, but instead making the user go through several links before they get to the article, isn't the way to present information. This may seem like a minor quibble to many people, for whom going through several links is no problem, but I've worked with thousands of average Mac users since 1985, and I know what their self-imposed limitations are, and I know where Apple's approach (this goes for most other companies too, who often take a similar approach) to get them to look further, doesn't work.

Most people are technophobic, even if they own dozens of devices and don't think of themselves that way, partly because most people don't want to have to hunt for information--they think that's normal, because most other people feel the same way, so by definition it is "normal". Many people are comfortable being info-hunters, but most people aren't, and may never be. Those people still need to be catered to, to a certain extent, especially when it's easy to do so. And it helps everyone else too, even the happy info-hunters, when we're presented with the goods right at the point of origin, instead of needing to go on a Safari hunt to learn what we need to know.  
(Version 2007-009 1.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  elegraphy:

If you'd bothered to read the reviews I was responding to, you would have read things like this:

shockerspaz:

"I dont get it. Am I the only one that already has this functionality in Safari 3?

sjk responds:

Even Safari 2 already adds that "Where from" (kMDItemWhereFroms) Spotlight metadata without using DownloadComment, but I don't know if Safari 3 adds the download URL to Spotlight comments without DownloadComment (Safari 2 doesn't).

shockerspaz responds:

it sure does!

sjk responds:

If Safari 3 saves download URLs both as "Where from" (kMDItemWhereFroms) metadata *and* as Spotlight comments then can anyone think of a reason to still use DownloadComment?

xxxciter says:

"This is already done automatically in Mac OS X 10.4 (maybe earlier) and Safari 2 !!!"

So elegraphy, tell me how all that can be interpreted in any other way, than several people saying that what DownloadComment does, is automatically done in OS 10.4? Hence my question.

Of course, xxxciter clouds the issue by including a link to a utility that does essentially what DownloadComment does, instead of proving that OS 10.4 does it all by itself.  
(Version 1.2.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Yes, it moves only one item at a time (the topmost item) to the Trash, from a list of multiple items. Needs an update.  
(Version 9.0.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  The developer (Dan Frakes) says ChangeShortName 1.3 isn't compatible with Leopard, which makes sense given how many changes were made in Leopard. His web site doesn't say what would happen if you tried it, but I wouldn't try it just to find out.  
(Version 1.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  RC:

By souped-up, do you mean it contains a G4 processor? I don't remember any G4 processor upgrades for the original iMacs, but correct me if I'm wrong. Many things in Leopard won't work properly, and will outright crash, including Safari, if you run it on any G3. The author of LeopardAssist states this too  
(Version 1.0)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Apeman:

Onyx may not have stalled while it was running the Weekly script. I've always found any method for running the Unix maintenance tasks, runs the Daily and Monthly tasks relatively quickly, but the Weekly task can take ten minutes or longer, depending on who knows what. I'm surprised that your experience has been the opposite.

The SMART disk check reports on bad blocks that couldn't be written out of the directory. If Onyx's SMART checking routine is indeed properly checking and reporting to you the SMART status of your drive, then you should get a utility that can check for bad blocks and run it (Data Rescue, TechTool Pro, Drive Genius, etc.)--unfortunately, Apple's Disk Utility doesn't have this option. If you had Disk Utility just check the drive's directory (and it seems you did, since you say you had it verify the disk), that won't tell you anything about bad blocks.

But the user commenting directly below yours, says that the current version of Onyx has some kind of bug that might swap some reporting between SMART and verifying the hard drive--maybe you're seeing that bug?  
(Version 1.9b1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Am I the only one who DOESN'T see URLs automatically added to the Get Info window for Safari web archive files that I save, when I don't use DownloadComment? I haven't seen URLs in a Finder Get Info window for any Safari web archive files for as long as I can remember, including Safari 2 and 3. What am I missing?  
(Version 1.2.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Yes, Apple has a great development team, but it's also someone's responsibility at Apple to make sure information about why they released a 1.1 version, shows up in the Software Update description of the update, instead of burying it in an Apple article that 99% of users won't know exists. I'm not thinking that all bugs are always inexcusable or unavoidable (though in a few cases that's true), but rather that Apple needs to communicate with users better.

My point is that it's part of a culture of non-admission of fault that's been normal procedure at Apple for many years. It doesn't help. Apple drops the ball nearly every time they're given the opportunity to communicate with users about a problem. For most practical purposes, almost the only apologies, acknowledgments of problems, etc. we receive from Apple, are occasional public statements from Steve Jobs, and eventual admissions of hardware and software problems from Apple telephone technical support, usually months after the rest of the world knows about them, and occasional Apple articles (too few to address enough of the problems people are struggling with), and some Apple Geniuses who tell users the straight dope.

As someone points out in a reply to my comment below, Apple released an article at the same time they released Security Updater 2007-009 1.1 (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307224), describing one thing that the 1.1 update is supposed to fix: Safari crashing. But Security Updater 2007-009 1.0 causes more problems for some people than just Safari crashing--there are a number of other Safari bugs that it causes for some people, but hopefully the 1.1 update will fix those too, but if so, Apple should have mentioned that in the article. Security Updater 2007-009 1.0 also causes a number of other non-Safari bugs for a few people, such as disabling Appletalk, preventing disk images from mounting, only one core of a dual-processor Mac working, etc. As usual with any software installation, some miscellaneous problems occur afterwards, and maybe that's not always something that can be avoided due to variations in people's systems, add-ons they've installed, underlying problems like directory damage, bad blocks on the hard drive, etc. that interfere with a proper installation, but too often the bugs Apple introduces in their updates, are the fault of the update, and Apple doesn't have much of a mechanism for working with users on those problems.

If Apple wants to appear "corporate" (a longstanding struggle for them, from the beginning), then they should publicly address issues more, not less. The descriptions in Software Update for any of Apple's installers and updaters, is one good place where more descriptive messages to the public should be located.  
(Version 2007-009 1.1)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  So it sounds like what you're saying, is LCC 4.0.2 deleted all the applications and files that were listed under "Recent Items" under the Apple menu in the Finder, instead of just clearing the Recent Items list?  
(Version 4.0.3)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  Nice. A couple things:

• The description of this utility needs to mention the Dock--it should start with something like "brings hierarchical menus back to the Dock", instead of just "brings back the hierarchical menus".

• The folder's popup list should appear above the folder you click on, like the previous docked folder behavior, so you don't have to move the pointer over to the left side of the screen to access the items in the popup list.  
(Version 1.0b5)

JOHN SAWYER CJS  The LCC 4.0.1 update seems to have fixed the no-loading problem with OS 10.5.1, at least for me.  
(Version 4.0.1)