A thread for boring computer questions.

I’ve been having some issues with quick look and pdfs. It seems to be iCloud related, or, at least it only seems to present on files that are in an iCloud directory.

huh, i hope that's not my problem, since it would mean i have icloud turned on for a folder i didn't turn it on for

I do worry about how pervasive iCloud hooks are into the file manger and filesystem.

iCloud or OneDrive - choose your poison!

Trying to burn a CD-R and getting the following message in Windows Media Player:

Windows Media Player could not complete burning because the disc is not compatible with your drive. Try inserting a different kind of recordable media or use a disc that supports a write speed that is compatible with your drive.

while Media Jukebox 14 is telling me:

Power Calibration Area Error.

Any ideas? Clean the player, maybe?

sounds like it's complaining about the speed. you can often change the burn speed, so instead of burning at 32x, say, reduce it to something like 16x or lower and it might work (disks are rated for certain burn speeds, which might be lower than the default your drive is using)

some background reading: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/media/dvd-media-concepts.htm

but a lot of these articles i found when searching were from 2004 when 16x was considered fast.

wmp specific help: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-change-burn-speed-in-windows-media-player-11-2438900

Thanks Koogs - appreciated, as ever. Running a five quid PC World cleaner through it has fixed the problem (for now, at least).

Windows Media Player? 2002 called

PC World? ...

I haven't used Media Player for years, though its installed on my computer. I was trying to suss out whether it was a software or hardware issue ... I realise that burning CDs seems weird to some people, too.

a five quid PC World cleaner
like, cleaning the lens?

Ha! Yes, it was that obvious.

hehe, cool

Hi this thread. It's Black Friday and I need a backup portable HD - 4TB or more.

I already have a Seagate 4TB drive but my old one died so I really need to back it up.

My problem is that I've been a PC/Windows user all my life, but I've just acquired a new MacBook.

My OG HD is formatted for PC (haven't tried it on the Mac yet)... But all the HDs I'm seeing are either formatted for Mac or PC, but not both.

Is this a problem? What can I do? I also absolutely don't want to wipe my current HD just to use it on my Mac, that would be heinous.

hmm iirc the problem is that you can't write on a windows formatted disk on a mac (and vice versa) so you kind of have to choose what OS you want to format it for

if I were you I would consider using a cloud solution

just out of curiosity, what files do you have that take up more than 4tb?

format the new hd as exFAT and you can read/write on both

if you don't and never will have any 4GiB or larger files (unilkely, i know), then format it as FAT32, i think it's limited to 2TiB so you'd need to partition the new hd accordingly

or install good ntfs drivers on the macbook and use ntfs for all backup drives. i assume this is viable on macs but don't quote me on that

that's easy! did not know exfat was working universally

cool - not sure how you do all this but i think i know someone who can

just out of curiosity, what files do you have that take up more than 4tb?

My music and film collection p much

“Film collection” um hmm

I don’t understand the original question but if you just want to back up your old backup disk, just plug it and the new drive (formatted as AFS) into your MacBook and copy the files over. Mac OS can read NTFS fine, just can’t write to it. You need your new backup to be AFS if you want to use it with time machine

When using Recovery Mode on a Mac to wipe the hard drive and do a new instal of OS X, are Apple apps like Photos, iMovie, Pages, etc installed along with the OS, or do those need to be downloaded separately afterwards from the App Store?

They should be installed along with the OS

k forgive me for asking this, but there's a huge chance I already have in the past ten years but...

Problem: iCloud drive space = tiny
phone drive space / mac drive space / portable HDs = plenty o'space
dropbox space - ok but not that big

getting tired of deleting random photos from my phone to stop hitting the 5 GB limit but I refuse to pay for more cloud space when I have so many other options and my phone itself is like 256gb now

using my own backup HDs and iPhoto, I assume - and maybe something like Dropbox or Google Photos which I didn't realize was available until now - what's the best to have a reliable and/or accessible backup source of photos so i don't get nagged by Apple all the time?

current guess: create a separate library in iPhoto that isn't the "main" library, it gets no iCloud sync. back that up with Dropbox/Google/Time Machine/whatevs

or just say screw it all and turn off iCloud photo sync on my phone

Are you married to the idea of having an iPhone? I'm in a similar situation as yourself but am looking for another phone in the future for personal use (work phone seems like it always be iPhone).

yeah i'm pretty much locked into Apple at this point. i gave in and got an XS a few months ago and still feel gulity about it

Yeah I'm convinced iPhones are merely an expensive marketing campaign for iCloud. I'd go with your external sync option (whether it be from dropbox or some other export utility).

turn off iCloud photos, cable sync your phone and store the backups on your computer, open Photos while phone is attached and import - all is safe, 5GB limit untroubled

“but I refuse to pay for more cloud space “

Dollar a month for 50 gigs, bro. Just sayin -v-

External memory is so cheap right now bro, you can get an 8TB HD for $150.

160x more memory for the same cost as <3 years of iCloud.

the last thing I want to do anymore is fuck around with files, if my whole digital life dissolved into ether I'd just sigh and move on

Fscking around with files is like so 2003

I was using Flickr but they just capped their free acct at 1000 photos, so I switched to Google Photos. They give you unlimited space for photos 16MP and under, and anything over that they'll just resize to 16MP. Also their app automatically uploads your camera roll in the background.

Can a kindred spirit help me out here? I've a folder on a Mac 10.10.x that I share with all other colleagues in our network (every user can read & write). Is it possible to apply a setting that any file added to said folder, also receives the file permissions changed to 'read/write everyone'? I get a lot of wetransfer files from third parties, and wetransfer seems to give files a 'read only' permission, or permits it just for the user who downloaded the file. What I want is: if I save that file to the shared folder, the permission should automatically be set so that everyone can read/write (aka work with) it.

Is this possible?

hazel can do that but is not free.

or you can do it by creating a "folder action" (i.e. a series of steps that run when the contents of a folder changes) in automator but that will be a little fiddlier.

on osx safari, when i type some characters in the address bar to get autocomplete lookups of my history/top sites going, my ilx lookup ALWAYS brings up a site-global item as well as the top hit in my history (usually ile) and if i down-error in the menu that comes up, something in the autocomplete algorithm takes some time to kick in or something and re-sets the cursor position back to the unwanted first item before things stabilize enough to let me go down to the item i wanted. this is SO ANNOYING, how to fix?

Thankig u caek! <3 Just fiddled around w/ the free version, but will buy it if it does the job.

Is there a standard protocol for 2.4GHz wireless mice / keyboards?

Boring enough for you?

Bluetooth is the standard. I think Logitech does their own thing.

Hmm. No I mean the ones that come with a USB dongle. I don't think it's Bluetooth exactly but wonder if they are generally interchangeable. I suspect not.

the Microsoft ones are worse than that -- they're paired with the individual dongle they come with and won't work with any other

That's what I'm talking about. I think those dongles use some proprietary protocol.

xp

I've seen recent Logitechs that can switch between Bluetooth and their dongle - handy. I have one Bluetooth mouse that I would use on more than one system if it didn't need to be re-paired to move between them.

The Logitech - Mac Bluetooth connection is shit. Really buggy.

To be fair the Bluetooth connection to their own Magic Trackpad is crap too.

because Windows 7 is getting cut loose in january and I'm not giving a penneth to micrsoft I downloaded and installed a torrented version of Windows 10. It works fine but isn't activated because of my lack of a legit key code. There is annoying little watermark in bottom right of my screen telling me to activate it. I just wondered if anyone knows if there are any security issues with having an unactivated operating system or if there is anywhere you can get bent key codes to activate it.