And it’s time for another episode of obscure Mac problems and solutions!
Every time I would plug my new Macbook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012) into my 27″ display (displayport, not Thunderbolt), it would freeze.
The problem stems from my Logitech mouse. If I plug the USB mouse receiver into the Macbook, everything works fine. If it’s plugged into the USB port on my keyboard or the back of the display, the computer will freeze.
Not an ideal fix, but a fix none the less.
I was trying to get Java 1.7 installed on my Mac. I did what any logical person would do and simply ran Java updater. It did it’s thing and informed me that I was running Java 1.7. However, the program that needed 1.7 kept erroring out.
So I went into terminal and typed “java -version” and it would tell me 1.6. Grr.
I went into System Preferences > Java and it said 1.7. WTF?
The short answer is that I was running both…sort of. I was running Java 1.7 web plug-in, which is different than Java.
OK, so here’s the easy fix. Install the Java SE JDK.
Some folks need to take an additional step and go into System Preferences > Java > View and reorder Java versions putting 1.7 at the top.
That will get to running Java 1.7 proper.
So I just got a new Macbook and rather than restore my previous setup from a Time Machine backup, I opted to do a fresh install. Maybe it’s not necessary, but chalk it up to all my years on Windows. I didn’t want to carry over the crud that comes along with an old install. I wanted a fresh start. But that meant reinstalling all my software and their settings, customizations, etc. Ugh.
But I found a simple way to do it and it’s worked 100% of the time for me. Your mileage may vary.
1) Install the app on the new computer as you normally would.
2) You need to look in two places:
~/Library/Application Support
and
~/Libary/Preferences
(NOTE: ~ is your home user directory – it’s usually your name)
The Library folder may be hidden. You need to show System files. If you don’t know how to do that or don’t have a program that will toggle it for you, Google it. It’s easy to find. Here’s an example.
3) In ~/Library/Application Support, look for a folder named the same as the app you are migrating. Simply copy and paste that folder to your new computer, overwriting the old folder (you may opt to first rename the folder on the new computer before you copy/paste so you don’t overwrite it. If all works well, delete the renamed folder).
4) In ~/Libary/Preferences, look for files corresponding to your app. Look for a folder named the same as your app and/or files with the .plist or .lockfile extension. Often the files will have a format like “com.adobe.Photoshop.plist”. So you need to look first for the company name, THEN the product name. Not all apps use this file naming convention, but most do. Anyway, copy all those files to the new computer in the same corresponding location. Again, you may want to rename the original files on the new computer before you copy/paste. I’ve always just overwritten them and everything has worked. Considering I just installed the program, the worst that can happen is I have to uninstall the program and try again.
5) Hooray! That’s it. Fire up the app and be amazed.
I have noticed that passwords do not transfer. I think there’s a way to add them to your keychain, but I found it easier and safer to simply re-enter those manually.
I made a simple script to query a database of recipients and send out customized, html formatted emails. Nothing earth shattering. I had two queries. One to get the list of recipients and another to list the top three teams in a contest. But when I tested, it would only send out one email to the first email address in the query and repeat the custom fields for as many email addresses that were on the list. So if the first query returned had four email addresses, only one email would be sent and in that email it would have something like:
1) TeamName1TeamName1TeamName1 TeamName1
2) TeamName2TeamName2TeamName2 TeamName2
3) TeamName3TeamName3TeamName3 TeamName3
It made NO sense. I had used these same queries in another part of the accompanying website and it worked fine. Long story short, the problem was that I formatted the html for the email in a separate file and then copy/pasted it into my <cfmail> tag. So for testing, all the custom fields were obviously wrapped in <cfoutput> tags.
Well, with <cfmail> you don’t need (nor should you use) any <cfoutput> tags within <cfmail>. <cfmail> is basically <cfoutput> with some email helpers included. I pulled the <cfoutput> tags and everything worked fine.
Adobe will be Live Streaming the kickoff to their Create the Web Event tour on Monday Sept. 24th. The event will include a keynote from Kevin Lynch, Danny Winokur, and Jeffrey Veen. Adobe will introduce new web tools and technologies followed by in-depth sessions around HTML5, CSS3, motion graphics, and more. The event is Monday, Sept. 24 from 9:30am – 4:30pm PST (12:30pm-7:30pm EST). You can sign up for the live stream here or if you happen to be in San Fransisco, go in person. But space is limited, so reservations are advisable.
A critical update to ColdFusion 10 was released yesterday. The update can be downloaded and installed through the new installer within the admin panel now.
For more information, check out the technote.
Lately I’ve had a weird problem where I couldn’t get new apps I downloaded and installed to open. They would simply show up in the dock, but nothing would load. If I clicked on the icon, it would simply close. No error. Nothing. I thought I had a really serious problem. I did some research and some were saying it was due to disk permissions. So I went to Disk Utility > First Aid > Repair Disk Permissions. Now there were some errors, but it did not fix my problem. For some, this solved it, so try it first. But for me, no luck.
So thinking I must have a corrupt user profile or worse, I spent all weekend backing up my data and creating a Lion install disk getting ready to reformat. But at the last minute (literally), I found a solution.
I ran across this post:
https://code.google.com/p/theunarchiver/issues/detail?id=464
The problem is an update to Lion and it’s incompatibility with The Unarchiver. I (and many others) used this for zip files. I didn’t notice it before, but all the apps I’ve had trouble with were from zipped files. For some reason Lion thinks the zipped files are a security threat and quarantines them. Here’s some info on Lion’s quarantining:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57374676-263/workarounds-for-quarantine-bug-in-os-x-lion/
It looks like there are ways to get The Unarchiver and Lion to play nice. But I opted for the simpler solution and just installed Keka. It’s a free zip app like The Unarchiver.
I re-downloaded an app that didn’t work, unzipped it with Keka , installed it, and it works great.
