Device Removal

I don't touch anything, and my slow first generation MacBook will randomly come up with the above message. Maybe an uptime of 13 days is the cause? 

It is about time I rebooted into Kubuntu to get some updated maps on to my phone for TMJ. There has some considerable improvements in the maps in Edinburgh, and I don't know what actually needs to be mapped when I'm out in the field.

OOO: Possible fix for the command timed out error on Leopard

With a change in the way that X11 works on Leopard, the X11 version of OpenOffice.org has been giving an error message on startup saying "command timed out". With previous versions of Mac OS X, OpenOffice.org had to make sure that X11 was running first be trying to start OpenOffice.org.

The following change should work for 2.4, 2.3.1, 2.3, and possibly earlier versions. Open the file OpenOffice.org 2.4.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/main.scpt in "Script Editor". (You will need to control+click the application icon and choose "Show Package Contents".)

Then replace the code block "on openSoffice(aFile)"...."end openSoffice" with the following:

on openSoffice(aFile)
 if (atLeastOSXVersion(10, 5, 0)) then
  -- if we have leopard, we don't need to manually start the X server first
  set theCmd to "sh " & (quoted form of (POSIX path of getOOProgramPath() & "soffice")) & " "
  do shell script theCmd & aFile & shellTerminator()
 else
  set theDisplay to startXServer()
  if (theDisplay is equal to "error") then
   return
  end if
  set theEnv to "DISPLAY=" & theDisplay & " ; export DISPLAY; "
  set theCmd to "sh " & (quoted form of (POSIX path of getOOProgramPath() & "soffice")) & " "
  do shell script theEnv & theCmd & aFile & shellTerminator()
  -- logEvent("open CMD: " & theEnv & theCmd & aFile)
 end if
end openSoffice

Please comment on how this works for you.

OpenOffice.org 2.4 on Mac OS X [Update: now available]

The release of OpenOffice.org 2.4 (X11 version) is a little behind the other platforms due to a lack of resources in the QA process, as many of the resources have been placed on the upcoming aqua version. It will be another few days to week before they are available on the mirrors and the Mac Port download pages will be updated at that point.

Until then the new smart download pages will continue to give the link to the 2.4.0 build which isn't yet available.

UPDATE: OpenOffice.org X11 2.4.0 for both Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 PPC and Intel are now available from the Mac Porting Download pages.

New OpenOffice.org Aqua Development Release

Head over to the OpenOffice.org Mac Porting web site for the latest development build.

This is the most stable build of OpenOffice.org running natively on Mac OS X that I have seen. I haven't yet had a crash with my basic usage. Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 is required.

The improvements include:

• Printing now uses an aqua native print dialog
  
• Various bugs, crashes, performance, and cosmetic improvements
  
• The native file picker should work now (though there are 2 unlabeled checkboxes)
  
• The QuickStarter is now supported on Mac OS X
  
• Copy and Paste now works in the Hyperlink dialog
  
• Icons are no longer shown in the menus by default on Mac OS X
  
• Extentions can now be installed through the GUI
  
• Improved scrolling when using a scroll wheel
  
• Real version number is shown in the Mac OS X Finder's Get Info Window.
  
• The recent items list in the Apple menu is now populated
  
• Faster loading and saving of files
  
• New Start Centre
  

The downloads are on the extended mirror network, and BitTorrent. Please don'tdirectly link to any of the mirrors, please link to the OpenOffice.org Aqua download page instead.

OpenOffice.org 2.4 (X11), is currently in testing. OpenOffice.org 3.0 will be Aqua only.

Full News Release

OpenOffice.org Aqua Download Page

BBC's iPlayer now compatible with Mac OS X

After reading a macnn article. I have now found out that the BBC's Player is now supported on Mac OS X. It is great that I can now watch BBC content from within Safari. The player only has a short buffer, though you can jump to any part of the video and it will start playing from there with very little delay. You have to remember that I have an internet connection of about 7Mbit downstream and around 0.8Mbit upstream. Therefore I don't know how people on slower connections will manage.

Some video items come up with:

"

with no explanation as to why. Maybe some videos are not updated to the adobe flash video type.

Now I'd like to get an improvement to Space, that will allow me to make a window in any application to be front most and move between space as required. That way when I'm playing a video the window will always show. Another problem that I have found with spaces is that when switching apps with command+tab or clicking the icon in the dock, a random window usually comes forward.

OpenOffice.org on Mac OS X Leopard

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was launched by Apple Inc. about one month ago.

OpenOffice.org, with the exception of the Java features will work on Leopard. If you require the Java features of OpenOffice.org on Leopard, you require to use milestone m237 or later. 

The problem essentially boils down to the way that OpenOffice.org detects Java, and the fact that "Apple Computer Inc." is NOT the same as "Apple Inc.". (There are a few other build issues too.)

Thanks should go to Florian, Philip and Eric Bachard for their work on this issue.

Clean re-install of Mac OS X

Today I have spent some time re-installing Mac OS X on my MacBook. It has been over a year now since I have bought the MacBook, and have only once done a clean install on it so far. 

It is now a lot faster as I don't have any junk lying around running in the background. That's one problem of installing various bits of software to see what it does and then not using it again. Maybe I should unsubscribe from the VersionTracker daily mail of new software releases. I've also gained around 20GB on my internal hard drive. 

Of course prior to the clean re-install, I had create a complete bootable backup of my hard drive, thus allowing me to selectively recover anything that I need.

I should now be able to use the OpenOffice.org CWS tools again as I'll setup my local cvs server on a different port than the default port.

Can launch PPC apps again

Since installing the Quicktime 7.2 and iTunes 7.3.1 updates on my MacBook, I've been unable to launch PPC applications through Rosetta. It appears that having Java 6 installed has caused the prebinding process to crash.

Following the process documented in a comment by Darlene on a blog, I've been able to launch PPC applications through Rosetta again. The process is basically removing Java 6 and then force running the prebinding process. I didn't even need a restart which is nice.

EDIT: I've also had to download and install Java for Mac OS X 10.4 Release 5 to get Java working again.