tip : Plants vs. Zombies Mac-game for free (Halloween treat)

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As a special treat sponsored by the ADA (American Dental Association), PopCap is giving away licences to their popular Mac&PC-game Plants vs. Zombies for free.

But it’s only until november 11th ! …so be quick !

go here to download :

http://www.stopzombiemouth.com

…and go here to get your promotional code :

http://static-www.ec.popcap.com/misc/zombiemouth/downloads/stop_zombie_mouth_coupons.pdf

Note : officially it’s a “US residents only” promotion…

**********

If you are reading this after November 11th 2012, you won’t be able to get the full game for free, but you can still get some Plants vs Zombies (online) play for free here :

http://chrome.plantsvszombies.com

 

tip : IDE harddrive replacement alternative for iBook G3 & G4

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Question :

I am happily using my iBook G4 running MacOSX 10.5 “Leopard”, but it is getting slow because my hard drive is too full. I have looked into buying a new ATA (a.k.a. IDE or PATA) hard drive, but they are rather expensive compared to the current SATA hard drives (mainly in regard to their storage capacity) and they are harder to find as time goes by now… isn’t there any alternative ?

Answer :

Yes ! you do have an interesting alternative…

…it’s far easier to install (you don’t have to open your iBook, which would be quite a hassle)  and you will get lots more GBs of disk capacity for the same price (compared to  IDE-drives) and your iBook will still slide easily in it’s sleeve bag or carrying case…

The solution : get yourself a micro USB-stick !

The type of micro USB-stick I am talking about is any USB-stick similar to the Memorex and Intenso ones, sometimes referred to as “Leave-In” or “Netbook” USB-sticks (which are becoming available in 32GB and 64GB around this time) :

http://www.verbatim.com/subcat/usb-drives/everyday-usb-drives/netbook-usb-drive/products/

http://www.intenso.de/produkte.php?kategorie=23&&produkt=1291709095

To install :

– just plug in the micro USB-stick in one of the USB-ports

– start up your Mac (or rather : your iBook) and open the Disk Utilities application

– reformat the micro USB-stick to “Mac journaled” format

– then make a complete backup of your Mac (use TimeMachine for instance)

– then copy over all your video (your Video folder), audio (your iTunes folder) and documents (your Documents folder) onto the micro USB-stick

– check if your data has been properly and completely copied, then delete the files from your Mac

– create aliasses (= link-files) of the folders on the micro USB-stick and place those in the original folders where their originals came from (if you’ve done so, you can

– open iTunes pressing the ALT-key and when iTunes ask you where to find your iTunes database, point it towards your micro USB-drive

– that’s it…

Notes :

1- I would normally recommend you to leave just MacOSX and your applications on your internal hard drive, and move all other files onto your micro USB-stick (which reminds some of us to the way a Windows 95 PC would normally be separated into an (C:) and (D:) drive

2- even if your hard drive has crashed, you can use a micro USB-stick to replace your hard drive and use it as your bootable hard drive, by installing MacOSX on it and transferring all your data to it

TIP :

– to avoid/prevent accidental disconnection of the USB-stick (which might cause serious data-loss), I would recommend to stick a few inches of Scotch-tape over the USB-stick and USB-port

– to be able to neatly place the piece of Scotch-tape, you should take out the iBook’s keyboard for a moment (which is easy to do because of the small keyboard locking sliders on the upper row of keys)

 

fixed : 10.7.5 refusing to see the Atheros AR9280

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I must admit the title might be a little misleading, since I have not had anyone claiming problems like the “WiFi: no hardware installed”-error with the Atheros AR9280 AirPort-card and MacOSX 10.7.5 yet, but still…

…that is probably due to the fact that the MacOSX 10.7.5 updater doesn’t overwrite the IO80211Family.kext system extension. So if you are upgrading from an earlier version of MacOSX 10.7 “Lion” which you had already ‘patched’ for use with the Atheros AR9280, you won’t get any (new) issues…

Anyway…

If you do get the “WiFi: no hardware installed”-error after upgrading to MacOSX 10.7.5 (e.g. from MacOSX 10.6 “Snow Leopard” or earlier), you can just do the same ‘patch’ of reinstalling the old IO80211Family.kext system extension. Instructions for doing so can be found here :

https://macmanusnl.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/1074_refuses_to_see_atheros_ar9280/

Enjoy !

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fixed : Flash 11 needed on PowerPC Mac (for BBC iPlayer, Facebook video, etc.)

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Question :

I was a happy user of BBC iPlayer, but it has stopped working on my G4 (or G5) PowerPC Mac, since the new BBC iPlayer version requires Adobe Flash 11, and the latest version of Flash released is version Player 10.1.102.64

Isn’t there any way for me to view Flash 11 content on my PowerPC Mac ?

Answer :

There is an unofficial version of Flash for PowerPC that tells websites it is Flash 11 to enable you to view Flash 11 content. This works for BBC iPlayer, Facebook video, YouTube video, Adobe Kuler and various other web services.

This will enable you to access Flash 11 content on your PowerPC Mac, but please be aware that modern video will still be stuttering on a G4 Mac… even with this trick… for YouTube viewing you might be better of using MacTubes ; go here for more info : https://macmanusnl.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/fixed-watch-yo…wered-g4-ibook/

Installing the unofficial Flash 11 is rather simple, but as always with ‘home-brewed’ software, using it is completely AT YOUR OWN RISK !

– first and foremost : BACKUP your Mac ; make a copy of your entire hard drive before you proceed (use TimeMachine for instance)

– after that, and ONLY after that backup being done, open Safari and download the edited Flash-plugin here :

http://www.steelbin.com/FBforFBPPC

–  then goto the download button in the upper right corner of Safari and click it

– then in the “Downloads” windows that opens, click on the folder named “FPforFBPPC”

– when the Finder opens, click on the alias folder named “Internet Plug-Ins” (this folder can also be found at [your hard drive] –> Library –> Internet Plug-Ins)

– inside that folder, right-click (= CTRL + mouse click) on the file named “Flash Player.plugin”

– in the popup menu that appears, choose “Compress Flash Player.plugin”

– you will now have a file named “Flash Player.plugin.zip”, rename it to “Flash Player(original).plugin.zip”

– then right-click on the file named “Flash Player.plugin” and choose “Move to Trash”

– then quit Safari

– then go back to your downloads folder, click on the folder named “FPforFBPPC” once again, and right-click the file “flash Player.plugin” that’s in there

– from the popup menu choose “Label” and a color that indicates to you that this is not an original file (e.g. red or yellow)

– then drag the file “flash Player.plugin” onto the folder alias named “Internet Plug-Ins” that’s right below it

– then click on the file “READ FIRST.rtf” and read the disclaimer that the maker (called SteelBin) has for you !

– now reopen Safari and goto this website :

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/find-version-flash-player.html

– there you can check if you see the video (at STEP1) and if your Flash Player Version is recognized as 11.1.102.55 (at STEP2)

– if that’s okay, you’re done (don’t bother about STEP3 and STEP4)

(if you get any older version of Flash listed… repeat the procedure, and if that still doesn’t work, follow the instructions below for installing a web browser for PowerPC Macs that’s still being updated)

– Now you’re able to use BBC iPlayer and many other modern sites once again on you ‘old’ Mac !

Enjoy !

A big thanks to SteelBin for creating this, please donate to him if you wish to thank him for doing so…

…and a special thanks to Telford Moore for testing the BBC iPlayer with this trick

NOTE :

– if you have trouble using a website or web service because you still get an error that your browser is too old, start using a web browser for PowerPC Macs that is still being updated. You have two options :

Camino :

http://caminobrowser.org

OmniWeb :

http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniweb/overview/

Note : even though it is suggested elsewhere on the web to combine the use of the unofficial Flash 11 plugin with the TenFourFox web browser, I would advice to not hack TenFourFox to do so… 

Yes, the big advantage of TenFourFox is that it is the closest you can get to the modern day Firefox, but the flipside is that it has plugins (like Flash and QuickTime) completely disabled for security reasons… they’re waiting for HTML5 to make plugins obsolete…

http://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/wiki/PluginsNoLongerSupported

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tip : get Texaco Rocks’ loyalty points for your Apple purchases

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— this tip is only for people living in the Netherlands —

Did you know that you can get Texaco Rocks’ loyalty credit points when buying online at the dutch Apple Store, at Bol.com and at Wehkamp.nl ? (that’s right… the same loyalty points you get from buying gasoline for your car at Dutch Texaco petrol stations)

Only if you go to the official Rocks’ loyalty website, and you login to Apple.nl, Bol.com or Wehkamp.nl, you can get Rocks’ loyalty point for all your Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPods and related purchases. (…and for other purchases also, except for Dutch & Frysian language books). Go to the Rocks’ loyalty website to do so :

http://www.rocks.nl/online-sparen/

NOTE : of course, if you want to get the sharpest prices on your Apple-gear, do not go to the online stores mentioned above straight away, but check other stores also before you buy. (you will rarely find ‘below standard’ pricing on the latest Apple hardware, so this especially goes for the non-Apple stuff)

fixed : “Your browser is not supported” error in Safari on iCloud.com

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Question :

I have OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion with Safari 6, but when I try to log in on iCloud.com, I get a message saying “Your browser is not supported. To use iCloud, we recommend using the latest version of Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.”

The error on iCloud.com is the worst, but I also get reminders on other sites like Facebook and ANWB.nl that my browser isn’t recent enough, and I should update…

I can’t upgrade as I am already on the latest version of Safari.

I’ve tried switching the User Agent under the Develop chapter in Safari’s menu bar, but whatever I try, when I restart Safari, it automatically defaults back to a custom User Agent string that reads :

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible- MSIE 6.0- Windows NT 5.1- SV1- .NET CLR 1.1.4322

What can I do ? this is getting on my nerves…

Answer :

the solution is rather straight forward : delete all plist-files associated with Safari manually

here’s how to do so :

– in the Finder, in the upper menu bar go to “Go”

– then “Go to folder…”

– in the popup window type “~/library/preferences”

(that’s how you get into the hidden Library-folder)

– then drag these files to the Desktop (you might not have all of them on you Mac) :

com.apple.Safari.plist

com.apple.Safari.plist.ByIRcYZ

com.apple.Safari.plist.lockfile

com.apple.Safari.plist.RRS.plist

com.apple.Safari.plist.RSS.plist.lockfile

– then restart Safari and check if everything works as you would like it to

– if so, drag those .plist-files you just moved to the Desktop to the Trash

…that’s it

FYI : theoretically you could also have replaced the custom User Agent string by the proper one for Safari 6 :

Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A5355d Safari/8536.25

…too bad that your Safari will probably not be able to save that though, so you’ll still have to follow the directions outlined above…

more User Agent strings can be found here :

http://www.useragentstring.com/_uas_Safari_version_.php

fixed : copy Conditional Formatting to other cells in Numbers 2.2 (iWork ’09)

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Question :

I’m using iWork’09, and when using Numbers I want to color the cells according to the value that’s in it. So for instance if the number in the cell is smaller than 10, I would like the cell’s background color to be yellow, if it’s in between 10 and 20 I would like it to be orange, and when it’s over 20 I would like it to be red.

I figured out how to do that using Conditional Formatting, and I even found out that I can select a complete row or column of cells to set their Conditional Formatting all at once, but… I’ve now created an entirely new column, and I want to copy the ‘old’ Conditional Formatting to those ‘new’ cells also…

How do I do that ?

 

Answer :

The answer is actually very straight forward, but it’s just that the naming for this may be a little confusing in Numbers… what you are looking for is ‘Copy Style’…

To set Conditional Formatting to a range of cells, just select them all, and go to Format –> Show Conditional Format Rules ; there you can set a formatting rule for each background color you would like to appear.

Then, to copy those Conditional Format Rules to other/new cells, select one of the cells that already has the Conditional Format Rules applied, and go to Format –> Copy Style

Then, select the (new) cells you want to give those same Conditional Format Rules to also, and go to Format –> Paste Style

That’s it… it really is that simple…