When dealing with a computer issue, you will often hear your tech have you restart in “Safe Mode“. You may be wondering what “Safe Mode” is, and what it does. Safe Mode is the troubleshooting option for your Operation System (OS) which starts your computer with the most basic drivers, and services.
Anti Virus software, print drivers, and other 3rd party process’ are disabled, so you can get into the system on a clean slate, fix the issues, and reboot into normal mode.
Safe Mode may be required for Malware removal at times, since it allows the computer to boot, and prevent the virus from loading in the background.
You may be getting the “blue screen of death” (BSOD) when booting into Windows 7, and are wondering if it is an issue with your Windows installation, or is it a problem with a piece of software, or device you are using. If the problem does not appear when you start in safe mode, you can cancel out the default settings, and basic device drivers as possible causes of the issue.
If you are still unsure about the cause of the issue, you can use the process of elimination to narrow down the possiblities:
In Safe Mode- start your commonly used programs, one by one, and see if you can replicate the error. Often times, corrupt software can halt the entire system. If you recently made a change to your system before it went down, such as installed a new webcam, Safe Mode will allow you to log in and uninstall the cam, and reboot to see if it solved the problem.
How to boot into Safe Mode:
Windows - Power on the PC and hold F8 as it begins booting up. Choose the “Safe Mode” option when prompted.
Mac - Power on the Mac, immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone but not before.
Linux (most distros) - Power on your system, when at the GRUB boot menu, choose the version of the Kernel that has the Safe Mode option in the name.
Today Google launched “Google Public DNS“. It is supposed to make your web browsing experience even faster.
A lot of you may be unfamiliar with DNS (Domain Name System)
here’s Google’s explanation:
“Most of us aren’t familiar with DNS because it’s often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names – e.g., www.google.com – into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers – e.g., 74.125.45.100 – that computers use to communicate with one another.”
Your ISP has you run through their DNS servers by default- and if you’re a broadband subscriber, surfing web pages is probably fast enough. Google hopes to make it even faster and safer when you use theirs.
For those who already know how to change their DNS address’- the address’ are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
My thoughts:
I jumped on the chance to try it out, and I could tell you that I notice pages loading snappier. I believe it takes half a second longer to get to the page, but once it does, it feels as though the page is fully loaded and ready. I will be using it for a while to see if I want to keep the configuration.
Please let us know your experiences in the comments section below.
There’s a great tip posted over at macosxhints today for speeding up iPhoto ‘09. Many people have noticed the load time for iPhoto has increased considerably after upgrading to iLife ’09, especially if they have lots of photos.
This is just a Terminal command that tidys up your photo database. Over time the iPhoto database becomes fragmented, with information scattered in various places around the database file amongst regions of empty space. The vacuum command cleans up the database by removing the unnecessary parts and reorganizing the file structure.
To vacuum your iPhoto library, start by making sure iPhoto isn’t open, and then open up Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities). Firstly, you have to point the Terminal to where your iPhoto Library is using the cd (change directory) command. By default, this should be:
cd "~/Pictures/iPhoto Library"
Paste the above line into the Terminal, then hit return. If your iPhoto Library isn’t in your Pictures folder you will have to adjust the command to your specific needs. Next, to perform the vacuum, use the following command:
for dbase in *.db; do sqlite3 $dbase "vacuum;"; done
As before, just paste this line in then hit return and you’re done.
RIM has finally decided to update its desktop management suite for the Mac. Wise move on their part– although, they obviously should have done this much sooner. I remember being a Mac + Blackberry owner, and having to rely on “The Missing Sync” software to sync on the Macbook. This is great news for you BB + Mac owners.
Blackberry Desktop for Mac
The boot process on a Mac is very clean, and elegant. You just see a gray screen while the dirty work is happening in the background. Some may wonder what they can do to troubleshoot issues on the Mac in case they can’t boot up– that is why I am posting the most useful startup keys you can press to start troubleshooting.
During boot if you press:
C You start from a bootable CD such as your install DVD in the drive.
D Perform an Apple Hard ware test if you have your install DVD in the drive.
N Boot from a network compatible server. Only useful if you have the server.
T Start up in Target Disk mode. You can usually connect to another Mac through Firewire and do lots of funky things. Gone out of fashion and not used as much.
Option Start up using the Start Up Manager. Here you can pick which drive you want to boot from. Known to people who use BootCamp. You can also boot from a CD which is the same as press C.
Option then N Similar to the item above, except you get given the choice of booting from a network disk.
Option + N Boot from the first network boot image.
Command + V Boot up in Verbose mode, where you see lots of text whizzing by which is not a lot of use to you. It will also show Verbose output on shut down.
Command + S Single User Mode. This is where you can run a lot of high level tasks as a single user. Probably not for newbies. You could probably break your computer very quickly in Single User mode.
Shift Start up in safe mode. Very useful if you have a problem and need an environment where you don’t want unnecessary things loaded. A good bet if you get Kernel panics during boot.
Option + Command + P + R Reset NVRAM. Although you will probably never need to reset this RAM it contents some useful stuff that can become corrupted. If you are having really bad problems this may be a good lead to follow. More information on Apple’s website.
Hold Eject or F12 or Mouse Eject anything that is in the disk drive.
If you have any more please leave a comment below.
We all search for information using search engines. A lot of us have come across a forum we need to access for that information, but the forum may require us to register and sign in first. This is annoying- signing up to a forum, just for a 1 time visit. I decided to make this post, which will guide you around doing this mess.
Let me explain the science behind the following technique: most sites and forums will block unregistered users, but they NEVER block Google Bot. We are basically going to switch our User Agent to Google Bot, which will allow us to freely browse almost any site or forum without registering.
First grab the Firefox add-on called “User Agent” here and install. Next, go to Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options and then Options again.
Select User Agent from the left sidebar and click Add. In the description field type:
File management applications are essential to keep your Mac running stable. I know the commercials, and the marketing BS claim Macs never crash, and are bulletproof, but c’mon. Any computer is vulnerable to crashes and lag if not properly maintained. By utilizing the below apps- it will greatly help keep your Mac in top shape.
1. AppCleaner
A nice application that makes thorough uninstalls easy. When application are installed- small files are spread out onto your Mac’s directories. App cleaner seeks out these small files, and removes them.
Just drag and drop an application icon into AppCleaner, and it will search for all references to the application, and allow you to choose the files you want to delete.
A lot of applications don’t include their own update checker. AppFresh checks your favorite apps for updates for you. So you never have to miss an update for your favorite app- one of my favs.
AppFresh provides a central place to control the software updates available to your Mac, integrating most popular and most common update checking technologies such as Apple Software Update, Sparkle, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Adobe Updater, osx.iusethis.com and more.
Set Icon is a small application that lets you quickly and easily set a custom icon for one your drives either from an ICNS file or any old image file that Mac OS supports. To get started all you have to do is select your drive, drag an image file to the image box and click ‘Set Icon’, when you want to remove the custom icon just select the drive, check the ‘Remove Custom Icon’ box and click ‘Remove Icon’.
Set Icon applies custom icons in such a way that they appear correctly both in Leopard’s side bar and in the Boot Camp chooser. Occasionally Set Icon will fail to apply the icon to the drive on the first try, in the event of this problem occurring just click the “Set Icon” button again and everything should work fine.
This is the easiest way to rename a big list of files on the Mac.
Add the files through the GUI or drag and drop files directly onto the App. These original filenames show up in the Original Filename column. Grayed out rows indicate files that you do not have permissions to change. Next select how to change the file names:
Replace First Occurrence
Replace Last Occurrence
Replace All Occurrences
Wildcare
Append
Prepend
Date
Sequence
Character Removal
As text is entered into the appropriate text fields the resulting filenames appear in the Renamed Filename column. As you type each row is updated to reflect the changes you will make. Finally click the Rename button, and all your files will be renamed as displayed. You will be informed of any files that could not be modified.
SpotLook is a graphical interface to Mac OS X Leopard’s Spotlight desktop search engine which features timelines showing results according to their date. These Tracks can be created, edited and customized include a search scope and attributes to search for. In addition to that found items can be viewed with Quick Look or revealed in the Finder. Give a Graphical Interface to Mac OS X Leopard’s Spotlight with SpotLook.
Carbon Copy Cloner is an excellent application to clone, synchronize and backup your files. CCC 3 features an interface designed to make the cloning and backup procedure very intuitive. In addition to general backup, CCC can also clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. CCC’s block-level copy offers the absolute best fidelity in the industry.
Key features include
Complete, bootable backups
Simple interface for indicating exactly what you want to back up
Restore using the same process used for backup
Backups are non-proprietary, so you can browse them or use them with Migration Assistant
Fast, incremental backups copy only the items that have changed since the last backup
Archival backup archives items that have been deleted from the source
Support for block-level disk-to-disk clones
Support for backing up across the network to another Macintosh
Back up to hard drives or to disk images
Schedule backup tasks on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or you can indicate that a backup task should run when the backup device is attached (e.g. an iPod). You don’t even need to be logged in for your backups to occur!
CCC recognizes iPods specifically, allowing time for the iPod:iTunes synchronization to complete
Built-in software update feature notifies you when updates are available
A program for removing unnecessary language resources from Mac OS X, in order to reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space. Monolingual runs on at least Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) and also works on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
Punakea is a small Mac application that helps you cope with the day-to-day struggle of managing your files. It is specially designed to complement Spotlight and allows you to tag your files and bookmarks, freeing you of the strict hierarchy of the Finder’s folder structure.
SpotInside searches documents and shows previews of their content by highlighting keywords . This program will multiply the power of Spotlight and make your searches more precise.
SketchBox is the perfect application for your Mac Desktop. It works as your sticky notes manager and allows you to not only enter text but also make drawings and set individual reminders for each sticky to use them as a visual alarm clock.
Unlike other applications it lets you arrange all your notes in thumbnail view and create short storyboards/comics or simply store your daily thoughts as searchable text. SketchBox is 100% free for you to use and if you feel like donating, you can do that by visiting their website.
When dealing with a computer issue, you will often hear your tech have you restart in “Safe Mode“. You may be wondering what “Safe Mode” is, and what it does. Safe Mode is the troubleshooting option for your Operation System (OS) which starts your computer with the most basic drivers, and services.
There’s a great tip posted over at 
We all search for information using search engines. A lot of us have come across a forum we need to access for that information, but the forum may require us to register and sign in first. This is annoying- signing up to a forum, just for a 1 time visit. I decided to make this post, which will guide you around doing this mess.
File management applications are essential to keep your Mac running stable. I know the commercials, and the marketing BS claim Macs never crash, and are bulletproof, but c’mon. Any computer is vulnerable to crashes and lag if not properly maintained. By utilizing the below apps- it will greatly help keep your Mac in top shape.
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