Microsoft Updates Office 2004 and 2008

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Microsoft has released updates for Office 2004 and 2008, which include security fixes for “vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.”
The Microsoft Office 2004 11.5.8 update is a mere 9.7 MB, and the Microsoft Office 2008 12.2.4 update is 221.5 MB.
If you use Office, it’s a good idea to keep up with these updates, as they not only provide security fixes, but also improve performance and stability. If you haven’t kept up with Office updates, you cannot, unfortunately, apply the latest update without applying previous updates. (Microsoft does not make any combo updates like Apple does.) So you can find previous updaters for your software on this page.

Speeding up Apple Mail by Vacuuming?…..

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Apple Mail, especially earlier versions of Apple Mail, may start to slow down after a long period of time…
Evidently as everyone knows, it is possible to get quite a speed boost out of Mail.app by stripping all the bloat out of its Envelope index, an SQLite database Mail uses to store senders, recipients, subjects and so on.
What\’s the easiest way to do this?

  1. Quit Mail.
  2. Open Terminal.
  3. Type the following:
    cd ~/Library/Mail
    sqlite3 Envelope\\ Index
    An sqlite> prompt will appear.
    At that prompt, type vacuum subjects;
    After a short delay, the prompt will return. Type Control-D to exit.
  4. Restart Mail and enjoy the extra speed.

Does it work?   The first time he tried this, Rob Griffiths of macOSXHints reduced his Envelope index from 25.9MB to 4.5MB.
Okay, so that\’s not the easiest way…  Instead download
Sebastian Morsch has written a script that quits Mail, runs the sqlite commands and then relaunches Mail at the end of the process. You can get the script from his web site.

Duplicate emails being downloaded from Apple Mail?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

I\’ve tried everything I know and searched everywhere, but I can\’t find an answer to this problem. Several of my clients have this issue and now I have it, after adding two new accounts to Mail – both of the new accounts are effected, but the older ones work fine.
Mail picks up email and filters out spam just fine. The problem is with emails I have either deleted or flagged as spam. Mail doesn\’t remove them from the server even though I have my preferences set to delete them \”Right Away\”
Then the next time Mail pickup email, it picks those same messages up as \”unread.\” No matter how many times I delete them, they keep coming back as \”unread\” messages. If I manually delete them, using the \”Remove Now\” button in preferences, that solves the problem.
I have repeatedly rebuilt these mailboxes since creating the accounts a few weeks ago, but I keep having the same problem. The server recognizes them as \”read\” becasue I can delete them manually, but apparently Mail thinks they are unread.

If Mail.app starts behaving weirdly, you could try deleting all the preference files and starting from scratch … note that doing this will delete all e-mail account settings, so it\’s a good idea to write down all the relevant details first:
WARNING: This is the \”so-called\” Nuclear Option, for reseting your mail, keep reading first…

  • Quit out of Mail.app
  • Backup up your mail & preferences
    • Backup com.apple.mail.* from your Library/Preferences folder
    • Backup ~/Library/Mail
  • Delete the com.apple.mail.plist file (it\’s in your user accounts\’ Library/Preferences folder)
  • Delete the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded file (it will be in your user accounts\’ Library/Mail/POP-user@mail.internode.on.netfolder)
  • Open Mail.app and run through the setup wizard again
  • Import all of the mailboxes back in to Mail.app

It\’s a relatively complex procedure, but it\’s helped me out once or twice when everything\’s gone haywire.
The above process is fairly radical and effectively forces you to recreate your mail setup, if it\’s a minor issue, it maybe better to address the issue directly.
Try, Quiting Mail, and just deleting your MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded file, but make sure that you have a complete backup.  There have been reports that it resolves the issue easily, and simply.

Temporal Anomalies in Popular Time Travel Movies

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

For example, it is not possible to return to the past without changing the past in some way; nor is it possible to change the future based on information from the future.  Doctor Who realized early on that changes to history were hazardous, and avoided them assiduously. Movies built on a time travel theme frequently become dissatisfying when the thread of time is closely examined.  In Millennium, once the era in which the time machine exists is destroyed, aren\’t all of those rescued survivors returned to their own times?  In The Twelve Monkeys, doesn\’t it appear that the disaster which the main character was to prevent
would not have happened had he not interfered?  In Timecop, would any of that have happened had it not happened?  Even the venerable StarTrek has created numerous anomalies which it has failed to resolve.  Pasts which are dependent upon futures dependent upon those pasts should make us cringe.  However, from time to time something works.  This web page will attempt to examine some of the best examples of these, beginning with Temporal Anomalies in Popular Time Travel Movies.

Star Trek D.A.C. for Mac

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

I hate to sound like a me-too-er, but this pretty much sums up my thoughts on Star Trek D.A.C. for Mac.
I can\’t believe that I was suckered into purchasing it for $9.95…  Simply don\’t do it.  Instead go find a copy of Asteroids, and you\’ll be much happier…

Star Trek: D.A.C. (Deathmatch. Assault. Conquest) is not a crap movie tie-in. It’s a mediocre shooter that’s had the art direction of the new Star Trek movie grafted onto it like a bad Borg implant. Everything from the bridge sounds in the main menu to the sounds of weapons fire feel tacked on. Let’s set aside any pre-tense that this is a game of the same calibre as the movie. It’s not, but that’s okay.


I\’ve only played it for 10-20 minutes, and regret the purchase.  Yes, it has a Macintosh version as well as a PC, which was one reason I purchased it.  But, there\’s no story, it\’s not the star ship combat simulator that they imply.  There is no customization of your star ship, except through power-ups.
It feels mushy, and it\’s hard to steer, and a variety of other issues…  Overall, I don\’t see the reply value of this game.  I would bet money on the fact that someone at Paramount said, \”How do we cash in on the movie\”, and when they couldn\’t figure out a decent way to convert the movie plot to a shooter, they just threw things in the air, and made this cheap shooter.
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 5….  Here\’s my breakdown:

  • +2 for a Macintosh Port
  • +1 for good visual effects
  • -1 for misleading advertising / box cover
  • -1 for poor to no replay value
  • -1 Simply no plot

So what\’s the verdict?  ZERO.  And I think I have been generous…..Save your money spend it on Gratuitous Space Battles instead…

kCGErrorIllegalArgument errors in my log…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Well, if it isn\’t one thing, it has to be another…. I\’ve been suffering with these errors for a while, and I think I just stumbled upon the trigger…
3/9/10 12:37:56 PM [0x0-0x206e06c].com.ranchero.NetNewsWire[97172] Tue Mar  9 12:37:56 dhcp105-37 NetNewsWire[97172] <Error>: kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGSGetWindowBounds: NULL window
Here\’s the thread I just found kCGErrorIllegalArgument errors with Camino 2.0.1.  And it makes sense…
Under 10.6.2 it is possible that hiding a window that contains flash content will cause those errors to appear, until the application is restarted….

Disable AirPort when Ethernet cable is connected

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

From MacOSXHints…

At my office, I needed to find a way to turn of the wireless network when someone plugged in their network cable. I also did not want them to be able to turn the wireless network back on until the network cable was unplugged. I came up with the fallowing solution.

I created a launchDaemon called com.companyname.ethernetmonitor, and saved it in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons:

<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \"-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\" \"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\">
<plist version=\"1.0\">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.companyname.ethernetmonitor</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Scripts/CompanyName/turnOffAirport.sh</string>
  </array>
  <key>WatchPaths</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

This will watch the System Configurations folder for changes. This folder changes when you plug in a network cable, turn on AirPort, etc. When it changes, a script called turnOffAirport.sh, stored in /Library/Scripts, is run to see if the Ethernet connection has a company IP address:
#!/bin/sh
if ifconfig en0 | grep 155.144;
then /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower off
else
exit 0
fi
This helps keep the user from grabbing two IPs (our wireless and wired network use the same set of IPs), and also helps prevent a few other odd issues when a user is connected to both wireless and Ethernet networks.

I suspect that this can easily be made to work both ways… At the present time, it appears to turn off the wireless, but not automatically turn it back on.
That could be by design. After all, the laptop will be consuming more power with wireless turned on…. But, I believe by changing the exit 0, to /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower on would be enough to change the behavior…