The Writer\’s Tale, Final Chapter…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

SFX.co.uk, has run a list of 20 things that you can learn from \”Doctor Who: The Writer\’s Tale (The final chapter)\”. This book contains emails, script excerpts, and details directly from Russel T. Davies, and discusses the concepts, and ideas, that may or may not have reached the TV screen.
Included in that list, is items like:

  • Who’s that mysterious woman in “The End Of Time”? Here it is from the horse’s mouth: “I like leaving it open, because then you can imagine what you want. I think the fans will say it\’s Romana. Or even the Rani. Some might say that it\’s Susan\’s mother, I suppose. But of course it’s meant to be the Doctor’s mother”.

Either way, it\’s a good read, and you\’ll probably learn something from it.
See 20 Things We Learnt from the Writer\’s tale, the Final Chapter….

The Macalope Weekly: Natural-born product category fillers

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

This week the mythical Macalope, covers yet again several ideas that are floating around the Mac loving universe…

  • The release of the Macintosh Tablet
  • Suggested ways to use the iSlate

    • Including:

  • Working on your motorcycle? Prop the tablet up in your garage and watch a video from Paul Teutul Sr. and Jr. (and promptly get beaten up by some real bikers, tablet nerd).

The Macalope Weekly: Natural-born product category fillers | iPhone | MacUser | Macworld.

Snow Leopard Power Saving Modes

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

I recently upgraded from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6, and noticed that the power saving profiles have disappeared from the menu bar\’s Battery Status menus. Luckily, this functionality is still accessible via the command line.
Open Terminal and type the following command in order to set the profile to be used when using the battery:
pmset -b modenum
Replace modenum with one of the following values:
1 – Better Energy Savings
2 – Normal
3 – Better Performance
-1 – Custom
In order to set the profile used when connected to AC power, change -b to -c. I am able to use the above commands with neither administrator nor root privileges. Your settings should be reflected in the Energy Saver preference pane.
(Original post is from Mac OS X Hints)

Apple brings OpenGl 3 into 10.6.3 Betas

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

After taking a brief holiday break, Apple managed to release the first developer beta of Mac OS X 10.6.3 last week. Among the 221 code changes, there appears to be some initial support for parts of the OpenGL 3.0 spec, though Apple will have a long way to go before Snow Leopard is OpenGL 3-ready.
OSx86 contributer netkas, known for his work in enabling graphics card support for non-Apple GPUs, noted over the weekend that the developer test build of 10.6.3 contained a number of OpenGL 3.0 extensions, as well as a few for the updated 3.1 and 3.2 specifications. Mac OS X has essentially been stuck at OpenGL 2.1 support for some time, even though GPUs in most newer Macs support the newer standards.
Part of the issue with bringing OpenGL 3.0 support is that the newer versions deprecated many older functions from OpenGL 2.x in an attempt to modernize and simplify the overall API. All three revisions of OpenGL 3.x also include revisions to the shader language as well. Updating all the support requires work on Apple's part as well as the cooperation of GPU vendors to get drivers into shape. OpenGL 3.1 and 3.2 were released last year, well into Snow Leopard's development cycle, and drivers offering beta support for those versions of OpenGL were the norm on Windows Vista.
For those who need OpenGL 3.x support, however, the good news is that most of the necessary functionality brought by OpenGL 3.0 is included by way of extensions. Shading language 1.30 still isn't supported, and support for 3.1 and 3.2 is still in the early stages. Later revisions of Snow Leopard may include full support for the updated standards, but chances are good that 10.7 will definitely include full support.
via Google Reader (925).

Why is my computer Dancin\’? What is GrooveMonitor?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

What is GrooveMonitor.exe?
GrooveMonitor.exe is a utility process that is installed as a part of Microsoft Office 2007 (probably the enterprise edition).
The GrooveMonitor.exe process service starts up as a part of Windows. GrooveMonitor.exe file can be found under C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12
What does GrooveMonitor.exe really do?
Groove Monitor is a tool that can be used to work collaboratively with your colleagues. Documents that come under the Groove Service get synced with other versions in your colleagues’ workspaces. You can read more about MS Office 2007 Groove Colloboration Service here.
Is GrooveMonitor.exe Spyware?
No, definitely not. Some spywares pose themselves as GrooveMonitor.exe and install themselves into C:\\Windows or C:\\Windows\\System32 folders. That’s when you should become concerned.
Is it really needed to keep MS Office Running?
No, it isn’t necessary. MS Office can run perfectly without Groove Monitor. You need it only if you need syncing and file sharing capabilities.
How to get rid of GrooveMonitor.exe?
If you want to remove or block GrooveMonitor.exe, you have to do the following:
Go to Start > Run
Type msconfig. Hit Enter.
Go to the ‘Startup’ tab.
Uncheck GrooveMonitor
Done!

Outlook reports that the PST file was not closed properly.

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

For the past few weeks I have been getting this error, \”Microsoft Office Outlook has stopped working.\”Then whenever I relaunched Outlook, I got the pop up that said that it was checking the PST file for errors because it was not closed properly. I used the command line option /cleanviews and that still didn\’t help.


Check to see if Outlook 2007 is configured to automatically empty the deleted items folder when it exits.  It maybe that Outlook is closing while the deletion process is running.
If you have Outlook configured this way and you would like to try this to
see if this solves this problem, do the following:
To enable/disable this feature, in Outlook, click Tools/Options then click
the Other tab. Remove the check from the box \”Empty the Deleted Items Folder
When Exiting.\” Now click Apply then OK.