Category: Consulting

Using Adobe Acrobat to view PDF’s in Safari 5.1.x and Mac OS X 10.6.8

David Rostenne

Safari no longer displays PDF files.. and hasn’t done so on my machine for months. It does not bother me much, as I prefer to download them anyway, by clicking in the URL bar and then holding option and then hitting return, which downloads them.

But a client called and complained that they needed to be able to fill in online pdf forms, and when they clicked the link all they got was a black screen, so I went and figured it out:

On Mac OS X 10.6.8 with up to date versions of Safari, you need to make sure that Safari is running in 64 bit mode for the Acrobat reader plugin to work.

To get it to do so, quit Safari, go to it in your applications folder, right click on Safari and Get Info. Empty the checkbox that says “Open in 32 bit mode”. Launch Safari, and viewing PDF’s in Safari with Acrobat Reader will now work.

You can also run into problems if you have Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro installed, any updates to the Pro version may mess up your browser plugins. To fix this you need to delete the plugins and reinstall Acrobat Reader.

The AdobePDFViewer plug-in is used to display PDF files in Safari using Acrobat and Reader. This plug-in is installed as part of the Acrobat X or Reader X installation. The location of this plug-in is:

Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin

Details are from Adobe’s Help page: Troubleshoot Safari Plug-in

To remove the plugin: Quit Safari, then go and delete the plugin. Yes there’s a second one, called AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin, you can ignore it.

Then reinstall the latest version of Acrobat reader. You can find various installers on Adobe’s Acrobat Reader Download Page.

I should also mention: if you have need to use Acrobat Reader to view PDF’s in Safari and would prefer to use the built in viewer, just go and delete both the plugins mentioned above and then restart Safari.

How to buy a used Mac

David Rostenne

A client asked what the best approach would be to buying a few used iMacs for her family for Christmas, to which I replied:

I would not use eBay at all, I would go to Kijiji and Craigslist. That way you can actually go and see the computer before buying it. Yes, you probably will pay a bit more for it.. but it will be less headaches in the end!

As for which models to buy, go download the Mactracker app for iPhone or Mac, and use it to look up and compare with what is for sale. The models you want to avoid are ones that do not meet the requirements for running Lion:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/specs.html

Don’t worry if the iMac you are looking at does not already have 10.6 or 10.7 on it, just look at the CPU speed and RAM, the OS itself you can update later since you already own copies.

Once you find a likely iMac, ask the seller for the serial number. If they are unable or unwilling to provide it, move on.. once you have it, put it into this page:

https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

Which will return the warranty and service details on the iMac, and this page:

http://support.apple.com/specs/

Which will return the specs on the iMac. Oh, I also ask the sellers about pets and smokers.. since my kids have allergies, and I can’t stand the smoke smell. My biases, it’s up to you to ask in advance, or decide when you get on site. Once you have those details you can decide if it’s worth looking into further. I’m assuming you’re going to read all about how to avoid scams, so I will not go into any of those details.

Next step? You’ve contacted the seller, have brought a friend along, and are meeting the seller and looking at the iMac. Ignore the iMac for a minute and look around, that will tell you a lot more than looking at the iMac itself. Once you are back at the iMac, boot it up and make sure it is the same one you were told about, basically check under “About this Mac” for the serial number, CPU and RAM details. If you have a usb key you can check each USB port to make sure it works, and if you have a DVD you can make sure the drive works. That’s about it.

Once you have it back at home use your handy OS X 10.6 install DVD and erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS from scratch. Unless you have a 10.7 installer.. at which point you should use that instead!

Have fun, and feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions!

p.s. RAM is cheap and easy to upgrade on an iMac, so you might take that into consideration as well, low RAM in the iMac might be a benefit as you can get a good deal for it and then add RAM yourself. Not sure what kind of RAM you need, and what the costs are? Take a look at http://canadaram.com for details.

CBC interview with School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa!

David Rostenne

Update: All In A Day’s archives have now been updated, so you can listen to the interview there as well.

Khalia Scott and Michael Tardioli are founders, directors and teachers at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa. They held a great Open House yesterday, and this afternoon they were interviewed on CBC Radio’s All In A Day.

Until the CBC updates their archives of the show, you can listen to it here: SPAO Interview as an MP3.

If you are looking for more details than what is in the interview, the SPAO site will be launching in November. Meanwhile you can email info@spao.ca.

Full Disclosure: SPAO is a client of mine. I was responsible for getting their Macs, printing, scanning and network gear purchased and installed.

Kermit the Blog: That’ll be… Aw, heck. No charge.

David Rostenne

Over on the Kermit the Blog he’s having one of those days. Another friend gets free computer help, and now he’s wondering if he’s too nice or just a sucker.
Kermit the Blog: That’ll be… Aw, heck. No charge.

My take:

One of my clients, who runs a very successful jewellry business, explained it to me: When you charge little or nothing then there is no associated value. Which means there is no way to compare what you are really giving them to anything else they are familiar with.

So the next time you get a call to a ‘family or a friend’s’ house to fix something, interrupt them and tell them up front: “I am no longer able to help you for free. $$$ an hour, minimum one hour. When should I come by to fix things?”

Then things get really interesting! 😉

As he says “What’s your take?”

MacInTouch – Comments about FireWire/USB Enclosures

David Rostenne

Yesterday there was a post on Macintouch asking for experiences with Oxford and Prolific chipsets in Firewire/USB enclosures;

[Ed Fortmiller] I need to purchase a drive enclosure that supports both FireWire (1394) and USB 2.0. For FireWire, some enclosures use the Oxford 911 chip whereas others use the Prolific PL-3507 chip.
  Is one chip preferable over the other? Are there known problems with either of these chips? Suggestions for a good reliable (dual FW/USB) drive enclosure?

Here is my response, as well as several other’s comments;

A number of people responded to yesterday’s query about FireWire/USB drive enclosures:
[James Ehrler] I purchased a Plumax enclosure from Dealsonic about 4 months ago that had an Oxford chip and Firewire/USB. Works great.
  Needed another so I purchased the same case (same part number and also from Dealsonic) but it had the Prolific chip. Didn’t work for beans.
  I had to get an RMA and swap it for an Oxford-based case (FireWire only) from Dealsonic.

[Jason Froikin] Any time you need a hard drive enclosure that supports both FireWire and USB, the best source I know of is Firewire Depot. Most of their enclosures use Oxford chipsets. I’m not sure if it’s superior, but it does have native Mac OS X support dating back to the public beta.

[David Rostenne] I do Mac consulting, and several of my clients have recently needed Firewire/USB enclosures. We originally got some with Prolific PL-3507 chipsets and had a lot of problems with them. When we switched the same drives over to enclosures with Oxford chipsets the problems went away. Make sure to upgrade the firmware of the Oxford chipsets before using the enclosures, as there are several bug fixes..
  Also make sure to read the specs carefully as we also have run across enclosures that have only a single firewire port, and not enough airflow to keep the drives cool. For 2.5 inch enclosures make sure that both sets of ports can be bus-powered, and use normal sized connectors, instead of the mini-plugs.. less cables to carry around!
  Currently we are recommending the Macally enclosures, for 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives. We have also had no problems with the Maxtor Onetouch series, they come with drives and are firewire/USB and also come with a copy of Retrospect.

[Paul Kneipp] Regarding Ed Fortmiller’s request for USB/1394 enclosures: I can highly recommend anything made by MacPower. I have owned a lot of these type of devices, but I am completely in love with my Clearlight 2.5″ model. Elegant, simple design and very strong. MacPower have won a heap of awards for their products. Better to pay a little more for a good housing – it’s worth it, especially on the day it accidentally slides out of your briefcase as you open the car door . . .

[Richard Barrett] I just bought a couple of drive cases and here is my view: Drive cases are pretty much the equal. They use different chips and most work well.
Just about anything with the Oxford 911 works great at Firewire 400. Usually no USB.
The Oxford chip 922 gives you USB 2.0 also.
The Prolific chips work well. But, frequently have a single input so you can’t daisy-chain drives.
Make sure you check for large drive support or the case won’t work with drives bigger than 120 GB
A case with a quiet fan can extend your drive life.
Case stories (with my Dual G5):

Generic Firewire 400 two ports Oxford 911 chip, no USB ($40). Works great. No problems. [Plumax PM-350F2-POS]
SanMax Firewire 400 / USB 2.0 single port prolific Chip set ($70). One little problem with two drives with the prolific chipset on two firewire ports … only one drive appears. One Oxford and one Prolific work fine, too. One on Firewire and one on USB 2.0 works fine. Nice Mobile Disk small case with external power supply and fan.
ADS Firewire 800 / USB 2.0 ($109). Chipset reports as “ADS Tech.” When I installed a new 250 GB Maxtor drive in the case, I couldn’t initialize the drive for the Mac with Apple’s disk utility or the software provided by ADS. I put the drive in a SanMax case, initialized it, put it back in the ADS case and it has worked flawlessly since then. FW800 is very fast. Measured throughput is about twice the FW400 for about $30 or $40 more. Internal power supply.
ADS Firewire 400, no USB Oxford 911 chipset ($70). I installed a CD recorder and used PatchBurn. Works great.
If you have a computer that can use it, get Firewire 800.

Macintouch does not use permanent links, so this url was only valid for that day… MacInTouch Homepage 10.20.2004