Disabling the Clear Key
The keyboard that came with my G4 is of the midget variety but works OK for me except for one aggravating problem: the Clear key on the numeric keypad. Every once in a while I’ll be entering text at a furious pace on, say, one of the bulletin boards that I contribute to, and without looking I will accidentally hit the Clear button as I’m actually trying to hit the Delete key. All the text that I’ve typed disappears and cannot be revived with undo. Question: can I neutralize my Clear key to avoid that problem?
—Henry Halem
There is no way to neutralize it without additional software—however a macro suite such as KeyQuencer (shareware), QuicKeys (commercial—slightly more user friendly) would let you do this very easily. You could turn off Clear in all applications, or in a specific application, or you could program it to only function when another modifier is down (say, Shift, Option, etc.). —Evan Trent
Age
I’ve been using an Apple Mac for the past decade, but now I’ve decided that I am past it. I am 82. Perhaps a time comes when the brain is no longer capable of taking note of a new way of doing things.
I’m talking about Mac OS X. I’ve just bought a new computer, an iMac with a flat screen, and it sits on my desk alongside my “old,” iMac which of course is operated by OS 9. I cannot do a single thing with my new iMac, nor can I discover any site which will educate me about it. It seems, from reading ATPM and other Mac magazines that thousands of Mac fans just naturally seem to be able to operate it. I’m afraid that this doesn’t work for me, nor, I suspect, for other old Mac fans.
I bought the book which claims to be the “missing manual,” but I cannot understand it either.
Wouldn’t it be a service to your older readers if you’d spell it all out for them? Pretend we’re ten-year-old boys and explain simply what it is all about and what we have to do. Then we’d be even more grateful for the existence of ATPM.
—Marius Pope
I appreciate where you’re coming from. One of my close family members is 83, and although he was once a leading computer designer he now has trouble learning the latest software (Windows, unfortunately). Of course, I would like for us to be able to help you out, but I just don’t know how. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to thinks Mac OS X: The Missing Manual is a masterpiece, and I wouldn’t know how to improve it. Maybe the problem is that it explains the parts of OS X that are confusing for us, but those may not be the same parts that are confusing for you. The only thing I can suggest is for you to ask some specific questions. We’ll try to answer them. —Michael Tsai
Routers
My problem is file sharing between my PowerPC 7600 (upgraded to a G3, with Mac OS 9.2.2) and my new iBook with an AirPort card. I had a Linksys BEFW11S4 version 2, but returned it after many days of frustration.
I read in your help page about port mapping to the server. I am not trying to go outside, just share behind the router. Do I need to port something? I want to share files on my G3 with the iBook, which is wireless. I am able to connect to the Internet and e-mail on the iBook, but I can’t share files. Whenever I try to connect to the G3 server at the iBook I get a message that say error -36.
I have a Cox cable modem port. I have tried numerous combinations of DHCP IP, manual IP, connect automatically, etc. with no success. Is Linksys the way to go or should I try something else?
—Phil
Are you trying to do file sharing via TCP or AppleTalk?
If you’re using AppleTalk, you need to put a hub in front of the router since most routers do not forward AT packets. You could use TCP instead, which is faster, FYI.
If you are trying to use TCP, how are your IP addresses set up and which one are you trying to use when you attempt to log on? What I would recommend to make life easier initially, is using manual IP on both machines and following the instruction manual that came with your router to help with assigning IPs to the computers. If you use DHCP the addresses will change periodically and this will complicate the file sharing process since you will have to keep checking to see what the server’s address is.
Typically routers use the block 192.168.1.xxx as a range of IP address and the router will be at 192.168.1.1. Sometimes it’s 192.168.0.xxx and 192.168.0.1. It depends—it’s usually one of these two blocks of addresses but there are exceptions. Assuming it’s the first block, pick something like 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.20 for your two computers’ IP addresses, set the router addresses to 192.168.1.1, 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask, and use 192.168.1.1 for the name server. Then let’s say .10 is the client and .20 is the server, try logging onto 192.168.1.20 from .10 and see what happens. It should work.
Port mapping should not be an issue since both machines are behind the router—you are doing internal peer to peer access and the router should be acting just like a hub, forwarding TCP packets from one machine to another. I am assuming that you are using a wireless router, not a router and then an AirPort Base Station in addition. If you are using a Base Station in addition to a router, we may need to discuss the iBook’s configuration in more depth. —Evan Trent
E-Mail Archiving
I’ve used Eudora Pro for many years, but since I began using OS X, I quit using Eudora because I really hate the way windowing works under OS X. After using Entourage for a while and having a database corruption scare, I went to Mail.app in Jaguar and have all of my mail servers configured as IMAP to maintain mail on the server. I also use server-based folders extensively to organize my e-mail.
When I accumulate too much mail, I download it into Eudora for archiving. I find Eudora is, by far, the best and fastest at handling a large amount of e-mail and can search faster than anything else.
—Mike Cohen
Allow me to call your attention to a little detail since this once personally affected me. Make sure your host that is holding all your IMAP e-mail and folders has a solid backup policy in effect. A former host of mine had a hard drive crash within their e-mail server and it was at this time I discovered (to my profound dismay) that there were only weekly backups, and it had been six days since the last run! The messages in my inbox seldom resemble the messages that were in there a week ago!
Officially, I changed hosts for one that had more storage for the same money, plus gave me PHP access so I can someday start blogging. But that backup policy was a major unofficial reason!
Demand daily backups or, at the very worst, every other day—or find a new host. —Lee Bennett
Using a PowerBook to Play DVDs on a TV
I read an old post about playing DVDs on a television routed through a PowerBook G3. How did you do that?
—Jeff Tescher
The PowerBook G3 series featured both VGA and S-Video outputs. The latter enabled you to connect to a TV. An S-Video->Composite adapter was provided by Apple to allow for connecting to TVs without S-Video input jacks. If your TV is so old that it does not even have a Composite input (in other words if all it has is an RF antenna jack) you can get an RF modulator to convert the output of the PowerBook’s S-Video. Otherwise, just connect the S-Video or Composite output using the appropriate cable.
Once you have the connection between the PB and TV, power on the TV. Select the appropriate input using your TV’s remote (it should correspond to the input jack you’re using on the back of the TV, i.e. “Video 1,” or “Aux” etc.). Then reboot the PowerBook and fire up the Apple DVD Player. By default the TV will be monitor #2, which is to the right of the built-in screen. So if you drag the window for the DVD player to the right, off of the built-in screen, it will move onto the TV. Once the window is moved entirely onto the TV, if you select Full Screen mode, the DVD player will fill the TV. Then play the movie, and you’re all set.
You can also hook up the audio to a hi-fi or home theater. If you need help with this, let me know and I can explain the connections for you. —Evan Trent
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