OS X and forum incompatability - Page 3

Elizabeth Schott · 03-03-2003, 12:44 AM

Marvin,

This might not help. But the first thing I would do is check your memory allocation for the browsers.

With all the images here, it can get really consuming and you might really need to bump up those minimums.

Are you having any problems with other sites like this one?

I have had the day from computer ****, and am just now getting to my work for a board meeting in the morning. So my brain is fried.

Let us know what the providers say!

Steven Sweeney · 03-03-2003, 01:17 AM

Jean,

Can you give us some insights as to what sort of tweaking you folks did? You may be on to something.

I now have "only" two glitches remaining, both having just recently arrived. Attached images will occasionally not appear the first time the page opens, but will do so upon refreshing the page. Beth, I'm going to look into that "browser memory" suggestion you had. Thanks.

I've apparently also "lost" the ability to retrieve an image from the site (say, to Photoshop it). Jean -- are you able to do this? Do you retrieve an image that is already properly formatted, or do you have to edit the name of the file to add a .jpg or other tag?

Marvin, you've got some apparently unique symptoms. I'd begin by trying out the memory reallocation suggested by Beth. Others seem to be running the 10.2 versions with no (or now fixed) trouble. Sorry, at this information stage I don't have any further suggestions. Again, though, it doesn't seem to be systemic, but a matter of tweaking individual set-ups.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, ESPECIALLY if you discover a "fix" for a problem you were having. A lot more of this computer jazz is trial and error than they want you to know.

Steven Sweeney · 03-03-2003, 01:55 AM

I changed my procedure in capturing images, with success.

Had until recently been hold-clicking on the image and choosing "Save Image As . . ." from the menu. Then if it didn't come through in an acceptable format, I'd just rename the file to, say, add a .jpg suffix. For some reason that quit working a couple of weeks ago.

Now choosing "View Image" from that same menu will bring up the image as posted (and as formatted) by the Forum member, and then I select "Save As" from my File Menu in the AOL Tool Bar and save to the desktop in .jpg format.

One down. Still obsessing . . .

Jean Kelly · 03-03-2003, 02:18 AM

Hi, I don't know what Tom did. He's in bed already (I'm the insomniac). He tore everything down today cause we got a scanner (Epson 2400) so he unplugged, cleaned, rearranged, ran diagnostics and repair and bingo, I can post images. I'll have him post what he did tomorrow, so stop obsessing and work on your painting. I don't think I've ever retrieved an image from the site, since I don't know what that is.

Told you, computer illiterate. Since starting from nada 5 months ago, I can take my own photographs, play with them, resize for posting, and send to hard drive. I can also retrieve them myself, and post myself until something goes wrong, then Tom steps in. He's a good man.

Jean

Steven Sweeney · 03-03-2003, 04:09 AM

Quote:

I don't think I've ever retrieved an image from the site, since I don't know what that is.

I'm reminded of an only tangentially relevant poem by John Updike, in which he notes that the infant who is the subject of the poem "jargons, jargons, all day long."

Retrieving or capturing an image comes up in the critiques, when I want to take an image that a member has posted, download it onto my own desktop and then open it in Photoshop so that I can "test" my suggestions about drawing, value, color and the like. The process is very different from that in OS 9. It's probably all there in black and white somewhere, but there are just too many 3" thick manuals to wade through.

My Computer Doctor Certificate came from WalMart. We seem to be making some progress, though, and until an expert appears, I'm doing all I can with these credentials. I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm a painter. If I had this kind of contact with painters without computers, I'd be gone. Just the way it is, no offense to anyone.

Jean Kelly · 03-03-2003, 05:58 PM

Walmart just ran a sale here, but after buying the scanner we're broke, so I'll just have to make sure I keep Tom happy and well fed. Can't afford to be without him now, he has to teach me how to use a scanner, poor soul.

He's going to come on tonight and recommend some software (says he'll e-mail it to you) so read you later.

Jean

Jean Kelly · 03-03-2003, 09:17 PM

This is Tom, Jeans' lazy husband.

Steven, what I did in OS X is run the periodic repair routines. These are: empty caches, update prebindings and repair permissions. These are Unix maintenance routines that OS X runs automatically if your computer is on at 3am. That's all I know - I have no idea why these routines are required, what they do, or why they run automatically at 3am!

What I do know is that every so often - regardless of whether the computer has been on all night or not - I run these routines from a freeware program called "Cocktail", which also performs a number of other maintenance tasks. You can download "Cocktail" from http://www.dicom.se (it's a German site).

There are other useful maintenance programs that can be found at VersionTracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/index.shtml) under 'utilities'.

Steven Sweeney · 03-04-2003, 02:16 AM

Thanks, Tom. Looks like Cocktail (as available from the VersionTracker site, very highly rated there) requires OS X Version 10.2 or higher, so for now that leaves me out, which is probably right where I should be.

At the moment, I'm not having any problems with navigating the site. (Well, I am, but today it's AOL's fault. Fortunately I can connect without using AOL, but it's not as convenient and it means that today's not the right day to start downloading and installing things.) I'm a little leery of upgrading (or, sometimes, even updating), for fear of introducing new bug variables.

Haven't yet tried everything here that I intend to, so will report back. It's frustrating not to be able to offer a "fix" for everything raised here, but at the very least, we've answered the initial question. There is no systemic OSX/SOG incompatibility.

For the benefit of all here, make friends with MacFixit Forums.

Leslie Ficcaglia · 03-04-2003, 09:16 AM

Following this thread with great interest since I'm making the switch to Jaguar on Friday. I'm on a G4, 400 mghz, to which I'm adding an 80GB hard drive and two 512 RAM chips. Recently, since Cynthia revamped the forum, I've occasionally had glitches loading the graphics for her heading, and this while still on good old 9.1. So some of the loading problems may be unrelated to OS X.

I also picked up Pogue's The Missing Manual at the advice of some Mac-savvy artists on a painters' list I belonged to, but I'm having a Mac tech person do the installation and any troubleshooting for me because I haven't the stomach for the hours and aggravation which would be entailed if I did it myself. I've been on Macs since the LC and used to be the one at work and among friends who did the diagnostics and fixes when they had problems, but it's gradually lost its charm.

I've been using Corel's Print Office 2000 for my cards and brochures. The price was right and it got great reviews when it came out. Any suggestions for OSX compatible alternatives that don't cost $200+?

Elizabeth Schott · 03-05-2003, 12:21 AM

Marvin, I just thought of something else relating to the blank screen under the site headings.

Last week my site was having problems pointed out by some fella in the Netherlands (of all places). I had Michele check, and she reported the same thing. My enlarged images were not loading after they clicked the thumbnail.

After my hosting site checked, they could not find a problem, so they thought the download was "timing" out before their browsers recognized them. So again, I think it leads back to a memory glitch somewhere.

I reduced the size and optimized the images and it seems to have fixed the problem. Of course I got carried away and added more.

Check into your "Apple system profiler" and try and open the forum after you boot with your extensions off, maybe there is a conflict. I am not sure if you just hold down the shift key with OS X.

Let us know if anything is working. Then please come straighten out all my Microsoft software!