Nerdish

From one iMac to another

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Problematic graphic card. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Problematic graphic card

I’ve for a long time had problems with my i old iMac 24″ from early 2009. Its graphic card somehow got sick. So, each time I did something that had to do with graphics it either totally froze, or suddenly crashed and restarted the iMac, or showed images similar to the one above where all the content of the screen was like a mosaic from all applications that were actively running. At that stage a forced quit via the button on the Mac was the only way out. Over time it got worse and some days I had crashes about 5-6 times a day. It was very hard to get anything done.

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My new iMac. Screenshot from ElGiganten.se website.

Getting a new iMac

So I decided I just had to get a new iMac to be able to get anything done when at the computer and also to be able to update to current OS and to have a graphic card that was supported by all my graphical software. Took a bank loan to be able to pay for it. That was easily and fast approved.

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My new iMac Photo ©nini.tjader.2016

Last week I bought it and brought it home.

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Connections on the new iMac. Image screenshot from Apple.

As Apple has changed almost all connections at the back of the iMac since my last 2009 model, and built it without a CD/DVD drive, I also had to buy some extra stuff. It says it can have 16MB RAM, but mine has 8 GB RAM. If I had wanted 16GB, I would have had to order that before purchase. You cannot change it afterwards as you used to be able to in older iMacs.

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External CD/DVD drive and adapter from Thunderbolt to Firewire. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Bought an Apple CD/DVD drive and an adapter from Thunderbolt to Firewire. My 1TB external WD MyBook harddisk which is my main backup disk only connects via Firewire.

powerplug

Apple powerplug. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Noticed when I unpacked the new iMac that the powercord had a really nicely designed powerplug. Nobody but Apple might be doing beautiful power plugs…

imacs

Old and new iMacs on kitchentable. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Transferring content from the old iMac to the new with Migration Assistant

Next was to transfer my content from the old iMac to the new one. Some swear by beginning from scratch and install everything new from the beginning. I don’t. I use the Apple Migration Assistant. It is reliable and good and I have never had any problems with it. During my years at the technical department at Aftonbladet we always used that to transfer content from one machine to another.

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Old and new iMacs ready for content-transfer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I set up the two iMacs on the kitchentable.

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Old and new iMacs connected via Ethernet cable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

I connected the two iMacs via a short Ethernet cable. Then I started the Migration Assistant on the old iMac, got a number on the screen of the old Mac to connect the machines to each other that I input on the new iMac, and made the choices for what to transfer.

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Transfer via Migration Assistant. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

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Choice of what to transfer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

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Transfer of content starting. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

It prepares to transfer for a very long time. When you, like me, has a lot of content to transfer, it takes it time. Have patience.

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Preparing to transfer… Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

After a very long time it starts the actual transfer.

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Transfer has started. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

When it actually starts the transfer the Migration Assistant shows how long it might take to do the transfer. Do not trust that. It usually takes much longer than it initially says. How long depends on the number of files that are beings transferred and the size of the files. Many small files takes longer than large files. 

At times it looks like it is doing nothing and as if no transfer is being made. But be patient. It IS doing what it should even if there is no sign of it. Do not touch it during the transfer and do not cancel it in the middle of being done.

My transfer started early afternoon one day and was done around 11 AM the next day. It was successful. I worried that the old iMac might crash when doing this, as unstable as it was, but it didn’t crash and it didn’t freeze. That was a relief.

If it hadn’t worked, I would have used the backup on my backup disk and the application Carbon Copy Cloner to transfer the content from the old to the new Mac. It would probably have been much faster.

computertable

Cleaned computer table. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Took the opportunity to clean the computer table when the Macs were on the kitchentable. It is now dust-free and clean. As long as it lasts…

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The new iMac on the work-table. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

A new wireless keyboard and mouse

With the new iMac also came a new wireless keyboard and a new wireless mouse. Both run via Bluetooth and are paired to the iMac already at delivery. They come with a special small cable for charging them.

The mouse I got used to pretty fast even though I find its edges a bit too sharp for my liking. The tiny, short keyboard without a numerical pad is another thing. I don’t really like the short keyboards. I am used to have a numerical pad for numbers. i keeping hitting the wrong keys on the tiny keyboard because they aren’t placed as I’m used to. and, when I am using a lot of numbers, or certain key combinations I keep crossing the hands and arms to reach them. My fingers have to relearn.

Otherwise, everything works just fine. Had to do a few updates of certain applications and to re-apply passwords in certain situation, and updated the OS to Sierra, but otherwise all applications work as they should. Even all my Adobe applications work just fine after the transfer. It is also a pleasure to finally be able to work without crashes and freezes. That was a long time ago I could do that.

What to do with the old iMac?

Haven’t decided yet what to do with the old 24″ iMac. It presently rests on the kitchen floor. I will eventually empty it. If anybody is interested in buying it from me, contact me. It does need a new graphic card though to work properly without crashes and freezes. And it won’t be possible to install the latest OS on it. But…

New wireless short keyboard and wireless mouse. Photo:©nini.tjader.2016

Posted by nini in Macintosh, Nerdish, 0 comments

Adobe Bridge and El Capitain

adobebridge

If you like me are using Adobe Bridge to import images from camera or smartphone AND has updated to Mac OS X 10.11.x El Capitain, then there is something you need to know. Importing from iPhones and iPads and certain cameras doesn’t work if you choose “Get Photos from Camera…”. Adobe Bridge doesn’t “see” the devices and says that there isn’t any device connected if you choose “Get Photos from Camera…”.

adobebridge

If you use Get Photos from Camera in El Capitain

According to Adobe: On Mac OS 10.11, Bridge CC does not recognize the following types of devices:

  • Devices (such as cameras or Android-based devices) connected in PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) or MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode
  • iDevices such as iPad or iPhone

Instead of choosing “Get Photos from Camera…” you should choose “Import from Device…” to import your images.

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Bridge “Import from Device”

You will not get all the options with this choice as you do with “Get Photos from Camera…”, but at least you can import your images from those devices (smart phones, iPads and certain cameras) that are not supported by Adobe Bridge in El Capitain.

adobebridge

Import from Device in Adobe Bridge

If Bridge is pointing to a folder you have earlier imported to, it shows which images are in that folder. If you don’t want to import to that folder again, you click on the Import To: at the bottom of the window and choose which existing folder to import to or you create a new folder as destination by choosing “Other…”.

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Import To

You can either Download All or choose by clicking on the images which ones to import and choose Download. Then you can use Adobe Bridge as usual by pointing to the folder you want Bridge to manage.

Bridge and “Import from Device…” uses the application Image Capture to import from device. It is just a faster way of doing it if you are already in Adobe Bridge.

This is a temporary situation. Adobe is working on solving it. It is solved in other Adobe applications so, one of these days…

adobebridge

Adobe Bridge

Here is Adobes own explanation.

Posted by nini in Macintosh, Nerdish, Various, 0 comments

Recycling books

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Books going out. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

I never throw away books. As I see it, that is very disrespectful to the authors. I either give them away to somebody else or give them to a charity organization for them to recycle. I still prefer reading printed books. I don’t enjoy reading on a computer screen or iPad (not to mention iPhone).

I have three reasons to recycle books.
1. Book is hopelessly outdated, like the below ones in the picture.
2. I don’t like the story in the book.
3. I need more space in the bookcases (to be able to add new books).

bookrecyclingBooks going out. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

I recently started a box for books for recycling. The above ones I found in one of my bookcases and have placed in the box. Hopelessly outdated technical/computer books. So these are going out, and if anyone wants them, be my guest. Adobe GoLive CS? Application has been discontinued long ago. Adobe Dreamweaver CS3? We are now in version CC2015. Learn HTML? A lot has happened with html since that book was published. Mac OS X Leopard? Well, that was long ago. There are more in that bookcase that I need to get rid of.

bookrecycling

Going out… Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

And then there is the above one… Found it in my bookcase for un-read books the other day and thought I’d read it out in the sun. I have no idea where I got it from. I cannot possible have paid for it? Can I? 28 pages and 4 chapters in I closed the book and decided not to read it. So “simple” both in language, ideas, story, expressions, and builds on pre-conceived ideas about how people think and act. Really bad. Took me less time than usual to disregard this book. “A romantical comedy” as it says on the cover… Definitely not my cup of tea. I do not read romantical comedies…

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Sunbed in the garden. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

Instead of that book I switched to one by Peter Robinson, “Piece of my heart” to read in the sun. He is good. All his books are good. Love his books.

The exceptional summer weather with loads of sun and warmth is now over and we are back to grey and rain and much colder weather, so I can also go back to blogging… Who wants to sit inside in front of the computer when there is sun and warmth outside?

Posted by nini in Books, Nerdish, Thoughts, 0 comments

To move images from computer to Instagram

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As you might know Instagram does not have a function to import images from a computer even though you can actually watch your Instagram flow on a computer. The Instagram application only accepts images from you smartphone or iPad. Which means that the images have to BE on the iPhone/iPad to be used in Instagram.

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Dropbox on Mac

When you have pictures on your computer that you want to publish on Instagram it isn’t all that simple, but it is possible.

You need Dropbox on your computer and your iPhone/iPad to make it possible. As I am a Mac-person, I can only describe how to do it on a Mac. I am sure there are similar procedures on a PC.

Dropbox on a Mac.

Dropbox on a Mac.

When you have set up your Dropbox account on both your computer and your iPhone/iPad, locate your Dropbox folder on your computer. Inside that folder I’ve created a subfolder called “toinsta” (it can be named anything you want). Into that folder you can copy/drag/move any image you want to import to Instagram to publish there.

You might want to edit your image before you move it so it has the right dimensions and fileformat (jpg). Even though Instagram today accepts other dimensions than square, square is still what work best.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Locate and open Dropbox on your iPhone/iPad and locate and select the image you want to import to Instagram.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Image then opens in full size.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Click on the symbol that looks like a square with an arrow that goes up at the top of the screen.

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Dropbox on iPhone.

You then get the above choices. Either click on Spara bild/Save image or Kopiera bild/Copy image. Dropbox will then save the image to Pictures/Bilder where it becomes accessible from Instagram to use in Instagram.

Instagram

Apps on iPhone

Open Instagram on iPhone/iPad.

instagram

Instagram on iPhone

Go to Library/Bibliotek and your images on the iPhone/iPad are there to use. Choose your image and do what you need to do in Instagram (set tags # and description and if needed, edit in Instagram with the options that are there).

You are now ready to publish your image on Instagram. My name on Instagram is ninitj if you want to follow me there.

instagram

Instagram on iPhone

Addition 2016-03-02
Got a tip for a photo-to-computer-to-Instagram uploader from reader Rose-Marie. It is called gramblr. You can find and download it here. Read the instructions carefully. I am not sure if it works in Mac OS X 10.11.3 or not (which is my OS-version).

Posted by nini in Instagram, Nerdish, Photography, 0 comments

Bye bye Samsung, welcome back HP

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My new HP printer. PHoto: ©nini.tjader.2015

My printer problems continued. I had to say bye-bye to the Samsung printer and got myself a HP printer instead.

The new Samsung SL-C480 color laser printer turned out to be less than compatible with Macintosh and Mac OS X 10.11.2 (my iMac) and 10.10.5 (my MacBook Pro). I installed and deinstalled, I downloaded new drivers directly from Samsung in exchange for those on the install CD. Nothing helped. Once in the blue moon the printer printed one single page. Normally it just printed gibberish. It couldn’t even print a pdf.

The newest drivers available from Samsung were released before Mac Os X 10.11 El Capitan was released. So of course they were not all that compatible. Apart form that it lacked a file it said when trying to install it. After trying to make it work for about a month, I gave up. Installing drivers and getting a printer to function shouldn’t be that difficult. And in this case, impossible. It was good at making color copies, but I really needed to print now and then.

So about two weeks ago I asked my neighbor to take me and the printer back to Netonnet to return the printer and get another one. Was a bit anxious if they would accept the exchange or not as the free 30 day return-period was passed with about 13 days. But to my relief they did accept to take it back when I explained it wasn’t compatible with my Macs (or the iPad or the iPhone either for that matter).

My choice for a new printer was between an HP LaserJet Pro 200 M277dw and a Brother DCP-9020CDW. As I had/have no experience with Brother printers, the choice fell on the HP. I have used HP printers for many years and never really had any problems with them. Both the above are sold at the same price at Netonnet (SEK 2.990) and cost SEK500 more than the Samsung I returned.

The HP printer was (and is) a totally pleasant and good experience from the very first moment. The installation was smooth, fast and easy and HP has drivers for the latest Macintosh OS. Everything just worked from the start. Both on the iMac, the MacBook Pro and the ePrint from the iPhone and the iPad. I am happy. I can finally print – even from the sofa from the iPad. Haven’t tested the copier yet, or the fax (don’t know where to connect it presently – have to find a vacant phoneline for it) or the doublesided printing, or the print from anywhere, or the scanning – but I will, soon. The most important thing was to be able to print. It has all the functions I want, including wifi-printing and much more. The HP toners are expensive, but so are the other firms toners too. May the printer last a long time.

I am happy. I can print again. And I can recommend this HP printer.

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My new HP printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Various, workspace, 0 comments

Bye, bye HP – Welcome Samsung

colorlaserprinter

My old HP ColorLaser Printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I am finally saying bye bye HP to my old, defect HP color laser printer, and welcome to a brand new Samsung printer.

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HP Color Laser Jet 2600n. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I got that HP color LaserJet 2600n for FREE from my last employer (the big daily newspaper) where I worked at the support department. It was going to be thrown out and exchanged for other printers that could be run only by identifying yourself with your card of access to the offices. It was used at the newspaper for a couple of years and have served me well for at lest some seven years or so.

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The innards of my old HP color laser printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

For quite some time now it has been leaking toner onto the printers innards. This time CYAN. It has happened before, but then it was the YELLOW. I then got a new toner cartridge from the toner suppliers. This time I just gave up. I didn’t want to throw more money after this old printer. Especially as the the HP toners are quite expensive and I have to pay them myself. The toners aren’t even all that good. They are re-filled, re-used ones. I decided already a couple of month ago, when the printer started printing with blue stripes all over the paper, that I would not buy any more toners for it when it would be unusable. (I still wonder though where in the printer it keeps the surplus toner that all lasers produce, the wasted toner powder that is… never found that out).

So I began looking for a new color laser printer. A current one, with features like copy, scan, wi-fi (to be able to print from iPhone and iPad) etc. And it had to be a laser and had to be color. I looked at several ones. In the end the choice stood between a Brother and a Samsung. In the end I choose a new model from Samsung.

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My new Samsung color laser printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Friday I went with my neighbor (who has a car) to the nearest Netonnet shop and bought a Samsung SL-C480 color laser printer. Welcome Samsung.

So. Now begins that painful period of getting to know all the quirks of this printer… And quirks there are.

samsung colorlaserprinter

Samsung laser color printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I’ve always downloaded the latest drivers from provider instead of using the ones provided on an installation CD/DVD. Normally those are newer/updated than on the installation CD/DVDs. So I did this time as well. And then it wouldn’t print anything but gibberish… An occasional page of real print, but most of the time gibberish. Wasted lots of paper on that. Today I uninstalled the printer drivers and installed from the CD instead. Same problem. One page printed, then gibberish on lots of papers before I managed to cancel the printing.

Then I found a trick. Quit the Samsung printer application after one successful print. Start the next print-job. That automatically starts the printer and the print application. And it prints as supposed to, one print-job at the time. Hm.

At least now I can print again and it prints beautifully both in black and color. I don’t know if the printing problems have something to do with my operating system (El Capitan10.11.1) or the Samsung drivers.

The printing problem (gibberish on several papers) appeared in any application I tried to print from. My MBP is still not El Capitan so will test from there when I have installed the drivers on it. I’ll wait for a while with updating the drivers again, now that I actually can print even though it requires a restart of the printing application between each print.

Also tested the copier. Nice to be able to copy in color. Works fantastic. Remains to test the wifi printing and the NFC printing… and the scanning. It installs a TWAIN driver. I thought TWAIN was dead? I didn’t buy this printer for the scanning though as I have an old Canon scanner and VueScan to run it. But I will try the scanning too.

It is nice to finally be able to print at all and not having big blue blemishes all over the print-out… The Samsung toners also cost less than the HP ones.

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Samsung Color Laser Printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Posted by nini in Nerdish, office, Thoughts, Various, 0 comments

Apple Photos, no thanks

Photos for Mac

Photos for Mac, screenshot from Apple.com

With the system update to Mac OS X 10.10.3 you also got the Apple application Photos installed, automatically. One thing it also did at installation was to remove the icon in the Dock for iPhotos. Thankfully it did NOT remove the iPhoto application, just the icon in the Dock. Which is bad enough. I, as a user, should control what I have in my Dock or what I don’t have.

The first time you start Pictures, it wants you to convert your iPhoto Library to Photos. It also wants you to place your images in the Cloud for access from all your different devices. Converting the Library takes for ever and a lot of harddisk space if you have a large iPhoto Library. If you don’t have enough space on your harddisk, Photos will tell you so.

Opening Photos is a disappointment. Both the way the images are organized there, and in particular how it manages imports from a camera. It has several controls to edit your photos and to upload them to various places (except to Instagram). It also has several controls for how ro create various outputs like calendars, photobooks etc. More information here.

First time I tried to import photos from my camera I got a big chock. I shoot in jpg and raw. What did it import? Only the jpgs! No raw files at all. Which is really odd as it imported all the raws from the iPhoto Library on conversion and correctly states that they are raw files. But not when it imports directly from the camera. No raw files.

When using iPhoto, I had no such problems. When using iPhoto I also could remove photos from camera from within iPhoto after done with the import. There is a control for this in Photos too, but it has problems and doesn’t do it as seamlessly and effortlessly as iPhoto does/did. It gets stuck and locks the entire machine (at least in my case).

My conclusion was: do not use Photos. It is only good for amateurs who shoot with their iPhones and do not have any particular demands on how to manage their photos. It might be a good companion to the iPhone, but not so good that I will use it. And it doesn’t do RAW.

So, today I deleted the image library created by Photos when converting from iPhoto. I opened iPhoto again and repaired its iPhoto Library. Then imported my latest photos (all taken after April 28th in my case and saved separately to another folder on the harddisk).

I then wanted to delete the Photos application… but no, Apple won’t let me do that! (It is just like they won’t let me remove certain application son my iPhone). Why??

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Screenshot. Removal of Photos? No, not allowed.

Many have had complaints on iPhoto over the years – particularly in the way it stores photos in various folders inside the application and library. But, compared to Photos, iPhoto was/is a wonder of a competent application in so many ways. I will miss it. Or does Apple allow me to keep it? Will forthcoming OS-updates allow it to exist and open? That we don’t know presently.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge. Image from Adobe.com

I am aware that iPhoto probably will disappear one of these days as it is discontinued. So it is high time to change my workflow when it comes to managing my photos.

I’ve used several applications for managing photos over the years. My workflow, since Adobe Bridge appeared (2003), has been to upload jpgs and raws from camera via Adobe Photodownloader into Bridge and a dedicated folder on my harddisk. I then import (directly from camera) to Adobe Lightroom. I then import to iPhoto and empty the card in the camera when done and remove the camera from the iMac.

Why so many applications? To be sure to have an unedited version of my images somewhere. They also get backed up to an external harddisk every night. All of them. When I need more space on my main harddisk in the iMac I move the oldest photos to another external harddisk from the folder where they originally got uploaded to Bridge and delete them from the iMac. That also deletes them from the backupdisk the coming night. I also burn them to CDs/DVDs to get yet another backup copy.

When photos are imported to harddisk I then use Adobe Bridge in connection with Adobe Camera Raw for eventual editing of the photos and saving out a web-version (settings in Bridge) to a folder where I keep the photos I use in my two blogs.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

The images in iPhoto I hardly ever edit. And IF I did, it has an option to export original which does just that, exports the original photo without edits, to a folder of your choice.

I realize I will have to stop using iPhoto. Whatever is still in there will be exported to one of my external harddrives. I will then get rid of iPhoto (if Apple lets me…). I guess using Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom will be enough.

I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I don’t like the way you have to have a separate datafile with the images for the storage. Takes up unnecessary space on the harddrive. It is also an odd application with features I really do not like and much too amateuristic for my taste. I’ll stick to Bridge, ACR, Photoshop and Lightroom as soon as I’ve emptied my iPhoto Library.

Photos I will not use. Even Googles Picasa is better than Photos. Wonder why Apple won’t let me delete it and what in the OS uses it? If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge. If you haven’t used Bridge since it was introduced, give it a new chance. It is really good.

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Photography, Thoughts, 0 comments

Problem with disappearing tabs in Google Chrome

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My present version of Google Chrome.

If you are like me and have a lot of active default windows in your browser, and this browser is Google Chrome of the latest version, then you might run into the same problem as I did the other day after some updates. Google Chrome updates automatically in the background.

My default pinned windows.

My default pinned windows.

I have 49 default windows pinned to the screen, which is a 24″ iMac, and set in Preferences to be my startup pages. Might seem like a lot, but those are the ones I check in on every day.

Tab-less browserwindow

Tab-less browserwindow

If you open yet another browserwindow, and the screen isn’t wide enough to show the latest one, you won’t see its tab on screen. It looks as if it doesn’t have any tab.

Screen Shot 2014-11-22 at 10.18.10

It does have a tab though if you drag at the rightmost edge of the browserwindows.

Screen Shot 2014-11-22 at 10.18.38

Disappeared tabs.

If you then drag again at the rightmost edge of the browser-window,  ALL TABS DISAPPEAR.

The same thing happen if you restart Google Chrome with a browser-window  that is wider than your screen. It starts up with just the first, active tab. No other tabs are visible. First time I experienced that I almost panicked.

The first time that happened to me, I though something was broken in Google Chrome and did all kinds of error-solving actions, like restarting the browser, restarting the Mac, resetting Google Chrome to its default and rebuilt the tabs and re-pinned them… Nothing helped.

Screen Shot 2014-11-22 at 10.18.55

Restored browserwindow.

Then I chanced to resize the browser-window… and there they were again, all my pinned tabs.

Easy solution but not obvious. I have so far not found any other way to do it. If anybody knows another way, tell me please.

For a while there I thought I’d have to switch to another browser than Google Chrome (Firefox? Safari?), but there is no longer any need for it now that I know what Chrome does to the tabs.

PS. I have now documented (screenshot of the prefs in Google Chrome) all urls to all my active windows, just in case they would REALLY disappear and I’d have to start from scratch, in Google Chrome, or another browser.

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Various, Web HTML CSS, 14 comments

The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book is here again

aiwowbook

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book is out again. This time for CS6 and CC. I’m one of the testers of the chapters of the book. And this time it is a printed version, on paper. We had a digital pdf version before this one covering the previous CC version. Highly recommended (though I am biased). All updated with techniques and examples for the latest version of Adobe Illustrator.

aiwowbook

Photo:©nini.tjader.2014

Have participated in the WOW Team for a couple of versions by now. I always learn new techniques by testing the chapters about how to do certain things.

I wasn’t always an Adobe Illustrator user. I started out in then Macromedia Freehand – and as most previous Freehand users still miss some of the features it had. But Illustrator is, though slowly, getting there.

Go get your own book either at Amazon or at PeachPit. Available both as e-book and printed book in full color. If you are in Sweden you can get it from Adlibris or Bokus.

aiwowbook

Photo:©nini.tjader.2014

Posted by nini in Art and Drawings, Nerdish, Various, 0 comments

TBT Freehand

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Freehand 4.0 T-shirt. Photo: ©nini.tjader

(TBT Throw Back Thursday) Once upon a time when I first learned to use a vector application for drawing, it was Aldus Freehand that I started out with. In my former life I taught software applications to customers. Freehand was one of them. I even recorded a two-part video about Macromedia Freehand 5.0/5.5 for a education company. Those videos were around for quite some time long after Freehand had more or less disappeared.

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Freehand 5.0/5.5 video. Photo: ©nini.tjader

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Freehand 5.0/5.5 video. Photo: ©nini.tjader

This was around the time when every software company regularly gave out T-shirts in seminars you attended. They were always size L or XL or even XXL. Perfect nighties, but not T-shirts for a smallish person like me. I still have the old Freehand 4.0 T-shirt… And the old videos (on VHS). If nothing else, it is fun watching oneself teaching…

Eventually I had to switch to Adobe Illustrator as Freehand disappeared from the Swedish market. Later Aldus products got first bought by Macromedia and then Freehand was bought by Adobe and in the end Freehand was discontinued in favor of adobe Illustrator. We were many that were sorry about that. There are still several features that Freehand had that to this day has not turned up in Adobe Illustrator. To easily create text on a circle at both top and bottom is just one of those…

Nowadays I am one of the testers of the Illustrator WOW! books for each version. Today I am at home in Illustrator but I still miss some of those smart features that Freehand had and Illustrator still doesn’t…

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Freehand 4.0 T-shirt. Photo: ©nini.tjader

Posted by nini in Nerdish, TBT, 0 comments

New Toys

ipad, ipadcase, touchpen, iphone, iphonecase

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Got myself some new toys… 😉 Having great fun with them.

ipad, ipadcase, touchpen, iphone, iphonecase

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

The case for the iPad Air (leather) is from ElGiganten and I got for no extra cost provided I bought a one year insurance for the iPad. So I did. The pen is from Telenor and cost SEK49 ! Works both on the iPad and the iPhone. The case for the iPhone (leather) is also from Telenor and costs SEK 249.

ipad, ipadcase, touchpen, iphone, iphonecase

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

This is how they look opened up. The outer iPhone case with the sling and space for credit cards is magnetically attached to the inner case and can easily be detached when needed. Really like them.

ipad, ipadcase, touchpen,

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

This is the open case for the iPad. The support-lines for standing it up works really good. I’ve seen many iPad cases where this standing up doesn’t work very well.

Technically speaking: iPad Air 64GB Space Grey WiFi + Cellular and an iPhone 5S with 32 GB Silver.

I am still tweaking the apps and all settings on both. There are apps for the iPhone which do not make sense on the iPad and the other way around. The iPhone was faster to fix (except all the logins) as I had a backup of my old 4S on the Mac. With the iPad I started from scratch as I have never had an iPad before.

So far the only problem I’ve had is that I find the images from the iPhone 5S to have less information in  and quality (smaller in size, fuzzy, resolution not as good) than the images from my old iPhone 4S. Hard to prove by looking at the phone. Can only be seen if you import to computer and open them in Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop. I’ve so far not tested the camera in the iPad. Who takes pictures with an iPad? Normally I don’t even take pictures with iPhone, I use my Canon G15. Taking pictures with the iPhone I only do when the camera is not with me.

ipad, ipadcase, touchpen, iphone, iphonecase

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Various, 0 comments

I’ve been busy…

adobeapplications

Tried to capture the list of all the Adobe applications installed on my iMac… Almost made it. My 24″ screen couldn’t cover them all… but you get the idea…

Most of the day before yesterday was occupied by installing the latest of all Adobe applications which were released then. For a long while I had problems with the Adobe Creative Cloud application which didn’t want to cooperate. But I solved that in the end and all is well again. I also had to remove all versions CS5 and CS5.5 applications to get enough space on my harddisk first. That also meant that I finally uninstalled Adobe GoLive which served me well for many years. Do I use all of the above? No, not really, but most of them on and off. My main applications are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Bridge, Dreamweaver in no particular order. Bridge and Photoshop I use daily.

Now most of the new versions are in on my iMac. Remains to do the MacBookPro. The iPhone and the iPad have both got the new apps from Adobe.

The CC 2014 versions are what is new. Not an update to the CC versions, but new versions with great new features.

 Check out the new features in the new versions here.

Posted by nini in Nerdish, 0 comments

iTunes sync iPhone error with Photos (1723)

Screen Shot 2014-05-25 at 11.17.13

Had this error for some time. iPhone backed up just fine to the computer, but it refused to finish the sync and got stuck on importing photos. I was also unable to remove photos from the iPhone. And iPhoto didn’t see the photos on the iPhone. The synced album I removed from iPhoto, but that didn’t help.

Today I googled the above error and found a reply on the Apple support pages. It was this:

Luigin

May 16, 2014 11:38 AM

I’ve had this same problem, and after several tries I finally solved it. It seems to be related with a corruption of the iPhoto Library:

1. Quit iTunes.

2. Open Finder, and go to wherever your iPhoto library is stored (usually ~/Pictures).

3. Right-click on the iPhoto Library and select “Show package contents”

4. Delete the “iPod Photo Cache” folder

5. Close the finder window

6. Open iPhoto. It might take some time for it to reload the library, but it’s ok.

7. When iPhoto finishes loading the library and you can browse your photos, close iPhoto

8. Open iTunes, goto your device’s Photo tab, and make shure the Sync photos options is UNCHECKED

9. Sync your device

10. After the sync finishes, CHECK the sync photo option. It will ask if the photos already in the device should be overwritten. I anserwered yes

11. Select which photos, events, albums or faces you want to sync,

12.- Sync your device again, and it should do it, including your photos

 Hope this helps.

——–

It helped. I could again sync the iPhone to my Mac. Even though I do not even HAVE an iPod…

BUT I was now stuck with the photos from iPhoto on the iPhone without any option to delete the Album from the iPhone.

So I tried this from within iTunes with NO photos or albums selected.

Screen Shot 2014-05-25 at 12.06.12

… and finally got rid of the photos from the iPhone too.

Wanted to add that to the post at the Apple support pages but the Apple Support pages wouldn’t let me in despite a valid Apple ID which I can login with for anything else. It wanted me to add a username for the support pages. However, that was impossible because my Apple ID email was already used. Apple wanted me to use another email… So in principle Apple wants me to create another Apple ID with another email-account to be able to login to the Apple Support Pages… Moment 22… No, I will not do that. Two of my email addresses are already registered with Apple. Have one more I could use, but…

At least the immediate problem with the syncing from/to the iPhone is solved.

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Posted by nini in Nerdish, 0 comments

Desktop Pictures

tumbadalen, desktop,

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Yesterday I shot this picture. Made me think of a certain desktop picture for Windows that is widely used. I am on a Mac so it has never been mine, but I’ve seen it. Similar to this. Blue sky, green fields…

I’ve always loved desktop pictures/desktop backgrounds. Have collected them for many years. It is one of the things that make looking at your screen a little bit more interesting than the work you are doing… Or to get a bit of a change of the view with the desktop picture.

I’ve my desktop pictures set at automatically changing every 30 minute randomly. And at restart (which nowadays doesn’t happen all that often).  System presently has 1.749 pictures to choose between… Yes I do delete pictures now and then and I could definitely reduce that number a bit… But, they are low-res images so do not take up all that much space on the harddisk (524MB as a matter of fact).

I’ve mainly collected my desktop pictures for the Mac at Macdesktops.com. They don’t add any new ones nowadays, but for many years you could participate and send in your pictures to share with the rest of the world as desktop pictures. The old pictures are still there, but they no longer accept any new ones. I have quite a few there myself. They are regular .jpg images so can be used on any computer, not just Macs.

Might be that Mac-users more frequently used desktop pictures as we normally do not cover the entire screen with the applications used. Macs can do that too nowadays, but most Mac-users who have never been Windows-users do not use that function.

I also had desktop pictures for download at my own old site. Those are still there but I have not added any new ones for a couple of years. I only provided them in one size – 1280×1024, which is a very odd size today. It wasn’t then… Macdesktops.com provides them in several sizes, so you can choose according to your screensize. Even if the picture is not in accordance with your screensize it can still be used as a desktop picture.

So what makes a good desktop picture? Depends on what kind of images you like. Personally I prefer landscapes, no people or animals. I find those restful to look at when thinking about something else.

People who work with images/photos normally do not want desktop pictures – they prefer a neutral grey screen background that will not interfere with the colors in the image they work with. For me personally, having a desktop picture has never disturbed me when working with images. But that’s me.

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This is one of my own desktop pictures at Macdesktop.com from 2002.

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Posted by nini in Nerdish, Photography, 0 comments