Doctor Happy Mac Blog

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89793433326361720492011-11-28T01:19:21.936ZDoctor Happy Mac BlogThoughts from the head of a traveling Apple Mac support and training guy.Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-47503586357865642382009-11-30T15:21:00.003Z2009-11-30T15:32:59.477ZBT Openzone - king of annoyances.

I'm learning to love BT Openzone. In a "I'm starting to really really hate BT Openzone sort of way". Since a BT Openzone hotspot comes "free" with every BT router, there are rather a lot of them dotted around the place, they show up like weeds every time your computer scans for available wireless networks. Leaving aside the fact that fairly regularly my own BT broadband bandwidth isn't exactly up

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-18850982231724798072009-11-21T10:26:00.003Z2009-11-21T10:52:06.615Z24 hours @ tescos

My local Tesco store (Cirencester) is open for 24 hours. I wonder what it's like to spend 24 hours in a giant supermarket?Annual BBC TV charity event Children in Need provided the impetus for me to find out. 24 hours in a 24 hour store. Obviously if I had just asked them, they would have said yes, sit in the corner out of the way, see you same time tomorrow. There's no fun in that and if CiN has

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-71105025639474138422009-11-14T20:57:00.002Z2009-11-14T20:57:49.468Z24 hours in Tesco's

My local Tesco is open for 24 hours so, I thought it might be neat to try to spend a whole 24 hours in the store and to raise some money in the process.Now, if I asked I'm sure that Tesco would say fine, but that's not fun, so I'm not going to be asking, just staying. If anyone asks me what I'm doing hanging around the store, then that's it, game over.I'm guessing that during daylight it's not

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-37533566306034622082009-10-27T20:27:00.004Z2009-10-27T20:38:55.269Z27inches small

My first iMac had a 13 inch screen, my last TV had a 27 inch one. Now, it looks like the computer has started to catch up with the TV since the new iMac boasts a huge 27in LCD. OK, so TV screens have grown much much larger, but 27 inches, on a computer screen. Why?One clue as to where Apple may be going with this is in the fact that the 27in iMac models are available with a standard VESA mount,

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-15482234166396946912009-09-27T12:50:00.003+01:002009-09-27T13:04:06.675+01:00How very very annoying.

Because I spend a lot of time loading fresh installs of OSX in 10.4 and 10.5 flavours onto customers Macs following drive replacements or upgrades I don't really have the time to sit through the time it takes to install from the original DVD. Leopard in particular can take a long time to install on slower macs.Instead I keep a disk image of each installer on the server and use that, much much

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-38906320143687232442009-07-31T17:42:00.002+01:002009-07-31T17:54:18.269+01:00Does the world need an Apple tablet?

From the hype surrounding the iPhone you would think the world would be clamouring for Apple's much rumoured and seemingly oft delayed Tablet Mac (or SuperiPhone if you will). Are Apple about to repeat the iPhone trick with the tablet and will the world go crazy again.Netbook sales are still on the up and up. On the face of it it looks like somewhere Apple should be (and no the Air is not a

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-83969848214549545472009-06-25T13:19:00.002+01:002009-06-25T13:34:13.799+01:00The great iPhone price gouge?

Welcome to the UK, happy land where consumer electronics cost more than almost anywhere else. It's been a feature of computers and tech that the price of an item in teh UK will not so much reflect the current GBP/USD exchange rate, as be a direct pound for dollar exchange. You pay $99 in the US, we pay £99 in the UK. So far so rippy.Now that we are all used to this stage of affairs companies have

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-27921592706639455422009-05-31T21:41:00.004+01:002009-05-31T22:10:21.683+01:00That's Digital Quality

Listen to those funny old recordings of old music on those 78rpm records. laugh at how tinny they sound. Recently recordings have been unearthed of the oldest recorded sound known, from 1860.click to hear soundFrom this point on the quality of recording human sounds has increased in leaps and bounds. In the same fashion the quality of our recorded images has also improved substantially, from the

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-76325422373514868392009-05-19T22:27:00.007+01:002009-05-19T22:47:24.027+01:00Many years useful service

Mac users can often be heard to remark how reliable their Macs can be, and how much longer a Mac can last doing useful work compared to a PC. Certainly I see a significant number of clients that are quite happy with their older hardware. Mostly this translates into G4 towers, which are the Abrams tanks of the Mac world; heavy but basically indestructible. They may not set the world alight but

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-26265651368592163452009-04-30T19:30:00.004+01:002009-04-30T19:49:12.303+01:00Man that's a cool phone

Slim, attractive, easy to use. The coolest phone I own. That's my iPhone obviously? Well, yes, at the moment it is but I was actually thinking of another phone. One that popped into my head while listening to various tech podcasters fighting over which phone was better, Blackberry, iPhone or G1. My old Ericsson T28.I've always had a soft spot for Ericssons design style from way way back and the

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-62125486065859903252009-02-28T14:46:00.003Z2009-02-28T15:00:16.959ZThe future of Music on your computer?

iTunes competitors come, and iTunes competitors go. The number of startups that promised to overturn Apples enormous advantage in on line music is almost as large as the number of Nigerians that promise to make me a millionaire. The one thing they have all had in common until recently is their singular lack of success.Generally, the reason for this is held to be Apple unique one, two punch combo

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-53252960217686145932009-02-18T22:01:00.004Z2009-02-18T22:55:47.788ZMac Collecting

Given that people will collect anything (ceramic frogs, beermats, fingernails) it's not surprising that older Macs should attract they eye of the collector.But just how collectable are these older Macs and if they are which ones should you be holding on to?They answer to the first part is, at the moment, not very. With the exception of the Lisa (which wasn't really a Mac), the chances of getting

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-90496939387800620842009-01-05T22:33:00.003Z2009-01-05T22:50:58.694ZIf it's Tuesday it must be MacWorld

Tuesday the 5th. MacWorld 2009. The last show with Apple in attendance and the first without his Steveness at the keynote helm. The internet runneth over with gushings on why SJ is not doing the keynote, ranging from: "he hates you and he doesn't want to speak to you" to "he died seven years ago man. There was a picture of him in Newsweek without any shoes on so it must be true".Despite all that

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-7011423499239844912009-01-05T10:20:00.002Z2009-01-05T10:28:40.977ZHello 2009

OK, so that was a long one. Surely anyone should come back from that extended Christams break fighting fit and ready to go. (cough, hack, sneeze). I need a holiday.OK so what happens next? Well firstly I have decided. No really really decided that this blog will henceforth be daily. Even if it's only a few words. I'm out and about every day so I really should have more to say about the life of an

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-12242904944651958752008-12-07T21:58:00.001Z2008-12-07T21:59:55.151ZGet your contacts out of AOL the easy way.

If you've been an internet user for a long time, you will probably remember a period in the mid nineties when every delivery of mail contained a few bills, maybe a letter; and around 26 small cardboard enveloped containing AOL set up CD-ROMS. Thankfully it seems that the shiny plague has past, but the legacy of 10 years of intensive marketing is that a lot of internet users started out using AOL

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-18116231025102195752008-10-05T20:37:00.003+01:002008-10-05T20:59:48.060+01:00World Wide Words

Streaming video, it's the darling baby of the internet, or maybe it's HD movie downloads, or flash animation. Whatever it is it seems to be pictures, moving pictures. However there's something else that I've been enjoying on the web and it is infact words.There are many ways to get words from the web, some cost money but most are surprisingly free. Starting with the most expensive, we have audio

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-19129126742976641272008-08-02T08:32:00.003+01:002008-08-02T08:43:30.881+01:00iPhone mania - the update

OK, so that was hard. Thanks not only to the expected supply issues but also O2's almost totally opaque business upgrade policy and computer systems, it seemed like I was never going to battle through!. However, big kudos to the nice folks at the O2 shop in Stroud, Glos, who texted me when they had stock come in (unlike Cheltenham, who took my details several times and threw then directly into

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-8971170225849663542008-07-13T19:46:00.002+01:002008-07-13T20:00:15.280+01:00iPhone...what iPhone

Dateline Friday July 11th. The day that rabid PR executives worldwide had decreed to be known as I-day, or iPhone-day, or perhaps frI-day. Who knows. Whatever, big business had successfully managed to smuggle enough mind altering chemicals into my coffee to ensure that I would decide to join the day one gang and become one of the iPhoned.So how did I do. Initial efforts had gone poorly, very

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-11324944141166355022008-06-19T21:57:00.004+01:002008-12-11T00:59:53.662ZMake the most of mail

Web apps such as Firefox and Safari seem to have inspired people to both create and use a wide range of plug ins that are designed to customise the users experience to help specific browsing styles, but maybe because it's such a workaday program most people seem to use Apple Mail as it comes, straight out of the box. While basic mail (and particularly Leopard Mail (mail3) makes a pretty good job

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-82982381081239350182008-06-06T20:17:00.003+01:002008-06-09T20:37:33.708+01:0010 hidden gems

OK so you;re getting the basics but you can always learn a wee bity more. Here (quickly) are ten handy hints that you might not know you can do with OSX Leopard (or other versions of OS X)1) Time Machine. It works great on files but did you know you can use it from inside apps such as iPhoto. If you've deleted a needed photo it's no problem. You can entrer the time machine interface while running

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-54604843758152082412008-04-05T14:18:00.004+01:002008-04-05T14:56:05.802+01:00Intel iMac hard drive or superdrive replacement

Firstly... my apologies for not posting any pictures with this, but I didn't have my camera or phone with me when I did this and I'm not doing it again just to get some pictures. So bear with me and I'll try to paint as accurate a picture with mere words.A customer recently sent in their Intel iMac 17in, having inserted a floppy promotional DVD into the superdrive and well and truly gumming up

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-81868091678088112192008-03-12T20:48:00.005Z2008-03-21T21:54:52.069ZMan sized tears

Filling in some playlists on my ipod yesterday I came up with an idea for a list of songs that can make grown men well up, not through cheesy sentimentality (no moon in june for my ipod) but by evoking intense emotion that can be both saddening but also uplifting.A quick flit though my music library unearthed a top five. I'll try to make this into a top ten in another post but for now here are

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-2382974575469307412008-03-09T21:30:00.002Z2008-03-09T21:53:02.156ZAre you happy with your Mac?

So, there I am. Sitting on a train from London back to the Cotswolds. In the carriage are the normal commuters and day trippers, settling in for the couple of hours journey. On display the normal range of PC laptops, busy doing their daily duty, spreading sheets and wording docs. In such a situation you know that by pulling out a Powerbook you are instantly standing out from the crowd, but that's

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-1675481487918243012008-03-05T17:37:00.003Z2008-03-09T21:53:55.897ZTHIN end of the wedge?

MacBook Air. Nice eh?. Apples' newest and the world's thinnest laptop is one of those products that just makes you want it. A fully featured laptop, never the less the Air has had to make some compromises in the name of sveltness (if that's even a word), namely a decent set of ports and an optical drive.OK so you can add on a small superdrive and attach ethernet via the USB dongle thingey but

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-91150022668237298202008-03-03T15:48:00.006Z2008-12-11T00:59:53.878ZShowtime!

Something different this week. A trade show. Not for Macs but for my side job, wallpaper murals (see www.mywonderwall.co.uk). The show was the Baby Show at London's ExCel centre and lasted three days. Outside of the show, I ended up staying at a friends apartment in Woolich. Not the most upmarket part of London at the moment but given the amount of development going on, it soon will be. 10,000

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-13237355693146748932008-02-21T22:08:00.002Z2008-02-21T22:26:14.225ZShock of the New

Do you lust after the latest and greatest gadget, even if you're not quite sure what it even does or how you're going to use it? While all companies use our instinctive desire for new product against us, it seems that one, Apple , has elevated this ability to push our "new product" buttons to an artform. iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air, AppleTV, it seems that if it has randomly placed capital letters

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8979343332636172049.post-32166157832542206342008-02-20T01:51:00.002Z2008-02-20T12:36:12.396ZWelcome to the Doctor Happy Mac blog

Welcome to the Doctor Happy Mac blog. The interactive companion to the new Doctor Happy Mac website. This blog is designed to give me a space to chat about my life as an itinerant Mac support specialist. Going out and about, meeting people and seeing how and why they choose and use their Mac computers (and iPhones and iPods etc) means that I often come across items and thoughts that I consider

Doctor Happy Machttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11557480349627510731noreply@blogger.com