Once in a while I get a phone call with a question much like this:

Customer: “I wanted to copy some files, but it doesn’t work!”

Me: “OK, do you get an error of some kind?”

Customer: “Yes, it says: Error 33″

Me: “Oh, OK, that helps” (to be honest I don’t have a clue because I don’t know every error code in OS X)

Most of the time after talking with the client I finally figure out that it’s a full disk or some of the files are corrupt, or something else, either way I get it fixed! Still I thought to myself; “Need to digg a little deeper into this error code thing”.

So I (finally) did and today I got pointed to a very nice overview on all the error codes in OS X. It’s an Apple document which gives you a good idea on what the error means. Just follow the list and you get pointed in the right direction.

Apple Document 9805

This could be very helpful when helping clients out. I’m going to learn some fairly common errors so that I can impress my clients by saying…

Me: “Ahh, error the good ‘ol -34. It means that your disk is full. Time to do some spring cleaning on your harddisk”

Client: “Wow, you are amazing!” (client thinks: “I have the best computer engineer in the world”)

Me (thinks): “Need to increase my hourly fees”

Follow me on Twitter: John van Leeuwen

Adobe dropped the ball on a couple of updates they released last friday. The bugs in the software could cause a lot of grief. Hopefully some of my clients did not installed the updates, otherwise it’s going to get a busy week. No phone calls yet, so fingers crossed!

The thing I can’t understand is that when you release an update you don’t test it thoroughly. I mean this is not a little company with one or two developers, this is Adobe!! They should now what to do and what is expected of them when they are releasing an update. Test, development, test, development, test, accept, release… How hard can it be?

Either way, the following bugs are discovered in this latest update:

EXIF Timestamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file itself. This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of your image data.

Olympus Conversion Error: There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in.
The recommedation is that you uninstall this update. Here is how you should do this:

On the Mac
Delete the Lightroom from the Application folder and delete the following file: Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkgL

On windows
Running the uninstaller would do the trick.

It’s a sad that users should deal with stuff like this. Especially when the lack in testing is to blame!

Follow me on twitter: Benignus

I’m not big on using skins on the programs I use. At the moment I only use a skin for Adium.
Especially when it concerns the Apple GUI I really don’t feel urge to use skins.

Yesterday I got tempted to use Dock Library and actually tried it out! It’s a freeware program with loads of skins to check out on various sites. If you like to “spice up your dock” this is a very nice little App.

This is how my dock looks like after Dock Library spiced it up!

John’s dock

Wow, that was fast… Apple released Safari 3.01 for windows already.
I guess this had everything to do with the “zero day” exploit that was discovered…

The bugs “up close and personal”

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3186
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A command injection vulnerability exists in the Windows version of Safari 3 Public Beta. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional processing and validation of URLs.
This does not pose a security issue on Mac OS X systems, but could lead to an unexpected termination of the Safari browser.

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3185
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: An out-of-bounds memory read issue in Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution when visiting a malicious website. This issue does not affect Mac OS X systems.

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-2391
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may allow cross-site scripting
Description: A race condition in Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows may allow cross site scripting. Visiting a maliciously crafted web page may allow access to JavaScript objects or the execution of arbitrary JavaScript in the context of another web page. This issue does not affect Mac OS X systems.

You can download the patch by running the software update tool or by downloading the update on the following location:
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

In addition to last night’s post, here is the complete list of the Apple Design Awards winners and runner-ups. Hardwaremac.com posted a great list:

Best Mac OS X Leopard Application
Winner– Delicious Library 2.0 (alpha)
Runner-up – iBank 3.0a

Best Mac OS X User Experience
Winner– Coda 1.0
Runner-up – Sandvox 1.2

Best Mac OS X Developer Tool
Winner– CSSEdit 2.5
Runner-up – rooSwitch 1.1.8

Best Mac OS X Game
Winner – World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0
Runner-up – Wacky Mini Golf 1.01

Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution
Winner – Papers 1.0
Runner-up – SingleCrystal 1.3

Dashboard Widget
Winner – BART Widget 1.0
Runner-up – PEMDAS 1.1

Best Mac OS X Student Product
Winner – Picturesque 1.0
Runner-up – Pathway 1.0

Tags: apple, mac, macintosh, apple design awards

I’m attending the WWDC conference this week and after the keynote (that was a little disappointing) yesterday, we had an amazing night!

I went to the 2007 WWDC Development Awards. The application that blew me away was Picturesque. This app makes your pictures look awesome within a couple of clicks! I would highly recommend it.

Really, give it a shot!

Picturesque

Tags: picturesque, wwdc, apple, osx

Sometimes this just happens… You insert a CD, try to eject it, and it gets stuck in the process.

Here’s something you can do that has helped me out more than once!

• First, reboot your system and hold the mouse button.
• Second, fire up your terminal and type the following command:
  drutil tray eject 0

This command never fails and will, if your CD-ROM drive isn’t broken, pop-out your CD or DVD!

Tags: apple, osx, terminal, cd/dvd

I personally like the “Hello I’m a PC, and I’m a Mac” ads; they always give me some good laughs. As you probably know, the UK started its own series of Mac ads with its own PC and Mac guys. It’s all good fun, especially if you’re into the British humor!

Yesterday, Apple launched a couple of new UK ads and they’re really fun, especially the “network” one! Awesome stuff..

Check them out:

UK Mac Ads

Tags: mac ad, fun, apple, os x, i’m a pc, i’m a mac

Yes, I did it… I talked my sister into buying a MacBook. She is already owns an iBook, but that machine (after five years of hard labor) is on the brink of falling apart, so she really needed a new machine!

But, due to the fact that my whole family uses the PC, she had some doubts if she really would continue to work with Apple! So I asked her the following question: “What do you want to do with you machine?” The answer was simple: “Video editing, keep track on my photos, some surfing, email, and a bit of Word and Excel.

Okay, my only reaction at that point was: Duh… Mac… nothing else! So she is going for the following configuration:

• 2,0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB
• 80-GB harde schijf
• SuperDrive met double-layer-ondersteuning

Exactly the same configuration like I have at this moment! I’m loving my MacBook! ;)

Tags: macbook, apple, video editing, digital photo