The Best (and Worst) of Leopard

On Nov 3, 2007, at 10:19 AM, Kevin van Haaren wrote:

> I'm confused by all this. My menu bar doesn't appear to be
> transparent.
> Using the Abstract desktop pictures in System Preferences, no matter
> what
> picture I pick the menu bar appears the same color.

Kevin, I have one of the early iMac G5's, and also have a pretty
solid Menu Bar -- hurrah!

Here's the reason:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306894
One has to have a (newer?) Mac with a graphics card that is
"compatible with Core Image."
More info here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347

Joan

On Nov 3, 2007, at 7:19 AM, Kevin van Haaren <kevinvanhaaren.net>
wrote:
> I'm confused by all this. My menu bar doesn't appear to be
> transparent.
> Using the Abstract desktop pictures in System Preferences, no matter
> what
> picture I pick the menu bar appears the same color.
>
> Samples:
> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample1.png>
> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample2.png>
> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample3.png>
>
> I did an erase and install and haven't installed anything (that I'm
> aware
> of) that would make the menu bar opaque.

Do you have an older Mac? On systems that aren't CoreImage-capable,
you don't get the new transparent menu bar. An advantage, in this
case, of having an older Mac ;-)

At 7:32 AM -0700 11/3/07, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:
>At 10:24 AM -0700 11/3/07, Denis or Janet Jarvis wrote:
>>On Nov 2, 2007, at 5:25 AM, Michael Krzyzek wrote:
>>
>>>On 11/1/07, Denis Jarvis <dbjarvispeak.org
>>
>>My (Apple-supplied) Downloads folder is also in my home directory at
>>the top level, not in Desktop. (My old ~/Documents/Downloads folder
>>survived intact.)
.
.
>I don't think excluding Desktop means not having the Apple-supplied
>Downloads fold backed up by Time Machine. Too many negatives. I
>think the Apple-supplied Downloads folder will be backed up just
>fine. The one that appears in the dock, that is.
>
>An exception might be a machine which had a Downloads folder on the
>Desktop and had that in the dock.
>
>No guessing is required...go to the Downloads folder/stack in the
>dock, select Show in Finder from its menu, trigger Time Machine, and
>see if the right things are there for the time of the most recent backup.

The combination of ~/Downloads and Time Machine merits some consideration.
As supplied, if you use Safari to download a 140 MB installation of
NeoOffice, then it will go into the ~/Downloads folder. This is
intended as a temporary file, prior to installation but, if you are
delayed and you are unlucky and get the worst case, Time Machine will
copy it to backup where it may stay there until the disc is full.
There are many similar downloads which waste transfer and disc
resources.

The system that I use may not be suitable for everyone but does avoid
the above problem. Change Preferences for Safari, and any other
application than has big downloads, so that it downloads to the
Desktop and not ~/Downloads. Empty ~/Downloads and remove it from
the Dock. It cannot be deleted normally but is just ignored. Exclude
Desktop from Time Machine. I find it easier to deal with such files
on the Desktop and being visible ensures I do not leave them lying
about.

Denis Jarvis

--On November 3, 2007 11:31:09 AM -0600 "LewisGmail" <gkremegmail.com>
wrote:

> On 3-Nov-2007, at 08:19, Kevin van Haaren wrote:
>> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample1.png>
>> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample2.png>
>> <http://files.superfantasmoworld.com/Sample3.png>
>
> I hate you. :)
>
> OK, now, how did you do that because NOTHING I have tried has worked,
> including the little hackplication that was supposed to do just this.
> It's driving me batty.

I wish I knew. I can only think of a couple of possibilities - I have
accessibility turned on (zoom functions). Turning it off doesn't make the
menu bar transparent.

Perhaps my video card is too old? Other transparencies like the new
Terminal windows, work fine though. I'm running on a PPC Mac mini
(original version). System profiler dump is below. I wonder if it's the
Core Image: Software that makes mine work normally (or what I consider
normal).


ATI Radeon 9200:

  Chipset Model: ATY,RV280
  Type: Display
  Bus: AGP
  VRAM (Total): 32 MB
  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
  Device ID: 0x5962
  Revision ID: 0x0001
  ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-116
  Displays:
LCD1735NXM:
  Resolution: 1280 x 1024 60 Hz
  Depth: 32-bit Color
  Core Image: Software
  Main Display: Yes
  Mirror: Off
  Online: Yes
  Quartz Extreme: Supported
  Rotation: Supported

--On November 3, 2007 2:09:17 PM -0700 Joan Miller <jdmillertwcny.rr.com>
wrote:

> Here's the reason:
> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306894
> One has to have a (newer?) Mac with a graphics card that is
> "compatible with Core Image."
> More info here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347

I should've read this message before replying to the message in my inbox.
Looks like my guess there was correct, if System Profiler reports your Core
Image is running in software you'll get a solid menu bar.

On Nov 3, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Denis Jarvis wrote:
> At 7:32 AM -0700 11/3/07, johnbaxterlistsmac.com wrote:
>> At 10:24 AM -0700 11/3/07, Denis or Janet Jarvis wrote:
>>> On Nov 2, 2007, at 5:25 AM, Michael Krzyzek wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11/1/07, Denis Jarvis <dbjarvispeak.org
>>>
>>> My (Apple-supplied) Downloads folder is also in my home directory at
>>> the top level, not in Desktop. (My old ~/Documents/Downloads folder
>>> survived intact.)
> .
> .
>> I don't think excluding Desktop means not having the Apple-supplied
>> Downloads fold backed up by Time Machine. Too many negatives. I
>> think the Apple-supplied Downloads folder will be backed up just
>> fine. The one that appears in the dock, that is.
>>
>> An exception might be a machine which had a Downloads folder on the
>> Desktop and had that in the dock.
>>
>> No guessing is required...go to the Downloads folder/stack in the
>> dock, select Show in Finder from its menu, trigger Time Machine, and
>> see if the right things are there for the time of the most recent
>> backup.
>
> The combination of ~/Downloads and Time Machine merits some
> consideration.
> As supplied, if you use Safari to download a 140 MB installation of
> NeoOffice, then it will go into the ~/Downloads folder. This is
> intended as a temporary file, prior to installation but, if you are
> delayed and you are unlucky and get the worst case, Time Machine will
> copy it to backup where it may stay there until the disc is full.
> There are many similar downloads which waste transfer and disc
> resources.
>
> The system that I use may not be suitable for everyone but does avoid
> the above problem. Change Preferences for Safari, and any other
> application than has big downloads, so that it downloads to the
> Desktop and not ~/Downloads. Empty ~/Downloads and remove it from
> the Dock. It cannot be deleted normally but is just ignored. Exclude
> Desktop from Time Machine. I find it easier to deal with such files
> on the Desktop and being visible ensures I do not leave them lying
> about.
>

Or, get lucky about timing.

Or with more certainty, turn Time Machine's automation off before the
download, and back on after you've disposed of the downloaded file.

Either way, if the big download is no longer there at the next Time
Machine backup, it won't be backed up.

Time Machine didn't *have* to work that way, but it seems to.

   --John

I was concerned about Leopard and all the terrible things that it did. I've installed Leopard, and I have to say it isn't the disaster people were hinting at:

The transparent Menus: I really have no problems with the menus. I've tried dozens of different desktops, but although the desktop appeared somewhat through the menu, it never really was unreadable. This despite choosing desktops that I thought would cause the most problems. The Menubar never faded from view no matter how bright, colorful, or annoying the background.

It probably wasn't something that affected me all that much anyway. I tend to put a large grey border on all my background pictures because I find that backgrounds obscure the icons on my desktop. The grey border allows me to easily see the few icons I do keep on my desktop on the right hand side.

The Dock: People complained about the new reflective Dock as being distracting. The light blue lights that show which apps are active as being hard to see, and the behavior of folders, and the way stacks work as being terrible.

The Dock, new or old, is probably the least loved aspect of Mac OS X. Many people would like to get rid of the Dock entirely and use programs like PathFinder, Launcher, or QuickSilver instead. However, I find the new dock more attractive. The use of blue lights instead of the black rectangles actually makes more sense (light = on/dark = off), and I don't find them hard to see no matter what background I use. In fact, I've moved my dock from the side to the bottom of the screen under Leopard.

Not all is skittle and beer with the new dock. The "stacks" *could* be a nice feature. In Tiger, you had to right click then scroll in order to see what was in your folder, or you had to click, bring up a finder window, then scroll. If a folder only has a few items in it, the Fan makes it easy to find. I find the Grid a bit more troubling because the background tends to interfere with the icons a bit too much. Plus, the long file names don't display completely which makes it hard to find what I am looking for. Someone's gotta tell Jobs that some people actually use their Macs for MS-Word documents and not movies and pictures. Looking at a grid of 80+ MS-Word document icons doesn't really help all that much. I know Mac has great multi-media potential, but most of my work is still with boring words.

I don't mind the Grid and Fan view. What I would like is the option to do the old Tiger scroll view again.

The other problem with the Doc is that the folder icons disappear, and a stack of files appear instead. This is an absolute disaster, and make no sense at all. After all, the document I am interested in will probably not be the one on top of the stack.

Help: The new help is nice with the search text box. I also find that the help screen comes up a lot faster than before. The fact that help dialog boxes insist on staying on top, even when you switch out of that application, is a bit annoying. But, at least they no longer get buried under a bunch of windows.

Mail: Notes and To Do is nice, and Todos are integrated with iCal. The RSS feeds is a disappointment. I was hoping it was a replacement for NetNewsWire. However, you can't organize your RSS feeds, and even worse, you can't see the HTTP that the feed contains. You click on the "more" link of your feed, and it opens up in Safari.

Timemachine: Worth the price of admission and the extra disk drive. I've already used it to recover accidently deleted files. Very nice. It replaces my cron job I had before.

======================================= Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd =======================================

David Weintraub davidweintraubworld.net davidweintraub.name

On 3-Nov-2007, at 15:11, Denis Jarvis wrote:
> The system that I use may not be suitable for everyone but does avoid
> the above problem. Change Preferences for Safari, and any other
> application than has big downloads, so that it downloads to the
> Desktop and not ~/Downloads. Empty ~/Downloads and remove it from
> the Dock. It cannot be deleted normally but is just ignored. Exclude
> Desktop from Time Machine. I find it easier to deal with such files
> on the Desktop and being visible ensures I do not leave them lying
> about.


I exclude my desktop and downloads folders from TM, but I do use the
Downloads stack which is the only thing that is useable about stacks.

I have it set to sort by date added, and always in fan. Makes it very
easy to pull the files out and drop them on the trash.

On 11/3/2007 1:11 PM, "Denis Jarvis" wrote:
> The combination of ~/Downloads and Time Machine merits some consideration.
> As supplied, if you use Safari to download a 140 MB installation of
> NeoOffice, then it will go into the ~/Downloads folder. This is
> intended as a temporary file, prior to installation but, if you are
> delayed and you are unlucky and get the worst case, Time Machine will
> copy it to backup where it may stay there until the disc is full.
> There are many similar downloads which waste transfer and disc
> resources.
>
> The system that I use may not be suitable for everyone but does avoid
> the above problem. Change Preferences for Safari, and any other
> application than has big downloads, so that it downloads to the
> Desktop and not ~/Downloads. Empty ~/Downloads and remove it from
> the Dock. It cannot be deleted normally but is just ignored. Exclude
> Desktop from Time Machine. I find it easier to deal with such files
> on the Desktop and being visible ensures I do not leave them lying
> about.

Or just exclude Downloads from Time Machine's backups ;-)

On 2007-11-04, at 03:19, Kevin van Haaren wrote:

> I'm confused by all this. My menu bar doesn't appear to be
> transparent.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306894>:

> The translucent Leopard menu bar appears on computers that are
> equipped with a graphics card which is compatible with Core Image.

On 23-Oct-07, at 5:47 AM, Nigel Stanger wrote:

> On 23/10/2007 5:42 AM, "Google Kreme" <gkremegmail.com> spake thus:
>
>> Overall, the finder changes (and dock) I find very strange and like
>> someone really dropped the ball.
>
> Bah, they dropped the ball on the Finder back in 2001...
>
> This is why I've used Path Finder for the last several years....

Most of the people who post to TidBITS seem to be text oriented;
though that may be an illusion ?

You would really benefit from having icons that are text: Jazzed;
plain; coloured; moving: to suit the mind of the individual user.
If that becomes possible, so would icons that are video; audio
icons; icons that you manipulate = kinesthetic icons: Squeese to
Quit, spread to open, tap in morse or guitar fingerings for various
actions... The iPhone GUI might be a first shot at that kind of
world ?

There is no real excuse for ignoring all intelligence that is not
textual other than it has been impossible, so far.

George

Here are a few minor improvements that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

- Text encoding menu in Mail. When Apple abruptly switched the
encoding method from ISO-2020JP to Unicode for Japanese email in
Tiger, it was a disaster for people who need to send email in
Japanese. While most (though certainly not all) PC based mail
programs could handle it, mail sent from Macs were often unreadable on
cell phones (which is the way a lot of people get email in Japan) and
on many email lists (most notably Yahoo Groups). Happily, Apple now
allows you to manually change the encoding method for outgoing mail.
(Now if they would only include a preference item to set the default
encoding by language...)

- (Another Japanese specific one): Ability to sync the Kotoeri user
dictionary via .Mac sync.

- The Mac now supports 3G wireless service on AT&T using the Sierra
Wireless Aircard 875U out of the box. Plug it into the USB port, the
network preference pane will automatically set it up, and will put a
wireless signal strength indicator on the menu bar. Up and running in
seconds. (Any support for other 3G wireless cards or carriers?)

- Ability to adjust not only the icon size but grid spacing in the
finder icon view.

- Ability to sync preferences, though I would like finer control over
which preferences get synced.

While the major new features get a lot of the press (though Time
Machine is nice), it's these small improvements in usability---and I
am sure there are more---that have made 10.5 a pleasant surprise for
me. (And I must admit that I surprisingly don't find the new menu or
dock that irritating.)

Tn

I said:

On Nov 6, 2007, at 5:16 AM, Kevin van Haaren wrote:

> Perhaps my video card is too old? Other transparencies like the new
> Terminal windows, work fine though. I'm running on a PPC Mac mini
> (original version). System profiler dump is below. I wonder if it's
> the
> Core Image: Software that makes mine work normally (or what I consider
> normal).

My original PPC Mini has the translucent menu bar. I'm using a not
very dark solid desktop, which makes it work fine (no picture?
Nope...I can never see the desktop anyhow.

  --JOhn

And I was wrong. The machine gets a non-white menu bar when the
desktop is a solid medium blue. But it gets a white menu bar when the
desktop is the default aurora. I hadn't noticed that (I changed
desktops in the primary normal account right away...my secondary admin
account still has aurora, but i try never to run that admin account).

Sorry for the dual response.

   --Dumb John

On Nov 6, 2007, at 5:16 AM, David Weintraub wrote:

> The Dock, new or old, is probably the least loved aspect of Mac OS
> X. Many people would like to get rid of the Dock entirely and use
> programs like PathFinder, Launcher, or QuickSilver instead. However,
> I find the new dock more attractive. The use of blue lights instead
> of the black rectangles actually makes more sense (light = on/dark =
> off), and I don't find them hard to see no matter what background I
> use. In fact, I've moved my dock from the side to the bottom of the
> screen under Leopard.

And some of us like the Dock (although the new eye candy seems
unnecessary but I haven't done the simple command to turn it off), and
I'd prefer the Stack feature as a per-folder option). On my old
tower, I have a dock folder whose folder menu I use routinely (that
folder began life as a Mac OS 9 popup window at the bottom of the
screen). I haven't done the same on the newer machines, and the old
one is Leopard-proof (at least officially).

I've never run PathFinder, Launcher, or QuickSilver--I resist
installing such addons. I don't know whether any of those use the
InputManager hack*--my machines were InputManager-free zones in
Tigar. (*OK, InputManager isn't a hack when used as Apple intended.
I claim and others disagree that using it otherwise is a hack.)

> The other problem with the Doc is that the folder icons disappear,
> and a stack of files appear instead. This is an absolute disaster,
> and make no sense at all. After all, the document I am interested in
> will probably not be the one on top of the stack.

So, don't put those folders in the dock any more. Use the Places part
of the Finder sidebar (which also gives you access to them in Open and
Save dialogs). Or, if you have a piece of desktop you can usually see
(I don't), put them there. Or both. As said above, though, I would
prefer a per-folder option for dock folders of the old behavior or the
stack behavior (which, for me, is perfect for the Downloads folder).

   --John

I like the fact that I now have Notes and To Do's (I assume they will work their way to my iPhone soon). I guess I just don't understand why the To Do list does not have a standalone window/menu bar/widget - anything except Mail or iCal. I hope one comes out soon. I would like to deal with and manipulate To Do's without the other stuff filling up my screen.

I also love the new foreign dictionaries. The ability to translate Japanese is amazing. I think I'll install more languages.

I also really like Mail and am probably going to import my Entourage and switch to Mail once I figure out the best way to do that. I was using Entourage in POP, but want to use Mail and store some things on my drive. The integration with To Do and Notes will be very helpful.

Ray

At 5:16 -0800 11/6/07, Kevin van Haaren wrote:

>Looks like my guess there was correct, if System Profiler reports your Core
>Image is running in software you'll get a solid menu bar.

System Profiler reports that my Core Image is "Hardware Accelerated"
on a 20" iMac G4. But I still get the solid menu bar. I believe I'm
getting all the other eye candy I'm supposed to get, but no
translucent menu bar.

~ Kiran <entropyio.com>

On 07/11/2007 11:48 PM, "johnbaxterlistsmac.com" <johnbaxterlistsmac.com>
spake thus:

> I've never run PathFinder, Launcher, or QuickSilver--I resist
> installing such addons. I don't know whether any of those use the
> InputManager hack

No, no, and no (assuming that David actually meant LaunchBar and not
"Launcher"). They're all standalone applications, no hacks involved.

LaunchBar (and/or QuickSilver) pretty much makes the Dock irrelevant ---
I've got so used to it that I find machines without it to be almost
unusable. So in that sense I don't really care what they do to the Dock, as
long as I can see what's running :) (and even if they manage to truly screw
it up, I can always hide the Dock and use DragThing instead)

--
Nigel Stanger, Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND.
http://xri.net/=nigel.stanger

>> The transparent menu bar simply makes the items on the menu bar
>> harder to read. Instead of having pictures as my desktop, I am going
>> to have to revert to a single color desktop.
>
> not anymore.
> one weekend after they released the new cat you can turn it opaque
> again: <http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/opaquemenubar/index.html>
>
> Doesn't work on my machine; my menubar is still very, very transparent. m.

With dual displays, it opaques my laptop but not the external monitor's menu
bar, which is where I have the menu actually located!

> I also love the new foreign dictionaries. The ability to translate
> Japanese is amazing. I think I'll install more languages.

Another Japanese translating dictionary is Jim Breen's web based
Jdict; giving lots of alternatives word by word or phrase by phrase
from a whole section of selected text - J --> E Not perfect yet, but
doing well.

It would probably work well in tandem with the Leopard bilingual dict.

I found that I had to change the gateway in the 'route add' command (gateway is the last IP) to be the gateway's internal IP, where with Tiger I'd had the gateway's external IP specified. It seems to be working correctly with that change.