Techy advice needed

[Xanthippe]

In chrome, if you go into settings > show advanced settings > Content Settings > you can set the option to "Do not show any images".

Its ugly, it doesn't hide everything, but will stop the majority of images from being displayed.

Easy enough to turn on and off too.

Edit. In IE its Tools > Internet Options > Advanced tab > and deselect "Show Pictures" in the multimedia section.

Thanks for that - it doesn't do exactly what I wanted but at least the pictures aren't 'jumping' off the page if the boss walks in!!

[Alternative Ulster]

Can you not just do twitter on your phone?

[meinster]

Does anyone use a website called extratorrent.com seems to have gone dead last couple of days was just wondering if it's just me or if it's everyone.

The domain has been suspended (so it's not just you!).

Code: Select all

 Status:SUSPENDED
	Note: This Domain Name is Suspended. 
	In this status the domain name is InActive and will not function. 

[Xanthippe]

Can you not just do twitter on your phone?

I do when I'm not in the office but while at work it's just easier to have it on in the background on my monitor

[rooster]

Does anyone use a website called extratorrent.com seems to have gone dead last couple of days was just wondering if it's just me or if it's everyone.

The domain has been suspended (so it's not just you!).

Code: Select all

 Status:SUSPENDED
	Note: This Domain Name is Suspended. 
	In this status the domain name is InActive and will not function. 

It is moving house
http://www.extratorrent.ws/

[PCASEY]

Anyone know a good way to convert a PDF file to an eps file on a mac?

I have charts in excell that I need to save separately as eps files. The closest I can get (which is bloody long way off) is convert them to PDF, which I can do, and I though I might then be able to convert them to eps

Thanks
PC (on behalf of Mrs. PC)

[Sionnach]

Anyone know a good way to convert a PDF file to an eps file on a mac?

I have charts in excell that I need to save separately as eps files. The closest I can get (which is bloody long way off) is convert them to PDF, which I can do, and I though I might then be able to convert them to eps

Thanks
PC (on behalf of Mrs. PC)

First, normal PS will be fine - you are really unlikely to really need EPS. I take it this is for a print company or something? If so, PS will definitely be fine.

Install Ghostscript, which is a unix based set of PostScript utilities. One of them is "pdf2ps" which does what it sounds like it does. It's terminal driven rather than graphical, but from memory it's just as simple as "pdf2ps input.pdf output.ps" (where the input and output files are the names of the original pdf and the PS you want to make).

Ghostscript: http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/Ghostscript-9.07.pkg

That'll do the trick for sure.

Another option would be to install a generic postscript printer driver and then "print" the PDF to file, which would spit out a PS file.

[Hippo]

Macbook, tiny quantity of water onto the keyboard, mac shuts down. We've kept it in a dry, warm environment for 48 hours. Should we attempt a restart or bring it straight to the doctor?

[meinster]

Likely the damage is already done (with the always-on battery inside). I'd give it another 12-24 hours in a plastic bag with lots of rice in the hot press / somewhere a bit warmer. Then fire her up, and see. The doctor will only fire her up any way. If it doesn't fire up (but still charges / green light comes on the magsafe), you might be lucky on what's shorted / needs replacing; that depends where the water got to. If it's a newish Macbook, then it's still worth repairing; but if the power board and mainboard are fried on a 2008 Macbook, then it's probably not. CompuB or the other Apple doctors will be able to give you better advice any way.

Prepare for some bad news, though, because MacBooks don't have anti-water shutdown safety devices. You might be lucky, but it would be just that!

[Hippo]

Cheers Meinster, kind of what I suspected. Care to offer an guess as to how much data might be recovered? This is what really matters.

[meinster]

Care to offer an guess as to how much data might be recovered?

Always careful to get hopes up (when water is involved), but unless it was a direct spill on the hard drive, it's likely to have a decent chance of surviving. The mainboard ("motherboard") is usually fried from water under keyboard. If water is up at the top of the keyboard, then it's usually power board (or graphics card / display driver). Depending on the Macbook model, but the hard drive is usually to the front (left/right of the trackpad), so is usually most protected from direct water hit. There's a decent chance that the water killed the mainboard, and that the hard drive would not be affected (bar a handful of files being written to at the very second it died). It is a bit of a lottery, though, so don't get your hopes up too much.

One tip, if the data is really important, make sure that you bring it to a place (a reputable one, if it's not an Apple authorised place) to copy the data, before getting the whole thing repaired. Otherwise, there's a decent chance that a technician will just restore the drive to a standard Apple image (losing your data), as part of the repair. Twice I've had this happen (despite very clear instructions stuck to the machine asking not to wipe hard drive, as it was a hardware-only issue).

[Hippo]

Great, thanks a million. There's a very good repair place nearby that's rescued material for me before and I'd be confident about their abilities. Fingers and everything else crossed; it's not mine but I know there's a lot of vital material onboard!

[Sionnach]

Great, thanks a million. There's a very good repair place nearby that's rescued material for me before and I'd be confident about their abilities. Fingers and everything else crossed; it's not mine but I know there's a lot of vital material onboard!

Invest in an Apple time capsule, or offsite backup like CrashPlan. Data loss happens all the time, and it's daft not to be backing up.

[Hippo]

Great, thanks a million. There's a very good repair place nearby that's rescued material for me before and I'd be confident about their abilities. Fingers and everything else crossed; it's not mine but I know there's a lot of vital material onboard!

Invest in an Apple time capsule, or offsite backup like CrashPlan. Data loss happens all the time, and it's daft not to be backing up.

Believe me, I know! It wasn't mine!

[R-Dog]

Looking for some Techy Help Please:

Cant get apple homesharing to work. Have Desktop, laptop, tablet and apple tv all connected to the same home sharing but cant get them to connect with each other.

eg cant get desktop/laptop to show on apple tv.

All software up to date and have tried things like changing modem channel and disabling modem security. Guessing its something to do with network settings but online searches have so far failed me.

Cheers for any suggestions of things to try

[meinster]

Doubt I'll be able to help but, what OS is on the Desktop/Laptop/Tablet? Can all devices see the internet fine (incl. the Apple TV) / i.e. is it just each other they can't see? I assume you're using iTunes on the desktop/laptop that the aTV can't see; is iTunes on those logged in to the same iTunes account as the aTV (everything should be logged in to the one/same iTunes account)? If it's not as simple as being logged in to iTunes, then it is probably back to your WiFi router (what is the make/model?). Another culprit is Windows firewall blocking "bonjour" networking, but that's a lot less likely than the router blocking internal traffic. After that it's breakout the nerd time, and start pinging IP addresses to see what's what.

[R-Dog]

Cheers, all on the same account and latest Apple OS/Lapotop on XP..

Routers Eircom Zyxel and just searching there site seams to be a regular problem with them that eircom seam to ignore

[meinster]

Routers Eircom Zyxel and just searching there site seams to be a regular problem with them that eircom seam to ignore

Yup, that's the problem all right! The issue is the modem's built in firewall can't handle non-standard (by their weak definition) traffic. In the case of home sharing, the use of Bonjour / multicasting is an issue on a stock modem. There are two fixes:

1) Get on to eircom support, and ask them about the firmware update to the zyxel modem to fix the apple connection issues. This will probably take a few calls to weed through some agents who haven't a clue. Just last week, I went through that nightmare. Despite me emailing links to their own reps on their own forum (about the firmware update), I got nowhere after between 10 and 15 calls. I gave up!

2) Get a WiFi access point, disable the WiFi on your eircom/zyxel, and use your new WiFi in "bridge" mode. A dirt cheap WiFi access point will do (<€30) as long as it's not a DSL modem. I.e. it has to be a standalone WiFi access point. I.e. something like this, but not this (because it mentions modem and DSL). You could go full Apple and get an Aiport Express (€99), but there's no need.

Or if you really want to knuckle down, you could try disabling the QoS on the Zyxel, and the firewall. However, don't do the latter of that (firewall) unless you have some protection in place already. I really wouldn't advise it at all unless you're absolutely sure you know the consequences of disabling the firewall. You'll probably also have to manually disable IPv6 on all affected devices as well. Even then, some report success, some don't.

Me? I'd try one or two calls to eircom, then if I get nowhere, Elara (or whoever has cheap WiFi APs.. Dabs, PC World, wherever) gets my 20 quid.

[R-Dog]

Cheers for the help Meinster,

Got it working using Eircoms Fix

http://support.eircom.net/SRVS/CGI-BIN/ ... leshooting

Had turned off my wifi security while doing, what would be the best security setting to make sure it all keeps working

[meinster]

Got it working using Eircoms Fix

Can you let me know how you get to that page (linking to Eircom's site doesn't work, because the links expire!). I.e. Click here, there, and then there .. or search for X, etc.

Had turned off my wifi security while doing, what would be the best security setting to make sure it all keeps working

In theory, WiFi security shouldn't affect the Apple devices (who all support the WEP and WPA-PSK that the Zyxel supports). I hope the "fix" wasn't to just disable it (as that would be an unacceptable risk IMO). The "best" (for normal residential use) is WPA2 (or WPA2-PSK). Your Zyxel mightn't have that, in which case WPA-PSK is the next best. WEP is really the last resort (as that's easily hackable by someone sitting outside your gaff). If you're turning on WiFi security again, and you don't use the same password you used before, don't forget to update each WiFi device that connects.

Here's hoping the fix is firewall/networking/firmware related, rather than just disabling WiFi security!