01-10-2012, 11:00 PM

Originally Posted by philfrates

My first foray into the forum so perhaps I missed what is needed. I called Apple Care about why my Time Machine is not backing up. After some exploring, they said that it was because WD smart ware is on my machine and that I should explore the forums or go to WD website to find out how to uninstall the smart ware and all traces.
any suggestions?

Not to be unfriendly (welcome!), but really the right procedure for this is to a) search the forum for a similar topic (I'd suggest a search on "smartware" for example), and then if nothing turns up to start a new topic in the appropriate subforum asking your question. This thread is for comments to the essay that makes up the first post in the thread.

01-11-2012, 01:37 AM

When I close the lid on my Macbook Pro it shuts down and I have to restart it. My software is: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74). Also, when it restarts Word, Excel, and Mail come up and I have to shut them off so they do not clog up the screen. Any help would be great.

01-11-2012, 01:41 AM

Please see my post above.

01-12-2012, 11:43 PM

Thank you for this info, it will help a lot for me a new mac user

01-15-2012, 04:23 AM

top post cheers for this

01-16-2012, 06:56 PM

Well, my new iMac arrived 3 days ago of course I've been too busy working to sit down and play with it and it is safe to say that it is such a gorgeous computer. I love the things about it so far.

My question is about video codecs. I go on websites like Cracked.com and Failblog.org and those sites have embedded video. Instead of the video, there are words there that say "plug in missing or not installed or something". I followed Chas_m's advice on the Perian in his essay but is there something else I have to do to get video to play? Do I download adobe? Not sure.

01-17-2012, 09:38 AM

Brilliant. This took care of 99% of the things I didn't know or couldn't figure out as a PC user making the long overdue transition to Mac. If I happen to come across the other 1% I'll just check back here

P.S: This helped me out so much I'm going to put a link in my signature.

01-17-2012, 11:51 AM

Is Adobe a big no-no to download? I know that Apple doesn't install it on new machines any more but it seems to be a necessity. Is it a security risk or no?

01-17-2012, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Elrond

Is Adobe a big no-no to download? I know that Apple doesn't install it on new machines any more but it seems to be a necessity. Is it a security risk or no?

Adobe makes several different software packages. None of them are security risks (assuming you keep them up to date).

I'd imagine you're probably referring to either Adobe Flash or Adobe Reader. Although Flash-based sites are in decline, I still consider it a must-have.

Reader is a bit more tricky - Apple's own Preview works very well as a PDF reader for the most part - although there may be certain sites that use specific APIs that require Adobe Reader (USPS's "print a shipping label" being one that I've encountered in the past).

01-17-2012, 05:16 PM

Apart from the exception cwa107 mentioned, I've seen no reason for anyone to install Adobe Reader when they already have Preview.

As for Flash, I'm hoping 2011 was just a really bad year for them security wise (seemed like they updated it every couple of weeks to fix critical bugs) and that they're back on track with it. You should download the latest Flash your machine will run (the Adobe Flash page will auto-determine this for you), but I would also suggest a flash blocker for your web browser (I don't hate ads, but I *do* hate auto-playing, animated, noisy or distracting ads, which is Flash's primary speciality).

01-17-2012, 05:19 PM

With Adobe Flash or any other 3rd party software obtained outside the Apple App store that automatically checks for updates, be cautious about counterfeit popup windows. Best to get updates directly from the app's website to avoid risk of malware. I took Flash off my iMac so I could stop worrying about them, and don't miss Flash at all. Always a way around it.

01-17-2012, 06:37 PM

I have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed just in case but only had to use it maybe 2x in ages. I much prefer Preview.

01-17-2012, 08:00 PM

I have a question. If preview is installed on my computer, why am I still seeing those "Needs plug-in" messages on certain websites? That's why I installed Adobe which corrected this but maybe I'm not using preview properly?

01-17-2012, 08:13 PM

Chas, as a new Mac switcher I've DEVOURED your essay as it is extremely practical and informative (however I will not stop EATING by my computer). I guess my question is about watching video codecs. You suggested Flip4Mac and Perian. Once these are installed, will embedded videos play on these sites automatically? Or do I have to activate these players? Maybe I just took it all for granted being a windows/adobe user but is there a process for viewing these through preview/flip/Perian?

01-18-2012, 03:40 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Elrond

I guess my question is about watching video codecs. You suggested Flip4Mac and Perian. Once these are installed, will embedded videos play on these sites automatically? Or do I have to activate these players? Maybe I just took it all for granted being a windows/adobe user but is there a process for viewing these through preview/flip/Perian?

Once the two utilities I suggested are installed, nearly every type of embedded video out there will just play as it should.