I just ran Repair Disk Permissions on a couple of Macs that have gotten all those updates beamed down… and there were quite a few permissions glitches.

So, be sure to run Repair Disk Permissions (from Disk Utility) after running the update.

While Leopard has improved in this regard, I still suggest running Disk Permissions after any update that requires a system reboot.

See, Apple has a house rule on product lifespan. Only the prior, major, release of Mac OS X is to be supported. That means that if a device can’t be upgraded to the last version of Mac OS X, it basically is left out in the cold. And by cold, I mean no security updates, bug fixes, or incorporation of third-party components (Apache, PHP, Ruby, Java, etc). If your Mac can only run Panther, it’s time to put Linux on it… for your own security (or, take it off the internet).

When Snow Leopard ships, Apple is supposed to stop patching up Tiger. But, that’s a problem… because Tiger powers Apple TV. Apple neglected to realize that Leopard would demand at least 512 MB of RAM to operate, and shipped Apple TV with a solitary 256 MB chip. So, Apple TV continues to be powered by Tiger.

Big mistake for Apple. Now, they have to chose: Either abandon Apple TV pre-maturely, or support it beyond their intended resources with security updates and such.

This is costly for Apple… as it means apps like Front Row, and iTunes as well, will need to continue to carry Tiger build targets. That means all the under-the-hood code will continue to have to play by the constraints of Tiger… even if Apple doesn’t update Tiger.

Speaking of which, let’s say Apple patches a bug in Apple TV’s version of Tiger. Shouldn’t they then release that same update (with the same, tested code) for Mac OS X Tiger on Mac? The better question is… will they?

This is really a part of Apple’s growing pains. In the old days, Apple wasn’t successful enough to maintain support for older platforms… there weren’t any successful older platforms other than Mac.

And, this is a prelude to more tough decisions in the Mac and iPod groups. Does Apple plan the next version of OS X (after Snow Leopard) to play well on today’s iPhone hardware? In the old days the answer would be an immdiate no. But, today, App Store is growing faster than iTunes… and it might be in Apple’s interest to keep seeding old iPhones with modern OS versions.

That would certainly put Windows Mobile to shame. There’s no reason a Windows Mobile 2003 phone couldn’t run Windows Mobile 6.1 today… yet Microsoft still won’t push OEMs to make those upgrades… it isn’t in their interest to do so.

This is a stark contrast to Steve Jobs’ own comments when Mac OS X Leopard was unveiled. “AirPort Extreme is the perfect backup solution for Leopard.” His words. Now that Time Capsule is out, Apple appears to refuse to fix the original AirPort Extreme, which with its USB port, could backup to Time Machine. However, bugs with the setup continue, and Apple refuses to detail any technical reason why they could not be fixed.

Today, Apple closed all my bug reports on the matter with the following statement: “Please note that the current configuration is not supported.  We recommend using Time Capsule.

We consider this issue closed.  Thank you for taking the time to notify us of this issue.”

So, Apple, will you credit my cost of the AirPort Extreme (which Steve Jobs told us all to buy ahead of Leopard), for the cost of a Time Capsule? Didn’t think so.

I advise everyone stuck with one of these units, to buy an OSx86 PC, and backup to that. If Apple hauls me into court, I’ll counter-claim in a class action over this debacle. Also, this weekend I will have much fun in yanking my AirPort Extreme from my network. Apple has clearly dropped the ball here.

Originally, Time Machine had a lot of additional features which didn’t make the final cut. One of the features was to use the free disk space on the boot drive as shadow copy storage. This mimicked a feature from Vista that does the same thing (and Microsoft really doesn’t promote well at all). Alas, problems with multi-linked directories scrapped the feature.

But, this is not the feature I’m referring to. Originally, when installing Mac OS X, Leopard would offer to make an initial Time Machine backup of your Tiger drive. The benefits were three-fold: One, existing Mac owners would get an initial sales pitch for Time Machine. Two, users would be set up with Time Machine even before Leopard was installed. And, three, should anything go wrong, reverting to Tiger would have been painless.

And it’s that third feature that Apple still is regretting. Their support database continues to have to be updated with workarounds for partially-failed Leopard installs. The “Leopard Blue Screen Of Death” resulting from the APE Manager utility was one of the most notorious, as the tool had been integrated into some well-known drives (like, Logitech’s universal driver for all their accessories).

This brings me to why I wrote this post. Apple should not wait until the next generation of Mac OS X to add some of these features back. There’s nothing stopping Apple from adding a new update to the install disc and offering added functionality. Apple did this with Migration Assistant, and slipstreaming features like Time Machine during installation should be no different. It will save Apple money (in support costs), and improve the Mac experience overall.

I’ve been testing Safari 3.1 since it was first handed to me, and it’s one of the rare betas that I have deployed onto the full production environment. Every system has benefited from it, and Windows now defaults to Safari as my browser on all systems.

Apple – Safari

And no, Safari 3.1 does not fix the long-standing bug with posting on WordPress. However, TinyMCE, the underlying WordPress component causing the issue, has been updated… and the fix should be deployed for WordPress 2.5. Speaking of WordPress, I’m going to try to have the new look for the site deployed next week… this buggy interface has made posting images difficult.

Basically, the bug occurs if two computers have Spaces, but different Spaces settings. Say, one computer has two spaces, and the other has four. If one computer has a window in fourth space, it won’t show up on the other computer, since the other computer only has the first and second space.

This is because .Mac Sync sends window location preferences between computers. Now, Spaces is supposed to kick windows off of a space if you remove it, but that self-regulation doesn’t exist if Spaces doesn’t know that a space was removed.

It’s a bug, and Apple’s working on it. The best fix right now is that if you use Spaces, make sure all your systems that sync via .Mac share the same settings.

However, it’s simply not working in Leopard. Every time I run it with five or more files, it hangs… and forcing a relaunch of Finder is the only way out of the loop. Others are confirming the problem many times over.

Determining the trigger of this problem is difficult, but I suspect it has to do with available disk space. This problem hits portable systems more than desktops, (just from browsing the number of users reporting). I suspect that Secure Erase Trash is locking up when there’s a small amount of disk space available (not 100 MB, I’m talking 20% free or so). That’s the only situation that I can get the problem to surface.

Until then, the only workaround is to delete the file using Empty Trash, and then use Disk Utility to Erase Free Space on the drive…

I have a long password for security’s sake… it’s what Apple suggests and I agree. The problem is, for a few moments when waking from sleep, Leopard starts to jot down what you’re typing… and then stops… and then resumes again.

The result? Half my password is entered, and I’ve already pressed the enter key. Then, I have to wait for it to tell me I’ve entered the wrong password (shocker), and then acknowledge, and then re-enter the password again.

Here’s what I think is going on. When defrosting from sleep, CoreServices hands the screen back to the window behind it for a split second. Not long enough to really cause a problem… unless the system is bogged down from waking up from sleep, and resuming all the tasks behind that locked screen. That split second turns into about a full second… and typed content is not entered into the password field.

I’ve seen some evidence to confirm my hypothesis, in the form of a part of my password showing up in the text window behind the locked screen. However, this is sporadic and not completely reproducible. Otherwise, it would be on RadarWeb (Apple’s internal bug reporting tool) already. I suspect the sporadic nature is due to timing issues with the kernel that is causing this bug to appear in the first place.

Now, what can be done about it? Well, a few things. First, the locked screen box should behave like the login window does. An incorrect password should not trigger a dialog box. Instead, the screen should “wiggle” the incorrect password off. This wasn’t just a nice effect in Mac OS X, it was a time-saver for the thousands… millions… of logins a day. Second, the underlying issue should be fixed; Mac OS X should never pass key commands to the window behind the lock until it is unlocked.

But now it appears Apple has added a bit of an Easter Egg (though I’m not sure if it counts as one). If you open up Computer (Go menu > Computer) in Finder, switch to Cover Flow view. Take a look at Network, and you’ll see this…

I saw this just now, and had to smile… since the only way a user would see it is in Cover Flow…

Edit: Okay, fine, it is listed as the kind in Get Info… I’m not sure if this was in Tiger though. Still, the effect of Cover Flow does make it read “Network Neighborhood” which still has me remembering those Windows 95/98 days….