Tag Archives: Macintosh

Q. Are there free alternatives to Photoshop?

Posted on July 19, 2012 by quill

Photoshop is the top professional image editing / photo retouching program, but it is expensive.  There are some cheap and free alternatives available: Adobe Photoshop Express (online image editing, requires sign up at Adobe’s site) http://www.photoshop.com/tools/overview The GIMP is open source … Continue reading →

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Add an SSD drive to a MacPro for fast booting and loading times

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

The MacPro Xeon tower machines are incredibly fast workstations. You can make yours even faster by adding a Solid State Drive (SSD) as a boot drive and/or as a scratch file drive.  An SSD equipped machine boots very quickly and … Continue reading →

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New Java based Trojan attacks Mac, Windows and Linux

Posted on July 11, 2012 by quill

Updated August 27 2012 Computerworld has published an article about new Java based malware which can infect Mac, Windows and Linux machines through a vulnerability in Oracle’s Java 7. OSX 10.7 and OSX 10.8 come with Java disabled by default, … Continue reading →

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Security, Viruses and malware, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Q. My documents are gone on my Mac and the Dock is back to default?

Posted on July 4, 2012 by quill

Just about every time that we have customers call saying that their documents, settings and Desktop on a Mac have disappeared and gone back to the Apple default, there is one cause: The user has renamed their User folder in … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I use USB2.0 peripherals on a USB3.0 port?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by quill

Yes, USB 3.0 has been designed to be backwards compatible with, and the USB 3.0 A type connectors (computer) and B type connectors (peripheral) are plug compatible with USB2.0 A type and B type cable ends. The USB 2.0 A … Continue reading →

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Q. Can I replace the drive in my 2012 or earlier MacBook / MacBook Pro?

Posted on June 27, 2012 by quill

The MacBook and MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and earlier models (excluding all MacBook Airs and the Late 2012 and later Retina MacBook Pro) have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded … Continue reading →

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Q. My computer won’t attach to my WiFi router?

Posted on June 23, 2012 by quill

Troubleshooting steps for WiFi connections: First of all, make sure that you know the router’s network name (SSID), and the password (WPA key). If you don’t know these, ask the owner of the router.  If you are the owner and … Continue reading →

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Q. What Memory and Drives fit my MacBook Air?

Posted on June 12, 2012 by quill

Apple MacBook Air machines feature Intel processors and an exceedingly thin Aluminum body. None of the MacBook Airs have internal optical drives, Apple sells an external USB Superdrive (make sure to check compatibility with your MacBook Air when buying a … Continue reading →

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Q. My Macintosh is slow in all programs – what’s the problem?

Posted on June 7, 2012 by quill

There can be a variety of problems that can slow a machine down. If the performance is poor in only one program, the first approach would be to delete and reinstall that program.  For slowness across all programs and OSX, … Continue reading →

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Q. My USB memory stick won’t let me save a 4.2 GB file?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by quill

You are finding that individual files larger than 3.99 GB are failing when you copy them to a USB memory stick (or a camera memory card, or an external hard drive). The simple answer is that the memory stick is … Continue reading →

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Q. Someone knows my IP address and email. Can they hack my computer?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by quill

You don’t get hacked just because someone knows your IP address – you get hacked if your machine has malware on it or if you have left services open to the public or if someone has obtained the username and … Continue reading →

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Q. I have a file on my Mac that won’t open the correct program

Posted on June 1, 2012 by quill

What type of file is it? Most files have a file name with a three or four letter extension which tells the machine what program it belongs to. For example, a .XLSX file is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file. This … Continue reading →

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Q. What memory fits my Apple Xserve server?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by quill

Model/ Identifier CPU/ Speed/ Screen/ Date/ Designation RAM Type & Speed Maximum RAM Hard Drive/ SSD XServe G4RackMac1,1 G4 1.0 GHz (4 RAM sockets Mid 2002, M8627LL/A ) DDR-266 DIMM 2 GB (4x512MB) 3.5″ PATA hard drive XServe G4/DPRackMac1,1 G4 1.0 … Continue reading →

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Q. How do I install RAM in a Mac?

Posted on April 13, 2012 by quill

Memory in most Macintoshes is user-upgradeable. The bottom of this post has links to the Apple instructions for specific models.  Here are general instructions for installation on modern Macs. In machines with SODIMMs, there are two main ways to insert … Continue reading →

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Q. How to set up a new external hard drive on a Mac?

Posted on April 10, 2012 by quill

A. When you plug in a new external hard drive to a Mac, it will either be formatted for Windows (in which case you may have trouble writing to it from the Mac) or it will be unformatted. An internal … Continue reading →

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