A thread for boring computer questions.

OK my question: is there any way to get an irda adapter for the Mac? This doesn't appear to exist. Apparently like 70% of cellphones, like mine, are still being made with irda only technology (and my phone is a really, really new model!). Meanwhile, all I can put on this piece of crap laptop is bluetooth. Is my only option continuing to use the pay service to get new ringers, and the phone's crappy camera to get wallpapers?

Also, if someone can inform me as to whether it is the cell phone companies or the computer companies that are fucking people over right now, I'd also appreciate that.

I'm surprised how few infrared connectors there are for Mac, but apparently they exist; according to this page:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27653
the Freebird product should work under OS X. I spotted it here: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/3320.htm

I'm not entirely sure being able to put funny songs on my phone is worth it :\

This has been going on for a while and I can't figure out what the hell is wrong. When I try to burn a CD in iTunes, it A) goes to the slowest possible speed and fails to burn at max speed B) doesn't seem to be burning actual usable CDs. I'm testing it again right now. It is doing the A) thing, definitely. I am going to test the result CD to see if it is burning data/MP3 CDs instead of audio CDs. I have the preferences set to audio CD, no gap between songs, maximum speed, with sound check off. I can't find anything on Mac support about it and nothing we've done has helped out (ie reloading iTunes a while back). I'm tempted to do another strip and reload of iTunes to see if it fixes it.

It's importing CDs just fine, albeit a little slow (though it might've always been a little slow). The behavior it is exhibiting was NOT something it was doing when I purchased the computer in February.

Help?

Mac OS X Version 10.3.5 (Build 7M34)
2004-09-30 00:54:59 -0400
Can't get device for hd:,\\:tbxi: 3

Can't get device for hd:,\\:tbxi: 3

Can't get device for hd:,\\:tbxi: 3

iTunes: Burn started, Thu Sep 30 01:05:32 2004

iTunes: Burning to CD-RW media with SAO strategy in MATSHITA CD-RW CW-8123 CA0T via ATAPI.

iTunes: Requested CD burn speed was 33x, actual burn speed is 4x.

iTunes: Burn underrun protection is supported, and enabled.

I can't do that, otherwise I'm fucked for school. I have to look into the warranty, but I WOULD be able to send it to them very beginning January--which should just make it under warranty? If necessary, that is.

I have been told they do not do these things in the Apple Store proper otherwise I'd just say fuck all this noise and walk the damn thing to the store.

However, there *is*
(Folder)2002
(Folder)Albums
Dir.data
Library.cache

Within the folder Albums, there is:
Last Import
Pending Rotation
Photo Library
all of which appear to be empty.

THEN I have, on the same path in Pictures

iPhotoLibrary_1
and in it is:
(Folder)Albums
Dir.data
Library.data

And surprise, in the Folder called albums there is again:
Last Import
Pending Rotation
Photo Library
which appear to be empty.

When I go to iLife prefs in iBlog, there is no .xml file for me to select therefore I ca't select anything. I also can't figure out where my iPhoto albums are being stored. I don't have an iLife application file, if there is such a thing.

Help? I just want to add pictures to my iBlog

Library.dataxml file anywhere on that path.
Here is what I do have:

I have just installed musicmatch jukebox in an effort to play mp3s on my (admittedly quite crap) computer. Whenever I try to play anything I get the following error message - MMJB Soundcard error. WaveOut format not supported. I have no idea what this means and can't find anything in the Music match help thing about it. Can anyone help?

Are you running Windows XP? The troubleshooting function there is v. good.

Forgive me for being a total technophobe but I actually have no idea how to go about popping out the sound card. If you could supply basic instructions, I'd really appreciate it.

I probably couldn't give you good enough instruction on popping anything out to prevent breakage and general computer rupture.

http://www.kryogenix.org/code/browser/sorttable/

I've got a little php script that makes an html table from a mysql database; it's a lot of info (will possibly be around 3000 records when complete) and so want an easy way for a user to sort.

xp: yeah, it doesn't matter, I think maybe I'm trying to skip a step by putting that javascript in an index.php, also, I'm just learning some of this stuff.

Otherwise have you checked the slots at the back of your PC? Is there one that looks like it might be a sound card (headphone sockets/audio out etc..)

If so have you tried looking in Device Manager to see if Windows recognises your card?

Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager (think this is right - I use Linux at home so can't check). Expand what's listed under Sound or Multimedia or some'int like that. If there are any yellow exclamation marks then Windows sees the card but doesn't recognize it.

If there's nothing there, then the card is probably dead.

Am I correct to assume that, becuase ther is an audio out socket and as the computer seems to recognise at least some kind of sound card, that I don't need to go out and buy a new one? All I need is to find out what kind it is and get a driver... correct?

a href="this_page.php?sort=name"
a href="this_page.php?sort=date"
a href="this_page.php?sort=size"
(maybe even sort=size_descending / sort=size_ascending if you feel fancy)

then use the value of the sort variable to call a slightly different mysql statement (with different ORDER BY clause) before printing it all out in the table. (DON'T just pass in the value of the sort variable straight into the sql as people could do bad things with it, like delete all your data)

yes, this requires all the data to be fetched from the server everytime they change the sort order but it's either that or sorting in the javascript which is painful.

hth,
andy

The first thing to check here: are there speakers? If the answer is yes, there's a soundcard.

If you go into the Control Panel and click on the System icon, you can select the Device Manager and look under the sound and multimedia section to see if there's a soundcard; it may just be that the driver has gotten munched. If there's nothing there at all then who knows but if there's something with an exclamation point beside it, you'll have to update the driver.

a) if it doesn't have speakers, see if it at least has speaker sockets on the back.

a) try and see if you can detect "new" hardware

b) Get a Linux boot CD - Knoppix or similar - and run the 'lspci' command. It scans your computer's bus, interrogates the hardware it finds, and prints out what there is.