Tag Archives: os x

Make Old Java Applications Fully Snow Leopard Compatible

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
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If you have a bunch of old Java applications lying around in your Mac’s /Applications folder, chances are, you’ll come across this message box when you attempt to run them on Snow Leopard:

To open JavaApplicationStub, you need to install Rosetta. Would you like to install it now?

To open JavaApplicationStub, you need to install Rosetta. Would you like to install it now?

Personally, I try my best to avoid legacy Mac OS apps and haven’t found the need to install Rosetta on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as of yet. Whether you have need of Rosetta for your other applications or not, there’s no reason you should be running your Java-based applications through the Rosetta environment — they’ll run just fine on native Intel Java on OS X… with just a little bit of a prod in the right direction.

Java applications are CPU agnostic (hence the “write once, run everywhere” Java motto). The Java applets you download and use can theoretically be run on any PC machine that supports Java; be it Intel, PPC, ARM, SPARC, or more. The native Java virtual machine will translate the “Java bytecode” into the equivalent machine assembly that your PC uses and understands, and therefore, Java code written for legacy Mac OS should run just fine on Snow Leopard

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Does it GTK/QT/Win32 Really Matter for Chrome?

Posted on by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
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128px-GoogleChromeLogo.pngA recent article on OSNews highlights the changes expected to come in Google’s Chrome 2.0 for Windows and the progress being made on the Linux and OS X fronts for Google’s new browser.

In the article, Ben Goodger, lead Chrome UI developer, states

[Google avoids] cross platform UI toolkits because while they may offer what superficially appears to be a quick path to native looking UI on a variety of target platforms, once you go a bit deeper it turns out to be a bit more problematic.” [… Your applications end up] speaking with a foreign accent.

But there’s something we’re not getting here. Obviously given enough brilliant programmers and a good team lead to keep the different codebases in sync, going with native APIs is the better approach. But the reasons Goodger is offering aren’t very convincing.

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OS X Snow Leopard to Use ULE Scheduler?

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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snow-leopard

Ever since Steve Jobs first unveiled the next version of OS X, dubbed “Snow Leopard,” the internet has been abuzz with excitement and wondering about the supposed “evolutionary” qualities of OS X 10.6. One of the most-hyped improvements is the promised revamp of the SMP capabilities of OS X, with a “breakthrough” in SMP performance.

The codename for the technology behind the SMP improvements in OS X Snow Leopard has been named “Grand Central,” which Apple describes best:

“Grand Central,” a new set of technologies built into Snow Leopard, brings unrivaled support for multicore systems to Mac OS X. More cores, not faster clock speeds, drive performance increases in today’s processors. Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems.

Our guess is that these SMP “breakthroughs” are going to be delivered in two blows:

  1. Improvements to the OS X kernel intended to boost multi-threading & multi-tasking performance and better-distribute the loads across multiple CPU cores more intelligently.
  2. Provide an SDK (perhaps as improvements to XCode) that allows developers to more-easily write multi-threaded code, handle forking, and provide load-balancing features on a per-core basis.

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Shipping Seven is a Fraud.

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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A blog titled Shipping Seven has gotten a lot of traffic recently for their article about Windows 7 and the MinWin kernel – namely, how they’re actually one and the same. The argument offered by “Soma” is that Windows Vista’s kernel (which is what Windows 7 will be built on) is MinWin ad that it’s already on every Vista desktop out there.

Whether or not MinWin is the very same kernel that went into Vista or not is officially unknown at the moment; but what we do know is that Shipping Seven is either one huge fake, or else that the Windows core programmers at Microsoft are so stupid that they don’t know the first thing about coding, kernels, operating systems and compilers.

The post at Shipping Seven is littered from beginning to end with fallacies, lies, and incorrect deductions that anyone with even the most basic coding skills would know better than to ever post, especially not when attempting to pass it off as the work of some of the more talented coders out there.

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How-To: Revert the Mac OS X 10.5 Opaque Menu Bar Hack

Posted on by Kristan Kenney
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If you’ve been using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 or 10.5.1 and had previously used the Terminal to make your menu bar opaque, you’re going to notice that something is slightly out-of-order when you upgrade to 10.5.2. Basically, what happens, is the old menu bar opacity hack still works in 10.5.2, but it looks slightly odd; and seeing as the update has the functionality built right in, you might as well just revert the hack.

Reverting the hack is simple. First of all, open a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and in the console type the following commands:

sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables'

sudo plutil -convert xml1 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist

sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist

This will delete the hack parameter, convert the com.apple.WindowServer.plist file back to a readable XML format, and then reset the permissions on the file.

Once you’ve reverted the hack, restart the computer, and then you can go ahead and upgrade to 10.5.2. If you’re already running 10.5.2, you can change the menu bar opacity option in System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver (the nice thing about this is that it is on-the-fly, no need to restart any more).

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Released, Biggest Update in Apple History

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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Following right on the heels of Windows Vista SP1 RTM, Apple has seemingly one-upped Microsoft by releasing OS X 10.5.2 – the biggest update to OS X ever – effective immediately and available to all.

The release documentation for the OS X 10.5.2 build can be found at the Apple site, and it contains all the gory details about this whopping update. It’s 343 MiB (for comparison, Vista SP1 x86/x64 RTM are 434/726 MiB, but they contain plenty more changes) and contains a number of important fixes.

At the moment, you can download the update via OS X’s “Software Update” feature or directly from Apple’s OS X downloads site here. Updates are also available for OS X Server, the direct download link can be found here (382 MiB).

10.5.2 ships with several important security updates that were not previously disclosed/patched as well – if you don’t intend on updating to 10.5.2 anytime soon, you should definitely grab the standalone security update found here.

15 Years to Pick an OS

Posted on by Kristan Kenney
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For the last 15 years, I have been a Windows user and developer. I’ve owned several different computers, all running one version of Windows or another, and sometimes I’d even do a little bit of dabbling in Linux, but for the most part I’ve always felt that Windows could be better. The user interface lacks consistency, and personally I feel that with Windows Vista, things are going down hill.

I was set to build a new computer for myself at the end of February, but I realized soon after I had finished finalizing the specification that I would need to run Windows Vista 64-bit on it in order to take full advantage of my hardware. I’m not much of a fan of Windows Vista 64-bit, due to all of the issues between 32-bit and 64-bit executables and the headaches of 32-bit vs. 64-bit Internet Explorer. After considering many things, like what I plan on doing with my computer, I changed my mind on building that system, in fact I’ve completely crossed it off of my list.

Let me tell you, I never thought I’d see the day where I actually managed to pull this one off…

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Things to Think About When Switching to a Mac

Posted on by Kristan Kenney
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If you are a die-hard Windows user and are considering jumping over to the other side of the fence (don’t worry, many of us have had this feeling at one point or another), you may be wondering, “are there any good reasons for me to switch?” or “what software can I use on the Mac to replace the software that I use on my PC?”

Fear no more. I’ve written this article with the potential Mac “switcher” in mind. I’ve been a long-time Windows-user myself, and have only recently made the switch to what, in my personal opinion, is a better overall platform.

First and foremost, Apple computers are not the cheapest on the planet, but you definitely get what you pay for. You’re probably wondering, “is it really worth spending so much on a computer?” This is really up to personal preference and budget, however I do feel that it is a great investment, as a Mac will last you several years, not to mention that Macs have a very high resale value. You could turn around in 2 years and sell your Mac for close to what you paid for it then and buy a new one. You just can’t do that with a traditional or OEM PC, because they lose value from the day you purchase it.

When you consider making an investment such as this, make sure that you pick out a Mac that’s right for you. There’s nothing worse than purchasing a computer that you’re not going to be satisfied with. First, you need to decide if you are going to be doing any traveling or moving around with your Mac. If you are, you’d most likely want to look at getting a portable Mac, but if all your computing is done from the comfort of your home office (or bedroom), then a desktop Mac will be fine.

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EasyBCD 1.7 Released & Up for Download!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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 Go and grab yourself a fresh, hot, right-out-of-the-compiler copy of EasyBCD 1.7 before your old bootloader realizes what hit it! Another release of EasyBCD is now available after months of beta testing and – in true NeoSmart fashion – brings dozens of new features and innovative ideas to the table; this time with even more versatility than ever.

Yes, there was a name change. Those of you keeping track of our beta builds are almost certainly wondering what happened to EasyBCD 1.61. To be totally honest here, it was supposed to be released 4 months ago – soon after the 1.6 release back in May. But we got caught up adding a couple of tiny features here and there, and before we knew it, we had a full-blown new version at our hands and not knowing what to do with it – so it’s just shipped as EasyBCD 1.7.

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EasyBCD 1.6 Released!

Posted on by NeoSmart Technologies
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It’s been a while, though we haven’t really noticed. The EasyBCD 1.5x line has worked loyally and without complaint for the past 7 months, and it’s time to put it to rest. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 8 months now since EasyBCD 1.5 went gold in October of 2006 – and since then its popularity has just soared beyond all expectations.

Today we’re proud to announce the availability of EasyBCD 1.6 to the general public. It’s been a rough, long road developing the 1.6 line, but we hope you’ll find it worth the wait. With 1 million+ EasyBCD users strong, we’ve learned a thing or two about compatibility and standards – or rather shall we say the lack of them. What worked for 98% of EasyBCD users didn’t work for the remaining two percent, and NeoSmart Technologies doesn’t accept anything less than perfection – that’s why EasyBCD 1.6 goes the extra mile.

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