Enabling Aperture on Non Administration Account

Wow,

I haven't written a post in a while ... life gets busy!  (Wordy post ... Jump down for the solution)

Well, my iPhoto Library is enormous!  30,000 items and over 65 GB.  With new 10+ megapixel cameras out there, the growth rate is just going to increase!

So performance of iPhoto is getting abysmal!

I did a little research and looks like Apple is pushing Aperture as the next step (and they dropped the price in the App Store to $79) so I downloaded the trial (http://www.apple.com/aperture).

Of course, the install was a piece of cake, and I got the trial license ... however, when I went to run it from  my normal day-to-day non-admin account, it just Hung ... spinning beach ball ... nothing.

After some tinkering, I noticed that I could run Aperture fine from the administration account.  So I figure, this must be a permissions thing ... as I am pretty busy, I figured I would call Apple Support and speed up the solution!  Big Disappointment!!!  The person I talked to was not as knowledgable as I would have expected, and their answer was that you had to run Aperture from an administration account because it was a "professional" app.

What !?! That goes against everything I have ever read about the Mac and why OS X is secure.  It even goes against Apple's published security guidelines (https://ssl.apple.com/support/security/guides/)!  As I quote from the Snow Leopard guideline:

Unless you need administrator access for specific system maintenance tasks that cannot be accomplished by authenticating with the administrator’s account while logged in as a normal user, always log in as a nonadministrator user. Log out of the administrator account when you are not using the computer as an administrator. Never browse the web or check email while logged in to an administrator’s account.

Undaunted by the lack of knowledgeable tech-support (rant over), I dug in.  First I checked the normal locations (preferences and application support for Aperture) to ensure permissions were correct, but everything seemed good. Using the fs_usage command line utility, I started tracking what files Aperture was using.  I noticed that there was file access to the /Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/ProApps folder.

Setting Permissions on that folder and enclosed items resolved the issue!

Step by Step Guide How To Run Aperture from Non-Administration Account

• Install Aperture and Activate License from Administration Account.
• Browse to /Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/ProApps folder (your path may be different if  you named your hard disk.

ProApps File Location

• Right Click (command click) on the ProApps Folder to display the properties of the folder.  Note the Sharing & Permissions section down the bottom.

ProApps Info

• Unlock the folder and ADD (use + button) your normal non-administration account.  In this example it is the "home" account.  Give the account Read & Write permissions
• Select the Gear Button and apply the changes to enclosed items.

Apply changes to Enclosed Items

• Switch back to your non-administration account and Aperture should work!

From my iPad

Well I haven't posted in a while ... Been really busy with work. But I couldn't resist posting today, on iPad launch day!

I am not normally an early adopter, but I couldn't resist heading over to the Apple Store this morning and picking up a 32 GB iPad.

I didn't preorder, and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get into the store very quickly (20minutes). I walked out after 15 minutes with my new iPad.

I'll be posting my unboxing video and some pics later.

My first impressions are very positive, and my typing is definitely improving :).

Thanks Steve!

HowTo trim a Flip Video clip with FlipShare

If you using FlipShare to manage your video clips shot with your flip camera, then you have probably run across the need to trim the video clip down to extract a section of the video.

Trimming a video using the FlipShare application is very easy as I'll show in this post.

• Start up your FlipShare application and select the video clip that you want to trim
• To trim the video, click on the scissors icon at the bottom right of the video clip

•  Once you click the scissors, you will be presented with a small edit window that has two tabs on the bottom of the video slider.  Move the left tab to change where the starting position of the clip will be.  move the right tab to change where the ending position of the clip will be.  You can slide the whole tab or click the arrow buttons to move one frame at a time (there are approximately 30 frames per second, so clicking the buttons can be slow).   Play around with the tab positions to get your clip just right.

• Once you have the clip just right, select the Save button, which will over-write the original clip with your trimmed clip, or select Save As, to save a copy of the clip.  If you wish to cancel the operation, just click the Close button without saving the clip.

Thumbmarks Visual Bookmark Gadget for iGoogle and web sites

I just completed my first Google Gadget.  The gadget, called Thumbmarks displays bookmarks from social bookmarking sites, such as Delicious, Diigo, Reddit and StumbleUpon.

I wrote the gadget because I use Delicious alot, but wanted to be able to SEE my links with thumbnails (got the idea from the Google Chrome browser.

The gadget is listed in Google's directory so you can search for "thumbmarks" or "visual bookmarks" and you should find it.

The project is Open Source and its project page is at http://code.google.com/p/visual-bookmarks/wiki/Home

Below is a screenshot of the Gadget which can display the links in an iPhone like theme or in standard iGoogle theme.

Check out my Delicious Links related to this post at http://delicious.com/tim.alosi/gadget

Howto Upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard

I completed my upgrade to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) on Friday (driving by the Apple Store twice was more than my restraint could take) and it is very easy to say that writing this HowTo will take more time than I spent on the install of Snow Leopard.

The total install time was about 1.5 hours, but I less than 3 minutes (including screen shots).  I started at 22:26:55 per the first screen shot and entered the admin password to start file copying at 22:28:16.  A blazing  2 minutes and 15 seconds.  And if you are wondering, those screen shots are the actuals from the install, not ones taken afterwards for this post.

Here are the step by step instructions.
1. If you don't use Time Machine (shame on you) then make sure you have a good backup.  If you use Time Machine,  you should be covered.
2. Insert the Snow Leopard Install DVD.  You will be presented with the following window.  Double click the Install Mac OS X icon to start.

3. At the next screen, you can simply press continue, unless you want to access any of the utilities (including Disk Utilities) which you may need if you are doing a clean install, but for Snow Leopard, an Upgrade over your current operating system is the recommendation from Apple and is what this HowTo assumes.

4. After pressing continue, the installer will search for your hard disk.

5. You may want to check out the optional components to install.  To display the optional components, select the Customize button.  For my install,  I deselected Language Translations to save some disk space.  If you have older Mac applications, you may want to select Rosetta.

6. Once you have chosen your options, you can go back to the install screen.  Select the Install button and you will be presented with an authentication box.  Type in your administration user name and password, click OK and the install will proceed without further input required from you.  At the completion of the upgrade, your mac will reboot and you will be running Snow Leopard.

Post Install Notes.
For the most part every application I have works, except Microsoft Sync, which does not seem to be able to connect to the Microsoft Sync Web Site.

Some applications, such as Mail, will perform an upgrade the first time you start them, and certain other items (for example the iPhoto based screen saver settings I use) may need to be tweaked.

But overall, you can expect a simple, painless upgrade that leaves you with a faster, more robust operating system and a few (only a few) handy features.

Snow Leopard is out and why I'm choosing to upgrade

Apple's Lastest Version of Mac OS X (10.6), known as Snow Leopard, releases today.

I don't know how soon I'll upgrade, but at $29, I will definitely be upgrading.  As with any upgrade, you should make sure you are getting your moneys worth.

With a $29 price tag, that should be pretty easy, but the four features for me that I am looking forward to (and using to justify the $29) are:

• 64-Bit and Grand Central Multiprocessing ... This provides what apparently is a significant performance boost.  Since my Mac Mini is over 2 years old, any performance boost is a welcomed addition.
• Quick Time X.  This update to quicktime has a few nicities that will make dealing with video clips easier.  With my new Flip camera and every cell phone and digital still camera able to take video clips, the ability to quickly trim and share these right from Quick Time without pulling up iMovie will be a benefit.  Also, Quick Time X has a feature that allows you to record your screen (screencast) without using third party apps.  
• Built-in Cisco VPN support.  A nice features that eases the use of a Mac in todays business environment, wether it is just for logging in using my home Mac, or perhaps helping with the introduction of Macs for work, we will see.
• Exchange Support.  Like the Cisco support, this is a push at helping to integrate the Mac into thw workplace.  Even though I won't be taking my Mini to work, this is a feature that I desire for the future, so I'll chip in a bit now.
  

The Flip Video and Battery Pack Charging

I just got a new Flip Ultra HD, and it is a pretty nice piece of technology, small size, HD resolution, 2 hrs of video and it supports both a rechargable battery pack as well as being able to use AA batteries. In general, I am very happy with my new Flip (http://theflip.com/).

 

I have been having a specific problem though, and it is related to charging the Flip via it's USB connector.  Typically when I have gone to charge the Flip, I often get an error message stating

"Charging has been paused, please check battery pack".

This is very frustrating, and reduces my confidence in the product.  I contacted technical support and they responded with the following:

If your battery pack is not charging properly, please try the following:

1. remove the battery pack from the camcorder
2. connect the camcorder to a powered USB port on your computer
3. when the "Connected" indicator comes on, insert the battery pack into the camcorder
4. safe eject your camcorder from your computer
5. reconnect your camcorder to your computer
6. the battery pack should now begin to charge within the camcorder

 So I tried this and it seems to resolve the issue on my Dell laptop, however the issue periodically persists on my Mac Mini. 

 

I contacted Tech Support again and they are suggesting that the Flip needs to be replaced and has sent an RMA.  I have hesitated to complete that request for a few reasons, I want to confirm that they will be sending a new Flip and not a refurbished one and I want to try a few more tests to make sure it is not some other random problem with other devices connected to the USB that are consuming too much power, causing the charge not to happen.

 

Stay tuned