Tricking Office 2008 updater
I'm not sure what the problem was, but every time I tried to update my Office 2008 installation, with the 12.1.1 updater, it would say there was no version of Office to update, even though there was. Perhaps it's because I have Office 2004 also installed. I need to be compatible with some Office 2003 Windows users, and 2008 doesn't do it in a variety of specific places. Read on to see how you can trick the installer into updating no matter what.
Microsoft is trying to kill the Mac by writing software for it
I plan to rant later about what a ridiculous flaming piece of garbage Microsoft's Office 2008 for Mac is. Today it is Remote Desktop Connection for Mac. It doesn't handle case-sensitive filesystems correctly, and I have to make a change to my filesystem to make their software work.
Restarting MacOS Kernel Extensions
I find that both Parallels and the CiscoVPN client get confused with all the changing I do on my network (using wired, wireless, Verizon card, etc). Sometimes it’s tough to get it all sorted out again. I’ve gotten it pretty consistent now. I just restart the appropriate kernel extensions and it all works out.
Before I run Parallels, I run this command in a terminal:
sudo SystemStarter restart Parallels
Likewise, I can kick Cisco’s VPN extensions with a similar command:
sudo SystemStarter restart CiscoVPN
Leopard Migration Assistant Let Me Down
I've upgraded 3 Macs in the last few days: a MacBook Pro, a MacBook, and a Dual G4 Power Mac. All were running the latest 10.4. I did backups to external firewire drives, then did a fresh install (formatting my old hard drive and then installing. It worked great for the MacBook Pro, but failed on the other two. Here's what I did to solve it.
Netflix Instant Viewing to my iPhone
I subscribe to Netflix and I use a mac and an iPhone. I want to watch some of my "Instant Viewing" content on my iPhone. This process isn't for the faint of heart, and it isn't for Windows users (I don't have instructions for Windows). By following a series of steps I can:
- Download the whole movie content without watching it. (Therefore I don't use up all my Instant Viewing minutes for the month)
- Remove the DRM from the content, so that I can watch it offline.
- Convert the WMV crap to MP4, which is more compatible
- Drop it into iTunes and sync it to my iPhone.