Archive for the 'Bugs & Workarounds' Category

T-Mobile USB stick connection issue workaround on OS X

Published on July 9, 2008 in Bugs & Workarounds. 0 Comments

Sometimes, when I connect using my T-Mobile USB stick, I can't get Safari or other apps to recognize the Internet connection. I believe this happens with apps that had previously connected to the Net using another interface (e.g., WiFi/en1).

The way I get it to work is to try to load a page in Safari. As it's trying, I disconnect the T-Mobile connection. Then, I reconnect.

I tried simply disconnecting and reconnecting but that didn't work. It seems like having Safari trying to load a page as you disconnect triggers something that tells Safari and other apps (e.g., command line SVN) that they should use the USB stick.

I know it's quite a niche thing but I'm blogging it in hopes that it might just help someone else with the same issue.

Don’t call your Django application “site” in Google App Engine

Published on June 16, 2008 in Bugs & Workarounds, Development and google app engine. 2 Comments

This one had me scratching my head for a while today:

I created a Django application called "site" in my project, and although everything was working perfectly locally with the Google App Engine SDK and Google App Engine Django Helper but when I deployed, I got an ImproperlyConfigured error.

Changing the name of the application fixed the issue.

I'm off to file a bug on this... done: Issue 487.

Google App Engine Mail API Development Web Server bug and workaround

Published on April 13, 2008 in Bugs & Workarounds, Development, Email and google app engine. 0 Comments

I ran into a sneaky little bug when working locally with the Google App Engine Development Web Server and using the Mail API: sending email begins to fail if you change the source code of the class or module that contains the Mail API calls.

The actual error you get is: SystemErrorParent module 'email' not loaded.
Continue reading 'Google App Engine Mail API Development Web Server bug and workaround'

MacPython re-install gotcha

Published on March 23, 2008 in Bugs & Workarounds. 1 Comment

The comprehensive uninstallation directions for MacPython comprise the single sentence: "To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things." The three things refer to the MacPython 2.5 application folder (/Applications/MacPython), the framework (/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework), and (I'm assuming) the symlink in /usr/local/bin.

Unfortunately, what it doesn't tell you is that unless you also remove all files with names starting with Python under /Library/Receipts, the installer won't let you reinstall MacPython (it checks these to see what is already installed). Instead the installer tells you that a newer version is installed, marks the files "skip", and fails with "nothing to install".

I spent a good few hours until I realized this so I hope this helps someone else keep their hair.

Bad Behavior conflicts with Digg

Published on January 12, 2008 in Bugs & Workarounds, Spam and Wordpress. 4 Comments

I use Bad Behavior and Akismet on this blog to control spam and, while the solution works splendidly, it isn't without the occasional hiccup.

Yesterday, Corban Baxter alerted me that he couldn't digg my startling exposé of Apple's upcoming flying MacBook Pros (thanks, Corban!). Googling around this morning, I found that the problem was being caused by Bad Behavior, not Wordpress. Or, more specifically, according to the author of Bad Behavior, it is a problem with Digg's crawler.

The solution to getting Digg working with Bad Behavior is to simply add the Digg crawler's IP address (64.191.203.34) to the Bad Behavior whitelist file (whitelist.inc.php) as shown below:

$bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges = array(
    "10.0.0.0/8",
    "172.16.0.0/12",
    "192.168.0.0/16",
    "64.191.203.34",
//  "127.0.0.1",
);

Keyboard freezes in Leopard: possible link to changing batteries?

Published on December 7, 2007 in Bugs & Workarounds, Leopard and OS X. 9 Comments

I'd been enjoying over a week of keyboard-freeze-free Leopard use until a few moments ago. Coincidentally, I also hadn't switched batteries in about over a week as I'd been too lazy to charge my second battery. A few moments ago though, I hot-swapped to the other battery after the first one ran out (once my MacBook Pro had gone to sleep) and I've just experienced two separate keyboard freeze-ups.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest a link between changing batteries (possibly hot swapping) and the keyboard freezes in Leopard. It may not be the only trigger but it does appear to at least be one of the reasons.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Update: And it seems that a restart cures this. The reports on the web that clearning the PRAM fixes the issue may be an ad-hoc fallacy as clearing the PRAM involves a restart and it might be the latter that fixes things.

Update: Someone in this thread is also reporting that they see the keyboard freezing issue only after changing batteries. Also, someone else suggests that it might be a problem with the Finder capturing keystrokes (restarting the Finder reportedly resolves the issue for him).

Bug and workaround for Adobe Acrobat Connect (Breeze) Add-In on MacBook Pro/OS X

Published on June 15, 2007 in Adobe and Bugs & Workarounds. 14 Comments

There is a bug with Adobe Acrobat Connect that bit me really badly today, just before the OSFlash conference. Basically, it seemed as if the Add-Ins were installed correctly (in Safari and Firefox) but they wouldn't work. I couldn't share my screen or upload documents. And yet I wasn't getting any errors and the troubleshooting application was giving me a green light.

Thankfully, I found two forum threads (here and here) that led me in the right direction with only half an hour to go. Based on the information there, I tracked down the folder that Acrobat Connect installs the Add-In to:

~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/www.macromedia.com/bin/connectaddin6X0

Unfortunately, what Acrobat Connect did was install the wrong version of the Add-In. Instead of the OS X version, it installed the OS 9 version. To make matters worse, because the Add-In does physically exist in the right folder, Acrobat Connect thinks it is installed correctly but when it tries to load it, OS X won't load it. The symptom is that you get a small white pop-up screen that says "Loading Adobe Acrobat Connect" that then silently disappears.

The workaround is to replace the contents of that folder with the actual OS X Add-In.

Thankfully, with ten minutes to go for the keynote, I realized that this was the issue and Ralph kindly sent me his files. Copying the correct files into that folder immediately solved the issue (no restart of the browser or even the Connect session required.)

If you're having the same issue, download the OS X version of the Adobe Acrobat Connect Add-In here. Unzip and place the files there in the folder specified above and that should solve your problem.

I hope that this helps. Until I figured this out, I rebooted (twice), cleared all Flash player preferences, reinstalled Firefox and had three heart attacks! Oh yes, and things started working with only 5 minutes to go for the keynote! Talk about cutting it close!

Flash CS3 “Save As” Gotcha (and Adobe’s nasty “Save” trick)

Published on May 9, 2007 in Bugs & Workarounds, CS3 and Flash. 39 Comments

Be careful with the Save As feature in Flash CS3: it's horribly broken.

On any other Mac application, if you choose to Save As, your file dialogue will default to the folder that the file is currently saved in. Not so in Flash CS3, where it defaults to the folder that you last saved any file into. So, if you save FLA A into Folder A and then do a Save As on FLA B (which is in Folder B), it will default to saving it in Folder A. This can result in having different versions of files saved in weird and wonderful locations on your drive which, in turn, can lead to lots of head scratching and the wasting of otherwise valuable and potentially productive time.

To make things worse, it will also forget the version of Flash that the FLA was saved for. So, if you saved an FLA for Flash 8 (because you need to share it with people who are still using Flash 8 Professional), it will randomly forget this.

So that's the problem with Save As, but it gets worse when you look at a related but different feature: plain old Save (File -> Save). And this time, the problem is not a bug; it's by design. When you try to save a Flash 8 FLA in Flash CS3, Flash will try and save it in CS3 format every time, forcing you to use the (broken) Save As feature until you finally can't take it anymore and save it as CS3, thereby locking out anyone with Flash 8 Professional from editing your FLA (which is exactly what Adobe wants you to do so it can sell more licenses of Flash CS3). Of course, this could also backfire. Since working in a mixed team where some members have Flash 8 Professional and others have Flash CS3 is so frustrating, some companies may choose to keep everyone on Flash 8 Professional for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, for the most part, the way the Save feature works is a very effective way to get people to upgrade, usability be damned. It's a cheap and nasty trick and I do hope that Adobe reconsider this tactic and stop using it in the future. But it does work, and virally at that (by pissing people off so much that everyone in a team/company is forced to upgrade when one person does), so I won't be holding my breath on that one.

Regardless of the "as designed" behavior of the Save feature (File -> Save), the Save As (File -> Save As) behavior I described above is most definitely a bug and I do hope that it gets fixed in the next point release. I rely on the Save As feature working correctly so much that I sometimes use it to make sure that I'm working on the correct version of a file.

Update: You can command-click (right-click) the name of the FLA on the title bar of the Flash IDE to see which folder it's in. This works with nearly every OS X application. Thanks to Jay, in the comments, for the tip.

Please fix Save As. And, if you really want to be nice, change the Save feature too so that it doesn't automatically try to save Flash 8 FLA files in CS3 format. What you lose in upgrade sales through frustration, you may gain in goodwill. Or maybe I'm just naïve like that...

Changing your battery disables two-finger double click in OS X

Published on September 8, 2006 in 10.4.7, Bugs & Workarounds, General, OS X and Tiger. 0 Comments

On Tiger (I'm running 10.4.7), changing your laptop battery reverts the preference for two-finger clicking. To get it working again, you must go into your System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse and disable and then re-enable the Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click option.

Dreamweaver Knows I’s Christmas

Published on December 29, 2004 in Bugs & Workarounds. 0 Comments

I personally find it heart-warming when my favorite HTML editor is smart enough to know the season and highlight my code accordingly.

Here's an undoctored screenshot of a line of PHP code from Dreamweaver. You see, it's half-red, half-green. It's uncanny but true: Dreamweaver knows it's Christmas!

Now if only all editors could be as smart! :)

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