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FREE Workshops at Apple Stores
Tap into the power of your Macintosh systems! These comprehensive workshops will provide practical knowledge and problem solving techniques for individuals with an intermediate to advanced level of technical expertise. During these workshops, we will use a combination of lectures and demonstrations to teach you how to maximize your Mac.
Business Workshops offered:
• Apple Server and Storage Solutions
• Dazzling Keynote Presentations
• Font Management
• Intel for Serious Business Power
• iWeb and .mac for your Business
• Mac/Windows Integration (i.e. Exchange)
• Running your Business on a Mac
• Security Awareness for Businesses
• Switching to InDesign
• Troubleshooting Mac OS X
• UNIX: Working the Command Line
• Wireless and Remote Networks
Workshops are held regularly at all Orange County Apple Retail Stores (Brea, Fashion Island, Irvine Spectrum, Mission Viejo and South Coast Plaza) and the Apple Retail Store Ala Moana in Honolulu, HI. For class schedule, please see Apple's Calendar for your closest location.
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Put Maintenance & Upkeep on a Regular Schedule
 When it comes to workstation and server uptime, system maintenance and upkeep is an essential element, but it sometimes gets neglected in favor of more pressing support tasks or upgrade implementations.
Or the opposite could be true - employees could be spending so much time in preventive care, they might be creating unnecessary downtime. To strike a healthy balance, managers should take the time to develop a regular schedule and break down chores, saving time and money in the long run.
Make An Upkeep List
Creating an effective maintenance plan is much like asset management, experts note. The primary step involves taking an inventory of all hardware and systems and jotting down what type of upkeep each requires.
Knowing how often to schedule maintenance and upkeep tasks is somewhat different depending on the company's needs and equipment. For example, a business that can't tolerate any downtime will likely have failover systems, increasing maintenance tasks.
In general, upkeep chores should be scheduled according to how directly they affect the system or users. Changes in authorizations or application settings should be handled quickly to prevent employee downtime, while less time-sensitive work such as checking activity logs can be put off until other tasks are done.
Upgrades, whether they're to applications or network resources, are usually scheduled for the weekend to lessen the impact to employees. Ditto for recovery drills, another vital part of keeping a system running well, says Jim Reinert, senior director of data recovery service Ontrack.
"Companies are great at doing backups, but when it comes to recovery, they're not so good," he says. "A regular part of maintenance should be testing the backup system to make sure that it works. You don't want to be putting everything on disk or tape and then finding out at the worst possible moment that it's not working."
Once a maintenance schedule is in place, Reinert suggests creating an employee email list that warns employees of upcoming upkeep events. With so many employees accessing the company's server from home, keeping them informed will prevent support headaches from users trying to access a system that's being upgraded.
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FREE Workshops at Creative Resources (Orange County and Hawaii)
 Every month, we offer the most sought after topics and information in a very straight-forward presentation. All of our curriculum has been updated for 2006 and the release of Tiger for the newest materials.
We have also added three exciting new titles to our line-up. All workshops at our facility are the extended curriculum to what we offer at the local Apple Retail Stores.
We have listened to your comments and requests, and proudly hold the following seminars on a monthly basis:
• Apple Server & Storage Solutions
• ColorSync Workflows
• Font Management
• Intel for Serious Business Power
• iWeb and .Mac for your Business
• Mac/Windows Integration (Exchange)
• Running your Business on a Mac
• Security Awareness for Businesses
• Switching to InDesign
• Troubleshooting Mac OS X
• Wireless and Remote Networks
All seminars are free and take place from 9:00 am to 11:00 am. All topics are based on the current shipping version of OS X (Tiger).
You may sign up online, through Apple's Seminar Registration page at http://seminars.apple.com
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Get Info:Guide for Creative Workgroups.
If your business or institution includes a number of creative
professionals, consider setting up an Apple creative workgroup
solution. You'll transform your employees from individual
contributors to an efficient collaborative group, focusing more on
creating and less on dealing with technology issues.
To help you set up and transition to an effective creative
workgroup, take a look at this free guide outlining Apple's
recommendations for best practices.
Click here to download.
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Get Info:Migrating from Mac OS 9for Creative Professionals.
Are you a Classic user? Many creative professionals stayed the
course with Mac OS 9 because of applications such as Quark XPress
that came a little late to the Mac OS X party.
But now, there's no better time to move up. This free Apple
technology report walks you through the migration process from
Classic to Mac OS X and helps you choose a sensible and comfortable
transition path for you and your business.
Click here to download.
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Creative Resources Brings "Web Help Desk" Online
 Creative Resources has made yet another improvement in our ability to better serve our valued clients and increase internal efficiency with the implementation of the Technical Support web based application Web Help Desk. WHD offers power, ease of use and a Comprehensive Feature Set making it an industry leader in web based Technical Support applications. Some of the feature highlights of WHD include:
Web Interface
Web Help Desk features an intuitive, easy to use, graphical tabbed interface. Administrators, Technicians, and Clients need only a web browser to utilize the application. Remote access from any location is possible by anyone with an Internet connection and a web browser, regardless of platform.
Job Prioritization
Web Help Desk uses intelligent business logic to determine which technician is assigned to your job ticket. Using a combination of location, problem type, and load balancing, you always get the right tech for the job. Group various locations to allow the routing and tracking of requests from separate entities in your organization to be centrally managed.
Search Capabilities
Efficiently track your Job Tickets, Assets, Purchase Orders, and FAQs with Web Help Desk's built-in search functionality. Powerful saved queries make finding relevant information easier than ever.
E-Mail Alerts
Web Help Desk keeps our technicians and clients up to date with e-mail alerts. All new job tickets and ticket updates can be e-mailed to the appropriate recipients. Technicians can be alerted when jobs are left unchecked for a specified time period. Choose between either plain text or HTML for e-mail formatting.
Performance Reports
As the administrator for your organization, your job depends on getting technical requests handled in a timely manner. With Web Help Desk's excellent graphic reporting tools, you'll always know how your requests are being handled, which locations are in need of extra assistance, and what problem types are causing the most trouble.
Registered clients can log into our Web Help Desk directly by typing in the following URL https://webhelpdesk.creativeresources.net or by clicking on the Schedule Services Tab from our website www.creativeresources.net. For more information, visit our website or give us a call at 714/881.8000.
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Outdated drive firmware can cause data corruption
We've emphasized the importance of up-to-date firmware for external devices on numerous occasions. In most previous cases, we've noted that outdated firmware or drivers may preclude recognition/mounting for some devices.
However, outdated firmware can also cause repeated data corruption.
As described by MacFixIt reader Wes Palmer:
"In doing a Retrospect backup to a 300 GB hard drive in an ADS case (Oxford 911), I started seeing data corruption. Errors were always during the compare phase and were things like:
Decompression failed due to corrupt input data
Bad backup set header found (0x85222842 at 105,989,400).
"There were no hardware write or read errors and media scanners found no problems. Using file duplicates and cmp, I was able to determine the problem happened to about a 1MB area right at 128 GB. The problem occurred with multiple drives of different sizes, from multiple vendors.
"To make a very long story short, I upgraded the Oxford 911 firmware from version 3.6 to 4.0 and the problem has been resolved.
"I'm not sure at what level this first cropped up - I just noticed it recently under 10.4.6 (I had to back out of 10.4.7). I know I've backed up past the 128GB limit before."
So if you are experiencing repeated problems with data corruption, try checking your device manufacturer's Web site for the latest downloads.
A list of the most recent Oxford firmware updates (Oxford chips are used in a number of FireWire hard drive cases) is available here.
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Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.7 (client and server editions), update recommendations
Apple has released Mac OS X 10.4.7 in both PowerPC and Intel versions.
The new release is available through Software Update, or via the following download link:
Apple Downloads
Enhancements in this release include:
- preventing AFP deadlocks and dropped connections
- saving Adobe and Quark documents to AFP mounted volumes
- Bluetooth file transfers, pairing and connecting to a Bluetooth mouse, and syncing to mobile phones
- audio playback in QuickTime, iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack applications
- ensuring icons are spaced correctly when viewed on desktop
determining the space required to burn folders
iChat audio and video connectivity, creating chat rooms when using AIM
importing files into Keynote 3
PDF workflows when using iCal and iPhoto
reliable use of Automator actions within workflows
importing and removing fonts in Font Book
syncing addresses, bookmarks, calendar events and files to .Mac
compatibility with third party applications and devices
previous standalone security updates
We recommend the following procedure when installing Mac OS X 10.4.7.
First, avoid performing any other operations (in Mac OS X or third-party applications) while the update process is occurring. In addition, before installing this security update, make sure all Apple-installed applications and utilities are in their original locations. Moving one of these applications to a different location on your hard drive can lead to an incomplete update. Also, disconnect any FireWire/USB devices before applying Mac OS X 10.4.7 (except for your startup drive, if it is FireWire or USB, and your keyboard/mouse), then re-connect the devices one by one (checking for issues created by any particular device) after the update process is complete and the system has restarted.
If you have problems after applying the delta (standard, smaller) update, try the following common workarounds:
Delete kernel extension caches, other caches for some issues A number of common issues that crop up after incremental Mac OS X updates can be resolved by deleting specific cache files -- specifically kernel extension caches -- and restarting.
This can most easily be accomplished with a shareware utility like Tiger Cache Cleaner, but also bears a manual process which involves dragging the following files to the trash:
com.apple.kernelcaches (a folder in /System/Library/Caches)
Extensions.kextcache (a file in /System/Library)
Extensions.mkext (a file in /System/Library/)
com.apple.ATS (a folder in /Library/Caches/)
Files that start with com.apple.LaunchServices (in /Library/Caches)
You will be prompted to enter your administrator password when dragging these files to the trash. You may need to restart after moving them to the trash.
Re-apply the Mac OS X 10.4.7 combo updater A workaround that has proved successful for various problems caused by previous incremental Mac OS X updaters is re-application of the current combination updater (PowerPC or Intel). Doing so overwrites potentially problem-causing files that were not replaced by the "Delta" (adjacent version-to-version) update.
Re-apply the Mac OS X 10.4.7 combo updater from an alternate startup volume
Download and save the Mac OS X 10.4.7 combo updater (PowerPC or Intel).
Startup from an alternate boot volume, such as an external FireWire drive, or use another Mac to boot the problematic system in FireWire target disk mode (connect the two machines via a FireWire cable, and boot the target [problematic] system while holding down the "T" key)
Once booted from an alternate drive, select the problematic volume in the Finder, and "Get Info" -- either by pressing the Command-I keyboard combination or accessing the "Get Info" option in the File menu. Check the box marked "Ignore ownership permissions on this volume."
If you have a third-party disk repair utility like DiskWarrior, use it to re-build the directory on the problematic volume (this step may not be necessary)
Re-install the Mac OS X 10.4.7 combo updater on the problematic drive.
Re-attempt booting from the problematic volume (hold down the option key at startup to select the desired drive)
Also, note that the first restart after applying Mac OS X 10.4.7 may be abnormally long. Subsequent restarts should take place at normal speed.
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Apple Remote Desktop 3
Building on Mac OS X Tiger innovations such as Spotlight,
Dashboard, and Automator, Apple Remote Desktop 3 is a Universal
application optimized to take advantage of the power of Intel-based
Mac systems. More than 50 new features deliver enhancements in
software distribution, asset management, and remote assistance.
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Mighty Mouse. Click, roll, squeeze, and scroll. Without wires.
Mighty Mouse now lets you click, roll, squeeze, and scroll
without wires. It works with the Bluetooth module in your Mac to
complement a notebook computer or reduce clutter on your desktop. A
new laser tracking engine provides up to 20 times the tracking
performance on a
wider range of surfaces. The Scroll Ball with 360-degree
scrolling lets you effortlessly navigate large documents, timelines,
and photos with the touch of your finger. Advanced power management
keeps its batteries charged for up to six months.* Fully customizable
to fit your working style, the intuitive, ambidextrous design gives
you multibutton versatility and one-click access to key features of
Mac OS X Tiger.
*Expected battery life is up to six months with two AA batteries and up to three months with one AA battery.
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