I understand that many Mac users are so impressed with the seemingly endless wonders of their computers that they believe their Apple-branded boxes can do anything. But even Apple’s technology has its limitations. With that in mind, today’s Mac 911 entry takes a turn toward the negative.
Intel + Classic = No
We begin with Macworld forum member, Auroros, who writes:
Has anyone been able to successfully get the Classic environment to run under Rosetta?
No.
Rob Griffiths puts it nicely in his response, which reads:
Classic will *not* run on an Intel Mac, period. You can mess with permissions all you like, but it simply will not work.
HD -> DVD -> Computer = No
In response to my recent Converting Unprotected DVDs blog entry, forum visitor Ostero2001 asks:
If I originally took my video with my HD DV camcorder and then, like everyone else, burned it to a dvd, is there a program that can revert it back to 1080i clarity?
No.
That which has been taken out can not be restored. For example, once you’ve converted a music file from uncompressed AIFF to MP3, converting it back to AIFF won’t restore the data that was originally removed by the MP3 encoder. Same here. Once you’ve burned the file to DVD, it’s encoded at a lesser quality than the original HD video. Upsampling it to 1080i can’t restore data that’s been lost.
Running Fan + Terminal = No
Reader Jerry Kerrisk has an older G3 iBook with a fan that won’t seem to stop running. He asks:
Is there a setting I can access (from Terminal, for example) that will shut the fan off manually or allow it to shut off when the computer cools down?
No.
Fans generally run for a reason. If you switch it off, you could bake your ‘Book. If the fan runs constantly, make sure that it’s as vented as you can make it (prop up the back, for example, and keep it off soft surfaces that could block airflow to the bottom of the laptop).
GarageBand -> MP3 = No
In response to this entry about exporting AIFF files from GarageBand, reader Gary Earl asks if he can export his podcast from GarageBand as an MP3 file.
No.
I’m afraid that you either have to export it as an AAC file or, after hiding the podcast track, use the Share -> Send Song to iTunes command to export your podcast as an AIFF file and then convert it to MP3 within iTunes.
iTunes – iPod shuffle = No
And finally, reader Marni Ockene is annoyed. She writes:
I have been annoyed by the fact that you can’t keep the iPod in your source list with all of its music listed when the iPod is unplugged in iTunes 7 and haven’t figured out how to do that…
While “no” isn’t the proper response to this one, I can offer something equally negative:
You can’t do it.
I’m assuming you’re writing specifically about the first-generation iPod shuffle, which you could detach from your computer while leaving a virtual version of the iPod in iTunes’ Source list. Under iTunes 7 this is a no-can-do scenario.