Mountain Lion Crashes WiFi
Something that happened to me shortly after updating my Macbook Air to Mountain Lion was that on waking up from sleep, Networking would crash. Crash to the point of having to hard boot my Air to get everything back to normal. I thought this was odd, so to the goog I went! Luckily, I wasn’t the only one with this problem.
The problem seems to occur mostly after an upgrade. I say that, because the fix that I found here worked for me.
Go to “System Preferences > Network” and select the WiFi-Service from the list on the left. Select
“Options”“Advanced” from the bottom right of the right pane. In this window, delete all the known Networks and hit OK. Then go ahead and delete the WiFi device. Create a new WiFi device and you’re done.
After you delete the WiFi device, press apply before creating a new WiFi device. Once done, click Ok and you should be good to go. To test, close the lid on your air or put your Mac to sleep, count to 10 and open the lid or wake it up by press the Any Key on your keyboard.
So far I’m finding Mountain Lion to be really nice. I like the iOS style notifications. I like the sharing features. I like the Twitter integration (and can’t wait for the Facebook integration). I like the new features in Safari. And I really like the Airplay screen mirroring with the Apple TV.
I Heart the Internet
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of creativity that can be found on the internet today, especially in video form. Sure, we’ve all seen the Google Videos for Chrome that tug a bit at the heart strings or make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. I shared one of those recently over at Google Plus. It’s pretty fantastic so check it when you get the chance.
Of course Apple does this very well too. Although usually in a much shorter format. Until this year’s WWDC that is. About 7:00 into the presentation there is one of the greatest clips I’ve seen in a very long time. I’ve narrowed it down for you, just press play.
I love when a company really knows how to sell itself. How to make itself look larger than life, look better than everyone else and, at the same time, just look like they are doing things because it’s the right thing to do. Like or it not, believe it or not, that’s exactly what this particular clip is all about.
And it’s done right.
The Sunday Post #107: iStuff
Back to back Sunday Posts? I know that’s never happened before and there is a very good reason for that. But first.
On iPhones and the Macbook Air
Recent addition to my quiver is the 13″ Macbook Air. I looked really hard at the 11″, aka the iPad Pro, but decided the larger screen and SD Card reader were a worthwhile $100 upgrade. Timing couldn’t have been better either as I picked it up barely 24 hours before I had an event to cover with a fair bit of travel. Here are a few quick notes.
Fast – Did I say fast? Yes, fast. The best way to describe how fast is by using iPhoto. On my 13″ Air, from click to fully loaded is less than 2 seconds. On a brand new 13″ Macbook Pro (with roughly the same number of photos) from click to to fully loaded was 12 seconds. The speed makes itself known everywhere too.
Battery life – I’m not sure about how long it will actually last, but I think the 7 hours claimed is pretty close to being accurate. Not to mention, when the lid is closed, this baby is sleeping and sleeping hard! Over night battery useage with the lid closed so far has been zero.
Portability – It’s not as light as the 11″, but close enough. And it’s thinner than my iPhone. Yet, it doesn’t feel flimsy or cheap.
The Screen – Something you don’t notice right away, but after you use it for a bit, you start to notice that the screen on this is pretty great.
Comments are open if you have any questions about the Air.
And, for the first time, really, I actually used my iPhone during an event. Now that I’ve had it for a few months and have my groove down, it’s the perfect device for that kind of work. I was able to do things mobile that I always had to rely on external devices to do. For the first time I went to an event with only 3 devices (and it could have been two); an iPhone, my Canon DSLR and Macbook Air.
I’m excited to see what I can really do with these in the field this year!
No Flash for Me
About an hour before recording the latest episode of White Roof Radio, I was trying to get everything setup and in place to do a live-to-the-internet show. I’ve done it before without any issues, so I thought I’d start early and get listeners lined up before everything started.
Open up uStream.tv. Get logged in and select the channel I’m going to use for the live show. I’m then prompted for the Flash Security stuff. And that’s as far as I got. The browser didn’t crash, but at the same time, it didn’t do anything. I tried multiple times without success. So I tried again in Firefox.
Oh yea, right. Lion doesn’t come with Flash. And the uStream broadcast thing only works with Flash for how I needed to use it. Next step to most would have been to shuffle off to Adobe.com and get Flash for OSX Lion.
I did not.
Chrome has it’s own, built in intepreter for Flash that seems to work perfectly fine on almost everything I need. Considering that I have gone almost 2 weeks before I realized I didn’t have Flash installed, I’d say it’s hit that mark.
I’m going to try to go as long as possible. I think I can go forever without having to install Flash on my Mac. Since the Chrome version appears to work ok, no need to clutter up my system with rubbish Adobe Software, right? I don’t like or need Flash. But for when I do, I’ll use Chrome, even if I break up with it like I mentioned above. But that’s for another post.
OSX Lion: Upgrade vs. Fresh Install
When it comes to operating system upgrades, I’m usually the guy that waits a month or so until everything gets sorted out before I jump in. Not a ‘wait-for-service-pack-1′ wait, more like ‘wait-for-the-first-updates’ wait. As much as I would like to be an early adopter on that stuff, there are still apps and other pieces that I rely on day-to-day to actually produce stuff, for which people give me money. So a short wait doesn’t usually kill me.
When it does come to upgrade, I’m also the guy that does the full install, from scratch. Format the hard drive, install the OS, reinstall all apps and restore all documents. After working technical support for a few years and watching Windows upgrades completely bork PC’s, I think it’s the way to go.
Until Apple released Lion. (Read on…)
