Delayed ACK Startup Item for Intel Macs

MacFixit just reported about troubles the new Intel-based Macs are having with network speeds, particularly AFP connections to, of all things, other Macs. The solution, they report, is to set the delayed_ack property to 0. In order for this change to survive a reboot, however, they recommend editing /etc/rc. The problem with this is that, often, edits made to /etc/rc will be overwritten by future updates to Mac OSX. In my experience, such modifications are better handled with a startup item, which is also a lot easier to add and remove. So I've suggested as much to the fine folks over at MacFixit, and I've even put my money where my mouth is. I'm offering to those who need it this delayedACK Startup Item, hand made by yours truly.

The linked disc image contains the delayedACK Startup Item, and also includes an installer and an uninstaller for the Startup Item.

Enjoy, you lucky Intel Mac owners (of which, alas, I am not one... Yet...)

UPDATE:
A reader called Nubo recently left this comment:

...turning off delayed_ack is not necessarily something that should be left in the startup items forever. Having it on is normally beneficial or at least not severely degrading in normal environments. So this should be reviewed whenever Apple fixes the underlying problem in its implementation, or the actual root cause is found.

Nubo is absolutely right. This startup item should be removed — either by running the included uninstaller or by simply dragging the startup item to the trash — once the problem has been resolved by Apple.

Thanks, Nubo, for pointing this out.

Download the Delayed ACK Startup Item

Mac OSX Deletes Open Documents

Astoundingly fucked up, yet true. I just got an email from a client who said she'd accidentally deleted a file she had open, and when she closed said document it was gone. I was all set to email her back saying that her file could not have been deleted if it was open, because the Mac OS won't allow that sort of thing, but I thought I'd try it first, just to make sure I wasn't talking out my ass (which is something you learn to do after many years in systems work — try stuff before you speak, that is, not talk out your ass, though that does come with the territory as well I suppose.)

So I tried it. I opened up DVD Studio Pro, created a new document, saved it to the Desktop, and then — with the document still open, mind you — I deleted it. Put it in the trash and deleted it. I received no warning message. And when I quit DVDSP, I was not prompted to re-save the document. It was gone, daddy, gone.

As astoundingly fucked up as this is, I do understand exactly why this happens. You see, active documents — that is, documents which are currently open — are stored in a temporary location, not, as one might suspect, where they are saved. The saved document and the open document are two separate files. Each application determines where the temporary storage location for open files will be. In the case of Final Cut docs, for example (and I know this from cold, hard experience), the temporary storage location is in a folder called .TemporaryItems on whatever drive is the active working drive. So, since the saved file and the active file are actually separate, it's very possible to apparently delete a file that's open in an application, because the file you're deleting is not the open file you're currently working on. It's a saved version.

I don't know if I mentioned that this is fucked up, but it really is. Astoundingly so.

In the same way that you can't delete running processes, I think Apple really needs to make it equally impossible (or at least as difficult) to delete active files. The current paradigm just doesn't make any kind of sense from where I sit.

UPDATE:
A reader has pointed out in the comments that one application actually works the way you might expect. That application is Microsoft Word. A saved Word document and an open Word document are (apparently) one-and-the-same, and Word is able to keep track of open files even when they're moved. If the fact that Word behaves more sensibly than most Apple applications isn't an indication that this is something that needs fixin', I'm not sure what is.

Endlessly Underwhelmed by Software Updates

Here is my peculiar list of observances of the latest spate of Mac updates, specifically: Mac OSX 10.4.4 (which includes a 2.0.3 version of Safari), iTunes 6.0.2, and Quicktime 7.0.4.

Mac OSX 10.4.4:

• The bug wherein the Finder's "Inspector" (command-option-i) — which is supposed to dynamically update it's properties based on the selected file — does not update the view of the file's ownership and permissions, is still not fixed. Unbelievable. I'm pissed.
• The update, unsurprisingly, overwrote my "kill metal" Finder mod. No big, I guess. Just something I noticed. And for the record, the mod still worked after I reinstalled it.
• iChat active-window inconsistencies, I'm happy to say, seem to be fixed in the latest version included with 10.4.4.

Safari 2.0.3:

• Safari seems the same to me. I'm not sure what, exactly, is different, but it's nothing that affects me. The window placement bug is still there. And I still can't use the web apps I need to use with it. I'm sticking with Firefox 1.5 (I'm now on the G5 version).

Quicktime 7.0.4:

• Quicktime 7.0.4 features a new visual effect. When going into full screen mode, as the window grows, everything behind it gradually dims, much like the dimming of the background that happens when you use Exposé's "All Windows" function. It happens when you toggle out of full screen as well. It's pretty. I like it.

Quicktime 7.0.4: Nice Effect
(click for larger view)

iTunes 6.0.2:

• Honestly — and this could totally be my imagination — but iTunes seems to open a bit faster for me. Who knows? Maybe I'm just desperate for some kind of improvement here.
• The "multiple speakers" option is nice. But guess what? Doesn't work with videos; just audio. Still, better than nothing, I guess. We likey.

Really, so far, that's all I've noticed. There are some nice little touches, but all-in-all, considering we have updates to four fairly major applications here, and considering we have some rather longstanding bugs (the Finder Inspector is particularly glaring) still hanging around after several months, I guess I'd say I'm underwhelmed. And a bit disappointed.

Oh well.

Built-In Spell Check Ignores Built-In Dictionary

Here's a thing: Apparently, Mac OSX's built-in spell checker — you know, the thing that leaves all the little red dotted lines all over the misspellings in your text files — uses a separate dictionary than Mac OSX's built-in dictionary that pops up when you hover over a word and press command-control-d.

To wit: I was typing up my latest blog post and the spell checker bitched about this:

The Spell-Checker: Fandom Not a Word?
(click for larger view)

The little red dotted line means I've typed something that isn't in the dictionary. So, being fairly certain that fandom was both a word and that I'd spelled it correctly, I hovered and pressed command-control-d and got this:

The Dictionary: Oh, But it is!
(click for larger view)

See? See that? I was right! Stupid spell-checker! What do you know?

But seriously, I find it somewhat strange that the spell-check dictionary differs from the OS dictionary. I realize that the spell-check one is customizable, whereas the OS one is not, but it seems like they should at least start off the same, doesn't it?

Or maybe it's just me.

View Mail Threads Across Multiple Folders

I organize my mail in Mail.app in folders named for the sender. So all email sent to me by Jim, for instance, goes in the "Jim" folder, and all email sent to me by Gina goes to my "Gina" folder. Sometimes, however, I want to view a thread that involved both Gina and Jim, but now, since they've been filed away in separate folders, the thread is broken. Or so it would seem. Actually, if I command-click the Gina and Jim folders, they are presented as one, and as long as "Organize by Thread" is ticked, I can view my Gina/Jim thread. A bonus: if I command-click my sent folder, my responses are included in the thread as well.