UK Mac

Interference from cassette player
I've been trying to transfer some old cassette tapes onto the iMac by plugging a cassette player into the audio input and using Amadeus to record the output. You know that "Bzzzzz-bzt-bzt-bzzzzz-bzt-bzt" noise you get from time to time when a mobile phone is too near the Mac's external speakers? Well I'm getti... 23 May 2010 21:14

Complex page numbering in documents?
I was recently asked by a friend how they could number the pages in a Word (Windows version) document they were submitting for some coursework. Basically they needed to set numbering to start at page one part way through the document. Specifically, it was an intro page, an essay, followed by a book. Easy I thoug... 20 May 2010 03:00

Parallels slowdown
I've got the latest Parallels installed but somewhere along the line it's become chronically slow running XP Pro SP2 (SP3 won't install saying it needs an extra 4MB). This is running on the latest 10.6 on a MacBook C2D 2GHz with 2GB ram. I know it's a bit tight for memory but the earlier Parallels ran pretty smo... 18 May 2010 10:22

Video ripping performance
I've just ripped some DVDs to disk using Handbrake. Using an i5 2.66 iMac it encodes at about 90fps; using a C2D 2.4 iMac about 30fps. Same disk and encoding settings (normal default). I hadn't expected the performance difference to be that great - does it look about right? Rob ... 19 May 2010 18:16

Thunderbird and HTML email ?
I am using Thunderbird 2.0.0.24 in OS10.5.8 on VirginMedia cable to access my ntlworld.com email. Recently I got a couple of insurance quotes and documents from an insurance company. They sent them in HTML. If I access my mail on the virginmedia webmail or via mail2web then they are both there and readable.... 16 May 2010 19:03

MBP anti-glare
Any thoughts on the anti-glare option on the new 15" MBPs? I'm thinking of getting the i7 but haven't seen a new Pro with the matte option. I'm not dead against the glossy screens but find them a pain sometimes. The nearest Apple Store to me is Exeter - anyone know if they have one on display? Stuart -- cut... 18 May 2010 07:05

iPad Spotting...
Watching the F1 qualifying on BBC1 at the moment. If I'm not mistaken Jake Humphrey has an iPad, and is seen holding it occasionally. ... 16 May 2010 17:56

iTunes Oddity ....
iTunes keeps "Determining Gapless Playback Information" across some 1300 tunes - seems to only happen when iPod is connected. Even when I haven't added any new files to iTunes or the iPod. Why? Can I stop it? Larry ... 21 May 2010 01:56

Converting to XviD/DivX ?
What's the best/cheapest way of doing this? Unless I'm missing something Handbrake won't convert -to- these formats, only from them. In a related question, what's the best format to convert to for streaming to a PS3? It seems to struggle a bit with mp4 files (under Rivet) Jim -- "Microsoft admitted its Vist... 15 May 2010 15:55

Arbitrary audio sources to radio streams?
OK - I'd like to have a visualiser for use with Spotify. It appears there are a -few- stand-alone visualisers, but most are plugins for iTunes. It occurs to me that if I could take the output of Spotify and turn it into a net radio stream, I could then route it into iTunes and use the visualizers there. I ha... 19 May 2010 20:31