safe mode
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Cassini space probe exits safe mode just in time for its flyby of Enceladus
Apparently our faithful Windows 98 laptop isn't the only thing that goes into "safe mode" from time to time. For the last three weeks, the Cassini spacecraft has been in standby as it orbited Saturn due to a glitch, or "flipped bit," which prompted a shutdown of all but the most essential of the probe's operations. Engineers have been unable to determine what exactly prompted the error, although a subsequent examination of the vehicle's systems shows that all the spacecraft's responses were proper, paving the way for a reactivation of its instrumentation this previous Wednesday. If all continues to go smoothly, this will set the stage for a study of the moon Enceladus during a fly-by on November 30. This marks the sixth time that the spacecraft has gone into safe mode since its launch in 1997.
iPhone Safe Mode: Who knew?
What happens when you set your jailbroken iPhone to "fast respring" (that is, turn on one of the SpringBoard relaunching options) via BossTool, and SpringBoard crashes? Safe mode, apparently. Who knew that Safe Mode even existed on the iPhone? I certainly didn't until TUAW reader Max S. sent in the pictures below. Safe Mode apparently disables certain system extensions. You can get out of safe mode by rebooting. So let's see, a blue screen of doom and safe mode. Hmmm. I thought this phone was manufactured by Apple. Where's Seinfeld? Anyway, this isn't the first time the topic of iPhone's Safe Mode has come up. I googled up this Austrian page and a few other hits -- most of which seemed to appear in September of 2008, after the recent firmware upgrade. Know anything about Safe Mode and the iPhone? Drop a comment and tell us more. %Gallery-32276%Update: Readers do know more! They point out that this is a Winterboard feature and not part of Apple's firmware.
TUAW Tip: Getting out of Setup Assistant hell
Last night, after installing the QuickTime 7.3.1 update on my Leopard machine, upon restart I was greeted with a distressing sight: the OS X Setup Assistant that's only supposed to run when you first install OS X. Furthermore, even if I completed the Setup Assistant it would just run again in a kind of permanent loop; I was caught in Setup Assistant hell! No matter how many times I restarted, the Setup Assistant would appear each time and never let me get back to my desktop.A little searching (on another machine) revealed that I was not alone. In fact, this was the second time this had happened to me on this machine. The first time, not knowing any better, I ended up reinstalling Leopard. This time, however, I discovered that Apple has acknowledged the problem with a Support Document. Fortunately, there is a way out of Setup Assistant hell: booting into Safe Mode. You do this by restarting your Mac and immediately holding down the SHIFT key when you hear the chime. Hold it until you see the rotating gear below the grey Apple on the startup screen. Release it and the computer should eventually take you to the login screen with "Safe Mode" in red. One word of caution: give the computer plenty of time. Even if it appears stuck give it a chance to work; go get a cup of coffee and come back. Anyway, once you're in Safe Mode you can now hit "restart" and things should eventually get back to normal (perhaps after some updates are installed).This problem seems to be a Leopard bug related to software updates. It's so disconcerting that I thought it would be a good idea to get the solution out there in case it should strike any of our dear TUAW readers.Update: Head nod to Steve D who apparently discovered the same thing a few days ago.
