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Ask TUAW: Leopard Finder, Software Update, iTunes tracks and more

mat lu
Updated ·5 min read

We took a break last week for Thanksgiving. In this round of Ask TUAW we'll go over setting some Finder preferences, Software Updates, setting iTunes track information, deleting from iPhoto and more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. And now to the questions!

Jon asks

With Leopard my Finder is always showing Shared computers. Is this a security risk on public networks? Is this using any memory or could it be slowing down my internet connection? Can I stop this sharing as a whole or on a per computer basis?

No this is not a security risk. These computers are broadcasting their availability via Bonjour or zeroconf. If you don't want to see them any more you just need to go to the Finder preferences and in the Sidebar tab, uncheck "Bonjour Computers" in the SHARED category.

There's not really any way to prevent this from happening overall, since it's the other computers that are actually broadcasting this on your network.


Cynthia asks

Once, while waiting for my turn at the Genius Bar of my Apple Store, I decided to run software updates for my macbook pro - cuz I had enough time to update my computer...so while the updates were downloading, I was writing email or surfing the web, or something similar, when I received a STERN warning from one of the Genius guys. He said NEVER (with emphasis) run any programs while downloading software updates because that could mess up the updates. Now, I know a Genius Guy would never lead me astray, but I did not really believe him. Is he correct? Can I mess up my updates by multi-tasking while they download?

Yes, he's probably correct in that something could happen, particularly during the optimization process. We actually posted on this a while back. According to Rosyna of Unsanity, "when you see the 'Optimizing System Performance' phase of a software update, Mac OS X is really updating prebinding. Updating prebinding has a very, very nasty bug in it... If multiple processes are updating prebinding at the same time, then it is possible for a system file to be completely zero'd out. Basically, all data in the file is deleted and it is replaced with nothing." I'm not sure exactly if/how Leopard has affected this, though it does seem that Leopard updates like 10.5.1 actually take over your computer and prevent you from doing anything else. In short, however, the Apple Genius is giving you good advice.


Joe asks

Is there a way to delete photos from iPhoto that permanently remove them from the computer? I thought deleting them form iPhoto would so this but just because the don't show up in iPhoto doesn't mean they've been deleted as with Leopards new SEARCH FOR feature in the finder shows that they still exist in the iPhoto Library folder and then begins a lengthy process of finding and deleting the Originals, Modified, etc. versions of the same file. There has to be an easier way.

I suspect that what's happening is that when you "delete" a photo what you're actually doing is just removing that photo from an album, and not from the Library. What you need to do is delete it from the Library. To do that, however, you need to be viewing the photo in the Library (and not in an album) when you delete it. If you do that it will be moved to the iPhoto "Trash," which you can then empty.


Alex asks

Every time I empty the trash in Leopard it asks "Are you sure you want to remove the items in the Trash permanently?" This is really annoying when emptying the trash often. Is there anyway to disable this?

You can turn this off in the preferences of the Finder. Just go to the Advanced tab and uncheck "show warning before emptying the Trash."


Al asks

I've added a recording of a live show to my iTunes library. I am struggling to maintain the correct order of tracks without the 01songname, 02songname, methodology. What is the smart way to assign a specific order to an album?

The best way to handle this is with Track Number metadata. In iTunes select all the tracks that you want to edit and Get Info on them by right-clicking or hitting ⌘-I. First, give them all the same album name and then give them Track Numbers out of however many tracks you have. If you sort by album, the tracks will appear in the proper order.



Peter asks

In a previous Ask TUAW you showed a screenshot of the Manage Widgets widget. In it, most of the image was grayed out, and a small circle drew attention to the part of the image you were highlighting. This is a pretty similar feature to the search function seen in System Preferences. How was this effect achieved - it'd be great for presentations?

Well now Peter, you want me to give away all my secrets?! Okay, just between you and me, Skitch from plasq makes this really easy. Using the translucent grey color, you can just draw a shape around the part you want to highlight, then use the paint-bucket tool to fill in the rest around it. Unfortunately, Skitch is still in beta, but you can request an invitation.