2012.08 History: July Q&A

Dave Weston, Quizmaster; summarized by Holly McEntee

Q: I get my email through TDS, sometimes though Mail and sometimes through TDS's own website. Sometimes there are mail messages on tds.net that haven't been downloaded to Mail on my Mac. How come?

A: Look for a setting or preference either in Mail, or within the TDS site you log into to check your mail, that has to do with deleting messages or leaving them on the server after they're read. If you want to be able to see all your incoming message (read and unread) on both the website and through the Mail app on your Mac, you want those settings to indicate "leave messages on server after downloading" or some such wording.

Q: I have an iBook running OS X 10.4 and Classic 9.0 that I want to get rid of, but first I want to wipe the hard drive. Which start-up disk do I use to do so?

A: It would be easier to simply delete your account off of the iBook. This will erase your Desktop and all of your files, preferences, and settings from the machine without having to use the start-up disk. To do so:

• In "System Preferences" go into "Users & Groups" and create a new account (call it temp) and set it so it has Admin privileges and either no password or a very simple password you can remember (like temp).
• Quit "System Preferences" and log out of the iBook.
• Log back into the iBook into the new account you've just created (temp).
• Go into "System Preferences", then into "Users & Groups", and delete your old account.

The new owner of the iBook can use this temp account to log into the iBook and set up their own account and password, and then delete the temp account after they've done so.

Q: How does Apple TV work? Does it require iTunes?

A: Apple TV is basically a little box that is in essence a computer that streams media content to your television from any number of sources. One of these sources can be your home computer, and whatever content you have on it. So if you bought Season 2 of the television show "Bones" through iTunes, you can set up Apple TV to access your iTunes library and play those episodes on your television. We don't hear a whole lot about Apple TV (compared to the iPhone and iPad), but there are tantalizing suggestions that we may start hearing a lot more about it. In Walter Isaacson's biography he quotes Steve Jobs as saying he'd "cracked" television, and very recently Apple has quietly collected some partnerships with the likes of Hulu and Amazon. You can read more speculation from Gizmodo, a semi-respectable rumor site.