Ramblings of a Programmer

I had a situation tonight where Mail was crashing on my Power Mac when I tried to launch it and check my mail. I have several email accounts setup and I could see that it was coming up and trying to show the last message that I was viewing in my Gmail account before I closed it previously. Just afterwards, it would crash.
After several times of trying to launch Mail and clicking on a different mailbox to no avail, I started poking around in my ~/Library to see if I could find anything. I came across ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.
At the top of the preferences file is a string named AccountInfoLastSelectedAccountId. I soon discovered that the mailbox ID that this was pointing to matched the uniqueid for my Gmail account under MailAccounts. So, I copied the uniqueid string from my primary mailbox to the AccountInfoLastSelectedAccountId field. I saved the preferences file and relaunched Mail.
Unfortunately, my happiness turned to disappointment not too long afterward, because it died again just as it had been doing. So, I went back to the pref file for Mail and poked around some more. This time, I came across an array field named SelectedMailboxes which is in the first dictionary under the ActiveViewers array field.
I noticed that the string value for the first selected mailbox pointed to my Gmail account. This time, I copied the mailbox account string for my primary mailbox and replaced this string in the SelectedMailboxes section.
I saved the preferences file, relaunched Mail, and to my joy, it is working without crashing again.
Just a note, please make a backup of a .plist file before editing it. This way, if you make a mistake, you will have the original copy to revert back to.
Hopefully this tip will help someone in the future who might have this same problem.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Mail, Tiger

Could we be one step away to new Apple hardware containing Intel processors? MacWorld starts next Monday, January 9th. It is quite possible that on that date, Steve Jobs will talk about new Apple computers based on the new processors that Intel debuted at CES today.
Intel announced their new Centrino Duo mobile technology. It should increase battery life and improve performance on wireless laptops. Along with this, Intel introduced its Core Duo processor. It is a dual core CPU that supports the Centrino Duo technology.
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Technorati Tags: Apple, Intel, Centrino, CES

A lot of discussions about Apple hardware as of last has focused on whether or not Apple would drop FireWire ports from their upcoming laptop lines. Many believe that they will and, of course, many believe that Apple will not drop FireWire.

I am not sure if Apple will drop FireWire or not. I think it would not be a wise move to drop it, because all of the current consumer, prosumer, and high-end video equipment use FireWire connectivity in one form or another.

Chris Seibold has written a very interesting article over at Apple Matters about this very subject. Check it out.

read Long time Users Facing yet Another Dope Slap From Apple?

Technorati Tags:
Apple, FireWire

Briefly: Mac OS X 10.4.4 development winding down

By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 05:45 PM EST

The development of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update appears to be in the final stages at Apple Computer, as tipsters say the latest developer builds of the software are accompanied by only a few outstanding issues.



According to sources and reports …

Technorati Tags: OS X, Apple

I came across a small trick tonight. If you happen to load a page in Safari that ends up being wider than your current width, you can hold the Shift key and then scroll horizontally if you have a scroll wheel on your mouse.

tags: OS X, Safari

Apple recently opened up a site to help users understand their iPod, learn how to sync music and podcasts, and to maximize your overall experience with the iPod.

iPod 101 | tags: iPod, Apple

I came across an interesting article tonight by John Stanford at The Cardinal Inquirer which is an excerpt from a discussion that he had with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple.

read more | tags: Steve Wozniak, Apple

It appears that Apple is doing away with Firewire. It is rumored that the next version of the iBook will now have any Firewire ports. It is also rumored that the next Powerbook will have only one single Firewire 800 port with the Firewire 400 ports disappearing completely.

I hope this is not the case. In the real world, Firewire is faster than USB2 for sustained throughput. On top of that, when is the last time that you plugged your digital video camera into your computer using USB?

read more | tags: Firewire, Apple

Have you ever wondered what you could really do at the command line interface in Terminal? O'Reilly Network has a series of articles by Mary Norbury-Glaser which discuss what you can do with Terminal in Tiger.

read more: articles

tags: osx, Tiger, unix, terminal

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that OS X Tiger 10.4.3 is now available via Software Update.

read more | apple, OS X, Tiger