Author Topic: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder  (Read 7662 times)

elagache

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OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« on: May 16, 2014, 10:28:26 PM »
Dear WeatherCat fans,

There is a new update to Mavericks and what do ya' know, there is a new annoyance.   The Users folder will disappear if you have the latest version of iTunes installed and have the Find My Mac option enabled in your iCloud system preferences.  Macworld has a report about it on their website:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2155980/os-x-10-9-3-unhiding-the-users-folder.html

Whether this is a bug or something that Apple thinks is "clever"  ::) remains to be seen.  However, the article does describe some options to keep your Users folder visible, but all are compromises of one sort or another. 

Certainly we can expect more information about this "situation" in the next few days when hopefully either a fix or an explanation will finally emerge.

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

JosBaz

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2014, 09:14:29 AM »
Hi Edouard,
Apple just released iTunes 11.2.1 which fixes the hidden user folder bug. Silly bug, but glad we did not have to wait months for the fix.
Jos

Blicj11

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2014, 03:27:21 PM »
With iTunes controlling more and more of the user inexperience, it has become a rather large and bloated piece of software tied into many parts of OSX. One of these days it will either blow up or take control of my life. Still, my best computer decision was made fourteen years ago when I bid adieu to Mr Gates and bought my first Mac. I have never looked back.
Blick


elagache

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Fix and bloat . . . . (Re: OS X 10.9.3)
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2014, 09:42:50 PM »
Hi Jos, Blick, and WeatherCat fans,

Apple just released iTunes 11.2.1 which fixes the hidden user folder bug. Silly bug, but glad we did not have to wait months for the fix.

Yes thanks for the info.  Macworld once more has information about the fix:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2156286/apple-issues-itunes-update-to-fix-/apple-issues-itunes-update-to-fix-/users-issue.html

It turns out the bug also changed the permissions of those folders making us all much more at risk.  Apple couldn't afford to leave this bug out in the wild for long!

With iTunes controlling more and more of the user inexperience, it has become a rather large and bloated piece of software tied into many parts of OSX. One of these days it will either blow up or take control of my life.

I couldn't agree with you more.  Apple has really let iTunes become more of an octopus than a pleasant music manager.  I was mad when Apple insisted on using iTunes to handle video instead of coming up with sister program to do that job.  I think Apple already must chafe over the complexity of the iTunes app.

Still, my best computer decision was made fourteen years ago when I bid adieu to Mr Gates and bought my first Mac. I have never looked back.

Well, I made the switch a wee bit earlier than you did - 1988!  :)  So I was around when the best MP3 player was Cassidy and Greene's SoundJam, released in 1998.  How could anyone have imagined back then that SoundJam would be the core that would become the colossus that is iTunes now!  There is an interesting Wikipedia article about SoundJam and its transformation into iTunes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundJam_MP

One of these days we are going to see a documentary on the History channel about all this stuff!  ;D

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

P.S. There is another interesting story about the guy who created SoundJam on of all places the panic software website which created the strongest rival to SoundJam: Audion

http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/popup-sjstory.html

Bull Winkus

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2014, 05:35:18 PM »
I've even got you beat, Edouard! I was selling computers in Tyler, Texas in the early 80's when the Mac came out in February of 1984. By summertime that year, I had one. Been using Macintosh ever since.

Yes, SoundJam MP was the mp3 ticket back then. I think I still have copies of it in my archives. Assuming that it is still readable, that is. That's when I relocated all of my favorite CD collection to the computer. I still have the CDs, but they haven't been played since then.

Herb
Herb

elagache

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Computer nostalgia . . . .(Re: OS X 10.9.3)
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2014, 10:40:46 PM »
Hi Herb and WeatherCat walkers down cyber-tech's memory lane, . . . .

I've even got you beat, Edouard! I was selling computers in Tyler, Texas in the early 80's when the Mac came out in February of 1984. By summertime that year, I had one. Been using Macintosh ever since.

Yes, you beat me, but the plot is a bit more complex than that.  You may remember the TI versus HP calculator wars of the 1970s.  My Dad was a TI man and so I got brought into the Texas Instruments fold.  When TI came out with their own PC, it was the family favorite and we finally bought one in 1983.  However, we didn't buy it without taking a long and envious look at the Apple Lisa.

Well, those who know the story of early PCs, the TI PC was introduced before anyone had cloned the IBM PC BIOS.  About a year after we bought our TI PC, the IBM clones started to show up and the TI PC wasn't compatible with all of that IBM software.  Being stubborn I hung on to the family's TI PC until 1988.  At that point I compared the PC world with the newly announced Mac II and I turned to Mac - never to turn back!

Yes, SoundJam MP was the mp3 ticket back then. I think I still have copies of it in my archives. Assuming that it is still readable, that is. That's when I relocated all of my favorite CD collection to the computer.

However, here I beat you!  :D  At the time, I was working with a bunch of UNIX nuts and I had my own LINUX server at home.  So I actually started making MP3s on my LINUX server.  It took a while for SoundJam to show up.  I tried really hard for a while to keep my music on my LINUX server because at the time, PC drives were so much cheaper than Mac drives (especially since I was using a Powerbook.)  However, finally hard drives got so big that I could get all my music on my Mac and that finally allowed me to cut my ties with LINUX.

I still have the CDs, but they haven't been played since then.

Awe shucks, you - never - play CDs?  Every now and then we have some sort of equipment failure and we play a CD - just to see if the stereo's CD player still work!!  Also, our 2000 Buick Century still has a CD in it, because I haven't gotten around to replacing that stereo with a modern Bluetooth unit!

Ah those memories! . . . . . .  :)

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2014, 01:10:39 AM »
Was your TI the 994A? I started out on the TRS-80 CoCo.

I never did fool with Linux. I went from TRS-80 to Apple II+ to Mac Plus. I did get heavily involved in CPM, but not as a developer. I was just a salesman.

Yep, that deal where IBM gave away the keys to the kingdom to that young unknown upstart for a copy of someone else's DOS sure changed the playing field. The only reason they didn't come up with their own is because upper management wouldn't give the boys from Boca Raton a big enough budget. Upper management had the impression that these middle managers were just playing to a fad, and they didn't want them to put much money into it since it would all be over as soon as people learned that the PC was not really a full fledged computer. Hence, the Boca boys preferred to lease an OS rather than own one. That's also the reason that the PC from computer giant, IBM, was nothing special.

Aaaa? the memories! When the Mac II came out, I was selling them with LaserWriters as desktop publishing systems. One 20 minute demonstration with PageMaker had 'em drooling!

Herb
Herb

elagache

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Computer nostalgia - part deux . . . .(Re: OS X 10.9.3)
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2014, 09:41:31 PM »
Hi Herb and fellow WeatherCat strollers down cyber memory lane.

Was your TI 994A?

No, Texas Instruments also made an attempt to go after the business market with their own version of the IBM PC.  I can't find anything on the desktop version, but here is some information on the portable version of it:

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=472

Here is a picture of that site:



Portable computing sure has changed since then!!

Yep, that deal where IBM gave away the keys to the kingdom to that young unknown upstart for a copy of someone else's DOS sure changed the playing field. The only reason they didn't come up with their own is because upper management wouldn't give the boys from Boca Raton a big enough budget. Upper management had the impression that these middle managers were just playing to a fad, and they didn't want them to put much money into it since it would all be over as soon as people learned that the PC was not really a full fledged computer. Hence, the Boca boys preferred to lease an OS rather than own one. That's also the reason that the PC from computer giant, IBM, was nothing special.

I've heard a number of claims about how Microsoft came into existence with IBM's help.  I don't know the truth, but there is enough evidence to make it clear that Bill Gates didn't deserve either the credit or the fortune that Microsoft got.

Aaaa? the memories! When the Mac II came out, I was selling them with LaserWriters as desktop publishing systems. One 20 minute demonstration with PageMaker had 'em drooling!

It was a great machine.  I basically wrote most of my PhD with it and while not a PageMaker document - it really pushed the limit of what WordPerfect could on a Mac.  I probably should have used PageMaker instead!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

Bull Winkus

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2014, 12:45:17 AM »
Quote
I've heard a number of claims about how Microsoft came into existence with IBM's help.  I don't know the truth, but there is enough evidence to make it clear that Bill Gates didn't deserve either the credit or the fortune that Microsoft got.

There's actually much more to the story than meets the history buff (as there often is). Mr. Gates had dropped out of Harvard, because his buddy, Paul Allen, coaxed him into it. Originally, the company sold copies of BASIC on cassette tape and a digital road sign that displayed the speed of cars approaching the sign to its driver.

Bill's parents, William and Mary Gates, were disappointed to learn that their son had dropped out of Harvard, and when Mary Gates subsequently found herself at a fund raiser, hobnobbing with top executives at IBM, naturally the subject turned to her son. Ostensibly, her motivation was to get him motivated to finish college, so she pitched for them to give him a job. What the executives heard, however, was that here was a link to someone who might be able to supply the suits from Boca Raton with a BASIC interpreter.

Soon, Bill was being visited by two astute gentlemen from IBM, and a deal was sealed for [what came to be known as] Microsoft BASIC. The two IBM guys were also out west to visit Dr. Gary Kildall, founder of Digital Research, to broker a deal for his version of the CP/M operating system. Their attempt to meet with him failed. They had neglected to make an appointment and, learning that he was on the golf course on their arrival, followed him out there to get the negotiations started. Dr. Kildall, not liking the aggressive tactics of the gentlemen from Boca Raton, rebuffed their deal. They had already done this before visiting with Mr. Gates, so after the deal for BASIC was settled, when Bill asked if there was anything else he could do for them, they mentioned that they needed a CP/M disk operating system. Bill didn't have one, but he knew someone who did, so he promised he'd get back with them. He bought Tim Patterson's clone of CP/M called 86/DOS. After the deal between Bill and IBM, it became known as IBM PC DOS. But, it was really just another of the many versions of CP/M.

It's funny to me how people who write history seem willing to bend the truth and leave out the slightly embarrassing parts about the worlds richest men. In the deepest of details, the origins of the rich and famous titans of industry are mere day to day copings with the mundane punctuated by intense conflicts and struggles. It is often the unforeseen turn of events that defines the opportunities. The character of the men is often obscured in our tendency to obsess on the outcome of defining moments, rather than how those moments came into fruition.

I can't be certain of exactly how much of this version is "the truth." I wasn't there. But it does have the ring of truth, and I didn't make any of it up. I read about this back then, before Gates became the World's richest man, and before History became tarnished by the weather of time.

Best,
Herb
Herb

elagache

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Hi Herb and WeatherCat computer industry historians,

Thanks for that story.  I had heard something to that effect.  I have learn even more troubling rumors like OS/2, which was supposedly Microsoft's super operating system, actually was developed at IBM and simply handed over to Microsoft.

Whatever the exact details, I suspect the world will finally conclude that Bill Gates was the Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, or J. P. Morgan of the computer age.  Like those ruthless millionaires, Gates amassed wealth beyond what any reasonable person should ever possess, and by so doing, he hobbled the world economy and personally lowered the standards of living for everyone.  I suspect that history will conclude that Gates was more lucky than ruthless, but there can be no doubt he exploited a situation so that few would benefit "handsomely" at the expense of many.

Now that Bill Gates struggles to spend all his ill-gotten booty, the man is given praise for "good" he is doing with that fortune.  However,  I very much doubt that Bill Gates is ever able to sleep as soundly as Steve Jobs did - at least after reflecting upon his real contributions to the world of computing.

Cheers, Edouard

Bull Winkus

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Re: OS X 10.9.3: Unhiding the Users folder
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2014, 01:30:54 AM »
Agreed? Edouard. Agreed indeed.

Herb
Herb