Leaving charger plugged in-good or bad idea?

While the MagSafe connector is really nice, it leads me to ask whether it's wise (or safe) to leave the charger plugged in continuously, as it does get warm. I've looked but cannot find any information on power draw when charger is connected vs unconnected to the MacBook.
Does anyone know the recommendation for leaving plugged or unplugging a charger by a knowledgable source who knows how these devices are engineered?
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2GB Apple RAM

I now have further information.
After charging, the power adapter is warm to hot.
After running with power connected, the power adapter is warm to hot.
After disconnecting the MagSafe connector (and letting time pass), the power adapter(while still plugged into the wall) is cool to the touch.
I am therefore concluding that there is some active circuitry in the power adapter that senses (or responds to) the MagSafe connector being engaged, and that reduces the power draw and heat deterioration of the power adapter.
As always, an answer from an authoritative source would be nice.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8) 2GB Apple RAM

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MBPR w/Hard Case = Good or Bad Idea?

I am the happy owner of a new MBPr 15" and like many other owners am keen on protecting my investment. The first thing that came to mind was to outfit it with a hard case and being a detail guy I researched the topic online. Turns out many are saying that a hard case is NOT a good idea for the following two good reasons:
extra weight on the screen wears down the hinges which can lead to a very expensive screen replacement.
overheating/heating issues even with hard cases that have cutouts for vents that can cause permanent damaged to the battery and internal components.
Apple sells the hard cases in their stores and it seems that they are divided on the answer with some "Genius" bar employees saying hard cases are not good and others suggesting them to protect your MacBook Pro. Hard case companies are of course saying that their products are safe to use (the contrary would seriously jeopardize the sale of their product). I have asked Apple and leading case/accessory maker Moshi to comment on this issue and will post their replies in this thread.
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The general rule of thumb is that sample-instrument samples should be stored on a separate drive. This is particularly crucial if you're streaming samples from disk (EXS with "virtual memory" on, or DFD (direct from disk) as found in other sample-based plugs).
And you'll want to record audio on a separate drive as well, never on your system drive (except in a pinch) if you can help it.
For a laptop, the ideal system would be to have separate external drives for audio recording and samples. If you're working on a tower/desktop model, these additional drives can be exclusively external drives or a combination of internal and external drives.
My system:
• Lacie 250G (video playback) FW400
• Glyph 250G (sample storage #1) FW400
• OWC 350G (sample storage #2) eSATA (via eSATA PCI-e card)
• Maxtor 500G drive (audio recording/project drive) -- internal
Works very nicely!

Transfer Hard Drive from 20" iMac to 27" iMac - Good or bad idea?

I've just bought my wife a new 27" iMac to replace her 20" iMac. To keep things simple I'd rather just take out the drive in the 20 and put it in the 27. Anyone try this and is there any reason why it wouldn't work since the OS is "universal" for these recent machines?
The reason I don't want to just run with a fresh install (which is what I would prefer to do) is that it's my wifes computer and then she'd have to start new with all her settings etc. While I think the migration asst is a great feature, i've also had other issues doing that that leaves a bit of a mess behind it and some permissions got screwy once.
I may just give it a go and see if it works right away. I'd prefer not to spend lots of time "transferring" files, data, prefs between the old/new machines and just get up and running quickly since her 20" OS install is working great.
Thoughts?

LawrenceT,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
*Very bad idea if you intend to use the OS that is on the 20" machine in the 27" machine for a number of reasons*. First you will void your 27" machines warranty and if the 20" has any left it's gone too. Next is you will run into problems with the 27" because the 20's OS is set up for that machine which has totally different specifications. What is wiser is to use Migration Assistant and simply move everything over, this is done when you intially turn on the new machine it will prompt you. If you have already set up the 27" then you can still run Migration Assistant. Just open the application and it will walk you through the process. If you have trouble finding MA simply open Spotlight (upper right corner icon that looks like a spyglass) and type in Migration Assistant.
Regards,
Roger

Sharing /boot. Good or Bad idea?

Hi all,
If I want to install 2 distributions on one drive, I know I can share the swap partition. What about the /boot partition? My personal view so far, is that sharing a /boot partition is a bad idea, as overwritting can occur.
Any ideas/solutions on this? I understand that the bootloader must be installed only once (duh!) and that it should be configured to contain the 2 entries. My main concern is just how safe sharing /boot is?
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iphitus wrote:
kcy29581 wrote:
cool, I think that's what I'm gonna do on this system. I know how to make the entries in grub, that's not a problem. But obviously on bootup I can only have 1 bootable partition, so do I have to copy just the relevant kernel images from all distros to Arch's /boot for them to work, or do I also need to copy their coresponding System.map's?
Thanks for the info guys
1 bootable partition, old old old wives tale nowadays.
Your system boots, brings up the MBR, from that you could pass onto a bootloader on any partition or boot linux with a root fs on any partition.
you could have a bootloader on your mbr that passes onto another bootloader on hda1, which passes onto another grub/lilo on hda5 which passes to another one on hda6, etc etc. and any of them can boot a linux with a root partition on any partition.
iphitus
so iphitus, why do we have to make the partition where /boot is on "Active" during installation? Is this just to temporarily be able to read the kernel-image? I'm confused on this still...

Bank is offering to increase my credit limit on 2 credit cards - good or bad idea?

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SeattleGuy1968 wrote:
My bank is offering to increase my credit limit on 2 credit cards.I have an excellent credit score, and already have more than enough credit limit available on my credit cards.I know that a higher limit would make for a better credit score when there is some debt on the cards.HOWEVER - What I'd like to know:Is it ever a bad idea to accept a credit limit increase offer from a bank / credit card issuer?Also - Can a too high of a credit limit affect ones ability to get a mortgage or other loans? Thanks!Depends how much debt we're talking about, 1% is still basically 1% even increasing your aggregate CL massively. Doesn't matter for FICO if your balances aren't there, might matter for Vantage Score if you care about such things. As for a bad idea, no not really unless some future lender figures you're overextended. Personally I don't limit chase just to limit chase, there are certain cards I want a high limit on (travel card, default spend card, and balance carrying cards to be explicit), and others such as my Freedom at 1K I couldn't care less what it was as I only use it for 5% rewards and it'd be rare for me to get a >1K purchase other than maybe Amazon during the holidays. Limits are irrelevant for mortgages and most other loans, the key there is your FICO score and your DTI ratio, and there the minimum payment amount counts, not the potential maximum. FWIW in the current market there's people with 4-5X their income in card limits on this forum, that may not be a fantastic idea for most people, but current market doesn't really matter and as such I'd probably accept them personally. There are some people who chase credit card signup bonuses, and for those, limiting their current amount of available credit might sway an underwriting decision in their direction, and as such they might wish to decline, I just haven't ever done that... yet at least .

Install to external drive: good or bad idea

I have an iMac that is currently on 10.5.5. However, it was originally a Tiger install. I performed an update install to 10.5.6 and while it runs, I have stability issues that came with the Tiger -> Leopard update that I know I can eliminate by doing a clean install.
Of course, the problem with a clean install is that the total execution time is very lengthy (from install to last app license re-registered) and my workstation is DOA (or nearly so) until completion. And then, there's always the odd detail I forgot about that I have to research to find the answer.
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1) Do a clean install to an external drive (I have a 500 GB USB drive I can use) Leave the internal drive intact until step #4.
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4) Do a secure 7-pass erase of the internal hard disk (this performs hardware-managed low-level sector checks, turning off sectors that error on read/write)
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TIA!

However, is there a way of achieving zero-ing out defective sectors, like SpinRite, <http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm> without my having to remove the hard disk?
AFAIK, SpinRite does not actually "zero out" defective sectors in modern IDE hard drives. To better understand what it does (& in general the link between analog & digital data reading mechanisms in magnetic media), look beyond the brochures & study the “What's Under The Hood” technical note at http://www.grc.com/files/technote.pdf, especially the "Surface Analysis" section beginning on page 9.
SpinRite's makers want you to believe that "weak" sectors are something to be very concerned about, in effect that reputable drive makers design their modern high density drives (ones several generations beyond those using MFM) to regularly rely on these 'defective' sectors to boost capacity, & that only SpinRite's technology will map them out before they cause data loss. This is a dubious idea at best. The techniques used in SpinRite's surface analysis are essentially the same ones modern ATA drives use to monitor for "grown defects" -- except that modern ATA drives contain their own highly capable, purpose-designed proprietary hardware & dedicated operating systems that SpinRite can access only indirectly through clever use of standardized extensions to the ATA command set to do what the drive does anyway.
This is not to say that the product is without merit. It is primarily purposed as a data recovery tool, & for this the extended, low level statistical analysis of the 'raw' analog data from unreliable sectors is a powerful (if not unique to this product) method of data recovery.
There is also some merit to the idea of proactive early detection of unreliable sectors that if used for data storage would eventually require the drive to struggle & perhaps to fail to get 'clean' data from them. (I believe this is what you mean by "zero-ing out defective sectors," just in more technically precise terms.) However, be aware that drives already do this, just with actual data instead of specially designed signals, & in general this is enough to detect sectors that are going bad before the data becomes unrecoverable, at which point the drive moves the data to another sector & maps out the first one to prevent its future use.
In real world terms, these unrecoverable 'hard" errors due to grown defects are very rare in healthy drives, only becoming problematic in drives that are dying, typically because of head crashes, exceeding operating or storage temperature limits, or other traumatic events that affect the magnetic media layer. So something like SpinRite's surface scan is most useful for extending the life of a drive that has already become unreliable or for prescreening drives for gross manufacturing defects. Since the first use makes little economic sense in these days of cheap hard drives & the second use is potentially superfluous because gross defects would likely be quickly detected anyway, users must judge for themselves if using the product for this is worth it.
(The same considerations apply for deciding if or when the frequently seen user advice to 'zero out the drive' as part of preparing it for use accomplishes anything of real worth or not.)
Finally, getting back to the idea of moving the drive to a PC to run SpinRite & why I think it doesn't actually "zero out" defective sectors, I can think of no way it can force the drive to actually map out a sector unless the drive itself determines it should do so. This leaves the alternative of marking the sector in use in the file system's directory structures, which in effect would accomplish the same purpose, but with one important exception: its effectiveness is dependent on the file system remaining in place on the drive. IOW, if a user changed the file system of the volume or changed the partition scheme, the file system metadata marking the sector as in use would be lost, & SpinRite's surface scan would have to be done again after these changes to get it back.
I want to make it clear that I am not certain that this alternative, file system based method of achieving what Spinrite claims it can do is actually how it works, but I can find nothing in the product's documentation that contradicts or conflicts with it, nor am I aware of any standard extension to the ATA command set that would allow SpinRite to directly set the grown defect list. If someone has info that shows I'm wrong, please post it. I have no problem abandoning theories that don't pan out.
Message was edited by: R C-R

Leaving charger plugged in after battery full 100%

I often accidentally leave my macbook Pro plugged in after it is fully charged, or from time to time I've left it accidentally plugged in all night. What is this doing to my battery life? I get really worried when it happens. Is there any way of automatically stopping the power flow after the battery is fully charged?

Charging automatically stops when the battery is fully charged, and doesn't start again until the battery's charge level falls below 93% even if the adapter remains connected. You can't do your battery any harm by leaving your AC adapter connected whenever it's convenient, as long as you calibrate the battery from time to time: once a month if the battery is never used to power the computer, or every 2-3 months if you do use the battery regularly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
In short, stop worrying.

Magnetic iPhone Cases, Good or Bad Idea?

Thinking of purchasing a new iPhone case which has a leather flip cover for the touch screen and has magnetic fasteners.
Dose anyone know if this can affect the iPhone or it's touch screen?
Thanks.
here is the site and it is a dock ’able’ case.
Found it on another thread here.
http://www.senacases.com/Brands/Apple-iPhone-Cases/SENA-DOCKABLE-CASE-FOR-iPHONE

How did you replace them?
Did it come with that option or did you just cut them
out?
Lastly what case are you using?
Thanks for the info, I'll be looking for a velcro
case now.
It's a cheap generic case that I got at a T-Mobile kiosk in the mall. I cut performed a little surgey and removed the 4 small magnets and used some self-stick Velcro from Office Max.
I have a Case-Mate cover on order for protection, (http://www.case-mate.com/phones/apple/Perforated-Leather-iPhone-Case) but I HOPE I can still use my case (or something like it) as a carrier and not have to have it hanging exposed from a belt clip.
Here are a couple of nice looking Velcro pouches that I'm actually considering as a replacement for mine. (The surgery wasn't completely successful, and it WAS a pretty cheap case to start with.)
I think I like the looks of this one best:
http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/leather-folio-es89018/2
But this one's not bad either:
http://dlo.com/Products/HipCase_Prod.tpl?command=showpage&cart=11840120571489758 0
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Keyboard cover, good or bad idea?

Just wondering if having a cover on the keyboard affects the intake of air into the computer. Is the air intake in the keyboard?
Thanks

I have been told not to cover the keyboard due to air intake, so i would say no not a good idea,
I may be wrong thou

Storing sounds/loops on alternate hard drives....good or bad idea? easy?

Is this something one can do during installation?
Would Logic work better or worse if all the sounds and loops were on another drive?
I have plenty of room on my main drive, so it's not about space... it's about what works better. Advice?

The general rule of thumb is that sample-instrument samples should be stored on a separate drive. This is particularly crucial if you're streaming samples from disk (EXS with "virtual memory" on, or DFD (direct from disk) as found in other sample-based plugs).
And you'll want to record audio on a separate drive as well, never on your system drive (except in a pinch) if you can help it.
For a laptop, the ideal system would be to have separate external drives for audio recording and samples. If you're working on a tower/desktop model, these additional drives can be exclusively external drives or a combination of internal and external drives.
My system:
• Lacie 250G (video playback) FW400
• Glyph 250G (sample storage #1) FW400
• OWC 350G (sample storage #2) eSATA (via eSATA PCI-e card)
• Maxtor 500G drive (audio recording/project drive) -- internal
Works very nicely!

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Hello
We have recently been audited on one of our Oracle databases (10.2.0.4). One of the recommendations is that we apply a password to our Listener.
I’ve looked at some of the Oracle documentation & checked a few references on the web. What I’m picking up is contradictory. One site (http://andrewfraserdba.com/2007/05/24/listener-passwords-always-for-9i-never-for-10g/) explicitly says do not set a password for Listener in Oracle 10 (unless you need to) because it makes the system less secure. This is also my reading of Metalink 260986.1 (“In Oracle 10g and newer versions of the listener, the listener is secure out of the box. There should be no need to set a listener password to prohibit privileged LSNRCTL commands from being executed.”)
On the other hand the Oracle 10g security guide does explicitly say that a password should be applied (“Protect the listener with a password" p. 2-7). Though it doesn’t go into detail on this point.
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Chris

That portion of the 10g guide wasn't updated as it should have been.
You could log an SR with Oracle Support. I am sure that they will refer you to the Notes already mentioned.
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Hemant K Chitale

Considering getting Institutional version of FCE. Good or bad idea?

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Is it good or bad for the battery to keep the powercord plug in after complete charge.

Is it good or bad for the battery to keep the powercord plug in after complete charge.

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When closed the MBP should be in sleep mode, but that doesn't mean completely shutdown. There are services that may run from sleep mode, service parts of the OS that don't need operator intervention.
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Leaving charger plugged in-good or bad idea?

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