Big Trousers online ticketing and support introduced today.

It is designed for all customers who register  to report problems with content management, wordpress, computer hardware and software, email, photography and general IT.  Also available are articles in the knowledge base designed to assist your and your business.

The web is no longer prohibited by desktop and laptop computers. With exponentially growing numbers users surfing the web with handheld devices we’ve ensured that our support site is optimised whether you’re viewing it on your 27″ iMac or your iPhone 4.  Also, the support site is hosted away from  our main server so that in the event of server malfunction or maintenance, the support site will still be live and operational. Server maintenance or server downtime is reported by as as it occurs live in the support site.

Tickets are only visible to the registered user and Big Trousers admin. Once a ticket has been resolved however we can convert it’s contents into a knowledgebase item. As a result, questions that are answered and published become available by search in the knowledgebase. From time to time we will also publish tips and tricks in the knowledgebase.

We hope this will be a value to you, our customers.

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The job is a display of news and coming events on 3 big screens for The West Footscray Neighborhood House. The screens run separate keynote presentations containing HD video and slideshows all with audio in 3 different locations within the center complex. Three Mac mini’s run the program files in full HD resolution and they could not be more happy with the quality of the presentations.

There were a number of hurdles to overcome however and in the interests of others trying to achieve the same result we will list solutions to some of the problems we encountered.

Firstly because there are no keyboards or mice we needed control over the screens from another Mac on the network. A 22.5 inch iMac in the locked admin office could be used via screen sharing in house but we also wanted remote access. Once all the right bits of network apparatus were in place we could gain control over the 3 Mac mini’s using Back to My Mac over the internet from our office. We can transfer updated Keynote files, check the system for failures or launch an application. With high end bandwidth at both ends it runs perfectly. On reboot however the Bluetooth equipped Mac mini’s went looking for a keyboard and mouse. Not a very pleasant screen image to greet me on the first morning of trials. This was sorted by turning off all Bluetooth services. Open system prefs/Bluetooth and advanced. Uncheck “Open Bluetooth Assistant…” box and the system will stop trying on reboot to connect.

Now to get a file to run on reboot simply add it as a login item. Normally you would have an Application as a login item, like Mail or the persistent Skype… To make a file like a Keynote slide show a login item use the login items window in System Prefs/Accounts and select and add using the + or for big files we found it was necessary to drag and drop the file into the login window.

Finally the big hurdle, getting Keynote to close to allow automated shutdown. The screens need to shutdown overnight and reboot in the morning. This keeps the noise down overnight for the neighbors. A simple task made complicated by some new code requirement that Keynote check first if a file has been saved before allowing shutdown to proceed. A good idea for those editing presentations but a pain in the butt for our purposes.

The trick was to use Automator and create an iCal alarm that simply put shuts down Keynote without saving 5 min or so prior to the scheduled Mac Mini’s shut down. Open Automater, choose iCal Alarm, select quit application from the menu and drag it into the script window. Choose Keynote from the dropdown ( here you will need to say “other” and get Keynote from within the iWork folder), UNCHECK “Ask to save changes”, then save entering Keynote Shutdown as the iCal alarm name. iCal will open with editable parameters for the alarm in a new iCal Calendar called “Automator”. Set the repeat to every day, end never, and the timing of the event and click done.

If anyone has any other questions relating to the placement setup for function of a presentation kiosk using the Mac, drop us a line and we hope we can be of assistance. Our thanks also to Rod Langham Electrical for his great work with the physical installation and heavy lifting.

We know where to get a USB version keyboard and mouse MB419X/A  iMac 24 inch for $1499. That is a wopping saving given the original price for this model.

Well that proved to be an overstatement.

Whilst straight forward to understand in a network sense, not much information was available online or in the hardware documentation to sort out the relevant settings for both devices. Much of the information suggests forgetting the Airport Extreme as a DHCP device, bridging it and allowing the Modem to allocate IP addresses on the network. Whilst that is fine for most networks a guest network supplied by the Airport Extreme requires that it allocate IP addresses becoming the DHCP server for the two networks and isolating them from each other over WIFI. Simple, what about the Linksys modem? Bridge it and the PPPoE settings disappear and the Airport seems unable to to do this for the system, thus rendering the network operable but unable to connect to the internet.

The answer was stumbled upon after trying everything else that seemed logical.

Start with both devices in default settings, if necessary the paper clip in the reset hole with power on of course.

With an Ethernet cable plugged into the Linksys and the phone line connected, plug the Ethernet cable into a laptop or other computer that is not connected to a network. In Firefox (Safari seems to be unable to edit settings on the Linksys) type the default IP address for the modem into the URL field 192.168.1.1, hit return. Enter the default username password (admin/admin) and when the interface appears scroll down to PPPoE Settings and enter your ADSL username and password (supplied by your ISP). Scroll to the bottom and Save Settings. After the screen comes back you should get a connection to the internet. Test in another Tab.

Now on the default screen next to Internet connection type choose RFC 1483 Bridged

Now next to Network Address Server Settings (DHCP), select Disable for Local DHCP server. Beneath that set Auto Detect LAN DHCP Server to Enable. The IP address of the Router should not stay at 192.168.1.1. Choose something like 192.168.1.20 or other address not currently used by another device or within the 100 to 200 range.

Open Airport Utility (you will need software installer for the newer version of this device) and with WIFI turned on the Mac you should see the default screen with a new basestation to the left. Hit Continue to set up using the wizard.

Setup for network is fairly self explanatory from there although internet connection is through PPPoE using the username password provided by your ISP. Also it seems to make sense that you may wish to stick with 192.168.1 addressing for the network as the router has this as default. Either way it seems to work.

After all this messing around if the Airport restarts with a green light but you are still not connected try restarting the Modem and when the Airport goes green after that you should be fine.

Let me know how you go and also if you find any solutions similar, you may have a suggestion or perhaps I left out a step.

It is Spam at least or a Trojan waiting if you click on the link.
A big tip, if you are on a Mac and do not have Windows installed then an update to a Windows application is sure to be a hoax. Also Professional Software updates for Adobe products come via the Adobe updater software and not via email. This one looks like a third party vendor trying to get you to download their version of a pdf reader.

Delete as Spam

As of Monday 24 August we are lowering the price of the Student Subscription edition. For annual subscribers, the subscription will drop from $49 per month to $29 per month. And for students who subscribe on a month to month basis, the price will drop from $69 to $49.

With now up to a further 40% off Creative Suite Design Premium Student Subscription edition, it’s a great time to get students hooked into Adobe products, especially if they have been, um, borrowing a mate’s copy!

This is good news given the apparent lack of support for CS3 for its use under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
An upgrade to CS4 is now more affordable under this student subscription model.

To do this you need to email your datafile to MYOB and sign a form with payment details included.

To avoid this procedure we recommend purchasing an upgrade to your software directly from MYOB.

Big Trousers will no longer sell MYOB software for installation on the Mac Platform as we consider this licensing model to be draconian and not one we would recommend being locked in to.

As rival software is available we will look into those alternatives.

Quickbooks has been around for a while and that may be an alternative.

Connected Precision Accounting Software may not be suitable for everyone but worth a look too.

We will continue to look for other, more Mac friendly accounting software packages and report back as they are tested.

UPDATE:

Perhaps there is a version of MoneyWorks that will prove useful and competitive?

This is great news for those with plenty of room on their ReadyNAS and a small number of Macs to backup.

To use the system simply reboot your ReadyNAS and it will have the firmware upgrade done with a page available with set up instructions.

Read more here.