Ask TUAW: MobileMe syncing problems, invisible files on FAT32 discs, creating an online store, and more

This edition of Ask TUAW tackles questions about MobileMe syncing woes, OS X invisible files, online store creation, watching AVIs, sorting Apple Lossless files and more.

As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

historydoll asks

I have an iCal syncing problem. I'm still running Tiger (the latest update, 10.4.11), and it seems that every time I sync to MobileMe I wind up with an additional calendar both on my desktop and on my iPhone. I have been looking and have found vague references to this problem, as well as several scripts for removing duplicated events. I don't need to remove duplicated events, I need to remove entire duplicated calendars. And yes, I can just delete them manually each time, but it seems as though there ought to be another solution. Any ideas??

Your best bet is probably to reset your sync data and replace everything on MobileMe with the most up-to-date data from your Mac. First make sure you have the all of your most recent data on one Mac. Then in the MobileMe Preference Pane go to the Sync Tab. Hit the Advanced button, choose your computer and hit the "Reset Sync Data..." button. Be sure to select the arrow pointing right to replace data on MobileMe with data from your Mac. When you sync everything on MobileMe should be replaced. You may only want to do this with your Calendars and not all of your other data, in which case simply deselect all the other options (Bookmarks, contacts, etc.) before you reset the sync data.

Ryan asks

Long time reader, first time poster and all that jazz. Been wanting to get a Mac for a long time and I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a used 17" MBP that still has 2 years on the extended care plan. ... in one of the times messing around on my friend's MBP I swore I found a preference for switching the Close, Minimize, Maximize buttons from the left side of the window to the right side. Anyhoo, but now I can find no such option in the preferences. Am I just crazy and there's no way to do this? Or am I overlooking something? After many many years of closing the window at the top right it's the only time I truly feel like a lost puppy when I'm using OS X (Leopard).

First of all, welcome to the fair platform, but to answer your question: no, Apple does not include an option to change the location of those buttons. However, you'll soon get used to it and never think about it again. In the meantime, you might like to learn the keyboard shortcuts for the buttons: ⌘+W to close the window and ⌘+M to minimize.

Sebastian asks

I have an external hard drive that's formatted FAT32. Every now and then I switch between XP and Leopard and access that disk. When I use it in Windows and then in OSX later, I always get the two folders "System Volume Information" and "Recycled". I turned off the thumbs.db files, so they're not showing anymore, but the folders still remain. I don't want to delete them every time, but I don't like them there. So: Is there any way to hide them, since the "." won't work? Or at least an automator script that kills the two folders every time I mount the disk?

You need a little utility called BlueHarvest ($12.95). It will allow you to automatically remove these invisible files when browsing a FAT32 (or other non-HFS+) disc. It installs as a preference pane and allows you to choose various options for protecting non-HFS discs from DS_Store and .Trashes files as well a stripping resource forks.

shaun asks

I've just started doing a Computer Science degree at uni, and I have little programming experience. We're using UNIX on the course, and I've been encouraged to use Terminal for file browsing rather than Finder. The problem I've come across is that when I'm trying to change directories or open files, Terminal doesn't seem to understand filenames that include spaces, and Finder does. Is there a way I can type filenames with spaces in to make Terminal see them, or do I have to rename ALL my files?

To type in file or folder names containing spaces you just need to include the name within double quotes. So for instance: ~/Documents/"Word Doc with some spaces in the Name.doc". You can also escape space or other special characters with a backslash -- My\ File\ Name.

Handling odd paths is easier if you leverage the Terminal's ability to interpret folder paths dragged from the Finder. Just start typing the UNIX command you want, followed by a space ('ls '), then drag the target folder into the Terminal window -- it will fill in the path for you.

Blake asks

I am hoping to set-up a store for my high school where students can go online, view and purchase items. I am hoping to find a software that makes this setup as painless as possible. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I have not used it myself, but the easiest way I know of creating an online store is with the web creation application RapidWeaver ($79.00) and the PayLoom ($19.95) plugin. This will allow you to create a website front-end for the PayPal shopping cart system.

There are variety of other server-side solutions (e.g. X-Cart), but you can expect that these will likely be more expensive and require considerably more setup. You might, however, find a web-hosting provider that includes something like Zen Cart as part of one of their hosting packages.

Andrew asks

I've got a slightly odd one - when my MBP (15.4, 2.2GHz) goes into screen-saver mode, the colour profile occasionally goes from 'Color LCD' to (I think) 'Wide Gamut RGB'. I'm running 10.5.5, but it was the same under 5.3 and .4

A number of other folks have reported similar problems. The only potential solution I've found involves deleting the com.apple.preference.displays....plist file located at ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ as discussed here.

Federico asks

I have an Intel iMac with Mac OS X 10.5.5 and iTunes 8.0. I'm very obsessed with audio quality, I have an Hi-Fi system and my Mac is one of the sources, via an external DAC, so I rip all my CDs with Max in both Apple Lossless and AAC (for my 16Gb iPhone). I'm trying to use Frontrow as a more comfortable way to access to my music but all my music is duplicate in the library as Lossless and AAC. Is there any way to have only Lossless music in Frontrow or to have it in a subcategory or something?

Your best bet would be to create a Smart Playlist. Create your Smart Playlist with Kind is Apple Lossless with Live Updating checked. Now that playlist will contain only your Lossless files. You can then create other playlists off of that one to further organize your music.

FlatDog asks

I have a MacBook Pro and 10.5.5. recently (post the 10.5.5 upgrade) the nmbd process has been hogging all my CPU power, resulting in my fans running fast all the time. If I kill the process in activity monitor the fans immediately go slow again, but the process auto restarts and the problem returns in less than a minute. I've posted on the apple forums and no help so far. Some people suggest installing Samba, but I couldn't work out the install process as it looked extremely complicated. Please can someone help, my CPU is being maxed out, my fans going wild and my battery draining quickly.

Have a look here. Apparently the problem can be solved by deleting the /var/samba/gencache.tdb file in the terminal.

Kam asks

How the heck can I convert my avi movies to a different format that works on the macbook pro. sorry I am not the most tech savy, I'm new to the apple game

There are tools (e.g. ffmpegx) you can use to convert the files, but if all you want to do is view them you don't need to convert them. Just install the free Perian plugin for QuickTime and you should be able to view your AVIs just fine. For Windows Media files, Flip4Mac will do the job too.