While this might not be news for everyone, reader Brad and I seemed to be having the same problem: Using Firefox 3, we would see the "unsupported browser" message pictured while trying to use me.com.

Obviously, Firefox 3 is a supported browser for MobileMe. A TUAW colleague gave it a try and found everything to work fine. Brad and I compared notes about what plugins we have in common, and found that Ubiquity was causing the problem.

It turned out to be related to the user-agent string: MobileMe uses the user-agent string to determine what browser you're using, and Ubiquity tacks on an extra bit at the end. For example, without Ubiquity installed, it shows Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5. With Ubiquity installed, it said Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5 Ubiquity/0.1.5. (Emphasis mine.)

Since MobileMe doesn't know what to do with the extra Ubiquity text at the end, it thinks you have an unsupported browser, and shows you that error.

The good news is that you can fix this, thanks to a simple technique from Tim Jarrett, and still use both Ubiquity and MobileMe. Read on to find out how.

Thanks, Brad!

Back to Part I: losing all the data on a hard disk, and Part II: the trials and tribulations of paying to get it back. Now we find out what happened, and what you can expect from a data recovery specialist.

Greg, the technician from Iomega Data Recovery, sent back two documents two days later: One was a Word document containing a list of files that were recovered from the disk.

The document had most of my files in it, but some were missing. Many of the files were grouped by file type in an "orphans" folder, meaning that the files were on the disk, but their place in the disk's directory structure was lost. Some files were only named according to their file type, such as "m4p-00195.m4p" and "InDesignCS-00003.indd" because their filenames were gone. I would find out later that some files were copied several times (sometimes as many as six times): once as part of the directory structure, and again in the "orphans" folder. Still: many copies are better than no copies.

They offered to return the data on a new hard disk, but the cost of it is not included in the recovery fee. The second attachment to the tech's email was a price list. I chose the cheapest bare hard disk at the necessary capacity, since I had an enclosure to put it in. They offered (more expensive) USB and FireWire hard disks as options for return as well. So add another $55 to the total price.

Greg also asked for a list of the 20 most critical files that could be used as a test for successful recovery. I emailed him a list of mostly files for work I had in progress during the failure, a brochure for a client of mine that manufactures propellers. He called the next day, walking me through the contents of the InDesign document and its support files. "This one appears to be a picture of a propeller blade. This one has a big headline that says 'simply the best.'" Relief. I was satisfied that everything was recovered, approved the recovery, and thanked Greg.

The next part was the hardest: Paying the invoice. The grand total wasn't as bad as I thought: I was prepared to pay tax on all $1,500, but (in California at least) services aren't taxable. So the only tax I had to pay was $4.54 on the replacement hard disk. The grand total was $1,559.54. I'm writing that off my taxes this year.

Once my payment was processed, which took a day, two drives were overnighted to me: the original (failed) drive, and the new replacement drive. I popped the replacement went into my enclosure, and -- tah dah! -- there were my files.

The most significant casualty of the data recovery, however, was the loss of 10 years of painstakingly collected Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos. Many were videos I had recorded originally on VHS, some had been, uh, acquired by other means -- as youthful indiscretions, shall we say. Thankfully, all my project data and purchased music was safe and sound. Everything that was lost could be replaced.

Files on the replacement disk were painfully disorganized, though, which gave me an idea of just how logically corrupted the volume was. Files that were added to the drive after it had been connected via the AirPort Base Station were mostly in the Orphans folder, apparently scattered hither and yon across the disk's platters. I spent the better part of a day copying files, reorganizing everything, and preparing my new backup strategy that included a brand-new, 1.5TB external disk to use with Time Machine.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I had a good experience, but paid dearly for it.

If this story saves anyone any amount of money for data recovery, then it's done its job. Please: Back up your data. The money you spend on a hard disk for backup is far less than what you'd spend on data recovery.

There is no shortage of stories here on TUAW (and elsewhere) that extol the benefits of backing up your data. Apple even makes it ridiculously easy to do so -- with Mac OS X 10.5, Time Machine, a blank drive, and some spare time, you're set.

Nevertheless, despite your best efforts, there are unforeseen circumstances where you might need to utter those dreaded words: "I need to send this for data recovery." Perhaps your airplane landed in the Hudson river, and your waterlogged laptop was stuck with your luggage. Perhaps an external disk is suffering from a manufacturing defect. Perhaps your backup disk is the disk that failed.

Unfortunately, there is no way to sugar-coat this: Data recovery is a painful, patience-trying, and absurdly expensive process. But if it's the only way to recover mission-critical data, it could be your only option.

It was for me.

Back to Part I of Robert's tale of data recovery. It's a typical geek story: Boy gets data, boy loses data, boy tries to get data back.

Because of my former employer's professional relationship with Iomega, I had sent a disk for recovery to Iomega Data Recovery before, and was confident they'd be able to recover the data. I went to their website, and started a quote.

It's worth mentioning that there are many other services besides Iomega Data Recovery that do excellent work. DriveSavers, for example, had a booth at Macworld where people could walk up, physically damage a disk by scratching it, and -- behold! -- they still could recover the data before your eyes. Other services are available from Total Access, as well as from local technicians who can come to your location.

Starting the quote began with asking for my contact information, along with details about the drive. I tried to be as explicit as possible about how the drive was connected, to see if they would be able to isolate the logical failure that happened on the disk, and recover the data accordingly. They also had an area where you could specify specific files or file types to target for recovery.

Submitting the quote generates a document to print include in the box when you send it to them, and tips for packing the drive securely. I wrapped the drive in foam, put it in a snug-fitting box, and sent it to their lab in Santa Clara, California.

Then, the waiting started.

A technician, the supremely helpful and consummate professional Greg Sabanis, emailed me five days later (there was a weekend in there, if I recall correctly) with an analysis of the damaged drive. He said:

The drive has read errors affecting structures and possibly data files. Based upon this evaluation, we feel that a recovery may be possible. We will have to attempt to manually rebuild the corrupted / invalid file system components, mount the recovered volume(s) and finally determine if some / all of the data you require is intact.

That was something of a relief. Then came the sticker shock: The recovery would cost $1,500, plus tax. The good news (I suppose) was that I didn't have to pay it now: I could see the results of their recovery first, and then determine if it was worth it to spend the money for what they recovered. If Greg couldn't recover any data off the disk, there would be no charge.

Speaking with friends, it's clear that Iomega Data Recovery is average in terms of cost for the size of the disk I sent them. Lower-capacity disks, flash media and removable storage costs less. One thing's for sure: they have you by the huevos, and they're gonna charge you for it.

With client work on that drive, the nascent reputation of my freelance business was on the line. I had no choice but to spend the money. So, I signed their evaluation, faxed it back, and hoped for the best.

Part III: The thrilling conclusion.

I'll open this Friday Favorite with a caveat -- Mac HelpMate is not an app that just anyone is going to want to license. However, if you're a Mac consultant and/or do system support for many Mac users, this is an application you should consider.

Mac HelpMate is the brainchild of Dean Shavit, an Apple Certified System Administrator based in Chicago, Illinois. Dean's goal in producing Mac HelpMate was to eliminate many of the issues that Mac support professionals deal with when trying to perform remote support tasks for their clients. What are those issues? Usually, they consist of trying to reach the end user's network through a maze of firewalls and routers. For example, one of the major issues with Apple's Back To My Mac remote access and control technology is that it doesn't work with many cable or DSL modems that don't support UPnP (Universal Plug-and-Play) or NAT-PMP (NAT - Port Mapping Protocol).

Mac HelpMate provides zero-configuration remote access through a proxy server run by Shavit's company, eliminating the hassles of trying to talk clients through configuration of their Macs and network hardware.

Following up on the 10.5.6 upgrade: The most common issue people seemed to have upgrading to Leopard 10.5.6 was that the install would get stuck at 'configuring installation'. It happened to me, and judging by the Apple support boards and others, it was a pretty widespread bug. We reported the problem Tuesday.

Apple has now responded and acknowledged the issue with a support note. It says that the problem can be caused by getting an update that "was only partially downloaded". Of course, what was not explained was how Apple provided only a partial update, and why and how this got past Apple QA?

For most people, installing the combo update solves the install freeze. Apple is recommending that people use Software Update, so most likely the bad package has been removed from the servers. There are still some nagging issues with Mail, mounting network volumes, Safari, and the other all too usual issues following an OS update.

Of course, for many, the update went just fine.

Thanks to all who wrote in and shared their experiences.

There is more fallout from the current Leopard update to version 10.5.6. Many users are flocking to the Apple support forums to share their tales of woe about Time Machine failures after the update. (Ironically, Time Machine was on the list of items that received bug fixes).

Upgraders are seeing Time Machine stall, fail to identify the target hard drive, lock up while Time Machine is 'preparing' to backup, and other assorted glitches. There is no guarantee that these issues were caused by the update to 10.5.6, but users are seeing a lot of problems in parallel to the software changes.

MacFixit has quite a bit of guidance on the Time Machine issues. One of the most interesting observations is the long pause while 'preparing' to backup. It seems TM needs to do a deep traversal of the data because it sees a lot of file changes to copy, as would be expected with a major software update. The advice is to wait it out and and eventually TM is likely to get going. I had the same issue and eventually stopped the process, erased my TM drive and started again. That was after more than 2 hours of 'preparing'. It looks like I might have been better off to wait.

I had hoped 10.5.6 would fix the occasional TM error I get telling me that the backup failed, but then when I try again, everything is fine. I spent a good hour on the phone with Apple support on this problem some months ago, but didn't get anywhere. Many others have seen this rather arcane message and reported it. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next OS update.

It's good to keep in mind that most people updated without any dire consequences, but there are enough people grumbling that it merits a closer look by Apple.