[Aviah Morag]

I've noticed two rather annoying issues in OS X, and would appreciate your suggestions.

The first is that changing Date and Time settings don't seem to affect the Menubar Clock, and don't "hold" - the next time I open Date and Time, the old settings are back. How do I make the set the clock to 24 hours, and the date to the order that I want? I also find that when trying to change the order of items in the long date, nearly every time I set one, another resets to "None", making it impossible to set the order I need.

The second is that on my iBook, I can use the F-keys to change the Brightness, but not the sound. In applications that implement those keys (like iTunes), behavior is inconsitant, which can be painful with earphones. Any ideas?

Aviah
Kibbutz Ma'ale Gilboa, Israel

[starfleetX]

Originally posted by Aviah Morag:
The first is that changing Date and Time settings don't seem to affect the Menubar Clock, and don't "hold" - the next time I open Date and Time, the old settings are back. How do I make the set the clock to 24 hours, and the date to the order that I want? I also find that when trying to change the order of items in the long date, nearly every time I set one, another resets to "None", making it impossible to set the order I need.

I don't have these problems at all. Perhaps you should try zapping your PRAM the next time you reboot. To do that, hold Command-Option-P-R while rebooting. You'll hear the normal chime and if you keep holding, you'll hear a second chime. Release the keys after the second chime. Sometimes zapping the PRAM can fix bugs like this, but may also reset some settings in your control panels.

The second is that on my iBook, I can use the F-keys to change the Brightness, but not the sound. In applications that implement those keys (like iTunes), behavior is inconsitant, which can be painful with earphones. Any ideas?

It seems that Apple is working on F-key support, but hasn't finished it's implementation in the current 4L13 build. If you have the developer tools, use Interface Builder to open:

/System/Library/Preferences/Keyboard.preference/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Keyboard.nib

and double click "Hot Keys" to see a panel for setting your F-keys. From that panel, it appears that F3 is decrease volume and F4 is increase volume, but, like I said, they haven't been implemented yet. Here's hoping!!

[Gametes]

The volume keys do work, they just don't give any feedback. That's why they work in itunes and QT; these apps do not separately implement the function. It's also why you go deaf when you start the music.

DO NOT zap your pram. God starfleet, what are you smoking?! Just log out immediately after you've set the settings, and if that doesn't work, restart immediately after you've set them.
Do NOT go mucking around in the /sds/sd/sf/dw/yku/f/sr/h.sldklsfk files. Starfleet, I am amazed that you would recommend this as an act of "assistance". [maybe all those anti-Terminal guys are right?]

This is a Mac, not Hacker's Paradise.
Boot key-combos and developer tool hacks are OUT of the question.

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[Kosmo]

I am surprised to see the F-keys not working. I'm sure it will be implemented soon.


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[starfleetX]

Originally posted by Gametes:
The volume keys do work, they just don't give any feedback. That's why they work in itunes and QT; these apps do not separately implement the function. It's also why you go deaf when you start the music.

DO NOT zap your pram. God starfleet, what are you smoking?! Just log out immediately after you've set the settings, and if that doesn't work, restart immediately after you've set them.
Do NOT go mucking around in the /sds/sd/sf/dw/yku/f/sr/h.sldklsfk files. Starfleet, I am amazed that you would recommend this as an act of "assistance". [maybe all those anti-Terminal guys are right?]

This is a Mac, not Hacker's Paradise.
Boot key-combos and developer tool hacks are OUT of the question.

Sheesh, Gametes! Chill out. Did you even read what I posted? Zapping the PRAM DOES fix some date/time issues as well as other problems in OS 9. Why are you so insistent that people not do that? In the past, a lot of people have posted that one of the generic fixes for system troubles is to zap the PRAM.

And as for the suggestion about Interface Builder, did you r-e-a-d what I posted? Do you even know what Interface Builder is or does? It is not some l337 haXor PRoG. If you'd open the file I directed to above, you'd see that there is a panel in the Keyboard.preferences that Apple simply hasn't finished yet! Gasp! Wow, didn't I just say that before?

And how would you prefer I direct people about the system? Maybe I should instead say:

In the Finder, make sure you're at the top level of your hard drive. Then double click System, double click Library, double click Preferences, control-click Keyboard.preference and select "Show package contents", double click Contents, double click Resources, double click English.lproj, and double click Keyboard.nib.

Now, which is more efficient and easier to read?
sigh. Be , okay?

[Aviah Morag]

I personally am more into the hacking side of things, so I have no problem messing around with hidden files, etc., although with this new OS, it might be rather dangerous. Clearly, Apple will work out the volume control issue, so I'm not really concerned for now - thanks for the info on that.

The Date/Time issue is still there. I'm curious if anyone else has had such a problem.

Aviah

[Gametes]

Well, I'm not starting a war here Starfleet, but it looks like you didn't "r-e-a-d" what I wrote.

I insisted he not zap the pram because this is a last attempt thing, not a first attempt. Why didn't you just suggest he reinstall OS X? Because that is the last thing you recommend.
And you missed the point about /System/Library/Preferences/Keyboard.preference/Contents... what I was saying is not that he ought to use the Finder to get there (what on earth made you think that?!), but that he ought NOT to go there, at all, ever.

That fact that he is comfortable doing so is great, but that is simply not an option for tech support. You just never, ever tell some unsuspecting Mac user that he has to edit a .nib file. I mean, c'mon, man! That is so Windows!

Especially because both of his problems have - in my experience - normal, easy fixes. Why whould the first thing you say be "ok ctrl+alt+c+t then scroll down to logjam.dll.57 and line 21 sould say #>>ls -rp grep 87 %6, then you need to reconfigure the registry 14 levels down the hard drive in your system folder. Fire up the terminal and sudo..." give me a break, man!

Yes, I know what InterfaceBuilder is. I hope you're sorry for A$$uming falsely about me.

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you are not your signature

[gorgonzola]

I cast my vote for Most Random FlameWar Ever right here.

Just chill out, okay? Everyone was just trying to help Aviah.

sheesh!

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What, gametes, you never fired up Resedit to check what was lurking in that old OS 9 finder/system file? This is nearly the same! Nobody suggested editing ANYTHING! Just looking, to see what Apple's up to.

And by the way, those resedit hacks I used to apply on pervious OS' s to get things like menu keys for "make alias" (in the days before that was added) have pretty cryptic directions, too. That's not just a win/OS X thing.

[sadie]

I'm with Gametes. It doesn't matter whether we use .nib files, or the Terminal. If you choose to go hacking around, that's your own business. But it's never something you should be telling newbies to do.

I also realise he was only mentioning the panel for information, not as a solution. But given this is the General Discussion board, it should be possible for a 1984 mac user to come here and ask a question, and get a simple sensible answer.

[Brad Nelson]

Aviah. My iBook does the same thing. Usually the first thing I do on startup is open the Monitors System Pref. Once I've done that the function keys work for monitor brightness. When adjusting I do something high-tech: I take off the earphones so I don't blow an eardrum and hit the function keys for sound. It's funny how the first time you hit them it immediately starts the volume at its hightest. Ouch. Learned that too many times the hard way.