Does the fact that I can’t fix Macs demonstrate their quality?

posterous — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:17:56 +0000

I grew up on Windows. Starting with Windows 3.1, then Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and so on. In my family I was (and still am) known for my knowledge of how to fix broken computers. A few days ago, however, one of my friends called me with some weird problem with his Mac. Even though I’ve been on Mac for about 1.5 years now, I felt totally lost in helping him. I could tell him everything about how to use his Mac to the max, taking advantage of all the cool features, but when it came to figuring out why his computer wouldn’t turn on or why he was seeing some crazy error while booting up — I found myself lost. How is it that I knew so much about fixing Windows but have been so clueless about complicated Mac problems?

I came to a basic realization: I don’t know how to fix Macs because I’ve never really had to fix my own Mac! (actually I did once when I had permissions issues with my drive, but that was caused by my mistake). On Windows, every week or two I remember troubleshooting some issue or another. I fought countless viruses, created and resolved major havoc on my machines. In this process, I learned a lot about fixing Windows.

So does the fact that I don’t know how to fix Macs really speak for their top quality? Or am I just over-thinking my laziness in educating myself about Mac internals?

Unminimize or Restore a Window in Mac OS X

Nimit Maru — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:42:48 +0000

To minimize a window in Mac, you hit Cmd+M. But I could never figure out a way to un-minimize with the keyboard. Even ALT+Tabing to it wouldn’t work. This was one of the most annoying things. So after some searching, I found that there are two solutions that work.

UPDATE: Miicah gives us the best solution to this problem in the comments:

You can hit cmd-tab for app and before you release the cmd, push the option (alt) and hold it as you release the cmd-key.

Thanks! Other solutions I had found earlier are below…

Solution 1

Hit Cmd+Space to open Spotlight, and simply start typing the name of the app you want to unminimize. Run the app from there as if you were opening a fresh copy of your app. This will “unminimize” it instead.

If you use Quicksilver (you should) you can open it from there too for the same effect.

Solution 2

This one is a bit slower, but also works! Hit Ctrl+F3 to open up the Dock. Use Tab to get to the minimized app, and hit Enter.

So there you have it, two less than ideal ways to “unminimize” or “restore” a window in Mac OS X. If you know a better way, please do comment.

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Does the fact that I can’t fix Macs demonstrate their quality?

Unminimize or Restore a Window in Mac OS X