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Syslogd Overwhelming Your Computer?

If your Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) system is unexpectedly sluggish, logging might be the culprit. Run Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities/ folder), and click the CPU column twice to get it to show most to least activity. If syslogd is at the top of the list, there's a fix. Syslogd tracks informational messages produced by software and writes them to the asl.db, a file in your Unix /var/log/ directory. It's a known problem that syslogd can run amok. There's a fix: deleting the asl.db file.

Launch Terminal (from the same Utilities folder), and enter these commands exactly as written, entering your administrative password when prompted:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd

sudo rm /var/log/asl.db

sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslogd

Your system should settle down to normal. For more information, follow the link.

Visit Discussion of syslogd problem at Smarticus

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Published in TidBITS 1009.
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Macs & Mac OS X | 08 Jan 2010 | Listen  | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

Mac Documentaries Showing Online and Off

by Adam C. Engst Send Email to Author

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Looking for some Mac-related movie viewing? Last year's documentaries "MacHEADS" and "Welcome To Macintosh" were both screened at Macworld Expo in January 2009, but, being small independent films, haven't been shown in many theaters. However, if you weren't at Macworld Expo, and haven't had a chance to see them on DVD in the meantime, you're not out of luck. (And yes, I appear in "MacHEADS" a couple of times, with lots of other familiar faces from Macworld Expo).

"MacHEADS" has aired a few times on CNBC, including repeat showings this past weekend. "Welcome to Macintosh" also ran on CNBC this month.

If you didn't catch the movies on CNBC, SnagFilms, a site dedicated to providing free streaming access to documentaries, now carries both "MacHEADS" and "Welcome to Macintosh," so you can watch them any time you want.

Similarly, the TV site Hulu has "MacHEADS," and Netflix subscribers can also stream "Welcome to Macintosh."

 

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