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Option-Click AirPort Menu for Network Details

If you hold down the Option key while clicking the AirPort menu in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you'll see not just the names of nearby Wi-Fi networks, but additional details about the selected network. Details include the MAC address of the network, the channel used by the base station, the signal strength (a negative number; the closer to zero it is, the stronger the signal), and the transmit rate in megabits per second showing actual network throughput. If you hover the cursor over the name of a network to which you're not connected, a little yellow pop-up shows the signal strength and type of encryption.

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Published in TidBITS 867.
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19 Feb 2007 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

Daylight Saving Time Saved

by Andrew Laurence Send Email to Author

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Apple last week released a set of updates which reflect the changes in Daylight Saving Time that go into effect this year in the United States and elsewhere (for additional information, see my article "Daylight Saving Time May Bite the Out-of-Date," 2007-01-29). The very welcome update for Mac OS X 10.3.9, Daylight Saving Time Update (Panther), updates the time zone and ICU data files, such that the system now correctly handles the new Daylight Saving time rules for 2007. The update for Mac OS X 10.4.8, Daylight Saving Time Update (Tiger), likewise contains a complete set of time zone and ICU files; it adds several new cities and various world-wide changes to the time zone information included with the previous Mac OS X 10.4.5 and 10.4.6 updates.

I'm pleased to see Apple do right by their customers who are running Panther. There was some discussion online of the "Y2K7" problem in late January, with Ian Ward Comfort's patch appearing on 28-Jan-07 at AFP548.com; a variety of other patches and methods have appeared in blogs and mailing lists. (I hope the authors of those patches will vet their solutions against Apple's updates, and indicate whether folks who have installed the former have any cause to worry from the latter.)

People still running Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar are out of luck in terms of an official Apple patch. However, a modified patch for those users is also available at the AFP548 Web site.

At the same time, Apple released Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 5, which updates J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_07, and Java 1.4 to version 1.4.2_12. The update primarily fixes handling of Daylight Saving Time in Java, but also delivers improved reliability and compatibility. For Panther users, Java for Mac OS X 10.3 Update 5 brings Java 1.4.2 to version 1.4.2_12, includes Java Advanced Imaging and Java 3D support, and also fixes a problem where some Java applications wouldn't open after installing QuickTime 7.0.4 or later.

It's impossible to draw a causal relationship between my original article and the appearance of these updates, now two weeks later, but I'd like to think I played a small role in their appearance.

 

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