Poslfit Bugs

This page lists bugs that I've come across in software that I have to use, so that I don't have to trip over them too often.

efax

[2005-06-20] At least in OS/X 10.3 (Panther), if you enter 'sudo fax stop' it stops automatic fax reception but creates an obscure file called /private/var/spool/fax/cu.modem.stop which will prevent you from restarting fax services (either from the command-line or using the system preferences control panel) until that file is removed.

[2005-05-01] Apparently, if you use a browser other than Safari, the server adds popup ads.

[2006-01-27] Messages are grouped together in "conversations" by Subject: header, not threaded together by In-Reply-To: or References:. Unrelated messages are often thus grouped together, and worse, non-spam messages can be added into spam conversations and you'll never see them again. You can't turn this "feature" off.
[2006-01-27] Identical lines in messages in a conversation are not displayed, unless you click "Show Quoted Text".

[2005-05-01] If you have a directory with no index.html file, there is no way to override the default Page Not Found message the server returns.
[2005-05-01] If you have a bug in a CGI script, there is no way to view diagnostics on standard error.
[2005-05-01] If you have a bug in a CGI script, there is no way to change the Internal Server Error message the server returns, even to direct browsers away from the phony support e-mail address it gives.

[2005-05-25] When you double-click to enlarge the JPEG artwork associated with a track, the image is displayed at 150% of its original size, muddying small type. The enlargement is capped at a little less than the current screen size, not spanning multiple monitors.
[2005-05-25] When you paste an image into iTunes for use as album artwork, it silently scales the image down to no more than 1024 pixels wide.

[2005-08-03] Based on experiences helping a neighbour, Sympatico.ca has contracted their suite of ISP services to MSN, much like rogers.ca (formerly home.com) cut a deal with Yahoo, except that in the case of Sympatico and MSN, it's been a disaster. Online "help" pages are password-protected, and if you've forgotten your password or need to call tech support for any other reason, heaven help you. Once you do find what looks like the relevant help page, half the time, it describes the old system and is completely irrelevant.

The new system on the other hand is unusable unless you have current operating system and Internet client software. If for instance you have MacOS 9.0.3 and Outlook Express 5.0.2-5.0.6, your (Microsoft) mail client is in fact incompatible (cannot log on using SMTP/SSL/TLS) with Microsoft's mail servers, and your operating system is incompatible with Sympatico's current installer CD (which requires 9.1). The most helpful thing that tech support will tell you is "Well then you'd better use Hotmail", to which I would add "and you might as well spend your Internet dollars at a cafe for better value".

Don't think of using your household OS/X server's Postfix software to send out Classic MacOS mail for you directly, either. Sympatico firewalls connections to external SMTP service, to force you to either use their servers or switch ISPs.

If you use Internet sharing to share an Airport connection over your Ethernet port, the DHCP server running on the Ethernet port does not check to see that the address range it serves does not conflict with the Airport network. In particular, if your Airport network is at 192.168.2.*, then so will your Ethernet network, and packets will get misrouted.

Users are not included in the 'staff' group anymore. If you try to use 'ditto' to copy your files from your old machine, then 'ditto' will fail to copy those files belonging to group 'staff'. To add a user to the 'staff' group, open 'NetInfo Manager', select '/groups/staff', click on the 'users' property and choose the menu item 'Insert Value'. If you are trying to copy files using Personal File Sharing, stop and restart that service, as the old daemon will not automatically learn of the group change.