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Mac Annoyance

Every once and a while Mac Software Update decides I need to update some software that I don't really need. Perhaps long ago I misconfigured something, but I find it annoying when I need to download updates to software for hardware that I don't own. For example, long before I got my iPod, I was still somewhat regularly required to download iPod updates. I'm not sure why.

My most recent example happened this week, when I was required to update the iSight software. An iSight device has never been plugged into this machine and most likely never will be. That didn't stop the Software Update window from popping up with the update and no obvious way to say, "No thanks, I'll pass on that one." I did hit Cancel, but all that did was postpone it a couple of days. I finally gave in and thankfully I'm now running the latest iSight software. It even popped up a window once it was done installing asking me to plug in my iSight for updating. That window didn't have a Cancel button, but luckily Command-Q did the trick. Hopefully it doesn't pop up repeatedly reminding me to plug in my non-existant iSight. That's not quite what I would expect from a company with a reputation for good user interfaces.

iSight Updater 1.0.3

Fig. 1 An unusable dialog box to update the software on an imaginary device

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