Wallpaper reverts to default "galaxy" at startup

Several users have been complaining about the Desktop Wallpaper reverting back to the default "galaxy" image when starting Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Refer discussion.

Apple will of course take its sweet time in fixing this issue. In the meantime, here is a workaround. I tried to force Dock.app to restart using the command:

killall -HUP Dock

This caused the wallpaper to be properly updated on my primary desktop. Note that I use ML's "Spaces" feature and I have four virtual desktops. Virtual desktop 2, 3 and 4 display the proper updated wallpaper even upon startup. The problem lies only with the primary desktop.

To make this process easy, I have created an application called "Killall Dock.app". Drop this in your Applications folder and include this item in your Login Items (from System Preferences > Users & Accounts).

Download "Killall Dock.app"

Wrapper application "Killall Dock.app" created using the awesome Platypus.app :)

iPhoto 9.3.2 generating high resolution thumbnails

I am in the process of migrating to a new machine, one with the awesome Retina display! Migration has always been a slow and painful process consuming 3-4 weekends. Most of the time is wasted in dealing with undocumented frustration, where things are subtly changed around enough to break everything else that depends upon it.

My recent annoyance has been with iPhoto 9.3.2. Granted that iPhoto 9.3.2 has been a welcome update. Apple has finally started paying attention to non-iOS software for a change. iPhoto is optimized for systems with the Retina display. Upon first launch, it prompted me to "generate high resolution thumbnails". I kept putting off the task for quite a while, but the nagging was quite persistent and I finally gave in.

To my utter frustration, a simple process like thumbnail generation takes more than 24 hours! Here's the progress meter after letting it run for 26+ hours:

I honestly hope it doesn't report an error at the end of this lengthy process :) Apple, have you really tested your software with real-life photo libraries? After about 9 years of iLife, it is expected that users will have a large accumulation of photographs. My photo library has more than 70,000 pictures. Spending 26 hours for generating thumbnails is ridiculous. That too on a 4 core i7 processor, with 16GB of RAM and an SSD hard drive.

Apple is going the Microsoft way indeed.