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Author Topic: My first Mac will be here Thursday!!! Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 06-15-2005 12:38 AM                        After some deliberation, and finding out that i get a discount through my current employer, I just purchased my first mac. A G5 iMac. I'm not switching, but will swing both ways, so to speak. I'll still use my PC laptop for all of my GIS work, but the mac will be my new home desktop. Anyway, I thought I'd get some tips from some reel people to help smooth the transition. I can't wait for it to get here!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-15-2005 09:13 AM                     We have a Museum of broken Macs somewhere in the office at work. Several old Imacs are in there too. We've been told they are not worth repairing . Mark  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 06-15-2005 09:30 AM                     Hopefully it comes with spellcheck.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-15-2005 09:33 AM                     I bought the same machine, an iMac G5 with Bluetooth. I put it up the last week of December, and already I realize that I will never, ever buy another Windows based machine for home use ever again. Its never crashed or frozen, and all the stuff that I plugged into it loaded perfectly. It runs flawlessly, and it's nice to get work done instead of spending time cursing at problems. It's to the point that I resent having to use Windows crap at work. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that you will start ignoring your laptop and using your Mac exclusively before long. As far as transfer issues, I had none. Since my old Dell had no CD burner, I wound up buying a USB floppy drive to transfer word.docs, which crossed over with no problem. The OS is very intuitive and easy to use, and has features (like Spotlight) that Windows won't have until Longhorn shows up in late '06, if it ever does. The only annoyance is that there is no right-clicking with Apple's supplied mouse, you have to hold down the control key while clicking to access traditional right-click functions (unless you install a third party dual button USB mouse, which the OS supports). Enjoy it, and have fun picking out your widgets for Dashboard. I recommend the Hula Girl and the Daily Tao.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 06-15-2005 03:48 PM                     Honestly, I hope "Longhorn" doesn't follow Apple's lead and bundle in all those crazy widget thingies. Frankly I can't stand a lot of that shit. It trashes up your desktop, hogs system resources and slows down the performance of a machine. There's lots and lots of shareware and freeware applets that have been available for a long time to allow PC users to garbage up their machines with everything from live weather updates, news tickers and dancing nude girls on the start button. Some of that stuff is a great avenue for viruses and spyware to infect machines. Just something for Mac users to think about when downloading some new after market dashboard widget not made by Apple. Certain Internet Service Providers have gotten into the UI desktop pollution act. This is one of the reasons why I love my router and its built in PPPoE setup. I don't have to install any of the SBC/Yahoo! spam-shit software that tries to vandalize the appearance of my computer. Earthlink's software is among the worst I've ever seen in this regard. Purile, screen hogging shit. Some people may like their computer to resemble a garage overloaded with trash. I don't. If Windows copies the dashboard approach I hope they offer some way to uninstall it.  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 06-15-2005 04:52 PM                        That's what I thought about Dashboard until I saw some of the widgets. There's some really useful stuff there. And on the Mac, it's very easy to make that stuff disappear. The next update of the OS is going to improve widget housekeeping even more. The update is free to anyone who bought Tiger. I have used both a Mac and various Wintel machines since each of them first appeared in the market. I started with the old Apple II+ and IIe machines and the very first IBM PC, which came with no hard disk, 2 floppy drives, 16 colors on the display and cost about $5000. Then I managed to get hold of the first Mac and have used many different Macs since. I'm typing this on a 5 1/2 year old G4. I'm still more productive on this machine than the typical Dell found in most offices where I work. Even on applications that are essentially the same on both platforms (like Photoshop), there are still enough differences that I'm much more productive on the Mac. You'll never go back. I do however recommend that you get a wireless 2-button mouse with a scroll wheel. Apple's 1-button mouse is absurd.  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 06-15-2005 05:01 PM                        I've been using, and like, konfabulator on my pc for widget-like apps. G-mail notifier, iTunes remote, and an analog clock. Most of the widgets are not very useful, but I use these three all the time. Martin, my birthday is coming up, and a two-button mouse has already made the short list. I like kensington's wireless studio mouse, with a touch pad instead of a scroll wheel.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-15-2005 05:26 PM                  My sympathy to you Adam for such a poor "investment." THEEEE ***ONLY*** thing an Apple Mac computer is good for is to edit film/video using Final Cut Pro. Other than that, it's a bastard wanna-be in the REAL professional and business world.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 06-15-2005 06:16 PM                        Phil, you forgot: DVD Authoring Music/Sound composing and editing Photo/graphics manipulation Special effects compositing Compression E-mail Downloading great porn Not getting viruses Decent UI when compared to Windows Well thought out OS (Windows is poorly put together and thought out) Other than that, Windows is great for: Spreadsheets Power Point Presentations Surfing the web Boring stuff PS-WTF is a widget?  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 06-15-2005 08:59 PM                        For better or worse, I'm ready for something new. The mac, at the very least, will be new. I appreciate your concern, Phil. I considered switching to Sun's free Solaris, but since I need new hardware anyway, I thought what the hell. I went through all of the advantages to keeping a pc (upgradeability, software choice, games) and none of that really matters to me anymore. I’m upgrading from an old 1.0g athlon computer that I’ve never once upgraded since I put it together, I only use a core set of programs at home for productivity, all of which are available on the mac, and I haven’t played a game on my PC in years. As long as the mac plays nice with my printer and laptop, I think I’m going to be very happy with it. Joe, widgets are "fun" little "apps" that "run" on your "desktop" They're eye candy mostly, few of which prove useful.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-15-2005 10:48 PM                  Joe, even though all of what you posted can be done on a PC as well as a MAC, thanks for enlightening me.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-15-2005 11:19 PM                     The first machine I ever programmed was a Monroe 1800-Series programmable calculator. After that, if you passed my high school computer programming teacher's muster, you would be allowed to graduate to the Wang 2200. Our physics/science teacher got an Apple ][ later on that year so he could demonstrate principles of science with computer animation. I learned to program that. Not to be outdone, the computer teacher got an Apple ][ with a whopping 64K or memory... AND... a 5-1/4" floppy drive! We were in HEAVEN! By the time I graduated high school I had my own Apple ][e with the 80 column card, TWO drives and a gargantuan 128K of memory! I had *THE* best computer out of *ANYBODY* as my school... And It was ALL MINE! No more time sharing! I learned to program it in Pascal and even dabbled in machine language. Macs were just coming out and I had a chance to fiddle with them from time to time. I liked them but the learning curve to programming them at the time was so steep that I never really spent a lot of time at it. In general, I did like what I saw, though. When I went to college, I took some computer classes working on the college's main frame. Computers were getting coller and cooler all the time. That was when I got my hands on my first IBM PC. At first I thought, "MORE computers! Cool!" That lasted for about 15 minutes. They sucked ass! I tried them for a few days then went back to the main frames and my Apple ][e. A few years later the Mac IIs came out and I started programming them. There were a few times when I was telling my teachers how to solve problems. All during this time I have tried using various versions of PC/Windows computers from DOS to Windows. I never had more than a passing interest in them. They sucked so bad I couldn't stand to even touch one! Some time later, I got to be friends with some guys at MIT and I got introduced to the GNU/UNIX world. When you can type, "Meta-X call-el", then walk out to the lobby to have the elevator door open up to greet you, THAT'S the balls! Then there were several years when I didn't go near computers. A lot of my computer skills have atrophied but I still consider my self proficient. All this time I have been watching the Windows and Mac worlds to keep proficiency but it wasn't till a few years ago when I got my own computer again. (iMac DV.) I'm starting to get my computer chops back again. Maybe I'll start writing some real software that I can share with people instead of just hacking around on my computer for my own entertainment. But, to this day, I can hardly stand to sit down in front of a Windows machine. To me, it's the logical equivalent of trying to walk around with a stone stuck in your shoe but you can't get it out. Everything about it feels like a cheap copy of the real thing where stuff has been simply moved around the screen just enough so that they wouldn't get sued. It's all done wrong. Low quality. Slow. Inefficient. Lackluster. Closed-minded. Stupid. Everything about Microsoft sucks. It's a waste of electricity. It should be illegal. C'Mon! You click on the START button to shut the computer OFF!? Really!? Oh! And if you can't figure out how to use a one button mouse... You've got a problem! I don't use a mouse 1/2 the time anyway. You can access most features of a Mac from the keyboard if you are smart. When I do use a pointing device I use a trackball or a pen tablet. Both have two buttons but they are programmed to be the same. Let me sum it up like this: If Apple computers cease to exist probably would never own another computer again. "PC" = "Piece-O-CRAP!" Adam, After you have been sitting in front of your new Mac for a while, I predict you will suddenly get the feeling like the heavens have opened up, the angels started singing and suddenly all will seem to be right with the world!  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 06-15-2005 11:29 PM                     After suffering thru 4 Macs with endless crashes, software that screws up, one replaced twice by the dealer on the office computer and many problems on his personal laptop the boss ditched the Macs and bought an off the shelf machine from Best Buy...he has been amazed at a computer that actually works every day, every time he uses it. The county I live in (Henrico County) in 2001 put an IBook in the hands of every high school and middle school student. Fortunately they were leased as first the flimsy cases fell off and failed to latch securely enough to keep them closed. Then came the operational problems, and charger problems, then at one point around half of them were locked up and in the warehouse waiting for upgrades to the OS. The fruit company admitted that all the problems were theirs. The original intent was to have the text books in the computer, it was realized early on that these things were not up to the task. The lease is up at the end of this school year. Bids were solicited and the contract was awarded to Dell for $4 million less than the fruit bid. It will be interesting to see if they fare any better. There has been very little damage due to abuse by the kids. About 12,000 to 14,000 computers involved.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-15-2005 11:40 PM                  quote: Randy Stankey After you have been sitting in front of your new Mac for a while, I predict you will suddenly get the feeling like the heavens have opened up, the angels started singing and suddenly all will seem to be right with the world I agree, Randy. He will die of a heart attack due to the frustration and headed to (PC) heaven. BTW Joe: Three things Apple does great: 1) Final Cut Pro 2) iPOD 3) Quicktime  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 06-16-2005 12:08 AM                        Phil, Video editing can also be done on PC's, just not as gracefully as Final Cut Pro. There are no PC DVD authoring apps anywhere near as good as DVD Studio Pro. Sony has something that comes with Vegas Video, but it is retarded and has a horrible UI. If you like SDDS you will like Sony's video apps. I already stated that Macs download much better porn than PC's (PC users only get ugly whores like Jenna Jameson). Also, PC users can't compress video stuff as well. Look at all of the video files on the net that are in the WMV format. Look how awful they are! WMV sucks so much ass, only people with chronic diarrhea dare use that crusty format. Also, it is a known fact that people who use Windows PCs are ugly. iPods are fucking stupid. I say that because I do not have one. But I don't like DRM of any kind.  |  IP: Logged

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