pjbishop wrote:
For those who are new to Mac, let me make a suggestion: follow SOP when updating the Op System or doing Security updates, and for good measure, Quicktime and Java updates -- any update that requires a restart, which will be flagged in the Apple updater. That means unplug all peripherals, deactivate any haxies, do a Permissions Repair from the the Disk Utility in the Utilities Folder before running the update and then again after you've restarted. (If you really want to be thorough, as well as doing a Permissions Repair from within the start up drive, also do a Disk Repair by starting up from your boot disk holding down the 'C' key, and when the OS install window comes up go to the Disk Repair command in one of the menus at top and run Disk Repair--but NOT Permissions Repair from outside the normal startup drive. Then quit the Utility and Quit the Install program to restart.) And don't ever move applications out of the Applications folder or you're asking for trouble. This procedure isn't foolproof, but it heads off a lot of problems....Show more →
Disassemble computer
Remove hard disk
Wait for new moon.
Kill a chicken
Sprinkle blood from chicken over disk drive
Chant sanskrit incantation: "skcus swodniw, elur scam" ten times
Reassemble
Reboot
Make some fried chicken
Savvy Mac users will have noticed by now that the system upgrades are timed to coincide with the new moon
You laugh now . . . Jerry, it's what Ted Landau and MacFixit consider standard precautions. There are always reports of trouble with printers, scanners, network connectivity etc. after an OS update. Unplugging peripherals and doing a Permissions Repair before and after doing an OS update is pretty simple, not at all that big a deal. Doesn't apply to routine updates to apps.
dgardner, we do not sacrifice chickens. Here at the Abbey of St. Macintosh, where we take turns using the one iMac when not making our famous fruitcake, we sacrifice bottles of Old Crow (a key ingredient in the fruitcake which we keep in good supply) to perform the Update Ritual.
repairing permissions is a good idea, unplugging things is also pretty easy. However I don't do either. I just upgrade and get on with life. The one thing I do always perform is a system clone. I use Carbon Copy Cloner (Super Duper is another good one) to clone my system to an external drive. Then upgrade. If there are issues I just go back and do it again or wait for the next update.
A MacPro will mount and use more RAM than a PC. It also will run Windows and Mac OS concurrently if you buy a copy of "Parallels" (less than $100 plus a copy of XP) which will use 1/1.5 Gb of RAM. I can file share on a LAN with my XP PC-no problem. I can do a lot of parallel work and when I have a crash it is most often of a program and not a Mac crash.
I got a MBP a month back. I'm on the verge of returning it while I wait for the replacement one to arrive to double check.
I've been trying to figure out the chinese torture popping sound the laptop makes every few minutes. You only notice it when you're working in a quiet room. It's enough to make you go mad.
I've looked online and others have had the same problem and Apple has written it off as 'normal.'
The sound is faint pop click, as if the HD heads are parking or something.
Congrats! I really don't think you'll regret the decision one bit.
You couldn't pay me to use a Mac until 2001... Bought one sight-unseen to run OS X. Been using one or several Macs ever since! Now I have a Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini in the stable. My original G4 "Quicksilver" tower does file serving duty.
This might be a helpful bundle for you. Parallels is worth the price. It also has some other nice apps to help with your website, file management, and general usability.
I just recently bought a MacBook Pro, and at the moment I seriously question, if not regret, every excessive dolllar I spent on it. Contrary to my expectation, I am not finding the Mac to be any easier to use than Windows95, 98, XP, or Vista. In fact, I'm finding the basic things I took for granted in Windows to simply not be available in the Mac.
For example, I just sent some items to the Trash. In Windows, it was simple matter to restore them to their original locations. Not so in the the Mac. Not that I can find, anyways. And if there is some secret way, then it is lost on me, and certainly not as easy, as obvious, or as intuitive as the Windows OS.
Second example... the whole reason why I sent items to the Trash is because I was told that was the only way to remove an application. Even at that , there would be renmants left of the applications that will require third party applications to be purchased in order to remove. Contrast this to the Windows "Add and Remove programs feature." Simple, straightforward, and it takes care of removing the program, without need for a third party app to be installed prior to the removed program's installation, and without need for hunting through Mac preference files, which requires foreknowlege as to which preference files were written by the app intended for deletion. PIA!
Third example... the whole reason for my wanting to delete the apps is because they didn't plug and play like they do in Windows. I simply wanted to tether a camera using the camera's software. But the camera's software doesn't work with Mac's newest operating system. I would need to buy a legacy Mac loaded with a legacy operating system for the latest software of my recent and common pro DSLR to work. Yet this same software runs on Windows 2003, XP, and Vista. I've had no end of grief getting the versions written for Mac to actually run on a Mac.
Based on this experience, and on the price premium I paid for the Mac (which I'm returning or reselling, as I don't need this much grief), the only case that I personally can see for using a Mac is if the software one wants to use will only run on a Mac. In the creative visual arts, I know of only two major titles that are Mac specific (Aperture and Final Cut) and both of those apps have functional equivalents in Windows that are more universal in use anyway (Lightroom and Avid).
- did the rest of the folks catch this one?