The Mac Thread

Oh yay!

<clapping>

Mine's a few months old, I'm still figuring out various tricks.

Macmail is very cool. I haven't set it up yet, plan to.

Look under the "View" menu for a list of some key commands. To refresh your page in safari use "apple + R".

Awesome, huh?
What did you get, soz?
I got a iMac G5, 17 inch screen, the basic version to cut cost, but I added a bluetooth module to it. Now I can take care of calendar and adressbook on the mac, and then send it to my cellphone.

Just trying out some of the neat features on iPhoto, iTunes and so such.

What amazed the most was; after I unpacked it took me the whole of ten minutes to have it up and running, including surfing the net! Try that on my old PC!

Then, of course, jp, my mac is trained in german... gotta ask my german mac owners about that one! Thanks for appleR!
What is SnapBack?

Snapback allows you to quickly navigate back to a certain web address. Lets say you are doingresearch and go to a certain address. You can set the snapback to remember that address.

Then in the course of browsing and following links from one place to another, you suddenly find yourself 15 pages from where you started. Instead of retyping the address or hitting the back button 15 times, you just hit the little orange arrow in the right side of the displayed address and it will take you back to the Snapback page that you set earlier.

You can also use it for the built in Google seach that Safari has. It is quite handy if you are looking for information through lots of different pages.

Is that the brand-new iMac, bigdice? They're SO cool...!!!

I have an eMac, G4, 17-inch screen, and airport. I'm allergic to wires (ugly ugly) and LOVE the airport. We haven't completely figured it out yet though -- works great for internet access, but we have a combo printer/ scanner and we can make it work for the printer but not the scanner. We haven't finished fiddling though. Right now I have the printer/scanner here on the desk with me which I DON'T want, it's supposed to be across the room.

We got the eMac 'cause it's cheaper and sturdier -- sozlet uses the computer, too, and probably eventually this will become hers.

Safari also sets it automatically if you type a certain address (as opposed to following a link to an address). But it doesn't always set it to the address you think it did so setting the address yourself is usually easiest.

Thank you again!
True enough about Google, I used to have a yahoo!toolbar on my PC, but now I don't have to, since I can drag/drop my favorites to just below the search bar, also neat-o!

That is strange that the printer works but not the scanner. What software are you using for the scanner?

It's the hp psc 2175 all-in-one.

Copier too!

I say "we" but E.G.'s taken over that part, so I'm lacking details on what he did/ didn't do.

Hmmm... I have a friend who has an all-in-one as well... I'll ask him how he has his set up.

Hey, I'm a mac lover too. Mine is a three year old iBook. We have an airport network at home -- just bought a new one that uses radio waves and signal is amazing. I bought my better half a 14-inch iBook for Christmas last year and he loves it.

One of my favorite airport features it the rendezvous printing. We have a printer plugged into the usb port of the airport and we can print to it from anywhere in the house. I love that.

Hey Soz,

I don't use an airport so my knowledge about it is limited. So I asked a friend who has both an all in one and uses air port. Here is what he said:



So the bad news is it sounds like you will not be able to go wireless with your scanner. Sorry.

Aw.

Thanks for asking!

Since we use it for printing much more than scanning, we might put it over where we want it, get a long cord, leave it unplugged for printing (rely on Airport) and plug it in directly just when we want to scan.

Yep, the Airport (express) is excellent for multiple computers. E.G. has a work laptop that he brings home and then can use anywhere. It's great.

<Thinking of questions one can ask jp, will be back>

Let em' rip as you think of them dice... once you think you have the hang of it I have a ton of niffty little programs to make your Mac even better.

Re: The Mac Thread


Design:

Pro: Macs are pretty.
Con: Pretty PCs now exist and the design on Mac comes at a premium that is only worth it on certain items (like laptops and ipods).

Specs:

Pro: Macs usually run relatively powerful hardware
Con: You pay much more for the same hardware you could get in a PC

Compatibility:

Pro: Because Macs are so damn limited, the ways they can break are also limited.
Con: This renders macs useless for many purposes, and keeps it relagated to niche uses.

Security:

Pro: Less visible of a target
Con: Macs aren't inherently more secure than PCs and this is just a false sense of security.

Image:

Pro: Macs are niche-hip.
Con: It's mainly just vapid marketing that people buy into.

Summary:

I use macs, PCs and variants of Unix every day from work and home. Of all of them the Macs do the most nifty pointless wow stuff (neat little graphic effects in the OS) but are by far the least useful computers I use.

If you want to get the most out of a desktop, use Windows.
If you want to run a server use a Unix variant like Linux.
If you want to work with graphics use Macs (though this is wholly unecessary it is at least one area in which they are not outmatched)
If you want to play a variety of games use Windows
If you want to work, and have a scalable business platform in a corporate setting use Windows

If you want a really pretty computer to surf the internet that can make you feel really happy.. get a Mac. People with Macs are usually very happy to have them. In part it owes to them not being the type of people who notice the Mac downsides and eat up the marketing but it's also in large part due to the excellent company and product that they are.

If the Mac downsides (mainly limited compatibility) doesn't bother you then a Mac will probably make you much happier than a PC.

But even the most hardcore Mac or Linux fans usually want to use one app that they need a pc for (this is the compatibility issue).

I just bougth a new box, it's running a new Windows OS called Xp Media Center Edition 2005 and it blows all the OSes out of the water (for my computer use, which is both broad and media based) that I have ever used.

And I have used nearly every single one and currently use nearly every current version of the various OSes.

I don't know Craven, I think macs (running OSX) make pretty good servers and if you get the development stuff (used to be bundled with WebObjects, who knows what it's bundled with now) they're pretty nice development environments as well. As a desktop, if you get MS Office Mac there's really not much you can do with a windows machine that you can't do with a mac. Macs are also really nice and really compatible with just about any USB enabled anything (digital camera, printer, scanner, whatever).

I think that it used to be the case that they were very much a niche market, but I think that's changing.

That's what I thought too, Craven, but since I use it to 90% only for communication purposes, the rest is for music and pics, I don't care about compability!

First I wanted a Linux-based PC, but was a bit overwhelmed with what and how I should get one. And I don't have anyone here that could show me anything about Linux, or help me. Except you, of course! But I want somebody that can sit next to me when I get instructions, if you know what I mean!

Which virus protection do guys recommend?
Is the firewall that's pre-installed enough?