Category: Computers

From MacOSXHints.com :

“A little-known fact about Time Machine is that it depends on the MAC address of a computer to tell one system from another. This means that if you have your Mac repaired with a new logic board, or replace your system with a new one, you can’t resume backups where you left off.”

To find out how to remedy this situation, read the rest of the article HERE

I’ve been an “on-again, off-again” WoW player since the WoW beta. In the beginning I played the game on my G4 eMac with an NVidia 7200 video card. It ran OK with all the detail turned down. I then bought myself a MacBook Core Duo, and on that machine, WoW played WELL with the detail turned down, and OK will the detail at it’s medium settings. I recently upgraded the OS on the MacBook to Leopard, and installed World of Warcraft after a long hiatus. After an entire day of downloading all the WoW patches I needed to catch up on, I began playing the game. My first reaction was WOW. (No pun intended.) You see, some serious OpenGL tweaks have been made to both WoW, and to the newest version of the Mac OS, Leopard. Now, WoW runs WELL with all the graphics settings at their default (medium) levels. Now, to uber-gamers, this post will sound awfully unimpressive; but what you have to realize is that the graphic card in a MacBook is not a very impressive one, especially in gaming circles. I’m quite impressed that with software tweaks alone, Apple and Blizzard have made it possible for WoW to run quite well on an Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics card that shares system memory. The improvement is enough for me to enjoy WoW a lot more than I used to, and because of that – I’ve renewed my WoW subscription.

A friend of mine, Justin, sent me the following articles about the Apple TV…

Why Apple TV Failed

Apple on a Worst of 2007 List

…and here’s my response to them.

I read the articles, but what they are complaining about isn’t what I want an Apple TV for. I want to rip all my DVDs to my computer, and play them via the Apple TV to my HD TV. It also allows me to view my iPhoto library on my TV, and play my music library in the living room, on my 5.1 surround sound system. It seems that ArsTechnica and Popular Mechanics are complaining about lack of content. I don’t want to buy content over the internet for my Apple TV. I own and buy a lot of media. I want to rip it to my Apple TV. Sure, being able to buy HD media on the Apple store would be really cool, but the lack thereof doesn’t make it a crappy device. That being said, I think Apple’s sales projections were flawed. There just isn’t the market yet for the Apple TV in the scale that they wanted. At this point in time, it’s a geek’s toy, not an “every man” appliance. In time Apple will get content for the Apple TV. In fact, when the Apple TV was released, Apple was in talks with the studios to get content. Unfortunately, a lot of the deals fell through. (Hell, the writer’s strike is going on right now because of the movie industry’s greed in regard to online content.) Eventually you’ll be able to get movies and TV from iTunes in HD formats. When that happens, the Apple TV will be desired a lot more than it is now to the “every man.” I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I just realized that the post I wrote on November 8th about the PC isn’t totally correct. The title should have read : “Windows is the Abusive Spouse of the Computer World.” As many Mac people do, I cracked on the PC when what I really have a problem with is the widely used operating system, Windows. I have no problems with the PC. PCs are really cool with the right operating system on them. *Cough*…*Ahem*…Linux. It’s Windows I have a problem with. It’s the operating system force fed to PC users that makes PCs junk – not the PC itself. I just wanted to clear that up.

Apple’s new OS, Leopard, is here and I’ve finally gotten around to installing it on my MacBook. There’s some things I like, and some things I hate. I was originally going to write a detailed review, but there’s plenty of insanely detailed reviews on the IntarWebs. So, this will just be a quick list of how I feel about each feature.

Terminal – Terminal now supports tabs, anti-aliased text, and a bunch of different color schemes. Yea!

Finder – Some people may love the new changes, or hate the new changes. I like them; ESPECIALLY how easy it is to access networked drives and computers. You don’t have to worry about mounting the drive anymore; you just browse to it, enter the proper password, and you can navigate the drive’s contents in Finder.

Spaces – This is an elegant implementation of virtual desktops.

Safari 3 – Nothing revolutionary here, but it now has spell checking and the new “show webpage in widget” function which is pretty cool.

Stacks – Stacks is a mixed bag. The actual functionality of Stacks is pretty cool. I like the fan and grid view of each stack. (I actually prefer the grid view as it looks like a widget.) What I HATE is the icon stacking in the Dock. Basically, the icon for whatever you dragged into the Stack area of the Dock is a “stack” of all the icons in the folder. So for example, if you dragged the Application folder to the Stacks area of the Dock, the icon you see on top is the icon for the Address Book. (If you’re sorting the Application folder by name anyway.) They really should have added a Dock option to turn that off. In order to get around it, I created a folder called “0” (zero) in my Applications folder, and gave it the same icon as the Applications folder. So now in my Dock there’s a Stack with the Applications icon on top.

Time Machine – I haven’t bought a new external drive for Time Machine yet, so I haven’t used it. Everyone says it’s cool though. 😉

OS X 10.5 Performance – Even with all the flash, 10.5 runs just as fast as 10.4 if not faster due to Spotlight using filesystem metadata more efficiently, and more importantly – kernel tweaks.

General Gripes – I don’t really dig the new Dock look, or the menu bar look. For some reason they made the menu bar transparent which I think is pointless, and the reflections in the Dock background is just a waste of computer resources. What’s interesting is that when the Dock is set to be on the left or right of the desktop, it’s appearance is totally different. It looks more like the old Dock. If you type the following command in Terminal, you can make the Dock look that way set to the bottom of the screen as well :

“defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES”
“killall Dock” (this will restart the Dock with the new settings.)

Well, that’s it. Mac OS X 10.5. Mostly good, some bad.

There’s a great article on salon.com explaining why, when looking at the big picture, Macs are actually cheaper than PCs. The writer, Farhad Manjoo talks about Mac resale value versus PC resale value, and how the up front additional cost of a Mac doesn’t mean that it’s more expensive to own.

What I wish he would go into is the additional cost of maintaining a PC as compared to a Mac. If you have a PC you need to purchase antivirus and spyware protection tools, and even if you use free tools you still have to spend time upgrading and keeping their detection profiles up to date. If you put any value on your personal time, a PC is tons more expensive than an Apple.

The Windows OS is notorious for crashing. Whenever I hear my friends complaining about their PC hanging, or needing a reboot or needing to be reinstalled I am thoroughly perplexed as to why they put up with it. My MacBook hasn’t hung/froze/kernel panicked in over a year. Keep in mind that I rarely ever turn the thing off, or reboot it. As a matter of fact, the ONLY time it gets restarted is when an OS update requires it. (This might happen once a quarter.) Why do people stay with PCs? They’re like the abused spouse that keeps returning to the house even though they know they’re going to get hit again. I just don’t get it.

Well, maybe I do in part. GAMES. The only acceptable excuse (in my opinion) for someone to continue to put up with all the weaknesses of the PC is because they want to play PC games. The game selection for Mac is somewhat limited because 1) Game developers/distributers don’t make as many games for Mac and 2) the majority of games out there use Microsoft’s DirectX, which obviously is not available for Mac. While I find this to be a somewhat valid excuse, it’s my opinion that being able to play games on a PC still doesn’t make it worth my while to enter the house of the abusive spouse again. To play games I’ll buy a game system; an Xbox, a Wii, a PS3, whatever. Playing games on the PC is a slippery slope. Once you make the decision to play games on your PC you’re not only deciding to stay with your abuser, but now you’re also paying him to beat you. In order to be a PC Gamer you have to be willing to shell out hundreds of dollars a year to keep your PC up-to-date in regard to hardware so that you can play the newest cool game. So you spent $600 six months ago (I’m being conservative here) to build yourself a new computer, and how have to spend another $400 to upgrade your RAM and video card for Doom 5. Wow PCs are expensive.

Here’s my final example as to why PCs are more expensive than Macs. OS Upgrades. When Apple releases a new version of it’s OS, (here’s a concept) it performs better than the last version! (See this article) When I end up spending $129 on Leopard (Apple’s newest OS) I know that it’ll run great on the Mac I have. I won’t need to upgrade anything. Many people have complained about Windows Vista because in addition to spending $270 on the operating system (the Ultimate version who’s features most closely match Mac OSX) you’ll probably need to upgrade your video card, and RAM. (Perhaps even your processor.) So, to continue with the battered spouse analogy, not only do you keep returning to your home where you’re regularly abused, and paying the abuser to do so, but you’re also buying him a new house hoping that will appease him.

Wake up people! You don’t have to put up the pains of PC! Come over to the Mac-side! We have cookies.

This is a transcription of my customer service request to a leading software testing tool company…

(Product details have been omitted)

Me :
Need Physical Media – Product X

I have requested physical media for Product X multiple times and still
not received the CDs. Could you please mail me the physical media to
the address included in my Support profile?

Them :
Hi Matt,

I am going to reassign this issue to License team and they will assist you regarding the Product X License.

Me:
Just to clarify, I don’t need a license, I just need physical media.

Thanks,

Matt

Them:
Hello Matt,

I found your SR’s with your upgrade requests for Product Y. I can not ship Cd’s, they are shipped from overseas. I can send links. Please resond to your SR’s for your CD shipments.

*Note : They’re pointing me to the service request I opened to get CDs for a different product.

Them:
Hello Matt,

Here are the download links for Product X. If you need the physical CD, please login to support and click on the “submit upgrade request” link on the right hand side, as physical shipment requests are handled overseas now.

*Note: The reason I opened the service request in the first place is because the “Submit Upgrade Request” link didn’t get me any CDs.

Me:
Thanks for the download link. I have downloaded and installed Product X. However, I still need physical media. I have requested the physical media several times using the method you described with no success. Please look into this.

Them:
Hello Matt,

These are your SR’s for your CD’s. I will send a email to the person that ships these and see if he can get to these sooner.

*Note : At this point they’re pointing me to the service request I opened to get CDs for a different product, AGAIN.

Me:
I don’t need Product Y disks. I need Product X. I don’t understand why this is so difficult. I just received 2 Product Y, and it is not what I requested. I need Product X media.

Thanks,

Matt

Them:
Hello Matt,

I found your CD request for Product Y. Alex replied to you with the links and stated if you needed CD’s to reply back. I don’t see a reply from you. I can send an email to have him send the CD’s to you as soon as possible. Unfortunately I can not ship CD’s from this location they are now shipped overseas.

*Note: AGAIN, they are talking about a different Service Request where I asked for Product Y CDs. I’m trying to get Product X CDs in this request.

Me:
The title of the ticket is “Need PHYSICAL MEDIA.” I wasn’t asking for the download links in the first place. Please read the entirety of this service request. ( I asked for physical media and the service representative thought I needed licenses. I corrected the Service Representative, and then received download links for Product Y, which isn’t what I requested. I then got download links for Product X, and was instructed to use the “Submit Upgrade Request” form. The whole reason I opened the request is because I’ve tried the “Submit Upgrade Request” form multiple times and have never received the CDs I requested.) If I can’t get CDs by using the online form (which I’ve tried several times) and you can’t send me CDs, how am I supposed to get them?

Isn’t this INSANE?!