MacBook Pro, yay!

This coming weekend I will now be the proud owner of a MacBook pro. Yay. Goodbye Power Mac G4.

Stuff

Yes, I haven’t updated lately…mainly because I’m dealing with a ton of bullshit on Resensitized. And some real-life issues.

The real-life issues? A ton of bullshit. I got blocked into a parking space by some jackass, and in trying to maneuver myself out of the space, ended up rear-ending another car. And I have no license. You can imagine how much of a bind I was in.

The resensitized bullshit? 4 people. Tryce, girltrauma, zombie and zombiepimp.

All four of them have been bitching and bitching and bitching, slowly chipping away at my patience. Girltrauma is a flamebaiting jackass who sits on the sidelines and picks on people, and constantly argues against what has already been declared as “NOT FUCKING FLYING BITCH”.

Tryce continually argues for the same thing…And even though we have kindly told him NO, he continues. Plus he is part of the Creedy Defense Force, and his commander came in and started criticizing him in public, making things worse. Isn’t bull like that supposed to be behind closed doors? I swear.

And Zombie and Zombiepimp constantly flamebait tryce causing asshattery all around.

And I blew up at all four of them.

I don’t give a shit anymore for neutrality. Obviously the neutral take doesn’t fucking work.

More PC Pundit toast for me…

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1957150,00.asp

Another PC pundit is ready to be toasted for being an idiot. Yay. In fact, I am going to make a new tag starting now. Punditoast.

Let’s begin with the frying.

“Don’t get too excited about the whole Mac/Windows dual-boot thing. Although a wide range of starry-eyed experts—including some in our very own lab—have lauded Boot Camp (aka BC) in tones not heard since the days of OS/2, it’s really nothing to get excited about. Here are my top reasons why—at least to real computer users—”Boot Chump” is a snore.”

First. Insulting your own writers. How kind of you.

“Boot Chump”? Someone obviously couldn’t find some valid criticism. You see, Boot camp is BETA. It is not PERFECT yet. Get my drift?

“Design: The more effete among us have embraced BC because now they can run all their favorite Windows apps on a saucy, sexy Mac. The underlying assertion embraced here is that Apple machines are just so much cooler than their PC counterparts. Hogwash. There are dozens of better-looking notebooks out there than those tired, industrial-looking iBooks and PowerBooks that dribble out of Infinite Loop. Want silver? Toshiba’s razor-thin Portégé looks better and won’t give you a hernia if you carry it around the corner. Acer’s Italian-inspired lineup ranges from testosterone-pumping Ferrari red to svelte and sweet. Even Dell now has discovered red.”

Apple machines are much better designed than their PC counterparts. We can install RAM in our MacBooks without having to use any tools!

Also, Apple’s laptops do look far cooler than any PC laptop I saw out there. the MacBooks are nowhere near heavy. Toshiba’s computers tend to get quite hot (The Tecra M2 I owned got REALLY hot and even burned up), and those “red” notebooks like the Ferrari-style notebooks look like trash. Red as a whole on laptops look like trash.

Performance: Some idiot wrote recently that “Apple now makes the fastest Windows machines on the planet.” What was I thinking? Now that the meds have worn off, let’s take a closer look at how fast these BC machines really are. Sure, they run a Photoshop benchmark test as fast as or faster than Windows dedicated machines. But throw in anything needing fast graphics and you’re SOL. The dual-core Mac mini uses shared memory for its anemic graphics, which will seriously eat into that default 512MB of RAM. Every time I see Boot Camp benchmark test scores, they come with caveats. Apple apologists give their favorite company more latitude than any other PC company on the planet—I just don’t understand it. Substitute “Microsoft” or “Dell” for Apple in any of the recent reviews and a firestorm of bloggers would be criticizing the reviewer up and down the Web. Instead, the laurels just pile on higher and higher. But I digress. This brings me to the next reason you don’t want Boot Camp….

Insulting yourself? My, I don’t think you were on drugs then, but rather you took them before writing this.

Pulling in a low-end Mac Mini for your comparison? That’s a low blow, and is quite unfair. And you should be happy Apple even let us have bootcamp, you unforgiving cretin.

And Mac users don’t flame Microsoft. They give us Office, a popular app on the Mac OS. There goes another pointless point of yours.

Sure, a Mac that runs Windows looks good on paper. But how do you know that that expensive scanner, graphics card, or sound device will actually work on a BC system? To be fair, USB and FireWire devices that work in Windows ought to work under BC. But what about add-in cards? That legacy SCSI adapter that you just can’t quit? Until we have an Intel-based Mac tower we have no clue what will work. But I predict that legacy hardware—and even some existing boards—will be difficult to run in both environments. Will the high-end video-digitizing Kona card work under Windows? What about M-Audio’s multichannel audio input cards? I’ll believe it when I see it. Got more faith? Go ahead, buy a dual-core Mac. And have fun upgrading it.

Windows XP runs native on intel Macs. So if it works under XP, It’ll work under Boot Camp.

And I am buying an intel Mac, a MacBook in fact.

I don’t know about you, but when I buy a computer I want everything to work right. I have some confidence that peripherals and software will work on my PCs, because I either built them myself or bought them outright from a vendor who knows how to make Windows PCs. So what happens when that critical new part, new application, or new Web site fails to run? Who is going to help? Apple? Hardly. Last I checked, Boot Camp is unsupported. So you’re out of luck. And even when it ends up in OS X, it will probably receive marginal support at best. Don’t expect your garden-variety tech at the Mac store to help out, for instance.

I don’t know what the shit you are talking about, but when I stopped by the Apple store, they were kind and courteous. They answered my every question about their products, and helped me out with my iPod’s problems. Compare that to the…nothing you get when you build your own PC. Boot camp is unsupported, but if my understanding is correct, Apple will still HELP you out with it. And starting with Leopard, Boot camp will be supported by Apple.

Speaking of building computers, if you like building your own computers, you are out of luck again. Apple’s not interested in a DIY Mac, nor is it concerned with the case-mod culture of the PC. Oh, I guess that doesn’t matter; lemming-like Apple fans aren’t interested in actually doing anything different with their cookie-cutter computers that aspire to “Think Different” but, like that old Pete Seeger song about little boxes, “all look just the same.” The really creative computer users are the case modders who build extravagant designs to house their systems. And that’s just not possible if you aspire to run Windows and simultaneously “Think Different.”

So, I’m a lemming? I love you too.

Apple doesn’t do custom built Macs because, think of all the support issues they would have if they did that. Software and hardware would be incompatible, and OS X would have numerous hiccups.

And all those PC case mods look like trash. “OH! IF WE PUT LIGHTS AND GAUGES ON IT IT WILL BE TEH BEST!!!” Wrong-o.

: And that leads me to the biggest reason of all to ignore this whole Windows and Macintosh mash-up. Apple’s not really known as the low-cost or value leader when it comes to computers. There’s a premium to pay for “Think Different” that has nothing to do with performance or capability. After you’ve already been overcharged for a Mac, you need to spend another hundred dollars or so buying Windows, just for the privilege of tainting the Apple core with Microsoft’s OS. You’ll probably need more memory, too. Is it really worth all that extra money? From where I sit, no—but a fool and his money have always been quickly parted.

Compare to a similarly configured Dell. And shut up while you’re at it.

All of this leaves me with just one thing to say: Would you buy a Windows computer from this man? Steve Jobs This is a guy who has been ripped off by Microsoft for 20 years: Do you think he’s about to just up and join the enemy? I doubt it. “Boot Chump” is just a Trojan horse, designed to get Windows users (aka chumps) to sample Macintosh hardware. Once you’ve laid out a few kilobucks on your BC system and been frustrated a few times with Windows limitations, what are you going to do? Jobs’s bet: You’ll start spending more and more time in OS X, until you—too—become one of the pod people. It’s sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings. Perhaps they’ll wake up and smell the Apple pie in the sky—and realize they’ve been taken for a ride. But I doubt it. Because I’m a firm believer that once you start using a Mac, your IQ begins to creep downwards, inversely proportional to an increase in your AAF (Apple Acceptance Factor).

Sounds to me you have run out of valid criticism. That is, if you ever had any.

Boot camp is there to cater to those who can’t switch due to windows-only software.

And I am pretty damn smart, so your AAF theory is bullshit.

In fact, I’m blaming the AAF for a wide-range of habits espoused by supposedly “creative people.” I’ll bet it’s responsible for tattoos, piercings, and the wide-spread adoption of the phrase “no worries.” In fact, I believe that most of today’s societal ills can be either indirectly or directly attributed to Apple. Widespread hearing loss? Blame the iPod. Carpal tunnel? Blame the Newton. Upswing in hernias? That Infinite Loop idiot who decided to put a handle on the first iMac—and started the whole luggable trend. No, Boot Camp is just the latest diabolical piece of Steve Jobs’s grand plan to dumb us down and mangle our bodies. It’s no coincidence that all this is happening just as Jobs has taken over as the head of Disney (which also owns ABC). Pretty soon we’ll be good for nothing but sitting on our butts and watching TV. So go ahead and Boot Camp if you must. But don’t come running to me when your mind and body prematurely degenerate. I’ll be smart, fit, and enjoying my real Windows computers, while you ooze slowly into the Pixar-Disney-ABC swamp of mindlessness. Chump.

I remove my gloves.

The iPod spiel was proven false, you dipshit.

Carpal tunnel happened far before the newton.

Hernias happened before the iMac.

And Steve has no plans to do that. And Jobs does not control Disney. Iger does. And you sir, are a moron.

As the purchase approaches…

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

Upon looking at Apple’s front page, I saw that Apple updated their notebooks with the Core2 Duo…

“NOOOOO!!!” I thought. All I needed was a nice Core Duo laptop. Core 2 Duo’s would run pretty hot for my liking.

Thankfully, upon checking the regular MacBooks, they are still powered by Core Duo’s. Whew…

I better buy one quick.

Why do I defend Macs?

I’ve been questioned as to why I defend Macs so zealously.

Time for an explanation, methinks.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. I have a PC at home. I do use it occasionally. I place myself on the middle of the debate, and as I said before, morons who don’t take the time to evaluate their platform and give said platform a bad rep because of their own ignorance is unfair and extremely stupid.

This guy I just burned said something along the lines of “You must buy a Mac.com email address to use Mac Mail.” That’s EXACTLY what I’m getting at. Any Mac user and Windows user who has spent a bit of time with a Mac knows that you can use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, among others with Mac Mail. It’s his own fault for not looking around. Yes, having a mac.com email address makes things easier, it’s not required.

Going to the first article, around the beginning, he calls his Mac a boat anchor, and then Safari a “second-rate” browser, because he cannot use flash. Well, I tested www.muse.mu for this claim.

Oh…what’s that…something’s calling.

It’s your ignorance.

This guy once again made no effort whatsoever to use google to search for the safari plug-in for flash. Once again, not the Mac’s fault, but his own.

While I do place myself in the middle of debates, just because I use a Mac means I’m a fanatic to others, even though I own a PC and have plans to run XP on my MacBook.

And if there’s anything I hate more, it’s stereotype.

When some person makes a stupid move like this guy did, and says that Macs suck all because he never made an effort to learn, is not right. I know kids who learned Macs easily. Adults, even.

What he did is akin to playing a minute of a game and claiming it sucks, or dying in a game and saying it sucks. Or grading an entire CD on the first track.

Fix your own iPod earbuds

Are your iPod earbuds breaking at the connector? Is that little plastic sheath beginning to split in half due to the cord bending? Look no further.

You’ll need:

Silicone
Shrink Tube, perferably white or clear

Okay, first, cut the shrinktube to the length that will cover the plastic sheath, and the connector. Slide it over the parts, and put it over a stove, or a flame to shrink it.

Depending on the size of the shrink tube, the part going out towards the earbuds may be a little loose since the wire is thinner than the connector.

Spread the silicone around this area in maybe into the open space where the tube didn’t shrink all the way to the cord (Superglue works).

Let cure, and wham, repaired.

Short, ain’t it?

Part 2

Time for some more article analyzing. This time, it’s a completely different ball game.

http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1160730321685

“I was suckered in by the hype about freedom from viruses, simplicity of computing and versatility. Instead, I bought a boat anchor that can’t view Web sites properly, is not compatible with Microsoft Word and can run only dumbed-down versions of regular software.”

Yes, we are immune from viruses. But it really must suck not having to tinker with your computer so much, because it just works! OH MY!

Hmm, my boat anchor has lasted since 1999, and it still runs modern software easily, and I like my boat anchor a lot. It has been a lot more reliable than…what is that you use? Oh yeah, a sunken, rusted boat that was salvaged from the bottom of the sea.

Also, has this guy ever heard of Firefox? And Microsoft Word runs fine on my G4…err…”boat anchor”.

And Dumbed-down software? Bullshit. Mac users get Photoshop, word, etc, in full versions.

I’ll be lucky to get half of the $4,552.71 I paid for the Mac on May 21, 2006.
Yeah. If you don’t get lucky you’ll get full value.

I realized it was time to unload the silvery box of frustration when I had to buy a “Dummies” book on how to operate it. I’m smart; I shouldn’t need this. Aren’t Macs supposed to be intuitive and easy to learn? My mistake.
Kids can learn the Mac without a book, my mom learned it without a book, and quite a few people I know learned it without a book. I’m sorry sir, but just because you, the almighty god of computing cannot learn a Mac doesn’t mean everyone else can’t.

The signs of doom were there on day one, but I ignored them. I pretended that I liked the one button mouse.
Mighty Mouse. Get off yer ass and google it.

So the documents took up space on my hard drive, until someone told me I had to find the document in Finder and then move it into the trash from there. This seemed stupid to me; I just wanted to highlight a file and tap “delete.”
Command-Delete my friend, Command-Delete.

PCs and Macs are not compatible, regardless of what they say.
Yes they are, you just never went beyond MS Office, which sucks anyway, and is overrated.

Doing a simple screen capture was an immense chore. On a PC you just press Alt and tap PrtScr. With the Mac I had to download and launch special programs to accomplish this simple task
Command Shift 3, and Command Shift 4. Learn them.

I didn’t even bother with the Mac’s iCal or Mail, which required me to buy an @mac.com address. Instead, I went straight to Outlook for Mac. A lot of the software for Mac — such as AOL for Mac OS X — was dumbed down and missing may features of the current PC versions.

And I use Gmail with Mail. AOL sucks, so…

For me the killer was the Web browser. Safari simply cannot read Flash. It is, quite simply, a second-rate browser.

I visit www.muse.mu on a regular basis, and that’s ALL FLASH. So shut up.

Then the hard drive croaked on me after only three months of owning the machine
Hint. Hint. Your aura must have caused it.

I let the repaired shiny Mac sit on the floor for weeks, and instead used my reliable IBM ThinkPad, and rediscovered how much I enjoy it. Wish me luck on selling the Mac.
I could buy it for $1 and you’d think it was a good deal.

…

I have fun roasting people who have no idea what they are messing with. I don’t flame people to place themselves in the middle of a debate, not on one side. I usually try to keep there, but I end up moving due to trash like this, to the Mac side of the PC vs. Mac debate.

Let’s have a look at this. I’ll nitpick the article. http://pm.typepad.com/professional_marketing_bl/2006/10/mac_aficionados.html

“Mac lovers are calling late at night and leaving anonymous messages on my office phone. The messages are essentially hate mail from people with caller ID blocked, and who are too cowardly to leave a name and number.”

First off, the Mac crowd is quite stupid here, for doing this. This is why people don’t come to the Mac, because the userbase can be VERY hostile.
But, “Too Cowardly..”? Sounds like he’s full of himself.

These Mac owners are defensive beyond belief. They need to get a life. They must grow up and learn that their computer is just a machine, not their religion.

I can agree. The Mac userbase needs to lighten up a bit.

“The Mac users are just realizing that they have bought orphan technology. Macs are the Betamax of the 21st Century. And it’s not just me who find Macs less appealing. Apple holds only 4.8 percent of the U.S. market share, according to the July 2006 issue of MacWorld magazine. In other words, 95 out of 100 computer buyers don’t buy an Apple computer. There must be a reason, yes?”

Okay, sir, you just caused me to move to the Mac side of this debate.

Orphan Technology? What the flying-!? Macs consist of every bit of technology that a PC uses. We use the same hard disks, CD-ROM drives, CPUs, RAM, etc.

You Sir, are INCORRECT.

Macs having a small market share, while true, it is also increasing. The intel Macs allow Windows to run natively, meaning more people are likely to switch over.

“Read the article and see all the trouble you’re in for when you switch from a PC to a Mac.”

And yet you razz the Mac-heads for defending THEIR platform.

Read the next post for when I take apart his OTHER article.

Blown away

Today I went to the good old Apple Store to get my iPod’s earbuds replaced. Unfortunately, they were dismissed as “accidental damage” and would cost over $29 (US) for replacement.

Jesus, that’s a LOT of money that I DON’T have.

Moving on to some good stuff. I played with the iPod Nano RED edition, and I like the color. I also like the new nanos very much. They are much more durable than their first-gen counterparts (One I happen to own, 1GB White). The recessed center button is also a great addition.

I also took the 80 GB iPod for a test run. Much heavier, much thicker than the 30 GB model. It functioned quite well, though, and had no scratches on the screen (Damn my 30 GB iPod video which was made in 2005 and suffers from easy scratches).

Then we approach the big item of the day, the MacBook. I tested out three models. The 2GHz black model, the 2GHz white model, and 1.83GHz white model (The one I’m getting in December).

I was EXTREMELY surprised.

Everyone complains about how it gets very hot. Well, I played videos, encoded videos, checked mail, iChatted, used iSight, and browsed the web, and the computer got hot, but not to the point where it felt uncomfortable.

Maybe my old Toshiba prepared me for this.

Then I decided to pick it up. It was quite light, and it felt warm, but not hot. And it was quite light to boot.

Then, I decided to close it, to see how the magnetic closing system works. It works quite well.

All in all, good system, and I am going to buy it, for sure.

Vista: So far, a flop

So far, Vista has been everything I expect it to be, according to the hlcomic.com forums.

You get security pop ups every other second, backwards compatibility fails, etc.

It’s beta, so let’s hope MS cleans it up.

iPod tanks

Hmm, something interesting happened when I used my iPod today.

I was listening to it when all of the sudden, it stopped.

I pulled it out of my pocket, and the screen was blank. Okay, so I just restart the thing and it should work just fine.

I restart it, and the battery is at the halfway point. What the- It was only subject to about 1 hour of use.

So, paying attention to the battery meter, I noticed that it sunk, little, by little, and was drained to the ground in a matter of minutes.

My reaction? Really pissed.

So now, I’m sitting here, restoring it for the 500th time, hoping it might start working again.

Lesee, a new editor

Yay, people care about Mac OS X! I got myself a shiny new updater for local operation.

Goodbye, web browser, goodbye.

What is it today?

First the G4 blows on Friday…

My iPod nano keeps freezing…

My iPod does the same…

My printer blew up…

The G4 still keeps crashing…

What is it with me and technology today? Everything keeps breaking on me, and its really pissing me off.

Today I am introducing a new tag, WTF.

G4 happily tanks again

woohoo. The G4 died again on Friday. I’ve been spending the weekend attempting to bring it back on it’s feet.

No longer does it have a 15GB Hard disk dedicated to running ancient software. Now it’s the 60GB partitioned into 50 GB, and 10 GB partition.

You can find some pictures of the process alongside it’s new paintjob at
http://flickr.com/photos/anticitizen/tags/phoria/

Also, I’m going to try Tiger on the 10GB partition, and see what happens with performance.

Reminding myself why I hate winduhs

My friend asked me to fix her Dell Optiplex today. Yay, a winduhs machine. I had some time with Windows and know how to fix it, but this was a horrible experience.

She wanted me to install some bluetooth software on the computer to power a USB dongle. It was having constant problems, so i decided to update XP.

I try connecting to the internet. It reports that there are no network connections. Fine, the NIC Drivers must not be installed. Using my Power Mac G4, I went online and grabbed the BroadCom Ethernet drivers, and used my spare iPod nano to transfer them over to the Dell.

I tried installing the drivers. It installed, up until it said “Windows cannot start the device driver. Please uninstall and reinstall the drivers.” Okay, so Windows just failed to install the drivers once. I’ll restart and try again.

Once again, wrong. It fails once more, witht the same error.

Fine, I will start in Safe Mode and install there.

Then in safe mode, the computer reports that the ethernet adapter is there and is perfectly functional…But why? I guess the driver corrected itself. I return to normal mode and, lo and behold, they are still malfunctioning.

At this point, I was getting angry. I started the computer in (once again) safe mode, this time with networking. And the ethernet card was still malfunctioning.

At that point, I gave up. I gave the computer back to her, and told her the situation, and she understood.

I hate it when Windows makes me look stupid like that. I really do.