Andy's Un-Official Unsolicited Mac Advice Thread

14546485051153

Comments

  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited October 11, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    Usually $129 for a single license, and $199 for a family pack, up to 5 computers. Or free, if you buy a new computer with it...if you're ready to upgrade, it's worth figuring into the equation.

    Keep an eye out for deals. For the 10.4 rollout, macsales.com had it for $99, no rebates or strings attached.

    Anyone who is eligible for education discount can get it for $69, I think.
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 11, 2006
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited October 11, 2006
    Andy wrote:
    The idea behind it is kind of the same too. It's not difficult to imagine a hoarde of mac devotees swirling around the ny mac store.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • SeamusSeamus Registered Users Posts: 1,573 Major grins
    edited October 18, 2006
  • bwgbwg Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,119 SmugMug Employee
    edited October 19, 2006
    need mac help

    I have shares on my windows PC server that i use for my photos and music. I can mount them no prob on the mac, but everytime it goes to sleep they disappear and i have to manually remount them. Is there anyway to automount these things on wake?

    I've told airport not to turn off on sleep and i've also added them to my startup so they mount when i start the computer but they still disappear.
    Pedal faster
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2006
    bigwebguy wrote:
    need mac help

    I have shares on my windows PC server that i use for my photos and music. I can mount them no prob on the mac, but everytime it goes to sleep they disappear and i have to manually remount them. Is there anyway to automount these things on wake?

    I've told airport not to turn off on sleep and i've also added them to my startup so they mount when i start the computer but they still disappear.
    This has been vexing me too. I've searched but haven't found an answer on the web. I thought that maybe I could create a workflow that would recognize when the computer woke up from a sleep and would automatically connect. The best I could do was create a workflow that would connect to the drive but I couldn't find a way to make it start upon wakeup. It's fairly trivial to get it to run at startup so that's something. My absolutely uneducated guess is that it would take some kind of applescript to recognize when the computer woke up and then you could run the workflow.

    Unfortunately my brain doesn't contain any apple script. If I could just do that with CSS. rolleyes1.gif
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2006
    Mike Lane wrote:
    This has been vexing me too. I've searched but haven't found an answer on the web. I thought that maybe I could create a workflow that would recognize when the computer woke up from a sleep and would automatically connect. The best I could do was create a workflow that would connect to the drive but I couldn't find a way to make it start upon wakeup. It's fairly trivial to get it to run at startup so that's something. My absolutely uneducated guess is that it would take some kind of applescript to recognize when the computer woke up and then you could run the workflow.

    Unfortunately my brain doesn't contain any apple script. If I could just do that with CSS. rolleyes1.gif


    How about using Sleepwatcher to activate your workflow?
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • Mike LaneMike Lane Registered Users Posts: 7,106 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2006
    "A little bit knowledge of the Unix command line is required to benefit from this software."

    Unfortunately I don't even have enough knowledge of the Unix command line to know if I can run a workflow from the Unix command line. rolleyes1.gif But assuming that you can, it appears that this would be the solution.

    Lee I'm sure you can figure out the workflow, but if you need any pointers for some odd reason let me know.
    Y'all don't want to hear me, you just want to dance.

    http://photos.mikelanestudios.com/
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2006
    Mike Lane wrote:
    "A little bit knowledge of the Unix command line is required to benefit from this software."


    A workflow is basically an application, isnt' it?

    From macosx.com:
    The command is simply open (which can also be used for opening directories). The most basic example of launching an application:
    open /path/to/some.app

    More complex possibilities also exist:
    open "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/foo.txt"
    opens the document in the default application for its type (as determined by LaunchServices).

    open /Applications/
    opens that directory in the Finder.

    open -a /Applications/TextEdit.app "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/foo.txt"
    opens the document in the application specified (in this case, TextEdit).

    open -e "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/foo.txt"
    opens the document in TextEdit (the -e option specifies TextEdit).

    open http://www.apple.com/
    opens the URL in the default browser (lynx, naturally *wink*)

    open "file://localhost/Volumes/Macintosh HD/foo.txt"
    opens the document in the default application for its type (as determined by LaunchServices).

    open "file://localhost/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications/"
    opens that directory in the Finder.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • patch29patch29 Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,928 Major grins
    edited October 24, 2006
    Revised Macbook Pros, now up to 3GB of ram. :D

    Specs Here.
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited October 24, 2006
    patch29 wrote:
    Revised Macbook Pros, now up to 3GB of ram. :D

    Specs Here.

    This is what I've been waiting for. The lights for for this are now green. I ordered one to replace my 17" powerbook which I will now try to sell.

    The iMac lights are also now green. PowerMac, OK, but 4X Xeons will ship early next year so if you want the true high end, it might pay to wait 3-6 months.
    If not now, when?
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    Cheaper than Crucial, $200 less than Apple for 4GB of Mac Pro memory.

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

    Anyone ever use these kids?
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    Cheaper than Crucial, $200 less than Apple for 4GB of Mac Pro memory.

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

    Anyone ever use these kids?


    Yeah, they're cool, dude. Totally solid. Righteous.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    rutt wrote:
    This is what I've been waiting for. The lights for for this are now green. I ordered one to replace my 17" powerbook which I will now try to sell.

    The iMac lights are also now green. PowerMac, OK, but 4X Xeons will ship early next year so if you want the true high end, it might pay to wait 3-6 months.


    Finally.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:

    Photographers with relatively recent power macs in the beginning of 2005 would not have suffered too much from following this advice. Especially if Photoshop is their #1 performance issue.

    People who would have had to do without in the meantime and people with other performance issues (and needs like virtual machines for windows), well, that's a different story.

    I waited for myself, because I had a 2xG5 desktop and a recent powerbook. In the meantime, I ended up buying 3 MacBooks for family members without performance needs and steering my uncle to a Intel IMac for photography (just recently).

    There's a fine art to this. Andy stays on the cutting edge by selling quickly at good prices. I like to wait to upgrade until the benefit is very clear. In this particular case, something unusual was going on. It was clear a couple of years ago that Apple was at a dead end with PowerPC based systems, especially for portables. So purchases during most of 2005 were clearly end of life systems. Fine if that's what you needed when you needed it, but better to wait if possible. Early MacBooks had lots of problems and by this summer it was clear that a major processor upgrade was imminent.

    The Mac Pro story is different. These have been around for less than 6 months and have been pretty solid from the start. 8x compared to 4x might not actually be such a big deal for most applications including day to day Photoshop. (I'll explain Amdahl's Law if anyone cares.) So fine, unless you want that 8x just for the cool factor (I might.) But still, if you have a 2x 2+GHz G5, you might as well wait for PS CS3 which might correspond to the intro of 8x systems.

    I don't know as much about IMacs, except that the 24" with core 2 duo looks very sweet and I would have been happy to have waited for it if possible.

    Things really are different now. Intel has won. Apple won't undergo another processor family switch again for a very long time if ever. Well, they might have some AMD systems or something, but that won't matter. Core 2 Duo looks to be early in it's life cycle and the only huge improvement on the horizon is more cores. Apple has had time to shake out the original rush-to-market design of the MacBook Pros and IMacs.

    In short, this looks like as good a time to buy an Apple computer as I can imagine.
    If not now, when?
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    Mac Pro.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • ruttrutt Registered Users Posts: 6,511 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    Mac Pro.

    Thanks, I fixed.
    If not now, when?
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    Cheaper than Crucial, $200 less than Apple for 4GB of Mac Pro memory.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory
    Anyone ever use these kids?

    I just put some of their RAM into my Mac Pro and it's all good. I've been getting my RAM and hard drives there for a couple years now and never had a problem, and I moved to them after using some other vendors before (transintl.com, ramjet.com, crucial). The other vendors were OK but they cost more.

    I ordered the RAM last week. They dropped prices slightly this week. I called them about it, but they don't have price protection. I don't think anybody else does price protection on RAM so no big deal I guess.
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited October 25, 2006
    thumb.gif
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 26, 2006
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited October 26, 2006
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited October 28, 2006
    A pre-release version of AppleJack is available for Intel and PPC Macs, here. This was previously only available for PPC Macs. AppleJack is a fantastic utility that will repair your disk, permissions, clean up cache files, virtual memory, and check your preferences for corruption. It's free, and easy to use, one of my top 10 utilities.

    To use it, you start in single user mode, which is a command-line environment, but don't fear, all you need to do is type "applejack auto restart" without the quotes, hit return, and AppleJack will run and restart your computer when it's done. No need to boot off of a separate disk to repair your directory. Easy peasy.
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited November 3, 2006
    A quick fix for anything that's wrong with your Macbook.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • patch29patch29 Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,928 Major grins
    edited November 3, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    A quick fix for anything that's wrong with your Macbook.


    I think you mean iBook. rolleyes1.gifblbl.gif
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited November 8, 2006
    As for the reasons behind Long's dismissal, it's not exactly clear. But as the report points out, most people who've watched the "Get a Mac" ads come away "liking the 'PC guy' while wanting to push the 'Mac guy' under a bus."

    I concur.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited November 9, 2006
    DavidTO wrote:
    A pre-release version of AppleJack is available for Intel and PPC Macs, here. This was previously only available for PPC Macs. AppleJack is a fantastic utility that will repair your disk, permissions, clean up cache files, virtual memory, and check your preferences for corruption. It's free, and easy to use, one of my top 10 utilities.

    To use it, you start in single user mode, which is a command-line environment, but don't fear, all you need to do is type "applejack auto restart" without the quotes, hit return, and AppleJack will run and restart your computer when it's done. No need to boot off of a separate disk to repair your directory. Easy peasy.


    Since downloading some of the stuff on your site, my lappie has twice frozen solid, requiring a reboot.

    I've run Applejack after each freeze. ne_nau.gif
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited November 9, 2006
    Now that they've put the Core2Duo in the Macbooks, aren't the differences between the MB and the MBP almost gone again?

    Other than the extra gig of memory, and the matte screen, what's the benefit of buying a 15" Pro?
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited November 9, 2006
    wxwax wrote:
    Other than the extra gig of memory, and the matte screen, what's the benefit of buying a 15" Pro?

    More screen space for your palettes (1440x900 vs. 1280x800)
    Better external monitor support (2560x1600 for 30" Cinema, vs. 1920x1200)
    FireWire 800
    ExpressCard/34 slot
    Backlit keyboard (OK, we're reaching now)

    The differences are much smaller than the iBook vs. PowerBook. Apple can't let this continue, and won't downgrade the MacBook, so that leaves only one other possibility. Could Apple be looking to put distance between the MacBook and the Pro with a new Pro model that puts more distance between them again? Macworld is only 2 months away...
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited November 9, 2006
    Great, thanks. This should be interesting.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited November 9, 2006
    Yeah, I thought the Core 2 Duo would be the distinguishing factor, but I guess not. ne_nau.gif

    Also, isn't the video RAM shared on the MacBook?
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Sign In or Register to comment.