Helllllp meeee, I'mmmmm goinnng toooo faaaaaassst!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve never experienced this much speed and power.

After six months of lobbying from me and two years of lobbying by my predecessor, I’m finally able to do graphic design work on a Mac, as God intended. I’m not gonna complain about the wait, though, 'coz lookit what they give me:

Hardware overview
Model name: Power Mac G4
Machine speed: 867 MHz
Capacity: 57.26 GB

Memory overview
Built-in memory: 1 GB

Display card
Card model: GeForce2 MX
VRAM size: 32 MB

Display
Screen Size (pixels): 1600 x 1200 (on a 21-inch monitor!)
Grays/Colors: Millions

DVD-R/CD-RW
Vendor: PIONEER
Product ID: DVD-RW DVR-103 <-- (The “Superdrive”, CD-RW & DVD-RW)

Removable media
Vendor: IOMEGA
Product ID: ZIP 250

Got the latest versions of the Adobe design collection - Illustrator 9, Photoshop 6, and InDesign.

They got me a gig of RAM because I’ve got to run a Windows emulator (Virtual PC) to better interface with the company network and y’all know how much RAM Windows needs. But I’m just happy about the side benefit of seeing so much less of that progress bar during Photoshop operations.

I’m also going to load my own 3D software (RayDream4) and I can’t wait to see how much quicker it’ll fly through the renderings.

“Oh, sure, boss! I TOLD you it’d increase my productivity.” [sub](…soon as I get done playing on it.)[/sub]

Ahhhh, the past six months of trying to design on a PC are melting away like a bad dream…

2

Way to go, Tygr!

Now nothing stands between you and graphics greatness. :slight_smile:

3

I hate you. :mad:

Seriously though, NICE machine.

4

Yeah, but it’s a MAC. :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously Tygr. That’s cool. As soon as the Crush chipset comes out, I’ll be screaming again too, but for now, I’m content with my 256M of Cas-2 PC133, and 1Ghz Athlon.

5

Congrats! That is in particular a nice display to look at, although I’d STILL want a second monitor for the Photoshop palettes. (I don’t care how many pixels you put on one monitor, there’s just no replacement for a dual-monitor setup).

PS – hook up another drive and put X on it :slight_smile: talk about supertoys, that box oughta be one hell of a nice OS X machine!

6

That sounds way cool for you, my dear Tygr. <as Bluebear would say> Of course, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but that’s okay. As long as you know that’s the main thing. No wonder you haven’t had time to send me an email in a while. :wink:

[sub]Like I have any room to talk! Oops.[/sub]
:stuck_out_tongue:
Seriously, I’m glad for you, and I know that you’ll find new and improved ways of doing your job, and having fun while doing it, by the sound of things.

{{{{{{Tygr}}}}}}

7

Are you trying to make me cry? Jeez, what I wouldn’t give for a setup like that.

8

faints from sheer envy

If you ever find Tygr passed out in a parking lot somewhere with a lump on the back of his head and a missing computer, I’M NOT RESPONSIBLE. NO, SIR. :smiley:

9

Gotta second that. I wish there was enough space on my desk for two montitors these days :frowning: . Years ago I ran CAD on a dual-monitor system: one 21 inch for display and one 15 inch for palettes and command-line input. Plus an 11x14 Wacom tablet. Sweet.

10

As your attorney, I advise you to slow down man, I can’t keep up!

Seriously, nobody needs a second screen for pallettes. That’s what the Tab key is for. Jeez, doesn’t anyone read the manuals?

11

Can I have it?

Thought I might as well ask. I’d feel silly if it was up for grabs and I hadn’t.

Seriously, if you’re goign fast, wouldn’t it be a better idea to shout very quickly, rather than slowly, so that the people you pass can hear the whole thing? Something like “HlpmI’mgn2fst!”

Anyway. Can I have it?

12

Can I have it?

Thought I might as well ask. I’d feel silly if it was up for grabs and I hadn’t.

Seriously, if you’re going too fast, wouldn’t it be a better idea to shout very quickly, rather than slowly, so that the people you pass can hear the whole thing? Something like “HlpmI’mgn2fst!”

Anyway. Can I have it?

13

Hey, I heard that some people have overclocked the 867 to 1Ghz and changed the firmware so that it would run with even faster RAM, it’s wicked fast. I’d like to see that on top of a nice SCSI RAID rather than the standard IDE drives. Or maybe an nice IDE160 RAID.
I just stayed up all night installing FINK with XDarwin. After running some 6 hour compilations in GCC, I feel the need for speed, with a faster processor than my puny G3/500 and my laptop’s weak 4200rpm drive. But now I’ve got a basic Gnome XWindows system running, and it’s speedy enough. A little more stabilization, and I’ll be able to run Xwindows, MacOS 9, MacOS X, Virtual PC with two windows of Win98 and Win2k, I think I’ll really need some speedy processing for that. I’d like to see a PeeCee run 5 systems like that. I think I’ll take a screenshot once I get it running. Maybe I’ll throw in a Win98 Enigma emulator and MacMame to get 7 systems running at once for a killer screenshot…
Anyway, enjoy the new performance. I remember the shock at the performance increase of my last upgrade, from an 8100.110 to a G3/400. I ran an old Infini-D animation that I recall taking 36 hours. On my new G3/400, it ran in 20 minutes. I bet it would run in under a minute on your machine.

14

No, Ross, neither of you can have it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Chas.E - Umm, yes, that’s very nice… [sup]Sorry, I don’t speak TLA*! -[/sup] :confused:

re: second monitor for palettes - Remember, it took two and a half years of lobbying/whining to convince them that, since they hired a professional grade designer, they ought to have a professional grade design system, i.e. a top-of-the-line Mac. So, in their minds, a second monitor is a luxury they don’t feel the need to spring for.

We DO have a 12 x 12 Wacom tablet that I desperately want to get hooked up, but it was bought for the PC, so I need new software, plus a USB converter. Guess I’d better get knocking on the door of Wacom’s website and asking 'em some questions.

So, yes, I’ll be able to perform feats of “Graphics Greatness”, if these people ever quit jerking me around.

*[sup]Three Letter Anagram[/sup]

15

And they only had to get rid of me to afford it!! :wink:

Congrats! Being more aware than most of the sort of stuff you are expected to generate, I am very happy for you (even though I’m a diehard Intel type myself).

16

Sorry for the TLAs. I just meant you could speed up that CPU maybe 15% faster, and the disk maybe 4 to 8x. What would you do with that sort of speed? Geeky OS stuff like I was talking about.
Don’t worry about 2 screens, just remember most Adobe apps use the Tab key for instant pallette hiding. I like to keep focused on once screen. Especially if it’s a good screen.
I don’t know what kind of tablet you’re running, presumably a USB model. I have an ancient Wacom serial tablet and it runs through a USB to Serial converter, it works fine.
BTW, I did get a screen shot of 6 OS running at once.