My uneasy assimilation into the Apple Borg.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, Steve Jobs is a clever man. I mean really, you know how they made the big “Buy an iPod for your Valentine” push on their website? Well just recently, less than a week from Valentines day they introduce the new iPods. He’s like Lex Luthor.
But this isn’t about that. So… I got a Mac mini. I had the money sitting around, but I just couldn’t justify it. Then I broke down and got one anyway. I had one ordered, actually two from two seperate stores to see which one will get here first! But I broke down and went to the Apple store and bought one of their 1.42 GHZ models. Its a good thing too because I would have had to use an external disk otherwise.

But I have to admit. I am a little sad by all of this. I come home to my room, and instead of hearing my normal jet-engine fans, I hear a very silent purr from the mini’s fan. My PC simply played a bigger role in my life. I was always fixing it or thinking of some kind of experiment to make it better. But with the Mac I am totally satisfied. I mean its rock solid. Requires a fraction of the maintenance of a PC. You don’t need to know how applications install, and most of them are a self-contained file. Plus you can move it anywhere and a shortcut will still work. Why does it act so well? I mean really? This is really a silly complaint though! I like it a lot, and it is a great computer for me. I’ve got all of my stuff set up quite easily. I am really eagerly awaiting OSX Tiger though… I guess its tiger, I’m not sure…

My only problem was that in Firefox, I can’t use my mousewheel click to open links in new tabs. Well, I downloaded a plugin which solves that problem. All you do is click the link and drag it and drop it in some unused part of the webpage. That is cool, because if you drag it above it will flip to the new tab, and if you drag it below it will open behind your current tab.

But there is something missing from my computing experience though. Its like all this knowledge I’ve gained from my PC is totally useless now. I mean it kind of makes me a little depressed that I’ve learned all of that for nothing now!

Is it just me? I mean its all too easy! It just feels like something’s missing. I can’t play the latest game that I want to play though, and that is the Matrix online. But when I boot up my PC, I just don’t like it that much. Its a lot of trouble to change the monitor over, etc, plus if you’ve played an MMORPG its pretty clear that its kind of boring. Plus I’m only a beta tester, so I wouldn’t be able to play after sometime in March.

Also the quiet fan makes me realize how bad that 64kbs radio stream I listen to is! Before I never noticed! haha.

But no, I’m pleased with the machine. I just have to redifine my relationship with computers though. Its something you have to think about a lot less, but I built my PC myself, so its like a nice challenge. I remember once how I was almost pleased that I had to troubleshoot my mobo/processor when I built it! For me its like the mini doesn’t even need someone to know about computers! I suppose I’ll have to find something else.

Oh, btw, Garageband is totally awesome. What is really amazing is the way you can construct synthesizers. Truely amazing! I made a little song with a drumloop and bassloop last night while I learned it. Its so cool!

The command key still elludes me. I’m always pressing control. Exposé is really cool too. I’ve got it mapped to my middle mouse button, so I don’t even need to drag it to the dock to switch windows

hehe, I also switched my Ram out for 512MB from my old PC. It works too! It wasn’t that hard to open it up either…I’ll be switching out the combo for a DVD burner later, so I can put a lot of the stuff that was on my PC on those.

Also, why do Microsoft apps look better? Its hilarious. I like WMP and MSN messenger a lot better on the Mac. Also, I found a driver for my microsoft mouse for the Mac! Crazy! I thought it would explode once inserted in a mac!

But it does take some time to get it set up to be as functional as windows in some areas. Putting the Applications and Home folder on the Dock are one really important part. You right click those and you get a Start menu!

Now I just found the activity monitor. This is cool, I’ll get to see how this all works.

okay well, just to let you know. Its really amazing, and relatively painless. I’d reccomend it to anyone who is fed up with spyware and is doesn’t need a PC for more than typical Internet usage. Its also the best when it comes to handling media for personal usage.

2

Here’s an app that, to me, is essential for any Mac:

Quicksilver

It’s a program that allows you to use the keyboard to launch applications. Want to launch Safari? Hit the hotkey (I use Command+Space) and type S. Want to launch iPhoto? Hotkey, then type something like “ph.” I used to keep my Applications folder in my dock, too, but now I don’t need to - I just use the keyboard. Quicksilver’s actually quite a bit more powerful than a simple app-launcher, but even in that role, it’s a must have, IMO. Best of all? It’s free!

3

Yes…also grab Desktop Manager. It allows you to have multiple “desktops”, so to speak, so you can have multiple windows open in each and switch between them. Make sure you enable the Desktop Pager, and try the “Cube” transition. It makes a good complement to Exposé.

4

We are the Mac Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Come on! Somebody had to say it!

I was given an old SE and Quadra 700 about 2 years ago, got to fiddling around with them, and next thing I know I’ve got 4 Macs. The SE FDHD, the Quadra, a 1GHz iBook, and a dual G4 tower. And an iPod. And a Macquarium.
I want a mini too. And I’ll probably be getting Tiger the instant it’s released.

Resistance is futile.

5

I love my Mac Mini. (I got the 1.25 GHz model with the 512 mb of RAM.) The only complaint I have is that I want more RAM. I love RAM.

It’s true, what you say about going back to the PC. I still remember when I got my first Mac, and going to the PC wasn’t that much fun anymore. I still use the PC. I don’t despise the PC, but it just isn’t the same.

6

Yeah, I’ve booted up my PC for the first time in a couple of days to play the Matrix Online. Its just not the same. I will play for a while here, but not much else.

Also since I got the Mac keyboard, I kept my old wireless for windows. Anyways. Its kind of sad. Weird, but now I type much slower on my old keyboard now… That sucks. My Mac keyboard has much stiffer keys so I’m used to a different setup…

whoa, I’m waiting on lots of patches… its like 450 MB that sucks…
I dont’ know why… maybe there was a problem… But the NDA has been lifted, so I can talk about it. Maybe I’ll watch some futurama in the meantime…

Actually I’ve gotten used to expose and such, so its hard for me to manage windows in Windows now… weird.

7

One thing I really don’t like about macs is that when the baby pours a glass of water into the ventilation holes, they don’t work so well anymore. Piece-o-crap.

8

May I suggest getting a KVM switch, to make going back and forth between your PC and Mac much easier? In case you don’t know, a KVM switch is basically a little box that you plug you Keyboard, Video, and Mouse into, and then the box can plug into both computers, with a switch to determine which computer you are working on.

9

Don’t be so bloody impatient! You’ll have your opportunity when your mini is 5-6 years old and you’re hacking kext-files to get MacOS X 10.7 to install on your ancient and totally unsupported mini, and to get the DVI 3.0 8000 x 6000 monitor to work with the 3rd-party videocard and the dual-G6 18GHz processor upgrade you installed. Your Mac is only going to be effortless and “just work” during its first 3-4 years. After that, various combinations of obsolescence and your itch to get it to handle new-world hardware and software that came along after its time will give you a chance to climb under the hood and tinker and sometimes even cuss a bit.

In fact, when it gets to be as old as some of wheelie’s Macs, you may even come to regard it as having outlived its effective usefulness. (You’ll have a newer Mac or three by then of course).

Excuse me now, I have to go back to Frankensteining a working WallStreet PowerBook '98 from the various boards and displays and cables and drives of the two nonworking ones I’ve got sitting here. I’ve got a nice mean G4/500 accelerator for it, and a good CDRW expansion bay module that fits it, and…

10

I was about to lambast you, informing you that we had a start menu before the Start Menu was a glint in Gates’ eye, but then I realized that we ditched that with OS X. The Apple Menu was completely customizable from 7.1-8.x.

11

Some of us ditched that with OS X. The rest of us use FruitMenu :slight_smile:

12

One of us! One of us! One of us!

You didn’t say if you are much of a Unix fan, but if you install Developer Tools you get the world’s finest IDE and X11.

The Terminal app will entertain you during the download.

13

One of us! One of us! One of us!

You didn’t say if you are much of a Programmer or Unix fan, but if you install Developer Tools you get the world’s finest IDE and X11.

The Terminal app will entertain you during the download.

14

Haha. I actually knew that. I mean “explorer”? Seems like a blatant ripoff of “Finder” if you ask me. Windows is like the cheap knockoff version of Kellogs Cereal, like “Crispy Hexagons” instead of Crispix.
Oh, I also installed my DVD burner. It is some new Pioneeer thingie that has native OSX support but it won’t burn 8x without errors. I tried burning 4x with some files over the network, and that didn’t work. But I wasn’t surpised that it didn’t though, I knew it was risky. Now I am halfway through another one with no errors so I think it will do okay. I copied the files to the mac beforehand this time.

As for the KVM switch, the cohabitation is only temporary, becuase I’ll be getting rid of the PC soon. OR actually, I’ll be giving it to someone in the family becaue I’ll be moving soon and I want to have a portable computer. Now its about 75 percent done. I think it will work this time.

But the whole DVD writing thing is a little different regarding speeds. I’m used to thinking of 4x in relation to 72 minutes while a DVD is 120 minutes. So its like 30 minutes for a DVD instead of some smaller number.

which reminds me, my calculator isn’t working :frowning: I click it and it doesn’t show up in a window but it does come up in the dock. Oh well…

15

Okay, die-hard PC guy here, with a couple questions that might seem embarrassingly naive, but hey, we’re all about fighting tha ignorance, right?

I just spent a couple days getting my internet access upgraded from a dialup connection on a 6-year-old pc to a DSL connection on a much newer, faster machine. Turns out it’s kinda important what order you install things like Norton Antivirus, firewalls, Adaware, and stuff like that. Oh, and whether or not you use Firefox. That’s important, too, apparently.

Anyway, now that I’m up and running and reasonably sure that I’m not going to get up in the morning and find a smoking ruin where my hard drive used to be, my wife says, “My plan is to one day buy a Mac and use that for all our Internet access, because this is all a waste of time doing it on a PC.”

Me: :dubious:

Ignorant question #1: Do Macs get virii or adware or popups or stuff like that?

Ignorant question #2: Is my wife basically correct, that we would be better off keeping the PC’s for a set of not-on-the-internet networked game machines (we have 6) and getting a Mac for a standalone Internet access machine (and not much else)?

16

Well in response to question 1: Macs used to get viruses (or if you like the leet term virii :D) but since OSX they aren’t a problem. In fact most people get Antivirus to prevent passing them on to windows users.

Oh and if you want to install something you get prompted for a password. Pretty cool eh? Why doesn’t windows do that? Makes you feel more secure. Popups are different. Some popups are the result of spyware, which isn’t a problem due to the security factor, but the ones that come in through firefox (seldom but it happens) are few. I’ve had about 3 popups since I started using it a week ago…

Well, the thing is you can keep a PC clean enough to get your stuff done, but it requires work. You have to keep your antivirus updated and your spyware software going. And then sometimes things will slip by. This isn’t essential on a mac, so you’ll have free time.

Macs are pretty good for all my purpose except games. But I just found an old copy of Fallout I’m going to try to run on QEMU, so maybe that will work? That sure would make me happy!

17

Answer #1: No, no, not really (there’s a new pop-under thing new last week that takes advantage of javascript in Safari, Firefox, and other browsers), and no

Answer #2: You could use the Mac for a standalone internet machine, but why not use it for everything else too?

18

That reminds me - I’m thinking about getting getting a mini and came across this review:

preceded by:

Unfortunately, it’s the first one that comes up when I google “mac mini review”. Or maybe it’s from The Onion.

19

Not from the Onion but definitely Onionesque. One of their previous reviews was for the BarbieOS, a Linux distribution aimed at young girls and distributed by Mattel.

20

Anyone else read this title as “My uneasy assimilation into the Apple Bong.”? I was intrigued.