Help Forums - Littered with Helpful Buggers

The great thing about help forums is that there are plenty of nice people who are willing to help new users with whatever problems they have.

Veteran Linux users will tell new converts to type unrecognized jargon and ask them to compile programs with required libraries from various distros etc.

Mac users are the most helpful. Reinstall OSX being the most common solution with the odd 'fire up the terminal' and type unrecognized jargon and start messing about with apple scripts.

PC users are also helpful too. Again, reinstall Windows being the most common solution with the odd 'works for me' solutions that only works for and only for 'me'.

iPhone help forums are also littered with helpful users. They meticulously explain the solution to a problem with detailed steps and then when it doesn't work, they helpfully inform you that it needs to be jail broken.

Helpful buggers.

Anti-Virus Software a Reality? - Apple Mac

Wanting to buy a Mac, this is one thing I thought I would never have to worry. It's not about the security, it's not about the dangers of viruses, and it's nothing to do with having something that's better than a PC. It's the bloat that is going to come with these sort of programs.

First it's the anti-virus program, then it's going to be the spyware program, then it's going to be the firewall and finally it's going to be all those mandatory updates. This means upgrading memory, upgrading hardware to keep up with the bloat and turning a lovely machine into a PC.

Bruce Lee - PC or Mac?

Imagine what would happen if you applied the Bruce Lee's quote to Apple Macs.

1. Hack away at the unessential.

Definately a Mac. It has nothing but the essentials.

2. As you think, so you shall become.

Definately a Mac guy.

3. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

No wonder I'm never able to switch to a Mac. I keep thinking about switching and...

4. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person

I need to swap office files with someone at work who uses a PC. So, therefore I'm a PC?

5. Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

This is not going to help me buy a mac.

6. Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Well, part of getting shiny, smooth, all aluminium macbook is to ...

I guess Bruce Lee doesn't like computers.

iWork.com - Something New?

This sounds good. So I can actually use those beautiful apps to compose my documents and spreadsheets without actually buying a Mac. What a great idea!

Well, it turns out much to my disappointment. That's all it is. A great idea.In fact, you still need to buy a Mac, a copy of iWorks and the only thing you can do is share documents online.

Still, I guess it does have it's uses in the 'business world'. I mean, once you've composed your beautiful presentation on Keynote, instilled into your head that your Steve Jobs and honed his presentation quirks and skills, you can just use a PC to view keynote files online without using a Mac. Or do I still need a Mac for that?

Oh dear! So animations in Keynote can't be viewed on iWork.com. I'm suddenly having trouble figuring out what on earth is the purpose of iWork? Sharing files online is... what? Something new?

Mighty Mouse - Mac Users Love to Hate it.

The mighty mouse is one of the most beautiful looking mouse in the world. Mac users must be salivating all over it while admiring it's smooth contours. They might even be chuckling to themselves when they view it from the side.

Oh look, the shape actually resembles a mouse. How clever...

Secretly, they are cursing it. There are so many problems with it LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER!

LEFT - Mouse Cursor jumps to the upper left side of the screen.
RIGHT - The right click behaves like the left click.
CENTER - The little nub fails to scroll downwards.

Anyway, here are some suggestions on how to resolve these issues.

LEFT - If updating OSX doesn't work, then table lamps are the culprit.
RIGHT - Burn it! Smash it! Detonate it with TNT! I'm jesting. Buy a PC mouse or use CTRL and the Left Click button.
CENTER - Turn it upside down. Move the nub in all directions while apply firm pressure and blow. This actually works!

10.5.6 Update

Recently at work there was trouble updating the mac. It kept rebooting the machine. The culprit was the 10.5.6 update. So checking the websites revealed that there was a problem with certain macs and there was a complicated fix for it.

Considering the macs are for users with not much computing expertise, it was a nightmare to follow the instructions. What was even more surprising was the fact that the mac at work was the ever popular aluminum imac. What certain macs are they talking about? Are there so many different versions of the aluminum mac?

I was a little bit surprised and disappointed. After all I've never had problems updating the the regular microsoft updates on the PC and the pc has many different spec and components that the average user doesn't even care about. Even with the updates such as anti virus and firewall which sometimes seem to hang in midstream update, sometimes you just cross your fingers and do it again and it works.

What is going on with world! Isn't there a computer that just works!! Linux pushers, don't even think about it! I'm not going to wait for something to compile or spend futile hours hunting for drivers.

Mac - Fantasy or Reality?

So, I have finally given back the mac that I had been using and now I am using the normal desktop pc at work. How was the experience? It was absolutely brilliant and absolutely rubbish.

The absolutely brilliant things were the incredibly impressive fast boot up, the dashboard with the very very useful snippet utility, the coverflow was actually incredibly useful, the rock solid 'it's not going to crash' feeling, the different but clean look compared to the droll of windows, the ease in outputting most things to PDF without a hitch or crash. Such bliss it was.

The absolute rubbish was the fact that setting up mail accounts was infuriating as the setup procedures were all geared towards PC, so I had to guess which jargon and terms referred to what, which was a security nightmare. Not to mention the times where it seemed like it was checking the mail forever when other times it was a snap.

Then there were the printer drivers that were OSX compatible but had trivial menus in order to get to the required printer setting e.g. color and mono. Laser printers were no problem, but any other printer and you lose functions such as checking how much ink was left and other features.

Also some of the fonts didn't correspond to the PC and some of the web pages didn't look the same as on a PC and sometimes the website pages wouldn't even open because it needed iexplorer. Not to mention the nagging feeling, do I need to open it on the PC just to see if it's going to look ok?

Files that were saved wouldn't open and when they did open, they didn't look right and then there was the utter nonsense when OSX decides to write hidden junk or temp files to your USB when you transfer files.

Critical online apps refused to run on a mac even when using the recommended alternative browser, especially when filling in online data forms where some fields would simply disappear or confirmation buttons would become blank for no reason.

Open source software that had to be compiled and took hours and looked horrible, where as on the PC it was just a simple setup.exe file.

I can see myself using it at home for personal use, but for business that deals with anything financial or international, it's a non-starter.

Still, I want to buy one, and the price is not as expensive as everyone makes it out to be. However, I'm stumbling as it just feels like I'm paying extra for the brand name when currently I can get away with those cheap deals on PC's. Besides, nobody pays RRP for PC's do they?

So you think Internet Explorer is unsafe and you want me to get a Mac and use Firefox

So your net savvy, your 'puter savvy. You run Firefox with all the security addons that you can find and yet still have your email account compromised. Instead, your grandmother, your father, your mother, your boss and the place you work is still running the internet explorer 6 and the only complaint that they have is that they don't know what to do with a pdf file.

70 percent, 60 percent, 50 percent, which ever one you take show that internet explorer has the largest market share. Yet, I find that the only people who complain about security are developers who understandly are forced to rewrite their sites so they can run on iexplorer and firefox/camino/opera and others because they want to boast that they are the chosen ones.

I happen to agree that it would be better for Microsoft to get with the program when it comes to web standards, and I agree to a certain extent that Firefox is safer than Internet Explorer.

But what I want to know is this, if Internet Explorer is so unsafe, why do you know more people who use it than those people who use other web browsers? I simply find it hard to believe that it's because it's pre-installed and that people are not computer savvy, or people don't like change or are used to something. It's not a switch to a mac campaign, after all it's free.

If users are smart enough to be able to download music programs or accounting programs, they are smart enough to download an alternative browser. Why is it that other browsers have such a smaller number of users.

It's all about market share. Just big enough to be effective and small enough not to attract too much secuirty attention. Just like the mac. Though, just for the sake of argument, I'd be interested to know if there are more Wordpad users than there are Word users.

Mac Dashboard - Snippets of information.

Mac Dashboard - Snippets of information.

I have always loved downloading utilities to make the daily tasks more bearable and to find ways to do those boring desk work.

For example, using a database program to construct a Fax template where I just select the clients and related responses without typing anything. That's just awesome.

Also, little things like downloading a program to check the weather, the world time, rss, delivery etc. The usual things.

Recently, having had to use a Mac for work, there is this clever feature on Safari where you can take snippets off your websites and place it on your desktop or dashboard. What a clever idea. So, rather than downloading the various programs, you can just go to your favorite website, snip the bits that are regularly updated and then put them on your desktop or dashboard. What a clever idea!

Of course there are similar alternatives on the PC, but they are certainly not as fast or as simple or as safe as the one built into the web browser of the Mac. Of course this alone, won't make me switch, well, not yet, but it's damn clever. The only thing is, my dashboard is now cluttered with these snippets and I don't have enough room.

101 Applications for the Mac - Open Source? More like Open Sauce

On the PC you can find literally hundreds of freeware or open source apps. On the Mac, you too can find hundreds of freeware / demo apps.

The problem is, that the hundred becomes stale and every month you check for a new program on a Mac and it's the same old, same old. Where as on the PC there are new updated versions or better alternatives with new bells and whistles.

The Mac may be based on an open source system but let me tell you this, the open source programs are always better on the PC. Takes Open Office for a start, absolutely outstanding news for the Mac, but riddled with graphical bugs, just try the database and you'll see. It will get better, and when it does, it's going to be awesome.

However, try other open source programs and you'll find that on the Mac you'll have to go through complicated ways of downloading the various necessary programs in order to compile the program, then waiting a few hours to compile the program and then waiting a few weeks before someone comes up with the reason why your program doesn't run on your particularly Mac. On a PC, it's press that setup icon together and go through that annoying 'yes, it's safe' box.

Yes, there are lots of users who are new to computers that buy Macs, but one wonders if there are truly Mac Switchers. You know, the one where they actually get rid of their PC completely, not using bootcamps etc, and use only made for Mac software.

Accounting Software for Mac - Beta

Yes, switching to a mac is one of the best things since slice bread. It does everything different from the PC and one wonders why the reason people switched to the Mac is because it does things differently.

Everybody is so used to Windows that people are just crying out for change. In fact the real reason that Vista is in it's current predicament is the fact that it's so similar to XP but with enhancements, or no depending on your point of view. I bet if they completely revolutionized the interface, ie make it ridiculously different yet still compatible with the old versions, people would flock to it.

Not the business sector, no, but one wonders if the the Mac has made any headway in the business Sector, ie the number crunching macro heavy spreadsheets to the daily droll of word processors with pc specific shortcuts. You know in terms of graphic apps, the Mac may very well be King in that area, and it does try it's best with the business apps but to be honest, if Mac's were that serious in making inroads, where is a decent accounting software? Not the personal ones, the one's for business. Accountants would prefer to use accounting software for companies and hope the personal users buy the personal version.

When done in a Mac way, you can perform gorgeous documents, and make pretty spreadsheets. One can only wonder how awesome it would be to crunch those accounts and figures into a proper mac accounting program.

Mac > PC but Mac + Antivirus = PC

Apple products and myself have always had a love-hate non relationship. Every time I want to purchase that fabulous ipod, another comes along which is newer. I then try to convince myself that the new one is much better than the old model and then when I am about to purchase one, it's out of stock or not currently available in my preferred color. So I wait and spend time looking for alternatives while using my old mp3 player.

It's the same with their notebooks. I have wanted a macbook for a long time and every time I wanted to buy one, there is always something that stops me. Whether it's the lack of of a dvd burner on the entry model or the new revised models which price themselves out of my initial 'switch to a mac' budget.

I finally decided that I wanted a computer without those firewalls, security suites, antivirus suites, constant updates and bloated upgrade versions. That had to be a Mac. But then, if a Mac does get viruses, I have a funny feeling I will have to buy a big bloated security app with payed subscription services. Which is exactly what you get with a PC.
Even worse, they might force me to buy that applecare which probably will include the essential security suite.

Currently, I am thinking hard about the white macbook which is at the entry level point that I am comfortable with. Unfortunately, it's the new aluminium macbook which just looks so gorgeous and makes the white ones just look severely dated.

Netbooks and it's unwarranted overhype.

I enjoy hearing stories from users of netbooks, saying how cheap, small and conveninent they are. Which is one of the reasons why they are so popular. That and the fact that it runs on the grilled and drilled windows XP.

I'm not knocking Vista, in fact I quite like those fanciful eye candy and for those who are used the start button, the ability to search for programs is a blessing. I'm not talking about those people who have tons of applications and need the ability to search for it, I'm talking about using other peopele's computers with windows vista installed.

Sometimes, you want to run excel, a specialist app or just a particular browser and the last thing you want, is to see if they have installed it by looking at the desktop, program listing or even the control panel. Just typing the name of the required program in the start button so you can quickly check if they have that particular application installed is just great.

Anyway, I am digressing. What tickles my pickle is the fact that people buy a 17 inch laptop and then start comparing it to 8.9 inch netbook and then comment on how tiny the netbook is and how it's an amazing piece of technology.

For goodness sake, if you compared it to a 14 inch, 15 inch is pushing it, notebook computer and then comentated on how small the netbooks are , then fine because most would be travelling and typing on these notebooks. But to compare it to a 17 inch whopping notebook, is just ridiculous. Who on earth takes a 17 inch notebook to coffeeshop, airports etc!!

The worst culprits tend to be mac users with their pro versions. I'm not knocking apple products. I quite like to have one. It's those hooo ya mac preachers that spend an insane amount on their macs and don't know apples from oranges that give me the hilly billies.

Apple Mac - Safari vs Firefox

Safari is a fast, very simple and elegant web browser. In fact browsing the internet on the mac has been somewhat a pleasurable experience compared to the pc. Little cosmetic things here and there.

That was until I started to fill in some applications on line. It's foreign language support for changing on the go seemed broken and some sites just plain refused to run on Safari. It just blew my mind that the only thing useful about this browser was just browsing big news sites and apple trailers.

The internet offers far more than just browsing and access to online services seems to be a problem. Even certain email websites just seem to take forever to load or even refuse to work. I guess that's why there is such a need for Parallels.

Determined to persevere, I installed Firefox 3. This looked similar to Safari, but I missed the feature where the window size adjusted accordingly to the website. Firefox was fast, but very PC in nature. Lots of add ons and themes. Nothing Mac like about it except the theme.

All websites that had problems with started to just work. However, some websites just look plain broken, and all over the place, where as in Safari, they were rendered great. I'm pretty sure it's an addon problem, though I haven't encountered any such problem on the PC version of Firefox.

I've come to realize that it's the Mac Way or the Highway. Safari for browsing and Firefox for online services. If only Safari was supported more by business websites. It is so elegant with some nice cosmetic touches.

Apple Mac - Automator

After spending some time recently with an Apple Macbook, I discovered that some web pages saved through the internet browser didn't save with a html extension. No problem, I'll just open the Finder and rename them. The problem was, there were over twenty files.

I discovered that the only way to rename all the files with the necessary html extension was to look for an installed program called automator. This was found either by right clicking, 'don't get me started', or through spotlight.

Using the said program, I had to create something called a work flow, sounds painful. I had to hunt for the section where the rename file utility was, drag it on to a window pane, figure out what to do with it and then boom! It renamed all the files extension with html. What a nightmare!

Still, at least I have discovered this Automator program. It seems to have lots of useful functions, which to be honest, should really have been available in the first place.

OpenOffice 3 for the Mac

At the termp place where I work, the program that runs supreme is the Microsoft Office suite. It gets the job done and is second nature. Then last week I had to use a macbook with no MS office, but instead came with Openoffice version 2x. It was a horrible experience. Made me hammer nails after nails into the coffin of 'get a Mac'.

Then I installed an office suite was called NeoOffice. It did a much better job but it was as if someone took a pc version of Openoffice, stuck a mac theme on it, and plonked it on a mac. It was like Frankenstein, forced to wear a non branded turtle neck sweater. Hammer, hammer, hammer!

Then quite recently OpenOffice 3 for the mac was released. Once I had installed it, I was pleased with the somewhat polished interface compared with the other apps I had previously mentioned. It felt great. Now here was an office suite I thought was going to do very nicely. That was until I started to do some printing. Sometimes words were missing, sometimes frames or borders were missing and at times it crashed. Hammer, hammer, hammer!

I have always admired opensource apps on the PC. Opensource apps on the macs are a nightmare. Most, if not all, require some heathen 3rd party X app to run or they have to be compiled. I don't mind learning how to compile them, if they come with the necessary instructions. But having to wait hours for them to compile is just trying.

Still, I'm sure OpenOffice 3 for the Mac's next update will iron out all the said bugs. Just to end on a positive note.