Re: OT: Apple releases OS X Security Patches (for over a dozen "Highly Critical" vulnerabilities)

In article <3v8h1eF104smbU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"BB Leanie" <smokerdude66@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> You know where to shove the Mac.

Five G4 suppositories coming up!

http://tinyurl.com/97sva

Man, I so don't want to go heavy OT with any personal bad vibes on this,
truly, verily I say truly, my biggest computer migraines are helping out
my friends' Winrigs.

I'll give you just one story of sadness and woe. Pity the Good
Samaritan. Filter the "my rig is better than your rig" factor (because
it's not about that, it's one poison vs. another) and read
scientifically:

working title: I Got Twenty Dollars For All This Pain?

Winrig pal wants to do some movie making from his VHS tapes. He buys an
outboard box and tries first the VCD route. He doesn't get that the
software I use doesn't have the same version for Windows. He thrashes
and flounders with this and that, converting this into that, with poor
results. I tell him he needs to get a DVD burner and maybe use the
bundled software. (Although my trial run Beatles promo project worked
fab using just iMovie and VCD Builder)

I have a working DVD burner from Comp with Win software to sell for $20
because I'm ready to move up. I invite him over to see how it's done in
my world (so he can have a taste of the good life and maybe, just maybe,
I won't get so many phone calls, because someday he'll buy, well, you
know...). Net result: he burns a DVD-R ABC on a G4 and verifies
successfully. It's all good, here's the bundled software, $20 passes,
you're on your way, go home and have fun.

Two hours later, I get the first of many phone calls, for the next two
weeks. When he tries to play any DVD, it locks his rig and he's got to
force it down. For hours, over days, I hunt for solutions, firmwares,
give him the play by play over the phone on flashing firmware for the
burner, his mobo, etc. using DOS and WinDOS, and get nowhere on the
locked rig mode. The workaround: don't mount/play the DVD after it's
burned. Nice.

We're not done yet. The other matter is the lowly 400MHz G4 rig burned
fine (he saw it) at 4x. On his 1.8GHz Pentium 4, he can only burn at 2x,
even with huge drive space. And there seems to be dodgy verifies, maybe
1 in 5 winds up being a bad burn. So, more hunting the internet, more
trial and errors, master, slave, pull the other drive, we tried it all.
We uninstalled all the DVD/burning software he had and tried just one
program at a time with the updates for no secret conflicts. No luck.

Inside, I felt like the little old lady twittering her head: "I can't
see where it makes any sense at all!"

Within days, I was begging to undo the deal. The measly $20 for the
burner wasn't worth all the agony. Being a friend, I think he didn't
want to offend by undoing the deal, despite my constant pleas to do so.
He wanted to make it work and was happy enough with burning at 2x and
doing the workaround of not mounting/playing the DVD-R afterwards.

Fast forward four months: he finally decides to get a diff burner. No
lockup issues, but problems with verifying after burning. Solution:
reinstall XP and start clean. Everything good, but what a price, having
to start all the way over. Must have been some gremmies in there.

In the interests of science, we tried the first burner after the fresh
install. I had to know. His rig still had the hate. Same lockup issue,
bad marriage. Strange that first burner was ready for Windows (and no
obvious Mac support nor software), yet Toast (for Mac) with the burner
was good right out of the gate at full speed.

Kind of like when I got my first CD burner early in 1998. Cliff's Notes
on this: Toast plus burner: done. My manager, a long term computer geek,
hot on my heels to not be outdone: three weeks running home to do the
play by play with the HP techs on the phone for his HP rig and HP
outboard burner.

I got plenty of other OT stories, but reliving the DVD burner saga is
triggering a WinGeek migraine flashback.

Thanks for the update reminder. Mine rigs are set up for manual (truly
manual with no warning popups). I hadn't done any of the updates since
July, so I'm all caught up now.

Maybe Michael can (or not) offer up his assessment six months on. He's
on his honeymoon now and won't even be in bed mode hittin' it until USB2
shows up.

I think one needs to live with one to know, then decide...

With love,

The Good Samaritan (who prefers the sweet tasting poison)
.

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