Re: Just venting (totally OT)

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote in
news:1ibeg4g.jsueket3hsj0N%real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote in
news:1ibdnid.1tv22o7vuatmvN%real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

lying_***@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

x-no-archive: yes

Mandy <mandy...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I've just found some resellers that sell Macs around here
so I'll see if I can persuade Steve to take me to each of
them so that I can have a look! :o)

I strongly recommend you find a friend who already has a
Mac and make sure it will run everything you need before
you buy one.

I don't have any RL friends... only online ones!

Online is all you need - but remember, since you can run
Windoze on a Mac, everything you've got now will work on a
Mac.

I don't know if I can afford to buy Windoze though! :o(

Well, that's fair enough - and if you're not getting rid of your
Windoze computers, you won't *need* it.

Okey dokes!

<grin of an unrepentant geek> Yeah, but it's just so flash to see
two operating systems on the one machine... ;-)

It might be flash but it would overload my poorly brain! :o(

<bigger grin> Exploding brains are great!!!!! ;-)


They might be fun to watch but who is going to put all the pieces back
together? lol

But you've said what applications you use all the time -
Poser is available in a Mac version (both Mac and Windoze
versions of Poser are the same, at version 7), and while MS
FrontPage is discontinued by MS, there are much better Web
page creation tools around.

I doubt I'd be making pages on the Mac... not straight away
anyway
:o)

Do ask on uk.comp.sys.mac about Web page creation software. I
gather that there's good stuff available, and you'll probably
like the experience once you've learnt how to use the software.


*nodding* I just want to get used to how to use the Mac first
y'know?

Oh yes, but how can you get used to using the Mac unless you, you
know, *use* it?

Just playing with it's no good at all - that'd be wasting your
money.


I want to know how to turn it on and off first of all! lol

<grin> Push the power button. That's `on'. Select `shut down' from
the Apple menu - that's `off'.


What is on the Apple menu?

Just a few bits - controls to shut down, sleep, restart, and log out.
Access to the `System Preferences' panel. The `About this Mac' thingy,
and a couple of other bits in that sort of line.

[snip]

If you can afford the Mac you spotted, you will have a Mac that will
do for all your computing needs for many years to come and the only
upgrade you're likely to want is more RAM and maybe a wireless network
card (okay, maybe the hard disc drive'll be too small for *everything*
that you might want to do).

If I get that one then I won't be able to afford very much software for
it or anything but if I wait for a while I'll be able to save up some
money to get a Mac *and* the software for it :o)

You'll get software with the machine, and there's plenty of good
shareware and freeware.

Stop thinking that the cheap `low spec' machine you're looking at is
in any way inadequate for full-on `use it for everything' stuff. It
will be - you do not need to buy a better one. Not unless you want
your entire music library on it or something - but that might require
an external hard disc drive no matter what.

All my music is on CD...

I've got 21.6 hours of more-or-less chamber music on CD. I know how
long it plays for because it's all been ripped on to hard disc so it can
be `just left to play' - the iMac's downstairs, plugged into the stereo,
and the `chamber music' playlist is being run through as I type.

It's lovely to have just playing like that, and 21.6 hours means we're
not going to get sick of hearing the same stuff over and over all that
quickly (and there's another shed load of CDs on the way).

You might change the way you do things, you know. I've done so...

it's things like PSP tubes that would take up
the room but I won't be able to use PSP on it so that's OK :o)

You could use PSP if you installed Windoze on it, mind. But aside from
that: I shouldn't think that PSP files would take up *huge* gobbets of
space, not with modern hard disc drives of `tens of gigabytes' at least.
Or am I wrong?

[snip]

I wouldn't suggest you (or anyone sane) bolt on all the bits I've
added, but there's a subset of my add-ons that I think really ought
to at least be considered by everyone. If you get a Mac, let me
know, and I'll lead you through it. I promise it'll be pretty much
painless, not very time consuming, and I can promise you'll
understand all the bits I think you should consider using. Cost of
these bits? Umm. It is /possible/ to add 'em all for free if you
lack money and aren't troubled by, erm...

I think I know what you mean and I'd prefer not to do it that way...
it may take longer to get the software on the machine but I'd be
legal :o)

Fair enough - it's generally the better way. There is plenty of
shareware that you can use without restrictions and you just get
nagged to pay up. And beware of the rip-off shareware authors who
break consumer law. I don't see why they should get any payment at
all, the bastards.


It looks like there is a lot of freeware and shareware available out
there!

Oh yes - although I've met Windoze users who have been unhappy that the
balance on the Mac side is `more shareware than freeware'.

[snip]

We don't have a network, just PCs and laptop that all use the same
router to get access to the net! :o/

Yeah, but hang on: that means you *DO* have a home network!

Even though I can't see the other machines that are connected to it?

Well, they'd have to have the right services turned on, and your
computer would have to be listening in the right way, and you'd all
have to have your filewalls opened up to permit traffic.

Ah right! Not the sort of thing for me then...

Umm. Why not?

I get very paranoid about
hackers having access to my machine

They won't have access from you opening up a single service on the
firewall on your PC connected to the home network. Your home network is
hidden and protected from hackers by your router. There's `outside' and
there's `inside'. The only way they can get to you in practice is if
you actually call them in - by, for example, doing something stupid on a
dodgy Web site which installs some dodgy software on your computer that
connects to the hackers and gives me access. Unless you actually do
something to invite them in, you're invisible to the hackers.

and the paranoia leads to psychosis
:o(

But as someone else has pointed out, you were perfectly happy to leave
you Win XP machine wide open to hackers by not installing SP2 on it.
And opening up a service firewall on a PC on a `normally set up' home
network does nothing at all to expose you to hackers. Assuming you've
got a normal router, your home PCs are invisible to the outside world.
A normal router does a job that counts as a pretty damned effective
firewall, and some of them have software in addition to that to provide
even more protection.

And in any event, opening up a firewall on a PC to the extent that
permits file sharing only shouldn't cause any problems at all under any
circumstances - after all, you still need to log on to a machine with a
password to get anywhere at all, don't you?

Arranging for the right settings to be set the right way on Macs is
very easy. From what I've read, doing the same on Windoze boxes is
not so easy.

Ah right!

But that's just from what I've read - on uk.comp.sys.mac...

Seriously: if all your PCs and laptops use the one router, they've
all got to be networked to it. Do they use wires, or is it
wireless that you use?

It's got wires I think

Righto - so you've got Ethernet, assuming that your Steve isn't
completely insane.

No idea!

<grin>

Does he often come home waving a rubber chicken? If not, you're
probably okay.

[snip]

Hold on while I look on Amazon... looking at Amazon prices I
can't afford it and I was looking at used prices so I dread to
think what the New prices are!

They can be horrible[1] - but there are many, many versions of
Windoze. Oh look, you really do not *NEED* Windoze on a Mac, and
it'd be far too much brain-ache for you to figure out a sensibly
economic way of getting a version of Windoze that'd work right
without breaking the bank and let's face it, there's something more
useful you could spend that sort of money on, like a mountain of
teddy bears or similar. (more useful than another bloody copy of
bloody MS Windoze, I reckon - sorry, am I sounding miserably
cynical again?)

Apparently we've already got a copy of XP (it was a shock to me as I
didn't know lol) but I don't know if it's Mac compatible... does that
matter?

Umm... Look, all versions of MS Windoze are sort of Mac compatible.
The only question is whether MS has made special arrangements to
/prevent/ the particular version you've got working on a Mac - many
versions of Windoze have limits built into them so that people have to
buy a more expensive version if they're doing something MS thinks they
should pay more money for.

Oh right!

It's not so much that these restricted versions of Windoze are `limited
to stop 'em working on Macs' as `limited to stop 'em working under other
circumstances, which also means they won't work on Macs'. Or so I
gather...

I've not paid any attention to that at all - the way to find out would
be to ask on uk.comp.sys.mac if `Windoze XP version <blah>' will work
under Boot Camp (Boot Camp is the name for Apple's software to allow
you to choose which OS to use when you boot up).


I don't know what version it is... if I remember to ask Steve when he
comes home I'll ask then! :o)

Doesn't it say on the packaging?

Rowland.

--
Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry - the spam got to me
http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk
UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
.