I have switched to the white team.

[Homie S]

Ok.

So for the past few days I've been itiching to get a powerbook. I was looking around at the 12" new ones that are super small and sleek yet powerful to boot. Last night, I search around on a seller's forum to find a guy selling one with everything I want in it for a really cheap price. 'Well, I've got some stuff at home to sell when I get back from college' I tell myself....screw it. I bought the Powerbook last night.

What turns me onto these things is their sleekness and easy factor. Truth is I am getting sick of all the stupid retarded problems I run into when on my PC laptop. It's hanging at random, the display driver is whacked sometimes causing a bluescreen and then an automatic restart, etc, etc. I just want something else to deal with that won't give me this many problems. My buddy on my floor has a 15" G4, and he loves the thing to death. I've played around with it and got somewhat partial to it, and it seems like it could be a good all-around machine to do what I need to do on my PC every day (surf the web, organize pictures and music, the occasional video I watch, typing up papers).

So my question to you guys is this: The last time I seriously touched and used a Mac was in the 5th grade while playing Oregon Trail II. Are there any tips that Mac users have for someone who is switching from a PC? Any 'gotta have em' apps I should know about? I know Tiger is coming out tomorrow, but I'll be holding off purchasing that until the summer. Thanks in advance, I'm really excited about my new purchase.

[JackAxe]

Coool!! :cool: Congratulations on your new PB. :)

For me it's a piece of mind knowing my portable "just" works and I never have to fiddle with it, if it's having an off day or something, like my PCs. I usually sleep mine all the time. This has never cause and issue for me.

Multimedia on the Mac is king, have you moved your DVD window around while it's playing yet? :D

Here are a couple of free apps that are good to have handy:
*****
Here's an audio editing app I just found. It converts tons of formats and is full featured for being freeeee;
http://homepage.mac.com/machiavel/Text/audio.html

I also use Zippist for my PC clients; It has always worked great for me. :)
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14403

Here's a video player for everything QT doesn't play; (It plays WMVs way better then MS's crapy player on the Mac. But it will need an updated codec to play the newer WMV movies.)
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738

Here's another player, it's isn't as good as VLC, but will play some really odd codecs that VLC can not;
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16623

If you need a specific utility, usually http://www.versiontracker.com/ will have it.

Besides my pro-apps, OSX came with everything else I needed. I have Office, but most of the time I use TextEdit. I also use GarageBand all the time and purchased 2 additional expansion packs for it. Best free app ever made IMHO.

<]=)

[winexprt]

Congrats Homie! Long time no see BTW. ;)

I plan on getting a Mac laptop once I have the moola.

OH! You REALLY need to check out Joel's blog. It's called "switchblog", and it deals with...you guessed it, all the issues involved with switching over to the Mac. You might have already known about it...but just in case you, or anyone else didn't...I figgered I'd tell ya. :D All the best with your new machine.

Switchblog: http://www.suplido.com/joel/

[Homie S]

thanks guys. It was sent in the mail today, I'll be getting it Saturday. Good stuff from both of you, thanks again.

[Joel]

Hey Homie! Congratulations on your Powerbook. So you'll be getting it on Saturday? Double congrats for having Tiger with it too. [edit: oops I thought you're getting one brand new... anyway, save up for Tiger. You'll love it.]

Other apps not yet mentioned:

Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/) - multi-IM client
Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/) - launcher that complements Spotlight
Cocktail (http://www.macosxcocktail.com/) - ($14.95) System maintenance
iWork (http://www.apple.com/iwork/) - ($79) Apple's Pages and Keynote

winexprt - thanks for mentioning my blog :) hey, time to upgrade soon! Tiger will be worth it!

[winexprt]

winexprt - thanks for mentioning my blog :) hey, time to upgrade soon! Tiger will be worth it!

My pleasure Joel. ;) My advertising fees are quite reasonable...I'll gladly take one of THESE (http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index15.html) in lieu of a cash fee. :p :D

P.S. WIRED has a nice article on Tiger here: Wired News: Put a Tiger in Your Mac (http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,67334,00.html)

[Homie S]

I really want Tiger because I hear it's all the rage with macs right now, but I'm just so strapped for cash I couldn't justify buying it just yet, even though it's relatively inexpensive to upgrade. But I will definitely be buying it sometime in the distant future. Dashboard makes me hot, I've seen it in action, and daayyyaam.

[Joel]

I'm looking forward to learn Automator. The last time I had object oriented programming was way back with the Amiga! The next thing I'd like to use will be Dashboard and Spotlight.

Some people know me as a browser junkie but I believe this time I'll stay with Safari RSS. I like NewsFire (http://wws.newsfirerss.com) but sometimes I wish for an all-in-one RSS and browser integration.

LOL at winexprt. Don't we all want to quit our day jobs and just blog all day like Jason Kottke (http://www.kottke.org)? If the day comes when I can do that, then just maybe I can consider your ad fee! LOL

[JackAxe]

Sticking with Panther until you can get some postive cash flow won't hinder anything, it is definately the best OS I've had the pleasure of using.

If it weren't for teh prospect of new NVidia drivers, the Core graphic's engine and application 64-bit mem support, I would wait until 10.4's first major update. I generally do this, but all the pro-updates are realy appealing.

I've never used RSS. Should I start?

I look forward to Dashboard. I hope Apple expands on it so that more powerfull widgets can be produced. JavaScript is just too limiting for what I would like to do, so if AdobaMacroeMedia, or whatever the freak they are now makes a Flas-Plugin in for widgets, I'll be one very very very happy camper, especially if it's the GPU accelerated player that's coming out later this year. If not I suposed I coluld make a simple RPG like something out of the early eighties.

I've been working with OOP in ActionScript 2.0, great language if you want something to tinker with. It's based on the same format as Java.

All praise the great Amiga and Commodore's stealth marketing. ;)

<]=)

[zackepceo]

You should probably start looking into RSS. I was skeptical at first, but over time it has become an invaluble resource for me to pick and choose what I want to read all from one location. It's like your own personal newspaper, in a way.
:D I made a PHP script for my website to automagically make my RSS. The format is very easy to learn and highly flexable.

[Homie S]

Someone briefly explain to me what RSS is and how it works, every time I read something about it I get confused for some reason.

[Joel]

Yeah, I got confused with RSS a while back. After I've figured out everything, I can't do without it.

It's really simple actually, most sites have a separate RSS feed. These feeds are "copies" of a part of the site (for 1src.com for example, the RSS feed for the news is http://www.1src.com/?m=news&display=185). An RSS reader is used to read those feeds. (Think of feeds as sites that you bookmark in browser.) The RSS reader can then be set to automatically update for a chosen time period.

I leave my RSS reader open and whenever there's new content, it shows in there.

[Homie S]

Ah. So let me clarify quickly, a 'feed' as it's described is like some bookmarked page in your browser, and then when you go to that certain feed it is updated with whatever you want it to be? And then any RSS reader just pretty much reads the feed and displays it to you and will update as soon as that certain feed is updated, correct?


Also, now that the Powerbook is on the way (apparently coming Monday instead of Saturday...oh well, I can deal with it), I'm going to want a way to transport it. Now I'm not a big laptop bag fan, I like putting stuff on my shoulders in backpacks. Interestingly enough, I am in desparate need of a new backpack because my current one is literally falling apart. Does anyone have any reccomendations to any backpacks that are designed to carry small laptops or have a slot to carry such (ie 12" PB)? I'm not really sure where to start looking...

EDIT: I thought I should make something clear, I'm just curious to see if anyone recommends an all around backpack that will be able to securely accomodate my powerbook. For example, when I go to class, I want to be able to take a couple notebooks, possibly a textbook, and my laptop. Can this be done?

[JackAxe]

I've had a couple of leather notebook/ briefcases, but switched to a backpack. It's a Targus and has plenty of room for my 15", sketchbooks and everything else I need. It has 3 seperate sections, so there's plenty of room for most things. I really like it and it has been way more usefull then the fancy bags I bought for looks.

<]=)

[Joel]

Homie S, that is correct regarding RSS :)

As for bags, Crumpler and Timbuk2 are two of the best brands I've seen.

[SamuraiCatJB]

hmmmmph... lets not segregate our posts now... ;) :p

congrats!! honest! :) I have been tempted myself of late. :)

[Homie S]

hmmmmph... lets not segregate our posts now... ;) :p



Does not manpute.

[Homie S]

Posting with my own 12in G4 Powerbook! YAY!

A few things I should ask:

What is a good ftp program for OSX? I need one to be able to access my webspace. I think I saw one on apple.com, but I don't remember what it was.

Any good way to transfer my bookmarks from my PC copy of Firefox to my new mac copy? I suppose I can just use my USB stick.

That's all for now, I'm sure this will turn into my very own mac questions thread as I play with it more. Thanks for your help.

[JackAxe]

Awesome. :)

I use Fetch. I've heard there are better FTP apps, but it's all I've ever used on the Mac, since the System 7 days. It was $20 I think?

<]=)

[Homie S]

Ok, I ran into a potentially serious problem last night (at least for me).

I was finishing up my work on my word processor using Microsoft Office 2004 for mac. I finished it, sent it to my USB drive, and then went over to my roommate's Windows machine to print it out on his printer. He runs MS office 2003. Now my word processor says it should be completely compatible with any Windows based word up to 2004, yet when I opened it on my keydrive, it was only a 1KB file that when opened had weirdo looking text. I have no idea what that was, so I resaved it on my machine as another document. ANY document that I saved created this wierdo file that didn't actually have what I typed.

Seeing as this was due tomorrow, I panicked. But I found a way around it by uploading my documents to my webspace, and then accessing the web on my roommate's PC to get them and open them. It worked flawlessly.

So is there something wrong with the save feature on my copy of word? or maybe when I sent it to the USB drive? Any insight would be appreciated.

[JackAxe]

It sounds like the file is getting corrupted on the USB drive. Especially since you were able to upload the file to the web and then download it just fine from the PC. Once you copy it on there, can you then open it on the Mac again, or if you copy it back onto the Mac's drive, is it the same size?


What about other files, can you copy them onto the USB drive and transfer then to the PC?

If this isn't he drive, then I'm a bit baffled. I would try zipping the doc, and then see if it will transfer over without corruption.

One of my clients has a 256 meg USB drive and I've used it to transfer .x files and textures from my PB to his PC, and he's also given me new project files this way.

I get docs all the time from the PC and I also send them out, I'm only on Office X from a couple of years back, but a DOC file is the one format that has always worked, even in the pre-OSX days.

Have you checked to see if there are any Office updates for 2004? There's 3 for mine, and if I don't install, it's a bit flakey. MS's Mac products have never been up to par with the PCs. I doubt that they really spend the extra effort to do so. But saving out and transfering shouldn't be an issue.

Do yo have another USB drive you can try?

<]=)

[Homie S]

It sounds like the file is getting corrupted on the USB drive. Especially since you were able to upload the file to the web and then download it just fine from the PC. Once you copy it on there, can you then open it on the Mac again, or if you copy it back onto the Mac's drive, is it the same size?

yea, I can reopen it on the mac from the usb drive. That seems to be fine.


What about other files, can you copy them onto the USB drive and transfer then to the PC?
I used to use it for PC transfers on my old sony laptop. Maybe if I backup what's on the drive and reformat it somehow? I wonder how to do that.

If this isn't he drive, then I'm a bit baffled. I would try zipping the doc, and then see if it will transfer over without corruption.

One of my clients has a 256 meg USB drive and I've used it to transfer .x files and textures from my PB to his PC, and he's also given me new project files this way.

I hope I'm able to make this work, it would be a huge loss for me. I mean, I can up it to my FTP, but it supposed to work this way.


Do yo have another USB drive you can try?


I'll try that. Thanks.

[JackAxe]

Maybe you can reformt it from the PC? The Mac reads and rights NTSF and Apple has been releasing updates to only improve upon it. Are you saving directly to the USB key from Word, or saving and then copying?

Another option would be an iPod, but I recall you mentioned some bastard stole it. :(

Just a thought, but if you have a hub, you can share files that way. Or, if your friend has a wireless connection, you can create a temporary wilreless hub on your Powerbook, which he can then log-on to and copy off the file.

Of course if you have a hub, your friend could set it up for sharing I belive.

But the USB should work without a problem. Even the new Shuffle is formated NTSF by default and I don't think this can be changed?

<]=)

[Homie S]

Ok, so I'm pretty sure it's the USB stick. I used my roommates and tried it out, and it worked perfectly. So I think I will either buy a new stick or find some way to reformat my old one.

How would I go about reformatting it?

[JackAxe]

Maybe the PC? Or can you might be able to erase it from "Disk Utilities," which is under the utilities folder?

If the Mac works, use MSDos files system, if NTSF isn't available so that you can still use it on the PC.

Or check the manufactures site to see if they have a utility, or instructions.

Also try doing a disc repair on it from Disk Utilities.

<]=)

[Homie S]

I think I got it working by reformatting the drive, but I won't know until my roommate comes back with his laptop to try out on his printer.

I got my 512mb stick of RAM today, now my Powerbook is running 768MB total of RAM. Works like a charm, now hopefully I can sell enough books next week to justify buying an ugrade to Tiger. *crosses fingers*