Zarf in Mac OS X Land

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Posted by pudge on Friday March 1, 2002 @09:00AM from the go-steve dept.

baruz writes "Andrew Plotkin (aka Zarf), award-winning interactive fiction author and Mac and Unix programmer, has not-so-recently posted a secret diary of his experiences installing and using Mac oh ess ex."

17 of 409 comments (clear)

Emacs by LordNimon · 2002-03-01 09:06 · Score: 5, Funny

Started Terminal app. Unix shell! Go Steve! Emacs! (Okay, Emacs 20, not 21. Close enough.)
Man, I'd love to travel back in time five years and tell a bunch of Mac advocates that within five years, Emacs will come pre-loaded on a Mac.

--
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
1. Re:Emacs by Dancin_Santa · 2002-03-01 09:21 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  5 years ago, they would have thought that Emacs was just a buzzword-compliant alternative to the Imac.
  
  Dancin Santa
2. Re:Emacs by daeley · 2002-03-01 09:21 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Even better, go back 10-15 years and tell Mac users that a ton of their future counterparts will be excited to have a powerful Command Line Interface. :)
  
  --
  I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
3. Re:Emacs by christopher_mcca · 2002-03-01 09:54 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Oh, probably about as well as a Unix or Linux user from 5 years back would know what a usable and/or attractive GUI is. We all have to be late to the table for something.
4. Re:Emacs by EvilGwyn · 2002-03-01 14:00 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Comparing vi and emacs is much like comparing a screwdriver to a 747 repair facility.
  ...when what you really need is a shovel
  
  --
  Phear my l33t homepage.
Summarization by daeley · 2002-03-01 09:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Likes American McGee's Alice.

Hates Dock.

Doesn't get why you wouldn't want to have root access always on.

Doesn't like font handling.

Has strange habit of referring to Apple computer engineers and UI designers as 'Steve' ;)

--
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
1. Re:Summarization by buzban · 2002-03-01 09:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  excellent summary!
  now, here's my (o-ess-ex user's) article-o-meter:
  
  'stupid diary! - 57'
  
  'good point! - 3'
Re:OS "Ex" or OS "Ten"? by Dr.+Awktagon · 2002-03-01 09:09 · Score: 3, Funny

The correct pronunciation is: Mac OH YES! SEX!

(Saw that in Dr.Dobbs I think)
It made me laugh... by mystery_bowler · 2002-03-01 09:17 · Score: 5, Funny

...because I kept waiting for the grammar to devolve into Hulk-speak:

RARRR! No like OSX! Icons EVERYWHERE! Stupid Steve! HULK SMASH!

--

My sigs always suck.
Boot partition? by Spock+the+Vulcan · 2002-03-01 09:18 · Score: 2, Funny

Booted "Mac OS 9 Install" disk. Used good old-fashioned tools to wipe hard drive and repartition. (Three partitions: 35 gigs, 30 gigs, 10 gigs. Plus a little one at the front, left unformatted -- I hear Linux needs something like that, and I can certainly spare a few megabytes just in case.)

I guess he's talking about the 1024 cylinder limit on older BIOSes, which crippled earlier versions of LILO, so the kernel image had to be on a partition within the first 1024 cylinders (usually 512 MB) of the hard disk.

But I thought that was an x86 platform specific issue. What kind of bootloader do the Macs use?
And you want me to pay for this? by toupsie · 2002-03-01 09:33 · Score: 4, Funny

I use MacOS X. I love Apple. I would even take a bullet for Steve. Woz that is. But if you want me to sign up for subscription service can you stop with these lame Apple stories? iWarez was bad, this is unbearable.
If you don't do better, I won't subscribe and tweak my Squid+SquidGuard config to ignore big ads Slashdot on my OS X box.
So there! Plus I haven't gotten a wedding invitation, yet!

--
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
1. Re:And you want me to pay for this? by version5 · 2002-03-01 11:09 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  No no, you don't understand... We only want to hear good things about Apple. All this fair and impartial discussion of all things Apple is making me feel bad. :(
  
  --
  "It's Dot Com!"
Re:This should be obvious... OT by GodHead · 2002-03-01 09:49 · Score: 5, Funny

My favorite in-joke story...

A few years back, a non-tech co-worker asked if it was fair for a local computer shop to charge her $65 to fix problem. $65 is a bit much for a 30 minute fix I my mind, so I asked her what the problem was. She said that the shop owner told her it was just aother "Windows I.D. Ten T" error. Needless to say after I agreed it was a fair price and that she wasn't being ripped off, I about fell out of my chair laughing.

I.D. Ten T = id10t

--
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
Andrew Plotkin bad! by Refrag · 2002-03-01 09:54 · Score: 4, Funny

Stupid Andrew Plotkin. Andrew Plotkin no good intuitively understanding even most simple interfaces. Andrew Plotkin no figure out multiple window animations. Andrew Plotkin no figure out scale faster than genie. Andrew Plotkin no figure out customize toolbar until days later. Andrew Plotkin no figure out time since day be half hour or week.

--
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Re:Delete user by tomreagan · 2002-03-01 10:04 · Score: 2, Funny

I couldn't get this to work. No matter how many times I tried to remove Tim Johnson's account, it just wouldn't go away - that goddamn tjohnson deleted folder kept staring me in the face, so I reinstalled the OS.

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know why my friend Steve Hortname who sometimes uses my machine lost all his stuff? They guy had some great mp3's in his home directory...
Re:One reason why he has problems... by ethereal · 2002-03-01 10:15 · Score: 2, Funny

I'm picturing someone named Inez creating an Irix clone...

--
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
Re:Don't send in your info by sean23007 · 2002-03-01 12:51 · Score: 3, Funny

I mean, how dumb do you gotta be to not realise that you dont HAVE to send anything in?!

Ummm.... just about dumb enough to buy Windows XP. Oh wait- that's a "feature," never mind.

:)

--

Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.