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Fix a Troubled Mac
This is the only book that I'm aware of that gives you troubleshooting assistance like it should be. I've never encountered a chapter in any book that is dedicated to helping one create an emergency firewire drive, or a bootable Mac CD-ROM that will boot essentially any modern Macintosh, let alone, explain which software troubleshooting tools to use, or how to set up system software for quick reinstalls. In addition to this, the writer takes you on a guided course on how to approach the command line (for brave Mac OS X users) to fix start-up problems and corrupted user logins.
Fix a Troubled Mac is densely packed with information presented in a light, easy-to-read way. It accelerates you through basic information towards in-depth and advanced topics -- even if you get left behind, what remains in your head are relevant and well-formed concepts and frameworks. As the author mentions at intervals, this book approaches running a Mac studio in a holistic manner. Having said that, the therapy of the individual computer user is not overlooked. Even a computer-literate person with two or three Macs in a SOHO setting will benefit.
The first chapter of the book, "Be Your Own IT Support" covers concepts on how to approach problems. Starting with the basics like the Cardinal Rules (Ask yourself, "what has changed lately?"). From there it's a nice, easy, sometimes humorous introduction to how networks work. After a few pages, much of the bafflement that is computer-related pain begins to ease, furrows recede, clock speed returns to normal. Such simple ideas, such profound effects. Perhaps this book could be subtitled 'The Tao of Mac.'
This book does indeed read like a distillation of 6 years of a Mac technician's life, filled with numerous methods to efficiently and effectively diagnose and repair troubled Macs. From paper-bag solutions for a beige box with the hiccups, to rolling out a customized OS X laboratory in less than a day, this book will walk you through the higher realms of careful planning and execution.
Very little information in this book is dedicated to the beginner. If that is my only criticism of the book then let that stand. Like any good thriller, at times you will find yourself with heart beating and sweat on your brow (when did I last back up?). Even hardened professionals will find themselves taking unhealthy interest in particular chapters.
A whole chapter of the book is dedicated to the creation of an emergency firewire drive, which is referred to again and again throughout the book and although creating one may seem arduous, you quickly learn how to use these tools to repair, recover and restore after disasters, as well as install new systems and software updates quickly. The author makes extensive references to some software essentials like Carbon Copy Cloner and NetRestore by bombich software.
There are a lot of recommendations of various software tools and their uses. Many of these tools are inexpensive, but of course there are the usual heavyweights like Retrospect and Disk Warrior. Helpfully, each tool's precious place in your toolbox is analyzed and explained, along with the situation and manner in which to use it.
Reading this book cover to cover, one of the things I found confusing was the order in which topics were presented. Of course, such a book isn't generally used in this way, and given its electronic and search/click nature, it doesn't cause any real difficulty. It may be off-putting to some, to each his own.
In keeping with its holistic backbone, the book doesn't make assumptions about the flavor of your studio's environment. Just as much coverage is given to Mac OS 9 based Macintoshes as to the Mac OS X side. There is a large section devoted to running a Mac Studio with Mac OS X Server, including hardware, software and configuration tips and guidelines.
Much of the technical knowledge contained in these pages is freely (as in free, sans-cost) available on the internet. Some of the information is quoted (and attributed) directly from such sources. However, finding this information online yourself can be very time consuming and this book addresses that problem, with well researched links that extend on the information presented, should you need it. Having all these weblinks in one document also has its benefits. This is a integrated guide and a distillation of core issues and key tips earned through (someone else's) blood, sweat and tears (not yours). And of course, in the event of system failure, even Google stops working.
There are many Macintosh books out there, so this book finds itself in a very competitive arena. However, it has several advantages over many of these books. Firstly, its in electronic format, and is therefore quickly searchable. The author recommends at the beginning of every chapter how to mine the book's information. Secondly, all references to other sections of the book are hyper-linked for quick access and all external references are hyper-linked as well. Thirdly, the book is available on a subscription basis. This may seem an expensive option, but a subscription means the information will be kept up to date and expanded as new techniques and technologies become available. Perhaps one of the few disadvantages is that in the event of emergency, the book may be stuck on your machine. (It's certainly one of those precious items to be stored on your USB stick, iPod or emergency CD-ROM .)
With a guide like this, you can quit moonlighting as fixit guy and go back to your day job.
You can download or subscribe to the electronic-only Fix a Troubled Mac through the book's official site. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Wake up, it was only a nightmare!
It's funny, laugh.
Over 10K a year, gasp! =p
As someone who makes his living fixing such problems for similarly situated companies:
Can't we get the religious right to find some sort of sinful part of this book that they can use to get it banned?
"Installing the RAM," maybe?
Mindy: "Well...desserts aren't always right." Homer: "But they're so sweet!"
this book is definitely for you
And if it were Windows, you would need a whole library!
Lighten up. Its a joke
Anyhow, I used to mess with the innards of the computer quite a bit, and ended up breaking one of the pins off of the Motorla 608040 chip. I Proceded to fix it with a piece of copper speaker wire.
Try doing that today with one of these new fangled *ntium chips.
This comment might be slightly off topic, as I don't usually work with Macs and I've never read this book. However, I spend the majority of my days in front of a windows or linux machine, of various flavors (come on, as much as we like to joke, different versions of windows have different functionality).
The problem with writing tech support books, to be honest, is that google is faster. We have tech support books in the lab (research lab), but they're just not as quick as google. Google-ing error messages almost always pops up with exactly what you need to do to fix it or a related "problem" page. Googling specific keywords for problems without error messages almost always comes up with solutions. I've almost never found a computer problem that google couldn't fix.
Does this make me less of a "techie"? Not really. I mean, I know how to fix an awful lot of silly computer problems. But we all know that "Error 1278754874928375: No useful error message." comes up every once in a while, and we've got to find out how to fix it. Google seems to be the thing to use.
For those who don't find google useful, some tips: Use quotes. Quote phrases that should be together. Use "-" signs to negate words you don't need, or common words that are associated with terms in your query but aren't related to your problem (drive -car). Just seems like tech support books have been outdated by the web.
I'm getting tired of playing engineer all the time for all the laptops I buy, running linux (usually XP Pro and BSD under vmware). Someone told me this when I mentioned about getting a Mac laptop: "They Just Work out of the box and all the time!". Is this really true?
This concept is new to me, but I am looking into it more. If nothing else, they look awfully perty...Glowing apples are kinda cool.
But that one girl saved Christmas with her Mac! If they put it on T.V., it must have been true.
Good times!
I don't know what he's been doing with his macs, but I run two labs (~120 machines) and have only had a handful of problems in the last 18 months since they were delivered, which were easily fixed (total time invested in maintainence: ~5 hours). The only real problem was with lousy software running in the classic environment, which I've mostly updated to OSX native apps. Even upgrading the entire lab to 10.3 Panther was a breeze.
OSX is rock solid. Don't even get me started on the previous HP computers these Macs replaced.
Can somebody point out the insightful part of the parent post?
Thanks
SteveM
But then we would miss out on the really suave, trendy support people apple send round to fix things for us. They tell us the latest fashions and give us advise on colour, they let us listen to their iPods so we know which indie bands are cool, helping to avoid embarassing faux pas in music conversations. Plus they have this cultivated look of practised distain I am trying to get my developers to adopt when someone says something stupid like 'WinXP is really not that bad for the casual user'.
No without apple support people our lives would be so much poorer and so much more uncultured.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Since I have years behind me in both the mac and PC world, I can honestly say that while Mac's have fewer problems, their problems are more serious, cryptic, and otherwise annoying. I am glad to see a book that compiles the often hard-to-find information... the big question: does it come with a paper clip for that disk drive button? :)
stuff |
20 or more Macs does cost money...$10K a year
that sounds pretty cheap. ~500/seat Does anyone know the numbers for support for 20 windows machines. To actually support them?
I tried for 5 years to come up with a clever sig...only to realize that I am not clever.
..easily balloon your IT support budget to over $10K a year.
No, +1 Backhanded compliant.
I am living proof of the Peter Principle
They shouldn't be pissed. 10k/year to keep 20 computers running is really quite a good deal and reflects well on Apple. 20 windows machines is about the threshold for needing an actual IT department, at which you're in for waaaay more that $10k.
Thats nice. I have noticed that. I have never been able to get suspend working with linux. Gone through Dell Inspiron 8000 series, running Suse, Mandrake, redhat, debian, and have never been able to make it work properly. I still love linux, just some of those little things get on your nerves, especially at conferences and such when your in a hurry and doing many things at once. If anyone has ever made it work properly, I would love to hear how.
http://fixa.troubledmac.com/
si vis pacem, para bellum..."if you wish peace, prepare for war"
This actually does interest me, I've worked on PC's for a long time, but I have never worked on a Mac before. It's obviously somewhat different to the point that people are writing on the subject matter. Can any Mac users in here share some differences as to how maintenance with these differs from that of a regular windows (or linix) based PC?
clearly written + linux == hilarity, and everything else claming to be a joke before this post wasn't, i love it.
posting from linux, everyone calm down.
The parent comment is one problem I have here with this review. It hypes the book as good but the book itself is obsoleted by more effective and up to date searching of the web. Books are too slow to troubleshoot problems these days.
The other problem I have is the comment that "Macs aren't as trouble free as one is led to believe." While no computer is perfect, Mac software and hardware have a far better reliability track record than Wintel PCs do. This is at least in my experience, but there are a lot of research reports and experts out there who agree with me.
This smacks of marketing hype. "oooooohhhh buy this book because you are going to have problems.... *scary clanking noises*" That coupled by the fact that instead of buying a reference manual you can get all this information for free online makes me think its just another attempt to make money on something not needed.
I mean cmon... will this book have information on the help viewer/safari security problem? It hit the presses and already it is out of date.
This is nothing new though, the same thing is true for windows and linux troubleshooting guides too.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I am going by memory of course, haven't seen the thing in about 15 years, I coulda sworn it was a 040 - but you are right. Maybe it was something I wanted at the time.
But i can't run my favorite games under linux... wait... this is my mac we're talking about? (disclaimer: half my favorite games run on my mac, the other half on my PC. I am, to the degree its possible, a Mac gamer)
Don't worry - its just stigmata. Pass me a napkin and don't you dare tell my mother.
1. Denial
2. Denial
3. Denial
4. Denial
5. Buy another Mac
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Sorry sir, better get out your books:
Your search - Error 1278754874928375: No useful error message. - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing "1278754874928375".
The search I came up with listed THIS as it's first result
That about sums up fixing Macs for me. At least with windows and linux you're already in constant state of things going wrong.
But what can you do when your coworker arrives in your cubicle, obviously alarmed, complaining that her floppy drive wont accept her diskette, which has all moving parts stuck (probably from a sugar-laden drink spill), and wont take "your diskette died" for an answer?
From the introduction about a lab of 20 machines:
>this can easily balloon your IT support budget
>to over $10K a year.
In the late 90's Gartner published a study pegging the support costs of a Windows corporate network at $5k to $10k per year *per seat*.
Even with a simple Windows based network the cost easily could be $30k to $40k per year just for a sysape to keep things running and deal with viruses etc. Macs *are* less expensive to run.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
This book basically covers what I do at my job. You easily can get this info via Google if you know the search terms. The issue here is people don't want to have to think about it, they would rather just have someone take care of it. Come on, I get support calls regarding aliases missing from the desktop. The real market for this book is tiny, although a number of people will buy it to collect dust.
Crushing my karma one post at a time.
... I come across this article.
Honestly, after supporting a group of about 20 graphics folks with Macs for the past six months (along with about 90 Wintel boxen), I'm just sick of seeing the same thing over and over again: 99% of all Mac problems have to do with FONTS. Corrupt fonts, missing fonts, bad font activation, etc. (That last 1% is reserved for Quark's profound suckedness.)
I can't tell you how many fcsking times I've told these people not to remove their system fonts. Invariably, someone will come to me complaing that Outlook doesn't work, and I end up solving the problem by reinstalling their system fonts. And repeating the lecture, again.
Oooh, oooh, someone who knows more about Macs than a rock. :) Could you perchance recommend an SSH/SFTP client for an iMac?
It's time for Operation Crazy Plan.
Sure. There's a LOT less hardware calls, but when there's one, there are bound to be many of the same type.
I have about 200 Macs under my responsibility, and since November I've not had to fix ONE hardware issue with a desktop (excepting two dead keyboards). I've sent a few iBooks in, but those have been abused for almost three years by fourth-graders.
When I notice one iBook drive go, though, I know there are six more waiting to die, so I tested them all and sent the dying ones back.
The PC-support guy has about twice as many computers to handle, but he easily does five times as many hardware repairs as I do.
As for software, if you really know *NIX, you can keep users pretty happy while limiting their destructive whims to their own home folders, which is a joy.
We don't have popups, adware, spyware, worms, or viruses on our side of the fence, so there's a LOT fewer support calls. You do, however, have to keep users up-to-date withtheir software, and that means registering each machine in ARD so you can push packages. I spend a decent part of my day in front of ARD getting reports on OS versions to track down any update-stragglers.
Active-Directory integration lets me give some users temporary admin rights to their machines if I trust them, which is way cool. You can run roaming profiles via SMB and AD as well if you like, so non-admin users can't write a damn thing to local drives.
Imaging is painless, as there's netboot; and you NEVER have to make separate images for different breeds of hardware, the image for the G5 works fine on the bondi-blue iMac.
ARD lets me remote into people's machines and SHOW them how to do attachments in email, etc. Saves me the walk across campus.
There is a big learning curve though, not to USE a Mac, but to admin them. You've got to learn the whole 'vibe' and get a feel for the types of problems these strange machines can exhibit. And don't forget to memorize your startup keystrokes, command-option-p-r can save you quite a bit of time.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Yes, and we all know your situation represents everyone that owns a Mac. Guess what, my mother never has trouble with her PC because all she ever does is email and play Solitaire. A friend of mine works in systems at a university and he laughs when people say Macs are problem free. He says they have as many problem with the Mac labs asn the PC labs, they are just different problems most of the time.
.. but.. but.. el Presidente Jobs promised me my Mac would "just work"!
You mean to tell me they break, just like every other computer? This is an outrage!@@#@!11 I demand my eight thousand dollars back!
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
You don't think that one user is slightly limited as a statistical sample?
Being an eBook I wasn't aware of this book's existence at all. I have to say that I'm both intrigued and put off by this. A physical book has a long production time and is read and commented on by experts and non-users heavily. Is there any editing to this electronic version? From the review it sounds like it could be a bit disorganized or even contradictory if there was only limited editing/review by others.
The reviewer mentions "The Tao of Macintosh" as an appropos subtitle, but this was already used by a book in the System 6 / System 7 days. I had that book at one time and found it to be all philosophy and very, very little usable advice. A good subway read, but definitely not a "useful" or "must have" book. I'm a bit concerned by the extensive philosophy the author says is focused on in early chapters. Is it readable? Is it obvious? Does it draw too many metaphors to other things and leave you to apply the lesson to your job?
I'm also a little disturbed that the advice that was taken from the internet sources hasn't been digested and distilled by the author and instead simply reprinted directly. One advantage of many books versus scanning the internet is getting the voice and perspective of one author. Besides just tone and readability, as you read a book author you set your own perspective of what this person thinks is "too risky" or what procedures are a "useless waste of time". You don't get that perspective on the internet and it would be nice for the author to have tried to digest the information and filter it through his own experience and mindset.
As far as some of the technial issues, I'm a bit concerned it tries to cover everything and by being too broad, lets things escape in the cracks. I used to know a cornucopia of Mac OS 9 troubleshooting tips and tricks ("Hold the command and option keys down while opening the latest memory control panel and you'll see an advanced config screen"). Now I don't even bother. Apple isn't going to update Mac OS 9 so it's just easier to refresh the disk from an image than try to troubleshoot quirky problems. Additionally, the mindset for dealing with OS 9 problems is much different from OS X ones. I quickly find I wind up with privilege problems or corrupt resource forks if I mistakenly apply tricks from one OS to the other.
The cross-referencing in an ebook sounds great. I'd love to have this in real books. But good cross-references take time to build. You say that many chapters refer to the "building a firewire rescue drive". But if I have iBooks that have no Firewire ports, then I'll find these cross-references more of a bother than a help.
I hope my comments don't sound overly harsh. It does sound like there's some good information in this tome. I'm glad that this review brought it to my attention, but I'm still a bit wary of whether it'll be applicable for my needs.
You are totally right! It sounds like this book's main purpose is for repairing the problems that are CAUSED by dumb users.
There are stupid and dangerous users of Macs and PCs. Some people don't understand the user interface, no matter how simple or intuitive it is. On a Mac, to delete a file, drag it to the trash. On a Windows PC, you can do the same thing! When you show the users how to do it, they still say "I didn't know you could do that!"
I would consider this book a useful reference if I needed a way to "user-proof" some MACs, but a good technician would probably develop equivalent skills on his own, just from the experience of what CAN go wrong.
- Repair permissions.
- Delete the contents of ~/Library/Caches/,
/Library/Caches/, and /System/Library/Caches/. You can do this on the command line in single-user mode (reboot and hold down cmd-S) or using a utility like Panther Cache Cleaner.
- Reset PRAM. Reboot, hold down cmd-opt-P-R, and wait for the startup chime to ring 3 times.
- Reset NVRAM. Reboot, hold down cmd-opt-O-F. When you get to the Open Firmware prompt, type "reset-nvram (return) set-defaults (return) reset-all (return)" Your machine will reboot.
Usually a cache cleaning is enough for me. Permissions repair rarely does anything for me since installing Panther, but it's so easy that I put it first. I rarely have to move on to more advanced steps like throwing out selected preferences/plists, disk utilities (like DiskWarrior), reinstalling apps, combo updaters or an "archive and install" of the operating system, but those would be the next steps.Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
We have three labs with a total of about 43 Macs. A mix of eMacs, iMacs, G3 towers, G4 Towers, a dual XServe, and one dual G5.
So far, in the past two years, we've replaced only 1 eMac because it was having trouble booting, and it was under warranty. The only major failures are the dumbass B&W monitors that came with the G3s. Of the 12 we had, only 3 are left. They've been replaced by Hitachi monitors which are working perfectly. Lucikly we're getting brand new eMacs to replace all the B&W G3s (not because they're broken, but because they're too slow for OS X Panther + Adobe CS.)
We have 4 techs, each paid (gladly, I might add) $9.00 an hour for 20 hours a week. All the techs are Apple gurus and love working for us and especially with the equipment (XServe is just so cool.) It's amazing having people who are so enthusiastic about the software, hardware, and the company that makes them. The techs are excited to come to work and troubleshoot when needed.
Everything runs smoothly. Regular backups on the XServe, use NetBoot and Bombich's NetInstall for setting up the labs (takes about an hour to set up the master disk image, then only 30 minutes to deploy on 40+ Macs), and we're moving to an OpenDirectory structure by next year.
amen Ibet Mac OS8 is the only system that crashes more than windows. Now that is an honor to hold
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern
It had a 68020. My bad. It most certainly did not, though, have a 68040, which was a comparatively modern innovation.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
That they rarely have any problems... The single Mac that died was 6100 I had disassembled after installing MKLinux on it after it was basically worthless. I run an office and have been in charge of a dozen machines, routers, switches, and a couple of windows machines. I've configured Cisco switches and routers, set up their firewalls, rebuilt an entire office of Macs in a weekend with all of the software installed, and the only thing that has ever given me trouble, is connecting to the damn Windows machines, or having a shitty Dell hard disk fail a couple of times before they sent me a good one.
If this book included simple directions for getting everything to communicate, it would be worth its weight... But, there is always Google!
From the man himself...
I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: "Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end."
The Macintosh may only have 10% of the market, but it is clearly the top 10%.
hehe. Enjoy.
First, find all files that end in .dfont on the Mac and get rid of them. I usually move them to /Shared/unused_fonts or something like that.
Some of those dfonts are crucial, like Helvetica. Google for a minute and you'll find a list of them somewhere, I'm feeling lazy right now. Put ordinary Postscript versions of the crucial fonts where the dfonts were. Some of these actions require the use of sudo in the Terminal.
After that, things will be much improved. You should also get a decent font management app. I usually recommend Suitcase. I had a couple clients try Font Reserve, and it gave them way too many problems. Plus Extensis now owns both Suitcase and Font Reserve, and based on the frequency of updates it's pretty clear that Font Reserve is getting short shrift and is probably living on borrowed time.
Anyway, once you get your font management app installed, be sure to configure it to manage your system fonts for you.
Once you do the above, you should have far fewer problems (but Quark still sucks, especially when it's version 4.x running in Classic).
~Philly
been working on a computer for someone, where it's the SOLE MACHINE available
and you can't get the free online info, because the machine won't go online?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Have you tried using Patchburn to get that DVD-R working?
Use this:
:)
1) The original price (if memory serves me right) was $666 . Priced that way on purpose.
2) Jobs went to India in search of a new-age spiritual Guru..
3) The ChurchOfSatan.com (or something like that) specifically chose Apple as their official computer.
That should start the banning..
You can't get 20 PCs for 10k that are worth any further than you can throw them. Seriously, you can build PCs and buy crapbox PCs for cheap, but don't expect any vendor support and don't expect them to run for more than 5 minutes without you fixing them. I know Macs are not cheap, but if you price them out feature for feature with any other tier one vendor they are at least in the realm of being competitive.
My work has 17Windows 2k boxes, 1 Unix, 2 NT, 2 VMS and we have almost no problems with anything here. Our network guy transfer to another site about a year ago and he was never replaced. 13 of the Windows boxes are fairly old(300-600mhz) 4 are almost a month old, the Unix and VMS machines are very ancient, and the 2 NT's are alpha's. The only problems I can think of in the last year, are one virus that was easily removed, a few tape failures and a power supply.
My boss returned her Mac earlier in the year because of problems she had with it(Laptop, display problems along with other things) I guess this one case means Mac sucks?
For any case anyone brings trying to prove one side is more reliable there will be another dozen to show the other and so on.
0. Toss preferences.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Got to wonder about the technical savvy of the reviewer (unless s/he was just quoting from the book or something, in which case I wonder about the author instead.)
For example, creating a firewire emergency disk isn't "arduous" at all. I managed to figure out how in about 5 seconds. (In case you can't figure it out, take your Install CD/DVD that came with the machine, install the system on a firewire partition, and then make sure it's current with updates.)
Or saying that the terminal is for "brave" users. Give me a break. "Experienced" or "Savvy" or something like that, but "Brave"?
One more example... the review says that the book does a good job of explaning how to rexognize when you should use Retrospect, or when you should use Disk Warrior. (After complaining that the book is for advanced users.) Sorry, but most advanced users pretty much know what Retrospect is used for.
Actually, upon reading the review again, it sounds as if half of it was copied from a press release for the book or somethng. I don't think I'll be buying this one anytime soon.
"If you run a busy creative design business, you've encountered your fair share of Mac problems"
Assertion: It is only possible to run a 'creative design business' with a shed load of Macs.
With all due respect, this is clearly bs, and it is the kind of attitude that really, really pisses off non-Apple users. It is perfectly possible to run a web design/publishing/graphic design/3D rendering/printing business using Windows machines, without any extra effort. There is hardware and software available for the Windows environment that is at least as good, and arguably better, than the current crop of Apple products.
Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. etc. all sell well on PC, and indeed there are rumours that Adobe is strategically scaling back its investment in Apple due to low demand and poor return-on-investment in developing products for the OS9/X platforms. In other words: they make more money out of Windows sales of their software, including Photoshop, than they do from the Mac sales.
I'm not trying to take part in the holy wars here, it's just that the opening line was such a typical Apple fanboy cliche that I feel compelled to respond. Please, get over yourselves. You choose Apple. Others choose other tools. Not all graphic designers use Macs, and Apple products are not a prerequisite for running a successful design business.
Read Pynchon.
Yeah. I know how a lot of network administrators completely lack the qualifications and computer familiarity to keep things going, and in turn need to find a way to blame all the hardware and routing devices for all the problems, but gee wiz, to go so far as to write a book to convince everyone that it's not your fault? That's going way too far. And Jesus, if you can't run a network using Macs without jerry-rigging it, you oughtta be fired right then and there.
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
What about this for an example. My 12" Powerbook, not more than 5 months old has dust behind the screen, has a broken DVD burner and crashes all the time. And when I say crash, I don't mean a kernel panic, I mean the system freezes.. halts if you will. Sometimes the mouse can be moved, othertimes it completely stops. Much of thye problems seem to come from iTunes, an Apple product no less. I'd say my Windows machine was far more stable. Take that how you will. shoez
&lawyers($instruction);
Its got some nice command line hints for OS X... but I dunno... its pretty light in othe areas. I thought it was kind of a cop out to claim "Make a Universal Boot Disk" ... and then explain that an OS X universal boot CD is still not a reality. (which is not really accurate either: DiskWarrior does a pretty good job as he explains in other places) I haven't tried his plan for making a "Universal OS 9 Disk", but most Macs require their own factory disks to start up from. We'll see.
I think the book has some good stuff for new to mid-level Mac Techs, but I think the title of the book should be "A Few Very Good Support Tips, a Bunch of Programs You Can Buy and Some Hyperlinks To Apple's Support Site".
> They also all figured out that KEYBOARD SHORCUTS help...
:-)
Here's one that'll help you help me: Alt-F4
I'll admit they can be more expensive in some cases. But 50%, give me a break man. Try to find a 1" thin widescreen notebook from Dell with built in 802.11g, Firewire 800, USB 2, DVD Burner, GigE etc... if they even make one, it will be price competitive with a powerbook.
You see, the thing is. For office PCs, dell makes very cheap proccessor+HDD boxes. They have built in graphics, slower busses, smaller HDDs and barely any modern connectivity. Sure you can add those things, but the price is no longer 599$. Apple just doesn't make the low end like that. So sure, if you compare feature for feature with the lowest of the low PCs, you can always find a cheaper dell.