What the monopoly says, goes. They define a standard.
Well said! This is the same reason that software that follows the monopoly "sucks". For example, for all three of us users familiar with it, I love the potential that Pages offers. However, it "sucks", because it doesn't use MS Word standards and their are compatability problems. Even though it is a better layout program with more output options, stronger typography, blah blah blah (ok, yeah it is kind of rough in version 1.0, but substitute Pages for your favorite non-MS App), it doesn't use.doc at the end of the file name, so people get confused.
Are there even any other spread sheet programs available anymore? Even if there were, I like Excel enough (and have been using it since 1990) that I doubt I would switch, even if a newer product were massively better....again, proving many people's point on this thread that we stick to what we are comfortable with, even if it is a big shiny piece of poo.
I don't like Windows, but I need to do what is necessary to complete the assignment. For some people, replace assignment with job and add "to pay the bills."
I too have WinXP in a partition for Grad school work (MS Access, and some statistics add-on for Excel that was PC-only). I also own two PC's but would rather just use my Mac in XP mode. Sadly, the same mindset that keeps people using Windows, will also prevent most people from taking the time to install XP partitions on Macs.
The second part of your statement is one I'll never understand. Just because you need a PC at work, doesn't mean you need a PC at home, unless you are in business for yourself, or work from home. This has been true for me since my first Mac back in 1989. I simply don't understand people who feel the need to punish themselves with gawd-awful work-related software and hardware by bringing it into the sanctuary of their private lives and homes!
I agree totally that users are comfortable using what they know and are afraid to switch. I've seen it time and time again with reasonably intelligent people. Even my own family members can't seem to escape the grip of Microsoft, citing the same mantra: "need-it-for-work." Uh, Mom and Dad, you've been retired since your last two new computers.
I AM a Mac user, but I'm also a PC user. I'm also a Maddox fan. The reason it wasn't funny is because the funniest things in life are based in truth and all of his complaints (other than the overzealous Mac person) were mostly unfounded. For example, MacFixit exists because machines break and software conflicts. If MacFixit existed to help users bypass really bad bugs or horrible OS designs, it would be funny. Macs do "just work" and that is the allure for non-geeks. When I geek, I build a PC and overclock a video card. For the rest of my real life, I want a computer to work, and find no joy in configuring drivers and dorking around with error logs.
Not when it comes to Brand Identity. Unless you live in America for 35 years, shopping at TJ Max, only to find that it is called TK Max in England (not that I really shop there, but..)
For the record, Oh Ess TEN is pronounced the same way in the UK, even if they do botch Nike (Nigh Key, dammit, say it with me!)
Uh, how does the CEO of one of the biggest tech companies in the world have time to play video games? I'm a lowly graduate student with a full time job in Education (with plenty of income and not much responsibility) and I can barely find time to sneak in a Hold 'Em Poker Tournament on my computer from time-to-time.
Didn't the guy claim it was $1 more if you used something OTHER than IE? You are comparing Firefox and Safari prices, thus (based on the original claim) they should both be $1 more than if you check in IE. I asked which was which because I presumed you were showing a screen shot of IE vs. Firefox or IE vs. Safari, yet neither of them looked like IE. Didn't they stop making IE for Mac anyway?
Once you have an account, though, it is pretty transparent. I have been online banking with them for 3 or 4 years now, on a Mac, with no IE installed, and I've never had a problem banking, nor have I ever seen any prompt to use IE for security purposes.
I don't think it is a valid assumption that using Frontpage to create web pages would be more compatible with IE than it would be Firefox. They both browse basic web pages the same way. If you are using Frontpage, I can only assume your pages are somewhat basic.
Why don't you use Firefox to pay your bills, if you already use it anyway? Since they stopped making IE for Macintosh, the other three browsers installed on my computer usually do the job (Safari, Camino, or Firefox). I haven't encountered any web content that I HAD to have that doesn't work in these browsers in over a year (once my Online College dumped their IE requirement).
An excellent reply to an excellent post! It isn't so much as IE or MS bashing all the time. At some point a product becomes so mainstream and gains a comfortably dominating market position (through user complacency), that it becomes the giant stinker that it Windows and IE currently is. The poster product for this paradigm is AOL. I see IE users the same way I see AOL users...they just don't know any better, then they bitch and moan about how nothing works right and how they get spammed with porn, prescription drugs and hot stock tips, all the while not having the balls to cut their losses and dump AOL (or IE, in this discussion). People like to bitch about things (their health, their Windows boxes not working, their AOL accounts, etc.). Switching away from Windows/IE/AOL etc. gives them nothing to moan about.
The control freaks are the ones who obsess about passwords and security, not those of us who see a wirless network and have no qualms with joining it. The latter don't really care and see a service that is usable and use it. Hardly any control freak attitude at all. Mostly it is a realist attitude. "Hey, I'd like to check my email but I'm not at home. Oh, cool, here is a network, I'll join it." Most people wouldn't stop to think "oh man, I'm such a creep ripping off the rightful owner of this wonderful signal." The guy in this article was clearly going out of his way to access other people's bandwidth, but that alone isn't criminal. Most likely he was trying to do something illegal, but that doesn't hold up in any court.
It's why you can't simply enter my house, sit there without taking anything and still be breaking the law.
Except for the fact that your wireless connection extends beyond your house, and therefore is your responsibility to prevent unauthorized access. Also, the article pointed out two laws; one about hacking into a computer and the other about accessing a signal without authorization. In the first case (hacking into a computer) there is an obvious invasion of privacy, but in the second case, there is none. When I stay in hotels, I look for wireless access points. If I get access, I'm not accessing anyone's data or even their computers, so there is no privacy involved. I'd like to hear your take on how this constitutes an invasion of privacy.
Another point...it isn't incompetence if one doesn't secure their wireless network. I for one don't mind people using my bandwidth as long as they don't intrude into my data. If I choose specifically NOT to prevent access by my neighbors, that isn't incompetence. Also, I'm pretty computer savy (Master's in Educational Technology), but I found my BT wireless router to be a bit confounding to configure, both on my pc and my Mac.
If I find $100 on the ground and no obvious owner in the area, then guess what. Drinks are on me, meet me at the bar. Seriously, who even thinks this is a moral issue? Get off of your high horses people!
Well I live in England at the moment and heard this story on the radio yesterday, so I suppose it isn't a troll or a joke. Remember, this is a country that only recently has allowed iPod fm transmitter devices to be used in cars. Good thing they made it legal, because I had been using my US-purchased fm transmitter for the two years I've lived here...and I drive through a police checkpoint with an id check every morning! They never said a word.
Sorry, I took you "inspired and retarded" comment as sarcasm. Since you are new to the Mac, you'll soon realize that the "retarded" portions are mostly because you are used to the moreso retarded Windows way. It all starts to make sense after awhile. It is one of the reasons you rarely hear anyone "switching back" to Windows. Good luck to you.
Yes, that is where you turn on full keyboard access. Alternately, you can press control + f1 to toggle it on and off. I'm not sure what you mean by it not working in all applications, as all the programs I use use the built in developer dialogue boxes. Perhaps there are still a few weird apps out there that decide to just bypass all the built in standard development features, but I don't use any.
First of all, I recall my "ignorant" comment. It just irks me when people take baseless potshots against any product, as evident by his last few lines. I should be bigger than that, but man, it gets old.
To your post: 1) You can navigate dialogue boxes with the keyboard. You have to turn it on in system prefs though. 2) Pressing Enter is a Windows method. The Mac way isn't right or wrong, just different. As with most Mac keyboard commands, they usually require a modifier key so you don't inadvertantly cause the machine to do something you didn't want it to. A perfect example is deleting a file. With Windows, the delete key moves a file to the recycle bin. If you aren't paying attention, you can lose a file. Perhaps you have a sentence highlighted in Word and you hit the delete key to erase it, but you didn't realize the focus was actually on a file on the desktop...your sentence remains and your file goes in the bin. With OS X, you have to hold down the command key + Del key to move a file to the trash. This way it is impossible to inadvertantly delete a file because the computer requires a deliberate action to make it happen.
Actually, I was mistaken. It was unclear how to coninue the story beyond the first page and I inadvertantly was reading the "Worst" products of all time, and not the "Most Annoying". So therefore, I would like to add their web page to the list.
5. Word's horrible horrible outliner that singlehandedly killed off actually useable outliners.
Not to mention the same outliner that is nowhere near acceptable for any academic pursuit, and the lack of APA style tools. As if Microsoft wants to reinvent all scholastic standards that have been in place since the time Bill Gates was in diapers?
Hmmm, jazz drives...this is the third or fourth post I've seen that complains that Brand-X model wasn't on the list. I went through the top 25, and Jazz drives are on there under the Zip drive entry. Maybe this list keeps updating, because I keep seeing things people claim aren't on the list, that are clearly on the list.
I owned three Zip drives and they all broke. The article refers to the "click-click-click" death rattle that every zip drive I ever was around eventually got.
Brilliant design, or ignorant user? Seems like the little ball in the middle of my mouse moves the preview around just fine. Unless of course you mean something else by the "view port"?
And for the last time people, Mac OS has had right mouse click functionality for at least the past 10 years, so get over it.
is anyone going to argue that tap-clicking is a useful feature?
I will argue for it. I love it (Mac OS) and I rarely misclick. My wife hates it and turns it off because she constantly misclicks. It can be a problem for those who don't like it or aren't used to it. For example, when we bought our current iMac online, my wife accidently bought the 24" model instead of the 20" model, because of the click pad.
I think it has to do with the dexterity of the operator, as it does require a bit more skill than normal. It is kind of like when computer mice started becoming ubiquitous. At times, it was painful watching so many "noobs" trying to operate a mouse.
As far as turning it off, at least in OS X it is OFF by default, for exactly the same reasons people complain about it in this thread. Whoever said it can't be turned off because it is a hardware function is speaking specifically for one PC brand, I suppose?
I personally couldn't live without the functionality of the track pad in OS X. Right-clicking with a second finger and the two finger scroll features are killer. I'm not a fan of the one and a half click and drag thing, but at least it is available for those who like it.
I saw two Apple products on there (Pippin, Mac Portable). And they took a dig at the general lameness of Apple products during the mid-90s. Care to elaborate on which other Apple products belong on there? There were some bad designs, like the Cube, but that doesn't particularly qualify as "annoying". Orange and blue clamshells, on the other hand, do.
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Are there even any other spread sheet programs available anymore? Even if there were, I like Excel enough (and have been using it since 1990) that I doubt I would switch, even if a newer product were massively better....again, proving many people's point on this thread that we stick to what we are comfortable with, even if it is a big shiny piece of poo.
The second part of your statement is one I'll never understand. Just because you need a PC at work, doesn't mean you need a PC at home, unless you are in business for yourself, or work from home. This has been true for me since my first Mac back in 1989. I simply don't understand people who feel the need to punish themselves with gawd-awful work-related software and hardware by bringing it into the sanctuary of their private lives and homes!
I agree totally that users are comfortable using what they know and are afraid to switch. I've seen it time and time again with reasonably intelligent people. Even my own family members can't seem to escape the grip of Microsoft, citing the same mantra: "need-it-for-work." Uh, Mom and Dad, you've been retired since your last two new computers.
I AM a Mac user, but I'm also a PC user. I'm also a Maddox fan. The reason it wasn't funny is because the funniest things in life are based in truth and all of his complaints (other than the overzealous Mac person) were mostly unfounded. For example, MacFixit exists because machines break and software conflicts. If MacFixit existed to help users bypass really bad bugs or horrible OS designs, it would be funny. Macs do "just work" and that is the allure for non-geeks. When I geek, I build a PC and overclock a video card. For the rest of my real life, I want a computer to work, and find no joy in configuring drivers and dorking around with error logs.
...the only unfunny post ever by Maddox :-( Seriously, not even remotely funny....well, except for the Jobs+Kool Aid picture...
For the record, Oh Ess TEN is pronounced the same way in the UK, even if they do botch Nike (Nigh Key, dammit, say it with me!)
Uh, how does the CEO of one of the biggest tech companies in the world have time to play video games? I'm a lowly graduate student with a full time job in Education (with plenty of income and not much responsibility) and I can barely find time to sneak in a Hold 'Em Poker Tournament on my computer from time-to-time.
Didn't the guy claim it was $1 more if you used something OTHER than IE? You are comparing Firefox and Safari prices, thus (based on the original claim) they should both be $1 more than if you check in IE. I asked which was which because I presumed you were showing a screen shot of IE vs. Firefox or IE vs. Safari, yet neither of them looked like IE. Didn't they stop making IE for Mac anyway?
Which one is which?
Once you have an account, though, it is pretty transparent. I have been online banking with them for 3 or 4 years now, on a Mac, with no IE installed, and I've never had a problem banking, nor have I ever seen any prompt to use IE for security purposes.
Why don't you use Firefox to pay your bills, if you already use it anyway? Since they stopped making IE for Macintosh, the other three browsers installed on my computer usually do the job (Safari, Camino, or Firefox). I haven't encountered any web content that I HAD to have that doesn't work in these browsers in over a year (once my Online College dumped their IE requirement).
An excellent reply to an excellent post! It isn't so much as IE or MS bashing all the time. At some point a product becomes so mainstream and gains a comfortably dominating market position (through user complacency), that it becomes the giant stinker that it Windows and IE currently is. The poster product for this paradigm is AOL. I see IE users the same way I see AOL users...they just don't know any better, then they bitch and moan about how nothing works right and how they get spammed with porn, prescription drugs and hot stock tips, all the while not having the balls to cut their losses and dump AOL (or IE, in this discussion). People like to bitch about things (their health, their Windows boxes not working, their AOL accounts, etc.). Switching away from Windows/IE/AOL etc. gives them nothing to moan about.
The control freaks are the ones who obsess about passwords and security, not those of us who see a wirless network and have no qualms with joining it. The latter don't really care and see a service that is usable and use it. Hardly any control freak attitude at all. Mostly it is a realist attitude. "Hey, I'd like to check my email but I'm not at home. Oh, cool, here is a network, I'll join it." Most people wouldn't stop to think "oh man, I'm such a creep ripping off the rightful owner of this wonderful signal." The guy in this article was clearly going out of his way to access other people's bandwidth, but that alone isn't criminal. Most likely he was trying to do something illegal, but that doesn't hold up in any court.
It's why you can't simply enter my house, sit there without taking anything and still be breaking the law. Except for the fact that your wireless connection extends beyond your house, and therefore is your responsibility to prevent unauthorized access. Also, the article pointed out two laws; one about hacking into a computer and the other about accessing a signal without authorization. In the first case (hacking into a computer) there is an obvious invasion of privacy, but in the second case, there is none. When I stay in hotels, I look for wireless access points. If I get access, I'm not accessing anyone's data or even their computers, so there is no privacy involved. I'd like to hear your take on how this constitutes an invasion of privacy.
Another point...it isn't incompetence if one doesn't secure their wireless network. I for one don't mind people using my bandwidth as long as they don't intrude into my data. If I choose specifically NOT to prevent access by my neighbors, that isn't incompetence. Also, I'm pretty computer savy (Master's in Educational Technology), but I found my BT wireless router to be a bit confounding to configure, both on my pc and my Mac.
If I find $100 on the ground and no obvious owner in the area, then guess what. Drinks are on me, meet me at the bar. Seriously, who even thinks this is a moral issue? Get off of your high horses people!
Well I live in England at the moment and heard this story on the radio yesterday, so I suppose it isn't a troll or a joke. Remember, this is a country that only recently has allowed iPod fm transmitter devices to be used in cars. Good thing they made it legal, because I had been using my US-purchased fm transmitter for the two years I've lived here...and I drive through a police checkpoint with an id check every morning! They never said a word.
Sorry, I took you "inspired and retarded" comment as sarcasm. Since you are new to the Mac, you'll soon realize that the "retarded" portions are mostly because you are used to the moreso retarded Windows way. It all starts to make sense after awhile. It is one of the reasons you rarely hear anyone "switching back" to Windows. Good luck to you.
Yes, that is where you turn on full keyboard access. Alternately, you can press control + f1 to toggle it on and off. I'm not sure what you mean by it not working in all applications, as all the programs I use use the built in developer dialogue boxes. Perhaps there are still a few weird apps out there that decide to just bypass all the built in standard development features, but I don't use any.
Clearly I suck. I was reading the wrong article. Thanks to the craptacular web site, I couldn't figure out how to continue the story beyond page 1...
To your post: 1) You can navigate dialogue boxes with the keyboard. You have to turn it on in system prefs though. 2) Pressing Enter is a Windows method. The Mac way isn't right or wrong, just different. As with most Mac keyboard commands, they usually require a modifier key so you don't inadvertantly cause the machine to do something you didn't want it to. A perfect example is deleting a file. With Windows, the delete key moves a file to the recycle bin. If you aren't paying attention, you can lose a file. Perhaps you have a sentence highlighted in Word and you hit the delete key to erase it, but you didn't realize the focus was actually on a file on the desktop...your sentence remains and your file goes in the bin. With OS X, you have to hold down the command key + Del key to move a file to the trash. This way it is impossible to inadvertantly delete a file because the computer requires a deliberate action to make it happen.
Actually, I was mistaken. It was unclear how to coninue the story beyond the first page and I inadvertantly was reading the "Worst" products of all time, and not the "Most Annoying". So therefore, I would like to add their web page to the list.
I owned three Zip drives and they all broke. The article refers to the "click-click-click" death rattle that every zip drive I ever was around eventually got.
And for the last time people, Mac OS has had right mouse click functionality for at least the past 10 years, so get over it.
I think it has to do with the dexterity of the operator, as it does require a bit more skill than normal. It is kind of like when computer mice started becoming ubiquitous. At times, it was painful watching so many "noobs" trying to operate a mouse.
As far as turning it off, at least in OS X it is OFF by default, for exactly the same reasons people complain about it in this thread. Whoever said it can't be turned off because it is a hardware function is speaking specifically for one PC brand, I suppose?
I personally couldn't live without the functionality of the track pad in OS X. Right-clicking with a second finger and the two finger scroll features are killer. I'm not a fan of the one and a half click and drag thing, but at least it is available for those who like it.
I saw two Apple products on there (Pippin, Mac Portable). And they took a dig at the general lameness of Apple products during the mid-90s. Care to elaborate on which other Apple products belong on there? There were some bad designs, like the Cube, but that doesn't particularly qualify as "annoying". Orange and blue clamshells, on the other hand, do.