Any of us Mac geeks here could go on for hours responding to your post (and undoubtedly somebody's writing up a 6,000 word post as I type this), but I'll answer it this way:
I'm an old school Mac user (print shop graphics since '88) and when OS X hit the scene, I was really looking forward to living my life at the command line, becoming an über hacker, since all my years of troubleshooting skills would need to be relearned. Only problem is, there's nothing to do.
Sure, in the early days (10.0.4) I was using unsupported machines (603 and 604e clones with G3 upgrades) so some trickery (thank you, Ryan Rempel!) was required to get it to install. But once installed (and I've since moved to a G4 tower), there's just nothing to do. It really is true: everything Just Works(TM), which in my case, has been something of a disappointment.
I've seen one kernel panic in the past two years, and that happened at the end of the install process for one of the 10.3 point upgrades. The machine booted fine after that, so I don't even really count it. I spend at least as much time using XP at work as I do using this thing at home, and even though my well specced office PC has ~5 times the clock speed, my Mac is *much* harder to bog down or destabilize.
Also, OpenOffice has been surprisingly good since I started using it recently. In addition to that, I recommend two additional apps for a new Mac user: A $25 app called Little Snitch for more fine grained control over IPFW, and a freeware app called Desktop Manager that gives you a totally freaking awesome virtual desktop implementation with mind bending eye candy.
In a way, it was actually easier ten years ago to convince people... all you had to do was point out that Macs cost four times as much, but we still bought 'em. Now that they're comparably priced, that argument doesn't work anymore. Ain't that a bitch? Well, no. Otherwise I'd still be using my old dual 604e tower.
Okay, so maybe 'typesetting' isn't the most appropriate term for this job. She's a nice little old lady who's written her first novel on an old Mac, and I'm getting it ready for printing draft copies so that her family (the subjects of said book) can proofread it. Formatting lists, poems, song lyrics, biblical quotes, etc.
I'm far from an amateur, I started typesetting in the late 80s. This is just a little self-published autobiography, not galley proofs for Doubleday. This is what I'd normally consider a Quark project, but since they're in perpetual footbullet mode these days, and I don't feel like taking the time to learn InDesign, I figured I'd see how OpenOffice does.
And no, she's not paying me very much at all. I charge her half price for my time, and sometimes I don't charge her anything at all. But as side jobs go, it beats the hell out of delousing Winboxes.
I just started using OpenOffice in the past few months, and I'm very impressed. It's true what they say about it being able to open more stuff more properly than MS Office. I discovered on Friday that it actually interprets RTF better than MS Office.
I'm currently typesetting a 320 page book for a client, and figured I'd give OpenOffice a shot. It's turning out to be rather capable so far.
I'm thinking that I may soon be able to convince the orginization I work for to move over to it, as we're experiencing more and more of the typical problems with MS Office, most notably Word and PowerPoint. We'll probably have to stick with MS Excel for a while, as we've got too much business logic (especially timesheets/payroll!) built with intricate Excel macros. But for everything else, I think it'll be a nice improvement.
So as a long time Mac user who's spent the weekend A) doing long document formatting with OpenOffice and 2) salvaging a hosed XP laptop with Knoppix, THANK YOU FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS!
TV didn't have all that trash on it before Reagan became president, it must be the Republicans trying to piss off their own people and mobilize them against the Democrats for allowing filth on TV
does anyone here just say it's all stupid? Is anyone here absolutely consistent in their opinion?
Yes.
I am Mr. A Number One Bush detractor, but I frequently point out that holding his verbal gaffes against him is only a step removed from criticizing his leadership because you don't like his haircut. I had to frequently remind my friends while watching the debates that both men misspoke, and that while it's fun to joke about it, it is not substantive.
But to despise him for the dumb shit he seems to believe, well, that's fair game.
I disagree. I'm seeing more and more typos online, regardless of the source. Sure, we expect common mistakes in slashdot posts, but how do you explain finding numerous errors on the web sites of CBS and the BBC? I'm starting to wonder if something about reading text on a CRT or LCD makes accurate proofreading fundmentally more difficult.
Or maybe it's true what they say: The sum total of all intelligence on the planet is a constant, yet the population grows.
How do we know this isn't Karl Rove setting us up, the way he set up Dan Rather?
<blink>
Ding, ding, ding!
</blink>
It's parody. Anything questioning the legitimacy of the 2004 outcome, no matter how ludicrous or well reasoned, can now clearly be shown to have been inspired by this, uhh, piece.
We'll never know exactly which issues provided what number of votes, but that one was a significant part of Karl Rove's strategy. How many 'swing states' had anti-homosexual initiatives on the ballot this year? Do you doubt that this helped to generate added turnout among a certain demographic?
by the time I have thought it through properly noone will be reading the thread.
You'd be surprised.
There are many of us who wait until a discussion has 'matured' for a few days before reading the thread. I suppose to prove my point I should have bookmarked this comment and posted this response two weeks from now, but hopefully you get the point.
I sometimes post links to images in my comments, and will see hits trickle in for *weeks* after the fact.
I don't apologize for what I think at all. I was apologizing/clarifying/whatever for responding as if you'd said something you didn't. It was not intentional, though. One could read the two main posts and draw the conclusion that I was spinning what you said in a deceptive way, which is the same perception that caused me to make the 'what a dick' comment above in reference to this comment.
I've definitely refined my views over the years. One example is the whole gun issue. I always said that in an ideal world there should be no guns, but since they were already out there, preventing their spread was not feasible. I now feel differently; I now at least feel that I understand the intent behind the second amendment. I used to carry concealed (work related) but now I have no desire to ever carry again. However, I fully support your right to do so, as long as you're not irresponsible about it.
I may be what you would think of as a bleeding heart liberal (odd, I don't hear that particular term anymore), but I am a fervent believer in free market capitalism, limited government, etc., etc. Maybe I'm as hard to pigeonhole as you claim to be. When I was younger I considered myself a Republican, and I still consider myself conservative. Of course, those terms (conservative and liberal) have been so thoroughly twisted around so many times that I think their use today can only be considered slightly less harmful than that of GOTO, and at least as confusing to the issue at hand.
Just for the record, yes I realize that my response above did not really line up with the context of your post; I read it at work, and then had turned it over in my head for many hours by the time I got home and replied. I was kinda replying to your points, kinda using slashdot as a scratchpad, and kinda misremembering the parent post, and kinda being a smartass.
That said, I'd like to make a quick point about radio broadcasts, and to a lesser extent tv, and say I'd rather listen to one ad every few songs than 15 minutes of back to back ads every hour or so.
Around here we've got the best of all possible worlds: 15 minutes of ads every few songs. And just in case I zone out on them, they very thoughtfully compress the piss out of them so that I can actually see the used car lot announcer's words hanging in the air in front of me as I drive.
I was sure the response I was about to read was my personal favorite:
"It won't let me."
That one drives me up a freakin' wall. I get that all the time from people at work. Usually right before I staple their eyelids to their forehead so they'll be able to read the god damn error message next time.
My preferred drink is jack-n-coke, even though I gave up soda two years ago in all other forms. I'm perpetually on the lookout for a decent substitute. For the time being however, I'm off to the laundry room for another 12oz. Coke.
Slashdot Mirror
The FCC doesn't guarantee that you won't hear anything offensive, ever.
All in due time.
VERY well said.
Amen.
What's the point of a properly calibrated monitor that uncalibrates your eyes?
Do they seek a ban on violent video games?
Or do they seek to violently ban video games?
I hope they clear that up before issuing orders to law enforcement.
Any of us Mac geeks here could go on for hours responding to your post (and undoubtedly somebody's writing up a 6,000 word post as I type this), but I'll answer it this way:
I'm an old school Mac user (print shop graphics since '88) and when OS X hit the scene, I was really looking forward to living my life at the command line, becoming an über hacker, since all my years of troubleshooting skills would need to be relearned. Only problem is, there's nothing to do.
Sure, in the early days (10.0.4) I was using unsupported machines (603 and 604e clones with G3 upgrades) so some trickery (thank you, Ryan Rempel!) was required to get it to install. But once installed (and I've since moved to a G4 tower), there's just nothing to do. It really is true: everything Just Works(TM), which in my case, has been something of a disappointment.
I've seen one kernel panic in the past two years, and that happened at the end of the install process for one of the 10.3 point upgrades. The machine booted fine after that, so I don't even really count it. I spend at least as much time using XP at work as I do using this thing at home, and even though my well specced office PC has ~5 times the clock speed, my Mac is *much* harder to bog down or destabilize.
Also, OpenOffice has been surprisingly good since I started using it recently. In addition to that, I recommend two additional apps for a new Mac user: A $25 app called Little Snitch for more fine grained control over IPFW, and a freeware app called Desktop Manager that gives you a totally freaking awesome virtual desktop implementation with mind bending eye candy.
In a way, it was actually easier ten years ago to convince people... all you had to do was point out that Macs cost four times as much, but we still bought 'em. Now that they're comparably priced, that argument doesn't work anymore. Ain't that a bitch? Well, no. Otherwise I'd still be using my old dual 604e tower.
Although not working quite reliably yet, speeds up boot 2-3 times
Then what? It wears out or something?
You're soaking in it!
Any OCR font (like what's printed at the bottom of a check) should do the trick.
Okay, so maybe 'typesetting' isn't the most appropriate term for this job. She's a nice little old lady who's written her first novel on an old Mac, and I'm getting it ready for printing draft copies so that her family (the subjects of said book) can proofread it. Formatting lists, poems, song lyrics, biblical quotes, etc.
I'm far from an amateur, I started typesetting in the late 80s. This is just a little self-published autobiography, not galley proofs for Doubleday. This is what I'd normally consider a Quark project, but since they're in perpetual footbullet mode these days, and I don't feel like taking the time to learn InDesign, I figured I'd see how OpenOffice does.
And no, she's not paying me very much at all. I charge her half price for my time, and sometimes I don't charge her anything at all. But as side jobs go, it beats the hell out of delousing Winboxes.
I just started using OpenOffice in the past few months, and I'm very impressed. It's true what they say about it being able to open more stuff more properly than MS Office. I discovered on Friday that it actually interprets RTF better than MS Office.
I'm currently typesetting a 320 page book for a client, and figured I'd give OpenOffice a shot. It's turning out to be rather capable so far.
I'm thinking that I may soon be able to convince the orginization I work for to move over to it, as we're experiencing more and more of the typical problems with MS Office, most notably Word and PowerPoint. We'll probably have to stick with MS Excel for a while, as we've got too much business logic (especially timesheets/payroll!) built with intricate Excel macros. But for everything else, I think it'll be a nice improvement.
So as a long time Mac user who's spent the weekend A) doing long document formatting with OpenOffice and 2) salvaging a hosed XP laptop with Knoppix, THANK YOU FREE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS!
TV didn't have all that trash on it before Reagan became president, it must be the Republicans trying to piss off their own people and mobilize them against the Democrats for allowing filth on TV
Well, DUH!!!
does anyone here just say it's all stupid? Is anyone here absolutely consistent in their opinion?
Yes.
I am Mr. A Number One Bush detractor, but I frequently point out that holding his verbal gaffes against him is only a step removed from criticizing his leadership because you don't like his haircut. I had to frequently remind my friends while watching the debates that both men misspoke, and that while it's fun to joke about it, it is not substantive.
But to despise him for the dumb shit he seems to believe, well, that's fair game.
I disagree. I'm seeing more and more typos online, regardless of the source. Sure, we expect common mistakes in slashdot posts, but how do you explain finding numerous errors on the web sites of CBS and the BBC? I'm starting to wonder if something about reading text on a CRT or LCD makes accurate proofreading fundmentally more difficult.
Or maybe it's true what they say: The sum total of all intelligence on the planet is a constant, yet the population grows.
I'm getting mine Dec. 25th.
My mom called me from outside an Apple Store to find out which one to buy, then made me promise to look surprised when I unwrap it.
<blink></blink>
It's parody. Anything questioning the legitimacy of the 2004 outcome, no matter how ludicrous or well reasoned, can now clearly be shown to have been inspired by this, uhh, piece.
You're a whack-job. A real, certifiable grade A 100% lunatic whacko.
You must be new here.
And this would help how?
We'll never know exactly which issues provided what number of votes, but that one was a significant part of Karl Rove's strategy. How many 'swing states' had anti-homosexual initiatives on the ballot this year? Do you doubt that this helped to generate added turnout among a certain demographic?
by the time I have thought it through properly noone will be reading the thread.
You'd be surprised.
There are many of us who wait until a discussion has 'matured' for a few days before reading the thread. I suppose to prove my point I should have bookmarked this comment and posted this response two weeks from now, but hopefully you get the point.
I sometimes post links to images in my comments, and will see hits trickle in for *weeks* after the fact.
Go nuts.
I don't apologize for what I think at all. I was apologizing/clarifying/whatever for responding as if you'd said something you didn't. It was not intentional, though. One could read the two main posts and draw the conclusion that I was spinning what you said in a deceptive way, which is the same perception that caused me to make the 'what a dick' comment above in reference to this comment.
I've definitely refined my views over the years. One example is the whole gun issue. I always said that in an ideal world there should be no guns, but since they were already out there, preventing their spread was not feasible. I now feel differently; I now at least feel that I understand the intent behind the second amendment. I used to carry concealed (work related) but now I have no desire to ever carry again. However, I fully support your right to do so, as long as you're not irresponsible about it.
I may be what you would think of as a bleeding heart liberal (odd, I don't hear that particular term anymore), but I am a fervent believer in free market capitalism, limited government, etc., etc. Maybe I'm as hard to pigeonhole as you claim to be. When I was younger I considered myself a Republican, and I still consider myself conservative. Of course, those terms (conservative and liberal) have been so thoroughly twisted around so many times that I think their use today can only be considered slightly less harmful than that of GOTO, and at least as confusing to the issue at hand.
I don't get the marxist comment, though.
Just for the record, yes I realize that my response above did not really line up with the context of your post; I read it at work, and then had turned it over in my head for many hours by the time I got home and replied. I was kinda replying to your points, kinda using slashdot as a scratchpad, and kinda misremembering the parent post, and kinda being a smartass.
Kinda.
That said, I'd like to make a quick point about radio broadcasts, and to a lesser extent tv, and say I'd rather listen to one ad every few songs than 15 minutes of back to back ads every hour or so.
Around here we've got the best of all possible worlds: 15 minutes of ads every few songs. And just in case I zone out on them, they very thoughtfully compress the piss out of them so that I can actually see the used car lot announcer's words hanging in the air in front of me as I drive.
I was sure the response I was about to read was my personal favorite:
"It won't let me."
That one drives me up a freakin' wall. I get that all the time from people at work. Usually right before I staple their eyelids to their forehead so they'll be able to read the god damn error message next time.
Heh. I was already thinking much the same thing.
My preferred drink is jack-n-coke, even though I gave up soda two years ago in all other forms. I'm perpetually on the lookout for a decent substitute. For the time being however, I'm off to the laundry room for another 12oz. Coke.