My bad - I did miss zapping the PRAM. If you don't have TechTool, hold Command-Option-P-R while booting, and keep holding them until the third chime, then release.
Certainly a system that has been in use for a long period of time can become less stable due to increased complexity as new software is added. However, the real question is, how easy is it to clean up the mess and return to a smoothly running system, without reinstalling the entire operating system?
The problem with Windows is the Registry. Practically nobody, including Microsoft's own programmers, knows exactly what to clean up in the Registry to get the system running as good as new, without breaking something important. In Mac OS, however, it's really quite simple. Granted, you do have to have an understanding of how the system works, so I wouldn't expect a novice to know how to do this intuitively, but I'd expect far less of a Windows user.
The most obvious thing is the Desktop file (actually a couple of files now). This is the closest thing the Mac OS has to a Registry, and it's not close at all. Every six months or so, reboot while holding the Command and Option keys (technically, you just have to hold the keys while the Finder is loading) and it will ask if you want to rebuild the Desktop file for each mounted volume (filesystem). A couple minutes later, good as new.
The next thing is extensions and control panels. Perhaps you've downloaded some cheezy shareware thing that's conflicting with some other cheezy shareware thing. Open the Extensions Manager, and have a look. Usually you can easily identify where most things came from; if you don't recognize something, you can turn it off, reboot, and see what happens. You can create multiple extension sets to experiment with if you want.
Finally, preferences. Some app misbehaving? Trash the Preferences file. Everything reverts to defaults, but nothing is really broken.
And of course, if you want to uninstall an app, usually you just need to trash the folder the app is in. Sometimes it may come with control panels or extensions; just trash those too (they're easy to identify). If you want to be thorough, trash the prefs too, although it won't hurt to leave 'em.
One more problem: all OS X apps will have to be re-compiled for x86. I don't think that'd be too easy.
Porting Cocoa apps should be trivial, porting Carbon apps probably shouldn't be difficult, and Classic apps would need to be ported to Carbon (a bigger PITA than Apple lets on, apparently). However, what are the chances that all apps would be ported and tested on x86? Sure, the major popular ones would be, but what about the thousands of freeware and shareware apps that help make the Mac great when Apple's asleep at the wheel?
think where we'd be if apple put their minds to improving x11.
X11 is a pile of crap, and Apple knows it. It's not the technology behind X11, but the user experience is crap, and cannot be fixed without completely destroying backwards compatibility with those thousands of X11 apps that weren't designed with a good user experience in mind.
And by the way, you are aware that XFree86 runs beautifully on OSX? And I do mean beautifully - it adds little transparent drop-shadows under everything.
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) is raking in cash hand over fist (have you seen the prices of Mac Office?!?); there's a lot of money in it. However, there's MORE money in making people believe the Mac OS is not a viable alternative to Windows.
They've had builds running with Gecko for a long time, but last I heard (a few weeks ago) they'd decided that the next major release of AOL was to use MSIE. Sounds like that plan has changed recently. Yay!
From what I understand, Hotmail is big enough that this is not really true - likewise AOL - but at most e-mail providers, random alphanumerics will probably not be guessed.
Am I the only one who thinks that this should be an *entirely* obvious step that should be taken immediately?
No, plenty of other people who aren't willing to pay for anything agree with you completely. Other people who would be willing to pay up to $129 for the same experience you get from a Mac agree with you too.
Apple is a hardware company. Getting Mac OS X working correctly on commodity hardware would be VERY expensive.
I've found a method that's a bit more effective. Tell them, "please remove me from your list" before they can stammer out their opening stanza. They're legally obligated to cut you from the list, and they can't make more money off your number by selling it. (at least I hope that's the way it works).
No, the correct thing to say is, "Please ADD me to your Do Not Call list." Removing you from one list doesn't mean you won't appear on another list, but if you're on the Do Not Call list, you should not get another call from the SAME COMPANY. Note that the person calling probably doesn't actually work for the company they're representing; telemarketing is outsourced, and the DNC list probably applies to the telemarketing company rather than the company who wants you to buy stuff, so you may continue to get calls from other telemarketing companies on behalf of the same company, but not from the same telemarketing company again. That may vary somewhat.
Your state may also have a state-wide Do Not Call list; mine does.
For those of us in the civilized part of the country, Fry's is huge - they're usually a little out of the way, but it's not uncommon to browse around at Fry's and run into people you know, because geeks go there so often that you're bound to run into them from time to time. On top of that, Fry's has AT LEAST a full-page color ad in the newspaper every day of the week (often the back page of the Sports section), and often a 4-page section. This is seen by far more than just the geeks who hang out there regularly; this is seen by EVERYBODY.
Besides, outpost.com is just as accessible as walmart.com.
If my filesystem is hosed badly enough that fsck needs to ask my permission, you're damn right I want it to stop and ask my permission. Sure I'll say yes - but I know there's a problem, and if the drive is failing I definitely need to know about it ASAP before it gets any worse.
My home page allows the user to choose among several different themes, many of which look like windows on a desktop in a variety of operating systems. Your default theme when you first visit the site is chosen based on your browser and operating system. If you use a 4.0 or better browser, it chooses one of the more complex themes based on your OS; if you run Netscape 3 (which doesn't support background graphics in table cells) you get the Plain theme, and if it doesn't recognize your browser, you get the Simple theme which renders nicely in Lynx.
Robots and spiders, such as those who might be trolling for e-mail addresses, aren't recognized and therefore get the Simple theme. At the bottom of the main home page, only shown in the Simple theme, in very fine print, appears a message that is tailored for your particular IP address:
Slashdot Mirror
My bad - I did miss zapping the PRAM. If you don't have TechTool, hold Command-Option-P-R while booting, and keep holding them until the third chime, then release.
You expect modern American news outlets to be something more than a outlet for reworded press releases?
I don't really expect them to be reworded anymore.
Certainly a system that has been in use for a long period of time can become less stable due to increased complexity as new software is added. However, the real question is, how easy is it to clean up the mess and return to a smoothly running system, without reinstalling the entire operating system?
The problem with Windows is the Registry. Practically nobody, including Microsoft's own programmers, knows exactly what to clean up in the Registry to get the system running as good as new, without breaking something important. In Mac OS, however, it's really quite simple. Granted, you do have to have an understanding of how the system works, so I wouldn't expect a novice to know how to do this intuitively, but I'd expect far less of a Windows user.
The most obvious thing is the Desktop file (actually a couple of files now). This is the closest thing the Mac OS has to a Registry, and it's not close at all. Every six months or so, reboot while holding the Command and Option keys (technically, you just have to hold the keys while the Finder is loading) and it will ask if you want to rebuild the Desktop file for each mounted volume (filesystem). A couple minutes later, good as new.
The next thing is extensions and control panels. Perhaps you've downloaded some cheezy shareware thing that's conflicting with some other cheezy shareware thing. Open the Extensions Manager, and have a look. Usually you can easily identify where most things came from; if you don't recognize something, you can turn it off, reboot, and see what happens. You can create multiple extension sets to experiment with if you want.
Finally, preferences. Some app misbehaving? Trash the Preferences file. Everything reverts to defaults, but nothing is really broken.
And of course, if you want to uninstall an app, usually you just need to trash the folder the app is in. Sometimes it may come with control panels or extensions; just trash those too (they're easy to identify). If you want to be thorough, trash the prefs too, although it won't hurt to leave 'em.
I have yet to see anything easier to maintain.
PC Computing pretty much died at about the same time - just after Win95 came out.
One more problem: all OS X apps will have to be re-compiled for x86. I don't think that'd be too easy.
Porting Cocoa apps should be trivial, porting Carbon apps probably shouldn't be difficult, and Classic apps would need to be ported to Carbon (a bigger PITA than Apple lets on, apparently). However, what are the chances that all apps would be ported and tested on x86? Sure, the major popular ones would be, but what about the thousands of freeware and shareware apps that help make the Mac great when Apple's asleep at the wheel?
think where we'd be if apple put their minds to improving x11.
X11 is a pile of crap, and Apple knows it. It's not the technology behind X11, but the user experience is crap, and cannot be fixed without completely destroying backwards compatibility with those thousands of X11 apps that weren't designed with a good user experience in mind.
And by the way, you are aware that XFree86 runs beautifully on OSX? And I do mean beautifully - it adds little transparent drop-shadows under everything.
You're implying that Mac OS X is the only platform that would benefit from a Java port.
There's no money in it on either side.
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) is raking in cash hand over fist (have you seen the prices of Mac Office?!?); there's a lot of money in it. However, there's MORE money in making people believe the Mac OS is not a viable alternative to Windows.
interesting. i've never heared of cocoa.
Cocoa is Apple's name for what used to be the NeXTStep/OpenStep Objective C APIs, if that helps.
Yep, saw that at work yesterday, funniest thing I've seen in a long time.
And yes, I play Warcraft III on my iMac.
Mostly, though, if someone can afford a Mac, it's far more likely that they can afford to take us to lunch.
;-)
Sorry, I spent all my money on software. You'll have to buy.
They've had builds running with Gecko for a long time, but last I heard (a few weeks ago) they'd decided that the next major release of AOL was to use MSIE. Sounds like that plan has changed recently. Yay!
Sorry, things have been busy here - the last I heard (a few weeks ago) they were going with IE. Glad to hear they've come to their senses!
Could 1.1 be the version that AOL integrates with their client software?
No, the next version of America Online will still use MSIE. Sorry.
From what I understand, Hotmail is big enough that this is not really true - likewise AOL - but at most e-mail providers, random alphanumerics will probably not be guessed.
If the answer is "more lawyers" then the question shouldn't have been asked.
We're out of wood, what shall we add to the bonfire?
(Sorry, just had to say it.)
Am I the only one who thinks that this should be an *entirely* obvious step that should be taken immediately?
No, plenty of other people who aren't willing to pay for anything agree with you completely. Other people who would be willing to pay up to $129 for the same experience you get from a Mac agree with you too.
Apple is a hardware company. Getting Mac OS X working correctly on commodity hardware would be VERY expensive.
The beeps are SIT tones, and you can download a wav file from this page and elsewhere.
I've found a method that's a bit more effective. Tell them, "please remove me from your list" before they can stammer out their opening stanza. They're legally obligated to cut you from the list, and they can't make more money off your number by selling it. (at least I hope that's the way it works).
No, the correct thing to say is, "Please ADD me to your Do Not Call list." Removing you from one list doesn't mean you won't appear on another list, but if you're on the Do Not Call list, you should not get another call from the SAME COMPANY. Note that the person calling probably doesn't actually work for the company they're representing; telemarketing is outsourced, and the DNC list probably applies to the telemarketing company rather than the company who wants you to buy stuff, so you may continue to get calls from other telemarketing companies on behalf of the same company, but not from the same telemarketing company again. That may vary somewhat.
Your state may also have a state-wide Do Not Call list; mine does.
For those of us in the civilized part of the country, Fry's is huge - they're usually a little out of the way, but it's not uncommon to browse around at Fry's and run into people you know, because geeks go there so often that you're bound to run into them from time to time. On top of that, Fry's has AT LEAST a full-page color ad in the newspaper every day of the week (often the back page of the Sports section), and often a 4-page section. This is seen by far more than just the geeks who hang out there regularly; this is seen by EVERYBODY.
Besides, outpost.com is just as accessible as walmart.com.
If my filesystem is hosed badly enough that fsck needs to ask my permission, you're damn right I want it to stop and ask my permission. Sure I'll say yes - but I know there's a problem, and if the drive is failing I definitely need to know about it ASAP before it gets any worse.
My home page allows the user to choose among several different themes, many of which look like windows on a desktop in a variety of operating systems. Your default theme when you first visit the site is chosen based on your browser and operating system. If you use a 4.0 or better browser, it chooses one of the more complex themes based on your OS; if you run Netscape 3 (which doesn't support background graphics in table cells) you get the Plain theme, and if it doesn't recognize your browser, you get the Simple theme which renders nicely in Lynx.
Robots and spiders, such as those who might be trolling for e-mail addresses, aren't recognized and therefore get the Simple theme. At the bottom of the main home page, only shown in the Simple theme, in very fine print, appears a message that is tailored for your particular IP address:
Home page in simple theme
What about Easter eggs in browsers? (Not mine, of course...)
It doesn't matter if the downtime was my fault or theirs...the effect on my user experience was the same.
Try convincing the people who call Tech Support of this simple concept.
I think mod_rewrite can do it, but I've heard mod_rewrite described as a black art...