The Big Think » Macintosh

World Backup Day

jasony — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:12:03 +0000

Today is World Backup Day. How ironic that the hard drive in Erin’s iMac just died! Good thing we’ve got Time Machine on it. Now we get to see how well it works.

We’re probably going to spring for professional installation of the new hard drive. I’ve looked up the directions to replacing the HD in her model of iMac and, wow, yeah… not going there. Better to pay somebody else the money to do it professionally. I trust my mad screwdriver skillz, but one slip up and we’re buying a whole new machine. No thanks.

Have you backed up your data lately? I just got a second 2TB hard drive to go with my first one and everything is backed up six ways from Sunday, so I think I’m covered. Still… wouldn’t hurt to burn the Quicken data to CD again, would it?

Move Me

jasony — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:51:44 +0000

Cool! SketchyPhysics is now available for the Mac. Time to boot up SketchUp and play a bit.

Happy Birthday to X

jasony — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:46:49 +0000

Mac OS X turns 9 years old today. I have continued to use the old OS 9 since then. I use X, but do all of my professional work on OS 9… until now. It’s fitting that tomorrow I will accept delivery on my new 27″ iMac. Yup, from now on I’m OS X only! I’ll miss Vision and OS 9, but technology changes, and eventually you have to change with it. This move was brought on by the confluence of several events: the continuing dilapidation of my G4 MDD, the need to update my sound pallet, and an upcoming feature film audio mix. Fortunately, all three of these things came to a head in my “off season”, so I am spending quite a bit of time at night curled up with manuals and new hardware. The Fedex guy has come to our door for the last five mornings straight (except Sunday).

I’m a bit nervous about finally making the switch to Logic and Digital Performer since I was probably among the fastest Vision users in the universe (a distinction that’s akin to being one of the fastest Cobol programmers around), but I’ll get it. Change is good, right?

Geeking out on the new iPad

jasony — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:43:02 +0000

Want. Will Have.

Broken Computer

jasony — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:53:40 +0000

I pulled my headphones out of my Macbook the other day and the red light from inside the headphone jack turned on (it’s the digital headphone out for when you have the laptop plugged in via sp/dif). I took it to the Apple store and the verdict was a motherboard replacement. There was one component bad on the motherboard, but since they’re monolithic, if something goes wrong you have to just replace the whole board. It’s still within warranty (for another 55 days), so the repair was free, but it would have been $600 otherwise.

They took the laptop overnight and gave me a new motherboard, plus a new faceplate (which was cracked), and a new keyboard, touchpad, and button. Not bad for a warranty repair. I think I’m going to pay the $250 for 2 more years of AppleCare in case this happens in the future. Hate to do it, but I want the computer to last a while.

Lego Man

jasony — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:04:25 +0000

Wow, I really want one of these. Too bad they’re sold out.

Avoid Mozy

jasony — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:20:32 +0000

MOZY for Mac is terrible! I just installed the backup utility and have had no end to problems. Half-baked UI, frequent beach-balling (why does it freeze for 30 seconds when I deselect a check box? Intolerable!), and general slow operation. Even the oft-blasted beta was better than this. I had high hopes for Mozy but I’ve been very disappointed.

Recommendation: Avoid Mozy until they get their act together. Even the free version isn’t worth what they charge. Why would I pay $60/year? Awful.

Computer Update

jasony — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:12:52 +0000

Still fighting with the computer. The OS 9 partition that has all of my work on it (thankfully, Sing is over now) still works, but I can’t recreate it using the drive clones I created years ago, and I don’t know why. I got two new drives and they both work fine, but I can’t reload the 9 partition, and if I can’t do that, then writing another year of Sing is like walking tightrope across a very large drop with no net. Not going to happen.

So yesterday Erin and I were in the Apple store and I was contemplating the purchase of a new MacPro (on a friend’s discount, of course!). As I was standing there, I had the realization that this new MacBook I’m typing on is probably 10x as powerful as my old G4, and I could possibly use it as a temporary stopgap. I bought a $20 adapter and confirmed that I could indeed use my 22″ Dell monitor (great monitor) with it, then bought a 2TB external drive to use as a backup. The external drive is going back to Fry’s (it only showed as 1.36TB, which is terrible even accounting for formatting space), but I might be able to make this work.

This solution would enable me to save the cost of a new Mac Pro ($2400!) for now, and it would let me ease into the whole purchase of the new studio by only having to buy the Midi interface and the new audio interface. The only downside is that I lose the easy portability of the laptop. Why? Because once it’s ensconced in my desk it will have seven of its nine ports in use. Not that I can’t unplug it and go, but grabbing it off the desk to go downstairs won’t be a one step process.

I’m still messing with getting the G4 to work, though. But Erin brought up what would have happened to me if this whole debacle had occurred two months ago. I don’t even want to contemplate that. In that case I would have paid almost ANYTHING to get the whole thing working again. In that regard, I think making the big jump is probably due. I hate kludging solutions together, though, so I’m still not sold on using the laptop as my main machine. What a pain- just glad it’s March!

The New Macbook Wheel

jasony — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:18:25 +0000

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Windows 7 an 8 ball?

jasony — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:29:36 +0000

“Windows 7 is a ‘minor point-type of release, as opposed to a major update or rewrite.’ Memory footprint for the kernel proved eerily similar to that of Vista as well. ‘In fact, as I worked my way through the process lists of the two operating systems, I was struck by the extent of the similarities…In a nutshell, Windows 7 M3 is a virtual twin of Vista when it comes to performance. In other words, Microsoft’s follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.’”

Hey, there’s always OS X!