I finally crossed to the Dark Side! :)

Post #291,837 by a6l6e6x 8/28/07 10:15:19 PM Reply	I finally crossed to the Dark Side! :) Got the middle [link\|http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html\|MacBook], but with 2 GB memory. I got the wireless (Bluetoth) Mighty Mouse and the iWork package as well. My HP laptop is approaching 3 years of service and having agravating problems. The power connection at the laptop 18 V. socket and the plug from the brick are mostly not working. I got a replacement brick and it made no differece. The center post is not loose either. Anyway, the original plan to get a MacBook when Leopard came out has been shortcircuited. While I chuckle at mmoffitt's Vista related signature, I've decided some time ago not to pay the Microsoft tax on my laptop ever again. Besides, the McBook uses half the power of the HP. When I'm running off solar power, it makes a difference. So far, things are going OK. I've been trying to use Apple's produvts on the MacBook. The only thing tripping me up is Safari. With Fiefox, I'm in the habit of right clicking and then selecting Back. Safari ignores that. The Back button on top is not as convenient. Any work-around for this? Do many folks use Firefox instead of Safari? Next, I need to re-do my Quatro-Pro (circa 1993) portfolio tracking spreadsheet to work on Numbers, the Mac's iWork spreadsheet. Importing .CSV files downloaded from the Yahoo Finance site is must. Expect a few more posts in the Mac forum from me. Alex Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
Post #291,839 by Another Scott 8/28/07 10:29:19 PM Reply	We use Firefox on our Macs without incident. We don't have an Intel-based Mac yet, though. I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary with FF compared to on Winders. Apple's "Mail" seems a little weird compared to Thunderbird, but it works fine. Both are better than Eudora, IMO. You might want to look into [link\|http://www.finkproject.org/index.php\|Fink] if you like the idea of installing Free/Open Source software on OS X. Have fun! Cheers, Scott.
Post #292,008 by ubernostrum 8/31/07 2:18:58 AM Reply	I had to ditch Mail It very quickly gets bogged down if you're regularly receiving a lot of email (in my case, a few thousand messages a day). Thunderbird, on the other hand, deals with it like a champ. --\r\nYou cooin' with my bird?
Post #292,010 by pwhysall 8/31/07 2:41:44 AM Reply	Depends. I get a lot of mail. but I don't receive it directly in Mail, I use an IMAP server. Works fine. Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall\|A better terminal emulator] [image\|http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/pwhysall/Misc/saveus.png\|0\|Darwinia\|\|]
Post #292,034 by ubernostrum 8/31/07 11:11:21 AM Reply	Yeah, so do I Mail started choking when I had an IMAP folder with about 16000 messages in it; it'd hang for minutes at a time, it'd crash, etc., etc. and finally I couldn't take it anymore and picked up Thunderbird again, which handles the same setup with the same volume, but without the freezing or the crashing. --\r\nYou cooin' with my bird?
Post #292,030 by imqwerky 8/31/07 10:49:34 AM Reply	Ooooh, Mr, Popular! :-) receiving a lot of email (in my case, a few thousand messages a day) Smile, Amy
Post #292,033 by ubernostrum 8/31/07 11:09:59 AM Reply	Yup, automated notifiers love me :) --\r\nYou cooin' with my bird?
Post #291,862 by tjsinclair 8/29/07 12:27:10 AM Reply	Wait -- I thought Winders was the dark side! Okay, who's been screwing around with the OS similes? Anyway, I use Safari on my MacBook Pro and I believe you have a few options: - [Ctrl]-click on the page and select [Back] from the context menu - Plug in a two-button mouse and use the right-click as usual. - In the Keyboard & Mouse Preferences select "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondard click" (not sure if this is available on the MacBook and not Pro-only, but worth a look. A nice feature I use quite a bit while in VMware. - Use [Cmd]-[left arrow] You didn't mention if you were just using the trackpad or if you had a mouse so I tried to cover both bases. Safari has a few tricks that take getting used to if your muscle memory is geared to Firefox. The Safari online help is pretty good so you might want to poke through there as well. Good luck on your new platform and feel free to ask your questions here. I second the suggestion of using [link\|http://fink.sourceforge.net\|Fink] to get some nifty open source software. [link\|http://darwinports.com/\|Darwin Ports], a project to bring the BSD ports system to OS X is also pretty nifty. You can even have both installed without much conflict since Fink uses a different section of the file system. Tom Sinclair Jayne: Well, as a rule, I say, girlfolk ain't to be trusted. River: "Jayne" is a girl's name. Jayne: Well, Jayne ain't a girl! She starts in on that girl's-name thing, [reaches into his pants] I'll show her good 'n' all, I got man parts! Simon: I'm\ufffd trying to think of a way for you to be cruder. I just\ufffd it's not coming. - "Trash", Firefly
Post #291,877 by a6l6e6x 8/29/07 1:35:38 PM Reply	Well, I was thinking hardware platform! Apple used to be so proprietary in that department, The Mighty Mouse does configure to act as if it had a right click button even though it's one top of the mouse surface. Safari does buy the right click to allow me to go Back. I'm a happy camper! I'll be checking out Fink later. Alex Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)
Post #291,900 by Ashton 8/29/07 6:30:39 PM 8/29/07 6:31:30 PM Reply	Bad power jack - You may not care to resurrect, of course. On a random pass a year+ back, I saw a guy on eBay doing refurbs of just that + some other connectors commonly tugged on. A certain guarantee.. was the point. (We all know about the vicissitudes of multi-layer boards, the special de- and resoldering techniques. Which sometimes don't work.) He may have been talking $40. Likely others out there, of course ; haven't looked. It's always seemed bizarre to trash a whole mobo for one trivial spot -- without at least, a try. (Have you looked to see if it's just a visible cracked solder joint at the jack? Sometimes the hefty items don't get heated enough in one pass through the wave-soldering bath, and a hot-enough iron, quickly applied can produce that shiny fillet.) Luck Edited by Ashton Aug. 29, 2007, 06:31:30 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #291,963 by a6l6e6x 8/30/07 8:17:04 AM Reply	Thanks! I suspect you're right on. I haven't totally given up on the laptop. As you can imagine, components are densely packed inside, so it's tough to get to anything. The laptop does have a parallel port and my wife had in mind to use it to operate her "quilting robot". Alex Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law. -- Sophocles (496? - 406 BCE)

Welcome to IWETHEY!