FORT90 forum

Since the newest OS... well, a substantial update to current one to be more precise... Snow Leopard just came, why not?

First off, was actually gonna pick it up, till I saw this...

http://www.cultofmac.com/adobe-cs3-not-tested-on-snow-leopard-many-industry-pros-could-halt-snow-leopard-upgrades/15143

... which has been updated, and it's not as bad as initially feared, but one of the comments sez InDesign is broken, and that's pretty much a deal breaker.

In other news, the Apple App Store continues to be run by fucking retards...

http://www.cultofmac.com/its-another-crazy-app-store-rejection-this-time-apple-thinks-everyones-stupid/15258

And I for one think the upcoming Apple tablet is a really stupid, STUPID idea...

http://gizmodo.com/5347191/rumor-apple-may-be-working-on-xl-tablets-running-full-mac-os-x

... I don't care what OS it's running, Leopard or iPhone, I want a fucking physical keyboard. Why the hell won't they just release a netbook sized version of the MacBook and make an easy billion? Also via Cult of Mac, which might be the most obnoxious Mac blog ever, which is saying a lot...

http://www.cultofmac.com/how-apples-tablet-will-rock-for-gaming/15139

... Speaking as a guy that currently is developing iPhone software, or at least trying to, the statement that playing games on the iPhone is "a ton of fun" is REALLY stretching the truth.

the cult of mac writer is apparently not very familiar with adobe and their business practices. (nevermind that you don't actually have to upgrade every 15 minutes - especially if you like running stable platforms - but i'm guessing that's sort of their thing.)

looking at that blog about the tablet and how gaming will be its killer app, I can only draw the conclusion that the "anonymous grad student" who has been spending "a lot of time thinking about the apple tablet" isn't an actual gamer.

The controls suggested all require a certain amount of finesse, which when playing a FPS is the first motor skill to go out the window when you're flailing like a giant space octopus. The idea that World of Warcraft (or any MMO) would be a great fit for this device misses the fact that huge amounts of the game involve chatting with other people. Sure there's voice, but a lot of people use this weird archaic medium known as 'text'. without a keyboard, you lose all of that. I don't know much about multi-touch touchscreens, but unless they can support someone holding down 6 different fingers at once and parse what that is 'supposed' to mean, they won't work. When I am being Captain McNerdPants in WoW, at any point in time I am using a minimum of 2-3 keys on the keyboard and at least one mousebutton, frequently while also swinging the camera around like a moron.

Games on the iPhone are quite fun (or CAN be) but it has fuckall to do with some Paradigm-Breaking Shift In UI Design. they're fun because you can pick them up and play and you get potentially awesome graphics and audio right in your pants.  Plus it's a phone, and an mp3 player and a dessert topping or whatever.

That blog post just makes me think, "yet another apple zombie who is going to claim games are the killer app for an apple product, and then complain for 10 years when game developers don't develop games for this new custom system fast enough, and blame them when it tanks."

FYI, that guy also believes that if Apple had been able to keep Halo, the G4 would have usurped XP in the PC gaming wars. Yes, he's that fucking stupid.

If you look hard enough, you'll see me bitch at one of the writers, about how the amount of people packed in the 5th Ave Apple Store is indicative of how much money is being spent despite the shit economy. Oh yeah, it has NOTHING to do with the fact that they're just a bunch of stupid tourists that want to check their email for free or pissed off Apple users who've been waiting for two hours of condescending tech support.

On a related note, I stopped by Techserve yesterday to take care of some business, and sure enough, got into another shouting match with one of the hipster dispters behind the counter. Which seriously happens everytime, and I also seriously try my best to avoid it. They seriously hire the worst of the worst there.

Anyway, gonna go get Snow Leopard. Why the fuck not. If anything goes wrong, I have all my important files backed up.

how the hell do you get into a shouting match at tekserve? they're so milquetoast as to be toast dipped in milk a la classic french toast.

Well, when they force everyone who walks in to take a number, and then make them stand around and wait for their digits to get called, which takes way too long, not because all the clerks are busy helping people but because they're too busy flirting amongst each other, or in yesterday's case everyone is gathered around someone's iPhones to watch a YouTube video, and then when it's finally your turn they're immediately impatient and condescending, as well as flat out lie about shit, it's hard to not raise one's voice.

It sucks that I want to pick up Snow Leopard, and where I'm going later is near that area, so going to an Apple Store is a bit of a pain in the ass, but I honestly don't want to give them an dime of my scratch.

BTW, I nabbed a copy yesterday and installed it last night, without a hitch. I will admit, I was nervous going in since I've had Time Machine disabled for some time now (I basically need a new hard drive, the one I have is too small at this point).

The process took longer than expected, and is different from the past; there's no booting into the installation disc, you just start from your own environment. But thus far, it's pretty good! There's a few quirks here and there, but that's with anything .0. I like the little improvements, and most of all, my CS3 stuff seems to work. There actually is a little weirdness with InDesign, but one can work around it with no hassles.

I'm just bummed that all my screensavers no longer work, plus the new QuickTime, for lack of a better word, is just strange. Thank God they kept the one I had before.

BTW, regarding Tekserve....

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/29/a-bit-of-big-apple-history-visiting-tekserve/

... Be sure to scroll down for my diatribe and idiots crying foul.

lol

"not to start a flame war, but hitler was right."

also if anyone can confirm that they had parts janked, they should contact the better business bureau immediately. that's theft.

(350 to replace and clone a hard drive is also awfully close to theft, for that matter.)

Also keep in mind that making accusations like that in public forums without confirming evidence can come back to bite you. I may not agree that you suck but the fellow is right about the libel issue.

somewhat related:
there was a us libel case back in the 50s or 60s where a department store staff (chicago? minneapolis?) sued because a local rag claimed they were besotted with communists or homosexuals or something defamatory as a group. they were denied in their claim because no one was singled out; the entire department store was too amorphous and broad to be libeled.

more to the point, i know part of the whole ouvre of "mac people" is being a helpless puppies on purpose or whatever, but if people double-checked after the fact and had third party parts where there had been first party beforehand and *that wasn't* part of the deal, they really should have at the very least started a bbb file against tekserve. a more "fun" thing to do would have been to show up at the store, call the cops and try to have them arrested for theft.

we buy all our mac parts for work (and by we i mean i) at b+h, even though they're kinda bad at keeping track of invoices and payments. next day service is pretty great.

My primary problem is how I don't have a smoking gun, or no longer have access to it… that friend with Mac with the extra software when it came back to them for example, sold her machine on Craigslist a long time ago.

And everyone else that had their Macs tinkered with unnecessarily also no longer have their machines or I simply am not in contact with them anymore. I suppose if I get slapped with a libel suit, I will have to start making phone calls and the like, but if that happens… I am going to laugh very long, and very hard.

I also don't see how my, if you get down to it, baseless accusations (since evidence that's no longer available, along with anecdotal evidence, no matter how compelling and logical, as well as the pure amount of it) would be enough to get someone to call their lawyers, even when everyone is talking shit about everyone on in the internet. So in that sense, if legal action is pursued, that might speak more about legitimate accusations more than anything else. But tell that to the judge, I know.

Anyhow, the real issue with Tekserve as one other reader who was in agreement pointed, as to why they will never go away, is how Apple does not service old machines, especially if they have third party ram. Even though Apple used third party items, like ram, themselves. Thankfully there are other Mac repair shops in the city.... some damn fine ones I hear... that I should really get around to checking out.

Think of it more as "protect your neck" advice. Never count on being too insignificant a voice to find yourself in someone's cross-hairs for shooting your mouth off.

accusations of crimes, even indirectly, should be handled hearsay style. i.e. "a friend of mine swears..."

That's the sort of thing my grandpa would do.

i concur with grandpa in this particular case i.e. if i got something serviced and i thought they'd fucked me like that, it'd be some shit. i'd be all like "abracadabraandrewcuomo" and poof that walking human boil would pop up all kazaaam style. bonus points if chuck schumer could give two shits because that guy is human ebola.

Remember, most folks who get fucked over at a store or restaurant, no matter how pissed they might be, and no matter how appealing the offense might also be, will simply roll their eyes and move on. Which sucks, since that's how stuff stays broken, especially here in the city.

BTW, in case anyone's wondering, after a couple of days of solid use, I'm pleasantly shocked by how rock solid Snow Leopard is. Again, there's the aforementioned quirks, plus the interface/design inconsistencies are slowly getting worse, though most once again will hardly notice. But overall, it's pretty niffty for a .0 release, and one has to continue to wonder how they dropped the ball so badly with the iPhone OS.

Though I too find Apple's claim of getting back more hard drive space being someone bullshit due to them fixing the numbers pretty lol-worthy. Then again, I always did wonder why 1024k made a meg, so to have it a flat, even 1000k does good for my OCD-raddled brain.

yeah, but this isn't like "bad service", this is "outright theft".

now, my assumption is that the technical knowledge of the folks telling these stories was less than deep, and that this might very well be an error on their part.

alternately, they're very slick at it and rightly presume that most of their customer base isn't going to check under the hood.

even more alternately, their service contracts explicitly/legalistically say "we reserve the right to use third party parts to the point where we just barely dance on the line to avoid violating apple's warranties and our status as an authorized dealer".

point being, back up frequently or live with losing all your mp3s, as i once did.

The easy answer for this is just in the history of computers, where everything was being done with binary. so a byte (8 bits) leads to making a kilobyte, which is 1024 (powers of 2 are GO), and then from there, the kilo/mega/giga prefixes when used are used to reference powers-of-2 based multipliers, instead of the standard decimal/metric version. 

Yeah, I know there's a real reason. I also find Apple bucking this very established train of thought to be... very Apple. Though I have yet to encounter even their most fanatical fan base saying this is some stupid game changer, which they tend to do at almost ever opprotunity.

I like making a scene when I know I'm in the right.

I just like to make sure I know I'm in the right.

I thought I posted in this thread yesterday, but maybe I posted in the wrong thread or just didn't post it.

Anyways, I've been using my new Mac Mini, and it's nice getting back to OS X with all the improvements that have been added since I last used it. Expose makes it now as easy to switch between active apps as it is in windows xp, and see my desktop which is awesome. The two big problems I was having through, I just found some software to take care of. For the buttons 4 and 5 not working as back/forward, I used USB Overdrive, and for the fucked OS X mouse acceleration, I found iMouseFix. The latter isn't perfect, but it's much better. I wonder if that bad acceleration curve is better for trackpads or something? :/

I also downloaded Little Snitch, which is a nice firewall program that can be used to block outgoing requests, and also has a really nice activity monitor that goes in the menu bar up top if you like.

So now I just have one last problem, which is that it takes a fraction of a second too long for the dock to come up (because I keep it hidden so I can get firefox running fullscreen the way it should be). I hide my taskbar in windows as well, and it's much better about popping up as you need it. The dock needs to be as responsive as expose.

Okay, I'm starting to get used to the slow dock, but just realized you can't cut and paste files and folders. God damn, do I seriously have to have two finder windows open to move a file or am I missing something?

Not exactly sure what you're trying to do. When you have a finder window open, do you have the side bar visible? I have mine turned off by default... to Windows like... but that being said, it should be behave exactly the way you're used to. You can also, right click and copy and past files, though I know it doesn't behave exactly like in Windows.

Also, have you tried Quicksilver yet? I think it's rather ridiculous, but many people swear by it, including Nullsleep.

Yeah, I was actually just coming back to say that I just found out about Quicksilver, and I love it already because I can set it's hotkey to be Windows button + r so that it behaves like Windows built in quick launcher, except that it's much better of course because I don't have to type the full name of the executable (basically the windows quick launcher is only good for launching calc and command, but I found it very helpful for that). Hopefully I'll be able to get this doing some more tricks for me though.

Copy and paste is fine and all, but that leaves you with the extra step of deleting the original file. Cut and copy in windows simply moves a file, but you can do it with the hot keys ctrl+x and ctrl+v or with the right click context menu. OS X simply doesn't have this. You have to drag and drop or copy/paste/delete. Obnoxious.

openapple + x doesn't work?

You can always use Disk Order (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15002), it's like using Windows version of Total Commander (which is today's implementation of Norton Commander and Dos Navigator).

No :(

DiskOrder looks kind of neat. I like the Finder though, it's really just the cut command that I'm missing.

This is... interesting...

http://lnx.donelleschi.com/Donelleschi_Software/Face/Face2.php?pag=25_

But the whole point of the launcher programs is to use your keyboard instead. For using the mouse, you've got the dock. :?

You know, Minimal Mac would be so much more awesome and useful if they skipped the retarded "inspirational" quotes and boring desktop pics and stuck with stuff like this...

http://minimalmac.com/post/215618199/via-mnmal-this-is-nothing-short-of-awesome-im

When I first installed Snow Leopard, I was generally pretty happy with all the little fixes here and there... despite all the other little things that got broken. Which I assumed would be addressed with an update. Which came and caused even more problems...

I'm now at the point in which I'm seriously thinking of wiping out my OS and going back to regular Leopard. I'm so fucking tired of shit like Spaces working when it wants to, all the dumb kernal panics, and stuff like Preview... which never had a SINGLE problem since, oh, 10.0 back in 2000... now not working properly. Jesus fucking Christ...

I'm not a Mac zombie, but I am a big fan of Jonathan Ive...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8zL7WYze58

installed cs4 at work today. runs great! no issues so far.

I've heard that Photoshop CS4 is really different. True or not?

outside of the interface, it's far more optimized for dual core operations. but other than that? the tabbed documents are awesome, but that's the whole cs4 suite.

edit: the lost of the pdf presentation automation really fucking sucks it.

As there needed be even more proof that Snow Leopard is the worst release of OS X thus far...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10500056

... Basically, a lot of people's CPUs began overheating when the time changed for daylight savings. Seriously. wtf indeed.

Thankfully I don't have that issue, but my Preview and Expose woes are driving me so nuts that I'm seriously considering downgrading back to 10.5. I just hope the new update, which is LONG overdue, fixes the problem.

So apparently that bug I've been complaining about is actually a new feature... and perhaps the stupidest ever at that...

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/04/snow-leopard-bug-prevents-opening-groups-of-recently-downloaded/

So 10.6.2 is out, and apparently, it fucking sucks...

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/09/mac-os-x-10-6-2-is-on-the-prowl-plus-security-update-for-10-5-u/

... Just check the comments section. Most folks at TUAW are pretty sensible. At least as far as Apple zombies go.

Like one person put it best, Snow Leopard is officially Apple's Vista.

Glad I resisted the urge to upgrade at first since Digidesign screamed from atop the mountain not to, at least while they were getting their ducks in a row with the Protools 8.1 update.

Well, I installed 10.6.2 simply because my system had become so unstable. Thankfully, it feels a tad bit tighter, but all the stupid quirks are still there. Awesome. And it still feels like my Mac is ignoring the fact that I have 4 gigs of ram. I swear, my G3 with 512 mb felt zippier in certain regards.

I've also spent a great deal of time talking with folks about these issues and am officially keep my mouth shut on that front. As previously noted, there's nothing more aggravating when discussing a computer issue and some other person goes "well, I certainly haven't had any issues" with the underling tone being "you're an idiot/you're making this all up", which is something that's across the board regardless of platform. But you'd think Mac users, who one would assume are more artistically inclined or more used to a production environment, would understand how, when attempting to open 100 jpgs and only 82 of them pop up, is a fucking headache and a half.

at work we have a pretty wide range of mac desktops, and I have to say the two "ancient" G4's we have running 10.3 feel waaaay zippier and more stable when doing the day to day stuff than the (technically more powerful) PowerPC G5's.  Though this is due in part to these G5's being tortured with with rendering  video projects all the time.  The Intel G5 has been problem free.

I've had my low end macbook since I purchased it new in Feb of this year, and it hasn't give me shit yet. which is a pleasant surprise!

Dude, Panther was the mother fucking bomb. Is it any surprise that it was what finally won over all the last lingering OS 9 hold-outs? That and it was getting officially long in the tooth.

On a side note, I spent a few hours the other night in the Classic portion of Apple's tech support message board, and the one thread where someone asked "why do you folks still bother with OS 9?" was pretty interesting. Granted, it was hardly perfect, but there was something about it that was just awesome, in a "it just fucking worked" kind of way, assuming that you know what the fuck you were doing. Everyone complains about their systems freezing up all the time, and getting the dreaded bomb icon, but in all the years I had my iMac G3, that happened like only once!

I think the most telling observation, when arguing against OS X (and perhaps most modern operating systems as a whole) is the idea of "I want to be the master of my machine, not vice versa". Referring to the permissions song and dance that all OS X users are pretty much used to.

Anyway, earlier this weekend I finally got a portable hard drive (a second one, the first one died in three hours, as noted elsewhere), backed up my shit, wiped the internal out, did a clean install, and... 10.6.2 is still as stupid as before, but it does feel a tad bit tighter still, so I guess mission accomplished. Gotta say, Time Machine is a God send; Apple does do some shit totally right.

I also decided to switch back to Safari from Firefox, when I realized that a good deal of my sluggishness, even more than I initially realized, was due to 3.5. Though some state that the problem has been there since 3.0. I really miss how tabs are managed, and it's auto-fill tricks, but man, they did a great job of making Safari 4 as fast as 3.

I shouldn't be surprised to hear that there are still OS 9 loyalists, but yeah that is a pretty interesting argument. I still us OS 9 from time to time at work and I love how speedy it is, but the GUI has always seemed to be somewhat of an obstacle for me when I'm in a hurry.

it's actually nice that the snow leopard upgrade is so inexpensive but I think I will hold off until the itch really comes back.  I think I used up all of my good fortune with the successful (so far) Windows 7 upgrade on my desktop.