Testing the New and Old

<p>Just posting a couple images to check download size etc...<br>

I disliked my last computer. And it finally died a sudden quiet death. Lost everything. <br>

Back up and running with an iMac and i800 Mikrotek with the latest drivers etc... So far so good, but I want to download two images and see how it looks. Not used to the Mac computer yet. But it doesn't lock up, crash, and generally piss me off like the PC did. <br>

I also noticed my old post images that I searched back for look a heck of a lot better on this new screen. </p>

 

<p>OK, too big. </p><div></div>

<p>I guess I better find out how to better format my image size... Had a save program that did that for me before. <br>

Anyway, the new system is pretty nice even though I have some figuring out to do. And to get started I chose one of my early images shot with the first Century Graphic I got a number of years back, and that same ol' 103mm Trioptar lens that's since been well travelled. The film is Provia, and it's a beautiful transparency. <br>

There is a little road that runs down to what is called the Lost Coast in Northern California where you can see the big rock off Cape Mendocino. It's really beautiful countryside for a drive, stroll on the beach, etc... I've been out there a number of times to backpack, cycle, car camp, and generally just be there. </p>

 

<p>#2 is beautiful though slightly shifted towards purple here. BTW, I love my iMac. I'll never PC again.</p>

<p>They both looked very nice on my Mac at home. I've had a Mac for over four years and will not go back to a PC. And thanks for showing a glimpse of Cape Mendocino, maybe someday my wife and I will visit there.</p>

<p>If you will put a caption on a 700 pixel wide image, then it will display in with the text. Without a caption, it just links to it, and if it is more than 700 pixels wide, it will either reject it or resize it.</p>

<p>My first Mac was an original 1984 model, so despite some time on Windows PCs in the late 90s, I'm a fairly committed (you can reach me here at the sanitarium) Mac Mujihadi. Welcome to the congregation.</p>

<p>oh oh sounds like a "religous experience" type of thing.<br>

The advantage a Mac MAY have over a pc is that it is<br>

generally factory built. Many of the pc problems can be<br>

caused by what I call " mixee-matchee" electronics.<br>

Because of the large range of pc manufacturers some<br>

components are well made and others are not, or the<br>

manufacturer does not test each component of buys<br>

"anything that has the right numbers printed on it.<br>

soldering and manufacturing cause problems. In a similar way<br>

my GE/RCA tv has tuner problems because of the wrong<br>

solder or soldering technique on the tuner.<br>

This can affect pc's as well ( or even a Mac)<br>

You didn't say what happened to the PC. It is not like a big Iron coal stove ( my PA influence)<br>

It could be the hard drive ( used by Mac as well) or a bad component on the motherboard.<br>

or a bad connector. It could be many things. Your old data may still be on the old PC, but will require a Tech to recover.<br>

As I said, it is not just a big box, one bad part cam cause data to be inacessible,<br>

Even "brand name" PC's use parts from ( usually)) well respected manufacturers.<br>

It's like saying " my Chevy is a junky car after I left it on the railroad tracks, it could not be repaired"<br>

Mybe something happened Kids? Power surge, OJ on the keyboard.<br>

True Microsoft has had it's share of problems. But is it not amazing that the Operating System even loads, let alone works prorly on so many different species of hardware?</p>

<p> </p>

It's best to think of the hard disk in a computer as a temporary holding place, rather than a permanent repository. One always needs a second copy (at least) for backup. While Macs may be more reliable (I'm not sure there is scientific evidence of this), they, too, need backup.

 

I wrote a series of article with Uwe Steinmuller about backup for photographers:

 

http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_Backup_ArchivalForPhotographers/20080422_backupBigPicture/index.html

 

I use 2 Macs and 3 Windows computers, and all 5 crash or freeze.

 

--Marc

<p>I have serviced a number of Macs, Windows, and Linux computers over many years. In order of troublesomeness, 1. Windows (various types were/are more troublesome than others, but all have, to put it kindly, quirks), 2. Linux (mostly due to ignorance of users, the problems weren't actual problems - I tend to lock them out of admin tasks for which they complain) 3. Mac (less problematic due to fairly tight controls on HW/SW, but forgetting an admin PW is often a problem).<br>

Now, hardware problems are not immune to any brand computer simply because off-the-shelf parts are being used in all, so hardware crashes are possible in any of them. No brand is immune.<br>

I myself use Linux and Windows computers all the time, Macs I only repair, generally because I don't care to spend the money for a Mac. though I'm always impressed by their ease of use for the naive user. I also never, ever buy a laptop unless I absolutely need one. I've seen too many go sour to ever rely on one.</p>

<p>Oh, and I have ten and fifteen year old hard drives, still working as if new. I do backups of important data, but the reliability nowadays seems to be quite good, and I expect them to be so unless used continuously. The last HD crash I've ever had was 15 years ago. Laptop HDs seem to be a bigger problem, I've seen more than a few go south after a few years.</p>

Sizing your prictures is usually a function of the image editing sfotrware.. there are literally hundres out theres and they'Re almost all Twain compaible so don't worry about what scanner you use.. they are all twain compaitible.. Generally you can "Size" the image multiple waqys.. ie pixels,centimeters,inches,dpi, percentage etc.. as for the debate regtarding OS/Hardware... I read

a really neat essay.. (from Neal Stephenson the (tech-sci-fi writer)) some years back... it'S little dated but hios comparisons of user-interfaces / OSs with car dealerships is very interesting!

http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml

<p>Some interesting comments. Thanks. The only thing I lost of importance was a couple email addresses, and my time scanning a lot of images. But that said, My same old photoshop software, after I got it installed, operates a whole lot better on this Mac than it did on the PC with Pentium D and XP. I just tossed that piece of #!@*!. It also seems that downloading the new driver software from Mikrotek souped up my scanner nicely. <br>

The point being I don't have to go out and buy a new scanner or photoshop software. I now just have to learn a few more things and get acclimated with the new operating system. So far I really like it... </p>

<p>If it weren't for the open architecture of the PC, only the elites would be able to afford personal computers.</p>

<p>Been using PCs for 28 years, and have never had significant hardware problems. Windows problems, yes, but not hardware. I just built a new PC for myself -- cost me $400 and change. A similar Mac would have cost five times as much.</p>

<p>Resetting the password on a Mac is simple - insert OSX install DVD, boot from it by selecting it in Preferences, when it starts on the Instal DVD one of the options in the setup menu is to "Reset the Password."</p>

<p>Having used computers for the last 35 years beginning with IBM System 370 and DataPoint 8600 with ArcServe, down to the low of doing an MCSE in Windows NT4.0 (MCSE = Must Consult Somebody Experienced), with lots of Mac experience thrown in, I vote for the Mac.</p>

<p>The cheapest options for used Macs are the Sawtooth, Digital Audio and Quicksilver G4 tower's. These can all be had for well under $100. Add a new hard drive, SATA on a PCI card if you have the cash, otherwise a replacement ATA, max out the RAM - either 1.5 Gb or 2.0Gb depending on model and install OSX 10.4 and the rest is taken care of for you. My Power Mac G4 Sawtooth is practically an appliance, just the way I like it.</p>

<p>I tend to think of any hard disk over three years old as a liability and they are cheap enough these days not to be worried about.</p>

<p>Laptops generally, no matter what the make, are bad news second hand. Vibration, shock and corrosion are the enemies of electronics and laptops, plus brown-out from all kinds of power sources. Use a UPS (Uninteruptible Power Supply) if you can afford one.</p>

<p>I use iCab for a web browser, with Firefox and Safari as supports for play. Photoshop CS for image editing, Cyberduck for FTP, Taco HTML Edit, NeoOffice for word processing and spreadsheets etc, OnyX for trouble shooting with Disk Warrior, and SuperDuper! for back-ups.</p>

<p>Most open-source Linux software will run fine on an OSX Mac, so long as you remembered to install the X11 windowing system option when you first installed the operating system.</p>

<p>Linux is good, but can become complex very rapidly. And you up against the plethora of PC hardware out there, some of which is pretty cheap. You get what you pay for.</p>

<p>Yes, some of the later Mac hardware is not as good a quality as it used to be, but take it from me as someone who has repaired all this junk for decades that your hardware failure rate with PC's is about 25% per year, with Macs about 5%.</p>

<p>The website www.lowendmac.com is a godsend to somebody with little cash but an enquiring mind as it has the DIY answers to practically any Mac problems. Nice people run it too.</p>

<p>Welcome to the world of Macs!</p>

 

<p>Lets see if this sizes out and post in text...</p><div></div>

<p>There we go. Now I just have to remember what I did? <br>

Image was exposed using Cenruty Graphic, 103mm Trioptar lens on Provia 100 film. Another photographer's destination worthy of two to three days. This is January, and it gets cold and windy... When we left I had sand in everything, including ears, eyes, and all my gear.<br>

Yup, the Mac is proving to be much more photo friendly, for me anyways... I scanned a big file of this image and it handled it easily and fast. I have an 80 MB drum scan of a similar image on CD I may see if I can open later... </p>

<p>BTW, if your old Hard Disk from the dead PC is still spinning you should be able to cable it into your Mac, or into an external housing via FireWire or USB and get the data from it. Get it all hooked up, power up the Mac and then power up the external drive (unless you manage to hook it up internally). OSX's HFS+ file system recognises Windows partitions - at least NTFS ones last I looked. For scanning try ViewScan or Silverlight if the drivers you have now don't give you enough options.</p>

<p>Of course, the choice of a computer operating system is a "life-decision" and Apple was only the first, but not the only, company to have "evangelists" for their product. Other religions include IKEA, for example.</p>

<p>Another vote for ViewScan. It will run almost any old scanner. Get the "professional" version which has a couple of minor pluses, but allows endless future upgrades.</p>

<p>Peter,<br>

Your advice on resetting passwords on OSX does not work on some Macs. I know from whence I speak, since I just had to do it two days ago. If the computer has been set up already on OSX, you can put in the OSX disk, boot it and it'll still ask for the original admin password. It's the first time that happened to me. I got around it (luckily, the original owner remembered the PW), but I reset the admin PW anyway. This was on an iMac G4, btw. Ridiculous PITA. I can reset a Linux admin PW ten seconds after it takes to boot the CD/DVD recovery disk. Once a person has physical possession of a computer, it's really of no use to protect it unless you go the disk encryption route. 90% of users (I'm being generous) don't have anything worth encrypting.</p>

<p>SG, def wonky colors in the first one. I design Firefox themes and I've looked at screenshots of my themes on a Mac and the colors all looked shifted towards purple. Since I know for a fact what the RGB colors I used where, the only conclusion I could make was that for whatever reason, some Macs add some kind of purple tint which can even be captured in a screen shot! I have a photographer friend who works from a Mac platform and he has the same problem with vivid oranges and reds which simply do not render the same on different platforms and different web browsers!</p>

<p>Mark,<br>

What version of OSX was on that iMac? I have the full retail versions of OSX for 10.2; 10.3; 10.4; 10.5; 10.6 and I have never had a problem booting and changing passwords on any "New World ROM" PowerMac.<br>

Completely agree about security and the average user. It's nonsense and it can't be done. Nevertheless, everybody knows about Windows, it's abysmal security record, backdoors built in for the NSA, ports left open by default, yards of redundant code, etc, etc. Macs are just much easier and faster to configure for the average user. If you really want security then you need secure rooms, hand-built code based on Unix or better, well trained, renumerated and ideologically on-side staff and all the rest of it. Even then...<br>

I gave up on IT 12 years ago, just sick to death of it. I worked as Sys Admin in a big design and printing outfit in my last IT job and we attempted to set up a digital photo studio for prod shots using Mac OS 7.6.1, SGI boxes, imagesetters and all that crap. We were less than sucessful and the $/hr burn rate was scary.</p>