Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: They don't make 'em like they used to

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  • BenWilson,

    So far on PAS I've been typing 'draw dropper' instead of 'jaw dropper', 'put' instead of 'bought', 'seaman' instead of 'salesman' and sundry other typos. Am I about to get a heart attack?

    No, it's a necessary step on the road to true keyboard fluency. When the hands do their own thing without being told, you're almost there.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Eh? Is this true? I know nothing about Macs (I just bought one and it ... heh heh .. worked) but I was reliably informed (or ...not!) that Firefox was better than Safari so I've been using that since I bought my new Intel chip OSX Tiger (Leopard's the new one right? Mine is 10.4.11). Seems to work fine, but if you think I should go back to Safari??

    If you're on 10.4, you can now download Safari 3.0 (it ships with 10.5), although it seems a little less stable on 10.4.

    It's bloody fast and I prefer the way it handles RSS feeds to the way Firefox does it. But probably its loveliest feature is the way it displays PDF files -- you have to see it to really grasp it, but it kicks the butt of every other browser in that respect.

    One feature which looks cool but hasn't turned out to be much use to me is that you can select part of a page and have it display, live, in Dashboard. If you were watching an auction or live stock prices or something I imagine it would be great.

    The main problem (although it's hardly unique this) is that especially if you're power-using and opening 50 tabs in a session, it's a resource hog. I probably have to force-quit it 50% of the time, because it doesn't like quitting itself.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Oh I didn't mean the torrenting. When I get home I'll start downloading Ducks vs Blackhawks from last night. It's the figuring out your current usage in 1995 costings that was more of a concern.

    It's not hard like, say, costing tax cuts. Just 60,000MB at $10 a megabyte ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Charles Mabbett,

    I remember Richard Ram. Whatever became of him? Do you know Russell?

    Since Nov 2006 • 236 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I remember Richard Ram. Whatever became of him? Do you know Russell?

    He's working for Shift in Auckland. I went to the rugby with him t'other week. He remains a man of mystery ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Charles Mabbett,

    Thanks. I hope he's well.

    Since Nov 2006 • 236 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Richard Ram

    Richard was the great provider for quite a few of us. He used to come over to my High Street office in the early 90s and sit over coffee explaining the future. He installed my first modem (9600kbs) on my recently upgraded 486 which allowed me to tap into the newsgroups via an Auckland University line. And then came Mosaic.

    It was Richard too that arranged for Flying Nun and us to jointly source and pay for an edition of Office, which we installed in both offices. The only downside was having to say "This is Mr. Shepherd" when ringing for support.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Charles Mabbett,

    BTW and this is dreadfully off topic, can anyone tell me how the Phoenix Foundation/Lawrence Arabia show at the Zoo went a couple of weeks back?

    Since Nov 2006 • 236 posts Report Reply

  • Charles Mabbett,

    Actually since Simon mentioned Flying Nun it could be regarded as a kind of segue, PF being on Flying Nun now.

    Since Nov 2006 • 236 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Richard was the great provider for quite a few of us. He used to come over to my High Street office in the early 90s and sit over coffee explaining the future. He installed my first modem (9600kbs) on my recently upgraded 486 which allowed me to tap into the newsgroups via an Auckland University line. And then came Mosaic.

    It was Richard who answered my phone call for help when I first logged in on my Iconz shell account. You didn't get any instructions back then -- he explained to me that I had to type "pine" to reach my email ... not something you'd just guess, really.

    It was Richard too that arranged for Flying Nun and us to jointly source and pay for an edition of Office, which we installed in both offices. The only downside was having to say "This is Mr. Shepherd" when ringing for support.

    LOL.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    BTW and this is dreadfully off topic, can anyone tell me how the Phoenix Foundation/Lawrence Arabia show at the Zoo went a couple of weeks back?

    I gather it was a delight.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Seems to work fine, but if you think I should go back to Safari??

    It's really a bit of personal preference. I use firefox because I found safari gets slower as time goes on. Also, the plug-ins for Firefox... some real gems. There's one which brings it up close to what safari does with pdf files.

    It also, since it's open source and very robust, crash. Which, when you've opened 12 tabs, is annoying as hell. If it does crash, it has a nifty feature where it opens everything you had open back up again.

    BTW (since I guess this blog will attract computer geeks like the proverbial) any clues how I transfer the files from my OS9 Mac to OSX? The salesman never told me they wouldn't work on an Intel Chip Mac. Yes, I've asked this question before, but I was told there was nothing you could do except download OpenOffice which I did, but without success. (I know nothing about computers remember)

    I presume you mean, moving files from old versions of word to new versions, rather than physically moving the files.

    Salesman possibly had no idea what they were talking about. There's nothing about the intel chip that prevents you opening old word documents. If it doesn't work directly by dragging the files onto the word icon, then I'd be tempted to try and intermediate step. Try either the latest version of word for os9 (2001 I think), or the first one for X - Office X. Open and save as, see if that works.

    If your old files are really old (like word 5) that might be causing the problem. The intermediate step should fix that - word changed their file format for... office 97 I think. Early versions of word opened the old files, more recent ones don't.

    It's not hard like, say, costing tax cuts. Just 60,000MB at $10 a megabyte ...

    I'm betting if you're downloading 60,000 MB, that you should get a bulk discount. Or a tax cut.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    It also, since it's open source and very robust, crash.

    Er. "hardly ever crash". Wee slip.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Smith,

    You probably don't want to go through all the 'John Key' stuff again from yesterday, however, I just thought I'd get an answer from John Key on his 'wages' statement. His email response is:

    "The statement is simply not correct. I have been misreported. The paper has no tape didn't ask any questions of me about the comment etc etc.....Bottom line I came to politics to ensure wages conditions and opportunities for Kiwis go up."

    Since Jan 2007 • 150 posts Report Reply

  • JTweedie,

    I remember when you opened the first version of IE it asked you if you wanted to import bookmarks from Netscape. If you clicked yes, it did this and then deleted them from Netscape. I can still remember how p..ed off I was.

    NZ • Since Nov 2006 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    It was Richard too that arranged for Flying Nun and us to jointly source and pay for an edition of Office, which we installed in both offices.

    As we speak, Bill Gates' minions are winging their way to Bali to give you a right kicking. Save yourself and point the finger at Shepherd.

    I presume you mean, moving files from old versions of word to new versions, rather than physically moving the files.

    Kinda. I tried plugging in a cable from my old Mac to the new one but I couldn't drag and drop them over. Isn't that why we buy Macs - everything can be done by either clicking or dragging and dropping?

    When the hands do their own thing without being told, you're almost there.

    Yeah, well that's another problem I get, with certain sites ... </ewww!>

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • range,

    Kinda. I tried plugging in a cable from my old Mac to the new one but I couldn't drag and drop them over. Isn't that why we buy Macs - everything can be done by either clicking or dragging and dropping?

    Sounds like you want to migrate you old files over. Do a search for the "migration assistant" on the new computer.

    wellington • Since Feb 2008 • 4 posts Report Reply

  • richard,

    I remember my office mate downloading the source code to Mosaic and compiling it on a Sun 3 workstation. I think it must have been late 1993, as I was close to the end of my PhD -- it was enormously cool, even if there was nothing much to see...

    But it sure beat the vt100 interface the web had before then.

    Those were the days :-)

    While Russell is working out how much he would pay for his 60GB a month habit, he might also work out what a brand new MacBook Air would have set you back ten years ago -- and how it much it would have weighed.

    Actually, all I really need to know about the MacBook Air is a) whether I can buy a padded sleeve for it that looks like the yellow US Letter internal mail envelope that shows up in all the adverts and b) how long it will be before I can buy a single platter hard-drive that holds more than 80GB of data for the thing. I am a little worried I will run out of room, but am trusting that Moore's law will solve the problem before it becomes painful.

    Not looking for New Engla… • Since Nov 2006 • 268 posts Report Reply

  • Hamboy,

    <quote>Er. "hardly ever crash". Wee slip.</ quote>
    You sure?
    I find it quite crash happy on my home PC. The updates that they made almost daily about a month ago would break the Quicktime plugin and anytime it saw a quicktime file in a web page it'll crash.
    And the version I had in Kubuntu just wanted to crash all the time. The main reason I went back to XP.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 162 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    While Russell is working out how much he would pay for his 60GB a month habit, he might also work out what a brand new MacBook Air would have set you back ten years ago -- and how it much it would have weighed.

    Did you ever set eyes on the Mac Portable?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    BTW and this is dreadfully off topic, can anyone tell me how the Phoenix Foundation/Lawrence Arabia show at the Zoo went a couple of weeks back?

    Rather 4th hand (my brother's, whose band in London will be supporting Lawrence Arabia's UK tour, heard from a friend locally) but I hear twas excellent

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • david w,

    Isn't that why we buy Macs - everything can be done by either clicking or dragging and dropping?

    You can probably do this trick which involves the a single keystroke before you can begin dragging and dropping

    In the lab • Since Feb 2008 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    As we speak, Bill Gates' minions are winging their way to Bali to give you a right kicking. Save yourself and point the finger at Shepherd.

    yep the BSA has hell of a pull in Bali, or anywhere in SEA to be sure.

    Survey last year said that 87% of software in government PCs in Indonesia is pirated......I was surprised it was that low. You can't even buy the real stuff here if you want to.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Sounds like you want to migrate you old files over. Do a search for the "migration assistant" on the new computer.

    Nah -- I'm pretty sure the migration assistant (modern marvel that it is) is MacOS X-only. And even if not, it's too late now that I/O has been using his new computer.

    My tip: assuming your old Mac has USB ports, obtain a USB drive ($30 for a 4GB one some weeks at PB Technologies!), put the files on that and transfer them that way.

    They should open in a new version of Office, but if they don't there are various other apps that will do it - it just might be a bit messy ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    I don't use Firefox much -- yes, it's flexible, but Safari 3.0 is faster and funkier and I'm still just an Apple fanboy.

    I use Firefox at home on the PC and at work on the applebook. Not so keen on Safari, but I guess it's what you're used to. I well remember when I first discovered puters which was the same time as the World Wide Web really became populist in NZ (about 1995, I think). Netscape it was, indeed and I loved it. But it wasn't a longlived affair. Ah, chat rooms that used HTML. Talk about pregnant pauses in a conversation.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

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