Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: TV is social. Already

merc

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:29:14 +1200

Try doing that nifty trick with yo 'Doz box!

Russell Brown

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:23:52 +1200

I'm writing this on my spiffy 20" Intel iMac loaner. It's quick.

And all praise to the migration tool: I hooked up the Firewire cable and started my sick G5 in target disk mode, and an hour and three quarters later I had a new computer with everything that was…

merc

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:17:18 +1200

I have a 2001 IBook G3 (500mhz) running OSX.2, OS9 and Office for Mac, it runs beautifully, not just well, beautifully and I run InDesign and Photoshop. My Shuffle works beautifully as well, synced into my car cassette player!
I have only replaced a battery, upped the RAM and got…

Alec Morgan

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:53:03 +1200

Macs robustness continues to satisfy me, try running Vista on a 2001 Dell! (with no hardware mods). My sons ‘snow’ G3 imac–cost–free, plus $6 for a firewire cable, runs current OSX Tiger 10.4.10 very well and even Adobe CS2, albeit one app at a time. Yeah I hear official Leopard…

Russell Brown

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:26:15 +1200

It'll probably take three months or so for exchange rates to start to impact upon prices of macs, and only if the dollar holds. They don't get a completely new stock every week after all.
Renaissance have moved into the retail market recently, I don't know if there's a store…

Kyle Matthews

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:20:39 +1200

It'll probably take three months or so for exchange rates to start to impact upon prices of macs, and only if the dollar holds. They don't get a completely new stock every week after all.

Renaissance have moved into the retail market recently, I don't know if there's a store…

James

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 10:46:45 +1200

Out of curiosity – any advice on where best to buy a Mac at the moment?
The websites apple.co.nz and apple.com seem to have a slight ... lag on the exchange rates:
apple.co.nz 20" iMac, standard specs: NZ $ 2,399 + GST

Apple.com 20" iMac, same specs: US$1,499 + sales…

Ben Austin

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:34:29 +1200

The one thing I hate about Macs is having to upgrade my OS if i want to be able to sync my phone properly, and even then not being certain it would work.

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:02:36 +1200

Thanks Matt – The (brand) name for the technology on my phone is FeliCa which does indeed appear to use Near Field Communication. It's interesting that it is externally powered i.e. It doesn't use the phone's battery. And that explains why you can pay this way with cards as well…

Matt Barrett

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:02:18 +1200

Lex,

The technology in cellphones is known as Near Field Communication.

It's still a work in progress, but there may be implementations in Japan already.

A couple of researchers at Cambridge University published a paper on smart-card-based attacks that is generally applicable to the technology. Very cool stuff.…

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:13:49 +1200

Yes *blush* that is the way it works. My rash comments are the result of having too not enough work to do. Back to my book....

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:11:13 +1200

The way I understand it is:
The square bar code is really just a quick way to get some information (often a URL) into your phone via the phone camera.
The payment functionality I was referring to appears to be some hardware within the phone, which allows you to swipe…

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:04:05 +1200

Actually after I posted that i wasnt sure if the purchase was paid for using the cellphone in those cases but at shops in the station you could often use your phone to pay for stuff. In retrospect I think the barcode was taking you to the webpage. But I…

Kyle Matthews

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:57:20 +1200

Picture if you will people on the train – rammed together I might add – scanning barcodes on train advertising and doing Christmas shopping. Kind of did my head in.

Is it all done through your phone? Like, do you just click a button on your phone and it sends…

Russell Brown

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:55:25 +1200

Biggest downside: any applications that were not installed at the outset are probably not free (as in freedom or as in cost). There is a lot of free (libre) software ported to OSX but it's often not very well integrated into the platform, thus losing you the "it just works"…

Glen Wright

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:29:51 +1200

My Intel iMac dual boots to Fedora Linux thanks to BootCamp. Mostly because it can, I haven't found a practical use for a second OS yet.

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:59:28 +1200

Yeah I saw that crazy outta control shopping using the square bar code thingies on posters at Christmas in Japan before I left.

Picture if you will people on the train – rammed together I might add – scanning barcodes on train advertising and doing Christmas shopping. Kind of did…

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:58:59 +1200

Actually, can't Intel-based macs boot Windows?

Rich – I believe the options are:
Boot Camp – Allows you to boot Windows.
Parallels – Allows you to run Windows applications in the Mac OS X environment.

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:53:43 +1200

Hi Stephen – Japan's fine. Good grief – Cell phones are used here for TV viewing (1seg), paying for things (at shops, train tickets, etc), mail, blogs, video phoning, etc. I guess there's more of an environment for cell phone use when you commute on a train instead of in…

Stephen Judd

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:52:16 +1200

Rich: there are a few options.

1. Some programs are simply compiled without shared libraries, but statically linked. Hey, disk is cheap.

2. More commonly, Linux applications use a sneaky system relying on symbolic links in the filesystem. In essence you have multiple versions of libfoo, with their version numbers…

Don Christie

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:51:06 +1200

Almost everything just worked with Ubuntu, and I still mostly use that environment myself, but it was too much to ask her to do her own research to resolve obscure issues with video codecs

The most annoying part of that issue is that it is related to idiotic DRM legislation…

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:45:04 +1200

This Musician Magazine story about the yoof and digital technology was interesting.

merc

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:44:09 +1200

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

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:43:42 +1200

Rich – I'm not certain why Linux seems to have less problems in this area. I suspect:
1. The libraries tend to be in their own package – not part of the software you are installing. So you don't have software fighting with other software, each trying to get it's…

merc

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:43:23 +1200

DLL Hell.

Rich of Observationz

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:26:16 +1200

Lex: Out of interest (non-geeks can stop reading now) what does happen if a piece of Linux software installs a shareable library under /usr/local somewhere and another one wants to do the same, but with a different, incompatible version. (which amounts to a DLL conflict)?

Stephen Judd

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:25:08 +1200

Hey Lex, how's Japan?

I had an all-Ubuntu environment at home but bought a Mac mini for my partner. She loves it. Everything does indeed just work. Almost everything just worked with Ubuntu, and I still mostly use that environment myself, but it was too much to ask her to…

Rich of Observationz

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:23:44 +1200

I'd use a Mac if it would run Windows.

Actually, can't Intel-based macs boot Windows?

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:49:49 +1200

Thanks Russell.

I'm coming from a Linux background, and considering a Mac for a second computer.

i.e. I haven't needed to worry about viruses, adware, spyware, DLL conflicts and the like. I was also involved in a cult ritual, although my memory of it has been mostly erased. And I'm…

Russell Brown

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:32:36 +1200

Russell – I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice. Is there specific software that you prefer on the Mac? Do you like the Apple design aesthetics?

Actually, I was inducted in a bizarre cult ritual whose nature I cannot reveal to non-initiates, unless I kill…

Robyn Gallagher

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:19:53 +1200

Back to the other subject, I share online videos with friends. If I come across a funny kitton clip on YouTube, I will not hesitate to share it with my online amigos.

I'm also one of those people who ranks videos and leaves comments on YouTube.

Funny thing about YouTube…

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:55:42 +1200

I predominantly use PCs, but I've used and supported Macs in the past. I have PCs at home, but the kids use Macs at school. I can swing both ways with a mental gear-shift, but the kids barely notice the difference – its just another computer to them. Every computer…

nic.wise

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:46:02 +1200

I bought a macbook expecting to run windows in parallels for a lot of things, or vista in bootcamp.

I've not installed bootcamp, and I almost never use parallels. Everythng else just works as I want it to.

It's fun to use a PC again....

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:43:09 +1200

And:
"What was it that made you switch?"
"How was your first month or so of using a Mac?"

Rob Stowell

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:38:12 +1200

Please no mac v pc war.
maybe a survey? "Do you use a Mac or PC ?"
And "If price were no object, would you use a Mac or PC?"

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:37:15 +1200

Yeah that is true. Fingers crossed eh.

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:29:03 +1200

You're one of the lucky ones – apparently they can be a bugger to get fixed.

Like any tech outfit, Apple have had their share of dodgy products, along with the market-leading ones. The director of one IT dept I worked for got so pissed off at the runaround he…

kmont

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:22:04 +1200

1 powerbook. 2 years. NO problems. None.

merc

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:20:20 +1200

Mac for productivity, PC for solitaire.

Paul Litterick

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:16:40 +1200

The substance of Windows being thousands of viruses.

Don Christie

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:10:50 +1200

I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice.

I'm guessing style over substance.

**Don runs...

Paul Litterick

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:09:42 +1200

I need an an OS X upgrade badly but I am holding on until Leopard arrives.

My answer to Lex Miller would be "I choose Macs because they work."

Lex Miller

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:03:21 +1200

Russell – I'd like to hear more about how you made your computer choice. Is there specific software that you prefer on the Mac? Do you like the Apple design aesthetics?

merc

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:53:28 +1200

Oh, http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#iMac

merc

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:50:34 +1200

With Leopard?

Russell Brown

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:42:41 +1200

Oh. And now I see that the rumour sites are promising a complete refreshed iMac line (new enclosures, chipsets and possibly other features) on August 7, so it'd be kind of silly to buy one now.

Sigh ... let's see if SuperDuper can make the bootable backup to one of…

Public Address

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:42:41 +1200

Discussion from blog post.