[alabama24]

El Scorcho-

I was enjoying the banter about Mac’s on the other thread and wanted to join in but I was too late. When my wife and I move back to the burg (hopefully this summer) there will be 2 new members to the local chapter of the Lynchburg Cult of Mac.
I can’t wait for 10.5 to come out. Any thoughts?

PS - Has Dr Caner booked any of us for his Sects and Cults Podcast yet?

[El Scorcho]

The more the merrier. Lynchburg actually has a pretty strong Mac User Group that meets fairly regularly. M.U.G.'s are old school, but a lot of people really enjoy being involved with them. I know that Dr. Kester from LU is heavily involved with the Lynchburg group. I have yet to attend, though it's not for a lack of the group inviting me.

I'm pretty excited about 10.5, mostly because Apple has been so secretive about some of the new features. The stuff I've seen demo'ed is more than enough to get me to upgrade. Of course, I get it for free, too. I'm just extremely curious to find out what the features are that we don't yet know anything about. I think the "Time Machine" application is going to be awesome.

As for Dr. Caner, I think I've heard that he's a part of our cult. Perhaps he should cover it on the Podcast.

[Fumblerooskies]

Mac User Group? That's too funny...
...do you guys play Dungeons and Dragons after the meetings?

[PAmedic]

pocket


protectors

(FR- you know we're going to pay for this at some point)

[Fumblerooskies]

Oh, I know. I have no vested interest either way...I just found the term "Mac Users Group" too much to pass up.

[El Scorcho]

Ahem. As I said, I've never attended a Mac User Group. Not in Lynchburg, and not anywhere else either. Not once. Although I have seen pictures and videos from meetings. It's actually all men and women over 40, from what I can tell. I'd highly doubt they're playing D&D.

And as I said in another thread, I've never played D&D, but I once had a girlfriend who did.

[thepostman]

haha....Mac User Group.....thats great

[El Scorcho]

See, I think the kind of people you think are at Mac User Group meetings are actually the folks from the Linux User Groups. Now if you want to meet the D&D, sword-collecting, lives in his mother's basement type, LUG's are the place to do it.

And yes, there are Windows User Groups as well.

[4everfsu]

Seriously, why would I want to switch from a window pc to a mac? I am curious what advantages I would gain, etc.

Thanks

[Hold My Own]

Mac User Group? That's too funny...
...do you guys play Dungeons and Dragons after the meetings?

no but they do have fake rubber Ipods they use as ears...

[El Scorcho]

Seriously, why would I want to switch from a window pc to a mac? I am curious what advantages I would gain, etc.

Thanks

The primary advantages are security, superior software and ease of use. Macs are a total package. They're designed well, built well and everything "just works". And let's not forget, Macs run Windows, too. You get the best of both worlds.

However, if you're happy with a Windows computer and don't have any problems with it, I wouldn't recommend switching. I'm all for people using whatever works best for them.

[LUconn]

Question that doesnt have much to do with Mac, just apple: How is the reliability of an iPod. I've been reading on messageboards that they really are only lasting about 2 years and are somewhat manufactured that way. And these are comments from people who aren't being critical in a pro-microsoft/anti-apple way. I know people who have had them for many years and they're still going though. Anybody have experiences with dead iPods?

[Hold My Own]

I'm 4 years strong used daily in the car

[El Scorcho]

It's hard to speak universally about the iPods because there are currently 6 generations, and that's just of the standard model. That doesn't even get into minis, Nanos and Shuffles.

I have a third generation 20GB iPod. I bought it in the Summer of 2003, and after two years of daily use the battery died. I ordered a new (higher capacity) one for $25, replaced it myself and it's been good ever since. I thought this was reasonable since battery technology is just crappy to begin with. You can expect about the same life out of a laptop battery if you use it daily.

My wife has a 4GB first generation iPod mini. She got it in February of 2005. Shortly before Christmas last year, the hard drive (a microdrive) in it died. I'm ordering a compact flash card to replace it with sometime this month. (Microdrives and CF cards are interchangeable. The CF card should be more reliable since it has no moving parts, and it should also extend the battery life by quite a bit since there's no motor to spin.) I did not think the hard drive dying was reasonable since I've had drives last much much longer than that. I would never accuse the Mrs. of anything, but I suspect it might have been subjected to a few drops or something similar, which would do a lot to explain the short life of the drive.

Those are my experiences so far. I would suspect that the newer models are more reliable than the old ones since they have larger batteries. I would also expect that the Nano and the Shuffles would last significantly longer since they're flash-memory based, instead of hard-drive based. (Same principle as the modification I'm about to do to my wife's mini.)

[LUconn]

yeah, it was the hard drives that seemed to be the culprit.

[El Scorcho]

Which model of iPod is it?

[4everfsu]

Next time I buy a new PC I may have to look into an Apple, any suggestions what I should look for?
Thanks

[Fumblerooskies]

Good question...
...all I use my PC for at home is basic video editing...but it is SLOOWWWING down and getting choppy with capture and playback.

[El Scorcho]

Next time I buy a new PC I may have to look into an Apple, any suggestions what I should look for?
Thanks

What are your primary uses? Do you do any creative work with your computer? Gaming? Just homework and web browsing?

[4everfsu]

Basic internet usage, nothing fancy here

[alabama24]

I got started on Mac’s after several PC’s crashed or blew up while working on Video projects. After about a week of frustration trying to unlearn windows I will never go back to a Wintel box (although when I get an Intel Mac I plan to install Vista through “Boot Camp”).

I have always thought that Mac’s were superior to PC’s since they were what Bill Gates copied to create windows. The argument I always used (which is probably the argument many of you will use) is that 95% of software is developed for PC’s - therefore you must be dense to get a Mac. What I didn’t take in to consideration is that if the software you need can be found in the 5%, why not Mac?

Many users who use both systems think Microsoft Office for Mac is superior to the PC version or at the very least on an equal footing. I bought office for Mac and was surprised that the license is different than the PC version. On the PC you must have a license for each computer but on the mac you are able to install the software on up to three machines. Also, Apples own iWork is quickly replacing Office for me because of its graphic capabilities. I have several documents that would not print correctly on either the Mac or PC versions of Word. When I opened Pages for the first time not only did it open the document perfectly but it printed it! I spent months trying to get the document to work on word for PC and have still not gotten it to work.

Another reason to have a Mac is that they are just fun. Apples iLife suite (which comes with every Mac) is filled with applications that just work and are fun to use. Apple has given the world a taste of the Mac with iTunes for windows but there are many more applications that are just as fun and easy to use.

[LUconn]

I have always thought that Mac’s were superior to PC’s since they were what Bill Gates copied to create windows.

Didn't they both copy Xerox?

[LUconn]

hilarious unintentional pun.

[El Scorcho]

Didn't they both copy Xerox?

Apple copied Xerox's idea of a graphical user interface with a mouse. Xerox, however, thought the idea wasn't that great and never intended to market it. Microsoft, on the other hand, took nearly every aspect of the original Macintosh interface and copied it (poorly) for Windows. They've been stealing ideas ever since. Everyone in the Tech industry is aware of it, especially Apple.

[FlameDad]

Seriously, why would I want to switch from a window pc to a mac? I am curious what advantages I would gain, etc.

Thanks

The primary advantages are security, superior software and ease of use. Macs are a total package. They're designed well, built well and everything "just works". And let's not forget, Macs run Windows, too. You get the best of both worlds.

However, if you're happy with a Windows computer and don't have any problems with it, I wouldn't recommend switching. I'm all for people using whatever works best for them.

Congrats to El Scorcho
That has to be the best, well-reasoned response to the win/mac debate ever written
I noticed that macs are much closer in price to win machines recently...