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colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
so i'm finally thinking of buying a mac smile

i'm looking at an imac g4 (1.25ghz) with a 17" screen:


Non-Https Image Link


i'll be using it for layout and graphics mainly (running quark and adobe cs2) but would like it to completely replace my pc if at all possible.

i currently use my pc for video editing, watching videos, watching dvd's, playing music and browsing the net, so i don't think a g4 should have any problems doing all that stuff!

the problem is, the last time i used a mac was in 1997 so its safe to say i don't know that much about them...

will i need to look out for one with a hardcore video card if i want to edit video?
how much memory is sufficient to run say illustrator and quark at the same time with a few files loaded?
how easy would it be to replace the hard drive with a larger one?
can i convert my current hard drive to a usb external drive and use it?
will pc peripherals work with a mac (hp scanner, sandisk card reader, svga monitor/projector)?
how much cooler will my ipod look next to an imac? wink
should i keep my pc anyway cos all my friends have them and its easier to have one around than mess about converting files?
can i get good thirdparty software for free like firefox and thunderbird, a download manager, anti-spy/adware, virus checkers and a multi-region dvd player hack so i can play any dvd form any region (this one is *really* important for me)?


i'd also like some general advice please, especially anything important that i should look out for when buying a mac.

if anyone has any experiences that they'd like to share of going from using a pc to using a mac as their main home computer, i'd love to hear about them too.


cheers,


cole. x

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


LoewanBRONZE Member
and behold!
464 posts
Location: Liverpool, United Kingdom


Posted:
Anyone got Shapeshifter for OS X? I have downloaded a copy from the official website. Is it a dated shareware that turns itself off after 14 days?

Why let your body be a temple? When it can be a theme park?

Wii Console Number: 3294 0297 7824 7498


colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
yumyumyumyumyum - might have to buy a tv when this comes out... wink

an iphone is what i really want though...


cole. x

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


SparkfireFire coach - Cirque du Soleil
89 posts
Location: Bristol, UK


Posted:
I've got the opportunity to get an
iBook G4 12" / 1.33 GHz / 512MB / 40GB / Combo / AirportX / Bluetooth
for $850 AUD (640 USD 335 GBP)

sound like a good deal?

seems it'll have no problems using my wireless network. Can use a FAT32 external drive to transfer between machines, is direct networking possible?

Would like to upgrade to at least a gig memory so i can do video editing with it. pity theres no counterstrike for Mac tho' frown

[Nx?]BRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,749 posts
Location: Europe,Scotland,Both


Posted:
yes, yes, yes, and nevermind couterstrike, what about WoW?

T wave

This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Yes stuff ----er----e, why is everyone raving about WoW?

I just pulled my games disk from my desktop PC and firewired it up to this
Non-Https Image Link
(bounce2)
I don't even have to install anything to play games biggrin Apart from perhaps WoW.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
which games are you running on it polarity?

and what software are you using to boot into a pc os?

i saw futurama series three the other day and noticed a parody/nod to one of apple's old ads:



ubblol

for those that haven't seen it, this is the original ad:




i like this too:



biggrin


cole. x

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


SymBRONZE Member
Geek-enviro-hippy priest
1,858 posts
Location: Diss, Norfolk, United Kingdom


Posted:
Cole, did you see the 20 year remake of the 1984 video? They put an iPod on her wink ubblol

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
It's a seperate drive just for games, mostly from when I was going to LAN parties (since about 14, so there's a lot of older games I haven't installed). Haven't been to one since I joined HoP biggrin

Code:

Beyond Good & Evil
Curse of Monkey Island
Discworld Noir
Myst III Exile
Psychonauts
Battlefield 2
Battlefield Vietnam
Battlefield 1942 (+ Desert Combat)
BloodRayne 2
Call of Duty (+ United Offensive)
Call of Duty 2
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down
DeusEx - Invisible War
DeusEx
F.E.A.R.
WH40k: FireWarrior
Giants
Half Life 2
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
Prey
Quake
Quake 2
Quake 3
Quake 4
Ravenshield
Star Wars: Jedi Academy
Star Trek: Elite Forces II
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Stubbs The Zombie - Rebel Without A Pulse
System Shock 2
Unreal 2
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament 2004
Vietcong
Midnight Club II
Command & Conquer Generals:
Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
PANZERS - Phase 1
Star Wars: Empire at War
WH40K - DoW (+ Winter Assault)
Neverwinter Nights
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Freelancer



Mostly I'm playing BF2 and F.E.A.R. (actually copied them to the Apple's disk), although I put Discworld Noir on too to see if I can get any further.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Oh yeah, BootCamp. I don't do virtual thingies. If I want Windows in OSX I'll Remote Desktop a PC.



I can't be arsed with crippling my MBPs XP install by adding anti virus, firewall and anti spyware, so I've just left the gateway and DNS sections of the network settings blank, so it can't see anything but the local network.



Macs are faster than PCs, because they don't have to scan for n-thousand viruses every time you open a program or file biggrin

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Started playing Battlefield 2 online, but ran into problems when the MBP started overheating and crashing (because there are no drivers yet for the fans or temp sensors in Windows, and the firmware fan settings prefer to run quiet rather than cool).



This program is a godsend for Macbook users, as it lets you decide if you want your laptop to be usable on your lap (if a bit noisy), as opposed to being absolutely silent, and bloody hot.



It even solved my XP crashing problem. If I set a fan speed, then reboot into windows, the settings stay.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
So they have released the update on the MacBook and the middle config is looking pretty good but I have to decide if I want to go for that or a refurbished MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro + upgrade to 1 Gig ram works out £170 more. It has bigger screen and a dedicated graphics card, but an older processor. Although I won't be playing games, I do hope to be using video editing in the future.

What do you think? Should splash out on the Pro model?

colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
not sure what to advise you there matt but be aware of this:

https://www.macbookrandomshutdown.com/

apple may well have redesigned the logic board for the new core 2 duo bearing units but its a big risk to take as they haven't directly addressed the problem anywhere as far as i've seen...

besides, 13" is far too small anyway wink


cole. x

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
Good ol' Cole knew you would be in there first wink

Mac seemed to have sorted out the rss (ransom shutdown syndrome) with a recent software update. And any computer manufacturer worth there salt would have sorted it out in an hardware update.

I know what you say with 13" (actually 13.3") but it is widescreen, and I am use to using my iBook which only 12.1"!

It seems a shame to plump for an old 32 bit chip when there are 64 bit chips available.

colemanSILVER Member
big and good and broken
7,330 posts
Location: lunn dunn, yoo kay, United Kingdom


Posted:
i'm getting a brand new mac in just over a week's time biggrin

it comes with my new job (which along with other recent very important news, i have totally failed to mention as yet on hop - will break the news when we get around to taking the photo).

and my home imac is all fixed up and back at home with a new logic board and no screen issues at all ubblove

only problem is, although i backed up my itunes music folder on the very last backup i did before sending it back i seem to have omitted backing up the itunes folder in general which means i lost my library file and hence all my playlists, album artwork and related file info (number of plays, genre and so on).
i is a bit gutted frown


on a semi-related note i just got a dvd drive oem (i.e. with no connectors etc) that i can flash and make rpc-1.

i'd like to fit it into a case so that i can use it with my imac to watch region 1 dvds and with my ibook so i can watch dvds on that too.

does anyone have any recommendations for getting a dvd-drive into a firewire casing please?
e.g. where to buy the casing, which one to buy, what additional components i'll need (leads, power supply, screws).


cheers,


cole. x

"i see you at 'dis cafe.
i come to 'dis cafe quite a lot myself.
they do porridge."
- tim westwood


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
If your thinking of getting a new Mac (and your in the UK), I'd hold for now. Cause this coming Friday, 2nd Nov, there is a special shopping day with money off (recently Apple had $101 off a MacBook in the US).

This is available on-line and at the Apple store; I'll be the first in line in Regent street biggrin

Coleman: congrats on the new job smile

polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Get your memory upgrades from crucial (crucial.com then pick a delivery area), they're a fair bit cheaper, and are exactly the same chips as you get from Apple.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
span.com has a fair range of cases you can put your own drives in, you may be able to find one for a DVD drive by searching through the different USB/FW/FW800 combinations.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
Just got back from the Apple store with my grubby hands full with goodies: a MacBook (2Ghz), a HP all-in-one printer and a Lacie rugged external hard disk biggrin

Super duper

MoohaahaaBRONZE Member
enthusiast
382 posts
Location: In Ger Land, India


Posted:
Woohoo. Well done Matt.
I'm really happy for you. And it's not just 'cos your new Mac puts me (temporarily) in the Mac owners club. It's cos I know how much you'll love your new Mac.

I promise I'll look after your old one. I hear they like India. Hard drives and dust are a classic mix. And the humidity. Computers (especially Macs) live for humidity.

So when can I come get it? smile

Some things you have to see to believe, but
Some things you have to believe in to see.


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
Don't worry Mooha you'll get your greasy hands on it soon.

On a seperate note:

Since I moved to my MacBook with Intel chip I don't seem to be able to stream BBC content. Real say they don't support the Intel Macs yet. I use Flip4Mac to stream through Quicktime but all it says is "Alert the URL is not valid" frown

Can anyone help?

polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Put Windows on it.

Realplayer sucks on Windows, never mind OSX.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


SymBRONZE Member
Geek-enviro-hippy priest
1,858 posts
Location: Diss, Norfolk, United Kingdom


Posted:
Actually I've found real player on my (PPC) Powerbook to be loads better than on Windows. For a start it doesn't install as much crap in my Mac.

Have a look at mplayer and the firefox plug in. It does quite a good job at playing web content on my Linux install, but I've not tested it for OS X.

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees


mcpPLATINUM Member
Flying Water Muppet
5,276 posts
Location: Edin-borrow., United Kingdom


Posted:
also if you find the url for the streaming content, and give that to mplayer on the command line, it'll do everything for you, without needing to worry about browser plugins.

or if you give it to mencoder, you can rip the stream to a proper video and save it to your harddrive.

"the now legendary" - Kaskade
"the still legendary" - Kaskade

I spunked in my friend's aquarium and the fish ate it. I love all fish. Especially the pink ones. They are my bitches. - Anon.


ickleMattenthusiast
242 posts
Location: L.O.N.D.O.N.


Posted:
reinstalled real and it works a dream. and now i have enough band width to stream the high quality stuff smile

newgabeSILVER Member
what goes around comes around. unless you're into stalls.
4,030 posts
Location: Bali, Australia


Posted:
Hey chaps,
SOrry if this has been covered already, i am in a bit of a hurry to search etc.
I have sometimes been downloading online vids via that Firefox plug-in, Download Helper.. but they come as 'flv files.
What is a good program to convert the .flv files to something usable?
Hope someone can help quick cos I have to cpature some stuff to take up to Woodford tomorrow..

.....Can't juggle balls but I sure as hell can juggle details....


Mark HustedGOLD Member
member
177 posts
Location: Fresno, CA USA


Posted:
Macs=Dependable, user friendly. I have an Imac G5 and it has never given me a problem. For over two years now, not one problem with it. Yeah, and about a month after I got it they came out with the Imac that has the remote, mighty mouse, and built in camera. They are amazing pieces of machinery and I have changed many peoples minds about them. For most, they don't even know that Mac makes a computer that is 2.2 inches thick with all the power of a desktop. They are expensive for a reason. They are like the BMW's or Mercedes Benz of computers. At least that has been my experience with it. Oh and it's not that Macs are less prone to catching a virus, there are simply less people that make viruses for them. Hope this helps.
Mark

Keep it Lit....


newgabeSILVER Member
what goes around comes around. unless you're into stalls.
4,030 posts
Location: Bali, Australia


Posted:
indeed Mark we know that, that is why we use them. Can someone answer my question??

.....Can't juggle balls but I sure as hell can juggle details....


anibellstranger
5 posts

Posted:
another question.....i hope this is the place to post it..recently aquired a mac and have been playing round on garageband.Is it possible to delete whole projects or songs{not just tracks}?in fact deleting anything on a mac seems a bit of a problem.... confused

polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
For most programs OSX stores everything in a folder inside Documents, using the project name.

I noticed I was running out of disk space, and tracked it down to a few Final Cut projects sitting in there, along with uncompressed video eek

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


Pen DravenUnofficial Lord Of Confusion And Pirate Extrodinaire
1,363 posts
Location: Nuneaton


Posted:
 Written by: anibell



In fact deleting anything on a mac seems a bit of a problem.... confused





Errrr So finding a file and dragging it to the trash can is a problem confused



What else was it you were having trouble deleting other than the GB files ?
EDITED_BY: Pen Draven (1174052250)

Some men see things and say why....

I Dream of things that never were and say Why Not....?

Oh No I'm going to get Shot Alive if he finds out - DA wink


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