Limbaugh could sell new Mac

The Hill ^ | 1/26/05 | David Hill

[Swordmaker]

Interesting, I could never get more than 640x480 out of my IIsi, must not have had the right adaptor. Great machine though, up until 2001 I had mine acting as a router/NAT sharing the modem connection on my home network.

The adapter that worked was made by Griffin, IIRC. It had DIP switches on the back and a big selector knob on the front. Back then various monitors had different sync pins and you had to get it right. I usually just used the basic adapter cause I had a lot of those and the software we were using worked fine at 640x480. I may be mis-remembering on the XGA support... that might have been one of the other II series... it's been a long time.

[TheBattman]

Yep - OEM prices tend to be through the roof - and Apple is not afraid to take a big profit in such upgrades.

Of course, anyone with even a tiny bit of brains can buy the 1gig stick and install it themselves for the same price that the same memory stick costs a PC upgrader....

[Pelham]

Ahead of its time.

[SunkenCiv]

"Andy Hertzfeld’s new book"

I've not tried a computer-age topic book in a long time (the Jobs bio by, hmm, Levy? may have been the only one I've ever finished) but I've always liked Hertzfeld's 'tude about software engineering. I think it was AH who had an epiphany at home for how the original Quickdraw routines could be done to make them operate smoothly, having spent weeks struggling with it. He headed back to work at a late hour, was in a car crash, woke up in the hospital, and his idea for Quickdraw was still in his head. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

"not subject to porno pop-up ads"

isn't that a negative? Oops, said too much...

[N3WBI3]

I dont use any USB on my Dell, other than the keyboard and mouse. The firewire port is there, the dell does not give me that option.

... and just try to load the USB drivers from those mini-CD's via the slot drive ...

umm my wife has never had to install a usb driver on their Mac, she plugs something in and it works.

[SaveTheChief]

That looks like a nifty offer from Apple. I would enjoy trying it, but the specs look pretty slim. Granted, it would be foolish to expect a 200 GB hard drive and 1 GB of memory at that price, but will this machine as advertised be able to operate efficiently?

Mac experts, can you help me out?

[N3WBI3]

The target for this computer is people converting from a Pee-Cee. I have a 21 inch monitor, why would I want a cheap monitor from dell, or another keyboard and mouse when I have three lying around the house.

Your KVM is exactly what they are going for.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Wasn't it the Clintom Justice Department that went after MSFT?"

Yes. And it just so happens that the lead plaintiff was Netscape, whose largest shareholder at the time was a private investment group funded by a bunch of Indonesian-Chinese billionaires. Funny how Indonesian-Chinese billionaires kept popping behind everything the Clinton Administration did...

[ThinkDifferent]

will this machine as advertised be able to operate efficiently?

As with most questions like this, it depends on your needs. There's a detailed review here, which found performance to be good overall, with disk speed a possible issue. For most "normal" uses it should be more than acceptable.

[HAL9000]

Granted, it would be foolish to expect a 200 GB hard drive and 1 GB of memory at that price, but will this machine as advertised be able to operate efficiently?

The Mac mini's G4 processor is fast enough for a pleasant user experience with the Mac OS X operating system, especially with the "Quartz Extreme" technology that shifts most of the graphics processing to the video chip. It runs very efficiently.

All of the software bundled with Mac mini works well, including: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, AppleWorks (word processor/spreadsheet/graphics tools), Quicken 2005, Nanosaur 2, Marble Blast Gold, Address Book, DVD Player, Font Book, iCal, iChat AV (text messaging and audio/video conferencing), iSync, Mail, Preview (PDF/graphics viewer), Safari (web browser), Sherlock (search tools), Chess, Calculator, X11 (Unix window environment), XCode (programming tools), and several other applications and utilities.

You can also download a bunch of free software like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Firefox (web browser), Text Wrangler, Skype (free internet telephone service), RealPlayer, and tons of others.

Microsoft Office will work well on the Mac mini. Apple just released an $80 productivity package called "iWork" which contains the "Pages" word processor and the "Keynote" presentation software.

The list of programs above just scratches the surface. There is no shortage of software that will run well on the Mac mini. Later this year, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" will be released and will include even more stuff.

I have an eMac that runs at a slower speed with less memory, and it's performance is more than adequate to run the software that came with it. If you want the ultimate performance, the PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 models are faster. But the Mac mini is fast enough for most home and office users. At $499, it's an excellent bargain.

One other note - you can upgrade the Mac mini's RAM to 1 gigabyte, and high-speed external disk drives can be attached to the Firewire interface. WiFi and Bluetooth hardware can be included as "build-to-order" options.

[HAL9000]

Adding one caveat about iDVD - it's useful only if the "SuperDrive" option is ordered for burning DVD discs.

[Joe_October]

.... Just because YOU couldn't do it says a lot more about your lack of knowledge of old Macs....

Neither could Sun remanufacturing. Nor Apple who I contacted directly with that machine. Wrong frequency on the output. And there were hundreds like them at my place of work, all requiring special Mac monitors. I bought the special adaptor and used it with mixed results. Now since, all it required was plugging it in, I think my limitations as a human would not have interferred.

Multi-syncs came later dude. Your comment was that Macs were compatible with VGA monitors from the start. The fact that later monitors worked does not change the fact that they were not compatible. Further, you need a special cable. You were wrong.

But, to drink the Mac kool-aid you have to change the subject and dodge the point. I've never seen a single Mac evangelist conceed a SINGLE point. It is IMPOSSIBLE to never be wrong! (Come on, the toilet seat Mac really wasn't the greatest machine in the history of computing, and we can now admit those iMacs really were junk and the revolutionary cube and lamp Mac really didn't set off a new Era in computing?)

In a mixed office (PC and Macs), the Macs are a pain in the ass. Every company I've worked with has concluded that independently (without my help, thanks) and each in turn has disposed of the Macs. Hundreds of Macs sold at bargain basement prices. Most given away.

Yet, there are always a few who insist on their special machines and usually they get them for a while. After all the patches, special software to make them compatible, work arounds for software they can't get even with Virtual PC, difficulty in servicing them, and the Mac user who insists it's not their machine, it's the other 9,000 that are messed up, the company quietly makes the Mac go away.

Just my experience, having used them all for a long time.

Here's the test. Tell a new user how to use their Mac with all their friends and co-workers but don't use the word "except" or "but". Like You can do this except you have to add this. You can do this but you have to buy this extra piece. You can use the same file type, but the formatting is different. It can't be done. And each but and except increase the difficulty for the new user.

For the geeks like us, no problem, but for average users, it still doesn't work and it never did. As breathlessly as the Mac user wants it to be so, again and again, the people that have to make the rational decision, chose the other way.

[lainde]

bttt

[Joe_October]

...I could never get more than 640x480 out of my IIsi....

Shh, don't let your experience interfere with the hallucinations of the hard core Mac users. The manual says "built-in 8-bit video, supports 512x384 and 640x480 at 8-bits or portrait monitor (640x870) at 4-bits (uses 64-320 KB of RAM for video, not separate VRAM)".

Plus the Mac sites specifically state: "Internal video on the IIci and IIsi, and the Mac II mono and color video cards, will not work with multisync monitors, whether Apple or PC style. Griffin Technology makes the Mac 2 Series Adapter that works with Apple's Multiple Scan monitors and most Mac compatible monitors. There is also a version for using VGA-type monitors on older Macs."

The fact that you had to find this obscure adaptor, order it, and frankly it didn't work so well, should not interfere with your actual using experience.

[HAL9000]

In a mixed office (PC and Macs), the Macs are a pain in the ass.

If Windows PCs worked as well as Macs, you would be unemployed.

[Swordmaker]

"...There is also a version for using VGA-type monitors on older Macs."

How much should we stress this quotation? "THERE IS ALSO A VERSION FOR USING VGA-TYPE MONITORS ON OLDER MACS."

Then we have YOU saying "...and frankly it didn't work so well..."

Why should I believe your assertion when I USED THEM AND THEY WORKED AS ADVERTISED! As for them being "obscure" they were advertised in MacWarehouse and other Mac sources. They were not hard to find at all.

I am still waiting to read why your experiences with a 15 year old Mac has anything to do with a modern OSX Macintosh. I doubt you can provide a coherent answer.

[Swordmaker]

Neither could Sun remanufacturing. Nor Apple who I contacted directly with that machine. Wrong frequency on the output. And there were hundreds like them at my place of work, all requiring special Mac monitors. I bought the special adaptor and used it with mixed results. Now since, all it required was plugging it in, I think my limitations as a human would not have interferred.

Not surprising. Apple was in the busness of selling their OWN monitors and did not officially support ANY other monitor. You called them with a display problem that was not a Mac monitor and they WOULD NOT HELP. IF you had called Griffin, they would have told you exactly how to set the DIP switches for that monitor to work. I will admit the setting of those adapters could be very arcane...

Multi-syncs came later dude. Your comment was that Macs were compatible with VGA monitors from the start. The fact that later monitors worked does not change the fact that they were not compatible. Further, you need a special cable. You were wrong.

So sorry, wrong again. The NEC Multisync Monitor was released in early 1986, the Mac IIsi was released October 15, 2000. By the time the IIsi was on the market, there were several manufacturers (including Sony, Thomson, and Motorola) making multiscanning monitors.

By-the-by, It was not I who made the comment that "Macs were compatible with VGA monitors from the start"... My comment was that IIsis could be hooked up to a VGA because I had done it.

(Come on, the toilet seat Mac really wasn't the greatest machine in the history of computing, and we can now admit those iMacs really were junk and the revolutionary cube and lamp Mac really didn't set off a new Era in computing?)

The first iBooks did look ridiculous... but they were solid and dependable. Ugly but they weren't the be-all and end-all of computing. The Cube is still one of the most elegant designs I have seen for a desktop computer that has to share space in living quarters and not look like industrial grunge. The one I had was quite unobtrusive and exceedingly quiet. It is still providing excellent service as a server in a medical office with two Cubes and seven "lamp" iMacs.

[Sea Mac]

I think I know what the problem is: you're running on "System 9". There IS an answer: http://www.mozilla.org/download.html#os9

Mozilla 1.2.1 CAN block Pop-up Ads on System 9 if the built in Pop-up Blocker is enabled - Or look at the WaMCom project for more "Up to Date Code" and a nicer internet experience. I'd suggest you wait a few months for OS X 10.4 "Tiger" to arrive and install it on that iBook. It'll be worth it - you'll be delighted - built in browser "Safari" blocks Pop-Up Ads. (And You'll get iLife to boot!) Enable the Pop-up Blocker by going to Preferences - Then Security - Then Pop-up Ads. iBook is too nice to be playing with that mean ol' I.E. that comes with it.

No Viruses - No Spyware - Stick with Mac: Simply BETTER!

[mathluv]

I still have my 2C. My grandkids get a huge kick out of playing games on it and using the joystick.