Drew Wutka
DWUTKA at Marlow.com
Thu Jul 17 16:26:26 CDT 2008
Great commentary Jurgen! Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jurgen Welz Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 12:30 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT Kinda: New Computer I bought a 24" iMac this spring and started researching Windows and Linux options yesterday. Music, videography and photography are all interests of mine and I was hoping to explore OS X to see if there was substance to the hype. Most of the included software with the Mac is obtuse and crippled, but Windows machines fare little better with bundled software. The Garage Band music application might be better named Garbarage Band. The mouse that comes with the iMac is supposed to support right and left click but I'll be damned if I can get that to work. The help has been next to useless and in general has been a good deal less helpful than Windows help. I do like that the mouse also has a trackball at the top, though at pea size, it is a little small for my taste. When I hooked up an external drive, the Time Machine backup application offered to format the drive I had been using as a Windows backup drive. Abort... I purchased a new drive and the next dozen times I hooked it up, Time Machine crashed with a very un Mac like error message. I searched for web solutions and found reports of Apple techs on the phone with users for over an hour troubleshooting this without solutions. It turns out that you need to change a system preference setting if you tell it not to format/use one drive and subsequently try another. You get a free trial of online services that includes an email account. Too bad both our broadband providers use a port for SMTP that is blocked by the OS. Sending an email will get you a error message that you aren't connected to the internet, while at the same time your browser is open and connected. Knowing something from the PC side of things, this can be solved, but heaven help you with finding where these settings are, because Mac users are protected from themselves. If I were that glib idiot in the Mac vs PC commercials, I'd have to shoot myself over the hundreds of thousands or millions of complaints these issues must have caused. There have been many more 'out of the box' it doesn't work, or, no help on how do I get it to do 'A' types of issues. Part of my grief with this is an adjustment to a new system and the attendant learning curve. If I didn't have the ability to access the internet and search efficiently for solutions, there is no way I could have accomplished as much as I have so far. Then again, maybe I wouldn't have had the expectation that a computer could do something useful and would have been satified by having a pretty desk ornament. The system is flashy, has excellent graphics and good sound. At this point I simply am not able to accomplish much with it and continue to run into frustrations. I will set it up primarily as a Windows XP machine with the option to boot to OS X. Once I have that figured out, Adobe CS3 and Sibellius are going on and I will be using a conventional blue tooth mouse. This has been a worthwhile learning experience though there has been much gnashing of teeth and frustration with this system. More than with ANY system I've used since my first Coleco Adam 24 years ago. If I were to do it over again, I'd be tempted to see whether I could get it to work it the other way, run OS X on a PC as I believe all of the hardware on the iMac is available in PC as well. CiaoJürgen WelzEdmonton, Albertajwelz at hotmail.com> From: markamatte at hotmail.com> To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:39:29 +0000> Subject: [AccessD] OT Kinda: New Computer> > > Hello All,> > I'm getting ready to shop for a new computer. I'm thinking laptop. I've never owned a Mac...but a number of people are trying to talk me into it. I still wan't to do some Access work. I hear people talking about VM...and I've seen some dual boot machines. I'm kinda nervous about trying to run MS Access on a Mac...I just don't know enough?> > Any thoughts/advice/experience?> > Also, I think the ONLY reasons my friends are suggesting the Mac is for my photography hobby(even though I rarely edit the photos)...anyway...> > Anything is appreciated.> > Thanks,> > Mark A. Matte _________________________________________________________________ If you like crossword puzzles, then you'll love Flexicon, a game which combines four overlapping crossword puzzles into one! http://g.msn.ca/ca55/208 -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com The information contained in this transmission is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain II-VI Proprietary and/or II-VI Business Sensitive material. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. You are notified that any review, retransmission, copying, disclosure, dissemination, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.