I HATE APPLE

weird, my post earlier didn't go through. this directory is on an external HD which was used with a windows xp machine until now (NTSF formatted); ownership is the same as the standard 'music' folder on the mac machine, it appears (owned by me); but maybe if itunes itself is copying the files, the system needs to own it? or they need to be in the same group? I think the group here is wheel, I dunno, I'm actually at work now. I'll fuck with it tonight, probably have to recursively run chmod/chown until it works. I kind of hate permissions shit, it's something that I seem to not understand incredibly well even when I think I do.

Sounds like akm's problem is PEBAirPortExpressAU, which is one of the reasons that I gave an AE a good two-week fighting chance to impress me, and then... no more. The fabulous USB port for network sharing should come with several asterisks.

not using airport express, this is just a usb drive.

which actually means PEBEAU (problem exists between engineers and users)

That's not quite what I meant by PEBKAC. When folks use computers according to SOPs, employ common sense, and research or ask for help when necessary, there's never a PEBKAC to be found. What I'm talking about is when folks get a little to "ambitious" with their computers w/o knowing how to reverse whatever the hell optimization they're trying. E.g., when someone's mail notes stopped working (moonship?), the problem turned out to be user optimization: the note font had been removed or deactivated! That's classical PEBKAC, and no matter how mature the industry becomes, it'll still happen.

Tom I got a new computer this weekend too. But who has the biggest wang

xpost: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/power.users.html

asking for a fresh-box replacement as soon as they figured out the og mobo was faulty

will they do that? i don't think that's in the warranty terms.

ha ha yeah that was me. no "marker felt", no mail notes!

my problem was just not connecting the two things in my head. i deactivated the font, several days later i realized the notes weren't working. i never would have thought that not having the font would break the program - i figured it would just do notes in geneva or whatever. and i'd been doing a bunch of other stuff w/ mail in the meantime (trying to get imap to work right).

i guess that's an argument for scrupulously documenting everything you do to your computer.

I watched them do that for a lady who came in after me with her macbook pro which was acting up, actually. Dude took a look at it, listened to her issues (I wasn't there for the whole thing, just saw him pop the battery out and put it back in) then left and came back with a brand new one in the box and asked her if she needed data transfer.

xpost Man, if my notes in college had been 1/3 as detailed as the computer/network notes I have in this special spiral notebook...

i guess that's an argument for scrupulously documenting everything you do to your computer.

i would say it's an argument for verbose and clearly worded warning messages when a non-root account attempts to do something that will break a dependency, but my undergrad was in liberal arts.

will they do that? i don't think that's in the warranty terms.

if I ever have a similar experience I'm going to request that they do that, since I have now learned that nothing that was ever plugged into a bad board can really be trusted afterwards. I've no way of knowing how much collateral damage was done by it beyond the fried SODIMMs that they also replaced under warranty, but the techie agreed with me that it's likely that the entire thing was a ticking bomb.

actual quote from "Genius" to salesgirl: "This is Tom. His iMac has failed him miserably, and he needs a new one."

my problem hardly warrants a new computer. it's just a cable replacement, to keep the screen from flickering when i move it. i just can't give this fucking thing up for a week right now.

I had that same issue way back in the day when "powerbooks" were charcoal gray and touchpads were novel. It was tolerable (only when moving) for about three or four days and then POP black was red and POP again everything went white.

I just bought the AppleCare extension on the last possible day I could. Is it just me, or does it cost even more than it used to? Damn expensive.

I'm downgrading my current laptop (early 2008 white Macbook) to a PB G4 12"
ACK THPPPT

I have a PB G4 that I should have sold a year ago sitting around as a machine to do torrents and mild file serving at home... really should look into selling that thing

still good value! my screen is water/beer damaged

Yeah, know anyone interested in a 15" 1.5GHz G4? Well cared for, Applecare just expired on it

yeah, i'm in the same boat. 12" 1.5 ghz g4. it just feels ridiculous when i pick it up again.

I had that same issue way back in the day when "powerbooks" were charcoal gray and touchpads were novel. It was tolerable (only when moving) for about three or four days and then POP black was red and POP again everything went white.

-- El Tomboto

did it ever get fixed?

i have a 12" too that my friend ahs been borrowing for a while

It's kind of a weird feeling because my macbook pro looks almost physically identical but it's just so much better

moonship: yes, I got it fixed, but it had to be mailed to texas and back for the cable replacement. This was before the days of Apple Stores in malls, but I'm pretty sure there's still no such thing as on-site laptop repair. I'm basically relating that to tell you that you're either going to lose it for a week on your own terms or it the cable will just decide for you.

This was before the days of Apple Stores in malls, but I'm pretty sure there's still no such thing as on-site laptop repair.

It depends on what the repair is. They do at least some repairs at the local Apple Store here, since they replaced my hard drive when it went dead a year and a half ago. They had to wait two days for the part to get shipped in, though.

Oh, additionally, the guy who did the repair came from the back and he was the Apple version of the traditional PC hardware dork guy! Long hair, oversized black Apple shirt and unfashionable jeans, very interested in saying he replaced my hard drive and proud that he cleaned up the screen, too. I was impressed and kind of nostalgic about when I was that sort of guy.

Buy Applecare online - I dunno where people on Ebay get the Applecare packages, but it's less than half of retail and they've registered fine every time for me.

are applecare packages transferable?

they're tied to a specific product

but not a specific instance of a product until you register

Between peeps, yes.

Yeah, know anyone interested in a 15" 1.5GHz G4? Well cared for, Applecare just expired on it

I might be. I'm looking into getting a laptop before I go to CA in August.

well it took two hours in the store and on the phone but apparently apple is going to ship me a new MBP with fedex labels to ship the old one back. they took my CC # as insurance and i guess i'm going to have to sign some sort of agreement too.

hmm i forgot to ask whether i am going to be able to transfer the apple care or not.

also they weren't clear whether they'd be sending an '07 or an '08

xpost: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/power.users.html

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Monday, 2 June 2008 19:59 (Yesterday) Link

http://i26.tinypic.com/n225ph.png

i would say it's an argument for verbose and clearly worded warning messages when a non-root account attempts to do something that will break a dependency, but my undergrad was in liberal arts.

I can't disagree with this. I would have appreciated a warning before I did that. Even a taunt would have been acceptable.

"Hey there, FancyPants! You're about to render your machine totally unbootable. That's awesome if that's your bag, but let me go ahead and link you to the HowTo page for FireWire Target Disk Mode, because that's what you're looking at here."

Computing is so still at the stage of "do we put the clutch here as a pedal, or make it a button under the seat, or what? Ach, we'll make it a lever on the passenger side. If they read the manual, do research and use common sense they'll figure it out."

To be fair, Apple still leads the way in finding (acceptably) intuitive ways to build the interface. There are many seemingly little things about OS X that now drive me nuts when they're not there, like (oh god this name) Exposé. One of the things I like about gnu with compiz is that you can closely mimic a lot of functionality like that -- my hot corners are the same on both my desktops.

how much do you think i could get for my 12"PB 1Ghz 512MB ram?

when someone's mail notes stopped working (moonship?), the problem turned out to be user optimization: the note font had been removed or deactivated! That's classical PEBKAC, and no matter how mature the industry becomes, it'll still happen.

I can't disagree with this, either. You just try to stop me from fiddling with shit until I break it. Go ahead, try -- I dare you.

That doesn't make me a "Power User" by any means, at least not yet. Just makes me willful and reckless. At the very least, I have learned how to back everything up, in some cases twice. Not only is that good in case of disaster, it's useful if you just want to clear some cobwebs, which Time Machine restores are perfect for. I did it just the other day, just to knock out some odd speed issues on startup and shutdown. Wipe the drive, reinstall the OS, restore the apps and files. Runs like a dream again now.

Slocki -- g4? Titanium? Those can still pull a cool $500-600 on Craigslist, I'll betcha.

G4, aluminum.

yeah, i'm in the same boat. 12" 1.5 ghz g4. it just feels ridiculous when i pick it up again

my 12" G4 is still my primary machine for everything ... i'm planning on getting a new iMac in the next month or so, but this is the best mac i've ever had/used, and it ain't going anywhere.

My point being -- ownership and permissions is some mission critical shit -- don't mess with it if you don't absolutely have to

i still recall fondly a usenet post back in ... whenever it was X came out ... from some poor bastard who'd upgraded, gone "what are all these untidy folders on my hard disk about, then?" and moved half the system about in order to "make everything neater".

sort of understandable. maybe. actually, no. dick.

"As an aside, I noted that my computer was purchased a year ago, actually a year and 3 weeks, making it out of warranty now. Every. Single. Computer. I. Have. Ever. Owned.* Has. Done. This. Do they design computers to die at warranty, in general? "

the last 2 mac laptops i've bought both f*cked up big time about 2 weeks after the warrantee expired. both. big stuff too. bastards.

not sure a pc would be better, but it would be cheaper.

I just bought a new iMac the other week there and made sure I got three years AppleCare with it after reading this thread.
It helped that I got an educational discount.

Eh, the last PC I bought did that too (glad I got the extended applecare for my current mac, it must be universal). In fact, pretty much every electronic device I've ever bought has died a few weeks after the warranty expired. PCs are cheaper though.

i'm touching all kinds of bits of wood here, but the only apple kit that's died on me is my original iPod ...

... which i did drop on a stone floor.

longest-serving thing: a PowerBook 5300 from 1996/1997. actually, i don't know where it *is* right now ... <rummage> ... ah, it's in the bottom of a drawer. still works perfectly, despite having a ceiling collapse on it some years back.

as far as those untidy folders...it was a big change. Pre OSX you know what almost everything was and where it belonged. You didn't have to "uninstall" anything, there were no obscure folders, there was just the occasional extension that you couldn't remember what it did, and if you had to troubleshoot, you could turn it off. Yeah, that sucked endlessly rebooting with different extension sets, but at least you knew what everything was without knowing much about computers. Now you've got endless amounts of files in all sorts of mysterious directories. Just saying I can't blame someone for thinking a mac should or would still be as simple as it used to be, and is supposed to be!

Also, I wonder how much of the technical problems with macs related to them stuffing components in laptops and iMacs. I hear endless complaints of physical problems, but I've owned 3 desktop macs over the years and they all lasted for years and years and years.