Powerbook Setup

[David Kelly]

On Oct 18, 2004, at 5:34 PM, Andi Scharfstein wrote:

>> Sorry it was you that suffered my rant on Apple kit, but you are, to
>> my knowledge, the first in a while.
>
> Heh, that's good to know. Well, obviously I don't fully agree with
> your criticism, but I think that skipping over the polemics there is
> the valid point in your post that I shouldn't have posed a
> hardware-related question on this particular list. For this, I
> apologize and hope that my post will not have inadvertently caused a
> flame war here.

Some are simply jealous that Apple was able to pull off such a coup. 
Who ever thought my *mother* would be able to use a Unix machine? Even 
more amazing is my father uses their iMac too.

Keep in mind MacOS X's primary tuning focus is to support one user on a 
GUI. At least the non-server version isn't going to be a great ftp or 
web server, but the application(s) is(are) there and they do work as 
much the same as with any other Unix.

You won't find any other OS which requires less fiddling than MacOS X. 
If it doesn't employ MSCE's then IT departments will not allow it.

As for "tweaks?" I like the Dock on the right side of the screen. 
Select a screen blanker of your liking. In an odd non-Apple twist the 
screen blanker is not under Energy or Screens control panels, but has 
its own "Desktop & Screen Saver" control. Be sure to set the "Hot 
Corners" that you may park your mouse in a corner to either launch the 
screen saver instantly or disable it.

I like 11 or 12 point Monoco in Terminal.app and Mail.app. Forgot what 
those default to. And be sure in Mail.app preferences to set "Plain 
Text" under Composing.

Paul Robinson is incorrect re: 3rd party hardware. I purchased a 
Toshiba 60G HD from my local PC Clone Store. Only needed a Torx #8 or 
#9 screwdriver to install. MacOS X install CD had no qualms about 
formatting it for me. Powerbook memory is no more special or unique 
than any other laptop memory. Laptop CD/DVD drives are unique to each 
brand/model.

I have 3 different off-the-shelf EIDE HD's in my desktop G4. Slipped 
right in the existing brackets. Apple even thought to put screws in the 
bracket for use to hold the future HD.

When my Dell PowerEdge 400SC arrived with one 128MB memory DIMM I 
ordered a gigabyte from Crucial. Because memory is dual-channel in the 
400SC the single 128M part was surplus. It works very well in my G4 
desktop.

My Logitech USB/PS2 optical wheel mouse works perfectly. No drivers. 
Nothing special, just plug it in. The wheel scrolls. Click the wheel in 
Safari (web browser) and the link opens in new window. Right click is 
same as Control-left click.

An Intel 10/100 card previously used with the fxp device in FreeBSD 
dropped right into my desktop G4 and works perfectly. Using it for this 
email. This G4 has gigabit ethernet, and so does the Dell. Rather than 
purchase a gigabit switch I put spare fxp cards in the Mac and Dell and 
cabled the Dell and Mac gigabit directly. Macintosh gigabit ethernet 
ports are cable-sensing so a normal non-crossed cable worked perfectly. 
The Mac and Dell (FreeBSD 5.3-something) ftp files to each other at 
disk speeds, often 50 MB/sec.

BBEdit is a cool example of how Mac developers (and users) Think 
Different.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly at HiWAAY.net
========================================================================
Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.