No love for Apple in HTF? (1 Viewer)

[Peter Kim]

Actually, this thread was triggered by Jack Briggs and a comment/concern he made in another thread here in After Hours (Cute Baby). Unfortunately, before I could respond, the thread was closed.
So Jack, if you're listening...what's going on with your iMac? Still encountering problems? Could you elaborate?
My access to the internet was shut down when my iMac broke (bad logic board). For one month, I went through withdrawal - I never really appreciated my addiction to the internet and HTF until my access was terminated.
Just the other day, I bought a new iMac...one of those flat-panel models. Feels good so far. But Jack's comments about conflicts arising between his iMac and HTF has got me worried.
Hopefully, this thread can address a couple of concerns. How many of you are surfing HTF with an Apple? And for those of us that do, are you experiencing any problems too? My concern was aggravated when I read about how copy-protected cd's are wreaking havoc on Apple cd drives/computers.
Who knows what evil lies in the hearts of (wintel) men?

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

All Apple here.

 

[Jefferson]

No problems in the year i've used the iMac

 

[Pamela]

ME!ME!ME! I love Apple! I am the Queen o' Apple!

 

[Jack Briggs]

And Pamela here has helped me clear some partial mysteries.
The odd thing is, since purchasing a new, industrial-strength surge protector, I haven't experienced any problems. To give you an idea of my situation, I live in an atmospheric old neighborhood with lovely old apartment buildings. The power lines in my place fluctuate noticeably. When the refrigerator's thermostat kicks in, all the lights in my place dim significantly for about a second.
In addition, the neighbors above me have apparently purchased a raucous new video game console. They were running that annoying thing big time when I first experienced the problems.
Again, since getting the new surge protector, the little machine is running nicely. *knocks on wood*
Pamela here, in a most-thoughtful e-mail, suggested to me that the video board may be experiencing its final days. This may be so. (The problem was first noticed in the form of loud clicking noises, normally associated with the startup process, followed by complete video failure. A couple of times the machine started up--strangely--only to shut down automatically upon booting. All these symptoms are associated with a video board that's on the fritz, according to Pamela.)
There's a happy coda to the story--even should my iMac fail. One of my freelance clients, a Santa Barbara-based telecom firm for whom I write promotional materials and Web content, is offering to send down a replacement iMac if the worst happens to me. Also, one of the firm's employees is himself a Mac guru and is going to work with me tonight via telephone to do some troubleshooting. And Pamela, bless her, has mailed me a Norton Utilities disc she had on hand.
So, I'm sailing along presently.
Home Theater Forum is not--I repeat, not--causing Apple machines to fry. But my obnoxious neighbors and somewhat antiquated apartment wiring are.
Moral of story: Powerful surge protectors are good. Real good.
It's also good to see my Apple compadres stepping into the spotlight.

 

[Peter Kline]

I've been a Apple user for 10 years. I have an iBook currently and will be getting a LCD iMac at the end of the summer. With the new Jaguar (that's pronounced jag u air) OS coming in a few months things are looking good for Macintosh. If you're creative, like Jack, Apple is a must.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

I might suggest that rather than just a surge protector, you might want to consider a decent UPS which does voltage regulating. Not only will it save your bacon if you forgot to save when there is a power outage, but it also rectifies supply problems which can cause premature hardware failure, by making sure you always have clean, stable power. I'm using a couple of APC models here which have bailed me out a couple of times now.

 

[Holadem]

What I would like to know is why Apple computers represent 90 something percent of computers featured in movies.

--

Holadem

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

I can picture a new thread ("Why do you americans only use apples") based on Holadem's observation.

 

[DeborahK]

I am all Apple, too, and never had a problem with using either of my Mac's on HTF.

Deborah

 

[Peter Kim]

Good to hear you're still up and running with your iMac, Jack. Hope Norton doesn't point to anything catastrophic. And yeah, it's nice to know that there are others, albeit a small community.

I've always used a surge protector...I'll plug anything into it that I find costly to replace. This includes my cordless phone, after hearing a testimonial from colleagues that their phones fried in an electrical storm.

Peter Kline...I understand the wake in which advancing technologies leave behind, but another Apple OS coming at the end of this summer? Isn't OS X only about a half year old? Will Jaguar be as big of a leap from OS X as OS X was from OS 9.x?

Oh well. At least I'm comforted in the fact that I needed something now and couldn't wait a few months. Anyway, hopefully the upgrade (if warranted) is not too expensive.

 

[Dave Morton]

At work I use the windoze machine that they gave me.

At home I have one of the first G3's made. Those ugly beige box ones that I had since around '97. Still works great and never had a problem. Upgrading was always a piece of cake and adding new hardware was a cinch. Quite unlike my old gateway.

Go Apple! Go Mac!

 

[Jack Briggs]

Jeff, Zardoz buddy of mine, can you send me a link?

I, too, have been happily residing in the Mac universe since the mid-'80s. Before that, I loved DEC.

At my "day job" with a Los Angeles-area newspaper, we are relegated to--*gags*--the PC platform. Compaq (heart always sinks when I see that "Intel Inside" logo). Even the graphic designers are stuck with the Compaq machines.

Look, I know this is tantamount to bringing up politics and religion here at HTF, but I honestly don't understand why the majority of people are not enamored of the much-more-intuitive Macintosh O/S.

Apple is the best.

 

[DonRoeber]

I've got a Powerbook G3 firewire, a Powerbook G4 titanium, and a Toshiba Portege windows laptop. Love 'em all. I use them all on a wireless network run by an Airport base station. Never had any problems with the Apples and the Home Theater Forum. It's a bit annoying when the DVD-ROM companies forget about Apples though. Oh well.

BTW, shouldn't this be in the Computers forum?

 

[Pamela]

Isn't OS X only about a half year old? Will Jaguar be as big of a leap from OS X as OS X was from OS 9.x?

Jaguar is a version of OSX. Believe me, they aren't ready to give up on X yet, although there's a gaggle of folks out there who wish they would!
There's a rumor that it will bring back the drivers to support the older ATI cards. That would be a nice one for me.
For more info: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/may/06jaguar.html

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Excuse me? This can't be HTF. Let me check the URL.
YES I am a Mac user. I log into HTF daily using my Titanium Powerbook G4. And at night, I post wirelessly from my comfy armchair! I've never had any problems.

I honestly don't understand why the majority of people are not enamored of the much-more-intuitive Macintosh O/S

I've oftened wondered this as well. I always expected a large number of HTF members to be mac users. I just equate fine audio and video appreciation with fine computing appreciation. I also figured these same folks would appreciate Apple's attention to detail and awesome industrial design.
MacOS X? Well, I *was* a Mac guy who needed to use Unix machines on a regular basis. Now, I have converted my Unix machines to MacOS X and we are running solely on Macs. Its a beautiful thing...

 

[DaveF]

Jack, I second what Jeff recommended. What you describe (the lights dimming) are caused by under-voltages, not spikes (which the surge protector protects against) -- these are essentially mini brown-outs in your apartment.
My impression is that they are just as bad for electronics, in the long-run, as voltage spikes are. I also think that's the source of monitor and hard-drive problems I had several years.
I think you want something that is basically a large battery on the back-end, that feeds your computer conditioned power. The voltage spikes and under-currents are handled by its charging system, on the front end, protecting your computer. (I hope that makes sense. I barely know what I'm talking about )

 

[Peter Kline]

Peter Kim,
As stated above Jaguar is a updated continuation of OS X. The features it has are very nice. You can go to Apple to see a preview at:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/newversion/

 

[Holadem]

Because Apple has a whole group of people in their marketing dept on the horn getting apple products placed in those shows and films.

Is this true?! Somehow I have a feeling a smiley is missing.

--

Holadem

 

[Peter Kim]

Quote:

Believe me, they aren't ready to give up on X yet, although there's a gaggle of folks out there who wish they would!

What am I in the dark about here? I've been using OS X.1.4 for about 3 days now and I'm fine with it (although, when I try and use the quote button for Pamela's remark, I did not get the normal dialog box along with the ability to copy and paste Pamela's quote - quirk with OS X that anyone's familiar with?).

Are there larger issues with OS X that I should be aware of?

Many thanks to Jeff Ulmer and Dave F for the UPS info. BTW, what kind of damage can repeated brownouts cause to my iMac?

By God, at the rate in which I'm learning stuff here in HTF...I'm going to become a quasi-techie sooner than later.