06 November 2007

More Boring Mac Stuff (let the reader beware)

The longer I am using the new MacBook the more impressed I am.

First, the gripe: I was REALLY bummed when Leopard did not recognize Accordance (my BIBLE software!!! I have an old version 5.x), and told me it was CLASSIC. It wasn't classic at all, but it seemed determine to think so. Then out of the blue it recognized it.

Great, I thought. Don't know what happened, but problem solved! Ha! In the process of getting the install bootcamp loaded (I had to reinstall the system - long story) and suddenly again, my Accordance was gone. :(

I waited for a day, but it never came back. Then I thought I'd pop in the CD and voila! There was an option to upgrade to carbon. I ran it, and Accordance is back again. I hope it stays put this time; I don't intend to reinstall the system anytime soon.

Second, the nice features: having function keys dedicated for dashboard and expose is very convenient. Also having functions keys assigned to rewind, play and fast-forward is sweet. I've been impressed by how COOL the machine stays. My old iBook got much hotter, and my son's MacBook Pro also is toasty enough to be uncomfortable in your lap for long periods of time.

I've been impressed with Parallels so far. It does seem to seamlessly integrate with the Mac experience to the point you forget that it's a virtual machine. Windows programs are just there. Use of peripherals seems no problem at all.

Still exploring Numbers, Keynote and Pages. Last time I tried Pages it just wasn't up to doing real Word-processing, but was fine for page layout. I'm hoping that's changed. I love Word, no two ways about it, but I'd be quite happy if it had a worthy successor - especially one that integrated easy page layout!

I tried the clip feature in Safari and sure as shootin, I now have my own widget of the radar. Very simple to do!

Did video chat with Randy and Rachel Asburry the other night. My end was smooth, but their end kept stuttering. He thinks he's got that solved though, and am eager to try it again. What a hoot! We need to figure out a way to play cards in video chat - now THAT would be wonderful!

Overall speed of the machine is impressive - loaded in Warcraft III which stuttered a bit at higher resolutions on the iBook and it blitzed along just fine. I would like to load a brand new video game and see how well it does. David insists that without a dedicated graphics card it will lag significantly. I'd like to see what that means.

Front Row is a hoot and a half. Plop in the movie and sit back using the remote controller. The sound is much loader than on the iBook - I don't hear all that well to begin with, but really struggled to hear the iBook when it was playing a movie. Almost always resorted to ear phones - and that doesn't work well when you're watching a movie on the sofa with your wife!

The Time Machine is one of those "where has this been all my life" kind of critters. Backup jitters are simply history. I simply don't have to think about it at all anymore - and pulling up a file that's been deleted or lost is a lot of fun too.

That's about it - a fun machine packing a big punch. Apple delivers - once again.

10 comments:

WM Cwirla said...

My friend, upgrade that Accordance of yours! If you ever get a chance to attend one of their free seminars, go. There are things about this program you don't know that you don't know. The fully integrated, text-driven little Kittel, BGAD, Lowe-Nida, not to mention the Apostolic Fathers and those great pictures from Biblical Archaeology Review make this one rocking piece of Bible study software.

On another note, an IT guy I met on a recent flight told me that Windows programs run better on a Mac in Parallels than they do on a PC.

Lutheran Lucciola said...

Guess who's going to the Mac Expo in '08?

I am!!

Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha....HA! Oh, I'm just gonna take BART over, and spend the whole day playing with new toys, getting free samples, and playing with geeks. ;-)

Anonymous said...

well I'm sure glad that your computer plays a lot "loader" than your last computer.
Crys would have a hay-day if she read that.
And think! YOU the English major.

p.s. I'm aloud to mess up. I hate English anyways. It's a known fact.

William Weedon said...

LEW,

You got me! Dang!!!

Lucciola,

I am GREEN with envy.

William,

I use the Loew and Nida, but don't have the little Kittel.

David said...

Pastor Weedon,

Go to Yahoo! games and play cards there, while running your video chat through iChat. You'll have the window open so you can see each other, and you'll all be playing the same card game through Yahoo!

WM Cwirla said...

Don't downplay Pages. The '08 version is quite good, easily converts Word files, and is capable of doing serious word processing (along with a host of other way cool stuff). I've always found Word to be bloated and unwieldy, like most other things MS, it tries to do everything in the most clumsy sort of way.

The latest Keynote absolutely rocks and makes PowerPoint look like a throwback to the 80's. What I like the most is the seamless integration of programs within iWork and iLife. Not the kind of third party patchwork you see in other systems. For those of us who would rather use our computers than tinker with them, this is manna from heaven.

Have you discovered the joys of the F9 key in moving things from one document to the next? I know it's pretty basic, but I just discovered it while copying photo files into Keynote. My wife, who runs the Dell called "NotaMac" stares in awe at the desktop features.

An Apple a day keeps Bill Gates away.
Life is good.

Anonymous said...

WAIT a second! Did you say: "(I had to reinstall the system - long story)"?! This makes me nervous.
Since I've never had a Mac and am thinking I should switch next time, I'd really like to know if you were saying that you had to reinstall the OS on your Mac.
Is this common? Or did YOU do something unusual that you had to correct?
Sorry I'm confused, but I'm not sure what you meant by "(I had to reinstall the system - long story)." Can you give me the short story? Or, at least justify your use of parenthesis?

William Weedon said...

Philip,

Installing the system was a very odd solution to a weird problem. The installer for bootcamp wasn't installed on the computer originally - and no one knows why. The only way to get it on the computer was to reinstall the system. But that's no big deal, believe it or not. The previous system and all settings are backed up automatically and then the new one is installed, and voila! There was the installer exactly where it was supposed to be. It's the only reason I reinstalled - the system has given me zero problems in itself - and even the Apple tech guy didn't know why the boot camp installer had gone awol, but knew how to fix it. He was right.

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

First, nothing is boring about Macintosh.

Second, I agree that Leopard is a quantum leap in the Mac OS. "Cover flow" is a Godsend to photographers like me. I was asked to track down some photos for a friend and it would have taken me a LONG time to find them in a batch of 40 gigs worth I had taken in Germany. Cover flow? Five minutes. Found them.

I like the new dock, some people don't.

Time Machine....sweet!!!

In fact, it proved a lifesaver already!

I managed to gum up my permissions on my main hard drive and causes the whole computer to not boot. So, our IT people came to the rescue, which involved:

1) Boot off OS disk.
2) Restore from Time Machine.

Problem solved. EASY.

Amazing.

I also am really enjoying the "Spaces" functionality.

Really helps me navigate this monster monitor when I get a lot of programs up and running.

And I've had ZERO problems with Parallels.

Rev. Paul T. McCain said...

By the way, I have Accordance. It is dog compared to LOGOS.

Sorry guys, but LOGOS just has so much more power in terms of the massive digital library available to you.

I keep waiting for the Mac native version of LOGOS, but with Parallels it runs like a breeze.