MacBook Pro! - Page 2

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #21 23-10-2009, 09:15 AM

Yep Simon - that's all understood and spot-on. You probably should have clarified that you were referring to a custom, bespoke hardware environment earlier. In this regard the humble X86 architecture is of course more flexible for sure. Horses for courses!

For most users here, your particular scenario would never arise - we just use our machines on our desktops for "typical" application duties. Some specialist apps that we, here in amateur astronomy, might use also fall outside the "typical" desktop box. Again, due to the sheer numbers of Win-based machines out there it doesn't make business sense for many application developers to cater to MacOS as well... so Mac users, on occasion, miss out... well in native mode anyhow. Go virtualisation!

kustard (Simon) · #22 23-10-2009, 09:47 AM

Yeah Chris, the problem with forum talk is often the flow of ideas gets constrained by the medium itself

The good thing now though with the Macs having part of the core based on *BSD many powerful scientific applications that ran only on *nix machines are now finding their way to Macs. And like you say, virtualisation fills the gaps

(Anyway, I think I've pulled this thread off topic enough for now

)

Gratz Mike on the new toy

fringe_dweller · #23 23-10-2009, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starlooker

I wonder why the company went all Mac.

With the Dells, other than the motherboard, any component can be bought of the shelf at any computer store. This would have made maitenance easy and cost-effective.

With the Macs, it's all propriety hardware. There's only one place to buy components - Apple - and they charge $$$, as befitting a monopoly supplier.

they probably got the 3 year applecare protection plan with them?, wish i hadnt wasted money on the ap plan over the years lol

if it doesnt go in first 3 years, its unlikely to go at all, maybe the power supply will go first after 8 or 9 years continuous use! altho i dont trust their laptops quite the same way as towers ect.

way to go Mike! stink different as they say!

Omaroo (Chris Malikoff) · #24 23-10-2009, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

they probably got the 3 year applecare protection plan with them?, wish i hadnt wasted money on the ap plan over the years lol

if it doesnt go in first 3 years, its unlikely to go at all, maybe the power supply will go first after 8 or 9 years continuous use!

Same experience here - I've given up on AppleCare. Not because it's no good - I've just never required it since.. well.. I can't remember. I could have bought many machines with what I used to spend on it at department level.

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #25 23-10-2009, 01:48 PM

Well, my boss was thinking of a Macbook pro. In the end he's decided against it. His reasons?

1) for the price, he can get a much higher spec dell machine

2) his data, on his hdd is private. Apple won't let him return a unit for repair without the hdd

3) no on site repairs option. Dell offers 24/7 on site repair

His words, not mine. Yes, it's a business laptop, but apple's support simply doesn't serve his needs/requirements.

My experiences with Apple products are mixed - if it works for the first few years, chances are it'll just keep on working. If you're unlucky to get one of the "dud" units, then you're in for trouble. Early 20gb/30gb iPod units, early eMac units (10% d.o.a rate).

Dave

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #26 23-10-2009, 03:07 PM

I assume that the Apple Extended Care warranty merely resets the obsolescence microchip somehow so that the motherboard won't blow up until three years and one day. Always seemed to work that way for me.

"The best operating system is the next operating system." Funnily enough, when Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple the first time he called his new start-up OS "NeXT", which Apple then bought as the foundation for their OS X. Serendipity? (You've got to hand it to that guy. Shame about the pancreatic cancer. We're all waiting, aren't we?, to see if money can actually buy you a cure.)

I was trying to explain to my kids about the old programming punch cards. "Say-what?"

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #27 23-10-2009, 11:37 PM

Well, if I may say, generally speaking, to the average consumer, the APP (it's what Apple coins it internally) is pretty good value. Full hardware warranty for 3 years. Full, unlimited tech support, mon-fri 9am to 9pm, Sat 9am to 6pm (unless support times have changed). I don't know if Apple Australia has outsourced their tier 1/tier 2/tier 3 tech support to overseas or not yet, so it's a good chance that you'll speak to someone within Australia. Let me be clear that I'm not being racist when I make this comment - many foreignors speak perfect English, but their accents are harder to understand, especially over a phone system, and that can become an issue. The core aspect of technical support is effective communication - if you can't understand the customer's technical issue, you can't fix it. Communication is a 2 way process btw.

Dave

mac (Matt) · #28 24-10-2009, 10:48 PM

For certain models of Apple Mac (eg, plastic Macbooks), Applecare is a must. The casing materials are of such poor quality that they crack and fall apart after 6-18 months of use. Thank goodness for the aluminium Macbook Pros... unless you drop it of course - then you'll have a bent computer - it happens!

purplebottles (Philip) · #29 26-10-2009, 12:32 AM

My Dad gifted me a 17" iMac when 800Mhz was top of the range. Seven years later it was still doing Seti 24/7 when the power supply died. Short-long story - Apple couldn't help as they were obselete. I managed to find a second-hand power supply and eventually got a dealer to install it. They forgot to mention the HD was dying and it was dead when I got home 600km away. Months later I was still trying to install a 160Gig (x2 standard) HD when I saw a letter in MacWorld magazine that said you have to hold down 4 (FOUR) keys simultaneously to boot a new HD.
Yes Applecare is good. They replaced a keyboard recently, no fuss, on an MacPro quad core that was on the Apple Australia specials web page and now it's doing Seti 24/7 [btw 40x faster ] with 3 additional 150mm external 240v cooling fans boosting the internal originals. CPU temp [ambient 25C] drops from 46C to 28C and memory 79C to 46C. The power supplies only drop 52 to 46[has own internal fan]. Good idea? Anyone tried water cooling, I've only seen it on the net and not on AU chats.?

Davros (Lauren) · #30 26-10-2009, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mac

For certain models of Apple Mac (eg, plastic Macbooks), Applecare is a must. The casing materials are of such poor quality that they crack and fall apart after 6-18 months of use. Thank goodness for the aluminium Macbook Pros... unless you drop it of course - then you'll have a bent computer - it happens!

Tell me about it, mine has a character mark where i bounced it off the floor and the power connector pushed the side in. I love my mac but i hate the fact that a new power cable cost $110

AdrianF (Adrian) · #31 26-10-2009, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by purplebottles

Anyone tried water cooling, I've only seen it on the net and not on AU chats.?

Have a look at www.atomicmpc.com.au in the overclocking and cooling forum you may need to search but many people have watercooled their PC's and would be only too willing to help out with advice.

Adrian

DJDD · #32 26-10-2009, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miaplacidus

"The best operating system is the next operating system." Funnily enough, when Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple the first time he called his new start-up OS "NeXT", which Apple then bought as the foundation for their OS X. Serendipity? (You've got to hand it to that guy. Shame about the pancreatic cancer. We're all waiting, aren't we?, to see if money can actually buy you a cure.)

my understanding of this is that NeXT bought the failing Apple company but kept the Apple brand-name as it obviously had more appeal.

I am sure it was more complicated than that, though.

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #33 26-10-2009, 03:00 PM

I'm pretty sure the flow of funds was Apple to NeXT. Gil Amelio was CEO; buying NeXT got Jobs onto the board, and then the inevitable staged "coup", with Amelio leaving with bags full of money and Jobs back in the saddle. (Everybody was caught off guard because they expected Apple to buy BeOS, I think.) Amelio was the scapegoat for Apple's woes up until that time, but actually he was largely responsible for repairing the business after the disaster of John Scully, who'd orchestrated the eviction of Jobs in the first place. History might be unkind about his experiments with licencing the OS, or in attempting to migrate to RISC processors, but at least he knew what he was trying to achieve, and in NeXT he must have recognized the bare bones of OSX's potential. He no doubt knew Jobs was good for Apple, even if Jobs is an egomaniac and would probably mastermind his assassination. I think Apple shareholders owe quite a debt to ol' Gil.

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #34 26-10-2009, 03:12 PM

This is reasonably accurate.

Dave

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miaplacidus

I'm pretty sure the flow of funds was Apple to NeXT. Gil Amelio was CEO; buying NeXT got Jobs onto the board, and then the inevitable staged "coup", with Amelio leaving with bags full of money and Jobs back in the saddle. (Everybody was caught off guard because they expected Apple to buy BeOS, I think.) Amelio was the scapegoat for Apple's woes up until that time, but actually he was largely responsible for repairing the business after the disaster of John Scully, who'd orchestrated the eviction of Jobs in the first place. History might be unkind about his experiments with licencing the OS, or in attempting to migrate to RISC processors, but at least he knew what he was trying to achieve, and in NeXT he must have recognized the bare bones of OSX's potential. He no doubt knew Jobs was good for Apple, even if Jobs is an egomaniac and would probably mastermind his assassination. I think Apple shareholders owe quite a debt to ol' Gil.