Time for a New Computer?

I was thinking about buying a new iMac last December, but really couldn't justify it because my existing is working so flawlessly. Well, this week it's suddenly started throwing out video memory errors, where the screen occasionally shows patches of an old image instead of updating the whole screen. This could be as simple as a loose SIMM or dirty contacts... but I think it might be my computer telling me to upgrade!

Just for shits&grins I downloaded a virus scanner tonight and scanned the main computer and all the outdrives -- no malware found. Guess my NoScript is working.

Last night -- after putting Louie down -- my computer would not boot at all. Boots to a black screen -- video RAM is totally toast.

So got permission to order a new one this morning. Should be ready on April 1, appropriately.

Quote :

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display

$2,899.00

With the following configuration:

• 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
• 3TB Fusion Drive
• AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4GB GDDR5
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
• Accessory Kit

Add $400 in RAM (32 gig) bought third party ($600 if ordered thru Apple) plus tax brings it to $3575 inclusive.

Seems like a bargain, comparatively speaking:

Quote :

8 MHz Z80 8-bit processor
64 K bytes RAM
2 8-inch floppy disc drives
13-inch monochrome ASCII monitor (no graphics)
$4,300 ($12,248 in 2015 dollars)

Well don't tell Mrs. NoCo but resetting the SIMMs seems to have brought back the old computer, 100% for now. Hopefully it'll last until April 1.

_Howard wrote:

Seems like a bargain, comparatively speaking

I considered the Mac Pro.

But even a minimal setup would be $5k and closer to $10k for all the bells and whistles. I guess I'm not enough of a power user to justify that to myself.

And besides, there's this.

Well okay, not 100%. I'm still getting occasional video refresh errors. Glad I ordered a new box.

I want a new computer (this one is over ten years old), but I hate the new Windows operating systems, and I have too many problems with Apple to seriously consider one any longer.
Maybe it's time to switch to Linux.

My new computer is in at the Apple Store. I brought my old one out to them last night, so they could do a data transfer. Thought I'd try having them do it this time, see if it reduces the downtime while I'm getting everything set up again.

I *hope* I managed to keep all the porn on the external drive!

Well okay, only a few of my applications came over -- looks like the rest will need to be reinstalled. Also, the screen fonts are WAYY too small -- gotta find where that's set.

But hey, the new memory went in easily, the thing booted and it looks beautiful. I guess spending the weekend setting it up is part of the fun.

Feck feck feck feck. So apparently Yosemite, the new Apple OS, has a big well-discussed flaw in that YOU CANNOT ADJUST THE FONT SIZE. What kind of moron 18-year old creates microscopic screen fonts and doesn't let anyone change them?

So poking around on the web, there's an add-on for Firefox which is supposed to allow different font and point sizes, so I download it. First time I fired it up, it shrunk everything to about 10% of its former size. The text is LITERALLY microscopic now -- too small to see what I'm doing, and impossible to navigate back toi normal.

Feck feck feck feck.

But...but...but... Apple is perfect! You must be the problem.

Stoopid stoopid Apple. Everything they do is utter crap.

Okay, I called Technical Support to get a Genius Bar appointment, nothing available until Monday. But the guy who answered was able to talk me through some adjustments which corrected my problem, and connect to my computer remotely and show me where all the frickin' hidden controls are -- Apple has controls for everything but most of them are well concealed.

So I'm back to normal, and didn't need to leave the house.
'
I love love LOVE Apple!!! Everything they do is frickin' GENIUS.

Yeah, that sounds a lot easier than the four mouse clicks it takes to make a font change on my computer. What's not to love?

So far the biggest adjustment is the new mouse, the Mighty Mouse(tm).

It scrolls up & down and left and right, like it has a trackpad built right on the top of it, in addition to moving every which direction like a normal mouse. Because of this, most screens don't show elevators on the right-hand side. I'm finding it hard to remember I can scroll from the mouse -- I keep trying to use the elevator.

Retraining. Hard at my age.

Windows boxes are prone to viruses. That, alone, is reason enough for me. Every month our IT dept at work implements at least 50 "critical" patches to everybody, and even so -- now that I sit at the Help Desk -- viruses and spam are about 40% of what they do.

If Apple computers were immune to viruses, every damned critical installation in the world would be using Apples.

Most of them do.
Minor protective software for Macs -- like NoScript, recommended by Edward Snowden -- have prevented me from picking up ANYTHING in the ten years I've been exclusively Apple at home.

Don't kid yourself. The reason Windows is ubiquitous in business, and Apple is not, has to do with one thing only: commercial pricing discounts.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Most of them do.

Bullshit.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Don't kid yourself.  The reason Windows is ubiquitous in business, and Apple is not, has to do with one thing only: commercial pricing discounts.

If Apple computers were immune from hacking, then it would be a hell of a lot cheaper to buy Apples than to maintain an expensive security division.

I am not praising Windows; I never have. It sucks and always has. But Apples are not god's gift to computer users. The only reason they are not the target of viruses is that few relatively people and business use them. That's it.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Retraining.  Hard at my age.

Then you should have done it yesterday when you were younger. Happy Damned Birthday, old man.

One of the things that really torques my cookies about Windows boxes is that the simplest, most frequent commands -- say, print... or save file -- are hidden behind three layers of command structure while obscure, unusable, once-in-a-lifetime commands -- like convert this music file to a PDF and invert the colors -- are on the first menu.

Apple, in their drive to make everything sleek and aerodynamic, tends to go too far the other way. They sometimes hide stuff you really need, like change font size. Once you learn where stuff is hidden you don't mind so much, because you can get to the commands and pretty soon you forget that they're not obvious.

But to a new untrained user... can be VERY frustrating. The products come with no instruction. You're just supposed to KNOW.

As part of the sale of this new computer I signed up for what's called "One To One" training where you sit down with somebody, ask questions, and they show you how to do stuff. I did this when I first got into Mac and it was invaluable. In the past ten years things have changed incrementally and I've been basically able to keep up, I think.

But this new box is a whole new kettle of fish, and I need to start over. I need training. I'm not a power user by any stretch, but even the basic stuff is different. Plus there's all kinds of new integration options possible between my iMac, my iPad, my iPhone and my Apple TV. I want everything to work together. I'm sure there are possibilities I'm not even aware of.

Monday 6:00 my training session is scheduled.

I don't know what your experience with Windows machines has been, or to  which version of Windows you refer. But you do seem to be confusing the OS with the application programs, where one expects to find such menu items as save file and print. Typically, these two commands, for examples, are found as icons on the command bar, requiring one mouse click to execute. Sometimes such actions will then ask you if you wish to save under a new name, or will pop up a printing specs menu. But I cannot think of a faster method for executing these commands than one lousy mouse click.

Yes, Windows machines have problems, as do all computers (the punch card machines for the IBM 360 was a hassle). You mentioned in a previous post that you haven't had any issues with viruses on Apples in the past ten years. No surprise;  that is exactly what I would expect of an experienced, more-than-average-intelligence user of any computer. I have had, in almost thirty years since my first Windows program (it wasn't the OS then), exactly one instance of a virus on a computer. That one instance was just a few years ago, and it was installed intentionally by me for testing an anti-virus program which had been recommended to me. The anti-virus program failed, by the way.

Installing and running protection software on a computer is - to me -  analogous to having routine maintenance done on your car, or to having regular medical checkups. It's just an irritating requirement for keeping things running well.

The integration of Apple products is fine, if you know exactly what you are doing - and what the devices are doing - and you have a houseful of Apple devices. And that's not always a good thing. Yesterday, this exact matter was brought up by my house cleaners. She had gone out and bought a new iPhone 6. Even paid retail of $750 (Hmm. I wonder if I am paying them too much). Some time after she brought it home, they found they could no longer connect to the internet with their iPad, nor would their Apple TV work properly. As she said, it was probably some settings on the iPhone causing the problem. After two days, she took the iPhone back and exchanged it for an Android device. When she took the iPhone out of the house, the iPad and Apple TV again functioned correctly. I think it is ridiculous that the default settings on the phone should cause such problems. But maybe that's just me (and my cleaners).

The fact that you feel there is a significant benefit to paying for a one-on-one service to learn how to efficiently use an upgrade to the OS is an indication to me that the company is seriously deficit in providing instruction and/or has made non-intuitive or irrational changes. But, this is no surprise to me. When I bought my wife an iPad a few years ago, I was amazed that it came with no instructions whatsoever - not even a note  "connect to website to make this fucker work". Apple just assumed that I would figure it out. What if a person had no computer in the house and no Apple store nearby? It would have been a $900 bookend.

My issues with Apple are not with their hardware. And not primarily with their  software. It is with their business model.

_Howard wrote:

The fact that you feel there is a significant benefit to paying for a one-on-one service to learn how to efficiently use an upgrade to the OS is an indication to me that the company is seriously deficit in providing instruction and/or has made non-intuitive or irrational changes. But, this is no surprise to me. When I bought my wife an iPad a few years ago, I was amazed that it came with no instructions whatsoever - not even a note  "connect to website to make this fucker work". Apple just assumed that I would figure it out. What if a person had no computer in the house and no Apple store nearby? It would have been a $900 bookend.

First, the OneToOne training is free.

Second, I look on it as normal to get user training on any complicated device. If you bought a helicopter you'd expect to get some flight training. When you buy a complicated program like ProTools or AutoCAD or even PhotoShop, you'd be smart to take a class. Otherwise, even if you get it to "work" you're not gonna touch 10% of what it can do.

On the other hand, if you can drive one car you're pretty much guaranteed you can get any car, even a $200,000 Rolls, down the road. But they only do one thing -- go down the road. It's not like there are ten thousand other things you can do with a car. It's not like buying a Caterpillar backhoe.

"What if a person had no computer in the house and no Apple store nearby? It would have been a $900 bookend" -- if a person bought a wi-fi-only iPad and didn't have a wi-fi network, yes it would be a paperweight... at home. Except for all the things you can do with it without connectivity -- write, take & edit photos, play music, play games, etc etc etc. And of course wi-fi networks are provided at almost all public places these days.

Plus, Apple apps tend to work together, all in pretty much the same way, and strive for an intuitive user interface. That's why instruction manuals generally aren't necessary.

I could get on the internet and read & write e-mail, and post to stupid forums, within minutes of firing up my new computer.

It's the stuff I've never done before -- the stuff I may not even know exists -- that I want to learn about.

Here's a real world example of Apple's preferred user experience. A couple years ago Mrs NoCo played some games on Cousin Wendy's iPad when they were back in Minnesota. She enjoyed it. So I loaded some games on my iPad and she played them when she got home. After a while we loaded "brain-builder" games which required network connectivity. Then she started checking news, and looking up products. Real estate shopping. When I got a free iPad for a class I took, I gave it to her and set up all of "her apps" on it. These kept expanding as she discovered more cool things. Last week I created an e-mail address for her (she said she never wanted home e-mail because she gets enough of it at work) so we could FaceTime while she's in San Diego this week (you need either a phone number or an e-mail address to FaceTime). I also set up Netflix on there so she could continue to watch Orange Is The New Black in her hotel room. I told her to take some photos with her iPad and e-mail them to me. She is slowly turning into a power user, despite her resistance to becoming "one of those people." I'm just a couple months away, I think, from convincing her to get an iPhone for the bus. On Friday she FaceTimed me as I was driving home from picking up my new computer, and we were both amazed that we could see each other while I was driving, without a wi-fi network. That's new.