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[#] Tue Aug 25 2020 14:27:19 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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I just picked up a new 16" Macbook Pro. I'm pretty happy with it so far.
The new keyboard is good. Screen size is good, without bulking the whole thing up.

I just wish it had a built in SD card reader. Otherwise, I'm generally happy.

[#] Thu Aug 27 2020 09:35:38 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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That's interesting for two reasons ... one is that you've said several times over the years "this may be my last Mac" but they seem to keep squeaking by, and ... Intel-based Macs are now known to be a dead end.

[#] Thu Sep 03 2020 15:16:49 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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It'll be a few years before Intel Macs are really dead..... I'll probably need a new laptop at that point.


I've been running a 'doze laptop for a while now. Windows still sucks.

[#] Tue Sep 08 2020 09:13:55 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Heh. My 'doze laptop issued by ${WORK} is more than enough 'doze for me, thank you very much. When work ends I switch the monitor over to my personal rig and am much more at home.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, I am actually considering getting an iPad.
I don't actually *want* to choose an iPad, but similarly to how people use Windoze at work for critical applications, there are some audio apps from Allen & Heath that we are using at the church that are only available on iPad.
I also have one of those little keyboard folios that someone gave me whenb they discarded their broken iPad; I wonder if that would still work with the current version. When not using it for music I would want to use it as a remote terminal to one of my main systems. The problem is that they're so damn expensive.

[#] Tue Sep 08 2020 09:22:33 EDT from nonservator

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Someone asked me about Wagyu beef. I told them it was the Apple computer of beef.



[#] Tue Sep 08 2020 18:58:05 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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Meanwhile, believe it or not, I am actually considering getting an
iPad.

I've had a slew of them, and just sold a few.... Wish I had known you might want one.

I've slowed down on them. My kids don't really use them any more, having gone to phones. My wife is the main user. I still have for myself. I've got the big old iPad Pro that was given to me as a gift (but really needs more memory) and one that's got 128gb that I won in a contest.

As a generic surfing machine for those of us who now need reading glasses, it's pretty good. I've travelled with one and been able to use it for work email and the like, but I still miss a real keyboard for that sort of thing.


[#] Thu Sep 10 2020 17:47:37 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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You need reading glasses? What happened to your famous superhero-grade vision?

Like I said, I have a keyboard folio, so if the new ipads are still the same size and shape as the older ones, it'll esentially be a thin client most of the time. A browser, an SSH client, and an RDP client are all I use most of the time anyway.

[#] Sun Sep 13 2020 17:59:40 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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2020-09-10 17:47 from IGnatius T Foobar
You need reading glasses? What happened to your famous superhero-grade

vision?


I went from 20/15 to 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in the other. I can still see pretty well overall, but in low light, I need the readers. When I first noticed there was an issue, I went to the doctor who said my vision was perfect - 20/20..... Sadly, that was diminished.

[#] Fri Sep 18 2020 08:54:33 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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All right, so help me out here.  I have in my possession a Logitech "Ultrathin keyboard folio i5" which according to their web site was designed to work with "iPad® 2, iPad (3rd and 4th generation)".   What size were those, and is there a current-generation iPad that is the same size and shape?  I would like to use this accessory with it.



[#] Mon Oct 19 2020 11:23:42 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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I have a reputation at work for being "Steve Jobs like" in presenting new and exciting ideas. Considering that I now have very little hair left, and often wear black shirts and jeans, I might as well complete the look. I've come to the realization that I need glasses, so when I have my first eye exam I'm going to order a pair of Lunor Classic Round frames. I checked them out on an eyewear site that superimposes glasses on your photo, and I liked the way it looked.

Needless to say, I will look even better in them than Jobs did, because I wear suspenders and I have a working pancreas.

[#] Fri Oct 23 2020 17:58:21 EDT from Ragnar Danneskjold

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Did you get fat enough to wear suspenders?

[#] Fri Oct 23 2020 19:18:14 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Why yes, in another example of how I am smarter than Steve Jobs, I have the appropriate body shape for my age and am not wasting away from treatable diseases left to the attention of quack doctors.

I started wearing suspenders about a year and a half ago. I refused to accept the false trichotomy of having to wear my pants either too low, too high, or too tight. I tried out a pair of suspenders and they were immediately SO OBVIOUSLY COMFORTABLE that I've never gone back. Plus it's kind of a unique and quirky look, and I like it.

As a bonus, if I wear my suspenders with blue jeans and a yellow shirt, I look like a minion. The addition of round eyeglasses should even improve that look.

[#] Tue Oct 27 2020 15:03:14 EDT from darknetuser

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2020-10-23 19:18 from IGnatius T Foobar
Why yes, in another example of how I am smarter than Steve Jobs, I have

the appropriate body shape for my age and am not wasting away from
treatable diseases left to the attention of quack doctors.

I started wearing suspenders about a year and a half ago. I refused

to accept the false trichotomy of having to wear my pants either too
low, too high, or too tight. I tried out a pair of suspenders and they

were immediately SO OBVIOUSLY COMFORTABLE that I've never gone back.

Plus it's kind of a unique and quirky look, and I like it.

As a bonus, if I wear my suspenders with blue jeans and a yellow
shirt, I look like a minion. The addition of round eyeglasses should

even improve that look.




[#] Tue Oct 27 2020 15:05:56 EDT from darknetuser

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2020-10-23 19:18 from IGnatius T Foobar
Why yes, in another example of how I am smarter than Steve Jobs, I have

the appropriate body shape for my age and am not wasting away from

treatable diseases left to the attention of quack doctors.

I started wearing suspenders about a year and a half ago. I refused

to accept the false trichotomy of having to wear my pants either too

low, too high, or too tight. I tried out a pair of suspenders and they

were immediately SO OBVIOUSLY COMFORTABLE that I've never gone back.

Plus it's kind of a unique and quirky look, and I like it.

As a bonus, if I wear my suspenders with blue jeans and a yellow

shirt, I look like a minion. The addition of round eyeglasses should

even improve that look.




Suspenders get a bad rep for no real reason.

I discovered how great suspenders are when I started using military clothing for doing ranch work. A relative of mine who is in a parachuting brigade got me some cool gear and clithing and the things with suspenders were so damn comfortable.

A guy in a posh cloth shop has told me that suspenders are actually very frequent in posh dressing. Like everybody with a high end business suit has suspenders under the jacket.


[#] Tue Oct 27 2020 15:17:35 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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IKR? I got the kind with pins in the clips so they don't randomly pop off.
I'm not thrilled with the way they look when combined with jeans and a T-shirt; that makes me look round and portly. But with a button-down shirt it has a look that I'm really happy with.

Yes, the suspenders look can get funny reactions from some people in western culture. But I'm at a point in life where I no longer care.

[#] Sun Nov 08 2020 15:33:47 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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My daughter is going to the School of Art Institute in Chicago. A Mac is a *requirement*. So, we bought her a top of the line Mac Book Pro 2019 (I think maybe a 2018). Anyhow... I have some old Macs, some old Mac apps I like I mean, 68k Macs, and a G4. I had a Mac Mini for a few years, like a 2012. I think a Core 2 Duo. It cooked itself. So... for various reasons, I've wanted a newer Intel Mac for a while - but their resale prices are so damn high. About the time we dropped her off for her first semester, I saw a MPB 2012 15" i5 for just under $300 through WalMart, of all places. I bought it, added the Square Trade warranty because I don't trust Intel Macs - it arrived, I upgraded the RAM to 16gb and a 500gb SSD and upgraded to Mojave, the same OS my daughter was on. It got us through that semester, and then... it died. 

Went looking, and these Macs were back up to a minimum of $450... so I had the RAM and the SSD just lying around. 

Finally came across someone selling a Mac Book Pro 2011 i7 that he said was bricked for $100. The guy had a bunch, and was moving, and had put a bunch of effort into it - but could only get it running Windows or Linux, and said you had to hold down the power button for 10 seconds and then attach the charger while holding the button to get it to boot. No charger. 

I offered him $80, he took it. Got a $15 charger from WalMart, and fought with it for about 2 weeks, but got it running Sierra with the RAM and SSD from the i5. 

Had to replace the battery. It was $60. Replaced the feet and missing screws. 

It is nice. But the design and engineering choices of Apple are *stupid* *and* annoying. 

With a dead battery they throttle themselves and report high heat. In fact, they do this any time they go below 20% remaining charge. The 85 watt charger can't provide enough juice for peak usage - so the battery contributes to the voltage when you hit the ceiling. You can be plugged in AND running your battery down. Apple makes it difficult to get images of OS upgrades *unless* you've got a second Mac on that upgrade, in a lot of cases. It is easy to get a Mac so borked that you're hopeless without another one. They were incredibly thin for their time - but they achieved this by cramming hot components too close to one another, without sufficient heat dissipation. The 2011 went with an ATI Radeon GPU - look up Radeon Gate. They all fail eventually, and although they have a built in Intel HD GPU, you can't just disable the Radeon. You've got to do actual physical hardware hacks that require a desoldering station and an electronmicroscope. Although the 2011 with Radeon has enough horsepower to run Mojave - Apple won't let the official version run (because they know it'll cause the Radeon to burn out, most likely). It is like having a Ferrari but knowing if you drive it as fast as it can go, the engine *will* blow. 

I've got Hackintosh Mojave running on my Surface Pro i7 in VirtualBox - but I've become a pro at downloading .dmg files from Apple and turning them into bootable OS X USB installers. I basically had to start at OS X Lion, which wouldn't install from the recovery, Internet Recovery or anywhere else, then move to El Capitain, then to Sierra. In each case, trying to upgrade (possibly contributed to by the bad battery making it run throttled,) I would get myself back into the bricked state I got it in. Sometimes you have to change the date on the Mac in terminal to a date BEFORE the OS upgrade was released, but CLOSE, because the certs on the upgrade are expired. Other times you need to have the original memory and hard drive configuration installed. It is like a black magic ritual to know exactly what you need to do to get your Mac to upgrade to a newer version of OS X. Resetting PRAM... all the 3 and 4 fingered salutes. I was headed toward High Sierra, but had a borked install of it, recovered back to Sierra, rather painlessly this time, and decided... "close enough". 

I understand that Apple's reasoning is, "It is a 2011... buy yourself a 2020 Macbook Air i3 - it will run circles around that 2011 i7..." 

But it is an i7. It is still plenty powerful enough for some fairly heavy lifting. 

It was a very pretty corpse before I revived it. The MPB Unibody machines are gorgeous. But they're not GOOD machines. The myth of Mac reliability and superior build quality is actually just that - a myth. They have superior FINISH and mechanical design to a cheap PC laptop. But the components inside cook to death. 






[#] Mon Nov 09 2020 18:50:55 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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Some combination of where I sit and some quality of my 2011 MBP is causing a weird phenomenon. I think the room fan is catching my exhaled breath and taking the vapor and smacking it on the screen, where it is VERY visible. I've never experienced this with any other machine, and there are a bunch of other machines around me. Only the Mac seems to do this. 

But it makes me aware of just how many aerosolized droplets we exhale just sitting around typing. And I'm not a mouth breather. Maybe there is something else going on. I do tend to hit the vape pipe in here... but even then, I'm not sure what makes the Mac screen such a magnet for the vapor, if that is what is happening. 

 

 



[#] Wed Nov 11 2020 10:24:36 EST from Ragnar Danneskjold

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I've had a single Mac die on me, and it was a newer one about two years old.
I've had MANY PC-based laptops die over the same time.... I've got a two year old HP that is falling apart with less us than the Mac's.

Like many consumer electronics, things are becoming disposable. I don't think anyone expects you to keep using hardware for more than three or four years at this point.

[#] Wed Nov 11 2020 12:31:14 EST from ParanoidDelusions

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Wed Nov 11 2020 10:24:36 EST from Ragnar Danneskjold @ Uncensored
I've had a single Mac die on me, and it was a newer one about two years old.
I've had MANY PC-based laptops die over the same time.... I've got a two year old HP that is falling apart with less us than the Mac's.

Like many consumer electronics, things are becoming disposable. I don't think anyone expects you to keep using hardware for more than three or four years at this point.

I encounter this fairly frequently from Mac users - but with less volume and conviction now than a decade ago. In the meantime, I hear a growing cacophony of Mac users who are fed up with Apple and Mac. 

As for my own experience, my experience with Intel based Macs has been terrible - but the longevity of Macs overall all the way back to 68k Macs is pretty well known to Retro collectors to be among the worst in the hobby. The only other old platform that is almost guaranteed to have issues is the Colecovision. The Amigas from the same time period as the color 68k color Macs have similar problems with leaking caps and batteries, but the *cases* from the color Macs (MAC II on, basically, through the PPC) are the *worst*. They literally crumble as they age. The exception would seem to be the iMac era of PPC systems - the day-glo neon Macs - those cases hold up, and the internals are reliable too. 


I've got everything from a Mac Classic II to the 2011 MBP. I've got a Performa 430, A Quadra PPC 650, a Quadra 8500/500 AV... and more. I've had a IIvx... I've got a Quicksilver G4. In modern Intel devices, I've had a Imac Core 2 Duo, a MPB i5 2012, and the MBP 2011 i7. 

Anecdotally and subjectively - Mac reliability over the long run is FAR worse than any other brand, across all generations of Mac - as someone who actively collects old computers and always has a stable of new ones. 

Now, I've had a fair amount of PCs die in that time frame too... but as a percentage of each, the percentage of Mac failures is absolutely exponentially greater than PC failures in my personal experience. 

It is interesting that the response I encounter has changed from "Macs are inherently better built machines and PCs suck," to "I've had a lot of PCs die on me too," too. Mac users no longer seem as confident in claiming that the components in a Mac are actually of a higher quality and more reliable than in any other PC. It went from, "I buy Macs because they're better engineered," to, "I buy Macs because they're no worse than a PC." 

But I think even the latter is an exaggeration. I think they are *more* failure prone than a good quality PC, under similar environmental conditions. 

YMMV. 

 





[#] Wed Nov 11 2020 15:36:40 EST from Ragnar Danneskjold

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Mine clearly varies significantly. I collect a lot of old hardware too. I'm actually surprised how many machines still run and run well. I'm generally happy with Apple products, but they've lost a number of things over the past few years. Again, the only Mac that I've had that up and died is a relatively recent one.

Laptops generally suck. I don't care what brand they are.

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