Macopinion

The Road Warrior Mailbag - March 12, 2007

AlBook
15-20 apps open at once??!!
Quantum Leap?
Hard drive salvage utilities

___

AlBook

From Ryan;

Charles baby:

Good article on the Big Al. At the time you made a good choice. The first iteration of the MacBook Pro was not a good move. It can't run Leopard in 64 bit, runs too hot, has many technical issues... All this from a first release which is to be expected.

I own the MB PRO CORE 2 DUO 15" and feel this is the best Mac portable ever. Your machine will give you good production for the next 3-4 years, but you won't be running at the same standard as the Intels. I know you aren't one for wanting the absolute latest in OS X, and I am sure if Tiger runs better on your rig you will stay with it. Tiger is a great OS and I could see it being in business for years to come.

With a G4 chip, this is probably going to be the best OS to run.

For me, I waited and bought the Core 2 Duo because it is the first Mac computer released that is truly "ahead" of its time. Now the Wallstreet was when it came out, but the Core 2 Duo represents the biggest revolution in Mac affairs. We have not only entered into the intel world, but into 64 bit computing territory. It is ahead of its time because of what is under the hood. 802.11n wifi, Express Card Slot, Dual 64-bit processors, SATA HD, built in iSight...

WIth the heat improvements, speed improvements, I feel very happy that I waited. Compared to the first release, they added Firewire 800, better battery life, upped the HD space and made some other minor tech improvements. When Leopard comes out, my rig will be ready to sail me into the transition and then some.

At any rate, I would be very happy with the Big Al, as it still packs and will continue to pack a huge punch with a strong G4 processor and big graphics card.

Regards,
Ryan J. Vetter

___

Hi Ryan;

Thanks for the comment. Your points are well-taken, and I agree with you on pretty much all you've noted.

If you didn't see it, my PBCentral column last week argued that the MacBook Pro is the best value Apple notebook, with a few qualifications:
http://www.pbcentral.com/columns/hildreth_moore/mbpval.shtml

I'm still loving this PowerBook G4, but I doubt that it will be my number one production machine for more than another year, if that long. I really ought to join the MacIntel revolution.

I'll install Leopard when it comes out, but as always, hedge my bets by keeping Tiger ready to go on a second hard drive partition (currently I have OS 10.4.8 on both). I have no intention of upgrading the OS above 10.4.8 on my G3 iBook (even if it's supported by Leopard, which I doubt it will be) or my G4 upgraded Pismo, which is currently still running OS 10.3.9.

Charles

___

Re: AlBook

Sounds good Charles.

I would urge you to join the Macintels too.

The processing power is awesome. I am crunching text, video, audio... like nothing. It really is powerful. I can't wait for Leopard to see what these babies can really pump out. Once all my core apps are intel coded, I will be even more happy. Right now, because some of the software runs better on the G4 chip, my MB PRO CORE 2 DUO is like a Panther in a cage, waiting, growling... But once the cage is opened...

I don't know about you, but I feel that Apple has gotten better and better, significantly, over the past 3 years particularly. The measure is thus: production. My production just keeps going up and up. I have stuck with Apple throughout the years because of their simplicity and ease of use. But rest assured, production is the true measure. Some examples. I all but dropped Dreamweaver for web development and use iWeb. I made nice website with ecommerce built in in about 6 hours. Dreamweaver would have taken so much longer.

I have moved to Pages and Keynote, not looking back. Using Apples, you can tell there is just something more than a computer. Something a bit unreal. I have tremdous respect for Jobs and what he has accomplished. Apple has truly evolved into something incredible. I just hope Apple and its customers understand this and stop suing them! My god, how many lawsuits have people been launching against them. Only in America...

Regards,

___

Hi Ryan;

Absolutely agreed about the lawsuits, and most everything else. The litigiousness of American society is mind-boggling - kind of like a lottery dynamic it seems to me, although Canada is going that way as well these days. Probably has something to do with the number of lawyers universities are churning out.

I was playing around with Vista today on an Acer Aspire with a 2.4 Ghz dual-core Athlon.

Man! The Vista interface is even more hideous than XP. All those garish colours were making me bilious. The responsiveness didn't knock my socks off either. Respectable, but I'm not sure it was better in Finder performance than my 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 running Tiger. I kept thinking, "this is what all the hoopla is about??!"

Apple and the Mac OS especially are special.

Charles

***

15-20 apps open at once??!!

From Christopher

Hi Charles.

15-20 apps open at once??!! Wow. I can't even name 15-20apps right off the top of my head. None the less, to regain some memory after long periods of use, what I do is run Disk Utility whenever the 'System Memory' pie chart of Activity Monitor (in my Dock) shows me I am running out of free memory. I just select my HD and Repair Disk Permisions. Nine times out of ten, a large portion (not all) of my free memory is given back. Oh yes, FYI, I am using a 12" G4 PowerBook 1.5ghz. Zero issues and running 10.4.8. I Love this PowerBook -- sweet!

___

Hi Christopher;

Just did a count from my Dock, and there are 22 applications open right now, plus Classic Mode. Of course I do a lot of application testing for reviews. My core suite of production apps. is about 15 programs, though.

The 12" PowerBook is one of the great Apple laptops - possibly to displace the Pismo and the most desirable choice in middle-aged machines.

Charles

***

Quantum Leap?

From Erik

"In practical terms, it represented a quantum leap forward"

A quantum leap is the smallest possible leap ever

I don't think it means what you think it means.

___

Hi Erik;

It's a matter of usage. You are correct in pure physics terms, but in common usage the term has come to mean what I implied.

According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

quantum leap
Function: noun
: an abrupt change, sudden increase, or dramatic advance

Wikipedia elucidates the discrepancy:

"In the vernacular, the term quantum leap has come to mean an abrupt change or "step change", especially an advance or augmentation. The term dates back to early-to-mid-20th century. The vernacular usage usually implies a large and abrupt change, while the term typically refers to a small change in quantum mechanics, often the smallest. The usages agree, however, in that both describe a change that happens all at once, rather than gradually over time. A 'quantum leap in technology' is thus a revolutionary advance, rather than an evolutionary one."

Charles

***

Hard drive salvage utilities

From Mark Lehrman

Dear Charles,

I didn’t think I would be writing again so soon! In any event my daughter's back-up external hard drive recently refused to mount on any desktop. It’s a LaCie Porsche Design 160gb drive. I contacted the company (of course it is out of warranty!) no real help there. I am looking for suggestions as to which software program might be the best one to try and see if I can salvage any of the info stored on the drive. A professional retrieval quote was $1000.00usd if they were successful. Way out of my league.

Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks in advance

Mark Lehrman

___

Hi Mark;

Prosoft's Data Rescue II has an excellent reputation. I've never had to use it to actually retrieve data because the only hard drive failure or serious issue I've ever experienced in15 years on the Mac was a total mechanical drive meltdown of a nearly new drive.

It's fairly expensive ($99.00), but that's a lot less than a $grand.

More infor here.

Charles

*** Charles W. Moore

The Road Warrior archives may be accessed from the link at the bottom of this page

Note: Letters to The Road Warrior may or may not be published in The Road Warrior Mailbag at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

If you would prefer that your message not appear in The Road Warrior Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.

CM