I dropped my iPod about 2 weeks ago, and the case is bent out on the right side. I shuold probably fix this, but I’m lazy and it works, so eh. I had an interesting trip to Indianapolis, but since 90% of it was eye-roll-worthy, I’m not recapping it here. Instead, I’m going to share ..
Notes from a scrap piece of paper
I was toying with the idea of upgrading my computer since before my birthday, and in normal ‘me’ style, I scribbled notes on lots of pieces of paper about the whole thing before I did anything. Then I did it, and I had MORE notes. Sometimes, I’m surprisingly low tech.
Pros
- Office needs new VPN (Cisco) and VPN can break if install is VPN first, then Tiger
- OWC has Tiger on sale
- Upgraded processor last May to 1.3Ghz
- New job needs more RAM anyway, and RAM is cheap
Cons
- May need new computer before 2007 (aka Intel Jump)
- Don’t want a 1st gen Intel box
- Want OS X on a damned tablet PC!!!
- Current computer from 2000!
- Don’t want to upgrade unless I have to, since software will need upgrade for Intel Jump
- Need more RAM
Solution
- Upgrade RAM to 1.38G
- Upgrade Tiger
- Upgrade VPN
I did a full wipe and install, which meant 4 hours of reinstalling my software. Still, it’s better since I had a lot of crap on my computer.
Initial Thoughts
- Don’t get the fuss over Dashboard. Have to hide/disable everything
- Damned annoying sounds on the Finder every time I do anything
- VPN works!
- iWork comes with a trial
- Hmm, some of these widgets are nice, but I can just go to a webpage
- Mail left all my old mboxes (30+ megs!), delete ’em!
- Still wish iWork had Charts or something Excellish
- Annoying sounds can be turned off in SysPref (where!?)
- More RAM = good!
- Wonder if someone has written a way to use these Dashboard Widgets without Dashboard
- Office, Textedit, Mail all work nice.
- Update to 10.4.1, still works
- Konfabulator … eh. Didn’t like it then, not my thing now. Maybe I’ll never use Dashboard, so how do I turn the damn thing off?
- Boots much faster
- WTF!? Office installed an installer for some stupid ass feature I don’t use. Goddamn Microsoft.
- Hey, Amnesty runs Widgets without taking my whole screen.
- Maybe NeoOffice will run better, but …
- Let’s play with iWork (gee, what’ll happen with Office moving from .doc to .xml?)
- Bugger, doesn’t come with iLife upgrade. I’ll have to shell out for Garageband 2, bitches.
- iSync doesn’t seem to autodetect my iPod anymore, because I moved iSync into a folder. Huh.
- Bless Google! “… in the “Sound” pref pane, there … is a specific setting for “alerts and sound effects” in the first tab (“Sound Effects”).”
- The only problem is that there appears to be a bug in Mac OS X 10.4 that causes Mail to become silent when you change the sound output device for system alert sounds and sound effects. Quitting Mail and relaunching it fixes the problem, but it’s still a bug. But presumably one doesn’t have to change the sound output device too often.
- Ohh, iPods don’t sync with iSync anymore, they use iTunes. Whatever. Now I have to open iTunes to sync my address book and calendar? Piss.
- Amnesty is $25? Fuck that noise! Widgets aren’t that cool.
- Sarai’s RSS feed thing isn’t what I like, I’ll stick to my other apps, like Vienna.
- iChat 3 is weird, but it’s my router, not iChat.
- iWork sucks donkey balls. Seriously, it’s ugly, not Mac, and I can’t adjust menu bars like I can in Word. Damn you all. Also? The format is weird and it’s harder to switch from .pages to .doc when I want to work on things from work.
- TextEdit, when I minimize it, leaves the ‘trough’ tray (that shows open docs) on the right. Reinstalling doesn’t fix it. May have to tell BareBones.
- I miss windowshades.
- Hoo Hah! I can explore PKG files and extract things! Now I have my Gay Men Chorus when I check my mail! (It’s a sound in Mailsmith, which I liked, but I like Mail.app better).
- HimmelBar is a cool way to keep your apps handy. Smartly done.
Conclusion:
- Tiger is good!