I'm a Mac engineer ;-(

Hi All,

I went round my mates today, he pointed to a big silver box with
transparent handles and a picture with an Apple with a bite out of it
on the side and said "I would like your help" (then locked the door).
;-(

So it was a G4 PowerPC or summat that *his* mate had bought off eBay
"for music" and it had a very sick copy of 9.2 on it (mouse freezes on
startup and the 'Serious error / reboot' message).

*Luckily* it was supplied with a new copy of X and he wanted a fresh
install so I didn't have to try fault finding it <phew>.

So (and so you can see what issues a PC noob might find) the first
'question' was which of the two drives *should* I install it on? I
opened up the side (quite neat I'll admit, bit like Dell) and found
the drives but wasn't sure what the 'rules' were re 'primary /
secondary drive' so just shut the side and installed X on the 50G,
leaving the 80G for the users data (assuming X / the Mac wouldn't care
/ would cope).

X went on ok, then it wanted 250M of updates, reboot, another 50M,
reboot, iTunes and a couple of other bits, so far so good.

Then I noticed it had an 'extra' audio card installed (cables hanging
out the back) but I couldn't see any reference to it in the audio
panels or system profiler things? I opened the case again, noted it
was an MAudio Audiophile summat so went to their web site, downloaded
and installed the driver and then it was recognised ok (an extra
control applet thing in prefs). Had I not 'noticed' there was an extra
card in there was there anywhere in the std control panels that would
have been showing an 'unknown device' or summat (like Device Manager
in XP would have with a question mark)?

Then I download Messenger (via the software updates thing) and it
appeared on the desktop as a file and opened in a file window. I
clicked on the Messenger figures from that folder and it went through
an installation procedure, resulting with the messenger sitting in the
dock and the downloaded file and another icon (like a hdd?) still on
the desktop. Why does some of this stuff not feel intuitive? With XP I
download a file (and automatically get the choice to where) run it, it
does it's stuff and that's it. The installer file is where I
downloaded it and the app is the app (ok I know I can't easily move it
afterwards etc but that not my question). [1]

I tried to move both off the desktop to a downloads folder on the
second drive but it told me the hdd looking one (or something) was in
use?

All I wanted was the Messenger icon on the desktop, what was I doing
wrong please? I think I got it there eventually but it was all a bit
hit_and_miss?

Then my mate unlocked the door and I was allowed to leave ... ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

[1] I can understand the initial file could be like a .zip and I might
have to extract that somewhere to then run the installer but once that
was done I could immediatly delete / move the .zip and unzipped
folder?

On Sat, 19 May 2007 20:43:04 GMT, T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote:

Hi All,

I went round my mates today, he pointed to a big silver box with
transparent handles and a picture with an Apple with a bite out of it
on the side and said "I would like your help" (then locked the door).
;-(

Oops, wrong group!

Sri folks ..

T i m

T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote:

Then I download Messenger (via the software updates thing) and it
appeared on the desktop as a file and opened in a file window. I
clicked on the Messenger figures from that folder and it went through
an installation procedure, resulting with the messenger sitting in the
dock and the downloaded file and another icon (like a hdd?) still on
the desktop. Why does some of this stuff not feel intuitive? With XP I
download a file (and automatically get the choice to where) run it, it
does it's stuff and that's it. The installer file is where I
downloaded it and the app is the app (ok I know I can't easily move it
afterwards etc but that not my question). [1]

I tried to move both off the desktop to a downloads folder on the
second drive but it told me the hdd looking one (or something) was in
use?

Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an instruction
manual.
--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
www.italiancar.co.uk - Honda VFR800 - Hongdou GY200 - Alfa 75 TSpark
Alfa 156 TSpark - B6 Passat 2.0TDI SE - COSOC KOTL
BOTAFOT #87 - BOTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

SteveH wrote:

T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote:


Then I download Messenger (via the software updates thing) and it
appeared on the desktop as a file and opened in a file window. I
clicked on the Messenger figures from that folder and it went through
an installation procedure, resulting with the messenger sitting in the
dock and the downloaded file and another icon (like a hdd?) still on
the desktop. Why does some of this stuff not feel intuitive? With XP I
download a file (and automatically get the choice to where) run it, it
does it's stuff and that's it. The installer file is where I
downloaded it and the app is the app (ok I know I can't easily move it
afterwards etc but that not my question). [1]

I tried to move both off the desktop to a downloads folder on the
second drive but it told me the hdd looking one (or something) was in
use?


Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an instruction
manual.

I'm not a computer newbie, but I am pretty new to OSX and was very
Mac-rusty and it took me days of fucking about and some eventual
questions to someone who knew more than me before I worked out how to do
what Tim's up to.

--
Douglas

Douglas Payne <douggie (AT) cheerful (DOT) com> wrote:

Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an instruction
manual.

I'm not a computer newbie, but I am pretty new to OSX and was very
Mac-rusty and it took me days of fucking about and some eventual
questions to someone who knew more than me before I worked out how to do
what Tim's up to.

Tim bought a Mac several months ago..... and has been one of the most
prolific posters in the Mac NG for quite a while now.

However, most of his posts appear to be aimed at trying to prove XP is
better than OSX.
--
SteveH 'You're not a real petrolhead unless you've owned an Alfa Romeo'
www.italiancar.co.uk - Honda VFR800 - Hongdou GY200 - Alfa 75 TSpark
Alfa 156 TSpark - B6 Passat 2.0TDI SE - COSOC KOTL
BOTAFOT #87 - BOTAFOF #18 - MRO # - UKRMSBC #7 - Apostle #2 - YTC #

On Sat, 19 May 2007 22:28:22 +0100, steve (AT) italiancar (DOT) co.uk (SteveH)
wrote:

Douglas Payne <douggie (AT) cheerful (DOT) com> wrote:

Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an instruction
manual.

I'm not a computer newbie, but I am pretty new to OSX and was very
Mac-rusty and it took me days of fucking about and some eventual
questions to someone who knew more than me before I worked out how to do
what Tim's up to.

Tim bought a Mac several months ago..... and has been one of the most
prolific posters in the Mac NG for quite a while now.

I *was* when I first got the Mac for my daughter (not for me notice so
have no daily 'hands on') and it has not be so of late.

However, most of his posts appear to be aimed at trying to prove XP is
better than OSX.

Sounds like someone has other issues. I have *never* suggested
anything of the sort. I care less about Mac's because I choose to
build my own machines so by definition that has to be PC hardware. I
could run Linux (and have) but find XP more friendly / easy to use /
compatible with the rest of the world.

I initially refrained from replying here it being off topic and not
marked as such.

On Sat, 19 May 2007 22:25:40 +0100, Douglas Payne
<douggie (AT) cheerful (DOT) com> wrote:

Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an instruction
manual.

I'm not a computer newbie, but I am pretty new to OSX and was very
Mac-rusty and it took me days of fucking about and some eventual
questions to someone who knew more than me before I worked out how to do
what Tim's up to.

And I believe that's part of the issue for *us* Douglas, we have a
strong PC / Windows background. Therefore it may be more difficult for
us than a true newbie because we have to unlearn things (all be they
less intuitive in the greater scale of things) before we can move on.

Most of the Mac group are ok .. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote in
news:8tou439iusdhno1314shac08m8vqvitb5u (AT) 4ax (DOT) com:

On Sat, 19 May 2007 20:43:04 GMT, T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote:

Hi All,

I went round my mates today, he pointed to a big silver box with
transparent handles and a picture with an Apple with a bite out of it
on the side and said "I would like your help" (then locked the door).
;-(

Oops, wrong group!

Sri folks ..

T i m

I thought this was going to be about trucks, not pretend PCs. ;-)

--
Tunku

"Caution : traces of irony and other metallic objects may be present in
the above post"

SteveH wrote:

Douglas Payne <douggie (AT) cheerful (DOT) com> wrote:

Jesus. I'm surprised you can breathe without consulting an
instruction manual.

I'm not a computer newbie, but I am pretty new to OSX and was very
Mac-rusty and it took me days of fucking about and some eventual
questions to someone who knew more than me before I worked out how
to do what Tim's up to.

Tim bought a Mac several months ago..... and has been one of the most
prolific posters in the Mac NG for quite a while now.

However, most of his posts appear to be aimed at trying to prove XP is
better than OSX.

You need to prove that?

--
ThePunisher

On Sat, 19 May 2007 17:26:49 -0500, Tunku
<stuartggray-nospam (AT) dsl (DOT) pipex.com> wrote:

T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote in
news:8tou439iusdhno1314shac08m8vqvitb5u (AT) 4ax (DOT) com:

On Sat, 19 May 2007 20:43:04 GMT, T i m <news (AT) spaced (DOT) me.uk> wrote:

Hi All,

I went round my mates today, he pointed to a big silver box with
transparent handles and a picture with an Apple with a bite out of it
on the side and said "I would like your help" (then locked the door).
;-(

Oops, wrong group!

Sri folks ..

T i m



I thought this was going to be about trucks, not pretend PCs. ;-)

I shouldn't laugh ... <weg>

All the best ..

T i m