OT ibook and defrag

GW
Posted By
greg_wallis
Feb 20, 2004
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1630
Replies
75
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Closed
I have been running elements on my ibook for a while now and suspect there may be lots of temporary files on the HD……it seems to be getting a bit slow. I have never defragged the HD….any ideas on how to do this?…..do I need extra software?

thanks

greg

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅ

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 20, 2004
If you have Norton Utilities, you can do it with that. Scan the disk too. I only do it once a year on my Mac, and that is not often enough, so I have forgotten the details, but just open Norton, if you have it and follow their instructions.
Tech Tool is another software. Soon you will be hearing from some of the experts here, and I too will be watching, as I probably should de-frag mine today. And any information on this would be good for me to read.
Jane
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 20, 2004
Ah, before you follow Jane’s advice, we better find out first what OS you’re using. Jane still uses OS 9, so you might not have the same success with Norton that she does if you’re using something else.

So… Which OS?
GW
greg_wallis
Feb 20, 2004
I am using OSX 10.2.8 on my ibook…………..so what it boils down to is that i need some extra software to defrag?
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 20, 2004
Hi Beth, I am glad you mentioned the OS. This means that my Norton stuff won’t work if I get the new Mac. I figured that I would have to buy some new utilities. I should have thought that old Mac OS stuff won’t work with UNIX.
What do you recommend? Or would the utilities that I would need for maintaining the new Mac, come with it.
I am getting closer,,,,,
Thanks,
Jane
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 20, 2004
You know, Macs rarely need defragging, and I thought OS X had pretty much done away with it forever. Have you done any other maintenance routines lately? Give some other system specs, because you might be able to get by without buying any software. I’m also wondering whether, since it is a portable, you run anything like MacJanitor to make up for the likelihood that your iBook doesn’t run all night when the OS would usually do some routine maintenance on its own around 3 or 4 a.m.

Even though there are a number of us Mac users on this forum, you might be better off to post this question on the Apple forum. Another one I like is dealmac, but you have to be prepared for some weirdos showing up. ๐Ÿ™‚ The tech information is always solid, though. I’ll do a search over there and see what I find. In the meantime, tell us more about the iBook.

Edit: I found one thread over there that dealt with this. (Well, one recent thread without going back ages.) Micromat’s Tech Tool Pro (make sure it’s the newest version for OS X) would do the defragging and some other utility stuff; I think that’s what Apple sends to people who sign up for Applecare. Still, I’d try some routines from within the OS first. And, of course, there’s also the possibility that your system is now just being overextended from a lot of digital image editing. You might need to add RAM, increase the size of the HD, or move some stuff off. I’ve run Macs for years and have only defragged a hard drive once. That was a 6GB drive that had been running for four years without a rebuild. I used Tech Tool Pro on it, and it did do a good job.

And, yes, Jane, you couldn’t keep using the utilities that you’ve been using under OS 9, but you might find you don’t need anything. I don’t.
N
nytrashman7618
Feb 20, 2004
I am running OS X 10.2.8 and as far as i know there is no need to defrag the hard drive. i do use macjanitor because as Beth said i keep my Mac turned off at night. i have also recently found and have been using OnyX. it is an optimization and maintenance tool for OS X. you can find it here www.titanium.free.fr/us/onyx/
N
nytrashman7618
Feb 20, 2004
I am running OS X 10.2.8 and as far as i know there is no need to defrag the hard drive. i do use macjanitor because as Beth said i keep my Mac turned off at night. i have also recently found and have been using OnyX. it is an optimization and maintenance tool for OS X. you can find it here <http://www.titanium.free.fr/us/onyx/>
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 21, 2004
Hi Beth, That is good news. This OS 9.2.2 G4 never gets its oil changed, and still keeps running smoothly and fast. Yes, do turn off computers at night most of the time.
Well, I shouldn’t really say that, I do occasionally do maintenance, but only when I see people recommending it, not because the machine is problematic. I haven’t rebuilt its desktop for over a year, never ever zapped the P-ram, and defragged twice in its 4 year life.
Goodness, our vehicles get much more maintenance!
If it wasn’t for the forums, I don’t think I would ever do any maintenance. The computer should have some mileage or some way to let the driver/operator/pilot know when or if and what should be done. Or is that just the way with a happy Mac,,,,,,,
I feel so negligent,,,,
Jane
SS
Susan_S.
Feb 21, 2004
I found that since erasing and repartitioning my hard drive and reinstalling my system (upgrading from 10.1.5 to 10.3) the hard drive has made much less in the way of funny noises looking for things, so I suspect that it had got a bit defragmented. Reading on the mac forums suggests that OS10.2 and better will defrag files of less than 20mb on the fly – which suggests that unless you are editing a lot of big files, (especially video) you probably will be OK. One thing I did do was put my scratch disc on a separate 4gb partition so that I can just use disk utility to erase it rather than fork out for a defrag tool (I don’t have a separate internal hard drive I can use for a scratch)
Susan S.
GW
greg_wallis
Feb 21, 2004
Thanks for all the advice…..will check out the sites for some software.

My ibook currently has a 20G HD with 256Ram…….never realised quite how slow it was with elements till I tried elemts on a desktop! Nevertheless it has slowed down considerably over time.Think i will have to invest in some extra ram……think i can double what is there now.

I did buy a small pocketdrive HD 30G which has helped with storage. I also partitioned this and set aside 3G as my scrath disk for elements.

Am now very envious of everyone here with big screen monitors to work on….but then again i love my ibooks portability.

Wish I could say that mine was trouble free but have had a whole host of problems with it from the start…………at the moment the battery is giving me big problems ever since i did upgraded the os…..just goes to sleep without warning at around 80percent full…very frustrating……seems to be a widespread problem with the 10.2.4 update……unfortunately further updates have not fixed the problem.

cheers
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 21, 2004
You can plug a big monitor into your iBook anytime you are at home. Also I think that I am going to wait a bit longer to go up to OS X. 9.2.2 is very happy here. Third, more ram is the best thing we can do for any computer. Cheap and easy, and wow, what a difference!
Jane
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 21, 2004
Greg, MacJanitor is a freebie. Here’s the download link from MacUpdate:

<http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5856>

It’s one of the utilities that can be set manually to run the maintenance routines that would ordinarily kick in during the middle of the night.

And, yes, increasing the amount of RAM would help a lot. I still think you can probably get by without a defrag. Try MacJanitor first. There’s no point in buying software until it’s the last resort!

And, Jane, I don’t believe iBooks have the same ability to support an external monitor as the PowerBook you use. You’ve probably got one similar to mine – a VGA port on the back, but that’s one of the things that was left off of the iBooks in order to bring the price point down.
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 21, 2004
Beth,

Don’t know about the older iBooks but the new ones can be connected to an external moniter.

Maybe this feature wasn’t on the earlier ones

Wendy
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 21, 2004
Actually my brain wasn’t operating on all cylinders on my first post. I did know they’d mirror the desktop, but at least some of them wouldn’t go into extended desktop mode without a hack. And when I think "second monitor" I often forget the value of mirroring when using a portable computer. Tunnel vision, so to speak. ๐Ÿ™‚
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 21, 2004
Here’s what Apple has to say on the subject <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668>. As for me, since moving to OS X I’ve not bought (and probably won’t) any optimization/disk utilities. OS X just doesn’t suffer the same ills as OS 9 so I don’t see a need to fork out cash that I could be spending elsewhere. Run Disk Utility, repair permissions and follow Beth’s (always excellent) advice and you should be ok.

Joe
GW
greg_wallis
Feb 21, 2004
Have just downloaded macjanitor and am heading home to try it out…will let you know!
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 21, 2004
Hi Beth and Joe, The Apple article is interesting, thanks for the link. I actually drove by my local Apple store this morning without stopping, I had dog and husband with me.
But I am going to go in there someday soon and get an iMac. I will leave my G4 right here on my huge desk and run them both? I sure will have questions for you all Max OS X people, but I am beginning to look forward to it now. I hear less and less about problems. I will have to see what software will work on X, I think both my GoLive 6 and Elements will anyway. I also have been reading that the newest versions of X have a lot of the niceties added already, so I won’t have to go out and spend money on them.
One of the employees there said that the iMac is plenty of horsepower for me even if I do get the full Photoshop eventually. The 20" screen is now available with the iMac.
My husband said why not get the G5, but the monitor is not included in the price. I would love the extended mode, but I think it is way overkill for me. So I think the iMac would be what I need. I have read that it comes with not enuf ram, so they said to have a 512 chip preinstalled, then later on if needed, I could add more to the user-installable thingie or socket or whatever you callit.
Oh I am getting way OT, but my purchase is getting closer and I am hoping that you all will tell me what you think about my pending decision. I have not a clue about the graphics capabilities of the iMac vs. the G5, but I assume that the iMac would be good enough for me.
Thanks,
Jane
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 21, 2004
Jane,

For what it’s worth, here’s my opinion. I prefer a tower design because I want to be able to install PCI cards, hard drives, etc. and a tower is much easier to do that with. With an iMac you can’t install a PCI card at all and unless you know your way around the inside, replacing a hard drive in an iMac isn’t for everyone. You can, of course, connect external devices via USB and Firewire but they tend to be more expensive, and I just hate the clutter and cords. Having said that, I just love iMacs and I drool every time I see one (especially that 20"). If you don’t need the expandability of a tower or you don’t mind spending a bit more for your peripherals then the iMac is pretty much the ultimate IMO.

If I were in your shoes Jane, I’d be awful tempted to wait until Apple starts putting G5’s in the iMac. Rumor has it that IBM has started mass production and delivery on the 90nm 970FX chips which use less power and produce less heat. This could mean G5 iMacs and Powerbooks if the heat dissipation is significant enough. Of course the rumor mills could be full of carp (that’d be smelly) but you never know.

Then again do you really need a G5 processor? The advice that I’ve always given to clients and followed myself, is to buy as much processor as you can afford. In a couple years that processor will be slow in comparison to what’s available and you want to stretch the useful life out as far as possible. A perfect example is my own G4/533. I could probably have afforded the 933mhz but instead went with the 533. In January I bought iLife 04 and can’t use iDVD 4 and GarageBand because they both require faster processors. My G4 will be 3 this May.

As for OS X, Jane don’t be afraid. There will be a learning curve for you and not everything will go as planned when you take the leap. Just remember, OS X hasn’t been lauded as the best modern OS for nothing. It’s come into it’s own and really does set the standard for all modern operating systems (not trying to start a Mac vs. PC war here).

Just my 2cents.
Joe
R
Ray
Feb 21, 2004
Joe,

Speaking of Macs… I’m trying to convince myself over a G5 1.8Ghz DP (Dual Processors), instead of the more expensive 2.0Ghz DP. Does the slight (for the lack of a better word) speed difference is worth the extra 600$ (canadian funds) ? I’m having a hard time locating a speed comparison test between the two. And I haven’t seen a test of PC vs Mac (just so I know what I’m getting for, compared to my actual computer).

The way I’ve always bought new computers was to go for the highest speed / max storage space at first, then get the best for the available money remaining. But since I’ll also have to replace quite a few applications, I need to lower my overall expenses. Also, been thinking on not taking the Apple Care plan. Support I’m sure I could do without. I know my way around message boards and computers. Extended warranty is the place when I just don’t know. Never had a computer with an extended warranty. And never had one single computer parts (inner part, that is), that either exploded or terminated its life prematurely. My brother has a Mac (a ’94 model..!) for which he bought the Apple Care plan. He used only for support calls. But in 94, the Internet wasn’t what it
is now. He never had a mechanical problem with his Mac.

Any help would be more than welcome, on any subject (switching, performance, warranty, etc.)

Oh, before I go… Are the PCI-X slots compatible with regular vanilla PCI ? The only thing I would
port from my PC to my Mac would be a USB card. There’s just not enough ports on a G5 (3, and 1 in the front, I just can’t picture either my mouse, Wacom or HP being connected on the front at all times)

Thanks !

Ray
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 21, 2004
But Jane if you’re as happy with your G4 and OS 9.2 as you say you are, why do you even want a new computer?

You can send me your iLife, Joe, I’ve got a dual gig now, so I could use it. ๐Ÿ™‚
J
jhjl1
Feb 21, 2004
All of you could donate to a poor boy still using a windoze machine and claim another convert.


Have A Nice Day, ๐Ÿ™‚
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview
http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 21, 2004
Hi Beth, That is what I have been telling myself for over a year, I love my G4(4 years old) and never had a problem with 9.2.2 . I am happy with the G4 completely. I do have Kaleidoscope and silly stuff like that, and it is nice to customize things a bit. PSE, GoLive and all the stuff I use just flyes on this machine.
Its really my husband who is pushing me, but I won’t complain?????

Hi Joe, I have more doggone wires here than I ever would want to see anywhere, but I have to have them. (Our cat is not allowed in here, for obvious reasons.) Printer, scanner, camera stuff, modems, router, USB stuff that I just leave in the hubs, Powerbook connected, good lord what a b mess . It would be so nice to eliminate some of them, maybe the iMac would require fewer wires.. But my husband made me a huge door for a desk with 2 tables at each end, the whole side of the room, so I really have the space for the stuff.
I don’t think that I would need to install any pci cards, or add much to it. But I’m not sure. I do have an external CD writer that I wouldn’t need any more, and the external HD that I just got(firewire) would work with both.
But then again, looking at the G5 and having room for another large CRT, and not looking at the expense of the huge LCD???
Oh my goodness, I shall have to research this a bit further, wish husband wastn pushing me, I don’t want to get an iMac and wish that I had the G5.
[[[buy as much processor as you can afford.]]]
There is a lot to be said for the G4 when I got mine 4 years ago, it still kicks b*tt. I will be interested in what you all do and your advice. Thank you!
Jane
SS
Susan_S.
Feb 21, 2004
While my imac (older CRT one) is wonderful, it is not (easily) upgradeable – it would have been much better if I could have put in a second harddrive for a scratch disc and and upgrade to a larger monitor, put in a better graphics card etc – it’s a good all purpose machine, but i think that for graphics it’s better to have something more flexible.

Susan S.
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 22, 2004
That’s why I went with a tower. There’s nothing more frustrating than lack of flexibility. Of course my set up doesn’t have an extra square inch of space for a computer that has to sit on the desk, either, so I had to keep that in mind. I stash everything I can on the floor, and that’s getting full too!
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 22, 2004
OK, The G5 tower for me too. Why not go for the large engine, 4WD and the big truck? It always lasts longer and does all we ask from it.
I opted for the G4 when the iMacs were much cheaper, I bought the iMacs for my husband and brother, as they never use PSE or GoLive or anything ‘large’.
I perhaps would not go for the superb LCD Mac monitors, as the CRTs are so easy on the eyes and I have plenty of space and a cold room. So I would avoid that extra cost. I could use both my CRTs. And get a 19" from Staples for less than $300, if I needed.
I am really relying on your info, very interested in the new Mac stuff coming up in the next year. Waiting and learning,,,,,,

Another question, I did read about this problem about the Firewire external HD not working in OS X? I sure wouldn’t want to lose the stuff and all my pictures on it! That is what I would use between the 2 computers, all my goodies!
Jane
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 22, 2004
Beth,

When did that happen? Thanks for the offer (?) but I think I’ll hang on to my iLife anyway. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I just talked my bride into letting me buy OWC’s Mercury Extreme 1.25-1.33ghz processor upgrade. That’ll get me through another year or so when I’ll be ready to fork over the dough for a G5. Wish I could now but with remodeling our house and buying a new vehicle I just can’t do it just yet.

Ray,

Actually the dual 1.8ghz is considered to be the best value by many (including MacWorld) and if I could buy one today that’d be it.

As for benchmarks, I can’t remember seeing any comparing the dual 1.8 and the the 2.0 yet. There are plenty of benchmarks out there comparing the original 3 models, however. Here’s < http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/reviews/macworldlabfirstg5te stresults> MacWorlds benchmarks. Barefeats <http://www.barefeats.com/speedtests.html> is a good place to find info on comparisons between the G5’s and PC’s. The problem with comparing benchmarks between the different chips is that the benchmarking suites are usually optimized for a particular platform. So when Apple came out and claimed the G5 was the fastest personal computer on the planet, they were right according to the benchmarking programs they used that were optimized for the G5 chip. Conversely, when using benchmarking programs optimized for AMD and Intel chips, you can probably guess how those went.

Suffice it to say that the G5 run’s neck and neck with the best that Intel and AMD can offer. Here is a PC World <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1274182,00.asp> review that says just that. In all the stuff I’ve read the G5 beats Intel and AMD a little more than half the time but Intel and AMD usually win out in a few area’s including Frames-per-second tests used for gaming.

If your USB PCI card is a 3 volt card, it should work. Check out this kbase article <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86513> for details.

I’m probably not the best guy to ask about extended warranty plans. In my younger days, for a brief time I sold electronics for Sears. We were required to hammer people for extended warranty plans and I’m embarrassed to say, I actually got pretty good at selling them. You see, these plans are very, very profitable and that’s why companies like Sears, Dell, Apple, Circuit City, etc., really go after them. The reason they are so profitable is because they are used very rarely. As you can probably guess by now, I don’t believe in them nor do I buy them.

Geez, now I’ve gone and contributed at least 4 cents.

Joe
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 22, 2004
OK, my husband wins, the G5 for me, and he just won another family argument as to where the water from our well comes from on our little peninsula of sand, Cape Cod, not NH or VT, just our own water table. He wins, and gets to ‘rest his eyes’ tomorrow as it is Sunday, day of rest and grandchildren.
Jane
SS
Susan_S.
Feb 22, 2004
Jane – it depends on which chipset your firewire drive has – the reputable manufacturesrs have upgraded the firmware for their drives which had the problematic chipset and it apears to fix the problem… I haven’t had any dramas with my Lacie external drive
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 22, 2004
Jane,

The issue you’re referring to was a problem that cropped up with the introduction of Panther and has now been fixed. When you upgrade to the G5 the version of Panther that comes with it should work just fine with your external drives. To be on the safe side, visit your drive manufacturers web site to download and install any firmware updates first. There were stories that Panther actually rendered some external Firewire drives completely inoperable.

Joe
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 22, 2004
Jane,

My La Cie HD works just fine with OSX … I’m still on 10.2.6 but I understand that it works just fine with 10.3 too.

I always liked a tower but since getting the iMac I am a convert …

Don’t worry about OSX it is far better than OS9 … I still have one or two things that need OS9 but I don’t like using them as OS9 is not as good.

Wendy
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 22, 2004
Hi Susan, Mine is also a LaCie. Thanks for the info, then I will probably be able to use it OK. I wanted to put the goodies onto my husband’s iMac, as he has a new huge HD, but he has no firewire. Thus
I can’t do the firewire target mode, nor a direct transfer. No USB on the LaCie. Oh, but he has Ethernet, I just remembered, as I have him on my cable router,,,,,,I could use the Mac file sharing thing.
I just will be careful and look into this problem before I do any transferring to OS X. I am very dumb about this stuff, as with OS 9 I never had a problem with any of this transferring stuff.
Jane
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 22, 2004
Hi, Joe. Yes, I broke down and bought a refurb dual gig G4. I’d been planning to hold out for the G5, but I decided I wasn’t ready to be trapped in Panther yet and probably wouldn’t be for a while. This one will still boot into either OS. It was a whole lot less than what I’d been planning to pay for a new computer, so maybe I won’t feel as bad if I trade again before another five years is up! The little B & W is still going strong, and I have a new home lined up for it. Frankly, I can’t tell a lot of difference in the speed between the two machines for much of the stuff I do, and that really surprises me. When I get time to do more "heavy" Photoshop work and/or get around to the DVD burning I’m sure I’ll see the difference, but for now it’s not too evident. It really is nice having two monitors! Now that’s a luxury you should seriously consider.

I think you’ll be really happy with your processor upgrade. I’ve never been sorry I put the new one in my B & W, and that computer will be going strong for quite a while yet. I just didn’t want to put even more money into it for a new video card and internal DVD burner.

Oh, yes, and this one is just old enough so I’ve already been grubbing around inside of it. ๐Ÿ™‚ I would have been scared to death to open a G5 the first day it was in the house.

And, Ray, had I decided on a G5 I would have gotten the dual 1.8. I agree with Joe that it’s got to be the best bang for the buck of the entire lineup. I’m starting to see some of those available as refurbs now, too, although they’re snapped up as fast as they’re advertised.
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 22, 2004
Beth,

trapped in Panther

No such thing! Us cutting-edger’s are luxuriating in Panther paradise. ๐Ÿ˜‰

If that home you found for the B&W doesn’t work out, I might be interested in taking off your hands. It’s just one of those Mac’s that I just eventually have to have in my collection. It was a ground breaking design (maybe not as much as the iMac or Cube but still a great design) and the color can’t be beat. I really like how the G3 is visible beneath the white.

I used to have a dual monitor set up but right now I just don’t have the room. After the remodel…

Joe
R
Ray
Feb 22, 2004
Joe & Beth,

Thanks for the 2ยข ! It’s appreciated ๐Ÿ™‚

I’ll go at the local Apple reseller and concentrate on the 1.8Ghz DP.

Ray
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 22, 2004
Oops! Beth, I meant that I’d be interested in taking it as in the B&W off your hands not your actual hands. ๐Ÿ™‚

Joe
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 22, 2004
You know – strange as it sounds – you’ll have to stand in line for that baby! I had a couple of other people contact me when they found out I was getting ready to get a new computer. It’s really a solid workhorse. Now I just wish I would have been listening to my son when he told me I should buy a Cube when they came out. The story of my life. ๐Ÿ™

If you need an original iMac for your collection, I know where one of those is sitting around abandoned, too. Interested? ๐Ÿ™‚ I don’t know if she’ll part with it, but I don’t know why she’s keeping it either.

Ray, you’d love the DP 1.8!
GW
greg_wallis
Feb 24, 2004
Tried running macjanitor on the ibook………..not much seemed to happen at first but now seems to have picked up a bit of speed……….many thanks to everyone for all your sugestions.
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 24, 2004
Whew!

Now if you think defragging might help, it sure won’t hurt. Increasing the RAM might be your biggest speed booster, though. Just try to remember to run those utilities on a pretty regular basis, and the iBook should stay in good condition.
CS
Cliff_Skidmore
Feb 25, 2004
Greg
Mcintosh doesnt generally recommend nor need defragmenting. An excellent freeware utility for cleaning up files and improving speed is Onyx. Do a Web search. It will run all the housecleaning chores that should be done on a regular basis and you will notice an improvement.

Cheers
Cliff
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 25, 2004
Greg (or others), I spotted this today – according to Apple there’s no need to defrag in 10.2 or 10.3 unless you’re running seriously short of HD space, although they don’t define what "almost full" is. Somewhere else I read that was generally considered less than 20% free space. I forgot to go back and check the size of your drive, Greg, but I seem to remember is was 20GB. So as long as you’ve got 4GB left you should be OK. If not, you’d benefit from moving some stuff – or just plain housecleanning. ๐Ÿ™‚

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=256>

Cliff – is Onyx superior to MacJanitor, which I suggested he use?
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 25, 2004
Hi Beth, I am getting close too, have a 20 and have 4.79 left. Got a 30 external hd and that’s filling up.
Too many pictures.
Jane
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 25, 2004
Hi Beth,

Your link doesn’t work. Were you refering to the same kbase article <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668> I linked to in post number 15?

Joe
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 25, 2004
Well, boo hiss! Yes, I did manage to miss that Joe, I’m sorry. And my apologies for the bad link. It didn’t work for me now either, and I’d just been on that page! Ah, I so love computers and the internet. ๐Ÿ™‚
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 25, 2004
That’s ok Beth, I’d be willing to bet a lot of people missed it so it’s good that you posted it again (well sort of posted anyway). ๐Ÿ˜‰

Joe
CS
carl_sutherland
Feb 25, 2004
I guess its time for me to add something.

I have used MacJanitor based on Barbara’s recommendation and it seems to work well. However, just this month in MacWorld Atomic Bird’s Macaroni 2.0 ( www.atomicbird.com ) was recommended as an automatic Unix cleanup utility (I think that is what MacJanitor does) and I do not have to think of running MacJanitor. I would appreciate any feed-back from others about this.

Nobody has talked about the PowerBook I think. I bought the G4 17 inch (Barbara calls it the LapZilla) early last summer with 1024 RAM. I can run any Mac program except the 800 firewire I think. I added the Airport and it is wonderful for me. The computer is usually stationed at my desk upstairs where I can plug in my printer or scanner. We have a big 19th century home and I can roam around and take my PowerBook, particularly the kitchen when JoAnn is fixing meals or the den when she is watching TV. Both of our children are in California and I take it with us. Our son and son-in-law have wi-fis for their Windows units (all I can do is show the way, I can not force them to a higher plane of life up on the MacPlateu) so I just show up and connect. I have no desire for a bigger or better screen or horsepower. The PowerBook is just great for me. OS X 10.3 has been wonderful. I bless the day that I felt supported enough by Barbara and Barb to go with this MAC.

I have never done anything about defragmenting or anything else other than the programs in the OS X programs themselves as run as I discussed above.

Thanks and that is my experience

Carl
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 25, 2004
Carl, I just love to read your posts; you are one wonderful Mac advertisement all by yourself! ๐Ÿ™‚

I’d love to be able to give you some feedback about the software you’re asking about, but I just leave my desktop on all the time so don’t use one of the utilities.
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 25, 2004
Hi Carl and Beth, What do you think about these iMacs?
Jane Carter "iMac with the 20" screen?" 2/25/04 1:07pm </cgi-bin/webx?13/2> I see you do like OS 10.3, so if I buy this thing, I will be asking you some more of these questions.
Jane
BH
Beth_Haney
Feb 25, 2004
They’re gorgeous, Jane. I’m not going to get excited until I see the post where you announce you’ve finally BOUGHT one, though. ๐Ÿ™‚
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Feb 25, 2004
Hi, Carl. You should be okay with Macaroni if you want to get it. I just tend to prefer macjanitor myself although there are several other utilities you can get to do this, because I’ve never ever heard of one single person having a problem with macjanitor, whereas occasionally someone does have trouble from one of the others. Not often, and it shouldn’t put you off, but it does happen once in a while.
CS
Cliff_Skidmore
Feb 26, 2004
Hi Beth

I’ve used both programs and find OnyX to be a superior program. It is highly user friendly too. I have been a MS user since Windows began. Finally got fed up with all the viruses, bug fixes, crashes, etc and made the plunge to Mac. I will never look back. I am also fairly new to PE2 ( came with my camera) and I love it. I now have a small library of PE2 books and highly recommend "PhotoShop Elements for Windows & MacIntosh by Craig Hoeschen and Christopher Dahl" It explains all the commands in easy to understand language.

More info than you asked for ๐Ÿ™‚ but perhaps someone can benefit.

Cheers

Cliff
CS
carl_sutherland
Feb 27, 2004
Jane,

I know nothing about the iMAC except it is about the most gorgeous machine I ever saw second only to the 1957 Chevvy Bel Aire convertible hardtop in turquoise and white. I am visiting our daughter in San Francisco and was at the Apple store in Burlingame this afternoon. I saw one there and people were clustered around it. I’m probably going to buy units for my wife and daughter so images of the grandson (10 months old) and "Nona"(grandmother in the Italian of my wife’s family) can be transmitted. I think they are going to want portables so they can be used wherever they happen to be.

What is it going to take to get you to make the switch? The energy expended so far seems enormous and far greater than what it would require to actually make the switch. I have no experience with OS 9, but the people who did and do and write about it seem happy to leave it in the past for the benefits they get for "the OS of this century".

Beth,

Thank you for the kind words. As you know, I came late to computers as I had people to do all that stuff for me until I retir-er, until I came to be between jobs. I tried to learn Windows on my wife’s Dell and was really frustrated. The thing froze up on me so often I thought I was working on a refrigerator. My index finger on my right hand is at least one inch worn down restarting that thing so often after it turned into a rock. I could have had another profession I spent so much time trying to get the latest fixes for Windows vulnerabilities to viruses, worms, toads and other reptilian creatures. I read of all the wonderful things MAC that you and others had to say and made the switch. Having the children arrive was one thing and then there was the arrival of the MAC. Not as significant as the children, but clearly one of the central events of a lifetime.

To all MAC users,

Should I learn Appleworks or should I get Microsoft Office Suite. Money is not the most important thing other than that Bill Gates gets no more unless his software is better than his OS. I would appreciate your experience and advice.

Carl
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Feb 27, 2004
Hi, Carl. As for Appleworks v. Office, it depends. I’ve been running a business very happily with appleworks since 1995 and I only use Word when forced to.

If you do a lot of exchanging documents with pc users, you should probably get Word to make life easier. Otherwise, it depends on what you want to do. It’s like asking if it’s better to have a Kia Sephia or an 18-wheeler. What do you want to use it for and where do you want to go?
R
Ray
Feb 27, 2004
Well, since we’re already on the topic of Macs… I just ordered mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!

A PowerMac G5 dual processor 1.8Ghz, 1Gb of Ram, with OS 10.3 and iLife ’04. I also customized it with an ATI Radeon instead of Nvidia and chose the 250Gb disk drive in place of the 160Gb (did anyone mentioned digital pictures taking a lot of room??). Good news is, memory was on sale (at par
actually with what I could have got at another store) and I got an instant rebate as well for the Mac (making the hardrive upgrade cost to 40$). I saved 275$ in total.

I will get it within 10 days. I’m sooooo excited !!!

Ray
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 27, 2004
Oh man Ray, I’m so jealous! That machine is going to rock with the customizing you did (not that it needed it).

Carl,

As much as I hate Windows and Microsoft, I love Office X. Actually I don’t care much for PowerPoint and Keynote blows that out of the water anyway, but I really do love and use both Word and Excel. If all you’re doing is a little word processing Appleworks is just fine but if you need something more powerful with more features and capabilities then Word is the way to go. If you need to use spread sheets then there is no question in my mind but to go with Excel. Appleworks is a capable little program as Barb said, and I still use it myself, but when ever I want to crunch numbers I crank up Excel.

Oh and by the way Carl, you certainly have a way with words, especially your description of the iMac and your experience with Windows. Made me smile. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Joe
R
Ray
Feb 27, 2004
Thanks Joe! Indeed, the customization wasn’t necessary, but I’ve always had ATI video cards.. so why switch, have I asked myself? But I didn’t get any freebie for swtiching, I thought I’d get a t-shirt, a mug, perhaps a cap to go with the sunroof of my car… but nothing.

Ray
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 27, 2004
Hey, this is wonderful! New shiny Macs! I will be getting mine very soon, I am having it stuffed to the max with memory. It will have the 20" screen. This is so exciting. We will be asking each other things about OS 10.3. PSE will run on it just fine.
Sort of a delayed Christmas around here,,,,,,
I once had a ’56 Chevy which was all fancyd up, but my little brother borrowed it and,,,,, well you know the rest. Nobody, but nobody borrows my Macs! ‘Cept one son-in-law once in a while.
Jane
CS
carl_sutherland
Feb 27, 2004
Jane,

The "Visually" set of books are good for me and I learned a lot about OS X both Jaguar and Panther through them. If you don’t know that series I’ll give you the full reference when I get home. I take it from your post you have finally committed. I doubt you will be disappointed. I’m happy for you and Ray.

Carl
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 27, 2004
Hi Carl, Yes we are committed!
I do have the "Missing Manual" for OS X by David Pogue, I bought it for my brother last year and he has never opened it.
So I brought it home.
I did also buy one of the training CDs on Panther, I seem to do well with those visual things too. It will be here probably before the iMac is.
Looking at an Epson printer/scanner combo for $99 its the CX 5400, they use one in the store hooked up to a G5 and they love it. So thats probably the one I will get.
Jane
MR
Mark_Reibman
Feb 27, 2004
I would also recommend ‘Killer Tips for Panther’ by Scott Kelby. First thing you want to do is use Expose. Press the F9 – 12 keys. Magic. I can’t remember…three of the four work on Expose. You can select different options in system preferences. You’re going to have sooo much fun.
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 27, 2004
Mark,

Have just upgraded to 10.3 and at the moment PSE2 and everything (except Camino) is working fine … don’t know a lot about 10.3 yet but your message intrigued me. What is Expose?

Wendy
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Feb 27, 2004
Wendy, launch a bunch of different apps and open up a bunch of windows in each, then press F9. Now try F10 and F11. It’s fun, but personally I don’t use it much because I usually hide apps I’m currently using.
MR
Mark_Reibman
Feb 27, 2004
Wendy,

I don’t have any problem with Camino but I may have upgraded after I installed Panther. Check their site.

Experiment with Expose to see how it works. For my way of using my Mac I find it very useful. I’ve set up hot corners in System preferences but you do get a lot of unintentional activation with the mouse hitting the corner of your screen.
JC
Jane_Carter
Feb 27, 2004
Those F1, thru F12keys on the top, they already have functions in Panther? I have them all assigned to open programs in 9.2.2. That is another thing I will have to learn, how to have programs open with one key if possible. Oh I do have a lot ahead of me!
Jane
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 27, 2004
Barbara,

Oh Wow,

Neat .. or what!!. Great fun to play with but like you I tend to hid the applications I am not using ….

Wendy
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 27, 2004
Mark,

With so much activity on the Mac over the last few days (installing 10.3 then 10.3.2 and iLife4) Camino seems to have become corrupted somewhere along the way.

My husband has now reinstalled it and picked up the old bookmarks … it all seems to be working now.

I haven’t had this much fun since we bought the iMac ….

The iBook is also up and running … virtual PC has been installed next job to install it on the main Mac

Its all go … I like Command TAB

Wendy
CS
carl_sutherland
Feb 29, 2004
Mark, or anyone,

Command-Tab is great! How are the icons picked and how can you change that to get others I want? I seem to only show a few of the total in the dock.

Carl
JH
Joe_Henry1000
Feb 29, 2004
Carl,

Command-Tab is for switching to other open/running apps. If a program isn’t running at the time it won’t show in the Command-Tab window thingy.

Joe
MR
Mark_Reibman
Feb 29, 2004
It just occurred to me. That feature is probably a lot more useful for laptop users. I just play with it for entertainment.

Wendy..it sounds like you’re in Mac heaven. Joe and Carl and I will be right over. Leave the key under the mat in case you have to step out. ๐Ÿ™‚
WE
Wendy_E_Williams
Feb 29, 2004
Mark,

Previous laptop was a windows one but we upgraded for compatability .. now looking at linking the two via a wireless link (at the moment we are linking them via an ethernet cable). My husband is a Radio Ham and the idea is that he will be able to use the iBook in his "Shack" and I will use the iMac in the study. The spin off is that I can use the iBook to store and view photographs when we go on holiday …..

It is now nearly Mac Heaven ๐Ÿ™‚ … if only the screen saver Johnny Castaway worked on Macs!!! (We have kept the old laptop so that I can still watch him ….. I wonder if it will work on virtual PC?) Just in case anyone hasen’t heard of Johnny he can be found at <http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/>

Key is under mat ……

Wendy
CS
carl_sutherland
Mar 1, 2004
Wendy,

Jonny looks good. If you can not have him, have you seen MarineAquarium 2? <http://www.serenescreen.com/product/index.php?pltid=2> . I think its great. Its highly recommended by one of the MAC magazines (MacAddict I think). My son-in-laws brother has the 3 fish demo on his 64 inch TV and loves it. I have seen it on demo monitors in electronics stores.

Carl
JC
Jane_Carter
Mar 1, 2004
Marine Aquarium is really great! I might get it when they get the Panther part fixed, that is after I get my iMac. I used to dive in the tropics a lot, so it would be a treat for me, as I don’t scuba any more(getting too old for that stuff).
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I had not seen it before. Jane
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Mar 1, 2004
Hi, Carl and Jane.

Marine Aquarium is cool, but you need to be careful to totally remove it when doing any system updates. It caused beaucoup trouble for people upgrading to panther.
JD
Jane_Douglass
Mar 1, 2004
I just saw that it also has problems with Panther, so if I do get it, I would use it on my G4 with 9.2.2 and not the new iMac which I hope to have very soon.

On the old machine we have Conflict Catcher, which is a great little program which ferrets out conflict problems and lets you use "Sets" by disabling some of the extensions that aren’t needed sometimes. I love it, wonder if there is anything like it for X.
Thanks for the warning.
Jane

Edit, Whoops, I am using IE and this account is set up in my maiden name, Douglass, not Carter. But I am the same person.
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Mar 1, 2004
Hi, Jane. No there isn’t anything like conflict catcher because there aren’t the same sort of extensions. Getting rid of those is one of the big benefits of moving to X.
JC
Jane_Carter
Mar 1, 2004
Hi Barbara, That must make things easier not having conflicts, I sure had my share of ’em until I learned how to use ‘sets’.
UNIX is wonderful from what little I’ve been reading, security even better than os 9 if that could be possible.
Jane

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