my new computer

[nat]

I finally replaced my aging G4 today with a brand new 2.0GHz Macintosh mini from my local Apple store. I was bored, and I thought it'd make a nice project for Sunday afternoon (setting up and copying everything over).

Let me tell you, if you've already got a nice monitor/LCD the mini is the way to go. The mini fucking rocks! You get a nice little (literally) computer for under $1000. My computer desk is so.... empty now.

Beyond the obvious additional space, the one thing that keeps striking me is how quiet it is. The mini emits virtually no sound at all. The G4 had industrial-strength fans that were clearly designed to cool entire factories operating in Death Valley. I'm not sure the mini even has a fan in it at all. And don't even get me started on the hard drive. The G4 had a hard drive that sounded like a wood chipper. I'm pretty sure the mini simply has a brain inside that remembers all my information.

[Joe Redifer]

Which G4 did you have?  I had a dual 1Ghz G4 and damn that thing was LOUD and the fans would oscillate instead of staying at a steady pace.  You could hear it very clearly from the other side of the house.  My new Mac Pro (2.66Ghz dual core x2, 4GB RAM, etc) is basically 100% silent.  You can hear the fans if you put your ear right up to it, and you can hear the hard drive(s) access every now and then, but it is amazing at how quiet it is.  I love it!

Is the Mini a G5 processor?  I am amazed they still sell those.  I hope you used Migration Assistant.  Boot your G4 up in Target Disc mode, connect a firewire cable between the two computers and the G4 will mount on the Mini as an external disc.  Then use the app called Migration Assistant (or something similar) in the utilities folder and once it's done your desktop and everything else will be almost exactly like the old computer, but just on new hardware.  It'll even copy over your wallpaper & stuff.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, I bought one of the original PPC Minis. Its fucking rad. Very quite. I'll probably buy another one next year since they are so much more powerful now.

It will get loud when you are doing any hardcore stuff like hour long video transcoding, playing Warcraft III, or...running Windows Media Player. For some reason WMP sets my fan on full blast almost instantly.

[nat]

Which G4 did you have?  I had a dual 1Ghz G4 and damn that thing was LOUD and the fans would oscillate instead of staying at a steady pace. 

Mine was 667Mhz but I'm pretty sure I had the same fan setup as you. What you describe sounds exactly like mine. It was the worst during the summer, at times it sounded like an extra fan kicked in if I was doing some CPU-intensive task.

You can hear the fans if you put your ear right up to it, and you can hear the hard drive(s) access every now and then, but it is amazing at how quiet it is.  I love it!

Yeah that's about right.

The Macintosh Pro looks badass but is a little too industrial for my needs. I don't play games or do any heavy video editing or anything on my computer.

Is the Mini a G5 processor?  I am amazed they still sell those.

Do they? I thought they stopped selling G5s. Actually, the mini I bought is the newest model. It's an Intel. Here's the stats out of the box, straight from the System Profiler:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:   Mac mini
  Model Identifier:   Macmini2,1
  Processor Name:   Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:   2 GHz
  Number Of Processors:   1
  Total Number Of Cores:   2
  L2 Cache (per processor):   4 MB
  Memory:   1 GB
  Bus Speed:   667 MHz
  Boot ROM Version:   MM21.009A.B00
  SMC Version:   1.19f0

Of course, the RAM is expandable beyond 1GB but 1GB is plenty for me right now. It came with a 120 GB hard drive and one of those SuperDrives that burns DVDs as well as CDs. These 2.0GHz minis must be pretty new because I almost bought one a month or so ago and the fastest model they had was 1.8GHz. I'm glad I held off.

I hope you used Migration Assistant.  Boot your G4 up in Target Disc mode, connect a firewire cable between the two computers and the G4 will mount on the Mini as an external disc.  Then use the app called Migration Assistant (or something similar) in the utilities folder and once it's done your desktop and everything else will be almost exactly like the old computer, but just on new hardware.  It'll even copy over your wallpaper & stuff.

Ooops, didn't know about that. I went ahead and did it the old fashioned way. But there really wasn't a whole lot to transfer since I'm going to leave the G4 hooked up in the other room for the time being, anyway, since it operates the scanner which requires OS 9. I copied desktop stuff and whatever was in our "User" folders. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe there is a way to get the scanner to work under OS 10.4. I never actually tried.

For some reason WMP sets my fan on full blast almost instantly.

Fuck WMP. Have you tried VLC instead?

[SignOfZeta]

Yes, I use VLC. There is plenty of shit it won't play though. Believe me, I rarely use WMP, but occasionally there is no choice.

[Joe Redifer]

I play WMVs and WMAs in Quicktime via Flip4Mac.  I got it from work.  Also lets me encode in WMV.  I didn't know they made Intel Minis.  I thought they ditched the Mini along with the Cube.

Here's my info from About dis Mac:

  Model Name:   Mac Pro
  Model Identifier:   MacPro1,1
  Processor Name:   Dual-Core Intel Xeon
  Processor Speed:   2.66 GHz
  Number Of Processors:   2
  Total Number Of Cores:   4
  L2 Cache (per processor):   4 MB
  Memory:   4 GB
  Bus Speed:   1.33 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:   MP11.005C.B04
  SMC Version:   1.7f8  (Fuck yeah man this means it is HARDCORE!... I guess...)

[nat]

Yes, I use VLC. There is plenty of shit it won't play though. Believe me, I rarely use WMP, but occasionally there is no choice.

Yeah, I've noticed that. Although playback compatibility with WMV files has improved a lot over the last few versions.

I play WMVs and WMAs in Quicktime via Flip4Mac.  I got it from work.  Also lets me encode in WMV. 

I haven't tried Flip4Mac yet. Better compatibility than VLC? Does it cost money?

[PCEngineHell]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

[Turbo D]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

I like that. Its soo true. I bet Joe will appreciate the nuclear weapons part 

[Kitsunexus]

Maddox sucks.

[Joe Redifer]

The full version of FLIP4MAC is not free.  I think you can download a limited version that will play back WMVs and let you encode the first 10% of your file (so just make any file you want to encode 10x longer).  http://www.flip4mac.com/

But of course you can run Windows in its native environment on your Intel Mac with Boot Camp. www.apple.com/bootcamp
As intelligent and informed consumers all over the world have indicated, Windows is a fantastic operating system programmed by really smart people who left absolutely no stone unturned.  So if all else fails you can run your stuff over there in Windows.  Isn't the ability to boot into any operating system you want completely awesome?  Hell yeah it is.  Well, except Mac OS 9.  Won't boot into that.  It was OS 9 that made my fans the loudest.  But anyway, if you do get FLIP4MAC, you can tell it to open embedded web WMVs in Quicktime, and that means they open separate  from the web page itself.  What advantage is that?  The SAVE function works like a charm, that's what!  Plus you won't have the web page trying to screw with you as sites with embedded video sometimes like to do.

[SignOfZeta]

I didn't know they made Intel Minis. I thought they ditched the Mini along with the Cube.

The Mini is only a two year old design. The Cube was discontinued 6 years ago. The Cube cost $2000. The mini is $600. One is a huge failure, the other is the mini, a success. All Macs are now Intel.

BTW, why in God's name would someone want to encode in WMV, especially on a Mac? I truly loathe that format. Its less horrible than Real, but that's about it.

[Turbo D]

I'm not really happy with any of the video players out right now. I hate real player, windows media player is ok but pisses me off, Quicktime is pretty good, but the fullscreen sux. What am I to do?

[Nazi NecroPhile]

But of course you can run Windows in its native environment on your Intel Mac with Boot Camp. www.apple.com/bootcamp
As intelligent and informed consumers all over the world have indicated, Windows is a fantastic operating system programmed by really smart people who left absolutely no stone unturned.  So if all else fails you can run your stuff over there in Windows.  Isn't the ability to boot into any operating system you want completely awesome?  Hell yeah it is.

Why piss away a few hundred bucks to install windows?  I thought the point of a Mac was to get the pure awesomeness of OSX.

[Joe Redifer]

Use your old Windows install discs.  Most people cannot imagine life without Windows.  They love it.  It makes them cum.

I'm not a huge fan of WMV, either.  But I have been able to achieve some nice results with it... nicer than Quicktime H.264 at a slightly smaller file size.  I'll do this when I want a wider audience to see my crap.  But Quicktime is far more versatile.  Turbo D, why are you displeased with Quicktime's full screen mode?  It works perfectly.  Quicktime 7.2 even allows full screen playback without purhase of the Pro version.  Personally I don't think there should even be a Pro version.

[nat]

I personally love Quicktime. It's not so great disk space-wise, but its quality and speed is unmatched IMO.

WMP/WMV can be slow to decode in real-time depending on the quality of the video, the speed of your computer and the player you are using. WMP in particular is a gigantic CPU hog. VLC is better but as has already been indicated, it won't play certain files. I'm interested to try out this Flip4Mac WMV.

Why piss away a few hundred bucks to install windows?  I thought the point of a Mac was to get the pure awesomeness of OSX.

Don't. Many current OS X users (myself included) are people who switched over when they discovered how much Windows XP blows. Most of said people still have Windows install discs lying around so installing a second Windows OS on your Mac shouldn't cost any money. In the case of my mom, when we bougt her an iMac back in December, she needed to be able to dual-boot because the applications she used for work ran exclusively under Windows. I just used her old XP install discs and it didn't cost us a penny. She does her work in Windows and everything else gets done on the Mac side.

Personally, I haven't bothered to install Windows on my Mac. Unless you have a practical reason to do so, there is no point. If I ever decide there is some Windows application I just can't live without, I'll probably go the "Parallels" route rather than Boot Camp.

And yes, you are right, the whole point of the Mac experience is the pure awesomeness of OS X.

[Joe Redifer]

I'm not sold on "Parallels" yet.  Boot Camp works natively, and Parallels and other similar apps have to share CPU and RAM time with OS X, plus it is expensive (around $80 or so).  The nice thing is drag and drop between the two, though.  Windows is to weak to recognized HFS+ formatted hard drives, so none of your Mac drives will be seen by Windows, ever.  The Mac will recognize FAT drives (and probably NTFS as well) so you can drag files to and from the Windows desktop or wherever while you are booted up in OSX.  Just create an alias on your desktop to the folder where you want to transfer stuff to and from in Windows.

[nat]

The Mac will recognize FAT drives (and probably NTFS as well) so you can drag files to and from the Windows desktop or wherever while you are booted up in OSX.  Just create an alias on your desktop to the folder where you want to transfer stuff to and from in Windows.

This is an interesting subject... Like I mentioned before, we set my mom up via the Boot Camp program. Her Windows partition is NTFS. The Mac side can see & access the NTFS drive, but it won't let you write to it. You can open/read any file you want but it won't let you save. We haven't figured out why this is. I'm not sure if there is a preference setting somewhere we can flip or if it is an inherent limitation of Boot Camp.

[td741]

OSX can't write to NTFS...  I didn't bother looking for a 3rd party driver that might allow NTFS writting, but at the moment you'd only be able to write to NTFS via Windows.

[nat]

OSX can't write to NTFS...  I didn't bother looking for a 3rd party driver that might allow NTFS writting, but at the moment you'd only be able to write to NTFS via Windows.

That's what I figured. Perhaps they'll release an updated Boot Camp at some point that will allow NTFS writing.

In other news, I guess the 2.0Ghz mini is newer than I thought. I just read an article that stated it was released this last Tuesday (Aug 7). Apple apparently kept it fairly quiet, trying to focus attention on the new slimmer iMac.

[td741]

Yes, the new Minis were released on the same day... The only mention at the Apple event was during the Q&A session (they didn't even show the Q&A in the posted video).

[SignOfZeta]

I've been over this disc format issue a million times. Windows won't see HFS without third party software. OSX can read NTFS, but not write to it. Either can read/write FAT, but FAT has a file size limitation of around...4GB, I think it is, which can be an impossible obstacle depending on what you are doing.

The best way to share stuff is to put it all on a NAS drive and transfer over a network. This solves...pretty much the entire puzzle.

[Joe Redifer]

Nat, my Windows partition is 15GB and is formatted as FAT.  I can drag and drop stuff to the Windows partition.  The Mac won't let you make an NTFS drive unless you somehow do it as you are installing Windows.  I don't dare work with large video files in Windows, so the 4GB limit won't affect me.

Zeta, do you know of the 3rd party software (preferably freeware, of course) that will let Windows see HFS+?

Nat:
Hi, it's me again.  How are you?  Good to hear.  I am well.  Anyway you're probably right.  I imagine in OS X 10.5 "Puma" or whatever damned cat they named it after Boot Camp will probably include that ability as well as driver for the Windows side that lets it see HFS+.  That'd make it much better for copying files back and forth.

[Turbo D]

I guess its my fault for viewing crappy videos in fullscreen  , quicktime is by far the best of the three major video viewers.

[SignOfZeta]

Zeta, do you know of the 3rd party software (preferably freeware, of course) that will let Windows see HFS+?

Well, there is MacDrive, which has been on the market for...seriously, I don't know. A long-ass time. I think maybe as far back as System 6 and b/w Macs. I've never used it though.

[nat]

Nat, my Windows partition is 15GB and is formatted as FAT.  I can drag and drop stuff to the Windows partition.  The Mac won't let you make an NTFS drive unless you somehow do it as you are installing Windows.  I don't dare work with large video files in Windows, so the 4GB limit won't affect me.

Yeah, I created her NTFS partition with the XP installation program. She wanted a fairly large partition for Windows because her work involves extremely large files. Does FAT have a ceiling on partition sizes, like 32 GB or something? I seem to recall that this was the reason I had to go with NTFS. If not, then I need to be kicking myself in the ass right now.

Hi, it's me again.  How are you?  Good to hear.  I am well.  Anyway you're probably right.  I imagine in OS X 10.5 "Puma" or whatever damned cat they named it after Boot Camp will probably include that ability as well as driver for the Windows side that lets it see HFS+.  That'd make it much better for copying files back and forth.

We can hope. But it's the logical next step, and Apple is just awesome like that.

[Joe Redifer]

I don't know about the partition size, but I think FAT can be on almost any size of disc, it's just the files themselves and the way they are written is what's restricted.  I can't explain it well, but FAT has bigger or more "empty bits" to fill up a file, so when all is said and done, a file on a FAT system will take up a little more space than on an NTFS system.  Kind of like the difference with HFS and HFS+.  The size difference isn't much, but if you have tons of files on your drive, then the amount of empty space that you can't use could be significant because it all adds up.

[SignOfZeta]

I think the max partition size in FAT32 (I'm assuming that's what you used) is 2TB, which is probably not going to be an issue. The problem for me was the file size limit of 4GB. If you're doing video editing, that's just not going to cut it. If you aren't doing video editing, then chances are it won't effect you.

[Joe Redifer]

I think using Windows itself would be more of a detriment to video editing.

[SignOfZeta]

I've used Adobe Premier a lot under windows, and also a great deal of Final Cut Pro. Basically, they are both too much for me to totally grasp, but the defining feature of Premier seems to be that is crashes CONSTANTLY, which has been the case for years and years. I don't know how they actually sell the thing version after version.

FC Pro is pretty nice, but costs too fucking much. I see they have an Express version now for $300. That's pretty nice.

The one program I had a blast with was DVD Studio Pro. I made myself a DVD of fan-subbed Macross Zero episodes with hella transitions, and super DVD features. It was only later that I realized that I hate all that fancy DVD shit. I almost drove myself nuts trying to watch the DVD I made.

[Joe Redifer]

Fortunately I now get my Final Cut Studio upgrades from work.  But if you are serious about video editing and whatnot, $1000 for Final Cut Studio isn't bad.  They used to charge that much for Final Cut Pro alone.  And DVD Studio Pro was $500 by itself I think.  But now it comes with DVD Studio Pro, Motion, Livetype, Soundtrack and Compressor.  I agree that all of the "frills" on DVDs are annoying.  What I hate are unskipable things like long animated intros/outros to menus and whatnot.

[esteban]

What I hate are unskipable things like long animated intros/outros to menus and whatnot.

I could fast forward past the "do not pirate" warning on VHS tapes. All of my DVD's, though, force me to watch this crap. Evil.

[Keranu]

Arrrr, DVD!

[nat]

What I hate are unskipable things like long animated intros/outros to menus and whatnot.

I could fast forward past the "do not pirate" warning on VHS tapes. All of my DVD's, though, force me to watch this crap. Evil.

Yeah, and it seems to me they have expanded what used to be one-screen warnings on the VHS to now span like two or three screens that appear long enough for you to read each one three times over.

Usually when I watch a DVD these days I put it in like 20 minutes before I actually want to watch it and then go take a shit or something. When I come back it's usually to the menu and I can just hit PLAY.

[Joe Redifer]

These DO NOT PIRATE THIS DVD screens actually make you want to pirate the DVD just to get rid of those annoying things!  On many DVDs you can press the chapter skip forward button to get through them (as well as menu intros and outros) but other DVDs force you to watch them.  Paramount seems to think if you see all of this stuff, you won't copy.

[Turbo D]

Ya, when I copy dvds from blockbuster, I always take out those annoying screens.

[2X4]

Wow, I can't believe all the mac users here.  The  mac mini sounds cool,  a gig of ram and 2GHz processor, almost up to par with the Dell I bought 5 years ago.  This may be a setup for a hellish firefight but, seriously, Apple doesn't even make the best iPods anymore. 

Ya, when I copy dvds from blockbuster, I always take out those annoying screens.

Really?  I tried doing that with Nero and it makes the damn disc unusable.  I suppose you have to go in and recreate all of your folders and basically build the DVD from scratch?

[Joe Redifer]

Apple is the ONLY company that makes iPods, and I'm pretty sure the processor in the Mini is a dual core.  Of course, more RAM can be added.

[SignOfZeta]

Nobody said Macs were cheap. Its worth the %50 mark up (more like %100 on Mac Pros) for the OS.

[Kitsunexus]

Apple is the ONLY company that makes iPods

Don't be so idiotic. He was OBVIOUSLY using "iPod" in the "Walkman" sense of the word. 

And it's true, Apples new iPods have NO advantages over competing mp3 players.


Mac Mini might be cool, I'd rather blow the dough on a Fantom XR, however.

[esteban]

Apple is the ONLY company that makes iPods

Don't be so idiotic. He was OBVIOUSLY using "iPod" in the "Walkman" sense of the word. 

And it's true, Apples new iPods have NO advantages over competing mp3 players.

I'm glad you're enjoying the Zune you purchased with the money you saved up from your christmas and birthday gifts.

[Turbo D]

Zunes not bad, but nothing beats the original 

[2X4]

Actually, I don't think there are many media players out there nowadays that don't beat the original, except in the price department.

[Turbo D]

what other media players are there besides ipod and zune? I mean, besides those cheapo ones with gay amounts of memory.

[Joe Redifer]

Don't be so idiotic. He was OBVIOUSLY using "iPod" in the "Walkman" sense of the word. 

And it's true, Apples new iPods have NO advantages over competing mp3 players.

Well, thanks for berating me.  I still think you are a 'tard, though.   

But I agree, the iPod sucks.  I got one for free once.  It had a 4 Gig hard drive in it.  I think it was an iPod Mini or something like that.  Anyway I hated it.   HATED IT!  So I gave it to my uncle.  I imagine most MP3 players are indeed better than the iPod.  Hell, they can't be worse!

[nat]

What's wrong with the iPod?

My wife got one of those 4 GB ones for free. It's pretty cool. But then, we didn't pay for it.

I wouldn't pay $199 or whatever they are charging nowadays. My Discman with anti-skip protection still works great, thanks!

[Joe Redifer]

I didn't like the whole thumbwheel thing.  I also didn't care for the way things were stored and especially transferred.   Also, the sound quality sucked ass.  The best iPod ever made cannot approach the worst MiniDisc player ever made in regards to sound quality.

[Turbo D]

I never had any problems with ipods. I'm a musician, so I naturally love listening to music. The ipod is more convenient for me than my outdated disc-man, haha.

[Keranu]

I like 1980's cassette walkmens. I really want to get that one featured in National Lampoon's European Vacation that Rusty listented to "Feel the Heat" on the airplane with.

[Turbo D]

I have a cool n64 walkman from nintendo, haha. It gets the job done when I want to listen to my old cassettes