MacBook Pro and Windows Programs

[twistedtree]

Originally Posted by maytrix

I think many problems are often caused by the user. The only downside to windows is that it is probably easier for a user to create problems.

I neglected to say that I've been designing and building computer products for 30 years, so I've got a pretty good understanding about how they work. Over the years I've developed somewhat of an obsession over how well products are designed, how usable and self-evident, and how robust they are. To me, windows has been an abomination from day one, but it garnered all the focus for application developers. Despite liking Macs much better, applications kept me using windows. Then along came VMWare and the ability to run native Mac and Windows apps side by side and the game was over. Yes, Macs are more expensive - by quite a bit. But my time is worth something too. The last Windows machine I bought cost $600 and came with windows 7 pre-installed. After 2 days I still couldn't get Outlook 2007 to connect to an Exchange 2007 server and load my email. There's nobody at Microsoft to call - just the "oppotunity" to spend another day or two reading knowledgebase articles and trying seemingly random stuff, none of which made a difference. My Exchange service providor had no idea what was going on, the Geek Squad had no idea what was going on, and HP tech support had no idea. Hours more time wasted. And remember, I've worked with this stuff every day of my life for 30 years so I know it real well.

I returned the windows machine and bought a Mac. Within 10 minutes I was connected to my Exchange email and it was loading up just as it should. I installed VMWare and imported my old laptop and had all my windows-specific apps within another hour or so.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by MSB44

On your Time Capsule setup, is this powered from your boat batteries or from an inverter?

Time capsule and MacMini look alike and both have the same direct 120-240V AC connection. There are instructions (Google) on how to convert a MacMini to 12V and I have this feeling that the time capsule will be similar.

I don't bother and just connect to AC. I have a dedicated small sine-wave inverter for that (only used for computer-stuff, so in combination with house batteries this makes it an on-line type UPS.)

I'm still very enthusiastic about the time capsule, it's great. I'm still filling that 3 TB with all kinds of data, just finished putting on my 200GB iTunes music collection. All you need is an Ubiquity Bullet or NanoStation connected by Ethernet for your Internet up-link and it "just works". I put the time capsule into bridge-mode and let the Ubiquity do all routing, IP address translation, DHCP etc.

ciao!
Nick.

[MSB44]

Well...thanks to all who participated in this discussion...lots of good information, some things to think about, a few pros and cons and some alternate views.

All very helpful...I'll put it all in the hopper and once I make the leap, I may be back for added input.

Fair winds to all!

Bob

[Chipg]

bob, so far I have not issued any driver problems with the Parallels 7 update (or never have). If you have, make sure you installed them or have them set to upgrade automatically.

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by MSB44

On your Time Capsule setup, is this powered from your boat batteries or from an inverter?

Thanks again,

Bob

This is what I use for my time capsule (apple compatible):

G-Tech 0G01960 750GB Gdrive Travelstar USB 2.0

It requires no external power supply, run of usb port power, It has 350 movies on it and 20,000 songs with my window and mac osx lion back ups.

It cost $110

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by Chipg

This is what I use for my time capsule (apple compatible):

G-Tech 0G01960 750GB Gdrive Travelstar USB 2.0

It requires no external power supply, run of usb port power, It has 350 movies on it and 20,000 songs with my window and mac osx lion back ups.

It cost $110

I quoted to 500 gig drive, I meant to quote the 750 gig drive I have. My fault. I'm told a 1 tb drive should be out the first of the year.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chipg

I quoted to 500 gig drive, I meant to quote the 750 gig drive I have. My fault. I'm told a 1 tb drive should be out the first of the year.

No need... Amazon lists almost 100 mobile external 1 TB drives. I always like Western Digital (or Hitachi) as best choice. Like this one: Amazon.com: Western Digital Elements SE USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDBABV0010BBK-NESN (Black): Computers & Accessories

But this is not like a time capsule... these are just external USB hard disks, no wifi access point, no wireless backups, file sharing etc.

EDIT: Ah, Chip, you mix up Time Machine and Time Capsule :-)

ciao!
Nick.

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

just finished putting on my 200GB iTunes music collection.

Nick,

Try out the new iTunes Match, it takes a while so you will need a wifi connection for a couple days with that size collection but it will upgrade all your music to a higher quality 256 bit rate then you can re download it back to your media drive, it also ads album art work and proper titles. It's $25 a year and was worth every penny, my library is very organized. Just remember to re download from the cloud back to your drive. Also, if you ever have a drive failure you can re download anytime as long as your $25 a year is paid up.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chipg

Nick,

Try out the new iTunes Match, it takes a while so you will need a wifi connection for a couple days with that size collection but it will upgrade all your music to a higher quality 256 bit rate then you can re download it back to your media drive, it also ads album art work and proper titles. It's $25 a year and was worth every penny, my library is very organized. Just remember to re download from the cloud back to your drive. Also, if you ever have a drive failure you can re download anytime as long as your $25 a year is paid up.

Yes, I looked into this, but most of the music I have (my ripped CD collection) is in lossless format so it would actually be a step back for me. I recently spent 6 hours on getting all the album art for my collection. About 90% of that went fully automatic so all the time was spent on the problem 10%.

I finally have it all 100% in the squeezebox server too. It converts from Apple Lossless to FLAC on the fly. I had to convert all my FLAC to Apple Lossless when I decided to start using iTunes too and was a bit worried about it.

ciao!
Nick.