Comments on: The Great MacBook Decider http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/ Digital Media Engineering Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:16:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Graham http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17451 Graham Sat, 12 May 2007 19:27:28 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17451 Macs are great - i suggest you get the 23 inch HD screen, it ridiculously expensive but looks impressive and works great as a Tv (just a little too high def for perfect picture) (also i have license for dreamweaver and photoshop if yo wanna borrow them). (also if you are thinking of a home entertainment system for your place in london I cant stress a mac mini more - everything you could possibly want and pretty cheap compared to buying everything separably) Macs are great - i suggest you get the 23 inch HD screen, it ridiculously expensive but looks impressive and works great as a Tv (just a little too high def for perfect picture) (also i have license for dreamweaver and photoshop if yo wanna borrow them). (also if you are thinking of a home entertainment system for your place in london I cant stress a mac mini more - everything you could possibly want and pretty cheap compared to buying everything separably)

]]> By: Ken McGuire http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17371 Ken McGuire Fri, 11 May 2007 20:46:43 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17371 Hell yeah, congrats on the purchase :) Hell yeah, congrats on the purchase :)

]]> By: Robin Blandford http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17346 Robin Blandford Fri, 11 May 2007 14:22:36 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17346 Hey Andy - great to have you comment here. Don't worry, I spotted your name straight away. Looking forward to September. If you need help with accommodation or you're down in London give us a shout and we'll do a meet up. (There may be something organised formally anyway). thanks for all the tips. Hey Andy - great to have you comment here. Don’t worry, I spotted your name straight away. Looking forward to September. If you need help with accommodation or you’re down in London give us a shout and we’ll do a meet up. (There may be something organised formally anyway).

thanks for all the tips.

]]> By: Andy Waite http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17345 Andy Waite Fri, 11 May 2007 14:02:48 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17345 1. As Robert suggested above, it's way cheaper to install the extra memory yourself. Crucial.com are fairly cheap and very reliable. You'll end up with surplus of 2 x 256MB SODIMMs but it's still cheaper than what Apple would charge for 2GB. The memory slots are just behind the battery and it won't void the warranty. 2. Personal preference really. The hard drive looks easy to upgrade if you need to (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/faq/macbook-how-to-upgrade-processor-hard-drive.html). 3. Have a look at NeoOffice, an Aqua port of OpenOffice which is more 'Mac-like'. 4. There's a Mac version of Dreamweaver which is pretty much identical to the Windows one. Coda (by Panic) looks very nice, but isn't open source. 7. Tucano do some nice ones for about £15. 8. A Bluetooth mouse could be handy, e.g. Logitech V270. Almost any PC mouse will work though, I use a Microsoft Intellimouse. 9. Part of the fun is discovering all the gems out there, but here's a few starters: TextMate - a very good editor/development environment OmniGraffle - a nice diagramming app SuperDuper - automated backup tool Oh, I should probably introduce myself! I'm starting at Reuters in September - I met your briefly at the assessment day, then happened to stumble across your site a few weeks later and found it an interesting read. 1. As Robert suggested above, it’s way cheaper to install the extra memory yourself. Crucial.com are fairly cheap and very reliable. You’ll end up with surplus of 2 x 256MB SODIMMs but it’s still cheaper than what Apple would charge for 2GB. The memory slots are just behind the battery and it won’t void the warranty.

2. Personal preference really. The hard drive looks easy to upgrade if you need to (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/faq/macbook-how-to-upgrade-processor-hard-drive.html).

3. Have a look at NeoOffice, an Aqua port of OpenOffice which is more ‘Mac-like’.

4. There’s a Mac version of Dreamweaver which is pretty much identical to the Windows one. Coda (by Panic) looks very nice, but isn’t open source.

7. Tucano do some nice ones for about £15.

8. A Bluetooth mouse could be handy, e.g. Logitech V270. Almost any PC mouse will work though, I use a Microsoft Intellimouse.

9. Part of the fun is discovering all the gems out there, but here’s a few starters:

TextMate - a very good editor/development environment
OmniGraffle - a nice diagramming app
SuperDuper - automated backup tool

Oh, I should probably introduce myself! I’m starting at Reuters in September - I met your briefly at the assessment day, then happened to stumble across your site a few weeks later and found it an interesting read.

]]> By: Robin Blandford http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17339 Robin Blandford Fri, 11 May 2007 12:26:28 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17339 Great stuff thanks! I forgot about a mouse - def needed. Will any usb mouse work - or do I need an Apple one? Great to know I get a free iWork trial - very useful knowledge thanks for that. 4. & 6. I don't want to buy new licenses really. hoping to go OpenSource. 5. ok - weird Q. apologies. post updated. Great stuff thanks! I forgot about a mouse - def needed. Will any usb mouse work - or do I need an Apple one?

Great to know I get a free iWork trial - very useful knowledge thanks for that.

4. & 6. I don’t want to buy new licenses really. hoping to go OpenSource.
5. ok - weird Q. apologies. post updated.

]]> By: Robert Synnott http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17337 Robert Synnott Fri, 11 May 2007 11:58:34 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17337 Oh, by the way, you get a trial of iWork with the machine; you can always buy a product license online if you like it and want to keep using it. Oh, by the way, you get a trial of iWork with the machine; you can always buy a product license online if you like it and want to keep using it.

]]> By: Robert Synnott http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/2007/05/11/the-great-macbook-decider/#comment-17336 Robert Synnott Fri, 11 May 2007 11:57:09 +0000 http://www.bytesurgery.com/blog/?p=160#comment-17336 1) You might find it cheaper to upgrade the RAM yourself; more trouble tho. 2) If you get the black, you're basically paying for the colour. It IS very pretty, no doubt about it; it looks much better than the white. It's a lot to pay for a colour change . 3) OpenOffice on MacOS isn't the best (it's X11, and has poor overall UI integration). iWork contains a word-processor and presentation tool; never used the presentation tool, but the word processor is decent for most purposes. 4) Dreamweaver is available for MacOS; see Adobe's site. 5) What a bizarre question! It really depends on what you want to do. AppleScript is used for UI automation and such. MacOS also comes with Python, Perl and Ruby, and basically anything available for unix-y platforms is also available for MacOS. 6) Use the Mac version, perhaps? 8) Depending on where you'll be using it, it might be nice to have a mouse. 9) No commercial ones that I can think of, but there are dozens of free tools that I couldn't live without at this stage. At the very least, download QuickSilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/). 1) You might find it cheaper to upgrade the RAM yourself; more trouble tho.

2) If you get the black, you’re basically paying for the colour. It IS very pretty, no doubt about it; it looks much better than the white. It’s a lot to pay for a colour change .
3) OpenOffice on MacOS isn’t the best (it’s X11, and has poor overall UI integration). iWork contains a word-processor and presentation tool; never used the presentation tool, but the word processor is decent for most purposes.

4) Dreamweaver is available for MacOS; see Adobe’s site.

5) What a bizarre question! It really depends on what you want to do. AppleScript is used for UI automation and such. MacOS also comes with Python, Perl and Ruby, and basically anything available for unix-y platforms is also available for MacOS.

6) Use the Mac version, perhaps?

8) Depending on where you’ll be using it, it might be nice to have a mouse.

9) No commercial ones that I can think of, but there are dozens of free tools that I couldn’t live without at this stage. At the very least, download QuickSilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/).

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