MAMA's Techno-Geek Thread

[Theo]

Ready for a feeding frenzy?

I am contemplating getting a Mac system for digital image editing/printing. I'll be using Photoshop and some kind of color calibration hardware/software. In addition, I'll be using the Mac to do household stuff (Quicken, etc.) and to surf the net.

I've owned Apple IIs(all sold), Mac Pluses (got 4 of them in the basement), Mac SEs (donated), and a Centris (in the Mac Plus pile). Then I switched to the PC world during a job change. So, I feel fairly comfortable with the OS and have a personalized support service (my oldest son Colin) to guide me through any OS adjustment issues.

What I don't have is a good handle on is the hardware. Obviously a good monitor and photo printer will be essential. However, I'm not sure which Mac hardware package would make the most sense. I think the most taxing duties I will need the Mac to do will involve the Photoshop environment.

Here at the school, they are using G4 towers (512 mb) and Photoshop, but the hardware is several years old. I'd like something at least that powerful, but I'm not sure my demands warrant a multi-processor, liquid-cooled, JATO-equipped, G5.

What would you folks recommend? Cost is not an issue....yet!

Thanks!

Theo

[snid]

Wait a few hours... the MacWorld may be about to change. Their annual Expo is going on, and typically that means new product announcements.

For owned / refurbished Mac hardware, sometimes at great prices, check out http://www.smalldog.com/ - they're somewhat local to me, but one of the interweb darlings in the Mac universe. Have no fear buying something, even used, from them.

[GadgetGav]

Theo,
Get one of the new iMac with Intel Dual Core. Pretty good for running Photoshop - better than years old G4s anyway. And get more RAM (though not necessarily from Apple) because that makes a big difference to that kind of app.


Oh and Josh, I'll take a check or cash..!

[GBMINI]

Gavin,
How's the new job? Not keeping you very busy, apparently

[jwardell]

So I'm less than thrilled. Yeah, the powerbook needed an update. (But at the cost of losing fw800, DVD DL? why were those removed?) But the imac was already great. At least they kept it otherwise the same. The mac mini is now really overdue.

of course at the end:
Jobs thanks employees. Reminds audience that 30-years of Apple coming on April 1, 2006. Doesn't know what Apple will do.

Heh. In otherwords, something very new on April 1.
And none of us will believe it is true till April 2.

[GBMINI]

So Apple began on April 1? They've always been a joke?

[GadgetGav]

You're saying you want until April 2nd to see if the plasma thing is real..? OK, I'll go double or quits with you..!

[GadgetGav]

Quote: Originally Posted by GBMINI

Gavin,
How's the new job? Not keeping you very busy, apparently

Hey! I think 4 o'clock on Day 2 is pretty good going for me..! It took me a while to catch up last night having not looked *all day*..!

[GadgetGav]

Just watching the keynote (been too busy to watch it at work )... What was all that about Aperture for..??? It must not be selling well to give all that time to an old(ish) app that didn't have an update. Left the audience very underwhelmed too.

[jwardell]

I never made a bet with you, you made it with yourself. I would never put money on any of those rumors.

I watched most of the keynote last night. The garageband podcast studio is nice.

This explains the internal imac redesign that made no sense to me before; the first generation was completely user servicable, replacing a hard drive for example took seconds. The new one, which they marketed as thinner, doesn't seem any thinner at all, yet you must dissasemble to whole display to get to the hard drive or anything else. But now I see in reality it was an intel imac with a g5 in it.

[snid]

Doh! Someone needs to be cursed!

I got home and turned on the TiVo to see a message that "Your cable company changed something and TiVo is all confused, you need to go through guided setup again." Alright, I'll accept that, I guess. So, I go through the guided setup... it asks me my zip code and connects to the internet to get some info... then comes back saying "No cable providers were found for zip code 05403. This probably means that your cable system is based in a neighboring ZIP Code." Hmmm... I don't remember that. In fact, my TiVo remembered that I entered 05403 the last time I set it up. OK, I'll try the ZIP for Burlington instead of South Burlington... it comes back with a list of cable providers for Burlington containing just "The University of Vermont". No adelphia. Crap. Now what do I do?

Anybody else getting screwed by Adelphia in TiVo-land?

[GBMINI]

Hello DirecTV

[snid]

Well, I finally found a zip code for the burlington area that lists adelphia as a provider, so I think I'm going to be okay again. Of course, it has to load the programming information all over again.

TiVo could stand to enhance the UI part that contains the zip code / cable provider list... of course, that's probably a much bigger piece of data than I think it is. But trying to find a ZIP Code for my area that had the right provider was very trial and error.

[jwardell]

Nice to see that you pay for that service.
I'll stick to my free TitanTV. Which not only has both cable providers, but on-air, and HDTV cable and broadcast listings as well.
This is why I really wanted that mac mini PVR to get announced yesterday...I'm getting tired of my crappy EyeTV USB, but don't want to upgrade to something only slightly newer.

[snid]

I'm gonna pull a 3M on you guys if you're not careful.

I think we can blame Adelphia for the screw up... after all, we all hate Adelphia, right?