dispatches

Believe everything we say, and nobody gets hurt

I needed a DVI cord for a new 2nd monitor (the one on sale at Fry's assumed it was to be plugged it into a PC, so of course it didn't include one), so I zipped down the hill to the Mac store at University Village. I brought along my Macbook, as I had a couple of questions to ask someone with greater knowledge than me.

The greeter at the door asked what I was looking for. "Well, I have this problem with my laptop I was hoping someone could tell me about. When I close the lid and reopen it, it loses the wireless connection, and I have to reconnect manually."

"That's not how Macs work. It reconnects automatically."

"Exactly. I was hoping someone could help me."

"You don't understand, It doesn't do that. A Mac will reconnect automatically to a wireless connection."

I clenched my teeth. "That's why I'm here! I want to know what I can do about it, if there's some setting..."

"There must be something really wrong with your computer. Macs don't do that..."

I like my Macs. I really do. They're the best computers I've ever owned. But this faith-based, reality-challenged thing with the Mac crowd is really getting to me. I looked for my cord. They had none. "Well, the monitors we sell come with a DVI cable, so there's really no need to carry them."

Latest on the networking saga

Tim from Sound Support was two hours into diagnosing my networking issues, and his imperturbability was starting to fade. "It's not supposed to work like this," he said, sounding almost frustrated. "I get that a lot," I said. "That's why you're here."

After a lot of complex deductive reasoning and many Unix command lines later, we found the problem to be an obscure setting in the computer ownership file. Seems that when I first got my MacBook Pro, I had messed something up as I was figuring out how to navigate the new OS (at one point my home folder vanished, and I had to retrieve it from wherever I had accidentally moved it--this might have been the instigating event). Since had I cloned all my settings from one computer to the other, both had the same problem.

Wireless networking still doesn't work, and won't until I get a wireless router that doesn't issue its own DHCP commands in conflict with the DSL modem's. I still don't like that networking on a Mac is a manual operation--you have to direct one computer to see the other every time you restart the computer, where with Windows it's a one time event. The drives on one Windows machine are always visible on another, once you map the drives. But it appears to Just Work now.

Really, I like my Mac

The waiter at the restaurant was so excited when he saw my Mac. "I just got one three days ago. Do you know about widgets yet?" There appears to be something in the air about Macs these days, and about people switching over--my waiter had been a lifelong PC user too. Or maybe it's like, when Robin and I were on our honeymoon (in 1993), everyone came up to us and told us their wedding stories. Maybe I'm emitting pheromones that make people express their gratitude that I'm in their club now.

I maintain my reluctance to drink the kool-aide nonetheless. I have a Mac Pro in my office now, a massive sleek silver thing that, for the first day, flummoxed me with how to open the CD tray. Googling the problem was no use--it appears to be one of those basic skills, like turning on a light switch, that needs no larger discussion. But if you've never encountered said light switch before, how would you know? Only when I visited the Mac store, and talked to Cody, my salesperson, did I get the secret handshake code. "It's the eject button," he told me. Oh, that button that has no effect on anything on my laptop? I thought it was the equivalent of the Print Screen key on a PC, a button that describes an unattainable desire, not an actual function.

I asked him about one of my bigger annoyances, that when I go to the Address or Search field in a browser, I have to double or triple click to get the damn field to highlight so I can type in what I want. In IE, the field is cleared the moment you click on it, ready for fresh input. "But why would you want it to do that? It would be inconsistent with how Macs operate in any other application." He whipped through the keyboard shortcut that highlighted the fields, and traveled from one to the next. I made him do it several times, with the faint hope I might remember it. "This is the way Macs work. It's the way things are supposed to work!" he said, in response to my dense inability to get with the program.  I replied, equally frustrated, "You know, Macs remind me of American foreign policy. If the world would just do things like we want, everything would be OK."

I tried out that keyboard shortcut when I got home. For the life of me, I couldn't reproduce it. There was an arrow in it, that's as much as I remember.

Just so you should know

No one seems to believe me, but this is the error message I see about every fifth time I insert a CF card. You wonder why I am less than enamored with the Mac OS?

Opinionated

I have been using the Mac long enough to have some informed opinions about the operating system. Not that I lacked opinions before. I had quite strong opinions. I thought that that Mac users were a cult, and I wouldn't be caught dead associating with that gang. I have softened that stance slightly.

 Here is what I think now. The hardware is better. Things run easier. But I am frustrated by how much is hidden from my view. And how it thinks about how a task ought to be done, without asking me whether it's the way I really want it to happen.  Windows errs in the opposite extreme at time, requiring a bunch of seemingly redundant decisions on an apparently simple task.

 In particular, I'm frustrated with how the Mac deals with flash memory devices, such as compact flash cards. This is going to be a real headache in my workflow. Mac is really cranky about what you plug into it, and how you disconnect it. Sometimes it takes more than one try to plug in a CF card and have the Mac recognize it. This has never been an issue on a Windows machine. But disconnecting it is the real problem. I sometimes have a large stack of cards I need to download. Macs are quite cranky about how you disconnect a card. You have to manually eject it, and wait for the process to complete. This will really slow me down. Windows is smart enough to know it's a flash memory device, and it lets you just pull the thing out and slam the next one in. Reading a stack of cards is a lot faster with Windows. You can set protocols on how it treats different kinds of storage devices. You can unplug a USB drive without Windows blinking. I don't know whether this customizing is possible with Mac.

 The other thing that still frustrates me is knowing where I am. An errant mouse click and you end up in another application, and it's not immediately obvious. The signal strength for where you are at any given time is a lot weaker on a Mac. I'm sure there must be a keyboard shortcut for this, but I would love to have just my active application visible, with nothing beneath except my neutral gray empty desktop. When something loads into Photoshop, whatever array of open junk I have open is visually distracting me. I want it gone. I want it in its own Window.

 I guess I'm still having some separation issues. 

Photoshop transfer woes

One of the woes I thought I could avoid with switching platforms was to not have to buy another version of Photoshop. With a lot of effort you can switch the license from one platform to another. But did I ever hit an unusual speed bump when I tried.

The first hurdle was getting past an Adobe customer service person with an inadequate grasp of the English language (the call center was, I believe, in India). He also ineptly transferred me to the activation department, and I got disconnected after 40 minutes on hold.

When I got a live voice again, things were going swimmingly, finally. I downloaded the "Letter of Software Destruction" and was nearly all set. "You wouldn't have the serial number for your original version, would you?" he asked. Of course I did. I'm very organized. I bought Photoshop 4.0 a decade ago, and I read him the serial number off the original disk package.

"There's a problem, he said. "This is registered to a Dream Systems, at this address," (he read me a Seattle Ballard address), "a David L___ He has a number of registrations of retail copies of Photoshop. Did you buy this at a retail location?"

"There is a mistake somewhere on your end. I have never heard of this person, I have no connection to him. I bought the disk new." Of course I don't remember, a decade on, where I bought it. Maybe Glazers Cameras. Who knows?

If I hadn't done an office reorganization this winter, and thrown out my records that were more than seven years old, I could have put my hands on a receipt in minutes. But there's organized, and then there is obsessive. It would have been useful to have been more of the latter.

"I'm sorry, the back office won't grant me an exception. Every upgrade is registered to you, but the original version is not."

Is this some weird identity theft, or what?

So that there's no confusion

I have not joined the cult:

Opus

Where I am today

I'm starting to do some of my regular Photoshop tasks on the new Macbook. My God is it speedy! If I consider the time I spend just waiting for files to load in Bridge, it adds up to hours and hours. And I have a fairly high end machine. If I could just plug in my dozen peripherals into it, and never have to take it anywhere, this laptop could replace my desktop.

I mentioned that if I had the wherewithal I might just replace my Windows machine. Well, my monthly Getty royalty statement came in yesterday, and the amount is about 5 times what I'm used to seeing (a shot I took on a hike at Mt. Rainier over 20 years ago just sold for deep into 4 figures). I think it might happen now.

Robin is amused, I think. She is used to a forever vacillating Libra, and is mildly alarmed that I have bonded so quickly.  I'm still lost half the time, and I'm probably building a new set of inefficient habits that I can bring to this platform. And I still think that there are tasks that Windoes does better. But the balance is clear.

If that Drobo hadn't been so difficult to get working (I still can't start my computer if it's plugged in), this all might not have happened.   

Where I am now

I am at the point now where I'm going for the wrong corner to close windows on all my computers. There is a lot of muscle memory to overwrite. It's getting easier, and I have some informed opinions now (unlike my prior opinions about Macs that were based on too little data, but then that is the typical state of most discussions these days, isn't it?)

The OS is a solid piece of work, and I'm way impressed with how smooth the computer operates. Start-up and shut down are super fast, unlike Windows which feels like it's cobbling together a huge, complex edifice every time you fire it up, and you hope it remembers how to do it. Everything really is more seamless.

The engineering on the hardware is the best I've ever seen in a computer. I've commented before on the screen display, which is awesome, but the keyboard feels solid, and the two fingered scrolling mode is brilliant. I wish the screen hinge would let me tip it back more than it does, and I wish the case had more tactile grip. The brushed metal feels slippery, and I'm scared I'll drop it all the time. But then, I felt that way about my first digital camera, and now I beat the crap out of them.

A great advantage of Windows is a stronger sense of where you are. A program is enclosed in a discrete area, and it's obvious when you switch from one to another. The signal strength for orientation is weaker on a Mac. You have to look at the corner and read what application is active. Instead of an application being organized by a space, the given workspace is the primary element. It's annoying when you're working on a Photoshop file and you have distracting elements behind the image. I have to "F" through to a full image view to fix that. Command-Tabbing through your applications is often not enough to activate an application, a la Windows. An additional step is sometimes required.

Eudora for Mac sucks. I'm switching to the Mac mail program, and on first blush it seems far superior. And it's smart enough to import all my Eudora mailboxes without complaint.

Safari I'm getting used to. I'm annoyed that I can't dock my bookmarks on the side as with IE. My sense thus far is that it's a weaker browser, but I'm open to a change of mind.

If I had the wherewithal I might convert wholesale, and skip this whole dual platform thing. I'm that impressed. I might yet.

How do I...?

OK, here's a workflow wrinkle that must be solved.

The MacBook reads all my Windows formatted portable hard drives (except for the Drobo) just fine. The opposite is not true.

I just formatted a 160gb portable drive (I have scads of these) on the Mac, then transferred a bunch of RAW files to it. I plugged it into the Windows machine, which did not recognize it as a formatted drive.

I know just enough to be confused. That supposedly if I formatted as FAT32 there would be no problem. But I don't appear to have that option in either XP or OSX.

I imagine there is some third party software that will solve this for me. Suggestions please?