Do you like MAC computers?

[Ifonly]

Love, love, love, love my MAC. I've always worked on PC's in my corporate life and have had a MAC personally. We have a MacBook Pro right now and we gave our 7 year old MAC to our kids to use - it has never needed a repair, it has never crashed, it has never lost a scrap of information.

We have the software that allows us to run PC applications (excel and whatnot) on our Mac's - they've gotten a lot better with meshing those things. Yes, they are more costly. Repairs? I wouldn't know - never needed one. We have a surge protector, a backup external hard drive, etc. to protect us from stuff. Yes, you need anti-virus software on all computers - but I seem to be a lot more resistant to even picking them up - those trojan horse viruses on FB - never seem bothered or affected. I also never open links or videos, etc. from unknown sources and we use separate email accounts for social networking.

Love the MAC OS system's I-Life, I-Movie, I-Photo, etc. Makes all of those fun, media things to save your memories SO easy.

At work on the PC, you would get messages like "Fatal Error - blah, blah, blah, blah" I've never even seen a MAC error message.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Might be some truth to it and if so I say lets take advantage of it while we can, but i also feel that Mac OS X, with its Unix-based file system and kernel, is harder to infect with a self-replicating program.

So what i am trying to say is lets not compare some cheap net book to any mac, they are not even in the same class. Do your homework on the specs of the computer that you are purchasing and be honest with what your needs are, I actually recommended one of those cheap netbooks to my father last year because all he was going to do was check his email and a little surfing while traveling across country last year, How can you go wrong when he picked it up for like $260.00. small and easy to tote around so it fit the bill. I do have to say though that I wanted to recommend an ipod touch as he could have done the same thing with that. (Ha,Ha) I couldn't help myself to think that as i'm a Mac Fan.

Have a goodnight All and to the OP good luck with your computer purchase.

Unix is a good opsys. Not sure why it hasn't hit retail as much. I know database servers are generally Unix.

About EMF, long ago when I taught basic E, I would take an old speaker output transformer and a D cell, and tell a student to hold both wires against the battery. Then I would ask, do you feel anything? Answer, no. Of course not on a volt and half, then I would tell the student to pull the wire off and watch them jump a foot. They quickly learned the principles of electrons and magnetism. LOL (everyone survived). 'Hub

[AngelinaCatHub]

Love, love, love, love my MAC. I've always worked on PC's in my corporate life and have had a MAC personally. We have a MacBook Pro right now and we gave our 7 year old MAC to our kids to use - it has never needed a repair, it has never crashed, it has never lost a scrap of information.

We have the software that allows us to run PC applications (excel and whatnot) on our Mac's - they've gotten a lot better with meshing those things. Yes, they are more costly. Repairs? I wouldn't know - never needed one. We have a surge protector, a backup external hard drive, etc. to protect us from stuff. Yes, you need anti-virus software on all computers - but I seem to be a lot more resistant to even picking them up - those trojan horse viruses on FB - never seem bothered or affected. I also never open links or videos, etc. from unknown sources and we use separate email accounts for social networking.

Love the MAC OS system's I-Life, I-Movie, I-Photo, etc. Makes all of those fun, media things to save your memories SO easy.

At work on the PC, you would get messages like "Fatal Error - blah, blah, blah, blah" I've never even seen a MAC error message.

Yes but you miss the excitement when about to save your newly made excel spread sheet you have worked on for three hours, and suddenly that exciting Blue screen appears with 'Unexpected system error, not enough handles to to execute". The thrill of it all. See what you're missing? 'Hub

[ChaseDidThis]

About EMF, long ago when I taught basic E, I would take an old speaker output transformer and a D cell, and tell a student to hold both wires against the battery. Then I would ask, do you feel anything? Answer, no. Of course not on a volt and half, then I would tell the student to pull the wire off and watch them jump a foot. They quickly learned the principles of electrons and magnetism. LOL (everyone survived). 'Hub

Perfect. nothing like hands on instruction.

Yes but you miss the excitement when about to save your newly made excel spread sheet you have worked on for three hours, and suddenly that exciting Blue screen appears with 'Unexpected system error, not enough handles to to execute". The thrill of it all. See what you're missing? 'Hub

LOL, its a good thing I still get my fix at work.

[westom]

Unix is a good opsys. Not sure why it hasn't hit retail as much.

I am confused why this is not common knowledge. Unix was developed in the Bell Labs around 1970. Because that was AT&T, technology was stifled. Eventually the problem became woefully obvious after the baby Bells took all the technology people and AT&T took the MBAs. As a result, AT&Ts System 5 was so obviously a scam that all big computer manufacturers of that time (except Unisys) abandoned Unix; created their own standard called Posix. The secret meeting was sponsored by HP. It was the only time that the presidents of DEC and IBM shook hands.

And still Unix was stifled. So stifled that Linux was created to free a technology from AT&T's MBAs (and others who later bought the rights).

What is Windows NT? Another OS similar to Unix. For example, it also featured pre-emptive multitasking. MS scrapped Windows 95/98/ME to create a whole new OS from scratch; to do what Unix does.

Appreciate why Unix was stifled for so long. Same reason why the Bell Labs were sold to the French. AT&T (and then Lucent) were dominated by bean counters (business school graduates) who view innovation as an increased cost. Who stifle innnovation because it cannot be measured on any spread sheet. Unix was stifled for numerous decades. An old story that is still little understood.

A story that is typically known only by the minority who actually know how computer work and who learn why such failures happen (from experience).

[westom]

Florida IS the number one target for the Worlds lightning strikes. No surge arrester is 100%. Even a lightning strike 20 miles away, the electo motive force, crosses many wires. This in it's self caused spikes that are from 100 to several thousand volts. It takes 40 volts to knock out an IC pack, and about 100 to kill a modem isolation transformer.

Let's add some facts. Protection without damage from direct lightning strikes has been routine for over 100 years. Problem is that many do not learn E-M field theory and the associated numbers. Your telco has overhead wires all over town. Suffers about 100 surges with every thunderstorm. How often has your town been without phone service for four days while they replace that switching computer? Never. Because even 100 years ago, simple technology meant direct lightning strikes are dissipated harmlessly in earth - do not even enter the building.

So routine is surge protection that lightning damage is considered directly traceable to human failure. NCR did not pioneer surge protection. Protection from routinely lightning strikes was restudied in the 1950s to confirm that transistors also would not be damaged by direct lightning strikes. See the Bell System Technical Journal for examples.

Professionals have routinely installed surge protection so that damage does not occur. The Polyphaser app notes on how to accomplish this are considered legendary:

http://www.polyphaser.com/technical_notes.aspx

Or simply learn from an engineer who has made central FL lightning irrelevant:
> Well I assert, from personal and broadcast experience spanning 30 years, that you
> can design a system that will handle *direct lightning strikes* on a routine basis. It
> takes some planning and careful layout, but it's not hard, nor is it overly expensive.
> At WXIA-TV, my other job, we take direct lightning strikes nearly every time
> there's a thunderstorm. Our downtime from such strikes is almost non-existent.
> The last time we went down from a strike, it was due to a strike on the power
> company's lines knocking *them* out, ...
> Since my disasterous strike, I've been campaigning vigorously to educate amateurs
> that you *can* avoid damage from direct strikes. The belief that there's no protection
> from direct strike damage is *myth*. ...
> The keys to effective lightning protection are surprisingly simple, and surprisingly
> less than obvious. Of course you *must* have a single point ground system
> that eliminates all ground loops. And you must present a low *impedance* path for
> the energy to go. That's most generally a low *inductance* path rather than just
> a low ohm DC path.

Well lightning struck the building's lightning rod. That direct strike flowed to earth on a wire only four feet and outside of a PC. If fields from direct lightning are so destructive, then the PC, the operator's watch, and his cell phone were all damaged. Reality. The PC did not even reboot. Fields from direct lightning strikes are that trivial - that easily made irrelevant. Many will believe the myths rather than first learn basic technology. Such as techniques uses even 100 years ago to make direct lightning strikes irrelevant.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Wow 'Westom'. I stand down. Interesting and informative. BTW I think Bell labs invented the transistor on or about 1959??? PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong. LOL 'Hub

[westom]

Interesting and informative. BTW I think Bell labs invented the transistor on or about 1959??? PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong.

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley did it sometime around 1955. First two did the bipolar transistor. Shockley's idea was the CMOS transistor that first appeared in a 1960s RCA microprocessor. That consumes so little power that Intel finally converted to that technology some 20 years later.

Shockley eventually took many to CA to start a company that eventually became the source of spinoffs including Fairchild, Intel, and a long list if not most of the famous Silicon Valley pioneers. Shockley had a bad habit of alienating people which probably created so many spin offs.

Bardeen also got a second Nobel prize for superconductivity - the famous BCS effect.

Back then, science was not dominated by business school graduates. Therefore the difference between basic research and application research was well understood. Only the AT&T MBAs and then Lucent took over, the culture that made a long stream of innovations possible was killed. That is what spread sheet management does. GM being another classic example.

Just a few things that come to mind. Telstar (communication satellites). Laser. Various other electronics miracles. The C programming language (because A and B were insufficient for programming the Unix operating system). Structured programming. Shannon's law that makes digital communication possible. Electronic switching. Big Bang theory. These are only some of the maybe 100 technologies I have been introduced to and that were developed in the Bell Labs.

Appreciate why we learn history. When I was growing up (ie watching the first Telstar broadcasts live on TV), we all but knew the transistor was everyone's future. How long does innovation take to finally appear on a spread sheet? Typically four to ten years. The more groundbreaking the innovation, then the longer (multiple decades) to appreciate its potential on a spread sheet. Nothing innovative today appears on spread sheets for at least four to ten years. Which is why business school graduates so routinely stifle innovation.

Or did you not learn where the Apple Macintosh was developed? Xerox Star existed in the early 1970s. Therefore Apple rescued another bean counter stifled technology in 1982 - Apple Macintosh.

Defined is a reason why today’s' future - quantum physics - is slowly migrating out of America. So many Americans so little learn science and so little know these histories as to, well, what the transistor was in the 1950s is what quantum physics is today. But Americans have so little grasp of this history as to not see scary precursors. About 50% of the engineers now working in the Silicon Valley are Chinese or Indian immigrants. That should scare you.

Another symptom of this problem are the so many who do not even understand a simple 100 year old technology called surge protection. So many *know* nearby lightning strikes can be destructive. That means every automobile radio, every cell phone, and every wrist watch near a direct lightning strike are destroyed. IOW, even with the most obvious evidence, too many Americans still *know* something that contradicts obvious evidence. Therefore do not understand who and why great centers of innovation (Bell Labs, Sarnoff Labs, Bendix Research, Palo Alto Research, etc) in America have been subverted.

Quantum physics is essential to so many future innovations – not limited to superconductivity and Terabit disk drives. Instead, people who were lesser students when I went to school are now some of the richest by being stock brokers. Doing what is taught in the business schools rather than doing what previously made America great – innovation.

Notice another factor. Most of America's innovations come from the west coast. That east coast MBA mentality explains why GM cars have no innovation in the past 30 years - except when that innovation was required by a Federal regulation.

[justbroke]

If you ever want to know the story of AT&T Bell Laboratories, read Three Degrees Above Zero. It's fascinating. I worked for AT&T a long time ago. (Yeah 'Hub, just before they bought NCR. )

Bell Labs used to be the premier technology company, now IBM holds the distinction for the most patents.

The best was when Bell Labs basically stumbled upon photoelectric cells when trying to create new semiconductor materials int he Lab. Totally accidental (like Minnesota Mining and Minerals discovery of the "glue" for PostIt notes).

[WhatMoney]

Actually, the transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell Telephone Laboratories by a team led by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. They applied for the patent in 1948. The first transistor that was available to the public was the Raytheon CK722. I remember building an audio preamp with one around 1955 when I was in 8th grade. Here's an early advertisement in 1953 - when Radio Shack was just a single store with a mail order business in Boston.

[AngelinaCatHub]

If you ever want to know the story of AT&T Bell Laboratories, read Three Degrees Above Zero. It's fascinating. I worked for AT&T a long time ago. (Yeah 'Hub, just before they bought NCR. )

Bell Labs used to be the premier technology company, now IBM holds the distinction for the most patents.

The best was when Bell Labs basically stumbled upon photoelectric cells when trying to create new semiconductor materials int he Lab. Totally accidental (like Minnesota Mining and Minerals discovery of the "glue" for PostIt notes).

ERR, excuse me. AT&T never bought NCR. They pirated it. It was a very dirty takeover. They paid 6 bil. NCR was solvent and had 6 bil in the bank, a strong physical plant, many factories, and a superb workforce. The company in the end was crossed by Charles Exley who for money double crossed NCR and relinquished the fight.

I remember we being invaded by AT&T management. Our tools, the branch offices all sold. The capital absorbed into AT&T. Factories were sold to others and we then sub contracted for our own product. Much went over seas. They promised NOT to ever change the name from NCR. That was a huge promise. A year later or so, AT&T GIS. No NCR. Upon divestiture, NCR name came back but never the quality nor it's strength. The only thing they can say the build now is ATM machines in Scotland. I'm not even sure of that anymore. Maybe China by now.

The best thing I can remember about AT&T was: I at that time worked in an engineering/aid desk for our and AT&T field engineers. One AT&T guy came online and chewed my @$$ for waiting for 40 minutes. I apologized until he said "look, I'm no NCR jerk, I'm old AT&T and WE OWN YOU AH's. I politely told him my name, and to remember it and write it down and I hung up on him to allow him into the call que again. Poor guy. I told my boss about it, and we both laughed. Nothing came of it.

NCR since 1884, and before that with James Ritty (who invented the cash register) was always in Dayton Ohio. Now, World Headquarters in Norcross GA in a small rented building, one floor.

I see GM going that route.

Both you JB and Westom are very knowledgeable about History and technology. I too am into History and I also saw the first satellite TV on our RCA 7 inch B&W vacuum tube set. Ask any teenager today, what is a vacuum tube? They will say, "What?"

1B3 the most failure prone tube in a 7" RCA TV. My Dad put more of those things in than I could count. He even kept one on hand. Flyback rectifier. Westom remembers those I'm sure. 'Hub

[AngelinaCatHub]

More trivia

Yes, did you know: NCR invented what is known as IBM cards? They are called Halorith cards. The difference was, NCR cards had square holes that fell into star wheels to close switches. IBM cards had round holes. A patent for the electric typewriter was traded for the use of both. NCR put the typewriter into its class 31/33 billing machines. The Halorith card became to be known as the IBM card and would be used both for sorting data after keypunch, or programming a boot loaded program into their vacuum tube computer. 'Hub

OH YES! One more, the laser. "So, it works. So, now what are we going to do with it?" Yes words of wisdom. Many things were invented by accident. NCR invented both photochromic glass, and carbon less carbon paper. NCR paper (No Carbon Required).

The glass was a gov. contract to have canopies and windows turn dark on a bomb blast. Of course it never worked ergo sunglasses that change in the light. Carbon less paper was a spin off of micro-encapsulation. Many time release medicine use this now.

[justbroke]

Ahh, and not to dislike the days of Corning, fiber and AT&T really delaying the progres of the use of fiber for telecommunications.

[westom]

ERR, excuse me. AT&T never bought NCR. They pirated it.

That is an understatement. The Economist magazine said (if I remember the exact quote), "No company in the history of free market economics did more to destroy shareholder value than what AT&T did to NCR."

AngelinaCatHub's contempt for what happened should be to all a benchmark lesson about what business school practices can do.

Another example of greed and ignorance at the highest level is how Bradshaw basically gave RCA to Jack Welsh (GE) for free. Especially because he was offered something like a $2million bonus for doing so.

[westom]

Ahh, and not to dislike the days of Corning, fiber and AT&T really delaying the progres of the use of fiber for telecommunications.

AT&T finally decided the only way to eliminate baby Bell charges was to access customers directly. AT&T decided to provide telephones via cable. So something like $130billion was spent to buy two cable companies.

Management decision based in business school thinking. The companies were valued only using spread sheets. Nobody bothered to look at the wires. Both networks would not support the required functions. Nobody in AT&T management knew anything about telephones or what wires were necessary to support bi-directional communication. They were business school disciples.

AT&T management so mortgaged itself in 20 years that AT&T could not meet its short term debt obligations (Sandy Weil on its BoDs did not know this until the company financial officer leaked/whispered that fact in the last months. Meanwhile AT&T was so bean counter mortgaged that it could not arrange long term debt obligations.)

AT&T did not have money to completely rewire those cable networks. So AT&T sold both companies to Comcast for about $80 billion. A $50billion loss in only two years. Of course management got their 'well deserved' bonuses.

A large percentage of American business management is that dumb. Knows that little about how the work gets done. Foolishly believes that spread sheets report things the past year. Could not see an innovation even if it was stuck up their nose. They are business school graduates doing exactly what is taught in business schools. Which explains so many bankruptcies and the resulting corporate welfare.

Nobody at AT&T bothered to look at the wires. They couldn't. AT&T management was that technically ignorant about the telephone business. Even planned to use circuit switch technology - not packet switch - on that cable network.

Business schools say good management can manage any company. What they forget to say is, "into the earth".

AT&T's then president (Armstrong?) was constantly publically mocked by Comcast's president - Roberts. Part of the deal included a promise by Roberts to no longer mock Armstrong. So whenever Roberts would see Armstrong, he would go up and ask, "How am I doing?"