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July 10, 2005

Mac Switchback, Act IV -- woes continue

My Mac problems are getting worse. Somehow, my user account got screwed up. My log-in items have, for the most part, disappeared. My desktop and other user files have moved to a different directory, so they aren’t showing up. I can see the folder where they are stored, but I guess I’ll have to move them all back to the active home folder. Applications act as through this is the first time I've launched them. Basically, all the customized settings I’ve done since getting the machine, like system preferences, have been reset. It's pretty maddening.

I continue to be amazed that this OS everyone claims is rock solid seems anything but.

I guess I’ll try one more time to reconfigure everything, in the hope the user account doesn’t disappear again. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to take a deep breath and reinstall Tiger.


UPDATE: OK, the good news is that dragging all the files from my "real" user folders into the user folder that mysteriously became active appears to have restored my desktop and customizations.

I’m still stuck with the following annoyance. A departmental IT person set up the user account on my machine when I first got it, so they could install our site-licensed version of Microsoft Office. For whatever reason, they labeled the main user account "WhartonWharton." I changed the name to "Kevin Werbach," but there appears to be no way in the Accounts system preference pane to change the "short name", whatever that is. So, my home folder is still confusingly called "WhartonWharton", for example. I changed it last time in the sidebar, but I now think that's what screwed me up.

I wonder if, short of reinstalling the OS, there's any way to change the user name I see in the sidebar. Yes another case where I'm finding OS X more restritive and fragile than Windows XP.


Here's my current list of other unanswered questions and problems. I guess at some point I'll hire a consultant or go to the Apple store see if someone can resolve them.

* Once or twice a day, iTunes suddently launches for no apparent reason. I tried upgrading from iTunes 4.8 to 4.9, but it does the same thing. I've posted this problem on two Mac help forums, and so far no one has suggested any good explanation.

* Someone in the comments mentioned using Activity Monitor to see how much CPU capacity different processes were taking up. But when I double click that application, it does the window zoom graphic, and then nothing happens. Is there some trick to opening it?

* I tried out a utility called CopyPaste, for multiple clipboards. I didn't find it that useful, so I deleted it. But it left contextual menu items which I can't delete. After searching help forums, I tried reinstalling the application and turning off contextual menus in its preferences, but that didn't work.

* I've been unable, after several tries, to successfully print over IP to an HP 9000n laser printer in my office. Needless to say, the Windows laptop had no trouble printing to it over the Internet.

* Classic apps don't work. When I go to the System Preferences, it says I don't have a System 9.1 system folder. Do I need to buy OS 9 and install it separately in order to run classic applications?

* Two-finger scrolling is now erratic in Word. I love the fact that you can scroll by dragging two fingers across the Trackpad. But now, in Word, that sometimes makes the text on the screen disappear rather than scrolling properly.

I know I sound like a broken record, but given my personal experience wiht Macs for a decade, and the experiences of many of my friends, I continue to be shocked by the poor experience I'm having with OS X. I'm gradually appreciating the ways it's nicer than Windows; if I didn't have the constant restarts and eratic behavior, I'd feel much better.

Posted by Kevin Werbach at 5:15 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

July 6, 2005

iCal alternatives?

OK, next Mac switch issue. I'm finding iCal primitive. For example, when you do an all-day item, it just puts a listing at the top of the column, and gives no indication that the time is blocked out. There is no obvious place to put the location of a meeting so it shows up in the calendar itself, as opposed to the sidebar. There appears to be no way to set a default alert sound or behavior for reminders. And I can only see until 6pm in the week view without scrolling, no matter how I resize the window or change the preferences for when the day "ends."

The "import" function also seems broken. The first time I selected the menu item, it did nothing. After restartin iCal, it gave me a dialog box to select an .ics file, but it didn't actually put it on the calendar anywhere. I finally was able to drag and drop the item in.

So, what's the better alternative on the Mac? Entourage?

Posted by Kevin Werbach at 1:54 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

July 5, 2005

Mac Switchback, Act III

My initial reaction to my new Powerbook was euphoria, followed by annoyance as many things didn't work as well as I'd expected.

I've now settled into a state somewhere in the middle. I haven't had another hard crash requiring a battery removal and restart. And the USB hard drives that mysteriously refused to load before are mysteriously working again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm still not happy about how long it takes for applications to load, and that it's usually a 2-3 second wait for the Apple menu to drop down, but most things are acceptably fast.

Nonetheless, I'm still getting the kind of inexplicable problems I assumed were more common on Windows. For example, OS X suddenly decided to change my default browser to Opera, which I didn't even realize was installed on the machine. Several attempts to change the setting to Firefox in the Safari preferences didn't work -- it just switched back as soon as I closed Safari. Reinstalling Firefox finally did the trick. About 75% of the comments I've gotten say, in essence, "that doesn't happen on a Mac. You must be smoking something." The other 25% say, "yes, OS X isn't really as stable as everyone thinks, but it still has many advantages."

The good news is that, as I get used to the particularities of OS X, I'm enjoying it more. I'm gradually fixing my biggest annoyances and replacing features I miss from Windows through 3rd-party utilities. I'm feeling more as though I made the right choice -- it's just a matter of time to adapt.

My sense is that the Mac is clearly a better computer for the majority of users, who run a limited number of standard application, and for the ubergeek types who enjoy hacking into the Unix underbelly of OS X. For the in the middle, the "power users" like myself, the difference isn't quite so clear. I probably use 10 applications on a daily basis, and 20 on a weekly basis, and I do all sorts of things to optimize the efficiency of my computing experience. The idea of tweaking the Windows Registry didn't terrify me, so the advantages of the Mac don't feel quite so stark. But they are still there.

Posted by Kevin Werbach at 1:54 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

July 1, 2005

Tell me again why the Mac is better?

I'm still finding the Mac experience surprisingly frustrating. I posted this in the comments, but it's worth putting it on my main blog to invite people to respond.

My biggest surprise is that I'm seeing few things that are actually better on my Powerbook than my old Thinkpad. Can someone help me out here?

The reasons for preferring the Mac that I've heard so far are:

So, what am I missing? Why is a Mac today actually better than a PC? Virtually everything I've seen so far is an improvement in basic, out-of-the-box functionality, but not an advantage over the tuned Thinkpad I gave up.

And before anyone flames me, I'll reiterate that I was a die-hard Mac user for a decade before I (grudgingly) went over to Windows. I've just spent $9,000 on Mac hardware and software, and I want to feel that I made the right choice.

Posted by Kevin Werbach at 8:50 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack