Off-Topic

[DavidS]

I usually find people that go off about someone else using a mac or mac related products are very narrow minded or cant be bothered to experience something a little different. You want different though try linux now thats a learning curve.

The problem is from the non-Mac perspective is that there have been decades worth of Mac users gloating about how good Macs long before they actually were.
When I did a stint in retail, Mac users were the biggest pains in the arse... they'd come into a clearly PC oriented store and waste half an hour of your time whinging about why we didn't have Macs (Apple have actually been a difficult company to sell for in the past) and how they are better to do some particular function that most people never cared less about.That tends to piss the PC users off.... especially because most of said Mac users really don't understand computers and have no grasp of what's really going on because they've been wrapped in cotton wool like Mac users tend to be.
Personally I don't mind Macs (and have owned one and made the odd hackintosh and otherwise been using Apple machines since the 80s) ... I support dozens of them. It's just the majority of their users really do have their heads up their asses... especially when they need to be told that we can't provide X piece of software, and no they can't access a specific windows only service and they get all uppity despite being the ones who insisted that they just had to have that Mac at twice the cost of the fully supported Windows PC lol all on the basis that the either have a Mac at home... or they had to have it because it was the most expensive and as we all apparently know the most expensive is the best!

The crazy thing about linux being a learning curve.... OS X is built on UNIX... specifically FreeBSD. Bonus points for getting your head around FreeBSD... even a lot of Linux guys don't quite grasp the BSDs which I find odd, they're so much cooler than Linux.. the fact that Apple took the FreeBSD kernel and went down the Darwin path is a fair indicator of just how damn solid it is.

 

[Damo]

The problem is from the non-Mac perspective is that there have been decades worth of Mac users gloating about how good Macs long before they actually were.
When I did a stint in retail, Mac users were the biggest pains in the arse... they'd come into a clearly PC oriented store and waste half an hour of your time whinging about why we didn't have Macs (Apple have actually been a difficult company to sell for in the past) and how they are better to do some particular function that most people never cared less about.That tends to piss the PC users off.... especially because most of said Mac users really don't understand computers and have no grasp of what's really going on because they've been wrapped in cotton wool like Mac users tend to be.
Personally I don't mind Macs (and have owned one and made the odd hackintosh and otherwise been using Apple machines since the 80s) ... I support dozens of them. It's just the majority of their users really do have their heads up their asses... especially when they need to be told that we can't provide X piece of software, and no they can't access a specific windows only service and they get all uppity despite being the ones who insisted that they just had to have that Mac at twice the cost of the fully supported Windows PC lol all on the basis that the either have a Mac at home... or they had to have it because it was the most expensive and as we all apparently know the most expensive is the best!

I totally agree most mac user's are giant asshats. I had this one bloke tell me i was destroying the universe by building a hackintosh he was very very upset. I dont think i have come across a piece of software that i couldnt find for mac though. I think most of the hippys dont know what google is.

 

[DavidS]

Hahaha. We have a Novell/Microsoft network and refuse to pay for Novell clients for Macs given that we don't have to pay for them for PCs. Also in our kind of environment site licensing is epic given the thousands of computers we own. Most of those licenses don't cover Macs... and you can bet that a lot of the specialist software we don't need many Mac licenses for cost 10 times what the same license on a PC costs.
From a fleet perspective Macs are a pain in the arse; the network and its primary resources are Windows-centric and even silly little things that are "go here and click this" to install a printer are instead a nightmare involving drivers, IP addresses and site visits (along with the weeks' waiting for us to get out to do it). Most of the infrastructure that just works for the managed Windows machines just don't work with Macs... or more specifically require insane amounts of work to make them work that's hardly justified given the limited number of them.

Of all the macs I support, I reckon only 1/3 of them are really necessary... and they're all on desks of people who work with multimedia all day. The rest are just people with research grants who go on spending sprees... and are the same people in 6 months who'll be writing up documents explaining how they need the latest Mac with a bigger monitor and an extra .2 Ghz for their research because the current one is now too old and how their current machine will need to be given to their new research assistant who will somehow still be able to exactly the same thing on it without any issues.
They're also the same people who crack the shits when their Outlook cache gets screwy on their machine, won't take some advice over the phone on how to fix it, then give you the "Don't you know who I am" lecture when you tell them there's about a 3 week wait.. and that's just for the priority jobs....

 

[lorby]

Yeah I agree with the mac thing, very frustrating from an enterprise point of view. Half of the volume licenses we buy are windows only and to get the mac version is another volume license on top! Luckily we've only got a few macs here and there so I either have to individually license these machines or don't bother with the software.

Unfortunately the mac users here are the ones who complain the loudest -_-. We're a windows only site, yet they go out and purchase macs with their funding before I explain the cons and then they wonder why certain things don't work...

 

[DavidS]

Yeah I agree with the mac thing, very frustrating from an enterprise point of view. Half of the volume licenses we buy are windows only and to get the mac version is another volume license on top! Luckily we've only got a few macs here and there so I either have to individually license these machines or don't bother with the software.

Unfortunately the mac users here are the ones who complain the loudest -_-. We're a windows only site, yet they go out and purchase macs with their funding before I explain the cons and then they wonder why certain things don't work...

Hahah yep. They're becoming the iPad generation now.
Them: "I have a new iPad. You need to install Office, SPSS and the printer on it for me!"
Me: "Um, no".
Them: "Excuse me, we own this device"
Me: "Yeah, and it's not a really a computer. It doesn't run any of this stuff"
Them: "But it's a computer. I want to access my network drives."
Me: "There are computers in basically all new cars. We can't support them either."
Them: "......"

Sadly a senior manager has just decided that our new teaching facilities will all rely on iPads rather than PCs. That's despite iPads not being able to run any of the specialist software that most of the lecturers need (and don't even have the ability to display a powerpoint natively). Said issue was backed by a swam of other senior staff who all love their iPads and think that the world can run from them.

We had a look at the amount of gear we've got to install and manage just to support this - it's crazy, and the number of points of failure is insane. We need all sorts of wireless set ups to get signal from iPad to the room tech... turns out that none of the Apple made stuff can actually be secured in a way that students can't hijack it from their Apple devices... To top all that off, it also means that a huge number of iPads need to be purchased. Which means they need to be supported... ya know, devices that when they fail, we can't actually fix them unlike PCs.

The idiots that decided that this was appropriate haven't done their maths well.
Yup, substituting $1000 PCs that we can get 7 years out of as a lectern PC with $500 fondleslabs that will need to be replaced within a year makes a lot of financial sense. If you have shares in Apple.

 

[lorby]

Oh man, couldn't agree more. We recently got 30 iPads purchased here. First I heard about them was after they got ordered (so much for communication).

Some of the first questions I got "What do you mean it doesn't run onenote?". "Where's office on this thing?". "How do I plug it into the smartboard?".

It's like bashing my head against a brick wall!

 

[Damo]

Its people like what you guys are describing that give the rest of us apple users a bad name. I know what my iPad can and can't do, dont see my jumping up and down. Last year after walking into an apple store and hearing some hippy go off how his iPad doesn't have office i decided not to go into apple stores anymore. Shame really it was the only retail store i could actually walk into without wanting to kill myself, lol now i dont even have that :P I try to hold myself at arms length from the hippys, sometimes though i want to hide the fact that i use a mac just so im not labelled like the rest :S

 

[DavidS]

Oh man, couldn't agree more. We recently got 30 iPads purchased here. First I heard about them was after they got ordered (so much for communication).

Some of the first questions I got "What do you mean it doesn't run onenote?". "Where's office on this thing?". "How do I plug it into the smartboard?".

It's like bashing my head against a brick wall!

Hahahaha yep. I asked where mine was the other day... my boss pointed out that ICT has one to share... if you can find it.
I think there's about 70 new ones being distributed for use in one building, and that scares the hell out of me. I have no experience with any of the tech that's being installed... the first time I'll get to touch it is when it breaks.. because there's nothing like walking into a room with 300 students in it and having to fix technology that you have no experience with and have no idea where any of the points of failure are hiding.

We have plenty of them already, but mostly used by manager types who just check email, use the internet and write notes on them. Giving them to academics and making them send the display and audio wirelessly to a lectern set up when students can easily hijack feed.... that's gonna be interesting. All aboard the fail bus!

 

[DavidS]

Its people like what you guys are describing that give the rest of us apple users a bad name. I know what my iPad can and can't do, dont see my jumping up and down. Last year after walking into an apple store and hearing some hippy go off how his iPad doesn't have office i decided not to go into apple stores anymore. Shame really it was the only retail store i could actually walk into without wanting to kill myself, lol now i dont even have that :p I try to hold myself at arms length from the hippys, sometimes though i want to hide the fact that i use a mac just so im not labelled like the rest :S

See knowledgeable mac users aren't an issue...they can generally sort themselves out. It's just that macs have normally been targeted towards people who really don't understand computers (and typically don't wish to), so there is a high userbase of users who really struggle. When we get cars that can drive themselves, sort out their own refuelling and servicing, they'll be the automotive equivalent of Macs and their owners that don't know how to drive or fill up with petrol will be their users. There will be a small number of people that will own them that do know how to drive and maintain a car but bought them because a car that drives itself allows them to use their transit time doing other more important things.

 

[roamin]

lol poked the bear and a can of worms has opened up lol :)

as for mac's and why i dont like them, well the rest of you are explaining exactly why i dont like macs, there limited. there users suck and so does apples ways of sales. not to mention people complaining there ipads cant run a certain program and so on. its a right pain in the ass.

what i love even more though is people like my cousin, hates pc, there shit, there this there that! yet they run windows on there mac because they actually NEED windows software to run games or anything else he uses. basically anything related to work or gaming he uses windows, than uses osx for basic shit like web browsing. ummmmm HELLO!!!!! lol

 

[lorby]

My posts make me sound like I really detest Macs/Apple, but that's not really the case. I don't agree with the way they are marketed in industry, but I still believe they have their place.

I don't like working on them one bit, but that's because I was brought up and learned everything using windows, I think the way Mac OS does things is backwards, but the opposite is also true, I've met people who've used Mac's since they were young and they think Windows does everything the wrong way.

iPad's and the such are fantastic for personal use (I own one), but they just aren't made to do the things people expect them to (e.g in enterprise situations). I think half the problem is staff head out to a conference/meeting, and get told that the iPad will solve all of their problems and make life 100% easier. They take everything they hear as gospel, do no research of their own; Next thing you know, they've purchased one and they're arguing with you about what the iPad can and can't do.

So in short, I don't hate Apple products...... I hate people... haha :P

 

[aussieant32]

my work iPad has made one part of my job easier. I can log into my buildings air conditioning system through it so when I am working on the AC equipment on the roof, I can see the system at the same time to see if what I am doing is working, or if it is showing what is really happening etc in the basement.

I will not be using it for emails etc though, I use my pc for that, or my work phone if I am not in the office

 

[lorby]

Sorry, I meant to say 'some' enterprise situations, I'm certainly not referring to all of them! I think they're great when people understand their functionality and they're limitations. I have problems with promoters telling staff they can do things that they really can't do, and people not researching before jumping in!

An awesome example, we've got a room running a smartboard, data projector and some USB speakers. It was originally setup for use with a laptop. A staff member thinks he's amazing and rocks up with his iPad.

Them: "How do I get audio through the speakers?"
"Well they're USB only speakers so they're not really compatible"
Them: "Well, I'll just plug the smartboard in"
"It uses the same USB connection"
Them: "I can at least get the screen to come up right?"
"Do you have the adapter?"
Them: "what adapter?"

 

[DavidS]

Sorry, I meant to say 'some' enterprise situations, I'm certainly not referring to all of them! I think they're great when people understand their functionality and they're limitations. I have problems with promoters telling staff they can do things that they really can't do, and people not researching before jumping in!

An awesome example, we've got a room running a smartboard, data projector and some USB speakers. It was originally setup for use with a laptop. A staff member thinks he's amazing and rocks up with his iPad.

Them: "How do I get audio through the speakers?"
"Well they're USB only speakers so they're not really compatible"
Them: "Well, I'll just plug the smartboard in"
"It uses the same USB connection"
Them: "I can at least get the screen to come up right?"
"Do you have the adapter?"
Them: "what adapter?"

It's amazing how many people really don't grasp that the iPad is a consumer device that can be kind of useful to them at a business level rather than it being a business grade device with all of the necessary functionality (and serviceability) that business can need.
There is a huge different difference between the two and its frustrating that people think that just because it was "expensive" it must be a business device, it must be super reliable, and anyone should be able to fix it.

Admittedly, I've seen some sensational uses for them at work - they've been implemented in all sorts of cool ways. They also seem to get lost, broken and otherwise fatally stop working at a statistically phenomenal rate compared to PCs and laptops.

The sad thing is that I'm watching millions being wasted on fitting rooms with tech in 12 months that will need to be stripped out and replaced with more suitable tech. All the while, we're understaffed and struggling to negotiate our EBA because they want to just take away entitlements. And to add insult to injury, when this technology fails to do its job, the people that made the decision to force us into using it will then blame us for the whole thing. Welcome to IT lol.

 

[MTG]

New build
4770K, liquid cooled cpu with a corsair h100i
Asus Gryphon motherboard (Tuff series) with armour add on pack
intel 520 180GB SSD
3TB Hitachi 7200RPM
2TB wd green 5200RPM (backup drive)
Radeon 7950 video card
Dual HP ZR2440W IPS screens
Arc midi v2 case

 

[JimmyDang]

Not bad. :)

 

[lorby]

4x opteron 6164HE CPU's 48 cores in total. OC'd to 2.21ghz (from 1.7)
16x 2GB sticks of corsair DDR3 1600 (Quad channel per cpu)
4x Coolermaster Hyper 212's, modified to fit the G34 socket.
Silerstone 1200w Gold 80+


Task manager with server 2008, now running linux though.


It's kind of cheating that it's not my frequently used desktop, but it is mine (not a work one).

 

[MTG]

what do you use it for lordy?

 

[lorby]

lordy?!

 

[MTG]

should i change your username so it matches? ;)