The Windows Forum

[~~NeYo~~]

Originally posted by fryke
Neyo: You can tell the Mac OS X Finder _not_ to show harddrives on the Desktop and _still_ to show removable media. I like it like that. Although: Access to removable media is of course also near with that shiny Finder icon (which I hope Apple _won't_ replace by that new ugly one in Panther WWDC build...).

But the important UI argument is:

The Mac shows you what's actually THERE for you to use, while Windows also shows you a CD drive WITHOUT a CD inside, which isn't really intuitive.

So: Whether you display your harddrives on the Desktop or not, it's the _thought_ behind this UI difference that matters.

Fryke, thats understandable, to a degree! i know that the Finder has such options, and as i said, i have them configured to my liking. But Windows Explorer?! hmmmm... Maybe having icons displayed, for removable drives isn't so intuitive. But it has its benefits! I've had my slot loading drive in my Cube, have CD's get Stuck, and once they've left the Finder, i am TOTALLY Stuck, as far as my Mac is aware, its gone, its not there! ... But i know FULL Well, its sat in the damn thing, and there's no manual means of ejection (please, excuse the turn of phrase! haha). So in the past, i've taken the million and one screws outta the lil' beast, and fired it up on the IDE cable on a PC. Sure enough, one single "right click / Eject" and BAM, its gone. this is one of the reasons i like having the icons there all the time. Another would be, for integrated CD burning.

What if, your working, and you think: "Yea, later i'll whaz them files on CD". So you do, you drag them on over to whichever of your removable drive(s) has such allowances. It configures itself, and a bubble pops up telling, "yup, you are ready (when you can be ass'd to get OFF Your seat, grab some media, we can begin)". See why should i ONLY be able to configure a disc for burning, when i have a CD actually in the machine? That sucks i think. It might be, that CD's are in an office at the end of your block, so you intend to do this operation, daily or something?! ... I am sure you can ALL agree, such an instance makes sense "on windows".

I am not going to "harp on" all day, and i wouldn't mind some "discussion" in this forum over this (i've not done it for awhile, and its kinda fun). But one last point could be from Tech Support side. If someone has CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM ... W/e support, Explorer can and will show the appropriate tags on the Drive. The Finder does the same, but per Media. Now if someone was to call tech support, and say, "my DVD won't play" ... and the guy the other goes, "double click My computer, and tell me what icons you see" ... give or take a few minutes of them working out what the hell they are doing, the issue can be resolved (without using some horrible looking "sytem profiler" or something that scares a poor "home user"). its a little "nicety".

Anyhow, hope to see you guys around!

Androo, mate, your young, and i know that, but you started such a controversial thread, surely you can find the to actual READ it. I didn't flame you or anything, its an open debate, and most of here can act as adults ... You are free to join the party ... just remember! No BEER for you!

Fryke's round, boys

Peace


Oh, on a side note, anyone else find the text input window on this site, is VERY small in Safari? When i say small, i mean, its rather long, but no very wide. I find myself working in textedit and having to paste stuff in. Hmmm...

[fryke]

You're right about the input window... OmniWeb has a nice 'expand' feature for those, btw. ;-)

Back to that volume/drives story... I think it's two ways of understanding. While the Mac is user & media centric, the PC is hardware & device centric. Of course it's a drag if the Finder 'swallows a disk' (i.e. it just doesn't show it any more or not at all), but this shouldn't happen and is a bug to be fixed (and doesn't happen to me, actually, i've only seen that in PB and later Cheetah builds, not in Puma, Jaguar or Panther). Both ways have their pros and cons, and if you're used to one way, you're not very likely to especially appreciate the other. I happen to like the 'other', the 'different', the 'human' way more than the 'standard' (Windows) way here.

System Profiler, btw., looks much better in Panther.

Oh and then tech support... Actually, the System Profiler is quite easily found and not only shows the user a (partially graphical) map of his computer, but it also assembles a control number that tells the tech support what kind of machine the user's talking about. I'm not quite sure what's all mentioned in that number, but if Apple's clever, that number contains all the needed info about the machine (i.e. also whether that Toshiba X-8xxx drive has a medium and whether it's read-/writeable).

One more thing. :P ... It's a question of taste. I mean, a question of whether you _do_ have taste. Mac: Yummy! Windows: Eek. Some things in life actually _are_ that simple...

(Yep, Fryke's here, but this is the Café...)

[Randman]

I've had my slot loading drive in my Cube, have CD's get Stuck, and once they've left the Finder, i am TOTALLY Stuck, as far as my Mac is aware, its gone, its not there! ... But i know FULL Well, its sat in the damn thing, and there's no manual means of ejection (please, excuse the turn of phrase! haha). So in the past, i've taken the million and one screws outta the lil' beast, and fired it up on the IDE cable on a PC. Sure enough, one single "right click / Eject" and BAM, its gone.

Much easier is to use a small paper clip on the manual eject port. The one time anything "Zippy"ish is good for any computer platforms.

Zippy or Clippy?

[Sogni]

I know Clippy (and kill him every chance I get ) but who's Zippy???

[Randman]

Clippy, Zippy, Dippy, whatever "ippy" it is, I hate that damn thing.

[~~NeYo~~]

Originally posted by Randman
Much easier is to use a small paper clip on the manual eject port. The one time anything "Zippy"ish is good for any computer platforms.

Zippy or Clippy?

Without EVER obviously using a G4 Cube, you should refrain from rolling your eyes @ me! thanks.

[~~NeYo~~]

Originally posted by fryke
You're right about the input window... OmniWeb has a nice 'expand' feature for those, btw. ;-)

Back to that volume/drives story... I think it's two ways of understanding. While the Mac is user & media centric, the PC is hardware & device centric. Of course it's a drag if the Finder 'swallows a disk' (i.e. it just doesn't show it any more or not at all), but this shouldn't happen and is a bug to be fixed (and doesn't happen to me, actually, i've only seen that in PB and later Cheetah builds, not in Puma, Jaguar or Panther). Both ways have their pros and cons, and if you're used to one way, you're not very likely to especially appreciate the other. I happen to like the 'other', the 'different', the 'human' way more than the 'standard' (Windows) way here.

System Profiler, btw., looks much better in Panther.

Oh and then tech support... Actually, the System Profiler is quite easily found and not only shows the user a (partially graphical) map of his computer, but it also assembles a control number that tells the tech support what kind of machine the user's talking about. I'm not quite sure what's all mentioned in that number, but if Apple's clever, that number contains all the needed info about the machine (i.e. also whether that Toshiba X-8xxx drive has a medium and whether it's read-/writeable).

One more thing. :P ... It's a question of taste. I mean, a question of whether you _do_ have taste. Mac: Yummy! Windows: Eek. Some things in life actually _are_ that simple...

(Yep, Fryke's here, but this is the Café...)

Fryke, your very right in your approach, and i agree that essentially, its all bout the user. Their preferences etc etc. And essentially there is NO "right way" for a computer to act or be...

My initial points weren't however with this particular example, but with the fact that (excuse my generalization) Mac users tend to taint Windows as being "so bad", and don't generally don't give it the time of day! ... The fact that they can come up with some LUDICROUS statement that the Recycle Bin could be different, maybe even worse typifies this, and this is what bothers me. Surely, just because we use a particular "system" doesn't mean we aren't ALL fond of technology (namely computer based) and surely advancements and ideas shouldn't be concerned lesser of, purely because of the corporation who introduce them.

[Arden]

I think the term "Recycling Bin" is misleading because when you recycle a product, you give it up for reuse. There, Androo has a point: the casual, inexperienced user is likely to think, "Recycle? It's going to come back?"

And I think Androo was using XP on VPC.

As for the burning issue, Neyo, open up your copy of Toast (Lite or Titanium) and drag all the files that you want to burn into it, and arrange them as desired (it works just like a regular Finder window; in fact, better!). Call the CD what you will, rename files what you want them burned as, order them, etc. Then, you can save this CD and burn it later. Toast is much better than the built-in CD burning in either OS.