# "You can't do anything on a Mac"



## MDLarson (Mar 14, 2002)

AARGGHHHTHLLLLLLLFJlsfoiwerjsdfjower (short-circuiting)

That's what I heard one of my co-workers say today.  (The subject line, not the short-circuiting  )

Read, and I will vent:
Scott, our CAD person who works on a PC has to send a drawing of this machine* to a customer.  He prints out a copy and walks over to me and my G3, and asks if I can get a readable digital file out of his drawing (PDF, JPEG).  I ask him if he can get me a DXF file which I can then import to Illustrator and save as a PDF, slick as a whistle.  So he goes back and checks it out.

As it turns out, he found a way to make an EXE file in which you can zoom in on the drawing and analyze the parts and whatnot.  He walks over to our software engineer, Mike (also on a PC) and asks if he can open the file.  He can.  Scott then says "Ill see if Matt can open it", assuming that I can open EXE files or something.  I heard Ed, our electrical engineer, sniff and say "You can't do anything on a Mac."

Scott walks over and asks me if I can read this EXE file.  I'm sort of suprised at this, but I explain that I *can* open EXE files that are really self-extracting zip archives, not the PC program thing.  It's like asking if a PC user can read a Mac version of Photoshop.

Anyway, I just had to rant a little.  I do find it a little ironic how the PC people sometimes run to me for computer advice and junk, but they scoff at the mention of "Macintosh".

*link posted because _I can!_
Full web page:  http://www.larsonsystems.com


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## rinse (Mar 14, 2002)

that's the way. show how macs kick ass... that will work more than any ranting or flame war... at my last place of work i turned two MCSE's to the Mac after repeatedly showing them trump card after trump card.

One bought a iMacthe other has a B+W G3 now.


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## Joseph Spiros (Mar 14, 2002)

What is that? a giant espresso machine? if so, i want it


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## MDLarson (Mar 14, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Joseph Spiros _
> *What is that? a giant espresso machine? if so, i want it  *



It's actually what we call an ASSP - Automatic Spring Sorting Package.

In spite of the corny acronym, it's a really cool machine that is capable of testing a lot of little springs, all automatically.  They go for about $50,000 or more, depending on configuration.  Any takers?


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## Dak RIT (Mar 14, 2002)

> _Originally posted by MDLarson _
> *
> 
> It's actually what we call an ASSP - Automatic Spring Sorting Package.*



Yes, but can it make espresso?  mhm? mhm?

Cheers,
Dak


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## edX (Mar 14, 2002)

the correct comeback to the next time you hear that is -

"you're right....but *I* can do just about _everything_ on a mac "

very important that you include the sh*t eating grin that says you are a happy and confidently cocky mac user


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## voice- (Mar 15, 2002)

Ed, we can't do everything. I've talked to some PC users and we have unitedly come to the conclution that Macs can not write HTML, chat over IRC, view .jpeg pictures, open Flash movies or play mp3s.
Macs also have no good word processor, like Microsoft Word, and we can't edit movies like the guys with Windows XP and Movie Maker.

Seriously, I've heard all of these.

Macs are also incompatible to such neat stuff as 2-buttoned mice and can't run UNIX operating systems because of their slow processors.


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## ladavacm (Mar 15, 2002)

or the lack of it is very true.  Microsoft Word is abysmal word processor.

The upside is that LyX is available, for the cost of X11 installation 

The part about slow processor is also true; for most business applications (i.e. integer processing and byte string addressing) x86 and PPC are pretty much MHz per MHz equivalent.  Depending on the locality of reference of the executing code, the bigger L2 cache of the older G4 machines puts them more in the Xeon league; new G4's are actually weaker in that respect, even if their L2 cache is faster


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## mindbend (Mar 18, 2002)

That would have been a perfect place to launch and use something like Virtual PC to open the EXE. Not that you'd want to, but man that would really frost them.


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## AdmiralAK (Mar 18, 2002)

mindbend stole my wind 
dang nabbit 
EXEs can be opened with VPC.  Heck a mac can open almost ANY program 

Can a PeeCee open a modern day mac app ? nope  -- NOT even with emulation


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## MDLarson (Mar 18, 2002)

> _Originally posted by AdmiralAK _
> *Can a PeeCee open a modern day mac app ? nope  -- NOT even with emulation  *



Really?  I would think a Windows "Virtual Mac" would be pretty similar in function to Virtual PC-- Mac apps and all.

I've heard PC people say there is an emulator that can do Mac, but I've never heard a product name, much less any specifics.


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## theed (Mar 18, 2002)

MAE: ran on Solaris, Macintosh Application Environment, emulated the 680x0 chips, so it kinda died with 7.5  So that's the last of the real mac emus.  technical difficulty combined with lack of market means we will probably never see another.  I mean really, how many people with macs would want a PC with a Mac emulator?  And with X, it's no longer a stability concern to run MacOS on top of a unix layer, we're kinda doing that already way faster than we could emulate it.

There were some Windows ones too, but they all died with the 680x0 architecture, nothing has emulated a PPC mac.


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## theed (Mar 18, 2002)

Jesus will bring Hotline, Yahoo!, and IE?!?  Good God man!  What are you thinking with that phrase and your icon so close together.  Maybe you're suggesting what Dogbert once suggested, that God is really the combined intelligence of all creation when linked together through the internet!

I hope your not offended, I just keep seeing your sig and it strikes me as funny.


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## MDLarson (Mar 18, 2002)

LOL, I'm not offended, but I think I'll change it (again)  I want people to know I'm a Christian, but not sound like a dork at the same time (too late!).

Anyway, thanks for the info too.


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## MDLarson (Mar 18, 2002)

Umm, you *do* get it, don't you?  H for Hotline*, E for Explorer, and Y for Yahoo! Messenger*.  What does it spell?!?!?

*Applications which I do not use.  I only installed them to get the icons!


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## nkuvu (Mar 18, 2002)

HEY!M ?



I'm still cracking myself up tonight...


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## theed (Mar 19, 2002)

OK, I do get it now.  But that's not the order I first saw them.  Nice scrolling though, I assume you used a mac app to do that?    It's sad when browsing through web site submittals to contests and just looking at pictures from people who have no idea how to anti-alias, gif animations that run at 800MPH, and a general lack of understanding of "white space" and you just say, "Windows user."

I can pick them out most of the time.  The pros are pros no matter what platform they're on, but mac amateurs are closer to pros than they are to windows amateurs, and I think lots of it has to do with the tools, and the acceptance of a good UI as The Standard.

And in a futile attempt to get back on topic ... VPC rocks, I've used it to trouble shoot so much Windows stuff.  Oh geez, the issues Windows has with color matching or palette optimization ... they really show up when you can compare them side by side with a mac.  Put 8 different shades of gray on a single web page because you thought they were the same color?  ... Can't do that on a Mac!

Have an e-mail virus launch its own SMTP server and spam everyone on my outlook list?  Can't do that on a Mac.

Plug in a scroll wheel mouse and use it my web browser?  ... well, yeah I can.  Without installing software and configuring it? ... yep.  Can you scroll your web browser so fast that the video interrupts to the CPU take priority over the audio interrupts and they make your MP3 player stutter? ... Nope, got me there.  Can't do that on a Mac.


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## nkuvu (Mar 19, 2002)

All is becoming clear to me...

I didn't even realize that it was an animated gif -- I have them disabled (it makes advertisements *so* much easier to ignore  ).  So I loaded it into another browser to see.

hey!


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## MDLarson (Mar 19, 2002)

Yeah, I made it with Photoshop and ImageReady.  It took me a little bit to actually make it "cool", and under the file size limit too.  I'm happy with it.

And I wasn't going to consider myself a real pro, but I'm a graphic / web designer full-time.  I'm just finishing up a 4 year degree for graphic design now.

For anybody interested, this is my (my work's) website:
http://www.larsonsystems.com

I also do catalogs, ads, product faceplates, etc.  It's  pretty fun!


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## fryke (Mar 20, 2002)

about installing apps just because of the icons. an ex-girlfriend of mine just bought an iBook, and I had to install the demo version of InDesign 2 because she liked the butterfly so much.

things that don't happen on Windows, I guess. 

remember the line someone invented when Microsoft entered the PDA market? "Windows CE - Finally you can crash your PDA."

Ah... Let's bring back some more memories...

"Error 301 - Keyboard not found. Press any key to continue..."

"Where do I shut down my computer?" - "Press the 'Start'-Button..."

"The box said 'Windows 95 or better', so I bought a Macintosh."


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## byronw70 (Mar 22, 2002)

RINSE - I too am an MCSE by day, MAC head by night


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## byronw70 (Mar 22, 2002)

RINSE - I too am an MCSE by day, MAC head by night

In fact if anyone at work gets me going or if Apple releases a new technological marvel such I am a MAC head at work to


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