My new Mac Mini

Hi all

I've also just got my mini (specs and pics in sig line) being a new convert! I've found the process painfree and great fun. The networking with my windows machines was a breeze, and so now I'm all set. I've plugged my mini into a decent pair of Creative speakers, so the sound is great - it's just a standard small jack output, so no problems there. The Apple "bong" still comes from the internal speaker, though, which I found odd. I'm sure I could chgange this if I tried hard enough, but am busy finding my way around OS X at the moment!

Also, for what it's worth, I have not so far come across any problems with 512Mb RAM. Maybe someone else has more experience of this?!
 
Welcome to the Mac fray andy! Congrats on your new Mini. I know I love mine, and it's just one of many Macs I've owned over the years.

I noticed that the startup sound comes out the little speaker too, I could not find a way to change it or turn it off, aside from disconnecting the speaker.

You should be OK with 512 for now. If you plan on doing heavy graphics, video or audio work I suggest you get a 1gig stick for it. But 512 will be fine. Mine came with 256 which was just not cutting it, so as soon as I gathered the cash I got a gig to make it happier.

So what brought to you the Mac, an interesting story perhaps or just taking a chance on something new?

r
 
Cheers Robn

Mine's quite a common story I should imagine.

Been using windows PCs since my high-school days, and have kept my machine fairly up to date in terms of hardware and software - always home builds, have never bought a complete system myself. Got a ready-to-roll laptop from work, though. Have experimented with various linux distros at home, and used iMacs occasionally at work, and always rather liked them. I also used a classic, I think, at university for a short while! Since I saw OS X I was convinced that I 'needed' to get a mac, but couldn't justify the expense of one of the bigger machines (to my wife, mainly ;) ) At the beggining of January I was told I was getting a bonus at work, and then the mac mini came along. The rest of the story tells itself, except the five week wait from ordering to delivery. Oh well, it was worth it in the end!

:D :D

Andy
 
[old timer]
Your history of computer use is pretty similar to mine, except that I had an earlier start: I remember using punch cards to to communicate with a big monster in a glass room. [/old timer] :D

Anyway, it was Windows Millenium edition which pushed me over the edge. :mad:

So I came to the Mac soon after OS X was introduced and have no regrets.

Since you have some familiarity with linux and command lines, be sure to investigate the Terminal app. I guarantee you can't get into any trouble with that. :p
 
baldprof said:
Since you have some familiarity with linux and command lines, be sure to investigate the Terminal app. I guarantee you can't get into any trouble with that. :p
Click to expand...

Oh yes, absolutely. Have installed the developers tools so I can compile apps for myself. Excellent!


Andy
 
Well, I got my Mac Mini about 10 days ago and had just about got to grips with using it (pc woman entirely before). Today I downloaded the latest update and it has totally messed things up. When it rebooted it decided that my 1024x768 resolution should be 800x600 (on a 17" screen?), and kindly rearranged my desktop shortcuts for me. I reset the display to 1024x768, launched Safari and went to the Google homepage - which always used to be centered on the screen - only know its right-aligned. It's like this with loads of sites, either right or left aligned in Safari, which I know to be centered. The only sites unaffected are variable width sites like Amazon.

The thing is, if I up the screen resolution to either of the 1280x resolution settings the sites become centered again - but too small to read easily.

I bought the Mac specifically so I would have the Safari browser to check cross-browser compatibility of sites I build - and now I just can't rely on what I am seeing. Anybody else noticed this problem?

Vger
 
Hi Vger

I have the same updates as you, and do not see this problem. Do you have any other software running which might affect the display settings? Can you let us know which update it was which caused the problem?

Good luck

Andy
 
Hi, I am unsure as to the names of the updates, only that in the past ten days I have downloaded two sets of updates coming to more than 100Mbs, and I have omitted one for iTunes that would have added another 30Mbs to that. The last set contained a security patch for OS X. I have been in touch with Apple Tech Support and they tell me that this latest update has caused this problem for a lot of people and have given me a 'workaround' which involves downloading Safari, uninstalling it, installing from the download and then repairing permission in Utilities. Problem is that they say I should drag a folder or file called Apple WebKit Framework from System/Library/Frameworks/Webkit Framework - and there's no such file (at least not of that name) in that folder or any other subfolder of it. Been waiting all day for them to get back to me to tell me where it actually is located (or what it is actually named).

The only thing I have installed on the MacMini is the XAMPP for Mac OS X server, and there were no problems until the Mac download.

Thanks for replying - Vger
 
are you sure you go to "SYSTEM/library/frameworks" and not just "library/frameworks"?

they are located at the same rootlevel of the hd so it can sometimes be easy to mix them up.


p.s "vger" - is that from the first star trek movie? :p
 
It's definitely not library/frameworks. I've just had another look at system/library/frameworks/webkitframework, and see that the expanded info for a terminal icon in that folder is A:Webkit

I'm new to the Mac, so it's only a guess that this is the 'Apple Webkit Framework' they (Apple tech support) are referring to. Would like some confirmation of that though before I drag it to the Trash (as they recommend).

Yes, Vger does come from the first Star Trek movie. Don't know why I chose that though - as it is the worst Star Trek movie they ever made (and that's saying something!).

Vger
 
maybe they meant that you should trash the entire "webkit.framework"-folder.

my take: trash it! (but first make sure you have a copy of everything important on cd/dvd/external hd.).

if everything goes wrong reinstall the system and make sure you repair permissions before you do the updates. (applications/utilities/disk tools)

Strange that a lot of people had trouble with the latest update (X.3.8?). i wonder if it was hardware specific. i usually repair permissions before doing an update and have never had any trouble.

good luck!
 
Just had a reply from Mac Tech Support and the folder is webkit.framework. I shall take a backup and go ahead with the reinstall of Safari now. Thanks for the help!

Vger
 
let us know how it went.
strange that webkit should have anything to do with it. don't remember reading anywhere that it was updated.
 
Well been there, done that, still the same. As the whole point of buying the MacMini was to have the Safari browser for cross-browser compatibility testing there's not much point in hanging on to it if I can't reliably use Safari. Nothing against Mac - it's just that I have four PC's and don't need yet another computer if it doesn't do what I need it for.

Vger
 
Hi Vger

Don't give up yet! From the sounds of it, the only difference between you and I is updating permissions - I read around on the internet before installing the updates, mainly because of scary experiences in the past with Microsoft Updates. Then I went through the updating permissions routine before allowing the updates. Maybe the advice of Decado (reinstall) would be worth a go? It certainly seems a shame to give up on the mini because of this little problem!

Andy
 
I might try to reinstall the Mac OSX, but if that doesn't work then it's off to E-bay!

Vger
 
Well, phoned Mac Tech Support in the UK and they came up with the answer. It was the Safari preferences file which had become corrupted. Dragged that to the Trash, rebooted, and Safari is now behaving itself again. Thanks to all those who tried to help.

Vger
 
the easy way is always the best.
funny that none of us thought about that. the "trash the preferences"-trick has been the universal problem-fixer all through the history of the macintosh. ;)
 
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