The Mac-Users Forum - Page 2

I was always tempted to pick up a neoprene case for my old laptop but man are they overpriced sometimes.

I ended up getting a courier bag with an included removable laptop case that fit my laptop instead. I've now used it for two separate laptops (15" PowerBook and my 14" ThinkPad) and it's been great.

I hate bags that look like they were specifically made for holding laptops though. They just don't look good usually. That's why I like the Fabrix stuff. They are nice enough looking and they let you put your laptop in a more general bag or carry around separately. When my GF got the one she did, they were also doing a special where she got one for holding her iPod nano for cheap with it.

The simple way to carefully clean the White Macbooks of dirt and stains on the matted part, Bleach.

Bought that MacBook yet James?

http://i.gizmodo.com/5190254/200-off-macbook-white

Can anyone recommend a good free anti-virus for my mac book? The sales people at the Apple store last year told me that Macs didn't get viruses but someone else I trust informed me that I am a gullible man-child for listening to their bull shit.

There's a handful of mac viruses out there but they certainly aren't common. You can try clamxav to check your system.

Completely apropos of nothing, but I noticed today that if you're on a Mac, the default icon for any PC that it finds on your network is an old CRT monitor with a Windows Blue Screen of Death. "Fatal exception OE..." and everything. I thought that was pretty funny.

If you're on Facebook you can get VirusBarrier here for free, + updated virus defs for six months:

http://www.macheist.com/

Only 19 hours left though, so you gotta jump on it. You can also get six other apps for free too.

To clarify though, ClamX's definitions are only for Windows malware. If you're on a network with Windows machines and share files, it's a good thing to have so any infected files that come through your machine will get picked up on and cleaned. It will not detect any Mac specific virii.

Yes, Macs CAN get virii and malware.. but the number of them are astronomically smaller than those found on Windows. While Vista and Win7 are a bit better with this now, Windows is notorious for not needing ANY interaction from the user for infection. On Macs and Linux, any malicious software will not have administrative rights to install and spread, the user would have to interact with an authentication window asking for Name and Password before anything can happen. If you're not installing anything and a window pops up asking for your password, just click cancel and the threat is more or less taken care of.

That's not to say that one day the black-hats won't find a way around this, as ALL software has vulnerabilities. There's just not teams of Chinese and Russian hackers being paid to infect Macs. Their target is Windows since it has the largest user base. As Macs grow in popularity though, as they have been over the last couple of years.. that story may change.

Nice, thanks for the heads up on that. I actually grabbed this bundle a few days ago, but there was no mention of VirusBarrier at that time. Grabbing that right now.

Just downloaded as well. Thanks!

Yep. Kinda awesome.

Yeah, the free apps aren't too shabby. Nothing mind-blowing, but useful stuff.

I haven't installed VirusBarrier yet because I haven't bothered to reboot my machine.

It looks like the catch for VirusBarrier is that you only get 7 months of definition updates. After that they'll want money to keep up to date with the latest malware.

Still, long enough to determine whether or not it's worth paying for.

Thanks!

I beg to differ. I once got a virus in Word through a file sent to me from a teacher who didn't know she was infected. The only window that popped up on my G5 me was one asking if it was alright if I enabled ______* so the document could be displayed properly.

I hit yes and got the virus, though I'm not sure what it did because I got norton anti-virus free the next day from the campus.



* It was some obscure term which sounded vaguely Excel related and I thought it was some sort of spreadsheet crossover.

Frightening.

Well, Mac OS has changed a bit since the G5 days. Macro viruses were all the rage back in the day.

It's still extremely rare to get a virus on a Mac.

Is he on a PC or MAC? Cause PC people love to piss all over any perceived advantage to Macs.

I've been on Macs for 15 years and have never run antivirus software, and have had no problems to speak of. Last year my wife and I were staying at a friend of hers in the states. They had and iMac and I couldn't understand why it was so pig slow- until I saw they had an antivirus program in stalled.

There isn't anything out there that's dangerous enough for my Mac that I would bother with antivirus software. My uncle [who switched from the PC world and thanks me every time he sees me] is always sending me emails about perceived Mac viruses. I tell him, "Look if there's anything substantive out there, it will be on Appleinsider or Gizmodo. When that happens I'll tell you!".

Don't get trapped into the fearful thinking mode. If you want to safeguard your data- make sure you're running time-machine to a good backup drive.

For starters, you hit "Yes". It was a trick question.. asking you one thing but meaning another. Also consider you were running a Microsoft program notorious for security flaws (hence the idiotic idea of macros to begin with)

Also, macros are pre-defined steps of action. You have authorized them to run, but were unaware that one (or many) step in that macro was infecting you.

WriteRoom app in that MacHeist bundle is great for any of you prone to procrastinate writers out there.

Anyways, now that I'm here: what browsers do you guys use? I stuck with Firefox when making the jump to Mac, but have started playing around with Safari and Camino lately.

You can't go wrong with Safari, but I prefer Firefox. The screen covers my entire monitor with Firefox. With Safari, it's cropped at the ends and top and bottom. Just a personal preference. Also, I'll take Firefox's use of multi-tabbing over Safari's.

I hate Safari, personally. Firefox is my browser of choice, but the Mac ports have been pretty crash prone lately. I'm dabbling with Chromium at the moment and really dig it, can't wait for Google to officially release Chrome on the platform.

Firefox rarely crashes on my Mac. Maybe once a month, and even then, it only takes a matter of seconds to get back up and running.

Are you on Snow Leopard? I didn't have too many issues with FF on Leopard or Tiger, aside from the common high memory usage. I may have too many extensions installed as well, though I've pruned it down to my essential top ten and doubt I could bear to give up any more of them.

Under Boot Camp I have a Win7 installation where Chrome has completely replaced FF for me. If the Mac port is even half as fast and slick when it finally arrives, we'll all be in for a treat.

It's not like Chrome runs AdBlock though and I generally refuse to browse without ad-blocking on. There are just too many sketchy worms that come from those web advertisements.

Not perfect solutions, but try this. Or this.

It'll only be a matter of time before AdBlock proper is brought over to Chrome. But I hear ya.. AdBlock and FlashBlock are the first two extensions I install whenever I find myself installing FF on any platform (followed by Xmarks, of course.. which IS available for Chome officially)

I'm currently running Leopard 10.5.8, but I don't have many programs installed. I bought my Mac around this time last year, and after the nightmarish experience I had with my Compaq PC day in and day out, I made it my prerogative to install only the bare necessities from now on, even with a Mac.

Also, I might note that Google does actually track what you do when you use their browser. From Wikipedia:

I run SRWare Iron just to avoid the RLZ.

I hate the memory hog of Firefox but am so not happy with Opera either. Any other suggestions?

The Chrome developer release actually works pretty well, and you don't have to be a developer to download it.

http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en...ev.html?dl=Mac

'


Hmmm... how's it with importing bookmarks?

I *think* it gives you a choice about importing Firefox or Safari bookmarks during the install. My Chrome installation has all of my Safari bookmarks.

Chrome Themes even work in the dev release! And it's fast as hell. I dig it.

Nothing Little Snitch can't handle.

If this dev release is the same as Chromium (which I'm pretty sure it is), it offers the option, but doesn't appear to work. At least, it didn't when I tried it.

I'm posting from Chrome (not Chromium) with a girly fluffy-white-clouds theme on my iMac. They work.

Needs Intel to work. Damn it!

Sorry, I meant the bookmark import. Themes work on Chromium. I'll check out Chrome when I get home from work to see if there's any significant differences.

On a side note, it's cool to see activity in this thread. While I am what one may consider a "Mac Guy", I've only been so for 2 years now. By comparison, I used Windows/DOS since 1991 and a Commodore 64 prior to that. While I consider myself a pretty computer savvy person (and even worked in IT for a few years), one can always learn something from chatting with others about this stuff.

I'm curious to see what "must have" applications everybody is using. I couldn't live without iCal, Keynote, AudialHub, VisualHub, Delicious Library, Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge, Bento, VLC and Audacity.

I'd like to try some of the mind-mapping apps as well, but there's so many of them!

Okay computer upgrade time.

Am I really going to notice a huge difference on a Macbook vs a Pro for casual stuff (e-mail, watching videos/movies)? I might even plug it to my 32" monitor sometimes.

I did whine about firewire, but its no longer important as those video editing days are behind me and my camera is USB 2 now, so I'll survive for those few photoshops I do sometimes.

Oh and how about HD movie watching?

Dualbooting okay in a regular macbook?

I'm starting to look, but heard the macbook pros might get some sort of update in January or February, so wondering when I can drop kick my POS mini?

RE: Must Have Apps:
Perian
Flip4Mac
Connect360(for Xbox 360 streaming)
Quicksilver
Growl
Handbrake
Max (CD Ripper)

There's never been less of a difference between the MacBook and the pros.

http://gizmodo.com/5386688/unibody-apple-macbook-review

I have a 2 year old white Macbook with 2GB of RAM and it dual boots with Windos 7 with full Aero effects. It's not the best gaming machine, but it works rather well otherwise. All the CS4 apps run smoothly on both the Win and Mac side.

The new unibody Macbooks I would assume run even better.

HD movies in what form? I play 720p MKV files from it to my TV via miniDVI to VGA adapter and the only hiccups I encounter are due to reading the files over a wi-fi network from my server. Played from the hdd, using VLC, I rarely have issues.

I'd say a regular Macbook would work fine for you, especially if you aren't doing video editing anymore or plan on doing a lot of gaming.

Is Quicksilver really that useful? I never gave it much of a chance, as Spotlight does all I need it to do. Some people swear by it though.. maybe I ought to give it another go.

720p mostly, but maybe I might take the 1080p here or there. Yeah I don't play games on the computer at all except maybe solitaire a few times.

At most multi tasking: AIM, Firefox/Chrome, Word, playing music via iTunes

I have a pretty nice external sony monitor I plan on to keep using and a decent 32" for movies.

I second this question. I fucking HATE Vista and though Windows 7 is getting good reviews I gather I still need to buy a new computer just to use it

For your amusement: Windows 7 "partiers" at a Microsoft Store!

Behold!

The MS Store folk try to generate some "spontaneous" fun while onlookers stare indifferently.

There IS one kinda hot chick though

That's embarrassing.

Hmm I'd eat an apple off of her.

Oh another question, fan noise kicking in. I hate it, and like my laptop to be silent. Now testing in a huge store with a bunch of people really doesn't work. So just wondering if anyone has noticed anything. Do the unibody aluminum hide it better?

I imagine swapping in an SSD would help quite a bit, but they’re still rather pricey. Best performance upgrade in recent memory, though, going from the built-in 4800 RPM SATA hard drive in my 13" unibody MacBook Pro to an Intel X25-M G2 SSD.

Vista isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but 7 works better even on less (I have it on my netbook and pentium 4 computer with the ultimate version).

Vista improved with each service pack, but aside from Windows ME, it's the worst Windows released. It used too much horsepower for too little trade-off. Windows 7 doesn't need as much juice to do much more.

SAIRUS, I think a regular Macbook would be fine.. though you may be happier bumping up the RAM from the default if you can spare the $. 3GB+ will ensure pretty smooth sailing, especially if you want to leave several apps open at the same time.