Mac Vs PC notes
Sep. 29th, 2003 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambitious_wenchNote: A shortcut is called an alias, I think on a Mac. I could be wrong.
On a PC, if you trash a shortcut (by any number of ways, from right-clicking and selecting delete, to clicking and draging the icon to the recycle bin), it does not remove the program. This is in direct conflict with what Rush Limbaugh once told his audience:
"If you don't like using Internet Explorer, all you have to do is delete it, throw it in the little trach can, and it's gone! It's that simple!"
(OK, so I'm doing this from memory, here, that may not be the exact terminology he used. But he did not mention anything about the fact that the icon is not the program, that deleting the shortcut is not going to remove all the extraneous crap on your hard drive. )
That was one of the very first programs of his I ever heard, and so I knew right from the start that he's a liar.
Anyway, I found out something very interesting today:
When something is deleted (for example an application such as XJournal) and there is still an icon for it in the Dock (PC users, it's this thing at the bottom of the screen sorta like Quick Launch) the icon will still work.
Yes. A Mac will run a program/application/utility from the recycle/trash bin when you click on the dock icon.
How weird is that?
It's shorter to delete the old icon and make a new icon than it is to redirect the old icon to a new location. Besides, when you click and drag the icon from the dock, it makes this cute little animation of a puff of smoke when it disappears.
I swear, Macs are fluffy. Higher level of technology, a cute interface, and they take control of your life. I still think PCs are Fudd, and Macs are Fluffy.
On a PC, if you trash a shortcut (by any number of ways, from right-clicking and selecting delete, to clicking and draging the icon to the recycle bin), it does not remove the program. This is in direct conflict with what Rush Limbaugh once told his audience:
"If you don't like using Internet Explorer, all you have to do is delete it, throw it in the little trach can, and it's gone! It's that simple!"
(OK, so I'm doing this from memory, here, that may not be the exact terminology he used. But he did not mention anything about the fact that the icon is not the program, that deleting the shortcut is not going to remove all the extraneous crap on your hard drive. )
That was one of the very first programs of his I ever heard, and so I knew right from the start that he's a liar.
Anyway, I found out something very interesting today:
When something is deleted (for example an application such as XJournal) and there is still an icon for it in the Dock (PC users, it's this thing at the bottom of the screen sorta like Quick Launch) the icon will still work.
Yes. A Mac will run a program/application/utility from the recycle/trash bin when you click on the dock icon.
How weird is that?
It's shorter to delete the old icon and make a new icon than it is to redirect the old icon to a new location. Besides, when you click and drag the icon from the dock, it makes this cute little animation of a puff of smoke when it disappears.
I swear, Macs are fluffy. Higher level of technology, a cute interface, and they take control of your life. I still think PCs are Fudd, and Macs are Fluffy.
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Disregard tone of message, but act on content.
Date: 2003-09-29 12:57 pm (UTC)Anyhow, you need to start asking your questions here:
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=frm&s=50009562&f=8300945231
Just register, read the FAQ, and start posting. They're quite friendly, and have a very high signal-to-noise ratio. And together they know everything.
Turn off the "advanced interface," BTW. It messes with Safari.
If you post your shit here, you're just venting, and then I end up looking up your problem there 90% of the time. Post your problem there, and you'll get help much more quickly.
And I'll still see it, because I check the place several times a day.
Now kindly allow me to have my friends list free of tech support questions, given I do this shit for my job already and it's driving me insane?!
Re: Disregard tone of message, but act on content.
Date: 2003-09-29 03:57 pm (UTC)Jazz,
I don't *have* a question in this post! It's not even venting--other than a minor one about ol' Flush Limberger. It's just obeservations.
But yes, I've registered over at Ars Technica, and will be reviewing the boards there.
It's ok, Jazz, I'm not EXPECTING you to fix my problems. I know you are in Tech support and I am not about to come running whenever I get a boo-boo. *ahem* Other than the occasional silly problem like the one below!)
Now, as far as I can figure, when I went to use Xjournal again at your suggestion, it notified me that it had a new release out. I upgraded (I thought!) and went about using the new version. Turns out that I had downloaded a whole new version, not just an upgrade.
Later I was going through all the stuff in my downloads folder and trashing a bunch of stuff that was either expired or was duplicates--and I threw out the old version of Xjournal. Now remember, this was before I had learned that you are supposed to click and drag the icon to the application folder and then eject the little drive to get rid of it.
So I had an icon for the old program on the dock, and was using the old version of XJ from the trash bin. *That* is why I didn't have the Preview option--it wasn't on the old version.
This sort of thing *doesn't* belong in Ars Technica. That was a very complicated case of user-doesn't-know-shit-about-the-machine-she-is-using-and-let's-be-thankful-you-can't-kill-someone-with-a-computer-itis.
This is merely a log of my impressions as a PC user who is migrating to Mac.
As for keeping your friend's list free of tech support questions, how about this: I'll use my journal for comments on differences and post questions on Ars Technica.
But I am gonna vent occasionally here too--and I'll put it behind a cut with a content warning. Fair enough?
Edie
Re: Disregard tone of message, but act on content.
Date: 2003-09-29 07:23 pm (UTC)(My first Mac had a 9" B&W monitor, no internal hard drive, 128K of RAM, and booted from a 3 1/2" floppy. The Finder, in it's first incarnation, was a joke compared to what it is now. On the plus side, back then, if you wanted a longer cable between your Mac and your keyboard and/or mouse, you simply used telephone extension cable. Honest.)
* The Mac was introduced to the world on January 31, 1984. I got mine in June of that year, and haven't looked back at a PC since then.