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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
Vinterbird
Member
So work is setting me up with a iMac and Air for work use, meaning that I will have to transfer a bunch of stuff from my current Mac to the two new machines.
What are my options to do a smooth migration and the settings I have on my current Mac to move over? Migratition Assistant is not a option, since I don't need to take my music and private stuff with me, just a few select apps and the settings I have for those.
Of course I could just install everything manually and set everything up, but I'm hoping for a way to automate it and make it work smoother then that. Is there some sort of program that will allow me to move select apps and settings to other Macs rare then a large backup?
What are my options to do a smooth migration and the settings I have on my current Mac to move over? Migratition Assistant is not a option, since I don't need to take my music and private stuff with me, just a few select apps and the settings I have for those.
Of course I could just install everything manually and set everything up, but I'm hoping for a way to automate it and make it work smoother then that. Is there some sort of program that will allow me to move select apps and settings to other Macs rare then a large backup?
Mr. Wonderful
Member
So what are your guys' opinions on the Mac Minis?
I'm looking to buy either a Mac Mini when they are updated or build a new, cheap PC to play the Skyrim expansion on when it's released, hooked up to my TV. I know a couple of you guys have owned one before, so I thought I'd get your opinion. The newer model will have something that's better than the current 6630M with 256MB of RAM, so I'm figuring GPU won't be an issue for my light Bootcamp gaming.
I'm looking to buy either a Mac Mini when they are updated or build a new, cheap PC to play the Skyrim expansion on when it's released, hooked up to my TV. I know a couple of you guys have owned one before, so I thought I'd get your opinion. The newer model will have something that's better than the current 6630M with 256MB of RAM, so I'm figuring GPU won't be an issue for my light Bootcamp gaming.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Haven't used one in the manner you're looking at, but I use an '10 mini at work, and had an '06 before that. Love 'em. No gaming, and only occasional Aperture (only thing that hits the shitty GPU).
Seriously considering replacing my '06 Mac Pro at home with the latest when the time comes, assuming they get quad core. Would need a thunderbolt enclosure for storage and some SSDs for inside the mini. For the little gaming i do, just about any discrete chip is going to be better than the 3870 I have now, I think.
Seriously considering replacing my '06 Mac Pro at home with the latest when the time comes, assuming they get quad core. Would need a thunderbolt enclosure for storage and some SSDs for inside the mini. For the little gaming i do, just about any discrete chip is going to be better than the 3870 I have now, I think.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
This is how I feel too. Though I think there's a serious chance that Apple might choose to stick Intel HD4000's in the Minis (or all but one of them again) and call that enough.
Iron_Scimitar
Banned
Hello folks, I need some assistance.
I've recently taken into possession a 2006 MBP. Model number A1211. It needs some TLC. It powers up fine, the screen is okay, etc, however the HD was dead so I replaced it w/ a 320gb drive. Also, the DVD drive is also on the fritz. Im not concerned about replacing it so i'll put that off for now. All it needs is an OS.
How would I go about getting OSX onto it? I have a Snow Leopard disc here that I bought from the Apple store. Can I plug in an external optical drive and have it boot to that?
What are my options? This is will be my first Mac experience. I hope I can get it up and running...
I've recently taken into possession a 2006 MBP. Model number A1211. It needs some TLC. It powers up fine, the screen is okay, etc, however the HD was dead so I replaced it w/ a 320gb drive. Also, the DVD drive is also on the fritz. Im not concerned about replacing it so i'll put that off for now. All it needs is an OS.
How would I go about getting OSX onto it? I have a Snow Leopard disc here that I bought from the Apple store. Can I plug in an external optical drive and have it boot to that?
What are my options? This is will be my first Mac experience. I hope I can get it up and running...
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
Hello folks, I need some assistance.
I've recently taken into possession a 2006 MBP. Model number A1211. It needs some TLC. It powers up fine, the screen is okay, etc, however the HD was dead so I replaced it w/ a 320gb drive. Also, the DVD drive is also on the fritz. Im not concerned about replacing it so i'll put that off for now. All it needs is an OS.
How would I go about getting OSX onto it? I have a Snow Leopard disc here that I bought from the Apple store. Can I plug in an external optical drive and have it boot to that?
What are my options? This is will be my first Mac experience. I hope I can get it up and running...
Is this K??
It's Magnus...
Iron_Scimitar
Banned
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Yup!
Hold option as it boots to get a boot menu. In theory, holding 'c' will boot of the CD/DVD, but I'm not sure it won't default to the empty internal drive.
Mecha_Infantry
Banned
Yup...its me.
And yeah, i know your GAF persona. I've known for years.
Lol yeah I knew! Immortal is here still too
Anyway I'll give you a shout about it on FB or on here when I get to work
Also I need help with a app for dividing up my screen for applications.
Right now I've set up a permanent space for Twitter on the right side of my screen, and Chrome running next to it, but sometimes I need to have two Chrome instances side by side, which Better Touch Tool and it's snap function has been great for.
But then I allocated room for Twitter, which needs to be permanent, so I was wondering if it is possible to segment of the screen, so it only snaps within a specific area like this:
Is there a app or a setting that will allow me to do something like this?
moom should do the trick. you divide the desktop into a grid (as fine or coarse as you like) and assign windows a specific size to fit in the grid. i use it all the time.
it’s on the mac app store for 5 bucks and well worth it. but there’s a free trial on their website.
Iron_Scimitar
Banned
I've set up a Mac Mini as a server at work and it's fantastic for such purposes. Easy to open up and reach the guts (unlike those bloody post-G5 iMacs) and easy to swap out should one fail and need repair (if prepared with both Time Machine and CCC backups).
I want to get one as a HTPC for the home theatre like you, since it's got HDMI built-in and you can easily hook up a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and whatnot, but I figured I ought to save the money instead.
You should be able to install via any external DVD drive. Or, if you copy the OS X install disc onto an external hard drive or flash drive using Disk Utility, you'll also be able to install it from there. The last solution is to hook it up to another Mac using Firewire and boot in Target disk mode, then install OS X from the other Mac.
moniker
Member
I just want to recommend the excellent CodeKit to any web front end developers.
I can process Less, Sass, Stylus, Jade, Haml, CoffeeScript, Javascript and Compass files and do automatic concatenation and minification (through Uglify.js). I can optimize images (stripping EXIF, gammadata etc I presume). I does live browser reload (when you save HTML is automatically refreshes the current open tab, when you save CSS is only reloads the CSS on the page). It has JSHint and JSLint built in.
I other words, it's great. It costs $20-$28 (depending no how much you think it's worth).
I can process Less, Sass, Stylus, Jade, Haml, CoffeeScript, Javascript and Compass files and do automatic concatenation and minification (through Uglify.js). I can optimize images (stripping EXIF, gammadata etc I presume). I does live browser reload (when you save HTML is automatically refreshes the current open tab, when you save CSS is only reloads the CSS on the page). It has JSHint and JSLint built in.
I other words, it's great. It costs $20-$28 (depending no how much you think it's worth).
UnluckyKate
Member
Depending on your situation there are probably two useful solutions.
If you have multiple devices, PC, Mac, iOS and want all of them on the same MSN client, then I would recommend Trillian. It does continues conversation across all of the devices, so if you go between your Mac and PC, you can continue a chat without logging on and off, and you can pick up your phone and keep going if you leave your desk.
It's really really cool, but the updates are few and far between which sucks, but they seem to be picking up the pace.
The other solution is Adium, which is amazing for everything. It is solid and allows you to alter it to suit your needs.
Also I need help with a app for dividing up my screen for applications.
Right now I've set up a permanent space for Twitter on the right side of my screen, and Chrome running next to it, but sometimes I need to have two Chrome instances side by side, which Better Touch Tool and it's snap function has been great for.
But then I allocated room for Twitter, which needs to be permanent, so I was wondering if it is possible to segment of the screen, so it only snaps within a specific area like this:
Is there a app or a setting that will allow me to do something like this?
I use cinch, it works like Widows' widows management.
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/cinch/
The only Apple sanctioned AirPlay receiver(video/mirroring) is the Apple TV. There are 3rd party apps for that function on OS X however.
Autumn Wind
Member
I love my base model Mini. First computer I have been proud of since I got my first home computer at age 12. I put in my own SSD (Samsung 470) and it runs very fast. I do wish it had better graphics though the only game I will use it for is Diablo 3 and I will wait until the next model Mini is out to decide what I'm going to do about it.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
That's where I'm at too. I was also thinking about how I would mostly be keeping it in Windows for gaming, which makes me think I would be better off building a $800 HTPC. :/ We'll see what the specs look like around the refresh. I'm not waiting any longer than Dawnguard, however.
I am not sure if this is the correct thread, but I have a bit of a problem.
The day after Xmas 2011, I bought an Airport Extreme. Thing worked great. We had a storm last night though and now it won't turn on at all, neither will my Time Warner supplied modem. The modem is getting replaced by TW with no issue, will Apple help me out with the Airport Extreme, or am I just screwed?
The day after Xmas 2011, I bought an Airport Extreme. Thing worked great. We had a storm last night though and now it won't turn on at all, neither will my Time Warner supplied modem. The modem is getting replaced by TW with no issue, will Apple help me out with the Airport Extreme, or am I just screwed?
It should be covered under warranty. bring it in to a store or call Apple. Depending on where you go, you might get a replacement instantly or maybe in a day or two
Awesome.
Aren't these things supposed to have built in surge protection?
It was on an old power strip style surge protector.
Under system preferences -> trackpad. Uncheck "use natural scrolling"
daw840 said:
Surge strips are not very effective. I would recommend getting a battery backup for your stuff. And i see a LOT of AE units come in for surges. those things are quite sensitive.
Wow, I was really concerned that they wouldn't cover it because it was likely a power surge.
edit: I will be investing in a battery backup soon then. Glad this didn't happen to my main A/V setup.
Thanks!
iMacs also get toasted quite frequently from surges. Never failed to cover one. As long as you havent tried to do any kind of modification to the unit, youre fine.
Thanks. I bought AirServer ($12 with .edu email) for mirroring and I'm quite happy with it.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
My AppleTV 2 has been pissing me off all week. It keeps disconnecting from iTunes on my computer over and over. I restart iTunes and all is well for a few minutes, then disconnects again. WTF?
I have a mid 2011 base model Mini with 8gb of ram at my office and I ADORE it. I will be a getting one for home soon as my 2006 model is starting to show its age a bit. Wow just realized its almost 6 years old and still does a great job. Back OT it does a great job but I don't really use it for gaming much ( mostly emulators and older games like San Andreas etc).
Mr. Wonderful
Member
Haswell would be a great time to own a Mini. A mobile processor that's as good as you'll ever need (well, you know...). My biggest concern, however, is that they would only include an Integrated Graphics option by then, which I guess is the same risk as right now, but at least the CPU by Haswell would be Quad-Core and super powerful standard.
Would a baseline mini with 8GB of RAM be OK for Illustrator and dev work?
Looking for a cheap 'in' to iOS development. Was thinking about a entry level iMac, but not sure I like the display setup and it doesn't seem like it would be a powerhouse for gaming either (the only other potential usecase for me)...
edit - going by the CS6 requirements, I think it would be OK - but the 8GB upgrade is a must, to get the necessary 512MB of VRAM for the Intel 3000.
Looking for a cheap 'in' to iOS development. Was thinking about a entry level iMac, but not sure I like the display setup and it doesn't seem like it would be a powerhouse for gaming either (the only other potential usecase for me)...
edit - going by the CS6 requirements, I think it would be OK - but the 8GB upgrade is a must, to get the necessary 512MB of VRAM for the Intel 3000.
Mr. Wonderful
Member
When Haswell comes out in 2013, of course.
So 10.7.4 is out.
...Wonder how it affects Diablo III performance. :>
I currently don't have the flash plugin installed on my Air for battery reasons and when I need to use flash content I switch from Safari to Chrome (most of the time it's something on youtube that has ads, which at the moment doesn't load in HTML5).
I don't want to do that anymore, so the question is: if I install flash and use the ClickToFlash Safari extension, will I achieve the same results as the way I'm doing right now? Or will flash still be doing under-the-hood stuff that will affect the battery?
I don't want to do that anymore, so the question is: if I install flash and use the ClickToFlash Safari extension, will I achieve the same results as the way I'm doing right now? Or will flash still be doing under-the-hood stuff that will affect the battery?
Thanks. Yeah, the fans being silent is definitely a necessity too. I'll be trying this from now on, I'm playing around with CTF and the other control/override options it provides are pretty good.
Optimizations for older hardware is the last thing I would expect to see in Mountain Lion. Best case it will run the same as Lion.
http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=463356
Take a look in here. I'm sure I've seen a few comments from people who have the dev preview saying it does seem to run a bit snappier than Lion.
Wait for Mountain Lion. I had the same issue you did with Lion, and Mountain Lion - I'm on the 3rd dev preview - does bring things back to just about Snow Leopard levels, if not completely. Lion never got there.
Does anybody know how to change/remove the gradient vignette effect on the login screen? I've changed it to a mostly black image, which I thought should work out fine, but when I tested it, it turns out OS X does the vignette by lightening the centre of the screen rather than darkening out towards the sides like a real vignette. It's kinda ruined my background.
What the heck? The Mac App Store app shows an update for some Four In A Row game I never heard of. I didn't buy or download it (also it's not listed in the purchase list), no one else used my computer and I'm certain my account wasn't hacked as my password is long and complex.
What's the meaning of this? Is this a known bug or something?
What's the meaning of this? Is this a known bug or something?
bernardobri
Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
This is driving me nuts: I can't manage to play a region 2 dvd that came along an artbook. I can't watch it on VLC (latest version) nor I can't rip it with MacX Ripper Pro :/ And I'm certain that the DVD works since I could manage to play it in a PC with Windows without problems.
I don't want to change the dvd region of the Mac itself since I don't want to screw anything if I need to play a DVD from another region, but there has to be a reasonable way to play the region 2 DVD, right?
I don't want to change the dvd region of the Mac itself since I don't want to screw anything if I need to play a DVD from another region, but there has to be a reasonable way to play the region 2 DVD, right?
According to some Google results, it won't work with any player because the region lock is implemented in the DVD drive firmware. It seems to be possible to change the drive region, but only up to five times.
The alternatives would be either flashing the drive or getting an external region 2 drive.
How about ripping it on Windows instead?
bernardobri
Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
Yeah, I read about flashing the drive, too, but I don't think I'm gonna take that risk. Seems like ripping it on a Windows station is gonna be my last resort. :/