#  >  > Computers Can Be Fun >  >  > Computer News >  >  I have taken the plunge and become a "Mactard" :)

## larvidchr

Ordered my new Imac 27 inch quad core i5 today, delivery in one week, I have never used or tried a Mac before but felt it was time to try something new, I am really looking forward to getting to know my Mac and to play with it over Christmas where i will have the house for my self so I wont be disturbed to much.

I ordered IWork with the machine too, I could choose between the Mac office 2008 or IWork and chose the latter.

Now it is just the waiting time before it arrives, I confess with stuff like this I'm like a little boy that have a hard time waiting for my new toy  :Smile:

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## jizzybloke

enjoy the new toy Larvid, hope the two of you are very happy together! :Smile:

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## Stinky

I'm sure you'll have it figured out in no time at all Larv  :Smile:

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## baldrick

> quad core i5


that is a fair bit of number crunching power - maybe a new camera so you can use that power to edit your cleavage and panty movies before posting them.

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## Muadib

Did you get a better camera too???

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## jizzybloke

one of these would go with it nicely!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 Review - Digital Camera Reviews - TrustedReviews

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## PAG

I look forward to reading the inevitable exchange of posts that you'll be having with Butterfly!   I got the 24" just over a year ago, so can't justify an upgrade at this time.   I would recommend getting a Time Capsule though, that works as a wireless router with automatic back up of your HD, with either 500Gb or 1TGb capacity.

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## Gipsy

Welcome to the 'Mactards'.... life will be....errr....  :Smile:

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## Butterfly

Welcome to the Gay Mac club !!!

can't wait for your whining posts on why it doesn't work or why it's so clumsy etc... etc... but maybe you won't tell the difference as you will have become a brainless mactard  :Razz: 

I hope you took the expensive AppleCare with that, because they usually break down pretty fast, not matter how much money you put into them  :Wink: 

the average life of a mac is 2 years, so be ready to buy a new machine soon  :Razz:

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## PAG

> Welcome to the Gay Mac club !!!
> 
> can't wait for your whining posts on why it doesn't work or why it's so clumsy etc... etc... but maybe you won't tell the difference as you will have become a brainless mactard 
> 
> I hope you took the expensive AppleCare with that, because they usually break down pretty fast, not matter how much money you put into them 
> 
> the average life of a mac is 2 years, so be ready to buy a new machine soon


Also have a 17" MacBook Pro, 2.5 years old, brilliantly durable and never any grief whatsoever.   Didn't think it would take very long for your predicted first barbed remark!

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## Butterfly

^ so why did you buy an iMac for ? expecting end of life for your little mac toy ?

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## PAG

> ^ so why did you buy an iMac for ? expecting end of life for your little mac toy ?


No, specifically for Photoshop work.   The extra large screen is great for editing, coupled with wireless keyboard and mouse.

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## Butterfly

> The extra large screen is great for editing,


because the macbook can't accommodate an external large screen ?

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## crazy dog

> I hope you took the expensive AppleCare with that, because they usually break down pretty fast, not matter how much money you put into them  the average life of a mac is 2 years, so be ready to buy a new machine soon


where did you get this info from, microsoft? I had one running 24 hrs a day for 8 years, never went wrong once.

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## Wallalai

Welcome larvidchr and have fun with the machine. The 27" looks really great.

I would recommend to have an external firewire hard disk for Time Machine and a bootable backup SuperDuper!.

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## slackula

Congrats on the new toy larvidchr, I am *very* close to buying a 27" iMac myself, just have to do a bit more work convincing Mme Slackula to let me  :Sad:  

It is not hard to use a Mac after coming from the Windows world, I am sure you will find it a refreshing experience. I know I did.




/ps, don't listen to the French maniac - he is off his meds again.

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## DaffyDuck

> I ordered IWork with the machine too, I could choose between the Mac office 2008 or IWork and chose the latter.


Good choice - after a couple of days of playing with iWork'09, you'll wonder "Why did I ever bother with Office before...?"




> I look forward to reading the inevitable exchange of posts that you'll be having with Butterfly!


That alone is worth it! (counting down to Butterfly calling you a 'tard and gay .... 5... 4... 3... )

AppleCare for the iMac is $170 - relatively inexpensive for getting full coverage for 3 years (it extends your existing coverage by an extra 2 years) - $170 is only expensive to the likes of Butterfly, who have to count their satang.

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## crazy dog

You don't need applecare anyway. Having an imac might be a shock after a pc especially if you have been using vista as on the mac the search will actually find what you want. On my acer explorer will not work (good) media player 'cannot' display jpegs any longer and the [at] sign still does not work, no viruses, trojans etc, just a shit machime with an even shitier OS.

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## larvidchr

Thanks to all who have replied with good advise and well wishes.

I have not bought Apple care, It's a thing with me, I usually refuse to pay for extended guaranties and insurance on products I buy, the one year guarantee is sufficient I feel, if a product have problems they usually show up within the first year, and I think the extended guarantees/Insurances are a bit of a scam really, but that's just me, and I have been lucky so far with my usual approach that is research a bit before deciding what brand and product to buy- cars, computers, homes, flatscreens, stereo, you name it, read tests and never go for just the cheapest offers, knock on wood that has so far worked out fine for me  :Smile: 

I was initially impressed by the backup system with time capsule, but after having read that quite a few people are having problems with just that Apple product I decided to wait and see if Apple will get it right later, there is no rush, but an automatic backup on an external hard-drive is smart and it is something I would like to get later when the reports become more consistent.

Apart from that it is great to have so many knowledgeable Mac people on the board, so I feel confident that there is help at hand for any problems/questions I might have.

Finally also thanks to Butterfly for his homely predictability, you know you open the fridge in the dark but know the beer is to the right and the coke to the left- it's home :Smile:  and it's part of the joy of TD, without him the place would be more boring.


 :Smile:

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## slackula

> I was initially impressed by the backup system with time capsule, but after having read that quite a few people are having problems with just that Apple product I decided to wait


You don't have to use a Time Capsule for the backup, you can use any external disk with USB or firewire. For a while I was using a Western Digital external hard drive with a firewire cable and it worked fine.

The Time Machine app is very useful.

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## DaffyDuck

Agreed with what Slackula said about Time Machine -- it's the software/utility, not the Time Capsule hardware that makes it work. You can plug any external hard drive in, and the Mac OS will ask you if you want to use it for Time Machine - it'll even properly format it for you.

Time Capsule is convenient, that's it, by combining an Airport Extreme router, and a hard drive into one convenient package -- but you can also get an Airport Extreme, and plug any external USB drive into it, and get the same thing - or just plug the drive into your iMac, and you also get the same :-)

One nice thing with Apple's Airport Extreme is that the USB port will also accept any printer, and make it instantly available over both the wired and wireless network via Bonjour - no address to know, no configuration to tackle. You can also attach a printer and a drive to the AE's USB port - the advantage of having the drive shared on the network is that you can then backup both your laptop and the iMac via Time Machine, if you have multiple computers.

Lastly, regarding AppleCare - you are smart in your decision having researched the issue, though I generally get AppleCare for any device that has moving parts that could be stressed (like a laptop). The only things that can fail in an iMac are the internal hard drive, the DVD drive, and the RAM -- all of which are technically user replaceable as well after the warranty expires, and for which you can get better parts by then, for less money, anyway.

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## DaffyDuck

larvidchr, did you buy your iMac from the Thai Online Store?

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## watterinja

The best thing I did for my iMac was to install Linux.

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## larvidchr

^^^^^
Yes trilling ain't it, as far as I am concerned it's a win win situation, either I will find out that Mac is not all that it promises to be, gain a new great ally :Wink:  and thus be a wiser man, or I will be trilled by my new powerhouse of a computer with it's really neat design and an OS that is much better than the mysterious windows that seems to live a life of it's own.

When I changed for my acer aspire 9100 lap top 4 years ago I gave up computer gaming and mostly played on the PS2 with my son and friends, now I'm looking forward to start playing again a bit with the great power of the quad core and the ATI 512mb graphics card that should give decent performance, I don't need many games just a few good ones, call of duty 4 will be a must for when the Son comes out on holiday and I might like it too.

And running two TD pages at once on the same screen and still have a good enough size for reading, a serious thread on one side and a funny shitfight on the other for the ice-breaks needed  :Smile:  

I have all the confidence in the world that it will be great fun and very interesting.

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## larvidchr

> larvidchr, did you buy your iMac from the Thai Online Store?


No I bought it from the Apple retailer in the IT centre (Tuc Com) here in Pattaya.

Ohh and the Apple care for my Imac was offered to me for 5391 baht

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## Butterfly

> Finally - his only goal is to elicit a response from you. Stop giving him the attention his 5 year old psyche desperately needs, and he will suffer far more than any harsh language you send his way.
> 
> I'm ignoring him, and notice how resultantly his desperation to provoke spikes.


I have to admit that it's getting quite hard to wind you guys up  :Razz: 

Wallalai seem to be a good sport though  :Smile:

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## Loy Toy

I actually met up with the new "Mactard" today and saw the machine in action.

Nice bit of equipment if I say so myself.  :Smile:

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## StrontiumDog

> Oh please !!! you are confusing a workstation work with servers, that's how much of an amateur you are. If you had any clue, you would understand the value of using WinXP.


Ah yes, the great and wonderful Windows....

BBC News - Microsoft to patch 17-year-old computer bug

Only a bug for 17 years eh? Nice.

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## melvbot

I'm getting a new toy tomorrow, yay!

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## jizzybloke

What are you getting?

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## melvbot

Oops, shouldn't have said anything. A friend of uncle steve is getting his hands on something which might help me pad my day out a bit....

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## DaffyDuck

Good for you.

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## Butterfly

a ThinkPad ?

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## larvidchr

> Oops, shouldn't have said anything. A friend of uncle steve is getting his hands on something which might help me pad my day out a bit....


Ahhhh a new toy, congrats  :Smile:

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## Gerbil

> I actually met up with the new "Mactard" today and saw the machine in action.
> 
> Nice bit of equipment if I say so myself.


Really, there's only one thing that springs to mind after reading that  :Gay:

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## Gerbil

> Oops, shouldn't have said anything. A friend of uncle steve is getting his hands on something which might help me pad my day out a bit....


It just keeps getting gayer in here.  :Smile:

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## larvidchr

> Originally Posted by Loy Toy
> 
> 
> I actually met up with the new "Mactard" today and saw the machine in action.
> 
> Nice bit of equipment if I say so myself. 
> 
> 
> Really, there's only one thing that springs to mind after reading that


Does that mean that you get sexually aroused by computerequipment  :mid:   :Smile:

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## melvbot

Nah, Im jumping on the Intel bandwagon and getting a Macbook.

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## Gerbil

^ yes.  :bunny3:

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## larvidchr

> ^ yes.


In that case why don't you and butterbut go down and buy an iMac together, because if normal pc equipment can do that to you an iMac will really rock your boat, you wont be able to sit for days with all that excitement  :Smile:  :Smile:

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## melvbot

I dont pick it up til 5pm UK time, I can feel a stiffy coming on already.  :Smile:

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## Butterfly

> an iMac will really rock your boat, you wont be able to sit for days with all that excitement


sounds like having sex with a ladyboy  :bunny3: 

the inside of a PC, with the beautiful body of a Mac

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## larvidchr

> Originally Posted by larvidchr
> 
> an iMac will really rock your boat, you wont be able to sit for days with all that excitement
> 
> 
> sounds like having sex with a ladyboy 
> 
> the inside of a PC, with the beautiful body of a Mac


Wouldn't know about that Mate  :Smile:

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## DaffyDuck

> Nah, Im jumping on the Intel bandwagon and getting a Macbook.


 'bout time ;-)

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## PAG

> Originally Posted by melvbot
> 
> 
> Nah, Im jumping on the Intel bandwagon and getting a Macbook.
> 
> 
>  'bout time ;-)


Fine decision.   Let us know how you get on with it.

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## Wallalai

> Nah, Im jumping on the Intel bandwagon and getting a Macbook.


You will like it, my niece bought one few months ago as she was tired with Windows and viruses.

She likes it. The Macbook, the white one.

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## Gerbil

Yep. I have one.

Of course Mac OSX has been wiped from it and I only use Windows 7 on it.  :Smile:

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## Wallalai

^  At least if you live in the stick it will let you busy running the anti-virus, spyware, trojans and some registry cleaner. Well done.  :Wink: 

I know you're joking.  :Smile:

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## Gerbil

^ No. I'm not joking.

I bought it because I had a contract that required a Mac. As soon as it was finished, I wiped it and stuck Windows 7 on. No trace of Mac nastiness at all now.  :Smile:

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## melvbot

> ^ No. I'm not joking.
> 
> I bought it because I had a contract that required a Mac. As soon as it was finished, I wiped it and stuck Windows 7 on. No trace of Mac nastiness at all now.


ha! Outed as a latent mactard. Only an hour to go, goodbye PPC hello Intel. Got a tingly feeling in my groin now.....

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## Wallalai

> ^ No. I'm not joking.
> 
> I bought it because I had a contract that required a Mac. As soon as it was finished, I wiped it and stuck Windows 7 on. No trace of Mac nastiness at all now.


That's your choice, Enjoy.  :Smile:

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## melvbot

Just picked it up, won it off Ebay and it's immaculate. he only had it for 6 months, boxed and even still in the delivery box.

 Who said recessions are all doom and gloom....

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## Butterfly

> At least if you live in the stick it will let you busy running the anti-virus, spyware, trojans and some registry cleaner. Well done.


probably not, at least he knows how to use a real computer, unlike others, who need to rely on a toy to do their homework

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## Butterfly

> goodbye PPC hello Intel.


you will notice immediately the improvement in speed, no doubt. Years have been wasted for keeping the old RISC non-sense.

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## larvidchr

Here is my new 27inch i5 iMac in my office. :Smile:

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## melvbot

^ Looks a nice setup.

 Hope that window isnt left open at night.  :Wink:

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## Butterfly

no wireless keyboard ? a big miss IMO,

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## larvidchr

> no wireless keyboard ? a big miss IMO,


No a quite deliberate choice, I have an accountant in the house, and the full keyboard have all the dedicated function keys and are better for a bit of gaming as-well, and since the keyboard never leaves the desktop anyway no big miss. :Smile:

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## larvidchr

> ^ Looks a nice setup.
> 
>  Hope that window isnt left open at night.


Outside infrared camera surveillance with motion detectors, alarm system inside, big dog and me so no worries :Wink:

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## DaffyDuck

> ^ No. I'm not joking.
> 
> I bought it because I had a contract that required a Mac. As soon as it was finished, I wiped it and stuck Windows 7 on. No trace of Mac nastiness at all now.


No accounting for taste, or IQ.

Enjoy, it's your life.

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## DaffyDuck

Uh oh!

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## Wallalai

*The Conclusion to the Faulty iMac Saga: The Beginning of the Fix*




> The latest iMac was released 16 weeks ago. Since then, it's been plagued with problems, most notably flickering and/or yellow screens. Today, the saga comes to an end because Apple has acknowledged the issues and offered their support.
> 
> At long last, Apple has released a statement to us, admitting the production issues with iMacswhich reader and forum anecdotes imply to be a bit less frequent than before but still very much present at some leveland labeling AppleCare as the proper channel for related complaints.
> 
> Apple's Official Statement
> "We've addressed the issues that caused display flickering and yellow tint. Customers concerned that their iMac is affected should contact AppleCare."



Read more here: The Conclusion to the Faulty iMac Saga: The Beginning of the Fix - Faulty imac saga - Gizmodo

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## larvidchr

25 days and still no hint of any problems, it's been running on average 6-7 hour's everyday, and only been put to sleep when not in use. So either I am lucky or it's true that Apple have sorted most of the Issues.

I don't know but maybe the problems have been a bit exaggerated compared to the overall number of machines sold, I am not saying that every costumer should not expect a perfect product, but in all manufacturing a certain small number of faulty products is quite normal, so what was the actual % of bad iMacs compared to numbers sold i wonder ??

 :Smile:

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## Wallalai

^ I hope your experience with the OS and the huge screen will be as enjoyable as mine with the same OS but a smaller (24") screen. 

Silence and reliability.  :Wink:

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