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[mrkgoo]

Anything that's not an Application, Music, Movie, Photo or Backup is counted as Other. As well as anything NOT indexed in Spotlight. If you have Spotlight turned off for a disk or folder it will count as Other.

If you are still uncertain that you have hidden junk somewhere, download GrandPerspective. It'll give you a visual account of all your files.

Oddly enough, I also think images may come in as other if they are inside an aperture or iPhoto library. At least mine does.

Maybe it's raw, maybe it's aperture itself? Don't know.

If they use iPhoto check whether the iPhoto library is covered by the photos portion or not.

 

[metsallica]

Hey guys, need some advice. I have the opportunity to pick up a mid-2011 MacBook Air (1.6 GHz i5, 2GB ram, 64GB SSD, 11.6" screen) for $380. It's in phenomenal condition, very gently used. Good deal? I don't really know the best places to check to see what it should be going for, other than looking for completed auctions on eBay (which hasn't been much help). Gazelle's quote is $311 if I mark good, $357 if I mark flawless (there's a tiny scuff on the frame, so it's kind of in the middle).

I want to use it for Delicious Library and little else. Good deal? Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

 

[The Real Abed]

Oddly enough, I also think images may come in as other if they are inside an aperture or iPhoto library. At least mine does.

Maybe it's raw, maybe it's aperture itself? Don't know.

If they use iPhoto check whether the iPhoto library is covered by the photos portion or not.

Photos definitely counts image libraries. It counts all files of that type that exist in the Spotlight database. Even images elsewhere. Only image resources inside .app bundles aren't really counted since .app bundles are counted separately.

Here's a simple way to test.

Open System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and add your iPhoto Library and any other folders you want to weed out to the list (You will remove them later) and after it finishes reindexing, open the About This Mac > More Info > Storage tab and check the numbers again. It should be instant when excluding. I just tried it and excluded my 3GB iPhoto library which changed the number accordingly. It does work. And they do count.

 

[mrkgoo]

Photos definitely counts image libraries. It counts all files of that type that exist in the Spotlight database. Even images elsewhere. Only image resources inside .app bundles aren't really counted since .app bundles are counted separately.

Here's a simple way to test.

Open System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy and add your iPhoto Library and any other folders you want to weed out to the list (You will remove them later) and after it finishes reindexing, open the About This Mac > More Info > Storage tab and check the numbers again. It should be instant when excluding. I just tried it and excluded my 3GB iPhoto library which changed the number accordingly. It does work. And they do count.

Hmm. Maybe it's aperture or raw files or something, because my 550GB library doesn't show up in photos and I have a huge 500ish gb in other.

Edit: it seems to be related to aperture. Other people have observed this.

 

[dark_chris]

Bah.. No one helped me answer my question...
One of the screws inside my Macbook Pro 2010 is about to wear off, almost becoming impossible to unscrew. Im trying to take out my DVD drive to put in a second HDD. Any advice? Maybe a magnetized screwdriver?

 

[gokieks]

Re: Mice - Logitech G500 is still the mouse I'd recommend for just about everybody (who's not left-handed). I actually like the G5 SE better, but it's not available anymore, and (I believe) it also doesn't have official OS X support in Logitech Gaming Software, which is what finally made the newer G series mice fully functional on Macs (you used to be able to get it mostly working with something like SteerMouse, but it wasn't really ideal).

Oh, and if you find that you absolutely hate the mouse feel in Mac OS X (which prioritizes smoothness over responsiveness), get Smooth Mouse. Without it I would seriously switch back to Windows just because of it, as trying to do Photoshop work with a mouse on OS X without it would drive me absolutely insane). It's still not perfect with Smooth Mouse, but it's a hell of a lot more usable.

 

[Flek]

i actually think the magic mouse is theeee best

 

[metsallica]

Hey guys, need some advice. I have the opportunity to pick up a mid-2011 MacBook Air (1.6 GHz i5, 2GB ram, 64GB SSD, 11.6" screen) for $380. It's in phenomenal condition, very gently used. Good deal? I don't really know the best places to check to see what it should be going for, other than looking for completed auctions on eBay (which hasn't been much help). Gazelle's quote is $311 if I mark good, $357 if I mark flawless (there's a tiny scuff on the frame, so it's kind of in the middle).

I want to use it for Delicious Library and little else. Good deal? Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

Does anyone have any feedback? I only have until later today to decide.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Does anyone have any feedback? I only have until later today to decide.

Seems like a good deal to me, if 2GB is sufficient.

 

[Mindwipe]

Does anyone have any feedback? I only have until later today to decide.

It's not bad, and I have that model and it's a great machine - except I have the ram upgrade, cos 2GB is going to be a bit of a struggle.

Running Snow Leopard would help.

 

[The Real Abed]

2GB is going to kill you. And it's for life.

 

[metsallica]

Seems like a good deal to me, if 2GB is sufficient.

It's not bad, and I have that model and it's a great machine - except I have the ram upgrade, cos 2GB is going to be a bit of a struggle.

Running Snow Leopard would help.

2GB is going to kill you. And it's for life.

Thanks guys. It's currently running Lion, first thing I was going to do is install Mountain Lion. Sounds like that's a bad idea? I really only plan to use the computer for Delicious Library and little else, I have a much newer gaming PC that I use for day-to-day tasks. I'll see if I could knock some money off the price... I honestly had no idea the ram was soldered on; I was going to upgrade it. ML really runs that poorly on 2GB of ram? I have Windows 8 installed on a first-gen MacPro (which also has 2GB) and it runs pretty well, provided I don't do much in "Metro." Not really an apples to apples (heh) comparison, but...

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Thanks guys. It's currently running Lion, first thing I was going to do is install Mountain Lion. Sounds like that's a bad idea? I really only plan to use the computer for Delicious Library and little else

It'll probably be fine. I used a MacBook with 2GB of memory under 10.7 and it was usable if I was militant about quitting applications I wasn't using and keeping my browser tabs minimal.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I had no problem at all with 2GB. Browsers and apps run fine and the SSD is so fast you won't notice most caching.

If you're only running the library and the usual assortment of apps (browser, the usual apple productivity stuff) I don't see the problem. It will age faster by not having 4GB, but it's so cheap that you can still move up to something else later.

 

[Dennis]

Since there is no Mac Software thread I thought I would just ask here:

What is currently the best web browser for OS X?

Safari? Chrome? something else?

 

[TUSR]

Since there is no Mac Software thread I thought I would just ask here:

What is currently the best web browser for OS X?

Safari? Chrome? something else?

Chrome or Safari, pick one, see what you like.

As great as Safari is these days, I still use Chrome.

 

[kennah]

Advice needed:

The 8800GT in our 2008 Mac Pro finally kicked the bucket. We've been getting black screens for a couple months and now it finally won't display anything at all. Swapped in the ati2600 from the other Pro and it booted fine.

What is the best possible video card upgrade I could do to this machine? I'm thinking a GTX 670? It is used for heavy video editing, Premiere, Final Cut 6 and X and lots of reencoding from hd to dvd and so on.

Thanks!

 

[TUSR]

Advice needed:

The 8800GT in our 2008 Mac Pro finally kicked the bucket. We've been getting black screens for a couple months and now it finally won't display anything at all. Swapped in the ati2600 from the other Pro and it booted fine.

What is the best possible video card upgrade I could do to this machine? I'm thinking a GTX 670? It is used for heavy video editing, Premiere, Final Cut 6 and X and lots of reencoding from hd to dvd and so on.

Thanks!

Hunt around some forums, I know the 660 works

 

[kennah]

Hunt around some forums, I know the 660 works

Yep, been googlin' but wanted GAF's take on things too

 

[metsallica]

I had no problem at all with 2GB. Browsers and apps run fine and the SSD is so fast you won't notice most caching.

If you're only running the library and the usual assortment of apps (browser, the usual apple productivity stuff) I don't see the problem. It will age faster by not having 4GB, but it's so cheap that you can still move up to something else later.

Is that a good price for it? I really have no idea what these things go for, I couldn't find many completed auctions for similarly-spec'd machines.

 

[TUSR]

Yep, been googlin' but wanted GAF's take on things too

Isn't encoding from HD -> DVD a processor intensive task? You also really shouldn't have any problems with a card in that caliber range even though they're desktop, not workstation cards.

 

[TUSR]

Is that a good price for it? I really have no idea what these things go for, I couldn't find many completed auctions for similarly-spec'd machines.

The amount of RAM bottle necks you everywhere. The price is moderately good. You will typically pay more for a personal sale unless the owner is trying to get rid of it.

 

[kennah]

Isn't encoding from HD -> DVD a processor intensive task? You also really shouldn't have any problems with a card in that caliber range even though they're desktop, not workstation cards.

Some programs will take advantage of a GPU. Looks like we're going to go with the GTX 680 Mac Edition 2GB. Sooo many cuda cores.

 

[The Real Abed]

Since there is no Mac Software thread I thought I would just ask here:

What is currently the best web browser for OS X?

Safari? Chrome? something else?

If you're an all Apple ecosystem, Safari is a great choice. I use Chrome because I like its compatibility and syncing, but it seems to have problems with many tabs at once and uses up a lot of memory. I use it because it works on Windows, but if I could I'd switch to Safari but right now Safari just doesn't have everything I need. If only for the speed and compatibility.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Is that a good price for it? I really have no idea what these things go for, I couldn't find many completed auctions for similarly-spec'd machines.

I think it's pretty good. There are probably higher spec PCs out there in the used market but it's not likely you'll find a PC ultrabook at that price. The MBA is silent, cool and very portable.

 

[Fuchsdh]

If you're an all Apple ecosystem, Safari is a great choice. I use Chrome because I like its compatibility and syncing, but it seems to have problems with many tabs at once and uses up a lot of memory. I use it because it works on Windows, but if I could I'd switch to Safari but right now Safari just doesn't have everything I need. If only for the speed and compatibility.

While they seem to have fixed the "I'm going to randomly reload your tabs" nonsense, Safari still feels like its gobbling up waay too much memory with just a few tabs open.

 

[muddream]

Hey guys, need some advice. I have the opportunity to pick up a mid-2011 MacBook Air (1.6 GHz i5, 2GB ram, 64GB SSD, 11.6" screen) for $380. It's in phenomenal condition, very gently used. Good deal? I don't really know the best places to check to see what it should be going for, other than looking for completed auctions on eBay (which hasn't been much help). Gazelle's quote is $311 if I mark good, $357 if I mark flawless (there's a tiny scuff on the frame, so it's kind of in the middle).

I want to use it for Delicious Library and little else. Good deal? Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

Getting a computer with 2GB of non-upgradable RAM would be offensively stupid regardless of the price, add everyone who says otherwise to your ignore list.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Getting a computer with 2GB of non-upgradable RAM would be offensively stupid regardless of the price, add everyone who says otherwise to your ignore list.

To run a single application as an appliance? 2GB might actually be fine.

 

[muddream]

Good luck getting anyone to buy that thing in a few years...paying a coupe bux more for an extra 2 gigs is worth it in every aspect.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Good luck getting anyone to buy that thing in a few years...paying a coupe bux more for an extra 2 gigs is worth it in every aspect.

There's no "couple bux more" in this situation. At all. He can either pay the used rate for the laptop or not. And having 2GB does not cripple your machine. If you're hammering chrome and photoshop all day I can see the swap hit, but for day to day use (particularly casual use) 2GB is just fine. And it's already old, so selling it in a few years isn't going to fetch much regardless.

In a couple of years? On a new OS? Who knows. But I've never seen 2011 model mac hardware slamming against a RAM limit with casual use on ML.

 

[metsallica]

I pulled the trigger; been happy so far! I don't have plans to resell even far down the line, intend on running it (and Delicious Library) into the ground. The ram limitation was definitely a stumbling block, but as CD said I am basically using the MBA as an appliance. Really appreciate all the help! I've been lusting after Delicious Library for a decade... never thought I'd be able to use it for a price that didn't make me hate myself. Feels good!

 

[muddream]

There's no "couple bux more" in this situation. At all. He can either pay the used rate for the laptop or not. And having 2GB does not cripple your machine. If you're hammering chrome and photoshop all day I can see the swap hit, but for day to day use (particularly casual use) 2GB is just fine. And it's already old, so selling it in a few years isn't going to fetch much regardless.

In a couple of years? On a new OS? Who knows. But I've never seen 2011 model mac hardware slamming against a RAM limit with casual use on ML.

check your activity monitor before giving bad advice...there's a reason apple doesn't sell 2GB computers anymore

saving the money or looking on craigslist/ebay is always an alternative...a 4GB model will keep the Apple resell value far longer

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

saving the money or looking on craigslist/ebay is always an alternative...a 4GB model will keep the Apple resell value far longer

If you check eBay you'll see that metsallica saved $150 over what the same model goes for there. The 4GB version are $100 more than that. How much lower would the purchase price have to be before this was a good deal? $380 up front for this, who cares about resale?

 

[muddream]

alright, my bad...guess he got a good deal on a bad product

 

[Fuchsdh]

Speaking of eBay, I'm looking at a 2011 server Mac mini for $295 (hopefully it doesn't bump up too much in the last day.) Need something with a Thunderbolt port for my Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle; I'm just going to use this to vacuum up old VHS tapes.

This means I'll have three comps I want to use for distributed tasks--guess I need to get an ethernet hub to network them together for faster AE renders.

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

New PBF, just for us: http://pbfcomics.com/259/

alright, my bad...guess he got a good deal on a bad product

Bad is sometimes good enough.

 

[gokieks]

Bad is sometimes good enough.

Ironically, this is the same reasoning used by people who buy cheap and shitty Windows laptops that so many smug Apple fans like to make fun of.

 

[Fuchsdh]

New PBF, just for us: http://pbfcomics.com/259/




Bad is sometimes good enough.

Actually, that comic makes me realize how little applications crash on me these days. I remember getting OS X (10.3) and being blown away that I could kill an unresponsive application without crashing the rest of my system, but I got so many "unexpectedly quit" messages that I customized the string to give me some random sarcastic messages.

In fact the only software that fails regularly is Adobe.

 

[muddream]

Ironically, this is the same reasoning used by people who buy cheap and shitty Windows laptops that so many smug Apple fans like to make fun of.

thank you

 

[CrudeDiatribe]

Ironically, this is the same reasoning used by people who buy cheap and shitty Windows laptops that so many smug Apple fans like to make fun of.

I can think of a lot reasons that shitty cheap PC laptops aren't good enough and instead are merely bad, and an Air with 2GB RAM would also not be good enough for me. If they're good enough for the task(s) at hand, though, what's the problem again?

In fact the only software that fails regularly is Adobe.

Web browsers probably do it more than Photoshop for me. Aperture does it once in a while. Everything else is very solid.

 

[kennah]

Flashed the bios on a 9800GT to make it work on the Mac Pro today.

I feel like a god.

(Now work needs to decide whether we are upgrading the Pro or selling it and getting a new one/iMac)

 

[Fuchsdh]

Flashed the bios on a 9800GT to make it work on the Mac Pro today.

I feel like a god.

(Now work needs to decide whether we are upgrading the Pro or selling it and getting a new one/iMac)

Why not wait for the new Pros? You're going to be getting more power and the iMac will be even less expandable.

Through with a Mini for Thunderbolt, I'm pretty much talking myself out of getting one for a while now. I guess I'm going to have to talk myself out of buying the shiny new guys until 2015 at least.

 

[kennah]

Why not wait for the new Pros? You're going to be getting more power and the iMac will be even less expandable.

Through with a Mini for Thunderbolt, I'm pretty much talking myself out of getting one for a while now. I guess I'm going to have to talk myself out of buying the shiny new guys until 2015 at least.

That's what I meant by 'new one', though my boss seems convinced that a 27" iMac would work out nicely (and for what we do, it would be fine). Either way waiting for new pro/haswell imac, but might sell sooner while it's still worth more and migrate a bunch of work to the other lesser Pro.

 

[muddream]

I can think of a lot reasons that shitty cheap PC laptops aren't good enough and instead are merely bad, and an Air with 2GB RAM would also not be good enough for me. If they're good enough for the task(s) at hand, though, what's the problem again?

a man's gotta have a code

 

[gokieks]

I can think of a lot reasons that shitty cheap PC laptops aren't good enough and instead are merely bad, and an Air with 2GB RAM would also not be good enough for me. If they're good enough for the task(s) at hand, though, what's the problem again?

Because rare is the case when someone buys a cheap and underpowered computer saying "oh, I only need it to do some basic tasks" do they actually use it that way and never have the user experience constrained by the hardware at some point in time. My point is that using such a machine is going to lead to a shitty experience down the road regardless of whether it's a shitty cheapo consumer Dell/HP/etc or one of the (rarer but not non-existant) Apple products like the first generation MBA.

Now, if someone really will never expect the machine to do more than one task using the OS/software it currently uses, then that's fine, and it's why I didn't try to dissuade the guy from buying that laptop. But for the vast majority of people, buying something like that, regardless of it being a pretty decent deal, is a terrible idea.

 

[caesar]

I just ordered a 13" i7 Macbook Pro (Non Retina) with 750gb hdd, moving abroad and it was the most affordable.

Anyone here own one? Thoughts?

I was torn between it and the new air but 128gb just doesn't seem sufficient enough for me even if it is ssd.

 

[gokieks]

I just ordered a 13" i7 Macbook Pro (Non Retina) with 750gb hdd, moving abroad and it was the most affordable.

Anyone here own one? Thoughts?

I was torn between it and the new air but 128gb just doesn't seem sufficient enough for me even if it is ssd.

If the laptop is going to be someone's only computer, I definitely agree that a 128 or even 256GB SSD isn't enough. So If you can afford it (and don't have a frequent need for the optical drive), replace the optical drive with an SSD and get the best of both worlds.

Now is really kind of a bad time to buy a non-Retina MBP though.

 

[mrkgoo]

I just ordered a 13" i7 Macbook Pro (Non Retina) with 750gb hdd, moving abroad and it was the most affordable.

Anyone here own one? Thoughts?

I was torn between it and the new air but 128gb just doesn't seem sufficient enough for me even if it is ssd.

I feel the haswell processors are a significant boost fur laptops. It wound bug me to get a mbp knowing that haswell is just around the corner.

 

[muddream]

I just ordered a 13" i7 Macbook Pro (Non Retina) with 750gb hdd, moving abroad and it was the most affordable.

Anyone here own one? Thoughts?

I was torn between it and the new air but 128gb just doesn't seem sufficient enough for me even if it is ssd.

Somewhere in hell Steve Jobs is appalled at your atrocious taste. Honestly, it might be a good idea if you're on a tight budget and can't rely on external storage and DVD/RW for whatever reason. In the other 99% of cases the Air's easily the better choice.

 

[caesar]

If the laptop is going to be someone's only computer, I definitely agree that a 128 or even 256GB SSD isn't enough. So If you can afford it (and don't have a frequent need for the optical drive), replace the optical drive with an SSD and get the best of both worlds.

Now is really kind of a bad time to buy a non-Retina MBP though.

I feel the haswell processors are a significant boost fur laptops. It wound bug me to get a mbp knowing that haswell is just around the corner.

Well, the reason for the tight budget is I will be living kind of on the edge for the first month until I get my Alien Residency Card which allows to have an ROK bank account. So, it is a possibility that I may only have this for 6 months or so and then I may upgrade to a retina.

Somewhere in hell Steve Jobs is appalled at your atrocious taste. Honestly, it might be a good idea if you're on a tight budget and can't rely on external storage and DVD/RW for whatever reason. In the other 99% of cases the Air's easily the better choice.

I am on a pretty tight budget, thing is I don't really see the point in having an Air if I have to have an external HDD/Optical drive as well. If it had 512 then yeah. The weight and portability/design is really nice, but those two things inconvenience me too much.