Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]


get fatal1ty headset :p
 
I think I've had too much Apple koolaid, or something. I'm thinking about replacing my MacBook with both a 17" MacBook Pro AND an 11" MacBook Air.

Well, I suppose the MBP would be replacing the now dis-used Mac Pro. I'm not letting myself be tied down by the desktop anymore, but the lack of ability of the MacBook is bothering me. I want to be able to play HD videos without skipping. I want to be able to run multiple applications and not wait for one to get pulled out of swap. I want to be able to play the occasional game. And I want to do this while sitting on the couch.

As long as the MacBook doesn't actually die, I'll probably stick with it and not buy an Air. But I want the little laptop I can easily take to work, take on weekend trips, etc. And my MacBook feels like it's barely holding on to life. It's had a few hard drops, one of which killed the hard drive and the optical drive (I replaced the hard drive, not the optical drive). I'm convinced our Europe trip will mean the end of it.

For the MBP, I'm thinking 17", standard processor, self-upgraded RAM, 128GB SSD from Apple plus replacing the optical drive with my own hard drive, anti-glare display. If I were to go for an Air, it'd be the basic one with 4GB (rather than 2GB) RAM.

The current MacBook is this one, with the slow processor and 3GB RAM. I could up it to 4GB RAM, but I need at least 6GB these days. The graphics ability (or lack thereof) really hold it back, as well.

I'm really looking forward to the additional pixels (over the MacBook) the 17" MBP offers. I'll miss the 4+ million pixels of the 30" Cinema display, but only slightly, as I haven't been using that display extensively recently. I've got about 3.8 million pixels at work, but spread across 3 displays. It's a different experience, especially with the lower quality of the work provided displays.
 
I have a MBA (not the doorstopper shaped one) and almost exclusively run Windows 7 on it unless I need to internet tether it to my phone. Everyone says I'm crazy :lol:
 
Heh. I'd be buying Apple to run OS X. I prefer Unix based OSes, and OS X is the one I'd rather have on a desktop/laptop/workstation. If I were going to run a Linux distro or FreeBSD, I'd probably go for cheaper hardware. Or I'd at least look into what has the best combination of supported hardware, quality, and price for my needs. :)
 
I have a MBA (not the doorstopper shaped one) and almost exclusively run Windows 7 on it unless I need to internet tether it to my phone. Everyone says I'm crazy :lol:

You're certainly not the only one - plenty of my mates are doing that too.

I run win7 50% of the time on my MBP.
 
So.. I sort of want something like a NAS, that is capable of running a torrent client, and possibly a Minecraft server at some point. I've been contemplating the Mac Mini, but I don't know if that's overkill? It seems like a nice solution, if I can access it wirelessly from my MBP. It looks nice, and the power consumption is low (something I feel I have to take into account when it would be on 24/7).

However, I am completely ignorant on this topic, so if anyone would have another, better solution, that would be great :)

I'm running a 120gb SSD on my MBP, and I'm getting tired of moving things back and forth from my external drive all the time. And being able to share everything with my family members would be great as well :)

Also, what's a clever solution to then stream movie files to my TV?
 
So.. I sort of want something like a NAS, that is capable of running a torrent client, and possibly a Minecraft server at some point. I've been contemplating the Mac Mini, but I don't know if that's overkill? It seems like a nice solution, if I can access it wirelessly from my MBP. It looks nice, and the power consumption is low (something I feel I have to take into account when it would be on 24/7).

However, I am completely ignorant on this topic, so if anyone would have another, better solution, that would be great :)

I'm running a 120gb SSD on my MBP, and I'm getting tired of moving things back and forth from my external drive all the time. And being able to share everything with my family members would be great as well :)

Also, what's a clever solution to then stream movie files to my TV?
If you wanna build your own NAS and run a Minecraft server on top of it then I would suggest building a cheap desktop. You can set up a NAS like environment on any OS really (FreeBSD or Linux would be the better choices for obvious reasons) and then just install the Minecraft server software.

TV streaming is a different question, what hardware do you have? What are your requirements for TV streaming, etc.... If you already have hardware you want to use then it would change your options somewhat. I personally use a WD TV Live+ it was a $100 and its a tiny little thing that makes for a great streamer and understands a shitload of formats.
 
If you wanna build your own NAS and run a Minecraft server on top of it then I would suggest building a cheap desktop. You can set up a NAS like environment on any OS really (FreeBSD or Linux would be the better choices for obvious reasons) and then just install the Minecraft server software.

TV streaming is a different question, what hardware do you have? What are your requirements for TV streaming, etc.... If you already have hardware you want to use then it would change your options somewhat. I personally use a WD TV Live+ it was a $100 and its a tiny little thing that makes for a great streamer and understands a shitload of formats.

I could easily go without the Minecraft thing, that would just be a bonus :) The torrent thing would have to be a requirement. Also, I don't want a full size desktop computer standing around, the form factor of the Mac Mini is something that's very appealing.

I'm going to have to research this further, it's a nice concept :) Being able to access it via the internet would also be pretty cool.

Thanks for the suggestions :)
 
There are PCs with Mac Mini-like form factor as well, especially nettops with Atom processors which also happen to be quite cheap. might work for you.
 
I could easily go without the Minecraft thing, that would just be a bonus :) The torrent thing would have to be a requirement. Also, I don't want a full size desktop computer standing around, the form factor of the Mac Mini is something that's very appealing.

I'm going to have to research this further, it's a nice concept :) Being able to access it via the internet would also be pretty cool.

Thanks for the suggestions :)
You can look for miniITX systems like this but they can be pricey. When building a NAS type of system you always have to be mindful of expansion. When drive space runs out it's much easier to add another drive than it is to get a bigger drive and copy the data.

Torrent capability is really not that difficult, there are plenty of torrent clients that can run on multiple platforms and have a web interface so you can have your torrent go directly to NAS. There is a fairly large number of commercially available NAS products that are fairly compact (depends on your storage requirements) something like this most have torrent capabilities as well as support a huge number of connectivity options such as AFP, SMB, FTP, CIFS (also WTF and BBQ :p)

For straight up NAS duty I like and use FreeNAS a tiny tiny OS that can (and should be) installed on a flash drive (an SD card in my case) that has a nice web interface that allows you to set up everything you want, also has ability to install some packages and has SSH access (in my case I installed unrar so I can extract rar'ed torrents directly on the NAS as opposed to having my laptop do the work).
 
Isn't the battery life terrible compared how it's like while running OSX?

A lot of things including the touchpad functionality IIRC are ever so inferior when running Windows on a Mac...one can't help but wonder if Apple's doing this on purpose...*rubs chin*

Double post but this really has nothing to do with my previous one.

For all the "Apple is overpriced" folks out there:
Ultrabook (MBA competitors) will end up being around $2000 with SSD and i5 CPUs

I guess that's how intel's justifying keeping two similar laptop categories (CULV and Ultrabook) in coexistance...*shrugs*
 
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A lot of things including the touchpad functionality IIRC are ever so inferior when running Windows on a Mac...one can't help but wonder if Apple's doing this on purpose...*rubs chin*

Yup. I read quite a lot into it, as a possible last solution before I sold my Macbook Pro.

It's now sold. Running Windows 7 on a Macbook Pro is like eating a vegetarian sausage - the orginal meat version (=running Windows on hardware that was designed for it) is 100x better. </bad analogy>


It's replacement will very likely be the entry-level model of the new Sony VAIO Z. :)
 
A lot of things including the touchpad functionality IIRC are ever so inferior when running Windows on a Mac...one can't help but wonder if Apple's doing this on purpose...*rubs chin*
I am usually one for a good Apple conspiracy theory but I think it's more likely that its simply because of the fact that Apple can code better for OS X than they can for Windows, considering that they have full control over the entire product (hardware and software) it makes perfect sense. Also I have a feeling that they go the Honda way when it comes to Windows on their hardware, "just good enough". I'm sure they don't spend nearly as much time on the drivers and optimizations for Windows.
 
I am usually one for a good Apple conspiracy theory but I think it's more likely that its simply because of the fact that Apple can code better for OS X than they can for Windows, considering that they have full control over the entire product (hardware and software) it makes perfect sense. Also I have a feeling that they go the Honda way when it comes to Windows on their hardware, "just good enough". I'm sure they don't spend nearly as much time on the drivers and optimizations for Windows.

Yes, but Apple's by no means poor...they could hire kickass talent seasoned in the ways of Windows driver development to write drivers. It's clearly a case of "get it working good enough."
 
Yes, but Apple's by no means poor...they could hire kickass talent seasoned in the ways of Windows driver development to write drivers. It's clearly a case of "get it working good enough."
They could no doubt but there is no reason for them to do so. BootCamp is a way to let people who need some specific Windows software to be able to ditch the "PC" world, it was never meant to level the playing field.
This also seems to be the case with iTunes, QuickTime, etc. on Windows.
They suck on OS X slightly less than they do on Windows but I don't see as drastic of a difference as everyone says. 64-bit iTunes on Lion does work better and faster than before, QT still can't play shit other than h.264 mp4s and with Perian it takes like 20 minutes to start a movie from my NAS and it still stutters. VLC does it all no problem at the same time on the same network and same machine....
 
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I could easily go without the Minecraft thing, that would just be a bonus :) The torrent thing would have to be a requirement. Also, I don't want a full size desktop computer standing around, the form factor of the Mac Mini is something that's very appealing.

I'm going to have to research this further, it's a nice concept :) Being able to access it via the internet would also be pretty cool.

Thanks for the suggestions :)

If you're willing to forgo the Minecraft server, there are plenty of routers that, with the correct firmware installed (e.g. Tomato), can download torrents, serve as a print server, NAS (with an external HDD plugged in), and even act as a DLNA server streaming media to your TV/phone/PS3/Xbox/etc.
 
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