Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
On Sep 5, 2009, at 6:27 PM, j_alexander_stanley wrote: The web server down in the basement that also runs the post count script is an old desktop machine that I bought in late 1999. It's a 733 MHz Pentium III running Win2000, and it only has around a 15GB hard drive. There's only a couple gigs of space left, and its limitations are starting to be felt. I dread having to reconfig a new server, but before too long, I'm going to replace that large, loud desktop tower with a tiny, silent Mac Mini. One thing to keep in mind is the Mac Mini comes with a 5400 RPM laptop hard drive. There used to be some Mac resellers who sell them with 7500 RPM drives for a little extra. It was worth it. Nice thing is all Macs come with Apache already on board if you want to use them as servers and are UNIX savvy. Also, all newer Mini's have gigabit ethernet and can be interconnected and used as clusters using XGRID. Re: install. I did a clean install, thus the faster install time. I find since I install a lot of UNIX Open Source stuff on my Macs, along with XP, it's best to do a clean install.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: One thing to keep in mind is the Mac Mini comes with a 5400 RPM laptop hard drive. I'd be surprised if the 10 year old drive in that old tower is any faster. And, it's not like my little server sees all that much activity. For what it's used for, I doubt a 5400 RPM hard drive is going to be all that significant a bottleneck. Nice thing is all Macs come with Apache already on board if you want to use them as servers and are UNIX savvy. Even though I'll be duplicating some aps, I'll probably just install the XAMPP package like I did on the Win2000 box because it includes the scripting stuff I need for the Post Count, and it's dumbed down and simplified enough that even I can figure it out. Bhairitu turned me on to XAMPP when we were getting the Post Count script to run on my box. Re: install. I did a clean install, thus the faster install time. I find since I install a lot of UNIX Open Source stuff on my Macs, along with XP, it's best to do a clean install. I'm an innocent Mac n00b, so I just popped in the disk and followed the directions. I don't even know how to do a clean install on a Mac.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, j_alexander_stanley j_alexander_stan...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: Just installed in 20 minutes. It's true, I actually have 7 gigs of extra space. It's like having a new computer. It's actually a faster OS than the previous version imagine that. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/ 27pogue.html?_r=1emc=eta1 I just ordered it this morning for my Macbook. It arrived today, and I just installed it. What I did was make sure it was entirely updated, reboot, and make note of the hard drive's capacity and available space (232.57GB and 183.43GB). I started the install at 3:42pm, and it finished at 4:29pm. After the install, it says the hard drive's capacity and available space are 249.72GB and 204.79GB. Apparently they've switched to a different method of counting bytes, but the difference between the two values dropped from 49.14GB to 44.93GB, so it appears I did gain some space. I won't know if I notice any difference until I spend some time using it, and I don't use it a whole lot when I'm at home. I had it with me on the trip to California, and what really impressed me was how well the sleep function works. I've had a number of Windows laptops over the years, and sleep never worked right on them. Windows would either freeze up when trying to reactivate or it would start up but act wonky enough that a reboot was required. With the MacBook, I can just shut the lid and it goes to sleep; open the lid and it pops back to life, immediately logs back on to the WiFi, and life is good. I can do that over and over on the same initial boot-up, and it just works perfectly every time. The web server down in the basement that also runs the post count script is an old desktop machine that I bought in late 1999. It's a 733 MHz Pentium III running Win2000, and it only has around a 15GB hard drive. There's only a couple gigs of space left, and its limitations are starting to be felt. I dread having to reconfig a new server, but before too long, I'm going to replace that large, loud desktop tower with a tiny, silent Mac Mini.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
On Aug 28, 2009, at 5:35 PM, j_alexander_stanley wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Just installed in 20 minutes. It's true, I actually have 7 gigs of extra space. It's like having a new computer. It's actually a faster OS than the previous version imagine that. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/ 27pogue.html?_r=1emc=eta1 I just ordered it this morning for my Macbook. The more I use it, the more I'm inclined to switch to a Mac for my next desktop machine. The Mac towers that I've bought were all nice: a simple latch always seems to just open it sideways for real easy add-on or hardware upgrades.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Just installed in 20 minutes. It's true, I actually have 7 gigs of extra space. It's like having a new computer. It's actually a faster OS than the previous version imagine that. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/ 27pogue.html?_r=1emc=eta1 I just ordered it this morning for my Macbook. The more I use it, the more I'm inclined to switch to a Mac for my next desktop machine.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Snow Leopard arrives
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer r...@... wrote: From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Vaj Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 1:49 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Snow Leopard arrives Just installed in 20 minutes. It's true, I actually have 7 gigs of extra space. It's like having a new computer. It's actually a faster OS than the previous version imagine that. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/ 27pogue.html?_r=1emc=eta1 Did it arrive by mail or UPS? We ordered it, but the mail already came and no Snow Leopard. They sent it overnight Fed Ex. If you weren't there when they knocked, you might have missed it. i had to print out and place on my front door a document, with my signature and permission to just leave it. Of course i had to also sign and consent in case some hooligan--presumably a raccoon or a bear sensing food might abscond with my precious package sigh. Both my wife and I weren't home and we knew that would likely be the case--Fed Ex are sticklers on computer items for either a live signature or the simple letter on the door (I'd typically sign an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper with my message scrawled in Sharpie). Anyhow, they were kind and left it, nicely placed in our mudroom. I'm certain the Jack Russell's probably lunged at the poor delivery guy on the glass windows, although who just can't laugh at Jack Russell's lunging at anything? If said package has not arrived and you ordered it or have an account with apple.com, you can track it simply by signing on and going to the store and then checking order status. Order status has a live-link to Fed Ex, which will give you all details. i knew i had it, before i left where I was logged on!
