Lists all of the journal entries for the day.

Sun, 28 Oct 2007

10:59 AM - An update on my Leopard experiences

My DVD had a scratch in it from shipment. The Power PC layer was fine, but the Intel build would fail during the middle of install. My G4 got it to test the DVD in another machine, but I realized it was not proof since we have only one intel mac.

I contacted Apple support at 6:05 PM as support was opened. They just had Leopard training. At 6:55 PM he told me he'd call me back with a solution. Their computer systems did not have the product id in the system yet so he couldn't order me a replacement DVD. The tech was very nice, although I was on hold for most of that call. This was the first time I've ever called apple technical support! I've been a Mac user for 7 years at home and even longer in work environments. There was an instance at work where we should have called, but did not once. Anyway, within 10 minutes he called me back asking if I'd go to the local apple store. I said OK. In fact, this was better as I could get the disc right then and fix the Mac Pro that wouldn't boot.

I went to the apple store to find some very rude help. I wish I had written the girl's name down or something. They gave me attitude about not having a receipt. Mind you I had a damaged, opened DVD... Under normal circumstances, I would have brought the receipt. Remember the Mac won't boot so I can't print a copy of my web order on that one. I also had MidnightBSD compiling so windows was out, and my other printer has been giving me issues. The box came with a PACKING SLIP that didn't have my name on it so I doubt that would help. Finally she did it and I was able to return with 10.5.

The phone support was under stress with a new release and not enough planning. I understand that. I was very angry with my store experience. I wonder if it was related to the fact I interviewed for a job there. I've never seen that behavior at any apple store before.

Now, an update on using 10.5. The transparency is disabled for the top menu bar (apple menu area) on an old Power Mac G4 Dual 867 with an nvidia geforce 4 mx. It is enabled on the Mac Pro. I don't like it and would like to turn it off on new Macs. The G4 version is white with a nice drop shadow. It is easy to read.

I bought an external seagate drive as a backup drive for time machine on Friday. Best Buy had a nice sale on them. The drive is bigger than my boot drive (which is practically required). It has to keep copies of files beyond the contents of your disk. It took about 6-7 hours to copy 149GB of data to the drive over USB 2. (i have a belkin USB 2 card) The UI is ugly on the G4. The animation does not work properly. I'm sure it's much nicer on newer Macs. Whenever you're doing a lot of file modifications, it starts syncing which cuts down on throughput. I've noticed problems copying files between Macs while it' s going. This would probably be more noticable on SATA drives as they are serial and multiple requests can be an issue. I haven't tested it though. It is very thorough, but I don't think it changes the need for .Mac or "Backup" that comes with it. I still feel the need to do separate backups for certain items.

The new version of Mail is nice. It has support for RSS feeds. The notes and todo features are great. They finally added a check box to approve SSL/TLS certs for INCOMING connections! No more hell with keychain for incoming mail. Outgoing requires MORE HOOPS though. I did get SSL/TLS support going. My sendmail + dovecot setup is happy again. Overall, I like the new Mail application.

Safari 3 is much more stable in 10.5 than the betas. It is a little slower, but it works on more websites. I prefer the stability. When the focus is off the window, it gets lighter now. I wish that color was default. The dashboard feature to save parts of web pages is great. I've got my build cluster on there. :)

10.5 does not come with most of the iLife applications like previous versions. You have to get iPhoto, iWeb and friends yourself. I'm sure they probably include them on new Macs, but if you're thinking you can save a few bucks during upgrades, think again.

Although ipfw doesn't block connections directly, by disabling connections, it does block AFP connections. It appears they tied in binding of their services with that setting instead of relying on ipfw. I'm still playing with it. I don't know how it would do blocking other apps like say limewire or azerus.

While I think there are some issues with 10.5, it's worth the upgrade price. The UI enhancements might not be your favorite, but some of my friends like them.

()