Pro Macintosh Rant du jure
So, what is the deal with Hewlett-Packard? The other day, a friend gave me a scanner that he isn't using any longer - a pretty nice one. I went to the HP web site expecting to download a driver, and what do I find? For this (and a few other models), they are not supporting Mac OS X. What gives? And why support it on the other gazillion scanners and not four or five models? Of course, these are supported for Windows XP. Sheesh.
And, to make things more annoying, an organization to which I belong wants to use a particular form of conferencing software called Sonork. And, you guessed it, the don't make a Mac client. They have been saying for about two years that they are "working on one," but nothing yet. Of course, they gave me the standard answer, "well, you can run it if you have Windows emulation software."
Let's get something straight: I don't like Windows. Why in the world would I want to run almost-Windows on my Mac? I explained this to another officer of the organization this way: Asking somebody to emulate Windows on a Mac is a bit like asking an airplane pilot to "emulate" a Buick. You can drive it down the taxiway like a car, but you aren't exactly taking full advantage of its capabilities.
As for Mac OS X "Tiger" (10.4.x), it is wonderful. Excellent functionality and stability are coupled with some very good applications. Not everything is 100% worked out (problems with iChat and the Mail app, for example), but it is very good, and quite fast on my new eMac.
I guess I wouldn't have been so miffed with HP if they had not initially supported the scanner as a dual-platform device, and then abandoned the poor Mac users who bought it (suckers!). Thanks, guys. Cutbacks? Did the company just fire the guys who can write Mac code before they wrote the driver to boost the corporate bottom line? It is a mystery...
Well, enough vitriol for HP. On a very positive front for Macheads, I recommend Adium, a multiple-protocol chat program that is excellent. Check it out: http://www.adiumx.com/
It supports AIM, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, and others. Download it and try it out. Res ipsa loquitur.
Most of my posts won't be technical in nature, I'm sure. Don't despair.
-PMOS
And, to make things more annoying, an organization to which I belong wants to use a particular form of conferencing software called Sonork. And, you guessed it, the don't make a Mac client. They have been saying for about two years that they are "working on one," but nothing yet. Of course, they gave me the standard answer, "well, you can run it if you have Windows emulation software."
Let's get something straight: I don't like Windows. Why in the world would I want to run almost-Windows on my Mac? I explained this to another officer of the organization this way: Asking somebody to emulate Windows on a Mac is a bit like asking an airplane pilot to "emulate" a Buick. You can drive it down the taxiway like a car, but you aren't exactly taking full advantage of its capabilities.
As for Mac OS X "Tiger" (10.4.x), it is wonderful. Excellent functionality and stability are coupled with some very good applications. Not everything is 100% worked out (problems with iChat and the Mail app, for example), but it is very good, and quite fast on my new eMac.
I guess I wouldn't have been so miffed with HP if they had not initially supported the scanner as a dual-platform device, and then abandoned the poor Mac users who bought it (suckers!). Thanks, guys. Cutbacks? Did the company just fire the guys who can write Mac code before they wrote the driver to boost the corporate bottom line? It is a mystery...
Well, enough vitriol for HP. On a very positive front for Macheads, I recommend Adium, a multiple-protocol chat program that is excellent. Check it out: http://www.adiumx.com/
It supports AIM, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, and others. Download it and try it out. Res ipsa loquitur.
Most of my posts won't be technical in nature, I'm sure. Don't despair.
-PMOS
posted by Patrick O'Shea | 10:54 PM
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