Apple Nag

… memory for OS X. Especially Leopard.

After suffering through a few months of sluggishness and a bloated Safari, I decided I’d had enough. There was no way I could afford to replace my Power Mac G5 dual 2.3 GHz, 2 GB RAM machine with even the low end Mac Pro that was just announced. I’m not filthy rich.

A memory upgrade it was. It’s common knowledge that one of the easiest ways to speed up a computer is to give it more RAM. Since that was a teensy, tiny fraction of the cost of a Mac Pro, that’s what I did.

Rumour has it that you’re not going to support G5 machines with Snow Leopard. I think that’s a big mistake since my machine is only four years old. Sure, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth but I’m not ready to put it out on an ice floe yet. Neither should you.

I know you really don’t care a lot about what your customers think, and you’re in the business to sell more hardware. But abandoning a machine that is only four years old will only result in me holding on to the machine even longer as I fight that kind of planned obsolescence.

Don’t hold yourself up to be a green computer company when you prematurely stop supporting old hardware. That just pushes equipment to the recycling center faster than necessary. That’s not green — it’s the worst kind of brown — if you know what I’m sayin’.

The Dashboard is broken. Actually, it has never worked properly. By properly I mean I want to use it rather than dread using it.

I get pretty bored the first time the Dashboard is called up after a restart. It’s an automatic trigger to get up, walk around, grab a drink, take a bio-break, watch a few movies and then wander back to the computer to see if Dashboard has finished opening up all those Widgets.
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The Installer generally works pretty good although there are a couple of nagging problems that you don’t seem to recognize as problems. Let me nag you back to see if I can convince you to fix it.

Why do you ask the user to make a go/no-go decision at the end of all the user input? Don’t you think that should be the first question?
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When looking back over my ownership of my second generation iPod Shuffle, I’m shocked at how much trouble it’s given me, and, equally shocked that I still use it.

I’ve marveled at how the simplest device you make can also be one of the most troublesome. The number of discussion threads is startling. But, there’s hope.
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I’m not crapping on Windows, you are. Sometimes it’s funny, like this icon you use for Windows servers (click to see larger view). And sometimes it’s not, like when you won’t display the Windows servers in the sidebar along with the Mac servers.

Well, sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t depending on your mood. And you are moody. Often.
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After downloading the latest AirPort Utility update and connecting to my AirPort Extreme, it told me that a firmware update was available. I dutifully installed that because I heard it might improve things across the board. Well, I was hoping anyway.

I once tried to use a 1 TB LaCie drive connected to the AirPort Extreme’s USB port to use as a Time Machine backup disk, even though it’s not a Time Capsule. The performance was so bad, that I returned the drive to the store.
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Even though this site is not fully operational, I couldn’t let today pass by without mentioning that it is the 25th anniversary of the purchase of my first Macintosh 128K.

Macintosh 128K

I bought the Macintosh with the original ImageWriter printer on March 1st, 1984 for the whopping sum of $2,650 ($5,024 in 2009 dollars).

ImageWriter I

Although this was my first purchase, it was far from my last. In the past 25 years I’ve owned or purchased countless Macs and peripherals.

The Mac and ImageWriter were donated to my daughter’s elementary school in 1994, for which it was further appreciated and used for years. I regret doing that somewhat due to the historical significance of the Mac, but I’m content in knowing it continued to serve others after it had served me so well. RIP ol’ buddy.

Update: The irony is not lost on me that my Power Mac G5 dual 2.3 GHz running OS X 10.5.6 with all updates applied did a kernel panic while writing this post.