stuck in usb land

[jefhatfield]

my latest mac and latest pc, both from 1999, have usb and no firewire

are there others like me who feel left out with the coolness of firewire out there but unable to participate?

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

i was there. i bought a firewire pc card for my laptop. still i am without firewire in osx since osx doesnt recognize pc cards

i would definitely buy an ipod if i had firewire built-in.

but dont worry soon firewire2 will be out and all the cool kids will be obolete just like us. and we can jump straight from usb to firewire2, oooh feel the wind in your hair?

 

[mymemory]

You know something... I;m about to make a guide called "The smart Mac Buyer" or something like this, because since I was very young I hve been buying profesional and expensive electronic devices (starting with midi and electronic music related) and specially when you live in a society where there is not much money to spend and the one you spend have to be in a very smart way, that creates some kind of sense of what you need, how long is gonna last and how use full is gonna be.

For example, I bought my Powerbook G3 500 (top of the line) just one month after it was discontinued. I wanted to have a powerbook bad but I knew that most of the people were about to sell them to get the TiBook (that for me still inferior in capabilities and functionality/price relation). So, I got mine for $1400 with 2 bateries and 256MB ram.
The same thing with my G4 400, the last computer with audio in (just like the Powerbook).

And that is after getting keyboards, midi interfaces, etc.

You have to look up for what is gonna become a clasic. Clasic means a uniti that years later would be compatible and worth it, like Newtons.

For example, the top of the line iBook looks like a winner to me, just like the top of the line iMac.

I always buy the unit with more fetures of that generation, the one that is gonna be compatible for longer time.

For example I would never buy and old iMac without firewire or the old generation of iBooks. From the last generation iBook I would get the top of the line Graphite, because it has one of every single port, video out put and is a good looking device, that means that would be easy to sell later one. I have a friend with a blue iBook that only came with one USB port and no one wants to buy it.

Be carefull with thouse units that have not every single features. I call them "incomplete mutations" because they are not the best of that line. If I ever get one, I would use it and sell them while they still in production because they would be very hard to sell later and they would not furfill the expectations in compatibility and durability.

 

[jefhatfield]

my old blueberry usb ibook is super durable, but it is obsolete and i wish i waited until the firewire ibook in key lime

that would fulfill my modest needs

 

[Taft]

PC Cards

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
i was there. i bought a firewire pc card for my laptop. still i am without firewire in osx since osx doesnt recognize pc cards

OS X doesn't recognize any PC Cards? Or is it just Firewire?

Not that I'm arguing with you (I've never used PC Cards), but I find that shocking!

Yowsa!

Matthew

 

[Rower_CPU]

Re: PC Cards

Originally posted by mrtrumbe


OS X doesn't recognize any PC Cards? Or is it just Firewire?

Not that I'm arguing with you (I've never used PC Cards), but I find that shocking!

Yowsa!

Matthew

My co-worker is using a generic firewire and Belkin USB PCI cards in his unsupported system and they run fine in OS X. Some people need to try harder...

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

apple does not have any native support for pc cards. this is likely because they seem to be eliminating them from the laptop line. i have a wireless pc card in now but to get t to work i need a thrid party driver. i do not know of any third party drivers for firewire cards though.

if your friend has a working pc card then its probably because the company who created the card provided a driver for it. i bought my card long before osx came out so i did not recieve any osx drivers. os9 automatically recognizes the card. further more any pc card put into osx will not show up as a drive on your desktop the way they do in os9. this means that if you put a pc card in your machine there is no way of safely ejecting it.

i do not expect this to change though since apple has clearly been trying to make their laptop line less and less expandable.

 

[Pepzhez]

I'm sure that everyone has noticed how ubiquitous USB 2.0 stuff has become lately. After playing around with a PC-owning friend's USB 2.0 CD-RW drive and external harddrive, I have to say that USB 2.0 is clearly inferior to Firewire 1. It's slower and tends to hang (although the hanging might be due to Windows more than anything else - big surprise there).

I agree with the above post about avoiding incomplete mutation machines. Although I now do most of my video work on a dual G4, I remain more fond of my iMac DV-SE 500 MHz G3 (which I still use daily) because:

1) It does have audio input

2) Two firewire ports

3) Was the last of the original iMac line to feature a DVD drive (much easier and more sensible to get an external firewire CD-RW than an external DVD-ROM)

4) Fanless! Quiet! Compare that to the jet engine throttle of a dual G4 tower - an important distinction when you live in a small apartment and need to render video for 10 hours overnight. (That is, if you want to SLEEP.)

5) Outfitted with a faster, bigger HD (I switched out the original HD for a 100 GB 7200 rpm HD; it runs as cool as it always did) and 1 GB RAM, the iMac handles OS X as well as the G4 tower does (meaning both could be a bit faster, yes, but it is perfectly functional).

As for USB 1.0, I really never understood what it was intended for, aside from basic, low-power consumption devices, like mice and keyboards. Having said that, I've a Roland USB external soundcard which has always worked extremely well. (And does that render moot my point about the iMac having audio input?
Not at all. I use both when appropriate.)

 

[eyelikeart]

on the contrary...

my TiBook is my 2nd Mac....

but the first to have USB or FireWire...

I've had to replace everything I had prior to getting it...and have had a useless scanner for a year now

 

[jefhatfield]

don't you just hate to see old stuff just sitting there? that is the IT industry and the main reason i have enough work to make my own business

if things were static, the industry would go back to being a cottage industry and silicon valley would be orchards again

boy, those days were nice, fruit stands everywhere, rolling hills, no traffic, no smog, cheap places to live and eat

it used to be a straight shot of countryside from santa barbara to the bay area...no traffic

in another 150 years, the west coast is expected to reach density levels of the eastern seaboard of the united states and the west coast with LA, SF, and seattle will be indistinguishable from NY, boston, and philly...thank god i won't be in california then

bakersfield will turn into the bronx and washington state will be like new jersey and baja califonia will be full of drug lords and resemble miami

not to diss the east coast, but i rather like the comparatively desolate western seaboard as it stands right now

 

[eyelikeart]

I think u are right....that's the IT business...

as good as it is to see things moving forward....it does suck a lot to have them also get left behind...

but tell me jef....what are your plans when u are finished with computers? or is that a longshot?

 

[mischief]

We won't see that density.

The direction Tech is taking...............it won't happen. Go to NASA's website and look up "Agate". AGATE will fit nicely in the solving-the-airline-security niche.

Between Agate and globalized Wireless Access.......we could live ANYWHERE and be connected. Keep the Faith, we're almost there.

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
I think u are right....that's the IT business...

as good as it is to see things moving forward....it does suck a lot to have them also get left behind...

but tell me jef....what are your plans when u are finished with computers? or is that a longshot?

from the mid-70s to now, i have been a gardener and landscaper and for the last three years i have also have also been a techie fixing pc machines, so i have two jobs but i refuse to work more than five days...that's just my rule for quality of life

i have been asked a couple of times to teach at the local college in business and/or computer science and maybe when i get close to 50 or so, i might consider it as my third career

most americans have four real careers in their life, each lasting ten years or more and gone are the days where the majority work at one place for twenty or thirty years and get a gold watch...though i am sure some of you know of a person like that...come to think of it, i have never heard of anybody getting any gold watch...now wouldn't that be super expensive since gold watches i have seen cost more than a dual g4?

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


from the mid-70s to now, i have been a gardener and landscaper and for the last three years i have also have also been a techie fixing pc machines, so i have two jobs but i refuse to work more than five days...that's just my rule for quality of life

i have been asked a couple of times to teach at the local college in business and/or computer science and maybe when i get close to 50 or so, i might consider it as my third career

most americans have four real careers in their life, each lasting ten years or more and gone are the days where the majority work at one place for twenty or thirty years and get a gold watch...though i am sure some of you know of a person like that...come to think of it, i have never heard of anybody getting any gold watch...now wouldn't that be super expensive since gold watches i have seen cost more than a dual g4?

Sad, but true. Double digit years in one company/job are very rare these days. I know I'm already started on that path with my current job. Being a full-time tech is great while I go through school, but it's not what I want to do my whole life. I'll probably work here for another 2 - 3 years, and then move on.

 

[eyelikeart]

it's hard to say how long I'll end up being at my current job....I'm coming up on 2 years this May...

but the way things are looking....I'll be moving out of town within the next 6 months....which works out well because I've been feeling my time here is up....I'm ready for a change...

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU


Sad, but true. Double digit years in one company/job are very rare these days. I know I'm already started on that path with my current job. Being a full-time tech is great while I go through school, but it's not what I want to do my whole life. I'll probably work here for another 2 - 3 years, and then move on.

do you have any idea what industry you will go to after IT and high tech? just curious...all my ex-techie friends (consultants, network admins, bench techs, programmers, engineers) went to something completely different...a lot of them went into art and music

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


do you have any idea what industry you will go to after IT and high tech? just curious...all my ex-techie friends (consultants, network admins, bench techs, programmers, engineers) went to something completely different...a lot of them went into art and music

Well, I hope to go into Multimedia design and development. Since I do a good amount of web design stuff at my current job, and it's what I'm going to grad school for, it makes the most sense to me. Who knows what may come down the line? I'm going to stay open to new possibilities, but it will still involve computers.
It partly comes down to money (as most things in this world). My current job tops out at about $50K a year, and I should be there in a couple years...then it will be time to move on. I know I can make more in a different setting/job.

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Rower_CPU


Well, I hope to go into Multimedia design and development. Since I do a good amount of web design stuff at my current job, and it's what I'm going to grad school for, it makes the most sense to me. Who knows what may come down the line? I'm going to stay open to new possibilities, but it will still involve computers.
It partly comes down to money (as most things in this world). My current job tops out at about $50K a year, and I should be there in a couple years...then it will be time to move on. I know I can make more in a different setting/job.

multimedia is dead in northern cal (exception ilm and some others) but you are near los angeles which is the haven for multimedia types...it used to be san francisco back in the day but la and london seem to really get the work now so you can make money...multimedia types here in northern california often have to have a second job...they are considered starving artists

my wife uses her graphic design skills but has to also be a mathematician to get a good wage from her job...the graphic designers in her dept almost all have master's degrees and many in math and statistics and no one makes anywhere near fifty grand...but in la, a disney multimedia person is set and the chief artist at disney (retired) came to borders in seaside and gave a talk on the industry...interesting stuff and great pay, too, especially if you are also a decent artist

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


multimedia is dead in northern cal (exception ilm and some others) but you are near los angeles which is the haven for multimedia types...it used to be san francisco back in the day but la and london seem to really get the work now so you can make money...multimedia types here often have to have a second job...they are considered starving artists

I guess to answer your original question: Yes, I'm going to be an artisit.

 

[spikey]

Move to Cuba.
Its what my brother has done, and hes loving it. Hes a software engineer, he doesnt get paid much but its Cuba so u dont need to be.

 

[spikey]

I am also without firewire, my Rev.a has USB only.

And the imac USB is bad even by USB standards. When writing a CD im about 25% slower on this than on my PC.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by spikey
Move to Cuba.
Its what my brother has done, and hes loving it. Hes a software engineer, he doesnt get paid much but its Cuba so u dont need to be.

That's true...making as much as I do as a tech, I could live very comfortably somewhere other than SoCal or the Bay Area. I hear Oklohoma is cheap, but I'm not fond of tornados...

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by spikey
Move to Cuba.
Its what my brother has done, and hes loving it. Hes a software engineer, he doesnt get paid much but its Cuba so u dont need to be.

in silicon valley, the high cost of living and the dot.com bust leads to a new bumper sticker found on cars of people in the brick and mortar industries (driving beat up cars)...ok, laugh if you want, but at least it is paid for

on the local radio talk show for the region, one author tracked all the silicon valley billionaires, and fewer than ten are worth that much now...larry ellison was en route to being worth 100 bil and now he is worth a quarter of that

many overpaid techies bought houses they couldn't afford and cars and lots of junk (in bad taste, mind you) and thought their shares would go to 500 a share so they banked on it and borrowed more money and now almost all of these people are in debt...techies who made 40-50k or so who didn't step up to the dot.com race are still employed

but the instant millionaires are almost all in debt

 

[me hate windows]

this thread sure has gotten off topic.
I used to feel the pain of not having firewire. I had a grape iMac 333(still have it). I got it 15 days before the DV's came out with firewire. It made me so mad. Then I got a used G4 400 with 576 megs of ram a few months ago. It makes everything so much easier. Now I actually have a fast CD-RW(imac one was usb, and G4 has internal DVD). And then I got an iPod I wouldn't every get rid of that. I can take files from work to home, listen to music(231 songs right now) and it has a nifty little game on it(go into the "about" menu and hold down the middle button for about 10 seconds.

Just trying to get back on topic

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

All is not lost...

Well, folks - you do have the choice of updating your Rev. A-D iMacs with the Sonnet Harmoni G3:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/harmoni_g3.html

This upgrades your processor to 500MHz, AND gives you a Firewire port for your troubles...

(Better still, ditch the old beast and buy the 800MHz G4 iMac on some 6/12 month interest-free deal - you'll never notice the payments!)