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Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Since switching to a new iMac recently, I seem to have developed low, but chronic pain in my right wrist rather quickly. I've been using Apple Keyboards for ages and never had any problems, but I haven't so far used the cordless multitouch Magic Mouse. Admittedly, the thing does have a weird shape to it. Is this a common/known thing?

I love the multitouch gestures, but if it gives me carpal tunnel ...

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 14:58

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:01

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

flavor posted:

This has come up several times before, and I give it about 99% that you're trying to fit your whole hand on it, which is not the way to use it.

What's the right way?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 21:29

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

japtor posted:

Fingertip grip is the usual way with Apple mice, here's a site showing a few grip types:
http://www.epicgear.com/en/technologies/types-of-mouse-grip

If you can't adjust and/or it's too uncomfortable just pick up whatever style mouse you're used to. Or try to swap it with a Magic Trackpad if you're willing to give that a shot (I've anecdotally heard of iMac buyers being able to swap them at least).

I don't think I'd be physically able to do anything but Fingertip grip with this piece, and I don't have large hands.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 21:55

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Pivo posted:

It's pretty funny that "you're holding it wrong" is a legit answer in an Apple thread.

Just get a trackball or another mouse... Apple mouses suck. If they put as much effort into them as they did the laptop trackpads, they'd be golden. Instead they just look pretty and are hard to use.

As I said, I really like the multitouch gestures on the wireless MM. I also never had usability problems with the old corded one (although the scroll ball is a weak part in my experience).
But the cordless one might be giving me wrist strain.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2014 22:07

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

For what it's worth, two days after reverting to the old mouse, my wrist pain is completely gone.

Bob Morales posted:

You can get a new Air for $649 at Best Buy with the edu pricing:

Wow.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 20:42

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Bob Morales posted:

The 11" is amazing. It's so drat portable and with the 2013 model they fixed the short battery life problem.

As long as you can live with 1366x768, or have an external monitor to dock up with. I know some people use them for development but I just can't do it on the 11" without another monitor. Going back to the 13" Air's 1440x900 is like being able to stretch your arms and legs after being on a plane for a few hours.

Give the rMBP a try then. It's not much bigger than the Air, but a 13" high resolution display is a huge improvement over 11" low resolution.

(I'm dying to see the rumored 12" rMBA.)

# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 14:32

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Secht posted:

Last few years, I've gone 11in Air, 15in RMBPro, 11in Air, 13in Air, 11in Air. I should have just stuck to the 11in Air. The rumored 12 inch is very intriguing, the 11 inch for me is drat near perfect. I just want slightly more screen real-estate.

I think with the retina bonus, 12" could hit a sweet spot in being super small, but still offering a comfy keyboard and enough screen estate to have a few terminals running at the same time, or basic reading and editing.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 17:19

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Is there any chance they can go retina on the Air without losing the battery time?

# ¿ Jun 21, 2014 01:33

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Bob Morales posted:

Non-unibody white MacBooks have weird limits depending on the year. But the aluminum models will take 8GB if you have the firmware up to date. I've had two with that much installed.

I kind of miss the plastic non-Pro MB. I never used an aluminium *book but heard they were great too, and my 13" rMBP was spectacular before I destroyed it. I can't remember a time when Apple were not making great laptops, perhaps the situation was different before the Intel transition or before OSX.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2014 13:52

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Bob Morales posted:

I was never a huge fan of the white MacBooks for two reasons - they used a cheap screen and the white plastic was easily scratched and discolored.

Everyone I knew had the plastic at the hand rest broken off, too. But they had a great handling and design - very Apple; hardware decent, but not top notch, but fundamentally usable.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2014 14:13

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Lexicon posted:

The economics around the mini are fascinating to behold. Their depreciation curve is absolutely unheard of for electronics in general, and computers in particular.

What do you mean by that?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2014 17:11

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I love wasting money on shiny things. For the 13" rMBP, Is there a qualitative step between the 2nd-best (i5) and the best (i7, 200MHz faster) processors?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 03:10

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Oh god, I really need a new laptop (wrecked the old one).
Having used both, I'm in love with the weight of the Air, but also pretty much everything about the rMBP. However, the Air's laughable screen and pointless bezel annoy me greatly.
Since the mythical 12" one-machine-to-rule-them-all is most unlikely to arrive any time soon, I'm debating two options: getting a nice 13" rMBP (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) and settling with it, or getting a 13" or even 11" Air (with 8GB RAM and the small SSD) with the intention of handing it down to my girlfriend or my sister when Apple finally puts decent screens in the Air.

I have no idea how people not wed to the Mac deal with all the options they have, I can't even decide between two or three.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 08:50

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Having used both extensively, I definitely notice the difference. Yes, the few 100g difference don't seem significant when comparing either to, for example, a non-retina 13" MBP, or a cheap brick laptop. Since both are so light to begin with, the small difference is actually a huge proportion of their respective weights.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 09:08

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Luceo posted:

I hardly ever use my laptop off AC power, and I'm generally plugged into an external display. I also don't see any storage improvement when it's stuck with a non-upgradeable SSD.

I guess if you're not using your laptop as a laptop, it makes sense to not see improvements in screen and battery life as improvements.
The Mac mini (which you seemingly are treating your laptop as), on the other hand, has not seen any significant updates since 2012, so in a way you're right!

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 20:54

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I have major liquid damage on my MBP, and 2 years of AppleCare to go. I always assumed there's no way they'll cover it. Correct?

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 01:01

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Kingnothing posted:

They will not. If it's major liquid damage (can you be a little more specific?), even if you get someone sympathetic at an Apple Store the repair facility will call you and give you the liquid pricing once they see it in there.

Milk Bath. Don't ask. I am not a smart person. Haven't dared to turn it on yet.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 10:19

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

The French Army! posted:

It pisses me off that they haven't updated the Mac mini yet, it's the only Mac I'm going to buy period and I'm sure as hell not buying one with an Ivy Bridge chip. The rest of the Apple line is way, way too overpriced. At least the Mini is only a couple hundred more than a comparable PC in the same form factor, hence why I want to make the switch if only Apple would sell me a Mini that isn't outdated.

The mini (well, baring the arguably insane Mac Pro!) always seemed to be the most overpriced Mac to me, for just the reason DaNsA gave. The Air and MB Pro are midrange quality, so you pay midrange prices, and comparing them to low range prices (as is always done to claim a massive "Apple tax") doesn't make sense. With the mini, build quality and design matter much less than with the laptops, so I don't see how the premium is justified.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2014 11:39

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

The regular Macbook is kind of silly, yes. I don't know why anybody would want one. I admittedly didn't even think about them. rMBP, MBA and iMac feel like the "real" Apple computers to me.

I think the rationale for still having the non-retina MBs is that they are popular with switchers, but I don't get why you'd not feed them any of the actually good ones in the first place, such as the Air, instead of introducing the world of Apple to them with a sub-par offering.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2014 13:38

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Pivo posted:

Aren't they also popular in academia? Kids want a Mac laptop and it's the cheapest.

I'd always get the Air over it.

Bob Morales posted:

500GB HD, non-tiny screen.

The non-retina Macbook has a worse screen than the retina ones and isn't cheaper than the Airs.
I think it's rather universally accepted the regular MB is a bad deal, especially considering how amazing the retina ones are, and how nice the Air is for its role.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2014 21:53

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Early versions of Mavericks had some kind of problem with VPN networks causing WIFI drop-outs on rMBPs, don't know if that's been fixed.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2014 19:44

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Is there any mouse similar to the old Mighty Mouse (scroll ball), but hopefully less sensitive to dirty fingers?

# ¿ Sep 24, 2014 16:58

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Binary Badger posted:

I generally won't advise someone to go to Mavericks unless they're willing or capable of going to 8 GB bare minimum

I'm running Mavericks on a Macbook Air Core 2 Duo with 2GB. Besides for some of the sillier things I never use, like Launchpad, everything is very smooth.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 18:28

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Binary Badger posted:

You have an SSD though, right?

Yes, and I am sure this makes a major difference. I guess the lack of SSD could be somewhat compensated by more RAM ...
I'm also running it on a MBP with 4GB and a spinning disk. It's slower, but still doable, and not running worse than 10.6 ran.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 18:45

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Right now, you have maximally 128GB on your 128GB SSD (if I got it correctly that the Fusion drive is a 128GB SSD), so you only have SSD speeds for 128GB of your stuff. If you put your data (movies, music ...), for which access speed is usually much less important, on a platter drive, you could have a bigger SSD.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2014 11:17

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Cyrano4747 posted:

edit: VVVVVV yeah, I'll bet. I'm just saying, even with my old dinosaur it gets around well enough that I value the extra size enough to put up with the bulk. I'm getting a replacement at the next refresh cycle at the latest and really look forward to the lighter design.

Subjectively, I found it easier to organize things on a 13" retina than on a 15" low res.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2014 11:18

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I said come in! posted:

It's going to be over $1000. Just go in expecting that at the minimum.

Check a 3rd party before you go through Apple in my opinion, it will always be way cheaper.

Really? I just got an offer to fix my 13" rMBP screen and it was around 250�, from a 3rd party. Is there something to be concerned about here?

# ¿ Nov 26, 2014 14:41

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Is there an economic way of getting an SSD (fusion?) into the late-2013 21.5" iMac on my desk?

# ¿ Jan 8, 2015 15:43

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I'm wondering about the usage cases for this laptop. Clearly, most people complaining about an ultraportable not suiting their needs simply should buy the Air or the rMBP instead of the ultraportable. "1.1 GHz? This thing will take ages to compile my Gentoo kernel!" This thing is what you choose if you want something tiny, silent, light that has a keyboard and runs a real OS, not if you want ... well, anything else, I guess.
But running presentations sounds like a rather important scenario actually, and you can't do that wirelessly AFAIK. Carrying around a fat one-purpose USB-to-video dongle seems to be missing the point of having an ultra-thin ultraportable in the first place. But Apple knows we can't expect every venue to have one of these lying around. And yet, giving spontaneous presentations you've prepared on the flight/in the airport seems like just what this thing should be good at doing. Is there a smooth solution for this?

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 12:03

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

WTF a laptop without a DVD drive? This is bullshit

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 13:44

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I haven't used the optical in my last two iMacs. Lest of all the portables.

Edit: actually, I just learned iMacs don't even have optical drives anymore either. It truly is the future, this is better than rocket cars.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 14:15

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Aphrodite posted:

As long as you sit at the right angle they won't be able to see your laptop at all.

I'd subscribe to a Twitter full of jokes just like this one and check it thrice a day.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 14:54

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

I'm from the future and guys I was so angry when Apple released their new ultraportable, port-free goldbook and to boost sales,
1. stopped selling their other computers who all had ports up the wazoo
2. physically invaded my home and stole the laptop I'm currently using, which has many ports and also a DVD drive
3. made it illegal to use non-Mac computers

One time when I magically flew through the air in a steel bird to visit my aunt, I actually, imagine this, had to read a book, because I exclusively own movies on DVD or VHS and the inflight movies were all a bit dull. gently caress Crapple.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 19:16

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

enMTW posted:

That sounds awful. Where can I express my displeasure about these things?

There should be a button for that on your Apple Watch. Press it and everybody on your list gets alterted to a frown smiley face on their watch. Welcome to the future.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 22:42

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

... that runs Mac OS X, not iOS.

Personally, I'm annoyed by the lack of touch ID. :ssj:

apple

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 12:42

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Smashing Link posted:

Thanks, will feel less guilty asking now and will shoot for 32GB RAM.

I'm not hip to prices on that scale these days, but couldn't you get a linux server with the same power for much cheaper and waste the rest on a shiny iMac?

I do a lot of number crunching but for a long time now, my workflow has been to dial into a big linux server from my iMacs or MacBooks. I'd think the only real purpose for a Mac Pro was running Mac specific apps, not general scientific computing, a lot of which actually runs better on Linux than on the Mac.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2015 02:56

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Anecdotally, all (science) labs I know who do serious work either run Debian, or are currently trying to get away from RHEL and use Debian. Maybe that's specific to neuroscience though.

We used to have a Mac Pro server years ago. It eventually ... ended up running Debian. And it would have been a lot more cost efficient to just get a bland machine in the first place.

Edit: and of course, this assumes you want to combine processing power with a nice interface by dialing into your powerful machine from your Mac. If for whatever reason you need to run your program locally, I can see how you might want to have a Mac Pro, as OS X is arguably a nice interface. On the other hand, I can actually imagine no scenario where I'd do that rather than have the number crunching done remotely by a butt-ugly Debian machine while I watch Silicon Valley unperturbed on my iMac.

Cingulate fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Mar 24, 2015

# ¿ Mar 24, 2015 03:49

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Yeah get the rPro.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2015 15:48

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Logikv9 posted:

Who is the 13" MBP even for? I'm more surprised that it's still on sale.

My friend uses one. She's the sort of person to own a 13" non-Retina MBP and have all her windows on a single space, the Desktop, centered and at half screen size.

I mean, I love her (as a friend), but what the gently caress

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 00:47

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:01

Cingulate: Oct 23, 2012; by Fluffdaddy

Whirlwind Jones posted:

Spaces weren't really meant for people with huge screens. The whole point of having a 27" monitor is so you can just have a bunch of random windows strewn about and still be able to see most of everything. Things change when you shrink to laptop sized screens at non-retina resolutions. Then spaces become quite handy.

That said I still use spaces on my iMac when I'm using LR/FXP or simply just want to segregate a few apps from the pack.

My approach is to simply steal every monitor possible and have a full-screened app on all of them. I also did this when I was using a 27 or 30" Cinema. Maximum cohesion between desktop and laptop!!!

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 11:44

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