Travel Light. And Take Your Mac.
Under pressure, that’s where our Macs shine. And for pressure, nothing beats dragging three kids, six suitcases and two laptops through two airports on our way down to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
Those of you paying attention, or just stalking me, remember the ThinkPad? It looms large in this tale of traveling woe.
Both my wife and I are busy entrepreneurs on the go. And as I mentioned last week, three kids require as many vehicles for entertainment media as possible. So it’s not even a question, we’re a two laptop family when we travel.
So arriving at the jetBlue terminal at JFK - free WiFi signs all over the place. Guess who got online with no trouble at all and guess who spent the better part of a half hour trying to connect with her office email? OK, so I’m in serious trouble here but what can I say? I just opened up Firefox and there it was ... a “you are online, sucka” graphic and then the jetBlue website.
I similarly got myself in deep doo doo at the hotel. Since this hotel has a wired connection, we decided to take the Airport Express base station with us.
A technical note… It’s not all easy-peasy, that is unless you have already set your Airport Express as a base station. I set ours up merely as a means to play music on our stereo. So word to the wise, read the manual. Otherwise you’ll be scouting about your hotel room looking for a pen to do a hard reset.
So after some fiddling with settings, the light on the base station turned green and I was good to go. Not so for Mrs. ThinkPad. In my infinite wisdom, I set the network up as ‘closed’ and slapped a password on it. A simple password yes, one that my wife would know considering she carried said password around in her womb for nine months.
But no, her ThinkPad doesn’t like closed networks nor does it like our kids’ names. So tip number two for the week - Windows machines take stuff like WEP encryption and network keys way too seriously for their own good.
So with that all solved, you’ll excuse me as we’re off to my parents’ house so the kids can play with Grandma and Grandpa while I spend the better part of the morning figuring out why my Mom’s computer won’t print.
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Personally I don’t think that’s even slightly true
See, this is one of those little things called a “fact,” at least according to those who figure out these sorts of things. Mac users tend to be wealthier, better educated, and more computer savvy. That’s not one of those things you can simply not believe just because you don’t want to, at least not while continuing to live with us in the real world.
And that really is my issue here in regards to this “it just works” thing and why it’s so meaningless. Mac fanatics tend to create their own world and selectively allow only the facts that fit that world. And in that world, little differences become gargantuine examples of why XP is “non-common sensical” and OS X is so easy a monkey punching keys at random could use it.
I’ll give you an example, however, of one of the little things that Mac users filter out when comparing the two:
“OSX’s greatest achievement in my opinion is that it automates (or simplifies) a wide variety of potentially difficult tasks (such as networking) for you, leaving you to get on with your work.”
Now, try sharing any folder in OS X across a network and then try doing it in XP. In XP you simply right-click the folder and ask it to share. In OS X, you CAN’T DO IT ALL without really digging into the system and using all kinds of obscure commands. Or you can download a third-party application (once you figure out which one) and do it that way.
So which is simpler? (and before you bother, don’t explain to me WHY it’s actually a great thing that I can’t do this simple task that I need to be able to do in order to get my work done; I’ve heard it all before).
So after you’ve taken all this reality and filtered it through this strange blender called a Mac fanatic brain, you end up with Mac users who talk like a press releas from Apple. Your entire post is a case in point:
“Put in incredibly simplistic terms, I’d say that OSX feels like it was designed by people that wanted to make the experience easy and XP feels like it was designed by geeks who have a higher expectation of user-knowledge than actually exists.”
I think I actually saw that commercial once.
Alternatively one could view your entire post as taking one (largely irrelevant, if you’ve got file sharing set up) example of how windows is easier and justifying a crusade against mac evangelism with it.
Macs are easier to use. Get over it.
Alternatively one could view your entire post as taking one (largely irrelevant, if you’ve got file sharing set up) example of how windows is easier and justifying a crusade against mac evangelism with it.
First of all, to dismiss an actual reality that goes against your worldview as irrelevant is exactly what I’d expect you to do, and indeed what I’ve been saying you do. Ignore facts and exchange them with mindless talking points. To wit:
“Macs are easier to use. Get over it.”
This is what passes for an argument, I guess. Start with the conclusion and…well…end there. No curiosity, no reality or facts, just slavish, unquestioning loyalty.
And just to be fair and to show you the world outside of the Mac reality distortion field (unless you deem it irrelevant as well), I do believe that many things are easier on the Mac. I also believe other things are easier on the PC. In terms of networking, setting up a WAP is independent of the OS, and logging on is about the same from any machine. So that’s a draw. Sharing folders is easier on a PC, as is browsing the network. I find, however, that I like the way OS X mounts drives automatically when you log onto a network computer and the response seems to be quicker and less prone to hiccups.
As for folder sharing btw, I’m not talking about shared files in your Public folder. I’m talking about ANY folder on your system. It can’t be done without a third-party plugin.
It’s not an argument, beeblebrox, it’s an opinion, which is something that you may find occurs whenever you discuss the subjective.
I personally don’t agree with the opinions “sharing folders is easier on a PC, as is browsing the network”. I like the ability to share the root of the home folder securely. I found the ability of my Mac to “browse the network” at uni far superior to the windows pcs I used and helped set up.
The problem when building your “arguments” on these subjects then, is that the individual elements of the arguments are not “facts” as you would like to believe, but subjective value judgements.
In fact, statements like First of all, to dismiss an actual reality that goes against your worldview as irrelevant is exactly what I’d expect you to do are hypocritical because your purported “facts” are not facts at all but merely subjective opinions that differ from mine. The anatomy of the above post is:
You accuse me of ignoring facts that contradict my viewpoint;
You present some opinions that you would like to view as facts;
You present the alternative viewpoint as if it were superior when in fact it is merely alternative.
Yet this, of course, is exactly what I’d expect you to do.
You really are a hypocrite aren’t you. You dismiss personal opinions because they don’t mirror your own - and then have the audacity to suggest that your opinions don’t suffer from subjectivity in the slightest.
“Mac users tend to be wealthier, better educated, and more computer savvy. That’s not one of those things you can simply not believe just because you don’t want to, at least not while continuing to live with us in the real world.”
So… you use a reference to Mac users thinking they’re more “savvy” as an insult in post #14 (“And as Mac users are fond of pointing out when it suits them, they tend to be better educated and more computer savvy.”), I say I don’t agree and then you drag up a four year old article on C|Net to back up your original insult. So either it’s true (Mac users are more “savvy”), in whih case your snide little comment that began this exchange is worthless or it’s not true and I’m right to disagree.
Which one will it be?
“Now, try sharing any folder in OS X across a network and then try doing it in XP. In XP you simply right-click the folder and ask it to share. In OS X, you CAN’T DO IT ALL without really digging into the system and using all kinds of obscure commands. Or you can download a third-party application (once you figure out which one) and do it that way.”
Er, or you create an Alias to the folder on the networked drive and put it where you like. God, that was hard wasn’t it.
“So which is simpler?”
Right-click, Sharing, Yes to the warning, Name folder, Go to My Network on other machine, Browse to machine, Open folder or..
Right-click, Create Alias, Dump Alias where you want it (one or many machines it’s up to you), Click it, Confirm username or password (being generous here, you only do this once and leave info in your Keychain)....
Not exactly rocket science is it?
“So after you’ve taken all this reality and filtered it through this strange blender called a Mac fanatic brain, you end up with Mac users who talk like a press releas from Apple. Your entire post is a case in point:
‘Put in incredibly simplistic terms, I’d say that OSX feels like it was designed by people that wanted to make the experience easy and XP feels like it was designed by geeks who have a higher expectation of user-knowledge than actually exists.’
I think I actually saw that commercial once.”
The best adverts often come from simple ideas. Whether you saw it in an advert or not I don’t know. But, even if you did, it doesn’t make my point any less valid.
What you need to do is accept that people have opinions and experiences different to your own. Yup, I don’t like it too sometimes - but I’ve learnt to accept it.
Just because these opinions differ from yours doesn’t mean that the people who hold them are blindly agreeing with everything that comes out of Apple. Some may do but, in the majority of cases, they’ve come to their own conclusions based on experience and preferences.
Now, either you accept that not everybody agrees with you or you’re going to be heading for an ulcer my friend.
I have an iMac and a PC laptop from work. In neither case have I had any problems connecting to my home network, after I installed SP2 for XP.
Pre-SP2, moving a network card from one laptop to another was a nightmare of searching for driver disks, going online (with the Mac) to find the manufacturer’s website when I realised I’d lost the disks, downloading something that may or may not have been the right drivers but wasn’t really clear, transferring them via thumbdrive (after installing the drivers for the thumbdrive on the PC, that I had the disks for), trying again when the drivers turned out to be the wrong ones, finally getting the correct drivers, hunting through a confusing series of wizard pages, tweaking the settings several times, giving up for a few weeks, returning when we had guests and I needed to use the PC elsewhere in the house, going through the settings changing things at random, and finally getting it working.
Although I’m not a Windows fan, and I much, much, much prefer working on my Mac, SP2 certainly makes wireless networking as easy as in OS X.
Certain of my acquaintances would disagree with you.
Can I just take this opportunity to say how much I love the little flags under the posts on this site? That’s just *such* a cool feature
So Beeblebrox- basically your standpoint is, that in the face of all user accounts and experiences of finding OS X better - whether it be fact or not - you think everybody imagines it and really XP is exactly the same as OS X?
ARe YoU SuRe yOU’rE noT ThE oNE DrINking YOUR OWN Kool-aid ?
You guys (Ben and Beeb) have entirely too much time on your hands to post a dozen times back and forth arguing about something that has and will be argued about entirely too long. I wish I had that much free time.
Oh, and the flags are very cool (man, that took too much of my time already - 2 posts!).
Gawd! I thought I’d find out more info on how to set up the AE for hotel use. Instead, I got OS Wars.
Dave, please blog more on the lessons learned about using the AE as a travel devise. I took one lesson learned away from this article - put into the Hotel Location with the AP Utility before disconnecting from the home network and packing it up for the trip. (My AE came with several Locations setup.)
Thanks for you lessons learned.
—Stork
you think everybody imagines it and really XP is exactly the same as OS X?
Let me ask you this, Luke. If I came on here and said that XP was better because OS X didn’t have the ability to access the internet, would you accept my experience as simply a matter of preference? Or would you and everyone else question what I was doing and assume that maybe, just maybe, the problem wasn’t OS X at all.
There are preferences, and then there is this kind of crap. Suggesting that OS X is better because you can’t logon to a wifi in XP without fidgeting with IP addresses isn’t a “preference.” That’s someone having an UNUSUAL problem that no one I know (that is, who are exclusive XP users) has. Not one.
So my standpoint is that, all things being equal, Mac users have an inherent bias that severely debilitates their perception of their “experience,” which both exaggerates problems they have with XP and underplays problems they have with OS X.
But personally, I don’t know how I can underplay my experience with OS X any more at all. My first Mac - PowerBook - I opened the box, turned it on, set up my account, then wondered what those black bars were. ...wait, wtf, am I connected?? Already??
I’ll never forget that moment because it was so different to my previous experiences using Windows + 3 different wireless routers and 3 different wireless PCI cards.
Yes… you’ll probably put that down to it being a totally one-off chance and me being stupid with my computer (even though I do have 2 year-long UK college qualifications in Computer software programming and engineering,) but can you assume that maybe, just maybe, the problem WAS Windows XP’s fault after all?
You dismiss personal opinions because they don’t mirror your own - and then have the audacity to suggest that your opinions don’t suffer from subjectivity in the slightest.
I suggested that? Really? If you’re trying to counter my assertion that you ignore reality and substitute your own, you might not want to, you know, actually make shit up.
To quote myself: “Does that mean that XP is inherently more difficult or does it mean that Mac users tend to know what they’re doing?
I’m not answering that question necessarily. It could be that OS X is easier to use. It could also be that both are fairly simple to use with some minor setup and that XP users by and large aren’t as interested/knowledgable in doing so.”
Yes, how perfectly unhinged I am.
Compare that to this, for example: “I’m sorry Beeb but your clear natural facility for geekery can’t hide the fact that XP simply is more fussy about networking, especially wireless networking. No question.”
That it was put more politely doesn’t change the fact that this comment is no less dismissive of MY experience than any of my comments.
As far as audacity and subjectivity, my assertion is that OS X and XP are probably about the same on balance and that preference of features here and there doesn’t make one OS better.
Contrast that with the commonly asserted “OS X is easier, GET OVER IT!”
Which is the more extreme? Which is more dismissive? Which is less objective?
Er, or you create an Alias to the folder on the networked drive and put it where you like. God, that was hard wasn’t it.
This isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about sharing any folder on your local system with the rest of the network. If it were as simple as creating an Alias and dropping it in my Public folder (the only folder you can share by default), I wouldn’t have brought this up as an example.
But can you assume that maybe, just maybe, the problem WAS Windows XP’s fault after all?
No. Because if the problem were Windows, EVERYONE would have this problem. The fact that I know no one except a few Mac users who run into this suggests to me that the problem lies elsewhere.
For example, I recently set up a wifi network on location for my last project (or rather, one of my crew set it up). It was a Netgear, which I’d never used before.
Everyone on the crew had a different laptop, ranging from a Mac to Dell to Emachines. Every single person was able to log on without any problem, without futzing with any settings or cards or anything.
Ironically, the Mac user had a couple of little glitces, but I’m not going to attribute that problem to the Mac.
Once the network is set up, logging on is as straightforward and easy as on any machine I’ve used. If there’s a breakdown occuring, and I don’t doubt that there is, it’s somewhere else.