Anyone else here in the post-PC era?

When I had to turn my company phone in and needed to buy one, my first decision was to not get an iPhone. Apple software is just confusing to use. I worked just fine with DOS from 1985 to 1996. I've been very productive with Windows. I can even work on a Linux box. But trying to do anything productive on a Mac is just an exercise in frustration. I did get a iPod and even the Windows version of iTunes is too user-unfriendly. And unfortunately, Microsoft keeps trying to make Windows more like the Mac; I feel very hampered working on Windows 7 now and their having fracked up Search (which worked wonderfully up to XP) does not help the matter any.At a recent family gathering, my niece brought her iPad2, which my great-nephew played on most of the time. When my sisters were trying to remember how far they used to travel to bike to our grandparents' in the next town, I suggested we use Google Earth to figure it out, since I had done that before on Google Earth. So my niece downloaded Google Earth onto her iPad2 and we set up to figure it out. OK, where's the tool bar? It doesn't have a tool bar. Where's the main menu? It doesn't have that either. So how are we to get to the Ruler dialog? Try to right-click on that. What do you mean we can't even right-click on anything? Needless to say, we couldn't accomplish anything except to find where she now lives back east so she could show her mom. I had to wait until I got home and could run the real Google Earth to answer the original question (5 miles one way).Just sounds like an expensive toy. Even the touchpad typing doesn't appeal to me because I'm a touch-typist. No tactile feedback.

Well, having just arrived here ...No, they're not Macs, but they do use Apple software. Therefore, they are equivalent and just as undesirable. Which means that they had to strip out a lot of functionality. And only be able to offer a clumsy, limited interface. With far less functionality.A toy that you and your friends can geek out over. OK, might be useful to take to the library for taking down notes.

O ... K ... . So a device that you have in your hands that cannot do the job is somehow superior to a device that can do the job but which you don't have your hands on.That's bizaare. No, they are most definitely not the same as PCs. And yet the OP of this topic has them replacing PCs. They cannot replace PCs, as the crippled iPad2 version of Google Earth illustrates. Smartphones and pads can have their uses, but not to replace PCs. Unless one does nothing useful on one's PC. What? No touchpad? All the laptops I've had had touchpads (except for the first one, which had a trackball). And they all had two buttons, a left one and a right one. I have to explain it to you? Does "Programming with a one-button bar of soap." ring a bell? With my digital camera (this was pre-smartphone), I video'd the routine so that I could replay it for everyone in the next week's class. I transfered it to a USB drive and brought it in. The studio had a brand-new Mac with a one-button bar of soap attached to it. I plugged the USB drive in and then tried to figure out how to get to the file so I could play it. I forget what double-clicking on the folder icon did, but it was the entirely wrong thing. Now if only I could pull up a context menu for that icon, but how the frak do you right-click with a fracking stupid one-button mouse? I forget how I eventually managed to get to the file. Then it turned out that Macs refuse to recognize AVI files, even though it's been an established video format for over a decade. (Wait for it!)As I said, I have an iPod nano. Trying to work with the iTunes app was a series of headaches. And my nano has a lot of features built into it, like FM radio, sound recorder, video camera, pedometer, etc. The instructions that came with it was a folded card that was mainly pictures and only a few words. Virtually no explanation of how to use those other features and especially nothing for the things that you couldn't figure out from the menus. I had to Google to find a third party set of instructions for how to use my Apple product! Am I the only one to find that disturbing? I also had to go to a third party, Wikipedia, to learn how to "right-click" on a Mac. Turns out there's a secret key on the keyboard that you're to press, only you have to have already been a Mac user to know that.I let my friend know about that "right-click" trick. She's been a tech writer for decades and her brother just passed his Mac on to her. She gave it a try and went back to her Windows laptop, which she find to work far better than a Mac. Oh, I'm sure that Macs are good computers for people who don't know anything about computers and who don't want to do anything useful outside of writing and graphics. Android, a Thunderbolt. Works well for what it's intended to do. I use Maps for look up routes, checking the traffic, and even the very basic Google Earth functionality. I use the web browser at times, usually with Wikipedia, though it's more laborious to type in than it should be (I'm a touch-typist, so hunt-and-peck is slow and laborious for me). I use the video camera and have looked up a couple videos on YouTube. I installed a text editor for typing notes, but mainly to write shopping lists. My Android can hook up to my PC as an external drive so that I can transfer files in and out; what about on an iPhone or an iPad?However, I also have found that "we're not going to tell you anything" mentality with it. I did get a quick start card with the phone and downloaded a PDF instruction manual from HTC, but even that was cursory and did not tell me everything. Apps are even worse about that. It came preloaded with a number of common apps, but there's no explanation how to use those apps or even what they are supposed to do. Yet again, one must go to a third party for any information. Either that or one has to go exploring and experimenting, like when I found buried away the menu option to display on the map where you had taken a particular photo. Com'on, you're just jerking me around, aren't you? You can't really be serious.In XP and a couple earlier versions, Search worked just fine, rather well actually. With a wildcard specification, you tell it which files to look for (eg, *.txt); you can even give it multiple filename specifications. Then you tell it what string to look for in those files. In addition, you could tell it what drives or directory subtrees to search in and you could even restrict the search to a range of dates. And Search would only look in those files and report back the ones containing the string that you specified.Now, that is useful!Now with Win7 Search is all fracked up. You try to tell it to look for a string in specific files and it will apply that string to file names and the file name spec to strings to search for, thus loading you down with a lot of false hits. It's not even clear how to restrict it to a particular directory subtree. I've positioned Windows Explorer right on a directory containing a specific file. I told it to search for that file. It couldn't find it. I copied the file name and pasted it in the search box. Search still couldn't find it. That file was sitting right there in front of its face and Search could not see it!Win7 Search is fracked up!

For one thing, I never ever saw the home screen on that iPad, so how the frak could I tell what was on it? All I ever saw it being used for was playing games and fiddling with a graphics app that would take your picture and mess it all up in twisty-twirly ways. Yeah, real productive stuff. Hardly representative of what one would hope that it could do.I have Maps on my phone and I use it all the time. Never use the Directions menu option, though, since I know how to read a map (though it just draws a line on the map instead of giving you the standard long verbal list of where to turn). But as I said, I had no way of knowing whether it was on that device, which is now 3000 miles distant from me so I still can't see its home screen, nor would I have been likely to have thought of directions on Maps since I don't need directions given a map.Bottom line is still that they had to cripple (ie, remove capabilities) and dumb-down Google Earth for it to work on an iPad. I wouldn't expect them to be exactly like what they replace. However, I would expect them to be able to perform all the same tasks of what they replace.For example, I was trained on the Backup Intercept Controller (BUIC), a transistorized Burroughs mainframe that was designed to replace the Air Force's vacuum-tube monstrosity Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) air-defense computer. They ended up scrapping the BUIC (our school had one of the last ones, if not the last) and keeping the SAGE because the BUIC could not handle the sheer volume of radar traffic that the SAGE could. A replacement that cannot replace what it's supposed to replace is not a replacement.So, can the iPad perform all the tasks of PCs?What compilers can you install on your iPad? What development systems? I'm a software engineer, so I need that capability. Does the iPad provide it? If not (and I doubt very much that it would), then please explain to me just exactly how an iPad is supposed to replace my PC.In my development and integration work, I need to be able to connect to devices (I do embedded programming), including RS232 and Ethernet. Does the iPad support that? It might able to, if it has enough standard USB connectors.I often need to work directly with files, a lot of low-level access. What kind of file utilities does the iPad have? Hardly any, I would think, since Apple is not at all known for allowing low-level access to its users. If none, then how could I do the work that I need to do?A lot of the writing I do is code, HTML, and the like, so I mainly use a text editor, only using Word for documents. What kind of editors does the iPad have? I remember having to dig pretty deep to find a text editor (SimpleText?) on my brother-in-law's iMac. Does the iPad have a text editor, or do you need to go out and shop for a third-party editor like I had to on my Android? Good. And hopefully they can also connect to real computers and not just Macs.Which points us towards the real role of these devices. Not as replacements for PCs, but rather as supplements to PCs. They have nowhere near the capabilities of a PC, but they have far greater mobility and longer battery life (I assume, given that a good laptop battery is only good for a few hours; my six-year-old laptop is down to zero seconds). You can load text files onto them and then away from your desk you can read files with reference data (eg, data formats or whatever). And you can work on your files and documents while away from your desk, though to compile anything you'd have to load them back into your PC. Basically, that's what I have been using my Palm Pilot for for years and my smartphone was supposed to replace that functionality, which it can but it's much more clumsy about it than the Pilot.iPads can be useful in their own ways, but not as replacements for PCs. Touchpads are very easy to use and, when I'm given a choice between using the touchpad or a mouse, more often than not my hand goes straight to the touchpad. Though for precision graphics work, nothing beats a trackball, except maybe a graphics pad (I've only used mice, touchpads, and trackballs, so that's as far as my personal experience goes in this matter).It's your personal preference. Maybe you're just too ham-fisted to use them; it does require a light touch. And it forces you to ignore a very simple solution to situations such as using your laptop at a bus-stop where all you can think of using is a mouse.Gee, aren't you the one who later on accuses me of being too inflexible and unwilling to accept that there are other ways to do something on a computer? And what did I say? And did you wait for it? No, you did not. I informed you later on that by going to a third party source I did finally discover the secret handshake that Apple requires.This introduces a point I will develop more down below: having to search through menu options for discover how to do something is one thing, but having to know secret handshakes to do something is entirely different. Having to know a secret handshake should not be required and only serves the purpose of secret handshakes: to exclude everybody else who's not an insider. Aye, as well it should have. But it didn't. That's the point. And yet the proof of the pudding is in the eating. This brand-new and high-end Mac knew absolutely nothing about AVI files. It does not matter one whit what an army of experts say that a computer should be able to do; the computer itself is the final arbiter on what it will and will not do. And this Mac said that it knew nothing about AVI files. Final word; case closed. Oh yeah, I'm just an old fart who knows nothing about computers. Honor graduate from USAF tech school, Electronic Computer Systems Repairman, in 1977. BS Computer Science 1980. Professional software engineer from release from active duty, 1982, to the present, mainly in embedded programming. Worked with MS-DOS from 1986 to around 1996 (though the first window I open when I boot up is still CMD, since I still do part of my work from the command line). With various versions of Windows from 3.0 to 7 (I did buy v1.0, but it didn't support my printer). And with a number of versions of Linux.Funny thing about Windows and Linux. With Windows, in every new version they dream up new ways to hide the things you need to work with, so every time you upgrade you need to figure out how to do it this time. Been through that several times. Different versions of Linux are the same way.Let me tell you the story of how I helped my brother-in-law with his iMac. He'd been using a Mac since school and earned his PhD using a Mac, but he only knew how to use Word and then later the web browser. Shortly after OS X came out, he bought a new iMac and a new hP printer. He followed hP's instructions and loaded the printer driver from the CD. And it wouldn't work right, doing really strange stuff. I suspected that the printer had been manfactured and packaged before the OS X drivers had been developed and that he had overwritten the iMac's OS X drivers with OS-9 drivers. So I went to hP's site and downloaded the OS X drivers for that particular printer. Since this was back before affordable USB thumb drives had enough capacity, my thumb drive couldn't hold that driver, so I kept it on my laptop's hard drive.Now, my only previous experience on a Mac was in 1985 at Hughes Aircraft when we used the Paint program on floppy-based first-generation Macs to combine text and graphics for presentation slides (BTW, my labelling of my data diskettes is where my name, DWise1, came from), and then again several years later to test out a Mac program on my brother-in-law's classic Mac (it was Dawkins' BIOMORPHS pgm from "Blind Watchmaker"). So, I got on his iMac and with no more help than for him to log me on, I created a new user account for myself that had sufficient privileges for what I had to do and enabled and set up an FTP server on the iMac. Then I got the IP address of the NIC for its RJ-45 connector -- for this, I cheated by finding the terminal program (no small feat in itself) and opened a shell to the BSD kernel under the hood where I used the ifconfig UNIX command. Armed with that address, I then set the IP address on my laptop to be on the same network (for explanation of why they had to be on the same network, refer to my webpage on IP Addresses, the section entitled So Why do They Need to be on the Same Network?, though you should also read the preceding section to understand what it means for two addresses to be on the same network. ). And of course in setting up the FTP server on the iMac (there were menus and dialogs for that), I also set up an FTP user account that I could log in with from my laptop. So I FTP'd the OSX driver into the iMac, then installed the new printer driver and now the printer worked just fine. Then I went back and cleaned up after myself, including deactivating the FTP server.Also, I did not encounter any need for knowing the secret handshake, because their iMac came with a two-button mouse and the right button not only worked just fine, but that was how I was able to work with the objects on the desktop. The really funny thing was that nobody in the household could understand what that second button was for, even after I explained it to them.And that was all done by this here old fart who doesn't "know anything about computers except how to use them in very specific, very circumscribed ways." [sarcasm]Yeah, right![/sarcasm]Playing around with it is an approach I usually take. But when you don't even have a clue what an app is supposed to do (eg, Bitbop, Peep, Rhapsody, Slacker), and when you try one they want you to set up an account ... Well, I've been on the Web for a couple decades now and have learned to be careful. And playing with the iPod is what I had done extensively. But where's the menu option to delete a video on the iPod nano? There isn't one, but rather you need to know the secret fucking handshake! This isn't a video game where you need to ferret out secrets, like blocking the bottom of the door with your towel so that your babelfish won't slide out through the crack, in order to get to the next level. And I had to Google for a third party to learn what that secret fucking handshake is, because Apple is too engrossed in playing stupid fucking mind-games with its customer base.Remember, the only purpose of a secret handshake is to exclude the vast majority of the population, which makes requiring knowledge of secret handskakes a serious design flaw. Thank you for proving the point I keep making: they're easy for those who don't know what they're doing, don't know anything about computers, and aren't doing anything productive/useful.Nor is the use of a GUI and a pointing device (which in your example is the Pointing Device Mark 1, AKA "a finger"), restricted to Apple products. When I obtained the first Windows version of Word (we had been using the DOS version of WordPerfect), I installed it at home but didn't mention it to anybody. When I returned home from work the next day, my 9-year-old son was writing his homework using Word. He had noticed it on there and started using it.The same as I have done for many years with countless other Windows applications and Linux applications. Which is what exactly? Knowing the technology and how it works is a flawed approach? In the Apple universe maybe, but not in the real world.And just what is the "unflawed approach to technology"? The view that it's all FM? "Fucking Magic." Like when the Foundation started exporting technology to the neighboring barbarian worlds, they turned it into a religion and they trained the barbarian technicians as priests: "Say this prayer in just the right way and then press that button and the reactor will start up." PFM ("pure fucking magic").Which brings us back to what I've been saying all along and which you keep confirming: Apple software is for people who don't understand computers and damnably frustrating for those who do.In a co-worker's home, he has a PC and his wife has a Mac. Since he's an electrical engineer and has been working with all aspects of computers for decades, when she has a problem with her Mac then it's his job to fix the problem. And it's a frustrating struggle for him to go through all the menus to figure out how to do that. He also has an iPod and he also has been frustrated by iTunes. We've talked about it and we both agree that Apple software is for people who don't understand computers and most definitely not for people who do know. What were you trying to do with search that it didn't work for you? It has been a life-saver for me many times over.I was active on CompuServe from about 1986 to 1997; one reason for my original website was to repost essays I had written for the library of the Science and Religion section where we discussed creation/evolution. When I started, it was a dial-up service with a 300-baud modem (or a 110 baud, but I know from experience in school that I can type faster than that -- using the 110-baud TeleDyne terminal hooked up to the PDP-8 we were using in one class, I'd have to stop every half-sentence or so to let it catch up with me). And they charged by the minute of connect time. So while you're reading a message, the meter was running, and while you were typing a long response, the meter was running. So, to save money, this "old fart who doesn't know anything about computers" took advantage of two features in my terminal emulator program: capturing input from distant-end into a text file and streaming a text file as output to distant-end. So I would turn the capture file on and log in, navigate to where I needed to post responses, and stream out my responses that I had written ahead of time. Then I would "read" all the messages and other files I found of interest, just to capture them locally. Then I would log off, having spent a minimal amount of time connected, and I would read the capture file off-line and write my responses for the next session.As a result of that practice, I have years of sessions archived in text files. So when a topic comes up and I remember having discussed it years ago on CompuServe, I can go back to that file and retrieve that discussion. OK, now exactly when was that? My memory isn't that good, so instead I search through all those files for a particular keyword. Sure I'd get some false hits, but few enough that I could easily search through individual files and find what I'm looking for.That works just fine with XP Search, but no longer works with Win 7 Search.Similarly, I have archived my emails and can search through them in the same manner. Except that it no longer works in Win 7.Then there's my ex-wife, "The Spanish Inquisition." She was not only technologically challenged, but even techno-beligerant. When we were using WordPerfect (DOS version, so keyboard short-cuts were used extensively; not an example of secret handshakes, since those key combinations were well-documented and I even had bought templates that fit around the keyboard to tell you what they are), she drove me crazy because she wanted me to stand behind her all the time and tell her exactly what keys to press -- and she was a better typist than I was. So I suggested that she just bash everything in and then I would come back and put the formatting in, but she absolutely refused and insisted that she had to format it as she went -- on a typewriter, you were trained to format immediately, since once it's on the paper you're stuck with it. Then when she was working on her masters (she's a teacher) and had to do a lot of typing she finally figured out how to turn the computer on and off and how to run Word and how to use it. At that point, the problem was that she could never find her documents again. She'd call me in, angry at me because my computer had lost her document. OK, where did you put it? I don't know. OK, what did you name it? I don't know and I don't care; you just find it. OK, since you've given me absolutely nothing to work with, can you tell me how long ago you had last changed it?And she could tell me at least that much. So I fired up Search (by that time, we had Windows ME, then later Windows 2000) and looked for all *.doc files created or modified however many days ago and we'd look at the small list that created and find her missing document. Then I would explain to her yet again the importance of giving her documents short meaningful names (offering some suggestions) and of putting them in a specific place (I even set up the folders for her). And she would never follow my suggestions (nobody could even tell her what to do, as she would repeatedly brag) and the next time angrily call me in because my computer had lost her new document again!Even ME and 2K Search worked just fine and saved my skin many times and XP Search was just as good. So I cannot imagine in what universe it wouldn't have worked.

Young punk! I am currently six months away from retiring from the Navy Reserve. I'm being forced out because I will officially be too old, 60.Out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do? Specifically, what kinds of tasks on the computer does it require you to perform?Then, what is it about the iPads vs the Transformer that makes the one unsuitable and the other suitable for performing those tasks? Is it only the ability to attach a physical keyboard to the Transformer, and hence enable one to touch-type, or is there more?I had heard about airline pilots having switch all their books and charts to iPads. When I was "in the war" (common USAF parlance for being on active duty; this was during the Cold War), since we were the only 24-hour secure shop in the Bomb Wing, we were given the flight packets to sign out to the flight crews. They were big leather briefcases, open-top and 8 inches wide, crammed full of books and charts and one or two brick-size devices. The main point is that that was a lot of material to have to take up with you and that to squeeze all that (except for the devices, whatever they were) into an iPad form-factor reduces a lot of clutter in the cockpit. I just hope that they keep a back-up on hand in case of iPad failure or malfunction.

Well, when almost all my experiences with a Mac and with Apple software have been frustrating, compounded by poor support ... .Not angry at Apple. I just know better than to go all ga-ga over their newest toys. Besides which what they have to offer is not what I seek.Also, this topic started with the idea of iPads and the like replacing PCs. They are obviously not able to replace PCs. They can augment PCs and be used as a substitute for some activities, but there are too many jobs that they simply cannot perform, so they will not replace PCs. A future form of a pad might eventually be able to do that, but not the present-day ones.Also, I never got a chance to even touch my niece's iPad, so there was no way I could have possibly swiped through anything on it. Either my great-nephew was playing with it or my niece was downloading Google Earth and trying to work with it. I never had any way of knowing whether Maps was on it or not.I feel fully justifying in faulting that pared-down shadow of a Google Earth for not being able to calculate distances as a full version can. But since I had no way of knowing what other apps may or may not have been loaded on that thing, shouldn't you be faulting my niece, whose iPad it was, for not realizing that another app on the thing could have done the job? Assuming that app was there, of course.So you're a "push all the buttons" kind'a guy, huh? Ever try that on an Apple II? One of those buttons was the power button, right up there in the upper-right corner. Ever push that one when you didn't mean to? It wasn't my computer and the class wanted it displayed right now. I ended up playing it back on my camera with everybody having to crowd around. Even though I have repeatedly pointed out that that is a mischaracterization? I have indeed gone into several different operating systems and had to explore around and experiment to find out how to use them. I could even figure out how to perform non-trivial tasks on an iMac which fortunately had a two-button mouse (which in my experience is an extremely rare thing to find attached to a Mac). But Apple software seems to have its own little way of doing things that just defies logic. Which is quite true. Though there's also the question of why?. What does the Mac have to offer me to make that effort? I honestly cannot think of a single thing that I would want to be able to do on a Mac that I couldn't also do better on a PC. The only possible motivation I can think of would be to be prepared for that dreaded occasion where I would be require to do something on a Mac. No, my problem is when it just plain doesn't work. I know what task I need to accomplish. If I cannot accomplish it with a particular tool, then that's not the right tool for the job. And if one tool is far more unwieldy than another, then I don't have any use for that unwieldy tool, unless there is no other alternative. Except where one of them does not work, period. Again, if a tool cannot do the job, then that is not the right tool for the job. And if one tool is more unwieldy than another, it's the unwieldy tool that will not be used.

Your loss. Or is it a case of willful ignorance.Synopsis: You have mischaracterized me and I have demonstrated to you how much you have mischaracterized me.Disagreement on your part would require that you go back and actually read the post that you have previously ignored.PSMost of the definitions for that on urban dictionary say that it indicates the stupidity or laziness of the respondant.Edited by dwise1, : PS

Excuse me, but that was well over a year ago and I wasn't taking any fracking notes! I was under the gun to produce immediate results and what the computer was doing made absolutely no fracking sense. And having been burned, I have not tried working with any other Macs. Remember the definition of insanity? Trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, I'm not crazy so I'm not about to try that again!Other problems was trying to figure out iTunes. Since I had ripped some CDs of ripped music (ie, no links to album data), I needed to go in and change those tracks' info. I had a helluva time discovering how to do that. I also had a problem with duplicate tracks, but iTunes would refuse to allow me to delete the extra ones. Did I ever solve that problem? I don't know, since it's been well over a year since I tried, but at the very least I checked only one of the duplicates to be sync'd into my iPod. I probably should resync again soon, since the iPod has started mixing up songs with album covers and transferring songs over from other playlists. Which, guess what, is exactly what I have been telling you all along: Apple software is for those who do not know anything about computers and frustratingly difficult for those who do. Hello???? Why don't you just simply admit that you agree with me and stop this topic arc? The mind boggles. Compilers and development systems. C, C++ C#, perl, etc. Files. Working directly with files outside of and independent of any particular application. My co-worker whose wife uses a Mac (that little cube, so I'm not sure whether it's OS9 or OSX) has informed me that the file system is ber-weird, no directory structure and each file is tied directly to a specific application.IOW, the Mac presents itself as a much more closed and restrictive environment than Windows (which itself is much too restrictive for the Linux folk). I do a lot of things with files at the lower level. I do not believe that Mac would allow that.Now true, OSX could be a different story. It has BSD Unix as its kernel. I was even tempted when I heard that. However ... . Has BSD been able to keep up with Linux? Would those other compilers and development systems I need be available to BSD ... or rather, with the form of BSD that OSX runs? And wouldn't I need to do absolutely everything I'd want to do from the command line of a shell? OSX is beginning to not look like such a good deal, especially running on an over-priced under-powered machine whose other features are of dubious worth.All those things that I am doubtful of being able to do on a Mac, I am able to do and routinely do on a PC.Quod erat demonstrandum. (QED)Uh, that means "point has just been proven", in case you didn't know (I myself had to look it up when I first encountered it; it's a formal logic acronym). Uh, to start with, the iPad (lumping both versions together here mainly for grammatical reasons) was indeed one of the devices in question as per the OP (Message 1), so this topic is indeed about iPads, albeit not exclusively so.Second, what I have said has been true to the best of my recollection. I have made absolutely no knowingly false statements.Furthermore, you have agreed with me on the fundamental point that Apple software makes sense to those who know nothing about computers, but not to those who do. Well, you haven't explicitly said that you agree with me, but you keep saying the same thing that I've been saying all along.And it is very true that I have had very few good experiences with Apple software and mostly bad ones. Nor am I alone in that. My co-worker whose wife has a Mac, who also finds not only the Mac OS itself (question is open as per 9 or X) difficult and counter-intuitive to work with, but also had very similar problems with iTunes as my own. And my friend, a long-time tech writer by profession, who inherited a Mac from her brother (in the nice way; he's still living and simply gave it to her), tried it out, and didn't want anything more to do with it finding her Windows laptop to be much better and much more capable to work with.Ich bin doch nicht allein!OK, I asked this of Huntard, so now I ask it of you. What is superior about the Mac? Let's face it, we already know that the iPad cannot hold a candle to either the Mac or the PC, so I'm not even going to lump it in here and I believe that you would agree. What is the big selling point for the Mac? If you were to attempt to proselytize a PC user over to the Mac, how would you do it? What does the Mac do better than the PC does?Obviously, "user friendly" and "more intuitive" won't fly, because we have both already established that that only applies to those who don't know anything about computers. IOW, what is it about the Mac that would make it more attractive to someone who knows about computers?I've already shown you mine. You gonna show me yours?Tit for Tat. It's the winning zero-sum game (sorry, that computer experiment is not in Wikipedia).

Oh wow! I just realized that you had realized how completely off the mark you were about XP Search. So that's why you completely ignored my response!

Won't break it? Nobody ever expects the any key!Bwa-ha-ha-ha!Edited by dwise1, : No reason given.Edited by dwise1, : unable to display a GIFEdited by dwise1, : finally got img to work, hopefully

And you have also completely summarized the sogenannte "creation/evolution controversy." The vast majority of the people are nearly completely ignorant of science.For the ignorant, creationism is a logical choice.Science geeks have never liked creationism, but since they are such a small part (although a noisy one) of the population, they think their opinions matter.

I normally reside back in the north-western corner of the building, far away from the south-side "mahogony row", so I am normally rather sheltered. Marketing. They are truly an entirely different breed. And alien. We rarely mingle, except over the coffee pot.Marketing might want to satisfy all possible customers, but different customers need different things, only some of which we can actually satisfy. However, I did witness the performance of Google Earth on the iPad, so I did indeed "try the stuff out" even though it was not my own fingers fondling the surface of the display. Google Earth did not do the job! And yet ... can we realistically expect my niece to have been totally and completely aware of every single piece of software on her iPad and also be completely aware of every single feature and option on every single piece of software on her iPad? Are you completely aware of every single piece of software on your smart phone? I very much doubt it. Do you take photos on your phone? Do you know whether your photos contain the location where it was taken? Again, are you completely aware of every single piece of software on your smart phone?FWIW, on an Android phone, select "Videos". Therein press the Menu key and press the icon which is three horizontal bars. Select "All Photos". Hit Menu. There should be a menu option for displaying the map location of the photo. I have disabled that feature for obvious security reasons, so I don't see it at present.Are you truly aware of what's running on your device? Can you pass judgement on others so easily? How many others of us are "gaping open security holes"?

Not "old guy" syndrome at all. The proposition was that the iPad replaces the PC. That simply does not fly, as I have already demonstrated. Of course, if all you're using your PC for is as a paperweight, then anything hefty enough will replace it. If all you're doing with your PC is checking you email and surfing the web, then the iPad could replace it. If you are doing a lot of writing and especially if you are a touch-typist, then the iPad would be marginal. If you are doing development work on your PC, then the iPad cannot replace it.No demand to make an iPad act exactly like a PC, only that, if it is to replace the PC, that it do every job that you can do on the PC. I cannot understand why that is so difficult for everybody to understand.The other problem with the iPad is that it's Apple software, which I have had too many bad experiences with.

OK, now I know that you're just jerking me around! Search approaching and including XP has done that job and done it quite well. That is the feature that I use all the time. And have used for years with no problem outside of when I chose the wrong search parameters, but then that's operator error, not a problem with Search. And if you don't want to search the entire hard drive, then don't tell it to do that!Search is ... was ... extremely useful. You just couldn't figure it out. You just refused to explore the options that it clearly offers you. You couldn't adjust.IOW, your gross mischaracterizations of me are nothing but projections of your own personal flaws.

Crash, please stop being such a jerk. Did I say I couldn't find it? No I did not! I did find it and work it out completely on my own by exploring and experimenting. You know, the things that you keep mischaracterizing as being incapable of. The problem was that it was stuck away in a menu which didn't make any sense at the time.And why would I ever hit Command-I on my PC? There is no such key, jerk. Crash, please, please, please pull your head out of your ass!Did I find Delete? Yes I did. It was disabled, greyed out. Did I try to press the Delete key? Yes I did and iTunes completely ignored it. If you didn't have your head so firmly wedged, you would know that I had done precisely that when I fixed my brother-in-law's iMac. Jerk! First, the only information I had on what he had encountered was his report of what he had encountered.Second, all you're talking about is OSX. This Mac very likely ran OS9, which does not benefit from having a BSD kernel and a UNIX filesystem.For that matter, all the benefits of a Mac that you offer all depend on OSX. Going with a BSD kernel was the smartest thing that Apple did. Even made it tempting to get one, but then I'd be saddled with a Mac desktop.You say that engineering work can be done on a Mac. Well, maybe now, thanks to BSD. But what about before? All I'd ever seen or heard of a Mac being used for is to run Microsoft Office and do art. I have never seen nor heard of a Mac being used to do engineering or software development work outside of designing Mac apps. Nor have I ever seen a Mac in any engineering environment.Again, maybe that has changed with OSX and BSD, but those are new developments in the Mac. Bullshit! They are no more intuitive than any other GUI interface that's designed well using common user application principles. Every single GUI application has a learning curve, albeit a minimal one if it was designed well. Macs are no exception. The only thing that makes a GUI "intuitive" is that it follows those CUA principles.The problem is when different CUA principles are applied, which . Which steepens the learning curve when moving over to the Mac. Which makes Macs non-intuitive to that person.