Brian Meloche's Blog - Mac

The new Macs...

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 16:32:00 -0400

This happens a lot... but I started a blog post last week and lost the post before I posted it... UGGH... but anyway... Last week, at MacWorld, the MacBook Pro, the replacement to the laptop I am using to type this blog entry, was announced: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/whatsinside.html I have to say... I am PUMPED about this. I wasn't looking to upgrade my PowerBook G4, which I bought last June (and my first Mac), but this machine is enough to make me reconsider that thought (but not until I can afford it). For me, since I am constantly tied to the Windows platform, the ability to load Windows Vista on it will be killer. It would be SO nice if you could run both OS's at the same time... For instance, I could run SQL Server in Windows and develop on the Mac... but that's probably not going to happen for many years to come. I was surprised to find admitted Windows fanatic Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome and TechTV fame said this about the new Mac: http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/20060111_ten_reasons_your_next_pc_will_be_from_apple.phtml The new iMac also looks solid. It will be interesting to see how long it will take Apple to completely eliminate the G4/G5 products. I would guess it will be six to nine months, based on Apple's speed at delivering these first two models, but that's just a guess. I'd bet the Mac Mini will be next... and that will sell like hotcakes.

GMail - not so slow anymore!!!

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 11:44:00 -0400

There was an update to OS X that I applied yesterday, and I can thankfully say that Gmail is behaving much speedier than it had been. I guess it was a glitch. Good thing, too, because it was driving me nuts!!!

Why is GMail SOOOO SLOW on my PowerBook?

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 05:30:00 -0400

I haven't blogged about my Mac yet... which is surprising. I have been a long time PC/Windows guy. I have been using them since 1985, and have been using Windows since 1991 (3.0). I have gotten very tired over the last couple of years dealing with spyware, viruses and trojans, and, especially after the Blaster worm that ravaged through DEP in August, 2003 when I was working there, I longed for a Mac. My desktop at home has also been ravaged with spyware, and is crippled right now (I have to spend a weekend rebuilding it). I had resisted because of the software costs in going to a Mac. Finally, in June, I bought a 1.67GHz 15" Powerbook G4 that came with 512MB. On Black Friday, I added another 1GB stick, so I am now with 1.5GB RAM. I have been very happy with the Powerbook except for the RAM and slowness. The slowness went away somewhat with the new RAM, except in one GLARING spot: Web browsing. Specifically, I was finding that surfing was slow... and slowing down my whole system. It didn't matter whether it was Safari or Firefox. I have isolated the problem - it's my Gmail. I have changed over to the basic HTML view, but that gets rid of a lot of functionality. Running Gmail on basic HTML view corrects the slowness. On Windows, I don't have these GMail issues. It is nowhere near as slow. I just wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone had any suggestions or comments (other than the usual "get rid of your Mac" comments).