The New Apple Thread

[Calliander]

Doveski - Don't buy those upgrade cards, none of them are reliable. You'll get the occasional user with no complaints, but that's a lucky person.

What kind of G4? Power Mac, PowerBook, iMac? If you don't have Panther and 512MB of RAM, I'd do that. Panther is sweet.

[DOVESKI]

I cant upgrade to panther because of compatibility issues with ProTools.

My mac is a G4 Quicksilver, 800Mhz, 768MB. Songle processor, I have had absolutely no problems with it since I purchased it two years ago. But I wouldnt mind making it a bit faster.

=)

[Calliander]

Ah, nice, what card(s) do you have in the machine? It seems like every customer out here has at least a MOTU card.

You can always get Panther and install it, but only use 9 until ProTools gets with it. A lot of customers do that - they use the X side for mail and whatnot then switch back to 9 for their studio stuff.

Man, there's this one customer we have who has two G4 FireWire 800 machines with FOUR 23" Apple LCD's. He has it all in his one room he built specially for that with the Digi and the other audio stuff.

Your machine is still really good, the only thing you might need to worry about is the vid card since you can put three 512's into it for the max RAM and 800MHz is still nice.

Might I ask what the SN of the machine is? I'm always interested to see specs off the Apple site. When JMET was bidding on a machine a few months ago I checked the repair history on it for him, it was cool.

[DOVESKI]

Actually I run a Digi001 pci card (awesome I might add, I'm trying to get a job with Digi as we speak), and I uninstalled OS9 about a year ago when PT6LE was released. I dont think I've maxed out my RAM yet?

hees my SN: XB2061WLMK9

have a ball!

=)

[Calliander]

Nice. Last of the Quicksilvers before they went to the Mirror Drive Door ones.

Coverage Status: Out Of Warranty (No Coverage)*
Estimated Purchase Date: 5/16/02
Purchased In: United States

PMG4 800/256/40G/CDRW/RA7500

Does it still have the Radeon and the CDRW? I would hope you bought a SuperDrive.

[Diff-chan]

Well DOVESKI got some respect from me for owning a Mac.

[DOVESKI]

gee, thanks. (just cos I dont trust Arny's motives doesnt mean we cant be internet buddies). hahaha, all good man.

Calliander, i never got around to getting a super drive....but I do got two extra hard drives for video and audio projects, a Formac breakout box, and a 17" Apple display.

I just read an article at Tower in MacAddict about juicing up G4s with a new processor chip, i'm suffering from an inferioity comples cos of those damned sexy G5s...argh!

[Grave]

Panther is sweet.

Understatement of the year. Exposé makes my life ten times easier. Want that file from the desktop in this program? No problem? F11, click, hold, F11... Amazing. I really love it. Not to mention the new look of window tops. I thought I'd miss pinstripes... I don't! At all.

Anyway, how do you go about getting certified? I don't know if I could pass the tests, but I'd sure as hell be interested in studying and trying. Never knew much about the process, though. For the record, I've always wanted to get MCSE certified, too, but always lost interest in that too, heh heh.

[Diff-chan]

I just read an article at Tower in MacAddict about juicing up G4s with a new processor chip, i'm suffering from an inferioity comples cos of those damned sexy G5s...argh!

You could say that again. The school store has one set up with the 23" monitor, its seriously like God in computer form.

Then I go home and use my XP box. Life just isnt fair.

[Calliander]

Understatement of the year. Exposé makes my life ten times easier. Want that file from the desktop in this program? No problem? F11, click, hold, F11... Amazing. I really love it. Not to mention the new look of window tops. I thought I'd miss pinstripes... I don't! At all.

Anyway, how do you go about getting certified? I don't know if I could pass the tests, but I'd sure as hell be interested in studying and trying. Never knew much about the process, though. For the record, I've always wanted to get MCSE certified, too, but always lost interest in that too, heh heh.

You know what's funny? There are hardcore Mac people who are bitching about the new Finder window style! Seriously! Apple used to have it that all the iApps had that brushed-steel look to the windows and the rest of the stuff was Aqua. But people are upset that Panther's Finder windows are brushed-steel. Crazy.

Getting certified is difficult if you don't have any experience. I don't know if you can just sign up for an Apple ID for free or on your own, but try checking it out here: http://gsx.apple.com/ The way I went about it was years of experience with Macs from the age of eight and on, especially working with them for the school newspaper and yearbook back in highschool. I got a job at an AASP in town, where I signed up for my Apple ID with information the company had provided. Back then, Apple was still using the Tech Service site, before they switched to Global Service Exchange in 2002. From there, it was just a lot of watching, doing, and studying.

For instance, things you'll need to know for the hardware desktop exam might be anywhere from how to reset NVRAM on a PowerMac G4 to voltage requirements for an iMac down converter to shadow mask apertures in CRTs. The portables exam might have questions about the differences between original PowerBook G4s and DVI versions, or different PowerBook G3's, or iBooks and their lack of internal batteries to keep date & time settings. You really have to know your machines in and out to pass.

The OS exam is a thorough test of your knowledge and experience. Random questions pertaining to installing, setting up, permissions, things of that nature that you need to know in order to effectively troubleshoot problems. I've completed the basic Apple certification. There are also two other technician-based achievements I can attain now: ACTC and ACSA - Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (which gets into some heavy Linux stuff and advanced client configuration) and Apple Certified Systems Administrator (where you take a week-long course with a monster test at the end in order to prove that you can install, setup, and maintain an OS X server in all kinds of environments... I think there's a heavy focus on Xserve). I'm currently studying for the ACTC certification - but obviously I also want to get ACSA, which will require a lot of patience and hard work.

You can also get all kinds of sales certifications and developer stuff. Apple Sales Web and the Developer Connection are some spots I need to check out once I get the other things done.

http://www.apple.com/training/

That might have some good info, too. Hope I was helpful!

You could say that again. The school store has one set up with the 23" monitor, its seriously like God in computer form.

Then I go home and use my XP box. Life just isnt fair.

We have a dual 2GHz set up in the front of our store with the 23" display. I get heart palpitations just watching Quicktime movies. Hehe.