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Journal bethanie's Journal: [Mac] I really hate learning curves. 15

Journal by bethanie
Thanks to all of you who replied to my last JE. Some of your responses were helpful, but many assume a level of proficiency that I'm just not at yet. And I have to tell ya, admitting that has me on the verge of tears.

But the good news is that I'm composing THIS JE in TextEdit, and yeah, it seems to fit the bill pretty nicely. Thanks to those of you who suggested it (and ryanr, your instructions were by FAR the easiest to follow. THANK YOU for making it idiot-proof. That's exactly what I needed.)

Also following ryanr's suggestion on how to get iTunes to see the music on my external HD; doing File->Add to Library seems to be working. There's about 50 GB on there, so it's taking a while to load it all in. I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't screw up by doing it that way.

UPDATE WHILE COMPOSING: Well, the *music* from my iTunes library is now in my iTunes on the MacBook -- but NONE of the ratings or playcounts or playlists or any of that stuff is. And I want that. I kinda spent an assload of time rating 1000s of songs. Anyone have any other suggestions? (I had already gone into File>Preferences>Advanced and pointed it at the E drive where the music folder is (that looked pretty much the same as it does on my PC).) Guess I got arb's reply too late for that. *sigh*

I think that the problem in the coffee shop is that THEIR wireless network isn't working, not anything on my end. I think I'll take the MacBook out with me to the mall next week sometime and see if it will connect somewhere around there. I think I've played around enough with the Internet Connect application so that if I actually run across an operating wireless network, it will be easy enough to figure out. Cross your fingers.

I checked out Skype, Richard, and it seems to be OK for IMing and for VOIP -- but I haven't seen any video conferencing options there, and that's what I'm really looking for. Anyone have any suggestions for that?

I'm really discouraged at this point, because all of the interactivity I was using my PC for seems to be disabled, or at least seriously compromised. My internet access (via Firefox) is intermittent -- about half the time pages time out before they load, but upon clicking refresh, they *might* just pop right up. My Airport icon consistently shows that it's getting signal, and I can run a simultaneous test on my PC laptop and the pages pop right up -- so it's NOT the internet access at the house.

I guess I need to test out Safari to see if it works better than Firefox, but to be honest, there's SO much new stuff to try to learn with this new platform that EVERY new thing just seems to be the last straw. I don't adapt to change well. These are pretty bad growing pains.

Another thing: My IM apps won't stay logged in (AIM and Yahoo). They disconnect without warning, and I can't even hear any notification sound letting me know that the status is changed. Google Talk (my favorite IM program) isn't even *available*. Google Chat sucks, and I don't know anyone to Skype or iChat with. This makes me feel really lonely and isolated because of this new machine.

I also looked yesterday and found out that I can't even use my super-easy method of transmitting pictures to my mom anymore, and trying to get her to download and use something *else* is gonna be REALLY hard. The Picasa2/Hello/Blogger thing was also what I used for easy web publishing of pictures that I could edit (crop and redeye retouching) and link to my JEs. It was also really great to upload them to Shutterfly and publish photo albums; I NEED to have something I can do that with on this computer.

I tried finding some video-type tutorial to run just to orient me to the basics of the Mac, because I have a really hard time following simple written instructions any more; it's sad, but I need it read aloud to me -- I guess I'm more of an aural learner than a visual one any more. Something akin to a Quicktime demo is what I'm looking for -- all I've been able to find thus far are teensy screenshots with lots and lots of text.

So, to review (making a list for my own follow-up purposes as much as asking for help):
  1. Enjoying TextEdit for composing JEs.
  2. Lost all ratings and play counts for iTunes. Probably too late to fix this. This sucks.
  3. Looking for video conferencing ability in an IM client.
  4. Firefox is NOT working well. I suppose I'll try Safari to see if it's any better.
  5. Have lost capability for easy downloading, editing, web publishing, and FAST transmission of high-res images via Picasa2/Hello/Blogger suite. Need to find replacement for this that will hopefully be REALLY easy for my mom to figure out on her end.
  6. Want decent animated/spoken word tutorial to walk me through how to use the Mac. I'm shocked that I haven't been able to find this already.
  7. Oh, not listed above, but it would also be nice to access the "network" in our house and be able to print without physically plugging in to a printer, just like I used to be able to do on my PC laptop.

*sigh*

I need a drink.

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[Mac] I really hate learning curves. More

[Mac] I really hate learning curves.

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  • 4. Firefox is NOT working well. I suppose I'll try Safari to see if it's any better.

    Try Safari, or Camino. Camino's mozilla's mac-only offering. It seems to work better for me than Safari in many cases. Although it *does* crash more often.

    7. Oh, not listed above, but it would also be nice to access the "network" in our house and be able to print without physically plugging in to a printer, just like I used to be able to do on my PC laptop.

    Dunno how to help you on
    • In my personal opinion, Photoshop Elements is entirely worth the $99 or whatever they're charging now. 2.0 came with my Graphire, and 3.0 was a gift this past Christmas, but it was entirely worth somebody else's money (and probably my own, too). I much prefer it for resizing stuff and touching up colors/blemishes. The only things I use iPhoto for are redeye, and minor cropping jobs. Mostly it's just my photo album.
  • 2) I'm not 100% sure of ratings and playcounts but I do know that iTunes Music Library.xml contains alot of the information of iTunes. This might help - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/11/03/itunes.html [xml.com] .

    3) As for Video chat you've got iChat http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/ [apple.com] (I think netmeeting or messenger live will connect to an iChat session). Use ichat or GAIM for google talk http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html [google.com] I don't know what google chat is so you might have already done this.

    4) I do
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • iTunes (Score:1)

    by arb ( 452787 )
    Try importing the "iTunes Music.xml" file - maybe that will work? Should do if my recollection of how it is supposed to work is right. There is an import option somewhere in iTunes under the a"File" menu - feed it the xml file from the Winders PC and cross your fingers. It shouldn't be too late to try this - it can't hurt at any rate. 8^/

    Firefox should work fine. A good trick is to copy your Firefox profile from the PC to the Mac. Copy the entire contents of "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Appli
    • I forgot about the printing... I got my printing (mostly) working fine. Go to "Preferences"; select "Print & Fax"; click the + button to add a printer; click the "More Printers" button; Select "Windows Printing" from the top drop-down then select the server from the list shown; Enter a username and password and click "Remember this password in my keychain"; Select the printer from the list displayed; Select the correct printer brand from the "Printer Model" drop-down list; Finally select the correct pri
  • A friend with a new MacBook ran into this problem, so I thouhgt it was worth asking.

    You did Install Firefox, you're not running it out of the installer are you? eg: you dragged it to applications, and it's running off your HD and not out of the DiskImage?
    -OZ
  • 1) ask StB for all and any help. He's TEH MANXX)RZ.

    2) For web browsing, Download Opera. It's free. the new slashdot rating/floating menu bar thing screws it up, but Opera is my preffered way of browsing on my mac. And everyone knows that slashdot sucks, so whatever. Turn off that new crap. The "Magic wand" is different than Firefox's auto-complete but its good enough. And the "I remember which tab you came from, so when you close this window I will bring you back to THAT tab" feature is WAAAAAAAY COO
  • I think half the problems on the list are symptoms of a flakey ’net connection. The B and G thing Sam mentioned sounds reasonable; are there perhaps B and G machines on the network? If so, either the access point or your Mac might be doing a horrible job of doing the necessary switching and shuffling. If the PC you mentioned is on 802.11B, try either getting it to G or just shutting it down (same for any other 802.11B stuff about the house). Then restart the router and see if your Mac’s connecti

  • I checked out Skype, Richard, and it seems to be OK for IMing and for VOIP -- but I haven't seen any video conferencing options there, and that's what I'm really looking for. Anyone have any suggestions for that?

    Hmmm, looks like Skype only has video on XP. Rumor about Skype for Mac getting video by the end of the year. [skype.com]. iChat can do video to other iChat users and to AIM users. There is also XMeeting [sourceforge.net], which works with MS NetMeeting and Ekiga aka GnomeMeeting. Wengo [wengo.com] is a an interesting program that do

  • You're right about Skype. I use it at work on the XP box with video for tech suppport. I also have it on my iBook, but no video there. Damn! You also need a FIREWIRE camera for iChat.

    Yes, the mac is not perfect, but it is good enough. Winders is not good enough. This is the truth, you will realize it, I am sure. Go slow. Ask lots of questions. Tolerate your frustration. Your perseverence will be rewarded.

    You got good advice from Sam re the b/g wireless thing. Good advice from a couple others on p
    • Your encouragement makes me smile, Richard. :-) Thank you for your faith -- it's just what I need right now.

      You know the MacBook has a built-in webcam, right? Does that qualify as a firewire camera? I mean, I can do video with it just great on my own machine; it's just interfacing with others that is the presenting a challenge.

      For what it's worth, Hubby switched our wireless routers to serve ONLY 802.11a (having read that the MacBook can work with it) instead of a/b, and that seems to have helped the in

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