Author Topic: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.  (Read 8937 times)

elagache

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Two OWC commentaries (Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.)
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2016, 11:38:38 PM »
Dear Reinhard, dfw, and WeatherCat faithful,

I have bought things from Other World Computing for literally decades.  They had two commentaries that also fit into this thread.  The first was a comment on the soldered SSD in the TouchBar MacBook Pro:

http://blog.macsales.com/38719-commentary-soldered-ssd-in-touch-bar-macbook-pro-brings-potential-issues-disappointment

and a more general commentary on Apple's direction with the Mac:

http://blog.macsales.com/36741-apple-should-renew-focus-on-mac-users-pros

Each is preaching to the choir but clearly the industry that has grown up around the Mac is really hurting as well.

Oh well, . . . . Edouard

Steve

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #16 on: November 21, 2016, 03:19:37 PM »
Steve - Avon, Ohio, USA


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xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #17 on: November 21, 2016, 04:21:36 PM »
Read that this morning from a Bloomberg link in another tech site. My comments there mirrored the ones at MacRumors. "This ain't yourGrandfather's Apple!" [banghead] Long live the Corporation (which will soon be able to vote for, not just buy politicians)!
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #18 on: November 22, 2016, 03:06:18 PM »
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #19 on: November 26, 2016, 10:42:59 PM »
Is this an Apple "computer" thing?

I've been getting occasional notifications about Numbers having an Update available. I mistakenly opened a spreadsheet created in the old, non-crippled version (3.6.2), and decided to just let it stay "revised".

In order to get rid of/stop the nagging, I opened the App store and clicked on Update even though it indicated there were none available. Failing to see Numbers that way, I used the Search function and found, indeed, version 4.0.5 with a handy "Update" button. Clicked the Update button and enjoyed watching the spinning gear... for about 10 minutes. After that, I decided to quit Numbers thinking the App Store might not want it running during an update (contrary to every other experience I've ever had with AS before! Hey, it's a "new" Apple! Things are changing! [banghead] ). I actually took a break, even a nap, and returned to see that there was no update downloaded, nor in-progress. Clicking the Update button restarted the spinning gear, of course. [computer] [insert twiddling thumbs smiley here]

After another experience of boredom, I decided to seek word from the Apple "Support" Forums. They were nice enough to have my exact question already answered! The answer was actually staring at me on the App Store page, in the tiny, non-enlargable, not quite black, but ever so modern looking text: "Numbers 4.0.4 requires mac OS 12" [rolleyes2]

Apparently things at Apple have changed so much that it now cannot even tell what version of their OS we might be running! "Stupid is as stupid does." I bet this doesn't happen on iOS! >:( :o
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


elagache

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Company growing "old." (Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.)
« Reply #20 on: November 28, 2016, 11:48:43 PM »
Dear X-Air and WeatherCat fans of the "lean and mean" Apple Computer,

Is this an Apple "computer" thing?

Sadly, it does seem to be a sign of "corporate aging."  What we could call a "senior moment" for a person perhaps should be called in this case a "Cupertino moment."

Sad times indeed for the Mac faithful, . . . . .

Edouard

xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #21 on: December 13, 2016, 10:38:59 PM »
A sadly amusing comment by the developer of a quite useful Mac app (not WC, BTW):
Quote
Bug fixes:...
Added a way to save debug logs so we can bypass Sierra's terrible Console logs.
Apparently, we 'consumers are not the only ones complaining. [rolleyes2]
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


elagache

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The murmur continues (Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.)
« Reply #22 on: December 13, 2016, 11:41:17 PM »
Dear X-Air and WeatherCat disappointed Mac faithful,

Thanks for the anecdote.  Indeed you'll find interesting snippets in the changelogs that indicate the developer community isn't exactly amused.

I just received my January 2017 MacLife magazine and the editorial couldn't help but thrash out the same issues with the latest MacBook Pro.

The Mac faithful are clearly being underwhelmed and that's not a good situation when they are use to Apple products being - "to use the slang" - AWEsome!!

Edouard

WCDev

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #23 on: December 14, 2016, 11:57:58 PM »
A sadly amusing comment by the developer of a quite useful Mac app (not WC, BTW):
Quote
Bug fixes:...
Added a way to save debug logs so we can bypass Sierra's terrible Console logs.
Apparently, we 'consumers are not the only ones complaining. [rolleyes2]
Yep, know that feeling - we implemented a similar change in the code set here a while back (for a future release).

xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #24 on: January 10, 2017, 02:58:07 AM »
More questionable "news" on the Mac planet of the Apple universe: Sal Soghoian has been laid off by Apple. Apparently, this actually happened last November (2016). Implications, meanings, questions, interpretations and responses in the latest TidBITS#1351/09-Jan-2017.
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


elagache

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WOW! (Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.)
« Reply #25 on: January 11, 2017, 12:15:15 AM »
Dear X-Air and WeatherCat Apple faithful,

More questionable "news" on the Mac planet of the Apple universe: Sal Soghoian has been laid off by Apple. Apparently, this actually happened last November (2016). Implications, meanings, questions, interpretations and responses in the latest TidBITS#1351/09-Jan-2017.

Wow!  :(  It's bad on two counts.  1.) This is a fellow Apple really needed.  2.) You mean he was laid off because of some bureaucratic nonsense? . . . . at Apple Computer !?!?!?!??  Perhaps IBM should acquire Apple (or the other way around.)  It seems these two companies have apparently grown into the same sort of inflexible behemoths.

Sad times indeed! 

Edouard

xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #26 on: January 12, 2017, 04:00:19 AM »
Symptoms of the changes:

This afternoon, my wife asked if I could help her with a printing problem. She had what appeared to be a one page spreadsheet she wanted to print. Unfortunately, when doing the command-P dance, the 'preview came up with nothing but the last few lines of what looked like just some text at the bottom of what was normally shown on screen!

I have always hated 'spreadsheets', the paper and the electronic types. I found their "design" always ugly, ungainly and difficult. I started using FileMaker when it was first available on the original Mac 'movables'. That was way before Apple bought the code (actually Pascal!) and took over the development. If I wanted a 'spreadsheet' "display" of the data, that was easy. I just didn't see any point in mot making the entry and display as easy on the eye as the rest of the Mac experience!

Hardly ever use Numbers, still looks like a 'spreadsheet'! Don't do any 'data crunching'. ;) And that apps move to mobile has never interested me either. But, my wife needed help, so...

First thing I noticed: there is no "Print Setup" menu item! Apparently, that has all but disappeared from all Apple apps. The Print Dialog was no help, none of the items even hinted at how to set up the spreadsheet to print certain areas on a "page". Used, or should I say I opened the Help app. I'm sure I have found help in that system sometime, I just can't remember when. [banghead]

The solution, of course, was on the web. Found a couple of Apple "Support" entries asking the same general question: How in the world do I print a certain part of a Numbers document?! I still think there is some way to divide a document into printable sections, but I gave up since the 'solution' was so simple.
Quote
  • Select the rows/columns you want to print.
  • Use the command-C to copy the data.
  • Open Preview.
  • Use the File->New from Clipboard menu item.
  • Print "command-P"
OK, there is a step 3... still, it is about as far away fro intuitive as even MS could make it!!! [rolleyes2]

A comment in one of the two posts I found sums it up very nicely.
Quote
Printing in Numbers is different than excel. You will help yourself a lot if you "forget" what you know about printing when using Numbers.
Apple calls this "progress".
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


Blicj11

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #27 on: January 12, 2017, 05:15:54 AM »
Been using spreadsheets since SuperCalc ran on 128KB disk on Raytheon Word Processors. They can do just about anything. Just like any other technology, you have to learn how to use the software. It's definitely more complicated than it used to be, but it does more stuff.

Speaking of stuff, found a quote I like: "You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need won't satisfy you." - Dallin H. Oaks

I know this is true because I have lots of what I don't need. And I don't have enough of it.

Blick


jace

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #28 on: January 12, 2017, 09:14:46 PM »
Found a good article at Gizmodo which lists the high level employees who have left Apple since Jan 2016, and the companies they now work for if known. Tesla is recruiting a lot of them.

Bob Kupbens, VP Apple online store - eBay
Hiroki Asai, VP global marketing communications
Yoky Matsuoka, Health at Apple
Danny Coster, director of product design (member of Jony Ive?s industrial design team) - Go Pro
Sarah O?Brien, PR - Tesla
Colin Smith, PR - Ford
Michaela Johndrow, PR - Ford
Chris Lattner, director of developer tools - Tesla
Matt Casebolt, director of product design - Tesla
David Erhart, director of reliability engineering - Tesla
Chester Chipperfield, special projects - Tesla
Charles Kuehmann. director of product design - Tesla
Steve Zadesky, Project Titan (Apple car) boss
Sal Soghoian, product manager of automation technologies
Daniel Gross, software director- Y Combinator
Thomas Zwingman, senior staff reliability engineer - Tesla
Sankarshan Murthy, product manager, worked on Apple Watch and iPhone 5C - Tesla
Timothy Hatcher, software engineering manager on WebKit - Tesla
Teresa Brewer, PR - SurveyMonkey
Bart Nabbe special projects - Faraday Future
David Finkelstein, manager of cryptographic security - Google
Ryan Walsh, senior product for media - Floodgate
Andrew Graham, motion sensors engineer - Tesla
Brooke Michael Kain, head of digital marketing for Apple Music and iTunes - AEG Live

JC

xairbusdriver

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Re: Sad times for the Macintosh faithful.
« Reply #29 on: January 13, 2017, 02:07:02 AM »
This TedTalk came across my desk yesterday. Finally watched it today. Still not impressed with spread sheets. I think it's the grid layout restrictions. Don't like restrictions. I was also amazed at the work people did trying to use a spread sheet as a database, and ugly ones, at that!

That's one reason I started using FileMaker; you can actually design things with it! Put items for the input screen where you want! Display (and print) the data in a completely different manner, if you want. It made data conform to the WYSIWYG pattern! It actually used "layers" even before Adobe brought out Photoshop!

I actually had little need for either a spread sheet or a database. I actually used FileMaker as a page layout app! You can put anything a computer can create anywhere on a page! Frankly, it's easier to use for page layout than Pages! Easier to use for data collection than Numbers! I'm just glad I never had to put my accounting degree to any financial functions or use any kind of spread sheet!

Oh well, here's a link to the <TedTalk> by the guy who invented VisiCalc. 8)
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system