Boss gave me a Mac, help.

[Allute]

Hey, I recently got hired onto a small internet based business and they trained me on just the basics of how to perform the task. But, if I'm going to have a 60 pound paperweight sitting where my 19" LCD monitor used to be, I want to know how to get the best of it.

I've been searching all over the place, but theres hardly any Faq's about Macs. Does anyone know some of the hotkeys, helpful software gadgets, and the like? Come to think of it, does anyone know how to open this damn thing so I can replace the internal battery. I think its an eMac G3 but I don't know how to check the system stats.

[dropadrop]

I'm intrested too, just got a powerbook at work.

[benbaked]

you can find a bunch of useful info at www.lowendmac.com, that's one of the best mac websites i've ever come across.

most of the hotkeys are similar to the hotkeys for windows, except the CTRL key is replaced by the apple/cloverleaf key. if you want to do a right-click, hold down the CTRL key and then click...or use a two-button mouse.

there is TONS of software available for mac, whether you are using a classic version of the system software such as OS 9 or if you are using OS X. OS X is pretty much BSD unix with IMO the best graphical frontend of any *nix operating system.

the big thing between mac and windows = lots of things like buttons and default locations for icons are swapped, or on the other side basically. if you want to know what kind of system it is, click the Apple menu icon in the top left corner of your screen and then click on "About This Mac..." or "About this computer" and it will tell you what version of the operating system you have. If you are using OS X 10.3 or 10.4 then it will have a button labeled "more info" that will start the System Profiler and will let you know all kinds of things.

If it's an eMac then it is at least a G4, some of the all-in-ones can be a beast to get inside of and I've honestly never tried since my company doesn't have any eMacs. i am apple desktop/notebook and os x certified so if you have any further questions let me know and I can try to help you out the best I can. :thup:

[Josh_K]

if its the one where its a computer in a screen in a 2 inch thick box than that has a G5 which is the fastest CPU on the market FOLD ON THAT!!

if its a laptop than its a G4. you most likely have a G4 if its a new one

they don't use g5 in everything because those things need huge fans and we have some at school and one of them is watercooled

[benbaked]

if its the one where its a computer in a screen in a 2 inch thick box than that has a G5 which is the fastest CPU on the market FOLD ON THAT!!

i can't agree that the G5 is the fastest cpu on the market. i believe any equally clocked socket 939 opteron/a64 would be faster. same with the A64/opteron/pentium dualcores versus dualcore G5 systems.

[Allute]

it is an eMac G4 Desktop Comp with 700MHz and 640MB SDRAM. My question is whats with this whole battery thing. My boss told me the reason I have to reset the clock everytime I turn the computer on is because an internal battery is dead and needs to be replaced. The only battery I know of in a PC is the watch battery that keeps the bios powered.

[FeralCom]

If its like the G4 laptops I use to work on...there is no battery.

:eek: What? :eek:

Yes, that's right, no battery. Not in a CMOS-type way you are familiar with anyway. A capacitor holds system information for 5-10 minutes tops with no power connected. Again, it may be diffrent with your G3.

Tips.

#1 Use CNTRL + Mouse button for right clicks (if you have to suffer a Mac mouse).

#2 Watch the news and learn how to "throw gangsta signs". Let me know which OS your using and I will let you know what ones you need to know as hotkeys.

[da_spork]

If it's still plugged into the wall, I wouldn't think it'd do that..


All of comes from my experience with my ibook I bought last November and pertains to OS X, I can't speak for 9:


The biggest change for me using a mac was that there's a difference between close and quit. When you first turn on your mac, no programs are started except the gui and stuff. When you start a program, it loads the program into ram and keeps it there until you go to the name of the program then down to quit (I use apple+Q to quit). Clicking the red X in the upper left hand corner CLOSES (apple+W) the window. It keeps the program in memory so it can be accessed faster and not loaded, removed, loaded, removed over and over.

I was used to in windows, you push the x, the program goes bye bye. That had to have been the biggest change for me, and I think I really like it.

The most common hotkeys I know are:
apple+q - quits the program
apple+w - closes the window
apple+s - saves your work- if the program allows
apple+n - opens a new document of whatever you're working with
apple+tab - cycles through your running programs left to right, you can apple+q them from here and they'll quit. It's the exact same as alt+tabbing in windows, only you can quit stuff with apple+q.
apple+tilda - cycles through the running programs backwards, can still apple+q
apple+spacebar - opens spotlight so you can search. Spotlight is one of my favorite toys on the mac, to launch a program you can just search for the name, like console or something, then hit down until you're at the one you want and then enter and it brings it up. Same applies to documents. I love it because you can open anything with keystrokes and not move your mouse around or navigate directories to find stuff.
apple+h - this hides the window. It will disappear but if you click on the programs icon on the dashboard, it'll pop right back up. Useful to clear stuff up.

With mine, you can press F9 and it will "zoom out" so to speak. It makes it so you can see EVERYTHING that you currently have open... like if you have mail, safari, and you're browsing the harddrive you can hit F9 and it will show you smaller windows of each of those. If you move your mouse over it, it will tell you what it is but most of the time the appearance is enough to figure it out.
F11 is my other favorite one, it moves everything to the side so you can see your desktop.
Something neat you can do with these are set them to different corners of the screen so if you drag your mouse to that corner, it will do the F11 action and you can see your desktop. I have mine set so if I fling my mouse to the upper-left, it zooms all the way out. If I fling it to the upper right, it shows my desktop. You can set all of this in System Preferences then Dashboard and Expose.

Programs that I've changed to from the default ones that came on my ibook are thunderbird because I can copy/paste my data in there onto windows and it will have all your messages and configuration and stuff, it's great. I also didn't care much for the quicktime player, maybe I'm just not a true apple user. I installed VLC and use that for all my video media playing. I'm not that big of a fan of itunes but I still use it for the little music I keep on mine.

As far as applications go, all of them are in your Applications folder. To install a program (if it doesn't have an installer) you just drag it into that folder, and you're good to go. If you don't want it anymore, drag it out of that folder and into the recycle bin. It's pretty tough, but you should be able to get the hang of it :p

[benbaked]

My question is whats with this whole battery thing. My boss told me the reason I have to reset the clock everytime I turn the computer on is because an internal battery is dead and needs to be replaced. The only battery I know of in a PC is the watch battery that keeps the bios powered.

sounds like your battery is dead. the following kb article describes how to replace the battery in an eMac. the only tools you need are a phillips screwdriver, a ballpoint pen, and then you'll need a 1/2AA 3.6v battery that can be picked up at most local electronics stores for about $10-$15.

link (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=34885)

the battery lasts between 3 and 7 years so you'll likely not have to do this again. if it seems like the battery had a short life that is probably because something happened that caused the PMU to stop responding, and if the PMU is not reset when that happens it will cut the battery life down dramatically (down to about two days worth of life). fortunately the battery on the eMac looks quite easy to replace.

[gorilly]

sounds like your battery is dead. the following kb article describes how to replace the battery in an eMac. the only tools you need are a phillips screwdriver, a ballpoint pen, and then you'll need a 1/2AA 3.6v battery that can be picked up at most local electronics stores for about $10-$15.

link (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=34885)

the battery lasts between 3 and 7 years so you'll likely not have to do this again. if it seems like the battery had a short life that is probably because something happened that caused the PMU to stop responding, and if the PMU is not reset when that happens it will cut the battery life down dramatically (down to about two days worth of life). fortunately the battery on the eMac looks quite easy to replace.


i've heard about this, some guy gave me an old power pc a couple of months ago, he tol dme he had to have the battery replaced twice... i thought he was just on about the flat cell on the motherboard...

[>HyperlogiK<]

i can't agree that the G5 is the fastest cpu on the market. i believe any equally clocked socket 939 opteron/a64 would be faster. same with the A64/opteron/pentium dualcores versus dualcore G5 systems.

god I agree with you, but lets not start this again

[dropadrop]

On the other hand, if you are using a computer for general tasks, speed is not necassarily the most important thing. I've quite enjoyed this mac. I had to reboot once after starting it up for the first time, and once after installing norton. Apart from that I've installed the whole system without any other reboots, and using it is very nice.

The ergonomics of the operating system are great.

[Gnufsh]

AFAIK, all the benchmarks not done by Apple (or mac fanatics) have shown that the G5 is not the fastest processor on the market. To the best of my knowledge, it is not. That said, the PPC-970 (G5) is an excellent processor. It's a good design, but IBM couldn't push up the clock speed as much as they originally intended (mostly due to the same process problems everyone has been running into, I believe), which would have made it a much more formidable competitor in the processor market.

On the other hand, if you are using a computer for general tasks, speed is not necassarily the most important thing. I've quite enjoyed this mac. I had to reboot once after starting it up for the first time, and once after installing norton. Apart from that I've installed the whole system without any other reboots, and using it is very nice.
There are some very good things about macs, I agree.

The ergonomics of the operating system are great.
Here I have to disagree. I hate the GUI. Don't get me wrong, it looks beautiful, it just takes annoys the heck out of me. At least it's not always bugging me to clean up my desktop icons like windows XP. I guess that's one reason I use linux, so I can get everything just the way I like it.

[benbaked]

yeah i think the power pc processors truly were faster clock for clock back in the PII and original iMac G3 days, indeed "twice as fast" as apple's old snail and disco inferno ads suggested back in the late 90s. (anybody remember those ads? the intel bunny man catching fire?)

nowadays i wouldn't believe that "twice as fast" claim, my 1ghz ibook G4 doesn't even compare to the speed of my 2ghz barton, granted the mem bus is faster so it's not exactly a fair comparison. the ibook is still plenty fast for wireless internet usage and amazingly it even plays WoW with its lowly mobility radeon 9200 and 32mb video ram :D

i would love to see some benchmarks of a power mac g5 quad against a dual socket dual core opteron...

anyways, not to steer this thread off course, Allute did that article help?

[Gnufsh]

I believe they are still faster clock for clock (certainly over the netburst based processors).

[Ha_hA_HA!]

Here is a link to the battery that you need. Not to bad at $4.99 ...

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/BAA36VPRAM/

[Ha_hA_HA!]

Also, here are some other useful links:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/ - a great resource on upgrades
http://www.resexcellence.com - a resource for customizing OSX

[LogRus]

"Why is my Mac SOOOO SLOOOW? I've closed all my Applications!!"

If you ever feel like that ^^^ it is because by closing a window in MacOS you DO NOT close the application. You have to either click Apple+Q to quit it or click on the programs name next to the Apple picture in the upper left corner and select Quit "...whatever application it is... "


//now a little off topic
At least it's not always bugging me to clean up my desktop icons like windows XP

You can disable that! It was annyoing the heck outta me. But all you have to do to disable it is go to Display Properties >> Desktop >> Customize Desktop... >>> UNCHECK the "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days". And you'll never see that annoying message again! :D
BTW this is where you also choose if you want My Computer/My Documents/ My Network Places and Internet Explorer to be seen on the Desktop when the new "XP Style" start menu is used.

//back to topic, sorry for my threadjack..

[Gnufsh]

You can disable that! It was annyoing the heck outta me. But all you have to do to disable it is go to Display Properties >> Desktop >> Customize Desktop... >>> UNCHECK the "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days". And you'll never see that annoying message again! :D
BTW this is where you also choose if you want My Computer/My Documents/ My Network Places and Internet Explorer to be seen on the Desktop when the new "XP Style" start menu is used.

//back to topic, sorry for my threadjack..
Well that sure is intutivie...

Windows needs to come with a huge manual that tells you how to do everything (including things like this). Then of course you have to figure out how to get the average user to read it.

Thanks for the info, I guess it's time to get back on topic. There's some cool info about OSX here:
http://kernelthread.com/mac/osx/
http://kernelthread.com/publications/osxkernel/osxkernel.swf