Faulty iMac's - Good repairer needed

[ZeroHour]

/ADMIN NOTE: This thread is escalating a bit out of control, please ease off the trolling.

 

Apple are like everyone else, they have issues and go lalala fingers in the ears at time as have every other hardware manufacturer on the planet. They have been clear in the past about catering for the consumer so even though they have a unix base, its not enterprise or anyway like it (those bugs with auth are a simply a joke and should NEVER happen nor take weeks to fix). This is before we get to NTFS and its object permissions that I find amazingly powerful. I do hold out hope Cook will bring apple back into the sphere of enterprise but we will see as I think he fears making his own mark and is sitting trying to be minijobs although he did at least kill appletalk for proper shares by default (ntfs write plz.... and cut and paste a file WITH THE EXPECTED SHORTCUT)

Hardware wise I have found apple kit to be pretty good but you are paying a premium for it, I have also find if you actually spend a similar amount on dell/hp hardware you likewise get a decent product. The issues most have is when they compare a £400 laptop to a macbook pro an expect it to be close, it simply cant be, they have to save money somewhere and at least those that buy apple know they generally cover most of the bases for the price.

I also have not seen a mass stampeded to buy macs especially in business, they are still not the biggest worldwide (no usa only stats, we are a big world) by a long shot. I dont suddenly see everyone I know with a mac, nor do I find a mass wanting to get one (excluding iDevices) and when people see the price it doesnt even get a starting foot when they can buy tablets/laptops for less. Business especially struggles to justify mac's unless they are very aware of a clear benefit. On the other hand if a person does buy mac they usually stay mac (except me) but that can be for a variety of issues and one is certainly its simple (until it breaks) to use to a point....

 

Now time to get off this fence back to topic, balancing is getting tricky

Edited September 17, 2013 by ZeroHour

[seawolf]

Yes, it has gotten a bit off topic, but I believe the original question was answered. And, since you've added an opinion I'll make one last "off topic" comment in response.

 

I also have not seen a mass stampeded to buy macs especially in business, they are still not the biggest worldwide (no usa only stats, we are a big world) by a long shot. I dont suddenly see everyone I know with a mac, nor do I find a mass wanting to get one (excluding iDevices) and when people see the price it doesnt even get a starting foot when they can buy tablets/laptops for less. Business especially struggles to justify mac's unless they are very aware of a clear benefit.

 

You've certainly made a valid observation about business in general. Many businesses are still running XP or will run Win 7 for the next decade and are largely stuck on Windows whether they like it or not due to legacy software or Windows-only software solutions for their industry. On the other hand, the world of Education is changing extremely rapidly. Last year at the National Education Conference in Sydney I scanned the Wifi network to see what devices people were using. I was amazed. Out of the 650+ people on the network at the conference (mostly teachers) over 80% were using either iPads or Macbooks. During one of the keynotes about the future of DER funding and BYOD in schools the presenter asked for a show of hands from the audience regarding how many of them were using their own device and not the one they were issued by their school. The majority raised their hands. That means that when given a choice, most of the teachers in the room from public and private schools across the nation were choosing to use iPads or Macs.

 

Now, as an IT Manager in the Education industry that means I and many other schools had best be prepared to support and integrate these devices and not do it kicking and screaming or else we will all be gone. I know a couple of schools where this has already happened. IT people in the education industry in Australia must be prepared and capable of changing or they had best go get a job at a bank where they will still be using Windows 7 in 2030. Get prepared and re-skilled for it, or it will be time to move to another industry or career. At least in this country.

 

BTW - "AppleTalk" has been dead for a while. AFP is not AppleTalk and it has some advantages over SMB (metadata and search) that will hopefully be added to SMB in the future. Also, NTFS and SMB aren't the same thing. Only Windows runs on NTFS and there are free or cheap solutions to allow Macs to write to NTFS (NTFS-3G) and PCs to write to HFS+. If Apple were to change it's file system I would hope they would move to ZFS or a similar modern, robust file system rather than NTFS! It would be fantastic if all vendors could decide on a standard file system such as ZFS or an open source equivalent, but I'm not going to hold my breath!

Edited September 17, 2013 by seawolf

[ZeroHour]

Many businesses are still running XP or will run Win 7 for the next decade and are largely stuck on Windows whether they like it or not due to legacy software or Windows-only software solutions for their industry.

That implies business's want to move, they actually dont move unless there is a definitive need with a proven benefit. This is an attitude that all should take especially in schools where budgets are tight. Business should be learned from, not shunned as slow/stuck etc. Plenty of schools are focusing far far far too much on technology especially since I know quite a few already had good tech in place with projectors etc and computers everywhere, staff just didnt use it.

 

On the other hand, the world of Education is changing extremely rapidly.

The way teachers teach is changing, not masses of curriculum, its not like maths suddenly took a great leap in schools although there are techniques to help but all at a cost. I think a great many need to slow the pace a little and actually take stock of the benefits for the huge costs of implementing something in a hurry. I have seen schools spend £400,000 on ipad's and wifi without ever considering how it will be used or how it will work, no one objects to having money spent on them. This is before we get to poor schools who bought the ipad 1 to find apple ending support 2 years later (laptops for a similar cost ran for 4-5 years) with iOS 6. Countless projects have wasted cash because of the urgency to keep up with the jones's today rather then actually finding out how they will use it with their pupils. The kit arrives and the staff lose interest or it becomes a personal device where no work is done and they really just wanted the perk because they weren't paying.

I am not saying progress is bad, or even that ipad is necessarily bad, but when no one really does the due diligence and purchases ipads so a teacher can give the class an "internet browsing lesson" the value needs to be measured especially with the lesson plan.

When it comes to older pupils (12+) I really start to struggle to see why a school would give each an ipad, sure its nice but will we see smarter kids, no one knows as its still only VERY early days with all these things and thats why we need to slow down a bit. ipads were not around when I was a kid but we didnt all end up thick, its not to say lessons couldnt have been more interesting, its just we shouldnt all buy in so quickly. If you take 2 years to evaluate the uses in different departments those kids who went through the school without ipads will be fine (not thick) and the risk for the school is greatly reduced as well as allowing time for staff to train and get up to speed on if they want to use it themselves.

The one saving grace of ipad's and tablets is now teachers are actually a bit happier to learn about how they could have used technology in their classroom for the last 10 years. We had some amazing kit for teachers rolled out at great expense but it didnt *inspire* (did I really just write that...) them to use it so it was wasted and rolled out in haste without actually taking a minute to find out who would use it and when.

 

Last year at the National Education Conference in Sydney I scanned the Wifi network to see what devices people were using. I was amazed. Out of the 650+ people on the network at the conference (mostly teachers) over 80% were using either iPads or Macbooks. During one of the keynotes about the future of DER funding and BYOD in schools the presenter asked for a show of hands from the audience regarding how many of them were using their own device and not the one they were issued by their school. The majority raised their hands. That means that when given a choice, most of the teachers in the room from public and private schools across the nation were choosing to use iPads or Macs.

The devil is in the detail, a few questions that should be asked (the teachers) to find out the exactly whats going on, I am not expecting you to know off hand, its more food for thought.

Did all those teachers have supplied laptops/tablets but chose to use their own (I dont know if you have a laptop for teachers program etc out there) or did they take their own kit because there is no supplied kit or its out of date? (budgets)

Did the school provided solution fail to meet there needs and how?

Without knowing its hard to draw any conclusion from that data tbh but I know you were not making a hard case with the data. I wonder what I would find at the EduGeek conference

I dont want us to keep looping around the points as such but I am not against ipads and mac's or any technology as long as it will be used properly by the teacher, when they cant tell you exactly how they would use it over and above what they have (thinking of schools where computers are in every room with interactive whiteboards and projectors on mass and the teachers answer is I can browse while the projector is on) things need to be slowed down and reevaluated before moving forward.

[seawolf]

As this thread was now getting well off topic, but it is I believe a broader topic worthy of discussion, I have created a new thread with a starting point being the last couple of posts. I have posted a reply on there.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/123638-discussion-education-tablets-mac-win-nix-chromebooks-etc.html#post1056273

[CESIL]

I have always been of the opinion that if Apple had made their OS available to more manufacturers, then Windows would have been wiped out years ago as there are clear advantages to it in terms of ease of use for non-techies.

 

However as has already been pointed out as soon as I see the price for an admittedly beautifully designed Mac I question why anybody would pay so much more for something that is still just a computer and still just runs software (that will mostly run on cheaper PC hardware) and will still be out of date far too soon.

 

I do not consider myself an "Apple hater" just someone who does not like single source suppliers with no competition to keep prices sensible.

 

As an aside I remember doing a computer event just before the launch of Windows 98 and a Mac user saying " Oh look, Windows 98 or as we call it Mac 85" to which I replied "Yes and if Apple had shared their technology we would all be using it..."

[SYNACK]

Now, I remember. I bother because some people need to be reminded of reality.

 

1. Average wages are not high enough to be even close to making up for the difference in costs here. But, I digress.

 

2. There was a time not too long ago when just about every computer in Australia was at least twice as expensive as in the US. Apple was no exception. Every company was doing the same thing. Prices changed pretty much in line with exchange rates and price drops in the states. Many products are within 10% of the cost here as in the US now. Account for the GST and the higher operating costs (rent, labour, red tape) for doing business in Australia and you're at par in pricing. Price drops don't come immediately with changes in exchange rates because only time can determine if the changes are going to be persistent and not transitory. Also, prices themselves are like wages and are "sticky". Once you've dropped them it's hard to go back the other way. Kind of the opposite to wages.

 

3. People are looking for something simpler because (1) they are less skilled, or (2) they're tired of fighting their computers to get them to work properly. The best system is one that doesn't require any or little training for the average person to use. Apple got that, and they've been rewarded by mostly happy consumers. Which, of course is why every PC company on earth is now copying Apple.

 

[sARCASM] I know, I know - stupid PC companies - Apple is lametastic and makes horrible products that only morons buy. Why would they want to copy that? After all, I just don't know why Apple keeps planning for the future when their products are so obviously wretched and the company is totally doomed. [/sARCASM]

 

4. Although the interface is simpler, the Mac is running on top of Unix. So, power users are completely catered for as well. Unless you think Unix is for morons and simpletons who don't have any skills?

Edit: naughty trolling, naughty

Edited September 17, 2013 by SYNACK

[mac_shinobi]

Edited Quote: Naughty trolling, naughty (on my part)

 

Could always tri boot it and bung linux on there along with other OSes ??

Edited September 17, 2013 by SYNACK

[SYNACK]

Could always tri boot it and bung linux on there along with other OSes ??

 

Oh, I'm just goading and should know better (didn't see ZH's timely reminder before now) . There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to use a Mac.