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Raileurope.com: See Europe by train
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Old 02-23-2007, 06:25 AM   #21
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I am all about the macs now. I have become "The Mac Guy" at work recently and have been dealing with them full time now. I love em and when my laptop at home actually needs to be replaced (not me just wanting to) that is what I will be going with for sure.

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Old 02-23-2007, 06:41 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by travelpunk View Post
You mean, you get'n it on with another Tpunk ?
damn was it that obvious?


Quote:
Originally Posted by simply_angelic View Post

And patchouli....this other TP....could it be the same certain someone you're going to see italy with this summer ?
Well you know those Southern boys with their hospitality :D...
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Old 02-24-2007, 06:01 PM   #23
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so yes, you found us out, our plan all along was to go to europe and research and explore the deviant and kinky sex acts out friends across the pond get into and the even kinkier sex the back packing set gets into. after a few months of reaseach we plan on compiling our results into a book named the "geeks guide to snogging, even when you dont speak the language"

or "what if northface made condoms"
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Old 02-24-2007, 06:25 PM   #24
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I dig that second title... and the first one... I think you should keep both titles.
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Old 02-24-2007, 09:20 PM   #25
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"what if northface made condoms"


Actually that could be the name to the sequal
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Old 02-24-2007, 11:25 PM   #26
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Actually that could be the name to the sequal
actually i was thinking the sequeal should be titled "unbuckling the bible belt, the geeks guide to sodomy in the south "
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Old 02-25-2007, 09:08 AM   #27
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damn court! working in a porn shop really gave you a knack for these thing hunh? That last title's awesome
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Old 02-26-2007, 08:57 AM   #28
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Quote:
actually i was thinking the sequeal should be titled "unbuckling the bible belt, the geeks guide to sodomy in the south "
That is a great title that should not go to waste. At a minimum you should start a blog with that name and post as much tasteless (but serious sounding) 'research' as possible. Just to see how many flame comments you get about going to hell. Hilarious.
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Old 09-09-2007, 04:05 PM   #29
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Normally, I'd say "PC" for sure. However, if you're in the market for a 13" travel computer, the MacBook offers far more bang for the buck than comparable Sony or Dell units (especially if you're eligible for a student discount). I got a 2.16 Ghz 160GB 2 GB Ram machine with DVD burner for about $1250. The Sony SZ or Dell XPS 1330 would be damn near $2k with that spec (although with a better graphics card), and it came with a $200 rebate on a new iPod, too! So, a couple of months ago, I bought a MacBook and set it up as a dual-boot machine, also running Windows XP. I made the XP partition 32 GB and formated in FAT32 so I can read and write to the Windows partition from OS X. I also installed some software called MacDrive that allows you to read and write to the Mac partition from Windows. All my data is stored on the Mac Partition, so the 32 GB Windows partition really only needs to store programs, and is therefore a lot bigger than it really needs to be. This makes for a very flexible system- I can run anything!

That said, Mac OS X, while fast and stable, is driving me nuts for general usability. You need to remember more keyboard shortcuts and the "dock", while adorable, isn't as practical as the Windows task bar (especially if you have several Windows of the same type open, although this'll be fixed in the next OS update). It jumbles up icons for programs you're running, and programs you might want to run later, all in one big pile. You can't truely maximize windows, and there is also no way to minimize all.

I heard Macs are great for photography, which is one of the main reasons I got it, but I find that it just doesn't compare to Windows. First off, iPhoto flat out sucks. I have 5 years of photos, with over 20,000 individual pictures. When importing them into iPhoto, the entire file structure you used to organize your photos disappears and it builds a new one based on the photos metadata (or when the picture was taken- better hope your camera's clock was set right). Of course, it screwed that out and put some of my 2007 photos in 2006, then thought they disappeared when I put them in the right spot. Then, when you start iPhoto, it loads thumbnails of your ENTIRE LIBRARY! WTF! So, iPhoto was out. I could see how it could be useful to someone coming in with a small, completely unorganized photo collection, but for everyone else it blows- hard. (iTunes sucks too, but not quite as bad. One frustrating thing is that you need an iTunes store account before it downloads cover art, unlike Windows which'll do it automatically. Even then it is hit-or-miss). So, I'm using Finder (like Windows Explorer) to organized my photos in the same way I did on my PC. Unfortunately, you can't see the little tiny thumbnails superimposed on the file folder icon. Videos don't get a thumbnail preview at all. When you open the icon, if you want to select a group of photos to display as a slideshow, you can't click the first photo, and the click the last photo while holding "shift" to select all the photos between the first and the last. You can do this in list view, but not in icon view where you can actually see a thumbnail. WTF!? Then, when I import photos from my camera, I used to put them in a folder called, for instance, "2007_09_09 Trip to the beach", the date being the date I downloaded the photos. OS X, on the other hand, INSISTS that the photos must go into separate folders labeled by the date the photo was taken on. So, if I took one photo yesterday, it is going into it's own, separate folder all by itself. What a mess. I have to go through and copy and paste those photos into the folder I want them in to clean things up. That's right- copy and paste. I can't cut and paste in this instance! It might have something to do with being in thumbnail view. WTF?! Then, once I select a group of photos I want to look at and choose to view them as a slideshow, they're shown in RANDOM ORDER! So, when you're showing friends the pictures of your latest trip, they'll see something you did on the last day, then a picture from the middle of the trip, then a picture of you leaving on the trip, and then a picture of you coming home, for instance. It makes it very difficult to tell a story.

That about sums it up for pictures, which is definitely the most, but far from only, frustrating thing about the mac. Importing video from a camcorder, while Automatic on a PC, requires you to start iMovie on the Mac and then flip a little unlabeled switch on the iMovie user interface. You can look at attached drives and pull-down menus all you want and find NOTHING about the camcorder you have attached. It took me forever to find that little switch. Then, you have to divide your video into seperate clips manually. Playing media is also not as nice as on Windows. Windows media player, with the appropriate plugins, will play ANY media. On Mac, you need a few separate players.

That said, it does have it's good points. Like I said- it was actually a good value, the hardware is thin, quiet, and sexy, the one-button trackpad can do everything a two-button can and was surprisingly easy to learn and better than any other touchpad I've used. It boots up fast and is very stable. Lots of great freeware is out there (definitely get quicksilver- it makes starting applications even easier than on Windows and makes up for a lot of mac deficiencies). Mac is more virus and spyware proof, which gives me peace of mind when doing online banking while traveling. And, when all else fails and I'm ready to throw my computer across the room, I can just boot to familiar old Windows XP and have a fully functional machine with only a few minor compromises (keyboard is slightly different, trackpad driver only allows one scrolling speed {fast}, battery life isn't as good as under OS X). I seldom do this though as I'm *REALLY* trying to learn OS X.

So, would I recommend you switch to Mac? No- not really. I've been frustrated and often disappointed. However, do I think the MacBook is a very versatile computer and a good value? YES, and there isn't much harm in trying it since you can always use it as a Windows machine. I'll probably get another PC when I'm ready to get a new desktop next year, although I sure like the form-factor of the iMac...
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Old 09-09-2007, 11:33 PM   #30
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That said, Mac OS X, while fast and stable, is driving me nuts for general usability. You need to remember more keyboard shortcuts and the "dock", while adorable, isn't as practical as the Windows task bar (especially if you have several Windows of the same type open, although this'll be fixed in the next OS update). It jumbles up icons for programs you're running, and programs you might want to run later, all in one big pile. You can't truely maximize windows, and there is also no way to minimize all.

See that was one of my favorite things about having a mac. I love the shortcuts!

Someone sent this to me and I found it hilarious:

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Old 09-12-2007, 09:01 AM   #31
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The PC has keyboard shortcuts, too- you're just less dependent on them.
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Old 05-04-2008, 10:47 PM   #32
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sorry, i need to bump this...

going thru the same dilemma now, ive always used a PC, but am looking into the whole Mac thing for travelling. i need something with good photography and video capabilities- and internet stuffs... im tossing up a macbook pro or a sony Vaio. obviously, i dont unstand much about the specs on both, i just like the pink vaios.lol

has the iphoto shitness been ironed out since @dam's post a few up? or is it really that random?

oh, and sorta unrelated, how does it work with international travel and the power cables? i know many countries have different power pin configurations and wattage, how does this affect my laptop? do i just buy a cable for each country?
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Old 05-04-2008, 11:07 PM   #33
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I'm not a very technological person but I know a little and nothing compares to the user friendly interface of a mac...I agree that iPhoto sucks and I find it is easier to just organize my photos in a "picture" folder in my finder just like on a PC. As far as travel, at least in the US, the AirPort makes connecting to wi-fi in different places a breeze. Internationally, you should be fine if u get a power adapter kit thing.
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Old 05-05-2008, 05:10 AM   #34
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If you're willing to pay an extra couple hundred and purchase Aperture, then I'd highly recommend mac. I use Aperture and the program runs flawlessly and I love the way it is setup. It allows you to organize your photos, export them in individual "projects" to backup, plenty of editing capabilities in the program itself, and does it all with surprising speed and stability.

Give it a look!
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Old 05-05-2008, 08:43 AM   #35
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the new iphoto is ok. but it is just ok. I have been using it for a bit. I like the ammount of organization it provides.
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Old 05-05-2008, 09:18 AM   #36
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cool, thanks its a shame its a bit lacking in the photo organising department, but hopefully i manage
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Old 05-06-2008, 12:54 AM   #37
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You might also want to see if you can try Photoshop Elements if you're leaning towards the Vaio. It's basically a stripped down version of the regular photoshop, good for fixing color/contrast/etc in your photos and resizing them. It has some fancier features too but I hardly ever use them, I have enough trouble just getting all my photos up. I think you'd be happy with either the Vaio or the Macbook Pro.

I've noticed recently that the online services like Flickr and Picasa are embedding editing tools directly into their web interfaces. It's pretty cool actually, although I'm not sure how much bandwith they use. I'm worried that it'll be unusable when you're someplace with shitty internet.

As for power, you should just need an adapter to change the shape of the plug. For anything that plugs in you'll need either an adapter or a converter. Almost anything with a transformer (meaning it has a big brick-style plug, or a regular plug that goes through a brick before getting to whatever you're powering) just needs a plug adapter. The easy way to tell is to just look for the label on it, usually on the power brick or on the back of the actual device. It will say "Input" and if it says 100V-240V then you just need an adapter. If it is only 240V or only 110V then you'd need a converter. I've never actually run into anything that didn't accommodate both voltages but best to check

On another note...has anyone considered a UMPC for travel? They're tiny computers, the screens are as small as a paperback and there's no keyboard. Some weigh around 1 pound. Popular in Japan I guess. But they're full powered computers and run windows. They also cost as much as a regular laptop...$1500-2500 USD. Here's an example:
http://www.icube.us/product_detail.c...del/VGN-UX.cfm

Click on gallery for a video review. icube is a company that imports these from Japan and Korea, most UMPCs aren't available in the US markets. They also import super-small laptops with 8" screens. It seems like these might be alternatives for backpackers rather than a full size laptop.
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