GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

A new job has me searching for a Mac solution for playing around with music gear. They want to submit some budget numbers tomorrow. Argh! Not really enough time to research shit. I'm torn between a faster Mac laptop than I have and a DIY Linux music server, and just popping for a Mac Pro desktop. I currently have an iTouch, iPad, and entry level MacBook, and a fairly new and fast Dell Windows 7 desktop. My needs are: I've got to be able to play with and evaluate virtually any digital media device. I won't be looking at bad-ass listening room servers (ie Sooloos) or professional audio editing stuff, but may be playing with most anything other hardware and sof…

I'd like to extend the life of a 3.5 y/o laptop by replacing the stock HD with an SSD. The plan is to use it for OS (Vista64) & apps only, with data kept external. Don't want to overspend since it is an ever-aging laptop, so I figure the 64GB models strike a good balance between capacity & price (~US$100). Trying to catch up on this tech by reading various reviews & comparing to what is for sale these days. It seems older models were plagued with reliability issues, which I don't need. Brands with better track records include Plextor, Crucial, & Samsung. Surprisingly, Kingston has more than their fair share of negative reviews. So, although they cost a …

I need to centralize mah music. Need DSd and higHRES comatability. What is the current shortlist? Plex? Airplay? Preferences for linux compatible, and/or FireStick/Android app compatible.

alright, this is mostly a question for mac users, but if you windows users got some advice, i'd love to hear it. anyway, i have a bunch of tv shows downloaded on my external hdd (scrubs, house, lost, bsg, etc.) and my roommate wants to watch them on his computer in the other room sometime. i have a macbook and he has a macbook pro, and we're both running leopard with file sharing on. i'm using an 802.11g network and since about a month ago, the video streaming worked perfectly fine. my roommate could watch any and all shows that he wanted by simply connecting to my computer via the shared network. recently, however, the video streams have basically gone to shit. he …

Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who basically never learned how to do anything myself, and now have a problem I don't know how to troubleshoot so need someone to help me out yet again. Last night around 11PM, my wireless connection suddenly disappeared, but my computer asked me if I wanted to connect to another network, so I connected to a neighbor's unsecured whatever. Today, I get home from work and try to find out what's going on, the modem and the airport express have all the right lights lit up, but I don't know what my network was called, have no idea what my password was if I even knew at all, and now don't know how to start to figure it out. Any ideas? I…

I've been using VitaminSEE with my iMac, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestion for a good image viewer/browser for Mac? I really miss ACDSee I used to use on my PC, but they don't make the program for OS X.

Hot DAMN, this is sweet. Addonics Portable Dual Drive enclosure lets you RAID on the go - Engadget $100 Works with SSD

I expect to upgrade my iPhone 3g to a 5 in the next couple of months. I figure it would be best if I convert my 21.5 iMac 3.06 to the latest 10.8.2 operating system. However, I am worried the 10.8.2 may still have a few bugs and since 10.6.8 has been so stable that a change may not be for the better. Any converters out there which could shed some light? I am also reading Mac Forums and Mac rumors to educate myself.

So I am tired of being a cheapskate and using limited capability storage solutions. I need to get a real NAS that will not be limited for a while. Anyone have experience with recent Synology NASs? I am looking specifically at either the DS413 or the DS412+. Any experiences positive or negative with these units or the Synology software interface would be appreciated.

I use iTunes to manage my music collection. Its tagging capabilities leave a lot to be desired. I'm playing around with fixtunes to clean up some of the tags, but I was wondering if folks have any other suggestions about a good tagger that works with Mac and iTunes.

So apparently you guys who think computer audio is the way to go are deluding yourselves: meh .

I'm the de facto IT guy in my office, and I need to protect our data with something cloud-based that will do an automatic backup every day at a specified time. We have three computers, less than 1 TB in total. I know there are a lot of options, and I don't know what makes each one better or worse than the others. Can someone give me a really quick "get this one, stupid"?

I think I may have posted about this once before, but I could use some advice re my home Ethernet wiring. My apartment came "wired.". We have a ton of drops, but im not sure whether they're all lit. The reason I'm not sure is that the patch panel is also a mess. From back when I did some network stuff I remember this connectivity shit being a two man job. I don't have that luxury. Basically, I want to at least figure out what's lit and what's not. What tools do I need? Is it worth getting a tester? Also, how hard/easy is it to terminate my own Ethernet cables? Patch cables are such a ripoff. Overall, I need a bit of advice about how to assess what exactl…

Apple announces final MacWorld, Steve Jobs won't deliver keynote - Engadget

Curious if there is a SATA and IDE BlacX-like device? I see adapters like this, but nothing in the more convenient form factor. Anyone know of one?

A quick search online hasn't yielded any helpful results.. I picked up a refurb T40 a while back. The last few days I've had issues where the video would cut out completely, or the display would get distorted, looking as if there were a bunch of the same images just barely offset. It always happens when handling the laptop or when typing. It can be manipulated by applying pressure on the case. Sometimes a bit of pressure tweaking the case can make it come back completely, or at least get it to the point where I can save what I'm doing. I'm guessing it's the display adapater, which AFAIK is integrated and non-servicable. But I thought it was worth seeing if th…

Doing online research for a cpu that will meet my htpc needs, I came across this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/05/tongue-and-bum-controller I wonder what Valve is up to... hmmm...

I asked my thunderbird to sync up to folders already on the webmail server (just started using it for uni email addy). And the sub folders which I had already created inside the thunderbird inbox vanished, replaced by the server synced folders. (I had assumed they would be added on to, not supercede). The emails in those previous folders were not returned to the main inbox, although everything in the main inbox remains the same. Nor were they moved to the deleted items bin. They've simply vanished. They're not on the main server via the website either so I can't redownload them. Obviously putting them in folders in thunderbird killed them on the server which fucks my w…

I would like to install Windows on an external hard drive and run via boot camp on my iMac so that Yumi can run Autocad Architecture on it (her computer is dying). I assume that thunderbolt is fast enough that I won't see any difference between running it on an external drive vs my main HD. Is that true? Can you recommend a reliable and fast HD that runs has thunderbolt connection?

I just installed OS X in a G5. This is my first interaction with Mac. Whee... Yeah, yeah, I know, Tiger is like so last year...

If, like me, you find it annoying to have Time Machine start churning away when you're already employing your Mac's FireWire bus to transport bits to your Duet, then you're in luck. Time Machine Editor Let's you schedule backups when you want them rather than the default hourly behavior. Works fine for me so far, doesn't appear to perform any dodgy hacks and is free as in beer.

As some of you already know, my iBook has been going through a slow and painful death the last couple of months (it can now only stay powered on - if I turn it off or put in sleep mode, it may not boot up again for couple of hours). As much as I don't really need one, a MacBook would make things so much more convenient, especially with my continuing ed classes going at least through July. The question is, should I get one now or wait until the next update? Past history suggest that MacBook isn't due for any update for few months, but with the recent introduction of MacBook Air, that may change. Any suggestions? Any of you know about any imminent updates/changes to MacB…

Not sure if this is the right place for this topic. Now that I have the Oppo as my source I want to know if there is a fast and painless way to convert my ALAC files (close to 800GB) to FLAC. Any help will be appreciated. I believe it can handle .wav as well so that may be the easier route as I think I can do that through iTunes.

Since it's possible this topic is helpful to someone else, I've decided to start a new thread, instead of posting the question at the venerable Mac thread. I'm about upgrading a mid 2010 13"MBP adding more memory (actually changing both chips for larger ones), replacing the optic drive for a 256 SSD one, and changing the stock HDD for a WD 1TB unit. This MB has become my main computer until I'm sure I really want/need a 27"iMac (mostly a 6 weeks delivery term sucks). Still I'm a OSX rookie and I can't find the folders which should be transferred from this old-to-be system HDD into the new system SSD drive. They're supposed to be in the root user directory but they…

I have a good client/friend that has cancer. He is having major surgery in about 2 weeks. I've been telling him to get a drive for me to transfer a bunch of music for him to use on his ipod and at home. I have an external in my office which I reformatted by accident. I have a 1 tb drive at home that is Mac OS formatted. I would like to be able to transfer about 400 gb of music from this drive to his new 1 tb Seagate Freeagent (not Mac OS). He uses a pc. Is there anyway for me to do this?