RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 https://m.johnlewis.com/apple-usb-superdrive-cd-dvd-reader-writer/p231666132?searchTerm=Apple+CD+writer specifically mentions writing. Excellent - many thanks Tony and not exhorbitantly priced either. 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Morning all, Properly and thanks too to Dick for his information about the add-on - definitely shows that the Heelas John Lewis salesperson wasn't one as anyone who knew the product would have asked the customer if they used dvds and had they realised the new machine lacked a suitable slot and I can be very helpful sir and sell you one of these for an extra 79 quid and thank you for adding to my income. interestingly the chap in the Apple shop telling us all about the various Mac books suggested buying a proprietary one from 'any decent supplier' would be just as good as using the expensive Apple product but at £79 I reckon it's well worth an extra few quid for the assurance of compatibility so there might be another trip to Reading in the not too distant. And as others have said once you're used to a Mac you're probably going to stay with them. Incidentally one thing about the new ones is that they come pre-loaded with the full bore versions of Pages and Numbers etc which having recently encountered Pages on John (CB's advice) is excellent news. Anyway back to earth and still no effin Driving Licence which is going to turn into something of an inconvenience this week from a food stocking viewpoint. That apart it's a damp day it there but it is January and at least we're not contending with an inch or two of that silly soft stuff called snow. Have a good day one andiej 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froxfield2012 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Good Luck with the Mac, Stationmaster. I made the move a few months ago when my Windows PC suddenly went on the blink. I am still finding many features of the Mac a triumph of design over substance. I don't think I will ever get used to having no separate "right click" button: I couldn't get on at all with "click on the right side"!! And the irritating way in which moving the mouse can shrink the current window so you have to click to re-activate it! Why oh why does the mouse charging approach take the mouse out of action by having the socket on the underside of the mouse? And as for Pages/Numbers: don't get me started. I am trying ever so hard to resist investing in Word and Excel to get back to sanity!! And then there is the way that the approach to photo storage takes over the individual files so you can't see them: just one complex album organising approach. I have had to be very careful to avoid this taking over my picture file downloads or everything just looks and feels like a tablet. In Finder, you double click through the folders. In Preview only one click is needed. If you double click by mistake when looking at images, then you have to wait while all images "load". What's that about? Consistency, Mr Jobs? Forget it! There are some good features. I love the absence of the spaghetti of wires. And the display. I have swapped my Photoshop licence over to Mac and that works nice and smooth. The Mac starts up quickly. All my friends and acquaintances are very impressed! After all the years spent swearing at Microsoft Windows (in all its variants), would I have made the change if I had known all the above? I don't know. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Mike. Although I found the Apple cd/dvd player for you I can confirm that other makes work as well. Matthew had to borrow my external Samsung cd drive from my Mac mini. Being elderly and power hungry it required two usb ports. The two sockets on Matthew's Mac are on opposite sides but I soon found a USB extension lead. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon G Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Yesterday was spent travelling up to Carlisle to buy a wedding present for my niece, and also a photo frame and mounting materials to frame a cross stitch that Mrs G has done for the happy couple. It was a very cold day, and I had the low sun in my face all the way home, which made it a tiring trip. I managed to get out for a walk this morning while it was still sunny. I have been advised by my sister in law to make sure I get as much exercise as possible before starting chemotherapy and she should know as she is a leading cancer dietitian! About a year ago, I bought a device to allow me to exercise indoors on a bike, so I will get that set up this week if I can persuade SWMBO that I need the space mor than she does! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Good Luck with the Mac, Stationmaster. I made the move a few months ago when my Windows PC suddenly went on the blink. I am still finding many features of the Mac a triumph of design over substance. I don't think I will ever get used to having no separate "right click" button: I couldn't get on at all with "click on the right side"!! And the irritating way in which moving the mouse can shrink the current window so you have to click to re-activate it! Why oh why does the mouse charging approach take the mouse out of action by having the socket on the underside of the mouse? And as for Pages/Numbers: don't get me started. I am trying ever so hard to resist investing in Word and Excel to get back to sanity!! And then there is the way that the approach to photo storage takes over the individual files so you can't see them: just one complex album organising approach. I have had to be very careful to avoid this taking over my picture file downloads or everything just looks and feels like a tablet. In Finder, you double click through the folders. In Preview only one click is needed. If you double click by mistake when looking at images, then you have to wait while all images "load". What's that about? Consistency, Mr Jobs? Forget it! There are some good features. I love the absence of the spaghetti of wires. And the display. I have swapped my Photoshop licence over to Mac and that works nice and smooth. The Mac starts up quickly. All my friends and acquaintances are very impressed! After all the years spent swearing at Microsoft Windows (in all its variants), would I have made the change if I had known all the above? I don't know. The last piece of software you should use on a Mac is 'Photos' - I took one look at it a long time ago and haven't been near it since and I might even completely remove it when the new machine arrives. Photo organising is dead easy - just arrange your photos into folders as you download then from the camera and organise the folders however you want then use Preview to view and work on them - t's a nice straightforward photo editing and viewing program. I've just been showing Mrs Stationmaster how to do exactly that on her early birthday present Mac Book Air and it's easy to get the hang of. I have one thing underway on Pages - I downloaded the free, basic, version a few weeks back and it's great, far more user friendy than Word which I have never liked having first got into word processing many years ago on the Wang in-house system (which I have yet to see bettered). If you don't like various things the mouse does go into System Preferences and change them to what you want (if it has such an option - although I still can't get shot of that enlarging of open windows that sometimes happens as if by black magic. Having changed over to a Mac about, what, 8 years ago, I haven't really regretted a minute of it as at least it basically remains stable. The only problem I've encountered is the lack of backward capability when upgrading the OS - thus a scanner which worked beautifully with Snow Leopard won't work with various later OSs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froxfield2012 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 The last piece of software you should use on a Mac is 'Photos' - I took one look at it a long time ago and haven't been near it since and I might even completely remove it when the new machine arrives. Photo organising is dead easy - just arrange your photos into folders as you download then from the camera and organise the folders however you want then use Preview to view and work on them - t's a nice straightforward photo editing and viewing program. I've just been showing Mrs Stationmaster how to do exactly that on her early birthday present Mac Book Air and it's easy to get the hang of. I have one thing underway on Pages - I downloaded the free, basic, version a few weeks back and it's great, far more user friendy than Word which I have never liked having first got into word processing many years ago on the Wang in-house system (which I have yet to see bettered). If you don't like various things the mouse does go into System Preferences and change them to what you want (if it has such an option - although I still can't get shot of that enlarging of open windows that sometimes happens as if by black magic. Having changed over to a Mac about, what, 8 years ago, I haven't really regretted a minute of it as at least it basically remains stable. The only problem I've encountered is the lack of backward capability when upgrading the OS - thus a scanner which worked beautifully with Snow Leopard won't work with various later OSs. On Photos. Yes, indeed, I do the same as you with my pictures. However, the camera to PC interface on my various camera softwares is nothing like as straightforward as on Windows. Canon, in particular, seems to have abandoned updating its Image Browser software for Apple Mac operating systems. I am sometimes reduced to opening the camera as a disk and manually transferring. I was lucky with my Epson V700 scanner as it seems to have High Sierra compatibility and I have managed to upgrade my Silverfast scanning software. We obviously have things in common in addition to the Reading area, as I also learned word Processing on the Wang software back in the 80s: absolutely intuitive for anyone who could use a typewriter. However, Word is the de facto standard for almost all of my business counterparts, as is Excel. For spreadsheets, I started with Visicalc and then went on to Lotus 1-2-3: it always amused me that Microsoft originally had to implement a duplicate of Lotus command keystrokes in order to "sell" Excel. Pages/Numbers conversion to and from Office is a bit clunky. As far as the mouse is concerned, I have found that my humble Logitech mouse seems to work OK with the Mac, so if I really can't tolerate the quirks of Apple, I can go back to that! Fortunately I still have an operational Windows laptop, so I have the best (or is it the worst?) of both worlds. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Abel Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Here's a pallet being unloaded P1010735.JPG And here are the first few boards in the shed. P1010736.JPG After all the excitement a stew and dumplings was made and eaten and then the world got put to rights with the assistance of some Scottish medicine. This morning it's off out to do a but of shopping and to see the bank manager. She's blonde, in her 30's and speaks in a lovely French accent so it's a hard life. We may also have to see the young lady at the patisserie and purchase some of her wares. We may even spend a bit of time putting a few boards up in the shed. Regards to all and hope to hear good news from Debs and all the others that ail. Jamie Jamie - all that looks and sounds wonderful (including the bank manger :) ) - however, I have to take exception to your use of the word/term "shed". Given I'm in the US/land of huge everything, and my detached oversized two+ car garage would fit about three or four times in your "shed", that IS NOT a shed it's a sodding aircraft hangar!!!! Chewsday on Long Island... Small panics brewing at the client yesterday as they are "of course" rapidly re-arranging their accounting to make year-end appear the way they want it. That means I'll have to make changes to most of the financial reports to accommodate the "improvements My thoughts on the blue and red announcements are mostly that the red box will provide for some excellent ways to p!ss-away spend hard earned cash - possibly a loco or two, BUT, I'm very pleased that they've announced/released the MN and S15 TTS decoders separately. The sound purists will, I'm sure, wail and gnash their teeth at my next remarks, but for ME (the only one who is important re: Rule #1), I find TTS sound very acceptable, and additionally now have three Soundtraxx Econami UK steam decoders that are fine, especially for the money. Given the TTS MN will be OK (again for ME) in BB/WC/MN locos and the S15 will work for S15 and N15s too (for ME), I can see obtaining several of both as they are half the price of even the Econamis. YAY!!! Inexpensive sound! Final question on the TTS sound - does a Crosti 9F sound that different to a standard 9F?? Uneducated prat wants to know, as the 9F TTS decoder then may be suitable for my Baccy standard 9F?? Other than that, nothing to report. Carry on moaning Weather is on the mend in "frigid NY" and the AM TV announcers celebrated the warming trend, -1 when I rolled out of the hotel and forecast to be +4 and mostly sunny today. Melting of the snow and localized street flooding predicted. Enjoy the day all. 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 I quite like the sound effects as fitted to some of my locos but I would be just as happy if they went chuff chuff, peep peep. I don't think my hearing is discriminating enough and my knowledge is inadequate to know what I am supposed to hear. Because I am basically polite I have listened to so many demonstrations of 3 cylinder synchronised chuffing. However when boredom has set in I have I am sorry to say have innocently commented "but is the sound meant to come from the tender?" 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 81C Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Good luck with your puter Mike, I'm looking to get away from this pain in the rump Windows 10 so I might be going there very soon as it's had a whack or 2 already. Back to the coffee tab machine a Dolce Gusto jobby has been ordered from J Lewis so by Friday I should be drinking some decent coffee I hope. 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Abel Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) I quite like the sound effects as fitted to some of my locos but I would be just as happy if they went chuff chuff, peep peep. I don't think my hearing is discriminating enough and my knowledge is inadequate to know what I am supposed to hear. Because I am basically polite I have listened to so many demonstrations of 3 cylinder synchronised chuffing. However when boredom has set in I have I am sorry to say have innocently commented "but is the sound meant to come from the tender?" More/worse than THAT, I always find it ironic that the guard appears to be in the tender and that it (the tender) has about 5 slam doors I STILL use the whistle/doors closing feature often for my own enjoyment though, luckily most of the time I'm operating I'm at least 6-8 feet away from the engine end of the station platforms so it's not QUITE so apparent where the sound is coming from. EDIT/addition: For those sound purists, and us mickey-takers, if you want to consider sound EXTREMES, take this aural image from my other hobby, Fight simulation. The latest/greatest "study level sim" (meaning really close to the real thing and a wannabee commercial pilot can therefore feel proud of the level of "immersion" they paid for) for the Airbus A320, has a full range of sounds from the real a/c. This includes the BRAKE FANS sounds, which any REAL PILOT will tell you can ONLY be heard whilst you are doing a walk-around of the a/c and then only if the ramp is fairly quite OR you're standing next to the undercarriage with the fans running - something you AVOID! FURTHER, they also include the sound of the !@$!@$ front toilet flushing - something you TRULY cannot hear from the cockpit unless the entire plane is powered down except for ground power and you are the only person on the plane - except for OBVIOUSLY the loo-occupant! That level of "immersion" is, for me, not worth the $150 they charge for the add-on!!! Edited January 9, 2018 by Ian Abel 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy2 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Jaimie - you are provoking envy! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Abel Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Jaimie - you are provoking envy! Definitely - if I had that space, I would embark on my DREAM layout, a reproduction of Waterloo - I might even manage to include Nine Elms shed with that much room 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Good luck with your puter Mike, I'm looking to get away from this pain in the rump Windows 10 so I might be going there very soon as it's had a whack or 2 already. Be warned Bob - it is different from Billdows in many respects, some might even say it's quirky (and maybe it is?) but if you get the bug for Macs you'll stay with them. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Jaimie - you are provoking envy! Hmm, 'shed envy' that's a new one I think. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2018 Hmm, 'shed envy' that's a new one I think. The deal with 'the boss' was that when we found a house to suit us in France we had to have enough and for me to build a shed big enough to house Green Ayre and she wanted enough land for a 6m diameter swimming pool. By sheer chance we found the house with a rather large shed thrown in and enough land for the pool. She's now got the pool and I've got the shed though there are mutterrings about where all her craft stuff can go. Jamie 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 The deal with 'the boss' was that when we found a house to suit us in France we had to have enough and for me to build a shed big enough to house Green Ayre and she wanted enough land for a 6m diameter swimming pool. By sheer chance we found the house with a rather large shed thrown in and enough land for the pool. She's now got the pool and I've got the shed though there are mutterrings about where all her craft stuff can go. Jamie Matryoshka sheds? Sheds within sheds. Trouble is, they'd be full of themselves. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 Definitely - if I had that space, I would embark on my DREAM layout, a reproduction of Waterloo - I might even manage to include Nine Elms shed with that much room You would probably be able to include the whole of Blücher's Prussian Army too. Might not go down too well in a shed in France though. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Abel Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) You would probably be able to include the whole of Blücher's Prussian Army too. Might not go down too well in a shed in France though. Nice one. Leave it to ERs I just KNEW I should have added much more clarification/definition to my statement... that's why ERs is so much THE PLACE to visit whenever you need a smile, especially after daring to look in on any other the more "contentious" threads Are ERs the sharpest, wittiest folks on RMWeb, or what?!?!? Edited January 9, 2018 by Ian Abel 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PeterBB Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) Mike, Totally agree with - 'The only problem I've encountered is the lack of backward capability when upgrading the OS - thus a scanner which worked beautifully with Snow Leopard won't work with various later OSs' Yes, I too have has this problem and it is a pain. Photo took over from iPhoto which I quite liked but it kept the 'events' that were in place. I have not yet managed to do the same with photo and I do not want to lose thousands like I once did. Peter Edit = spelling correction Edited January 9, 2018 by PeterBB Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium TheQ Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2018 It's rare I get shed envy, as my shed is 63 ft by up to 16 ft. However my envy is yours is ready built... 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 (edited) All my photos are organised by Picasa on Windows which seems to be a no longer supported product. They also seem to exist in the BT cloud but I am not sure how that happened. Once upon a time I would have been interested enough to try to understand such things but I am happy to just accept it now. I have the mouse and the other input thingy (remote touch pad whatsit) for my Mac configured like a 2 button Windows mouse. I'm quite happy to move from Windows to Mac and vice versa. I think our Macs are nice pieces of hardware but personally prefer the Windows 10 user interface. Tony Edited January 9, 2018 by Tony_S 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 9, 2018 Evening all. Thawed out from another cold and latterly damp day despatching Siemens’ and Bombardier’s finest. Had a young lady fall at my feet around 8.30 which might have been of more interest had she not fainted and fallen out of the train doorway! Luckily no harm was done and she recovered quickly on a platform seat but it gave me reason to test the Big Red Button on my torch - the ones which have replaced the old Bardic lamps. For Mike and others benefit we have been an all-Mac home for years and are largely happy with their products. Yes they have quirks but the bigger ones don’t have a Tower of Power and miles of spaghetti. I found mine ran better once I had installed SMC Fan Control and cranked up the cooling fans from their pedestrian pre-settings to 2100rpm. I also learned that a supermarket own-brand £3 mouse with two buttons, a scroll wheel and wireless connection to the pooter works every bit as well as the Mac mouse and gives you the “right-click” options familiar to PC users. Tonight’s menu is Runrig while I cook butter chicken and consider the relative merits of an Aussie sauvignon, a French muscadet and a Kiwi “dry white wine” the latter gifted over the festive season. Hump Day tomorrow. Weather not expected to improve. Have a good one. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted January 9, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 9, 2018 As well as walking the dog and making our guest room tidy I also did a job that I have been putting off for ages. When we had out new boiler installed last spring the plumbers fitted a magnetic sludge filter. This needs occasional cleaning. So I did that today. A very simple task. The device certainly seems to collect black sludge as advertised. I managed the task without causing floods or falling off the step stool. Tony 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 As well as walking the dog and making our guest room tidy I also did a job that I have been putting off for ages. When we had out new boiler installed last spring the plumbers fitted a magnetic sludge filter. This needs occasional cleaning. So I did that today. A very simple task. The device certainly seems to collect black sludge as advertised. I managed the task without causing floods or falling off the step stool. Tony As a GDB apprentice you're not doing very well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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