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jessejlt · Aug 29, 2003, 07:45 PM

I'm a fairly recent "switcher." I completely switched from x86 to PPC almost a year ago to date. I did so because I'm a CS student, and the Macintosh platform is by far the most pleasant OS to develop on. Nearly everyday since I switched, I've found myself more and more fond of this platform, and am truly convinced that it is by far the most superior OS that anyone has to offer.

Okay, with that aside, here's my general rave. About a month ago, I had to give a presentation in one of my CS classes, I was discussing the role of OOP / Polymorphism in game design. The classroom had a couple of options for computer presentations, including a portable projector for laptops, and a fixed projector for the classrooms' computer. Being an iBook owner, I opted for the portable projector setup. I had decided that it would be wise to show up early enough to test out the projector setup with my iBook, I anticipated a somewhat lengthy installation / configuration procedure being that I have had zero experience in such things. To my horror, I plugged the projector into my iBook's VGA dongle and the screen on both my iBook and on the projector started to go spastic, and lasted for a about 4 seconds...just long enough to near soil myself. But to my surprise it all of a sudden stopped, and the projector was projecting a crystal clear image of my desktop. So I went into the configuration panel, to see what settings were available, and staring me right in the face was a completely configured display panel, the color settings had been synchronized from my iBook to the projector, the resolution had been set, and the damn projector's exact make and model had been identified! All this mind you w/o a USB connector...only a simple VGA connection. Well, coming from the land of Winderz and hours of worthless configuration routines, I was truly stunned, and very pleased.

Alright, enough of that, just thought I would share my story.
jesse ;-)

Developer · Aug 29, 2003, 08:00 PM

There is a hack to enable dual monitor support on the iBook, but it can kill an iBook if used on an incompatible model, so be careful.

BkueKanoodle · Aug 29, 2003, 08:02 PM

The ease of adding a monitor to apple laptops has got me hooked as well. Having said that, its much easier to have this type of integration between the OS and the video card because apple controls the hardware.

Can't really blame windows for this, rather the staggering array of devices that windows must support.

jessejlt · Aug 29, 2003, 08:34 PM

Originally posted by BkueKanoodle:
The ease of adding a monitor to apple laptops has got me hooked as well. Having said that, its much easier to have this type of integration between the OS and the video card because apple controls the hardware.

Can't really blame windows for this, rather the staggering array of devices that windows must support.

Not at all. The suppliers who code the drives could easily add such compatibility if Microsoft would include support for such things. Microsoft's COM relationship with hardware providers is a joke.
jesse ;-)

C.J. Moof · Aug 30, 2003, 09:30 AM

Originally posted by BkueKanoodle:
The ease of adding a monitor to apple laptops has got me hooked as well. Having said that, its much easier to have this type of integration between the OS and the video card because apple controls the hardware.

What, like Gateway has a problem with random video card vendors injecting their cards into their laptop production lines? My Powerbook has a card from ATI in it.... not an Apple product.

Can't really blame windows for this, rather the staggering array of devices that windows must support.

Like the external projector which could have well been plugged into a ThinkPad or a Vaio?

It's simultaneously great that Jesse had a good projector experience, and sad that it's newsworthy. It's so sad that folks (Windows using folks, that is) are conditioned to expect something like this to be a painful endavor.

C.J. Moof · Aug 30, 2003, 09:32 AM

And BTW, I thought General Rave was going to be the commander of Kernel Panic.

kampl · Aug 30, 2003, 08:26 PM

Originally posted by C.J. Moof:
And BTW, I thought General Rave was going to be the commander of Kernel Panic.

That's interesting, I was expecting to see the address of a warehouse somewhere and a request for DJ recommendations.

chris v · Aug 30, 2003, 10:28 PM

I had one of those moments the first time I plugged in my new digital camera. I plugged it, and was just beginning to think: "Let's see... how do I..." when Image Capture launched itself, identified the camera and asked me what to do with the pictures.

I've been lusting after a projector, lately. That and A slide scanner to go with it.

Now, all I need is 2 grand

CV