Is OSX so bad as he says?

[Vector]

Originally posted by Likvid
I do alot of stock broking and would also like to know if there are any trading software for OSX?

Like Metastock and several other i know are for Windows only.

I do a good deal of daytrading using ameritrade (well datek, but ameritrade bought them). Their real-time quotes are given through a java based page that works very well. THe coontrol center, as they call it, has your portfolio, open orders, order entry, quotes, charts, market orders( all open market orders as shown by island and someone else), and several other features. I also trade some stock through banks, but i have found that it is much easier just using ameritrade. The java window sits there and updates real-time and can do everything that the windows proagrams that i have used can. I am not familiar with metastock but i used mytrack several years ago and ameritrades java page is far better.

I forgot to mention that all of the charts are real-time and have indicators like bollinger bands, so they are really useful if you trade intraday like i do.

The only major tracking software that i can think of is Investor RT by linn software. It is an incredibly nice app ofr both pc and mac, but its pricing is too much when i already get most of the same stuff for free.
Trial Package - $49
Quarter Lease - $195 - $245
Annual Lease - $595 - $795
Permanent License - $1495
Permanent License (End-of-Day) - $595
Supplemental Licenses - $195
http://www.linnsoft.com/investorrt/

 

[lmalave]

Originally posted by ewinemiller
He's using a powerbook, so when he's sitting on an airplane he's supposed to plug that 3 button mouse in and put it on the guy next him's lap? On a desktop you have that option, first thing I do is throw it out and replace with an intellimouse, but with a laptop it's not that easy. It's one of the reasons I've stuck with PC for a laptop.

You can get software called SideTrack where you can use a tap for left click and button click for right click or vice versa. Also supports horizontal and vertical scrolling. I actually like it more than having a separate right click mouse button below my trackpad. Anyways, install it and see if it works for you.

Oh wait, you don't have an Apple Laptop. Oh well, maybe you can try the software on one of your friends' computers.

 

[bousozoku]

I remember these kinds of people in chat rooms in the mid-1990s. They were so angry at Microsoft for taking away their DOS. "Stupid people use a mouse." "GUIs are for idiots." "It takes longer to do anything."

So, it looks to me as he made his transition from DOS to Linux because he couldn't handle variety. He probably never really uses GUI there either.

If he finds there are more crashes in Mac OS X than in Windows 98, it's probably because he's "customised" Mac OS X to be more like Linux.

It's true that the one button mouse is a pain. I usually have another trackball in the cart when I buy a new machine.

As far as the system being slow, there are times. The bit about running the mouse along the dock (with the magnifier on) is true. It's sucks up CPU resources. I don't care for cutesy things anyway, so I have them turned off. For sheer speed, I think the G5s are competitive and the PowerBooks give effective power vs. battery life and weight.

 

[switchingGeek]

Re: Re: I just bought a 12" PBook

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-switchingGeek

Top taking 5-10%? Your crashing thing is interesting - Can you describe?

Is there anything else you can give us - we'd like to help.

You can see how low my expectations of a PC are ;-)...

Right now top is running at a const 10%, nothing else is running on the system. After using a Linux PC for so long, this was quite surprising to me.

The Mplayer bug is as follows.
I opened up the same file in both QTime and Mplayer, by mistake. This lead to both the apps not responding, and I used the 'force quit' to kill them. The funny thing was that I tried to kill them from the terminal, but was unable to do so. I tried sudo, and it said unable to find, and it did not recognise my passwd. So at that point there was nothing else I could do on the CLI.

Once QTime and Mplayer quit, I opened up Mplayer alone. As soon as I clicked on the movie, the mouse turned into the 'at work' red ball. After this I was unable to open any other application, even though I 'force quit' mplayer. I would have called it an Mplayer bug if it had not caused the rest of my applications and sudo to stop working.. very wierd behaviour.. but not too wierd coming in from Windows ...

I'm using a 12"Pbook 256MB Ram, Mplayer version v 2.0b5, got the laptop only a two weeks ago. Loving it All my friends are drooling over it.. No one else I know has a mac yet...

 

[Powerbook G5]

That's too funny. After a month at college, my PowerBook still has no dents, scratches, or marks at all. How is it a weak metal? Aircrafts use it, cars use it in their frames, some of the strongest structures are made with aluminum because of its stiff and light-weight nature.

As far as instability, never once had a kernal panic or anything quit or freeze on me...and yes, Win ME is the worst OS...it crashed 3 times when we first started our Gateway that we had gotten that very day without so much as doing a single thing besides turning it on and letting it boot into Windows for the first time...

If you don't like one mouse button, then get a multi-button mouse, it's that simple...

As far as it being too "easy" and all, what kind of "stupid person" would intentionally want to use a complex OS that makes it a chore to do something as simple as installing a program? I'm in college, I do not have time to mess with the OS when I have 4 papers due, an exam coming up, and 3 projects to focus on. I need to be productive, and Mac OS X allows me to do so efficiently...along with being sexy and fun to use.

Besides, anyone who goes around calling people stupid for no good reason shows their true intelligence, it's just that simple.

 

[patrick0brien]

Re: Re: Re: I just bought a 12" PBook

Originally posted by switchingGeek
Right now top is running at a const 10%, nothing else is running on the system. After using a Linux PC for so long, this was quite surprising to me.

-switchingGeek

Surprising to me too. But I'm afraid I don't know how to lower this besides just not running it.

Once QTime and Mplayer quit, I opened up Mplayer alone. As soon as I clicked on the movie, the mouse turned into the 'at work' red ball.

Sounds like a bug in mPlayer. It's not giving the RAM or access rights back to the Finder, and the Finder is BeachBall-ing you while it yells "GIMME!" to the selfish mPlayer.

 

[billyboy]

Been working on a university network and it seems to have been set up really well compared to when I last used it a couple of years ago. Undoubtedly its Linux based, so fair play to Linux for that. But I dont think Ill go out and buy Linux, because Im not geeky enough to make it work, and if I ended up like matey bollocks at the top of the page Id end up slitting my wrists before someone else slit my throat. He´s just a silly angry boy, and I bet his gf is really chuffed to hear him slag off her present continually

 

[wms121]

we really need a SUN OS or Solaris 9 opinion here..

if the $100k workstation people say OSX is the best...then wwe got this thing whooped...

hey big Steve...get McNeally's home computer and see if you can run an AIX5L install on it..

Anyone out there "talking to OSX" and not "mousing it"?

<---tell me when 64 bit 'something' shows up

 

[Kid Red]

Yes, OS X as well as the Aluminum PB sucks ass as this guys says.

Well, that's what you wanted to hear right? Why else post such a stupid question linking to an idiot anti-mac bashing moron? This is either a stupid question or flame bait.

 

[caveman_uk]

Re: Re: Re: I just bought a 12" PBook

Originally posted by switchingGeek
You can see how low my expectations of a PC are ;-)...

Right now top is running at a const 10%, nothing else is running on the system. After using a Linux PC for so long, this was quite surprising to me.

The Mplayer bug is as follows.
I opened up the same file in both QTime and Mplayer, by mistake. This lead to both the apps not responding, and I used the 'force quit' to kill them. The funny thing was that I tried to kill them from the terminal, but was unable to do so. I tried sudo, and it said unable to find, and it did not recognise my passwd. So at that point there was nothing else I could do on the CLI.

Once QTime and Mplayer quit, I opened up Mplayer alone. As soon as I clicked on the movie, the mouse turned into the 'at work' red ball. After this I was unable to open any other application, even though I 'force quit' mplayer. I would have called it an Mplayer bug if it had not caused the rest of my applications and sudo to stop working.. very wierd behaviour.. but not too wierd coming in from Windows ...

I'm using a 12"Pbook 256MB Ram, Mplayer version v 2.0b5, got the laptop only a two weeks ago. Loving it All my friends are drooling over it.. No one else I know has a mac yet...

I've just checked top on my dual 1Ghz G4 powermac is at 4% and on my 800Mhz ibook it's using about 7%.

For the mplayer have you tried going to terminal and deleting/moving ~/.mplayer? Maybe it's screwed it's prefs or something?

 

[caveman_uk]

Originally posted by Kid Red
Yes, OS X as well as the Aluminum PB sucks ass as this guys says.

Well, that's what you wanted to hear right? Why else post such a stupid question linking to an idiot anti-mac bashing moron? This is either a stupid question or flame bait.

Maybe, but give him a break. It seems like a genuine question...

 

[bousozoku]

Re: we really need a SUN OS or Solaris 9 opinion here..

Originally posted by wms121
if the $100k workstation people say OSX is the best...then wwe got this thing whooped...

hey big Steve...get McNeally's home computer and see if you can run an AIX5L install on it..

Anyone out there "talking to OSX" and not "mousing it"?

<---tell me when 64 bit 'something' shows up

I seriously doubt that Scott McNealy has an IBM machine at home. That what AIX requires, unless you consider the original x86 release, which ran on 80386 machines and I doubt he has one of those either.

As far as $100k workstation people, would that be executives, developers, or 3D/cinema professionals? UNIX developers prefer PowerBooks and Mac OS X (not OSX) because the last UNIX laptop was nearly $10,000. I've forgotten whether it was SGI, IBM, or Sun but that's a bit expensive, esp. when people think the PowerBook series is expensive.

I've found a home with Mac OS X because it does all those things I've come to enjoy with UNIX shells and programming, but I can use the mouse to change layouts visually, quickly.

 

[szark]

Re: Re: we really need a SUN OS or Solaris 9 opinion here..

Originally posted by bousozoku
UNIX developers prefer PowerBooks and Mac OS X (not OSX) because the last UNIX laptop was nearly $10,000. I've forgotten whether it was SGI, IBM, or Sun but that's a bit expensive, esp. when people think the PowerBook series is expensive.

Actually, Tadpole has SPARC-based notebooks starting around $3000 (with a 3-hour listed battery life).

 

[switchingGeek]

top/mplayer

Originally posted by caveman_uk
I've just checked top on my dual 1Ghz G4 powermac is at 4% and on my 800Mhz ibook it's using about 7%.

For the mplayer have you tried going to terminal and deleting/moving ~/.mplayer? Maybe it's screwed it's prefs or something?

Well, I tried top with a slower update, and it drops to about 4%. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have only 256MB RAM? I'll be getting 512MB more, I'll check again after that.

Yeah, MPlayer is beta, but I'd still expect the OS to kick it out cleanly, when the app misbehaves. ESPECIALLY since it's UNIX ... I checked ~/.mplayer, but the config files were empty, as I hadn't fiddled with any of the settings. Right now MPlayer is working correctly...

Thanks for your hints!!

BTW, I had a stuck red pixel, and it went away on it's own!! Some one else suggested massaging it to get rid of it...
you can find the instructions on https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=533092#post533092

Sorry I couldn't find out how to link to the post itself.

Have fun!!

 

[bousozoku]

Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by switchingGeek
Well, I tried top with a slower update, and it drops to about 4%. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have only 256MB RAM? I'll be getting 512MB more, I'll check again after that.

Yeah, MPlayer is beta, but I'd still expect the OS to kick it out cleanly, when the app misbehaves. ESPECIALLY since it's UNIX ... I checked ~/.mplayer, but the config files were empty, as I hadn't fiddled with any of the settings. Right now MPlayer is working correctly...

Thanks for your hints!!

BTW, I had a stuck red pixel, and it went away on it's own!! Some one else suggested massaging it to get rid of it...
you can find the instructions on https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=533092#post533092

Sorry I couldn't find out how to link to the post itself.

Have fun!!

You should have at least 512MB to run things decently. You're probably so deep in virtual memory that you're thrashing the HD.

Don't bet that the operating system is always going to be safe, even when it's UNIX. It's more stable than Windows and Linux, but it's definitely possible to crash it with a bad application gaining access that it shouldn't have.

 

[patrick0brien]

Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by bousozoku
It's more stable than Windows and Linux, but it's definitely possible to crash it with a bad application gaining access that it shouldn't have.

-Likvid

Especially in root where there are no execution gatekeepers.

It's possible this fellow was operating in root to show off.

 

[switchingGeek]

Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-Likvid

Especially in root where there are no execution gatekeepers.

It's possible this fellow was operating in root to show off.

Hello,

I'd like to think I'm not that dumb, please correct me if I'm wrong, if I want to operate as a root user, wouldn't I have to enable that? or is the first user automatically root? If so, why do I have to keep typing sudo, or my password?

I have set it at "allow this user to admin", I hope that's not the same as running as root.

Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong, and more importantly how I can change it to the correct setting.

Have fun!!

 

[patrick0brien]

Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by switchingGeek
I'd like to think I'm not that dumb, please correct me if I'm wrong, if I want to operate as a root user, wouldn't I have to enable that? or is the first user automatically root? If so, why do I have to keep typing sudo, or my password?

-switchingGeek

You're not dumb

Apple makes it inconvenient to activate and then access Root because it can be very dangerous, and no, it's not an admin (origin) user. Just try renaming the 'System' folder.

To activate root, launch NetInfo Manager in your Applications/Utilities folder.

Security Menu

Enable Root user

Assign the password.

Apple menu, or cmd-shift-Q to logout.

Login with the UID 'root, and the password you just assigned.

Watch your ass. You are now so godlike as root, the computer won't even second-guess you. If you throw 'System' in the trash, and empty it, it will happily oblige - intil it HAL9000's on you ( Dave, I don't feel so good...).

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by switchingGeek
Hello,

I'd like to think I'm not that dumb, please correct me if I'm wrong, if I want to operate as a root user, wouldn't I have to enable that? or is the first user automatically root? If so, why do I have to keep typing sudo, or my password?

I have set it at "allow this user to admin", I hope that's not the same as running as root.

Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong, and more importantly how I can change it to the correct setting.

Have fun!!

No, the first user in not root, in fact, you must go out of the way just to enable root as a log in ID. In order to do so through the GUI, you must go to Applications>Utilities>NetInfo>Security>Authenticate>type in password>Enable Root user>create password for Root>log out>log in with "root" as user name and your password.

 

[patrick0brien]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
No, the first user in not root, in fact, you must go out of the way just to enable root as a log in ID. In order to do so through the GUI, you must go to Applications>Utilities>NetInfo>Security>Authenticate>type in password>Enable Root user>create password for Root>log out>log in with "root" as user name and your password.

-Powerbook G5

Haaa! Beetcha!

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by patrick0brien
-Powerbook G5

Haaa! Beetcha!

By a minute! Just wait, I shall seek my revenge, mwahaha!

 

[shadowfax]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by patrick0brien
Watch your ass. You are now so godlike as root, the computer won't even second-guess you. If you throw 'System' in the trash, and empty it, it will happily oblige - intil it HAL9000's on you ( Dave, I don't feel so good...).

did you ever read that thread about how i deleted /system from the terminal with sudo? i typed it in and hit enter thinking that it would ask for my password (which i wouldn't have given it, but i didn't realize i had already given it a password for the session. yeah... that was kinda dumb. oddly enough, it actually booted up fine, but the dock and finder didn't load, of course. lol!

 

[Powerbook G5]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by shadowfax
did you ever read that thread about how i deleted /system from the terminal with sudo? i typed it in and hit enter thinking that it would ask for my password (which i wouldn't have given it, but i didn't realize i had already given it a password for the session. yeah... that was kinda dumb. oddly enough, it actually booted up fine, but the dock and finder didn't load, of course. lol!

And this is a wonderful demonstration of why Apple does not enable root by default.

 

[patrick0brien]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
And this is a wonderful demonstration of why Apple does not enable root by default.

-Powerbook G5

And why I personally do not do any root operations in the CLI - no visual reinforcement to my actions: "Am I about the screw the pooch?"

 

[shadowfax]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: top/mplayer

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
And this is a wonderful demonstration of why Apple does not enable root by default.

of course, i didn't have root enabled either, though granted, i was using root privileges via the terminal session...