Mac Spotting

[B S Magnet]

With this week’s passing of the inimitable, illustrious, timeless Sergio Mendes, age 83, from long covid, a short clip of Mendes in the recording studio with John Legend as Legend plays back something on his 2009–12-era A1286 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro (sans anti-glare option).

To the far left appears to be an A1407 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, perched above the mixing board.

In the background, off to the right, is what appears to be an A1398 15-inch retina MBP with screen saver running (next to what appears to be another 27-inch Thunderbolt Display and a 23-inch Cinema Display above that).

From “Triste”, to “Mas Que Nada”, to “The Real Thing”, to “Alibis”, to so, so much more, this world is, simultaneously, enriched by his sound and impoverished by his loss.

 

[TheShortTimer]

With this week’s passing of the inimitable, illustrious, timeless Sergio Mendes, age 83, from long covid, a short clip of Mendes in the recording studio with John Legend as Legend plays back something on his 2009–12-era A1286 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro (sans anti-glare option).

To the far left appears to be an A1407 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, perched above the mixing board.

View attachment 2413553

In the background, off to the right, is what appears to be an A1398 15-inch retina MBP with screen saver running (next to what appears to be another 27-inch Thunderbolt Display and a 23-inch Cinema Display above that).

From “Triste”, to “Mas Que Nada”, to “The Real Thing”, to “Alibis”, to so, so much more, this world is, simultaneously, enriched by his sound and impoverished by his loss.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was unawares of Mendes' passing. This is indeed a great loss. My days of being what Nas called a "Nike-head" are long gone - never to return but this 1998 TV advert remains one of my favourite appearances of "Mas Que Nada."

Edit - and it also counts as a Mac spotting instance because one appears at 0:43!

 

[B S Magnet]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was unawares of Mendes' passing.

I only read the obituary tonight. He died Thursday. What I didn’t know is he had long covid. He’s definitely not the only legendary musician to have died from the rona, but it hits different for it to be delayed so long following the apex of the pandemic. He was still active, in studio, earlier this year.

The nearest analogue to come to mind are people who, a dozen years after the buildings came down in NYC, died from rare cancers and cardiopulmonary failures after ingesting the Superfund-level airborne miasma over lower Manhattan during the days and months immediately afterwards — despite only being in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and with no family history of the very diseases from which they succumbed.

This is indeed a great loss. My days of being what Nas called a "Nike-head" are long gone - never to return but this 1998 TV advert remains one of my favourite appearances of "Mas Que Nada."

There’s a particular mix of lighting, film (film emulsion was a big part!), and pacing from high-budget/concept adverts produced around the tail end of the 1990s, which imbue them with a certain, ineffable vibe. The Nike one has it in spades.

Edit - and it also counts as a Mac spotting instance because one appears at 0:43!

👍 upgraded to ❤️, just for that!

 

[TheShortTimer]

There’s a particular mix of lighting, film (film emulsion was a big part!), and pacing from high-budget/concept adverts produced around the tail end of the 1990s, which imbue them with a certain, ineffable vibe. The Nike one has it in spades.

Irrespective of my aversion to Nike, I have to acknowledge that they certainly had their finger on the pulse during the late 80s and throughout the 90s to great effect when it came to marketing and advertising. They enlisted directors and agencies who were really adept at creating adverts that connected with audiences on a level that their rivals seldom matched.

A good example is this Agassi advert:

👍 upgraded to ❤️, just for that!

 

[B S Magnet]

Irrespective of my aversion to Nike, I have to acknowledge that they certainly had their finger on the pulse during the late 80s and throughout the 90s to great effect when it came to marketing and advertising. They enlisted directors and agencies who were really adept at creating adverts that connected with audiences on a level that their rivals seldom matched.

A good example is this Agassi advert:

During the same window in North America, Nike advertising saturated everything with the ‘Just Do It.” campaign and tagline. I think I’ve only ever worn one pair of Nike shoes throughout my entire lifetime, and those were only meant for use on a high school track (yes, I did track and field for a minute and then quit because not really my jam).

Except for the super-athletic, it was rarer to see other girls wearing gratuitous Nike (or Reebok or Adidas or whatever sportswear) branding on their shirts and other apparel (Benetton, Claiborne, I.O.U., The Limited, Gap, Guess and a bunch of other brands, on the other hand).

I mean, it wasn’t unusual for kids, girls or boys, to have that one pair of Nike tennis shoes for playing outside, but most of that was before the premiere of the Air Jordan and the Just Do It campaign; afterwards, their shoes and apparel became one of the early boutique active-wear brands ubiquitous nowadays. Boys, meanwhile, totally ate it up.

 

[Amethyst1]

For the historical novelty or tinkering/testing?

Both. I’ve finally found a resource to help me make sense of their 2008/2009 SSD model numbers (FWIW).

After my brand new 500 gig Crucial MX200 went south and took valuable data with it, I'm not touching that brand even with a six foot pole.

One lemon doesn’t mean much. The Samsung 470 I bought in 2010 dropped into a read-only state yet I continue to buy their SSDs.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Both. I’ve finally found a resource to help me make sense of their 2008/2009 SSD model numbers (FWIW).

I look forward to seeing your thread on the subject.

One lemon doesn’t mean much. The Samsung 470 I bought in 2010 dropped into a read-only state yet I continue to buy their SSDs.

A good point. My first 15" 2012 MBP suffered a GPU failure less than 24 hours after being unboxed and that was not representative of my overall experience with Apple's computer range or that particular model. Speaking of SSD's, I ended up buying the 2TB Ultra 3D and a 1TB MX500. Both of which arrive tomorrow.

 

[MBAir2010]

But it is incidental media, from the time period when the Macs were current!

They looked more pensive and very focussed, as opposed to unhappy. They were probably analyzing incoming data intently.




Based on the ensemble she's wearing, this portrayal looks like an ordinary work morning at the office, ca. early 2000. I miss that timeless, Katharine Hepburn-like colour palette.

that is Roz from Frasier a TV show season 9 episode 3 in 2002 I think.
the view of the Mac was perfect since we all had ours pointed in that direction.

 

[ojfd]

Both. I’ve finally found a resource to help me make sense of their 2008/2009 SSD model numbers (FWIW).

Oh, Product selection Guide from 2009. Thank you! I haven't seen this one before. My collection starts with 2H 2010 with only a few models listed and new part numbering - MZ5/MZM.
TiBook on the front cover is a bonus, I guess

One lemon doesn’t mean much.

It was very costly lemon for me. Never again.

The Samsung 470 I bought in 2010 dropped into a read-only state yet I continue to buy their SSDs.

But that's their first "in-house" SSD, it doesn't count.

 

[Amethyst1]

Oh, Product selection Guide from 2009. Thank you! I haven't seen this one before.

Additional ones:

• April 2005
• September 2006
• August 2007
• April 2008

My collection starts with 2H 2010 with only a few models listed and new part numbering - MZ5/MZM.

That's the 470/PM810 (MZ5 = 9.5mm; MZ7 = 7mm; MZM = mSATA).

TiBook on the front cover is a bonus, I guess

And it makes this discussion on-topic

But that's their first "in-house" SSD, it doesn't count.

Their SSD's have always been all-Samsung. It was the first SSD they sold in retail channels themselves though.

 

[ojfd]

Additional ones:

Thank you!

That's the 470/PM810

Do you have something similar, i.e. complete datasheets for PM851/PM871/CM871?
(If you want my PDF docs archive, let me know. I can put it up somewhere).

Their SSD's have always been all-Samsung. It was the first SSD they sold in retail channels themselves though.

Ah, ok, thanks! I had an impression that they were using 3rd party parts. It turns out it was the other way round.

P.S. I'm neither SSD historian nor collector. Just an EE that wants to stay informed

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

My kids were watching HomeAlone3 today during lunch and I noticed a couple PowerPC macs in between making the spaghets & garlic bread (Lol) - a PowerBook 5300 & a Powermac 7000 variant desktop. I went digging and noticed there’s a website all about movie computers that noticed this too. Link below.

HA3 computers.

 

[Amethyst1]

Do you have something similar, i.e. complete datasheets for PM851/PM871/CM871?

I've only found one for the PM871b so far.

P.S. I'm neither SSD historian nor collector.

Neither am I.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Neither am I.

 

[ojfd]

I've only found one for the PM871b so far.

How recent is this link? I can not connect to that site

 

[Amethyst1]

How recent is this link? I can not connect to that site

I tried it just now on my iPhone: works fine. I found a mirror here.

 

[ojfd]

I tried it just now on my iPhone: works fine. I found a mirror here.

Thanks! Btw, are both datasheets identical?

 

[B S Magnet]

TFW your hall effect sensor was hacked to be a sensor for a remote polygraph machine.

 

[Amethyst1]

Thanks! Btw, are both datasheets identical?

The non-working link is revision 0.1 (I've attached it to this post), the working one is 1.01.

 

[ojfd]

The non-working link is revision 0.1 (I've attached it to this post), the working one is 1.01.

Muchas gracias!
These are good. The drives, that is. They are ~ 850 EVO, except for the firmware. I have a whole bunch of them.

 

[B S Magnet]

I’m very gently sampling episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., after giving up on the series midway through the third season back when it was being weekly-run. It’s in my stack of “Marvel Cinematic Makework” titles which either I never watched or grew bored as I worked through them. (Some weren’t boring at all, but they tended to be the ones released at the time on Netflix and linked in some way to Vincent D’Onofrio’s arch-villain character, Kingpin.)

From that third season i never finished, I’m reminded by the abundance of post-2012-era iMacs peppered throughout their station/base/headquarters, but it was kind of a refreshing thing to see a 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro make a cameo in an episode from around 2015 (or maybe 2016):

The briefness, angle, and overhead lighting make it impossible to tell whether we’re looking at a mid-2010 or one of the 2011s (me, trying to keep a sharp eye for what the F4 key looks like, but not succeeding).

[The L-shaped MagSafe head is why I eliminated the 2009s, as I recall they didn’t arrive until the introduction of the unibody polycarbonate MacBook in October 2009, then rolled out with subsequent revisions in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines the following year. Someone ought to check me on this, as I might be wrong and MBPs and MBAs manufactured after October 2009 might have used the L-shaped head.]

Kind of nifty to see an ethernet cable in use as a prop, though.

 

[Amethyst1]

The L-shaped MagSafe head is why I eliminated the 2009s, as I recall they didn’t arrive until the introduction of the unibody polycarbonate MacBook in October 2009, then rolled out with subsequent revisions in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines the following year.

The 2008 MBA got it first.

 

[B S Magnet]

The 2008 MBA got it first.

To be sure, I had to double-check that.

Memory served (but please don’t ask me what I had for supper last week) there was general surprise when the unibody polycarbonate MacBook came out: I recall people were asking about the oddness of the MagSafe cable.

So I also opened an archive-dot-org page of the MacBook Air product itself from around February 2008, and indeed, there is an L-shaped MagSafe adapter. But if one looks closely, it’s not the variety to which we’re typically accustomed:

And because I’ve never owned one of these early MacBook Airs, I honestly have never seen one of these early L-shaped MagSafe adapters before.

 

[TheShortTimer]

And because I’ve never owned one of these early MacBook Airs, I honestly have never seen one of these early L-shaped MagSafe adapters before.

Really? I'm surprised given your extensive familiarity with Apple laptops.

 

[B S Magnet]

Really? I'm surprised given your extensive familiarity with Apple laptops.

Really.

Would it surprise you to hear how nearly the entirety of my hands-on experience with Apple laptops have been with iBooks; PowerBooks (going back to the PowerBook 100); MacBooks (through 7,1), and MacBook Pros (pre-Touchbar), but virtually none with the MacBook Air — nor, since we’re talking mobile-grade internals, any Mac mini?

I may know a bit about some stuff, but I know quite little about lots of other stuff. Macs are no exception here. That’s why I defer to you, @Amethyst1, @eyoungren, and a few others around here who use these other model series, day in and out.