Well. I've run into what I consider some serious problems. I don't feel confident enough to migrate any data over to the new laptop until these are resolved. I've found that files are disappearing and being corrupted.
I copied over a folder containing about 600 pieces of artwork that I wanted to use as my wallpaper. When I checked them today, about 50 of them, all GIF's, were corrupted and could no longer be opened. I have not figured out what happened. I suspect that it might have to do with some subtle differences between how a Mac and a PC process GIF files. I'm not sure, so I will have to do some research into this later, when I get some more time.
Another odd thing is dissapearing files. Some have vanished, and I have no idea where or why. For example, my system Janice had left a video she made on the desktop before she mailed me my machine. That video is gone. I didn't delete it, move it, or anything. I can't find it anywhere. Thankfully, I had backup it up to an external HDD, so I still have a copy.
Usually in Windows, and in MacOSX, you can drag a file into an application to have that application open that file. I found that when I drag an image file into Apple's preview, it (1) corrupts the image that is currently previewed, and (2) deletes the original file. And to make matters worse, there is no "undo" command. I can't reverse the process. So the file I dragged is gone and no where to be found. It is not in the application to be saved. Instead it is imbedded somewhere in the original file, and seems to not be able to undo. What a pain in the neck.
I've decided to not spend any more time on the MacOSX side for now. In order to migrate to this new laptop, I need to establish a replica of the environment I have on my old laptop. So in that regard, I have spent the last day installing applications under WindowsXP on the Mac. So far, not too bad. Since I do a lot of development work, I have some pretty massive applications to install. These massive apps also have massive amounts of patches and updates that I need to download too.
I've installed OfficeXP Pro, my Macromedia/Adobe Studio 8, Cold Fusion Server, SQL Server 2000, Java Netbeans IDE, IIS, and a million smaller apps that I use. Since I'm running servers for development, there is a lot of configuring and security issues to iron out. It just very tedious.
For fun, I also installed a couple of demanding PC games that I own.. Doom3 and Counter Strike Condition Zero. These are both very demanding FPS (First Person Shooter) games that my old laptop could not handle. The video demands were simply too much and I would constantly end up dead simply because I could not react to threats quick enough. By the time the graphics engine would catch up with the action, I would have been shot or ripped to shreds by a monster. So I had ended up removing these games and setting them aside.
I tried them out last night. I cranked the video setting to max, the most punishing on the graphics card. The results were impressive. The game play was smooth, even will full texture rendering, shadows, high FPS rate, and large resolution. I could tell the Macbook was working hard because I heard and felt a fan kick in that I have no heard before.
I discovered something else that irritates me, but it is not deadly critical. I found that MaxOSX can't seem to figure out what time it is. Even though I have it configured to get the time against a time server, AND it knows what time zone I am in, it seems to always be off by 5 to 6 hours. I can only correct it by switching to a manual time setting. Windows doesn't seem to have a problem. It always comes up with the correct time. Logically, this means that Apple's time server is off. That would make every Mac on the planet off too. So it must be something is wrong with the time zone database on my machine. Weird.
Another thing that bugs me. I found that if I hibernate WinXP, when I wake it, the touchpad no longer works. So that means I have to reboot WinXP, or plug in a mouse. Like the time issue, what a pain. I prefer hibernate since I run server services. It just makes Windows come up so much quicker for me.
Next week, once Adobe's tech support opens, I can call them and straighten out some licensing issues with moving my Macromedia and Adobe products over to the new machine. So far I'm running on trial versions.
Well.... I'm gonna lock up the computer for a couple of days and celebrate the New Years.
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