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Did my bass kill my computer?
- Thread starter Forty-Thirty
- Start date
Some have been so naif as to suggest that "Windows is not the culprit." Excuse me, but based on a few decades with computing devices and their programmage, I will confidently assert that Windows probably is the culprit. Because literally every single time I've used a Windows computer, I've had troubles (not, mind you, counting any user errors!). With Macs, or Unix systems? Never a problem.
That doesn't prove anything, scienterrifically speaking; but it proved to me I should by a MacBook rather than anything running Windows! Or to cite my personal Microsoft commercial: Windows! Anything Apple can do, we can do wrong!
That doesn't prove anything, scienterrifically speaking; but it proved to me I should by a MacBook rather than anything running Windows! Or to cite my personal Microsoft commercial: Windows! Anything Apple can do, we can do wrong!
DiabolusInMusic
Functionless Art is Merely Tolerated Vandalism
People have problems with Unix based systems all the time. There are just less systems so you hear about less problems. The amount of Mac users that would be speechless when I told them their Mac could still get a virus was hilarious. I then explained to them that nobody bothers making Mac viruses because Windows viruses can have a bad affect on the business world. A Mac virus is going to send some graphic artists home for the afternoon. They do exist.
Apple used to give us all this info about not setting expectations, pretty standard corporate fare. That is why it was so frustrating when they ran those commercials that went "I am a Windows and I upgraded my OS and everything crashed." Then along comes Justin Long saying "I am a Mac, I upgraded to Leopard with no problems." I had to deal with several people who lost information while upgrading their OS. They did not back up their information because they thought there couldn't be any problems, it is a Mac, right?
You want to hear somebody get pissed off, try telling them their 25,000 business contacts were not backed up and there is no way of retrieving them or their university assignments are all gone. I would never tell somebody to upgrade anything without doing a backup, that is just stupid.
Anybody that thinks Apples are fail-proof is silly and just asking for trouble. All computers fail, that is a fact.
A tiny 12v fan won't vibrate as much as a huge bass amp. A PC fan won't vibrate your floor, your pants, or a hard drive.
I bought a refurbished iMac, brought it home, plugged it in, turned it on, and it worked immediately. I bought a refurbished Dell Precision, brought it home, plugged it in, turned it on, and two days later it was finally running. I know that Macs are not completely virus immune but they are less prone to attack than Windows machines. I do not care why that is.
Proves nothing, it's anecdotal. I have a lot of experience dealing with Macs, though, and a bit less but some experience with PC's. Macs are, in my experience, much easier to set up.
All this bumf about "my computer/operating system is better than your computer..." aside, the answer to your question is.. YES. Your bass, in collusion with your amp, deliberately killed the computer, so that you wouldn't waste any more time on it; time that could be spent more profitably practicing with the bass/amp. Just that simple. I have to go now; my basses are starting to look a little edgy...
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okcrum
in your chest
There are many, many *NIX (all the variants) servers running in data centers of all types. Their biggest advantages have been stability and the ability to degrade (and recover) gracefully when overloaded.
Macs running OS X are actually running an Apple graphical user layer atop a FreeBSD-derived UNIX OS layer atop a Mach microkernel. OS X is evolved from NeXT's NEXTSTEP OS, where Steve Jobs was CEO (also later at Pixar) between times at Apple. Apple hired Jobs back because their then-new version of MacOS was a failure and Jobs had NEXTSTEP. So Apple is arguably running a UNIX variant. That's where their ease of use and stability claims come from. Apple basically took UNIX and made it good looking and easy to use.
You want to hear a customer really pissed off, tell them wsj.com or americanexpress.com is down.
Hardware (even redundant) is still hardware - it all fails eventually, and backups (as well as I can explain) are what you should have done yesterday. But the bass did not kill the computer. The Flash player or the sound or video driver probably did.
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Indeed, for a growing majority of users, the computer is just a terminal for a vast interconnected network of *NIX systems. Same for phones and tablets. This is one reason why most people today greet the "platform wars" with a collective yawn.
I didn't say Macs never fail, or don't have viruses, or whatever. But in my experience (and that of everyone I've ever known who's used both Macs and Windows systems extensively), Windows-running computers fail far more often, and with generally far worse results.
As for Unix, I suppose nowadays they're not exactly plentiful in comparison to Windows PC's or Macs- but again, I and (yatta yatta) have had far fewer issues running Unix, or Unix-oids: my "Unix" experience was (true confession!) running Xenix, which is/was a version of Unix for Intel hardware. So, again- running Xenix on the same hardware usually used with Windows, I had zero issues of the type which plague Windows systems. I'll add that I was entirely self-taught with Unix, ie, they gave me a PC to schlopp together, gave me the Xenix disks & manuals and said "Install it and make it work!" Well, I did, and I did. Likewise for Oracle V5.whatever... From which experience I conclude that if I, a self-taught newb to Unix, could install, configure, and administer a Database system- well, that software must be pretty robust!
log in as root
cd /
rm -r *
...and run like hell.
Happily (?), it's been so long since I did all that, I haven't a blessed clue what your commands do! So I'll take your word for it, and run like... well, we'll have to settle for schlepping, OK?
I do recall we had a lot of fun with- well, I don't remember the command- we used to send our boss messages from the system's resident deity, Butthead- which would stomp all over whatever he was doing at the time. A minute later he'd appear in our cubicle, both mad as hell and laughing his keester off. He appreciated having a System Administrator with no respect for authority, God bless 'im. Not that anyone else did, of course! Buncha stiffs, y'know?
I'll accept your analogy with the slight modification that "It's like vehicle X vs. vehicle Y, except that Y crashes a lot." Which is a pretty mean end if it's your end it's being mean to...
I am a senior tech at a major tech company in silicon valley.
I have been in tech support for over 20 years.
TRUTH:
Linux,Unix,HP-UX,Irix,SunOS,Mac OS,Darwin,i OS, Windows Server, Mac Server, Android..... and a laundry list of other os's and stuff that would make your eyes bleed ....
they all WITHOUT FAIL have issues at one time or another. this snobbery about this OS that OS is BS.
Windows can and often is every bit as stable as any of the other choices.
"so please sell your crazy somewhere else we're all stocked up here"
log in as root (tell the system that you are the boss of it and you know what you are doing)
cd / (move your point of access to the root directory, the directory of which everything on the system is a subdirectory)
rm -r * (remove (erase) recursively - go down every rabbit hole - everything)
At Motorola when we first got our Sun (Unix) workstations, we figured out pretty quickly how to choose a sound file and make it play over someone else's computer at whatever volume we wanted. The toilet flush at 100% volume was very popular. Management lost their sense of humor about it after a couple of days and we had to stop.
