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Greetings from an old new user

P

Pablo_Vilas

Guest
Now that I've gotten my burning question off my chest, discovering in the process that the answer was in the user guide all along, I would like to introduce myself.

I live in a large city in the rain-blessed northwest, where I work in IT. My friends think I must not be too good at it, because when they ask me to help them with Windows problems it always turns out that I don't know any more about it than they do (I work in Unix).

I am a male and 24, with an acid stomach, flat feet, thinning hair and bifocals. Okay, my body is 62 ... but I'm 24 inside! I fell in love with computers in college (University of Washington, 1970 and 73). In those days computer nerds were easy to spot on campus because we carried long brown boxes full of 80-column punch cards. I have worked and played with computers ever since. In the 1970s we lusted for personal computers, but when the decade started the only way to get one was to build it yourself. I wasn't up for that; so my first computer was an Atari 800, purchased in 1981. Atari got an incredible amount of action out of 32 KB of memory and a 4 Khz 6502 chip; I've never had as much fun with any computer since.

I'm a Windows user, and an admirer of Macs who may make the jump someday. My employer only supports remote access from Windows XP and 32-bit Vista. Also, we use XP at work. As part of our site license, Microsoft lets us buy a copy of MS Office for personal use for $19.99 (say what you will about their technical and ethical flaws, MS is one smart marketing outfit). I don't remember how many computers I've had. If you're young let me tell you, computers are an expensive addiction; you will save yourself a lot of money and grief if you give them up now. It's too late for me, my life is ruined already.:)

I've pretty much grown out of games. These days I use my computer mainly for photography; and for music, thanks to an iPod Touch I bought a couple of years ago. (That gadget just died and I may start a thread about it.) I'm also a writer, as you may be starting to suspect from how long I've carried on here.

The iPad is a scaled-up Touch; I was intrigued when the first one came out and hooked by the second model. I've had my 2 for a week. So far I've put up Photoshop Express, Pages, Pandora, and Safari To Go (not the browser, this is an app from O/Reilly to let subscribers access their Safari Online technical books). It's been lots of fun, and I pretty much know how to use it already because of the Touch.

I kind of knew what I was getting into, but I must say I'm peeved at how Apple has crippled the iPad to serve their hegemonistic marketing strategy. Without actually knowing its internals, I also see signs of technical sloth that disturb me. Unpinching only works with some programs. Settings of the mute button only work with some programs. Airprint only works with some programs. Even 3G only works with some programs (not with Safari To Go, it requires WiFi). The interfaces of apps are inconsistent. These are all signs that apps aren't doing OS calls to get to the hardware, they're dealing with the hardware directly, which is a really bad technical decision. iTunes' one-way interface and the need to upload via workarounds is exasperating. And, like most Java software I've seen, it's slow and unstable, not a strong foundation for Apple's mobile empire. But Apple marketing has paved over these fundamentals with glitz, and I do like glitz.

If you've made it this far, my compliments! You finish what you start and so you are bound to go far. Now I think that is enough about me. I look forward to getting to know you, and sometimes getting help from you. And, someday, even helping you once in a while, when I've learned more about this interesting gadget. :ipad-back:

Oh, and while I'm whining, what is the deal about my avatar? It's 100x100 and the file is only 20 KB. I see it in my profile, but not on my posts. What else do I have to do to get it through the knothole?
 
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Tim SPRACKLEN

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Good to hear from you. You’ll find a whole bunch of iPad enthusiasts in this Forum who are only too willing to help other iPad owners and to hear of their experiences. Don’t be afraid to post any questions you may have or use the ‘Search’ button near the top of the Forum web page. I usually find I discover one new interesting and useful piece of information about my iPad every day - and often not even what I was looking for!!

Hope to hear from you soon with your thoughts about the iPad.

Have fun and enjoy your iPad

To edit your avatar you really need to do this from a PC or Mac. It can be done from an iPad but it's difficult. Go to ipadforums.net and click on 'User CP' (User Control Panel) and then on 'Edit Avatar'

If you don’t already have it you can download a copy of the iPad manual for free.

Apple - Support - Manuals

Please read the rules too!!

http://www.ipadforums.net/forum-rules-help-info/2119-forum-rules-everybody-please-read.html

Tim
Scotland
 

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