<p>I've had my fair share of kernel panics.</p>
<p>"kernel panics"?</p>
<p>Thank you kindly for that information; kernel panics replace the blue screen of death.</p>
<p>Known more commonly amongst my mac-using friends as GSOD - the grey screen of death. We all have experienced it...multiple times.</p>
<p>After one it takes like a year to boot back up, and it's usually smart to figure out what caused it by looking in the crash logs so you can prevent it.</p>
<p>For me, mine have always been caused by Norton. No idea why, so I deleted Norton and I haven't had one since.</p>
<p>Although I have a 4 year old 600mhz iMac G3. I think I have only had 3 kernel panics since I've had my computer.. and our iBook which is even older has never had one. It really is a rare occurrence, unless you don't fix the problem and just reboot. Then it will happen again in the future.</p>
<p>It's usually caused by third party software</p>
<p>How do you fix it? By looking at your crash logs and taking necessary steps to remove the third party software? Or by reporting to Mac also?</p>
<p>Which Anti-Virus software is recommended?</p>
<p>How compatible are there with the universities network? How do I find out on the universities website (I have surfed for ours under residential life).
(Stanford, Georgetown, UCLA, Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, and Washington and Lee for those students who attend there and could provide info).</p>
<p>What is FireWire? I didn't quite understand it on Apple's website. </p>
<p>Is there a Ethernet connection?</p>
<p>As you can see, I'm not tech saavy.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Firewire is like USB... a bit faster than USB 2.0 in every benchmark I've seen. Video cameras, external hdds, external cd/dvd drives, iPods, etc. all use/can use Firewire. You can also link two computers together with firewire so one computer acts as a volume on the other.</p></li>
<li><p>An iBook or a Powerbook will definitely work with any PC network.</p></li>
<li><p>It has an ethernet connection: it's the jack that looks kind of like a giant phone jack.</p></li>
<li><p>I fixed my kernel panics by removing the software that caused it and repairing my permissions and reprebinding my system. -- All can be done with the terminal. But I would guess you won't have any kernel panics.</p></li>
<li><p>Anti-Virus I'd say Norton but it gave me a kernel panic but that might be because my computer is so old... it's probably fine though. McAffe is probably fine as well.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you, thank you, thank you. </p>
<p>You seriously need to run an online service for incoming college students without tech knowledge. You will be a tremendous asset at any university.</p>
<p>haha. I'm sure you will figure everything out as you go once you get your new computer. Just play with all the different things to figure out what they do.</p>
<p>And there is one thing that slipped my mind. All new powerbooks come with Bluetooth 2.0. iBooks don't, but if you order from Apple you can add it with BTO. <a href="http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/%5B/url%5D">http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/</a></p>
<p>Now, when you plug in your Ethernet cable to your powerbook, you can immediately access the network and the internet, right? What web browser would you use? Does Apple provide you a web browser?</p>
<p>It depends on how your schools network is set up, but yes, the computer should automatically detect certain settings (like IP address and DNS servers and such) and connect you.
Apple provides an internet browser called Safari with its OS. You can also download netscape or Microsoft IE for Mac OS, but both of these run a bit slower than safari, which also runs slower than IE on a Windows platform. For some reason, it takes longer to render the page on a Mac.</p>
<p>You might have to go to your system preferences and go to Network and then select Built-in Ethernet. Then you choose DHCP (probably) and everything else auto detects. Firefox is the best browser atm.. Safari RSS might be good when it is released, but for now, go with Firefox.</p>
<p>When you get to school you'll probably have to set up the connection and do something like validate it, or prove you are a student using the network / internet and not some random person.</p>
<p>My browser opened up to the school IT page with directions on what to do.</p>
<p>and I use Safari, works fine for me.</p>
<p>if you buy a powerbook, you are only wasting an additional 500-1000 dollars that you do not need.</p>
<p>come by graduation, and you go into the job market or graduate school you will want to buy a new computer, whether it be by necessity or by desire.</p>
<p>go for the ibook, it'll do everything a powerbook does unless you're a heavy-duty video editor (and i mean heavy-duty).</p>
<p>one more thing, when you buy the apple computer get the lowest amount of ram, because apple charges 3 times the amount you can buy for it online.</p>
<p>you'll be saving about 300 dollars if you buy the same exact ram from another vendor (go on google.com and type apple ram, and you'll get lots of FAQs and information on Apple riipping you off).</p>
<p>Finally, don't waste money on microsoft office for macintosh. just find a friend, or download a copy off of the internet, and install it</p>
<p>Firstly, though I appreciate your suggestions, I have no idea how to install ram on my own (if you've not figured out my lack of tech knowledge).</p>
<p>Copying from the internet is not my thing and my friends use P.C.</p>
<p>Problem with iBooks are that they don't have Bluetooth; but I'll consider an iBook as an option though. Still attracted to Powerbook, though. <sigh> Vanity.</sigh></p>
<p>in reference to the Office suite, iWork is pretty good. and installing ram is simple (apple provides instructions somewhere on their site)</p>
<p>i wrote about the differences between an ibook and a powerbook [url="<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=37100%22%5Dhere%5B/url">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=37100"]here[/url</a>]. feel free to ask if you have any questions.</p>
<p>Macs don't get viruses because they are such a small percentage of the market, that it's not worth anyone's time to make a virus for them. -- you're wrong. read the comments [url="<a href="http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/sick_of_worms_and_viruses_move_to_mac_os_x_suggests_chicago_tribune_columni/%22%5Dhere%5B/url">http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/sick_of_worms_and_viruses_move_to_mac_os_x_suggests_chicago_tribune_columni/"]here[/url</a>] and you'll see why.</p>
<p>"The low market share excuse for the lack of virus and worm problems on the Mac gives far too much credit to the virus writers and not enough to the actual truth of the matter that OS X is a far more difficult OS to infect and takes programming skills that 99.9% of the Windows virus writer's lack."</p>
<p>"It's kind of like saying Fort Knox is less prone to Bank Robbery since it has "less marketshare". Which of course has nothing to do with "share" and everything to do with how it's secured. Windows is completly DIFFERENT than OSX, it has holes via ActivX, VBasic, OLE, etc... The Mac just doesn't have these loopholes, PLUS it's guarded by "root", and very few com ports being open... it's like Fort Knox in the way it's constructed and governed, Windows is like the lock box at a Cookie Bake Sale."</p>
<p>"The primary reasons that users have it worse than macs in terms of viruses are popularity (I'll grant) but more importantly, macros and the registry. Neither of which Apple will ever have. As one of the posters mentioned above a virii cannot gain root access so easily on os x. In windows all the unsuspecting luzer has to do is click on the wrong email attachment and his system files get overwritten. Macs sys files cannot be tampered with by errant viruses. so even if there were one that affected a mac I can't imagine that it would affect near as many people and it would do much less damage."</p>
<p>whatever the reason, the fact remains that macs do not get infected. additionally, the operating system (os x) is as gorgeous as the hardware; everything is smooth, integrated, and runs beautifully. i haven't had the chance to try out the new iwork suite yet, but according to some accounts its word processor, pages, is comparable or even superior to certain aspects of ms word, ease of use and image placement being some of them.</p>
<p>more concisely: the mac ... it just works. go to the apple store. try it out. play around a little. see if you're not convinced.</p>
<p>(i don't work for apple, nor do i profit from this blatant propaganda. i'm just a high school student and a happy mac user.)</p>
<p>You get root access just by running the sudo command. A malicious user could access your computer, run the sudo command, and potentially delete your entire hard drive. By thinking your computer is entirely invulnerable will cause you to ignore some easily performable security precautions and expose yourself to unnecessary risks.</p>
<p>i hear that MS Office for the Mac is even beter than the PC version of MS Office. I am a PC user but when I am at school I like to go in the Mac lab to use the iMacs :) .</p>
<p>I hear that Vrtual PC is extremely slow unless you max out the ram....but even then its pretty slow.</p>
<p>I personally dont think you can go wrong with a Mac or PC...I like them both (wish I had a Mac though...oh well...maybe on graduation?) </p>
<p>;)</p>