Last weekend I backed up my data files, reformatted my hard disk and reinstalled <shudder> Windows. Why? Because despite its superiority as an operating system, Linux still lacks a decent, easy-to-use photo editing program a la PhotoShop.

My avocation is photography; I take a lot of pictures, and I shoot digital exclusively. Since I'm living in a 28-foot travel trailer, I don't have a lot of room to spare; therefore, my "darkroom" is in my laptop. I've tried other programs, and have come to the conclusion that for me, at least, nothing can replace PhotoShop (or more accurately, PhotoShop Elements: I'm not rich!)

Maybe in a few more years I'll test the waters again; until then, much as I disagree with Bill Gates' vision of the world, I'll have to be content with the endless cycle of upgrading.

(Unless, of course, I win the lottery and can afford to replace all of my tools with their Macintosh equivalents, in which case all bets are off!)

Robin

__________________
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control;
these three alone lead one to sovereign power.
Tennyson

Those were the days. Well, it was 3.5 k after the Basic interpreter was loaded, wasn't it, from a total of 20? Anyway, I even tried to modify its Basic. My next computer, the Aussie Microbee, still allowed you to be on first name basis with most every memory cell. I was almost beginning to write a program for data transfer to/from external sources, but didn't know what such things might be. (The Microbee stored data using a tape reecorder. Diskettes and [gasp] hard drives were unheard of.)

But even before those, I wrote my first independent computer programme in ca. 1965. I found a way to sneak in after hours to the dept. of chem. engrg. and its PDP thing. I almost had to use tweezers to put the oneses and noughtses in appropriate boxes (that's machine programming if there ever was).

At least until then, I was quite convinced that analog computers were the thing for the future. Compare viewing smooth curves, just rotating some potentiometers in the cable web to change parameters, to those ugly approximated dots and asterisks scattergrams that the digital computer teletypes could print if you asked them politely enough.

Those were the days. Well, it was 3.5 k after the Basic interpreter was loaded, wasn't it, from a total of 20? Anyway, I even tried to modify its Basic. My next computer, the Aussie Microbee, still allowed you to be on first name basis with most every memory cell. I was almost beginning to write a program for data transfer to/from external sources, but didn't know what such things might be. (The Microbee stored data using a tape reecorder. Diskettes and [gasp] hard drives were unheard of.)

But even before those, I wrote my first independent computer programme in ca. 1965. (It solved the general third degree equation. The computer had ONE logical function: If negative, then jump.) I found a way to sneak in after hours to the dept. of chem. engrg. and its PDP 8? thing. I almost had to use tweezers to put the oneses and noughtses in appropriate boxes (that's machine programming if there ever was).

At least until then, I was quite convinced that analog computers were the thing for the future. Compare viewing smooth curves, just rotating some potentiometers in the cable web to change parameters, to those ugly approximated dots and asterisks scattergrams that the digital computer teletypes could print if you asked them politely enough.

I'm not sure if this is a place to ask questions and get responses, but I'll give it a try anyway.

I've been experiencing a problem with outgoing mail through my mac.mail program and specifically receiving a "port 25 timed out" message repeatedly. Receiving mail is not a problem. And the problem with sending seemed to occur right after I tried to send a email with an attached file of 24 MB's which I halted in the process of sending as I noticed the file size after I had submitted it for sending.

I've tried what I'd call basic ways to rememdy this situation and have had no luck so far. Hopefully someone here has a suggestion that can work.

Btw, I'm on a G4 iMac with OSX (Panther). If there is more info about my system that is needed, let me know.

Thanks,

Josh E.

Josh, call your ISP and make sure they have not changed something on that end. I suspect they are blocking the port 25 to cut down on trojans and virii. It may be happenstance that it happened after you cancelled the big email. You may have to reset the stmp server setting.

and while you are talking to your ISP you might double check the DNS entry they want - it's under System Preferences, Network, TCP/IP, DNS servers. This might be less of an issue if you can browse the web otherwise without errors but there have been versions of the Mac OS that were a little different from how Windows computers delt with DNS calls (it's supposed to be a neutral standard but, hey, some people think English is a neutral language.)

You also might want to check from the web login to your email account to see if the 24MB file is somehow mentioned and see if you can delete it from the web view. Your mail account may be hiccuping.

Congrats on the G4 iMac - my personal favorite! Is this a first generation G4 iMac or one of the later ones? They started out around 800Mhz and got up to 1.25Ghz as I recall....

__________________
Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart!
They that believe in vain thoughts forsake their own mercy.

BTW I have a pile of experience and studies that in the long run Macs are cheaper in terms of Total Cost of Ownership. I agree the up front cost is higher but if you can get past that you can get passed the 3 yr typical lifecycle of a "current" computer....

__________________
Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart!
They that believe in vain thoughts forsake their own mercy.

Hey you all,

I haven't contacted my ISP yet because a) I'm lazy, b) it's the holidays and c) I'd rather try to fix this without contacting them (wait times on phone). But come Monday if it ain't fixed yet, I'll be contacting the ISP dudes.


I'm not exactly sure how to do this and don't want to do something that could possibly erase data. If that's not the case and anyone wishes to explain this a little step by step, I'd appreciate it.


Again, not sure how to check on this, although I did go to web mail (Yahoo) account and couldn't find the 24MB file anywhere in that account. It seems like (from what very little I know) that my mail account is "hiccuping."


It's 1 Ghz, 17 in flat screen. Aesthically speaking, I like it more than the new G5's, but power wise, that seems better than what I'm working with. But it's all good.

Thanks for your responses,
J

I still have a 486 that was purchased in 97, and it is still in good shape. But I do admit that it doesn't hold a candle to the 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 that I have now, even discounting the fact that the 486 had a 3 GB hard drive and this one has a 120 GB hard drive.

Josh, the stmp server setting is the outgoing setting that tells the email where to go or where to check. You need to get that from your ISP. Really, you pretty much need to just call them or their tech support, as this is probably not something you can fix only at your end.