Hi Ruud, Wow, you are off and running with the Macbook Pro. But knowing you as I do, and your wonderful ability to acclimate, I'm not surprised. You have been able to go places with your Mac in two weeks, that I was struggling to get to after two months. Good to see you on this list. I love my Mac and Amadeus Pro is what I use for recording, but I hook my Zoom and use the Rode NT 1A mic with it. I'm really happy you like your Mac. You can always install Windows on your Mac as a virtual machine if you wanted. Well, congrats on getting a Macbook Pro and have a great day.
Musically, Allison My birds are winged blessings, they help me soar! On Oct 29, 2010, at 12:15 AM, Ruud Bemelmans wrote: > Before I'm going to give my impression of my MacBook Pro, the OS and of > course VoiceOver gathered over almost two weeks, let me introduce myself. I > know I've posted already to some topics, but I just haven't really said > anything about myself and I figure it's time to rectify that. For those who > need a warning for long posts: > > WARNING: this post may become a bit lengthy, but hopefully it won't bore you > rigid! > > My name is Ruud (born in january 1985, so you figure out how old/young I am). > I am from the Netherlands. I started losing my sight when I was 8, but it > took until 15 to go from nearly full sight to the classification of socially > blind. The culpret being inherited Glaucoma as part of the Rieger syndrome. > It's actually a miracle I had sight for a fair amount of my childhood, > because when I got born my eyes were opaque, no pupil visible at all. So, it > would seem I owe the surgery on the 2nd day of my life for the sighted > memories I have. > As far as accessibility goes computer-wise, I started with zoomtext a few > years before I lost my sight and after I learned braille and a whole new > approach to doing things without sight I worked with Outspoken (fairly > horrible sounding, but functional) and after that Jaws. > I am an adventurous musician; both as in "on a musical adventure" as well as > just a person who likes to try things out, like backpacking through various > countries, snowboarding and going to big open-air rock festivals. As far as > music goes, I'm a guitarist/bassist, but I'm fairly good at playing other > known and unknown instruments, like banjo, ukulele, dulcimer, tin and low > whistle, kalimba, kantele, ngoni, doshpuluur and more. I've recently started > learning the piano as well. My musical taste goes all over the world, > litterally. > > On to the Mac... > > A month ago, I walked into the local Apple store and the first Mac within > reach was the 17 inch MacBook Pro. Unfortunately I had a really bad first > impression. The guy at the store wasn't really helpful, so I ended up mucking > around with an OS that I hardly knew anything about or a screenreader in that > same category. I was however impressed with the design of the MacBook Pro, > because it was the first aluminum laptop/notebook I'd seen so far and it was > about half as thin as all the other laptops I've owned. I actually left there > without a clear idea about the Mac and VoiceOver. I was sceptical I would > ever switch to Mac even though some of the ideas I had read about on the > Apple site still intrigued me, like the use of the trackpad to map the screen > and the various gestures. > I wasn't going to admit defeat because of a bad first impression though. Just > because of some Apple employee who was unwilling to help and seemed to like > playing with the Ipad more than living up to the high level of customer > service I was expecting actually made me read up some more on VoiceOver, > which admittedly I should've done beforehand. > A few days later I spoke to a blind friend of mine, who (I didn't know this > at the time) has four Macs around the house. He was doing an I.T. study at > the same time as me, so I trust him to have solid opinions about computers > and the accessibility of said computers. He gave me a good idea of the OS and > VoiceOver in comparison to Windows and Jaws. After that conversation I > actually knew where the VoiceOver keys were, so that was obviously where I > got stuck at in the store. I was so used to (from left to right) control, > function, windows, alt, space, rather than function, control, option, > command, space. > A little later I went back into town to just jump into mac and VoiceOver and > work things out on my own. I knew it was going to work anyway, because of my > blind I.T. friend and the fact that (doesn't point any fingers at anyone > specifically) blind people can be really picky about accessibility and I > would've seen way more bad reviews on VoiceOver in my research jaunts across > the Triple-double-u. > to my surprise and considerable relief, this time I got good service at the > same Apple store I went before and chose to purchase a 13 inch MacBook Pro in > the standard version. The 15 and 17 inch models have a faster processor, but > seemed more geared towards video editing to me and on top of that have a > shorter runtime on the battery. The sound setup on all three is equal, so for > my occasional recordings the 13 inch would suffice, as it beat the specs of > my regular PC anyway. More on recording a bit later though. The people at the > Apple store set the Mac up for me to avoid taking me 20 minutes on something > that only takes a few minutes, which was nice as I needed to do some other > shopping in the meantime without dragging an expensive MacBook Pro around > town. When I got back all was set and I could go homeward again, this time > with a Mac. > > On to VoiceOver... > > When back at home I started the MacBook I immediately got the VoiceOver > tutorial and was strangely excited. It seemed to cover all the basics and > after that I was quite confident about using VoiceOver. That left one issue > though and that was the difference between Windows and Mac on the most > fundamental "how to get stuff done" level. The first thing I wanted to do was > to check out TextEdit, but couldn't find it in the dock or anywhere, except > when I typed it into Spotlight. I didn't even know where the apps were > located, but thanks to another research jaunt online I found the answer > fairly swiftly. I messed with that for a bit and got the novelty of being on > an area and interacting with it down fairly quickly. I didn't go online for a > few days in order to get familiar with the OS first, but eventually the time > came and I got to experience the web item rotor, which makes browsing a bit > faster than what I was used to. So, another good experience in the bag there. > that next to the whole skype issue, which we have heard quite a bit about on > here. I basically wanted to get skype running to check the internal > microphone, speakers, webcam and the level of VoiceOver being picked up in a > conversation or overpowering the person on the other end. So that had to wait > till I had the issues sorted. When I did, Voiceover didn't interfear much > with the conversation, the mic and speakers sounded clear, picked up no > internal sounds too (which on netbooks or laptops is a big issue) and and > the webcam had no problem picking up the clock in the kitchen clearly, which > was about 7 meters or 23 feet behind me at the time. So that was all very > nice. > While I'm talking about the sound settings here, let's jump to recording. I > only got the Ilife 11 DVD a few days ago, so my first recording test was with > Garage Band, which wasn't very spectacular and accessible by then. Then I > tried the trial version of Amadeus pro, which yielded far better results with > the internal setup. When I hooked up my M-Audio FastTrack it became very > interesting though. On my windows machine if I hook up the FastTrack it takes > over all sound, both in- and output, including Jaws. But everytime after Jaws > speaks the FastTrack gives me a series of crackling sounds. Apparently it > doesn't like running simultaneous with a crappy built-in sound card, which is > still set to the standard card in general. Separating Jaws on one card and > in- and output from the recording program, Sonar in this case is a real pain > in various locations I don't have to mention. So, on the MacBook I installed > the drivers, hooked up the M-Audio and miraculously VoiceOver, without any > mucking around whatsoever came through the built-in speakers. One more point > for Apple. Then I went into Amadeus pro, set up the in- and output through my > FastTrack, perfect! It couldn't have been easier as far as I'm concerned. > Obviously Amadeus Pro doesn't come close to the power of recording and > editing with Sonar, but now I've started messing with Garage Band and maybe > have to try out some other apps for recording, arranging and editing sound. > The internal stuff is good enough for quick recordings, but if I want to up > the professionality I can hook up my FastTrack without too much bother, which > makes me a happy camper! > Back to VoiceOver, I've gotten to the point where I navigate using both > keyboard commands (quicknav included) and trackpad gestures. I dig the > flexibility this gives me and also how on a Mac, without ever having seen the > OS visually I still know where what is on the screen and where. Contextually > this gives me a higher idea about the layout, which is something that I've > always missed in windows. > I also hooked up my Alva Satellite braille display, four seconds later it was > recognized and working. I have discovered that I prefer my braille display > more in Windows than in Mac. In windows it does provide some more context > with one than without one. > > Conclusion: I like my MacBook Pro, the OS and VoiceOver. I still need to find > the right apps to suit my needs though, but that's not surprising really > after just two weeks. Does this mean I'm going to throw away my Windows > machine now, then the answer is no, I'll let it live out it's life being > used, but I'll definitely be using my Mac as well, often simultaneous > probably. > If, after this whole "hopefully" not very boring e-mail epic and an > indetermined amount of lost minutes you'll never get back again you want to > talk to me about music, macs or whatever, feel free to add me on skype. My > skype name is: bemel1 > If you're really unlucky I might write some more of these as time passes. > > -- Ruud > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
