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Meet the MacTalkers
andytlr and looobz

Good evening and welcome to another edition of Meet the MacTalkers! This week we have the pleasure of hearing from forum members andytlr and looobz. Thanks to both members for taking the time to complete the questions and give an insight into who they are.

andytlr

What does your username and avatar mean?
andytlr is just short for my name; Andy Taylor. It's short and seems to be available everywhere I want to signup. The avartar is Ron Jeremy dressed as Mario. It doesn't mean anything, I think it's pretty funny though.

Occupation?
Graphic Designer/Studio Manager at an independent ad agency in Melbourne. I started as an intern in 2004, then went back to uni to do my honours year while working part time. Then went back full time and never left.

Location?
Melbourne

What's your poison?
Smokes (I'd give up but I'm so addicted that I've convinced myself I like them), Canadian Club, Gin, Coopers Pale Ale and the occasional Mountain Goat Hightail Ale.

One strange fact about yourself?
When I was five I had a really rare disease that involved a lot of internal bleeding. I have no idea how it's actually spelt but phonetically it is he-nock shon-line per-pra syndrome. I think anyway, I was five.

When, where and how did you realise Mac is the way to go?
In '02 when I started TAFE we were using Macs but they were running OS9. Sorry to all the die hards out there but I absolutely hated it. When I started uni in '03 we were using OSX which I thought was great. But we only really had a couple of hours on computers a week. So really it wasn't until 2004 when I started working and used them all day, every day. It took about a month before I went out and bought my first Mac; a 20 inch iMac G5. The PC never got turned on again and I've probably spent about an hour using a PC since. XP is fuck ugly and I've tried using my partners Vista laptop but it all just confuses me now.

What's in your Dock?
Safari, Adium, Tweetie, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, NeoOffice, Coda, iTunes, iPhoto and Flickr Uploadr. I launch everything else with Quicksilver.

Worst OS X application you have used?
I don't remember any shitty ones. There has been a few but they haven't lasted. At the moment Flickr Uploadr is great, but it crashes every other time I use it. I recently went through the long process of uploading 8000 photos to Flickr and it was pretty painful. Despite the crashes though I think it was still the best tool to do it with.

If you ever met Steve Jobs, what is one question you'd love to ask, but wouldn't be able to bring yourself to do so?
Did you read Fake Steve in bed at night?

Favourite 'Steve Moment'?
YouTube - Macworld 2007- Steve Jobs introduces iPhone - Part 1
The [youtube] tags don't work to go to an exact time stamp so click the link for the exact point. I don't think I really need to explain why.

Jobs or Woz, who's your favourite?
I don't really have an affinity with either of them. If I was going to party with one of them though it'd be Jobs. Back in his college days. Someone get the DeLorean.

Who will be Steve's successor?
Tim Cook. Because he's filling in now and seems to have some level of charisma.

What is your dream Apple Product?
A 9 inch, dual quad core, touch screen portable that is twice the size of an iPhone. It would connect wirelessly to a keyboard, mouse, monitor, external hard drive and dvd drive. It would run OS X. When you used it as a tablet it would bring up an on screen keyboard when needed and when you were 'docked' it would be just like using a MacPro. Built in apps like Safari and Mail would have modified UI's so they worked better on a touch screen. These UI's would only be used on the tablet. It would switch back to normal when you were docked. This would be an option for developers but not mandatory.

Worst Apple product you've used?
Everyone's said it, but the hockey puck mouse. And the eMac, they were pretty lame.

Your first Mac?
As above. A 20 inch iMac G5.

What Macs are you using currently?
I've still got the iMac which we used as a TV for ages. But it's fan spins really hard all the time and I think she's taken her last breath. At home I use a BlackBook and at work I've got a beastie dual 2.8 quadcore MacPro with 12gb RAM and a 23 inch monitor. If I didn't have access to that at work I'd definitely want something better at home.

The terminal & the Mac ideology: Yay or Nay?
Spose. I don't use it but I get why it's there. I prefer pretty little GUI's that do all the hard things for me.

What Mac related websites/forums/podcasts do you frequent?
At the moment I just read the MacTalk front page, browse the forums and listen to the podcast. I used to read heaps of blogs but I find I get all the info I want/need here. I tried a couple of other podcasts but the people on them annoy the shit out of me.

One thing you could add to OS X?
I'd like the option in Mail.app to either attach OR embed attachments. When you send 20 pdf's in an email you don't want to wait for the previews to load. Also I have to use quicksilver to email jpegs because they get embedded and the people who use Outlook at work can't download them.

Size of your iTunes library (number of tracks)?
11,368

Do you own an iPhone? What are your thoughts on the device?
Yeah, I had the first one and I've got the sequel. Sure it's pretty but that's not really why I like it. It's all the apps in your pocket. Email, Safari, IceTV, Tweetie, Pocket Weather, Mobile Fotos and Camera Bag all make life easier. Plus PapiJump and Flight Control are fun. I don't have the attention span for big games. It's just all the little things it does added together that make it truly brilliant.

If applicable, what does your other half think of your interest in Macs?
Her company did all the advertising for Palm's launch in Asia, in what I guess was probably the late 90's. So she likes to think she was responsible for the failure of the Newton. When I moved in with her she made a big fuss about their being Mac's in the house, but she's slowly coming around I think. I tried to convince her to get a MacBook for her current laptop but to no avail.

She got a 3G iPhone shortly after they came out and loved it until she left it in the back of a cab. She uses my first gen iPhone now. As far as I know her only complaint about the iPhone is how closed the app store is. She's thinking of making an iPhone app but doesn't want to put a couple of hundred hours work into it, for it to not be approved.

Apart from Macs what are your other hobbies and interests?
I go through fazes where I get obsessed with things. At the moment it's photography, which is a faze I seem to go through every time I get a new camera. Once back before digital, once when I got my first digital camera, once when I got my original Russian Lomo LC-A & Supersampler and now with the Nikon D60 I bought in December and the Nikon D90 I bought a couple of weeks ago. I got really into it with a film SLR, but I think I got over it because there was no instant gratification. Also it's a lot harder to learn with film because by the time you get the prints back, you can never remember what you had the camera set on. My first digital camera was a Canon PowerShot S50, which I still have. It's a 5 megapixel camera, which at the time was massive. It cost $1400, which is as much as a really good prosumer DSLR now. The faze lasted much longer with that camera but at the end of the day it was a point and shoot. The Lomo LC-A is awesome but I don't really use it. Probably because of the whole instant gratification thing. The D90 teamed with a f1.8 lens is shit hot. It takes great low light shots without evil flash.

Music has been the one constant obsession since I bought my first tape from Brasher's in the 80's. I picked up an Akai MPC a few years ago and I've made quite a few tracks on that. The latest one is here: http://bit.ly/7I7Jt I like trying to make hip hop beats out of sounds I record through the mic. Which is what I did with that track, apart from the bass line.

How long have you kept your mobile number for?
I've had two. Many years ago I had the virtually the same number as my parents landline. The 9 at the start was just replaced with 040. But after my first two year contract, I gave that number to mum because she could never remember hers and I wanted to change carriers. I've had my current one for about eight years. Now that you can keep your number when you switch carriers there isn't really any reason to change. Unless you're a dealer.

Do you use or have Protection for your Mac?
I'm pretty sure the firewall is turned on. But if you're talking about virus protection then no. It's rubbish. We got new IT people at work about two years ago and they went around and installed Norton on all the Macs. For some reason it made them run really, really slowly. So I went around and uninstalled it off all of them.

Favourite Tech Presentation Stuff Ups?
When Gates got pie'd. It isn't really a tech presentation but it's piss funny. I love the guy in the motorbike helmet that comes in for the tackle at the end.


Is the future Intel?
Am I wearing pants?

When did you join MacTalk and why?
In March 2008 to ask a question about my dyeing iMac G5. iMac G5 problem

Best memory from the forums?
All the excitement around importing a first gen iPhone. All the Price USA, jailbreaking, unlocking et cetera. I would never have done it or even known how to without MacTalk.

If you could run MacTalk for a day, what would you do?
Hire decryption.

Finally, which one member do you want to see interviewed next week?
leon

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reserved for looobz's interview.

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reserved for comments

and another week passes with next to no reponse from looobz.

thanks andytlr for his frankly Awesome response.