macs and shit

Public Service Announcement: I actually looked at my referral logs, and am noticing a couple searches in the vein of using a Mac at Georgetown Law. So as a card-carrying tech-savvy law student, here's the deal (well, I have a degree in computer science, but the diploma is not exactly a card, nor do I carry it around with me.). Since I have an OS X powerbook (G3 Pismo), I'll concentrate on the major issues that I've had to solved. Most of the issues that I'll cover are not OS X specific, but I'll note where there could be differences if you're still running a "classic" (OS 9.2 and lower) system. Hope it helps.

Macintosh support. Our on-campus tech support group leaves a lot to be desired, and that's if you're using the G'town law recommendation of a Windows XP box. I'm not sure how much mileage (read: substantive help) if you bring in your OS X box that's complaining. My personal recommendation is to find a personal geek (invaluable in the sense of a good mechanic or a trusted tailor) who knows something about helping you out with this mess.

Networking with your mac. At a connection level: getting on the network is simple enough.

Wired Gtown Law features a standard 10Meg Ethernet network with automatic DHCP (as in, no prior registration required--just plug in and go). The DHCP server itself tends to be flaky, so if your Mac won't talk to the network, it is not necessarily due to your computer/configuration.

Wireless McDonough (the main class building) has decent wireless coverage on the 2nd and 3rd floors (enough to cover most of the main class rooms) but on the 1st floor classrooms and Room 200, the coverage is too spotty to be acceptable. Bring a cable for those times when the coverage is shot. This is mostly due to Wireless Access Point misconfiguration (they were generous with their access points, but they all configured them to talk on the same channel. There are spots where your computer senses 5 access points all talking on the same channel, and none is strong enough to dominate the network "conversation." What results is that your computer gets signal, but it is all unusable network noise because the traffic from all the points are "colliding.").

Email, Web Courseware, etc. Yes, there is a difference between email and web courseware and "networking" as defined above. Ask me and I'll explain the difference. Anyway, Georgetown's email service is advertised via some horribly overweight Web interface that is very finicky in terms of browser support. I don't care much for it to the point of never trying to point Opera or Safari at it. IE for OS X does open it correctly, as does IE for the Classic systems. I do know that there are problems with Netscape/Mozilla and the web interface. Bleh. Give me PINE and a command line shell anyday. But in the alternative, you can point Mail or Eudora at bulldog.georgetown.edu as a IMAP server and check mail like that--works like a charm for me.

In terms of our online course web pages (hereinafter referred to as "courseware"), my main complaint with them is that the authentication scheme is set to automatically log you out after 15 minutes. But not a problem that is Mac-specific. We're not completely PDF-friendly at Georgetown yet, as most of the documents are in Word. Make sure you have a copy of Microsoft Office for OS X (shameless plug for the Mac group at MS where I used to work).

Examsoft Here's where owning a mac at georgetown SUCKS. Examsoft, the proprietary exam administration software that you have to have installed on your computer to take exams on it, works only on Windows XP. Examsoft locks down your access to the local disk, the network, and programs. There is simply no alternative. You cannot run Examsoft on top of any of the XP emulators. This becomes a burden if, like most normal people, you have only one laptop. You end up having to find someone with a spare XP laptop to borrow. (I got around this, since like most foot fetish geeks, I have multiple computers and I have both an XP box and a OS X box).

Classes I'm in a class wherein the case book is replaced with a DVD containing the course materials. Not Mac friendly. If I have some spare time, I'm going to script up an App for X that will read the DVD (it's all contained in friendly, albeit poorly-designed, XML). With a little bit of savvy, however, you can dig through the files and find what you need. I believe the PC emulators will play it properly (wouldn't know, don't use an emulator on my powerbook).