Korean Job Discussion Forums

sheriffadam · Joined: 10 May 2010 Location: Busan

[quote="methdxman"]

methdxman · Joined: 14 Sep 2010

[quote="sheriffadam"]

sheriffadam · Joined: 10 May 2010 Location: Busan

Thanks for the post, very informative of your viewpoint. Not a negative post here, was good to see the perspective there Smile

Sector7G · Joined: 24 May 2008

By the way, I have always heard that Macs don't get as many viruses as PCs. Why exactly is that? Can anyone explain it to a non-techie like me?

sheriffadam · Joined: 10 May 2010 Location: Busan

Previously mac had a 0.001% market share so it wasn't worthwhile hackers writing virus to attack them, now that % is shifting that will change substantially. Possibly also now eased by most mac users cluelessly installing apps like they would on an iphone etc?

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

A few of you have mentioned buying a refurbished Mac; can this be done in Korea? How and where? Are there any disadvantages or problems with buying a used one?

jrwhite82 · Joined: 22 May 2010

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

If you just want to try out OS X, then you should think about a Hackintosh. It's not for the technically inexperienced, but once it's set up it runs like a real Mac.
That way you can save money until you decide to splurge on the real thing.
Check out insanelymac for info.

Chokse · Joined: 22 May 2009

Sheriffadam is wrong about the viruses because I don't think he understands the difference between a virus and a trojan horse.

He is right that 10-15 years ago Macs had a smaller market share (but not 0.001%). Actually, it was about a 2% market share 15 years ago. Over the last 15 years, the market share has increased about 5x to where it sits now, at about 10%.

Here's the thing though. According to Sheriffadam's logic, we should have seen a 5x increase in the number of viruses written for the Mac - more users = bigger target. That hasn't happened.

There are NO viruses on the Mac. Yes, you heard that right, there are none. THERE ARE a couple of known trojan horses out there that will affect the Mac, but there are no viruses. A virus is something that attacks the computer without any aid by the user. For example, an EXE file hiding in an email that runs as soon as the email is opened and read. That is a virus. What happened recently in Korea, where users unknowingly installed a trojan horse via ActiveX, allowing hundreds or thousands of computers to become "zombies", is not an example of a virus. It is a trojan horse. A trojan horse is installed by the user; a virus is not.

Early versions of Windows (XP and earlier) were horrible about viruses because of the DOS underpinnings. Windows 7 is much better, but still not nearly good enough. It needs to be better because no one should have to waste system resources running any kind of virus software.

The Unix underpinnings on the Mac are much harder to break through, and this is why we have not seen viruses on the Mac. Yes, it is partly due to smaller numbers, but it is mostly due to the fact that it takes far less time for a virus maker to make a virus for Windows than it takes to make one for the Mac. The virus makers are working smarter, not harder. By focusing on Windows, they can make viruses more easily and can hit a larger number of computers.

Chokse · Joined: 22 May 2009

cdninkorea:

Yes, there is an Apple refurbished store in Korea. I have bought over 10 Macs this way and have never had any problems or issues.

The worst you can expect are a few small blemishes on the outside of the computer. These will not be serious and will not affect the function of the computer in any way. Also, any blemishes or scratches must be cosmetic only. You will never get a screen with a blemish or scratch.

At best, you will actually get more than you paid for. A little over 2 years ago, I ordered a 15 inch MBP with a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. I paid 2.1 million won for what would have been a 2.6 million won computer if it were new. When it arrived, Apple had sent me an upgraded model with a 2.93 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a 500 GB hard drive.

This doesn't happen often (In over 10 times purchasing refurbished, I have only gotten an upgraded computer 3 times), but it does seem to happen around the time new models are shipping. Apple seems to clear out old inventory by channeling it into refurbished sales.

Anyway, you will never get less than that is advertised and can sometimes get more.

Refurbished computers are exactly like new computers. You will get the full, one-year warranty and can also buy the 3-year AppleCare during the first year.

Honestly, I wouldn't buy a Mac any other way. Why pay more for exactly the same thing (and PC users can just shut up now... A PC is most definitely NOT the SAME thing)?

The only negative I can think of is that Korea's refurbished store is not as good as the US or Canadian ones. Korea doesn't have much inventory at any given time, so you have to check back often, and, most of the inventory centers around the Apple laptops. There are never many iMacs, MacMinis, or MacPros up for sale.

You can check it out by going to Apple Korea's main store page at:

http://store.apple.com/kr

Then, scroll down to the bottom and look to the left. You should see a blue colored price tag with the Korean words for "Sale" (sorry, I don't type Korean) written on it. Just to the left of that price tag you'll see "Refurbished Mac". Click that and it will take you to the page with the refurbished computers.

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

If this were Facebook, Chokse, I would definitely "Like" your post. Thank you!

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

The OSes are, for all intents and purposes, equally easy to use. But don't be surprised when your Mac crashes. I spent a summer editing and (mostly) rendering huge amounts of video on a G4 and managed to crash it a few times. Nothing like losing an hour of editing and four hours of rendering due to a crash.

To be fair, I was pushing the thing pretty hard around the clock, and this was closer to the beginning of OSX's life. I don't know how much of a resource hog Cintiq is.

Chokse · Joined: 22 May 2009

Those old G4 processors used to get really hot. They were horrible about that. The G5s were not much better, but the G4s were probably the hottest and most unstable processor Apple ever used. Also, with a G4 processor, you must have been running something like OS 10.1.

The new Intel multi core processors are so much better than any of the old G3/G4/G5 processors or Pentium/Centrino processors.

I would imagine that if you had been doing the same work on a more modern Mac, you would have had fewer problems or crashes.

I'm also sure that if you were doing the same work on a Pentium 3 system running Windows 98 or XP SP1, you would have had as many, if not more crashes.

Not sure it's fair to blame a Mac for crashing when you are using hardware and software equal to a PC with a Pentium 3 and Windows 98.

Macs crash. Of that there is no doubt. But the modern Macs only tend to crash the application causing the problem, rather than the whole system. I think Windows now does the same. It is a nice advancement for each OS.

ThingsComeAround · Joined: 07 Nov 2008

I've had a crash on my mac, twice or three times.

On a PC however, much much higher.

I've lost data on a mac as well. Hard disks do fail. But on the PC, BSOD so many times I wondered why it matters if scandisk runs when I had to restart for the third time in the day.

CC, you won't be upset about the investment you make in a mac. And buy refurbished, if it meets your specifications. Refurbished doesn't mean "used" like a "Certified Pre-owned BMW".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refurbishment_%28electronics%29

methdxman · Joined: 14 Sep 2010