Here’s two tips I got from different friends:
-For cheaper memory for your Apple computer (at least for the Mac Pro, it was so), visit Crucial The Memory Experts. Gotta thank Danilo for this tip!

-If you want the same technology that powers Apple flat displays, but are not too keen on having the Apple logo on them (or having them be stainless steel, etc.) you should get yourself a Sceptre Widescreen Monitor. It has essentially, from what Mat shared with me, the same technology as your beloved Apple widescreen displays, except for the missing “USB ports on the monitor, which isn’t a really big deal being that there’s not much that you’d want to plug into a monitor via USB.”

I may get myself one of those flat displays in a few weeks (maybe for Christmas), but in the meantime, I just went ahead and purchased an extra 1GB of RAM through Crucial, since Adobe CS2 runs terribly slow on these machines, given it was software natively written for PowerPC-based Mac computers. In order to get it to work on Intel-based Mac computers like mine, it goes through a Mac OS X-built-in emulator (regardless of the fact that Apple says “There’s no emulation”) called Rosetta, to dynamically translate most of your PowerPC-based applications to work with an Intel-based Mac.

The goal is to hopefully get the Mac to pick up speed while working with Adobe CS2, so that it can be set up to be the machine for “creative work” that we want it to be. I will let you know how that turns out once the RAM upgrade is installed.

Kernel Panic Screen (a.k.a. Screen of death)
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

This afternoon, I was happily applying two upgrades to my Mac Pro, as indicated by the Apple Software Update agent, one of which was the Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update. As it was done, it prompted me for a restart. Little did I know what was in store…

Numerous restarts later (all prompted by the Kernel Panic Screen -shown here), I decided to call Danilo (a.k.a. my first line of Apple Support). After attempting all his suggestions, none of which -obviously- I would have ever dreamed of, he suggested that I called AppleCare.

The folks at AppleCare, I must admit, took care of me. I am back in business. A tech (based out of India, it seemed) picked up my call from the queue within a reasonable amount of time and walked me through all the steps he could come up with until the last thing to do (which fixed the problem) was to do an Archive and Install, which basically preserves the user settings while it overwrites the OS in the process. 1.5 hours later, the problem was gone.

I just hope I don’t see the Kernel Panic screen again in a while… a week into using this new machine seems to soon for it to give this kind of trouble.

It is accomplished…
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

Finally, on Saturday, with the assistance of my friend Danilo, we pulled the Mac Pro out of the box and got it up and running. I invite you to check out the slideshow of the Mac Pro unpacking process. It was truly an experience worth living. These guys at Apple make it enjoyable (and easy)!

Mac Pro has a new home
Originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

As Steve Jobs unveiled iTunes 7 selling movies at $10-15 a pop, an upgraded iPod lineup and a coming iTV wireless box that will deliver high quality video and audio from Apple computers to TVs in early 2007, I was staring at it.

Since it arrived yesterday, I’ve been starting at the beautiful and big black box my new Mac Pro came in. No, I haven’t opened it. No, I am not crazy. I am just enjoying it. I am enjoying the transition to becoming an Apple user, a process that will probably kick into higher gear this weekend as I get the rundown from my friend Danilo this weekend.

Anyway, I will be posting pictures of the rest of the process, as I unpack and get on with the machine, but I wanted to share the excitement that the arrival of the Mac Pro has brought home.

It’s not going to take as long as Apple initially said (Sept. 13) for the big Mac Pro box to arrive. It was shipped today and should be here by next Friday, Sept. 8!

Yes! Last night was the last straw. Four laptop freezes in the course of a few hours was what it took for me to get up and say “NO MORE!” We finally ordered our Mac Pro. It should be arriving by Sept. 13 so you know what I will be doing that weekend!

Configuration:
-1GB of RAM (getting more later, but not through Apple -I hear it’s best to get Apple memory elsewhere, I will let you know where as soon as I get it).
-Two 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
-160GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s drive (got enough extra storage, so I didn’t see the need for more than this… for now).