Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with proprietary

Emergent proprietary properties

andromache — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:29:11 -0800

What makes a Mac a Mac? I was fiddling around with a G5 tower this morning, and I wondered: what's inside that box that makes it a Mac?

I know you can buy the shell (case? enclosure?) that houses the guts of a home made, personalized PC, but as far as I know, you can't do the same with Macs. If I had the aluminum tower, could I, if I had the knowhow, put together a FrankenMac from parts bought separately?

Is there something about the physical hardware that makes Macs able to run OSX? If they can run Windows in Parallels or BootCamp, why couldn't a PC run OSX (if the PC equivalent of BootCamp existed)?

Aren't a lot of the parts like Ram and drives in a Mac made by, say, Samsung, or Sony, or Kingston? These are the same brands used in PCs, yeah? Why couldn't I assemle these and make my own Mac? I've seen some step-by-step guides to mod a shitty PC or an XBox to run OSX.

But what makes a Mac a Mac?

n.b. I have no intention of doing this myself, I'm just curious. Idiot-safe and techie explanations appreciated.

Adapter for Standard ATX main power connector to HP proprietary

joemako — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:24:26 -0800

Is there an adapter available that turns a standard ATX 24-pin main power connector into a proprietary HP "mini" 24-pin connector? Reason: I have an HP Slimline PC that came with a 108 watt power supply (not enough power). So I got a new case and power supply, but the ATX 24-pin main power connector on the HP motherboard is non-standard. Both have 24 pins and matching color scheme.

If you go to http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/power-supplies/118464-hp-slimline-160-watt-power-supply-how-do-i-hook-up-car.html they say:

"One thing you need to know about HP, that 24pin connector isn't a standard ATX plug, meaning no matter which of these PSUs you decide to go with, it won't plug into the mobo. I have heard that the HP plug is just a smaller version of a 24pin ATX plug. If this holds true, all you would need to do is cut the connector off the current PSU and hardwire it into your new PSUs ATX connector."

Down the page is an image after the text: "Alright. 24 wires / 24 solder points / 24 heat shrinks later" of what they did.

Is there an adapter available that accomplishes this, or do I have no choice but to solder the wires together?

Steve Jobs is holding my pictures for ransom.

mecran01 — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:43:16 -0800

I have a bunch of pictures in Iphoto on my mac. Unfortunately, Iphoto uses a really wacky file structure. How do I get the photos out of itunes and sort them into folders labeled by date without including all the weird little dupes and thumbnails that Iphoto generates? Does that make sense?

proprietary laptops

shannymara — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 14:21:55 -0800

I'm about to buy a new laptop. Is there a good way of finding out which laptops have devices on board that are noncompatible with a regular Windows install? Let me explain further, in regard to an annoying HP Omnibook I have... I have a 4-year old HP Omnibook XE3 that only sees its devices (NIC, video, mouse, etc) if I install the OS from the Win2K factory restore disc it came with. If I try to use my standard Win2K install discs, none of the devices get recognized: the OS has the appearance of Windows running in safe mode, and Device Manager & Hardware Wizard fail to find any devices at all.

Needless to say, I don't want to fall into this trap should I decide to change my OS later! Is there a list of which manufacturers do this to their systems? Is this par for the course with all manufacturers? Or is there some way I can tell what to expect from the specs? Maybe it's a BIOS thing?

Any way to bypass proprietary "USB"?

By The Grace of God — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 08:16:02 -0800

I have two digital voice recorders that have a USB feature. But, it's not real USB: you have to use their damn Proprietary Software (Olympus Digital Wave and Sony Digital Voice Editor respectively) to access the files.. You plug the things in with the USB cable and Explorer does not see the thing as a drive with files, as the good Lord intended. Is there a way to get the things to appear as a usb drive? Alternatively, is there an alternative bit of software that a) isn't such shite and b) will work on both units? I currently have to carry the installers for each around with me on my iPod. GAH.

iTunes ID3 MP3 weirdness

punishinglemur — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:56:17 -0800

What is iTunes putting in my MP3 tags? [mi] I ripped the new Modest Mouse CD with iTunes, and each file has something like this in its ID3v2 comments tag:

000022C0 00001F1C 0000B69E 0000B37D 0001DA2F 00021EF5 000090A2 0000934B 00033934 0002BFAC

What is that?