Skip to main content

The Mac Mini


By Allan Angel


 The Mac Mini which I keep referring to as Mini Mac arrived with just a power supply and a CD case that had no CD just a paper or something. In a rush to get the Mac going I didn't bother to read it. I ordered a wireless keyboard and mouse with a USB transmitter as the Mac Mini doesn't really come with any accessories. I also bought a DVI to HDMI cable so the Mac Mini would connect to my LCD monitor. I also bought a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 just in case I wanted to use the mini with my Apollo audio interface.


It took me awhile to get situated as I spent over an hour trying to look for triple AAA batteries for the mouse and the keyboard. Eventually I could only find two and used that to power the keyboard, I used my existing wireless mouse that I use for my laptops on the remaining USB slot in the rear of the Mini mac. It has 2 USB slots and 2 Thunderbolt 3 and some other slot that looks like an ethernet. The power button is also kind of hard to find in the back.



I have had 2 Mac Minis in the past and currently have about 5 Macbooks on hand, a pc laptop, a surface, G4s, G5s, and various antique Macs all the way from the 80s, many with an i7 processor which have lasted me for about a decade and also first generation of lines throughout the years I've given to nephews, nieces and cousins who still have it. So I was expecting a lot from this machine, but getting the whole thing up and running was a task that required some measure of patience, a virtue which I do not have.



After about an hour and a half, I turned it on and the first thing I did was to download an installer for Maya 2020. It took forever and found that I had a copy on another laptop so I cancelled the download after about 20 minutes and copied the installer unto the Mac Mini with the M1. Unfortunately I had a window prompt pop up that said “You do not have the permission to open the application.” So I downloaded the Maya instal file again fresh from Autodesk and I got the same results. So that wasn't the problem installing it.



I tried googling but people tend to talk/write too much and I just used my instincts and perhaps thought that the OS needed an update. So I went under some tab in the desktop menu and updated the OS. It only took a second to press the update button but took forever to download. It said about 41 minutes remaining but ended lasting through the whole night until the next morning at around 10 AM.



I would be asleep at 12:30, wake up at 2 am and wondered why it was still downloading at almost the same spot I saw the progress bar when I fell asleep. When I woke up I found that I had to click the Mac Mini to wake it and figured out that if the computer slept. It slept. So I went under preferences to change the energy settings to always be on. It did help a little bit. I woke up again at 5AM and it wasn’t progressing like I hoped it would be. So much for the speedster it was supposed to be according to the articles I have read on the internet.



I had this prompt on the upper right corner saying to restart to instal the updates although I wondered if I should click on the update again because it was still there. I chose to restart. It took about 20 minutes and I went to install BlackMagic’s Resolve because it was fitted to the new OS that would take advantage of the M1. I balked at the last minute because I really wanted to know if it would install Maya and how it would function under Rosetta. So I installed Maya first.



I got error messages again and I got stubborn and clicked it again and it installed it. I will give a proper review that will be added to my magazine My Couture with ETA of February 1. I want to be as detailed and precise as I can possibly be under real world usage of the Mini Mac rather than a mathematical benchmark that mean absolutely nothing to me. 

    I will undergo some tests pertaining to animations I have had a hell of time with using my current equipment and will be also tested on stuff I'm learning in advanced animation under the time constraint I am in to get it to publication. The current political climate have been very disruptive but I hope to get this information out in the first issue of My Couture. See you there! #mycouture #macmini #apple #autodesk #maya #3danimation #allanangel #fashion #animation #comicbooks #madonnamemorabilia #sportsmemorabilia #dance #musicproduction 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The PokemonGo! Murder Mystery

Things haven't been the same since Chris was stabbed in the face while playing PokemonGo! He used to be buff all over but you can clearly see the effects of the injury. His upper torso lost all its muscles and he gained weight in his stomach. There was a somber mood in the air with a couple of instances here and there where he seems to forget what had happened and make light of the unfortunate turn of events. People keep saying you're lucky you should take advantage of this situation, because the story is broadcast worldwide from Vietnam and to outlets like Telemundo. But the story is more or less than that. At the end of the day, I think Chris really just wants to get back from the abyss of flashbacks, the horror, and get back to the Chris that everyone knows, i.e. The Man, The Myth, The Legend. Chris Perguidi: The Man, The Myth, The Legend I've been in this position myself. This point where someone violates you in a way that it makes you sick to your stomach. I
5 comments
Read more

Chris Perguidi: A new hero must rise!

Someone in boxing class asked me if my friend was coming to class. She’s seen his story in Metro and attended the previous class mentioned in the last blog. She was hoping he was okay and I wanted to reassure her that he was okay so I said, “He’s stronger than you think he is. He’s from Gilroy. He grew up around coyotes and played with them.” And I said all these with a straight face and no one thought to question… “coyotes?” Because the whole thing is just so bizarre, so complicated and it’s…  real! How did these people know Chris? He was stabbed in the face by 2 people, one, a stocky robust man, and another, a woman, in downtown San Jose who thought he was filming them while playing the phenomenon of the moment with more users than either Instagram or Facebook, PokemonGo! To iterate, when someone is stabbed, you're thinking chest, back, but the face?!? That in itself trumps growing up with coyotes and playing with them as a child. Media playing upon media, it’s like a neurot
1 comment
Read more

Chris Perguidi: The Man, the Myth, the Legend

On the eve of my birthday I was trying to meet a deadline on an Erika America comic book. At about 3 AM, I finished the task and sent the PNG files over to my frequent collaborator and friend, Chris Perguidi. Erika Amerika is a character that Chris had me work on when we first met sometime back in 2008. EA is about a super heroine with an American Indian heritage. Since then, we have been working on projects together and have appeared many times in newspapers and television promoting our comic books like Herotown, Erika America, The Baby Warriors, etc. As soon as files were sent to his email, I would usually get a response and within hours or the next day I would get feedback usually in the form of ”Amazing”, “Fantastic”, but for some odd reason… nothing. A day passed and nothing, another day nothing. On the third day, as I opened my Facebook I saw this post (I couldn't get far enough on his FB to retrieve the actual post, but something similar to this about 4 days later):
1 comment
Read more