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    New to the World of Mac! - Rainbow Wheel

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Jamste, Mar 9, 2009.

  1. Jamste

    Jamste Notebook Geek

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    Hey Guys,

    As some of you know I posted some time ago now, I got a new Aluminum Macbook, and I'm loving it. It's very good.

    Just wondering, sometimes when opening a program I get the rainbow wheel, is this a bad thing? I hope this is normal and harmless meaning nothing, I'm sort of getting a little worried...

    Thanks in advanced,
    regards
     
    Jamste, Mar 9, 2009
    #1
  2. Dragunov-21

    Dragunov-21 Notebook Evangelist

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    I believe it's the "working" cursor, like the hourglass used to be in windows.

    Nothing to worry about.
     
    Dragunov-21, Mar 9, 2009
    #2
  3. weirdo81622

    weirdo81622 Notebook Evangelist

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    That's just the Mac equivalent of the Vista "blue doughnut" or the XP hourglass. It just means "working..."
     
    weirdo81622, Mar 9, 2009
    #3
  4. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    Yep, to the above two posts. ;)
     
    ahl395, Mar 9, 2009
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  5. Seshan

    Seshan Rawrrr!

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    I think most people call it the beach ball.
     
    Seshan, Mar 9, 2009
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  6. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    It means that your Mac is going to detonate. Use the desk as cover.
     
    Bog, Mar 9, 2009
    #6
  7. Colton

    Colton Also Proudly American

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    Beachball is what us Mac users call it ;) It will occur more often when you have more applications open at time. Say you have 3 apps running, then it will not happen very often at all. If you have 10 apps running, then you'll get it more often. (Those numbers were for argument purposes, but could be applied to real life) :)
     
    Colton, Mar 9, 2009
    #7
  8. Chrysaor

    Chrysaor Notebook Consultant

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    Official name is "spinning wait cursor" but commonly called beach ball (of death).
     
    Chrysaor, Mar 9, 2009
    #8
  9. lua

    lua Notebook Consultant

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    it happens when your mac is too busy to bother with you ...
     
    lua, Mar 10, 2009
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  10. jonhapimp

    jonhapimp Notebook Virtuoso

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    i hate that wheel i like the look of the hour glass better,maybe they should change the colors up
     
    jonhapimp, Mar 10, 2009
    #10
  11. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    I like both. The Vista thing is basiccally a copy of the rainbow thingy though, i do like the rainbow thing better though. Its cool looking. :p :D
     
    ahl395, Mar 10, 2009
    #11
  12. fins4o8

    fins4o8 Notebook Consultant

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    You should see less beach balls if you add more RAM to your system. You can never have enough RAM, IMHO.
     
    fins4o8, Mar 10, 2009
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  13. blabus

    blabus Notebook Evangelist

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    It's a good thing were only discussing OS X here, as Vista and XP (at least the 32-bit versions) can't use more than 3GB of RAM, even if you have more installed.
     
    blabus, Mar 10, 2009
    #13
  14. jonhapimp

    jonhapimp Notebook Virtuoso

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    aren't there 64but and 32bit osx's? if there is does osx 32bit show all 4gb
     
    jonhapimp, Mar 10, 2009
    #14
  15. fins4o8

    fins4o8 Notebook Consultant

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    good thing we are discussing Mac OSX aren't we? If this were Windows, I would of added x64. ;)

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/64bit.html
     
    fins4o8, Mar 10, 2009
    #15
  16. Colton

    Colton Also Proudly American

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    Yeah, OS X can run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications side-by-side, but the native bit OS is 64-bit. ;)
     
    Colton, Mar 10, 2009
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  17. jonhapimp

    jonhapimp Notebook Virtuoso

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    i know the difference between 32bit and 64 bit. i was talking to blabus where he said that windows 32bit only shows 3gb but doesn't the 32bit version of osx only show 3gb as well.
     
    jonhapimp, Mar 10, 2009
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  18. Seshan

    Seshan Rawrrr!

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    There is no 32 bit version, it's all in one.
     
    Seshan, Mar 10, 2009
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  19. jonhapimp

    jonhapimp Notebook Virtuoso

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    oh okay 10chars
     
    jonhapimp, Mar 10, 2009
    #19