A few questions

Hamm

Hamm

At the Start
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I've recently moved out of the UK to Geneva/France, and am therefore without access to the RP/Weekender, and live races (apart from when i take over the hotel bar). Not such a big deal re the former, but with the RP website trying the patience of any man, I've begun to reconsider my situation re racing and form study. I'll hopefully buy a macbook sometime in the New Year, and am wondering as to what to use for racing news, form & watching races.

I presume a subscription to RUK covers the latter, but is ATR worth the additional amount? Also, are either online when racing isn't being shown live (as in, do you get the live stream from the channel)? How does a macbook work for these?

As regards news & form study, I'm loath to continue using the RP site in it's current state. Sporting Life suffices for news and is quicker than the RP. For form study, how does Timeform and RI compare, and are they worth the investment (subjective, I know)?

On the subject, what other resources do you use?

Any other thoughts appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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As far as I know, you can't access the feeds of races online using a mac, I think that's what Headstrong has said before.

As for watching racing, if you bet in every race, any amount on Betfair you can watch on Betfair video, so free subscription, just in races u don't want a bet put up your offer to back at x price just pre off, and just after jump off, offer same horse at same price. will norm get matched and you're watching for free.
 
The ruk subscription is live all the time with about a 27 second delay.

Betfair form is okay, but I've got used to the new Racingpost now, and although ill at present and not studying I will be using it when back on my feet.
 
For form, the Betfair one isn't bad at all for a free site, it uses Timeform's raw data I believe. Turftrax isn't horrendous but it depends what you use the most to be honest.
 
Gamla Stan said:
For form, the Betfair one isn't bad at all for a free site, it uses Timeform's raw data I believe. Turftrax isn't horrendous but it depends what you use the most to be honest.
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Betfair/Timeform will hopefully beef up the information provided in their form section in the near future so that it can rival the service provided by the Post. I'd certainly be in favour of that.
 
You can watch ATR on Mac OS X, but not RUK. However, you can run Windows within OS X (at full speed) or even instead of OS X if you need to.
 
Hi Gareth,

Thanks for that and sorry for slow reply. I may buy something in next week, and am wondering how awkward it is for someone with only 'normal' knowledge of computers to use a macbook with windows OS? Or is this a bit ridiculous, as in would it make more sense to buy a pc laptop? any recommendations (anyone)? My requirements are basic enough ... the screen size of the macbook is ideal. Thanks in advance.
 
Much as it pains me to say it, if one of the prime reasons you're getting the laptop is to watch RUK online then it would be a lot less hassle to get a Windows one, particularly if you've never installed an operating system before, and don't have any particular desire to do so now!

As an illustation, here's a link to the user guide for Boot Camp (Apple's software that allows you to dual-boot):

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup.pdf

and these are the two major players for software that allow you to run Windows within OS X:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/
 
Whatever you do don't buy a Sony. I once bought 3 vaio laptops, paying over £4,000. Two had to be returned under the warranty. The first one had to have the screen replaced as it was littered with clumps of dead pixels that developed over time. When requesting it be picked up I was warned of the dire consequences of returning it if the issue was not as I described or was down to my own negligence (figures that would've bought me a decent new laptop were mentioned). Note also that if they think there's any chance the problem may be software related they'll insist you do a factory reset on your hard drive to see if it solves the problem. They don't give a shit as to how much this inconveniences you, as far as they're concerned you're the inconvenience.

I later noticed the camera capture facility (something I didn't use) on the second laptop had a background noise on all the recordings. I reported it on Sony's e-support online portal and after 3 months of trying updates and new drivers they finally agreed it would have to be returned for repair. By this time the laptop was a couple of months out of warranty but they agreed to do it under warranty (with the usual threats) as it was reported during the warranty. As it was going in for repair I decided to point out to them how sluggish I had found their 'flagship' laptop. The second of the dual processors seemed to be anonymous as the laptop seemed none too clever at multitasking and even opening a very large notepad file (250 MB of comma delimited data) took five minutes on this vista laptop as compared to 5 seconds on my older xp one. I had been advised on a forum the sluggishness might be down to vista's memory requirements but asked Sony to investigate anyway. I received an unenthusiastic reply to this request as it was made out of warranty although that was down to the fact I was messed about for 3 months on the camera capture problem.

Anyway, by the time it was convenient for me to have the laptop uplifted it had become apparent the problem was down to a faulty fan. The camera capture recording had obviously been magnifying the noise. The fan was now much more noisy and the laptop was overheating and cutting out. Of course Sony now claimed this was a new problem reported outwith the warranty and the repair would have to be paid for. It took me two weeks of phoning and emailing to finally get them to pick up the laptop to fix the original problem which, as far as I was concerned, they couldn't possibly do without fixing the fan. I was told they hoped to return the laptop to me in 5 working days. 17 days later I phoned to ask what was happening. I phoned their 0845 number but, after entering my laptop serial number, I was told I had to phone the 35p a minute line because it was no longer under warranty. This 35p a minute line is automated. You're first asked to select a service from the menu then, after a minute's gap you're asked to input your serial number. About £1 later I was put through to customer services and guess what the first thing they asked me for was? After repeating the serial number to him he hung up. I then repeated the process and a lady told me the laptop was due to have its hard drive replaced. This sent me into a bit of a panic as I had only copied the most essential data from the hard drive thinking it wouldn't have to be touched for a fan replacement. I then emailed them and asked if the original hard drive could be returned to me but received no reply. Six days later (more than 3 weeks since they picked up the laptop) the laptop was returned but with no old hard drive. The report said they had replaced base plastic, the keyboard and the fan. I was surprised at this as there seemed to be nothing wrong with either the plastic or the keyboard and there was no mention of a hard drive replacement. On starting the laptop though it soon became obvious that the hard drive had either been replaced or factory reset.

With the length of time it took them to return the machine and the seemingly unnecessary repairs I actually became suspicious they had sent me a different refurbished machine but Sony denied this. I emailed them about the old hard drive and they phoned me back a few days later to quote "terms and conditions" regarding data on the hard drive. Despite saying they had the old hard drive they refused to return it to me, even though I offered to pay for it, because "we don't have a system in place to handle such a request". So I had days of unnecessary work reinstalling programmes and the like ahead of me because their customer services are tied to a "system". But hey, WTF, their head of vaio service Mr. Mizuno sent me a spare cleaning cloth as a "complimentary gift". Isn't it great to be a valued customer? "Thank you for putting your trust in our Sony products" said Mr. Mizuno. That's something I won't be doing ever again Mr. Mizuno.
 
Cheers Gareth.

The VMWare option looks like it wouldn't be too difficult, and is not too expensive.

Does it have any drawbacks, or does it slow the macbook or time switching between systems?

Thanks again.
 
Hamm said:
The VMWare option looks like it wouldn't be too difficult, and is not too expensive.

Does it have any drawbacks, or does it slow the macbook or time switching between systems?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

With VMWare, it's all running at the same time and switching between the two should be near-seamless (lots of memory helps - although I think they all come with a minimum 2GB now which is plenty).
 
My bottom of the range NR Vaio hasn't been bad but I reckon I could've done better, the only problem I've had is with the charger. It's a lot speedier than some of the other brands I've used. I've heard Lenovo are a top make.
 
Cheers for replies.

Think I'll go with Macbook, as prefer it to use, speed, & programs. Now, decision is whether to go for old model (circa £700) or newer one. Any thoughts?
 
Newer one. Brilliant pieces of kit. I've got the new MacBook Pro and wouldn't change it for anything. Fabulous.
 
I've got the old one. Get a new one - build quality is much improved. BTW they've just released new versions of their iLife software which usually comes bundled so you might want to check that you get that too if its something you'll use.
 
Cheers.

Looking at the price difference (£250), i'm not sure is the newer one worth it to me (someone who doesn't use a laptop for overly complicated things), and there's also the worry about the supposed over-glossiness of the new screen.

Is it worth the extra cash to a relative layman of computer needs?!
 
It's not over-glossy. I find that it's fine and better than the old Macs, but that's down to opinion at the end of the day.
 
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