The Internet is the biggest time waster ever. For some reason, unlike with TV, you actually feel like you’re doing something. I’m here to tell you when you are on the Internet you are not doing something! At the very least nothing productive, but often nothing at all.
So please stop reading blogs, and let’s all go do something together.
(I wrote this specifically to waste some time.)
Year end tax write-off’s and curiosity finally made me do it, and I suppose I should write about it. There are some things that I think are great so far, others I’m neutral about, and other I’m still pretty frustrated with and I think I’ll start with the un-boxing experience, and then take my other experiences in that order. It’s been about 2 weeks now.
When the Apple arrived I was really excited, it’s just about the coolest toy one could have. The packing, the box, the simplicity of the components inside and lack of junk you don’t need. It screams design from the moment you take it out. I pulled the only two important pieces of hardware out of the box, the 15″ MacBook Pro (2.6GHz, 2GB now upgraded to 4, 200GB 7200RPM HD) and the power adapter. I plugged it in and turned it on. The setup process was pretty and super easy. I was now logged in to OS X. Being a responsible computer use the first thing I did was run Apple Software Update. Apple Software Update froze during the first update. I had to force quit and restart Apple Software Update. Not the best moment, but I got through it. I had to update and reboot twice and it was all up to speed. I immediately got Firefox on it and started to browse the web and use iChat. One can easily see why this would be a computer of choice for a normal home user, the things that most people want/need to do on a computer are right at your fingertips out of box: Web, Mail, Chat, Music, and Photos. That’s all many people do with the computer and they’ve made the experiences easy, beautiful, fast and fun.
Some of things I’ve already fallen in love with on the Mac follow: iChat is by far the best chat application ever created and I’m excited to be able to finally use it. The lack of a reliable built-in web cam on most PC’s automatically makes the Mac a better real-time communications tool. I’ve been loving iChat. I’ve been using iTuens for years on the PC with much success and I’ve found it to be faster, more stable and still excellent on OS X, no surprises there. The Finder is superior for getting around your files to Windows Explorer. Expose and Spaces is about 20 times more useful than Window flip, or the task bar. The dock and stacks are also a ton more useful than the windows Start menu. They are simpler, prettier and just easier to work with. Overall I’ve found OS X to be just more fun to use when I’m doing basic everyday tasks. What more could one ask for from an OS, right? Well, I’ll write about some of the experiences I’ve been struggling with next.
I think a lot of my friends think I’m a Mac hater, but that’s not really true. Ever since OS X came out it’s hard to deny that Apple has made a big step forward in the operating system world and certainly took (and even post-Vista maintains) the lead from Windows for desktop user experience. In the past one of the primary reasons I hadn’t considered switching was lack of applications I use regularly (Microsoft Visio, the PC versions of Quicken/Quickbooks, and Microsoft Outlook,) but with Mac making the switch to Intel processors that gap has been removed with the ability to easily run Windows apps in OS X thanks to programs like Parallels. Also with the switch to the long time better Intel processing platform I can no longer claim processing superiority as I had for years. And for the first time before I ordered my new Dell Latitude D630 with Vista on it I actually priced out a couple Mac laptops and thought about making the switch. However, there are still a few reasons why I haven’t switched yet… and here they are.
1. Hardware Claustrophobia - I’ve switched over the years from Compaq, Gateway, IBM and finally to Dell as my needs changed and as the quality/features of their systems changes as well. The thought of being stuck with whatever a single hardware vendor has to offer scares me. Not that Apple produces terrible hardware. While it is very pretty looking it lacks some features I like and has a premium price tag.
2. Lack of hardware features - There are a lot of features on my D630 (and D620 before it) that I use regularly and would really miss. These include:
* My built-in Cingular HSDPA card. I used to have an external one, but for the past year I’ve been in love with my built-in card. It’s extremely convenient, seems to use less power, and is one less thing to lose or break while traveling. I use this card about every other day.
* My three laptop battery’s. I have a standard primary, extended primary and a bay battery which allows me to choose how much power/weight I want to leave home with. With my screen dim and the extended/bay battery in I can get over 9 hours of use, great for really long flights without power ports, or doing work outdoors or other weird places while traveling.
* Upgradeable - PC’s just make it easier (and you have no fear of the warranty being void) to upgrade stuff. My laptop has an upgradeable bluetooth module as well as two mini-PCI slots that I can put anything in allowing me to upgrade my mobile broadband, wi-fi, or add different cards easily in the future. Also, the modular bay allows an upgrade to HD-DVD or Blue Ray in the future. All stuff that’s difficult or not possible on a Mac.
3. Learning Curve - While OS X may be really easy to use, every time I sit down at a Mac it takes me a least twice as long to complete any given tasks as it does on a PC. Also, I’m often frustrated when I have problems on OS X with the lack of detailed error messages and my own lack of understanding of where to find logs/debugging utilities to help me solve these problems. I’m sure all of this could be conquered over time, but I’m not sure when in my life I would have time to reduce my productivity and become as proficient on a new OS as I am in Windows.
In the end I think I would definitely make the switch to running Apple’s OS X operating system if I would be allowed to run it on other hardware. Apple itself admits to being a software company and not a hardware company and I wish they would open up their OS to allow me to do this. Maybe someday they will. Even with all these past barriers removed for me I’m just not quite ready for the switch. For now I think I’ll wait to see if Apple begins to offer more versatile mobile hardware platforms, or opens up their OS to other hardware vendors.
You can hopefully read about my Zambia adventures here:
I’ll be there from July 17th to the 30th.
We will have bad Internet there, so there might not be a lot up there, but I’m sure you’ll at least get a sneak peak before I get home to tell stories and show pictures.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and I feel like starting with something that’s not too heavy, so here we go:
I’ve spent a lot of time and effort trying to do my part in saving energy. We recently got an energy efficient humidifier, I now put my computer to sleep when I’m not using it, and I am more concious of turning stuff of than before; however, I’ve also really wanted to find a decent flourescent light to use in our home that didn’t totally suck. I’ve spent a couple hundred dollars buying all sorts of lights and doing the research for you. We all know the benefit of CFL’s being longer life and lower energy use, but here are the primary problems with CFL’s:
1. Often the color is not closely matched to the incandescent colors we’re used to which in my opinion makes them look gross.
2. Often they are not dimmable, so they don’t work for all applications.
3. They sometimes are larger than regular lamps, so they don’t fit in all fixtures.
4. They can take time to warm-up which is annoying.
5. They can flicker when turned on or off.
That being said, after much pain and a drawer full of lamps I’ll never use I’ve found two that really stand out:
1. The Lite-Tronics Cold Cathode Micro CFL.
This light is amazing, it has none of the problems listed above, the color is very good, it dims perfectly, it’s the same size as a standard bulb, instant on, no flicker. The only problem is it isn’t very bright. I’ve found it to be suitable for my bedside lamp, but that’s about it. If you have an application where a 40 watt bulb would be sufficient this would probably meet that requirement, but that’s about it.
2. The Harmony Dimmable Spiral.
This light has only a couple small problems from the above list. It’s just slightly larger than a normal lamp, so it will probably fit in most things, but beware if you already have a tight space to fit it in. Also, it’s technically dimmable, but it only dims from about 60-100%, so don’t plan on this lamp being in your movie watching room and dimming it down to “night light” amounts of light. This is the light we’ve ended up putting in most of our house, closets, entry ways, and kitchen. I’ve been really happy with it and even Kristin who has been particularly picky about the lights I’ve brought home gave this one a thumbs up. Also, this light is extremely affordable at only $6.50-$6.75.
The best lights I’ve found have all been based on that cold cathode technology, but right now they still aren’t bright enough and they are very expensive. So lets all hope that cold cathode technology improves to the point that we can use it in all applications, but for now I would highly recommend checking out the Harmony lamp for applications that make sense in your home.