dispatches

Something to like

I've taken my MacBook out into the wild today. I'm sitting with a window to my back, processing photos. The amazing thing is, I can see them! This matte screen is something else. Normally I scour a place for the darkest corner with nothing behind me, so that I can see my screen. With this computer I don't need to. I have come out of the shadows and into the light (you may chortle, but to yourselves please).

More Drobo woes

One of the purposes of a data box like Drobo was the ability to have access to my archive no matter which computer I was using. Getting a MacBook Pro was an afterthought in this process, but it was key to know that there would be no barrier to accessing my data.

When I plug the Drobo into the Mac, I get a "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" error. Oh well. So much for that idea.

I may be on the verge of abandoning the Drobo, despite the over the top customer service they have been trying to provide me. I think they're building a replica of my computer, with my motherboard and video card and USB controllers. I'm the first instance out of 500 units that has had these problems, but they don't want that to be a fixed ratio.

Then I got a call from PC Connection, who sold me the Drobo. They wanted to know how it was going. That they checked in, and want to support me in solving the problem, says some amazing things about their operation, which makes me want to buy more stuff from them when I need to.

Someday I'll get back to being an artist, and talking about that. I told Robin at dinner last night, you know, what I have to say about my life these days is really boring.   

The next heartache

I should have checked this out first, and I thought I had. Everything I had read said you can license Photoshop across platforms. I called Adobe today to do just that, and found out otherwise. Sure, they'll license across platforms if you're switching from one to another. But they demand monogamy. You can't have the same activation on both a PC and a Mac.

So far my other programs--Photo Mechanic, Eye One--are loading just fine. I oughta read something on this, because installing a program is way different from what I'm used to. Basically, it seems like nothing has happened. There's no desktop icon (except some file you have to throw away--what's that about?) and nothing conclusive about the process. After the download I had no indication that Photoshop was already on my system, because I couldn't find it, until I reinstalled over it. And then it's a manual procedure to drag it over to that Dock thingy, so that it's possible to someday find it again.

I hope all you Mac users are amused by the observations of an alien in your culture. I am not, repeat, not bashing anything here. I'm just documenting my awkward baby steps.

I did it

I'm writing this on my new MacBook Pro. It's really slick and new. However, I feel like my computer literacy has regressed about 15 years. I am lost. I am flummoxed. I am frustrated. You cannot, I repeat, cannot, just pick up a Mac and know how to use it. Programs I am familiar with work in entirely new and novel ways. Things I want to see more of, so I know how they work, I cannot. Like network connections. It found my home network fine, without much intervention. But at Elly's house I couldn't get it to work, and I couldn't get anywhere except to a Wizard dialogue to guide me through it. Surely there is somewhere I can see a list of available networks, which comes up automatically in Windows. I don't know where the latch is to look under the hood, as if I would understand what I was looking at if I could. I have a book, which I will start working throgh (I do my best learning from reading about something). But I may have to look for a Basics class or something to get me up to speed so I can understand the book. So I can pretend I'm a professional at something again someday.

Deciding

This discussion about Macs has made me more self aware of my own prejudices regarding branding, and identification with groups. It made me think about my consumption and buying patterns, even to thinking about social class distinctions.

There’s an old book on these issues that still has some currency, Paul Fussell’s "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System." Though the description is dated, Robin and I belong to what Fussell describes as Category X, basically, non conforming, educated neo-bohemian. We don’t buy new cars, and eschew most indicators of social status. We have piles and piles of books and magazines, and we hide our TV in a cabinet.

I won’t buy a shirt with a logo. I pretend to have no brand loyalty, though I buy only one kind of trousers (Dockers) and one kind of shoe (Ecco), and one kind of plain youghurt (Nancy’s). I like to think that I care only about what is the most effective product for my need.

My prejudice against Macs has been fueled by the rabid identification with the brand that people who use them exhibit. If a product is branded to make you be cool, that makes it highly suspect in my view. I’m disturbed by anything that reeks of a herd mentality. It’s only more in my face with the iPod people everywhere which, in my retrograde bias, is another sign of the increasing social isolation in our culture.

Despite this prejudice, it might be the better product. I don’t have any particular love of Microsoft, and I am disturbed by their trend of making products that are less functional than previous versions. If I think I can deal with the weight, I’m probably going to get a MacBook Pro.

A story. When Robin and I were house hunting, we came upon what, in her mind, was the perfect fit. There was room enough to have a Sedar for 25, and a big finished basement for my workspace. But it was a 50’s era box. She could see the potential, I couldn’t. It was a distressing moment for her and a bit of a relationship crisis when I said I couldn’t see myself living in something that wasn’t the cute craftsman-style bungalow I had always imagined myself in.

The next day we went to every open house in half of Seattle, and ended up at the 50’s box again. I wandered through it, revisiting my reactions to it the previous day. Nothing we’d seen so far was without a lot of compromises, and this house was looking a lot better. I saw it had the perfect space for a darkroom, and a place for my desk with a view of a cedar tree trunk. Robin was mentally moving furniture into place in the living room. I came upstairs, and said, "Even though you think this is the perfect house for us, I think it is too."

PC to Mac research

Wow, your feedback has been astounding, and really helpful. And I'm so proud that there's been no ideology rants.  Here are some other stories of PC to Mac migration that I've found.

http://scenicwild.com/serendipity/
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1017&message=23616307
http://www.imswitching.com/
http://myblackmac.com/
http://almy.us/6weeks.html
http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/article/switch_from_pc_to_imac_3rd_time_the_charm_

Don't get excited, I'm only looking

Robin was stunned. "You? Looking at a Mac? You can’t get a Mac. Who would help me with my computer?"

I need a laptop. My beloved Fujitsu is three years old, but it is far too sluggish and slow for my needs now. I need to upgrade before my fall busy season starts.

I bought a new Fujitsu Lifebook, but they’ve wrecked the design. The keyboard feels mushy and awful, and configured so that I could never hit the spacebar. The more writing I did on it, the more I hated it. I didn’t adapt—I only got more frustrated. The screen resolution was 1440 pixels, which at 14 inches makes it impossible with anyone with less than 10/20 vision and over 30 years old to read anything on screen. I threw it back (great return policy, no questions, full refund. Good on you Fujitsu).

I visited the Apple store this morning. "I’m the type of prey you dream of getting, " I said to the hip looking sales woman (oh, they call them something trendy there, like gurus, don’t they?). "I’m a long time PC user."

"I used a PC for 15 years myself," she said soothingly. I did the math in my head and figured she must have started at 3. I picked up the MacBook Pro. God, it’s heavy. 5.5 lbs. I got a lesson on file navigation (always opaque to me on a Mac), and found a mode that sorta resembled a hierarchical file structure. "That row of icons sure takes up a lot of real estate, I said. "You can totally customize that, don’t worry." I kept trying to tap on the skating rink to open things, to no effect. "Oh, you can customize that too." My ring finger was lost, hanging useless with the absence of a right mouse button. "You can get right click menus by holding this key and clicking." I tapped outside of the program I was in, and it vanished, without a trace. I always hate that about Macs. Where’d my program go? "See, there’s a little arrow underneath the program icon on the bottom? That shows you what’s open." Well, that’s obscure.

Where’s the PC card slot? How can a laptop not have a PC card slot? "You can get an accessory for your card reader." Well, that might be a deal killer right there. I love having my CF card reader right in the computer.

The display quality, now, that is a huge, compelling advantage. It looks fantastic. She showed a nifty keyboard shortcut to scroll the screen resolution up and down, and by golly, type looked sharp no matter what. That's huge.

I next went to the Sony store, and played with a SZ series Vaio. Weight: under 4 lbs—that’s more like it. Display: LED, 1280 pixels wide, on a 13 inch screen. It’s slightly widescreen format though. Type is totally readable. Keyboard, well, not a lot of travel in the keystroke, and the Shift key is tiny. But it’s light. And bright. And it has a 200gb hard drive. But it’s got Vista on it, Gaaah. I tried using my usual shortcuts to settings, which didn’t work, and everything’s in dumb mode, or hidden away. And it’s a way expensive computer.

Here are my issues with each. MacBook. PRO: display, keyboard action. CON: weight, no PC slot, OS learning curve, new software expense, data sharing with my PCs. Vaio: PRO: weight, compatibility, familiarity, large HD, display, have software. CON: keyboard action, OS learning curve (though not as traumatic), price.

IF now, I can get informative comments, and NOT get a string of PC bashing, I would love to get some perspective and suggestions.