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pseydtonneI'm sorry I haven't posted. I felt really pissed off that I had no desire to answer questions ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
epanastatis had raised a couple weeks ago. I felt livid, but mostly I felt like angry that I didn't want to get into an argument because I wouldn't win and I would just feel stupid. So I felt stupid for not responding.
Then I remembered that nothing I post in LJ really matters. It's an online community. We adopt personas, get into a simulacrum of the real shit we're up to, and get shit out. I'm sitting here at 2 am on Christmas, still getting over not going home to Utica for Christmas Eve. I wanted to see my folks and bother my little cousins. I didn't have the time, Maggie couldn't get any time off, blah blah. Then I remembered I haven't been a Christian since 1988 and I can bother my cousins another time. Maggie is more important to me. I want to be with her on the holidays. So I am. I want to drop my grudges because they keep me from having fun. I'm still learning how to let go of stuff.
I bought a used iBook laptop fromlightfixer Saturday night. It needs some ram and I need to back up some stuff so that I can wipe the drive, but I like it a lot. I'm calling it iBis for now (as in "Jester, Ibis, Blot" from the characters of the Harvard Lampoon). The Mac world is obsessed with making a lowercase 'i' the prefix for all other words: is this a subjugatiion of the self, or a declaration in contrast to the largess of 'We' in a Window-laden world?
Going back to the Mac world is a strange resumption of arguments I had in 1996. The first computer I could call my own was a Mac Classic II, which had a smaller hard drive than the soldered-in 64 MB of RAM this machine uses as a base for any other RAM. This machine stomps that one cold -- it goes 100 minutes without a recharge, it detects a high-speed Internet connection immediately, it plays MP3s while I bang this out. However, that older machine was my introduction to getting real work done -- typing hard, sorting good ideas from bad, reading online pr0n. When it became impossible to get decent work-centric software for a Mac in upstate New York, I switched to PC computing. I had learned a lot about what a computer could do that it bummed me out to learn more powerful, more fixable machines didn't have the same features yet.
A lot of you reading this are geeks. However, most geeks have chosen a single geek realm and honed their skills within that groove. I've lived in three distinct realms of computer since 1992 -- Macs during the System 7 era, PCs from Windows 3.1/DOS 5.0 through the present, and Unix flavors from BSD to Solaris to Linux. Now I'm typing into MacOS X (ten), specifically Panther (X.3). Each of these required a shift in focal points, a request for different kinds of assistance, and changes in my opinion of what I could do with a computer. Each exposure has given me more solid understanding of the algorithm-alive machines I've borrowed or owned. OSX is close to amalgam of Unix and Mac worlds, but it's still strange.
Now I have an iBook G3 500 MHz with 192 MB ram (soon to be 320 or 576 MB), a 9.3 GB hard drive, a great screen and plenty of ports. I'm not selling my 1.3GHz Celeron, nor am I ditching Win2k nor Linux. I am cultivating my knowledge of system administration. Laptops are still a bit foreign to me. I need to learn more about them to understand other people's future problems with them. I'm never satisfied with my skills. I want to have a tool for writing and learning wherever I go. This switch in worlds is another toward that.
I found that one guy at work, a normally cool man, just about kvelled when I told him I'd bought this thing. "I'm going to upgrade my hard drive soon! I'll hook you up with the old one." Another friend said "that's not a computer. It's a Mac. Leave the toys in the closet." Strange...
I'm listening to bassdrive.com. The DJ broke in to say "just remember why we're all here tonight: Cuz Christmas sucks. If you see Santa, break out a grenade launcher." That's a good reminder. Have a good holiday, y'all!
By the way, everyone should wishteddywolf the best luck on his sudden job hunt and epanastatis and gazebogrrl the best of luck with their condo closing. One man is untied from a very safe employer; two others are bound to a hunk of drywall in Queens. I am grateful to have my minor problems.
-"...that's not why I hate Christmas," so says Zew in Chicago.
epanastatis had raised a couple weeks ago. I felt livid, but mostly I felt like angry that I didn't want to get into an argument because I wouldn't win and I would just feel stupid. So I felt stupid for not responding.Then I remembered that nothing I post in LJ really matters. It's an online community. We adopt personas, get into a simulacrum of the real shit we're up to, and get shit out. I'm sitting here at 2 am on Christmas, still getting over not going home to Utica for Christmas Eve. I wanted to see my folks and bother my little cousins. I didn't have the time, Maggie couldn't get any time off, blah blah. Then I remembered I haven't been a Christian since 1988 and I can bother my cousins another time. Maggie is more important to me. I want to be with her on the holidays. So I am. I want to drop my grudges because they keep me from having fun. I'm still learning how to let go of stuff.
I bought a used iBook laptop from
lightfixer Saturday night. It needs some ram and I need to back up some stuff so that I can wipe the drive, but I like it a lot. I'm calling it iBis for now (as in "Jester, Ibis, Blot" from the characters of the Harvard Lampoon). The Mac world is obsessed with making a lowercase 'i' the prefix for all other words: is this a subjugatiion of the self, or a declaration in contrast to the largess of 'We' in a Window-laden world?Going back to the Mac world is a strange resumption of arguments I had in 1996. The first computer I could call my own was a Mac Classic II, which had a smaller hard drive than the soldered-in 64 MB of RAM this machine uses as a base for any other RAM. This machine stomps that one cold -- it goes 100 minutes without a recharge, it detects a high-speed Internet connection immediately, it plays MP3s while I bang this out. However, that older machine was my introduction to getting real work done -- typing hard, sorting good ideas from bad, reading online pr0n. When it became impossible to get decent work-centric software for a Mac in upstate New York, I switched to PC computing. I had learned a lot about what a computer could do that it bummed me out to learn more powerful, more fixable machines didn't have the same features yet.
A lot of you reading this are geeks. However, most geeks have chosen a single geek realm and honed their skills within that groove. I've lived in three distinct realms of computer since 1992 -- Macs during the System 7 era, PCs from Windows 3.1/DOS 5.0 through the present, and Unix flavors from BSD to Solaris to Linux. Now I'm typing into MacOS X (ten), specifically Panther (X.3). Each of these required a shift in focal points, a request for different kinds of assistance, and changes in my opinion of what I could do with a computer. Each exposure has given me more solid understanding of the algorithm-alive machines I've borrowed or owned. OSX is close to amalgam of Unix and Mac worlds, but it's still strange.
Now I have an iBook G3 500 MHz with 192 MB ram (soon to be 320 or 576 MB), a 9.3 GB hard drive, a great screen and plenty of ports. I'm not selling my 1.3GHz Celeron, nor am I ditching Win2k nor Linux. I am cultivating my knowledge of system administration. Laptops are still a bit foreign to me. I need to learn more about them to understand other people's future problems with them. I'm never satisfied with my skills. I want to have a tool for writing and learning wherever I go. This switch in worlds is another toward that.
I found that one guy at work, a normally cool man, just about kvelled when I told him I'd bought this thing. "I'm going to upgrade my hard drive soon! I'll hook you up with the old one." Another friend said "that's not a computer. It's a Mac. Leave the toys in the closet." Strange...
I'm listening to bassdrive.com. The DJ broke in to say "just remember why we're all here tonight: Cuz Christmas sucks. If you see Santa, break out a grenade launcher." That's a good reminder. Have a good holiday, y'all!
By the way, everyone should wish
teddywolf the best luck on his sudden job hunt and epanastatis and gazebogrrl the best of luck with their condo closing. One man is untied from a very safe employer; two others are bound to a hunk of drywall in Queens. I am grateful to have my minor problems.-"...that's not why I hate Christmas," so says Zew in Chicago.
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no subject
Date: 2003-12-25 09:14 pm (UTC)That said, I have some nibbles and one of them would definitely be more lucrative, potentially much more lucrative. I'll keep you informed.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-25 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-12-27 06:05 am (UTC)I don't understand why non-Mac users feel venomous about them. It's amusing, but unrealistic. I *do* understand why Mac users feel venomous about Windows -- the usability and maintenance issues were so much more onerous until the latest few revisions.
I can only think that the derision of Macs comes from Alex's 3rd rule of Humanity: People hate those whom they think might be having more fun than them.