Another Rubicon
Jan. 22nd, 2004 03:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pseydtonneI've composed and posted ninety-six percent of my LJ posts through the "safety" web page. For the past three years, I've read my email as text-only and got upset that I needed to set up another program to read any attached photos. I've sat up late resurrecting lost Windows or Linux files. I was always in a state of transition and thus I never had all of the tools and toys I needed. Then I got a used Mac running Panther (OS 10.3).
I got more work done on this laptop in the past three weeks than I had on my main computer in half a year. I've sorted a bunch of email, set up a small but growing address book that dovetails with my AIM list (thus a person is online, not just a random handle I scratch my head to recall), written some short essays and started notes on some longer ones, got some music in order, and even filed web page bookmarks in a useful way. It's 2 am and I'm typing on a text editor that wraps lines and checks my spelling on the fly. I'm sitting at the couch and not thinking about what needs fixing.
I'm worried, folks. I could easily turn back into a Mac person. The whole reason I got obsessed with computer hardware was my inability to get writing done. Now I'm writing. I can stop giving excuses for stuff.
Having a Mac laptop solves so many problems. Environments are seamless: you tweak a name and address in the chat program and it puts that data into the address book program, so you can email that person from the mail program without copying all that data from the chat program. You pop a CD-ROM into the drive and it starts to play it, if you want. It also rips all the tunes into MP3s and stashes them in a new folder next to the folder for the same artist's other albums. This reminds me that I need a bigger hard drive for this laptop.
The mail app is great, although it needs some education. It has a rudimentary method of discerning spam, although it's still lousy at it. However, I can read the rules it developed and edit them. I really won't have time to make decent spam rules until Saturday, but at least I know I can make them.
All the normal features I rely on in Windows and Linux tend to work here as well. I can hit command-tab and select the application I want to work on without using the trackpad. I can also check my bank balance and read pr0n in separate, tabbed windows. Bank pr0n just isn't my cup of tea -- I've worked in a bank after hours and I prefer when the Fed is closed.
I haven't had to reboot since I upgraded the RAM from 192 to 576. This means I've got bunches of AIM windows sitting in hiding. I can reread that web page a friend noted or some inspiring comment (sometimes my own). I don't have to be parsimonious.
I have two other laptops, but I don't really use them. One died the other day -- a Mac PowerBook 1400cs with 64 MB RAM and a nice keyboard but a battery that suddenly went kablooey. All attempts to restore have led to a new attempt to copy files and sell the bugger. Sorry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lightfixer, but I think I killed it.
The other laptop is an NEC Versa 4000D, which is a 75 MHz Pentium with its maximum of 40 MB RAM. I went through a lot of work to turn it into a working Debian Linux machine. It weighs a lot. Debian's default kernel doesn't have notebook sleep support. The laptop gets its hour of juice and then needs to plug in again. I felt a major sense of accomplishment when I installed Linux not once but twice on a machine with no CD-ROM drive. Now it's a gorgeous example of what I can do, but it's also a relic.
Once I backup the material on this drive and perform a clean installation, I'll have some extra space. I'll be able to start the Pot Sherd again. This time, I won't worry about losing my list of contacts or needing to track loose content over a few computers. I've decided this is my working computer, even if it is a little slower than my 1.3 GHz machine. It has more than enough RAM, it can come with me anywhere, and it can play tunes.
It also just read this entry to me aloud. It had no problem turning "GHz" into the audible "gigahertz". Once I can get it to turn my voice into text, I'll be set for life.
Oh, the essay I'm working on is about space exploration. I promise it'll be worth reading when I post it in about 24 hours.
-now I need to clean the kitchen table, Dante
I got more work done on this laptop in the past three weeks than I had on my main computer in half a year. I've sorted a bunch of email, set up a small but growing address book that dovetails with my AIM list (thus a person is online, not just a random handle I scratch my head to recall), written some short essays and started notes on some longer ones, got some music in order, and even filed web page bookmarks in a useful way. It's 2 am and I'm typing on a text editor that wraps lines and checks my spelling on the fly. I'm sitting at the couch and not thinking about what needs fixing.
I'm worried, folks. I could easily turn back into a Mac person. The whole reason I got obsessed with computer hardware was my inability to get writing done. Now I'm writing. I can stop giving excuses for stuff.
Having a Mac laptop solves so many problems. Environments are seamless: you tweak a name and address in the chat program and it puts that data into the address book program, so you can email that person from the mail program without copying all that data from the chat program. You pop a CD-ROM into the drive and it starts to play it, if you want. It also rips all the tunes into MP3s and stashes them in a new folder next to the folder for the same artist's other albums. This reminds me that I need a bigger hard drive for this laptop.
The mail app is great, although it needs some education. It has a rudimentary method of discerning spam, although it's still lousy at it. However, I can read the rules it developed and edit them. I really won't have time to make decent spam rules until Saturday, but at least I know I can make them.
All the normal features I rely on in Windows and Linux tend to work here as well. I can hit command-tab and select the application I want to work on without using the trackpad. I can also check my bank balance and read pr0n in separate, tabbed windows. Bank pr0n just isn't my cup of tea -- I've worked in a bank after hours and I prefer when the Fed is closed.
I haven't had to reboot since I upgraded the RAM from 192 to 576. This means I've got bunches of AIM windows sitting in hiding. I can reread that web page a friend noted or some inspiring comment (sometimes my own). I don't have to be parsimonious.
I have two other laptops, but I don't really use them. One died the other day -- a Mac PowerBook 1400cs with 64 MB RAM and a nice keyboard but a battery that suddenly went kablooey. All attempts to restore have led to a new attempt to copy files and sell the bugger. Sorry,
lightfixer, but I think I killed it.The other laptop is an NEC Versa 4000D, which is a 75 MHz Pentium with its maximum of 40 MB RAM. I went through a lot of work to turn it into a working Debian Linux machine. It weighs a lot. Debian's default kernel doesn't have notebook sleep support. The laptop gets its hour of juice and then needs to plug in again. I felt a major sense of accomplishment when I installed Linux not once but twice on a machine with no CD-ROM drive. Now it's a gorgeous example of what I can do, but it's also a relic.
Once I backup the material on this drive and perform a clean installation, I'll have some extra space. I'll be able to start the Pot Sherd again. This time, I won't worry about losing my list of contacts or needing to track loose content over a few computers. I've decided this is my working computer, even if it is a little slower than my 1.3 GHz machine. It has more than enough RAM, it can come with me anywhere, and it can play tunes.
It also just read this entry to me aloud. It had no problem turning "GHz" into the audible "gigahertz". Once I can get it to turn my voice into text, I'll be set for life.
Oh, the essay I'm working on is about space exploration. I promise it'll be worth reading when I post it in about 24 hours.
-now I need to clean the kitchen table, Dante
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-22 07:17 am (UTC)Once I can get it to turn my voice into text, I'll be set for life.
well, this product looks pretty attractive. i'll be on the lookout for it; if i can get you a copy, i will. IBM's ViaVoice is also available for OS X, but back when i used it with OS 9, i was pretty unimpressed. iListen looks to have a number of features ViaVoice doesn't.
-steve