Archive for the 'Spend!' Category

The cult, I have joined it

Purchased a new MacBook last night. Along with an Airport and a wee green iPod Shuffle, which is the tiniest piece of electronica I’ve ever seen. I had earrings bigger than that in the ’80s.

There were a few moments of frustration last night while attempting to get online wirelessly (and Apple could be a little more clear which device they’re telling you to restart when you’re trying to do setup). But once I got signed in and set up, it was a breeze.

I’m still getting used to the change in user interface from PCs, and especially from Firefox (can a Mac run Firefox? Because I’m not digging Safari so far). But ancient synapses are coming back to life — after all, I learned how to use computers on the teeny-tiny first-generation Macs at my campus newspaper, and I used them (with the exception of a few years of using mainframe-based pieces of crap at the professional newspaper I worked for between college and law school) all the way up through law school, until I arrived in a law firm that was still using MS-DOS and WordPerfect. So I had to retrain myself in WordPerfect and then, eventually, Word (when law firms finally decided to use the same programs their clients did).

My first computer,* purchased third-hand in law school, was one of the ’80s-era Macs. 1 MB of RAM. One.  (My new iPod has 2GB.)  4-inch black and white screen. It was slow, and because it had no memory I couldn’t load any software onto it or use it to get online, but I was able to do my outlines and my exams on it, and print them at the law school’s computer center.

But now I have a sleek, fast, compact little MacBook. With a working disk drive! I’ll finally be able to upload my CDs.

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*Of my own — my family had a Commodore 64, not that we did much of anything with it but play games.

Techno bleg

Last night, I hosed my laptop (laptop + juice =  so not a good idea).  I don’t think it’s going to recover.

So.  I’m in the market for a new laptop, and I happen to have enough money saved for one, since I’d been planning to replace the one I have in a few months anyhow.

Suggestions?  I’ve been considering something from Apple, but I’d need to know if I can just plug in my cable modem, camera, etc., and whether the Word available for Macs is compatible with law firm usage.

Happy consumermas!

Is anyone else quite as intensely irritated by all those Christmas luxury car and jewelry ads?  And do people actually *give* luxury vehicles and significant pieces of jewelry for Christmas?