19 Mar 06
Mac Mini Apple
My apologies for the lack of updates guys, pressure of college work and the Echo radio station is proving to be a considerable drain on my time. That and my new Mac doesn't handle .asp very well, so editing the website is proving to be slower then a concession of OAPs. I have spent the weekend trying to get my head round PHP and MySQL databases and the like, (I have had to run away crying because I can't work out how to get them working).
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought myself a MacMini. A few days later Apple released the new MacMini's with Intel chips, which means it runs up to four times faster than previously... but I have grumbled quietly about that so lets not go there.
So why the change to a Mac? Why did I jump out of the Windows and fall into the Apple tree? Well, in 1997 my parents bought me my first laptop, (I still have it, it works perfectly). We had a computer in the house for years, and I've always enjoyed using them. But I have come to realize just how much of my time is taken up by running Ad-aware, Spybot, Virus Checkers, Registry Cleaners, emptying temporary files, messing around in msconfig, and generally doing all the things you need to do to keep your PC running as smoothly as it can. Now I am hoping that in September someone will be paying me to do things, and so I doubt I will have so much time to fiddle with my computer. Apparently Apples are better at looking after themselves.
It Should Just Work
I'm going to quote that poet of technology, the late Douglas Adams:
What I want to be able to do is this:
Turn on the machine.
Work.
Have a bit of fun provided I've done enough of 2, which is rarely, but that's another issue.
He has a point, I mean what do I actually do on my PC? I write things, I edit video, audio and photos, I make websites, I check my emails, I surf the web, and I listen to my music. That's about it to be honest. Ok, I play computer games too, but I'm getting to be a big boy now and I should probably stop playing them soon. I can do (almost) all of that on a Mac, with a nicer looking design and a better interface.
Gotta Love Steve Jobs
I'm not about to suggest that Apple is flawless- look at the iPod mini. But Microsoft is going to stop support for XP as soon as Vista is released. This means that whenever a security hole is found in Windows, you are on your own, (unless you have upgraded to Vista). Not only that, but Microsoft is going to be charging for a new service called OneCare Live which will protect your PC from virus and hackers. What that means is that Microsoft create an operating system that has holes in it, they sell the defective product to us, and then we have to pay them to fix the holes they should have fixed before they sold it to us in the first place!
So anyway, I dug into my pocket and bought a computer- interestingly it was the first time I had bought a computer of my own- so kinda exciting. In the next few days I will post further about the Mac Adventure!