Wrastling-match
I was at my desk here at home the other day (Wednesday, December 16, 2009) quietly beavering away on a possible blog for the Messenger’s web-site, and I noticed a large FedEx van arrow toward our driveway.
There it is; my wife’s new laptop from Dell, as promised by FedEx tracking number.
“These things are selling like hotcakes,” the guy said, as I signed for the carton. “I must have 20 on the truck.”
And so begins the tortured wrastling-match whereby my wife tries to replace her old ‘pyooter.
I myself have been driving Apple Macintosh for 12 or 13 years.
Our first computer was a Windows PC, a 386-40; 120 meg hard-drive, eight megs of RAM.
But then I started working at the Messenger newspaper in Canandaigua, and fellow workers touted the superiority of MAC.
What made me switch was the Messenger’s going all Macintosh when it computerized.
I guess it was superior.
The indicator was Photoshop®.
I took a Photoshop course in Rochester, and all the class had was Photoshop on PCs.
They were bog-slow. Hourglass city!
I took other Photoshop courses at Visual Studies Workshop.
They were all Macintosh. —Much faster.
We’d walk into the ‘pyooter-lab, and fire up maybe 12 MACs.
One-by-one they’d all sound the famous Macintosh opening chord.
My first MAC was a beige G3 tabletop.
It lasted about six years, but one day it was deader than a doornail.
I took it to Mac Shack, and they deduced bad motherboard.
I was about to upgrade anyway, so I ordered a twin-processor G4 tower (my current rig), and also a new inkjet photo-printer that would work on USB. (My previous inkjet photo-printer had been flaky anyway.)
Later I got a new platen scanner, an Epson 10000 XL, the largest they made.
It was also USB. My old scanner was SCSI (“Skuh-zee;” small computer system interface), and I still have the card installed. —It was installed as an option; but it’s currently not doing anything.
My requirements for my new computer were dictated by experience at the Messenger.
My ‘pyooter there was a simple IMAC, a hand-me-down from a reporter who had moved on.
But we added memory.
With it I could drive the Messenger’s web-site.
It was probably an ancient processor, but it was adequate.
So I decided for mega-RAM on my new G4.
I don’t want shoveling into “virtual memory.” I had that on my Messenger IMAC before we added memory.
It came with 1.2 gigabytes of RAM; two additional 512 megabyte chips.
It also came with two operating systems: OS-X and 9.2 — I could fire up either.
9.2 was very similar to the 8.6 we were driving at the Messenger at that time, so I chose 9.2.
I was scared of OS-X at first, but switched to it when my 9.2 started going flaky.
I’ve never looked back.
“Once you’ve driven OS-X,” I tell people; “you’re done! Anything else is a pretender.”
Best of all, over four-five years of use, I’ve never had it crash.
9.2 was doing that all the time.
I’ve had to force-quit applications under OS-X, but never a total reboot.
When I replaced the G3 with the G4, the Mac Shack transferred the entire contents of my old computer onto my new computer as “old computer.”
In other words, Mac Shack did it.
My wife got a so-called “easy transfer cable;” intent being to do the same thing herself.
AHEM! If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 65 years on this planet, it’s nothing is ever easy; nothing is as promised.
So here I am quietly beavering away, while my wife tears her hair out in the other room.
“Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz, 1066 mhz, 3M L2 cache,” my wife said, pointing out her new processor.
“1066?” I said. “That was the year of the Battle of Hastings.”
• My wife of 42 years is “Linda.” She retired as a computer programmer.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• The “Messenger” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired four years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
There it is; my wife’s new laptop from Dell, as promised by FedEx tracking number.
“These things are selling like hotcakes,” the guy said, as I signed for the carton. “I must have 20 on the truck.”
And so begins the tortured wrastling-match whereby my wife tries to replace her old ‘pyooter.
I myself have been driving Apple Macintosh for 12 or 13 years.
Our first computer was a Windows PC, a 386-40; 120 meg hard-drive, eight megs of RAM.
But then I started working at the Messenger newspaper in Canandaigua, and fellow workers touted the superiority of MAC.
What made me switch was the Messenger’s going all Macintosh when it computerized.
I guess it was superior.
The indicator was Photoshop®.
I took a Photoshop course in Rochester, and all the class had was Photoshop on PCs.
They were bog-slow. Hourglass city!
I took other Photoshop courses at Visual Studies Workshop.
They were all Macintosh. —Much faster.
We’d walk into the ‘pyooter-lab, and fire up maybe 12 MACs.
One-by-one they’d all sound the famous Macintosh opening chord.
My first MAC was a beige G3 tabletop.
It lasted about six years, but one day it was deader than a doornail.
I took it to Mac Shack, and they deduced bad motherboard.
I was about to upgrade anyway, so I ordered a twin-processor G4 tower (my current rig), and also a new inkjet photo-printer that would work on USB. (My previous inkjet photo-printer had been flaky anyway.)
Later I got a new platen scanner, an Epson 10000 XL, the largest they made.
It was also USB. My old scanner was SCSI (“Skuh-zee;” small computer system interface), and I still have the card installed. —It was installed as an option; but it’s currently not doing anything.
My requirements for my new computer were dictated by experience at the Messenger.
My ‘pyooter there was a simple IMAC, a hand-me-down from a reporter who had moved on.
But we added memory.
With it I could drive the Messenger’s web-site.
It was probably an ancient processor, but it was adequate.
So I decided for mega-RAM on my new G4.
I don’t want shoveling into “virtual memory.” I had that on my Messenger IMAC before we added memory.
It came with 1.2 gigabytes of RAM; two additional 512 megabyte chips.
It also came with two operating systems: OS-X and 9.2 — I could fire up either.
9.2 was very similar to the 8.6 we were driving at the Messenger at that time, so I chose 9.2.
I was scared of OS-X at first, but switched to it when my 9.2 started going flaky.
I’ve never looked back.
“Once you’ve driven OS-X,” I tell people; “you’re done! Anything else is a pretender.”
Best of all, over four-five years of use, I’ve never had it crash.
9.2 was doing that all the time.
I’ve had to force-quit applications under OS-X, but never a total reboot.
When I replaced the G3 with the G4, the Mac Shack transferred the entire contents of my old computer onto my new computer as “old computer.”
In other words, Mac Shack did it.
My wife got a so-called “easy transfer cable;” intent being to do the same thing herself.
AHEM! If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 65 years on this planet, it’s nothing is ever easy; nothing is as promised.
So here I am quietly beavering away, while my wife tears her hair out in the other room.
“Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz, 1066 mhz, 3M L2 cache,” my wife said, pointing out her new processor.
“1066?” I said. “That was the year of the Battle of Hastings.”
• My wife of 42 years is “Linda.” She retired as a computer programmer.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• The “Messenger” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired four years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
Labels: 'pyooter ruminations
posted by BobbaLew at 1:03 PM
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