I got my new laptop Monday, and boy is it a beauty. That’s not usually a word I use to describe technology, but when something’s fast, powerful and as much effort was put into the outside as the inside, what else am I supposed to say? I mean, ever since Apple introduced laptops made out of brushed aluminum ten years ago, I’ve been lusting after one (with no thanks to Dan and his propaganda machine I’m convinced is responsible for this purchase, anyway), but this thing isn’t brushed aluminum–it’s a solid piece of aluminum they laser-cut into shape. No seams, only a few screws. Awesome. Hell, even the LED on the front that shows if the system is on or asleep is behind the aluminum and you can only see it when it’s illuminated. When it’s off, you can’t see where the light would come from. Lots of little things like that. They engineered the hell out of that thing.
It took me a few hours and a few tries to get everything transferred over from my old laptop to my new one, but I should have known better than try to doing it over wireless. Hell, I had 60 GB of data to move, how long exactly did I expect it to take? At least the process itself was rather painless once I got it going properly (over the wired network, incidentally–I forgot I have one of those). Anyone who’s ever tried to use Microsoft’s migration tools knows that A) they don’t work, and B)…well, actually that’s it. I’ve never once successfully gotten it to work properly. Even using the same operating system, for some reasons the versions are incompatible, and since you naturally can’t download it separately you basically have to gamble that once you export everything you’ll be able to import it again on the new system. And of course, that’s files and settings only–applications have to be installed on the new system and don’t get migrated over.
But with Apple’s migration tool, it moved over every file, every program, and every setting I had installed from the old system to the new one. Spectacular. It almost makes me want to buy another one just to try it again and see if it works down the chain. And to further rub it in Microsoft’s face, I was migrating from a computer running an older version of OS X to the latest version of OS X. So while Microsoft’s migration tools are incompatible with each other on the same OS…I moved from OS X 10.4 to 10.5 with ease. I think I’m beginning to see why people dig “the Apple experience” so much.
Of course, I also had to buy accessories that I hadn’t thought about ahead of time. The firewire port on the new laptop is a different connector than the cable I’ve been using with my external hard drive, so I had to buy a new cable. I had to buy a new laptop case to put in my bag, and if I decide to use the monitor I already have, I have to buy a new connector. Booo. I knew that would have to be purchased, but I’m still undecided as to whether to use the LCD that’s on the laptop or continue to use my monitor. The LCD is 15.4″ and is probably about as good of quality as I’m going to get. That’s a pro. Saving some energy is another pro. The external monitor is 22″ and fairly significantly bigger, but the quality isn’t anywhere near as good as the built-in screen. Eh, I guess I’ll just use my system for awhile and decide on that merit. So far, so good.
It’s definitely bigger than my last laptop–which was the intended purpose, mind you–and it’s not nearly as portable. It’s pretty much a desk machine that be taken somewhere when required, but I wouldn’t want to travel with it. That brought up an interesting conundrum, since I’d love to take a laptop with me to England next month, but I’m leary of taking my new laptop with me. So, after some hemming and hawing and a few rounds of buyer’s remorse (that I tend to get before my purchase, if that makes sense) I decided to just go ahead with it and I bought a Dell netbook. It only has a 9″ screen and has limited storage, but from a portability standpoint it’s unbeatable. Well, except for the MacBook Air, but I’m on a budget here, and I’m already waaaaay over it. I needed something inexpensive and small, not just thin and light.
But it’s light, it’s small, and best of all it’s one of the models that with a bit of wrangling I can install OS X on to run what’s called a “Hackintosh”–a computer with OS X but wasn’t made by Apple. It comes with Windows out of the box, but I plan on pretty much just getting rid of that right off the bat. If I have trouble I can always install Ubuntu Linux, but I plan on spending the next couple of weeks getting it set up so that I have a machine to accompany me to England. So why am I so hell-bent on having a laptop with me? My desire to check my email isn’t so great that I couldn’t go without it for two weeks, but in truth I’d like to be able to writer down some of my experiences. Hanne tells me that public wifi is pretty rare acorss the pond, but I can always write and save it to my hard drive. Plus, in a pinch I can transfer pictures from my digital camera and clear off the memory card if I”m snapping too many photos.
My netbook purchase must have finally raised a flag with my credit card provider, too, since my purchase got flagged and required me to call in to verify that yes, I had actually made three laptop purchases in the last week and a half. No sweat.
Aside from the toys I have and that are on the way, things are going well. Hanne’s still really busy studying for the Bar, and the other day she said it was time to stop fooling around and really get down to it. Wait…she wants to work harder? She’s been going to class in the mornings, then off to work in the afternoons, then home and studying until dinner, then studying after dinner, and then maybe she wants to watch some TV or a movie at 8:30 or 9. And that, in her mind, is not working hard enough. Yikes. But on the othe rhand, it’s given me a lot of time to myself and given me lots of opportunities to cook for her, which I always enjoy doing. She’s really dedicated to the whole process, though.
The other day I noticed a hole in my khakis caused by where my wallet sits, so I bought a new pair at the Nordstrom Rack in my building. They were snug, but not ill-fitting (in truth they were the same size and brand of the pair I was retiring), so I wore them for the rest of the day and the next day. I got home from work on Tuesday, set the mail down on the table, and rrrrrrrrrip. I had my headphones on and I was listening to my iPhone at the time so I more felt it than heard it, but that sound was the ass of my new khakis tearing down the middle. Now, I’m not the skinniest guy in the world (and I’ve gained weight in the last year or so), but neither am I such a fatass that I’m causing clothes to tear from my bulk. I’m so glad that they didn’t tear while I was at work or on the bus, but then again, maybe the tear had started and I just didn’t notice before then. There’s a scary thought, that I was walking around with a huge tear in the ass of my khakis.
Then again, I’m retiring a pair of khakis precisely because they have a tear on the ass…but it’s not as noticeable as a split down the middle seam. Needless to say, I exchanged them for a new pair that seem to have held up today, but if anyone saw me walking around they might have wondered why I kept feeling my butt. I’m weird, but not that weird.
