Oracledog

So I’ve had this on-again off-again love affair with Apple. I’ll admit that I keep falling for the sleek designs and the promise of an easy, painless and productive user experience. Sadly, the Macs I’ve owned have always let me down on at least one count. Until now. But it’s been a long road…

The first Apple computer I owned was an iBook. I loved the design, I loved the battery life and I loved the comparatively affordable price. This was when Apple still owned the “white acrylic/plastic look” and it was not yet so tired and overused and copied by every company trying to keep up with a me-too-product. Obviously, it came with OS X pre-loaded, which was just up to 10.2. at the time – it even parallel-booted into OS 9 if you wanted or needed it to (which I admittedly didn’t, but being a geek, enjoyed immensely…). It’s downfall, as far as I was concerned, was its performance though. Built around the PowerPC G3 running at 600 MHz, the user experience was anything but snappy. Sure, it was fun and cool, in an elitist and decidedly snobbish kind of way, to watch the dock icons bounce as I launched programs, and infinitely better than any splash screen on a Windows machine, but less would have been more and fewer bounces better.

My biggest gripe with the iBook was that it patently failed at what I needed it to do most: word processing! I had bough a version of Office Mac v. X along with the iBook, and it was slow as molasses. That little trait also sealed its fate when it came time for me to write my thesis at university, somewhere around the summer of 2006. Spending all day typing and then waiting a few seconds for the characters to actually appear on the screen convinced me that I, or rather the cute little iBook, was ill equipped for the job at hand. And so it went to the chopping auction block that is ebay, and a replacement from Acer running Windows took over.

There was a certain amount of overlap, then, with my other Mac, or iMac, to be specific. Again, I was floored by the sleekness of the design, the cleverness of the all-in-one functionality, and the combination of hard- and software. Sadly, I’d also fallen for the RDF, and in two ways. On the one hand I’d ignored my previous experience with said iBook and he performance problems, assuming that the speedy 1.9 GHz G5 CPU in the iMac would be up to the task of letting me input text in real-time.

On the other, I knew that Apple was going to transition to Intel CPUs and that t

his would mean that at some point, the PowerPC plattform would no longer be supported. What I didn

‘t anticipate was that Apple would begin the transition with the iMacs. So just two months after I’d bought my shiny white all-in-one, it’d become more or less obsolete, or at least superseded by the Intel-ized version of the same design. Grrr. Oh, and Word, now in the 2004 flavor, was just as slow. And don’t get me started on Flash and other web related things. (And yes, I know Flash is the bane of all things Mac to this day….).

When I started my job, I decided the iMac would be fine as a work computer, allowing me to literally separate work (iMac) and play (PC). That went well until my PC died due to a PSU flame-out. Next thing I knew, I had only one computer, and it didn’t enjoy doing what I required it to: word processing and web browsing (specifically, my company’s CMS, but that’s another story entirely…). After a few days, I realized this wouldn’t work. The Mac had once again broken my heart, and I found myself ordering parts for a DIY PC running Windows. First XP, then Vista and currently Windows 7, which is finally a version of Windows I can recommend with a clear conscience. But again, that’s another story. At any rate, that Windows box is still with me, having experienced the odd upgrade here and there.

Meanwhile, I’d given the Windows notebook that had replaced my iBook to someone else and had moved on to a netbook. It seemed like a perfect candidate: Small, powerful enough for word processing and browsing, good battery life. Indeed, it kept me quite happy for a while, until I realized that the CMS I mentioned before could easily bring the little Atom-powered portable to its knees.

Then a few weeks ago, Apple updated its MacBook Pros. One of the perks of being a notebook editor is being able to play around with all sorts of notebooks, and I’d already had a chance to test-drive the new unibody MBPs. After the update I decided to give the Mac another chance. One Saturday I went out and got the 13″ MBP with a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo and 4 GB of RAM. It’s the perfect form factor, perfect performance (yes, even when word processing) and outstanding battery life. So far, I love it. Backlit keyboard, bright display, glass trackpad with multi-touch gestures… I could go on, but let’s just say that so far, I’m immensely happy.

Actually, I’ve typed this entire entry on my snappy little MBP 13. The only thing that hasn’t worked yet is installing Windows on it through BootCamp. Something about the drivers freezing up the system. Meh… But either I’ll get it to work later (I AM a geek, after all), use a virtualization software like VMWare or Parallels or simply NOT use Windows. Shocking, I know.

So it looks like the long courtship was actually worth it in the end. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll admit it – I’m a sucker for books. I have been forever. I think it’s safe to say that this is a passion (or a vice) that was passed on to me from my father and his love of language.

My parents used to read me stories. Nothing special there, obviously. However, over time my father and I graduated away from the basic fairy-tales and children’s stories (Peter Rabbit and the like) and ventured into more mischievous terrain. I don’t even know when that happened or what may have inspired it. I do remember  sitting on my parents’ bed, pleading with him to read me “just one more chapter? One more page?” of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. More Roald Dahl soon followed.

When my parents got divorced, my father carried on the tradition of reading to me, although not quite in the same fashion. I’m not sure how much time I spent at his new apartment, but it certainly wasn’t all that much. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wish I’d taken more time. I’m sure he missed my sisters and me immensely. At any rate, he found a way: He read the books aloud and recorded them for me on tape. Anyone who has ever tried recording anything knows how hard that is. You become self-conscious, stumble, go too fast or too slow, have to cough… Anyway, I don’t know if he kept recording over the “bloopers” (he’s certainly enough of a perfectionist…), but I can’t remember there being any mistakes. The one I remember best is “The Twits”, and still hear the persona he gave each character through his voice and the glee over Roald Dahl’s slightly twisted mind.

I consider this something of a weaning – increasingly, I had to read for and to myself. My biggest endeavor was C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. All seven books of which I read as quickly as I could. That would become a pattern ….

After Dahl came a number of adventure books (Robert Louis Stevenson, obviously) and then a shelf full of Star Trek novels. This was back when there were still US Army troops in Berlin and there was still a PX near us. My dad and I had a little weekend ritual: We would drive there in his car, have our passports ready for inspection (and the marine or soldier on duty would make me incredibly nervous, without fail), then, once on the compound, grab a hamburger at Burger King, follow it up with an ice cream from Baskin Robbins (“See, Ben – they really DO have all 31 flavors!”) and then head over to the book store.

My dad is a people person. He has a certain charm, and people remember him. The manager of the bookstore (George?) certainly did, and if I remember correctly, we always got some sort of discount. So anyway, at a rate of one per week I would plow right through the next Trek-novel I could get my hands on. Sure, turn up your nose – but it certainly got me reading.

I’ve had a soft spot for science fiction ever since. Above all, I think Isaac Asimov drew me in the most. I loved his playful, pun-heavy style. I enjoy the way he sets the scene: He gives you a clear picture with the minimum of information, allowing you to create the setting on your own. And, of course, every word and paragraph smacked of his 1950’s style, right down to his stereotypes. (Sexism? Asimov? NEVER!!!) So I plunged headlong into the Foundation series (which is no longer a trilogy), his short and not so short stories (Nightfall, I, Robot and others), as well as some other novels such as his punster masterpiece, Murder at the ABA (which was written as part of a bet, I believe).

Science fiction and humor. That brings us straight to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Another “increasingly misnamed trilogy”. Douglas Adams at his best (although personally, I think it’s okay to quit after the third book. The fifth, Mostly Harmless, may make you wonder why he wrote the other four, so spare yourself the let-down.) Adams was soon followed by a severe bout of Terry Pratchett and the Disc World series.

I think my dad finally realized he had awakened a demon in me when he took me to Australia – and I proceeded to spend most of our trip in our camper reading Stephen King novels - another short but intense flirtation. And by the way: Tommyknockers is awesome! So, yes, I’ve been to Tasmania. And I’ve even actually seen a real live duck-billed platypus in the wild (!) – but if you were to ask me for a description of the place, the best I could do would probably be “a lot like the Grunewald, just further south”. Yeah, I know…. (I imagine my dad was less than thrilled when I almost repeated that performance later, when we went around Ireland with a car… Luckily, at some point, I put the books down and actually SAW the country. And delighted in recognizing the Giant’s Causeway as something from one of the fairytales my father had once read to me.) (Speaking of Ireland: Tony Hawks’ Round Ireland with a Fridge should be required reading for anyone visiting there!)

In the interim, there were of course other books at school. Some I remember, most I don’t. I know I had to read Wuthering Heights for our English Finals – but I have no clue what it’s about anymore. The French Lieutenant’s Woman and A Passage to India I could probably piece together. The books that really impressed me were Animal Farm and 1984, Brave New World, Catch-22 (not an easy read, but so worthwhile!), the Shakespeare we read, and very few others (Heart of Darkness works better for me in cinematic format… Apocalypse Now! captures it quite well and transposes it into a modern setting, in my opinion).

So, yes, I’m a sucker for books. My horizons have broadened a bit over time as far as genre is concerned, now. I very much enjoy Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series (Kisscut, Blindsighted, Indelible… wonderful characters, amazing detail – but rather gruesome descriptions, at times), totally lose myself in anything by Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper ensured that “sleepless in Seattle” took on a meaning of its own for me) and P.S.: I Love You by Cecilia Ahern similarly kept me up for the better part of a night simply because I couldn’t put it down. Literally. Still, I think Science Fiction may remain my favorite. I’ve read the “Mars Trilogy” (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson) at least three times now – all ca. 2300 pages of it. Childhood’s End by Sir Arthur C. Clarke always brings a certain chill to my spine. And, as I said before – anything by Asimov is good in my book.

Thanks, dad!