A week with my mac

I think it's about time for a blog of a dating nature,
This is not that blog,
but I'll try to post one soon.

This blgo was recently move, just because.


Okay, so I've had a week with my mac
(I've owned it for ten days, and I ordered it 15 days age, but I've been with it for about a week)

and what do I think.


Well... I love it.
Actually everyone who sees it loves it too.
it pretty much does every thing.

So I thought I would give you just a brief summary of my experience.
(oh and this might interest some of you: it's not perfect)

So what about the mac.

stats: 17" flat panel LCD, no other machine/ case, 160 GB HD, 1 Gig of Ram, Wi-fi a,b,g,n etc.

Well first there was the shipping. I ordered on a friday, and it showed up on the next wednesday. (points for apple, points for FedEx (not K-Fed)).

Unpacking: I tried to do this as slowly as possible, to represent the average person.
It was hard to go slow.
let's see. Open the box. put the mac on my desk. Plug the power cord into the computer,
and into and outlet. Open my keyboard and mouse (both USB) plug them in.
and turn it on. yeah that was it. I clocked it at about ten minutes. (points for apple)

Then my computer asked me a few questions.
who are you where do you live, etc.
Then it told me it had found about a lot of wireless networks, and it wondered if I wanted to join one. I found one I liked (my neighbor said I could use his) picked it.

My mac asked for the password,
and Voila, I was in. (points for apple, this had not been an easy network to get on)

When my computer started , it decided to check with home base, to see if there was anything new or improved from apple that it should know about. (points for apple)

Actually there were a few things that I needed.
(only a few that I needed, but quite a few that I thought I might want)

It let me pick which ones to get, and then began the download. (I picked about 1/2 a Gig of updates) (small points from apple)

Fortunately my neighbors DSL is wicked fast (points for Qwest)
1/2 an hour later, my computer was ready for what ever I could throw to it. (basically)
Total set up time, about an hour (points for apple, and again, points for Qwest)

After about ten minutes I remembered I had a mac, and that I didn't really need to wait for it,
so I began to use it.

Here are some of the things that I have done with my mac.
--and how hard they were:

• Opened iTunes/ found Greek radio station -- super easy
• Transposed a song for my friend to sing at his wedding (down two steps, but techincally the computer would have moved it up to 12 steps up or down) -- easy enough.
• Watched a DVD (some home made music videos (fullscreen)) while my computer downloaded it's updates -- too easy
• Burned a Cd for my friend -- this changed a bit, so I had to work a bit, but next time -- super easy
• Built NCAA brackets, and did research -- super easy
• Started a game of tic-tac-toe through email -- pretty easy
• Decided whether to activate my free trial of Office™ or to use the free stuff that comes on my Mac, or to install Open Office™ (I picked the last one) -- very easy.
• Watched trailers from any moive that I might ever want to see. -- wow, -- easy ( I recommend The Tiger and the Snow!
• Made two extra simple programs, (widgets) to count down things for me (Adobe is nine days away and NAB is twenty nine now) -- a bit tricky, but not too bad.
  
• Had a free video conference with a friend in China -- pretty easy, as soon as my internet was fixed. (Qwest had to come)
• While video conferencing played live online connect four with friend in China. -- easy to play hard to win.
• Edited Photos from the wedding that I shot last weekend. -- easy enough, but I do like more power.
• Published the photos in an online Gallery-- Rather easy
• Published the photos in online storage so people in California can print extra copies if desired. -- easy enough
• added a link from my blog HERE to the photos I added, just incase you were wondering. -- Super easy.
• Wrote a "program" to randomize photos in any photo, so I can use them in slideshows, regardless of when they were taken, or what they were called. -- relatively easy. It took me about two hours, but I really think anyone (anyone fairly smart) could do it, and people with programing skills could do it faster, and better. (I've never seen the "language" that I wrote the program in, but I have written a few programs before. It's a language that you'd probably understand (thay call it applescript)
• Listened to some classic NPR. (CarTalk and Zorba Pastuer on your health) -- easy actually I set it to download the weekly podcast automatically, but it might be too short to actually take the time to listen to.
• Oh and I guess I watched an episode of Heroes. -- Way easy.
• Sold three or four people on the virtues of a Mac -- way easy ( I just had to show it to them.
• Imported various videos that I shot for editing. imported usually on my lunch break, or while I was sleeping-- small learning curve. but super easy now.
• Found the Book of Mormon as MP3's and then burned it to some disks for my mom. --super easy
• Oh yeah, and I sent job a text message.-- easy
  

Ok I promised there was another side to this story.
I guess that comes here. I did ask one person what they thought about me getting a mac.
They pretty much taught me everything I know. (points to KW)
The one thing they said was I should probably get extra RAM
I decided I didn't want to do that just yet, but I knew they were right.
They were right.

I have managed to stall my Computer once. I had like twenty internet windows open,
I was doing a full system update, and I had two video programs running (one for editing, and one for viewing). And maybe my iPhoto™ photo software was running too.

My computer kinda froze.
I mean the mouse still worked, but I wasn't sure it could here me.
I waited about five minutes and I decided to restart.
Oddly when I restarted I found that the updates I was downloading, had completely installed themselves. Maybe my computer wasn't dead, I guess I could have been more patient,
But I guess Macs aren't perfect, It may even be possible to crash one, but it's hard, or maybe unusual.

But that's my week in a nutshell.
bottom line?
I Love My Mac.
and it love me too.
ttfn
W.