Anyone else notice the idiotic Mac v. PC flame wars going on again? I don’t want to add to it–in fact, I didn’t even want to pay notice to it at all. But people are dumb and I’m tired of them being so.

Disclaimer: I’m a Mac user. But I’m sure you knew that.

I must say though, Windows 7 is looking mighty nice. I’m excited to play with the next release candidate. But will it make me switch back to a Windows PC? Probably not. I’ve chosen my plight in life and I’m much more content now, using OS X on my MacBook Pro, than I ever was using a PC.

Windows Desktop with BlackBox circa 2003

In high school and first three years of college I was a total PC guy. I built computers quite often, went down the computer fair in Pomona, CA, overclocked… all of it. Even dual booted Linux a few times, trying to get used to Slackware and Dropline. I did a lot of open source, used various shells (I loved blackbox for a while), blah blah blah. I was a PC nerd.

But I always liked Macs. Junior year of high school was my first significant introduction with the platform. I had a video editing internship at the local megachurch and we used a Media-100 editing rig with a PowerMac. At school, in computer graphics class, we had the first and second series of iMacs to do editing, photoshopping, etc. on. And I loved them. In fact, the more I used those Macs, the more I liked them. Especially after OS X released.

When I worked at a camp we did our video editing on a PowerMac as well, in Final Cut Pro 2 (horrible software!). So I used the tool fit for the jobs. I built my desktop PCs, but after working at our college’s IT Helpdesk on so many Dell laptops I quickly decided that I wouldn’t by a name-brand Windows-based laptop. Too many problems with them. But I’ve had minimal problems with my Macs.

So the point: Stop Hating! It’s a computer. Just because someone has a different preference than you doesn’t make it bad. Macs are not inherently better than PCs or vice versa. Macs are better for me and the way I use a computer in the same way the Windows PCs are better for some programmers. Design-wise, Apples locked that objectively. But if you don’t care about design or UI, it doesn’t matter.

This isn’t 1997. The flame wars are done. No matter how much Microsoft or Apple are trying to make you believe they aren’t, the simple fact is that it doesn’t matter. You buy and use what you buy and use, and you are not obligated to justify it.

So, with all of the updates Apple pushed out today to their products, the 15″ MacBook Pro also got itself a bit of a boost in the processor department. It now has the same speed as the 17″ MBP. I called them up to see about getting the upgrade. I’m within the 14-day return period.

I was hoping I might be able to drive out to the Apple Store in St Louis and return it. But because I have a “custom configured” (read: a remote and iWork added – nothing done to the computer’s configuration itself) model, the rep said I’d have to RMA it and ship it back, probably with a 10% restocking fee.

Since I can’t wait two weeks to get a replacement with all of the projects I’m working on, she offered me a $50 price protection credit. So that’s cool. I’m getting $50 back for keeping a computer I am already very happy with. I am a little bit bummed, because I was waiting for that first hardware refresh and missed it by two weeks – and didn’t get my MBP until 8 days after the order.

But! The $50 goes a long way to un-bumming me. And my MBP is great anyway.

It came. It’s set up. Files transferred. Amazing battery life. Beautiful design. I’m very happy.

We also upgraded our TV to a 32″ Vizio Java. It’s nice. We are happy.

In Transit

I just hope it gets here a little bit sooner than Monday. Saturday would be ideal. Then i could actually do some work.

Well, after three years or so, my PowerBook G4 has finally lost its sound card.

I’m not sure how it happened. I ran a RAM scan for like, three or four hours because this computer crawls anyway. I had replaced the 256mb stick that was in here with a 1GB stick bringing my total RAM to 1.25GB. And since then there really hasn’t been much of a change in speed.

When I rebooted after the RAM scan (which turned out fine, btw) this is what my menu bar looked like:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Notice the missing speaker icon. I’m pretty sure that means OS X failed to initiate the hardware. So… another reason why I need a new Mac. And another piece to motivate me. I might try putting Tiger back on and see if a fresh OS install fixes it (not sure why it would… this isn’t Windows).

But in the meantime, I am saving my pennies and waiting for the MacBook Pro refresh that has been floating around the rumorsphere for so long…

I was going to wait till I had some definite numbers on this, but seeing as my work internet connection is ensuring that this will not be done by quitting time, we’ll post now.

So OS X 10.5.3 was release today after months of developer seeds. Jess and I arrived home with our tasty burgers and mistys from DQ to find Jon D proclaiming via Twitter that 10.5.3 was released. I ran upstairs and started the upgrade on my PowerBook G4. With our DSL connection it took ~12 minutes to download the package (given, it was 190 mb for the PB). As I was leaving home OS X was patching files. And that’s when I thought about it…

If I had gone to Apple Support and downloaded the entire package, put it on my USB thumb drive I wouldn’t have to download it at work.

Stupid me. I get to work and start the download. First off, it’s a 420 mb download for my Mac Pro at work. Secondly, it’s going to take 3 hours. It’s 2:15 as I write this sentence and the downloader is in the 66mb range and still reading 3 hours to download. In 3 hours I will be home enjoying my .5.3 install on trusty old Shiny (the name I bestowed on my PBG4 back in the day) and this stupid Mac Pro will be still downloading.

Okay, so *funny* part. We have three T1s at school, 95% of the students are home, and the rest of us are working… not downloading. And I still max out at 35kbps downloads normally. That’s ridiculous as I have a 3mbps downlink from AT&T DSL.

Anyway, here’s the comparison:

Home (DSL): 190mb = ~12 minutes = 15mb/min

Work (T1 x 3): 420mb = ~180 minutes = 2.3mb/min

Doc J posted this on his blog and I thought it was pretty cool:

My Powerbook G4 is just getting old and slow. I realized this morning that I haven’t even owned it for three years yet. I mean, it’s fine for certain things like browsing the web, email, chat, music, watching videos and stuff… but CS3 is rough on it, even with just one app open. And a lot of times I need to run Photoshop and Dreamweaver at the same time. Photoshop itself takes about three minutes to start up (mainly due to my large font collection and all the brush sets I have).

Anyway. I am definitely holding off until the inevitable refresh (maybe around WWDC?). I need some time to save some money anyway. We just bought Jessica’s last September. So. Yeah. Maybe I should put a donate button on the bottom of this site. Hm. Nah.