A place I won't be going with lobbyists
Ok, we've been asking for contributions and things have gone well. Which is good, because this is our last drive for the year. Once the week is over, we won't be pestering you again until after the new year.
But Jen and I have come to a decision. A surprising one actually.
No, we won't be adopting any orphans or moving to Kenya
We're going to be MacBook owners. Well, Jen is thinking seriously about it.
I'll let that sink in for a minute.
Time's up.
Now, I do most of my work on a custom AMD desktop, and I've had an AMD laptop as a back up. But I don't use the laptop outisde of my house much because it's heavy. Jen has come to the same conclusion. We'd like to be able to travel with a machine and not feel like we're porting supplies for Sherpas.
My laptop isn't extremely heavy, or uncomfortable, but it's enough of a pain in the ass that I don't take it too many places. Jen, owns a Dell which is like a brick, and works on a ThinkPad. She also has an 11+ year old desktop she's replacing before the holidays.
But we can't take our machines too far without adding a lot of weight, and it's a pain in the ass.
Now, many of you are under the misaprehension that we hate Apple. We don't We hate Apple hype and the mindless cult of Apple. This idea that a Mac is some kind of special machine and Jobs is some kind of special genius is silly. And I still hate those idiotic commercials. I hate Apple marketing with it's smug certainty
But I have held the same position on the i/MacBook for years. It is the best product Apple makes, including the iPod. Why? Because it is light, easy to use and has a nice keyboard, better than a lot of Windows-only laptops. See, and that's the other point, Windows only. MacBooks can now run Windows, so I don't have to replace all my software.
The reason I mention this is two fold, one, I expect to take a bunch of shit for this, which I don't mind and you have a right to know how we use our funding. The simple fact is that I can't afford to be offline and need redundant systems. I mean, after all the debates on Mac, where I attack Apple marketing and Apple fans attack me, it would be achingly dishonest not to mention this.
Which is why I didn't buy a MacBook last time out. It also helps to be able to use Safari and Firefox for Mac when dealing with reader issues. But, compared to windows only boxes, it is surprisingly cheap. Sure, you can get an AMD laptop from CompUSA, but have you picked one of them up? They weigh a ton.
Jen opposed my pro-MacBook arguments for years, hell, until this week. But then her technolust took over.
It's a serious financial decision to get another box, but the functionality increase is such that I think it's a wise decision, and I think Jen would agree. She doesn't take money from the site, but I did promise to help her with the desktop because her's is 11 years old. As old as my nephew, no, a couple of months older and he's a sixth grader.
Did I absolutely, positively need it? Honestly, it isn't a critical purchase, I still have working computers, but I think it will make for a better blog.
As usual:
Stephen Gilliard
217 E86th St
NMB 112
New York, NY 10028
No comments:
Post a Comment