Yup. Between me and the kids, my bike and public transportation, we didn't drive 94 miles this week..... so far.
I also have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself for another reason. This week we crossed over to the darkside computer wise. TOYH's new job has a system of computer/online charting. The system requires Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 6 or later. Microsoft quit updating IE for Macs sometime in 2003 or so. TOYH learned her lesson about having up to date charts on hand a few weeks ago at work when she covered for a nurse who was sick. She only had the paper charts to work with and her client wanted to go over the med list. That was fine, but the paper med charts were not up to date. Long story short, TOYH spent a loooong time trying to figure out what was going on with the meds. She realized then and there she needed to have a computer to do her online charting to keep things current. People Inc will eventually get a computer to her, but it's pretty clear she needs one now. It just so happens that Jon was looking at laptops on eBay and found a local guy who was sells used laptops. For $400 I picked up a used Dell laptop. I brought it home all excited to get it on our network at home. It took a while, but I figured it out. With our other Macs, it has been plug and play to get on our Mac network. I bought my first Mac in 1986, a MacIntosh 512k Enhanced. No hard drive. All the programs were on the 3 1/4 floppies you had to carry around with you. Every Mac I've purchased since then has been pretty simple to work with. I've never had any reason to get a PC. Well it finally happened and I got it to work in our hostile Mac environment.
In other news, EG is out of the hospital in a nursing home for a short stay. Probably just a couple of days. She basically fell behind in her rehab because of the low hemoglobin.
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4 comments:
I can't remember we if we've ever discussed Umberto Eco's Mac=Catholic and PC=Protestant essay before. If you haven't seen it here's a link:
http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html
It's funny stuff.
So what drew you to Mac way back when? They've always been so pricey--especially when you consider add-ons like more memory, bigger hard drives, and even cd or dvd drives. Plus they haven't been able to share as much in all the free-ware fun, or even all the commercial software fun for that matter.
Not trying to start a PC vs. Mac thing. I'm just wondering. My only encounter with Apple is through Quicktime and iTunes.
Oh, come on. OF COURSE you want to start a PC vs. Mac thing, now that WC vs. IAWL is out of season. We need something here to generate a few comments.
So: PCs rule! Even the WBL school district has come to achknowlege this and has been phasing out all its Macs. I'm sure some anonymous voters will chime in to share my view.
Francis, back in '86 Mac's were the bomb. That 512K enhanced was portable. I could stick it in a carrying case and bring it up to mom & dads, plug it in and go. As far as price, sure you can get a cheap Dell laptop, but I think if you were to get comparable speed, memory options, bluetooth etc, the prices stack up pretty well. I agree about the software, there's very little Mac stuff compared to PC, but.....2 questions for you. How's Vista working? and how much did you spend on anti-viral software? I spend zero.
Well, when I was shopping for a new computer in 2005, the PC that had everything I wanted was considerably cheaper than a Mac with similar specs: hard drive space, memory, dvd-rw/cd-rw drives, tv-tuner video card, wireless keyboard and mouse, built-in LAN, various inputs, etc. I admit haven't bothered pricing them out recently, and Apple's pricing might have changed.
I got the computer before Vista hit, and I'm glad for that since there have been some problems. I run XP media center and have not encountered any major issue, but I got it after the bugs and gaps had been fixed in it.
I hear you on the virus protection. I pay $50 a year to Norton for the subscription, but I know there are some good free ones out there. I just want someone to make it right if something drastic happens. I also use Spybot free-ware.
Do you mean to say you have no need for an anti-virus program or that Apple gives you one for free? I thought I heard some virus-spreaders saw Mac as a new interesting challenge.
I remember those old Macs--friends of mine had them in college. And wasn't one a character in Bloom County? FWIW: the first computer I worked on was an Apple II+ compatible made by Franklin. We had to work two floppy drives to make the programs go. Fun. And, I'll add my first PC, which I kept going until 1999, had the big and mini floppy drives and only ran DOS programs. More fun. I couldn't surf the web except email in UNIX and searching/reading in gopher. Mmmmmm... text-only goodness.
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