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Friday, September 29, 2006
By Janie Blank
I was a consultant for much of my career, at least the part when computers were used. We will not go there as to how we dinosaurs actually functioned prior to this! I consider myself to be only somewhat technical although I was in a technical field. I left all the computer code to someone else but I actually prided myself on being able to learn a program, usually on my own without formal instruction. This might sound easier than it actually was if you go back to Lotus 123 and Word Perfect. I think the software programs today are incredibly more user friendly. But again, we are talking dinosaurs and pre-Windows here.
Over time I went through a number of generations of computers, the last being a Windows 2000 operating system, although we do use XP on our laptop. My system had issues and it was to the point where I was going to have to get something new quite soon. I had already upgraded it as far as it could go. It was so slow I just could barely function. However since I retired it was no longer going to be used for business. I still was not thinking Mac. I had a nice 19 inch flat screen I was quite satisfied with as well.
One thing happened that changed everything though. We moved! The new house had room for my husbands PC and office but none for me. I was used to having my own PC and my own space. Granted I was no longer working but still I felt there were things I would be doing that warranted my own computer. How could I share with my husband? He is a computer geek so he would always be using it when I needed to check mail.
The logical place seemed to be the bar in the kitchen. There is a cable outlet there, the space is clean and big and it has a great window. I always thought it would be fun to pull up a recipe and just look at the computer screen for ingredients. I even have a cool pantry that can be divided so the lower half has a space for a little rolling file cabinet from the Container Store and all my supplies. Gee, things seemed to be looking up.
However, if I went to a PC what to do with the big bulky tower? My husband suggested we look at a Mac! A Mac, I questioned? Aren’t we a little too old to learn new tricks I wondered? We decided to go to the Apple Store and ask some questions and see what they had to say. We know a number of Mac users and all are just fanatic in their love for their systems. But still, they had been with Apple since the dawn of computers. We were confirmed PC users and frowned on their enthusiasm.
The Apple Store was nice. Very young and perky kids wait on you and they seem to be quite knowledgeable. I immediately took a dislike to the big white model that has the drive and the screen all in one. The bottom is several inches of white and I thought it would just not go with my stainless steel appliance look. Okay, I am sorry if you are offended but my kitchen is open to my dining and living area so looks are part of the package.
The other option was the Mac mini. It is about the size of a big Mac container at a McDonalds drive-through. Well, maybe I am exaggerating just slightly but it is miniature, especially when you think of a PC. Maybe 6x6x2 inch square. This seemed like the answer. They did point out it is a little slower than you can get the all in one model, but realistically speaking, compared to what I had it was light years faster. I mean how fast do I really need to look at that recipe?
My husband decided we could get a Sony LCD and along with our cable system use the screen for both computer and TV. Wow! Now you are talking! I can flip from computer screen to Fox News with a flick of the remote! If I could learn old DOS software I could surely convert to this Mac mini. I mean, has not everyone always said Apple is SO much easier? Lets go for it I said! We got it loaded and upgraded to the fastest Mac mini they had. It has a DVD burner and it came with lots of nice software like iLife and Microsoft Office. This will be a breeze!
Maybe I am naive but I surely did not expect the learning curve it came with. I was not even familiar with being able to drag things to and from the desktop! My AOL looked totally different and is not even close to being as robust as it is on a PC. One thing I do incessantly is take digital pictures and email them and my recipients were not even be able to open them! I was a prolific right clicker on my mouse and I had NO idea that you had to do a control right click on the Apple. I was freaked out for a week over that one! We ended up buying a regular mouse but it would freeze up and eventually I just started to automatically do a control right click and I think nothing of it now.
I finally broke down and bought a book to help me with iPhoto and that helped a lot. It gave me some tips and I started to get the hang of it. My niece uses an Apple and she came home from school and showed me a few tricks. Another friend was visiting and he set up a few things for me and I began to make some progress. But then we went to Mexico for the winter and I used a PC laptop and got completely out of the habit.
When we got home I settled down in earnest and started to like a lot of things I was learning on the Mac. My niece was getting married in the summer and asked me if I would do her slideshow since I had the iDVD software and burner. This motivated me to make an appointment with an Apple Genius at the Apple Store that was free since I had Apple Care. He was a big help and I bought the iMovie and iDVD book as well. I had a few problems but called Apple Care and they walked me through loads of issues and I not only learned a lot about iDVD but also about the Mac itself.
I became best friends with several Apple Care technicians because of a problem I had burning the iDVD slideshow for the wedding. On my Mac it was a sight to behold but when I burned the DVD it would not play on any other machine but the one it was created on. I spent countless hours and each new tech had a new brilliant theory that sounded good to me. In the end I only managed a ten minute slideshow that others thought was great but did not come up to my standards.
I still have the problem with my DVD burner and I have a problem with backing up my pictures so I need to find the time to work with another Apple Care expert but right now you could not get me to even think of going back to a PC! It is hard to describe the little things that make the Mac more fun to use. And of course the fact that I have this little tiny box hidden behind my screen on the counter that is both a computer and TV instead of clunky PC says it all. Whenever I must use my husbands PC now I find the commands cumbersome. But we will be traveling out of the country for four of the next six months and using a PC so I guess I am just going to have to be satisfied that I am multi-computer lingual if not multi-language lingual!
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