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Posts Tagged ‘computer’

Adventures With Computers

Friday, August 20th, 2010

I really wish I didn’t have this topic to blog about. Unfortunately, my iMac had a major meltdown this week. It didn’t seem like a big deal, not at first, but it sure ended up being an ordeal. As I’m typing this, I’m erasing my hard drive.

Yes, all my programs, all my files, everything is being wiped out. When the erasing is finished, I’ll reload my operating system and keep my fingers crossed that everything works when I’m done. This is my last hurrah, my final stand before I’ll be forced to bring it in to someone to fix for me. I’ve tried every other suggestion I could find for the problem the computer developed, but when none of them fixed the issue, I had to resort to drastic measures.

The irony is that I bought my iMac desktop because I wanted a computer that just worked. I was tired of the hassle I had with my desktop PC, and when I was shopping, Vista was the operating system available. I didn’t want that.

Right now, Vista is looking better.

Wiping the hard drive is a pain, but it’s not as horrible as it could be because I have an automatic backup service and plan to reinstall all my files from there. There are only a couple of programs that I downloaded online that I want to keep, so that shouldn’t be too much of a hassle either. If this desperate measure works…

Okay, erasing the drive and reinstalling worked! And it is a PITA to reload my programs, especially since I don’t remember the names of a couple of the utilities I really liked. I’ll worry about that later. Right now, Carbonite is restoring all my files. I’m feeling especially grateful that I paid for off-site backup.

Tags: adventures, computer
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Fighting the Dragon Part 2

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Previously, I posted about Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) refusing to learn the F word no matter how many times I trained it. It was a frustrating experience that solidified my belief that this wouldn’t be a good tool for writing actual books. There are other reasons, too, of course, but this kind of put the idea to rest permanently. I did think, though, that this would be a great tool for transcribing my writing notes since I don’t swear in those.

I was wrong.

I have one full notebook and I’ve started another. I probably have notes on five or six ideas all mixed together. Some are ideas I plan to work on soon, some are for proposals I’ve finished, but haven’t sold yet, and some are for ideas that I won’t be looking at in the near future. This actually works for me, especially when I Post-it flagged each story in different colors so I can flip right to it.

But I thought it would be awesome to transcribe them and add the information to Liquid Story Binder, writing software that I use/like. I figured I’d open multiple Word windows, and flip between them as I hit notes for different stories. Simple and much quicker than typing it myself. Or so I believed. At first.

Things got off on the wrong foot right from the start. I opened DNS and it told me I didn’t have privileges for the user “Patti.” Um, there is no other user on this laptop and I’m set up as the Admin, why can’t I use the original training I did?

I ended up needing to create a new user ID. It refused to accept “Patti” because there was already a profile with that name. This also meant that I had to redo training again (basically reading an excerpt from a book into the system.) It’s not hard, but it is time consuming. ::banging head against the wall::

Then my frustration reached new limits. DNS did not recognize my heroes’ names. It didn’t matter how many times I attempted to train the program. Tane = tame or Taine. Mick = Nick (always) and Royce = Roy’s. Sigh.

And then it got worse. Heroine. It’s a word I use a lot in my notes. DNS refused to type this. I tried everything, but it still insisted that on heroin. What? Do users really need to reference an illegal drug more than they would a character? Really?

I finally went into the program’s dictionary and deleted the word heroin. There was no other way to get DNS to stop using it.

I didn’t make it too much farther than this. The name issue continued to be a huge problem to the point that I was dropping the F bomb (and Dragon would type folk, which frustrated me even more!).

When I realized it would be faster for me to type in my notes rather than speak them into DNS, I surrendered. I’ve heard that there are writers who like this damn program, but I don’t know why. I heard them say it’s easy to train Dragon, and that once through that process, it’s smooth. My experience has been different. As far as I’ve seen, DNS is unable to be trained to get any word even slightly out of the ordinary correct.

I fought the Dragon and it won. Again.

Addition: I commented on Twitter about how frustrated this program has left me and someone from Dragon replied. I sent an email with my issues to the rep. I haven’t heard back yet, but I’m hoping she can help me get this program to play nice.

Tags: computer, software
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Windows 7 and Word 2010

Friday, June 18th, 2010

It’s a good thing yesterday wasn’t a blogging day or y’all would have been subjected to another rant about authors who can’t handle the simplest computer thing. Come on, people, you’d expect your surgeon to keep up with the tools of his trade and not use a scalpel if he could perform a laser surgery instead, right? So why don’t you learn to use the tools that go with your job? Um, stopping here because this is becoming a rant already. Since I don’t want to do this, I will review the elements on my computer that pertain to writing either directly or indirectly.

Windows 7 Operating System (OS): Awesome! Yes, authors, it is different than XP, but give it a chance. Buying a new computer and loading XP because you’re afraid of Win7 is not a good idea. Either roll with the technology wave or the ocean will move past you and you’ll be left alone in the desert. Win7 is much easier to use than XP. Really. It’s also more intuitive. IMO, it’s the best Windows OS yet and I’ve used most of them.

I could understand loading XP to avoid Vista, but not Win7. BTW, while I’m not a Vista fan, I never had any problems with it and I just turned off the things that annoyed me. But then I’m a power user and not afraid of getting into areas that novice users and technophobe authors should avoid.

So what is awesome about Win7 aside from how it looks? (And it is pretty.) I love that I can pin the files I use all the time to the program. That means all I have to do is right click the program pinned to my bottom bar and the files I’ve chosen to pin are there. (Pinning a file is as easy as clicking your mouse. Not at all difficult to do.) I frequently have WordPerfect files for projects I’m not actively working on at the moment, but that having quick access to would be nice and now I do. I just pin them. No more clicking down list levels to find the story I began six months ago and dropped to work on something else.

I also love how easy it is to add a folder. I am a folder whore because I don’t want to scan through fifty million files to find the one I want. It’s also more organized to have folders. For example: Writing–>WordPerfect–>Light Warriors–>Darkest Night–>Synopsis All my synopsis attempts are in this folder and I can instantly find any version I want because they’re all together. Windows 7 offers the “Create Folder” option right at the top of Windows Explorer. This is fab.

What I don’t love about Win7? I absolutely loathe the thumbnail feature. With this feature, if you put your cursor over an open program on the bottom bar, it will show you a thumbnail of all the open files in this program. I hate this with the fire of a thousand suns. It’s solely related to how I use my computer. I don’t want to see the cursor when I’m working in a program, so I’ve always dragged it down to the bottom bar to keep it off whatever I was looking at. When I do it now, those stupid thumbnails show up.

I never, ever want to see the thumbnail and there’s no way to turn this off. I checked. I did, however, go into my registry (Novice users do not do this.) and adjust it to take about 10 minutes to trigger. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. I wish Microsoft would give me a way to turn this off. It’s annoying that they don’t.

This is a minor annoyance in an otherwise good OS. If you’re getting a new computer, get Win7 and do not load XP instead. Once you get used to it, you’ll love it.

Word 2010: Yes, I upgraded because I had an offer through work. I have the entire Office suite, but I haven’t used any program extensively except Word since I put it on, so can’t really review them, but of all the Words I’ve been forced to work in, 2010 is about the best. Again, 2007 and 2010 are different than 2003 and earlier, but once I got used to it, I liked it.

Visually, 2007 is more appealing to me than 2010. I also find Outlook 2010 even more frustrating than Outlook 2007, and I wasn’t fond of Outlook 2007, but this is about Word, not my email troubles.

What do I like so much about Word 2010? It’s much, much, much easier to convert my WordPerfect files before I submit my projects than in any other version of Word. Yes, it’s all about me. WordPerfect is still far superior to any version of Word, but unfortunately most of the world is locked into Microsoft Office and so I’m forced to use it, too. Before someone suggests it’s only the fact that I’m unfamiliar with Word that makes me dislike it so, let me mention that I routinely work in Office at my day job, and not only have I had classes for Word, I work in it all the time. The only thing Word does better than WordPerfect is labels. Truly.

But I digress. Again. Word 2007 and 2010 are so different from the previous versions that sometimes it’s not easy for me to find the way to do the things I’d like to do, but the help function is actually, believe it or not, helpful! I know! It shocked me, too. But it’s extremely easy to learn how to do something and I made liberal use of it yesterday when I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

It’s kind of a pain to click around to the different tabs on the ribbon, but I’m used to tabbed internet browsing, so even though I get frustrated when I’m on the wrong tab for what I want to do, I can deal with it. Yesterday, I needed to convert a WordPerfect file into Word and it did it. Without messing up my formatting! This was awesome. Now if Microsoft would just give me the option of creating my own cover page, it would have been even better. I could only find templates to drop in and Create Your Own wasn’t one of them. If there is a way to do this, please let me know.

Anyway, I can recommend 2010 for an upgrade. I like it better than 2007, which was better than all the previous versions of Word IMO.

I’ve already geeked out about how much I love OneNote, but I haven’t had a chance to play with this yet in 2010 (I just upgraded 2 weeks ago). It’s supposed to have some cool new features, so as I research my next project, I’m going to explore it more fully.

To sum up: Microsoft is making some real progress in its core programs and the latest in OS and Word are big steps forward. This is all my opinion, and believe me, I’m not a huge Microsoft fan, so I’m not shilling for them. Besides, clinging to old systems (Word 2000? Really? That was like the worst version I’ve used) isn’t helpful. Not upgrading because of cost is one thing, but to buy a new computer and load old, old software on it because you’re afraid of new stuff…. Well, this is why I get so frustrated with some authors. Technology is changing. If you don’t keep up with it, you’ll be left behind. End of mini-rant.

Tags: computer
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Watch It Online?

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I downloaded a preview for a PBS series called Carrier. There’d been other shows on aircraft carriers that I’d seen, but those were an hour long and this one is ten hours and follows members of the crew from the moment they’re deployed until they come home. The preview was fascinating and I knew I wanted to watch the series. It looks like a good resource for someone who writes military heroes and/or heroines or paramilitary characters.

Unfortunately, the preview had come out in April and a search of the PBS website said that it wasn’t going to be replayed in my area within the 2 week search parameter. Maybe they’ll replay it later, but I couldn’t bet on that. PBS did have all the episodes available on their website. Great, I thought, I’ll download them to my iPod and watch when I have a few minutes here or there.

As it turned out that wasn’t going to work. The episodes are not downloadable and I wanted to watch them I’d have to sit at my computer. The other alternative was to buy the series and I figured I’d just do that sometime and watch it at my leisure–although I’ll confess that I wasn’t real keen on spending the money for that.

Then it dawned on me. Netflix! I don’t know why I was so slow to think about it. Maybe because I’ve had my last movie on top of the entertainment center since like, well, July. Sure enough Netflix had it available, but I could also watch the episodes on my computer from their website.

Okay, is it just me? I don’t want to watch television or movies online. For one thing, I’m usually on my computer doing something while I have the TV on. If I’m writing, I’m watching something with the sound muted and if I’m not writing, I’m probably researching online as I watch or catching up on notes or searching for a picture of one of my characters. I’m multitasking which I can’t really do online if I’m also streaming a movie or show.

For another, even if by some odd chance I’m not using the computer for something else, I don’t want to watch online because–frankly–I spend enough time staring at the screen and if I actually have turned off life support (AKA my laptop), I don’t want to turn it back on again. I’m on the computer all day at the Evil Day Job and I’m on the laptop when I get home to write. If I’m taking a break from it, there’s usually a reason.

I’m beginning to feel alone, though. I know there are a lot of people who don’t mind staring at the screen for an extra couple of hours. It’s not as if my screens are small either–my desktop has a 24″ monitor and my laptop is a 15.4″ wide screen–I just don’t want to do it.

And to be totally weird, I have no problems watching shows on my iPod and it’s got an itty bitty screen. I think the difference is that the iPod makes me mobile. I can watch while I’m in line for license tabs or while I’m waiting to see the dentist. The iPod is about convenience, but watching on the computer just feels onerous to me. Am I the only one who’s resisting the online streaming thing?

Tags: computer, ipod, TV
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Adventures in iPhoto

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

My original plan for the blog was to do a slide show of my flower pictures. I have a bunch of shots that I’ve taken in the last few days and some of them turned out really cool. I ran into a small problem, though. I wanted to do it quick and easy on my iMac without having to login to my Windows virtual machine to access the software I normally use. It’s kind of a pain and iPhoto should do everything, right?

Well, maybe if I knew what the heck I was doing. I imported the pictures off the camera okay, but trying to save them was a nightmare. I finally managed to save a picture. That would be singular. One photo. And tried to figure out how to save the others. Somehow instead of getting my pictures in the folder, I imported chat icons. How? I have no clue, but they’re there and I can’t get rid of them. Or at least I gave up trying to get rid of them and returned to moving photos to the folder. It can’t be hard, right? This is a Mac!

My woes continued. Because I accidentally somehow imported the chat icons, my flower pictures were gone because they had been under the Last Imported section. Now the icons were there. I finally managed to locate the edited pictures under the imported in the last year area. Sigh. I went with the drag and drop philosophy and managed to get all my pictures in the folder at last.

Now I thought, let’s resize them all to 400 pixels wide so that they don’t get so big that it’s impossible for people to watch the show. Um, I couldn’t figure out how to resize them at all. I finally clicked on crop and tried the custom feature, but putting 400 in the box made the picture bigger, not smaller, and to make things even better, it doesn’t automatically put in the height for me. What? I just know I want it 400 wide, the program needs to tell me what size the height should be to maintain the proper aspect ratio. Grrr.

I decided to try to create a slide show anyway–for me if no one else. I thought I’d do it in iMovie. I know, but in Windows Movie Maker, it lets me add still photos as well as movie clips and I figured the Mac would let me do the same thing. I want to be able to do that, dang it, because in my spare time (if I ever have any again in my life), I want to play with making book videos for my old books. I had them professionally done for my last three titles and they’re cool! But I can’t justify spending money on the old books. Now, of course, that plan is shot because it appears iMovie will only work with movie clips. If I’m wrong, please tell me where to find out how to add stills.

So I return to iPhoto. Yes, I can make slide shows there. I try to select my pictures as mentioned in the help directions and it doesn’t work. Yep, my photos won’t stay highlighted.

At this point, I gave up and logged into the Windows side of my Mac and did all the cropping and then uploaded the shots to Webshots. I looked at the time, thought about how tired I feel right now and how much other stuff I have left to do yet tonight and thought, the hell with it. I’ll shoot for the next blog posting.

What I wanted to do tonight was research an idea I have for the story that’s in pre-book. Every day the story gels more and more in my mind, but I need to learn a little bit more about one aspect that came to me so I can decide whether or not it’s going to pan out. Didn’t get to that. I also really want to find a picture of my heroine. She’s proving elusive. Thank goodness, Kel is Logan’s identical twin and I can just use the pictures of Logan that I had for the last book, but I’ve already spent two nights looking for his heroine and have come up empty.

Maybe tomorrow.

Tags: adventures, computer, garden, pictures, prebook
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My Day

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Sorry, I meant to post yesterday, but I ran out of time. You see, Wednesday was my day and I was busy enjoying it. And of course, informing people that it was my day.

Okay, you’re thinking, she’s delusional. Maybe she got confused. Nope, Yesterday bright and early my phone rang. It was Doug Steenland, the big kahuna at NWA–my Evil Day Job (EDJ). Doug had a recorded message to let me know it was my day. When I hung up the phone and saw all the guys had hung up from their talk with Doug, I informed them that it was my day and we went from there.

Since I said they could all go home with pay, they were more than happy to agree that it was my day. None of them left, though, because they wanted to stay at the EDJ and celebrate my day with me.

My day was a good one, BTW. I actually managed to be clever a couple of times in conversation and made people laugh. We were given profit sharing checks because NWA made money last year. I didn’t get a whole lot, but I can’t complain because it’s “free” money. Even traffic largely cooperated and I wasn’t too stressed or frazzled on the drive in to the EDJ.

The only way my day could have been better was if the coworker from hell had been off. Unfortunately, he wasn’t, but his stops over in my area were the only blights on my day.

When I arrived home, my new ergonomic keyboard that I’d ordered to use on the Mac was on my porch and a little later UPS brought my wireless laser mouse and my USB hub, further improving my day. I hooked them all up to the iMac with relative ease. I say relative because I have this bad habit of putting batteries in backward. I know I do this and I even pay careful attention whenever I put batteries in anything, but I still always manage to screw up. And when my laser mouse didn’t work, I opened the compartment, and sure enough, I’d done it again. Sigh.

I discovered one problem I’m having with the Mac. I downloaded Neo Office yesterday with the intention of writing on my new computer now that I have the ergonomic keyboard, but I couldn’t find any pull-down menus to set my preferences. Then I downloaded Firefox and couldn’t find any pull-down menus there either! So I need to learn where those features are located on the iMac programs so that I can set my preferences and defaults. I did find a series of tutorials on the Apple website for people making the switch from PC to Mac, but I didn’t have an opportunity to through them all.

Anyway, overall, my day was wonderful and I want another day like that today. We’ll see how it goes.

Tags: computer, life
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Adventures in Computer Delivery

Monday, March 17th, 2008

My new iMac computer arrived and it’s beautiful! It’s also a joy to use and I fell in love with it in less than 24 hours. Now I want a Mac laptop, too!

Of course, I have a story about the delivery of the new computer.

When I ordered the computer, I asked my parents if I could have it delivered to them at their house. I’m at the Evil Day Job (EDJ) Monday through Friday and I was sure the delivery would be during the week. And sure enough, the original estimated arrival date was Tuesday, March 18.

Saturday morning, as I’m drinking coffee, I decide to check the tracking number to see where the computer is now and see that it’s on the Fed Ex truck, scheduled for a Saturday delivery! =8-O

I hurry up and call my dad since I don’t have a clue when Fed Ex is going to arrive and it was already after 9am. This is where I got my first hint that things weren’t going to go as discussed. His reply was he wanted to go to the grocery store. I was like, okay, but could you leave Mom home–just in case? And that’s what he did.

It never occurred to me that this would become an ongoing issue for the day. I’d assumed–incorrectly it seems–that they would still take delivery of the computer for me even if it was Saturday because I needed to write, and in my mind, that’s every bit as much of a commitment as the EDJ. I assumed wrong.

The first call from my parents came at noon. Could my dad have the tracking number? He’s going to call and find out where it’s at. I said, well, yeah, but– Hello? Hello? He’d gone to get a piece of paper to write down the number. When he finally got back on the phone, I read him what it said at the Fed Ex site: 8:05 on truck for delivery. He conceded that Fed Ex wasn’t going to know exactly where the truck was and when it could be expected to make delivery.

There were more calls to tell me that the computer had yet to arrive. At 1:30 it’s my mom on the line suggesting they just leave a note on the door for the Fed Ex guy to drive over to my house instead. Yeah, right, like he’s going to do that with a computer.

I conceded that no writing would be accomplished and that I was going to have to drive over to my parents’ house. I told my mom that I’d be there as soon as I took a shower. Yes, it’s true, I was still in my pajamas while I was trying to write.

I was just getting ready to leave my house when the phone rang again. The computer was there. Yea! I drove over and got it and brought it home.

Why were my parents so hot to leave the house? Did they have lunch plans with friends? Did they have matinee tickets at the theater?

Nope, they wanted to go to the natural store and eat free samples.

I kid you not. This was far more important than my writing and it would be obvious to anyone else, right?

I love my parents dearly, but they can make me insane. I guess it’s mutual. I can’t help but wonder, though, what they would have done if this was during the week and I was at the EDJ? It wasn’t as if I didn’t consult with them on the delivery thing before I even placed an order for the computer and it wasn’t as if they didn’t know it could come on a Saturday. I told them the delivery range and there were no protests like Saturday is free sample day.

Anyway, the computer is home and set up without any need to consult instructions. I turned it on and it recognized my other computers on the network without my having to do a thing! (Keep in mind that after three or four days of work, I still can’t get my two Windows XP computers to access each other! I can get on the desktop and access the laptop, but not the other way around.) Um, come to think of it, the Mac only reads the laptop, too, so clearly the issue is the PC desktop.

I didn’t get to use the Mac too much. I have to move the old desktop out of the prime spot, put the Mac in that spot, dig out my printer and other peripheral disks to load the drivers, and get my programs loaded, but I was immediately struck by how easy the Mac is. I turned it on and it just worked. Wow! What a concept.

The only two things I don’t like about it are the keyboard and the mouse. I need an ergonomic keyboard and my old one is so old, it doesn’t even have a USB plug, so I ordered a new one. The mouse is just awful! The cord is short and constantly in my way and it’s too flat to fit comfortably in my hand. I also ordered a cordless laser mouse, and since I’m going to lose the two USB ports on the sides of the Apple keyboard, I got a USB hub, too.

It’s worth it, though, and I get to avoid Vista. Hurrah!

Tags: adventures, computer, parents
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Sunshine Day

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Tuesday it was 49 degrees and sunny. I drove with my car windows rolled down for most of my commute home, enjoying the fresh air and the warm temperatures. It was super fabulous! Massive snow melt in my backyard and I can even see grass around my Styrofoam plant protectors. Ah, bliss!

For those of you who’ve read through my computer dithering, I finally made a decision on Monday afternoon. The Evil Day Job (EDJ) offers employee discounts at Apple, so I went online and ordered an iMac when I got home that day.

It’s actually kind of funny how much trouble I have buying desktop computers when I don’t have the same problem with laptops. But then my Sony Vaio is the first laptop I’ve had that’s lasted for three years. Usually, I kill them in the 1-2 year range. But my desktops, those I keep for 6-8 years, which I guess makes it a much bigger commitment for me psychologically. I think it’s been about 2 years that I debated back and forth on the desktop. First, I decided to wait for Vista, then I decided to wait for SP1 for Vista, then I added Mac to the mix when I kept hearing such horror stories about Vista. My last option was to just keep running the old desktop until a new OS came out–Microsoft is working on the successor to Vista as we speak. That plan was shot to pieces by the current desktop slowing down to tortoise speed.

So the commitment is made and I customized my iMac, adding more RAM, so there are no returns. I’m truly stuck now. Everyone has told me how much I’ll like it and I did love the Mac I had back when I was in college. I’m sure I’ll love this one, too. I hope.

Now, I need to clean my office so I can put the iMac at my desk and move the PC to the ancillary desk behind it. My plan with the old computer is to delete everything I can off the drive and see if that doesn’t help it hang on for a while longer.

Anyway, I bored everyone at the EDJ on Tuesday with tales of my new computer, and now I can add my blog readers to that group. I can’t help it, though, this is a major purchase for me.

There will, of course, be reports after the new computer arrives. You’ve been warned.

Tags: computer, weather
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DST Blues

Monday, March 10th, 2008

I have a love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings Time. On the one hand, I love having that extra sunlight in the evening. It’s especially nice in Minnesota when it’s cold and snow is on the ground because it makes if feel as if summer is right around the corner.

On the other hand, my body is not adjusted and that hour makes a big difference. 9:30 the clock says, time to go to bed. 8:30 my body says, we’re not sleepy yet. And then there’s the morning. 4:30 the alarm clocks says. 3:30 my body disagrees, and tries to go back to sleep. It will take me a good two weeks to acclimate to this change and my body will be protesting every single day until it does.

My wish is that we pick one time–either DST or regular time–and stick with it year round. This bouncing back and forth is what’s hard. Not to mention adjusting all the darn clocks. I only have two that set themselves, and the older DVD player is still insisting that it’s regular time.
It doesn’t help that I have an insanely huge number of things to do right now for the June release of In Twilight’s Shadow. I seriously need a clone. Now.

During a Woot-off a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a set of speakers that can be used with MP3 players, computers, cell phones, and other things with headset plugs. I received two for less than half the cost of one out on the web. The sound is a little tinny on the MP3 player, but it’s really helping me on the laptop. I wanted to watch a You Tube preview for the Dead Like Me movie, but the sound was so soft, I couldn’t hear it on the laptop’s speakers. I could hear it, though, with the new speakers plugged in. It’s still low, but audible.

And speaking of computers, the desktop is nearly unusable. This is a huge problem since my printer is hooked up to it, so after putting it off for several years, I’m left with no choice. The problem is that I still can’t decide between Mac and PC.

Normally, I’m good at making decisions, but I keep waffling on this one. I spent some time this weekend going through the customization screens for PC and by the time I got finished, the price was in Mac territory. I also saw that PC is going to all in one like the Mac. That’s all that was available at Sony and HP and Dell both had them as well. I also do not want to deal with the issues I’m hearing about Vista. The logical course of action seems to be to switch back to the Mac (This was my first computer).

What has me hesitating is all the peripherals I own. Will I have issues with them? Mac claims I shouldn’t, even if they’re labeled PC Only, but I’m still concerned. I know I’ll have to get Parallels software to run WordPerfect–which I will never give up–but can I still buy XP to go with Parallels? Or am I stuck with Vista even here?

Upgrading isn’t an issue because I’ve never upgraded my desktop PCs. I just keep buying new ones. And the big question: Will Mac play nice with my PC laptop? Even networking?

I think my problem might be an inability to make a commitment. LOL! This is a 6-8 year deal here (that’s how often I buy new desktops). What if I make the wrong choice?

Tags: computer, time
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Mac vs. PC

Friday, January 18th, 2008

Yesterday I was looking at the new Macbook Air, it’s Apple’s super thin laptop computer and it had me drooling. At least until I saw the price and read some information on a forum of Mac people. The battery isn’t removable. So I crossed this off the list, but it’s got me thinking about going to a Macintosh computer. Maybe a Macbook Pro–although the desktop computer needs replacing more urgently than the laptop. (But wow, if all laptops go as thin as the Mac Air, that would be just too cool!)

So I guess I’ll waffle a little longer. It’s not like I need to make an immediate decision anyhow. And I still like that little EEE laptop with it’s inexpensive price tag as a backup laptop. Oh, and the tablet PCs I’ve been looking at over on the Fujitsu and HP sites. Yeah, I’m definitely having trouble making any kind of decision and usually I’m good at that.

You might have guessed this, but I like gadgets. OMG, if I had enough money to buy whatever I wanted, I’d be gadgeted up like crazy! I wonder if I’ve worked with my engineers too long???

I’ve also managed to cross a fair number of items off my To Do List, although it remains impressively long.

Tags: computer
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