Computer Pretentiousness

I got a new mac book pro. And, well, damn it, I love it. After saying that, I can feel the disturbance in the force. The Mac users are saying, "yes, a convert," and the PC users are saying, "oh, the fallen." I am here thinking to myself "Jesus people, it is a computer," they do the same damn thing. You'd think when I decided to go with a Mac that I was coming out of the closet by people's reaction. I was told it would work better for what I wanted by my tech, and it does work for what I needed (two screens) really well. It also has a number of really cool features. The sleep mode is awesome.

Me: "You mean I can just close the lid, put it in my bag, and take it home... in my bag for hours.. and it will stay cool enough, and when I get home I can just open it and it will.... work... immediately.... with no problems or gliches?'

Tech: "Yea, absolutely."

Me: Gives look of disbelief to tech.

It is pretty amazing. I have never owned a PC that could go into standby mode and recover without error for even a few minutes no less a few hours.

Although, there are certain features I had to annoyingly go out of my way to get my Mac to do that a PC does automatically. That is, get my mouse to work the way it should, and get a sync file such that I could have a constant running backup of my flash drive. But, I was able to get it to do these things.

On a side note, this myth of macs not having a right click is absolutely bullshit. If you hit ctrl + click on something it does most of the standard stuff a PC does on right click.

So, to all pretentious computer users on both sides of the aisle (in the local computer purchasing store) I have this to say: they are both made of the same basic hardware these days and do the same stuff, and mostly run the same programs. To the PCs uers, Macs are not scary or hard to use, and users of Macs are not all hipster scum; it is just the best OS there is right now (in my not so humble opinion). For Mac users, don't let it go to your head because the look and the feel makes it seem to me like the Mac OS is basically a more stable version of Windows. In trying so hard to be compatible with Windows stuff, it sort of became it--remember basically the same processor, ram, and harddrive--so don't get too carried away with the brand name.

Anyway, I am going to go surf the internet and not worry about spyware and viruses (until some security flaw that can be exploited in the Mac OS that mac users are not prepared for).

Compute Happy,

RL

Btw, this post was not aimed at any one person; you have to realize that just about everyone that really likes computers really made a big deal about it when they heard I was getting a mac.... including me.

Metallica - Death Magnetic

Somewhere and sometime in the 90s (fans will debate exactly when and which album) the band Metallica became Alternica. They became extremely boring and all of their songs from the album Load on where--at best--forgettable. This new album kinda... sorta redeems them. Well, after their last record, St. Anger--or Anguish--or just plain St. Horrible, it is clearly a step up. Then again, you can't get much lower than that piece of completely unlistenible crap. I tried to listen to my completely legal copy of that album (no really... I promise it was completely uhhhhh legal) and could not even make it one time through. I would say this album is definitely a landmark album for their careers. As mentioned, they went from Metallica to Alternica to Trying-too-hard-ica to now.... Mediocrica.

If it wasn't for them suing their fans a few years back, I might actually have some respect for them again.

Out of 10, I give it a 6.75

For the reference I would give Ride the Lightning a 9.3, the "black album" an 8.5, and Load a 2.

A certain special someone got me this album.... Thanks a ton for thinking of me.