Category Archives: Computer machine
Posts regarding our future overlords.
New gear
Okay, three new purchases this week. I’m geekin’ out about them.
- Apple MacBook – the prices dropped on Tuesday due to a hardware upgrade, and the church increased our laptop funds, so I’m getting this (and associated software and printer/scanner/copier) for free! (With Purdue academic discount.) Woohoo!
- Sony Ericsson W300i cell phone – the Haiti group didn’t have my old cell. After a final search of the house, I gave up and bought a new phone on eBay (Cingular wouldn’t give me any discounts). The silver lining is that after three months with my old phone, I know what features really matter to me. I’m glad to be getting a flip phone — I hated having to remember to lock the keypad, and it was harder to talk on a dinky candy bar phone.
- Bumbakpak Hamptons Obsidian Black – a hybrid messenger bag/backpack that will hold my laptop and fit my campus and church office needs a lot better than my current backpack. My parents are getting this for me as a belated yet sweet birthday present.
Yay!!
Anyway, while Ben and I were trying to convince Jesse to buy a Mac, I was able to turn to the Bible and get some good advice. The Bible details the agony of the PC’s viruses, system crashes, and blue screen of death by saying, “Death has come up into our Windows,” (Jeremiah 9:21). It also speaks of the well-designed, it-just-works Mac OS X when it says, “Refresh me with Apples” (Song of Solomon 2:5).
Hey, if Joel Osteen can cherry-pick and twist his verses, so can I.
The things you discover
So I was dusting out the inside of my computer today when I discovered a couple of internal cables marked “USB” running to the front of the machine. Lo and behold, there are two extra USB ports and a Firewire port on my computer that I never knew about in the five years I’ve owned it. They were located on the left side in the lower front corner…covered by a sticker.
I’m not sure whether to feel stupid for never finding these. I think I’m more dumbfounded than anything else.
I just wish that I had known this years ago…those ports would have come in extra handy.
Goin’ Apple
One of the nice things the church is doing for us interns is chipping in some cash so we can buy the laptops required for seminary. These last few weeks, I’ve been doing some shopping to determine what I want to buy. I only have three guidelines:
- The screen size should be 13″ or less (I’ll be taking it everywhere with me, so I want a light and portable machine).
- The total package — computer and service plan — has to come in at under $1500.
- The computer has to be nice enough that Ben can’t make fun of me.
Ben, you see, is getting a MacBook. He’s very artsy like that. So, of course, I have to get a sweet computer as well. I was looking at the HP Pavilion tx1000z, which can act as a low-end tablet, but HP gouges its customers with horrifically expensive service plans. So that doesn’t work. I was also looking at a Toshiba Satellite U200, but it’s kinda lame-o.
At this point, I’m about 90-95% sure that I’ll get a MacBook myself. Since Windows Vista is such a resource hog, souping up a computer (such as the Toshiba) to run it would end up costing me just as much as (if not more than) buying a Mac. It’s kind of weird realizing that I’m about to become a Mac user, but I’m warming to the idea. It helps that Microsoft Office 2004 has a couple of features not found in the Windows version that I could definitely put to good use (Notebook Layout View, Project Center). I also figure that since I’ll be using the laptop every day for the next three years of my life, I might as well get one that I’ll enjoy.
Anyway, I’m hoping to get my new computer some time in the next few weeks. I just hope that my current four-and-a-half-year-old crapmachine can last that long. The USB ports temporarily stopped working on Sunday, which gave me a good scare. I’ll miss the beast, but I’m sure a sleek new laptop will make me forget all about it.
The wonderful world of cable broadband
So, after switching from DSL to cable broadband on Monday, I’ve got to say that I’m very satisfied so far. DSL was fast enough for me, but it’s nice to have that extra bandwidth to, say, watch streaming video of scenes from Spider-Man 3 in HD quality. Looks like it’s going to be an excellent movie…I will definitely go see it when it comes out.
