New Macs

Greetings:

OK, I bit the bullet and bought a new MacBookPro.  My old Core2Duo MacBookPro that I had upgraded to a 1TB HD and maxed the memory to 3GB of RAM could not be upgraded to Mountain Lion.  Even with the new Logic Board.  All-in-all, I have spend about $2K on that puppy.  So, I upgraded to the new MacBookPro with 16GB of RAM, 750GB SSHD that is really lightweight and super-thin.  And, might I say, extremely fast.  I haven't run the benchmarks on it yet, but I'll be posting those later this summer.  I expect it to be on the order of 4 - 6 times faster than my old MacBookPro.

And the screen, while only 15" rather than the 17" of the old MacBookPro, is really clear.  (OK, so the Retina is really sharp.)  But the problem was that I had to buy a ton of adaptors to go from the Thunderbolt port to my 30" Mac Cinema, another to my Firewire 800 HDs that I already owned, another to all of my USB stuff that I already owned, even though there is ONE (only) USB port on the MacBookPro, and finally I had to spend another $80 for an external SuperDrive that used to come standard on the MacBookPro.  Yes, there are $30 versions of DVD drives but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't and when you are on-the-road you really, really want something that really, really works all the time.  Sure, sure.  All of you "rich" guys who upgraded two years ago or last year wrote tons of articles and warned me about all of this already so I kind of knew what to expect, but it still hurt when I had to spend an extra grand to adapt to the Brave New Mac World. 

So, now I am carrying my new Mac around with the 20-pound Dell that my client gave me to carry around. OK, the Dell is only 11 pounds.  But it feels like 20 pounts when it's on my back and I'm carrying it across parking lots and down the streets of big cities.  At least the Mac doesn't add a lot of weight.  Maybe 6 pounds at most even with adaptors and power supplies.  Also, my Mac stays charged.  That Dell boat-anchor discharges overnight even if you don't use it.  What a piece of junk!  And it's a NEW Dell!!  It gets charged all day at the office and at night it just sits in my backpack.  I use my Mac all day at the office (off and on - not all the time) and it is still pretty much ready to go when I get back home at night.

Mac still rules!  And, no!  I will not sully my Mac with Windows!  It already has Windows Office on it.  That's about my only concession to the Windows world.  I tried to go the Open Office route but there were just too many inconsistencies and problems.  I don't have time to adjust a Windows Office look-alike and spend countless hours finding "fixes" and solve their problems.  It's just way, way cheaper to go ahead and buy the Mac version of Windows Office and go on my way.  BUT, since I already have to have a Windows laptop with Office on it I don't normally use Windows Office on the Mac anyway unless I'm NOT working on something specific for that particular client.  And there are plenty of those times - like when my son needs to use it for school work or my wife needs it for her work. 

Anyway...  Such is life for a Mac guy who has to live and work in the Windows World.  Mac has made life easier now so I guess I'll tote my Mac around quitely act all superior around my office mates.  Maybe I'll give the MacBookPro to my son and just carry an iPad around for EMail and not even do development anymore.  Maybe...  Naaaahhhh....  Then I'd be a manager and I'd have to cut my throat or something.

Shalom,
jco