Works Like You Do

On January 4 I got a call that if I could come the next day, I could have some “quality time” with the MAC expert from IT. He could get me all set to go and then I could explain what I needed on the PC side. I figured that sounded like a good idea since I needed some special software for my courses this semester that isn’t available for the MAC.

When I arrived for my appointment, he presented me with a brand new MacBook Pro, loaded with the standard “build” of software. This included the following configuration: 100G of MAC side and 20G of PC side, Parallels for running the Windows software which consisted of IE, MatLab, Autocad and a few utilities. The MAC side had MS Office, the Adobe Creative Suite and a large number of programs that so far are nothing more than cute icons cluttering the bottom of my screen. I explained that I needed a few pieces of Windows software and, while you’re at it, how about putting MS Office on the Windows side as well so I can compare them? Apparently, the communication to me and the communication to him and the helpdesk staff was not exactly the same. They weren’t allowed to load BOTH sets of primary software. If they did there could be licensing issues or worse yet, support issues. We considered this for a while and then they recommended I return in a couple of weeks after they gave out all the standard MACs and we could take our time and work through it. I agreed to this since it made since and my priority is a working laptop for teaching, not being part of an experiment , although I am willing. As we sat a while longer, someone suggested that I take the MacBook anyway and keep my IBM. That wasy I could do whatever I wanted to the MAC and when we had time, they could just return it to the standard “build” and we’d all learn something from it. This seemed even more sensible and it allowed me some security in knowing that I could always return what I was comfortable with. So the MAC expert gave me a quick run down on how everything worked and handed me the operating manual they have prepared for users and away I went.
The lessons are that change is good but we fear change. And we’re not the only ones who fear change. Support people fear change when it might mean something totally unexpected causing a problem that they are expected to resolve. I determined that I would try everything I could think of to see what worked and what didn’t and I would let them know what the results were. I suspect I will not ever return to the standard “build” but they will know how to configure something that meets a former Windows user’s needs and allows them to take advantage of the good things about a MAC.

I realized I needed to track my progress so I started this blog. It has three categories - Good MAC, Bad MAC, and Just the facts. As I try things or run into things, I’ll try to capture my experience here. I intend to use one post for each thing I run into. Also, since I have to do this, it will be easier for me and somewhat therapeutic to write like I speak, something I continually warn my students against. So you’re going to get a verbose version of this report.
Disclaimer: I’m pretty comfortable using computers but I’m not a geek, nerd or anything approaching an expert. I have avoided learning to do much more on the MAC than use applications. I have no familiarity with the Finder, OS, file structure, etc. It’s all new to me. I may not have found the best solutions to my problems but I tried to do everything without requiring support because our IT are quite busy right now and I would rather try and fail than be told, “you don’t really need to do that.” I “need” to do everything I’ve been able to do on the IBM and I “should” be able to do much, much more.