Works Like You Do

The screen is like an HDTV. I changed the background to the gray scale sea cliffs and it does look better than the basic blue screen (to save memory) I had selected for my Windows desktop.

I started loading up a “few” applications to see how they work in Parallels. This is really a good program. I installed the complete MS Office suite (IT decided it would be OK to include one additional copy in their site license), a .NET application, several open source apps like Firefox, Thunderbird (potentially my new cross-platform email app), Sunbird (because I will now need a cross-platform calendar), Filezilla (is there anything better for FTP?), Dreamweaver 8 (we don’t have the premium suite in the “standard build”), and Flash and Fireworks for good measure. Everything runs and seems to run fast enough to suit me.

Unfortunately these plug ins don’t make your house smell better.

I bought a Kensington power adapter that will power almost anything so I didn’t have to worry about forgetting my laptop power supply at the office and then not being able to work. I bought it the weekend I forget the power supply. Much to my horror, this MAC uses a special magnetic power tip, the MagSafe Power Adapter. I checked the bag but Kensington didn’t supply one of these (surprise!) So I have a power supply with plenty of amperage but no compatible plug. Maybe they will sell one as an add on someday. I did research it and the purpose seems to be to make sure you use the correct power supply for the new laptops. That’s a good thing. Making us all buy a second power supply from Apple. That’s a bad thing. When I was researching, I discovered a large number of people who reported that the tiny magnetic tip breaks off after a few months of normal use. I’ll have to keep an eye on that. (This reminds me that I need to capture the links when I find out information and put them in these posts. Who knows, I might even get really ambitious and add screen shots from time to time!)
While we’re on plugs, I was at first disappointed by the fancy video out but then realized that it is a digital video out and plugs directly into my Samsung SyncMaster LCD display. It also works fine with an analog display using the adapter I was given.

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.

One of the first impressions I have of this laptop is that it feels bigger because it is longer but it is actually thinner and shorter than my IBM. That means I can carry it in my Tumi laptop briefcase. This is not standard university issue. This is my bag that I carried for several years and really liked because it could hold everything and my laptop. Of course at that time I had a three-pound Sharp that I imported from Japan, but portability was the most important thing. My new MAC looks like a big screen TV compared to the 12 inch screen on that. So, the form factor wins a “good” posting.