On Monday my new machine arrived: a 12″ PowerBook. [Elisabeth conveniently played with a piece of packing material while Ted took the picture!] It’s officially the first computer for me. The laptop I use now is a leftover from Ted’s consulting days. Before that, I shared Ted’s machine, getting up early so I could email.
This ThinkPad doesn’t have a CD drive and long ago reached its limits, constantly complaining about a lack of memory. I don’t ask much from my machine, but my meager requests can’t be satisfied in this situation. Although it is a laptop, it is not easily portable: no battery life and no built-in wireless card make it difficult at conferences. It’s time to say goodbye. We’ve been waiting for Tiger to arrive so I could depart from this dysfunctional relationship.
However, I am not writing this post from my PowerBook. Ted has commandeered my new computer until his machine returns from the repair shop. I hope to have it back within a week or two.
My main goal at the moment is to prepare the PowerBook for Gnomedex. Already I see work ahead of me. Transferring my PowerPoint slides into Keynote produced an unsatisfactory result. It appears that I will need to locate the original 80+ pictures in my presentation and import them again into my Powerbook. As with all changes, there is the initial investment in training. Creating the picture at the top of this post took longer than I imagined in iPhoto.
So far though I’ve enjoyed using the PowerBook. It’s vibrant and fun. Already I have a list of ideas what I want to do with it. The high school and college computers I used were Macs. When we married, Ted brought his Mac into our marriage for a while before investing in his first Windows machine. I’m looking forward to being back with Apple again. It’s time for change!
10 responses so far ↓
1 Jean // May 13, 2005 at 3:21 am
I love the photo and I’m sure you’ll totally love your Apple. The worst thing about computers is the time required to install and learn anything new, isn’t it? Not that it’s difficult, but the repeated investment of time required in a busy life is stressful. I find it interesting that, despite the hyper-speedy way we’re all encouraged to live these days, this is not viewed as unacceptable by manufacturers/programmers or by users.
2 Morrie // May 13, 2005 at 3:27 am
Good on you Julie. Hope you get a lot of pleasure from the Mac.
3 C.K. Sample, III // May 13, 2005 at 5:47 am
Congratulations on Mac ownership! Don’t let Ted hog it for too long. 😉
4 joann // May 13, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Ooooh, you got a powerbook! Lucky you!
I was SO thinking of getting one after my PC motherboard died after X number of years (sigh)…
Have fun! (Real envious) 😉
5 Kevin Briody // May 13, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Welcome aboard! Just got my own 12″ Powerbook after 7 years exclusively Windows (and many many years exclusively Mac before that).
Runs a bit hot to sit on your lap, but otherwise a sleek little thing. Have fun! 🙂
6 myko // May 13, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Wow Julie, welcome to the club!! I’m writing this from my new 12″ Powerbook! 🙂 I just could not live with a PC any longer.
Try OpenOffice.org for the Powerpoint presentation, I’ve heard it does PPT files in addition to the XLS and DOC files it opens. And, it’s free! The NeoOffice version is a lot easier to use, BTW.
7 Bob V // May 14, 2005 at 6:06 am
Hi Julie,
The iBook I ordered a few weeks ago came in on the 12th. (It might be less of a conincidence than it seems since I too was waiting for Tiger.)
I preferred the slick-ness of the PowerBook but decided that my new grad-school budget would prefer the iBook.
It’s interesting that KeyNote didn’t import the Powerpoint files for you. Maybe the images you are referring to weren’t part of the actual powerpoint file in which case NeoOffice won’t be of any help. I’m sure you’ve either already figured it out, or Ted can offer his advice, of course.
Congrats on your new machine. It’s good to hear I’m not the only one!
8 Julie // May 15, 2005 at 7:18 am
Wow, thanks, everyone, for all the encouragement! I was able to open my PowerPoint presentation in Keynote, but the slides – all photographs – appeared with a margin, smaller than ideal. It seems the only way to get full-size slides is to import the pictures again. So that’s how I spent my Saturday afternoon, finding the original pictures in my photo collection so I can import them onto my new PowerBook…whenever I get it back again from Ted. 😉
9 Loyd // May 15, 2005 at 10:26 pm
I know I’m a day late but, have you looked at Microsoft Office for the Mac? It actually seems like a totally different product with more features than the PC version. You might take it for a test drive for “next time”. There’s a demo of it already installed on your new Powerbook so you could use your original presentation if wanted.
10 Jenny // May 17, 2005 at 12:05 am
Congratulations Julie! Woohoo!!! I just came from a site that linked to you (Learning the Lessons of Nixon). I loved seeing that link:) Sure hoping all your “stuff” comes together smoothly for your trip:)
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