I LOVE living in the future!
Jun. 11th, 2007 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivanSo, a few hours ago, I opened the box with my new MacBook Pro inside. Plugged it in, powered it up, followed the first step...maybe even the first two. Then I clicked on a button saying I wanted help transferring my files from another Mac. Followed those couple of steps -- connected Firewire cable, restarted old Mac holding down "T" key, said the equivalent of "have at it," then turned my attention to my desktop Mac to type in recipes for the cookbook I'm trying to get done for my niece and her fiance. It will personalize the KitchenAid mixer I shipped to them several weeks back as a wedding present.
Finished typing the last of the recipes a short time later. The transfer was still underway, so I washed some dishes, emptied the cooler I used to transport deviled eggs and related kitchen kipple in this past weekend, then came back to my desk to watch the last few minutes of 60 gigs of transfer.
Disconnected Firewire cable, turned off old laptop, and started poking around the new one. There are a few anomolies -- some fonts came cleanly into the Suitcase database, others look a tad confused. One program needs to be reinstalled. One of my printer locations disappeared; two new ones turned up. That sort of thing.
In a perverse way, I'm glad there are a few glitches. It only seems right that way. Right as in "real."
Because everything else...well, it's seamless. The new computer is talking not only to itself, but to the world. I didn't have to install everything program by program. I didn't have to remember what I'd upgraded, or go visit a kazillion websites to download software updates. It looks like I'm up and running.
Yowser.
I'll no doubt find other oddities in the days and weeks ahead. And, yes, on my upcoming driving trip, I'm taking along the old'n'dying laptop as a weak backup if I get really stuck with something that didn't survive the transfer process. But those appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
I love living in the future. I also love replacing a computer before the previous one resembles something other than a rock.
For the curious, I have the baseline model. Would have bought the "ultimate" with its faster hard drive and improved pixel count, but none of the three Apple stores I called had 'em in stock and dealing with mail order this week was too problematic. This one is plenty good enough. The Apple employees in Stamford, CT, mentioned that they don't sell many of the 17" models, and asked why I was choosing it when I came in late on a Sunday afternoon knowing what I wanted. Why? Because I'm not going back, not after 3 years of seeing just how much the comfort the extra screen real estate adds to everything I do on it. Especially layout.
Finished typing the last of the recipes a short time later. The transfer was still underway, so I washed some dishes, emptied the cooler I used to transport deviled eggs and related kitchen kipple in this past weekend, then came back to my desk to watch the last few minutes of 60 gigs of transfer.
Disconnected Firewire cable, turned off old laptop, and started poking around the new one. There are a few anomolies -- some fonts came cleanly into the Suitcase database, others look a tad confused. One program needs to be reinstalled. One of my printer locations disappeared; two new ones turned up. That sort of thing.
In a perverse way, I'm glad there are a few glitches. It only seems right that way. Right as in "real."
Because everything else...well, it's seamless. The new computer is talking not only to itself, but to the world. I didn't have to install everything program by program. I didn't have to remember what I'd upgraded, or go visit a kazillion websites to download software updates. It looks like I'm up and running.
Yowser.
I'll no doubt find other oddities in the days and weeks ahead. And, yes, on my upcoming driving trip, I'm taking along the old'n'dying laptop as a weak backup if I get really stuck with something that didn't survive the transfer process. But those appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
I love living in the future. I also love replacing a computer before the previous one resembles something other than a rock.
For the curious, I have the baseline model. Would have bought the "ultimate" with its faster hard drive and improved pixel count, but none of the three Apple stores I called had 'em in stock and dealing with mail order this week was too problematic. This one is plenty good enough. The Apple employees in Stamford, CT, mentioned that they don't sell many of the 17" models, and asked why I was choosing it when I came in late on a Sunday afternoon knowing what I wanted. Why? Because I'm not going back, not after 3 years of seeing just how much the comfort the extra screen real estate adds to everything I do on it. Especially layout.
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Congratulations!
Date: 2007-06-12 12:44 am (UTC)I've started doing almost daily mirror backups to one of a pair of hard disks that I keep next to my comfy chair where I usually sit when using my laptop. So I'm hoping that next time I have to switch to a new computer it will be pretty easy.
How long did you have the previous one?
Re: Congratulations!
Date: 2007-06-12 02:44 am (UTC)There are some things that don't work. PageMaker isn't supported in this architecture. There doesn't seem to be a Classic mode at all. That will keep me from updating to 10.4 on my desktop computer, although that will be tricky because I need to upgrade to Creative Suite 3, which requires 10.4 to run. Trade-offs!
I had Brick for 3 years. That seems to be how long laptops work for me. Got the first one in 1998, needed the second in 2001 though put off getting it until the very beginning of 2002, the next one in 2004, and this one in 2007.
Re: Congratulations!
Date: 2007-06-12 05:20 am (UTC)Re: Congratulations!
Date: 2007-06-12 06:43 am (UTC)(Yes, I still need to check system requirements to confirm my Mac-on-a-stick can run 10.4.)
new macs
Date: 2007-06-12 01:04 am (UTC)I love the out-of-the-box fun! We had an impromptu Mac jam session with my MacBook Pro when we unpacked it. I learned GarageBand basics right away!
Re: new macs
Date: 2007-06-12 06:46 am (UTC)It's okay. I threw the video away. Nobody but me ever needs to see me exercising to Robert Preston's "Chicken Fat"!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 07:06 am (UTC)Basically, I plugged the old computer into the new one, went away for two hours, and came back to find, essentially, my computer just as I'd left it, except much more powerful, with loads of free hard disk space, and much more screen real estate. And a short list, which the computer provided, of things that might have gone wrong and which I should check out. After years of, well, having to spend an entire day moving stuff over and checking settings, it was just amazing.
I'm gearing up to replace my laptop, now aged 3 1/2; I spent quarter of an hour in the Apple store staring at the same picture on the two screen options side by side. But I think I will go for matte and I bet you have too.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 01:09 am (UTC)As recent (2 years now) Mac converts, it sounds like most of our Mac experience so far: things mostly just work. Whoa! How weird is that!?
We are buying Macs for the Community Development office as fast as our small budget can afford them, and every time I have to deal with the Windows machines that are left, I am reminded of why I love our Macs.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-14 08:11 pm (UTC)Recently I upgraded the hard drive in our year-old MacBook. The process is layed out on Apple's site, and aside from a shielding panic on my part, went flawlessly. We use a simple program called BackUp Simplicity and backed up our entire drive, system and all to an external, then hit one click and restored it to the MacBook.
Absolutely _nothing_ was lost, wrong, or even funny.
Love it.
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Date: 2008-03-17 01:22 pm (UTC)world-pharma.pillsfm.com
WBR,
Alex
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Date: 2008-03-18 03:22 am (UTC)world-pharma.pillsfm.com
WBR,
Alex