We continue our break from the regularly scheduled– okay, well, far from scheduled (as you can see), but at least regularly intended — posts to bring you some quirky thoughts about computers. This might have something to do with the fact that I now have a new one, the first upgrade in nearly a decade (of course, that’s not counting the laptop, but the poor guy has been doing all the heavy lifting for the past few years, it needed a big desktop brother to shoulder the burden).
The fun thing about new computers, aside from their being shiny and everything, is the task of getting them to as closely mimic what you’re used to as possible. For me, this means digging out the install discs for programs I regularly use that didn’t come pre-installed, then downloading all the necessary program updates because those install discs are years out of date, and, of course, porting over all of my files. Because computers can be boring places when you have to start from scratch. 😉 Thankfully, since I’m dealing with Macs on both ends, it was a relative piece of cake. The biggest stretch was the 40GB iTunes collection and even that only took 20 minutes or so. Having endured file back-ups where I had to transfer multiple GB of information over 125MB at a time (the largest flashdrive available to me then… where was my 2 gig’er when I needed it?), words cannot convey how overjoyed I was at the ease of it.
It’s caused me to think back on most of my major upgrades over the years. Early on, in the bygone days of floppy disks and not-quite-as-bygone-but-rarer external hard drives, I hardly noticed anything amiss. Insert previously used floppy and you’re good to go (or attach external HD and voila!). Pre-iMacs (1998, if memory serves), that’s pretty much how it went. All you needed were programs to read said files (ah, good old ClarisWorks… I miss it). When I made the switch to the floppyless iMac, it got more complicated, requiring that I network the two computers– which it sometimes felt like I accomplished with gum and dental floss, meaning it was a rare occurrence. Things got simpler when I got a USB Zip drive. Ah, but for the days when 1.3 MB was enough for everyone. 😉 Heh.
I think, though, that as of this writing, I’m done with all of those “new computer” tasks and can now settle into putting this machine through its paces. It’s an iMac, as you might have surmised, one of those new 24″ screened ones– and having never had anything much bigger than 15″, I have to say… wow. So much space, hardly know how to fill it all. Plus, the desk has never looked so awesome. 😉 It also marks my first exposure to Leopard, and I have to say it’s more comfortable than I expected. The new iTunes-esque window design actually isn’t that bothersome and skimming through files in CoverFlow is actually damn handy. Plus things like Exposé actually work now, and I just know I’m gonna use it a lot.
What more can I say? Macintoshes and me go back a long ways, and they always reward me with awesomeness. New computer good. Woohoo.