The Mac won me over — long time Windows user after a month of Mac only use

The Feld Report ^ | August 3rd, 2010 | Brad Feld

[Swordmaker]

On June 20th, I declared that I was going to try A Month of Mac.  I took my Macbook Pro (an older model from about 18 months ago) up to Alaska, left my Lenovo x300 in Boulder, and went native Mac.

I’m typing this on my brand new spiffy MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8GB RAM, with a 500GB solid state hard drive.  I can’t figure out why I’ve been so stubborn about really switching to the Mac.  This is a beautiful computer.

The key to this switch was that the native mac apps (Mail, iCal, and Address Book) sync seamlessly with Exchange.  So I don’t have to deal with the abortion that is Entourage but at the same time I don’t have to mess around with our email server and impact everyone else in our organization.  That’s sweet.  I had a feeling this would work this time since it works flawlessly on my iPhone and iPad, and it did.  The only thing missing is Tasks, but I started using Evernote instead which actually worked even better than the Outlook Task manager.

So – no Parallels or Fusion – I don’t even have a Windows image on this machine at this point.  I didn’t use Windows a single time in the last month and now that I’ve rewired my brain for Mac shortcut keys I think it’d be a pretty amusing thing to watch.

I’ve found peace and happiness with iWork as a replacement for Microsoft Office – it’s more than adequate for what I do.  MarsEdit is a spectacular blog post editor, Chrome works happily on the Mac as does Skype and TweetDeck, and Adium replaced Digsby.  Pogoplug works just like it did before – all my files are where I want them to be.  Best of all, my iPhone actually does what it’s supposed to with iTunes.

Did I say that this is a beautiful piece of hardware?  Sleep mode – check.  Flawless super high resolution screen – check.  Super fast everything – check.  Find a piece of software you want to play around with – download and run.

The most remarkable thing was the transfer of all my data, applications, and settings from my old MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Pro.  I connected them by Firewire.  I restarted my old MacBook and held down the T key.  After the transfer started, I went and had a meeting for a hour.  I came back and my new Mac was set up exactly like my old Mac.  Perfect.

Ross – you owe me $100.

Brad Feld is a managing director at Foundry Group who lives in Boulder, Color\ado. He invests in software and Internet companies around the US, runs marathons and reads a lot.

[Terpfen]

Your impressions and perceptions of gaming are all wrong except for your statement that consoles are the central form of gaming. Not necessarily the best, but definitely more popular.

The rest is just wrong, especially your statement that Macs and PCs have similar gMing performance. Native Mac gaming is merely acceptable, not spectacular. Gaming is the one area where the PC outpaces the Mac, but the console generally outpaces the PC.

[Swordmaker]

Steve Jobs explains why Apple excluded Flash from the iPhone and iPad

By the way, there is a version Flash 10.1 player for touch devices for the Android system. It's not perfect... And it still drains the battery I hear.

[MacMattico]

Now I know you’re a Mac and therefore probably a Jobs fan but even if Flash uses a lot of power and isn’t perfect on a device such as the I-pad, shouldn’t I have the ability to use it to watch a video if I want to? Is the banning of Flash a battle in an Apple/Adobe war? Or did I just read to much into that article?

[dennisw]

Matter of fact Best Buy has a Compaq laptop with an AMD processor at $329 this week. On sale. Good enuff for 70-80% of computer buyers and users

160GB hard drive and 3gb memory. Much better buy than Steve Jobs tiny minuscule 13.3” size screen bull-shyte entry level laptop that he extorts $999 for. Sometimes more

[Swordmaker]

Now I know you’re a Mac and therefore probably a Jobs fan but even if Flash uses a lot of power and isn’t perfect on a device such as the I-pad, shouldn’t I have the ability to use it to watch a video if I want to? Is the banning of Flash a battle in an Apple/Adobe war? Or did I just read to much into that article?

It's a skirmish in the closed proprietary standard verses the open standard war. Not the Apple v. Adobe war.

Flash causes the devices to CRASH...It is the primary reason Safari crashes. It's also one of the primary reasons Internet Explorer crashs... and then Apple, Microsoft, or the other device manufacturers get the blame when the fault lies with Adobe. Adobe FLash is a resource hog on ALL platforms it's on. On desktops, that's not much of a problem, but when you get onto portable devices with limited resources, it is.

For touchscreen devices, the input problem is inherent at the core of Flash... it expects input that the touch screen devices CANNOT PROVIDE... mouse overs, mouse clicks, and keyboard inputs... because the touch screen devices do not have these input devices choosing instead to utilize the screen itself as the input device. FLASH does not know how to handle that input. FLASH also puts up pop-up menus within it's own animations, and expects to be able to handle it's own input... from, you guessed it, mouse overs, clicks, and keyboard inputs. Those things cannot happen from a touch screen tablet.

Rewriting FLASH to accept input from touch screens is not the answer either... because there are literally thousands of FLASH scripts out there that expect the OLD paradigm inputs that still will not work with the new devices... so there will be two levels... new FLASH content that will work, and old that will not. Still not a good thing. The best approach is to replace the old, proprietary FLASH with modern open standards accepted by the HTML international body charged with making sure that the Internet IS open and accessible to all.

[Swordmaker]

160GB hard drive and 3gb memory. Much better buy than Steve Jobs tiny minuscule 13.3” size screen bull-shyte entry level laptop that he extorts $999 for. Sometimes more

Please quit equating selling a mid-range computer to willing buyers with extortion. It is unbecoming and absurd. It makes you look stupid.

[dennisw]

Extortion, con-games, whipping up peer pressure to a fever pitch....You can call it what you will. Where kids feel they have to buy overwrought Jobsian junk, be it an iPod or a baby size 13” laptop, or they aren’t in with the in crowd. The younger generations are his target. So are the gays I saw last night on TV whooping it up in California over their court case. And California is the HQ of the Apple cult and Scientology too. Think about it......!

[Swordmaker]

Speaking of scams, I'm still waiting to hear where you found the non-existant Apple debt, stock warrants, and other "Jobsian junk" you loaded into the CDO you claim you put together to short to make all that money you claimed you made shorting Apple. When can I expect to hear where you found it?

[Swordmaker]

And California is the HQ of the Apple cult and Scientology too. Think about it......!

Ah, no. Scientology is head-quartered in Clearwater, Florida.

[dennisw]

Speaking of scams, I'm still waiting to hear where you found the non-existant Apple debt, stock warrants, and other "Jobsian junk" you loaded into the CDO you claim you put together to short to make all that money you claimed you made shorting Apple. When can I expect to hear where you found it?

We are looking into that along with the Gulf oil spill and Vince Foster's shooting in Fort Marcy Park

[dennisw]

Hemet California is the HQ of Scientology-——>>>

#
At Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun - Los Angeles Times
Dec 18, 2005 ... Today, the out-of-the-way 500-acre compound near Hemet has quietly grown into one of Scientology’s major bases of operation, with thriving ...
articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/18/business/fi-scientology18 - Cached - Similar
#
Another Death at Scientology’
Jun 28, 2000 ... Another Death at Scientology’s Mysterious compound in Hemet California. for background about Scientology’s Hemet facility I suggest you read ...
www.lermanet.com/electrocution.htm - Cached - Similar

[dennisw]

http://www.lermanet.com/cos/andre.html ........ More cult info. If Steve Jobs was never a Scientology he should have been.

[Swordmaker]

Dennis, my best childhood friend and his wife are high-mucky mucks in the Church of Scientology. Trust me. The headquarters of the Church is in Clearwater, Florida.

The Hemet, CA is just one of their centers of operations.

[MacMattico]

Thanks! You have been very helpful, and I actually learned a few things!

[tacticalogic]

A single provider can, and does, have it’s advantages, especially when cutting edge/custom requirements come onto play or when you just want it to work.

Name one advantage being absolutely dependent on a single hardware provider gives you.

[TheStickman]

Would love to know what hardware you used to build your Hackintosh.

[dennisw]

The Hemet, CA is just one of their centers of operations. >>>>>>

Most recent accounts I have read David Miscavige lives and operates from Hemet. He is the thug in chief and has done a lot of nasty things there. For you to figure it out please do a search for -—

hemet + Miscavige
clearwater + Miscavige

I know Clearwater has a lot of the Scientology bureaucracy. For that matter so does Los Angeles with its vital access to the Hollywood actors and workers

But Hemet, where Micavige is holed up is the epicenter

[dennisw]

Would love to know what hardware you used to build your Hackintosh.>>>>>>>

I did a lot of research and built a quickie one. People seem to like invidia graphics cards and Gigabyte motherboards. Asus too. This is helpful guide. http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1506699

[erod]

The same thing happened to me, I blame it on MS. But here’s what you do reinstall the bloody thing. You won’t lose any of your Office files, and you’ll be able to use your Mac again.