Thoughts on acquiring a new computer

--Remind me never to doubt my mother again. When I arrived with my increasingly-decrepit 2007-era black MacBook and worried about how I was going to need a new computer soon but couldn't afford it, she said she'd postulate a new computer for me. Which I couldn't help thinking felt like a bit of a cop-out (though I could totally understand her unwillingness to offer to buy me a new computer in the wake of moving, remodeling her condo and the various other expenses she'd had lately). Then, three weeks later, her boyfriend shows up with his year-old (and recently replaced) 13" MacBook Pro in fantastic condition, barring a few smudges from his smoking habit that cleaned off just fine. He'd even upgraded it to Lion and installed MS Office for me. True, it's not the Air that I was ogling, but it's far more powerful and far cheaper - I just have to get a new charger for it. So hurrah for generous people.

--Speaking of Lion, I'd expected to (and originally did) find the infamous reverse-scrolling a pain. I was all set to turn it off when I remembered what they said about making it more like an iPad - and suddenly it was like a switch flipped in my brain. Hardly any trouble adapting, and it feels far more intuitive than the other way. I swear, Apple's design team is like that annoying friend who's continually argumentative, and worse, almost always right, so you just want to smack them sometimes. (And yes, I'm aware that I'm usually that friend...stay off of my turf, Jonathan Ive!)

--I've read the doomsday proclamations about ad-blockers and how they're killing content on the Internet, and since this was a fresh copy of Firefox with no plug-ins installed, I was all set to give the ad-supported Internet another try. And within fifteen minutes of browsing, I'd been bombarded with shady product offers, made to listen to annoying commercials when I couldn't figure out which tab was playing them, and prevented from reading content thanks to floating ads with a "close" button so tiny you needed a magnifying glass to find it.

Look, Internet, I like you, and I want to support you and the people who produce your content. But do you really have to make it so bloody inconvenient? 'Cos if you're going to insist on that kind of shenanigans, I'm certainly not going in without protection.

Thoughts on acquiring a new computer

--Remind me never to doubt my mother again. When I arrived with my increasingly-decrepit 2007-era black MacBook and worried about how I was going to need a new computer soon but couldn't afford it, she said she'd postulate a new computer for me. Which I couldn't help thinking felt like a bit of a cop-out (though I could totally understand her unwillingness to offer to buy me a new computer in the wake of moving, remodeling her condo and the various other expenses she'd had lately). Then, three weeks later, her boyfriend shows up with his year-old (and recently replaced) 13" MacBook Pro in fantastic condition, barring a few smudges from his smoking habit that cleaned off just fine. He'd even upgraded it to Lion and installed MS Office for me. True, it's not the Air that I was ogling, but it's far more powerful and far cheaper - I just have to get a new charger for it. So hurrah for generous people.

--Speaking of Lion, I'd expected to (and originally did) find the infamous reverse-scrolling a pain. I was all set to turn it off when I remembered what they said about making it more like an iPad - and suddenly it was like a switch flipped in my brain. Hardly any trouble adapting, and it feels far more intuitive than the other way. I swear, Apple's design team is like that annoying friend who's continually argumentative, and worse, almost always right, so you just want to smack them sometimes. (And yes, I'm aware that I'm usually that friend...stay off of my turf, Jonathan Ive!)

--I've read the doomsday proclamations about ad-blockers and how they're killing content on the Internet, and since this was a fresh copy of Firefox with no plug-ins installed, I was all set to give the ad-supported Internet another try. And within fifteen minutes of browsing, I'd been bombarded with shady product offers, made to listen to annoying commercials when I couldn't figure out which tab was playing them, and prevented from reading content thanks to floating ads with a "close" button so tiny you needed a magnifying glass to find it.

Look, Internet, I like you, and I want to support you and the people who produce your content. But do you really have to make it so bloody inconvenient? 'Cos if you're going to insist on that kind of shenanigans, I'm certainly not going in without protection.