Wednesday, March 12, 2008

My iBook is dead... Long live my MacBook

My new MacBook

I couldn't last... I needed a laptop. I just couldn't make it work otherwise.

Sure I could have picked up a Lenovo Thinkpad for £349... but Linux scares me and Windoze is... well... I'd rather have my nipple hair waxed with duct tape than buy a PC.

So I dropped some hard earned cash on the bottom-of-the-range MacBook and I love it.

Its 2x faster than my iBook (RIP) with twice the hdd capacity and more RAM. Time is truly the greater leveller... my once top-of-the-range iBook (RIP) is now less than my basic MacBook.

Its smaller and lighter... and offers more functionality. I love the inbuilt camera... the new power cable... FrontRow... bluetooth... and the fact that x11 comes as standard - I've downloaded GIMP (for imagery) and OpenOffice (for wordprocessing/ spreadsheets/ presentations etc) that work on x11 > all opensource and free.

An extra £15

What I would like to say... however... is WHY OH WHY OH WHY did the doohickey that connects to a VGA cable (for projectors/ LCD TVs etc) not come as part of the package? I got one with my iBook (RIP) and I now have to shell out £15 for one... just because Apple are too stylish to have a VGA port on their laptops. Hmm... c'mon Apple!

Anyway... here's a wee list of bits and pieces (over and above GIMP and OpenOffice) that I think are essential kit for any Mac-wielding digital nomad:
  1. Firefox (free) -- In my opinion... its the best browser. I have a number of add-ons for it... such as "Foxmarks" which enables me to sync my bookmarks across multiple machines... and "TwittyTunes" which allows me to send tweets from Firefox itself.
  2. Flickr Uploader (free) -- Flickr rawks for online photo storage and sharing. The Uploader makes uploading (clue is in the name) to Flickr easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.
  3. Adium (free) -- A multi-channel AIM client that keeps my AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk and MSN together in one place. I believe video is coming to it... which will be sweet!
  4. GetTube (free) -- for downloading vids on YouTube.
  5. Growl (free) -- a fab visual notification tool... kind of hard to describe.
  6. iRecordMusic ($24.95) -- software for recording audio streams such as Radio 2 that works with iCal.
So anyway... I'm back and I am grateful to God... Olly... and my employer who pays me... for being able to get back up and running.

Here's to the future.

6 comments:

Kerry said...

Aww! Perfect! It looks just like mine, but white!

Congrats, dude. Macbooks are awesome.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations. How could you have used anything but a mac! :-)

Glad to see you back blogging. I read this blog every day. Its always a source of good thoughts, cool "stuff" and good grooves!

Keep up the good work mate. You are an inspiration!

Motivates me to finally get my blog up and running.

Mark said...

As an alternative to Open Office under X11 you should check out Neo Office (www.neooffice.org). Its a native Mac port of Open Office.

Johnny said...

You didn't hang around, Thomas!

weareallghosts said...

Thanks y'all... I appreciate your comments and ongoing support.

Will download Neooffice tonight and swap with Open Office.

lhsnN.wlkMen_6LdI5l_0UenaaFwzTIKpYj6tBYE introduce yourself... (your OpenID doesn't roll off the tongue... is it Klingon?) and get that blog up and running!

Anonymous said...

lhsnN.wlkMen_6LdI5l_0UenaaFwzTIKpYj6tBYE

a.k.a Derek Russell

Don't ask me where that gobbledygook came from!?!?! LOL

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