December 5, 2007--iMac Land
I do not own an iPod and for sure no iPhone, so when it was time to buy a new computer, the old one was terminally infected with viruses, Mac-oriented friends urged me to abandon my decidedly-uncool PC and move into the more intuitive, user-friendly world of Apple.
This made me very nervous. I was totally addicted to me little SONY Vaio and, as someone adverse to radical change—except in the larger world, I was certain that I would never be able to figure out much less get comfortable doing my work, which mainly involves writing, e-mailing, and some Internet surfing, using a new operating system. Especially since I have no idea whatsoever what an “operating system” is.
But these very reliable friends kept pressing on me to at least go to the Apple store to see how easy it is to use a Mac. This then I did; and before too long I wound up buying one, a MacBook Pro, largely because I liked the look of it and thought if I ever went to a Starbucks (unlikely) and toted it along with me (less likely), I’d fit right in among the 20-somethings.
When I got it home and freed it from its sumptuous packaging, all I needed to do was push the on-off button and sit back to await the graphic ride of my life. I had grown used to the dour PC icons and images; but with the Mac powered up I was swirled into an array of images at the so-called Dock at the bottom of the luminous screen--the Picasso-like, cubistic face that takes one to the Finder (I’m still trying to figure out what I will find if I ever take a chance and click on that smiley face); the Dashboard clock or dial—I’m not sure which it is and what it connects me to; and the Safari compass, which I quickly learned is my portal to the amazing Internet. Wow!
Rona next installed the software we bought so I could continue using Microsoft Word for my writing—there is a limit to how much of the old I am willing to let go of before making a total switch over. And since I truly do want to make that switch I gather I will eventually have to have my Mac, if it is to remain pure and uncorrupted, Microsoft-Free. You see, I’m learning already.
My first working experience with the Mac was to draft yesterday’s blog. Traditionally I do this as a Word document and then copy and paste it onto the Blogspot Web page that then allows me to publish it for all to see. No problem there—it works the same way on the Mac as on the old Vaio.
There was, though, another problem that I encountered almost immediately. I’m a poor typer and speller and need to do a lot of text editing along the way. This includes a considerable amount of deleting. It quickly became apparent that on the Mac the only way to delete a word or phrase was from left-to-right using the Delete key. There appeared to be no way to do this in the non-Hebraic direction, left-to-right. On the PC this was easy to do since there is both a Delete key for left-to-right deleting and a Backspace key to do just that—backspace.
Since I assumed I was doing something, considering it took me two weeks to learn how to turn on and then log onto my SONY, I walked over to the Mac store to find out what I was doing wrong. As you might imagine I was feeling pretty stupid, not to mention very uncool.
The accommodating and youthful Apple staffer matter-of-factly told me that I wasn’t wrong. “You see,” he said, “on the full keyboard there are both keys but on the laptops one had to be eliminated to make room for these.” The “these” he was referring to were the stereo speakers on both sides of the keyboard which, to assure full fidelity, were huge thus making it necessary to eliminate a host of keys, including the one that would allow me and other real-writers to delete in both directions.
I said to him as if he were Steve Jobs, “This is not cool at all.” And, I said to myself, Ill get used to it since I do very much want to be cool. Cool enough, in fact, so that when the New York Times every month or so publishes it Circuits section I’ll be able to read the articles and understand them rather than do what I always do--immediately recycle it.
So today I turned right to the one article that seemed to deal with computing—the one linked below about Flash Drives. You know those things that plug into your U.S.B. slot. What the Times calls “those little data suitcases.” Gadgets that allow you to . . . . To tell you the truth I have no idea what. But they are getting cooler and cooler because, the Times reports, they are now being designed to be fit into things such as pens and bracelets and heart-shaped pendants. Gift items, in other words. Stocking stuffers which have become so ubiquitous that they now have a new name of their own—“Invisidrives.”
This is all too advanced for me. But I am trying my best and promise to get with it before too long. But I also know I’ll continue to miss my Delete key
This made me very nervous. I was totally addicted to me little SONY Vaio and, as someone adverse to radical change—except in the larger world, I was certain that I would never be able to figure out much less get comfortable doing my work, which mainly involves writing, e-mailing, and some Internet surfing, using a new operating system. Especially since I have no idea whatsoever what an “operating system” is.
But these very reliable friends kept pressing on me to at least go to the Apple store to see how easy it is to use a Mac. This then I did; and before too long I wound up buying one, a MacBook Pro, largely because I liked the look of it and thought if I ever went to a Starbucks (unlikely) and toted it along with me (less likely), I’d fit right in among the 20-somethings.
When I got it home and freed it from its sumptuous packaging, all I needed to do was push the on-off button and sit back to await the graphic ride of my life. I had grown used to the dour PC icons and images; but with the Mac powered up I was swirled into an array of images at the so-called Dock at the bottom of the luminous screen--the Picasso-like, cubistic face that takes one to the Finder (I’m still trying to figure out what I will find if I ever take a chance and click on that smiley face); the Dashboard clock or dial—I’m not sure which it is and what it connects me to; and the Safari compass, which I quickly learned is my portal to the amazing Internet. Wow!
Rona next installed the software we bought so I could continue using Microsoft Word for my writing—there is a limit to how much of the old I am willing to let go of before making a total switch over. And since I truly do want to make that switch I gather I will eventually have to have my Mac, if it is to remain pure and uncorrupted, Microsoft-Free. You see, I’m learning already.
My first working experience with the Mac was to draft yesterday’s blog. Traditionally I do this as a Word document and then copy and paste it onto the Blogspot Web page that then allows me to publish it for all to see. No problem there—it works the same way on the Mac as on the old Vaio.
There was, though, another problem that I encountered almost immediately. I’m a poor typer and speller and need to do a lot of text editing along the way. This includes a considerable amount of deleting. It quickly became apparent that on the Mac the only way to delete a word or phrase was from left-to-right using the Delete key. There appeared to be no way to do this in the non-Hebraic direction, left-to-right. On the PC this was easy to do since there is both a Delete key for left-to-right deleting and a Backspace key to do just that—backspace.
Since I assumed I was doing something, considering it took me two weeks to learn how to turn on and then log onto my SONY, I walked over to the Mac store to find out what I was doing wrong. As you might imagine I was feeling pretty stupid, not to mention very uncool.
The accommodating and youthful Apple staffer matter-of-factly told me that I wasn’t wrong. “You see,” he said, “on the full keyboard there are both keys but on the laptops one had to be eliminated to make room for these.” The “these” he was referring to were the stereo speakers on both sides of the keyboard which, to assure full fidelity, were huge thus making it necessary to eliminate a host of keys, including the one that would allow me and other real-writers to delete in both directions.
I said to him as if he were Steve Jobs, “This is not cool at all.” And, I said to myself, Ill get used to it since I do very much want to be cool. Cool enough, in fact, so that when the New York Times every month or so publishes it Circuits section I’ll be able to read the articles and understand them rather than do what I always do--immediately recycle it.
So today I turned right to the one article that seemed to deal with computing—the one linked below about Flash Drives. You know those things that plug into your U.S.B. slot. What the Times calls “those little data suitcases.” Gadgets that allow you to . . . . To tell you the truth I have no idea what. But they are getting cooler and cooler because, the Times reports, they are now being designed to be fit into things such as pens and bracelets and heart-shaped pendants. Gift items, in other words. Stocking stuffers which have become so ubiquitous that they now have a new name of their own—“Invisidrives.”
This is all too advanced for me. But I am trying my best and promise to get with it before too long. But I also know I’ll continue to miss my Delete key
posted by Steven Zwerling at
10:15 AM
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