me On A Mac

I'm working on a Mac right now and I feel completely out of my element. I wanted to download a file from our school server and had to get help. But it turns out you can ftp from a Mac just like from a PC, and you don't need to use Fetch or other programs like that. In fact, I don't even need to use an FTP program at all on a PC even. It made me feel all programmer-y to learn this, even though truthfully I don't know what I'm doing. But just typing commands into a black window makes me feel all technological and stuff.

I even figured out how to call up a terminal window all by myself and telnet to my email account on this Mac. Of course, I can't figure out how to cut and paste in the email window since there's no right button on the mouse...

You know, one day when I learn this stuff I'm going to be embarrassed to read about how technologically stupid I am. :)

Anyway, the reason I'm on a Mac is because I'm running subjects on my final experiment, and the program is on the lab laptop, so that leaves me to find another computer to work on in the meantime. So I am on the Mac desktop in the lab.

Part of me thinks it would be nice to have a Mac one day, mainly because they're supposed to be "better" and "easier" (and "prettier"). But I can't quite figure out what's "better" about them, particularly with regard to photography. Matt Thomas told me once that Macs display colors the same way a printer would print them, so you get a better match between what's on the screen and what gets printed. That sounded good to me at the time, but now I'm confused, because aren't printers limited in the color range they can print and so if that's all you get on the screen isn't this a bad thing?

And as for Macs being "easier", I haven't quite figured that out either. The only thing I've heard is that they have a Find function that allows you to search for files according to text within them (e.g., a document that contains the word "bamboozle") and that sounds nice. But that will be included in the next version of Windows so ultimately that's not going to be the difference. And yes, you don't need to keep up with the latest virus info because you're less vulnerable, but again, most virus protection programs update themselves. So who knows. Maybe this one button mouse is supposed to be easier?

As for "prettier", well, I just checked out my blog and ewww, it's pukey lime green. Why didn't anyone tell me? On my monitor it looks all nice and subtle and organic, but on this monitor, the unclicked links are bright lime green!

Similarly, I checked out my photoblog on J's monitor and the photos looked super saturated, almost painful to look at. Could the difference be that J's monitor and this Mac monitor are CRT and my laptop isn't? If anyone knows about such things, please let me know. I'm going to have to go in research mode about this. The differences seem to be pretty big, and if I'm going to be posting photos on the web, this is worth knowing about.

Anyway, I'm just rambling because for once I'm actually typing this out in the Typepad editor and not in my own editing window (Crimson, y'all, check it out) so I feel more chatty somehow, like I'm messaging with you and not typing up a "post". (By the way, why do people compose in their blog's editing window? I always read about lost posts and I can never figure out why people don't just compose outside of their browser so that if the post doesn't go through, then you don't lose it? Oh, but maybe people like to click on things like "add file" or "add link" and not have to code that stuff in themselves?)

I have more contentful stuff to write about... work and school and such, but I'll leave that for the next post.

Comments

[Kira]

my thought on macs is that they are especially easier when "things go wrong". i.e. when things aren't working right and you have to reinstall something that got corrupted. or reinstalling the OS. i haven't had a single problem on this computer yet though :)
installing and uninstalling programs is a snap usually. biggest complaints with the mac is that i am not fond of the two handed operations. i like right click or click and hold, not all these shortcuts where you hold a key down with one hand while you click. also i will never remember all the keyboard shortcuts for the mac.... it's not visual enough.
although my ultimate biggest complaint about the mac is what won't work with it. want to sell with a bulk loader on ebay? can't do it. want to view videos with OS 10 on mac on VH1.com or yahoo music? can't do it.
i really do love my mac. it's give and take though. if i were selling on ebay i wouldn't like it. i say do what is easiest for the kind of things that you want to do and for your budget.

[anonymouscoworker]

I find macs easier to work with when I'm doing video editing. The software they've designed makes it really simple, even for a novice like me.

[JtH]

I knew someone with one of those desktop macs that was an electric blue colour. Sorry, color. The best part in my mind was that there was one cable rather than all the windows pc spaghetti that I have currently running from printers and such. Couldn't work the thing for the life of me though.

[Double Dogged]

I would be at a lost with a Mac also. Hell, I still have a lot to learn about Windows.

[eebmore]

eh. i see both ends. I think the mac OS is more novice friendly. it took far less time for a tard like me to become familiar to the mac OS than it did for me to become familiar with windows. but man do I hate that slick mac marketing, makes me feel like a total fag for using one. Plus, the mac insularity means those who become dependent on the OS pretty much are steve jobs' lap dogs and end up paying whatever "they" demand of thier market. but, I do think it is funny that those who hate mac the most are typically IT geeks who just don't understand why the rest of us don't think in ones and zeros... like the rest of us care where the processor thingys on the inside of the computer comes from. It's all about the operating system.