[RE-wrenches] A Wrench's computer

Fri Apr 10 15:07:34 PDT 2009

Mac for certain - 25 years of owning a Mac and over 10 with a PC at  
work. You'll likely want a vpc program and a wireless keyboard and two  
button mouse for desk work. Don't buy the bottom of the line nor the  
top- you will like I think.

Ezra Auerbach

On 10-Apr-09, at 10:56 AM, Keith Cronin <electrichi01 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I also segued to a mac last fall and installed VMWare to bridge the  
> PC experience. Overall, I would recommend the transition.
> There is also incentive, if you live in a metro area- to get  
> training at the Apple store- it is $100 for the year and if you can  
> carve out time, you can take 1 lesson a week on a host of topics to  
> get up to speed rather quickly.
>
> I believe in the next 5 years, we will be agnostic on platforms, and  
> we will be primarily web based, as we want everything on the go. It  
> (wireless) will be inexpensive and ubiquitous in larger populaces  
> and my vision for larger mesh networks will cover all of us to  
> connect more readily. It is amazing, Get Smart's shoe phone to where  
> we are today is extraordinary and the innovation will only  
> accelerate..............................
>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
>
> Back to the mac- very robust machine architecture and relatively  
> simple to use and setup anything from wireless networking to  
> installing a printer. Their time machine feature also deserves  
> mentioning- it does incremental backups- meaning, it will take, like  
> a video of your activities and save the activities as they occur.  
> So, if you are working on a proposal, and doing alot of revisions,  
> it will archive them on a time line. If you ever wonder what you  
> where working on, lets say Monday, you can go back in time, and find  
> it. Very slick, as PC's, I believe, don't have this functionality to  
> date.
>
> Lastly, on the backup and if you still have a PC- I would highly  
> suggest subscribing to www.mozy.com for your laptop and office  
> server. Same theorem as above- incremental backups, when you are not  
> working on your machine- to the web. I did this a few months ago-  
> have almost 100GB of data archived there. Did take alot of time  
> (weeks) to upload, but it is all there, in a directory to grab  
> anything when I need it. Lets face it, when we do backups, like at  
> the office, we take either some DVD's or a hard drive, back and  
> forth every week. This eliminates this completely. Also, I found a  
> coupon code for their service- type in the word NEXT into the box  
> before you subscribe and it is $46 a year to back up everything for  
> one machine. The office/server flavored subscription is alot more,  
> but this also frees up your time to focus on your business.
>
> Another great wrench tool list addition!
>
> From: Kurt Albershardt <info at es-ee.com>
> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 7:19:16 AM
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] A Wrench's computer
>
> As yet another long-time PC veteran (after IBM SNA and PDP-11s) with  
> way too much Windows internals experience, I also just purchased my  
> first Mac.  Installed Parallels to support Quickbooks (still no  
> integrated payroll on their Mac version.)
>
> I have a maxed-out MacBook Pro as a desktop replacement but I will  
> say that the integrated graphics (9400M) is quite adequate even for  
> large SketchUp models - so the plain MacBook looks like a heckuva  
> deal given its monoblock case design and low price.  The MagSafe  
> power connector is pure genius.
>
> If you click on the new trackpads with two fingers, you get the  
> right-click context menu all us Windows power users miss.  The other  
> shortcut it took me awhile to find was <command> + <~> which is  
> equivalent to <ctrl> + <F6> in Windows (move to next window in a  
> multiple document interface.)
>
>
>
>
>
> On 4/10/09 9:56 AM, Larry Crutcher, Starlight Solar wrote:
> > Joel,
> > After 28 years of business computing dating from my George Morrow  
> CPM machine, I purchased my first Mac, a MackBook Pro, 2.4GHz. After  
> 6 months, I have very mixed feelings about it. I love the battery  
> life and simplicity of features and included programs. Although I am  
> still in a steep learning curve, there are many things that  
> frustrate me daily. NO right click button means you need to plug in  
> a mouse so you can use the many options accessible by a right click.  
> I have my old Sharp laptop PC on the other desk and find that I  
> often scoot my rolling chair to it to quickly accomplish something.  
> Perhaps it is just because it is familiar.
> >
> > The MacBook seems rugged, has a fairly bright screen although my  
> Sharp has a sunlight readable, 400 NIT backlight. I am sure once I  
> learn, or just put up with, the intricateness of the Mac, it will be  
> just fine. Here's a really positive note: It has never crashed or  
> locked up...yet. What a feeling!
> >
> > Larry Crutcher
> >
> > On Apr 10, 2009, at 8:26 AM, Joel Davidson wrote:
> >
> >> Wrenches,
> >> Some Wrenches include their notebook computer among their most  
> valued tools. My 2001 IBM T23 notebook has served me well in the  
> office and on the road, but it is getting a little long in the  
> tooth. What notebook computer do you all recommend? As always, thank  
> you very much for your valuable advice.
> >> Best regards,
> >> Joel Davidson
> >> _______________________________________________
>
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