[RE-wrenches] A Wrench's computer

Fri Apr 10 16:18:46 PDT 2009

Hi All,

I've been into Macs since '84 - we have 6 in the office - my 17" 
MacBook Pro is the second brain to my business.

Ease of use - rock solid OS - rock solid hardware -  elegant 
interface - VMWare Fusion makes it both a Mac and fast full fledged 
PC - best of both worlds.  .mac can provide some great syncing 
features for a multiple person small office - we use ichat for 3 and 
4 way video conferences which Skype can't do.

Always been the way to go in my book.

Best,

Jeff C.
Village Power Design

>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 
><<mailto:electrichi01 at yahoo.com>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>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 <<mailto:info at es-ee.com>info at es-ee.com>
>>To: RE-wrenches 
>><<mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>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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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Senior Design Engineer
NABCEP (tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
http://www.nabcep.org/
Village Power Design/NorthEast Solar Design
Turnkey Solar Design & Installation for the Commercial Sector
http://www.villagepower.com
gosolar at villagepower.com

Voice: 413-259-3750
Fax: 413-825-0703
65 Schoolhouse Rd
Amherst, MA 01002
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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