08-21-2007, 11:27 PM
Well not brand new (refurbished) but you would never know it.
2.0 GHz C2D, 6X superdrive, 1GB of ram all wrapped in a pleasing, lightweight and durable package. Arrived at my front door in 7 days for less than a grand on my interest free credit card with warranty and purchase protection (75 bones a month for the next 14 months and it is paid off). And even though the screen is only 13.3 inches, it seems much bigger than that as I am switching from 4:3 to widescreen. I wasn't crazy about the idea of glossy, but it isn't as bad as I expected. Reflections disappear for me after a short while (not really, but seemingly.) Oh and I haven't played a computer game since Lode Runner came out so I don't feel too constrained by the GMA950. As for the keyboard- feels fine to me- I am just glad that it doesn't scratch my screen like it did on my pismo (I miss that sexy thing) Fits in my backpack and has that keen little mag-safe dohickey which is a godsend for my clumsy ass. (Don't ask about the Dell incident on the front porch). Has twice the wireless range of the Cisco 802.11b card that I have been using. Found out that I can see 6 wireless networks from my front porch and my neighbor appears to be running his network wide open and streaming his tunes to boot. Unfortunately, I need a password to get into "CrunchEasy's Crib". I'll see if I can find him/her. Did a little war driving as well. Actually was able to do a google search at 60 mph on the interstate while passing the Royal Inn. Then I checked my email from the parking lot in front of the Chinese restaurant and again in front of the Baptist church. Why? Just because I could.
I honestly can't understand why Macs only are only used by 7% of the students in engineering. It runs OSX and unix natively and with my free copy of XP Pro, it will run Windows via bootcamp by this weekend. Hell I could put linux on it as well and have all four (or more) OS's going simultaneously with parallels. Not to mention that I could also connect virtually to the network and use a solaris workstation or any of the SunBlade servers to run Matlab, Maple, SAS, Solidworks, or even OS/2 Warp if I wanted. (Need more Ram of course to do that all at once) Took me a couple of hours to get it set up with: sftp, imap, ssh, Microsoft Remote Desktop, X11, XTools to compile, Spice and the software to remotely connect to my on campus shared space (afs). Used SSH from the terminal to play around last night on the servers- pretty cool. As long as I have internet access I can securely save and retrieve files from my share directly from any application. I also have my desktop computer at home streaming my iTunes library to me using slimserver so I can listen to my music anywhere I have high speed access. Funny thing is- I am required to run Norton Anti-virus at all times when connected to the campus network. But since they didn't specify, I have it set to update the virus definitions monthly and only scan annually. Haven't figured out how to turn off the scanning of downloads though.
Quite a step up from my dual G4/450. And it brings up painful memories of the $1400 that I spent on my 6100/60 that ran slower than my roomate's Quadra. I just don't get why these aren't everywhere as they are an approved and supported computer for all campus use. FUD? I see a few specks of white sprinkled in to the row after row of black Lenovos. I guess I was naive to think that people would "get it" just like they got the iPod. (Those however are everywhere.) I am no evangelista, but I sure as hell won't be embarrassed to pull this baby out and show it to anyone who wants to see what it can do.
Oh and that Photo Booth thing is a trip. My wife and I played with it for an hour or more. Check out this happy fool.
Craig
2.0 GHz C2D, 6X superdrive, 1GB of ram all wrapped in a pleasing, lightweight and durable package. Arrived at my front door in 7 days for less than a grand on my interest free credit card with warranty and purchase protection (75 bones a month for the next 14 months and it is paid off). And even though the screen is only 13.3 inches, it seems much bigger than that as I am switching from 4:3 to widescreen. I wasn't crazy about the idea of glossy, but it isn't as bad as I expected. Reflections disappear for me after a short while (not really, but seemingly.) Oh and I haven't played a computer game since Lode Runner came out so I don't feel too constrained by the GMA950. As for the keyboard- feels fine to me- I am just glad that it doesn't scratch my screen like it did on my pismo (I miss that sexy thing) Fits in my backpack and has that keen little mag-safe dohickey which is a godsend for my clumsy ass. (Don't ask about the Dell incident on the front porch). Has twice the wireless range of the Cisco 802.11b card that I have been using. Found out that I can see 6 wireless networks from my front porch and my neighbor appears to be running his network wide open and streaming his tunes to boot. Unfortunately, I need a password to get into "CrunchEasy's Crib". I'll see if I can find him/her. Did a little war driving as well. Actually was able to do a google search at 60 mph on the interstate while passing the Royal Inn. Then I checked my email from the parking lot in front of the Chinese restaurant and again in front of the Baptist church. Why? Just because I could.
I honestly can't understand why Macs only are only used by 7% of the students in engineering. It runs OSX and unix natively and with my free copy of XP Pro, it will run Windows via bootcamp by this weekend. Hell I could put linux on it as well and have all four (or more) OS's going simultaneously with parallels. Not to mention that I could also connect virtually to the network and use a solaris workstation or any of the SunBlade servers to run Matlab, Maple, SAS, Solidworks, or even OS/2 Warp if I wanted. (Need more Ram of course to do that all at once) Took me a couple of hours to get it set up with: sftp, imap, ssh, Microsoft Remote Desktop, X11, XTools to compile, Spice and the software to remotely connect to my on campus shared space (afs). Used SSH from the terminal to play around last night on the servers- pretty cool. As long as I have internet access I can securely save and retrieve files from my share directly from any application. I also have my desktop computer at home streaming my iTunes library to me using slimserver so I can listen to my music anywhere I have high speed access. Funny thing is- I am required to run Norton Anti-virus at all times when connected to the campus network. But since they didn't specify, I have it set to update the virus definitions monthly and only scan annually. Haven't figured out how to turn off the scanning of downloads though.
Quite a step up from my dual G4/450. And it brings up painful memories of the $1400 that I spent on my 6100/60 that ran slower than my roomate's Quadra. I just don't get why these aren't everywhere as they are an approved and supported computer for all campus use. FUD? I see a few specks of white sprinkled in to the row after row of black Lenovos. I guess I was naive to think that people would "get it" just like they got the iPod. (Those however are everywhere.) I am no evangelista, but I sure as hell won't be embarrassed to pull this baby out and show it to anyone who wants to see what it can do.
Oh and that Photo Booth thing is a trip. My wife and I played with it for an hour or more. Check out this happy fool.
Craig
