Back to the Mac?

Not really. Well, slightly.

Last weekend I went up to Kirkham to visit my cousin Pauline who is going through chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer. Just one more chemo session to go, which is good news as she's been through rather a lot with it. We didn't really do much apart from go to a dog show on Saturday which was good fun. Other than that it was pretty much a lot of sitting around and chatting and enjoying the nice weather. I admire the way she is coping more than I can say, maintaining a positive outlook and looking forward can't be easy when going through that.

Not much else to report. The bike is still going OK. I thought that it would only run with the choke full on, but turns out I had the lever positions backwards - nothing wrong at all. I took it out last night in the nearly rain and also dusk, which was quite an interesting experience. Also went around Denbigh a little to make myself go through junctions and traffic lights on it, to get used to doing that. Also practiced low speed maneuvering with the clutch. Scary stuff but gettting used to it.

The Mac thing, well, Apple originally lost me when they went to Intel. I've written before that now the hardware is basically the same as a PC, it's difficult to justify the extra cost even with the nice build quality and Mac OS X. I did look into creating a Hackintosh but getting OS X running on a PC is pretty painful. But after rebuilding six MacBooks in work for a school and digging out my old iBook I found a cheap MacBook on Fleabay. Cheap because it was used by an artist who didn't really clean it very often so it'll eventually need a new keyboard and top case but it works fine. So I'm looking forward to getting my hands on an Intel Mac for the first time. It's one of the early MacBooks but that's fairly similar to the PC machines I'm using now, so it'll be interesting to compare.

I've been using Windows XP in work and at home for several years now, and Windows 7 more recently. As a result I'm pretty happy with how they work, the quirks of the platform and how to make it run well. As I've not used a Mac properly for so long, it'll be nice to get myself more familiar with it again.

Not very happy with Apple though, the company is becoming increasingly arrogant and I don't like the iPhone platform. I think it's too closed off and censored, and it bothers me that this closed down walled garden approach seems to be such a success. Also the hype for the iPad is bonkers. 'A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.' Magical? Really?

I sold the E90. I had to do it, but it was a shame to get rid of it. What a great phone it was. The N97 is still going OK although I really need to get a new lense for the camera and install the new keyguard switch.

Downloaded the latest Eisbrecher album which came out in April. Definitely one of my favourite bands.