Symphonix's virtual self suddenly re-animates, startling Ed who had been using him for a hat-stand. He yawns, scratches nervously, and sips at the stale beer in front of him. "Eww. That's bad. What did I miss?"
I've been having a really frustrating week. My car has a $#%%ered clutch, thanks to some incompetent jerk at the garage, and now it sounds like I'm driving one of those friction-powered toy cars. Not to mention changing gears is like arm-wrestling with a grizzly bear. I intend to make them fix it on pain of whatever I can hold over them, simply on the principle of it.
But that seems like the least of my worries lately. Thankfully I have some holidays now, at least.
And, I have just finished setting up a PC for my sister, and am remembering why I went to mac in the first place. At first it wouldn't power on at all, and I tracked down a loose connector between the power supply and the motherboard. Then, I found the floppy drive didn't work. Finally, I installed the only to OS's I had that don't need a floppy to install: Linux and (gasp) Windows XP!
Now, it's been about a year since I last picked up Linux, and I'm amazed at how much it continues to grow and how much easier and simpler it is each time. Linux was a pleasure to set up and to use, and I'd recommend it for anyone still stuck with a PC.
On the other hand, Windows XP is a joke. Okay, so it doesn't crash much. I am glad to see they finally have something reasonably stable (touch wood). But the interface must have been designed by a comittee of beaureaucrats. There is no rhyme nor reason to half of the "features" or their location in the heirarchy of the control panels. XP seems to spend more effort trying to impress me with childish visual effects than it does actually doing anything useful - and it can't even anti-alias its fonts properly! It breaks every single rule ever laid out in the Guide to GUI Design.
It treats the user like a baby and the system like a toy.
Then, in the same day, I installed the latest Office XP on my sister's PC, and the Office v.X for Mac on my iBook. From the point of view of installation, they are worlds apart. (FYI, I paid for my copy, at Student prices Office isn't too bad).
Oh, and my brother in law was looking at buying a $6500 Dell laptop, and I pointed him in the direction of the PowerBook ... he was impressed with what he saw on the web, but I have the feeling he'd want to get his hands on one to try before he'd switch. Since the nearest Apple dealer is more than 1.5 hours away, I can only hope he'll take the time.