sundries

[rm]

What my mother had for me did turn out to be money from my grandfather's estate. Not a huge amount, but enough that I can buy a new computer, which I've needed to do for at least a year, and definitely go to Britain with Patty (Cardiff!) in April and then put the rest responsibly into savings.

All of which means I need to make some computer decisions. I have no idea what I want, but I'd like to do this before Dragon*Con. There are pros and cons to both Macs and PCs for me (I'm only looking at laptops btw). Uses are Intnernet and word processing mainly. Needs to not get cranky about things like PowerPoint and Photoshop, and if it's a PC has to run Access (don't ask) well. If it wouldn't kick the price too much higher, video editing capabilities are of potential interest. Ideally wanting to spend around $1300 or less, but willing to go higher for some random convincing reason.

My father's self-publishing "empire" continues apace. But, he's decided to do a book of all these vintage pinup photos he's collected from 1910, and I told him, yes, I can help promote that! So maybe my father finally has a good plan. He's also doing a book of his photography -- it's 50 years of New York City stuff, and he's got a good eye, so that might be something I'm willing to help him out with too.

We talked about Mad Men a bit. My father's first job was at BBD&O in 1955 and he worked at J. Walter Thompson during the era of Ehrlichman and has some pretty chilling stories about all of that. He was shocked by how much I remember of Madison Avenue from my childhood. It was pretty interesting, and he should be racing to write this stuff down, not all this other stuff he works on.

I finished the essay -- an hour and a half late, but hopefully the editor will be forgiving.

Comments

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

My grandfather worked in PR in the early days under Ivy Lee, but he was still working in Manhattan in the 1950s. I wonder if their paths ever crossed. It's a long shot, but still...

[ckd]

Using Boot Camp you can boot a Mac into Windows, at which point you basically have a Windows box with shinier hardware. (Boot Camp is included with Mac OS X, but you have to buy or otherwise acquire Windows.) A somewhat nicer way to do things is to use Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion to run a virtualized Windows install inside Mac OS X, but for those you need to buy both the software and Windows.

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

I am personally fond of VMWare Fusion. I find the ability to open window apps within the osx enviroment very helpfull, and I've had good experiences with it.

[tearsinger.livejournal.com]

I like virtual box better for this. It is free, stable and open source.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Do you need a new monitor too?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh, only looking at laptops!

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Ahhh - I say Toshiba or Fujitsu. They are both hardy specimens and come in reasonably priced options. (That Fujitsu I had when I first met you is still kicking along despite everything.)

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

Oooh do you think you'd be going up to North Wales/Chester?

[rm.livejournal.com]

No idea, this is all SUPER random right now. Basically Patty had a paper accepted at a conference down in London and I was like "I should tag along" and she was like "I'll be working" and I said "well, I'll go to Wales or something and then we can do the weekend in London" and that's about where it stands now.

There's also the I don't drive factor, combined with my INSANE friends who think I should learn to drive for this trip, which both makes Perfect Sense and is also Probably A Really Bad Idea.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Well, it's one of the best places in the world for not-driving. Best public transportation EVER.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

If I'm still in the UK at that point, I could easily pop down to London to meet up ...

[weirdquark]

I think Macs tend to be better for video editing and come with a bunch of software with the pre-installed package. I've never used any of the video editing stuff on mine, so I don't know how easy/good it is. As far as I can tell, iMovie is designed for people who want to take their home video footage and put it together with music, so it may not quite be what you want. I have used Garage Band to edit music my a cappella group does and it has some features that are kind of neat and other features that I hate. I'll bet iMovie is the same way.

I have Microsoft Office on my MacBook and everything (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) works fine, although Excel has this weird thing where instead of clicking in a cell and being able to add to whatever is already there, you have to delete old content and re-enter all of the new content. (Unless there's some way to change that that I haven't found yet.) You'll need to check on whether word processing comes with the standard software package -- my old Mac had some Mac word processing software, my current one came with a trial version of Word and nothing else, so in order to continue to have word processing, I had to get Office separately. If that's still true, that's an additional cost factor.

You can get Photoshop for a Mac -- I don't have it, so I can't tell you whether it gets cranky or not -- however, Macs don't come with Paint or anything similar, so if you want to edit image files, you'll need to get it separately.

If you want to get into video editing, you'll be wanting a bigger monitor, which will kick the price higher. This is not so much an argument for spending more money, but you'll have to think about whether getting a bigger monitor is worth the higher price.

In short: Macs come with free video and music editing capabilities and no word processing. WTF, Apple?

[tearsinger.livejournal.com]

Double click in the box to add to it. It took me forever to get used to this.

Photoshop is great on the Mac. I use Gimp because it is free and similar.

[weirdquark]

Ah ha! I knew there was some trick I was missing. Thanks!

[misch.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a laptop, I would say to keep an eye to the forums at fatwallet.com.

Even deals for macs come up there too.

[fleur.livejournal.com]

Well, I sell Macs, so any questions you might have, fire away.

If you can, I'd wait until Snow Leopard ships in a month if you go Mac; otherwise you'll have to pay $9.99 and install the upgrade anyway.

[cozzene.livejournal.com]

I will give you my opinion on laptops. I just helped a friend purchase a nice model Toshiba...

IMO:
*AMD processor over anything Intel
*Dual Core not single or Centrino
*IF you can find one with an independent video card you are better off.
*Get something with XP or downgradable to XP from Vista. Vista is a ram hog and useless is nearly everything it does if/when it decides to be compatible with software. Windows 7 is around the corner and most Sony and Toshiba models are coming with a free upgrade to 7 when it comes out in a couple months.
*Do not get 64 bit...lots of bugs and most software is not compatible with it.

I built a PC version of the above a few months back and it's the damned best computer I've ever owned; pretty much NASA capable.

I don't like MACS because I feel you can build a PC much cheaper/buy a laptop that's repairable/upgradable much more readily that anything MAC equivalent.

[cozzene.livejournal.com]

and I have free Photoshop for you and CS if you get a laptop.

[fragiletender.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to come and stay with us in Bristol if you need a base to explore the West Country. We have good trains & you can easily get a train from London to Bristol and then Bristol to Cardiff.

[fragiletender.livejournal.com]

We're just over the border from Cardiff - I think it's about 3/4 hour by train or something. It's about an hour to drive.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I needed a new machine when I went to San Francisco last month (hubby left the backpack with my old laptop on BART; luckily it's made its way back to us but I couldn't be without a machine for a month) and got a Toshiba Netbook. I love it.

I went with the upgrades that Best Buy suggested, especially the extra memory so I could edit photos.

I got it primarily for web surfing, e-mail checking, photo editiing, and the occasional word processing.

One of the reason's I love it so much is its size. It's smaller than most of the Harry Potter hard back books! ;-p I can stuff it in most of my every day bags and be good to go. I can finally have the access to computers that I've been dreaming about since 4th grade! (Woohoo!)