tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post3512462195787986330..comments2009-01-07T08:03:35.312-05:00David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-9791351420492366212008-10-06T19:23:17.341-04:002008-10-06T19:23:17.341-04:00David:<BR/><BR/>Thanks for inspiring me to write my "Switcher" story. <BR/>You can countless others. Please check it out at:<BR/><BR/>http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/my_switcher_manifesto_why_switching_mac_was_right_move_me<BR/><BR/>Regards, <BR/><BR/>DavidDavid W. Martinhttp://www.iphonesavant.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-76059294642617688552008-09-24T14:22:29.295-04:002008-09-24T14:22:29.295-04:00@Nicholas: My wife is currently running an older, unpatched version of Wife 1.4. While the command set is essentially the same as newer versions there are quite a few quirky things that I've had to work through. In particular I'm hoping that after this upgrade her "Let's Redecorate the Bedroom" subsystem will not fire up as often as it does now. Only time will tell.David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-22393324531430224272008-09-24T14:16:18.051-04:002008-09-24T14:16:18.051-04:00I think my wife runs on some old version of Linux, because I have a really hard time figuring out what commands work with her. How'd you convert your wife to run on OS X?<BR/><BR/>;)Nicholas Tolsonhttp://jtnt.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-14666700375100397102008-09-24T00:02:08.839-04:002008-09-24T00:02:08.839-04:00remember the movie Artificial Intelligence: AI ?<BR/><BR/>there was a Blue Fairy, a symbol of everlasting love for children; your wife is school teacher and a mother of two.<BR/><BR/>the Macbook is white, the color of Snow<BR/><BR/>Snow FairyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-90628882281540165022008-09-23T23:50:16.186-04:002008-09-23T23:50:16.186-04:00Snow Fairy &gt; White MacbookAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-15005054164135789112008-09-22T08:13:52.889-04:002008-09-22T08:13:52.889-04:00@Raster: Thanks Jeff - I really like "Hope". Simple, short and meaningful. Perhaps "Faith" for the Time Capsule works because we'll have to have faith that it's actually backing up her files.<BR/><BR/>@SD: Yep, pronounced the same.David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-33783849355746387182008-09-22T06:38:11.478-04:002008-09-22T06:38:11.478-04:00"Allison Alison" ;-))<BR/>As I'm not native English speaker, is it pronounced the same?SDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05774078476512355231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-65512207304421318222008-09-20T17:06:29.986-04:002008-09-20T17:06:29.986-04:00Howdy David,<BR/><BR/>I've always had fun with the naming of my computer systems and various other network peripherals and gadgets. I almost always over think them, but it's a fun pastime. <BR/><BR/>I do like to do some minor research and find just the right clever name for a device and to try to match it to the individual or circumstance.<BR/><BR/>Please forgive the following short story (Humor):<BR/><BR/>When installing a small computer network many years ago over summer break at a grade school in rural Oregon, I came up with the idea of naming all the systems after our solar system. <BR/><BR/>This worked quite well as it was educational and we had exactly 10 systems including the server...<BR/><BR/>It made perfect sense to name the server "Sol" and from that point on each system for the various teachers were named after planets according to my recollection of their personality. <BR/><BR/>When summer ended and all the teachers came back to their classrooms they loved the amount of thought I'd put into who got named what.<BR/><BR/>The only person that required a name change to his system was the Vice Principal. I renamed his system to "Planet X."<BR/><BR/>All the teachers felt that the original name of "Uranus" fit the circumstances much better, but he was the one writing the checks after all! :-)<BR/><BR/>Anyway, onto your project:<BR/><BR/>How about "Hope?"<BR/><BR/>As in you hope she loves it, you hope she takes to it quickly, and you hope she never has to go back to a Windows box! It's optimistic, short, sweet and easy to remember.<BR/><BR/>Also, don't forget to name the Time Capsule too. Maybe "Pandora's Box." It's a nice tie-in with "Hope" and has the whole Greek thing going for it.<BR/><BR/>Here's another possibility along a completely different line... <BR/><BR/>How about "Phoenix." Since it's a refurb, the whole idea of the rising from the ashes to live a again seems apropos.<BR/><BR/>I admit, I've already named one of my refurb systems "Benu" which is one of the alternate spellings for the Bennu Bird and roughly the Egyptian equivalent of the Phoenix.<BR/><BR/>It may be time to start a blog or website for Mac naming assistance similar to the baby name sites out there!<BR/><BR/>Cheers!<BR/><BR/>---RASTERRASTERMANhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07767279726069488003noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-51539569349181456892008-09-20T04:41:25.976-04:002008-09-20T04:41:25.976-04:00Been there - done that - almost survived - if she uses Outlook you will find this well worth the $US10<BR/><BR/>O2M (Outlook to Mail)<BR/><BR/>http://www.littlemachines.com/download.phpPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03277001405204532937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-33896058380867525012008-09-19T23:15:58.906-04:002008-09-19T23:15:58.906-04:00@WalkerJ: Thanks for the feedback on the Bluetooth interference issue - I hadn't thought of that. Welles has me thinking of the Logitech for her; since that USB receiver is so small that may be the way to go.<BR/><BR/>Your lift-off analogy is great; I only have a couple of things plugged into my MacBook Pro but it feels like that when I need to pull it as well. Lately I've just been using the track pad to keep it more mobile.<BR/><BR/>@Steve: Husband points; I like it. The first thing I thought of with that name was <A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001222/" REL="nofollow">Calista Flockhart</A> though. My wife would probably look at me and wonder why I did that. "Because it's Greek for Most Beautiful!". Allison: "So she's the most beautiful person to you, is she?!?"<BR/><BR/>I don't like where that one might go.<BR/><BR/>@Gerry: I do have a spare wide screen monitor that I may hook her up with, though she seemed to be pretty happy with the 13" when she was trying out our daughter's MacBook.<BR/><BR/>@Max: I didn't go with Mobile Me. Even though we're flush with Macs and iPhones now I don't see the value based on the cost. Glad you like reading the blog! I'm not writing as often as I used to but it's still fun to jump into it, especially if it helps me keep my mind off the stock market.David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-91052924162109166232008-09-19T21:12:19.636-04:002008-09-19T21:12:19.636-04:00P.S. VMWare Fusion 2.0 came out.MaxPughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09097954115532329502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-30648169356854278042008-09-19T21:09:05.728-04:002008-09-19T21:09:05.728-04:00David, <BR/><BR/>I always enjoy reading your blog. You post something at 10:00AM and by 9:04PM you have 27 comments. I read in your blog switching to iWork from Office. I just bought my copy of iWork yesterday for my birthday. I did have a question for you did you go with .MAC/mobileMe? <BR/><BR/>For a name I always string things together so my suggestion would be MOMWIFETEACHERLAWYER.<BR/><BR/>MaxMaxPughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09097954115532329502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-59506200269899565072008-09-19T20:30:43.718-04:002008-09-19T20:30:43.718-04:00Hi David. I like to use native american names on my home network, like hopi, zuni, lenape, seneca, mohawk, cree. <BR/><BR/>I went with the 4G memory too. I thought I'd need it for running Parallels.<BR/><BR/>You might want to get your wife a second monitor at some point. It makes a huge difference.gerry.crocehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16633833264107682150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-84106169938287253362008-09-19T19:17:53.766-04:002008-09-19T19:17:53.766-04:00What about "Callista?" I'm not a Star Wars nerd, but I found it on wikipedia's list of star war names:<BR/><BR/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_characters<BR/><BR/>And it's from the greek for "Most Beautiful". So you win "husband points." :-)Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11653309983681734843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-54569150795887798632008-09-19T18:16:58.486-04:002008-09-19T18:16:58.486-04:00My close friend didn't want to wait when I warned him new iBooks were due. He jumped in and bought one anyway. A G4 iBook. A couple of weeks later the Intel MacBook arrived, was twice as fast and cost less. He was sick about it, The old saw, anything worth having is worth waiting for certainly applied there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-88569720469175695632008-09-19T16:05:31.566-04:002008-09-19T16:05:31.566-04:00I know you're set on bluetooth for a mouse/keyboard, and I have the same deal in the form of a Mighty Mouse and Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard, but keep in mind this caveat: Bluetooth doesn't have a whole lot of bandwidth apparently. I know this because I use it to talk to my phone, and when it's transferring pictures, contacts, ringtones etc. over bluetooth I gotta remember to shut off my mouse and keyboard because during that time they become quite unusable and the transfer slows down even more than it would be otherwise.<BR/><BR/>But hey, it's not a big deal since my Macbook has that brilliant built-in trackpad and it's own keyboard. Plus it beats buying a cable for my phone.<BR/><BR/>Good luck with your wife's conversion. It didn't take a whole lot to get my wife converted over. She's happy as can be with her sexy black Macbook that she's happy to use with just it's own screen, keyboard, trackpad, and portability. Me, I have to hang a 23" external LCD, a firewire external drive, a USB external drive, a USB hub with printer, scanner, Wacom, camera, media reader, external speakers and the bluetooth mouse/keyboard off my Macbook!<BR/><BR/>Going portable with this thing is like launching the Space Shuttle with it's own checklist. *) Monitor off disconnect; *) Resize dock; *) All windows to internal; *) Eject external drives; *) Firewire disconnect *) USB drive disconnect; *) External speakers disconnect; *) Mouse off (won't sleep otherwise) *) Power to internal (disconnect magsafe); *) Lid closure *) 'breathing' sleep light confirm... LIFTOFF! ;)<BR/><BR/>-walkerj from the Mac forums.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-44124445748670618862008-09-19T14:30:28.303-04:002008-09-19T14:30:28.303-04:00Computer names? You got it!<BR/><BR/>Blend two words to get...<BR/>Lawucator<BR/>Law-ucator<BR/>Edu-torney<BR/>Ed Torney<BR/>Lawschool <BR/>Legal Ed<BR/>Ed Law<BR/>Eddie Law<BR/>Eddy Law <BR/><BR/>Or mix up...<BR/>Perry Mason<BR/>Ally McBeal<BR/><BR/>With...<BR/>Mr. Chips<BR/>Mr. Kotter<BR/><BR/>To get...<BR/>Perry Kotter<BR/>Perry Chips<BR/>Ally Kotter<BR/>Ally Chips<BR/><BR/>And there were all those teachers on <I>Room 222</I>. But that may be too obscure.<BR/><BR/>Hope these are helpful. I know she's gonna be thrilled with her new Mac.<BR/><BR/>John R.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-10110444730160405342008-09-19T14:28:35.981-04:002008-09-19T14:28:35.981-04:00@qka: Thanks for the heads up on the printer promotion. I indeed saw that but we're full up on printers here with a good mix of multi-function black laser, color laser and injet photo printers.<BR/><BR/>I've noticed that printers are now going for ridiculously low prices; keep in mind the cost of replacement cartridges for them. That's often where the vendor makes up the promotional price. I've also noticed that every printer I've bought recently had a "micro" sized cartridge that only has a fraction of the capacity of standard replacement cartridges—usually on the order of 50% of what a standard replacement cartridge contains. They do this so you will have to go out and buy a much higher margin replacement sooner rather than later.<BR/><BR/>@Keleko: I would really like to get her comfortable with the keyboard that's built into the MacBook. She doesn't use the numeric keyboard on her laptop right now so I don't think that will be a factor. She loves the idea of portability and I'm trying to get this machine set up so that she simply pops the magnetic power cord and grabs the machine. We'll see how that works out.David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-32122477329117043332008-09-19T14:24:36.768-04:002008-09-19T14:24:36.768-04:00I would suggest Hypatia, as a name for the MacBook.Owennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-7846234539070690132008-09-19T14:18:42.196-04:002008-09-19T14:18:42.196-04:00I believe that currently there is a promotion going on at the Apple stores for a $100 rebate on select printers (making a $99 printer free!); this rebate was not part of the summer educational promotion. You may want to investigate the printer promotion deadline and take that into your buying plans.qkanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-44518100566050274032008-09-19T14:18:12.243-04:002008-09-19T14:18:12.243-04:00I use the Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard. It isn't bluetooth, but that actually helps in that I can leave bluetooth turned off to save power when I've gone mobile. It also makes it easy to swap it between computers by just moving the receiver dongle. I did that for a while when using the work laptop on the same desk as the personal laptop. While "at work" I just plugged it into the work laptop.<BR/><BR/>The other reason I got the Logitech wireless over Apple's is the Logitech has a numeric keypad. I do some accounting duties which makes having the number pad pretty much required. That may be important for her attorney needs, too.<BR/><BR/>I have a Time Capsule, and it is just perfect for my backups. The disk is a little loud when it is running, though. It isn't spinning-whine loud but static-noise when writing noise. I can always tell when Time Machine is going to run when I hear the Time Capsule disk start up. I also use it to share my music files to my work laptop in my office. I don't use iTunes on my windows laptop, so it doesn't interfere with the files there. I just use it as a read-only network shared drive for the music files. I back them up separately from Time Machine so I can get to them.Kelekohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05973169521321800308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-25540703883557215262008-09-19T14:10:14.161-04:002008-09-19T14:10:14.161-04:00@Welles: I like the tiny receiver on that mouse - would be even better if it was just Bluetooth though. Thanks for the link. While I hate the drivers that Logitech has forced on the Mac community I really like the hardware they produce and it is my preferred mouse. My wife has small hands so I may see if the <A HREF="http://www.davidalison.com/2008/02/of-mice-and-men.html" REL="nofollow">Microsoft Bluetooth Laptop Mouse</A> I tried out a few months ago (but gave up on) will be a good fit for her.<BR/><BR/>@Chris: She really is not technically inclined at all - computers are tools to her and she views them in a very impersonal way. My hope is that she gets into this Mac like she has her iPhone and starts to use it as more than an e-mail / web browsing / word processing device. If that does happen then round about Christmas I'll be upgrading her to a newer MacBook and pushing this MacBook down to my son, the last one in the house still on a PC. All part of the plan ;-)<BR/><BR/>@William: thanks for the reminder on Open Office. I should let her try that out and see if it works for what she needs. She has lots of .DOC and a few .docx files to deal with and that's the standard medium at her school. She also deals with PowerPoint PPT files as well so I have to factor that in.<BR/><BR/>@Darren: I really like Cicero, very appropriate. That's in the lead now for me.David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-34429706912569072822008-09-19T14:00:36.966-04:002008-09-19T14:00:36.966-04:00Open office 3 is a M$ office alternative that might be easier than Pages if she has to deal with .doc and .docx with the school. In Pages you have to import and export to the formats instead of just working with them as is. Bean is simple and fast for .doc also, if basic needs are all you need.Williamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07734459097095037203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-60987134142686030102008-09-19T13:44:56.306-04:002008-09-19T13:44:56.306-04:00Re: Buying before the MacBook update<BR/><BR/>[controversial]Is it because you don't want the wife to have a Mac with newer/better features than yours?[/controversial]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-75782132595052839122008-09-19T12:53:37.302-04:002008-09-19T12:53:37.302-04:00Ouch, *bad* time to be buying an Apple laptop, with new models imminent. Even if the new models don't offer anything you can't live without, at the very least you'd get a much better deal on the current models.<BR/><BR/>And if the new models *are* a significantly better redesign, your wife will be unhappy to have the outdated model.Chrishttp://www.equixotic.comnoreply@blogger.com