It's been a busy summer. I'm back at work after a two week vacation, the last week of which Heather came out to visit. We took a few day trips to some Belgian cities (Brugge, Liege, Maasricht and the beach at Oostende) and then flew to Berlin for four days. We returned last night, and Heather boarded her flight back to the US this morning. I will post some of the good pictures once I get them sorted. But I want to announce that I am typing this on my new (to me) Mac. (Warning: If you don't care about computers, you should skip this one and check back in a few days when I get some pictures posted.)
The Dell that Dad gave me last year has been bulletproof. It's a 6 year old computer (about 108 in people years) and is faster than most of the other computers I use. The secret? I keep it lean and mean without putting a lot of stuff on it. And it runs Windows XP, which is fast and efficient despite being a decade old. But the keys are starting to break, and the power cord needs to be propped up with a bottle cap in order to get it to charge, and a few weeks ago I plugged it in and it blew the master breaker in the apartment, which seems like a cue that it is time to upgrade. My uncle Bert graciously gave me his old MacBook Pro (which Heather brought over with her). I've been a die-hard PC user and defender since 1994, so this wasn't a small change.
I remember back in the 1990's when computer processors were doubling in speed every two years. Back then, a computer took about 90 seconds to boot up. With the growing speed of computers we computer nerds were promised faster boot times, as little as 5 seconds. This reality, however, never materialized. As processor power increased, the new resources were devoted to maintaining operating systems ever-increasing in complexity. As such, my laptop at work - with a clock speed 60 times faster and with 250 times more memory than my family's first computer - takes over 2 minutes to boot. This same laptop when shutting down gives me enough time to take my cups to the kitchen, wash them, dry them and put them away, and even then sometimes it hasn't been able to shut itself down, causing me to just pull the plug from the wall in frustration. What the hell happened?
Granted, the work laptop is running Windows Vista, which is widely regarded as the worst product Microsoft ever produced. But it's been a long time since a supposed "upgrade" made my life any easier. I've noticed that every new redesign of Windows is merely a snapshot of what Apple was doing 3 years ago. So I wanted to try a computer that was thoughtfully designed with features that I would actually want to use. As I get older, I'm much less inclined to want to fiddle around with technology to get it to work. I just want to turn the computer on and have it quickly doing what I want it to do.
There are some downsides to Macs. I have already run into a few compatibility issues, and many programs are made for the PC only. But this computer boots up fast, runs programs quickly and efficiently and shuts itself down in 5 seconds or less. It doesn't bombard me with questions and messages that I don't care about. It doesn't sit there and constantly churn. And the layout is visually pleasing, something that Windows has had 18 years to get right but fails at, in my opinion.
When I informed people about my switch, Mac people usually gushed about how much they love their computers, while PC people usually responded with "Huh." So I sense that there is quite a divide between the two camps. I still will probably always use a PC for work, but it's nice to be able to come home to something that requires much less effort to use and maintain.
OK, none of that was about Belgium, so I'll try to be quick about posting some Belgian stuff, once I figure out how to import pictures into the new computer.
