Thursday, December 30, 2010

Apple MacOutatutch!

I am passing through a period of making unreasonable changes to my way of being; something to do with my age, a late-age crisis perhaps. My most recent rather pointless change is to have abandoned ‘Windows’ in favour of ‘Mac’. While these two systems have much in common, as far my needs are concerned, they have a number of irritating differences the greatest of which is that my internet connection here, my ‘Dongle’ will not work with my new MacBook!
The ‘Dongle’ connection has always been temperamental which can be very frustrating. It is nonetheless miraculous that with this gadget I have been able, albeit only on ‘good’ days, to communicate with the world from this beautiful but isolated hillside. I understand that the ‘Dongle’ problem can be solved by buying and plugging in a go-between gadget from the Apple Store. Meanwhile, and being far from an Apple Store ‘meanwhile’ could be a long while, my Mac contact with the world beyond my home is dependent on my visiting one or another of the wi-fi cafes in the local towns; a far from disagreeable chore!
It is amazing how quickly an expectation of instant communication has become normal. Up until about a dozen years ago, to communicate at all other than by letter, I was obliged to go to a telephone company office where I would queue for a vacant booth from which to make a call! The cellphone revolution put an end to all of that and now the internet is rapidly displacing my cellphone as a primary means of keeping contact with folk in the outside world.
Each day, as I learn more of my Mac’s foibles, I am increasingly enjoying using it. It is faster, has a larger screen and keyboard than its predecessor, and runs for hours (Up to ten so the manufacturers claim) on one battery charge. Using it as I am now in an unlit room, I am happy to have bought it if only for the backlit keyboard.
Until I have dongle and Mac united I shall send my posts to Sensateman by e-mail so it is likely that, during the immediate future, posts will arrive there intermittently and in batches. But how material possessions spawn the want of more! Already, if my Dongle is to continue to be of use to me, I have to visit the Apple Store and so much better do my photographs look on the Mac that I have begun researching cameras with which, so I convince myself, I might create better images.
My late-age crisis is seeming to deepen by the day! 

1 comment:

The Flying Tortoise said...

Good luck with your midlife crisis John, don't let it ruin your day though... Yes I have decided to go the garden of eden way and my next laptop will be an apple... if only for the beautiful design of them... they are overly expensive and the add-ons are even more so but a man's got to do what the girl says and take a bite...