cyrnel

Hey, I'm enjoying it. Certainly a BMW to my old Hyundai. I just wish they could nail all the competitive goodies. I've whined about missing Apple features from many perspectives over the years. At the same time it's hard to deny the execution of what is included.

HEAT: I considered using one of my current laptop ventilators, but the MBP doesn't have intakes on the bottom. It's the first laptop I've owned with fans that didn't have lower vents drawing in or blowing out. Sure, a cool base will help dissipate heat but with the intake and exhaust vents in back it's tough to do right.

TV-OUT: I have old VGA->Svid adapters but it's one more thing to connect and carry. (whine) Svid is such a tiny port, and with built-in X1600 vid it would not have been difficult other than covering the ugly case hole for the MBP with integrated video. Shoot, most $600 PCs have VGA out, and just above that they add Svid.

Oh, and I'm loving the slot-load DVD. I missed those. Used to buy them for all my PCs when Pioneer was still pushing competitive models. Slot-load rules!.

My first real obstacle is locating a cell-based data solution without a bunch of new hardware or account changes. (God I hate cell plan changes.) That's something I've come to rely upon when at customer sites. Previously I used BlueTooth to my phone (as modem). MBP has BT, but there isn't a Mac driver for my phone. Nor can I use Parallels with it since the driver doesn't know how to use Mac's BT interface. I could use bootcamp and make it into a PC but that quickly defeats this experiment.

I miss some of the extra keys on my old HP. They were located where the Mac's speakers are, and while this sound is much better than the HP's microscopic Altec Lansing jobs I'm not sure this would be my choice. Having to use the fn key for page-up/down/home/end is kind of a pain.

Edit: Ha. So much for one obstacle. I enabled bluetooth, paired with my phone, went into networks and it already knew about Sprint PCS Vision. I'd forgotten some of this stuff is just supposed to work.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195