I Listen

I asked for advice and you guys provided it, so thank you.

We visited Fry's over the weekend. The store was packed to the walls with little displays of awesome, though no aliens appeared to delight and terrify us. They were showing the Transformers movie a couple of days before release and that may count. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and declare that it does. Autobots are aliens, and we saw them at Fry's.

While we were looking at new laptops, a very large man in a kilt walked by and told us how much we didn't want a MacBook. I thought at first that he was an employee in some kind of promotional costume. It turns out he was just a crazy person. Why would someone in a kilt advise against an obviously Scottish import? Clan Macintosh would certainly string him up by his entrails were they to learn of his sweaty betrayal.

So, armed with the gravity of his anti-endorsement, we were sold.

Today, I pick up our very first Mac. We may be late to the party, but I've had plenty of time to do my own informal research. I can't find anyone in real life or the interwebz who says anything like, "I used to have a Windows machine and now I use a Mac and I'm miserable." No one says, "I have a shiny new MacBook and I miss the application errors." I've never heard,"Multimedia is so much better on Windows Vista than on any form of Mac."

There are only two possible reasons for this:

1. Macs are good.

2. Macs release some form of "happiness endorphin" embedded in their Intel-based motherboards. 

Either way I'm rating that as a win.

Of course, I had to order a replacement N-Class router to take advantage of the integrated wireless as well as conveniently upgrade our old wireless router which came free at The Gap with the purchase of two pairs of khakis. A word of advice: The Gap router sounds like a good deal, and it is -- But only in the same way 4 burritos for $1 at Exxon is a good deal.

I did manage to discover the downside of making "the switch" and I discovered it while the MacBook was being evaluated by its new master. I found this.

Holy crap. The 24" iMac is amazing. I linked the same thing twice since I don't think it can ever truly be linked often enough.

I need one. Badly.

Someday.

I'll go ahead and say this about the 24" iMac: "The 24-inch iMac is the most advanced computer that has ever been built or will ever be built."

I should disclose that I made the same statement about my college roommate's Amiga, my very first Windows 98 machine "with MMX" and the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Now, however, my prediction carries the weight of years of experience.

The 24" iMac could forever plunge me into the realm of the one-button mouse -- And I wouldn't even care.