The new iMac

Got it, love it.

Except for...

a) the noisy fan. As the processor works and rests, the fan starts, stops, changes speeds, and is generally distracting. It's loud and active probably because it's contained in such a small space, and it's especially noticeable because it's right in front of you, instead of down on the floor. It's a little thing, but the little things matter a lot and Apple is usually great at making their machines pleasant to use. I'll live, but it will continue to bug me.

b) problems with DHCP and DNS using the router on my home network. In other words, the internet was really slow, and I blamed Verizon and my wife blamed the computer. Guess who was right? My wife of course! For anyone with this problem: get the DNS addresses from your ISP and enter them into the Mac's internet settings, so it's not going through the router for DNS. I don't know why this works, but I found the solution on MacFixIt and it worked. My Windows machine does not have this problem (perhaps the only problem it doesn't have).

Are you still with me? I've been loading CD's into iTunes like there's no tomorrow, and considering the condition of many of the cd's, there may in fact be no tomorrow. I'm about to rip Fountains of Wayne, which spent some time in the car--so it's been scratched, has sticky stuff on it, etc. I hope a careful cleaning is enough to rescue it.

Boston.com picks up bad habits

The Boston Globe online has picked up a couple of bad habits from its parent, The New York Times. It now requires registration, which is fine but I wonder: why now? First step to subscriptions? Worse, it now throws a Flash ad at you once in a while before displaying an article. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but this morning I just wasn't ready for this kind of change to my routine (i.e. hadn't had my coffee yet).

The price of fun

Sure, the sun was shining and all that crap but at the end of the day, the debit card statement brings it all back to earth:

Aquarium admission: $42
Parking: $29
Lunch: $22
Gift shop trinkets: $35
Ice cream: $13
Grand total: $141

I wouldn't take it back, but I can tell you we'll be eating beans and rice the rest of the month!

Sunny days in Boston

The sun was out, and the people smiled. The people included me and the three wee ones as we goofed around on the dock by the aquarium, walked to Quincy Market in search of ice cream, and took a lot of pictures of each other. I hear there was a marathon going on somewhere, but our day was all about free movement without being directed toward a finish line.

The report from Greenfield is that Mommy is having as much fun as we are, maybe more. She's painted one room twice already, with 2 days to go before we return. For all the hell that February school vacation wrought upon us, this time around is just going incredibly well. A bit too well? Will it all fall apart before the week is halfway over?

I think if the sun keeps shining we'll be in good shape.

Can you pick out the real parody?

One of these headlines is a parody from the Onion, and the other two are actual Reuters stories. Can you pick out the fake?

1. "Great Expectations for British Dickens Theme Park"
2. "Local Fox Affiliate Debuts Terror-Alert Van"
3. "Schwarzenegger Praises Pope's Devotion to Exercise"

Give up? Here are the stories:
1 2 3

How did you do?

This PC guy goes Mac

I worked in tech support back in the days when we were excited about the impending release of MS-DOS 5.0. I marvelled at Windows 3.1. My first home computer ran Windows 95, and my second--which I'm sitting at this very minute--Windows 98. I have a knack for troubleshooting this machine--and plenty of experience considering it's a dog of a machine, one of the worst Compaq ever made.

It's time for a new machine, and quality is top of mind. It was going to either be a Dell or a Mac.

I surprised myself by going with a Mac. But Apple made it easy for me. They offered a handful of choices rather than an endless array of configurations. And looking at the specs, it's almost as if they looked inside my brain, figured out exactly what I needed and built these things just for me.

So there you have it. Bye bye Microsoft, hello Apple, let the movie-making and music-making begin!