Testify

First: Still sick.

Second: I’m officially a Mac Slave again. After working for over a year on a Windows 2000 Pro PC, I tasted, albeit briefly, the aesthetic and speed pain of working in the majority. Large file handling was slow, but simple tasks were brutally fast. Then we bought the iBook and I tasted OS X.

Then we bought a 17″ iMac. I’ve pushed this little lampy machine hard: running a ton of apps while simultaneously streaming video and having the machine make toast and tuck me into bed. The wife is a little creeped out by this, and I have since uninstalled the tucking into bed software module.

Why would anyone want to buy another computer? The machine is beautiful, small footprint, has a ton of great features and while it’s no top-of-the-line speed demon, it still lets me do more than any other machine I’ve ever owned. In the four months of ownership, the machine has crashed twice, even with my constant dilettante-nerd tweaking tendencies.

So. This morning was Macworld in San Francisco. I was jonesing Mac news so badly I downloaded IRC software and logged into an IRC session to get the juice straight from the floor, along with the not so funny Mac Fundamentalists. I finally got a video stream going and saw all of the product announcements, announcing them to my sick wife as though the future of the world depended on presentation software or a new browser.

Still, it’s nice to know that one has options when it comes to computing. I built a PC, and I don’t want to claim that other operating systems or computer companies are somehow not relevant. They are. But I chose my computer for a few reasons and knowing that the company that makes said computer isn’t dying is comforting.

Third: Steve Jobs needs to groom somebody to take his place.

Fourth: The new browser, Safari, is really sweet.

Fifth: I’ve expended too much psychic energy on product announcements and schemes to purchase one of the shiny new laptops. Now I must shower.