Macbook Air Review: Week 2

After 8 years of adamantly refusing to get a Mac (They all look the same! They don't allow the user any control! They remind me of my high school's computers!), I have finally made the jump and switched to a Mac. I have to say, I love it.

Compatibility is really no longer an issue and should not prevent most pc users from making the switch. I will say that some of the more esoteric applications I have found (i.e. concerning my Android phone) have not worked for Macs. For example, HTC ironically has software to sync iTunes only on PCs. It took my hours of searching, testing, and uninstalling before I found a program that satisfactorily synchronized my iTunes to my phone, and even then I’m not sure I am comfortable returning to iTunes after jumping ship years ago in favour of the drag-and-drop method of putting music directly on my phone’s SD card). Having moved to my own apartment now, I do plan to integrate all my devices, from my phone to my computer to my television. And using one system may ultimately be easier (Why would I want an iPhone? Because it is the best phone.

The thing about this computer is that there isn’t one thing that makes it stand out. It’s thin, but not that thin-my Dell was thinner than it. But the build quality is amazing, and it feels more solid than any laptop I’ve ever used. Design is superiour too (for the most part-who okayed these cheap, ugly black keyboards, especially on a silver background? My old Dell had brushed metal keys that felt far more durable, although they weren’t illuminated).

The multitouch features of the trackpad are really useful (although I hear more PCs are getting these functionalities, but aren’t as nicely integrated). The suite of software just works, from iTunes to Office for Mac. The computer is really powerful given its size. It is in fact about as powerful and might be moreso than the MacBook Pro. It is overall just far more reliable than a PC (that could also be because you’re basically required to ask an Apple technician for help with….anything).

However, making the switch is not a forgone conclusion. Until I get more experience at it, I am pretty locked out of some basic features or capabilities of the computer, including the aforementioned lack of control over certain settings without third-party applications. There are other features missing as well-I had assumed that the new ability to display small pop-up previews of open windows by mousing over the toolbar was Windows copying Mac. This feature is actually absent in Mac, so I have downloaded a third-party utility for that as well. I am also trying to figure out if there is some way I can make it such that swiping my thumb on the side of the touchpad will scroll. This would allow me to keep my hands on the keyboard to scroll and simply move my thumb, rather than taking my hands off the keyboard to scroll.

Despite al the apparently issues I have with it, however, I have to say that no computer I’ve ever had has been this usable. From the sturdy and compact design, to the stable and capable software, to the powerful hardware under the hood, this is one capable computer to take anywhere.

Recommended Applications: PDAnet, Wifi Tether, Psst, iSyncr, hyperdock, Move Addict

Something Happened!

Something Happened by Joseph Heller

Naturally, when school ended there was a host of activities that I wanted to get back to that I hadn’t had time for in the middle of the year (i.e. blogging, ha ha). Some of these I didn’t give much thought to until cleaning out my room, like oil painting and drawing. Others, like writing fiction and developing music video concepts for songs I like had never been off my mind. Naturally, reading more fiction to prevent my imagination from shriveling up was in short order, and fortunately a new used book shop had opened on Newbury Street.

There is something about a physical book, in particular a used one, that cannot be replaced by an e-reader. From the menial (yet satisfying)-turning a page, the smell of the book (hmm VOCs) to the meaningful-no worries if you spill something on a book (in fact a well-worn book is just as attractive as a brand-new one, although a partially-worn book is not attractive) and no worries if you get sand in the book while you’re at the beach. Really no worries about abusing the book at all. Then there are the more emotional reasons-reading a used book is like sharing a secret. Seeing all those date stamps on a library book has such a romance to it. And perhaps e-readers will expand what people read by increasing immediate access to multiple titles and being able to create suggestions and share recommendations, but you’ll also never find yourself browsing the shelves and suddenly picking up an interesting new book (then again maybe you’ll also be less inclined to judge the book by its cover). Anyway, enough on how much I love used books. Still, I am looking for advice on getting a wifi-enabled e-reader or tablet if anyone has recommendations (but it’s hard to compare to the $99 HP TouchPad deal that just happened, and that I just missed).

Something Happened, to put it short, is a book about a mid-life crisis, written before such a concept was cliché. And it strikes surprisingly close to home, as it doesn’t seek to exaggerate some sort of desperate state of upper-middle class America in the way some later novels do. It is Heller’s second novel, written after Catch-22, and told in the first person (the narration often punctuated with asides and onomatopoeia such as the above ‘ha ha’).. The style is clearly Heller, with just enough references to drugs and sex to remain current, and a clear penchant for irony that Heller indulges far too often. My only thought was, “just because you said something ironic or oxymoronic it doesn’t mean it was insightful.” It is after all a work of fiction, and writers can say whatever they want.

The novel has far more strengths than flaws, however, and ultimately proves itself as the more honest and insightful grandfather to Heller’s contemporaries. From the moments of insight into adults that act like children to the revelations that perhaps we really just are the same children on the inside that we once were on the outside. I'm not done yet, and based on the title of the final chapter there might be a twist.

Houston Y'all

It has been quite some time since I've posted on anything. It's just been a crazy summer of working for the Brits, vacationing like a president at my favorite place in Massachusetts, parlant (I think I use the gerund here rather than the infinitive) en français en Montréal, and trips down to that part of Massachusetts that curves so regally and will probably get washed away by erosion and sea level rise. Oh right and shopping. And shopping. And shopping. I think it's true what they say, when you hear someone saying they shop because they're lonely. My biggest purchase was a Macbook Air. Much of the past two weeks has been me getting used to the switch from a PC. It’s been great so far, aside from a few mild annoyances (no cut and paste?! Why can’t I turn off this damn startup boooong and why are there so many precautions taken to prevent me from doing something stupid, like asking me for a password to install anything?). But those I’ve actually learned fromt hose, downloading an apple-cation (bwahah) that silences the start-up chime and I’ve set up a start-up script to play the Windows 7 chime, which is much cleaner sounding. I’ve also downloaded an extension that allows me to cut and paste files. Also, turning off the keyboard lighting makes a huge difference in battery life.

Overall, I'm definitely glad that I spent the summer at home. It was a nice time to transition and take a break-I highly recommend it to anyone who is graduating soon. The extra time spent with family and friends was invaluable.

It didn't quite hit me of course that I was actually moving out until I walked through the doors at the airport. The next time I'm back home will actually be sooner than the length of a typical internship (I'll be home for Thanksgiving, which, in a seeming act of metaphor falls on my birthday this year, just as it did the year I was born). But this time I'm actually moving out. As in, my bed at home is going to be sold (I hope). I think I was supposed to make the listing before I left. Crap.

Having gone to college closer to home than my mother once worked, I never actually went away to school. I never had to worry about packing the little things (when I moved out to college, I packed as I would for a one week vacation and just made a list of what I'd pick up the next week as I went along). I was often home for the big Sunday dinners, and I didn't have to suffer the effect of going away to college and coming back with my siblings taller than I was (I am thankful that they still aren't). My family is a nuclear one, as a friend of mine described it, "The only nuclear Asian family I know." Our relatives are for the most part in Massachusetts and I see my cousins' babies frequently enough that I don't always notice a difference in their growth.

Leaving home of course is very different these days than it was even a decade ago-air travel is ever more frequent and the internet and cell phones mean communication is not a problem. In fact, I won’t be getting a landline in my new apartment, so if the aliens attack I guess I’m doomed. Not many people I know these days actually go for the whole landline thing, but I suppose if you’re living with other people there is then the issue of whose line to make the primary. Other than that, I’ve stuck with the standard home furnishings, which feels strange and foreign to me-knowing that I have bought decent furniture that will be mine for at least a few years assuming it doesn’t catch on fire or get blown up. It’s also odd to think that if I died, I’d have a substantial number of material possessions that would outlast me.

I never really think of myself as a very large person until I try to squeeze myself into a middle seat in coach. Suddenly I find myself spilling out into the seats next to me, likely pissing off my neighbors.

So where is it I’m off too? First stop Charlotte, North Carolina. No reason other than to connect. Then it’s off to my final destination, Houston, Texas. I’ll be working for ExxonMobil Environmental Services as a Project Manager in charge of site remediation (meaning the cleanup of contaminated sites). I’m moving to my first apartment, which thanks to the low rent in Houston is going to be pretty nice (pics to follow!). Having grown up in the northeast (Massachusetts no less), Texas is going to be quite a culture shock. Actually, it already was when I first flew down to sign my apartment. For one thing, everything is huge. The roads are wider than any I’ve ever seen. Whereas 3 hours is 3 state lines back home, any other city in Texas is 3 hours away. If I’m not mistaken, Texas is in fact larger than England. And from what I hear the culture of each city is about as different as the culture in each New England state. (You know, Vermont is dairy, holocaust refugees, and teddy bears. Maine is trees, lobsters, and trees. New Hampshire is granite and vacation homes. Connecticut is a suburb of New York. Massachusetts is, well, the college town, and Rhode Island is small enough to be forgotten.) The biggest culture shock will be politically of course. Although, ironically perhaps, I was seated next to a liberal Greenpeace activist on the flight to Houston. For this post, I will just say that the one saving grace is that at least my vote will make a difference now. I must say, having flown to many places in my life it is definitely noticeable, the general differences in the average person on each flight (fashion, fitness, etc).

I’ll be fortunate enough to get to experience one of these other cities my second week in the Lone Star State (by the way Texas is the only state in the Union to fly its own flag as high as the US flag wherever flags are flown). Pretty much as soon as I start I will be attending a conference in Dallas, diving right into the deep end. I’m pretty excited to be getting such a running start at the job. I have a very interesting career ahead of me, so far from the bamboo grove.

Amusing quotes will soon follow.

P.S. I’ve known since getting my phone that I could root it to open up the wireless hotspot capabilities without the fee Verizon charges, but it was only recently that I bothered to look into this. There are a few options to do this, see either PDANet or Wifi Tether. The former allows you to use your phone as a USB or Bluetooth router without rooting it, while the latter requires you to root it, which is easy enough.