Baby's got a new ride

I have a new-to-me computer! And I love it.


We got a new 17 inch MacBook Pro for our daughter as a college graduation present. She needed an upgrade as her computer, a first generation 15 inch MacBook Pro, was starting to struggle a bit when she did statistical modeling on it. We timed the purchase so that her new laptop arrived when she came home for a week after her surgery. When we gave the new laptop to her, she gave me the first-gen MBP. Which, I will have you know, she bought herself. She is not accustomed to getting her computers from Mom and Dad, she has saved up her pennies and bought two Apple laptops over the years. I’m the lucky person who has inherited each of her purchases over time, though I paid cash for the first one. This lappy is a gift.


We don’t think we gave an extravagant gift. For one thing, my father and stepmother contributed towards the purchase, and are official go-givers with us. The new machine is an investment in her professional future. She NEEDS computing power to do her research. This gift fits our budget a lot better than a car would. And she’s earned it - she is graduating from McGill with First Class Honors.


Everything works better for me on my new machine. No way around it, machines using Tiger, the optimal operating system for my old computer, are struggling to keep up these days. We cloned my old machine to the newer one, and there I was - my bookmarks and settings, my files, everything that is me in my digital identity. The only program I had to upgrade was my accounting software. Today’s adventure will be podcasts, which I had given up on, they loaded so slowly on my old computer.


I spent the day yesterday cleaning up my old computer to give to my mom. The machine is a 12 inch PowerBook G4, and this baby has been a trooper for 8 years now. Mom currently uses WebTV, and her digital life would be enhanced by a computer. I’ve cleaned out my files and bookmarks, and left her an assortment of family pics in iPhoto and a collection of classical and folk music in iTunes. Still to be done: installing her printer and configuring her email, and buying a new battery. Mom will be here in about 10 days time. I hope to set her up with a Gmail account and hope she’ll have fun playing with it on our wireless network. She currently plans to stick with dial-up, and the PB will meet her needs with aplomb.


Off I go to download podcasts!

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