Saturday, May 06, 2006

An Apple a Day...

... is guranteed to give a long-term Windoze user a headache!



Yes, I've made the switch, emmigrated to another country and it's proving hard work. Even Blogger is different, for heaven's sakes. It took me about ten years to find out how to do a degree sign in Windows - and now it doesn't work! Arrrrrgh. But I knew it'd be like this; to be fair every time I've had a new 'puter there's been a learning curve even going from Windows to Windows, so I shouldn't be surprised. But at least I've managed to get the old Dell to recognise the existence of the Mac on my mini network and transfer across my music, pics and docs, and email seems to be working. Too bad I can't get the Mac to recognise the Dell...

Tomorrow I think I may take a break and devote myself to some woodworking; too much of this techie stuff rots a neanderthal's brain.

What else? Oh yes, found Mike Hancock at Classic Handtools is now stocking Chris Schwarz's DVDs and instead of going "Oooo, I'd like those, maybe for Christmas..." I found myself just ordering them without a moment's hesitation. Dunno what got into me really. I think Forgotten Hand Tools appeals to me a bit more than Coarse, Medium and Fine; nice to finally see someone give handsaws the "plane treatment" and seeing the drawboring actually done instead of just reading about it is very helpful. Nice that the PDFs of the relevant PWW/Woodworking articles are included on the disc. Curiously Chris reminds me of a combination of Jimmy Stewart and Loyd Grossman - and that's definitely not as bad as it sounds! Now where can I get some drift pins...

Finally, a moan; be grateful, I edited itdown from a rant... Why is it every time I venture into FWW's Knots forum I find a certain wooden planemaker yet again airing the enormous chip on his shoulder about metal planes. You won't get converts to woodies from Stanleys and such if you essentially suggest that they don't know the first thing about what they're doing with those metal planes, IMO.

7 comments:

  1. Way to go--a new 'puter! Hope it ends up making net-life more consistent for you. That is their purpose, isn't it?

    fwiw, you shold read some of my wonderful email exchanges with that certain wood plane maker...

    Take care, Mike

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  2. Good grief! TWO computers....mini network....I never knew you were so PC literate! ;p What did you want to do that for? I know they are better made and all that but there are still problems running windows software! So are you using both still or selling the Dell?

    JMF

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  3. Well, fine! You'll never get anything done with a Mac. You might as well use metal planes! :)

    Seriously, what happened to the new Dell? Did you send it back?
    Is this an Intel equipped Mac? (In which case you could run Windows or Linux as well as OSX if there is something you need those for.)

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  4. Yes, the old Dell remains chez Alf - hopefully getting used by TPTBs. I stuck some more RAM in it and cleaned it up as best as I'm able, so at least it's running slightly quicker than a Sloth in Treacle now... The Mac is indeed one of these Intel jobbies so in theory I can always Windoze it using Bootcamp, but I'm going to endeavour not to if I can help it. (See Jimbo? I know all the jargon :~P ) The new Dell did indeed go back after a protracted struggle - a finely crafted letter sent directly to the UK bigwig worked wonders (eventually). Hopefully everything will run super-smooth for a while now and I can avoid boring you all with 'puter problems.

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  5. What was wrong with the Dell?

    JMF

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  6. If you mean the new one, 'tis all here.

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  7. Ummm....not good. Odd given that Dell are normally very good. The problem with them is that they subcontract out the tech stuff. Oh well another Mac convert. Let me know how you get on with it.

    JMF

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