Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Some happy things -- Comment()
Some computer-related things make me happy, or at least don't increase my non-happiness. Firefox 3 is one such thing - switching to it from Safari was a good decision. I has been great, especially with the add-ons I have been using for synchronizing bookmarks, blocking ads and tweaking the interface. Safari was quite fast and mostly robust, but it crashed every so often. Firefox has been more stable, although even it does freeze sometimes, perhaps once a week.

The only remaining problem is a specific web site, which for some strange reason does not work right in Firefox, but works in Safari. But that is also all right, as this system is not needed every day, and because I'm using it for financial things it is actually good to quit the browser after each time I go there (I have set it up as the home page in Safari).

What are other happy things. My iMac and Macbook Pro are nice things, especially as they mostly stay out of the way of using them. And the software I need works great on both systems, no bottlenecks and no hiccups. The iMac has become the media center of out family, used for all kinds of things - kids playing, the family watching movies and tv, I organizing photos, everyone using the web (the kids with access restrictions).

The MBP is really a workhorse machine, performing those things I need to do. And both the iMac and the MPB have excellent displays and keyboards, allowing the work efficiently. The one remaining thing about the MBP is the buttonless trackpad, which still causes some learning problems - mainly because at desk at work I'm using it with an external display, keyboard and mouse, the same way I did with my old Titanium Powerbook G4. But slowly I'm also learning to use the trackpad, especially the single-finger click and drag, which used to require two fingers with the old trackpad.