Sunday, December 7, 2014

MACarena dancing

The Macbook Pro has been moved into an assisted living stage.  It works most of the time, but something it won't turn off the hard drive, causing it to overheat and freeze up (ironic).

While I could shop around for someone who could actually diagnose my guess about the hard drive problem (fan not working? thermostat prob? lid sensor?  who knows) my friend Dave generously loaned me his old iMac.

He brought it down Saturday and we expected a no-brainer migration from the old to the, well, less-old unit.  We thought we had it in the morning after breakfast.  We thought we had it in the afternoon after lunch.  And we worked some more on it in the evening and then called it quits.  Doncha hate it when that happens.

And it doesn't help that both of us have different levels of OCD to work on things like this.  I was up and at it around 5:30 this morning, trying different ideas.

Poor Dave, I iMessaged him relentlessly while I moved stuff, saved stuff, tried stuff and activated stuff.  I didn't realize how late it had gotten (noon, still in jammies, breakfast-less, eyes burning), so I dressed, refreshed and had some lunch.  Things were going pretty good so now I was in 'tweak' mode.  I still pestered messsaged Dave until he told me I was getting on his nerves.  My bad.  Still, this kind of behavior was why I was so good at my job in IT - I'd work for days on computer problems until things got sorted out.

Anyway, my worst fear has not been realilzed.  No, nothing ON the new unit, but the SIZE and placement of the thing.  It's HUGE.  The screen is 31", almost as big as my living room TV (33")!!  How would it fit in my corner computer nook.

As you can see in the 1st pic, having a laptop keeps the corner aesthetically pleasing, especially when the lid is closed.  Simple.  Just the unit, an external drive, mouse and mousepad.  No muss, no fuss.

The new unit is actually a desktop except that Apple has crammed all the stuff of a tower INSIDE the monitor.  Weighs a ton.  Back is riddled with various connection ports, the side sports SSD and DVD slits. Talk about overkill.  Still, I really needed to augment the failing laptop and by golly I was going to make this transition work, by hook or crook.

Well, I found a way to make it fit.  And that only because I expect this to be a temporary thing until I can find another 15" MacBook Pro. I turned everything sideways (toward the inside of the house, not toward the front door).  During this phase I'll be using both of them until I'm really REALLY comfortable with the iMac.  After all, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to keep open the lines of communication between her and the outside world.

And, Dave? The man is THE ubergeek.  Very generous with his time and equipment.  And patience?  He may need to recover from this weekend.  I think I tested his envelope and hope to make it up to him.  Really.

So this is the first entry from the iMac.  I'm getting the hang of the thing.  Hardest thing is finding the right reading glasses/distance for comfort and convenience.  Bottom line, I'm liking the thing.  Stay tuned.

7 comments:

  1. Methinks you owe the guy at least a terrific meal.
    What a helpful sounding friend. I understand NOTHING when it comes to computers. People that "get it" amaze me.

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    1. I know more about mainframes than personal computers. Dave, on the other hand, is miles above me on both.

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  2. Hope you get sorted. Love, love, love my iMac, chosen partly for the immense amount of real estate on the massive screen. Makes photo editing a pleasure and doing jigsaws a joy :}

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  3. I am betting that in time you will be so happy. The larger screens are such a luxury. My mac pro screen went bad so I bought a big screen to use with it anyway.

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    1. Y'know, if this was in an office room or some room other than the living room, I'd be all over this big screen for sure. But it is so out of scale to my living room that it's unsettling. Certainly not a feature. Still, I do like the power and the Yosemite OS system.

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  4. What a great friend to have! I don't think the larger screen looks out of place. Remember it is your home and you can do what works for you. Who cares what the odd guest thinks.

    My office is in the corner of the dining room and certainly does not add to the ambiance of the room but so be it. I mostly just have family and a very good neighbor in and they don't care.

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    1. I don't give a darn what a guest would think, it's how I feel that counts and this huge screen/sideways configuration of furniture is a bit disconcerting to my feng shui in the living room. LOL Still, it's way better than not having a working computer. Yes, Dave is extraordinary.

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