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macbook pro bono
Dec. 4th, 2006 10:54 pmMacbook Pro arrived at my doorstep this morning. It is a wonderful silver bar of geek candy. Thus far everything seems to work quite smoothly; this is a huge step up from my years of linux usage, continually plagued by hardware problems. Though many of the usage conventions are alien to me (single button mouse, arrangement of applications, other user experience things), they seem to support a comfortable baseline of intuitive functionality. I move slowly in the direction of completely assimilating all the data and capibilities of my desktop. Next steps: music collection, Eclipse, set up both email accounts.
Ok, both email accounts set up with notifications. All too easy. :-)
I have been playing with the built-in camera, and have created a handful of new icons. Two obstacles presented themselves: I do not look good in photos to begin with, and I look especially bad now that I'm somewhat out of shape. Fortunately, the combined power of camera angles, creative use of filters, and my flowing hair seems to have solved these problems. I am especially proud of this new default icon: 'xray' (which appears to just be invert sepia) makes my hair glow white, and a lovely Wassily Kandinsky poster adds a neat haloesque background.
Using Mac OS has put me dangerously close to iTunes, specifically its Store. I dearly love music, compulsively and eclectically, and so it would seem I am soon destined to spend all of my lunch money. However, I am still a bit miffed by the legal foundations of Apple's business model here: buying music from them acts as an endorsement of distasteful limitations on intellectual property. I would like it to be the case that, should I purchase music from them, I retain the right to copy that music an indefinite number of times, or redownload it from them should I lose my existing copies or simply consider it inconvenient to transfer them. I wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee for their bandwidth and infrastructure, but I recoil at the idea that I should have to repurchase the music entirely just to get another download. I would like it to be the case that, legally speaking, I am buying the right to enjoy the music from its creator, and Apple is simply acting as a helpful intermediary in this regard. My treatment of my existing copies of that music should have no effect on my legal ownership of the rights to enjoy it. This becomes even more painful, as I would very much like to endorse part of Apple's scheme: to make music distribution digital. Little plastic discs are deprecated crap. I yearn to obtain music only via digital means. But I'm not comfortable with the way that Apple is handling that process.
Ok, both email accounts set up with notifications. All too easy. :-)
I have been playing with the built-in camera, and have created a handful of new icons. Two obstacles presented themselves: I do not look good in photos to begin with, and I look especially bad now that I'm somewhat out of shape. Fortunately, the combined power of camera angles, creative use of filters, and my flowing hair seems to have solved these problems. I am especially proud of this new default icon: 'xray' (which appears to just be invert sepia) makes my hair glow white, and a lovely Wassily Kandinsky poster adds a neat haloesque background.
Using Mac OS has put me dangerously close to iTunes, specifically its Store. I dearly love music, compulsively and eclectically, and so it would seem I am soon destined to spend all of my lunch money. However, I am still a bit miffed by the legal foundations of Apple's business model here: buying music from them acts as an endorsement of distasteful limitations on intellectual property. I would like it to be the case that, should I purchase music from them, I retain the right to copy that music an indefinite number of times, or redownload it from them should I lose my existing copies or simply consider it inconvenient to transfer them. I wouldn't mind paying a nominal fee for their bandwidth and infrastructure, but I recoil at the idea that I should have to repurchase the music entirely just to get another download. I would like it to be the case that, legally speaking, I am buying the right to enjoy the music from its creator, and Apple is simply acting as a helpful intermediary in this regard. My treatment of my existing copies of that music should have no effect on my legal ownership of the rights to enjoy it. This becomes even more painful, as I would very much like to endorse part of Apple's scheme: to make music distribution digital. Little plastic discs are deprecated crap. I yearn to obtain music only via digital means. But I'm not comfortable with the way that Apple is handling that process.
