THE CAT’S PAWS

Kampala’s down in the SE portion of the country, and its squalid suburb-slums nowadays stretch down to the blackish rocks that God strewn carelessly about the (non-sandy) NE tip of Lake Victoria’s shoreline.

It always, or actually since the Dutch (and then the Germans) departed–thanks entirely to WWI–has ranked among the Word’s most brutally impoverished cities. It’s the capital of the World’s third (or fourth, or second, or sixth, depending on what you read) poorest countries, if you ignore its mineral and oil resources that don’t seem to ‘trickle down’ very easily. (more…)

In another article, posted in this site somewhere nearby, is my generalized piece on the Mac system, a laptop, in fact.  Bank on it’s accuracy should you decide to check out my words therein.

This one goes bigger, to the culture of the Apple Corp, Seattle, Wa.  Seattle’s jam-packed with software engineers (mostly Microsoft employees), systems guys and ladies (also Microsoft dominated) and clean, affluent execs, commuters with the whitest-of-white shirts and hollow-selfish, narrow-channeled looks to them.
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I have a Mac G4 Powerbook laptop.  I bought it about 2 years ago (Feb ‘05).  Despite its vintage (two years is a long time in the consumer electronics industry, and even longer in the computer industry), it still stands up well. 

Its aluminum case (I got the 17″ moniter) heats up a tad, but the fan’s sufficient to prevent it from melting down and costing a bunch of money to fix it (or more likely, to throw it throw away).

The iTunes program’s the shit.  I have 24 days of music stored in it, slicing into the system’s 74.4 gigs of memory, but still leaving over 34 gig for other stuff. iTunes is an absolute joy to use, too.  An iPod takes twice as long for an         over-30 user to figure out.

As you probably know, Mr Gates arranged for Word and Excel to be available (even the student edition is obnoxiously expensive) for Mac systems, and all the software features are fully intact and functional.  Word, however, appears in very small font, so writers often type in, like, 20-font, then when it’s complete, reduce it to 12 pt or 14 pt prior to printing drafts.  Excel will NEVER EVER be able to hold up the gym shorts of the mighty late-1980s Mac program Jazz, which kicks Excel’s ass up and down the football field.  Largely because of an Apple internal corporate squabble well over a decade ago, Jazz is, alas, in landfills all over the world.   

DRAWBACK OF THE G4 IN OUR WINDOWS WORLD:  The Mac systems of this era use Safari as an email platform, and Macs in general don’t get along well with SBC Yahoo (or BellSouth’s or Bell-anything).  The phone company-owned e-mail platforms are used by well over 50 million accounts in the country.  Problem?  They don’t bother updating the Yahoo-partnered email program stuff for Macs that they customarily provide for PC users.  Perhaps a Mac bigshot once beat the shit out of SBC bigshot and then proceeded to sleep with his wife, and the beomouth phone company exec never quite got over it.  Further, SBC support is deplorable with Mac.  A user can call for tech support, and end up helping the thick-accented tech in Diego Garcia (or India or The Phillipines or Korea) rather than the other way around.

ANOTHER DRAWBACK:  Since a SBC Yahoo user (me) has a G4 with zillions of pictures on it, and he wants to email a pic to somebody, he suffers horribly.  Remember, Safari’s the default platform, and well, just TRY to import a photo to some other client email server.  Trust me.  It’s a drag.  As in, suffering, not in actually dragging the photo…

RECOMMENDATION:

If you can get a G4 for under, say, around $1200, snap it up.  You should find one.  After the summer of ‘07, they’ll be out there for more like $900  It’s a beautiful advance of astonishing capabilities.  You literally have to see one and play with it, and you’ll agree.  Try, though, to get it in the white plastic case.   No, it doesn’t look as cool as the aircraft aluminum, but heat dissapation is tantamount with this and all laptops, so the nifty white polyethylene is the way to go.

THE FINAL REMARKS:

The Apple Corporation continues, and probably will forever, to be content with 7-8% market share of computers, laptops and desktops, sold for personal use in the United States.  Beomouth national retailers like CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. have deplorable support services, for this precise reason.  Even clerks who are young people meandering around computer departments in stores aren’t at all versed in Mac products.  It’s a damn shame, too.  Only the topmost Apple Corporation leadership can address this.   Also, printed instructions within Mac’s beautiful packaging (the best in the world for any product)  features, would move them up a notch or two in consumer ratings and market share.  Don’t hold your breath on this one, though.  Apple’s legendary for its provincial nature–’if you don’t know it, don’t buy it.’

Hey, I forgot an important point, since damn near all Mac buyers are men (I mean well over 90%):  I got my masters’ degree and took my G4 under my arm to a dozen classrooms inhabited by delightful young people, and more than a few of these were brilliant, extraordinary looking ladies.  Intelligent ladies dig G4s.  I’m not at all lying!

I’m moving stuff around the house and my teenager’s straightening out the breezeway.  I was just in the back bedroom ensuring that my cats hadn’t messed up the fax machine by knocking it down (again) off the desk.  I glanced, then held, a very old telephone.

It’s a desk model-RTH6V GTE phone, a Bell Labs offshoot unit with newfangled pushbuttons.  Suddenly, we didn’t have to dial a rotary spring wheel anymore! (more…)

Chicago kicks ass.

I went up there this weekend to check ‘The Messiah’ with a very, very cool lady friend.  Her company alone was a treat.  One of us was dreamy, and I’m thinking it was NOT me…

We stayed on the ‘Michigan Mile’, spent some Christmas money (but not too much), ate dinner, ate a mighty fine breakfast  brunch at the hotel, and this is what ‘the finer things’ are made of.

In St Loius, on a Saturday evening, unless there’s a Blues game or something, the sidewalks roll up.  Tumbleweeds collide with fire hydrants, and forlorn streets are animated only by steam billowing up from the once-proud 19th century infrastructure that still miraculously delivers heat and stuff.

In Chicago, on the other hand, one city block on Michigan Ave during the Christmas rush contains, oh, 3,000 or so people.  I saw nothing but happy and friendly people (contrast to New York, where a certain assertiveness that I can do, thank you, gets a begrudging response). 

The Macy’s mall and Saks were stuffed to the brim.  Borders even more so. 

The Symphony Center is a brilliant showpiece that stands up quite well amidst them all (but I haven’t been to Albert Hall or the music hall joint in St. Petersburg that’s supposed to be mighty fine).

Baroque symphony, singers with richness, instuments that sang like bells, all done seemingly effortless.  Goosebumps at no extra charge.  (note:  Apollo chorus now auditioning, January something.  Call now)

I had to drive her past the hallmark clocktower of the Morton Salt hq buiding as we crossed the N. branch of the Chicago River, and our tires hummed over the decking of the 19th century drawbridge.  The Kennedy building.  Gigantic and majestic towers piercing the sky.  Moon shimmering across the lake.  (you get the point) 

Hellofatown.   Sorry, Joe Jackson.  (huh?)

The 1988 Gulf War has long been criticized in that our troops (primarily the Marines and the 101st) were ordered by the President, Bush Sr.,  who mistakenly read the recommendations of The Pentagon, to stop at Iraq’s border. (more…)