Why I use a Mac

I was reading one of my favorite blogs an article about the trials and tribulations of getting service for a Windoze machine, the monitor and router to be exact. Poor gal spent ten hours on the phone with customer no service to eeeks India. Hope that was an 800 number. The Indians (dot not feather) told her to pack it up and send it to them with enough cash to cover new ones and they'd "fix it". Geez I though robbery was against the law. Hope all goes well with that but I digress.

When I first used a computer it was at a local school. This was back when Steve Jobs had provided schools with a bunch of Macs so naturally it was a Mac. A couple of years later I was looking to buy a computer. Not really knowing that much I started looking for a Mac but which one? I must have looked at five or six different models but not knowing hard drives from RAM it wasn't easy. One salesman on seeing my interest directed me to a windows machine saying this is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Mac. Well now I know why. I finally found a really good deal on a Mac and bought it. I later found out that this wasn't just a good deal it was a great deal. A coworker had bought a PC about the same time and we compared what we both got in the deal. He got a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse with just the system installed. I got the computer,monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, router, system and about 12 programs along with one year free internet and a year subscription to a Mac Magazine, a ream of printer paper and discounts on ink. The price was about $300 less than the PC.

Now the coupe de gras- I've been using a Windoze machine for the last few weeks just to see the difference. Where to start?

Windoze machine
1. Crashes on a regular basis
2. Keep sending messages that something is wrong with the system. Even though there isn't
3. Sends messages to update programs that I don't use.
4. You need to defrag the machine on a regular basis. Are computers phychotic?
5. Don't try running more than one program at a time it either slows the whole process or crashes the machine.
6. It's almost impossible to do a restart without problems.
7. Won't recognize hardware even though it's there.
8. With hardware disconnected keeps telling me there is no drivers or found new software for the hardware that isn't there.
9. Keep saying there problems with the browser.
10. Maybe I should take my own advice with this machine which was as follows:

a. Unplug computer
b. Open window
c. Pick up computer
d Throw computer from window or
e. Drop computer on Bill Gate's lawn
F Buy another Mac I already have the newest desktop but somebody's pigging it.

Blog award

Fellow blogger sent me the above award. I take it with mixed feelings because the award is for being part of blogging and bringing friendship closer through blogging. That seems rather redundant to me because that's why people blog. To get their ideas out there and see who holds similar ideas or just needs some moral support. I am beginning to think that blogging is changing the very way we think. On the one hand it brings people at very great distance closer together in a form, but on the other hand it's changing the very way we deal with information and I don't think it's in a good way. Our information gathering on the web has become so fragmented that readers are becoming deficient in gaining the full story or the entire experience. If we reduce our experiences to bits and pieces or 10 second sound bites there a serious danger of psychological ramifications. We will see what happens with the outcome of the next generation.

What did Bill Cosby once say?...

There's always worse. Expect food prices to go up by 7 to 9% next year. Farmers will be trying to make up for rising prices of fuel, feed and fertilizer. Between the lay offs and foreclosures we now have increases in food. And if that wasn't bad enough expect power rates to go up as energy prices go back up. I guess it's time to plant that deck veggy garden. I tried starts inside with grow lights one year without much success.

Higher food costs

The scary thought in all of this is that if farmers can't make money because of costs they may be forced to cut back and increase prices more. You may recall the shortages in rice a few months back. Prices in Asia went to 80 cents or more per pound while the prices here were higher. We then saw prices here drop here as we imported large amounts. A drought anywhere around the globe could make things nasty.

Here's a few thoughts

Just thinking about how to get out of the current economic mess. We have three major auto companies on the ropes. The lay offs facing this industry looks as bad as the steel mills of the late 70s and into the 80s. We are to the point of importing massive quantities of oil each year thereby sending billions over seas. This oil will not last forever and it's destroying our environment. We are sitting on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world far bigger than the oil in the middle east. To change from using gasoline to natural gas would be fairly cheap in terms of converting cars and changing distribution. That would create quite a few jobs in building new models converting old gas burners as well as natural gas production. This would be a temporary bridge to renewable technology and with fuel cell technology could lower green house gases in the process. If we can convince other countries to buy efficient well made cars that run on natural gas from us then we can easily sell the natural gas to them and have hundreds of billion coming back into this country. If the natural gas production and sales could be nationalized it would provide an income to finance healthcare, education and rather than build McMansions like Dubai that nobody could afford we could lower or eliminate taxes for everyone. Imagine having no national debt. This would give us the much needed time to develop other renewable energy technologies. This could cost in the hundreds of billion dollars but considering the pay back would be worth it. We just threw 700 billion down a black hole and we probably won't see a nickel back from that bail out.

History is made!

I was sitting there watching the results. Obama had 207 to McCains 142 then the big flash on the screen Barack Obama our 44th president. Now to take a deep breath roll up your sleeves and get down to the business of fixing this country. And I know this will take the effort of each and every one of us.

First they ripped up the constitution now this

Drug companies want total immunity from any liability in the event they produce drugs that harm patients. I guess now we have to become doctors in order to get medical treatment because if this passes muster in the Supreme Court your on your own if your hurt by a drug.

Take this pill but if you die from it don't blame me

Once again this is about unregulating an industry so that they can make bigger profits only this time instead of loosing a house you could land up loosing your life. This crap must stop. We saw what it did to banking.

This doesn't look good

Gordon Brown (you remember the head of British government) took a little trip down to the Gulf to beg the oil rich countries to loosen up on their wallets and get help with the bail out. Hey didn't they dump all that oil money into building castles of their own and won't they be facing the same mortgage melt down that the rest of us are experiencing? I'm sure they didn't pay cash up front for all those McMansions off the coast of Dubai.

Hey buddy can you spare a few hundred billion?