![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Taking the plunge!
Tonight, I've finally been switching over all my files from the iBook to the eMac -- the eMac will now be my main working machine, whereas before it was more of a backup and a "play" machine, the machine I would use for running software (such as various movie viewers) that won't run on my 5-year-old iBook.
Of course, now that I've finally taken the plunge and migrated, the eMac is a year old and starting to get over the hill by computer standards. So soon I'll have to do it all AGAIN, I guess. ;)
But I like the iBook and I'll miss it. It was the first "real" computer that I had -- aside from a couple others that hardly count. I owned a PowerBook briefly in the late '90s -- I bought the damn thing NEW, in spite of the fact I had just gotten out of college and didn't have any money, but something was wrong with the RAM (I guess) and it would only run for a few minutes at a time without crashing. I took it in to be serviced several times ... they couldn't find anything wrong ... after a couple months, I decided to sell it and the very next day, our house was robbed and it was stolen. D'oh! $1400 down the drain! After that, a friend gave me a Quadra that I used for almost a year, although the Quadra was already easily 5 years old and could barely run Photoshop 3.
So the iBook was the first computer I had that was really a good, usable, not horribly outdated machine. I guess I must've bought it in 1999 or so. I was the first person in Fairbanks to own one; it was maybe the first time I've EVER bought something right when it first came out. I also got smart and maxed out the RAM when I bought it -- of course, 256 Mb was as high as it would go, which was really something in '99 but isn't so great in '05. Orion also helped me add a 20 Gb hard drive to replace the 3-Gb one that it came with, and despite its age, it is still a solid working machine -- almost all my comics, up to now, have been done on it.
But it's aging, and not gracefully. The battery died years ago, and now the power cable is flaking out, getting loose, so when I move it or shift its orientation in space, it dies and I have to restart it. The hard drive has started making a disturbing squeaky sound, which Orion says means the bearings may be wearing out. So, tonight I've been migrating all my files to the eMac. We originally bought it in late '03 (I think) for both of us, but over the intervening year, it's really become "my" machine -- I'm the only one who ever uses it. Now, all the pages will be colored on the eMac, and I won't have to suffer through "low RAM" errors and interminable waits for Photoshop filters to load. And the iBook will sit and collect dust, I guess. I still have to use it for scanning files, since my old scanner doesn't have drivers for OS X, but eventually, whenever I get around to buying myself a nicer scanner, its last function will be abandoned and it'll go off to wherever computers go when they outlive their usefulness.
Progress is a bittersweet thing.
Of course, now that I've finally taken the plunge and migrated, the eMac is a year old and starting to get over the hill by computer standards. So soon I'll have to do it all AGAIN, I guess. ;)
But I like the iBook and I'll miss it. It was the first "real" computer that I had -- aside from a couple others that hardly count. I owned a PowerBook briefly in the late '90s -- I bought the damn thing NEW, in spite of the fact I had just gotten out of college and didn't have any money, but something was wrong with the RAM (I guess) and it would only run for a few minutes at a time without crashing. I took it in to be serviced several times ... they couldn't find anything wrong ... after a couple months, I decided to sell it and the very next day, our house was robbed and it was stolen. D'oh! $1400 down the drain! After that, a friend gave me a Quadra that I used for almost a year, although the Quadra was already easily 5 years old and could barely run Photoshop 3.
So the iBook was the first computer I had that was really a good, usable, not horribly outdated machine. I guess I must've bought it in 1999 or so. I was the first person in Fairbanks to own one; it was maybe the first time I've EVER bought something right when it first came out. I also got smart and maxed out the RAM when I bought it -- of course, 256 Mb was as high as it would go, which was really something in '99 but isn't so great in '05. Orion also helped me add a 20 Gb hard drive to replace the 3-Gb one that it came with, and despite its age, it is still a solid working machine -- almost all my comics, up to now, have been done on it.
But it's aging, and not gracefully. The battery died years ago, and now the power cable is flaking out, getting loose, so when I move it or shift its orientation in space, it dies and I have to restart it. The hard drive has started making a disturbing squeaky sound, which Orion says means the bearings may be wearing out. So, tonight I've been migrating all my files to the eMac. We originally bought it in late '03 (I think) for both of us, but over the intervening year, it's really become "my" machine -- I'm the only one who ever uses it. Now, all the pages will be colored on the eMac, and I won't have to suffer through "low RAM" errors and interminable waits for Photoshop filters to load. And the iBook will sit and collect dust, I guess. I still have to use it for scanning files, since my old scanner doesn't have drivers for OS X, but eventually, whenever I get around to buying myself a nicer scanner, its last function will be abandoned and it'll go off to wherever computers go when they outlive their usefulness.
Progress is a bittersweet thing.
Re: I NEED RAM!
Now I just want to learn Flash like crazy after I disovered this:
http://www.freeflashtutorials.com/
Audio/Video free lessons.
God, I need to do this.