I mentioned in Transitions that I'm starting with Industrial Logic in, well, a week! As part of my new job, I'll need a new laptop. I was given the choice of an IBM tablet, and IBM ThinkPad and a MacBook Pro.
Waaaaaay back in mid to late 80's and into 1990, I used a Mac alongside 3270 terminals and UNIX workstations. The Mac was for the managers, so that they could do their spreadsheets, etc. in something more user-friendly than the mainframe spreadsheet application. It also meant the they could print immediately, rather than having to wait up to 2 hours for a print job. I wrote a couple of support applications on the Mac, and just loved it! I guess I was predisposed to liking Apple since my first experiences with computers were on a 48K Apple ][, and my first machine was a 64K Apple ][ clone.
So, I was quite excited at the chance of actually using a Mac once again. I did have some trepidation, though, about whether I would have a significant learning curve after 16 years on the Dark Side, and wasn't sure if I would be able to use the same tools I do now. I consulted J.B. Rainsberger, Dave Astels and my good friend Jim Leask, all of whom are currently using Macs (although Jim isn't using one yet for real work). They assured me that not only are most if not all of the current tools are available in OS-X versions, but in many cases there are even better tools. Plus, with utilities such as BootCamp, Parallels or simply vmWare, I could still have that cheap Mac clone OS available if I needed it. ;)
So, according to Fedex, my shiny new MacBook Pro was shipped from Shanghai this morning... well, their morning, which would actually be yesterday here... or something like that. Regardless, Transition II will begin shortly. I can't wait!!
Waaaaaay back in mid to late 80's and into 1990, I used a Mac alongside 3270 terminals and UNIX workstations. The Mac was for the managers, so that they could do their spreadsheets, etc. in something more user-friendly than the mainframe spreadsheet application. It also meant the they could print immediately, rather than having to wait up to 2 hours for a print job. I wrote a couple of support applications on the Mac, and just loved it! I guess I was predisposed to liking Apple since my first experiences with computers were on a 48K Apple ][, and my first machine was a 64K Apple ][ clone.
So, I was quite excited at the chance of actually using a Mac once again. I did have some trepidation, though, about whether I would have a significant learning curve after 16 years on the Dark Side, and wasn't sure if I would be able to use the same tools I do now. I consulted J.B. Rainsberger, Dave Astels and my good friend Jim Leask, all of whom are currently using Macs (although Jim isn't using one yet for real work). They assured me that not only are most if not all of the current tools are available in OS-X versions, but in many cases there are even better tools. Plus, with utilities such as BootCamp, Parallels or simply vmWare, I could still have that cheap Mac clone OS available if I needed it. ;)
So, according to Fedex, my shiny new MacBook Pro was shipped from Shanghai this morning... well, their morning, which would actually be yesterday here... or something like that. Regardless, Transition II will begin shortly. I can't wait!!