Fiona has returned from a long absence. After one week of being Mac-less, I am so happy that my laptop arrived today from the Apple repair center. I banished Wilbur (the ancient Dell) back into the closet and I hope I never have to go through this harrowing experience again. I learned one lesson: keep all contacts and my calendar online.
This is Day 2 without Fiona (my Mac Book Pro) which is in intensive care somewhere in Texas. I was about to post on Day 1 but was too traumatized to write anything. And were it not for Obama’s victory, which I’m savoring today, I would not be functioning at all. There’s something about being deprived of the thing that keeps you company, entertains you, maintains your calendar, processes communications between you and your friends, every day. I briefly thought about running down to the Apple store to get a new Mac Book Pro or even a Mac Book Air. I spent half an hour spinning this fantasy in my mind, imagining myself with the latest Apple gear and maybe, even throwing in a new iPod or the 3G iPhone. Alas, budgetary pressures kept my fantasy in check. I will simply have to await the return of Fiona.
So I am writing this post on an ancient Dell that uses Windows XP. This Dell (which I’ve named Wilbur) is the perfect example of why I moved to the Mac platform back in 2002 and why I got a Mac Book Pro in June 2007. It’s too heavy to drag down to Peet’s Coffee, but if you are ever contemplating suicide, you can strap it to your chest and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. It is guaranteed to sink you.
What unnerves me most is this: I keep half of my appointments on Google calendar, but have made entries in Apple’s calendar software on my Mac. Never again!
Lesson 1: keep your calendar online.
I don’t think I’ve got any appointments this week (which aren’t on Google calendar), but I won’t know until I get a call from the offended person yelling at me for not showing up.
So while I’m waiting for the return of Fiona, I’m stuck with Wilbur. My only consolation is that Wilbur is too old to have upgraded to Vista.
If you have been living in a cave for the past 24 hours, you just missed Apple’s release of the world’s thinnest laptop (no CD or DVD drive, finally) and the beginning of the end of the cable TV industry. Read these posts on Pajama Entrepreneur:
Unfortunately, what Steve did not announce was: unlocked iPhone with 3G available everywhere in the world. That is what I was waiting for. That’s the last monopolistic monolith to crack: the telecom industry.
Here’s a little tip I’d like to share with you. If you live in a city and use Wi-Fi at home, you will probably encounter interference from a lot of neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks. The intereference can have a significant effect on the performance of your network, slowing down the speeds at which you send files around (internally among various devices in your house or office), or download/upload files on the Internet.
If you upgrade your Wi-Fi access point to one that uses 802.11n and upgrade your computer and other devices to ones that have 802.11n (or at least get an 802.11n adapter card for older devices), then set your new 802.11n base station to use the 5GHz frequency, you will find that your network’s performance will improve because there’s very little interference on that frequency. Most people do not have 802.11n yet.
My setup: I bought an Apple Airport Extreme base station (with 802.11n) two weeks ago. The Mac Book Pro that I bought last June already has 802.11n built in, so all I had to do was to set the base station to send and receive at 5GHz. The network is now very fast because there’s no interference from my neighbors who are all using 2.4 GHz.
Glenn Fleishman, who wrote the book Take Control of your 802.11n Airport Extreme Network, says he is still waiting for inexpensive 802.11n adapters for the older devices (laptops, etc.) in his house so he can have all of them use 5GHz. I’m waiting, too.
A few days ago I broke down and bought Apple’s latest operating system, Leopard, and the new Airport Extreme 802.11n base station. I’ve been thinking about upgrading for several months but reports of problems experienced by other users who upgraded, scared me into sitting on the sidelines. I have been fortunate in that I experienced no problems doing the upgrade. Indeed, my Mac Book Pro (purchased in June 2007) is running all applications, especially Mail, much faster. What I like most about Leopard is the Quick Look feature which allows me to see what’s inside a file (document, video, slides) without having to open an application.
Faster wireless networking with 802.11n
Because I am in the center of Amsterdam where a lot of people have wireless networks, there’s a lot of interference which noticeably slowed down my network. Hence, I set the Airport Extreme 802.11n base station to use 5 GHz, instead of 2.4 GHz. Since my Mac Book Pro has 802.11n built in, no problem sending and receiving over 5 GHz. Moving files around the network is so much faster! Of course, all the other computers in the house are still on 802.11b or g, so I hooked up the old Airport base station to provide them with wireless access.
Setting up the base station and the network were very easy using Glenn Fleishman’s excellent guide, Take Control of Your 802.11n Airport Extreme Network.
