- Joined
- Dec 21, 2007
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- Location
- Nevada, Buenos Aires, and Barçelona
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- 60% Gay, 40% Straight
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- Male
OK, so I'll probably not elicit any sympathy. But I'm fraught with sadness over the demise of my six-year-old Dell Inspiron 8600 running XP II and its million updates that finally succumbed to a power surge when lightning struck my building recently in Barçelona. It was a trusty and well-made machine that never let me down. But when the lightening hit, it pretty much hosed the electrical life of the whole building. Some of the wiring was original to the building's construction in 1909 -- but not much. The power surge was so great that it melted my UPS surge protection box. Who knows how many years my Dell lap top might have continued to live were it not for this tragic act of God?
To ease my grief, my long-suffering-lesbian-documentary-film-maker-cousin currently finishing her documentary on the Russian poet, Brodsky, came to my rescue by presenting me with a brand new, still-in-the-box MacBook Pro running OS X. It has a swell 17" screen. But in all fairness it doesn't seem much larger than my old Dell's 15" display.
I once exclusively used Macs to produce hundreds of technical manuals for software many of you use(d) but never read. Back in the days before fire, Macs were the only game in town for desk top publishing, which is what was required by the lofty software companies I had the good fortune to work for. But one day, after fire was invented, I landed a six-figure position where I was forced to join "the Collective" and write with a PC. Still, we only used MS Word occasionally, eschewing all things Miicrosoft, and preferring Adobe's beautifully designed and wonderfully programmed products to crank out the manuals than no one ever reads.
First rule of technical writing: No one reads the manual.
Second rule of technical writing: Steal. Because of ISO9000 standards, whatever you need to write has probably already been written. Simply copy the text of a similar software manual, eliminate the passive voice, and replace each instance of the word "click" with "select" and you're 90% of the way finished.
Third rule of technical writing: If caught, lie.
Fourth rule of technical writing: Adobe products rule! (even on a PC)
Although I'm grateful to have my new MacBook Pro, 90% of what I write is not in English. So, the standard English language keyboard so many of you are accustomed causes me some unnecessary cognitive dissonance. The MacBook Pro has an English language keyboard. Curiously, while roaming about the Apple Store yesterday I discovered that desk top Macs have international-esque keyboards. The keyboard font mapping is almost (but not quite) exactly like my old Dell's (I bought it in Texas and the international keyboard was an option). But the Mac Men at the Mac store were all over me, enthusiastically showing me how to change the language options for the keyboard and how, with a little practice and the Kekyboard Viewer open for Spanish or French, I could retrain myself to whack away in other languages than English without concern.
Well, I'm still concerned. MacBook Pros, it seems, are not even sold in Europe with pseudo international keyboards. At 59 I'm afraid I'm too old to learn new tricks (although I have no problem cruising for them at the nude beaches).
Have any of you many billions of LPSG-ers any suggestions for making life easier until I relearn how to use a Mac? Have any of you had similar experiences? I'm almost tempted to sneak down the street to HipCorp and buy another PC lap top. This is something that, as a previous die-hard defender of all things Mac and Apple, is a serious regression for which one cannot say enough Our Fathers and Hail Marys.
Sniff. (tear sheds down midlifebear's cheek)
And do any of you have suggestions what I should do with my fried Dell? I fear it may be headed for smelting in some third-world Asian country as innocent children burn their fingers and inhale the vapors of overheated mercury.
It is the end. It is a new beginning. Until it is once again a new end. :frown1:
To ease my grief, my long-suffering-lesbian-documentary-film-maker-cousin currently finishing her documentary on the Russian poet, Brodsky, came to my rescue by presenting me with a brand new, still-in-the-box MacBook Pro running OS X. It has a swell 17" screen. But in all fairness it doesn't seem much larger than my old Dell's 15" display.
I once exclusively used Macs to produce hundreds of technical manuals for software many of you use(d) but never read. Back in the days before fire, Macs were the only game in town for desk top publishing, which is what was required by the lofty software companies I had the good fortune to work for. But one day, after fire was invented, I landed a six-figure position where I was forced to join "the Collective" and write with a PC. Still, we only used MS Word occasionally, eschewing all things Miicrosoft, and preferring Adobe's beautifully designed and wonderfully programmed products to crank out the manuals than no one ever reads.
First rule of technical writing: No one reads the manual.
Second rule of technical writing: Steal. Because of ISO9000 standards, whatever you need to write has probably already been written. Simply copy the text of a similar software manual, eliminate the passive voice, and replace each instance of the word "click" with "select" and you're 90% of the way finished.
Third rule of technical writing: If caught, lie.
Fourth rule of technical writing: Adobe products rule! (even on a PC)
Although I'm grateful to have my new MacBook Pro, 90% of what I write is not in English. So, the standard English language keyboard so many of you are accustomed causes me some unnecessary cognitive dissonance. The MacBook Pro has an English language keyboard. Curiously, while roaming about the Apple Store yesterday I discovered that desk top Macs have international-esque keyboards. The keyboard font mapping is almost (but not quite) exactly like my old Dell's (I bought it in Texas and the international keyboard was an option). But the Mac Men at the Mac store were all over me, enthusiastically showing me how to change the language options for the keyboard and how, with a little practice and the Kekyboard Viewer open for Spanish or French, I could retrain myself to whack away in other languages than English without concern.
Well, I'm still concerned. MacBook Pros, it seems, are not even sold in Europe with pseudo international keyboards. At 59 I'm afraid I'm too old to learn new tricks (although I have no problem cruising for them at the nude beaches).
Have any of you many billions of LPSG-ers any suggestions for making life easier until I relearn how to use a Mac? Have any of you had similar experiences? I'm almost tempted to sneak down the street to HipCorp and buy another PC lap top. This is something that, as a previous die-hard defender of all things Mac and Apple, is a serious regression for which one cannot say enough Our Fathers and Hail Marys.
Sniff. (tear sheds down midlifebear's cheek)
And do any of you have suggestions what I should do with my fried Dell? I fear it may be headed for smelting in some third-world Asian country as innocent children burn their fingers and inhale the vapors of overheated mercury.
It is the end. It is a new beginning. Until it is once again a new end. :frown1:
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