Tuesday, February 3, 2009

I've converted to Mac

So after 28 years of being a PC guy, I've converted to Mac. Not to sound cliche, but I am never going back. Though getting here was an adventure. Let me explain with a timeline.

Thursday, January 29
7:00 AM - I wake up to find my Dell laptop frozen. Thinking nothing of it, I restart the computer. It freezes on the Dell logo as horror fills my veins. My immediate reaction being, "Ohmygod, am I going to lose all of my Phish mp3s?"

8:00 AM - Despite running in and out of the shower to check on the computer, it still has shown no progress and is dead, dead, dead. Funeral arrangements are made. I call my dad and tell him the computer situation. It is described as the "Kobiashi Maru" of computer crashes. That means "not good."

9:00 AM - 6:00 PM - Work, while thinking, "I'll get home and the laptop will be fine." Midway through the day I am convinced to look at a Mac by a couple friends. By the end of the day, I've already plotted my route to the Apple Store in Bethesda.

6:30 PM - Arrive home and head for Apple Store in Bethesda with the remaining Vegas winnings in hand.

7:30 PM - I purchase my first Macbook. In and out in 10 minutes. It's a thing of beauty. Though on a side note, elderly workers there make me realize that they aren't working at Apple Store because they're bored of retirement. It's because their retirement is almost dried up. Very depressing.

8:30 PM - I am home and turn on my Macbook. Immediately I plug my 500 gig hard drive in and start copying mp3s. I am prompted to do a software update which I do and then reboot.

8:35 PM - A grey screen appears on my Macbook upon reboot. I think nothing of it.

8:37 PM - The grey screen remains and my temperature rises.

8:40 PM - I am in full panic mode again as I've seemingly crashed an uncrashable machine. I unplug the hard drive and get the machine to shut down. Depression sets in.

Friday, January 30
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM - I spend with my dog at the behavioral vet (read: Doggy Therapist) where I learn my dog has anxiety disorder, is afraid of other dogs, and needs to be put on Prozac. Not doggy Prozac, but real people Prozac.

5:00 PM - I come home and find the macbook is working with no hard drives plugged in. I plan on taking it back. Somehow this doesn't happen until....

9:00 PM - I get to the Apple Store in Bethesda and find that it's closed. I am still computerless. For a guy who loves connecting and playing with music and photos (read: nerd) this is awful.

Saturday, January 31
1:00 PM - I take the macbook to the Apple Store in Pentagon City. "Big Tony" hooks me up and gives me an upgraded Macbook for $100 extra instead of charging me for the open box.

1:30 PM - I get home and set up the Mac this time having a theory that the hard drive is causing the problems. I start the unthinkable task of copying ALL my mp3s to my Macbook's internal hard drive. Since the hard drive is being recognized so long as its not on boot up, this seems like a great fix. I'll have all my songs and I can take the baby with me anywhere.

About 40 gigs in I realize that the mp3s going in are going to be greater than the space allowed. I start to do an audit of my mp3s and delete albums to make space as my thinking is that 27 James Brown albums and 18 KISS albums is a little excessive. Anything to save the 56 gigs of live Phish mp3s.

8:00 PM - Operation continues as I delete the excessive number of 10cc albums I seem to have acquired and the 35 Jimmy Smith albums I downloaded over the years.

11:30 PM - Pork-induced sleep caused by Chris and Mary Corcoran.

Sunday, February 1
1:00 PM - Travel to Apple Store in Bethesda AGAIN and get Microsoft office in exchange for iWork. Great trade. I still am copying mp3s all afternoon with no problems.

6:00 PM - I take the laptop to Chris' and watch the Superbowl as I audit my music collection.

10:30 PM - It suddenly hits me to try to restart the computer with my OTHER external hard drive to see if its the hard drives or the computer. My 80 gig hard drive works, my 500 gig causes crashes. Case solved. Only took me 4 days.

Monday, February 2
7:00 PM - I finish copying my mp3s to my computer, store a few in other places and talk to Greg Greene about how I can get this all to work. At last the computer is ready to rock. We agree that I need a new external hard drive and I'll run some mp3s off of it and some on my internal hard drive. Problems solved.

The tally in four days:
2 Macbooks
45,231 MP3s to start
39,951 MP3s to end
56 gigs of Phish
1 busted Dell Inspiron E1705

Excited about this.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy chain of events! Worth it though. May your Dell rest in piece.

Jennifer said...

I know what you mean about the panic. I lost 15,000 MP3s a few months ago. Permanently. I refer to the situation now as The Great Depression.

I'm slowly rebuilding my collection but it's been difficult since I sold my 1,000 or so CDs last year, thinking I wouldn't need them again. I'm back up to about 4,000 songs now.

How can we trade music? AIM? I need to get some of that 90s rock we both love from you!

Chrisk67 said...

Adam,
After reading this post (which I skipped over commenting on the picture above as I should be) I had to read this. It is amazing that the PC users are heading to Apple in groves.

I have a weekly podcast that I do and EVERY week I say at some point (around the tech section) "I am a PC..." and I am getting sick of it.

I am wrapped up in photography, getting into video and other media and enjoy being online.

Thanks for a great timeline and RIP your Dell and good luck with the Apple. I am glad that Paul hooked us all up on Follow Friday!
Best,

Chris Kulturides
http://www.the-cameraeye.com