I usually don’t write about technical jargon or gadget reviews as it doesn’t really interest me, but I recently purchased my new MacBook. And oh!, such an exciting experience! I have been an Apple user for more than 7 years. The world of Windows and Microsoft is a distant, tumultuous past. When I started my independent graphic design company nearly 10 years ago, I worked off of what 90% of the world operates off of — Windows PC. I thought everyone went through the headaches and mind-numbing struggle with the dreaded “Blue Screen” or the infamous “Ctrl-Alt-Delete”. Then one day I saw Jesus, and he came to me by way of a powerful symbolic image, the bitten Apple. (Did you get the religious symbolism there? You know, I mentioned Jesus then the apple that Eve… never mind.)

Once I jumped into the world I call “Cloud Nine” also called Apple Macintosh, I have never looked back and pretty much rid my life of everything “Bill Gates’ish”. I then was able to regain my social life as I was no longer crippled from the daily brain hemorrhage caused by the stress of losing 25 MB graphics files in Photoshop on a daily basis, not to mention the crippled hands by the Ctrl-Alt-Delete maneuver every half hour. With all kidding aside, I am not really kidding. In other words the move to Apple products has only bettered my life and opened up my perspective to what it means to “go against the grain.”

For the longest time I have not been interested in re-introducing anything Microsoft Windows into my life until now. Now that I have been developing the new custom site platform for your viewing pleasure, I needed to make sure that the programming and the design is cross platform. In other words, it looks the same no matter what browser or operating system your using, so for me to accomplish this programming nightmare, I needed a Windows machine to check how the site looks on Internet Explorer as well as other popular browsers. Since there was no way in Hell I was going to buy a Windows PC, I was going to do what any Apple fanatic would do — buy another Apple of course, but one that can have Windows installed on it as well. Now I can have my cake and eat it too!

So, here I am, unpacking my new Apple computer admiring the wonderful presentation of design intermingled with user friendliness and excitedly setting up everything so I can attack this new project with a vengeance. Once I turn on the MacBook, I am greeted in every major language as the animation of the first power-up is as entertaining as a hollywood movie trailer. I enter in my information, register the computer and the operating system with complete ease, then jump on and start working as if the computer knew my deepest desires, all within about 10 minutes. Then a little window pops up. “Please update the following…” I click update, and it does it in “one fell swoop”. I restart the computer, and it’s done. I am now blazing around on the internet, checking email and getting the computer just the way I like it. Then I install a program called Parallels. It allows me to run Microsoft Windows XP, or any other OS right along side Mac OS X all, at the same time!




Once installed, it then asks for the installation CD of the Windows Operating System. I pop it in and… #$**^$#@, ^*$#($#! Son of a &*^$#%%$! God *&%$##% Then my life went back to where it was 10 years ago as I was having flash backs and PTSD. Nothing went smoothly, with no fault of the computer or the program mind you, as I was trying to just get the Windows up and running. I first encountered the 142 updates that needed to be completed before anything worked correctly. I kept getting warnings of insecurity from digital terrorists and criminals out there primed and ready to victimize me. (If you didn’t know, with Apple, you never have to worry about viruses, spy-ware, or phishing.) I felt like Bush was trying to speak to me through my computer. I never felt so threatened with all the fear of being hacked, victimized or destroyed by the axis of digital evil.

Then I had to go here, then there, validate this, download that before this, this update is not compatible with that, you can’t secure your computer until you download and install this service pack that you can’t get until you validate your OS. After I passed the security gates of Gates and proved that I wasn’t a criminal who had a back alley copy of Windows, I could finally install the very thing that they were scaring me into — the anti-virus software…

(Okay, let me scream this out into the vast expanding space that is the World Wide Web. WHY IN THE HELL DOES MICROSOFT WINDOWS NOT COME BUNDLED WITH AN ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE? You can’t even utilize the computer unless you have this anti-terror crap, so why do you have to purchase it separately? It is like buying a car, but having to purchase the the crumple zones, seat belts, airbags, windshield and roll cage separately. WTF?!)

Sorry, back to the anti-virus stuff. So that I could instal the software (made by Microsoft), I had to create a certain membership in PASSPORT.net or something just to activate the damn thing. So I did, and then bam, the website is timing out. Holy Sh*t! this is soooo frustrating! I started this project at around 10 pm it is now 5 am and I am finally done. It took me about 4-5 hours to do what it takes me about 30-45 minutes on a Mac, if you install a Mac OS from scratch that is.

What really bothers me is how people have still not yet realized that Apple IS superior, period. Everything from the user interface to the hardware to the programs to the Apple service. Did you know that all Apple service is right here in the U.S. of A.?! That’s right, no talking to people that have a hard time understanding you, or you understanding them. Apple actually gives a sh*t about you!

Now, I thought I would write about my experiences since all I have been doing is watching the progress bar creep to the right. The intention that drove this article came from a new mission of mine, “More people need to realize the same thing that I did 7-8 years ago — there is a better computer experience out there, just waiting for your realization. Your Cloud Nine is just a click away. And you know what they say, “Once you go Mac, you never go back!” Trust me, I am not trying to advertise for Apple. I just want Bill Gates to learn his lesson — you can’t keep taking your customers for granted. Sooner or later, they will realize and revolt! So I say revolt!