My New Toys - or - I Love my Mac

So Christmas came around and things went well.  I found myself in the situation where I could expedite my purchase of a new computer.  Each time I've bought a new computer, it's always been with a view to keeping it for 10 years or so.  My previous computer was a Dell desktop, which I upgraded to the nines and it still works really well.  I decided this round that I'd get a Macbook Pro.  My reasoning was that this product would be my  production platform for creative writing, while the desktop remained the central family computer.

I had to wait for about two weeks after the order to allow the upgraded system to arrive from Apple's assembly plant in China.  It was a rather anxious couple of weeks.  When it finally arrived, I still couldn't quite grasp just how well and far laptops have come since I bought my Dell.  Back then, laptops were huge, clunky affairs.  To put into perspective, a colleague was cleaning her desk and returning an old Toshiba.  The system was nearly as thick as the box for my MBP!  So, with a grin that knew no limits, I unpacked and gleefully started 'er up; I've haven't looked back since.  With 16 Gb of RAM and a fully upgraded processor, I'm content with the basic storage capacity, given the system's primary function.  If it ever comes to it, external flash storage is a hell of a lot cheaper than Apple's proprietary hardware.

Another toy I decided to get to tide me over while the MBP was being assembled was the Apple iPad Air; again, the bare bones storage capacity is more than enough for our purposes.  What a sweet little system!  My wife and mother-in-law are still awestruck that this thin, little device can do so much.  I went for the Air instead of the Mini largely due to screen size preference and a few reviews that showed the Air had a slightly better capacity for graphic presentation.

Now that I have a dedicated platform, I'm looking forward to cracking some works out!

Signals Interrupted... Computer Woes

One of the first lessons I learned when starting to use computers for school projects and the like, was to back-up whatever you couldn’t stand to lose.  Well, start of a new year and already, my computer is aspiring to turn things negative for me.  Trying to get to the Internet to do some research, I found a Vista Anti-Virus (Un-Registered) telling me I have 30 malicious threats, and the only way to get anywhere seemed to register for the program.  From my previous computer science days, some of the threats listed are worms and other codes I know can draw info from the computer, including credit card information typed into an online software purchase.

Yeah….. I guess the research is on hold until I can scan the hard drive and determine what exactly I’m dealing with.  Add to this a trip to the local Big Box electronics shop for a newer, more up-to-date protection suite.

Update:  Yeah, malware with over 50 hooks into my computer’s registry.  Fun times, now that the bastard-thing is cleansed.