One of the following may have occurred:
- Rich is pressuring me to get our Christmas cards in the mail. I swear I'm not a procrastinator.
- One of the girls is sick.
- I haven't been able to pick up the free Wi-Fi on the trains and therefore, can't seem to finish writing my posts.
- I have decided to do my nails. Oh, how I miss having my nails done.
- My computer has exploded.
I have to say that Christmas really snuck up on me this year. I think that vacationing in November may have contributed to that. So much of November was spent planning, packing, vacationing, unpacking and doing laundry that I wasn't able to get a jump start on the holidays.
Buying gifts for the girls this year was super easy. My problem is in finding time to buy gifts for everyone else. Working full time sort of eliminates weekdays for shopping trips and our weekends are usually too busy.
I'll have an awesome post up next week regarding the photo shoot I did with the girls for our Christmas card photo. It was by far the easiest photo shoot I have pulled off. It appears that our combined experience as parents and my better photography skills have finally paid off.
So there's a dark cloud hanging over my head right now. My laptop. It is almost four years old and I'm in the red with respect to memory. It also likes to shut down at random times. Like last night when I was editing photos for last night's blog post. Which was never posted because Emily kept waking up and I gave up on the computer.
This laptop would best be fit for a turtle. It is so slow that I turn it on and walk away to do something else. Return to sign in and then walk away to do something else. Open the internet and then walk away to do something else. There was one night that I took 10 minutes from the time I turned the computer on to when I was actually able to log onto my blogger account. 10 minutes!
I have been tempted to toss this laptop out the window on more than one occasion over the past six months but refrained from doing so because I haven't wanted to cough up the money for a new one. Maybe I'm weird but I'd rather spend my money on something else. Like new lenses. Or put more in our savings. Computers don't excite me.
I've now reached the point where I am going to have to uncheap myself and buy a new laptop. This 101GB of hard drive memory is just not cutting it. Neither are the random shut downs. I started looking at Macs because it seems like everyone in photography uses a Mac. One of Rich's brothers suggested a Toshiba.
I'm slightly afraid of the apple. Rich thinks that our permanent mind fog brains won't allow us to be "Mac people." Is this true, folks? You see, I had a Mac before I had children. It was one of those high powered (at the time) laptops and all I used it for was word processing, excel spreadsheets and the internet. Basically, my computer needs at the time were extremely limited so the laptop was not used much. And then the screen started acting funny. And then we stopped using it.
I started looking at Toshibas and I just was not excited. Not that I would be excited by a new computer but I feel like I am going to end up in the same position in two years if I go with a PC. The apple keeps calling my name. I have done some research and I can understand the lure of the apple.
I priced out a MacBook Pro and for what I am getting, it is not that much more expensive than a comparable Toshiba. AND the Macs are supposed to last longer. (And this one will because you better believe I will be purchasing the three year extended warranty on that sucker.) So now I really don't know what to do. Do you know how many times we've replaced the battery on my Dell? Those things cost $75. I'm down to approximately 90 minutes of life on my current one.
I swear I'm not a procrastinator (I'm just tired) but I can't seem to make myself push the button! What if I get the Mac and we can't figure out how to get the Wi-Fi in our house to work? What if I can't figure out how to upload pictures from my camera? I've been going through the laptop memory every night deleting what I can and I am not gaining much memory. I'm going to reach a point soon where I can't save anything on it. I'm trying not to panic.
In conjunction with the laptop purchase, I also wanted to get an external hard drive that could be used wirelessly and as a network. I know that they exist. I want to be able to wirelessly back up my pictures and then if I (or Rich) want to retrieve them, it's quick, easy and painless.
Help!
17 comments:
We are in desperate need of a new laptop, as well. I hate our Dell! Our battery is bad as well. Keep us posted on your decision.
A wireless external drive is nice and easy with a Mac is one reason for it. And you can use software like vmware if you are convinced you need access to windows (I was, and I don't). The batteries on the current MacBook pros are awesome too!
I kept replacing my crappy Dells until I caved into buying a Mac. Their laptops are SO much better than the Dell-from-Hell laptops! Seriously, I LOVE my macbook. I've had it for a few years and one problem. One! Never shuts off on me, is super quick, and your girls will LOVE LOVE LOVE the photo booth included on all macs. Okay, I am starting to sound like a representative from Apple--but take my word for it!
We have a Mac and I would never go back to PC. Once you switch you think to yourself, why did I ever have a PC?! If you get it at the store they will transfer all your files and pictures from your current computer to your new one, as well as set up your wireless drive. We have an external drive that holds our photos and videos and they set it up so it all runs off the external drive. They also set up our time machine which is the wireless router and it backs up the computer wirelessly every so often through the day so you can go back to any date and see exactly what was on your computer at that time, and access it. They also have a super duper photo program that does editing like Photoshop, but also is the storage portal for the photos, called aperture. It is a fancy version of iPhoto and so worth the upgrade! We have over 3T of storage for our computer and after 3 years it still runs like it just came out of the box!
I LOVE my MacBook Pro! I just went today to the Apple store for my one to one session. I learn so much everytime!
This past summer we decided that we needed a new laptop..we got a HP because I was "afraid" I couldn't handle the switch to an apple...we ended up returning the HP and getting a macbook pro and I am in L.O.V.E!!! So easy to use and every problem that I anticipated having did not exist! The ONLY thing that it doesn't have that the PCs have is the delete button that deletes to the right...I really liked that button!
ha ha, i used have a dell laptop. i forget what its problem was...something about freezing up or crashing...who knows, thank goodness i lost some brain cells that didn't contain any important info forgetting that one. we had a loaner toshiba for a few months, but then had to give it back and, after much debate, went mac. LOVE. you know why we made the plunge? after asking everyone we knew what kind of computer they had, and if they liked it, only the mac people were enthusiastic about their machines. LOVE. not hard to figure out really, just don't get suckered into getting the iworks-office software stuff like we did, that's kind of non-useful.
LOVE.
Once you go Mac you really will never go back.
Buy the macbook pro and buy the timecapsule through Apple. It is a wireless router and external hard drive. The macbook is easy to learn.
I used to run a computer department before I went to Photography full time. I hate Dell and am not a big fan of PC's. I had my last macbook pro for over 4 years.
I will never ever own a Mac. Never.And it's not just bc H is an IT guy and refuses to have them in our house :) I used one in the studio this summer and for me- it was a total PITA. I can't even put my finger on why I hated using it so much. I've only ever had Dells. I just got a new one in May, maybe June. I love that we can build it online, and have it shipped right here- no going shopping for it. Also, we bought an terabyte external memory thingy to store all my photos on, the two are linked on the same home network.. uh thing.
~ the lone Dell <3er
We have two macs and LOVE them. I would never buy a PC again. My husband has one for work because he can't access his stuff on MAC and I always want to throw his computer out the window because it is slow and always has issues.
We have two laptops - a Mac and a PC and by far my husbands Mac is the better computer. He loves it and would never buy another PC.
Good luck with your decision.
I got a little macbook over three years ago and it has been great, I had never used one before. We've also got a dell that we've had for less time that is already on it's last legs. I've got HP laptop for work and they aren't great, even top of the line ones.
Mac is very easy to use and you can go to the store and get help if you need to!
what about a sony vaio? i don't know if they are sold in the USA but here in Greece they are very popular and they come in many different sizes.
I had a Toshiba laptop and I liked it, but after 2 years it started blue screening. Then I spent more money on a Dell laptop and two years later IT started blue screening. THEN I bought a cheap Acer laptop because why bother spending good money on a laptop, right? It's okay, but now I want a Mac Book Pro. I used to be a mac person back in the day (college!) and then I got into the work force and everything was PC. I miss my Mac and I'm going back as soon as I can.
Good luck on your decision, but I vote for Mac!
Thanks, everyone. I think I am going to with a Mac. Rich and I just need to go thru our options!
Go MAC!!!
Get a MAC. I switched four years ago and will NEVER go back!
Post a Comment