As a business PhD student, I come from a PC world. Even in an academic setting, it is somewhat unusual to see a Mac computer in the offices of Management, Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, or even Marketing professors. Working here at the BLSCI, however, has re-introduced me to Macs. I say re-introduce, because Apple’s “Macintosh Classic” was my computer of choice during my undergraduate college career in the early 1990s. Although I didn’t personally own one, I was lucky enough to have a roommate whose parents bought her the cute little gray box, which was somewhat portable (you could transport it to a downstairs study room if you had to pull an all-nighter writing a paper!) Sure, I still had to go to the computer lab and use a PC for the projects in my accounting and finance classes, but I so enjoyed that little box for writing papers.
Macintosh Classic Computer (c. early 1990s)
Last fall, my PC laptop crashed (again!) and this time for good. After many blue screens and calls to a help desk in another time zone, I asked my husband if he could take the machine into his office and see if the tech folks would be kind enough to take a look at it. Although I had safely backed up the majority of my truly important files before the crash (re: dissertation), there were a few key personal items that had not been backed-up (photos, music, and our Christmas card address label list). Getting an external hard drive had been on my to-do list for months, but I had never gotten around to it. Fortunately, a tech whiz at my husband’s office was able to revive my machine one last time and retrieve the files.
Now we’re in the market for another home computer or laptop, and I must admit I have become enamored with the user-friendliness, sleek design and just plain coolness associated with Macs. My husband, who still uses a PC at work, is not entirely convinced. But he was willing to go to the Apple Store with me and have a “personal shopping” session with a hip Mac Expert who showed us all the benefits of a Mac. We are certainly creatures of habit, and the most difficult issue to overcome is not having the right click button on a Mac. Those Apple folks have a solution for everything, though, and the new Macbook Pros have this cool “Multi-Touch track pad” which “offers even more Multi-Touch gestures and functionality” … okay you really need to experience it for yourself. In addition, the ability to go to an Apple store and talk with a real, live person if you have trouble with your machine is certainly appealing.
We haven’t made our decision yet, so any comments or suggestions are welcomed. And if we do go with a Mac, should we get a desktop or laptop? Decisions, decisions!
I well remember my interview at Schwartz and how appealing I found what Mikhail said about fellows having a Mac laptop of their own on loan from the Institute. I was a big PC fan before I got “Oyster” from Tom, but she (I mean Oyster; gendered, as my plants are) has become such a reliable resource that I find myself switching my preferences. And talking about sleekness and design in NYC, who can beat the Apple guys? Without my Nano, I would feel deprived, just like living in a desert. Embarrassing, I admit, that I do what I promised myself not to do: sit in the subway totally engrossed in my music, like everybody else around me. Where is communication, people? Well, it still happens. I still talk to strangers to find out how nice New Yorkers really are, and I feel the deep human connection that Olga blogged about in such a soulful way last week. And I guess I have to accept the fact that we love to be techy, to be sleek and trendy, and that part of our daily communication comes from exactly topics like Kate’s post: to be or not to be, Mac or PC?