found drama

As of yesterday, I am now on-board a MacBook Pro. It’s my new work machine. BenNevis being both a scotch and the tallest peak in Scotland, the hostname naming convention fits with both home and office. So far, so good. First impressions in the first 24+ hours:

• Fast. Yes. It’s fast. Things are snappy and responsive. Must be the 2.0 GHz Core Duo. And the 2 GB of memory help, I’m sure. That said, it cooks and rivals (if not surpasses) Malkovich (running a 2.0 GHz G5).
• Rosetta. While most of the apps I run “all day” are Universal Binary already, there are a few essentials that are still PowerPC-based. I.e., Microsoft anything. Word and Excel both run transparently and without a hiccup. It’s nice that there’s no emulation “ghetto” that needs to launch first (see also: “Classic”) – – the application just opens as if it were running on KetelOne or Malkovich (etc.) That said, it does seem like apps running in Rosetta are more crash-prone. I had to force quit Word a couple of times today – – but then again, it never really has fully behaved for some types of “Track Changes” behaviors.  (Meanwhile, Excel was faster than I’ve ever seen it.)
• Watch out for drivers.  If you use 3rd party hardware, watch out for the drivers.  They may not be Universal Binary (or the equivalent).  I prefer to use a Logitch keyboard and trackball and to fully take advantage of their features, I need to run the Logitech “Control Center”.  However, after installing the Preference Pane, OS X decided that they couldn’t place nicely together.  So much for my proper key mappings.  So much for my scrollwheel as a double-click…
• Fan noise?  I keep reading about excessive fan noise and “whining” from the machine.  I haven’t noticed anything.  Nothing out of the ordinary at least.  It’s not silent.  But it’s not load.  However, it does get friggin’ hot.  I’ll pay that price for fast though.
• Huge power brick.  I’d read that it was bigger.  Then I held it in my hands and dubbed it “Scotty” – – I canna give you any more, Cap’n! I’ve given yea all that she’s got!

Meanwhile, in the real world…  I keep plugging away at getting everything set up the way I need it.  No matter how prepared you think you are, it always takes an extra couple days.

About Rob Friesel

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