Well I bought a new Mac laptop and you get the first message. I am having to learn a new OS and so there is a slow learning curve. Next I have started a new top with some more of the pieces from the quilt from hell. I have finished about 1/4 of the top that will be measured about 70"x70" for a lap quilt. The pattern is "A trip around the world", and so far it is quite colorful. The summer has more demands on my time due to landscaping duties and exterior painting and whatall. So, the pace has become slower than quilting in the winter. There should be enough left over to do one more quilt of some kind using up the rest of these pieces. I hope that I can get through that quilt without heading to the quiet ward. I will post pics when this one is finished.
By for now
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Sandy Ellison
Howdy!
Congrats on the Mac, John. It will help you with your quilting. Really. I promise! ;-P
R/Sandy--testifying to it!
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Sandy
Good luck with the quilt, John, and congratulations on choosing such a great laptop! I have a MacBook; do you have the same thing or the MB Pro? I love mine and use both Quilt Pro and EQ6 on it to play with designs and colors. *And* for RCTQ and that sort of thing, of course. ;)
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John
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i bought the plain white macbook. I will probably spend as much on accs. as I did on the laptop, but that is the usual course of my life. I had used a mac a number of years ago, but this one has the latest OS and it is quick and interesting to use. I like th fact that you can taker it with you and use it at wifi hot spots right out of the box. I haven't done tht yet but when we go up to Panera's and Barnes and Ignobles, I plan on taking it and going for a wifi test drive. My wifes windows computer, which I also have been using, went on the fritz and is being looked after by our small town resident compugeek and maybe he will tell her that she needs a new computer so she will have to choose one for herself. She anint getting this one though. Except during this time of withdrawl from her down computer. Thanks for the heads up about the programs on quilting.
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John
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One thing I am noticing is that the smaller size of the keyboard is making my already challenged spelling and typing skills more prone to error. Hopefully that will decrease with the usage and passage of time and removal from the dark side of computers.
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Sandy
I also have a white one -- the midrange one, to which I've added extra RAM and a larger drive. I love it!
And this is different from the rest of us in what way? ;)
A couple of notes on the quilting software: Quilt Pro is available in a Mac version so it will run natively. To run EQ6, though, you will need an emulator, since it's Windows only. You have a couple of choices of emulators.
1) Bootcamp, made by Apple, is free. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that it requires you to reboot into Windows and reboot into the Mac OS each time you want to change how you're working. Sharing files between the two is a trifle complicated, since you more or less have to email yourself stuff from one OS to the other -- or copy it all onto removable drives/media. You will also need a stand-alone version of Windows (XP at least for EQ6).
2) Parallels is not free; I believe it's around $75-$80, and you also need to have a stand-alone version of Windows to use. That's the bad news. The good news -- and the reason I chose to use this instead of the free Bootcamp -- is that you do not have to reboot to use it. It has a mode called Convergence that makes it look like you're using your Windows application(s) right in the Mac desktop -- the Windows desktop doesn't show at all. :D Sharing files between your Mac OS and Windows is easy, either by means of a shared folder or by simply dragging and dropping from one to the other. That's good for me, since I don't like to be online in Windows. Since your Mac has the Intel chip, EQ6 (and other Win apps) run at native speed -- no more slooooooooowwww and painful, as there was with the older Macs and Virtual PC, which had to emulate both the OS and the Intel chip.
HTH! :)
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Sandy
I rather like the new keyboard, but my fingers are a bit smaller than yours, I imagine. However, why don't you simply hook up an external keyboard to your MacBook? I do that at home so as to have the keyboard at a more optimal level. Then I only use the built-in keyboard when I take the MB out of my sewing room. Works for me. :)
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John
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I have an extra keyboard around and I also have an extra 17" flat panel monitor which I am going to mount on the wall above where I will normaly use the mac. I will just plug that into the mirroring port and it will display what is on the mac in a much more vision friendly format for these tired old eyes. Then I just unplug that cable and use the native monitor when I am on the go. The hardest thing to get used to is the touchpad for cursor movement. I may get a mouse for use when at the home work station, and leave it when mobile. It is interesting configuring a new system to you own private concept of "what's right". We just found out this morning that my wifes computer is toast so it's off to buy her a new desktop from our local geek store. They are going to come over and configure our whole house for wireless usage and enable her to use my printer/scaner /copier and file share if we want. This is way above my comfort level as I took most of the day just to get the mac set up the way I wanted it. We were running windows 98 and we still have some 78 and 33 rpm records that we play. That shows you my Luddite approach to technology. Time marches on but I march to a different drummer.
John
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Sandy
Lucky you! I have a 17" monitor which I can plug into the Mac, but I rarely use it anymore. It's an old one, and the picture on it just isn't as nice as the one on the MacBook.
That's what I do, too. It's much easier to right click and all of that sort of thing with a real mouse.
Oh, *fun*! Is she going to get a Mac, too?
I'd still have my old 33's, too, if we hadn't downsized so much when we moved here. DH doesn't know how to set the time on the VCR, let alone use the DVD player or the DVR, and he'd better not fool around with my computer, either. ;) He's not into technology and has me handle the email he can't avoid. But, boy, can he garden! :)
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John
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I have been trying to get her stoked on the mac idea, but her genealogy programs are all pc. based and she has to many years of data in that format to reinvent the wheel. She is getting a placement computer tower and will use all her mouse,monitor, keyboard from the dead system. Maybe after she gets to play with mine for awhile she will get one for the downstairs kitchen so she can store all of her cooking recipes on, and use it with a wi fi setup down there. That could be a Mac as it is not dependent on the programs that she uses for her research. Time will tell. As to gardening, I have not found a plant that I couldn't kill. Enough Said.
John
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Sandy
Gosh, John, Macs can now run Windows software at native speed! :D As I told you previously, I use EQ6, and that's definitely a Windows application. Having a Mac these days is really a win-win situation -- we can have the best of both worlds. BTW, if your wife if interested in a good cookbook program (Mac-based, of course ), give MacGourmet
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a try -- it has a free trial period. I use it and like it *very* much. :)
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John
On Jun 5, 3:36 pm, Sandy wrote:
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I know that macs will run windows stuff but she is rather timid in her approach to new technology. She delayed upgrading to a newer version of windows and as a result was running windows 98 when it finally went down. She is comfortable in windows in her work as director of the copyediting division of a legal publisher,and it gave her a grounding in windows She is more comfortable in that environment and rather than trying to push her into something, I let her go her own way. This is a cheaper alternative as far as a new mac goes by quite a bit,also. I know about most of the various software that relate to cooking but as we are both long time Vegetarians and rather strict ones at that, most of the software that is available is geared toward the general population in that regard. I know you can customize the input and I have done a lot of inputting of our recipies and that is in the windows format. She has a rather large,(hundreds) of Vegetarian cookbooks that we plan to scan quite a few recepies from into a single source for our own use and then sell off the cookbooks and use the database for ourselves.She may want to get a new laptop for the kitchern to access those recipies and to use for field research in genealogy. That would probably work with either platform and maybe by the time we get to that point she will be comfortable using my mac and then make a decision for herself without any pushing from me. Either way, she will be the master of her own destiny, And I won't have to take any flak for pushing something on to her that she is not ready to accept. "A man's got to know his limitations"says, Dirty Harry. I try to live by this rule when it comes to dealing with marital issues.
John
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Sandy
It sounds as though you have things well in hand, John! :) No, it's no good forcing something on someone who doesn't want to be forced. You're a wise man to know the limitations! :)
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ME-Judy
John, jumping in with an idea that might work down the line if she wants to try a Mac. Re: Genealogy. I backup all my family history program info into what's called a .ged (gedcom) file. Should be able to import the info into another program/system with little or no loss of data, especially if she can get a Mac version of the same program she is familiar with. Just my 2 cents worth. ME-Judy
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Julia in MN
If you are looking for recipe software, check out Mastercook. I think I paid about $10 for mine at the local Best Buy store a couple years ago. I use it mostly for my own recipes and seldom use any of the recipes that came with it. The recipes with it seem to be mostly from those small cookbooks that you can get from various food product companies, such as Fleischman's yeast and the pork producers. It's easy to share recipes as it has an e-mail option. It also calculates nutrition information.
Julia > >> In article ,
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John
I bought an Airport wireless base station, andnow I am sitting downstairs in my big comfortable chair and typing this posting to you forum members. Wow, this is just like the big boys do. I are a geek.
John
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NightMist
d00d! U r00lz teh intrawebs!
NightMist wants one
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John
Yo! I be down with it.
Johnster
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John
She uses Family Tree Maker in a PC format and has for many years. I don't know much about it but I know it is gedcom based whatever that means. They may offer a mac version but they didn't some time ago when she first got into it. She probably hasn't checked recently.
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Sandy
Yup: . :)
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