In Continuum.

Hail To The Mac

Dexter's Laboratory rocks. It is probably one of the most original cartoon of our era, the point in time when Cartoon Network was at its peak. It was the cartoon I'd catch every single day at six in the evening, with my steaming hot plate of dinner blurring my view of the television. I mean, who would've thought that the third grader would have a secret science laboratory hidden behind his closet? I especially liked how Dee Dee almost always reminded me of my inquisitive sister, whose mannerisms and antics never failed to blow up the laboratory by the pressing of a button - or in my case, the sanity of my mind. Something else that appealed to me was probably Dexter's accent, something I've been trying to imitate ever since the first time I saw the cartoon, but fails every single time. I love the way he pronounces "At last" as" Ader-lasss" every time he finishes a brand new invention. That is of course, until Dee Dee hops into his laboratory to destroy everything. At least the invention would last for some time in his hands, and that is the kind of feeling I have right now with my brand new Mac. As I run my fingers over the smooth white surface of the computer, and surfing my way through the awesome interface without any glitches, I am thinking to myself," Ader-lasss...Ader-lasss!"

It was quite an impulsive act when I decided to get myself a Mac. I mean, there is something about my parents and the way they try to convince you to have things their way. To them, a laptop is pretty much a necessity in a student's life, and having not bought the laptop in May is sort of like a sucker punch in the guts. They've been pressing me to get a laptop ever since the idea of a laptop invaded their minds, and I didn't have much of a choice but to succumb to their will. In truth, there are a lot of ways I can work around school life without a laptop. Everything can be pushed back to the moment I reach home, since I do already have this personal computer of my own. But I guess, there is just something in the presentation Steve Jobs gave for the brand new iMacs the other day that seduced me - literally. It is the simplicity in the way they work, and the attention they give to the little details that makes their craft one of a kind. I mean, who would have thought that changing the power plug to a magnetic plug is going to prevent your computer from flying off the desk when somebody trips over it? Little things like that are the deciding factor for me when I buy computers, another reason is definitely because of how screwed up Vista is. I swear, I used it for my homework on my father's laptop, and swore off it for the rest of my life. It felt like driving a car with three wheels and ten pedals, and you have your children screaming in the backseat. Oh, add a blindfold to your eyes too.

I've been a PC user all my life, sticking to PC because I didn't want to start getting used to another operating system all over again. I remember that first computer that my family bought, and it was a Windows 3.1 model, which was bigger than my television at home. Everything worked so slowly, and I even had a time limit back then as to how long I can use the computer every day. We didn't have internet back then, so the computer was strictly for heavily pixelated games and to print posters with standard pictures in the background. I'm sure everybody remembers that template with a bunch of cartoon characters in the foreground, and this really tall guy at the corner with both his hands reaching high up into the air. I was allowed to use the computer for fifteen minutes everyday, and I used those times to play Duke Nukem 3D in secret - mainly because if you press F3 on your keyboards, the girls would strip in the game for you. Anyway, so that was the first computer that arrived in the family, and more computers began to show up over the years - all with Windows operating system.

It's just like getting used to a certain brand of car and sticking to it for a long time. Once you are used to the way it steers or the way it works, you are probably not going to change to another car unless you find some major problems in the car itself in relative to another better alternative. The truth is, there is a part of the human brain that controls our likes and dislikes depending on the level of novelty one has on the object. It is quite a critical factor for some, because people tend to think that the ergonomics drop once you switch from one brand to the next. At least that was the mentality that I had in the past, which must have been why I never want to change to anything else. Besides, Windows was the widely used operating system back in the school days, despite the fact that my high school had a lab full of Mac computers. They were no more than pretty electronic accessories to me back then simply because of how difficult it was for me to use back then. Everything was different in the context of a Mac, and I was just not motivated to make any changes to what I was already used to.

But over the years, you know how Apple has changed the way we listen to music, or use our laptops. iPod is probably one of the most important invention by mankind, the way the Wright brothers made the first plane fly. I recall the days when I actually have to bring my CD pouch out every time I want to be traveling with music in my ears. The pain you have whenever you want to change from one band to another was agonizing, not to mention the trouble in changing batteries in the middle of a crowded bus. Those were the days that are long gone, simply because Apple started the revolution of iPods that allowed us to put thousands of songs in our pockets. iPod was also the first Apple product that I ever owned, and I stuck with it ever since I first bought it a few years ago. Let's face it, Creative is quite a successful company here in Singapore. But to call them "Creative" is really an understatement, because they are anything but. There are people in the market who are still very much in denial that Apple is taking over the world, some people who are still stubbornly living in their own illusion that PC still owns the world, and that Bill Gates is the master of the universe.

My sister is one of those people, even though she uses her iPod Nano almost as frequently as I drink coffee. She is the kind of person who works on the minimal of everything really. She is very calculative of the things she buy, and to her she doesn't need an operating system that is the fastest, or a computer with the greatest capacity. At least, she is the kind of user that goes for the best system at the cheapest price possible. To her, Sony Vaio was the answer a few months back, and that pink laptop has been sitting in her bedroom ever since then. The worst part about her attitude is that once she likes the operating system, everything else pretty much are junks. I was asking her about internet connection on my computer, and the following was the conversation that ensued - or rather, the argument.

Me," Hey sister, what is the difference between a Mac and a PC when I am setting up a wireless internet connection?"
[Without looking at me]
Sister," How would I know? Why do you ask?"
Me," I'm getting a computer today."
[Finally takes notice of my existence]
Sister," What for!?"
Me," I need it for school."
Sister," What are you getting!?"
Me," A Mac."
Sister," BUT IT SUCKS!!!"

The word 'sucks' resonated in my head for the longest time. After she said it, I turned around and left the room, and swore never to ask her anything about computers ever again. I swear, I have never met anybody with a worse attitude than my sister, and if it is possible to deal with her, it is possible to deal with people in any shape and form all around the world. Seriously, the reason why she dislikes Mac is probably because of the following reasons: 1) She tried using it once when she was working for a designing firm in Taiwan, and failed to get a grasp of it. 2) Her friends told her so. 3) She loves her Vaio. She is the kind of person that believes in everything people pour into her mind, and it was just interesting how she claims that ALL of her friends prefer PC over a Mac, while it is the other way round in my circle of friends. Either I was lying, or she was just being incredibly jealous. Despite those, I thought it was just being plain insensitive to have that kind of attitude 24/7. Seriously, the family are working around her moods every time, and the lot of us are sick of it. So I vowed to flaunt my Mac as often as possible in front of her, and see how it is going to overshadow her pathetic little Vaio. It's one of those cheap thrills that I get, but it's not like I need to show any forms of courtesy in front of her fucked up attitude towards people.

Thanks to Jonathan who gave me a crash course of how to use a Mac last night, and now I am getting a hang of how to use things around the Mac OS. It only takes a person who knows how to use a Mac to guide you through, and it takes less than a day to know how things work around here. That was the kind of patience that she never had, and brushed it aside simply because she couldn't get used to it. For me, Mac just works. It really does. It's a pity that my sister cannot see further than that bubble of hers that wraps her in her own self-illusion. But it is a choice that she made, and I don't intend to change that. The grass is greener on this side of her fence, and I shall enjoy this pasture with other fellow Mac users out there. I like how it still has lesser market shares now, it sort of makes us the elitists in the world of computers. It is the same mentality as liking Indie music. There is something about it being underground that is so alluring, isn't it?

Ader-lasss...Ader-lasss...