If the stares that my PowerBook and I are getting from the people at the next table are a bit unnerving, it's more than worth it because the looks on their faces are just priceless. There's a song playing right now that's so catchy, that if this place had a wireless connection, I'd buy the song on the spot. The DJ's shirt reads "Rehab is for quitters," and while I don't endorse his particular message, he does have a point. Especially if the addiction in question just happens to be the Macintosh.
Yeah, you guessed it, it's yet another Mac User Group tour. It's good to be back in my hometown again, if only briefly.
And apparently, people don't bring laptops into Crabby Jack's all that often. But having just come from the NATMAC meeting down the street, my little dinner stop here is a good a time as any to go ahead and do a bit of typing. The last two days have, to say the least, been thought-provoking. So allow me to back up a bit and recap:
Yesterday I paid a visit to two old Mac-using friends. I'd try to get all fancy and call them clients, but my understanding is that "clients" actually pay your for their services in actual monetary units, as opposed to the free dinner, large bag of Doritos, and a wealth of good stories that these two "clients" netted me.
Like I said, it's good to be home.
I ran into two things yesterday that I had otherwise nearly managed to forget existed: dial-up internet, and the Classic environment. I mean, do people still use such things? I had no idea. I did encounter Classic last month while helping out a bit at a local elementary school, but dial-up? I think it's been a year or two since I've had the privilege of using it anyone's system. Both of my (so-called) clients announced imminent plans to move to Broadband before I could even chide them for it, so perhaps that means it'll really happen, and they weren't just trying to shut me up. And one of them said good-bye to Classic, which really made my day. In fact, anyone reading who still has their Mac set to launch Classic on startup, really ought to think about shutting it off. Take an inventory of which apps in your "Applications (MacOS 9)" folder you still use, and if there are none, open up System Prefs and set Classic not to come on unless you launch a Classic app or Classic document. You'll thank me later.
I must have been waving my magic wand, because I also convinced one of them to add more RAM to her otherwise rocking eMac that came with a measly 128 MB. Not bad, considering that it's a discussion that's been going on between the two of us for the better part of two years now. One she decided to add any RAM at all, she decided to go all the way and quintuple her current allotment. Between that move and the DSL thing (if and when that happens), that (first-generation) eMac of hers is going to be a whole new machine.
Adding as much RAM memory as you can afford is the single-least sexy thing that you can ever buy for your computer, and yet it's probably the most important. The non-geek's aversion to going through with it is entirely understandable, and always predictably the same: when you suggest that they add more RAM memory, their mind immediately turns to hard drive space and they respond that they'll just throw some stuff away. When you respond with the fact that RAM has nothing at all to do with space or capacity, they then want to know what exactly it does have to do with. And you almost have to explain it metaphorically.
Compare your computer to your own brain: if your hard drive represents the total amount of stuff that you can remember, then RAM represents that total amount of stuff that can be in your consciousness at one time. Want to multitask? Want to think about several things at once? Want to be able to think through things several times faster than Want to always have the name of the guy you're talking to right on the tip of your tongue, rather than struggling to retrieve it from the recesses of your brain each and every time? Then stop screwing around and get more RAM. You'll thank me later for that one, as well.
Well, my battery is running low and I can't imagine that Crabby Jack's has an electrical outlet. Dinner was good. I've got so many good stories to tell about the NATMAC meeting, but I suppose I'll save them for the morning. Ask yourself what Bing Crosby and the Beastie Boys have in common, and you're on the right track. See you in the morning.
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