My commute to work requires a round trip of some 80 miles each day. During the trip I drive along the cliffside road high above the Hudson River and through the adjacent mountains. Suffice it to say that there are many changes of elevation along the way. In my 15 years of making this daily drive I've had the time to hone my driving skills and observe those of others. What I've noticed is that for many folks there seems to be two states of being for drivers of automatic transmissions. The first is foot on the gas pedal, the second is foot on the brake. There is apparently no thought for another possibility. I have found that many of the downhill portions can be easily handled by simply letting the car roll with one's feet entirely off the pedals. (Shifting to low is not necessarily a possibility as modern automatic transmissions don't always include such a gear.) Rolling would add a third possibility to the limited repertoire of those on-the-gas/on-the-brake drivers.f
Below is a view from the roadway.
And the roadway itself. (Cliff to the right, rock face to the left.)
Gratuitous shot below the cliffs..
A similar situation confronts computer users. (Well, okay, it's not really similar at all but I needed to get that driving thing off my chest.) In this installment of TC, I pose that eternal burning question: Mac or PC? While there may seem to be just 2 answers, some of us have chosen a third way. More below but first a word from our sponsors.
Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and more importantly through nominations sent to Top Comments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks. When you send in your picks, please include your username and a word or two about why you nominated the comment, and send them in by 6:30 pm Pacific/9:30 pm Eastern to ensure they make the final diary. Nominations can also sent by DK4 messaging directly to the TC group. Please include a link directly to the nominated comment.
Join me below the dkos pasta.
That third way involves joining both the Mac and PC camps concurrently. (gasp!) But first a brief history.
My involvement with PCs goes back a fairly long way, to the time of the 286 and 386 desktops. (Windows 3.1) In fact our first internet-connected computer was a used 386 running on either a 14400 or 28800 baud modem. I can't remember exactly which one. Actually, I believe we even ran a 9600 unit for a bit. Old school stuff to be sure. But it got us onto the internet. Of course, one could read a short novella in the time it took for web pages to load. (And our carrier at the time, AOL, blocked some of those pages.)
Eventually, with the passage of time, we made our way toward more modern hardware. My current PC is the small black HP netbook (Windows 7) that I carried to last year's Netroots Nation conference. (Interestingly enough, netbooks are apparently now out of fashion. Best Buy didn't have even a single netbook on display yesterday at the local store. Ultrabooks, PCs modeled after the very thin and light Mac Air, now occupy the most prominent display space while conventional laptops inhabit the remainder. The Mac Air is the one first famously advertised as fitting in a conventional interoffice envelope.) While at that conference (and in 2009), it was hard not to notice the large numbers of Apple products in use. Although I was a confimed PC user, I had long been curious about Apple operating systems. Seeing all those Apple laptops and ipads only served to make my curiosity even stronger.
Eventually, I acquired an old Apple laptop (at very little cost) and began to teach myself how to use it. My Mac is a circa 2002 G4 Powerbook running a powerhouse 867mhz processor. (Well, it was a powerhouse back in 2002.) I use OSX 10.4, which runs nicely even on such an old machine. This particular Powerbook is upgradable to 10.5 should I ever feel the need to modernize just a bit. And it's quite portable being rather small and made of lightweight aluminum construction. (Apple's components were definitely a grade above those of contemporary PCs. It still has its original 40gb hard drive and is essentially how it left the factory.) But I didn't want to give up my Windows-based HP netbook, and all the old Windows software that I have used for so many years. And so, to this day, I use both laptops.
I usually carry the old Apple to work and use the HP for my evening activities. In doing so, I have discovered that each has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the reasons I carry the older machine during the day is its ability in getting onto public networks. There is one in my office building that I will use during the day. I have had trouble a number of times with PCs when attempting to use the open wifi. There have even been occasions where a PC will not stay connected to an open network. Not so for the Apple. It usually only takes one try and it stays connected.
But problems arise for me when confusing the functions of the two operating systems. As an example, the delete function works in different directions, Windows to the right, OSX to the left. Of course this is only a minor example of many such differences that I have discovered. I'm sure to find many more as I learn more about OSX.
And on to the nominations.
From lineatus:
A succinct summary from bernardpliers.
From
vcmvo2:
ontheleftcoast commenting (musically) on severe conservative Mitt Romney.
From Pam from Calif:
This response by cmnh is very clever.
From
Clem Yeobright:
Liberal Panzer lives by a simple rule we might all ponder and emulate.
From A Siegel:
Amid discussion of how a group of heartland Republicans have called formedia scrutiny of the libertarian Heartland Institute, Words in Action cogently links quantitative climate change measures for protecting a healthy environment to a quantitative limitation for Republican BS for protecting a healthy democratic society.
From the diarist:
From sdf's diary celebrating Atrios' 40th birthday, Viceroy's comment made me laugh.
On to
Top Mojo:
1) I must be the first to.... by rickeagle — 224
2) Great first diary. by TomP — 179
3) Agreed. This child is why Repuglicans are by winterpark — 125
4) I am reminded of a confrontation circa 1978 by entlord — 119
5) Great Diary by bink — 116
6) Because they LIE by lunachickie — 115
7) Seems to me a young woman of intellect and by Actbriniel — 108
8) Issa and Freiss' games yesterday have to by global citizen — 105
9) interested in your reactions by teacherken — 99
10) it starts with my mother by teacherken — 97
11) Extreme dog breeding is also animal abuse... by David Kroning II — 95
12) If the only result of this is that by Crashing Vor — 95
13) Significance? Back to the dawn of humanity. by Sirenus — 93
14) He's repeating the fundy party line by Ekaterin — 92
15) As in..."meh" by Radical def — 90
16) I'm about done with by gchaucer2 — 82
17) my rescue dog by agnostic — 79
18) He could also have some form of dementia by chicago minx — 76
19) I'm feeling better about our chances to keep by theKgirls — 72
20) yippeeeee by luvmyprez — 69
21) !!!!!!!!!!!!! by bubbanomics — 68
22) LOL, if it makes the wingnuts' heads... by BarackStarObama — 68
23) There was never a more appropriate time by A Mad Mad World — 67
24) righteous by a gilas girl — 67
25) One of the best diaries I've read! by MrMichaelMT — 66
26) Lie down with man-on-dogs by pat of butter in a sea of grits — 65
27) As a Columbia Law student in 1938 by Teachers Advocate — 64
28) YA RLY! by Trix — 64
29) Like You Said.....He was 87 Years Old by snapples — 64
30) of course by NYFM — 64
31) Bad stereotyping is bad by akincer — 64
And on to jotter's photo quilt: