I bought a 15.4 inch MacBook Pro about six months ago. It had been 10 years since I’d last purchased a Mac, I don’t think of myself as someone who left the fold and came back in, I was just a long time between purchases (not counting an iPod Mini and his and hers iPod Nanos). The machine I purchased in 1997 (a PowerBook 1400cs) served me well all the way through uni until I left in 2000. At which point I was given a work laptop (windows of course) and my job meant that among other things I was a Windows SA. When I finally purchased a computer again in 2006 it was a fairly run of the mill self build (by the guy in the computer market) Windows machine because it was a) cheap and b) girlfriend compatible.I gave up the work laptop not long after as it was by this point already 2-3 years old and therefore only functional as a paperweight. I spent the following year or so kind of squatting using the PC at home ‘D’s PC’ and a desktop in the office. I felt homeless. After a great deal of deliberation I decided to spend the money and get myself the MacBook Pro as it was everything I needed and more, spec wise and would presumably last for years.

I was excited, getting a new toy is always exciting but getting a top of the line Macintosh laptop again after all these years was too much. I was on an ITIL foundation course in Singapore at the time and it was something of an act of self discipline to keep studying. I spent a lot of time drawing diagrams in OmniGraffle and typing up notes as a way to study and play with the new toy. I passed the exam (85%) by the way.

Six months on it’s still my favourite toy ever and by a mile. Which brings me round to trying to answer the question, why?

It works. Just, like, works. I spent a long time trying to get computers to work, trying to get them to do something they didn’t previously or fixing them when they went wrong. I was a Windows SA for a while, after all. Quite frankly, that holds no interest for me anymore, I don’t get a sense of satisfaction from fixing the tool, I’d rather be using the tool to complete the original task, thank you very much. The Mac just works which is good as it’s not an end in itself but a tool I use to do other things. I’ve had to toggle the power once in 6 months and probably count on my fingers the number of times it’s been rebooted in that time, in every other case due to a system update. The rest of the time, I just open the lid, it wakes and we start again where we left off.

Out of the box it does most of the things I need, so far from memory I’ve installed QuickSilver, Firefox, Adium and FreeMind (it came with Microsoft office). iTunes and iPhoto have between them taken over management of my music and photos, a job I’m quite happy to handover. I had to install a plugin to get QuickTime to play .wmv files but other than that I’ve had no compatibility issues. Naturally.

Spotlight search is amazing. I start typing my keyword and before I even finish it’s found what I’m looking for. That kind of sums up the whole experience of the OS, everything is just slick, I don’t feel like I’m ‘using’ the OS, I didn’t need to learn it, I just move around inside it with ease.

Lastly, it’s cool and that’s a factor I’m not going to apologise for, both the device itself and the look and feel of the OS ooze cool. I enjoy using it in the same way I like (or would like) driving a sexy sports car. Design matters, even in a device that is purchased not only for its aesthetic value.

*Photo courtesy of Sonic Julez on Flickr.

I’ve been using jajah.com for a few months now and am really impressed. If, like me, you need to (or would like to) make international calls on regular basis then this is worth a look. It’s particularly good if you want to call people when you’re not at a computer or call people who aren’t at computers.
The way it works is that instead of making a call over the internet from a computer or dedicated device you use the internet to set up a call from and to a regular phone. Setting up a call can be done at a computer (for a future time if necessary), using the web on your mobile phone or using an application you can download for your phone.
Basically you just tell jajah.com which of your numbers you are on and who you want to call. A few seconds later (or at whatever time you specify) you receive a call from Jajah, once you’ve answered it, it calls them. Calls are free between Jajah users and not expensive the rest of the time. If you’re in China or somewhere else where it’s common to pay to receive calls it’s probably worth getting on to a plan that allows you to receive calls for free. Calling a UK landline from China with Jajah is currently 1.7p per minute.
The really beauty of this for me is that it enables me to use little windows of time to call the UK that I otherwise couldn’t, that is to say call when I want to not when at a computer or when I can get the other party to a computer. The back of a taxi, waiting for friends to turn up, on a break at work, etc.

Check it out. And expect more calls.

I’ve spent the last few days writing a big proposal document. During this process I once again referred to The Economist Style Guide. It is based on the style book they give to their journalists and they very kindly share it online. I’ve read it more than once and refer to it often.
Worth a look if, like me, they didn’t really teach you English in English lessons at school but you care about what you produce.