Evanston: you can’t go home again; Bobby Fischer; gray
Evanston: you can’t go home again; Bobby Fischer; gray
I’ve never read Thomas Wolfe’s posthumous novel, and just downloaded it from Google Books, but was reminded of the title phrase while using this MacBook Air the past few days. I had expected it to be my back-up computer, but it seems destined to be my primary.
There have been several benchmark tests online that prove the obvious: this is the slowest computer Apple makes. Two things stand out in those tests: how close the MacBook comes to the MacBook Pro in most functions and therefore what a bargain it is; and that the Air is not all that much slower than the MacBook.
Most contemporary computers are like cars that can go 130 mph driving in city traffic. The analogy isn’t completely valid, because there are times when all that computer power can be used. But the benchmark tests seem to me analogous to yachting magazine tests of anchor holding power, where the Bruce doesn’t do very well. A Bruce was my main anchor on RESURGAM for almost two circumnavigations and held impeccably, which causes me to conclude that the anchor tests are testing the wrong things and mostly irrelevant to real world use. That’s the way it is with the Air’s performance. I don’t doubt the benchmarks, but in my normal usage of the machine it’s relative slowness doesn’t appear. It feels quick and responsive.
Perhaps the feature of Mac Leopard that unexpectedly I like most is Spaces. I have six, with a different application assigned to each: Aperture; Safari; Pages; iTunes; Firefox; Quicken. Often I have them all open simultaneously, and switch back and forth between them, with all, even Aperture, feeling as they did on the MacBook.
So far the only activity that has been painfully slow has been repairing disc permissions with Disk Utility, and I have read that that is a Leopard problem not unique to the Air.
Beyond the style--and style counts: the Air is undeniably elegant--the keyboard is great, the screen is great, some of the new track-pad features are useful; but the real difference in using the Air is the weight. This not a computer just for trendy travelers. It is the computer for people who use their laptops on their lap. I wouldn’t have thought that two pounds would make such a difference, but they do. The Air seems almost weightless compared to the moderate five pound MacBook. I am writing as I almost always do with it on my lap now. I’ll put it down and pick it up a dozen or more times today. And once you start doing that, everything else seems clunky. The MacBook is a great computer. But I can’t go home again.
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This morning I came across a fascinating piece on THE NEW YORK TIMES website by Dick Cavett about Bobby Fischer. It is headed: Was It Only A Game? and dated February 8. You might find it here: http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/. (As of August 22, 2009, the link still works.)
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After two relatively mild winters, Chicago is having a serious one. Snow has fallen most days this week, and we have already exceeded the annual average of 36”. The present count is 42” and rising, with more due almost every day next week as well.
I don’t mind snow, but enough is enough. I’m out of here in a little over three weeks, and have already reserved to haul the boat out to anti-foul on March 14.
Saturday, February 9, 2008