Matthew Botos

A thread that’s been crystalizing in my mind the last couple of months is how similar a romantic relationship can be to the one you have with your job. It struck me again this morning, when I caught myself doing “first date” grooming for a second round job interview. Those little things don’t matter except when you’re still trying to make a first impression.

The interview process itself is frightfully similar to dating. You know you bring something of value to the table, but you have to work to convince someone else of that, someone who may be looking for something completely different to begin with. Both are also much easier to do when you don’t have it all on the line and can fall back on an existing job or a fulfilling single life.

Once you’re in, though, breaking up is tough to do. You’re invested and comfortable, and the excitement of untold possibilities is tempered by fear of the unknown. It’s easier to stay in a bad situation than to travel the rough road to improvement. Yet it seems to be easier to sever relationships than work; you can be single and lonely, but you’ve got to keep paying those bills.

Sheer force of will won’t conquer problems in either; I’ve certainly tried, and tasted only the satisfaction of having fought the good fight. Sometimes you’ve just got to bide your time and be ready when the right opportunity comes around.

Transitioning from Linux to Mac has been fairly straightforward. Several of the tools I use are multi-platform and the rest use standard formats:

• Firefox and Thunderbird - just copy the profile directory
• Evolution Calendar - the /.evolution/calendar/local/system/calendar.ics file can be imported by iCal. iCal’s repeating options are a little less sophisticated and don’t support exceptions to repeating events.
• Evolution Contacts - export from Evolution to VCard (.vcf) format, which can then be imported into Address Book. It does pick up one extraneous field and put it in the notes; you can filter this out with this command: 22003e475b2d315fd60e63335011c16d

The real challenge will be photos, which use a somewhate convoluted custom workflow. iPhoto appears to offer some Applescript customization, giving me one more thing to learn.

The fact that computers now outnumber people in my house by a 3 to 1 margin has earned me a few incredulous remarks. Even I find it a bit odd. The explanation, though, sheds some interesting light on the personal computer market of the last several years:

A year and a half ago, I had consolidated down to one Linux computer and a handful of spare parts, with the leftovers going to Dell for recycling. Digital music threw in a monkey wrench: the market-leading and best-integrated solution was iTunes, only available for Mac and Windows.

Despite the fact that Apple’s OS X is Unix-based, they never released a Unix version and the fine folks working on Wine haven’t managed to make iTunes fully functional. The alternative was purchasing several hundred dollars of software (VMWare and a legitimate aftermarket Windows license) plus an Airport Express to pipe music to the stereo in the other room.

Enter Dell, who in addition to an admirably affordable recycling program, has driven the cost of new computers down to the $400 mark. Their volume allows them prices that are difficult to beat building your own comptuer, particularly when it comes to software. Windows pricing for computer makers if far below retail and a closely guarded secret. Given that, it made sense to add a second computer as a jukebox.

My latest aquisition was driven my the current trend in personal computers: the rising popularity and falling cost of laptops. With computers taking a greater role in our lives, who wants to be chained to a particular room or corner of the house? Dell, again, leads in the price wars, but Apple has won a good bit of niche mindshare in offering sexier machines with more robust and inuitive software. They’ve also managed to put a first-class graphical interface on top of a rock-solid Unix base, and put it all on a laptop. That checked off enough of my shopping list to get a MacBook.

And there you have the specific and broad history of how the market has driven the purchase of three computers. The big factors were market segregation, which is often artificial, and cost. Meeting diverse computing needs spreads you across multiple operating systems, and the hardware industry has driven down costs enough that you can do so with separate computers for each.

FedEx was fantastically fast: my new MacBook arrived direct from China in one day! That’s definitely worth the 2-day upgraded shipping. Merle turned me on to the tech striptease that is unboxing, which I’ve indulged in here.

As always, Apple’s packing is a work of art in itself, and the physical design of the computers and accessories also top notch. The power supply, for instance, sports both a fold-out plug that can be swapped for a longer cord and deployable arms for wrapping the power cable. The power cable attaches to the computer magnetically and quickly detaches if snagged by an errant foot.

One of the big reasons for getting a MacBook was that it’s really a wolf of a Unix system in designer sheep clothing. Since OS X is based on BSD, I felt it only appropriate to don the OpenBSD t-shirt seen in the glossy screen reflection.

View the MacBook Unboxing photos