I'm the Mac-Daddy!

Today at work I got a new toy: a smoking hot dual-processor G5 for me to work on. Now I've used many Mac computers before. In fact, back when I worked at IBM I was by far the most competent Mac user in the department (that says more about how nobody over there knew jack shit about Macs, BTW), but today reminded me how rusty I am with Macs. It also reminded me why a portion of the "Mac haters" out there are so resentful: they're not aware of their habits and blame the system for their inability to adapt. I've covered the same phenomenon for videogames too.

When I was setting up my G5 station, I realized that all my years of Windows use have given me a BAD case of "Control Panelitis". The concept is simple. Pretty much everything technical about Windows revolves around the Control Panel. That's just where you go, and I can understand how hard it is to switch to a new concept once that Control Panelitis sinks its roots into your brain. But I'm still under the impression that, once you know how to do something on both OSes, it'll almost always be simpler on a Mac. In fact my experience today taught me that, whenever you have trouble doing something technical with a Mac, you're probably over-thinking the problem.

A good example is when I was setting up my account. When I was trying to figure out how to make myself an administrator on my machine, I must've stayed in front of the computer, completely dumbfounded, for a good two minutes before I realized that the checkbox was right under my nose. Control Panel habits had me looking for a button that would open another dialog where I'd have to select something from a pull-down menu or something. I was expecting the option to be AT LEAST 3 mouse-clicks away.

Another example is when I tried to figure out where to plug my mouse. I was completely astounded by how short the mouse cable was. I managed to do some jury-rigging to be able to use the mouse, and about an hour later, I remembered that the mouse on a Mac is supposed to be plugged into the keyboard (which makes plenty of sense when you think about it). As you can see, there are still plenty of things I need to learn, but I can't wait to become a power Mac user. Then I'll have some real contributions to make if I ever find myself in another "Mac vs PC" debate. I mean just LOOK at it! Isn't she sexy?