So after successfully waiting for the release of Leopard (the latest version of OS X), I ran out the other day and plopped down my rewards-earning MasterCard to purchase a 24″ glass and brushed aluminum sculpture known as the iMac. It’s the 2.8GHz CPU with 2GB of RAM, and the 500GB hard drive, and it’s the tits. I even dig on Apple’s new waffer thin keyboard, somewhat to my surprise.
As I type this, I’m in the middle of the 2+ day operation of shifting my ~145GB iTunes library around on my decrepit PC in preparation for the big copy to the iMac. This is what I get for not opting for the default storage location. (I’m actually not sure all this is even necessary, but I’m doing it anyway.)
Once I do that and decide whether or not I can live without Quicken (I only use it for bill scheduling and the forward-looking calendar/bar chart widget — There’s nothing online that offers that feature. For anything else, Mint and the online banking offered by my bank does the job.), I’ll be able to format the drives on my PC and burn the thing. Or research whether there’s a convenient drop-off for computer/computer component recycling, I guess…
This is a homecoming for me, as I was a Mac user back in my college days. Having been convinced that computers were evil by my Pascal programming classes, I opted for a PowerBook Duo - one of the coolest units to come out of the House of Jobs in the 90s. After that, I switched to a Gateway PC almost completely based on price. Then I was always using PCs for work (as I, ironically, moved into my career as a web “programmer”), so I always stuck with PCs at home, too. The advent of OS X was a big deal to me, and I’m been lusting for a new generation Mac since then.
I’ve always kept The Wife running on Apple hardware, though. She finished her Masters degree with a G3 iBook and got upgraded to a Mac Mini not too long ago. (Her brother is rocking a Mini these days, too.) The iBook is still limping along as our living room computer.
Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been lucky enough to work on a Mac Pro five days a week, so the transition back to a dying PC at home was hurting me more and more. All this adds up to me spending a chunk of change for a big white box that was heavy enough to wind me by the time I lugged from the Apple store to my car outside the mall.
I’m almost free!
I’ll have to pick your brain about the PC to Mac conversion, specifically iTunes. How easy is it and can a techno-retard do it?
I’ve been thinking Mac for a while now. Congrats on the purchase
i am on an ibook right now. it is a hand me down from the girl. taking my pc out of storage after a year in a georgia uhaul storage facility with no environmental control i found it slightly the worse for wear. (when i plug it in it burns me with the lectronics whenever i touch something metal on the tower - not the fun little tickle but the one that makes your teeth snap together) it also doesn’t work.
i was all bummed because i spent a heck of a lot more money on the extra stuff, scanner, camera dock, flat screen, printer, wireless network card blah blah blah than i did on the tower. and i have to admit, i don’t do anything on the computer that requires dual mega pentium quatro anything. i like a good monitor for looking at pretties, and i like a fast fast fast download.
it only took me a couple days to start plugging in my usb devices and discover that they were cross compatible. now i am looking at my display on my happy 17 inch flat screen and i am tickled pink. i am finally getting into the habit of using the apple button instead of the ctrl button and can start using the keyboard shortcuts that i do so love.
the four year old dell would have been fine for me if it had worked instead of giving up the ghost. this mac book works more than fine. apparently there are these files out there called mp3s that allow you to listen to digital music on the comp. it is pretty cool. i think you guys should look into it.
the only thing that argues me buying a new comp, pc or cool mac, is that it is a great cure for ignorance. dropping two grand (or more) on something means i will research what i am buying so i won’t feel like a doofus when someone asks me what kind of computer i have and i say a white one. i hate being a doofus. i think there is a huge cool guy factor in shelling out tons of money for new comps.
somethings i don’t like. i can’t figure out how to turn off the display on the laptop when i am using the flat-screen exclusively. it gets real real hot. i can’t figure out how to turn of the comp without actually hitting the button on the laptop. does your macbook shock you when you are on battery power? ctrl alt del hello? and, also, i am one step closer to hippy.
i told shay a while ago that if i shopped exclusively at ikea and apple stores my poop would cease to smell. congrats on the new comp!
DJ: I’ll let you know once I finish it. You may be hampered by your love for MS Outlook, though.
Ed:
Unfortunately, the old iBook can’t shut down the display while you look at a monitor. This was The Wife’s set-up for a long, long time. Just point the lappy’s lcd away from you.
Shut down from the apple menu to turn it off.
Ours doesn’t shock us, but the battery (which is a new replacement) doesn’t last very long. We leave it plugged in, mostly.
Fucking hippy.
You CAN copy your music into the mac and preserve your itunes metadata too.
KEEP THE PC COPY AS A BACKUP. I had to try this several times to get it right.
Stop iTunes on the mac.
Be sure to get the path separator correct \ != / (refer to the file in iTunes.backup to be sure you get it correct)
Rename the iTunes folder on the mac to iTunes.bakup. (just in case)
Copy your iTunes folder from the PC to the mac.
Delete the iTunes Library.itl file on the mac (this is a binary version of the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file and will be reconstructed later automagically)
Modify the file paths in the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file to match the new location of the files on the mac. (Find & Replace is your friend.
Start iTunes on the mac. (This will take several minutes as iTunes rebuilds the “iTunes Library.itl” file from the updated XML document.
Enjoy.
Hopefully I haven’t left anything out… Be sure to consult the original mac iTunes.backup files if you need help with the xml document format/content. Also, double check that the file name of the new .xml file matches what the mac expects. (this bit me IIRC)
The way things are going it may take close to a full day to copy the files to the mac. But at least I’m half way there!
I lost play counts, skip counts, and last played dates, but I guess overall that’s not too bad.