Tra La La! PC to MAC in 24 easy hours

I did it! Yahoo! On November 30th, we schlepped the dying Dell, now slow as molasses in January off to the new Apple store at Legacy Place in Dedham. Spent an hour getting "things" set up and left the Dell in their hands. Twenty hours later, almost everything was loaded onto the new Mac Mini, so small and fast that it's awesome.

Then I converted email account. Yesterday I figured out how (not without some study) to move my "favorites" from AOL for PC to AOL for MAC. I figured out the more advanced mail merge, lots of pain there, but analytical skills trumped confusion. Downloaded the coupon printer. Started the Time Machine Backups.

Oh did I mention? S.O. and I, the least MECHANICAL of folks, hooked up the printer, the monitor, the mouse, the Kodak loader, the computer, the speakers, the keyboard, yada yada in a little over an hour. Think of the nightmare of cords. Oh, and did I mention the cable modem? Yup. Then we turned on the Mac Mini and guess what? Everything worked.

Call the pope! It's a miracle.

The learning curve doesn't seem to be too steep. I'm signed up for the one-on-one sessions, because I intend to become a MAC guru, too. Garageband, here I come. Safari is cool. I don't know all the tricks, hell, I hardly know ANY of the tricks, but I'm up and running. Running Fast. Running Smart.

Yahoo!

Technology is Weird

Yes, I know. Technology is supposed to be logical, esp. the computer which does whiat you tell it, no more, no less, and doesn't read your mind.

Except when it goes for a very strange walk on the wild side.

Long story. Current Dell is slower than molasses in Janary and won't live forever. S.O. lobbying for me to join the Apple folks. Last Christmas, a relative found a Powerbook on Craig's List for a good price, and I bought it.

The fun begins. My god, how the money goes out. First I got a box to switch back and forth between computers using my nice new monitor. All's well, except that we can't get the old printer to work with the old AB switch box. Remember AB switch boxes. Ye gods, we had three!

So we order a fancy new plug for the computer and the Apple doesn't like it either. I have to say the Apple people told us this wouldn't work, but we thought if we downloaded the right drivers, etc.

All for naught. It becomes obvious the Powerbook doesn't like my old faithful friend that uncomplainingly printed out six of my novels and countless other docs, the HP4 Laserjet. It has been a workhorse, but a sale at Staples, etc., and we bought a new Lexmark printer, although the printer will be hooked up to the old Dell until I decide what to do with Money, the software, which doesn't run on Apple.
I've heard horror stories of converting Money to Quicken and am wavering about what to do. Que faire? As we used to stay in French class.

Yesterday, a day when my writing group meets and I need seven (7) copies of my work, we decide to install the new Lexmark. Stupid idea. Really dumb.

So we couldn't make the Powerbook print, and then we couldn't make the Dell print. It simply would not put the Lexmark into the spot where the printers belong.

Grumbling and swearing, I put my work on a thumb drive and S.O. printed it. We decide to use a new cable to hook up the printer without the damn switch box.

So today, without doing anything, I pulled up a document and absent mindedly hit the print key, forgetting that the printer wasn't speaking to me.

Except it was. For whatever reason, the Dell thinks the Lexmark is the HP. Technology is weird. But that's O.K. with me. At least I have a printer. Now to figure out the Powerbook. Then we're golden.

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