Mac computers

It must be an unfortunate sign of our times.  My neighborhood Apple store in the Clarendon shopping area of Arlington, Virginia, was robbed yesterday morning about 4 a.m. by persons who appeared to be organized and bold.  They wore masks, apparently knowing that the store has multiple security cameras (which caught everything, I am told). They had a dog with them (I have no idea why).

The bandits broke the glass door and stripped the store of most Macbooks, Macbook Pros, iMacs, iPods and iPhones on display.  It apparently happened quickly.

A friend tells me that each computer contained thousands of dollars in valuable software.  But here’s something else - Apple has the serial numbers of each machine and has the ability to wipe the hard drives when the computers go online.

Let’s hope such robberies are not the start of a trend.

A acquaintance writes on Facebook today, “Dear Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer: Vista sucks! Vista is slow on my fast Lenovo x61 with 4GB RAM! [expletive deleted] Driving me to Mac!?”

The opinion he expresses is but the latest in a chorus of complaints and news headlines about the significant shortcomings of Windows Vista, the latest and more seriously flawed operating system from Microsoft.  Windows - regardless of version - is simply an outdated computer operating system, notorious for decades for instability, crashes, lockups, viruses and other time and money consuming technological ailments.

Why, then, do organizations continue to invest in Windows and computers that run only Windows?  I know of a cash-strapped organization that recently made another sizable investment in new Dell computers with Microsoft Windows even though the organization has spent a fortune on simply keeping them running.  As someone with many years experience of suffering with the problematic Windows in work environments, I can say that there is no excuse for any organization to continue wasting money and wasting productivity on Windows, other than to perpetuate internal bureaucracies.  I think the reason they suffer Windows is job security for the IT people.  There is no other intelligent reason … and that reason is certainly not intelligent. 

There is an alternative that works - Apple Mac.  Macs are stable, issues-free computers that work for you as opposed to causing aggravation.  Macs run most of the computer programs as Windows, including Microsoft Office and many others.

This coming week is going to be a big one for Apple - the new G3 iPhone will be announced plus new sales promotion deals through ATT that will make the iPhone more affordable; an updated operating system for current iPhone users;  and, details on Apple’s new OS X operating system, code-named “Snow Leopard,” that should be available in January 2009.  

And, guess what?!! Apple will again make terrific headlines because the company has earned respect, and a reputation for products that work, trouble-free! 

A new company called ooVoo is offering a free way to video conference with your friends with your computer’s video camera. Mac users have had a capability like this for a while but ooVoo works with both Mac and Windows machines.

I am going to be test driving it and will report back on what it’s like. Your comments are always welcome.

I love this blog posting by Mark Cuban. It reminded me that in 1980, I was learning to write code for the Apple II+ without having any idea what I was doing, exchanging messages over a dial-up connection at 300 baud and calling the Woz for help.

By the way … when I got an Apple “green” display, I thought I was really cool!

As anyone who follows my ramblings on this blog will know, I am an enthusiastic fan of Apple computers. I tolerated Windows for years and years, and even built Windows-powered PCs for my family. There is nothing worse than trying to focus on writing a book or document only to have the plagues endemic to Microsoft Windows interfere. But that was before I came back to Apple in 2004.

Today, I am not alone in my passion for using Mac computers to unleash creativity. Apple stores are packed most of the time with people of all ages, eager to get their hands on a new Mac. The company’s stock price soars, regardless of the market, reflecting the company’s success.

Mac’s new operating system - Leopard - is fabulous yet there is a reality of any model of computer — there’s always a chance of a hard drive error or crash. It is just smart to backup your computer to an external hard drive.Macs have a firewire connection with external drives that is so fast the computer can actually boot-up from the external drive, if necessary.

I recommend an outstanding backup software program for Mac Leopard, written by Mike Bombich in Misssouri. It’s called Carbon Copy Cloner and it works like a dream. Carbon Copy Clone is precisely what it says — it makes an exact copy of your computer on an external drive. That’s the safest kind of backup. CCC is easy to use and fast.

Mike only asks for a $10 donation if you download and use his software, which is more than fair.