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Ditch the PC and Switch to a Mac

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As a former PC technician with over 20 years experience in distribution, retail, networking, and repair, I abandoned the world of Windows and PC’s in 2010 with the purchase of a new MacBook Pro and my efficiency has gone through the roof.  Short of a few hardware issues here and there, the most maintenance I’ve had to do on my Mac involved backing up my data and replacing the batteries in my Bluetooth wireless keyboard.

I don’t use a PC for anything, and I don’t print documents.  All of my business is done digitally between my MacBook Pro, my iPad, an Android Nexus 7 (non-Apple) mobile tablet, and my iPhone.  That’s it.  That’s all I need to conduct every form of business I encounter.

If you’re looking for someone to help you solve your PC problems, you may want to check out Data Doctors.  I’m in the efficiency business, and the most efficient and problem-free path to getting more homes sold and more business done, will be found on a MacBook.

There’s an initial investment, but count the cost of your time, and the initial start-up costs to owning a MacBook are well worth it.

Shredded

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At the age of 8, my uncle, Steve Griffith, purchased the one gift that my parents had me believing I would not be getting for Christmas that year.  Quite honestly, I don’t remember wanting it so much as I do the blisters that I would soon have on my left thumb.  It was roughly 1979.  My family had moved a few times by then, and I remember that we were living in Moon Valley, a subdivision in North Central Phoenix, Arizona.  Actually, it was north of Shaw Butte, near the current site of the Point Tapatio, which had not yet been built.  Only two short years prior, my grandparents had graciously bestowed upon us the ever-so-popular Atari Pong.

The Atari 2600 Home Gaming Console

Atari 2600 had invaded…along with one game, Space Invaders.  Needless to say, this began my real gaming fascination.  As someone afflicted with A.D.H.D., and someone with good hand-eye coordination, video games were the perfect fit.  And fit, they did.  Over, and over, and over again.

When ColecoVision was released, it propelled the home console industry in a new direction…

Fast forward through years of arcade credits and Pizza D’Amore, through Nintendo (never owned), Super Nintendo (also never owned), and all other gaming consoles (also never owned), and you’ll find a trail of PC gaming experience.  When I was 14, I was given a new Apple IIc,

and my gaming days on the console were over.  Infocom text games, Ultima, Lode Runner, Pinball, Super Pinball…you name it, I was playing it.

I was never upgraded from the Apple IIc to another computer system until I was given an IBM 8086 with a 5MB hard drive.  No games.  Now it was about sequencing music.  The gaming was on hold through high school, for the most part, because of skateboarding, girls, and homework.  Oh, and I didn’t have a gaming console.

When the push towards “Multi-Media” came out, I was thrust through the new interactive Zork and Myst games, also on the PC.  From there, Castle Wolfenstein, and others like that.

The real gaming began in 1997 when I discovered Quake and local network connectivity.  My free time was gone.   Rounding out my favorite games were the first person games like Quake, Quake II, Quake Arena, Ultimate Tournament 2004, and other such games.  Somewhere in there I dabbled with the first Starcraft, but I don’t remember it as much as I do Total Annihilation, which dominated my home network.  I had 4 computers at the time, and had people over frequently to waste time on them.

I was turned on to Call of Duty by Carson Joyner when he was my roommate (as well as UT2K4.)  I got really good at both of them.  It was at this point that I quit playing.  That was 4 years ago.  I thought I would never play again.

I was wrong.  Last July, when I discovered that Starcraft II had been released 13 or so years after the original, I couldn’t resist.  I had to see it…I needed to see what had changed.

Shredded

Last night, on December 4th, 2010, I deleted Starcraft II from my computer, then I shredded the CD (I had deleted it 5 times prior…but kept re-installing it as I learned new strategies.)  I found myself spending my free time playing.  Then I found myself getting better at it.  When I learned that the best players are paid very well, just like any pro circuit tour sport, I also learned that those players play 10 hours/day, and they’re mostly South Korean.

I’m never going to be that good, and the game just makes me lose time and become frustrated.  Even though it exercises some key areas of my brain, it’s not worth the compromise.  So, I’m done with it.  And that’s why I’m writing this post.  After all, I have more time to do more creative things now :).

Soonr.com Is Almost Everything I Need

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Soonr.com is an online cloud.  It’s a place where I can store specific files permanently so they are away from my computer.  It works in the background, simply monitoring folders that I specify on my MAC or PC.  When a file is added or changed, the Soonr.com agent which is always running sends that changed file to my cloud on Soonr.com.  Coupled with the iPhone, it gives me a very easy way to access those files.

What Soonr.com doesn’t do is what I really need it to do, and that is keep not only files on one computer synchronized to the soonr.com website, but also synchronized to another computer.

All of my transaction documents, contracts, HUD-1’s etc., are stored in a set of folders which is nested beneath a single folder on my desktop.  Since I use two different computers for most of my work, having quick access to the most recent file on each computer is vital to my productivity and it’s one of the main reasons I am able to deliver such quick responses to document requests.

In order to make sure that a folder on one computer appears on the other computer as well, I employ a simple program called Windows Live Sync.  I’m not a big fan of Microsoft products, but since both of these computers that I’m using are PC’s, and I’ve been working with Microsoft products for years, I figure it’s the best I can do for free.  Windows Live Sync does what Soonr.com doesn’t.  It monitors a folder on your computer, synchronizes it with the Windows Live website, then synchronizes it with any other computers that have been assigned to the same folder.

At the end of the day, a process might look like this.  1) I create a new PDF file in the transaction folder.  2)  Windows Live synchronizes it with all of the computers I have setup for synchronization.  3) Soonr.com shuttles the file up to the Soonr.com site so I can view it from any computer, AND from my iPhone.

With both tools implemented, not only do I automatically duplicate my files for a quick backup to my other computers, but I also send a version to my cloud at Soonr.com, ensuring it’s permanently preserved.

Soonr.com treats each computer separately, and doesn’t link the two together, which means you won’t see a file on one computer that you created on another computer without accessing the Soonr.com site directly and downloading the file.

Until Soonr.com implements this feature, I’ll stick with what I have, which is working just fine.

Responsibility for your tools…

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Somewhere, somehow, we as a society have forgotten how to think for ourselves.

Instruction manuals were created to inform the consumer how the inventor intended the item to be utilized and how to accomplish that task. Over time, a product that becomes widely used no longer depends on a manual to explain its purpose. It’s just known. A good example of this would be the more popular form of transportation, the automobile.

Nobody reads automobile manuals. Everyone knows how to operate one. Now, that isn’t to say everyone can operate one safely or effectively, but if you place someone in a car and give them the keys, they’re sure to be able to figure out how to make the car work. The radio is in the right spot, the steering wheel is always in the same location. Turn signals are on the side of the steering column. Standard, standard, standard features. Nobody reaches for the manual.

Computers HAVE NOT YET REACHED THAT LEVEL OF WIDE KNOWLEDGE. And the problem is that there ISN”T a manual. Why, after all, would a computer company ship a manual that would have to be as thick as a phone book to convey how the invented item is to be used? That would be cost prohibitive, especially when the very computer that is being purchased is an information portal to the world which contains all and every manual one could ever think of.

So why is it then that people who own or use computers don’t rely on their computer to help them solve problems with their computer?

Nobody calls Ford to ask them how to operate a cigarette lighter, only to repair it. Nobody calls Mercedes to ask them how to make the car go forward, they only call to have the transmission fixed.

Since the PC was introduced, there has always been a manual. Every operating system has a manual. Every piece of software has a manual. EVERYTHING IS EXPLAINED IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. Whether it’s through a help file or through the discoveries of the computer power user, the problems you are experiencing if you are experiencing them are a product of someone’s design, which means you are not the only person who has encountered a given issue.

When something isn’t operating as it should, or as you expect it, you have to first determine if the way you’re accustomed to is in fact the way it was designed to work, then you have to come to terms with the way it was designed and modify your habits. If you are already using it the way it was designed and you have a problem, you’re probably not the first. Get off your ass and look it up. The computer is only as smart as the person sitting in front of it.

There are a few codes we have in the computer industry:

ID10T: an id10t error, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is an IDIOT error.
PEBKAC: Person exists between keyboard and computer
RTFM: Read the F*&$ing manual.

If you are in a business where your job depends on your knowledge of the computer you use to do your job and you strive for excellence, then you have a responsibility first to yourself to improve your knowledge so you can do a better job for your employer and perhaps break away from the mundane, repetitive existence that you have found yourself stuck in.

You can’t become what you need to be by remaining what you are.

MAC Attack…

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My first computer was an Atari, technically. My actual first personal computer, designed for personal computing, was an Apple IIc with a 5.25″ floppy disk drive. It was a predecessor to the GUI.

I played games on it. That was probably the only thing that I did, until I found that my new best friend, Chad Taylor, also had the same computer. I met Chad about 3 years after I had been given the computer for Christmas. We swapped hundreds of programs and games. Most of my time was spent in Zork, text based adventures; silly programs that you actually typed commands into like, “Pick up rock,” or “Take Jewell Encrusted Egg.” These were simple things. When Chad gave me Appleworks, I began my journey to typing mastery. I typed my MATH homework even. How ridiculous. My parents realized I needed a printer and bought one for me. Dot matrix baby.

A few years later, a handful of my friends ended up with the Macintosh! It had a MOUSE!?! I became creative. I never had one, but I always visited my friends’ houses to use theirs. And most of it was painting, or learning how to use spreadsheets…and an occasional round of Sim City.

As time passed, the IBM PC took over, and I ended up getting sucked into the technical aspect of computing, which led me to computer repair. I focused alot on tearing apart computers. My first IBM compatible was an IBM 8088 with a green monitor. It was with this computer that I wrote my first sequenced music pieces. They are long gone. And so was the creativity and freedom to simply use a computer for what it was intended. The next eighty three gajillion hours was spent on troubleshooting IBM crap! I’m 33 now, and I have recently acquired a Powerbook, and I have slowly migrated most of my creative efforts to that platform. I write music on it, I record on it, I blog on it. There’s nothing I can’t see myself doing on it, EXCEPT, all of the technical crap that my XP platform forces me to deal with. Bottom line, Apple has tapped my creativity and I will probably never use my PC for anything more than serving the web and running my accounting and personal finances. It’s just not as friendly as this beautiful PowerBook!

And just think, only recently was I a die-hard PC freak with words like Macintrash, and Trashintosh oozing from my mouth.

I write more, I create more, I desire more, now that I have the freedom to do so. Computing with a Mac is like driving a rail through the rocks at 100 miles/hour. Computing with a PC is like riding a tricycle on the beach.

(P.S. There’s a better analogy than that, but it’s freaking 1:30 in the morning and I’m tired.)

Good Night!