Moving to the Mac
A couple of years ago, I bought an iMac to use for business purposes. (I am a freelance Web developer.) It’s a great computer.
Down in the shack, though, it’s another story. I’ve been plugging along with an old Windows98 laptop that I bought used about five years ago. I’ve never done anything really fancy with it—I’ve mostly used it for logging. I was going to try PSK31 at some point, but was concerned that the sound card in it wasn’t good enough.
Recently, though, the computer has really started to show its age. The latest thing to break was a little plastic clip holding the Ethernet cable in place. The connector wouldn’t stay put, and I was in effect off the Net.
I took it in to the place where I bought the computer, Affordable Computers, and they sold me a replacement card for $30. Unfortunately, when I got it home, I found that I still couldn’t connect to the net. I took it back the next day, and it turns out that the card they sold me was bad. Fortunately for me, they found another card—this one an Ethernet-only card—that did work and only cost $15.
While I was in there, I noticed that they were selling some used iBooks for $539. How could I resist? So, now I’m the proud owner of an iBook G4, with Mac OSX. In fact, I’m writing this blog entry on it right now.
It’s in pretty good physical condition, and everything seems to be working just fine, except for perhaps the battery. I left the battery to charge over night, and this morning, it was only at 50%. I left the charger on throughout the morning, and did get it up to 100%, but it seems to be discharging very rapidly. I just went to battery power about ten minutes ago, and it’s already down to 90%.
Oh well. I guess I’ll be heading back there real soon. The one nice thing about buying the computer from a dealer is that they offer a warranty on the battery. Good thing, too. Batteries for these laptops are $100 and up.
UPDATE 10/18/07:
Great news! I took the iBook back to the store this afternoon. I told the tech that the battery didn’t seem to be holding a charge. He said, “Let me take a look at it.” He took it into the back room and returned in about ten minutes. He handed it back to me saying, “I popped a new battery into it. You’re all set.” I’m very happy. :)
