Computer Trouble
My iMac, just a few months past its AppleCare expiry date, went dead on me last night--no happy-Mac face, just a blinking ? on a folder. Say what you will about the IBM Selectric, it never played dumb. I even toyed with the idea of getting my ancient (circa 1956) Optima portable typewriter out of the basement. But its ribbon* is probably less substantial now than the Shroud of Turin, and the noise of the damn thing would frighten the dogs.
*For the post-typewriter generation: a ribbon was not a decoration but the means of transferring ink to the paper. Very quaint, I agree.
So I went back to tried & true pre-Gutenberg technology, pen and paper, and scrawled out a page or so of the next chapter of Henderson...all the while thanking myself for having had the presence of mind to email copies of that and Deserters, my other novel in progress, to my college mailbox...since my CD burner turned unreliable, I haven't been able to make backups as often as I should. (I detect an anti-technology theme creeping into this post. Or tramping into it with big muddy boots on.)
One way or another, I expect a laptop is coming. I'm too old to lug a full-size iMac all over Vancouver.
I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to decide on what role technology will play in my writing. One the one hand there's the romantic image of me banging away at an old Remington, and on the other is a shiny new laptop or pocket pc with foldup keyboard.
I seem to have trouble when relying on a pen because my hand just doesn't seem to work fast enough, but then again I can't afford any of the new technology.
Have you seen these yet though?
http://www.alphasmart.com/
They seem like they'd be an ideal solution, but for that price you could probably set up a palm pilot with a keyboard and word processing software.
For now I'll just stick to desktop computer at home and pen and paper everywhere else.
Posted by:mark | October 24, 2003 at 01:56 PM
Will check out alphasmart later. For now, I suggest you stick with the desktop + pen and paper.
And I am happy to report that my computer is behaving itself again after a session with Disk Warrior and Norton SystemWorks. But I'm still going to have to get a laptop.
Posted by:Crawford Kilian | October 24, 2003 at 04:01 PM
The time is right for buying a new mac laptop, the Powerbooks and iBooks have received major upgrades recently and have both had substantial prices reductions. I suggest a 12" Powerbook, I love mine, and it isn't even the newer kind.
Thomas
Posted by:Purely Mx | October 24, 2003 at 05:30 PM
I think it'll probably be a 14" iBook, one of the new G4s...but I'll look around.
By the way, have you noticed how many TypePaddicts are Mac users?
Posted by:Crawford Kilian | October 24, 2003 at 08:38 PM
The 14" iBook will be perfect for you. I have noticed that of all the blogs I read, most are mac users, or are wanting to be a mac user. Now, is it that most Typepad users use macs, or is it that that the style of blog that we enjoy reading is the style of a mac user?
Thomas
Posted by:Purely Mx | October 25, 2003 at 09:38 AM
I have never wanted to be a Mac user. After my ordeal with an Apple computer several years ago, I became a PC convert. Crawford, I'll bet if you looked at the beautiful new Toshiba Laptops, you will be in love. I'm getting one right after Christmas (hopefully when I become a permanent employee at my job "with a real salary" instead of a "make believe one").
Perhaps you can use a bit of that "anti-technology" in Hendersons Tenants. Hmmm? What if the Nanites/Nanobots/Nanoprobes (?) all of a sudden stopped working? What if Henderson experienced some sort of electromagnetic field? What if the Nanos caught a virus? What if I stop suggesting what you write and mind my own bizwacks? ;-)
Posted by:Teresa | October 26, 2003 at 10:19 AM
I'm not getting into any theological debates about Macs vs PCs!
Mechanical or electronic problems with the nanobots could be an interesting direction for the story, but at the moment I'm thinking more about the unforeseen implications that emerge when the bots do exactly as they're programmed to.
Posted by:Crawford Kilian | October 26, 2003 at 11:32 AM
My laptop is the old, ancient Mac Powerbook 5300.
Dinosaur.
But $50 on eBay.
I run WordPerfect on it, and have no problem swapping back and forth with the PC version, or with other, technologically viable Macs.
My theory was that if I was using it for writing, then I didn't need the bells, whistles and multimedia junk.
Distractions.
I do get pointed and laughed at, but I get what I want done.
Posted by:Anne | October 30, 2003 at 10:26 AM
Sorry -- blond roots showing!
www.oreilly.com has an article up on how to convert the old Mac Powerbook 1400 to wi-fi, so that might be a way to go as well.
Posted by:Anne | October 30, 2003 at 10:27 AM