Page 8 of 10

Posted on

An Apple Through the Windows: My MacBooks Review

Last week in my article, MacBook Questions from a Windows Heathen, I asked some questions about the new MacBook line of laptops from Apple computing. I have been using Windows computers since the rise of Windows 3.11.

My previous experience with Apple has been limited to the first generation Newton which I loved so much that Apple used a quote of mine in a press conference but without attributing it to me or asking my permission. I had posted on a CompuServe forum explaining why the Newton was “touching the future today.”

I believed in that technology then and the Apple Newton set the stage and started the trend for personalized, portable computing now. I have also used a first generation iPod and I have used iTunes and QuickTime.

I don’t know much about Apple computers so if there are some things in this review you do not understand or that are wrong, please let me know. After using the MacBook for a couple of days, my plan was to make a permanent move away from Windows and become a MacBoy today and forever. I will let you know my decision about moving from Windows to Mac at the conclusion of this article.

One of the great things about the new Intel-powered MacBooks is you can dual boot into Windows and Mac OS X on the same machine so you, in theory anyway, do not have to make a choice of Operating System preference.
Continue reading → An Apple Through the Windows: My MacBooks Review

Posted on

Neighbor in the Hood

We don’t have a washing machine or dryer in our apartment building so every week I drop off our dirty laundry at the corner Laundromat for washing. In our Jersey City neighborhood paying someone else to wash and dry your clothes actually costs less than doing it all yourself in Manhattan. 

Continue reading → Neighbor in the Hood

Posted on

Not Deaf Enough at Gallaudet: Finally Is Not Enough

One of the hardest things for a minority culture to understand is the same history cannot be made twice. History only makes pioneers and always punishes imitators. There is an attempt to warp back to 1988 at Gallaudet, the premier university for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., as some of the 2,000 students enrolled there try to re-enact the historical — and successful — 1988 “Deaf President Now” campaign by erasing the appointment of a new president, Jane K. Fernandes, because she is “Not Deaf Enough” to lead Gallaudet. The students re-created a tent city from 1988 as they camp out to protest her appointment until she steps down. Fernandes cannot and must not be bullied down.

Gallaudet University

Continue reading → Not Deaf Enough at Gallaudet: Finally Is Not Enough

Posted on

The Power of Peanut Butter and Jelly

For a 15 year stretch growing up in Nebraska — from age five to 20 — I ate a toasted — toasting the bread made it a hot meal — peanut butter and jelly sandwich three times a day: One for breakfast, one for lunch and the final one for a late-night snack.

Continue reading → The Power of Peanut Butter and Jelly

Posted on

Eleven Heart-Shaped Balloons

Janna came home last night and presented me with eleven giant, red, heart-shaped helium balloons.

She apologized one was missing.

She told me on her way home from teaching American Sign Language at New York University she found a guy selling bunches of balloons for .64 cents each. She bought a dozen.

Waiting for a PATH train at the Christopher Street station, a man tried to strike up a conversation with her.

That happens to us a lot and since Janna is Deaf she usually just smiles and points to her ears and shakes her head to let the person know she isn’t interested in communicating.

The guy followed her onto the train and persisted in trying to speak with her. Wrangling twelve helium balloons onto a packed train is no easy task.

Continue reading → Eleven Heart-Shaped Balloons