Cheap Shoes

I have long known that Mac users and PC users speak a different language.

There’s a fundamental difference between how PC users use their machines and how Mac users do it. The biggest one being that backups and restores are absolutely no problem over here. I still have no idea how one accomplishes this under Windows without copying over massive groups of files, by hand. In fact… now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure that’s the only way to do it under Windows without spending any money on third party software and if that’s the case, that makes me really, really sad.

Apple, may I say again, that Time Machine… simply rocks.

Over a year later and I have had absolutely no problems with my Macbook. I have never had to restore anything from Time Machine, except that one time when I accidentally deleted a file. It was super easy to get it back. All I had to do was go enter Time Machine, find the file and click “restore”. Other than that, I have had zero interaction with Time Machine. The fact that it’s there though, takes a LOT of stress out of my day. I don’t worry about losing data anymore because the simple fact is… I won’t.

Time Machine offers a lot of peace of mind for me because I do use my Mac for all the same things that I used my PC for. My PC laptop would overheat and shut down when I burned a DVD, when it was less than six months old. When I burned a DVD a couple of months ago my Macbook just went on about life and I swear, if this thing could, it would ask me if I’d like a cup of tea or a scone while I waited.

I also find that I am not using physical media at all now. That DVD got sent to my folks for Christmas. Me? Well, my Macbook is saving me in terms of space. I do not burn discs for myself anymore, ever. In fact, someone asked me how to burn a CD in iTunes and I had to go look up the directions because I haven’t done it in so long. I just don’t bother. I have a home network where all the video storage lives. When I’m on the go, I have a 32GB iPhone that I can plug into my headphones… or an aux cable.

Who needs media?

Ever since I have switched to using a Mac… I have come to understand that some things that are a HUGE undertaking on the PC… are so easy on the Mac that I don’t even think about them. I hear complaints all the time about the battery replacement issue with iPhone and I just stare at people blankly because I don’t get it. I’ve replaced more than my fair share of iPhones. That back up and restore process is something that I’ve never thought twice about. It’s so easy that if it could plug itself in… you wouldn’t have to lift a finger. That’s always been the least of my concerns when I’ve wrecked a phone.

I mean, what’s there for me to worry about? It does it all for me. All I have to do is click “yes” and go grab a beer.

Hardcore PC Users do not understand that. Especially not the coder geeks that LIKE to tweak and finagle their systems on top of these complex houses of cards. You know… some people like to tinker and I love that there are things out there that work for those people. I’m just not one of them.

Someone has to come along every few months to remind me of all of this. They have to remind me of all the things that I could never figure out how to do on my own on a PC without some tedious.. and lengthy process that would take an entire weekend to finish. It takes me a moment to recall that certain things in PC land are a huge pain in the butt. I have a hard time remembering this, because it’s a period of my life that I seriously do not wish to relive.

I had an epiphany about the whole thing today.

Computer shopping is sort of like shopping for shoes.

Sure I can buy 10$ shoes at the discount chain store. The shoes will be cute. They will also be uncomfortable and my feet will sweat and stink to high heaven in them, but hey… I only have to put up with them for a summer and then I can throw them away to be replaced with a different cute pair of ten dollar shoes… that will suffer from all of the same problems as the previous pair.

But if I spend 40$ more, I get shoes that will last me for ten years, instead of a summer. They will be comfortable. My feet with breathe in them and not sweat or stink when I take them off at the end of the day. After the fifth year of wear, the shoes will have paid for themselves in shoes that I was not purchasing at the cheap place.

Cheap shoes are great for teenage girls.

I’ve outgrown cheap shoes.