over the last few days i’ve put quite a lot of thought into my new computer purchase. my one nerdy friend commented that microsoft wont be supporting XP after SP3, and with all vista’s issues i felt that took the PC out of consideration, plus all the research and time it would take to put together the ideal system would be prohibitive because i want this computer ASAP. then, my other nerdy friend remarked that the imac probably wouldnt be that much more fast than my macbook, which, in the end, would be a waste of money. two kinda fast computers don’t make one superfast computer. so, mostly through process of elimination, i settled on the mac pro tower. here are the specs:
3.00 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
1GB 667 DDR2 FB DIMM ECC-2×512 (to be upgraded to 5GBs after purchase from crucial.com)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s drive
16x SuperDrive DL
Airprt Extrm & BT 2.0+EDR
WL Apple Kybd & WL Mgty Ms
Mac OS X
i’ll let you all out there on the internets know how my new mac pro works out for me. i really hope i’ll think its worth the money. if it disappoints, i think it will put a nail in the mac coffin for me.
tis the season for frivolous-yet-tax-deductible spending. i’m looking to spend less than $2000.00 on a desktop computer that is SUPERFAST, since my cute macbook has difficulty running the entire CS3 suite at once (and i MUST be able to do this – multitasking is my life). Flash in particular really bogs down my computer right now.
i’ve been trying to decide between the lesser of these two evils. if anyone out there has any related experiences or advice, particularly with the imac or some other mac desktop, please share!
1) 2.4ghz imac (20 inch)
+ looks pretty
+ compatible with my laptop
+ comes with good quality monitor
+ no viruses!
+ supports 4gbs of ram ($163 at crucial, $850 at apple.com…. where do they get off??)
-/+ OSX is a memory hog, but its kinda grown on me
- can’t tweak/upgrade like a pc
- more expensive than comparable pc
- i have no experience with it, don’t know how it handles the programs i use most
- steve jobs sucks
2) build-my-own-pc
+ hardware totally hand-picked and upgradeable (i’ve been building PCs since high school)
+ easy to tweak for best memory efficiency
+ i’m confident that XP can handle the workload
- viruses
- time-consuming to research all the parts and options
- vista BLOWS – gotta find an old copy of XP
- all the software i have now is for the mac
- i have no idea how i will manage my files between a pc and a mac
- bill gates sucks
i’m excited to show off that finally, after 10 years of having only outdated business cards with pictures of mulder and scully on them, i have business cards!!! i designed them in illustrator and photoshop, and used www.overnightprints.com to print them. i am quite happy with the results (really cheap too). however, i do notice that the glossy coating on black ink tends to show fingerprints… maybe i won’t get glossy next time.
Filed under: portfolio
yesterday i happened to discover that the previously unavailable www.digitalemma.com was released. domains are so ridiculously cheap (especially compared with the $70 they used to be 10 years ago) so i bought it… and then a couple more: www.emmawelles.com and www.emmawelles.net. you know, in case there’s another nerdy emma welles growing up right now and eying my internet identity, i gotta claim what’s mine.
i discovered two enhancements to firefox the other day that have made my life awesome (and consequently resulted in much more internet surfing – uh oh). the first is a build of firefox that has been optimized for intel macs. its AWESOME (i’m saying it again). no more 60+% cpu usage by the firefox-bin. i open up all the browser windows i want and it’s totally cool. now i’m just kinda mad at the firefox people for not making this update themselves. what the hell people? but thanks Neil, for doing what FF can’t.
the second browser happiness is pretty trivial but it has solved months of discontent for me. when i switched to my mac i was disappointed to find that firefox does not include the icons of websites in the bookmarks toolbar, for some bizarre reason i can’t figure out. anyway i found this plugin – mac favicons – and i have my icons back! hooray!!!
Filed under: work
before this project, i never had the pleasure of taking a second glance at tabloid magazines. remarkably, there’s a certain style they ALL adhere to. do the designers for the inquirer and the like go to some special tabloid design school? are they educated in only gaudy colors, obnoxious fonts, and hideous photo selections? it’s amazing really.
anyway, check out the teaser site for the new york comedy troupe here: http://www.ifc.com/series?aId=21510. the full mini-site (is that an oxymoron?) debuts in two weeks, with clips from the first season and a bunch of extra stuff!
