Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
I’m not usually driven to ‘want’ when reading about this gadget or that. I don’t have an iPod, and don’t have one on my wishlist. I have enough camera for my needs (D70) and a very nice printer and several lenses so I’m fine there. My smallish TV/DVD combo works , as does my portable stereo; oh, and my Kitchenaide Mixer, which will live longer than me.
But I have to admit to a wistful wanting when I read this Guardian article about the new Power Mac and especially the Aperture software, to work with RAW images.
It’s not that I can’t process photos on my TiBook; it’s that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage. I have 512MB of RAM, and a line down the monitor, a cracked shell, and a battery that easily disconnects. The screen is getting marked and fuzzy, and I only have 18GB of hard drive. When you take 1GB of photos at a time, 18GB becomes very small, very quickly.
I could use my PC more, and am contemplating it, but I like the Mac. I like the Unix underneath the glam.
It would be nice to have a really good machine again — top of the line with loads of space and memory and the most recent software. But I can make do with what I have. I have Neo and OpenOffice on my Mac, and OpenOffice on my PC (dual boot with Ubuntu and Windows 2000). I also have Gimp on my PC and Photoshop CS on my Mac. I have CD burners for both, and CDs are cheap now. My scanner is excellent, and I have two good film cameras. I haven’t exhausted all the possibilities of all the software I do have, to add more. I haven’t exhausted my capabilities on both machines.
Come to think on it, how we use our machines is somewhat like how we use our brains: we don’t use either to their fullest capacity. Increasing the use of one could extend and increase the use of the other.
Still, it is fun to indulge in a little wishful wanting now and again. I wonder if Aperture can work on my machine?
