Powerbook Goes Wii
About a month ago, Aaron and I had a conversation about that evil little voice in your head that makes all kinds of impulsive suggestions. It was prompted by the episode of This American Life that I'd listened to the day before.
While not literal enough that I need psychiatric help (just to clarify), I often feel like I've got a virtual pantheon of evil little guys hanging out in my head that suggest all kinds of stupid things. I certainly can related to Ira Glass' intro to that episode.
The conversation quickly focused on one particular voice from the gallery that pretty much embodies my lust for gadgets and neat tech. I call him Steve.
I call him that because that's the part of my brain that reacts to the presentations that Steve Jobs puts out. My inner Steve sees the iPhone and goes,
"Hey, that's neat. J, we *really* need one of those. It's shiny and stuff."
Fortunately for my pocketbook, my inner economist Eugene is pretty vocal himself and manages to put Steve in his place,
"Um, we had some bad experiences with AT&T cell service, could put $400 to much better use and already have a contract with TMobile."
Of course, a few weeks later, when the iPod Touch comes out, cheaper and without the phone encumbrance, Steve figures he's got Eugene beat.
"Hey J, this thing is pretty much just as cool as the other one, but none of Eugene's criticisms are valid for this one."
That's when Eugene explains that just because he only shared a few reasons for not getting the iPhone doesn't mean that those were the only 3 reasons for not getting one. And, if that's not enough, he's willing to give Brutus (my inner enforcer) a call.
So, anyway, that same day, Aaron mentioned that *his* inner Steve managed to convince his inner Eugene to get a new MacBook Pro and he was going to be selling his old 12" G4 Powerbook.
I don't know if my inner Eugene was off at the library or what, but I told Aaron I'd buy the old Mac. I haven't had a Mac around for a while and there are certain tasks and software that I do want to use that require a Mac.
I've been back to a fully multi-OS household for a few weeks now and the Powerbook is getting regular use. Like all of the other OS's and hardware in the house, I like some things about it and hate others, but it's just another tool.
What I *am* finding pretty cool and fun is something Aaron told me about quite a while before I bought this laptop from him: that the Wii remote is a bluetooth device and that Mac has some fun software for using it to control the computer.
I've had the Wii remote for a couple of days and it really is fun to play with and works really well for presentation control for cheaper than most of the tools designed for that specifically.
Apparently, Eugene's not just at the library, but Steve's got him tied up out back and has paid off Brutus and is running things in there because that's a lot of toys for the time involved.
Oh, and the title for this post? My inner child: Billy.
October 19th, 2007 at 8:00 am
I need an inner Eugene.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
My inner Eugene used to be a 90 pound weakling. It really took some effort to get him strong enough to do his job. Lots of reading on economics and putting restrictions on myself to get to the point I'm at, where Eugene is a 120 pound weakling who still regularly gets ganged up on by the rest and overruled.
I suspect that I'll be fighting this particular battle for the rest of my life because Steve is based in some pretty old brain structures (along with Augustus, my inner glutton, Larry, my inner lech, etc.) while Eugene is relatively new to the scene.
There are thousands of generations that went before us that benefited greatly when they listened to these guys, so it's pretty ingrained.
Heck, I can see most of those guys at work in my dogs. If you open a CD or DVD, even though they have no use for it, they're pretty sure they want it anyway. They want every bit of food they can get and will run off at the first scent of another dog.