Jill Murray

I understand it now, what Dooce calls “finding religion.”

I bought an iBook yesterday. It was a somewhat spontaneous purchase. I say “somewhat” because I’ve actually been visiting the trading board on ehMac.ca thrice daily for more than a fortnight, watching prices and specs. I say “spontaneous” because:

• There was a definite sensation of pouncing involved in securing this particular iBook at this particular price
• My PC still “works” as much as one can ever truly describe a PC as “working.”

My good friend Bluescreen and I will be parting ways as soon as I can get everything set up on this handy little miracle of ample portability and excessive RAM. I suspect this will actually be much faster than I had anticipated, since one does not, apparently, need to configure things on Mac. The iBook just knows. It has no issue with hot-plugging peripherals or ethernet connections.

For the record, I know very well how to network PCs, and install drivers, and troubleshoot and reboot and reconfigure and customize. I’m not switching because I’m afraid of my computer and don’t want to know how it works. I simply ask myself, “is that ish not a boring waste of time when you have other things you need to get done?” And the answer is “yes.” I don’t have so much pride that I can’t let the computer handle on its own some of the very things computers were designed to handle.

In short, I fully expect my new iBook to fulfil every empty promise of the industrial revolution. Certainly, I’m already feeling a lot more love. Next stop: more leisure time, dammit. It’s a lot to ask but I wouldn’t really be me without unrealistic expectations.

If any of you have been interested in making the switch to Mac but have been held back by the initial cost, and if you also happen to live in Canada, land of lukewarm eBay deals, do drop what you’re doing and go check out the trading board on ehMac.ca. There is hope for you yet. Once I sell the 2.5 PCs that this iBook will replace, it will essentially be paid for, potentially making the time-saving factor profitable.