The Macbook Pro - Newbie Review

I am a Windows person....formally. Truth be told I have used Macs very rarely in my existence, and found them to be quite....interesting. Perhaps part of it was a major departure from the norm...the norm which is basically Windows. Windows is a powerful tool, no question about it, and the more economically sound of the two operating systems. But I, after having such shitty luck on my last two notebooks (both by Dell btw), I have come to the decision. I was forced into deciding between two entirely different operating systems. Windows, and Mac OS X. I will admit that for a period of time, I was entirely anti-Mac, I found them difficult to work with, they couldn't play the games that I wanted to play, and they just all around could not, nor would not work well for me. I decided to get my first ever Apple product when Apple introduced their "iPod". Granted I was late on purchasing the iPod, nor did I feel like spending three hundred dollars, I bought, the iPod mini. It's sad though that approximately three months later the iPod color debuted. Shortly thereafter, the iPod video debuted. I decided simply to shake my head at the decision.

I had heard rumors that Apple was thinking about switching over to the Intel architecture. I did not know what to make of this, yet after seeing the massive amounts of both memory that I was missing out on (my current computer could only support 512 MB), I decided to purchase a new computer (a Dell Inspiron 600m). It was only after learning about that notebook's flaws that I regretted the decision. No matter how many times I tried to customize the GUI of Windows (face it, you have to install software which just guzzles your RAM), no matter how many times I lost everything to viruses (I in the meantime tried three different virus softwares: ESET, McAfee, and Norton), and no matter how many times those said viruses forced me to reimage my hard drive, I just was not satisfied with it. With the computer defects (it'll charge to like 92% and pretty much stop charging after that), the motherboard issue (hey, the motherboard is faulty, Dell still refuses to issue a recall), and everything else, I was heartbroken, $1150 dollars down the drain. It was a sad day in my life when I lost over $140 dollars in iTunes stuff, countless digital images (basically all my Cozumel shots, my trip to New York, my visit with my uncle), and a few major papers that I had worked on over the year. I was heartbroken. Then I heard about the debut of the new Macbook Pro.

I was sad and disheartened when I found out the price was $1999. For that amount of money I could get a HD-television. I kept track of current issues with the Macbook Pro and hearing of the whine, I was willing to wait awhile. To be honest, I only heard the whine once, when I took it off the charger. I think it's tied to the webcam or photobooth, cuz it does that when I run those programs. :( I then thought about driving down to Miami two days before and talking to her about it, but in the end decided that I would not want to do such a thing. I was worried about whether my school costs and my car insurance were going to hold to July. I sat down and calculated and connived and contrited, and literally tortured myself since April. But in the end, I decided that the Macbook Pro was too good an offer to pass up, especially after the debut of bootcamp. So in the middle of April, after dwelling on it for weeks, I decided I would purchase the Macbook Pro. Being a college student and not having direct access to my trust fund, I and my grandmother (who is in control) decided to purchase the notebook, after I had thought about it and dwelled on it. My grandmother seems to think the notebook was worth it just for the AC adapter (which disconnects when unwanted tension is placed on it). One thing I liked about the new Macbook Pro was the absence of near obsolete ports (ports including dial up port (which is I think one port that should have remained), old fashioned printer ports (which now run off USB2 and soon Bluetooth (some already do)/Wireless USB) and other stuff.

One thing I enjoyed about going into the Apple Store was first off, the look of the Apple store, and second off, the people that were in the store. Though like a true salesman who was trying to get me to buy everything (in the attempt to make me learn about the Mac which I think I've learned a lot over the past two days), I shot him down. I did however, get the Apple CompleteCare plan, which was a wise thing seeing as the Dell Inspiron 600m didn't have an extended warranty on it and therefore would have been replaced regardless of whether it would be replaced with my growing obsession over the past few months. I think the boot up for the computer is tons better than Windows (course, some Windows computers can theme the boot). Anyways, the guy was very nice, told us about the so-called "genius bar" and had lessons on actually learning about the Macbook Pro.

My grandmother who watched me set it up thought that Mac OS X was similar to Windows 3.1 in some ways, just incredibly sooped up and re-themed. It does give the appearance slightly, growing up seeing and using Windows 3.1 computers I do have the right to testify to this. Course, I think it was just during the age that both companies were actually trying to make their operating systems look like each other to promote user friendliness. Now however, Mac and Windows are constantly at each other's throats. And after using it for a day (I used and enjoy using both Safari and Firefox). The wide screen is incredible. I enjoy the resolution because it's so high (1440x900), and leaves lots of room for prime real estate. I also enjoy the fact that the computer comes out of standby so much more quickly than Windows does. It's very....satisfying to know that when you open the lid the computer comes up automatically. It also possesses a aesthetically pleasing boot up that I have come to enjoy that Windows lacks (though I give points to Gates for trying, hey it's getting better). It may be nothing but both my iPod and the Macbook Pro had this smell to it that I find somehow pleasing really in a wierd sort of way. While first thinking about getting the computer simply to also dual boot it, I have since decided not to. With Neooffice out, and the possibility of more games for the Mac seeing as it shares the same processors as Windows computers, I can now simply breathe and relax. I think it would be sort of taboo to install Windows on a Mac.

As to the actual Mac OS, I think it's a wonderful look. It maintains a similar feel to the previous Mac OS's (I think the last time I actually wrote anything on a Mac was inbetween sixth and seventh grade at camp. :S The keys are different from Windows computers, and that's to be expected, but it still has that QWERTY type keyboard that I find easy. It's not so much the keyboard as the commands. Instead of control+T it's command+T (with the wierd square/circlish looking thingy). Battery power isn't the greatest, but it still is good. I've had it off the charger for about 50 minutes (primarily before I started typing this. And it had about a 98% charge then and it's down to 70%. The wireless icon is great compared to the Windows icon (it shows the strength of the signal instead of simply a connection, though it doesn't show activity over the line like Windows does. It's a great machine really. The commands are getting easy to pick up on, and soon I wonder if I'll even be able to type o the same keyboard that I used to use. The only button that sounds different compared to the other's is the "l" button.

I thought about the Macbook, but it's keyboard wasn't like this one, and I wasn't sure whether I would have liked it or not. But I would honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed this notebook compared to the other two Dells that I've owned. We'll see how it goes. But Mac has won me over.

The Great Hoaxmas

Quoted on other sites, including the brilliantly witty and hilarious DUmmie FUnnies, DUmmieland is up in soars about the great hoax on Truthout that managed to get the Michigan bar Association into a standing ovation. This standing ovation included New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The great hoax at Truthout began causing more and more DUmmies to become skeptical of the great Piper, also known as William Rivers Pitt, current owner at Truthout. While I disagree with the DUmmies on many things, both Freepers and DUmmies alike can laugh at the great Pied Piper Pitt, who is probably at the current time getting drunk at Bukowski's. While my intentions are not to challenge or compete with PJ, as I am a great admirer of his blog, I feel it is best to post such a hilarity on my College Republican blog.

Saturday 13 May 2006

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 business hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, did not return a call for comment. Sources said Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the charges against Rove, which include perjury and lying to investigators about how and when Rove discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

It was still unknown Saturday whether Fitzgerald charged Rove with a more serious obstruction of justice charge. Sources close to the case said Friday that it appeared very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included with charges of perjury and lying to investigators.

An announcement by Fitzgerald is expected to come this week, sources close to the case said. However, the day and time is unknown. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the special prosecutor was unavailable for comment. In the past, Samborn said he could not comment on the case.

The grand jury hearing evidence in the Plame Wilson case met Friday on other matters while Fitzgerald spent the entire day at Luskin's office. The meeting was a closely guarded secret and seems to have taken place without the knowledge of the media.

As TruthOut reported Friday evening, Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

Details of Rove's discussions with the president and Bolten have spread through the corridors of the White House, where low-level staffers and senior officials were trying to determine how the indictment would impact an administration that has been mired in a number of high-profile political scandals for nearly a year, said a half-dozen White House aides and two senior officials who work at the Republican National Committee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity Friday night, sources confirmed Rove's indictment was imminent. These individuals requested anonymity saying they were not authorized to speak publicly about Rove's situation. A spokesman in the White House press office said they would not comment on "wildly speculative rumors."

Rove's announcement to President Bush and Bolten comes more than a month after he alerted the new chief of staff to a meeting his attorney had with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in which Fitzgerald told Luskin that his case against Rove would soon be coming to a close and that he was leaning toward charging Rove with perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators, according to sources close to the investigation.

A few weeks after he spoke with Fitzgerald, Luskin arranged for Rove to return to the grand jury for a fifth time to testify in hopes of fending off an indictment related to Rove's role in the CIA leak, sources said.

That meeting was followed almost immediately by an announcement by newly-appointed White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten of changes in the responsibilities of some White House officials, including Rove, who was stripped of his policy duties and would no longer hold the title of deputy White House chief of staff.

The White House said Rove would focus on the November elections and his change in status in no way reflected his fifth appearance before the grand jury or the possibility of an indictment.

But since Rove testified two weeks ago, the White House has been coordinating a response to what is sure to be the biggest political scandal it has faced thus far: the loss of a key political operative who has been instrumental in shaping White House policy on a wide range of domestic issues.

Rove testified that he first found out about Plame Wilson from reading a newspaper report in July 2003 and only after the story was published did he share damaging information about her CIA status with other reporters.

However, evidence has surfaced during the course of the two-year-old investigation that shows Rove spoke with at least two reporters about Plame Wilson prior to the publication of the column.

The explanation Rove provided to the grand jury - that he was dealing with more urgent White House matters and therefore forgot - has not convinced Fitzgerald that Rove has been entirely truthful in his testimony and resulted in the indictment.

Some White House staffers said it's the uncertainty of Rove's status in the leak case that has made it difficult for the administration's domestic policy agenda and that the announcement of an indictment and Rove's subsequent resignation, while serious, would allow the administration to move forward on a wide range of issues.

"We need to start fresh and we can't do that with the uncertainty of Karl's case hanging over our heads," said one White House aide. "There's no doubt that it will be front page news if and when (an indictment) happens. But eventually it will become old news quickly. The key issue here is that the president or Mr. Bolten respond to the charges immediately, make a statement and then move on to other important policy issues and keep that as the main focus going forward."

Oh, such a steaming pile of bull, from such a known lying reporter (Jason Leopold).

Prior to writing News Junkie, Mr. Leopold had written a book entitled Off the Record. The book's release was permanently cancelled, however, following legal threats from one of the subjects of the book.[4] In that book, Mr. Leopold planned to reveal many secrets of his life as a journalist such as a prior drug addiction, bouts with mental illness and suicide attempts, breaking journalistic rules, and lying to employers about a criminal conviction. [5]

As it has become abundantly clear over the course of the past few years since this "supposed" leak never happened from the White House or from Karl Rove, the liberals never cease to amaze me by continuing to push this story. It's sad when the so-called culture of corruption implied by Pelosi is revealed to be a faux, and that just as many liberals are as corrupt as the conservatives.

Anyways, you can read the hilarity of it all here.

Beating dead horses

With the release of the Pre-Katrina tape, the media has decided to rehash the beating of a dead horse. With Bush's popularity, according to CBS floundering, and Republicans beginning to turn against him, the media has decided to join in on the campaign.

In an article appearing in the Stock Market News,

"The tape shows Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff being told on Aug. 28 that the hurricane could trigger breaches of levees that protect the city as well as threaten the Superdome, which became a last-ditch shelter for storm victims. The tapes were obtained by the Associated Press, which played Nagin the excerpt."

In an article from CNN, the truth begins to come out,

"I don't think anyone can tell you with confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very, very great concern," Mayfield says in one.

This does not involve the breaking of levees, merely that the water would have gone over the levees, thereby allowing the city to flood much slower, and the city's response to be much quicker. Instead the infrastructure broke down because of lack of communication and the reign of anarchy. The city government was gone, already having deserted the city fleeing to the nearby city of Baton Rouge.

Again, the mentioning of "topping" the levies.

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levies will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very, very grave concern."-Max Mayfield, head of the NHC, quote taken directly from the transcript.

CNN has decided to become less biased, and a word for word quote,

"A special House committee concluded last month that the response to Katrina at all levels of government was dismal, poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that "America is still not ready for prime time" more than four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks (From CNN)."

In a shocking (NOT!) move, several opponents to Ray Nagin have signed on to campaign against the mayor's election bid, challenging to run for election themselves, and two signed on within an hour of opening (From CNN .).

Surprisingly, some sites praise the incompetent man, calling him a hero of the city. From City Mayors. Com:

"The Mayor has also infuriated opponents on both sides of the political divide but is also known as a redoubtable champion of the city and is looking for re-election in 2006."

Where exactly was the city transit system Mr. Nagin?










May I remind you, there are repeated rumors of a "hurricane party" hosted by Mayor Ray Nagin. May I remind you that the N.H.C. head Max Mayfield had to personally call Nagin, at midnight, to convince the man to call for a mandatory evacuation, just one day prior to the expected landfall of a Cat. 5 hurricane. May I remind you that the city's transportation system was entirely absent in trying to help evacuate the people of New Orleans.

As I sit and Ponder

So, what, if any, significance happened today? Can't think of anything. Iran is still making threats, Europe is pretending to do something about it, more and more protests are arising out of the ashes, and what does Europe do? Continues to talk about integration. Now I know that the protests in Europe right now aren't the same type of protests that occured in Paris for fifteen straight days, and then they did it on New Years for the hell of it. No, these continue to be much more milder.

But now there's been some issues concerned about whether these cartoons stretch the line. On the one hand, you have CNN saying that the protestors are merely demonstrators protesting what they believe to be the desecration of one of their prophets. CNN would be claiming this even after one or more of their regional offices are razed to the ground. But would you expect the same response from CNN if the Religious Right in this country (for which I am a proud member of) burned down their regional offices after such blatant attacks on Christianity?

You don't see Christians out in full force protesting the use of Kanye Jesus now do you? Granted I find it utterly disrespectful, but I'm not going to be out there burning down CNN offices all over the country. But look at abortion clinics and the attacks throughout history that they've come under. They call the people "religious fanatics" and "insane" and probably even "heartless." Heartless and insane for saving the lives of unborn children sacrificed for the sake of the mother's convenience. Damn this heartless b&*t#$d. I don't agree with illegal means of trying to ban abortion, I believe that we should be trying to do everything in the law to end this (though Abortion isn't law).

To the Islamic World, get over it. To Europe, grow up and realize that your ideals of "integration", are stupid. And to the World, get ready and bunker down because the past two decades since our beloved nobel peace prize winner Carter's failure to bring down the Iranian theocracy causes us a bunch of trouble. To the leftist, treehugging, pacifists, go to the Amazon, you're needed there. Maybe you'll survive and the rest of us won't...wait, wait...no...you won't. Human nature will kick in and you'll find out just how vicious the game of politics truly is.

Address to the DUmmies

So the game went off without a hitch, no terrorist attack, much to the chagrin of the far-left wackos over at Democratic Underground. Sure, they said that they don't want a terrorist attack, but their beliefs (they think Bush plotted, conspired, and planned) Sept. 11 as an excuse for going to war with Iraq. Now for the ultimate voice of reason, and to any DUmmies trolling on my blog, yes beware, I know you're out there, "WTF?!?!?!" First off, Bush invaded Afghanistan, totally different country with very limited oil supplies (thereby not justifying your theory of his War On Terror as a guise for Oil), almost bankrupt (and quite potentially, IS BANKRUPT!), so where the hell did you get that?

All of this MIHOP/LIHOP sounds like a crock of crap to attack the President for the sake of attaking the president. Where's your evidence? I'm not talking about some peon in the FBI evidence, I'm talking solid hard-core information. Just listening to others like you makes it true? Hello, have you seen the Al-Qaeda videos, Osama admitted to it. And if you want to get technical, are you saying that Bush has planned attacks before 9/11? Are you suggesting that Bush planned the U.S.S. Cole bombing, perhaps the embassy bombings back in '98 when Al-Qaeda first formed? You implicated Bush in the so-called Carlyle Group, yet immediately quieted once it was revealed by conservative bloggers like me that George Soros, patron billionaire-saint of the Democratic National Committee, was a member.

But at least we get to laugh at your crazy, delusional statements. Blogs like PJ's DUmmie Funnies are great for kicks and laughs, and the stupid things you say are forever immortalized on his blog. If I knew how to put a permanent link to his blog on mine, It would most definitely be there. We enjoy the antics of BenBurch, Arlene Martinez (penname flygal??), Pied Piper Pitt, Pied Piper Pitt's temporary sockpuppet.

We enjoy those things deeply. We also wonder when the gestapo is going to haul "true-and-noble-Paul-Revere" Piper off to jail for statutory rape.

Oh what a Saturday

A few embassies came under attack after the violent streak following the cartoons depicting Mohammed as a murderous tyrant wearing a hat looking suspiciously like a bomb. Both Denmark and Norway were quick to pull their people out, a smart choice for what is going on. Europe continuously does not get it, that these Moslems don't care about the culture of the lands they are in.

These photos being borrowed from Yahoo! News (and some images also borrowed from Michelle Malkin's blog- which came from Yahoo news)

This photo, of Islamic protesters in Europe, does nothing to aide your comfort. When people like Jacque Chirac talk about integration and freedom, what's to be done about it when the people you are trying to get to integrate with you clearly don't want that freedom?

IAEA refers to the Security Council

Things aren't looking to good for Iran right now. With a deadline to halt WMD creation by March from Israel, and the U.N. thinking about convening a summit to discuss the issues going on in Iran, things just look grim. In a few short days Iran may get a letter from the UN talking about how angry they are and that Iran should stop at once. We all know how effective that will be, not very.

As the UN gets its collective conscience, and the powers of Western Europe realize that Iran doesn't mind wiping out Anglo-saxon civilization, with the closing deadline by Israel to give up Iran's nuclear ambitions, and the growing forces mounting against Islam, specifically against Denmark and Norway, are things coming down to a showdown (militarily of course)?

Now I'm off again to study Anatomy, till next time.

The Case for Iran

Iran is a continuing threat for the governments of this planet. Some like to pretend that it isn't, and some like to live in naivete. Some prefer to say so what? They don't want to get into another war, after troubling issues facing Iraq, and so are content to let Iran get the bomb. They don't mind the nation of state-sponsored terrorism getting the bomb so as to make sure they don't have to go to war.

So then they harrass the people in charge for not protecting them. It is the classic signs of the left over hippie era. Eric Cartmen may be a little turd, as well as rude. Though those that watch South Park can't help but laugh still at his antics. But at least he doesn't like hippies. Dirty, disgusting, they turn nice towns into trashvilles and potvilles. Go to Woodstock, NY, and see what the hippies have done. No thank you, I'll stay with good ole' Conservative Florida. Where I know that if someone threatens my life, I can defend myself.

Anyways, Iran is a menace. Ahmanijehad has said he will not rest until "anglo-saxon civilization is wiped from the face of this Earth." And people don't want to defend themselves against this guy???? Geeze, what happened to standing up for one's self?

Anyways, see ya later...got's to sleep and study for anatomy.