crusty ol laptops vs Droid

My Apple iBook G4 is dead tech. It has almost always functioned perfectly and continues to do so. However, I ask less and less of it as time goes on. It has a PowerPC processor which cuts it off from being able to play a lot of streaming media (such as Netflix) and OS X is no longer being updated for it. It's a dead platform. It's no longer being supported and its weak graphical capabilities are beginning to flag under the weight of today's graphics-rich computing experience. It's done its job admirably for around 6 years and I'm thankful for that. But there's part of me that desires to smash it to pieces on the ground. I'm done with it. I wants a sweet new computer.

Speaking of dead tech, I'm typing this on my trusty old Toshiba Satellite. This tank is even older than my iBook. It has better stickers on it, though. Plus, it's able to stream Netflix. It also has Office, which the iBook lacks. The more time I spend in my electronics classes the more I feel that I'm much better off with a Microsoft-based computer. I also took a Cisco class and its online curriculum was much better suited and tailored for Windows.

The iBook is my music center. Almost all of our music is on there and I often use it for Last.fm, MySpace music, and Pandora. The Toshiba is where I get things done.

Battling the laptops for computer time is my Droid. I use it more than I use the laptops. It does everything they do and almost always does it just as well. Sometimes the system lags a little and sometimes there's network lag but such occurrences are not often and the Droid is ridiculously convenient. It does everything I need a computer to do except that I wouldn't use it to compose anything longer than a text message or short email, but even that's changing. I recently downloaded Swype and it's been great.

To sum up: iBook is a jukebox, Toshiba is for typing and Electronics Workbench, and Droid is for everything else.

Happy New Year

Squirrel Chronicles 1

A white squirrel stands in the middle of a large square of bright green grass and ponders the nearest route to a tree where he can more peacefully enjoy a tasty nut he'd found. He springs and leaps in bounds across the man-made lawn and makes for a nearby magnolia. Quickly he clambers up its comfort-giving sides and swiftly climbs higher than the house roofs. He scampers out onto a thick, swaying limb and sets upon his nut with a fervor. There is a warm wind blowing and the sun is beaming in a blinding blue sky. The white squirrel blinks his brown eyes and licks his paws in satisfaction. He ate the nut so fast he hardly knew it was there.

A commotion below draws his attention. There's a clamor coming from the house nearby. Metal is clanging and then there is a sound that draws his attention like nothing he's heard before. It sounds like Squirrel and if it is it means there's a squirrel in the house. The squirrel cautiously makes his way down the tree to satisfy his curiosity.

He peers into the house from the safety of the magnolia trunk and sees a creature as intriguing as the sound he'd heard. It looks like a squirrel but is bigger and fatter and only has a silly little nub of a tail. The strange brown creature is standing on two legs and looking around the room.

The squirrel oh-so-slowly inches its way lower on the trunk to get closer to the house and the strange creature within. The squirrel and the strange creature lock beady eyes, and the strange creature calls out in a strange accent, “Hello, Mr. Squirrel!"