Jay McGavren's Journal

Why is it I waited to get a Mac until I hardly even care what OS I’m on? I had Spotlight replicated via Enso. (Enso’s actually better, since it’s quasimodal.) I had a decent equivalent to the BSD core via Cygwin. (Though I’ll now be able to compile some Ruby extensions that I couldn’t on Windows.) Console2 is an excellent alternative to Terminal. I had Textmate covered via E - Texteditor. (Er, wait, that’s not really a satisfactory substitute at this point.)

Well, I had to fight tooth and nail to get those Windows equivalents working properly, and the seams are still showing. The Mac versions work right out of the box, and seem to work marginally better. I hate everything when I first start using it, but I’ve already had some “Hmm, that’s well-designed” moments with OSX. It’s definitely not the panacea I was hoping for, but I think it’s going to grow on me.

Just ordered a MacBook...

I’ve been talking about it for over a year, and I finally ordered a MacBook. ($1000 refurbished by Apple, Intel Dual Core, 2GB RAM.)

I made myself wait a week first, but pretty much everyone at work owns one and brings it in to the shop, so I could finally stand it no longer. These guys code with a fleet-fingered ease that I’ll only be able to match if I can practice at home.

Spotlight on OSX...

Sweet!

Command-space, "firefox", Enter
Command-space, "textmate", Enter
Command-space, "firef", Enter
Command-space, "term", Enter

Totally think-free. I’m not missing Enso nearly as much now (especially since Spotlight doesn’t care if the app was already open or not).

Time to see if there’s room in the budget for that $850 refurb MacBook…

Day 2 at Integrum. I’d have posted before now, but I haven’t really had time. The evening was spent setting up my various accounts (they use web apps for everything) and hanging out with Diana. (Jeremy has the cold that won’t go away, and it’s stressing her out a lot.)

I think this place is gonna be a good fit. Gamers everywhere, and they have similar ideas about development practices. Learning the ropes is gonna take a little time (whatever you might expect, OSX and TextMate aren’t an easy transition), but I’ll get the hang of it. I’ll be a Mac snob in no time. More details as I have time to post ‘em…

SMSed a bunch of people to get out and vote; a bunch have already responded that they’re done.

I hear poll lines are huge in Phoenix; Mesa’s less so. Moot point for Diana and I, as we’re signed up to get ballots by mail. (Arizonans can request that service here.)