Lynn Schirmer

Exception to that rule:  My new drawing, which I believe is about on the same level as the rest of the work I’ve been doing lately and to me, that’s exciting.  The rest of this post pertains to consumer electronic products, which in this economic system, seem to be following the post title trend to various degrees.

I’m typing this on my new IMac.  I’m not completely new to macs, I’ve used a G4 powerbook to practice on for over a year.  Right now however, I’m trying not to get my fingers stuck on this very flat IMac keyboard.

I’ve had the new machine for months, but have taken sweet time to let go of my Windows pc and officially cross over for daily work. It’s not easy to completely re-automate all your work processes.  One issue about the Mac OS that confounds me is switching between open applications and windows.  I’ve just begun playing with Expose and Spaces, and it shouldn’t be that hard.  I want a simple bar or thumbnail box showing all my open windows that I can click on to switch.  I only want to have to click once, is that so difficult?  I’m not fan of keyboard shortcuts.

(On edit here, making progress with Expose, and a third party utility to help switch, open, and quit apps. Now challenged with hiding the desktop behind Photoshop.)

There are other minor issues, only 3 USB ports and they’re in the back.  Why in this day and age are in they in the back?  I love how Apple cares about the aesthetic quality of their machines, that is important to me, but looking good at the expence of functionality, nope, that fails the test. Neither Mac has crashed however, something I can’t say for my Windows machine which  crashed on average once every couple of weeks with one issue or another.

I’m still getting used to the 20″ LCD screen.  In places the colors are too brilliant, from the side of course, the display is useless. I’ve tried adjusting the brightness as looking at the large screen has been tough on my eyes. I miss my CRT, now lonely, staring at me from its new corner.  Both monitors need serious calibration.

I got a new phone too.  I had to switch carriers.  The new phone isn’t as pretty, is more difficult to operate, and doesn’t have as many features.  New doesn’t mean better, it usually means more money for someone, no need to explain that, although I am paying $30 less per month on my bill.