MacBook is on the way

Yes, I’ve finally gone and done it… I’ve bought an Apple MacBook.

The deal was far too tempting and actually not as expensive as I once thought.


For just over £700 I’m getting:

• A White MacBook 2.2Gz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120Gb, 1GB etc..
• A 8Gb powder blue iPod Nano

The only reason why I got another iPod was because Apple have a special offer for University students — a £79 mail-in /online rebate when you buy a Nano. Then I got a further student discount to the Mac latop – just over £50.

Although, even after all these discounts and rebates I just about blew my entire term student loan forking out for the laptop. No food for me for a little while then.

Buying my MacBook got me thinking about Apple’s future as the main competitor to Microsoft (well, 7% market share is still competing… right…). News came yesterday of Apple’s impressive forth-quarter fiscal profits; Up nearly 100% from the same quarter last year. With increasing choice, more-than-tempting student offers, complete interoperability with Windows and Linux with BootCamp and sheer the style and sophistication that Apple’s products carry, it’s no wonder why they’ve had such a good year.

In contrast, Microsoft however have had a mixed year. They have just agreed to comply with the EU ruling with regards to monopolistic methods (after about 4 years and countless appeals later). Their new Vista OS has not made a dent in the percentage of use world-wide as server administrators refuse to deploy it over worries over security. The new version of the Zune media player (that noone actually owns) has failed to impress.

Are the tides starting to turn perhaps?

Back to the Stoneage

As I have moved back to Reading University for my second year, I have moved into a house nearby the Uni with three of my friends. The house is quite old, dusty and grotty but apart from that it’s really nice being in a place of your own, rather than in halls. Plus more sleep, as there are less drunk and rowdy students about at 3am!

To add insult to injury, we found after a good hour with Linux console and ndiswrapper that my newly bought off-the-shelf Wifi dongle, doesn’t easily work in Linux. Grrr! Windows, for now, it is!

As you could imagine, all of the above do not lead to a reliable internet connection as the following picture demonstrates:

I’ll hopefully soon get this sorted!