Katia II: MacBook Pro Arrives Today

Posted November 29, 2006, 8:47 p.m.

On Friday of last week, recovering from all the Thanksgiving eating, Melissa and I placed an order for a new Apple MacBook Pro (15″). This is part of our master computer refresh plan, by which I get a new cutting-edge Intel-based Mac for my regular use (and cross-platform testing), while Melissa gets my current PowerBook G4 1.67ghz (15″) with which to run all her PPC-only art software.

This way, we both have up-to-date machines that meet our needs, and Melissa has the next couple of years (at least) to upgrade her art software to Intel/PPC cross compatible products before she makes the Intel switch later on.

Regardless, I’ve been tracking my MacBook Pro as it comes from Shanghai. It arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, yesterday, and somehow made a cross-country jaunt to the DC area in less than 24 hours for delivery today. Ah, blessed FedEx. So tonight I’ll begin my migration and play with my new 2.16ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gb DDR2 RAM, 200gb hard drive beauty. When I’m done setting up, I’ll have everything I have on my current PowerBook, plus all kinds of neat stuff that I can only do with the Intel machines (like run Mac OS native, plus Windows and Linux in a virtualizer all at near-native speeds). It’s a nerd’s paradise.

And it’ll make it much quicker/easier to test things—like Off on a Tangent, primarily—on all the major operating systems (plus a few non-major ones, just for fun . . . BeOS and OS/2 Warp, anyone?).

So, what I’m getting at, is don’t expect any major work on the site over the next few days. I’ll be distracted. (Not that the site has seen any major updates in the last month or so anyway. I’m in a slacker mood.)

Later!

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

The greatest intellectual discovery of this generation is that the real cause of problems is solutions.

I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!

I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of its conception; even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.

Watering down or burying biblical truth on sexuality for the sake of keeping Millennials won’t work. Mainline Protestant churches have tried this strategy, and they remain in demographic collapse.

If all mankind needed was a teacher, man would long ago have been holy, for he has had teachers from the Indian sages up to this very hour.

International trade is not a zero-sum contest. Both sides must gain or it would make no sense to continue trading.

The political correctness that inhibits cultural comparisons may be as great a danger as secret police in the long run, effectively silencing any defense of the West.

Whatever we worship, short of God, is sure to be our undoing.

Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Christian morality and God’s law are not arbitrary, but are specifically given to us for our happiness.

In so far as religion is gone, reason is going. For they are both of the same primary and authoritative kind. They are both methods of proof which cannot themselves be proved.

It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind brings happiness.

Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man’s possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had power.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.

The French codes are often difficult of comprehension, but they can be read by every one; nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.

With insufficient data it is easy to go wrong.

I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million [Russians], I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God . . . ’

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischief-maker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God.

No matter how brilliantly an idea is stated, we will not really be moved unless we have already half thought of it ourselves.