oskidoc's Profile

This begs the question: is there a minimum age to being a "switcher"? For example: the kindergartener uses a PC, then in first grade a Mac - is she a switcher? Or rather is she just grateful for the circumstances? Perhaps the question: if your parents make the decision to switch for you, are you really the "switcher," or are you switcher by surrogate? Regarding the color of our skin and the faith we follow, we for some part say "thanks mom" until teen angst and rebellion carve a niche of independence. So thanks for the article - I hope you define for yourself meaning in your Mac experience and other more weighty life endeavors separate from that of your parents. Cheers!

I use DVORAK, started as a curiosity then became much easier to use than switch from qwerty to dvorak and back. It's fun, it's debatably more efficient, but then again I'm also a long-time piano player so training fingers is nothing new. Getting a SOCIETY to adopt a new input - whether DVORAK or a form of telepathy of sentences directly onto the screen or somewhere inbetween - is a monumental task, especially when you're providing <5% of the hardware. Think of all of the primary and secondary school typing classes. Joe Secretary isn't going to re-train. But it's reasonably possible that one could type onto a virtual keyboard (as originally suggested by the post), perhaps efficiently. The only way I see to do it is to reflect a GHOST keyboard onto the actual display screen and show the keys on which the fingers are resting - this provides the necessary reference for those who type with muscle memory (not so much typing by touch but typing with precise muscle memory) so that one can get instant visual feedback rather than have to look up at the screen, down at the keyboard, up at the screen.... hunt and peck "typists" will always remain so.

I'm probably a small segment that Apple doesn't care about. I bought 2 or 3 years ago a Cinuglar Siemens SX-66, basically a phone and pocket PC in one. Thought I had nirvana. The phone part never really worked well, so now I use a RAZR. It still works as a PDA, but it's a full PDA on which I use 3rd party software for my job (I'm my own tech support, though). So Apple on this superphone-ipod-videothing has these widgets and contacts and notes, great - it lays a claim to becoming a PDA - but a bit limited. I really like my PDA not because it runs Windows Mobile, but because it runs the drug reference and medical knowledge apps that free me from carrying 4 little books around. Think some developer is going to make those apps for OSX just because it's mobile? This will be a KILLER device when it seamlessly runs Windows apps just as Leopard is maybe supposed to depending on what you believe..... Ah, yes....Apple will have nirvana when it makes the segregation of the OS obsolete by running M$ apps. Not yet. Can't I dream?

One more vote for refurb: I bought my intel iMac, 20" 2GHz core duo in May this year - only difference I can tell was the brown cardboard "refurbished" box rather than the slick packaging. Saved at least $300. Oh yeah, I'm a switcher, and the refurb was a great economic incentive to switch.