VIRB

Lately our computer has been running a little slow. It's almost 4 years old and when I get 3 or 4 programs open, it really bogs down. I added some RAM about a year ago, but it would cost a couple hundred dollars to get more. Plus they've added so many standard features to the new iMacs it's ridiculous. Any iMac now comes standard with an iSight camera built in, a Dual layer DVD burner, built in Bluetooth, built in WiFi, a remote control, iLife software, and so much more than our old 17" iMac. I bumped up to the 24" which is lightning fast (and ridiculously ginormous). We went from a 1.6 GHz Power PC to a 2.8 GHz Dual Core Intel. We went from an L2 Cache of 512 KB to a 6 MB L2 Cache - That's 12 times the L2 Cache - I can have every program on this computer running and not have it slow down. It's insane. We have twice as much RAM, but the new computers RAM runs at twice the speed of the old RAM. Plus still have our old iMac so Krystal can use it if I'm on this one. I spend more time on the computer bidding jobs, entering receipts, working on marketing, looking up material costs, ect. Which is also why I have more programs open at once these days.

And I want to add that when it comes to an Apple computer, when you display the processor speed, that really is the processor speed. I know people with Gateway or Dell computers who think their computer is great because it has a 3.2 GHz processor or higher. The problem is that those companies put in a fast processor so people will see it and go, "wow that's fast, and it's only $600." But then they fill the rest of the computer with the cheapest wholesale materials they can find. So even though that processor technically has the ability to run at 3.2 GHz, it's never going to inside that computer. The reason I paid $2000 for my computer when other people go, "I paid $599 for my "fully loaded" Dell or Gateway or whatever", is because that extra money actually goes toward higher quality parts that work well together. Any person who builds custom computers will tell you that some components work better together and for $600 your getting just any cheap part thrown into your desktop tower. The phrase, "you get what you paid for", is really true here. Plus, in the almost 4 years I had my old iMac, I had one problem, it wasn't under warranty, Apple fixed it for free anyway and that's it. I've never sat on the phone with tech support. I've never had to figure out how to make some annoying pop up window "missing DLL files" go away. I've never had a virus. I've never installed virus protection or pop up blockers or any of that crap.

I'm not arguing that Macs are better than PCs. If you get a custom PC built by someone who knows what will work best together you'll be much better off (and the 17 year old kid in the sales department of the Dell customer service line doesn't count). I'm saying all the people who think they're getting a great deal from all those mass PC marketers (Dell, Gateway, HP, ect) really aren't. You're being told the maximum stats for the individual components when those cheap Best Buy computers are configured to never run at their full capacity.

Anyway, enough about that tangent.

Sunday we saw The Dark Knight. It was long. Heath Ledger was an alright Joker. I think people are going a little overboard with the Oscar talk. I find it silly that when an actor or musician dies, we instantly rave about their final performance and give them awards just because they died. I mean, from the trailer, I thought he wasn't going to make a good Joker at all, but he was alright, not spectacular. There's probably someone out there who could have pulled it off better. But he died so we can't say anything bad about his performance. I liked Batman Begins a little more. The storyline was a little more straightforward and The Dark Knight was kind of all over the place, but definitely worth seeing.