grumble grumble I’m still not feeling well. I have energy but just can’t shake my cough. But after six visits to the chiropractor now and a few more in the next month my headaches seem to be on the way out. I’ll be happy to be able to clear “get terrible headache” off my nightly calendar.
Katherine got a magical little 12″ PowerBook G4 this weekend. We haven’t named it yet.
After using the wonderful machine for a few days I’ve been thinking about its design versus that of the iBook. Really they aren’t much different on the outside besides being made of different materials. I can’t even say that I like the PowerBook’s look a lot more than the iBook’s, except that it’s more, well, polished. The PowerBook’s speakers are mounted on the back of the lower frame so that the sound bounces off the screen toward you. It works well and helps match up the sound to its image. The slot-loading CD-R/DVD drive is really cool. People have been complaining that the computer gets too hot, especially on the left side. This is true to an extent, but really it’s just weird because the computer makes almost no noise whatsoever if you’re not using a CD. If it were making noise somehow my mind would connect that it’s actually doing something to make it heat up. As it is it’s exothermic like a living thing.
I’ve been thinking about why Apple still refuses to include two-button mouses with their computers. Every program supports the two-button mouse, so if you plug one in it’ll work just fine, but you have to buy it seperatly. (Incidentally, I’m a strong pusher of Microsoft’s collection of optical mouses. I honestly think they may be the best thing they make.) I understand Apple’s argument for simplicity, and really there aren’t that many things that can be done via right-clicking that can’t be done through keyboard shortcuts or modifier keys. I would really like to see how they’d design two buttons on a laptop. They way PCs do it isn’t quite right, because you usually use the mouse with your right hand but most of your clicks are left-clicks, so you always have to avoid the right button while clicking. The current way Apple does it is by having right-clicks be control-clocks, so you can use your left hand to press control while using your right to press the mouse button, and that works very well. I think in that way the trackpad/mouse button and the conventional mouse aren’t the same thing at all.