Don & Christi's 6 x 10 Cargo Conversion

[d30gaijin]

Don , Santa gave the AirBook to herself (for her business) !!! I got the old I book ... Still working fine , never a problem after many years ... ( I did have to replace the battery ...once )
I tried a few PCs .... grrrrrrr!!!!! always something breaking/crashing /disappearing ... In the long run , turned out more expensive than the Mac... GRRRR!!!! Guess it's OK if you're a puter' tech ...

Sent from my Mini Mac ...

All my outdoor projects are shut down too .... cold and rainy ... for many weeks now ... just no white stuff ... TG !!! Can't wait for Spring ... the project list just keeps growing...

GPW,

I never knew what I was missing until I got the Macbook. Start-up time is amazing. I press the power button on and it is ready to use in 15-20 seconds. With my Windows based PC's it could take up to five minutes (worst case) to start up or shut down (not usually that long but definitely in the 3 to 4 minute range), and sometimes it simply would not shutdown so had to do the pull the plug and drop the battery thing to get it to shut down and, of course, suffer the start-up consequences of that type of shutdown.

I thought the learning curve from PC to Mac might be steep but it isn't at all. Yes, things are different but the Mac is very intuitive and user friendly. I usually have the most problems with learning a new photo editing program (since none of them are FastStone) but iPhoto is fairly simple to figure out and actually quite powerful for an included software photo editor... and it can be easily improved by the addition of Pixelmator, a third party program that was designed specifically and only for the OS X operating system. It is very user friendly and powerful photo editing program, very similar to Adobe Photo Shop 5 at a fraction of the cost (I'm on a 30 day trail but for $59 will most likely buy the license). I find it much more user friendly than the $199 Apple Aperture 3... but then again I don't need a boat load of power in a photo processing program because I am from 35mm film days so do my best to get an initial capture image that is of correct exposure, contrast, focus, background, etc.

Again, I don't want to do a Mac is better than PC thing because there are things I like about my PC past experience and some of the programs available that are not available for the Mac, but overall there are more things I am coming to like about the Mac as I become more familiar with it. In other words, I have no major regrets making the change, and the few minor regrets I have, well I am dealing with them quite handily.

Don

[GPW]

Don. I've been a Mac guy all along , because my Father in law (Rip) Gave me his old ones ... starting with the first Mac , which was not more than an electric typewriter... When I tried PCs , I had all kinds of troubles... eventually gave up on them ...

The wife LOVES her new Airbook , and I get to use it a bit too ... I was amazed how THIN it was ... Not much there and it starts up in a few seconds ... The only thing it doesn't have is a disk player/burner... No problem for the wife (business) , and I have the other two Macs with the disk devices , which I use for the "band " recording /disk making...

[MegC]

Macs have an awesome track record for reliability. Part of it is the OS, which as I understand (vaguely) is built around a modded FreeBSD kernel. Of course the other part is the hardware, which is what makes them more expensive. I guess you have to pay for quality though.

[d30gaijin]

Don. I've been a Mac guy all along , because my Father in law (Rip) Gave me his old ones ... starting with the first Mac , which was not more than an electric typewriter... When I tried PCs , I had all kinds of troubles... eventually gave up on them ...

The wife LOVES her new Airbook , and I get to use it a bit too ... I was amazed how THIN it was ... Not much there and it starts up in a few seconds ... The only thing it doesn't have is a disk player/burner... No problem for the wife (business) , and I have the other two Macs with the disk devices , which I use for the "band " recording /disk making...

GPW,

I was in the Apple Store the other day and got to play with the Airbook. What a little beauty it is. It's hard to believe they can make a computer with that much power in such a thin package.

Don

[GPW]

Don , I was impressed too ... that and I knew I'd get her old I book , which is fine for my humble needs ...
Measured it last night .... 12 seconds from hitting the on button , and it was up and ready ... Gotta' do something while waiting for the weather to get better ... I've been cleaning my Studio/garage , so I can start the Foamie TD build ... The Mini CT is living outside , happily, waiting for the conversion .. Gonna' be a busy year , once things warm up a bit ...

[myoung]

Just for the record, the latest gem from Apple is the MacBook Air, not an Airbook.

The MacBook Air quite clearly points toward the future of laptop computers in that it combines power and features from both the Mac OS- and iOS-based computers, the MacBook Pro and the iPad.

Have a look at the reports from CES this week and notice how frantically (and feebly) the other pretenders are trying to catch up with the past. Apple is so much more innovative and obsessive about quality that the distance between their products and whatever might take the number two spot is huge.

Don't settle for second place when number one is within your grasp. The lines in Apple stores are long but manageable and rewarding.

[GPW]

Thanks MY ... we stand corrected ... No matter , I still LOVE my Macs!!! ... and her Mac..

[d30gaijin]

Just for the record, the latest gem from Apple is the MacBook Air, not an Airbook.

I noted that too but didn't feel the need to point it out, but since you have... well we're now all on the up and up.

Don

[GPW]

Don, did you get that folding upper bunk worked out ??? What worked best for you ?

[d30gaijin]

Don, did you get that folding upper bunk worked out ??? What worked best for you ?

GPW,

Not yet. Too darn cold and snowy out to work on the CT, : but I have the design worked out in my head based on your previous input. I guess I should go to Home Depot and buy the materials to have on hand for when the weather warms up a bit which, in Idaho, could be any day now or three months from now. Here in Idaho every thing is frozen... not to be confused with the Bob Dylan song, "Everything is Broken" but I fear were I to go out and try to do some work on the CT it would be my frozen fingers that would be broken.

New Years Eve day we went out birding to a place Called Wilson Pond about 40 miles from our house. The high temp for the day was 20 (coldest day of the year) but we were out roaming around while it was between 14 and 18 degrees out, and we were out most of the day. No good pics to show because my Canon EOS 5D and 400mm f/5.6L lens didn't want to cooperate in those temps. Still, we got out (we were getting cabin fever) and everything was going well (the cold wasn't really bothering us physically) until we drove back into town to get lunch. After eating lunch the cold really got to me (guess it is a case of more blood going to the digestive tract rather than the rest of my body... if there is any truth to that, although that was the first thing that came to mind), I just never felt warm after that so we packed it in about 3:00PM and headed for the warmth of home. Still, it was nice to get out for the day (at least it was sunny... well, very cold and sunny).

Don

[GPW]

Not much better here .... Cold and Raining !!! Guessing we'll have lots to do come warm weather ...

[d30gaijin]

Not much better here .... Cold and Raining !!! Guessing we'll have lots to do come warm weather ...

GPW,

I thought you lived in Louisiana, home to the south and nearly the hottest highest humidity place in the US of A? How cold can it get down there? I mean, Got snow? It hasn't been above freezing here in the last month, and that is day time highs, not night time lows, the latter I won't mention but zeros to teens come to mind.

Hang in there old buddy, the best is still to come. It will get warm again and we will be building and working on our CT's, but best of all, getting out to use them for the purpose we built them for. In the mean time, curl up with a good book, a favorite TV program, or an inviting movie. We'll sit out a few months and be back in the saddle again.

Don

[mezmo]

The problem with "southern cold" is, that due to the high humidity,
it feels like you're submerged in ice water and can't get out.

I've seen 50 degree days here in SC where it seems impossible to
get warm if you are outside.

I'm a Yankee from the snow belts of WNY State, now in SC, so I've
experienced both dry and wet winter temps. The wet temps definitely
feel worse!

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[GPW]

Wet Cold ... True Dat !!! Just Nasty!!! ... 40F here now ... and rainy , 90% Humidity ,which feels like 35F, not counting the wind chill factor .. Long unusually cold winter , for us... Brrrr!!! No snow , still COLD !!! Looking forward to building weather !!!!!
Now Humidity does have the reverse effect in summer , it makes you feel hotter ...

[d30gaijin]

Mezmo/GPW,

Actually I know exactly what you're talking about with regards to cold and humidity. While I have lived in Idaho for the past 30 years, a high desert climate, the humidity is very low year round. Be that as it may, I was born and raised in Napa, California, about 45 minutes northeast of San Francisco. After acclimating to the high desert heat and cold here in Idaho we made a trip back to Napa because both the wife and I have family there. It rarely, if ever, snows there but it is a lot more humid than Boise, certainly nothing like LA. or SC. but a lot more humid than Boise. I recall one early spring trip back to Napa when it was maybe 35 degrees out but we froze our collective butts off. I have been outside at my telescope here in Boise at night in 25 below zero temps and didn't feel as cold as that early spring in Napa. The humid cold just went right to the bone in no time. I have been to SC in the spring, summer, and fall and LA in the summer and early fall and know what kind of humidity you folks see so, even having never been to either in the winter I think I get a feel for how cold your winters would feel.

Hang in there guys!

Don