MetaCatholic

I know it’s rude to make fun of other people’s names, but now that first John Hobbins has praised the ISV translation for having the perspicacity to invite him to review it, and Lingamish has asked the vital question “Why does the so-called International Standard Version of the Bible not have any Internationals translating it?” my attention has been drawn to this hitherto unknown to me project.

Sadly for me, the first thing that struck me was the list of contributing scholars. Is there really a Bible translator called Mona Bias? (maybe that doesn’t sound as funny without an English accent!) I haven’t had as much pleasure from an appropriate name since I discovered The Graeco-Roman Contexts of Early Christian Literature was written by a bloke called Roman Garrison.

written by doug

My computers (desktop and laptop) are in serious need of replacement. My wallet, however, is in conflict with my needs, which is why the needs are now dire. In the next two or three months I will have to bite the bullet and start replacing them. One of the questions I am seriously considering is whether to go for a Mac (or indeed two) rather than a Windows machine. I thought I would post my reflections sporadically here for two reasons:

1. Some kind people out there might be good enough to give me some advice (and I know there are some readers who have Macs). Equally, while I hope comment advice will be forthcoming, I’m going to ask any commenter to avoid spelling Microsoft with a dollar sign or Windows with a “doze”.
2. As I’ve started looking on the web for advice, most sites purporting to offer it are from people who have become Apple evangelists in their switching and have all the zeal of a convert — and as always, it’s not necessarily appealing to the unconverted. It seemed to me that if I blogged my thinking while I was doing it, someone else in their turn might find this helpful, whatever decision I come to.

I did once consider the Mac question before and on that occasion decided pretty quickly not to buy, as much on grounds of cost and software availability as anything else. I admit to generally having always liked their design and simplicity since I first played on a friend’s in 1985, but I was often put off by either what I saw as the company’s litigiousness (e.g  pouring dollars and time in to trying to stop others using windows and mice), the fanboy zeal, or Steve Jobs’ control freak mentality. But the two major obstacles to my  choosing a Mac at that time, both look somewhat different now.

Cost is far less of an issue. It’s true that you can’t buy a cheap Mac. But, at least in the consumer range, prices are roughly comparable for the quantity and quality of what you get. (I’m not at all sure the Pro range isn’t still seriously overpriced.) Macs have become competitors in the PC market rather than a niche product for designers.

Back then, as well, to make the change I would have had to change all of my software at the same time that I changed my hardware, and that would have been really hard and expensive to do. Now it is possible for me to run all my existing software, and make such changes as and when I feel ready to. One of the great advantages of Macs currently is that they are the only machines which can run software written for OS X and/or Windows.

So the choice is a real one, but it’s not the only one. Other things I have to consider are a) a mixed economy with, say, a Windows desktop, and a MacBook networked and b) a notebook only solution, with docking station. I don’t, initially, find either of those particularly attractive options. The former introduces potential complications I don’t really need, and additional software expenses. The latter concerns me about not having a back-up machine if one goes off for repair, and I’m also concerned that laptops still aren’t up to it in terms of cooling and battery life, or in having slower and smaller hard-drives, and less capable video cards.

Anywhere, bear with me. I hope for some good advice in the comments, as well as being able to help others looking at similar decisions. Next post coming soon. Once I’ve got a few up, I’ll index them on a separate and static page. And, hey, I’ve managed a whole post without once discussing the merits of the respective OSes.

written by doug