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> As I prepared to update my system, my brother-in-law/computer guy asked me
> what my old machine wouldn't do that I needed on my new machine. With a
> sheepish grin, I replied, "Ah, nothing." I still have my eight year old
> 286, and it still turns out good work.
Well, I just bought a Macintosh Performa 635CD for home, mostly for freelance
work that I do evenings and weekends. All credit and it will take me a while
to pay it off, but I think it's well worth it. I also bought a 600 dpi
LaserPrinter. At work I use a Mac IIsi (when I can't do my work on an Xterm)
and it's so unbearably slow for anything more complex than a thank-you note
that I've taken to doing my real work at home. Sure the IIsi will *do*
everything that my Performa will, but my Performa doesn't keep me waiting. I
don't have to watch the Performa redraw the screen a line a time. When I try
to run PageMaker on the IIsi (with 16MB RAM), I end up pounding my fist (and
sometimes my head) on my desk in frustration.
Even if the Performa does something only incrementally faster than the IIsi,
all those increments add up and make my time at the computer much more
productive and enjoyable. I'm more inclined to do the extra step to polish
up a document, because I've already saved time and I know that the extra step
won't take forever. It's a real joy to be able to do the things you want to
do at the pace you are capable of doing them, rather than at the snail's pace
that that older, slower processor is willing to let you do them. No, I say
buy something a little better than you think you can afford and you'll be
glad you did.
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Matt Hicks, Tech. Writer, Unidata * I may not agree with what you
Boulder, CO, (303)497-8676, ******* say, but I'll defend to the
matt -at- unidata -dot- ucar -dot- edu ************* death my right to mock you.
