racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

According to my NetStat widget, my PowerBook has been online for 28 days, 6 hours and 13 minutes. And since that time, the notebook had been running without a hitch–perhaps save for some mishaps that caused Firefox to freeze up and require a restart (sometimes happens to such a memory hog like Firefox).

Meanwhile, my Windows-powered Compaq Presario has likewise been running for approximately that same duration. And I occasionally experience losing my wireless connection, and I sometimes get “virtual memory low” messages.

Of course, I don’t really have my laptops running powered on all the time. With the Mac, I close the lid and keep it in a _sleep_ state. With the PC, I use _hibernate_. This way, I get to save on power and extend my computers’ lifetimes, without having to lose the state I’ve been in. Yes, sometimes I get back to a cluttered desktop, but hey, at least I don’t lose track.

Why do I hate Windows?

I don’t hate Windows _per se_. I know XP is a solid operating system (as solid as Swiss cheese!). But with OS X I seem to be able to do my work more efficiently. I feel more productive on the Mac than on the PC. This is simply because I don’t have to deal with the minor annoyances that usually come with running Windows, like:

* Antivirus programs popping up notifying me of updates.
* Antivirus programs suddenly running full tests in the background while I’m doing some _important_ processor-intensive stuff (like copy CDs into my iTunes library!).
* Lag times due to the system accessing virtual memory.
* It takes an eternity to go into _hibernate_ mode. It takes an even longer time to wake up from _hibernate_state.
* It also takes forever to go to and wake up from _standby_ mode.
* Some other stuff I can hardly remember but does happen.

Something tells me all my issues with Windows lie with the memory management. And to think my old PowerBook is still running on a G3 and has about 50% less system RAM than my Presario.

Sigh.

OSX86?

That’s why I wanted to install OS X 86 on my Presario–somewhere along the way, I felt it too tedious to have to backup all my important files (lotsa MP3s), resize the partition and install X 86. Oh, wait, I think I’ve already done that, up to the point of resizing the partition using PartitionMagic and activating the second partition for booting. Only my OS X 86 installer did not push through with the installation. Lucky me!

I’ll try again next time.

Meanwhile, I think it’s time to do a restart on my PowerBook. It does help to run the system from a fresh start once in a while. And it’s mostly to clear the desktop of all the clutter so I can move on with whatever work I’m doing (I’m too lazy to individually close everything!).

Working on two laptops simultaneously with one having an extended display (guess which one)!

One for writing email and articles, one for blog feeds and IM chat windows, one for reference. Sweet!

Hey, I have designer friends with display set-ups that are even more kick-ass!

Now why do I need both Windows and Mac? That’s an interesting question.