Top five things to do until your new MacBook Pro arrives...
 

Argh. I'm not known for patience. Especially since my first-gen MBP is having a number of issues, including the occasional total freeze (no KP, just a total freeze). They are going to replace basically every component in it, and estimated five days to repair. I would be out of business without it, so it's time to upgrade instead. But the 17" has been back-ordered for a while.

5. Don't use the internet. Otherwise you'll be checking 5 times an hour to see when the 17 inchers are ready to ship.

But, according to this the 17 inch C2D MBPs started shipping today...so you may not have to wait too long ;)

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4. Amuse yourself by making a list of politicians you would like to see become statesmen.
(A statesman is someone seen as "a skilled, experienced and respected political figure". In other words, with few exceptions, someone who is no longer in office…) :cool:

After you’ve filled a legal pad with names written in small script, you can get out a new one and make a similar list of bureaucrats you would like to see drafted into the Peace Corps or OxFam. ;) (Moving them to leading positions in the World Bank does not count.)

3. Come up with two more things to do while you wait for your computer.

2. Take up whittling. Think of all the things you could make...didn't PC once make an inhaler out of bath soap?

It's in the middle of this somewhere:
John Hodgman interview

Oh, and here's the proof that he is, in fact, a PC:
I'm a PC

Heck, maybe you should just spend all your time watching John Hodgman videos...

Still shows a ship date of tomorrow, with an arrival of 11/21. I would be happy to pay the overnight shipping fee if they would allow me. This thing is going to drive me insane with the buzz/squeal it makes constantly.

Ah that's rough. I have a hum on my iMac when the brightness is lowered...i plan on sending it over winter break where having a computer isn't essential.

Be sure to let us know how your 17 incher is when it arrives!

1. Build yourself a cheap PC, turn off all your firewall settings, disable AV software.... The go on the internet... go to sites that will install malicious code on the box, spyware, viruses....

Then spend the next few days trying to get it back to a pristine state...

Think how much you'll appreciate that new Mac.... But then Carlos, you already know that... ( and it probably wouldn't take you that long to clean it up...)

Danger Seeker
 

That attitude reminds me of an infamous comic strip character from Doonesbury invented by Garry Trudeau...

Danger Seeker (the alter ego of a bored white middle class kid) would take a bus to Harlem or the Bronx. Dressed in mask and cape, he would shout the "N" word – and then run for his life!

Don't overestimate me or any other IT guy...some of that stuff is literally impossible to clean. A lot of it takes hours of effort (more than just a reinstall). I simply refuse to do that kind of work any more. First I started to refuse for family, and told them to get a Mac (they all did). Now I won't even do it for pay. Forget it. Just too annoying, and it's a dead end because it will just happen again. I will happily burn a Windows ISO to a disc and hand it to them, that's as far as I go.

So the MBP shipped today. Looks like it is coming direct from Shanghai like one of my iPods and other stuff have. Tracking doesn't show details yet, but since the weight is in kilos that's a clue that it's coming from outside the US.

Glad to see it’s on its way!

Is it still only the drug dealers and university researchers that have gone metric? ;)

Carlos....... if memory serves... you have about 4 or 5 other Macs on a very attractive computer stand/desk to play with! Not to mention the Bike and the Off roader....that could fill your time..!

You need a job like mine... I have been up at 6am and back at 8ish for the past month or so... I am knackered!

Top 5

5 . Turn old Mac hardware into 'modern art' and exibit it in your front garden
4 . Explor new and unusual alchoholic beverages like English beer!
3 . Express yourself through the medium of dance
2 . Learn to uni-cycle
1 . Complete a Rubix Cube

You could take the advice that John Hodgman gives to asthmatic kids who can't go play in the snow (modified the the MBP):

Stare at the ceiling and think about how much fun the other people with MBP's are having.

Loathe birds, because they can fly.

Eh, maybe these are a little too depressing. I'd say go with the English Beer.

Bah, if I read the details it's not really shipped, it says "Package information received." It ships tomorrow. Rat bastards.

Indeed, if you see metric measurements here you can expect that your package contains an illicit substance or is coming from outside the country. Or both I suppose.

Photek, I have lots of monitors but really only one Mac to use as my own. I have access to lots of them, but with the time it takes me to personalize it, none are really productive to use right away. I was going to rent a MacBook to use for a while, but decided not to. I probably should have. And my schedule isn't that different from yours. Well, I'm not up at 6am, that would never work, but I do often work until past midnight. Lately we've had more business thrown at us every day (when self employed, that's a good thing).

Damn, shoulda worked on that Macquarium project.
I need no excuses to explore English beer! We've got English and Scottish pubs within reasonable distance of the house, and both have an admirable selection of the queen's brews. And wi-fi. I've posted from one of them before while waiting for lunch.
Er, I'll decline that one.
I tried to rent one once, but couldn't find a place that had them. I'd love to try it at least once. Closest I've ridden is a Segway, and that's really cheating.
ADD!

Well, at least this weekend I won't care much about it, we're spending the weekend aboard the boat. Weather is still holding here...

http://www.cbr1100xx.org/temp/nov/weather.png

Hey, wait a minute. What about the Ohio State versus Michigan game? Potentially the best game this season, and you're off playing in a boat? :eek:

And English beer isn't depressing? You obviously haven't spent a night out an English city recently......

Which ball is that? Long oval one, big round one, small round one? Top 5 things I'd do instead of watch sports:

5. Watch paint dry
4. Install vista
3. Spin around in circles until I pass out
2. Home dental surgery
1. Take on a virus removal project on an unpatched Win98 machine.


The arrival date is now 11/22. They shipped it too late in the day.

Football is the one where they use a rather large foot shaped ball in order to knock the opposing teams "Jerry" into a blazing stupor. You might like it, you never know.

Hmmm, we've still got some common ground. If Ohio State wins I'll probably do #3 and if Michigan wins I'll probably want to grab the nearest UM fan and try your #2 option. :D

Hey Carlos... when your tying out some English Bitter (Black Sheep is good if you can get it) why not try you hand at the Olde English sport of Cheese Rolling......?

http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/

seriously.... its for real!

One can understand how J.K. Rowling may have come up with, not so much the idea for quidditch, but how it could certainly have become popular amongst that population. The Brits I've met have generally known how to have a very good time.

Yes, indeed. But they insist on saying "Sorry" when you step on their foot! :confused:

And the difference in language can be most amusing. I know a British girl who started attending university in the US. During a lecture, taking notes with a pencil, she turned to the girl next to her: "May I borrow your rubber, please?"

Do stick with the English beer, however. :D Except for a few honourable mentions, mostly from small breweries, American beer is a lot like – well, making love in a canoe...

I tried cheese rolling in Wisconsin once. Humorous, but since it didn't involve a lot of beer consumption, I suspect it was missing a vital component.

My MBP is now somewhere in Phoenix. It arrived on Saturday. But still shows a Wednesday delivery date. They're not going to get away with that, I'll be at the FedEx depot first thing in the morning. If I don't fall to the temptation to grab bolt cutters and head over there tonight.

Go VERY early! They load those trucks and the trucks are out before the crack of dawn!

Took me a bit to finally get the new nano iPod.

Oh, if it goes out on a truck I'll have it by 10:30am, and that's fine. That's essentially the crack of dawn for me anyway. I just don't want it sitting in a depot until Wednesday for no apparent reason.

I think FedEx read this and had a good laugh at me. When I got up it was still showing as "at depot" on the tracking. Panic. Called FedEx and the first person said it would be held in a container until the promised delivery date, Wednesday. Double panic.

I asked if I could come get it, and he put me through to someone who identified herself as a "customer advocate." She took my info, said she thought it would be delivered today, but she would call around to locate it and make sure, then call me back. Sure enough, she called back five minutes later and said I would get it today. She said she wasn't sure if it would make the 10:30 delivery, but definitely by 3.

It arrived at 10:37.

I'm pretty impressed with the way the second FedEx person took ownership of my call and followed through. I haven't been a real fan of FedEx lately, but they certainly did give me good customer service.

Mmmmmmm...new laptop smell...

so how is it!?

Bah, it's a piece o' crap.

:D :D

Stunning screen, predictably. The 17 was always impressive, but the glossy screen is even more so. And it is much less affected by sunlight than the matte screen was, so I've been working on the patio half the day.

It seems to use much less power than my old one, though I haven't yet tested it with a clock. Speed is a bit snappier, and oddly, seems to copy files faster, which I didn't expect.

The G4 17" was my first Mac portable, and I've had most of the others along the way. I'm glad to be back on the 17.

Yeah, I like that screen size too. Which is one reason why I was all too glad to give the new black MacBook to the missus, as soon as I got my old PowerBook fixed.

Curious if you appreciate one feature that I find really handy at times: the faintly glowing keyboard.

I absolutely do appreciate the lighted keyboard, almost every day. From airplane trips to use in the living room while the lights are at "movie watching level," the lighting is really useful. I think I like all the little details like the auto dimming also.

The shiny screen has proven to be a big improvement so far, as it makes it easy to avoid catching lights behind me or to the sides. I always had a hard time using the matte screen outdoors (and with our weather, I often wanted to be working outdoors). It certainly does make the text sharper and more readable, with higher overall contrast.

The FW800 port...still useless... Well, I might use it in FW400 mode some time, but really don't care if it is there.

The extra USB on the left is good when I put on the cable lock, which blocks the right USB.

Lower power usage and less heat...definitely a bonus.

The only down-sides are weight and slower recharge time since the battery is a little larger. Oh, and the 17 is harder to fit on an airplane tray table, definitely. Not bad as long as I can get into an exit/bulkhead row or first class, but almost useless in a regular coach seat. This is where the 12" excelled.

Speed is certainly improved, noticeable all around (I had the 2.0 GHz before, this is the Core2 2.33).