Mac vs. Cheese

I had to check out a laptop from the library in order to be able to do my homework over the weekend, due to the fact that I can't really haul my iMac around very well. Twenty pounds of raw computing power fixed on an anodized aluminum stand that are required to be plugged into an outlet don't really transfer well to the idea of "the road."

So I have this lappy at the ready for when I need to punch out my pages of the group project on The United States of Europe for my macroeconomics class. I took on the task of writing about how the unification of Europe tackles economic principles number 5 and 8. What are economic principles 5 and 8, you ask? I don't have a clue. We just knew that there were eight principles to be divvied up, and so I took 5 and 8. To balance this out, I'm also spearheading the presentation on one of the principles, which finally justifies my owning of Apple's alternative to Powerpoint: Keynote.

With the rough five variations of laptops to be checked out from the library, it's a mixed bag whether or not you'll get a laptop that's actually usable. In this sense, I lucked out, getting an HP something-or-other with an AMD Turion dual-core, 64-bit processor, and a little sticker ensuring me that this sucker is Windows Vista Capable. In other words, it's better than the Pentium 3s that I could have been stuck with.

But now that I'm finally using a computer other than my Mac for a prolonged period for the first time in a year, it's time to make the brutal comparisons.

First of which is that I'm relegated to Meebo for talking to my friends. This is by no means a bad thing. Meebo rocks. But the fact that I can't install any of my preferred IM applications on this machine is a bit of a downer. What if I like AIM? Of course, this isn't a problem relevant to Windows, it's just the cold, hard fact of being on a computer I checked out from a library.

This, however, isn't: the colors of Blogger are horrendously muddled. To the point where the normally tan interface is a disgustingly drab gray. It may or may not be a good thing that the color reminds me of Doane's food...

My other big gripe with this laptop is that good lord, the speakers are absolutely terrible. I never realized just how good Apple is at tuning their speakers, or maybe just selecting speakers that don't suck, but these speakers, and the ones in the monitor of my family's computer (which is also an HP) leave a veritable ear load to be desired.

But other than that, this will get me through the weekend swimmingly. Now the question becomes one of "will I actually do any of my homework?"