mult.ifario.us

Just before JavaOne, I replaced my venerable G4 PowerBook with a black MacBook, and I've been pleased with the transition. (At over three and a half years, the PowerBook had an exceptionally long useful life for a laptop.) A few observations:

• A 2.0GHz Core Duo is more than fast enough. In fact, while I wouldn't have expected it, the MacBook handily beats my 4-way G5 for many development-oriented tasks like builds and starting up IDEA.
• Battery life is essentially the same as with the PowerBook, a little over four hours at minimum screen brightness.
• MacPorts, rsync, and the usual downloads (Aquamacs, Quicksilver, Adium) made it quick to get a usable configuration up and running.
• Just like the PowerBook, it's too damn hot to be truly used as a laptop without some additional insulation.
• The keyboard is odd, doesn't light up, but is otherwise tolerable.

So far, so good.

After having my hard drive renamed “iywemsndfgouy” a few times, I got a recommendation for AlphaBaby from Sam (thanks!), and the kid likes it. A lot. AlphaBaby displays shapes and letters and plays sounds in response to keypresses but otherwise locks the machine down. (Nonetheless, Emme has managed to hit the magic key combination ctrl-alt-cmd-q a few times with her palm and middle finger and get back to renaming desktop items.) My old 17“ G4 Powerbook is a downstairs email terminal about 50% of the time and running AlphaBaby for Emme the other 50%. (Fortunately, she's not talking yet to ask for a MacBook Pro...) She has a grand time massaging the keyboard and watching the shapes. She has actually started to peck at the keys with a finger as her manual dexterity improves, but it's never very long before she notices the power button on the upper right — round, shiny, textured, and inviting. It just looks like it should be pushed, so it gets pushed. Repeatedly. Half the time, she suspends the machine; half the time, she shuts it down. We'll see how long it takes for her to get over the urge to push it.