I sat in Cathay Pacific ( a chinese restaurant in the Trafford Centre ).
In agony…
Well, an agony of indecision, anyway.
On my left shoulder a lone white figure, looking a bit nervous and lonely, glancing over at the other shoulder.
On my right, three or four rather agressive looking red figures. Playing dice, scratching themselves, getting ready for the next round, but they know they have won. They have me on their side.
Across from me sits my wonderful wife. She is on the red side.
Its not looking good for white.
“You don’t NEED it. You already have a laptop and two pretty decent desktop computers. Its a lot of money. Your just about to start a new contract, its not a good time. Its VAT month this month.” All good points, perfectly reasonable, logical, obvious.
“It runs TEXTMATE. You have that whizzy thing to resize the windows onscreen to let you see what window you want. Its by the same company as your first programming experience.”
Its not looking good for white, he’s outnumbered, they have moved in and are giving his kidneys a good working over.
“Steve really knows how to motivate his teams. The attention to detail is amazing. You could let Alex have your other laptop, that would make life easier for Wendy when I have to go over to Liverpool and am working later. They have them in the shop to take away today! TODAY! You have wanted one for months. Ralf showed you how well it works as a development environment, and you have to admit it looks good.”
“Beep… Clear… Ka-Clunk… Its no good, he’s gone… Time of Death?”
Somewhere, an angel wife has just received a telegram. They have left and she is sitting in the dark. Why…
Why did it have to be a Mac Book Pro… What do I tell little Raphiel when he comes back from angel-elementery?
So, yes, I have finally joined the converted. Purchased my first Macintosh. (does anyone still call them that?) Sold my soul to Steve Jobs. Taken the coolaid.
…
Its a day later. Before, I had anticipated some level of “buyer remorse” but I am sorry, I am still unable to wipe the grin off my face.
Textmate is installed (and I am going to purchase)
Grapple is in.
Subversion installed
Mysql installed
Ruby installed and compiled
Gem installed
Rails installed.
I still have some work to do integrating it into the environment of my office.
I have to get an expanded KVM, and some PS/2 to USB converters (I just cannot be without my wonderful IBM Clickety Keyboard (thanks Mario, sorry Mario))
Its even prompted me to clean my office (well, a little!)