<p>dewdrop...she does have applecare, and just sent out the laptop today. She didn't back up her hard drive however, so now a bunch of stuff is lost. :( That's our fault though. Apple has always been great with service.</p>
<p>yeah...I hear ya. If you have the money to spend...I highly suggest you invest in an external hard drive. I too did not back up my hard drive and lost a lot of important material. I bought a 160 GB external drive for $160 (I'm sure you can find one for a lot less)....if I had the money I'd be all over Apple's Time Capsule :-D</p>
<p>Believe it or not, I actually bought an external hard drive for my husband to share with the family, but he returned it. Isn't that the way it goes!</p>
<p>haha...yeah...men are always causing trouble :-P</p>
<p>I've already gone through two external hard drives. One a Maxtor, one a Western Digital. They are not worth the investment unless you take good care of them, as they are very prone to hardware malfunction. The slightest dropping of an external hard drive could irrevocably damage it. </p>
<p>Coincidentally, I just had my third external delivered today, and I'm definitely not moving it from this spot unless completely necessary. It is a 750GB Seagate FreeAgent, I got it for $200 on a site that sells below retail. So far, no problems hah. A friend, who I would kindly characterize as somewhat of a computer nerd, had told me this is the best brand he has come across.</p>
<p>Good to know! I've had LaCie hard drive for about 2 years now...I keep it in its box and only bring it out when I need to do a system backup.</p>
<p>"My engineering friends tell me macs serve no purpose in anything they do."
I'm trying to be pretty open minded in my arguments and I have friends in engineering that use both Macs and PC's. It's funny how the people who have never touched a Mac hate them with their guts, while the people who made the switch see them as clearly superior to the now outdated Windows. </p>
<p>"Many course-required modeling programs aren't compatible with MAC OS."
Amen to technology, this can now be fixed with a quick click of a button. </p>
<p>"Completely useless for Hotelies."
Because hotelies don't use the internet, itunes, office, etc????</p>
<p>"My friend with a macbook is CONSTANTLY having to borrow my laptop because the mac version of Office '07 is abysmal."
First and foremost, office '08 is out. Second, if you think office '07 for mac is abysmal, I take it you vomit at the sight of office for Vista. Third, either you're lying about your friend, or he is dumb - you double click the icon and a blank document opens, what is so hard about that?</p>
<p>"What? Don't know where you heard that but it's completely false."
Proven wrong, see above. </p>
<p>"The same mac-wielding hotelie friend attempted to install XP on both his G5 and his macbook pro, it failed miserably both times."
He also failed miserably at using Microsoft Word. It's Word for god sakes. </p>
<p>"So if my daughter will be a Hotelie should we get a PC and have her leave her MacBook home?"
NOOOO!! You wont have any compatibility issues, I spent my entire time at Cornell with a mac without 1 issue. I would have had compatibility issues if I had Vista, ironically.</p>
<p>^^^I also don't think CIT is planning to make Cornell software compatible with Vista anytime soon</p>
<p>Yeah I want to truly evaluate the differences between Windows and Macs. The majority of MAC users I've noticed are people who just want to be different. They think it's COOL to use a Mac, to "think outside the box" and the "smart choice." It's mostly bandwagon effect I've noticed. </p>
<p>Saying that I still really want to investigate buying a Mac. My next computer will be a tablet. I am going to buy a Tablet PC or MAC in the next year. I hope Apple comes out with one. If not I'm going to invest in a Lenovo Tablet.</p>
<p>dewdrop: i used my vista successfully to do whatever i needed at cornell...instead of using software they are now doing everything web-based...</p>
<p>i'd say mac is harder to use...i see tons of students always asking pc users for help on a mac...</p>
<p>sure the pics your mac book takes look great on your facebook, but are you gonna be a facebook whore at cornell or actually plan to do some work?</p>
<p>part of Mac's appeal is being significantly easier to use than PC. The only difficulty I found when switching is locating certain functions.</p>
<p>fd: does course enroll work on Vista? I have a friend with Vista who couldn't enroll on her computer and I know you can't use that via the web...</p>
<p>To Linux! Upward and Onward, argument!</p>
<p>doing the course enroll online this semester was easy. CIT is working for just the facts (the program used) to work on mac leopard...havent heard anything about vista...</p>
<p>"fd: does course enroll work on Vista? I have a friend with Vista who couldn't enroll on her computer and I know you can't use that via the web..." </p>
<p>yes it does...you should always call CIT or ask on DC++ about computing questions....</p>
<p>you have to use the BASIL internet thing that CIT created...</p>
<p>I'm just going by what my friend said...no need to lecture me on where I should be getting my information. Frankly I don't really care what does/doesn't work since I'm graduating and don't need to worry about that stuff anymore...</p>
<p>but I will keep your information in mind</p>
<p>I've been using a dell laptop for years without any problems, and it outperforms almost all the macs on campus at 2/3 the price.</p>
<p>"The New MacBook: Cheaper than Dell"</p>
<p>Macs tend to cost a little more up front - however, they are cheaper over just a little bit of time as the cost of ownership is much lower and they maintain performance over a longer period. Plus, you get more free software.</p>
<p>I don't know what else one needs to spend on a computer once you buy it, unless of course, you're an idiot.</p>
<p>I mean I had to get my keyboard replaced because, I was an idiot, and broke one of the keys, but that's my fault.. Dell did it in a few days free of cost.</p>
<p>But hey, I'm a certified computer technician so it could be just that I take good care of my computers. Though I must agree that Macs are much more idiot-proof, perhaps saying something about the target market.</p>