…or "How I learned to stop worrying and love the mac." 

As I may have mentioned before, I used to own a Powerbook 12", known to friends as 2d2s2icb. I still do own a PowerMac G4, one of the original AGP 400s, and a Powerbook Pismo. I have always been a big fan of Apple (APPL) since I used the brown ones in elementary school. I bought the G4 shortly before the OS X release, but I went ahead and got a copy of OS X.

Since then, I’ve been in and out of the Apple scene and now I own some stock. I’ve gotten way into the GNU/Linux scene too, and I’ve learned a lot about the proprietary practices of both Apple and Microsoft in relationship to their OS’s. I have actively tried to move my primary home operating systems to free operating ones, but I have not lost any love for the simplicity and ease of use that the MacOS provides. I especially like the iApps, and specifically the iApp integration that is available from within iMovie. So, when I was tasked by group to create the multimedia portion of our final project, I figured, "No problem, I know how to do all that stuff in iMovie". Now let me state that I’m not a slack when it comes to video processing. I know what a key-frame is, I know how to use VirtualDub, and I have read and executed just about all the doom9.net guides.

So when it came time to do this project, I figured no problem. But I don’t have a mac that is iSight compatible anymore, so the video would have to be done with my Canon Optura S1. Fine, no problem. But what editing software to use? After recording and editing all the audio with Audacity, I basically hit a brick wall. I messed around with Nero Express for a while (because I got an OEM version when I bought my dual-layer burner) but it left me asking "Where’s the beef?" Plus ease of use was basically zero. So meh. Since the project was due in, oh, 36 hours, I figured it was time to find a Mac with software that I can actually use. So I started the project

Thus, even though I don’t want to be "proprietary", I just can’t put the Mac pipe down. I want to, but it is just so easy. Drag here, click here, title there, import audio here, and whooohooo! A 20 minute video presentation with transitions, PinP, and chroma keying! (the chroma key and multi movie effects are courtesy of cf/x) Hopefully, if I am cleared by my professor and my team, I can post it on this site.

So damn you, Steve Jobs and all of you Apple testers and developers, damn you for sucking me back in. I really, honestly can’t afford a new mac…but I’m sure there’s an old lady’s purse around I can steal…gotta feed the addiction somehow.