Toby Atkin-Wright

Yesterday evening I started something that I've been meaning to for some time - a reinstallation of the OS and apps on my MacBook Pro. I find it a useful thing to do every couple of years; to have a fresh and clean machine, and an opportunity to assess exactly which apps I actually use. When Snow Leopard came out last year I took the opportunity to do a clean install (rather than an upgrade) on the two Mac Minis, but the MacBook Pro is my main machine, and has a lot more software installed on it, so it is a more time consuming task.

So far the biggest installation has been Logic Studio - shuffling the DVDs seemed to go on forever. I won't be installing MS Office; I uninstalled it last year and have managed very well with a combination of iWork and Google Docs. I keep most of my documents in Dropbox nowadays, so they are easy to copy back onto the machine. I still have to retrieve photos and media from the Drobo - I'll be rsyncing this evening.

Yesterday evening I started something that I've been meaning to for some time - a reinstallation of the OS and apps on my MacBook Pro. I find it a useful thing to do every couple of years; to have a fresh and clean machine, and an opportunity to assess exactly which apps I actually use. When Snow Leopard came out last year I took the opportunity to do a clean install (rather than an upgrade) on the two Mac Minis, but the MacBook Pro is my main machine, and has a lot more software installed on it, so it is a more time consuming task.

So far the biggest installation has been Logic Studio - shuffling the DVDs seemed to go on forever. I won't be installing MS Office; I uninstalled it last year and have managed very well with a combination of iWork and Google Docs. I keep most of my documents in Dropbox nowadays, so they are easy to copy back onto the machine. I still have to retrieve photos and media from the Drobo - I'll be rsyncing this evening.

We’re thinking of not going to Eastercon this year. With our Frogmarch weekend in May and a boating holiday on Loch Ness planned for the summer, Eastercon is unfortunately the lowest in our list of holiday priorities. We’ve been to most of the Eastercons in recent years; I was happy to starting going as kateaw knew so many people in fandom, and I found that many people I knew were con-goers too. Unfortunately Kate finds Eastercon less appealing than it has been in the past; there is a magic that has been lost and will not be regained. With the Bradford Eastercon costing us about £800 (including the memberships, hotel bill, food, and travel), we decided that it was a jolly expensive way to spend a long weekend.

We’re thinking of not going to Eastercon this year. With our Frogmarch weekend in May and a boating holiday on Loch Ness planned for the summer, Eastercon is unfortunately the lowest in our list of holiday priorities. We’ve been to most of the Eastercons in recent years; I was happy to starting going as kateaw knew so many people in fandom, and I found that many people I knew were con-goers too. Unfortunately Kate finds Eastercon less appealing than it has been in the past; there is a magic that has been lost and will not be regained. With the Bradford Eastercon costing us about £800 (including the memberships, hotel bill, food, and travel), we decided that it was a jolly expensive way to spend a long weekend.