one of the things I love

... about Mac is the ability to make multiple users. Now I know, Windows can do this too, I'm not here to bash XP today. But with my recent iBook failure (I got the data off, but it won't boot up now, even with the Heinz bottle...) I moved to a temporary Powerbook graciously lent to me by N & E while they are away on vacation. So I simply set up a new user account, set up my .Mac information, synced my address book and calendar, and I had all the information I needed right there on this new computer. I'm so glad I turned on .Mac sync on the iBook set to "Daily". I realize that I rely on my address book and iCal a lot, so it only makes sense to keep it synced to the main .Mac server. Hey, I'm paying for this service, I might as well use it as much as possible, right? If it saves my bacon in case of a hardware failure, then at least the pain of migrating to a new machine is lessened somewhat. If you don't have .Mac, a lot of this kind of functionality could be achieved by Google Calendar, Contacts, and so forth. I've always been an advocate of a web based email address, rather than one provided by your ISP, since I'm always changing ISP's, but tired of changing emails. What I like about offline email tools and offline calendars is that, well, they can be used offline.

This is becoming less and less of an issue, at least in major urban centres. There's internet access pretty much everywhere. Anyone used the Toronto Hydro One Zone yet? It's still free for a few more months. Just enough time to get used to it, and then miss it enough to sign on when it's no longer free. What a great business model! Make yourself indispensable. I still haven't gotten used to Toronto Hydro being a telecom company. My dad worked for Ontario Hydro before it became Ontario Power Generation, or Hydro One, or whatever it is now... :) Aren't these companies in the business of electricity? When did they start dipping into fiber optics and networks? Ah well, it's all the same thing now, isn't it.

Wow, this was my most rambling post ever, I think.