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Dear Reader,
Yesterday's Mac distress column brought numerous cheerleading emails from readers assuring me that after a few miserable days, I'd fall in love with my new Apple laptop. Frustration with a new computer sounds like one of life's minor problems, and to be sure it is, but when your job is writing and suddenly technical stuff takes priority over creativity, it's very unsettling.
A few readers, like Deb Mann, were curious about why I decided to make the switch from a PC to an Apple in the first place. Initially switching wasn't the plan. My old HP laptop had been good to me, but I'd been limping along with numerous problems for months. The list of repairs was too long, so I decided it was time to go shopping for a new PC.
The feel of a laptop's keyboard is one of the main criteria in my buying decision, so I visited four different stores and typed on every laptop. Since I'm 5' 2" most of the displays were too high for me to reach, so I'd borrow a stepstool from another department in the store, climb up a couple of steps and start typing. I finally settled on a small laptop that I loved but when I took a closer look, there was a pattern of concentric circles on the cover and near the keyboard. I tried to ignore those circles, but now that I knew they were there, I hated them!
"It's only a design," my son was trying to convince me to buy the computer, because he'd just purchased the same model. But how a machine makes me feel is important, and since I'd be using it every day, I just couldn't get past those ugly circles.
Obviously people buy this machine, so somebody out there must like these circles. I figured it must be a generational thing, the manufacturer must be marketing to a younger demographic. But then I noticed that my son had left the manufacturers' plastic stickers overtop of the circle pattern on his own computer. "Oh, so they're just circles? But apparently you can't stand looking at them either." And then the next day, when I was testing more keyboards in an office supply store, I noticed a mother and daughter looking at the same laptop and I heard the daughter comment, "I don't want to buy that computer, I can't stand those circles." So just who 'is' the manufacturer marketing to? Because I'm 55, my son is 30 and the young woman in the store was 21 and we all hate those circles!
So Deb, that's the long answer to your question. The short answer is, ugly circles drove me to try an Apple computer. And even though I've been moaning the past couple of days about my decision, I must admit, I'm starting to love my Apple.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
http://www.DearReader.com
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