I ask a lot from life, and my computer is no exception.

I just got myself a new MacBook. And let me tell you, I'm loving it. It's terrific, and after 2 hours of initial hesitation, I now totally "get" OS X. To top it off, I got a Windows XP loaded via Bootcamp, and that's working well, too. Amazing. I can't picture myself going back to Windows-only machine now.

In the past 3 weeks that I had this machine, I kept on tweaking it and tweaking it to do more. Now I have an e-mail software set up to be able to check e-mail from either OS (Mozilla Thunderbird -- one of these days I'll have to post a how-to). I have scouted and loaded great open source software, and everything I do now can be done except for my main music production and video editing tools. (No, Garage Band and iMoive don't cut it)

For the last 4 days I had an unexpected days alone at home, while my wife and kids flew off to attend a family situation. I wasn't planning on this, but I got to spend some time prepping for my upcoming recording session to finish off my solo material. In came more challenges -- new hardware and software, compatiblity and stability issues. I expected this but it's still not that fun. All I can say is that I am SO glad that I'm dealing with this now -- if I am having to do this during my main session time, I'd be so stressed and frustrated. Kinks are getting worked out now, so that when it comes time to dive deep into the actual production, everything will be ready to go.

With tools, once again I'm struck by how intuitiveness and easy of use is of most importance. User experience must really be a top priority for software. I mean, the whole reason Mac OS is something people "fall in love with" as opposed to Windows you "deal with" -- owes a lot to its slick user interface. I've always believed this, but once again, I think of Google vs. Yahoo/Microsoft -- the latter bombarding you with info, shouting in your ear "we're deep, we're sophisticated, we have so much to offer" while Google just sits there quietly, showing you one thing at a time. The same thing happens with music, too. The important thing in production is to have tools that don't get in the way. Creativity can't live in a constantly interrupted world. It has to flow. Having a liquidy-feel is more important than being the most feature-rich. Being intuitive is more important than letting you the most at once.

Being "less is more" is harder for software than others to do. Even if what you see is only a few elements in the end, it must be the elements that went through thorough and rigorous testing to ensure that those are the very essential elements. And still be able to allow for people's individual preferences. It's tough, but I think Mac OS environment encourages that direction.

I'm happy to live here, for now.