Hey Chris
I design database software products in filemaker on my mac, if that counts, then run windows in emulation to work out how to make them also look acceptable on the pc brethrens machines (font differences on various incarnation of windows means a font with the same name does not necessarily look or behave the same, which can be amusing...)
Been using macs for years, when they finally get ready to give up the ghost i normally strip them for parts and sell on ebay, recovering most of monies spent on them at time of purchase. i rarely buy new, usually from the apple refurb store. got marks and scratches on them when they arrive, and i happily add my own over time. laptop is held together with glue and all sorts, yet soldiers on happily 5 years old now. occasionally gets stripped cleaned and rebuilt (like the cruiser just the tools are a lot smaller) to keep it running well cos its used in some tough environments on occasion. the external monitor i run has a scratch in the centre that made it 200 quid cheaper then it should have been, for what i use it for i don't even see the scratch any more.
still have some OLD machines performing useful tasks, rarely get turned off just leaving them doing their thing - i guess thats thanks to the UNIX version they run on that sits behind the pretty OSX interface, and that the user experience is tightly controlled because the software has to work with a very limited range of hardware products so they can be made to work properly there job has to be far easier in that respect than trying to make a machine run with all sorts of possible combinations of hardware components from a very large number of potential suppliers.
Bit like our cruisers - they were designed to do something and they do that something very well. if we stick with genuine toyota parts in critical areas they run and run and run, Yes its costly, yet they do what they were designed to do. fitting non genuine parts in critical areas is risking potential faults and failures....and don't get me wrong apple (and Toyota with cars and parts) make FORTUNES selling the software and hardware to us, and that keeps them designing and producing and selling more for us that love em to say, OMG how did i ever manage without that? Apple were at one point recently the highest valued company on the planet, which is a pretty impressive thing to have done considering where they were sat in the mid 1990's.
if the cruisers had parts from all manufacturers thrown in engine from here, gearbox from there, axles from another, brakes from yet another it would be a wonder they interfaced properly and ran at all. Hold on, don't some car manufacturers do use that? I don't use windows machines very often but do take my hat off to them that they function.
I had to install a new software custom database solution for a client yesterday. got the one mac in the office up and running in about 15 minutes. three of the pcs took me four hours between them because they needed a software update, one of them three times which meant i had to work with there remote maintenance team who are the only ones in the office authorised to update system software, and at the end of all that the pc proudly announced that the software i wanted to run now would not install because the machines hardware was not suitable to run it - could you not have told me that before i missed lunch? i had stopped smiling about three hours earlier.
Was given an iPad a few years back and wondered about it. Before i got to play with one i thought nah, big iPhone, whats the point? within a week i was using it a LOT. Its ideal for interacting with your data (can't design my databases on it, although they do run just great using fm go).
Fav apps on the iPad
- iThoughtHD (I mind map everything and this on app is great - ties in with Novamind on the Mac very nicely, linked via dropbox),
- Mail (praise to iCloud for keeping mail and several other apps nicely in sync - make a change anywhere and changes are reflected everywhere, tasty), - Filemaker GO
- iTeleport - allows me to remote control via a remote desktop connection pretty much anything anyone wants me to help with be it pc or mac - that one app has changed the way we deliver solutions and helps me get people up and running in our systems very quickly,
- VLC (the early version before their open source licensing ran afoul of the APP Store licensing and they changed the features and functions..... I create training movies of mind maps and software i write - vlc lets me demo it to clients (and play flash movies on the iPad),
- NavFree and the map app that comes with the iPad, and
- iCal.
Gaming - i understand that for gaming pcs can be much better. In fact for many things they can be ramped up to be monsters! I don't play any games on the computers. i want my computer to let me do my work, my research, read books and pdfs, design and deliver solutions to peoples problems in the areas where i have expertise and then go out to enjoy my life (cruiser owner so perhaps my life looks odd by others who don't have our particular affliction
I don't want to have to spend time figuring out why this won't work with that, why this virus does that to my pc, how it can be affected by worms (can I give it a pill like i can my cats?).
Shees fellas, all of you non mac clever lads and ladies i do take my hat off to you. You have more skill and patience than me. Ill stick with my mac, iPhone, iPods, iPad and my cruiser. they all seem to do just what i want of them when i want it.
Here we go again. Well I decided to treat myself, as after nearly 9 years, Apple will not be issuing OS updates to my first gen Intel Mac. Damn, only 9 years. Rubbish isn't it. What's that you say, your PC only lasted 4 before it broke down completely 
Oh I am sorry. So that makes mine pretty good then? Oh it's not that it doesn't work any more, it's just the OS won't get updates. So. To remedy the situation, I decided to go and buy this 
