Of Mice and Men

Almost since it's inception, Apple has made some of the most intuitivue, reliable and interesting computers on the consumer market. They've invented just about everything that we've grown to take advantage of with computers, from desktop publishing, to spreadsheets, to graphic user interfaces (the system of windows and folders that people use to store files.) They even invented the mouse to move things around on their newly designed 'desktop' interface. However, after their initial invention of the mouse, other companies added more functionailty by adding buttons, scroll wheels and assorted other doo-dads. Despite the utility and popularity of such mice, Apple stubbornly continued to only offer a one-button mouse, leading many to wonder why they hadn't chosen to provide users with an Apple-branded multi-button mouse. Well, today was the day that they finally delivered, and it's a piece of work.

Some of you may be wondering why I think this item is newsworthy, and all I can say in my defense is that Apple computers are so good, and provide such a wonderful user experience, that the people who buy them tend to become a little partisan when it comes to the fate of the company. So I'm officially letting the cat out of the bag that I am an ardent Apple consumer, admirer and evangelist. I have a little ibook at home that I've used for 6 years without a problem, and it gets a lot of use. While I wish that I could use a Mac all the time, I am sorry to say that my work computer is an Intel machine running Windows 2000.

I've been a little coy about what hardware and software I've been using for my modeling, and I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was to protect my mild-mannered alter ego from discovery, maybe it was to avoid giving out free endorsements to a couple of software companies. But I'm going to come clean, because I'm sure I'll be talking quite a bit about this as my project develops.

At work, I run:
Intel 700 MHz processor
512MB RAM
no fancy graphics card that I can discern
Windows 2000

At home, I use:
iBook SE 450MHz
512MB RAM
no fancy graphics card
not much front-side bus

Currently, I am only able to run 3D software on my work computer, and even then it's a bit too slow. Also, even if I were able to use my home computer, the software that I use is only available on PC. It's a procuct called AutoCAD (the 2004 edition) and is by far the mostly commonly used drafting software in use today.

It seems possible that my work computer may get upgraded soon, and I would love to sock away enough cash to get a new iMac for my personal use at home, but I'm stuck with what I've got for now. Similarly, I hope to take a further drafting/modeling class soon, which may mean that I'll be working with a new piece of software at work (either 3Ds Max or Maya). Were I to get a faster home computer, I may try using one of the drafting programs written for Mac, like ArchiCAD. I'll keep everyone up to date if decide to make a switch, but tomorrow I'll give everyone a bit of a crash course in AutoCAD, so you can understand what I'm doing a little bit better.