On my last entry I said my new computer will have to be compatible with an existing network, two computer-dependent adults, and a 10-year-old video addict. I want to make an informed right-brain decision rather than an impulsive left-brain choice, so, logically, my first task is to assess the environment for the new computer.

It will come into a household that is divided.  I have been with my partner for 23 years and he is a long time Mac OS user and a graphic designer.  He uses his computer to get his work done and stay in contact with colleagues and friends – mostly through email.  Technology is not an obsession with him, but he is no novice regarding the inner workings of his Mac.  He recently traded up to a new MacBook Pro with an Intel i5 processor.

My 10-year-old son has a hand-me-down Dell Dimension 3000 and old IBM 17” CRT in his room, and he is a frequent user of my partner’s MacBook to watch movies and play online computer games.  When I say we are getting a new computer, he thinks of a big high-resolution display and quicker Internet response in order to play various games of blood and mayhem and to watch various TV episodes on Hulu.  He expects a DVD player that doesn’t stop mid-way through a movie.

As an aside, my partner and I have instituted three screen-free-days during the week.  This has had the unintended effect of my son using much of his non-screen time plotting on how to gain more screen time.  Since we spend a good part of our days on our computers, from his point of view, we are hypocrites.  As much as we try to explain “work versus play”, when he sees my partner playing solitaire on the computer or catches me playing Tanks on the Wii our arguments are all but lost.  (We both agree that the visual presentation of Free Cell on the PC is much better than the version on the MAC.)

We often connect to friends and family, but we mostly rely on email and don’t rely social networks like Facebook.

I am a long time PC Windows user, social scientist, and for the last few years a stay-home-dad.  My computer combines my professional and personal worlds.  It is my secretary, calendar, networker, statistician, and playmate.  My Palm Treo 755p speaks to my calendar and task list.  I am never out of sync with my email.  My phone buzzes with instant messages and calendar reminders – “I am at the checkout counter”, “don’t forget the OJ”, “PTA meeting in one hour”.  It is an essential tool for coordinating the urban lifestyle of our son -- swimming, skateboard, and Aikido lessons, and soccer meets.  I even rely it to for the occasional job-related meetings and tasks.   I feel betrayed when synchronization fails.  In short, I am hooked on technology.  I have recently begun to explore web design using Drupal and content management systems as well as to make movies.  If you have accessed this blog on my web site, you have seen some of my nascent work.  I mostly use email to stay in contact, but social networks like Facebook and Linkedin are creeping into my life. 

The MAC (OS) and PC (Windows) divide doesn’t cause much friction between my partner and me.  We rarely get into the MAC versus PC argument – that is mostly the domain of my mother-in-law and many of my partner’s graphic career friends who have little Windows experience.  They are convinced that their virus immune Macs  running cat predators OS systems are better than the button-down Windows XP and Vistas that their PC friends complain about.  I wonder, “Will Windows 7 will finally give our Windows using friends some bragging rights?”

To some degree our computers have facilitated household communication.  I show my partner statistics on the Dell and he shows me graphics on the Mac.  Over time I have persuaded him to see the value of empirical based decision-making, and he has shown me the value in clean, uncluttered graphics.  He has, no doubt, improved my eye for art, and now I am experimenting with making movies and designing websites as well as conducting statistical analysis.

In choosing a computer and household system, probably the best thing would be to start from scratch.  Throw out the old and bring in the new.  But I don’t have the constitution for that. Although the IRS has long ago depreciated our technology investments, I am still attached.   I have opted for a more gradual migration that requires accessing the past while creating a simpler future. In the next  forum entry I will share the household configuration of the past that the new system must access.