It’s been several months since I wrote my “I’m a Mac” post. I thought I’d add an update about what I’ve been doing with the new computer.
My Macbook Pro 13 has quickly become my ‘go-to’ computer. Mostly because it’s portable and sits in my living room, but also because it just seems to work so much better than my Windows based desktop. As I’m back in school now, I’m finding that I’ll do my homework on the Mac rather than on the desktop. I purchased a mini-DV-to-DVI adapter to let me plug the Mac into my desktop monitor
, and I’m also considering a KVM switch in order to use the desktop keyboard and mouse. If I go that route, then the Windows system’s days are numbered.
I’m trying not to store documents permanently on the Macbook. I use Dropbox to keep my working personal and school files synced between my desktop/laptop and available if I need them at work. Its a pretty good system, but it requires a software install and keeps copies of the files on three computers, something that keeps a security-geek awake nights.
Speaking of security, I decided to encrypt the disk on my Mac. First, I tried my favorite app, TrueCrypt, but found that it doesn’t support whole-disk encryption on a Mac. So I went ahead and used FileVault. That was ok, but it has problems. I recently learned that PGP had a beta version of PGP Desktop for Snow Leopard, so I’ve installed that and am working through the testing.
So far it’s been a pretty satisfying experience. Next I’m going to start playing with some Mac-only software and utilities.