MacManor - the blog

In the venerable computer journal Byte  in the 1980s, the science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle had a page at the end of each issue called "Chaos Manor", where he wrote entertainingly about all the computer stuff that ended up on his desk, all the problems they created, and how he used them productively or not for what he as a writer needed. Well, he was a very techno-savvy writer, and I cannot say that I get loads and loads of stuff dumped on my desk to be tested (and happily so!) But I stole the name for an occasional blog based on the same principles; musings about things that I come across that relate to Macs, iPhone, or other stuff that I own and use, with perhaps suggestions for how to get around hurdles or stuff.

Thus, user-oriented and when something happens, which may or may not be often, based on my needs. So, who am I? Not a computer person at all, I am a professor of Middle Eastern history at a university in Norway. Originally skeptical to "techno-driven history", I got my first computer, a Mac Plus, in late 1986, and have since been looking particularly at how a Middle East academic could use it: writing in Arabic, transcription and such. That is now stored on a set of web pages for that particular purpose: www.smi.uib.no/ksv. I don't do things like programming, editing movies, or poking around inside computers (more than I have to) for boosting chips or stuff. A middle-aged professor who likes his Mac, but really for fairly pedestrian purposes.

Since I am to write about my own experiences, this is the setup I use and write about: An 20" iMac provided for me by my employer at my office, a regular MacBook at home, hooked up to an external screen and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse; all these bought in 2007 and meant to last two or three years more, and since last fall, an iPhone 4 (previously a 1-gen iPod Touch). No iPad, currently I have not found any reason to drag one around. Perhaps I will be tempted later, but now I prefer to read what books I read electronically on my iPhone, because it is always with me, unlike an iPad I would have to plan to carry with me for just a bigger screen than my iPhone.

So there it is. If readers have better ideas or spot out mistakes or inefficient solutions in what I write, that is what the comment field is for, please use it! But notice that my preferred audience are people like myself, "regular users" of more (or even way more) than 30 years of age, who want to be better at what they are already doing, be it writing, teaching, or getting useful stuff out of the net. Or figure out why this thing suddenly stopped.