Dear Fellow Mac Owners,
I am a man who needs help. Serious help. Many, many years ago I was
a Mac nut. I set the employees in my office up with Mac IIxes. Then came
Mac IIcis. As a sign of appreciation, the I.T. group made sure I got a
Mac IIfx, the fastest, coolest machine on the planet. Out went the DOS
machines. A pile of Zenith 100s in the dumpster, a sight to invigorate
the soul. As time went by I upgraded to the Mac IIsi with its blazing
speed and compact size. Then the world changed......I got married.
As my wife entered the picture, so did the dark side of computing.
Along with the deal came my father-in-law, the head of the I.T.
department for a major corporation. He brought with a him a gutter
language known only to the "unMac'ed." He used these four letter words
like "Dell" and "IPAQ." Her invoked the devil himself with phrases like
"Windows is the same as a Mac." Scary.
I was able to stonewall this influence for months, even a couple
years. However, as my Mac IIsi aged and aged it became the computer that
couldn't. The massive internet downloads were just too much. It had no
CD player. It couldn't even spell DVD. I wanted one of the new
PowerMacs. I really, really wanted a new PowerMac. But the family
pressures became too much and yes, I went over to the dark side. I
bought a PC. Since then I have lived a life of turmoil, confusion and shame.
But I was not a complete loss. It was not too late. Somewhere in
the back of my mind there was still that spark. There was still hope.
Just as I reached the edge of death, I regrouped, jumped on the internet
and last month brought myself to purchase an iMac G4, 17" screen and
all. I am now in a state of recovery, a recovering PCaholic!
But to ensure a complete recovery, I could use some help from the
Mac community. While I am pushing to make my new iMac the center of my
computing universe, I still have all of the PC junk that I can't
immediately throw away. I need to merge some of this stuff with my Mac
and phase it out over time. But this will be a slow process. I need to
know what can be done.
I use a few pieces of PC hardware and software that I just can't
eliminate immediately. I have a pocket PC, an HP IPAQ 1945, that I must
maintain because it is required at my office. It's a little bit more
than a Palm but it's a communist machine - it runs on a version of
Windows. I use it for appointments, telephone numbers, MSMoney to track
expenditures, MS Office applications, etc. It currently syncs with my PC
at work via a cradle and at home via Bluetooth. What I would like to do
is set my Mac up so that everything syncs via Bluetooth. Issues I see
here are that 1) Pocket PCs sync with MS Outlook. I don't believe that
there is a Mac version of MS Outlook 2) I don't think MS Money has a Mac
version. The rest of the stuff is just MS Office. Can an IPAQ be set up
to sync with my Mac? What about running Virtual PC, will my IPAQ be able
to sync through to MS Money if it is loaded via virtual PC?
I also use MS Project religiously. I'm a manager and project work
is my thing. A hundred years ago I used to work with a program on my
Macs called MacProject. Does this still exist? Is it the best option for
project management? Does it merge with MS Project? Does ANYTHING merge
with MS Project? I think I might be back in the Virtual PC world again....
I need this functionality and do not want to spend a gazillion
dollars on software for the Mac at this time. I just spent a chunk by
purchasing the computer! I'll phase in new Mac stuff over time. I just
need to get the basics up and running.
Speaking of basics and not spending a gazillion dollars, my Mac
only has 256k of RAM. Where is the best place to get a deal on more RAM?
Your help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Greg
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