actuality.log

People seem to underestimate (misunderestimate?) how introspective I am. One of the perks of living alone, apart from getting to freely shave in weird places, is that I have plenty of time to sit around and quietly ponder. What about? The answer to life, the universe, and everything. Me, my life, how it all fits in, where it’s all going. Anything and everything. I can literally spend days just sitting and thinking hard. It’s given me a great sense of inner peace, and a degree of self-knowledge that I doubt that few possess.

All was as it should be, until recently when it dawned on me that my degree of disconnection from the world—in a social, hermitey sense—was intimately tied to my degree of contentment with my self. The more content I was and the less attached I needed to be (to feel “whole”), the less attached I was getting. And the less attached I was getting, the more opportunity it provided for me to spend time just by myself; ending up more comfortable and content with myself!

(For the control systems junkies in the audience, imagine a very positively fed-back, closed loop system. And for the rest of us, imagine the situation where the retard on stage keeps insisting on taking his uncovered mike close to the annoyingly-loud speakers.)

This is getting dangerous, because one day I’m sure it will result in me losing my ability entirely to interact in pleasant company (or has that threshold already been crossed?). I know I want to break myself out of this loop. I want to change. Unfortunately, though I see that I ‘want’ to, I don’t clearly see ‘why’ I need to. And I’m afraid change won’t happen if I don’t reason it out for myself.

Which requires me to answer questions like, “Why do I need to talk to other people”? Definitely not a pleasant line of thought.

On a vaguely related note, during much of this introspection, I think I’m finally ready to articulate something that I’ve been trying to for a very long time. Here it goes:

I am a natural philosopher.

I am not an engineer, I’m not an applied mathematician, I am not a physicist, I am not a computational scientist … I am a natural philosopher, damn it.

It feels good to actually be able to put this in words. Now I don’t have to get shifty when I get asked in an academic setting, “So, just what is it that you do”? I can proudly say, “Why, I’m a natural philosopher, thank you for asking. I describe and ponder over the natural phenomena I observe”.

And, if you’re into this sort of thing, you might fancy this related article.

The following is a “trackback” to a post on another journal. This is my first trackback ever to anywhere, so I am not entirely sure as to whether this is the right way of going about it. Either way, here goes.

I didn’t realise kids could be so mean; especially over something so trivial. I’ve obviously been to school in a different system, and I don’t think there was this clear a separation between the “cool kids” and the “uncool kids” in my case. In any event, there wasn’t an undue amount of pressure to be a part of the cooler kids. Either that or I was inadvertently a part of the cooler kids, or just was too stupid to notice.

I’d like to think I would have shrugged something like this off. I’ve spent all my life totally outside the system—in terms of not forming an opinion because it’s “the cool thing” to do—and for the most part have ended up independent, original, and fully capable of making up my own mind regardless of what the mob does.

People seem to respect/admire this aspect of my life. But I am not so sure at times; it really is an oddly double-edged sword. (I tried to think of another reference considering what you just said, but my brain seemed to blank-out on me. Sorry.)

After an entire life of building an identity totally independent of what other people have to say about it, I sometimes yearn for just a few minutes of normalcy with a crowd where I just go ahead and do something, “just because everyone else is doing it”. I don’t care if it’s the stupid thing to do. I don’t want to be alone and cool—respected or otherwise—I just want to be accepted.

But I can’t. I’ll immediately declare it the irrational thing to do—and appear smart, or aloof, but definitely alone.

One of the problems with the intarweb is that whatever grand ideas you may have in the shower, by the time you actually sit down at a computer and try to write it up, you’ve turned into this weird sort of mindless, incapacitated consumer person. For instance, here are some of the glorious things I’ve waded through instead of coming up with something funny.

• Alice’s adventures in wonderland — When you’ve settled on being illiterate, the possibilities are limitless!
• Ha Ha Ha America — An extremely eye-opening look at why China is so awesome.
• Jake the Nazi: A memoir — Freakin’ hilarious. But not for the squeamish.
• Gay genes from moms — This is the kind of extreme research that distracts scientists while China heads toward world domination.
• Not an episode of the OC: My coke addiction — Sometimes, it perks me up to know how much worse life can be. Definitely not for the squeamish.
• Why Merom is so much cooler than Yonah — Or why one can never really be happy with a laptop purchase.

I also spent some time fetching the new Ubuntu live CD, Dapper Drake, and trying it out (my first or second time at giving it a spin, ever). While it’s quite polished, it’s very orange, and the fonts are fucked up. Only Red Hat/Fedora gets beautiful font rendering and selection right out of the box.

So, what were you browsing instead of working today? I really am curious.

There is one thing that’s bothered me ever since I came to this country, but I decided it’s best to shut up about it. After something I saw on TV yesterday, I realised how much it irked me, and I can’t keep quiet anymore. Before I begin, standard disclaimers apply. If you feel your pretty little feathers are going to be ruffled by reading this post, don’t. Stroll down over to the beach or something.

After a long time, I actually watched some TV last evening. I happened to catch the finale of one of the funnest reality shows around, and also got to see the season premier of another—featuring black/white people disguised as white/black people and experiencing life on the other side. While this premise is all nice and dandy, and it makes for good TV, there is something I don’t understand. Why do black people seem to define their identity around being black? Why is everything that happens to them (or doesn’t) have to do with their colour? Why is there so much hurt and repressed anger against a society that’s scheming to “put them down”? Why does every facet—from music to clothes to vernacular to mannerism to…—revolve around being black?

I understand that there were evil things done to your ancestors by the ancestors of another dominating culture. I understand that your great-great-grand-pappy was probably hauled on a boat from the dark continent and forced to work for pittance while having his rights trampled on by the dominating race. While I get why you’re angry, what I don’t see is why it’s so intense, and so pervasive.

Compare a generic black suburban family here,

with one in, let’s say, Uganda (it doesn’t really matter where).

Are you—you latte-sipping, SUV-driving, fubu- and bling-wearing denizen—seriously telling me your current generation doesn’t have it orders of magnitude better-off than that woman who has to walk 10 Km to fetch drinking water for her family? Even if it’s true that you’re not treated fairly and with a bias to this day?

Why so much resentment?

I am not excusing the actions of the ancestors of the white man. I am just wondering how you could possibly not realise how much worse it could have been. I am not taking sides because this is in no way my fight; I didn’t oppress you nor was I oppressed like you. I am just a curious fly on the wall.

In closing, I’d like to point out that this is just one man’s uninformed opinion. Opining accurately after carefully researching all the facts is just not how this journal operates. But you knew that already.

When they say, “Shake well before use” on a bottle of juice, what they really mean is, “Make sure the cap is tightly closed, then shake well before use”.

My poor carpet.

Maybe I should sue someone, because, you know, when in Rome…

I’m proud to announce some recent life changes; as proof that you don’t always need a shiny new computer to effect said changes.

o I’ve become rather conscientious about avoiding processed foods when the options present themselves. This basically means that anything overly prepared and packed with artificial goodness—as yummy as it may be—is a no-no.

o Barring minor lapses (usually unknowingly), I’ve managed to stay vegan for the order of weeks. This is replete with such joyous events as “cookies and milk” now implying (yucky, oil-for-fat based) vegan cookies and (equally repulsive, lactose free) soy milk.

o I’ve made it a point to be aware of and concentrate on my breathing, forcing myself to inhale and exhale slow, steadily, and deeply; each half of a breath now lasting 7–8 seconds. The interesting side effect of doing this, is that once I start concentrating hard on things like breathing—which are otherwise involuntary—it seems to leave my brain calmer as it’s less attentive to so much of the crap that’s out there.

o And finally, returning to the theme of food, I’ve also been trying to make sure I masticate (no, not what you just thought) well. As in real well. As in 30 chews for a bite of food well. Nothing I’ve eaten so far has stayed solid for so long, but the point again here is to concentrate on something which you would have otherwise taken for granted; to the same end as above.

Now if I just go entirely barefoot and get into marijuana, I can pick up my free-spirited-hippie license at the street corner.

I don’t often get into political affairs, not because I’m apolitical, but because I’m apathetic in general. But bear with me as I emerge from my shell and chime in with my ignorant remarks this evening.

All of today—every time I’ve browsed past a news channel—there has been something or the other about Bush’s talks with Dr. Singh on nuclear issues. I even saw some related clips on the BBC, and have surprisingly read up a bit on matters from the intarweb.

A couple of things that came up over and over in these reports pissed me off to no end.

1. STOP COMPARING INDIA AND IRAN. I know all your Iranian friends will keep referring to themselves as Persian (and NOT ARAB) in an attempt to reconnect with a (glorious?) past they aren’t willing to let go, but,

“India is a highly democratic, peaceful, stable state that has not proliferated nuclear weapons. Iran is an autocratic state mistrusted by nearly all countries and that has violated its international commitments.”

— R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. My attempts would have resulted in offensive (potentially racist) profanity.

2. INDIA’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH STOCKPILING AMMUNITION AGAINST CHINA/PAKISTAN. We are proud people, and we probably lack resources, but we enjoy highlighting our self-sufficiency. All of our technology is in-house, and NOT SIGNING your stupid nonproliferation treaty and harping about our tests is just a means of rubbing into your face that “We can do it too. Better, cheaper, without your help. We are smart.”

I repeat, we are proud people. It has nothing to do with actually wanting or needing weapons. We “fought” for our own independence through peaceable means for god’s sake. We have the energy needs of a billion+ people to worry about. While you might have your wonderful oil resources (which you (mis)appropriate through wars), we only have a quarter of the world’s thorium. What else do you suggest we use? Herbal petrol?

There, I said it. And I’m certain my choice of words in this post got my journal flagged in some NSA watch-list, forcing some overweight slob to read through it in detail each evening while slobbering over his doughnuts.

Update: Related to what I was trying to say in this TIME article.

“The biggest hurdles to a bright future are the habits of the past. Sensitivity to foreign interference in its internal affairs is high in India, where a history of opposing imperialism has produced one of the proudest nations on earth. No Indian government could accept a relationship with the U.S. in which it was obviously the junior partner.”

From the opening paragraph on their review of the Macbook Pro:

“Remember the famous five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance? If you’re a fan of the Macintosh computer, meet the five stages of switching to Apple’s new laptop: lust, anticipation, delight, dismay and waiting.”

I wish I were as articulate as that when it came to expressing myself.

With those objective differences out of the way, now onto the more touchy-feely issues I had. Some trivial, some not, and in no particular order. (None of which are disputable; I’m not a reasonable person.)

1. After I’d initially ordered the MBP, I spent hours of my days looking at things like this, this and this to augment my purchase. We wouldn’t want our sexual preferences to be that apparent now, would we?
2. The T60p I’ve now picked is higher spec’d in every respect, and cheaper. I disliked the thought of being treated like a “Mac fanboy” who’d happily get shafted by Apple. Getting shafted by IBM however, I can handle.
3. I get to try out the T60p for a month, and return it if I’m unsatisfied for whatever reason—no questions asked. I like the sound of that. Contrast that with Apple’s, “You buy a configured machine from us, you’re stuck with it no matter what problems you may face” policy.
4. The T60p runs much cooler, has a better battery life and the aspect ratio of its dimensions are more standard; not ungodly 17″-like wide like the MBP. I am willing to sacrifice some thickness for the reduced width, besides; it now fits in a cute bag I was eyeing.
5. The T60p doesn’t have a magnetic power cord jack like the MBP. Imagine what that could have done to my credit card, external hard drives or worse. But the real issue is, after I’d accidentally erased my card and went to the bank to replace it, I’ll have to listen to that old lady’s spiel on how women are so more careful with their stuff than men!
6. I am also quite intrigued by the possibility of wireless-broadband-everywhere that the T60p provides. Goodbye even more, social life.
7. I wasn’t ever drawn to OS X in the first place; I just wanted a fast, rugged, sleek x86 laptop to run GNU/Linux. Apple is not really free software friendly; no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise.
8. Having to replace a UNIX (Mac OS X) with another UNIX (GNU/Linux), because Apple’s Darwin kernel is less performant than linux ON THEIR OWN HARDWARE, seemed quite retarded. The least they could have done is to not require that distribution makers run through hoops (even if minor) getting their OSs booted on x86 Apple machines.
9. ThinkPads on the other hand are historically GNU/Linux friendly. Even the more esoteric things on the laptop, like the fingerprint reader, already have working linux support. I must say I am impressed.

I spent a couple of weeks using OS X a lot, and snagged and browsed every OS X (written for UNIX geeks) book I could find. Here are some UI issues I still have with Macs:

• One fucking mouse button.
• I am a very heavy Emacs user, and I need my ctrl and alt buttons where I want them.
• Even on powerful machines, in my limited experience, OS X seems a little laggy.
• There is usually only one “right way” of doing things, and it isn’t always intuitive as to what it is. I hated feeling like an idiot not knowing how to do simple things. I am not in a frame of mind to reset all that I know, well, and have to relearn redundant, even if arguably fun, information.
• It’s not really (a) UNIX (you’re used to). I mean it is, but it’s so warped, it isn’t. I hated feeling like I didn’t know where what goes and such, reiterating the last point. Don’t even get me started on sudo.
• It’s stuffy and lacks configurability. Some effects quickly go from being “Oh, so shiny” to being downright cheesy. But everything that annoys you cannot be turned off, because, well, Apple deems it so.

Mac users (at least the ones that popup in various fora across the intarweb) seem to be a bunch of whiners. I am not sure if their spoilt-bratisms arise out of being so well treated by Apple in the past, or if they’re just a bunch of whiners, period. Since the release of the MBP a couple of weeks ago, less than 1% of the user reviews I’ve read of it have been positive. Here’s a sampling of the delightful things you’re subjected to instead.

• ARRGHH, it’s making this annoying whining noise. It annoys me so much I can’t sit at it and it aggravates my migraines.
• MY SCREEN IS WARPED. I took it out of the box and my aluminium screen was clearly bent, but Apple told me that was a cosmetic defect which they don’t replace.
• I have a GROWING PATCH OF DEAD PIXELS on my screen!!! When I called Apple they said they’d replace it only if it crossed a certain number of dead pixels.
• (And, in case they do send it in for replacement.) I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY PUT ME AT THE BACK OF THE QUEUE. I have to wait for FOUR MORE WEEKS for my computer. ARGGH.
• The resolution is SO LOW FOR THIS SCREEN SIZE. Even my Powerbook had a better resolution. The fonts RENDER FUZZILY.
• The LCD brightness is INCONSISTENT. It is arbitrarily brighter in some regions and darker elsewhere.
• It runs SO HOT. After a short while, my KEYS ARE TOO HOT TO TOUCH.
• The screen ONLY OPENS TO 120^o. I need a 135^o opening angle like my PowerBook!!

You know what you bunch of whiners? STFU. Stop exaggerating. But this is not the response the more seasoned Apple devotees will give them. Instead, they go, “You bought a revision A (first generation) product, what did you expect? Every company has issues with transitions”. Umm, so, it’s OK?

1. I really assumed Mac users are generally a bit more technically aware than your standard windows counterpart. Not so. Even the simplest questions you ask them (“Oh, so where is the menu where I can turn this off?”) will result in a standard response. They will point you to a “freeware/shareware/adware” application that does it for you. Quickly followed by a “I really like it, it’s worth the 50 bucks. Get it!!!”. It’s like they haven’t heard of free software, or just DOING IT YOUR FUCKING SELF.
2. On the other hand, not one of the T60 reviewers was unhappy with their purchase. They were, in fact, ecstatic. I am not saying that makes it a better product, I am just talking about the apparent maturity of the users.
3. The existence of resources like Thinkwiki, and a vibrant GNU/Linux community.

I was a little distraught when I wrote the last post, but I plan to be more rational this time. This post will contain a careful comparison between the Macbook Pro (MBP) and the Thinkpad T60p (T60p) to, you know, help me rationalise what it is I was thinking when I hit that cancel button on the MBP and chose the T60p instead. These are just notes to self.

Update: Here are the factors supporting my decision to pick the T60p over the MBP. The factors countering my decision are still being written up.

Criterion	Macbook Pro (Z0DF)	Thinkpad T60P (2007C8U)
Customised Price*	$2,818.54	$2,617.14
Mouse Buttons	1	3
Processor	Intel Core Duo: 2 x 2 GHz (2 MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB)	Intel Core Duo: 2 x 2.16 GHz (2 MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Memory (RAM)	2 GB (PC2-5300)	2 GB (PC2-5300)
Maximum Memory	2 GB (PC2-5300)	3 GB (PC2-5300)
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 (256 MB GDDR3)	ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 (256 MB GDDR3)
Native Display	15.4″ 1440 x 900 Widescreen (Millions of colours)	15.0″ 1600 x 1200 (Millions of colours)
Hard drive	100 GB Serial ATA drive (7200 rpm)	100 GB Serial ATA drive (7200 rpm)
Networking	10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g) Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Bluetooth 2.4 GHz Verizon Sierra CDMA2000
Optical Media	DVD±RW/CD-RW	DVD±RW/CD-RW
Expansion	1 ExpressCard/34 slot	1 Type I/II slot 1 ExpressCard/54 or 34 slot
Dimensions	1.0″ (h) x 14.1″ (w) x 9.6″ (d)	1.4″ (h) x 13.0″ (w) x 10.5″ (d)
Mass	5.6 lb	6.00 lb
Battery	60 Watt-hour lithium-polymer	9 Cell Lithium-Ion (14.4 V)
Battery Life**	3.5 Hours	5.2 Hours
Basic Warranty	1 year limited warranty	3 years limited warranty
Cover Material	Aluminium	Magnesium
Supported OSs	Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)	Windows XP Professional Windows 2000 PC DOS 2000
Bootup Technology	Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)	Flash ROM BIOS
Gimmicks	Magsafe connector Apple remote Isight camera	3G Wireless Fingerprint reader

^* Final-final price, after all academic discounts and taxes.
^** Averages of values I’ve seen reported under minimal use.

The following is an example of the aforementioned “academic discounts”.

:(

A number of factors[1] contributed to this, but:

 Thank you for contacting the Apple Store.

 Your order W1944xxxx has been successfully cancelled.



 Product #   Product Description                      Qty     Price   Ext Price
 __________  ______________________________        ______  ________  __________
 Z0DF        MBPRO 15/2.0 CTO                           1  2,659.00    2,659.00

             With the following configuration:

             Processor                 065-6460  2.0GHz Intel Core Duo/256MB
             Memory                    065-6107  2GB 667 DDR2- 2x1GB SO-DIMMs
             Hard Drive                065-6106  100GB Serial ATA Drive@7200rpm
             Optical Drive             065-6096  SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
             Modem                     065-6201  None
             Apple Software Solutions  065-6200  None
             Keyboard/Mac OS Language  065-6461  BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS
             Country Kit/AEX           065-6102  Airport Extreme Card&BT
 _______________________________________________________________________________



             Subtotal:                   $       2,659.00
             Sales Tax:                  $         159.54
             Total price for your order: $       2,818.54

 Because you have successfully cancelled this order, you have not been
 billed for the items listed above.

[1] Those issues primarily include Apple kicking free software people squa’ in the nuts, and finding a better spec’d Thinkpad. I wish I didn’t feel so sad.

Today’s post was fuelled by comments on the last one.

I’m currently in my fourth year[1] of graduate school “working” on my PhDs, and I’m one class short of a master’s degree in mathematics. Is that something I signed up for when I entered grad school? No. Is that something that’s immediately necessary—in the sense that it’ll greatly enhance my knowledge/capacity/chances of landing a stupendous job? No. Is it something that I’m insanely passionate about or care a great deal for? Not really. But is it something I’m going to get just-for-the-heck-of-it anyway? Hell yes!

If you’re still with me, there is a point to what I’m saying, and I’ll get to it.

Just like everybody else, I’m decent at doing a few things and suck at just about everything else. But, unlike most people who are forced out of their niche, I’ve ended up structuring my life so that I don’t (need to) deviate in the teensiest from what I believe “comes naturally” to me.

If you asked me to jot down what I’d be doing if I weren’t a science geek, I’d probably rattle off a few things—composing/performing music, partaking in a form of creative expression like advertising[2], being a pastry chef, … and that’s about it. If you’re looking for a common thread here, there isn’t one other than my belief that I could live a life doing any of these things with no real effort from my end—like how things are now with being a science geek.

But, while I’m quite OK with doing much in areas I deem trivial—even if I don’t particularly care for it, like the math master’s[3]—I am strictly opposed to the prospect of “working hard” toward achieving an end because it’s something that doesn’t come naturally to me.

Now, herein lies my predicament.

Since it has all come so easily to me in the one prominent and persistent aspect of my life—school—I’ve gotten quite spoilt and expect it all to naturally be handed to me everywhere else as well. Because I deserve it(TM). The rational part of me comprehends that this is bollocks, and that I’m screwed, but that hasn’t seemed to change my outlook toward the world.

Hypersensitive to detail as they are, women’s internal red-light warning beacons shine brightly when they get wind of this, because in their eyes, I’m just this ambiguous floater who won’t “fight for them” given the need[4]. And that I will flake out if the relationship shifts from play… to work. While I wouldn’t declare these fears unfounded, I think it’s harsh. Because I believe that when all the chips fall in place, relationships can be a breeze too.

Just like every other aspect I allow in my life[5].

[1] That’s 4 years + 4 years undergrad + 12 years school + 2 years kindergarten + 1 year preschool; for the number junkies in the audience keeping track of this sort of thing.
[2] Clearly, watching programs based on what sorts of ads run during their breaks qualifies me an expert.
[3] According to my math-averse friends, this isn’t in the least trivial. But that’s not the point; it’s still trivial to me.
[4] A remnant from cavewoman times.
[5] And that, my lovelies, is one of the non-trivial reasons I am still alone. And, it’s not that this is a point of view that is trivial to fix; so it won’t be.

Alright people, it so happens that my life has (and I have) been sort of bleh for a while now. Apart from a constant daily grind that I’m ambivalent about, I’ve also been feeling remarkably uncreative. I’ve been sleeping oddly (2–3 days without sleep, followed by a day or so entirely sleeping); and spending a good chunk of my waking moments salivating over my new not-yet-shipped computer hasn’t helped either.

Somewhere along the line (my hiatus coupled with only being active online at Mac forums), my site’s primary traffic base has shifted (so says google analytics) from being 9/10 chic women to 10/10 Mac geeks (6/10 UNIXish + 4/10 Artsy).

I am not particularly pleased by that, but I’m not in a capacity or frame of mind to reverse the trend either. Which, I must admit, sucks.

But I figure I might as well kick up some uproar by violating confidence and posting some recent communication. I’m going to snip all informative regions, highlight the sections I found most controversial, and sit back and watch the fun. I am not even going to get into whether I agree or not with the mailer.

From an e-mail to me:

I have actually moved-on to making small bags of money (more like pouches than bags I think) at a job that seems to be less real than grad school.

… snip …

The plan is to try some totally different field for a little while, to see how I like it compared to good old engineering.

… snip …

It looks like you’re getting good action down there with junior girls and what not. Desi chicks aren’t really top drawer stuff. As discussed, a downhill slope from our VM days. And everyone seems to be married/hooked up already. I wonder if the old cliche about the best one being already taken is true.

… snip …

And I just have to add this for effect. Two (and I’m limiting it to two) adjectives that women back home have brought up when the conversation steered toward women here are: Phirangi[1] slut and Caucasian bimbo. In light of what the mailer above had to say, how am I to intepret this malevolence?

>:)

[1] I don’t know Hindi, so I don’t know what phirangi means. I’ve just assumed it to be foreign. I tend to assume a lot.

Unlike most men who tend to brag about even their most minor exploits, I tend to stay very quiet. And being someone who spends a good chunk of his existence carefully observing the system and intelligently (ab)using loopholes, it appears as though I have very little to say.

It’s an odd feeling; being proud of and wanting to scream out loud everything you’ve accomplished, but shutting up because you know it’s the only smart think to do.

(I’d written up a version of what I paste below to present to a Mac audience, basically asking the question, “How free software friendly is OS X”? As it turns out, Fink and DarwinPorts provide a free software package management system atop Darwin/OS X—just like any decent UNIX(R) OS. And that means I might run OS X for a while after all!)

When Apple first announced its shift to Intel processors last year, I recall a slew of articles from die-hard Apple fans who almost seemed to feel cheated. It seemed as though the one thing that differentiated them from the rest of the PC world was snatched away from them—while they were kicking and screaming.

Now I’m probably in the minority, but I was personally very pleased by this decision. It has caused me—someone who has appreciated but never really considered Apple machines—to order a relatively expensive laptop from them. Clearly, this move won them at least one additional customer.

But where am I coming from?

I’m a geek who’s been around x86 machines since I was 2 (two). And currently, after all these years, I am working on PhDs—in applied mechanics and scientific computing—where I get to play with large clusters (x86, of course). My primary work environment has been GNU/Linux for over a decade now, and exclusively for the past few years. And no, I haven’t a life, or friends.

Though I’ve had access to very capable generic machines, I’ve always enjoyed the visual appeal and unexplainable charm that Apple hardware presented (Yes, I’m looking at you, delectably-drool-worthy Orange iBook). But tantalising as they’ve been, the rational portion of my brain kept reminding me—different architecture: endianness, RISC/CISC, … . I am in no way saying it is inferior or bad; it’s just that I was not used to it and felt uneasy at the thought of making it my primary computing platform. This is the same mentality—but in the opposite direction—that drove those “I feel so cheated” articles I mentioned earlier.

Now before you go, “Why do you care what’s on the inside?”, I’d like to remind you I’m a geek, and these things matter to me. I care primarily because I work on things like optimising numerical libraries at low levels for a living, but even if I didn’t, I would feel strongly for some rabid-pseudo-religious reason or the other. Sometimes, you’re just entrenched and comfortable with what you’ve known and come to love, that’s all.

Which brings me back to the point of this story. Now that the shift to Intel processors had begun, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to pick up my x86y goodness in a fabulous casing with cool glowey LEDs; and I did. I know this will aggravate the more hard-core Apple fans, but I say “x86 goodness in a fabulous casing” because I’m thinking of it as just that: a regular, albeit attractive, PC variant. All the components inside seem generic enough, and I was carefully considering another close equivalent to the MacBook Pro.

I know. You’re going to scream “But what about OS X and all the other software goodies!?!”.

Honestly, I don’t know.

Being at a university, I’ve had the opportunity to use OS X from time to time, but never really long or seriously enough to form an opinion as to whether I love it or not. Until a few minutes ago, I was quite certain I was going replace OS X with a capable GNU/Linux distribution the moment I got my grimy little hands on my new machine. I would then have all that I wanted, a hardware and software platform I was used to and learnt to love, and the exterior shininess I’d pined for. But it just dawned on me that OS X being a UNIX(R) variant (even if quite seriously bastardised at that), and my lack of plans to do anything too fancy, that maybe it would foot the bill as my primary work environment.

So, here’s where I get to my question. I spent a few minutes jotting down my most-used applications (as an indicator of the sorts of tasks I do), and was wondering how much of this could be achieved natively in OS X? I am OK with the idea of installing an additional X server, for the applications that don’t like drawing using Apple’s own shiny graphics subsystem, but I am not OK with the recreating a GNU/Linux environment (ala Cygwin) inside OS X (to provide what it ought to in the first place).

Though I’m a bit of a Free Software zealot, and would probably move on to GNU/Linux anyway as soon as it were possible, I would love to explore the idea of just using a slick UNIX(R) based OS to get all that I need done, plus offering me some of the much-talked-about award-winning über-intuitive hyper-usability-tested interface done just right(TM). Maybe I will give OS X a whirl exclusively for a couple of months before making up my mind. Anyway, without stalling anymore, here is a list of my most used applications and often performed tasks.

All the time:
Bash shell
“Standard” command line utilities (e.g. gawk, grep, wget, diff, patch, …)
GNU Emacs (Just about all programming and writing)
GNU Screen (Multi-tasking)
Mozilla Thunderbird (E-mail, mailing lists, news, web logs, podcasts, …)

Often:
Mozilla Firefox (Browsing the Internet)
Gaim (Instant messaging)
Rhythmbox (Listening to music)
MPlayer (Playing files in every media format under the sun)
SSH (Secure remote access)

GCC/Intel Compilers (Building C/C++/Fortran code)
CVS/Subversion/Arch (Revision control)

LaTeX (Typesetting documents)
xpdf/xdvi (Viewing typeset documents)

The GIMP + ufRAW (Photo/Image processing)
Inkscape (Simple drawing)

Matlab/Octave (Prototyping code)
Mathematica/Maxima (Tedious algebra)

Less often:
GDB/DDD (Debugging code)
Ripping audio CDs to FLAC/Ogg Vorbis
Burning data and audio CDs
Mozilla Sunbird (Maintain my schedule)

Rarely:
Azureus (Download ISOs and such)
Audacity (Record and edit audio)

I would also like to (but currently can’t) try out voice conversations via services like Google Talk, but it’s not a requisite.

So, friendly Mac users, can all of these apps be run natively in OS X? If not, what would it take? Could you suggest alternative applications? What about programming libraries? Do the GNU auto-build-tools work seamlessly on OS X too? (As in can I just fetch, for instance, the GIMP and its dependencies, and build it without much mucking around?)

Anything else I ought to know?

And thank you thank you for your patience if you get to this point.