Oxymoron: Mac Instruction Manual
Written: Mar 17 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent, thorough, well organized, helpful
Cons: Not especially necessary, I mean, it an Apple
The Bottom Line: This is a really well put together instruction manual for a computer that is so well put together that you don't need an instruction manual.
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| Darkmistress's Full Review: How To Do Everything With Your Imac 2ND Edition Bo... |
What possessed me to think I needed a book about on how to operate a Mac? Well, for one I didn’t have the wonderful Blue Meanie and Max wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye yet.
Have I mentioned that the first computer I worked on was a TRaSh 80 from Radio Shack? I was so terrorized by the experience that I'm still a little singed around the edges. At the time I bought the book, I was sitting at a Psychic Fair at a local book store burning time between customers (you didn’t know I was psychic did you? I knew that.) I was slaving away as the completely unappreciated circulation manager for an itty bitty city regional magazine, working on the Green Eyed Monster (the iMac provided by my employer before they took my desk away) and dreaming about the day I would own my own Purple People Eater. I ended up with the Blue Meanie due to the marketing practices of Apple Computers. Steve Jobs is all powerful and he thwarted me from ever owning my purple computer.
I sense that you’re noticing my digression. The book!
I bought the book to help me through the early computer owning jitters and read it cover to cover like the hopeless sucker that I am. In the three years that I have owned the book and the two years Blue Meanie has lived with me I have learned 2 things:
1) You do not need a manual to figure out how to use your Mac. PC people, you have no idea how simple life can be. There’s a very good reason we pay more for a computer that doesn’t play many games.
2) The book is occasionally helpful for trivia and settling curiosity.
It’s not the book’s fault, really. It took me 20 minutes to figure out how to use iTunes because I was over thinking it. If I hadn’t been it would have taken 5, 2 of which would have been saving the song to the hard drive. Macs are made to be simple.
The book is written in a clear and entertaining style and I do like it better than trying to get information off the Help menu, but that’s because I’ve worked in libraries and bookstores too long and my way of research is different from most folks. I recommend it as a good thing to have around for people who get caught reading the thesaurus because the words are all so interesting. But you really don’t need an instruction manual for your Mac. In fact, you’d probably be better off with a subscription to MacAddict Magazine (but it’ll cost more.)
So, the upshot. Sure it’s a good book and may come in handy for those 3 am problems before you find your own personal help desk (I recommend sucking up to a Mac guru, but not everyone has that possibility;) or if you are, as I was, nervous about owning your first computer, you might need it. For the most part, through no fault of its own, this book is an oxymoron. You see the similarity don’t you? Peacekeeper missile; Mac instruction manual?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Darkmistress
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Location: Concepcion, Chile
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