Quick note here before starting the day – something monumental happened yesterday and I would hate to overlook it. John got his Permanent Residency for Canada, meaning he’s now a full-fledged immigrant of this fine nation.

You can read all of John’s posts about the immigration process on his blog.

We’re both pretty excited and just so you know, he’s ready and willing to start working, you know should any employment opportunities arise any time soon. You know, just so you know.

A while ago Buzz Bishop, local radio host [Z95], blogger [MacBlog], podcaster, techie writer [Cyberbuzz] and friend of Miss604.com asked to get my story about making the switch from PC to Mac. I’ve done several posts to express how much of a newbie I am with my Macbook [tag: mac vs pc] and Buzz decided to capture the essence in an article he wrote for this month’s issue of Vancouver View Magazine.

…The MacBook travels well, unlike the big beast of a PC, or “Frankenbox” as Rebecca calls it, dominating her home’s office furniture. Her PC is “an ugly beige tower pieced together with miscellaneous parts that sounds like a harbour plane taking off when it boots up.”

And that description of the ol’ PC rings true with a lot of us.

Business Week Magazine reported last year that close to half a million new Mac owners were expected through sales at Apple retail stores alone. Add in those who buy units second hand, online or through authorized resellers and you’ve got a population surge that is making some noise.

But the iSwitch isn’t always smooth. It’s like learning a new language, it takes time and practice… [Read more in Vancouver View Magazine]

The May issue of Vancouver View is available now at your local newsstand, and the Mac-generated blog posts about the switch will certainly continue on this site. After all, I just got setup with a Mac mini at work, the adventure continues.

Vancouver View Magazine Article by Buzz Bishop – May 2007

Rebecca’s dad brought home her family’s first PC in 1989.

“We played Spacewars and basked in the orange glow of the monitor,” she remembers.

Over the next 18 years as she moved from MS-DOS to Windows3.1 to Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows XP she learned all things Microsoft. Have a problem with your PC? Rebecca claims she can solve it “with my hands tied behind my back.”

Then came a day this March when her Microsoft made world crumbled – she bought a MacBook after much goading from her friends and colleagues.

“Attending various social media conferences around Vancouver I’m always the outcast either being a) the only one with a notepad and paper, or b) the only one who doesn’t have a Mac laptop or a Mac at home,“ says Rebecca, better known online as Miss 604, a popular Vancouver blogger and podcaster.

Even her husband, John, is a member of the Mac Nation. As a child, when asked to draw an apple in class, he would draw the Apple logo, not the fruit. So perhaps the question isn’t why did Rebecca make the iSwitch, but how did she hold out for so long?

I mean, John’s family has a first edition Macintosh with all the signatures of every Apple employee on the inside!

“Yes, you could say I married into Mac,” she finally admits.

So there it is, sitting on her kitchen table. A glistening white MacBook. Crisp and clean and ready to play. And it’s totally comfortable in the kitchen. The MacBook travels well, unlike the big beast of a PC, or “Frankenbox” as Rebecca calls it, dominating her home’s office furniture. Her PC is “an ugly beige tower pieced together with miscellaneous parts that sounds like a harbour plane taking off when it boots up.”

And that description of the ol’ PC rings true with a lot of us.

Business Week Magazine reported last year that close to half a million new Mac owners were expected through sales at Apple retail stores alone. Add in those who buy units second hand, online or through authorized resellers and you’ve got a population surge that is making some noise.

But the iSwitch isn’t always smooth. It’s like learning a new language, it takes time and practice.

Even for a pro like Rebecca, the changes were still hard to deal with. “Being somewhat of a control freak and knowing FAR too much about Windows systems I really didn’t have too much fun during the adjustment period, which lasted about a week.”

“I’ve been used to having a certain file management system – iPhoto has completely turned this upside down and although I should be feeling free of my shackles, it just annoys me. ‘It’s photo management, not file management,’ says my husband.”

But in the end, the ease of use wins out.

“When things are this simple they just blow my mind,” she remarks. “Not to mention everything is just so sleek.”

Yes, the sex appeal of the Mac is very seductive. It’s the cool, good looking person in the bar that must be too good for you, has to be too good for you, but when you get over the intimidation and walk over and finally say “Hello”, you’re pleasantly surprised how friendly and down to earth they are.

Rebecca took the plunge, introduced herself to the Mac and now lives by a new mantra:

“You can do everything on a Mac that you can do on a PC, it’s just easier and looks better.”

“It’s just that “easier” part that I’m still adjusting to.”

You catch Rebecca’s new Mac-made blogs at Miss604.com

He’s at it again! DaveO takes his Canucks Outsider podcast live and streaming again for tonight’s game.

TODAY May 1, 2007 from 7:15p.m. Pacific until the end of the game for a live Canucks Outsider Videocast during Game 4 of the Canucks / Anahem Ducks series!

During the video cast we’d love to hear from you as follows:

* IRC: #canucks-outsider on irc.freenode.net

* ustream chat: ustream.tv/canucksoutsider (requires Java)

* skype to northvandave

John and I will be present tonight so log on to the live chat and stream to interact with us while we all cheer on our Canucks.

*Update: The stream went well, too bad the game didn’t end in our favour. Dan Lilly actually caught some of the excitement at GM Place before the puck dropped – ahhh less desperate times… we’ll get’em in game 5 though right?…. Right?

A few of my photos from the live stream tonight are up on my Flickr.

Yesterday after signing into my personalized Google homepage I noticed the Google logo to the left of the search bar changed to “iGoogle”. Now I think this pertains to the Firefox iGoogle plugin but could it also have something to do with the new themes being offered.

Today we’re releasing six themes for the personalized homepage that try to solve these challenges: a city, a teahouse (super cute — this one is my favorite), a winter scene, a sky, a beach and a bus stop [Google Blog]

I really hadn’t noticed this new feature until yesterday although if I poke around the net there’s even a digg from 2005 talking about iGoogle. Regardless, I just selected the lovely “Beach” theme and discovered the following as well.

All of our themes are dynamic: they change with your own local time of day, current weather conditions or season. If you add the beach theme, for example (changes with time of day), it will ask you for your Zip code and adjust itself to match your local sunrise and sunset times. [Google Blog]

It’s a cute idea and it does spice up your Google homepage, but I’m not super excited about it. I suppose I’ll have to track the sun on my beach scape theme today and see how it grows on me.