UPDATE:  I was able to return the old MBP for a new one at the Apple Store.  The new MBP does not have the noise, and my time machine backup restored to the new machine perfectly.  I have to say that I’m very pleased with the service and support with Apple.  I’m totally sold on Apple now!

Oh, yeah! I’ve been waiting for this for several months. My daughter has saved her money and was ready to buy a macbook in September, and I told her to wait because new ones were coming soon. This was just before the big 9/9/08 iPod event was announced as an iPod event and rumors were that new notebooks would be announced then. We were both a bit disappointed then, and have been waiting anxiously for this 10/14 announcement. You see, I also have been saving up for a macbook, and have been holding off purchase until new models come out.

You’ll see me at the Apple store 10/14 or 15. We’ll be doing our part to rescue the economy…

The New Tab page with the 9 most visited pages, recent bookmarks and searches is cool! See the image.

This is just my first impression – so far, so good.

Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.

Maybe they should cut the tweet size down from 140 characters, or get a few more servers?

It is a bit frustrating…

1. Make it daily anyway.

The first solution is to turn almost-daily habits into daily habits. Sometimes it’s no big deal to continue the habit even when it isn’t necessary, and the upside is that you’ll have a stronger habit with less risk of losing ground.

For example, I like to get up early 7 days a week. I find this much easier to maintain than getting up early 5-6 days per week. If I get up at 5am every single morning, it’s really no big deal. But if I stay out late one night and sleep in until 7am, it’s always harder to get up at 5am the following morning. Every once in a while I’ll stay out past midnight and sleep in late, but my default is to get up with the alarm at the same time every morning.

Even though I don’t need to get up early every day, the habit is beneficial for me every day, so there’s no reason to limit it to weekdays. Although it might seem harder to do it 7 days instead of 5-6 days, it’s actually easier to be consistent.

With close to 100% daily consistency, a habit will typically maintain itself on autopilot, so you don’t even have to think about it anymore. But with 80-90% consistency, the contrast between your on and off days is always in the back of your mind. Do I have to get up early tomorrow, or can I sleep in late? Do I need to exercise tomorrow, or can I skip it? If you have a lot of almost-daily habits, this can be a big cognitive burden and quite a distraction. Maintaining good habits becomes much more difficult than necessary.

Mac fans, Please convince me to continue saving for the Macbook instead of spending the accumulated savings on another PC laptop.

I keep telling myself that I’ve always dreamed of Apple machines all the way back to the original Apple, but they have always been a little pricey, and I’ve always purchased a Windows machine for less.

I like the fact that on a Mac, I can pull up a terminal and do Unix, and run applications for the Linux world easily on the Mac, and can even use parallels to run Windows.

I love the design- clean keyboard, magnetic power cord, etc.

I’m really impressed with the new OS X Leopard, and want to try it out. And all the software that comes bundled with my dream machine is pretty cool.

My concerns are: Current Windows laptops are getting closer to the macbooks, like having built in webcams, and if I spend $1500 on a windows machine, I am pretty sure that I would get better specs, probably much better graphics, more RAM and larger HD.

So, Let me know your thoughts. I want to be convinced to keep saving, but the money is starting to burn a hole in my pocket.

Having this medically enforced time of reflection has motivated me to get back on the wagon with many of my daily habits, like running and writing.  I have not really been able to think much, but maybe that is a good thing.

Flu, you are a worthy adversary, but I will eventually prevail.