Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Now that I've seen a picture of the black iBook, I want the white one. Looks just like the IBM ThinkPad that I already have and never use.  

Decide for yourself 

Here are two events, you can decide for yourself, if it's a coincidence, or a marvelous example of planned obsolescence.

1. Last night before dinner I logged on to check my mail, and my Mac laptop said very politely, in several languages: Please reboot me. So I did, and I started to write a blog post about it, but it asked to be rebooted again, so I did it again. And again, and again, and again. Until I realized, sadly, that the Mac is broken.

2. At almost exactly the same time, Apple announces a new consumer laptop, the replacement for the Mac that broke, with a faster CPU, a slightly larger screen, and it comes in black too. Normally I'd lust after this machine, esp in black, but maybe Apple sent a message to my Mac, to seal the deal. "Tell Dave in your own Mac-like way that it's time to cough up another $1500 for Uncle Steve. Love Apple."

So, dear reader, do I decide that I've gotten enough use out of this lovely laptop (no sarcasm) or should I try to have it repaired? Should I drive down to the nearest Mac store and buy a new black one (but they're probably sold out) or should I try to install a fresh copy of the OS on my old machine?

All the data (knock wood) is backed up, in case you're wondering.

I'm leaning toward driving to the Mac store.

Sticker shock 

I went for a walk yesterday along the beach in Coronado, across the bay from San Diego. Nice beach, and there are some nice houses on Ocean Boulevard, which is adjacent to the beach. One was for sale, a kind of ordinary semi-run-down ranch house. They had brochures, so I took one. I was more than surprised when I saw the price.