My Pseudo-Mac

Actually, I do own a Mac, but this one doesn't count. It's an iMac. No, not one of the new 24" C2D ones, nor the previous generation "lamplight-from-Pixar" that still seems to look pretty sleek. It's a graphite (circa ~2000) DV+ SE, which means that it has a loud 30 mb hard drive and a DVD-ROM. I found it on the street in the way home. In our neighborhood, if anything is left on the curb--be it a sofa, mattress, or computer--it's free game. I looked to my left, and then to my right, and no one was around. I even yelled, "Hey, is this anyone's computer?" Before long, I was hauling that anvil of a device into the backseat of my car.

I have upgraded the memory to 640mb, installed Tiger 10.4 and added an older version of iLife (the latest version won't install all programs). Even though I have all the functionality of the latest Apple operating system, I still don't consider this to be a full-fledged Mac. It's not merely because it's only worth $70 on craigslist. Nor is it because it still utilizes a CRT monitor. It's because I can't write to a DVD (which is the ultimate goal of most of iLife '06) and because I can't upgrade the graphics card. I can't even burn to a DVD through firewire (or at least iDVD won't work that way). I think the graphics megabytes are still in the single digit range. If you can't do any graphics intensive work, you might as well throw out iMovie, iDVD, and maybe even iPhoto (to say nothing of the Pro-apps from Apple).

Nevertheless, I like tinkering around with it. One thing in particular that I enjoy is the RSS feeds feature in Safari. In fact, if it weren't for Safari, I would have never experimented with feed aggregators. We're already on RSS 2.0. I didn't even know there was a RSS 1.0.

But until I reward myself some day with a new MacBook, or even go for broke with a MacPro, I will continue dreaming, and playing with my pseudo-mac.

Macs in my imagination

You may be wondering what my title is all about. I am a wannabe Mac Geek. I have been into Apple computers ever since the Apple IIe. You know what I'm talking about. Those big, lovely cardboard boxes that beeped when you hit Control-Reset to stop the hard dr--- excuse me, disk drive. And then the Macintosh came out. The 80s-era Apple community was awe-struck by it--much like the MacWorld audiences are today whenever Steve Jobs releases his "one more thing." And so the love affair began.

As much as I am a die-hard Mac fan, I do not own or use a Macintosh. I haven't had one since the year 2000. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. So I have resorted to carrying on this love affair in my mind. And now, I'd like to share with my readers these virtual escapes.