Baboon Pirates

Scribbles and Scrawls from an unrepentant swashbuckling primate.

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Location: Texas, United States

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Well, Mom drank the Kool-Ade.

She's now officially living in the Apple "Reality Distortion Field".

She's been wanting her own computer for a while now. She and Dad are both retired, and they've both worn ruts in the carpet outside the guestroom/office by pacing & waiting for the other to get off the PC, a 6+ year old Dell refurb.

Dad's first suggestion was to get a cheap PC off of eBay. I nixed that idea for two reasons. First, you never know what kind of P.O.S. you're actually gonna get until you open the shipping carton, and 2 out of the 3 times times I've ebayed computer components, I've gotten screwed.

His next suggestion was to go for the $500 Compaq units they're selling at Walmart. Not too bad a suggestion, except that they're just a notch above a WebTV console, and my Windows knowledge (and willingness to troubleshoot same) stopped with Win98SE. While I could probably figure out XP, I have no desire to, and as the on-call computer-fixer, I'm going with what I know.

I debated loaning her my G4 iMac when I upgrade to a G5 iMac, but I'm not gonna do that until the new 10.4 Tiger OS comes pre-loaded on it, which will be sometime during Q1 of 2005, I hope. Besides, I've had multiple Macs on my desktop for years. With two G4 or better processor-equipped Macs as Primary and Server, I can finally retire my herd of 680x0 and PowerPC models to the garage. I can't bear the thought of getting rid of them... I've had my old PowerPC 6100 "pizza box" longer than most of my pets. The MacTV stays, though!
I digress... back to the tale.

I drove Mom down to the Apple Store at the Galleria to attend one of their 'beginner user' classes. I can explain until I'm blue in the face why *I* like Macs, but I'm not all that good at telling you why *you* should switch. Your computer type is a personal decision, shaped by your experiences and personality, IMHO. I just hoped the Apple techs could help seal the deal for us.

I was not real impressed by the guy's delivery, but I guess it was just good enough. She was wowed by the interconnectedness of all the applications, like Mail and iPhoto and iTunes. She found a great user's guide to OSX, and now can't wait to hook up her digital camera and start emailing pics of my sister's kid, when it finally arrives.

So, one more consumer turned away from the Dark Side. We'll take delivery of this cutie the first week of December. Dad's assimilation might take a few more months, but he'll come around eventually!