The new Mac

We recently received shipment on our new Mac (iMac) the other day. Finally! My old home computer was an old iMac (Graphite edition. See pic on the right) running OS 9. I remember how blazingly fast that computer seemed to be when I first got it. I remember how much storage space I thought I had. I remember how I thought that 128mb of RAM was great and huge! In the last few years, I've run out of space, the RAM is not large enough, it would lock up and crash many times. I was not able to run the latest, programs any longer. Features that I wanted / needed to use were not available for one reason or another. We have set aside the old iMac. We're not sure what we're going to do with it. I'll probably scrub it clean and reinstall the OS to get it up and running, but again, I'm not sure what the best use for it will be.

On the other hand, the new iMac is great. A 17" LCD screen. 2GHZ processor, and 1 gig of RAM. A CD DVD burner combo. We are using an external HD (250 gig) as backup. I've installed the newest version of photoshop and dreamweaver on it. Very nice! The machine is fast and very capable of running the latest software. We have enough space to begin creating files (movies for DVD burning etc.) in the applications. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the new Photoshop CS2. But it's vast and there is a LOT to learn! Sandy is learning Dreamweaver as she is diving into web design for fun and (possibly) profit!



Back to my thoughts about the "progress" of technology tho: It amazes me how quickly technology can become outdated or falls short of our (new) expectations. You wouldn't think of a computer as a "disposable" item like a lighter or a pair of chopsticks, but in the long run they really are. After using the tool for a given amount of time it simply will no do what you need it to and so you get a new one. The old one has lost so much value and is almost worthless. Almost; some of the heavy ones make good doorstops. I have an OLD toshiba laptop that I still hang on to. I used it in my first years of teaching. It has a monochrome (black and white) LCD screen. VERY dim. And basically all it can do now is simple word processing and a spreadsheet. The problem is, how do I get my work out? It doesn't have USB and if I put the file on a floppy where will I use that floppy elsewhere? The thing is heavy and the battery last just long enough for it to boot up so it can shut down.

I wonder how long it will be before the hot iMac we just bought will be turned into a doorstop?

By the way, since buying the iMac that we did, Apple has come out with a newer, slimmer, faster iMac with built in camera and upgraded mouse. I kid you not.