moving on

I am a Mac user. At times, a Mac snob. I have been using them regularly since my college days when I realized Macs are wonderful. My last year in college, I bought myself a Mac Powerbook G4. Nearly seven years later, I still use that same computer daily, for surfing the Internet, playing games, and doing graphic design. Well I did use it daily.

She and I probably spent thousands of hours together, laughing at lolcats, writing papers, and overcoming design challenges. She has been good to me. Her hard drive always retrieved the file I requested and she always booted without fail. I was usually hard on her. I would make her process and manipulate gigantic image files, multi-task on the Internet, and let her sit in precarious places. She did take a tumble off the coffee table about 2 years ago, bending in the power supply port and taking a dent. Shortly after the power cord stopped powering the computer, so I ordered a new AC power cord, but she rallied on. Her battery stopped taking a charge a year before that, so she always needed to be plugged in.

These last few months, she has really shown her age. Playing WoW on her would bring her to her knees and seize. Image files were too much to handle, a simple file save would take several minutes. After a few hours use, she was almost too hot to touch. The power cord connection was so sensitive, if you bumped the computer a certain way, she would instantly shut off. There was the constant battle of the hard drive being full and moving files to an external hard drive.

Seeing the end in sight, I knew I had to line up a replacement. I would love another Mac, but as someone recently said, the "Mac Tax" is high. As in I knew I could get a lot more computer for my money if I went with a PC than a Mac. I needed a replacement now, that will serve me well for a few years, and cost me less money. It was much more sensible for me, and for us, as we are trying to live more frugal. So I ordered a PC, but it is not here yet. Yes, the Mac fan inside me is pouting, but she gets to play on a Mac at my job at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So we aren't really walking away from the Mac. There just won't be one at home for a while. Maybe one day again.

Sensing my plans, my Mac had a meltdown. Literally. About a week ago, I was at work and Zachary was at home with the day off. He was at his computer and he also had mine up and checking something on the Internet with it. As it has been lately, she suddenly shut off without warning. He futzed with the power connection a bit and it wasn't responding. He just left it alone and continued on his computer. Then he smelled a burning smell, a distinct electrical burning scent. And then to his surprise, sparks and flame appeared out the side of the power brick on my power cord. He quickly unplugged it and it stopped. This power brick and cord sits on a carpeted floor. If he wasn't home at the time this happened, our house could have easily burned down.

So... my Mac is officially decommissioned. I borrowed a power cord from a computer at work and booted her up one last time, to move files to my external hard drive. I didn't want to order a 3rd power cable and try to keep using her, as she seemed to run hot herself, and one fiery incident is one enough. I will miss my little lap warmer, we had a good run and outlasted my expectations. I would love to make something out of her. Too bad it wasn't a Mac Cube. Ever see the Mac Cube aquarium?


Now that is pretty neat.