If you're a Mac person looking for a laptop, here's a deal

This is not paid advertising, but I've done business with these folks myself, found them to be pleasant and competent, and wanted to bring this to your attention:

Small Dog Electronics (an operation specializing in Macintoshes) has available for sale about fifty refurbished first-generation white MacBooks (with one-year Small Dog warranty) for $599. 1.83Ghz Core Duo, 80GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM. I would add a gigabyte of RAM (cheap these days) and you'd have a very nice machine for not much money.

In fact, you could add a honking big hard disk for not much money, too:

MacBook 13in 1.83GHz 1GB/60/combo/AP/BT white (Used, 1 year Small Dog warranty) $ 599.99
PC5300 SO-DIMM 1GB DDR2-667 - Ram Module (New, never used, 10 year factory warranty) 2 @ 39.99 = $ 79.98
250GB 2.5in SATA Hard Drive 5400 RPM (New, never used, 3 year factory warranty) $ 99.99

($60 more would get you 500 GB - personally I'd go for it.)

25 years of Macintosh

Dave Winer reminds us that this is the Mac's 25th anniversary year:

On January 24, 1984 a couple thousand people were present at Flint Center in Cupertino at the birth of something with real lasting value, the Macintosh.

[...]
Hard as it is to believe -- that was almost 25 years ago!
http://mac25.org/

My arc with Macintosh is not quite that long... I'm coming up on 20 years myself, with a couple of longish intervals of Windows/PC use:

First Mac purchased - Mac SE, 1989
(Other Macs owned: Macintosh LC, two PowerBooks... plus a couple of Newtons in there somewhere.)

Moved to NYC in 1996 as a Mac user (brought PowerBook with me) and promptly went to work for an all-Windows shop. :-)

Windows/Linux user from 1997-2005, despite an all-too-brief interregnum working in an all-Mac shop in 2000.

2006: After a bad experience with Microsoft Vista, I buy a Macbook for home use.

I liked it. I liked it a lot... and still do.

Most recent Mac purchases: 24" iMac, 2007; MacBook Air, 2008.

(And a couple of iPhones in there somewhere.)

So... from this:


To this:


In 20 years. Not bad.

Jobs pulled the original Mac out of a carrying bag in 1984 and it was a sensation ("never trust a computer you can't lift") - in 2008, he pulled the MacBook Air out of a standard manila interoffice envelope, and that was just the logical conclusion of a lot of advances in technology and engineering since 1984.

I really hope that Apple doesn't introduce the long-rumored tablet Mac at the upcoming MacWorld Expo... Steve Jobs' absence would suggest that AAPL will never again use MacWorld for major product introductions.

I hope they wait for warmer weather to announce general availability of the tablet Mac. I hate standing in line in the cold. (And I'm already on record as stating that I'm buying two of these - one for me and one for her.)

Related: Mactracker is a great walk down memory lane if you're an older Mac owner, or an owner of older Macs if you prefer.

Macs in suits

Millions of consumers are seeing the Mac in a new light. Once an object of devotion for students and artists, the Mac is becoming the first choice of many. Surging demand for the machines led Apple to predict revenues will rise 33% in the second quarter, to $7.2 billion, even in the face of an economic slowdown.

What's less obvious is that the enthusiasm is starting to spill over into the corporate market. It's a people's revolution, of sorts, with workers increasingly pressing their employers to let them use Macs in the office. In a survey of 250 diverse companies that has yet to be released, the market research firm Yankee Group found that 87% now have at least some Apple computers in their offices, up from 48% two years ago. "There's always been this archipelago of Macintosh use" among graphic artists and advertising managers, says Scott Teissler, chief information officer of Turner Broadcasting System (TWX). "My sense is that CIOs are more willing to see that expand without putting up as much resistance as in the past."

[...]

Mark Slaga, chief information officer of Dimension Data , a large computer services firm based in suburban Johannesburg, says he has received 25 e-mails recently from employees who want permission to use Macs at work. So far he has refused, because he doesn't want to hire people to provide Mac tech support, but "it'll happen someday," he concedes. "Steve Jobs doesn't need a sales force because he already has one: employees like the ones in my company."

BusinessWeek: The Mac In The Grey Flannel Suit (12 May 2008)

Things I have learned about Applecare

I am still waiting for the shipping box, "'overnighted" on the 30th of April, to arrive so that I can return my broken MacBook to Apple... again. (Counting the couple of days that the little laptop spent at the Genius Bar less than a month after my purchase, this is the *third* time that the computer has been returned to Apple's custody for repair in under a year. So glad I bought the extended warranty.)

Anyway, here's what I've learned from the latest festival of incompetence.

(1) Apple doesn't know how to give DHL the information it needs to deliver shipping boxes to office addresses in New York City, and

(2) DHL doesn't know how to find massive buildings in Lower Manhattan by conventional, US Postal Service-compliant street addresses. (I got a call on my cell phone from DHL yesterday morning, asking for clarification about where "17 State Street" was. Um, it's the HUGE F***ING SKYSCRAPER RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY TERMINAL.)

The importance of good backups

The MacBook hard disk died this morning. Cold dead. Blinking question mark when I try to boot up.

After a quick diagnostic session with Apple Tech Support, in which we were able to boot from an external disk drive but completely unable to get the internal hard disk to be recognized, I am about to send in the MacBook for factory service for the second time in less than a year.

I am annoyed--very, very annoyed--but not stressed out about data loss. You see, I have a backup that is current as of Saturday morning.

Lessons learned:

(1) Never buy Rev 1 Apple hardware.
(2) Always buy AppleCare.

A lesson I learned painfully a long time ago: Always, always, always have a current backup of the data on your hard drive. The question is not whether your hard drive will fail, but when.

Why I recommend Applecare...

...to anyone who purchases an Apple product of any kind.

Saturday, January 6: I call Apple Tech Support and tell them that the plastic around my MacBook's keyboard is discolored and cracking. They authorize an immediate repair.

Monday, January 8: DHL delivers a protective shipping box direct to my door. I package up the MacBook per the directions and peel off the shipping label to reveal a correctly addressed priority overnight label.

Tuesday, January 9: Carrie drops off the packaged-up MacBook at a DHL pickup point.

Wednesday, January 10: Apple technicians perform the necessary repairs *and* get the MacBook back into the DHL system, same-day. DHL records indicate that the computer is in Apple's actual possession for less than 12 hours.

Thursday, January 11: A perfectly repaired MacBook in working order arrives at our door.

Elapsed time from initial phone call (on a Saturday!) until a repaired computer is back in my hands, five calendar days.

Service: Insanely great.

Charge: $0.00.

Not quite as warm as a MacBook

While I'm down in North Carolina this week, Mister Gato is keeping my laptop desk warm for me.

Mister Gato keeps a vigil; From Barry

He's plenty warm, of course, but not as warm as a MacBook.

Be sure to check out The Modulator's Friday Ark tomorrow, and don't miss the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday at Catcall.