Way too many years ago I paid over $3,000 for the “Big Guy,” my beloved PowerMac 8600. Bullet-proof and wondrous, it served me steadily until last summer.
That 8600, upgraded to a 500 MHz G3, is stuffed with more RAM and hard drives than bears repeating here. But when I outfitted myself with a fine B&W G3 so I could run OS X — and don’t tell me about Ryan Rempel’s hacks, they don’t work on the old box, no matter what your experience may be — there just wasn’t room on the desk. Being a Mac guy for life, what did I do?
I added another desk, of course. 
That worked fine for a while, except that once I was finally into OS X, I never went back to the Big Guy. I mean, not once. Not ever. (I’d been using OS X on the TiBook, but that wasn’t my main workstation.) After a few months, it started to grate on me that I was deprived of desk space by maintaining a Mac museum. I mean, it clogged me up, creatively. But what if I needed the info stored on the 8600’s 10,000 rpm Ultra 2 SCSI drive? I didn’t want to network the beasts, I wanted space. Hmm.
The B&W had a SCSI card. An Ultra 2 SCSI card … so yes, I did it. It happened spontaneously one evening, when I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I tore down the 8600, moved the B&W to its new place of honor, rearranged my desk space, and piled the 8600 with all the SCSI gear in a corner of the bedroom. Then, after taking a deep breath, I RIPPED OUT THE ULTRA 2 SCSI DRIVE and stuck it in the B&W! YeeAAARGHH!!!
Whew. No static strap for me, I just went pitty-pat on the power supply and jumped in. Incredibly, the jumpers on the “new” drive were set to a SCSI ID that worked in the B&W. Even more unbelievably, when I booted up the B&W, the drive mounted on the desktop like it had always been there. (Yes, I was surprised.)
Not a very remarkable story for a lot of you, but it shows that Macs “just work.” And now my workspace is indescribably elegant and spacious, and I wander in and out of the living room (that’s where all this is) just to take in the glory of it all.So don’t talk to me about Mac minis now, ’cause verything is perfect (if ancient), and there’s not an app I can’t run. I’m gonna stick with this until it blows up or I can afford a G5. If National Geographic Adventure Magazine buys my story pitch and I can find a sponsor for a trip to Argentina (I kid you not), I’ll go deeper into debt and buy a 12-inch PowerBook., then pester the company that showed me a briefcase-sized satellite modem for a loaner. Yeah, right. But you never know, do you?
And if you don’t try (“YeeAAARGHH!!!”), nothing ever happens anyway.
 (Click for 500×375 pixels) |
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.