Cool Mac Gear

First, the iMac report
Well, the orders are rolling in. Apparently more people have ordered new iMacs in the first week or so following the product introduction than have ever ordered new gear under similar circumstances before. This is a great thing for Apple and all of us who want one of the little 22-pound beauties. Just pray there aren't any earthquakes in Taiwan this time!

I have an on-the-scene report from a reader to share with you, too:

"Went to the Schaumburg Apple Store yesterday, and drooled over the new iMac.Yes, the screen really does 'float in the air,' as you imagined. The screen also looks great, easy to view from all angles. There were 3 different people that came in asking to buy one as I stood there playing with one...but were told that a shipment was not expected until the week of January 28...and the clerk had them log their names to be notified when the iMacs arrive.....they won't get enough in stock, I'm thinking."

I still haven't actually seen or touched one, but I already know that having that screen on a movable arm is going to change the whole experience of using a computer. It just has to. With a regular monitor or the iBook screen I'm looking at now, the words and images are in or on something stationary I have to peer at. If I want to make out something that's blocked by glare or is too small to read, I have to move my whole upper body -- lean in, shift my position, move my head, whatever. If I could just reach up and pull the screen this way or that, well... This is a much cooler thing than most people realize. You know how you always move around, squirm, stretch, and shift your hands in the course of reading a long magazine article, for example? Having a movable screen will make the experience of reading text on your computer much more natural, more loosey-goosey. (More human...)

Rocket science! Rocket science!
All right, I shouldn't indulge in such thoughts, I know, much less communicate them, but I'm only human. VERY human. (Hey, I think I struck a leitmotif!) If you read last week's GRACK!, you know that I had gotten myself into a sticky situation with the obstinate editor/publisher of a local monthly who seemed not to grasp what a cool thing it was to have me on the premises ready to make him a star. I had designed the Web site and was updating it daily in exchange for desk space and shared broadband, you see. As it turns out, there is always more that one can do, yes? -- beyond the minimal, I'm saying -- which was fine with the boss except that he saw no reason to pay for the extra work.

He has a capable in-house graphics person whom I will call "Allison" for the purposes of this tale. Allison knows not a speck of HTML, though she wants to learn. (The boss pays Allison about one-third of local scale to begin with, but they are old friends and so far she doesn't seem to mind.) Based on certain socio-economic observations, I'd guess Allison doesn't really need to work. Nonetheless, she's there and wants to improve her skills. I figure the boss knows all of this and grasps the importance of giving her reasons to stick around, because his only response to my rubbing my stomach and pointing to my mouth has been to suggest that I "let Allison do some of the work." (For pay, of course!)

By now you're wondering how many minutes elapsed between that last straw and my walking out the door with my PowerMac under my arm, but I have to admit I stayed a little longer. It all has to do with a heavy 8-foot long bookcase, getting ahold of my neighbor, and negotiating division of the second bedroom at-home office space with my wife.As it turns out, it's a good thing I did stick around (until yesterday, in fact), because of the hilarity which followed.

"Oh, the humanity..." *
I used Dreamweaver to build the Web site that the boss has decided to hand over to the graphics person. It isn't very complicated or large, really, but there are already well over a hundred pages tied together with libraries, cascading style sheets, and the like. As with any Web site management situation, there are administrative regimens, sequences of tasks, the occasional oddly-named file, and so on, what amounts to esoteric knowledge. I know not to upload certain folders, for example, because I once accidentally updated the pages they contain with the wrong library item. I could replace those local files with the older versions on the server, but I'm lazy or stupid and simply renamed the folder "Don't Upload" instead.( Yes, I manage my checkbook the same way. That's why I get so many overdraft charges.)

So here's where things stand. It's a Dreamweaver site and a somewhat clumsy one at that, albeit good-looking and readable. By the time you read this I will no longer be having anything to do with it (does anyone in the office even have a copy of the app?). I've already removed the self-promotional links to my own Web site and reworded the design credit to read "Original site design by..." (minus the italics, of course). That's so that if it gets screwed up, I won't catch all the blame, but people will still know who built it. I also took down the little blurbs about upcoming features and the like because they aren't true anymore. This stuff is just the HTML equivalent of cleaning out the trunk and glove box when you sell your old car, of course. But then --

When I told the boss I was desperate for dough and could no longer afford to exchange Web work for office space, he was gracious enough, expressing "respect for the struggle," yada-yada, in a final email. I probably shouldn't have been surprised that he actually seemed relieved to have me go, but his last sentence is a classic:

"I'll follow your directions and ask Allison to start work on the January issue."

Senior Applelinks editor and columnist John H. Farr couldn't be more delighted to be working at home again.

* If you know the allusion, you really should win a prize of some sort.Here's a hint: an aluminum baby grand piano! The answer has so much relevance, I can hardly stand it. :-)

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AUDIO CREDIT: embedded 44k file, European Birds -- Sounds and Sonograms.

DESIGN CREDIT: GRACK! byline graphic by Bob Farr.