April 23, 2001

For today, at least, the beast that has no name...

RAVE ON! (OK, I WILL)
What, am I nuts? No, of course I haven't tried it yet, so don't bother telling me I don't know what I'm talking about. I DON'T... But all we hear about is how slow it is. Slow is great for lots of things, but not this. Not when it comes to having my computer go snap, crackle, and pop. The Web is full of articles on how to speed the darned thing up. The forums are full of anxious "Should I really?" questions. Aw, man...

Someday soon everything will be hunky-dory. The reason I know this is that New Macx will be shipping sometime this summer with you-know-what preinstalled. And despite what most of you reading this may think, most Mac users don't know anything about it! Oh, you do. You're reading this at a Mac site. You're spending valuable time finding out all the latest poop. You're informed. And you're a member of a minority.

No, this sucker will be pruned, tuned, and ready to fly when real world Mac users pull their new toys out of the boxes later this year. If not, run for cover. If not, the cry of, "Hey, what is this crap?" will be heard from sea to shining sea. If not, we'll have to crank up the Apology Machine even louder than it's playing now, and that won't be any fun at all. I have faith, though. I like Steve. I love Apple (mostly). I fairly worship my magnificent, hoary 8600. What's more, I personally know one actual Apple employee, and he's really smart. (his work is his play, too, if you know what I mean, and that's awfully propitious). So by the middle of summer (?), that danged ol' thang will be barreling along like Casey Jones, I just know it... and then I'll install it!

IT'S THE UNIX, STUPID
Too bad I can't remember where I saw this, but after a dreary morning last week sifting through the, um, "content," I found myself reading an article about how applications were slow to launch, etc. and discovered that this is characteristic of Unix systems,hahaha. Hey, don't yell at me, that's what it said. If my buddy (who knows his Unix) has anything to add by way of correction or amelioration after I post this, I promise to publish it rat cheer: [Watch This Space!].

There was another article this week, over at MacEdition I think, about some hideous trouble you could get yourself into by mucking about in the guts of the thing. The beauty of Unix, as I understand it, is that anything goes: you can tell it to bend itself into a pretzel and scratch itself where you can't reach, even if you wanted to. What a kick, eh? Well, for all you good Mac soldiers used to jumping in and trying the latest OS tweak in between bites of whatever it is you eat, watch out: hacking may be hazardous to your health! It also sounds like great fun, if the truth be known. We run into a lot of things like that in this life, you know.

Here's something else that's become obvious to this observer over the last few months, which is why you may have to learn to love wrenching about in your OS: it ain't perfect. ("Really?") It may be the most advanced wa-hoo boingy bam-splat in the known universe, it may be built upon the Rock, as they say, a veritable Ten Commandments, but you know what? THEY AIN'T' PERFECT EITHER! And definitely not as simple as we have been led to think, though I believe that was the whole point in the first place.

RAVEN MEDICINE
It says right here in my little book* that "Raven magic is a powerful medicine that can give you the courage to enter the darkness of the void, which is the home of all that is not yet in form." [I'd have used a footnote here instead of an asterisk, but hardly anybody understands them any more, and nowadays we're just supposed to copy and steal. See what I mean about things not being simple?] Nevertheless -- and you know, this notion just crossed my mind -- Apple is headed directly into the void here, high on God knows what. I think that's fine, actually. Blast off, I say. What's not yet in form are all the benefits an infinitely more adaptable and powerful OS is going to bring. MAY bring. OUGHT to bring. Oh, I love it, I think.

When I look at pictures of Steve Jobs, I don't see a puppy dog, a blissed out mantra-slinging, finger-cymbal chiming holy man, or a megalomaniacal money-grubbing monster. I see a raven. Dark. Sharp. Inscrutable (and don't ask him to explain!). This is heady stuff. Raven medicine is really about changing consciousness, you see, and you might not be ready. Say what you will about what this means for your favorite digital hub emporium, but it won't be dull. Even if we wreck, it won't be dull.

One of my sisters, a very fine artist and large lover of life, has always regarded computers the way most people would approach a bloated ten-day-old hog carcass washed up on the beach. But being an artist, inherently curious and creative, she just might, in her increasingly improved financial circumstances, want to buy her own computer some day (talk about having "the courage to enter the darkness of the void"). With any luck, that computer will be a Mac, a new one of course. Hah!

Then we'll see what we will see...

Senior Applelinks editor and columnist John H. Farr still misses Jerry very much and long ago forgave him for croaking on his birthday ("I hope you saved a spot for Joey, man!"). In the meantime, visit his Zoozone site and check out FotoFeed. You'll be glad you did. There's also another brand-new Farr Site for all you old fans and new ones too. Take a look and see what's up!

* Medicine Cards, by Jamie Sams & David Carson, St. Martin's Press, NY.

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