Mac Adorable

Last year I bought a RoseGold 12” MacBook. It was low stakes behavior modification flavored buy. I wanted to see if I could buy something I was interested in that didn’t fit my pragmatic “It must be the durable like a communist engineered produce” decree.

@hotdogladies (Merlin Mann calls it the MacAdorable, which is the best description I’ve heard given to it.

You could also call it one of the greatest in a long line of slightly flawed, but amazing computers that Apple has created over the years. That is a mouthful though and I don’t see it catching on.

“This is the computer you take in the field and on trips with you when you are a light packer, like to move fast and don’t want to feel the computer. *The Macbook* excels at this.”

The history of the retina, 12-inch MacBook is the story of Apple wanting to find a successor to the MacBook Air. Long story short though, the MacBook Air had such a cult following, people just kept buying it. At $999 vs “The MacBook” cost of $1299 people continued to buy the buy the MacBookAir in droves, The MacBook would never reached those heights.

The first problem with The MacBook was the cost. This is the end of the beginning of the story, if you get what I’m saying. In this fortune cookie I am proffering that if the The Macbook was $999 it probably would have been a more close second competitor to the MacBookAir and have achieved greater sales, despite the issues and there were issues. The question to ask though is “What was The Macbook meant to be and who was it meant for? On some level, like the glass shrouded iPhones The Macbook for all intents and purposes looks like a luxurious and delicate device. It was meant to seduce people who thinks computers are ugly and lack charm. The MacBook Air elevated the form, but The Macbook looks and feels impossible.

Were it not for the the issues of the second problem (that we talk about in a sec), The Macbook would have just been begrudgingly known as a computer that if you did have to service it outside of AppleCare it was going to be expensive. The reasons why are clear, to achieve the compact package of The Macbook very clever decisions and materials were chosen and repairability was not the priority.

Going into an Apple store though you were not greeted with good, better, best. The original MacBook was steeped in synthetic material design and was a humble computer.

One of the early affordable portables Mac OS laptops. The Mabook was not a “good” computer, it was a high concept, expensive computer, arguably-it was a “better” laptop with some “best” componetry.

For Apple though, it was going to be The Macbook then the budget MacBook Pro, and then the high end MacBook Pro. In that line up The Macbook made a little more sense, the MacBook Air screwed that up though cause people kept buying it and Apple will keep selling you something if it is popular, even if they want to walk away from it. So no, when you went into the store, The MacBook was priced splurgy, and for anyone who doesn’t Jetset, or isn’t a minimalist, it didn’t present as a practical buy, even though the MacBook Air at $999 was not actually a great computer.

This is a whole other conversation though; how much is a good Apple computer, versus what do computer buyers (parents, businesses, individuals) want to pay. In reality a well configured Apple laptop, regardless of it being the Macbook, Air, or Pro, really started at $1700, before tax, before apple care. And this was the industry standard for PC laptops as well. Yes you could buy some shit cheaper but a stalwart computer was around 2k and had been for years.

The second problem was the famous (mostly only to nerds and white middle classers) butterfly keyboard. The butterfly keyboard is a very shallow, (sometimes called “chicklet”), keyboard known to be prone to interference in operation; brought down by mere crumbs. They had keys falling off and you’d be stuck with white glowing orifices where fallen keys were and you’d sometimes have a letter that repeated or didn’t flow. It was a cluster fuck. If you’re a design company you’ll sometimes make a dude. The butterfly keyboard initially had a high failure rate, they interacted it on multiple times and it got better (The latter The Macbook is actually a pleasing and slightly more reliable keyboard experience, not all agree.

“I knew white people who ate over their Mac laptops, like it was a serving tray. They were totally ok with “living over” their computer. They’d have it a few years, just ruin it and get another. If I knew any black people who did that I’d tell you, but I didn’t. Ok I knew one guy (I wanna give a shout out to -redacted-!) who used his 12” Powerbook as a coaster for a beer and fucked it up. I traded him a 17” lcd for that one.”

It is also important to note that the butterfly keyboard affected every portable Mac, even the MacBook Air had it for two years. As for the comment about crumbs, its not an exaggeration, eating near any Mac with a butterfly keyboard was not smart, and if you could suffer through the oddly condom like experience of a keyboard cover you can dodge a lot of issues. Keyboard covers mostly suck though. This is a deep dive into the history of the butterfly keyboard.

Too good looking

The MacBook was also maybe too delicate and sexy looking. Hear me out. The MacBook oozes luxury and refinement. The MacBook Air is still iconic and mimicked all over, but the The Macbook was Apple making their version of a Japanese businessman laptop in the spirit of the Toshiba Protege series and the smaller Sony Vaio’s of the time. They achieved total success here; it’s just a small market of consumers who were interested in that. The Macbook was considered by many to be the coming out party for Apple applying the industrial design language of the iPhone and the iPad to a high concept laptop. As if they were saying “This is how small and elegant we can go with a super portable computer, which is not a performance powerhouse, but has a spectacular screen, great sound and fairly appealing keyboard.” And they succeeded at that.

When I look at a computer like The Macbook, I am struck by its beauty and then I am weighed down, like a father holding his newborn for the first time, I want to be delicate with it, no… I am compelled to respect it.

Chrome

Look elsewhere friend. Google Chrome is the modern day version of Internet Explorer 6. If you can’t use Safari, Brave, or Firefox-in that order, this isn’t the laptop for you, unless you’re a person disciplined about tab usage and proactive rebooting. I won’t linger here with more unnecessary words.

Repairability

I mean… outside of the butterfly keyboard this is your traditional Apple hardware, very reliable. That said, repairing this computer isn’t impossible, but the industrial design that managed to achieve this beautiful hard is very integrated. Who knew glue and tape would be in laptops and phones.vifixit gives The Macbook a repairability score of 1 out of 10. But if you look at the build out you’ll understand, this is a tiny computer. It is nearly all battery, the mother board is maybe three fingers wide. The miraculous retina screen is so thin. This is a computer that has depreciated to a level that a major repair puts you in the same vicinity of being able to buy a well heeled used model.

Proactiveness Buy one! This is such a great piece of kit. As long as Apple supports it I’d buy it. After Apple stops supporting it I’d still buy it. There is also linux traction

As of early 2023 the last MacOS that supports The Macbook is Ventura. I am personally on Catalina and will eventually do a backup and then try Ventura. I’m just afraid the upgrade will sap my performance.

In 2023 a 1.3ghz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, with 8gb of DDR3 aka MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017) will cost you between $300 to $650 for a decent specimen, you can find these all over. Ebay, Amazon renewed, Backmarket, they’re out there. The advice though is to buy one in “A” grade condition. I went with a 8gb/500gb configuration. 8 is great. I love 16, but this laptop is Bobby D in Heat, “Walk away”, you probably won’t be repairing it if it breaks, for most people that won’t make financial sense unless you hustle to find someone who can do it affordably, a shade tree mechanic as it were. But say you ruin the keyboard or display and aren’t going to fix it. Buy a keyboard and mouse and monitor and make The Macbook a kitchen computer, or a bedroom computer. Or mount it on the wall with a floating keyboard and make it your kiosk computer.

I can’t overstate that this is a worthy computer to own and take a chance on. Think of it as a used high mileage luxury car. You’ll love it, but one day you won’t want to fix it and that’s ok.

Deleted scenes

Depreciated computers are fascinating. My buddy uses his computer as a coaster and I trade him for an lcd screen. We’ll call that $70 in used computer hardware for a tarnished and broken Mac. I then commission a restoration. New aluminum skin, new motherboard and a fresh glowing apple logo. I used that computer for maybe two years. I always hit the performance ceiling, and it was always frustratingly slow and, surprisingly dense, but also small, delicate but not. So many damned contradictions. I know I was in it at least $350, if I’m to be true with myself the number is more like $415. It doesn’t stop there though. I eventually went on to trade it to a buddy, in turn he cobbled together a Canondale Caad 8 from Ebay for me. I have that bike today, it is amazing. Four years later I traded him a 17” lcd for the 12” PowerBook and it is back in the collection. For him this 12” let him wet his feet with Apple. He went on to get a slow Mac mini for his old lady, and then he eventually got something speedy, even a slow Mac is better than a zippy PC in some circumstances.*

_College kids and non programmer / non graphic design corporate employees were issued MacBook Airs. Programmers and graphics people got MacBook Pros, iMac Pro’s and the occasional desktop machine. A few executives in the office had enough juice to break company hardware guidelines to get_The Macbook_._

This style of laptops were called “subnotebooks” during the Windows 2000 to Windows XP era. They eventually were relabeled as ultraportables which really translated to “If you want a pc that looks like a knockoff MacBook AIr you’re in the right place.

Subnotebooks never lit the American market on fire. They were for a breed of business men (no shade intended,) who weren’t really overheating the processor. If you imagine a single tasking boomer, mid fifties, travels a lot. Check email, Looks at spreadsheets, but doesn’t really work on spreadsheets, if you get my drift. Again, just a guy who was able to become successful enough to get the IT department to get him a tiny useless laptop, that was always slow, but just so damn tiny. And he always wanted a new one cause the current one “I love it but its really slow…”

_And that’s the real problem with any computer._The Macbook_was accused of being dog slow, but the reality is it is still a fairly brisk computer. You can edit 1080 video, even 4k if you want and you have time. You can run photoshop on it, but it isn’t a workstation. This is the computer you take in the field and on trips with you when you are a light packer, like to move fast and don’t want to feel the computer._The Macbook_excels at this._

Part of me wants to buy a second laptop and I lean in two directions. Do i get one that is cheap enough that I’m comfortable treating it like a computer and not delicately either, yazzzz please, crumbs and fuckery is what I’m proffering to you. Or do I get the most maxed out model, and it becomes my precious and this very beautiful laptop I’m typing on now becomes my beater, again the crumbs and fuckery would happen on this computer then. This isn’t a computer for children and teens, it is a splurge for someone who just wants to have this very pleasing and decadent experience with a computer. This computer is like going on a date with someone way outside your league.

I should never edit a day 1 doc. Post that turd and moved on, sir.”

After Thanksgiving…

Observations

Taking time off from routine is perilous and a break from routine. This might only win me an award at a Ironic & Obvious Showdown (event I just made up,) I think everyone is a winner at those kind of events, except the one kid trying to be cheeky.

editing notes I think I’m the kid trying to be cheeky, strictly in a meta way, and it is against my will

I came to Thanksgiving 2022 hoping to just be in a good mood. This has seemed complicated over the last few years. If I am to take responsibility for it, I blame my relationship with cooking, maybe Alice Waters a little bit too.

Farm to table didn’t start the spirited chalkboard outside the restaurant movement, but it did change the narrative. It’d be understood if you started to think that “local” and “fresh” were flavors on to themselves, in a way they are. As a restaurant patron i’ve never been a fan of local, fresh food, this is the opposite of how I stock my fridge though.

*What I should go on to say in a more unpacked way is that I prepare both fresh and inustrialized foods on the principle of flavor and opportunity. I am not a organic snob. I am a member of a CSA. If cost had no bearding on decisions I would eat more locally sourced organic. Long distance organic is a whole other matter.

So, farm to table yes. Organic gets more complicated. The minute I think about full on organic I’m five steps from Kevin Bacon and the futility of it all.*

If I do the math and i’m honest i’d say about a third of my food is locally produced, that is mostly coming from my CSA and local small farmers. The rest of my food is a mix of cultural toe wetting with industrially sourced and prepared foods. I am aware of my choice, I am enlightened, I’ve always understood both sides of the story.

Thanksgiving can be locally sourced or prepared (consistently!) from industrially cultivated components. If the last few years have taught me anything it is that my tumult mostly stems from the usual, ego and the desire to do some shit that that is near impossible. This isn’t setting a goal high, so that even failure looks pretty good as far as the fence sitters opine. This is more just ignoring the reality of things, a consistent tasting recipe must have consistent components. If all of your holiday recipes are trying to taste like the past, but you’re not using the fairly consistent componetry of the last half century, ~~results will vary. ~~ Asshole

How about this. You can make the best Green Bean Casserole following the recipe on the back of the package, or you can deconstruct the recipe. You can make fresh mushroom soup, bread and fry your own onions and pick green beans from your own field. Just STFU and do one or the other. Don’t resent the people who prefer the classic and don’t understand why you went to so much effort to

“Did you say Deconstructured Green Bean Casserole? It is very nice, it kinda tastes like Green Bean Casserole.” They don’t care. You could rule the podium. You could cook the classics the way they were meant to be. You’d be a hero. No sir. You wander why you feel so neurotic going into it and how it just gets worse as the week wears on.

But you’re an asshole. Maybe all that effort you put into expressing your hopes for the future, against the lingering resentment you have against your family. They have no idea why you go to such great lengths, they like the classic recipe, sometimes they like your recipe too, sometimes.

Green Bean Casserole

This is my first compromise. This dish is a humble crowd pleaser. I have always been uninterested in GBC. It has absolutely taken space on my plate, most versions i’ve tasted were without merit, occasionally I would have a good example, this mostly meant that it was served hot, and there was extra fried onions to apply by my own discretion. My alternative dish has been garlic green beans with pecans. This year in a bout of mixed signals to myself, I bought fried green onions ( I just like to eat them), what I thought would be enough green onions for both GBC and my roasted green beans with locally sourced pecans. Once it came time to cook though I realized I didn’t have enough cream of mushroom, much less green onions to make two bean dishes.

Thanksgiving…

Letters to a friend

These words come from an awkward perch. If not for my robot devices to help this email might be unintelligible.

The first thing I want to be honest about is the fact that I said there was no way you’d find me in a grocery store after the 20th. I’m pretty sure I’m going to the  grocery store tomorrow, so that sucks.

**My list**

Garlic

Milk

Mushrooms…?

Celery

The weekend was weird. Good, but weird. Saturday I worked too much. Sunday I was up, then down, then really down, but sensing a good bottom. I crashed early, today was better, still off, but not bad. I worked out, I ate a flavorful and balanced meal. Work was productive.I got a little fuck off time in.

I could have done more.

I’m uncomfortable with time off.

I’ve been overwhelmed for awhile now. There are so many areas and interests that need my efforts and attention. To take time off just means I have to double efforts in proportion to the time I take off. By the time you’re off it’s more like hospice than vacay.

So… I’m trying to head that off and keep things positive.

All my thoughts have been in letters

Life Astro has written me, its been a long time. SInce the passing of “G”.

*Note: I have to remind myself this public facing journal is freeform. Scratch isn’t a rebadged KFO. I consider myself plying my trade on the dinner theater circuit. I’m in the Poconos, the chitlin circuit. I’m trying to stay in the game but i’m far from the lights of my own personal Broadway.

Dinner Theater Circuit

A New York-centric article about the concept

A FIELD GUIDE TO DINNER THEATRE IN THE US appears to be an dormant, but it has a lot of great articles that rise above being just SEO blog entries.

Theater in the Poconos I don’t have a link here, but it is a memory, either from film or tv about being washed up and only able to get work in the Poconos, which it appears still to this day has a thriving dinner theater circuit.

Chitlin circuit

For me as a kid growing up I understood that Dinner Theater (in the Poconos or otherwise,) and the Chitlin Circuit to be the same thing; they arent, but certainly similar. I guess the big difference starts with the segregation, but also that the Chitlin circuit was about food and entertainment for the negro, but it wasn’t limited to theater. The first link above is a solid NPR take on the history of the CC.

Trigger Warning: Long FormUSA Today does a very passable piece on the Chitlin Circuit When I ready a piece like this I like to imagine that a writer actually made enoug money to pay their mortgage, or catch up to bills, as opposed to five cents a word.

Worth noting… Again, for my future self and any who ever reads any of these pieces, this is freeform writing. My approach (it is too little to call it technique), is to come to the keyboard and begin writing. I don’t have a outline, I have no idea what i’ll write. I do not force it. I will start and move on to whatever is there in my head. Post KungFu I am less likely to anchor my thoughts on a moment and then reflect and radiate in regards to my thoughts. I think I do still have that rabbit hole writing in me, but it was initially honed on the imagery of poetry, intermingled with looking back on interactions I had with my intimates. This is an informal journal that i’m using to open my mind back up to writing.

I haven’t written poetry in years and my inner circle is frayed. To lay the brick and bars of this gilded prison I broke away from nearly everyone, all in the hopes to securing a good life for my future self who will be incapable of working, but will probably live longer than what a younger version of myself (26 was my assumed death day, when I was a short sighted depressive.) imagined a short life ahead.

Things still in my mind

I can’t get Julie Powell out of my head. It is easy enough to armchair this rumination as a way of my mind to think about my mortality, something i’ve not really dwelled on in years. Since my thirties I pivoted away from obsessing over the hot breath of Death upon my neck. I still have to admit that I am not playing it safe. I ride a bicycle, have two sports cars, walk everywhere and enjoy sushi; between mercury and parasitic worms who would ever eat fish again?

Julie Powell had a good run. She tried to make something of herself, married, got a solid job, it didn’t fulfil her, eventually she came up with an idea that propelled her to work that writing muscle and advance her cooking skills. Every day she dialed in on just those two topics of Julia Child and her own personal reflections of Julia’s impact on her life and then she hustled and secured a book deal. Her life changed. She was alway human, never became polished and hidden behind a PR machine. She was my people.

Sure… I’ve made this Faustian deal with myself over the years. I want to do all of this work and then I want between sixty and eighty four months where I live a nice life, then I can shut it all down, move into some two hundred squarefoot ADUrent my house out, tend to the garden and hopefully have enough to end my last years (whether i’m cognitive or not,) comfortably. I don’t really have any other thoughts. I mean, regardless of our good or bad behaviors, our bodies are just filled with these terrible lottery tickets of death. Yes, I’d love to die unaware, in my sleep, beside (she won’t like that,) my wife. I’d prefer to not have a slow cancerous end and I used to think that I didn’t want my mind to go, in truth though, it appears to be very upsetting in the beginning, towards the end most present as unaware.

I dunno, because she wasn’t really a celebrity and was more a regular person who did an act we associate with celebrity, it is real. More importantly, I assume she wasn’t ready to go.

I’m not ready to go. This desire to stick around means i’ll have to do more to preserve my body…

Bury the lead

Work

I sent Rosie a link to a potential client scope of work. The client is young, late twenties, or early thirties. Her plan is to buy a house and immediately duplex it, with her portion of the house turning into a very usable suite:mbedroom, bathroom, medium sized living room with kitchenette, and she’ll share laundry with her tenant. The renter would get a proper one bedroom apartment, with a large living room, full kitchen, a bedroom and bathroom. This is a great plan.

On top of everything else, the client doesn’t even live in Atlanta, she is coordinating all of this from Florida, where she is remote working for a job that is yet again in another state.

Smart.

She isn’t necessarily a brilliant person, just someone who see an opportunity and she’s willing to take some risks. She has saved some money and is making a smart play to sacrifice now for her future benefits. If I want to hit SEO i’d say she is on the path to creating the mythological “passive income” the scammers and the suckers talk so much about. To be clear. If 1/10th of the passive income scams were legit there would be millions more rich people, as opposed to the tens of millions of people who seem to get suckered by get rich quick schemes.

Passive income

Life

Shari wrote me.

Acronyms you forget the moment you create them.

11.13.22 #thedayafter #thekitchen #ktchn

Yesterday (11.12.22) Luke and I worked on computers. In looking back on our afternoon I am more aware of my desire to push to work. I do not want to take a break. I don’t mind chatting, but I don’t like to lose momentum. This is how a man operates when he thinks he’s running out of time.

I do think that.

I am running out of time...

House
Today I’m stealthing out the kitchen. Temporary Kitchen mk3(84) “TK3” is the third temporary kitchen to have been setup in the house, something which has occurred over the course of the two previous remodeling efforts. TK3 is me putting my “high concept with humble materials in a sustainable way” ethos to the challenge.

TK3 is both a live in place triage arrangement as much as it is a prototype for the new 384 kitchen. As I am in this business and also in the process of a remodel I’m eating my own dog food and I’ve decided to take my time, not feel rushed, not over spend. I’ve had a number of clients who had to make tough decisions as their budgets balloons due to the Covid-19 outbreak, how our capitalist world responds to disaster and opportunity and how all the aforementioned tilted us into this inflation crash. Yeah… I’m doing a temporary kitchen, it feels tone deaf and foolish to do anything but spend less to get us whole. This is a story about finishes though, I came to be here with TK3 cause I made the opposite decision when it came to high concept elements relating to the house and my infrastructure budget.

The problem about temporary kitchens is that they turn into sport. In the most spare execution of a temporary kitchen when you’re working with a card table, and a microwave oven, people will cheerfully take out any loan to get to cabinets and installed appliances. There is the temporary kitchen layout though where there is enough old kitchen and scraps to cobble together a functioning space. This kind of triage living often times allows for you to halt the hemorrhaging of funds by falling back to a fully functioning and livable “FFL” state. Temporary kitchens stick around too long, though as long as they’re around you do get to keep your cash. The silver lining to a good temporary kitchen is that you get to conceptualize and live with the space you’ve designed, if you have the will to rough a humble version of that concept into your living space.

In my FFL TK3 the oven is back! And because we didn’t have it for a while we got this amazing toaster oven, which is big enough to cook a whole chicken. We’ve also moved the fridge which gives us a preview of our enlarged appliance station. Pre TK3 we had an appliance area (it shared space with the fridge), an island, and a very shallow sink area, that was originally against a wall but is now back, sans the wall, about twice the size and it is now a peninsula. Everything is well enough as it is, but I want to push to have the kitchen feel cohesive and intentional, before thanksgiving 2022.

I think it is also me closing the chapter on the kitchen, I suspect we’ll be 9 months at a minimum before we’re ready to circle back to replacing the kitchen, but I really think it’ll end up being more like 18 months.

The Plan

I’m going to move the fridge one more time. Or this week I’ll go buy our new fridge. I’ll also stealth out all the riggery by bathing the entire lower kitchen in black. TK3 will likely be in deployment far longer than anyone (but me) initially assumed it would be.

iMac Project ii

#writing 11.12.22 #ipadpro #luke #imac #upgrade

The upgrade weekend is in progress!

Luke and I gathered at her house to tear the machines down.

in real time it’s 2pm. Actually its 9:45pm and we’ve completed the two upgrades.

To summarize this all started with a Woot buy.

I think of [Woot!}(https://www.woot.com) as a modern day version of Fingerhut. Refurbs, excess inventory. You can find it all at Woot!. The thing is that Woot feels like an all day casino. The deals don’t last, and you miss out if you sit around thinking about it.

When Woot posted their $169 deal for the MC813LL/A I was excited to be at the moment of a perfect rock bottom. At sub $200 the MC813LL/A which to the layman is better known as the 2011 Apple iMac 27" i5 4GB RAM 1TB HDD Silver, presents a great buy. All isn’t perfect. There are absolute downsides to this buy, it happened to us, but there is also upside.

I should also note that it is my intent to have Luke write this with me. The goal in this exercise is less “he said, she said” and more “writers room overlay”. I don’t know if this ultimately ends with this one voice, or if there are two. PS11.12.22

Downsides -Both of us suffered hardware defects. My unit came with a dead fusion driver and also it looks like one of the fans has a auditory patina about it, which I noticed but attributed to a nearby fish tank. Once I got it to Luke’s shop We could hear the fan. I decided to keep the iMac despite both these issues, vs getting my money back. i recieved a partial credit towards repair they suggested. Luke’s unit came with two goofball sized dents. One dent on the rear, the other on the corner. She also has about 2% burn in on the corner of her display.
-High Sierra is the last supported macOS for this computer. It still gets security updates but you gotta be ok with High Sierra or downgrading to one of the five previous macOS versions that the MC813LL/A will support. -Non retina display. It would be another three models before Retina would arrive in the form of the “BT0/CTO aka A1419” -A machine this old is the digerati equivalent of an old German car. Parts will be coming to end of life. You will be repairing this computer. You’re in luck though. While this is no Dell Dimension, and you could use an extra pair of hands, tear down is mostly straight forward. The folks at ifixit have a pretty good breakdown of how to get it in to it. The comments section is worth looking at, though you should always try to weight out feedback, while you determine how you’ll go about breaking into the box. We did use the “prop your lid with two Bic pen” technique. This worked best for us. Our biggest issue was the first step which is removing a cable connected to the display. This is your blue or red wire bomb moment in breakdown. The first cable took a little more than 10 minutes, but we weren’t watching the clock and you have to go slow. -Even if you don’t have to upgrade or repair your unit a partial tear down does give you a chance to assess and manage dust build up. unfortunately you have to go through the same initial disassembly to do this. In my estimation if you crack a computer open once, you really always end up going back inside of it again. -The last downside is that when you purchase a computer like the MC813LL/A you are wrestling with obsolescence. If you find use for a computer which is one not advancing in functionality, often times doesn’t share feature parity with your other devices, and could have some features crippled over time. And I also forgot the very last downside, which is how it seems many great machines do everything well but the internet. Whoever thought that would be what made a computer irrelevant; some ol’ internet shit.

Upsides -The MC813LL/A running High Sierra appears to be fully able to access all current apple iCloud features. -The MC813LL/A comes with a super drive, an SD card reader, three usb a ports, FireWire 800, dual monitor display, is upgradeable to 32gb of ram, and has 802.11 a/b/g/n support -The screen while not retina is rich and gorgeous. -Even though the iMac went on to a much slimmer profile, the MC813LL/A has aged well in its industrial design language.

Why: Paul

In addition to what I paid for the iMac I also upgraded the dead hard drive to a Samsung Electronics 870 EVO 2TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-77E2T0B/AM) and also 16GB of Ram via OWC 16.0GB (4 x 4GB) 1333MHz 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10600 CL9 Memory Compatible with iMac (OWC1333DDR3S16S). Both came from Amazon for an additional cost that was greater than what I would ultimately pay for the iMac. That’s 248.34 + $130 for a total of $378.38.

I didn’t have to do either hardware upgrade to not still feel a boost in performance from the older less powerful iMac I was replacing. And to be clear I would never have bought a MC813LL/A online for $378.38. One might say that it makes no sense that I’d build one either and shell out the same amount of money. Sometimes it does make sense though. New ram, a top of the line hard drive and most importantly a high spec “top of its game” slice of computer history.

There are moments in Apple Macintosh hardware where a really remarkable piece of hardware is let out into the open. Every time Apple makes something it is “Our best X yet” and that is true, and sometimes that thing they made stands the test of time. Regardless of how much life I wrestle out of this computer it is very exciting to have it.

Original post for the iMac project https://thisisthenew.me/blog/6sjt8k36b9bp22zg8zbkbzppchzge9