Webthoughts

Witness the stories (here and here) of two enterprising souls who decided that a Mac Mini was not complete without a Mac SE or Mac Plus shell.

And before anyone begins thinking that I'm mocking these sites, I actually think both these projects are pretty cool. If only I had the time, ambition and/or know-how to do something like this.

For my wife's birthday, I took her to see NASCAR 3D at our local IMAX Theatre on Friday afternoon. I've been to IMAX movies before, but this was the first IMAX-3D movie I've seen. I have to say, I was very impressed!

Although the IMAX 3D glasses make you look like an idiot (they look somewhat like those oversized "clown" glasses that you see every once in a while), it's worth looking like an idiot. Seeing those race cars seem to almost literally jump off the screen and into the air in front of you is incredible. This is not your father's 3D movie. Really, it's very hard to describe. You really almost have to see it yourself to understand. But, things truly looked three dimensional. I really found it difficult to distinguish between the depth of what I was seeing on the screen and the depth of the real world around me.

As for the movie itself, it was about an hour long and was really more of a documentary than anything else (as most IMAX films are). It was very good though. It was especially good to a die-hard NASCAR fan like my wife (and, to be honest, I'm getting closer).

Those in the know will be able to tell that the film is a little dated (we're guessing the footage is at least three years old). There are no references to the NEXTEL Cup (all references are to the previous Winston Cup). Cars made by Pontiac are shown. Things like that.

But, all in all, it was a very enjoyable movie. Well worth seeing, even if you are not a die-hard NASCAR fan.

I wonder how hard Apple thought about this one.

Specifically, the entry-level Mac Mini is now $100 higher than it was before the Intel switch. Interesting. I've always thought that the $499 Mac Mini was only there for rock-bottom price seekers. A decent computer, but nothing special. I'm thinking Apple somewhat thought the same thing.

The new entry level Mac Mini is a better computer overall, but the price went up. I wonder what this might do to adoption rates.

I also wonder how the Intel Core Solo processor will perform in the real world. I look forward to some real world tests.

However, despite the slightly down town of this post, I should point out that in all likelihood, I'll be purchasing a new Intel Mac Mini fairly soon. It will be my Intel test-bed computer for future versions of my software.