Webthoughts

I'm saying Goodbye to an old friend tomorrow: I've sold my old PowerBook G3/400 Pismo. It's actually a little sad to see it go.

I bought that computer new in 2000. It was my first "real" laptop (I had previously owned a used PowerBook 1400/166 for about a year). It blew away my desktop computer of the time (a PowerMac G3/266) in terms of performance.

It was my first foray into the world of WiFi. I remember sitting out on the deck of my apartment of the time one summer evening browsing different websites for whatever information I could find about the then just announced Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. All without wires. It was truly astounding to me.

It became, over time, my primary computer as I learned the convenience of being able to compute anywhere without any wires. It was the first computer that I ever installed the released Mac OS X on (I installed the Mac OS X Preview on my desktop G3). I still mostly used Mac OS 8.6/9, but more and more I began to use Mac OS X, especially once Mac OS X 10.1 came out.

I've since owned two other laptops (a PowerBook G4/1.2 GHz and my current 1st Gen black MacBook 2.0 GHz). But the Pismo still found uses. When my wife used it for the final time--just today in fact--to connect to an LCD projector to show a PowerPoint presentation at work, it was running Mac OS X 10.4.11 and Office 2004. Sure, it has a few scratches, the battery barely holds a charge and the screen has long since developed the slightly pinkish hue that was endemic of that model PowerBook, but it still runs reliably and reasonably fast for what we asked of it.

However, the last few years did find it sitting in a closet more and more. It seemed a waste to have this perfectly good computer sitting around not doing anything most of the time. Surely, someone else could get something out of it. An acquaintance of mine approached me a few weeks ago asking if I knew where she could get a cheap laptop that she could run Word on so she could write a novel she's working on without having to sit at a desk. I immediately thought of the Pismo.

I hand it over to her tomorrow. It's currently packed up (in the original packaging!) and sitting there waiting for me to take it to her. As I said, it's slightly sad to see it go, but I'm glad it will still get used.

It was a great computer and I hope it will continue to be for at least a few more years to come!

The Omaha area is currently experiencing a Thundersnow storm. Not quite rare, but not common, Thundersnow is an interesting experience. It's currently sleeting and snowing at the same time as lightening is flashing across the sky and thunder is rumbling in the distance.

Thundersnow usually causes heavier amounts of snow. The forecast calls for 4-6 inches of snow, possibly more. Oh. Goodie.