Got outdoors yesterday for my first ride since dislocating my communications system (the middle digit on my left hand), and while it felt good to be cycling outdoors for a change, it also felt kinda creepy and weird.
The reconfigured Voodoo was just fine. But I haven’t had to rehab’ a damaged body part since my last broken collarbone in 1994 or thereabouts, and I had forgotten how tentative it always makes me. I kept lifting the damaged paw off the bars for every little bump, which is not always such a hot idea. But I lasted an hour without incident and was glad to have taken the plunge.
Especially when I awakened to 18 degrees, which is pretty much where the thermometer has been pegged all day. Got to get ’em while you can in December. And the splint came off today, so I may be riding inside for a while anyway, even when and if the sun shines.
Meanwhile, for everyone who called me a sissy for not immediately leaping on the chance to buy a new Mac, scope this out — seems the 27-inch iMac did an end run around quality control.
I read some of the comments and a few of these poor sods are on their third bum iMac. The things apparently are showing up with shattered screens, flickering screens, bootup issues, wireless keyboards and mice that won’t hold a Bluetooth connection, or just plain DOA. And the problems apparently are not confined to the 27-incher — there are a few 21.5-inchers in there as well.
Is it hardware? Software? A combination of the two? Or the fact that at least some of these iMacs are shipping in anonymous brown boxes that don’t tell the purchasers — or the delivery people — anything about there being pricey computers inside?
So, pffffbbbbllllllhhh to you and yours, wiseguys. I think I’ll wait until Cupertino chases the Chinese cooties out of this lot before I lay another truckload of Dead President Trading Cards on the Black Turtleneck Mob.
Mad Blog Media 
Excuses, excuses, excuses O’Grady! Were you even going specifically after an iMac? But as long as they are shipping form America’s FAR Left Coast, the option of shipping them is not too great if you want something that is not exceptionally cared for. Damn oceans have a way with stuff every once in awhile…not to mention jealous longshoremen. My offer to take the dough off your hands still stands though. I could use a new laptop with some whistles (not necessarily any bells) but I’ll take whatever you aren’t thinking of buying.
Actually, it is great to hear that you are out and active again. Sucks about the temps though. You should think about reloacting to Cupertino. There are a ton of Apple Stores and we all know that the Black Turtleneck Mob could use a little wry humor every once in awhile. Oh, and the riding is good too.
(sarcasm button engaged)
Perhaps we should get Jesse Ventura to look into whether there’s a conspiracy by Windoze Mafia to pay shippers to damage shipments from BlackTurtleNeck-ville- thereby undermining customer confidence.
(sarcasm button disengaged)
The 27-inch iMac seemed the best bang for the buck(s), since I have four Mac laptops in varying degrees of decrepitude: the 13.3-inch 2 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook (2006); a 12-inch 1.5 GHz G4 PowerBook (2005); a 12-inch 800 MHz G3 iBook (2002); and a 14.1-inch 500 MHz G3 “Pismo” PowerBook (2000).
I’m definitely fixed for on-the-fly computing, even by Issac Asimov’s standards (IIRC, he used to keep three IBM Selectrics around out of fear that he might have a brainstorm but lack a functional typewriter).
What I need is computing power, a monstrous video card and plenty of LCD real estate. Running the new VeloNews.com website means having a lot of browser tabs and/or windows open, and of course I’m also running Photoshop Elements for editing art and Word/Excel for editing race reports/results.
Office 2008 for the Mac is a bloated piece of shit (surprise, surprise), and Photoshop Elements 6 is just as bad (and since it doesn’t support CMYK, I need CS4 to color my ‘toons on an Intel box).
So, yeah. Big box, big processor, big monitor. Then when it all becomes too much I can grab the nearest laptop and hightail it out the door to some sunny spot.
Sounds like the high zoot tri-geeks of Competitor want to drop you off the back, Patrick. Seriously. From the sound of it, you’d need a server farm to just update an edit. Maybe taking out a little small business loan, forking over the dough for the full set-up of graphics heavy computin’ power, and a nice office are not far from a reality. And, of course, it would be cheaper for their bottom line if their “in-house” freelancer ponied up the dough to take care of himself, right?
Still look into a Mac which might keep you competitive and ask that they soften the hurt a little bit by backing off on the high zoot tri geek videos and streaming crap that they run on VeloSnooze.
Seriously, I liked the site when it was simple (about 8 years ago), and with all the bells and whistles I could not care one Big Tex ball about any of the other crap. If I want to watch a video of some dude racing a bike, I’ll visit U-toob. Criminy, if I want to watch anything on the net, I’ll go to U-toob…not VeloSnooze. I want bike stuff…not live video of some bike geek racing. That’s what Vs. is for…besides watching Patrick Division hockey, bull riding and squirrel hunting in ‘Bama.
Strike that. Now that Comcast has a piece of the Vs. pie the only “sports” we’ll see on it are wrestling, poker and wrestling poker. Effing, stoopid, ESPN. Oh, and Jay Leno.