Ride up grades or buy upgrades?

~ Patrick O'Grady
Doing my part to get the global economy back on its aching feet.
Doing my part to get the global economy back on its aching feet.

Well, since I can’t do the former (too much snow, not enough fingers), I did the latter — went straight to the Apple Store and came home with a smoking Visa card and a brand-new 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, the model with the ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card.

Now I’m rearranging the office technology, which is a hodgepodge of ancient hardware and software. The G4 AGP Graphics Power Mac has been relegated to a corner near the drawing board, since I need its Classic mode and copy of Photoshop 4 (yeah, 4) to digitize and color cartoons. The Intel Core Duo MacBook will be relocated to the living room and dedicated to streaming video, a la the Pelkey Entertainment Network.

And the iMac will occupy the place of honor on my desk, hooked to a 22-inch ViewSonic VX2235wm monitor for greatly augmented pixel-pushing purposes. Fat city. More as it develops.

Meanwhile, I see Tiger Woods is taking a break from pro golf, triggering a spasm of shit-fits among the various parasites attached to him. I picture him taking his dick out for a long walk on some Floridian beach, letting it air out, cool down and dry off, all the while trailed by a weeping battalion of lawyers, flacks and other toadies driving golf carts. It will make Sherman’s march to the sea look like a cakewalk.

13 thoughts on “Ride up grades or buy upgrades?”

  1. Hey Pat,
    Congrats on the new machine. I think you’ll like it. I also added a 2 TB Time Capsule to my rig so I have a large backup and a household wireless hub in one.
    Enjoy, Doug

  3. Merry Christmas, Patrick. You won’t be sorry for the expenditure. I really, really like my iMac. It’s a tool for work, remember that. It’s not a toy. Okay, maybe it is a bit of a toy.

  4. Oh, you just had to go one better, didn’t you? You don’t need that HD 4670 card, how about giving it to me? Dang elitists.
    I got the same ‘puter last Wednesday and it sure makes my ’05 PPC iMac look bad.
    Damn, a cat lover, a Mac cultist and a two-wheeler freak…two out of three ain’t bad.

  5. Señores … thank you, and a happy solstice to you and yours. The iDog is off and running — this is the inaugural comment-posting on the new box — and I already wonder how I managed to get along without it.

    I haven’t installed the big brain drains yet — Photoshop Elements 6 and Microsoft Office 2008 — but they’re next on the list. I hate to let those bloated monstrosities into the new DogHaus, but there really aren’t many suitable replacements. GraphicConverter and OpenOffice just ain’t quite there yet.

    Meanwhile, I’ll have to find something else to complain about besides ancient technology, eh?

  6. Patrick you beautiful bastard 🙂 Good one on ya mate with the imac…me and the missus were just at CityMac in Asheville,NC looking at the same model…it was an innocent trip i swear..but when she turned to me and said “ya know we could get this with our tax return” i was one smug mofo…let us know how you likes the new machine…as i sit here typing on my G3 ibook…Oy

  7. Damn whiny bastard! First you had some excuse for NOT getting a new computer. And now you have the excuse of saving the economy…by free-handlin’ the cable bill for dowloads and streaming video. You are one sly mofo, OG. Had us all strung along like a bunch of GOPers on Barbie patrol. Curse you!!!

    Seriously: awesome news that you are making the leap to newer technology. I hope it all works for you. I’m jealous.

  10. Anyone out there using Windows 7 yet? I can’t afford an iMac and this Vista is the most cursed o/s I’ve ever had the displeasure of being annoyed with. What good is Dual Core w/ 3 gigs of ram if you get the “program not responding ” message every time you do any type of lengthy computing?

    Patrick, I’m happy you got pretty much the ultimate package going to entertain us peons. Keep it coming!!

  12. Do NOT Get Window 7…….My worst purchase of 2009. I supposed graphy artsy people may have some use for some of the features, I don’t know. What I do know is that none of my software or hardware is compatible with my really cool new laptop! Gee, I might as well have bought a Mac if I didn’t want to run any of my vital statistical programs! And, my workhorse laserprinter, isn’t supported in Windows 7…..

  13. I don’t know which is worse: O’G excusing reasons to not get an iMac, or Winders users bitching about the latest “upgrade.”

    I have to use XP each day at work. It runs about as quick as a turtle on ‘ludes…which is to say it ain’t fast. Not that a Mac OS would be any quicker, but if I was into doing graphics, editing a paper (or whatever) for mass consumption, or even working with audio/visual media then the Mac would be da bomb. Fortunately for my employers, I am not. Still the damn thing is slow.

    That being said IMHO anything that has the words “micro” and “soft” in the same word is not acceptable for human consumption…unless it is the name of some movie on the Adam & Eve channel. Not that it would be, but that seems to be the ONLY time that the words “micro” and “soft” should anywhere near each other.

    Anytime that Billy the Gates’ company decides that you need an upgrade that usually means: ‘puter, printer, software and other accessories. And of course, as I believe someone pointed out on an older post, at that point I might as well have bought a Mac. Yep….

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