waider: (Default)
waider ([personal profile] waider) wrote2008-04-28 08:57 pm
Entry tags:

indications that I may be a nerd

A few months back, I went to a doctor I hadn't been to before. In his surgery, I noticed that he had a Macintosh Cube, something I'd never actually seen in real life in the brief period they were available. And so I commented on it, and he remarked that he was actually thinking of replacing it with an iMac, but he was quite aware of the (admittedly nerdy) cachet of owning such a piece of hardware.

Post-visit, during a moment of weakness, I emailed him to say that if he was considering selling it when he purchased the iMac I'd be willing to make an offer for it. I should note that this preceeded my MacBook purchase, so I was considering this as my step into the Mac market. He said he'd certainly bear it in mind, and we left it at that.
Time passed. I bought my MacBook. I played with MacOS gleefully. And one day an email popped into my inbox from the doctor:
I have just replaced my Cube with an iMAC and currently the Cube and monitor are available for sale.
If you are interested, please contact me.
Oh my. Well, I needed a new fileserver if nothing else, and, well, it's a MAC CUBE, dammit. It looks cool. In fact, I think it looks far cooler than the Mac Mini and similar-shaped devices. And so we negotiated a price, and the deal was concluded today when I stopped by his surgery to collect my new toy.

The Cube, At Rest

By modern standards it's fairly low-spec: 450MHz CPU, 320MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, DVD-ROM, until you consider the fact that if I use it as a fileserver it'll be replacing a Pentium II/133MHz with 16MB RAM. Aside from that: I was surprised to learn it's an OS X box, albeit no longer supported as of 10.5; I had somehow assumed it belonged to the OS9 era. It's quite dense, too - it looks pretty small (about 7" on each side, and a little taller than it is square) - but weighs more than you'd expect. Also, in the picture, you can just about see the power supply peeking around the back - it's a separate unit that's about 1/3 the size of the Cube itself.

Contrary to expectations it does not huddle in the corner with the iPod and the Macbook plotting the overthrow of any non-Apple hardware in the house. Perhaps that will happen at night when I'm not looking.

So I guess now I get to be that guy who went to the doctor and came away with a Macintosh. D'oh.

[identity profile] eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com 2008-04-28 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't help wondering if that coutns as prescription or OTC retail therapy...