Posts by michael branagan

Apple punts batterylicious MacBook Pros

Price Drop

I'm feeling especially good since I bought a 15" MacBook Pro for my wife for $1999 on 5/31/09. $300 price drop to $1699, nice touch. Reminiscent of the good feeling I had after shelling out $600 for a new iPod Video for my wife, only to have Apple lop off $200 a month or so later. (But not as good a feeling as those guys had years ago who saw their Web Objects purchase price drop from $60,000 to $600 overnight. That was one for the books, as reported by El Reg.)

NASA boffins resist intrusive security probe

Cheesed Off

I retired from the USEPA this Spring, but 2 years prior a switched jobs at the USEPA, literally down the hall, with no grade change, just duties. The fools in security started a full background check, and may be still doing it for all I know. Seemed stupid, in light of the fact that I had worked there for over 25 years. Must of suspected I was a North Korean mole trying to discover secret something or other.

Burned by a MacBook

Bad Apples

Got to admit I've had problems with both my ibook g4's and thank God for the warrantee. I've never had a true lemon, but close, though. I've read somewhere that, industry-wide, 21% of laptop and 7% of desktops have warrantee issues. This says a lot about the wisdom of a laptop as your only cpu. I suspect Apple is no different.

Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad

Newton 2100

I had two 2100's and loved them. Reluctantly eBay 'em when the Mac went USB. The kids who bought them out west were total thrilled. I loved the 2100's largeness and full sized stylus, easier to use than my Palm Z22 and its accompanied toothpick. I'd buy one again.