Everybody, I'd like to introduce you to a friend. This is Willow.
To be clear, yes, it's a girl. And she is named after someone.
She's named after that particular person for a few reasons, not the least of which is the character's hair color. Also the fact that the character Willow uses a Mac laptop several times throughout the course of Buffy.
My Willow, however, isn't so tech-savvy. She's actually positively arthritic. To a painful degree. I have on occasion thought about just putting her out of her misery and downgrading the OS to 9.2.2. But this is the only machine I've got running 10.3, and I feel like Panther is...
You know what? I don't need to justify my choices to you. Back off.
So anyways, Willow is old. She's an iBook G3 Clamshell, tangerine edition, for those of you who aren't so well versed in your Macs. She's got 32 MB of memory, a 3.2 GB spinning disc hard drive, and a 366 MHz G3 processor. I know that sounds terrible. Like I said, she's a bit arthritic. But there's a reason for that.
See, Willow was made in 1999.
That's 16 years, which in computer years is like 97. And back in 1999, she was a sexy beast. She was powerful, sure, and definitely among the best value-for-money you could get in a portable computer at the time. But mostly she was eye-catching. The unique shape, the translucent plastics, a built-in handle.
But maybe the most striking thing about Willow isn't what she has, but what she was offered with. It was optional, and Willow's first owner didn't check this box. But she's got a slot inside for an AirPort card. Do you understand what that means?
She came built for WiFi.
I know that sounds stupid in an era when you can buy refrigerators and washing machines with WiFi. But in 1999, the world was different. Darker. Unconnected. The internet was nothing like it is today, and constant connectivity wasn't really on anyone's mind. Computers shipped with modems by default, and Ethernet was like, a luxury. So when Apple released a computer that came with an internal wireless internet card with a built-in antenna, well... Let's just put it this way. They made a company executive jump off a balcony to prove to the world they weren't pulling a fast one. This thing was real. It could really connect to the internet without a cable.
And it freaking blew everyone's minds.
So here's to you, Willow. 16 years is a long time, and you're still looking good. From all of us here in 2015, helplessly addicted to our wireless connectivity, thanks. We owe you.
To be clear, yes, it's a girl. And she is named after someone.
 |
| Everyone in Buffy the Vampire Slayer had their creepy days. |
She's named after that particular person for a few reasons, not the least of which is the character's hair color. Also the fact that the character Willow uses a Mac laptop several times throughout the course of Buffy.
My Willow, however, isn't so tech-savvy. She's actually positively arthritic. To a painful degree. I have on occasion thought about just putting her out of her misery and downgrading the OS to 9.2.2. But this is the only machine I've got running 10.3, and I feel like Panther is...
You know what? I don't need to justify my choices to you. Back off.
So anyways, Willow is old. She's an iBook G3 Clamshell, tangerine edition, for those of you who aren't so well versed in your Macs. She's got 32 MB of memory, a 3.2 GB spinning disc hard drive, and a 366 MHz G3 processor. I know that sounds terrible. Like I said, she's a bit arthritic. But there's a reason for that.
See, Willow was made in 1999.
 |
| Back when this was the status-quo. You owe every attractive laptop you've owned to this iBook. |
That's 16 years, which in computer years is like 97. And back in 1999, she was a sexy beast. She was powerful, sure, and definitely among the best value-for-money you could get in a portable computer at the time. But mostly she was eye-catching. The unique shape, the translucent plastics, a built-in handle.
 |
| A HANDLE, GUYS! |
She came built for WiFi.
I know that sounds stupid in an era when you can buy refrigerators and washing machines with WiFi. But in 1999, the world was different. Darker. Unconnected. The internet was nothing like it is today, and constant connectivity wasn't really on anyone's mind. Computers shipped with modems by default, and Ethernet was like, a luxury. So when Apple released a computer that came with an internal wireless internet card with a built-in antenna, well... Let's just put it this way. They made a company executive jump off a balcony to prove to the world they weren't pulling a fast one. This thing was real. It could really connect to the internet without a cable.
And it freaking blew everyone's minds.
So here's to you, Willow. 16 years is a long time, and you're still looking good. From all of us here in 2015, helplessly addicted to our wireless connectivity, thanks. We owe you.
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