Okay, she's a little sensitive about her weight and her age, but I think you'd all agree with me that for her age and despite the bulk, she looks pretty darn good.
This is Natasha. She's named after someone else who has red hair. Because duh.
Most importantly, though, she's an iMac G3. Many of you may recognize her as a fruity version of the iMac. That places her as a second generation of that particular machine, but still, that was 1998. So yeah. She's getting on in years. And she's had some cosmetic surgery. Her body says "strawberry," but her keyboard and mouse say "tangerine."
What's important here is not that she's old, but that she represents the first time a computer was made with normal people as the target audience. The idea behind the iMac was, in essence, to get as many people online as quickly as possible. It heralded a shift from localized power computing to the more disposable communication-based computing we're familiar with today. Most people don't use their computing devices for much beyond communication anymore, and that concept really started with the iMac.
It was also the beginning of a new Apple, one that cared more about how their computer functioned as a package than anyone else in the industry. An Apple that was smart enough to realize "you know, people might like an attractive computer instead of a beige box" but bold enough to declare "and on top of that, people might like a mouse shaped like a hockey puck."
Only one of those turned out to be true. But it was this mantra of "sometimes people don't know what they want until they're holding it" that gave us the iPod and iPhone later on, so that was pretty key as well.
And on top of everything else, and seventeen years after the fact, she's still a great computer. She's got USB ports where you'd expect them to be. Sure the mouse may have a ball in it, but I could plug this into a brand new MacBook Pro and the thing would work without any effort. The OS isn't new, obviously. It's Mac OS 9.2.2. So, old. But OS 9 retained so much backward compatibility that anything made for System 7 and OS 8 will run on it flawlessly.
And that just happens to include a huge number of my favorite educational games. And Diablo. So there's that. She's got a quicker boot time than a lot of modern machines, the disc drive (CD as the only option, no floppy or zip. Daring, for the time) still works great, and heck, considering everything else at the time was still using PS2 connectors on their input devices, the fact that there's a power button on the keyboard is pretty snazzy.
She's a standing testament against the suggestion that Apple runs a scheme of planned obsolescence. Sadly, the internet has changed a little too much for the "i" in "iMac" to mean as much as it once did. But as a denizen of the internet age, I raise my glass to you, Natasha.
Thanks for all the cat memes.
This is Natasha. She's named after someone else who has red hair. Because duh.
 |
| There were so many spider pictures in that image search. SO MANY. |
Most importantly, though, she's an iMac G3. Many of you may recognize her as a fruity version of the iMac. That places her as a second generation of that particular machine, but still, that was 1998. So yeah. She's getting on in years. And she's had some cosmetic surgery. Her body says "strawberry," but her keyboard and mouse say "tangerine."
 |
| Not literally. |
What's important here is not that she's old, but that she represents the first time a computer was made with normal people as the target audience. The idea behind the iMac was, in essence, to get as many people online as quickly as possible. It heralded a shift from localized power computing to the more disposable communication-based computing we're familiar with today. Most people don't use their computing devices for much beyond communication anymore, and that concept really started with the iMac.
It was also the beginning of a new Apple, one that cared more about how their computer functioned as a package than anyone else in the industry. An Apple that was smart enough to realize "you know, people might like an attractive computer instead of a beige box" but bold enough to declare "and on top of that, people might like a mouse shaped like a hockey puck."
 |
| Bold can sometimes mean stupid, but hindsight is 20/20. As long as you don't use the mouse for long stretches it works just fine. |
Only one of those turned out to be true. But it was this mantra of "sometimes people don't know what they want until they're holding it" that gave us the iPod and iPhone later on, so that was pretty key as well.
And on top of everything else, and seventeen years after the fact, she's still a great computer. She's got USB ports where you'd expect them to be. Sure the mouse may have a ball in it, but I could plug this into a brand new MacBook Pro and the thing would work without any effort. The OS isn't new, obviously. It's Mac OS 9.2.2. So, old. But OS 9 retained so much backward compatibility that anything made for System 7 and OS 8 will run on it flawlessly.
And that just happens to include a huge number of my favorite educational games. And Diablo. So there's that. She's got a quicker boot time than a lot of modern machines, the disc drive (CD as the only option, no floppy or zip. Daring, for the time) still works great, and heck, considering everything else at the time was still using PS2 connectors on their input devices, the fact that there's a power button on the keyboard is pretty snazzy.
 |
| '98 was a pretty snazzy year. |
She's a standing testament against the suggestion that Apple runs a scheme of planned obsolescence. Sadly, the internet has changed a little too much for the "i" in "iMac" to mean as much as it once did. But as a denizen of the internet age, I raise my glass to you, Natasha.
Thanks for all the cat memes.
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