redshifter.org

After two and a half years, it was time to bid farewell to my old Titanium Powerbook. It had served me well, rarely a day going by that I didn't use it for hours on end. I created this site design on that laptop. It was the central nervous system of my freelance career. I used it to launch my clothing business and record songs. But its age was apparent: the gray paint was badly flaked, the screen smudged and scratched, the keys worn. Bottom line: it was getting pretty worn out.

I could have squeezed a little more life out of it with a fresh install, I think. By wiping out the drive and reinstalling everything from the ground up, I probably could have cleared out a lot of cobwebs and sped up the system a little, but there wasn't much to be done about the physical wear and tear to the machine. It was time for a new Powerbook, and damn if they aren't expensive.

So, as I type this post on my new (very speedy) Powerbook, I'm considering giving my old go-to machine a venerable position in my life, as media server for my house. It'll live next to my TV, it's built-in 60GB hard drive acting as central storehouse for all my music, so I can keep as much free space on the new laptop as possible. If I want to take some music to work, well then I'll just break out my trusty iPod (which outdates even the old Powerbook) and it'll be a done deal.

Aw, screw it. It's all just more ongoing justification for dropping the cash on an expensive new laptop. I've been doing it for months, the first step being the admission that the laptop is getting a little long in the tooth. Then, I begin eyeing up the specs on the new machine, waiting for the new Powerbooks to speed up to the point where buying a new one represents a significant performance increase. Heck, I even pined about it here a few months back. I checked the Mac Buyer's Guide to make sure Apple isn't about to announce a newer, faster machine. I got scared of dropping the loot and did nothing. Finally, when the new machine just got to the point of being feeble, it was time. On my way to the Apple Store, justifications are exclaimed such as, "...but my machine's two and a half years old! Most folks like me don't keep a machine quite that long, do they? I'm doing better than average!"

It's quite sad, really. There comes a time when you just need to pull the trigger and be happy that you did. It's a tax write-off, anyway. There I go with the justifications again.