If you haven’t seen this (and what Apple computer lover hasn’t?), you need to check it out. If you’re in the same age demographic as I am, you may remember typing many a middle school paper using AppleWorks on a machine exactly like this (attached to a very noisy Apple ImageWriter dot matrix printer, of course!).

Dan Budiac scored himself a new Apple //c. And not just any Apple //c — this one has been sitting in its original packaging since it was manufactured in 1988. And he’s got a very retro-cool set of “unboxing” photos from before unboxing was something most people even cared about.

Gosh – just looking at these pictures makes me all warm inside. From teaching myself how to program in BASIC to learning Logo in my 5th grade class and playing the green-screen version of Oregon Trail, this was my first computer experience.

I can’t wait to hear what happens when he sends in the warranty registration card…

[via an interview with Dan on MacBreak Weekly 76]

The first round of the long-anticipated OLPC laptops is in final testing and David Pogue of the NY Times has posted some first impressions. Of note, if you visit xogiving.org you can spend $400 and get one for yourself and one for a child overseas.

In a follow-up to the original article, Pogue blogs about a reader comment that was particularly thoughtful.

I know there have been ways to unlock your iPhone that involved soldering, but I’m not about to apply my awful soldering skills to a $500 device. However, the combination of this legit-looking software unlock and refurb iPhones available at $100 off MSRP might be too good for me to pass up.

OK, so I’m an Apple fanatic. Not a fan boy, mind you, but I do have an affinity for technology that works well and is designed well. I stumbled on this really incredible visual history of Apple products in a couple of different places online and wanted to share it here for my fellow Apple geeks.

Click the image to see it in its full-sized glory. Enjoy!

[Source: Apple Evolution at the Portfolio of Edwin Tofslie]

Indulge me in a geeky post, would you?

I anxiously kept hitting "refresh" on the FedEx tracking site until I was sure my new MacBook was safely at my house.  And then it sat there.  Mocking me until I was able to get home, enjoy our usual evening routine, and finally get the little one to bed.

I tricked it out pretty well hoping it will last me through my doctoral program.  I upgraded to 2GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive.  And I did pony up the extra $150 for a black one.

It looks like I’m not the only one with a new Macbook!  And Wesley created a wiki page where he is encouraging folks to post their software choices.  As Google, in their ongoing quest for complete Internet domination, is taking over JotSpot, they are not accepting new registrations at this time and so I couldn’t add my picks to Wesley’s already extensive list.  I decided it might be useful for me to keep track of what I have installed on my machine, so I finally put my heretofore empty personal wiki to good use. 

I did comment in Wesley’s thread that two little apps I didn’t find on the list were XTorrent and Quicksilver.  I noticed his list did include Parallels and I can tell you that I could not be more thrilled with this powerful app .  I love having a teeny XP install for those increasingly few things that just work better in Windows.  And it will also give me an opportunity to play a bit with Ubuntu and Edubuntu without worrying about dedicating a machine or stressing over dual- or triple-boots.

Whew.  I think I’ve exceeded my geek quotient for the week.  I’m glad Miguel and Wesley posted on this as I don’t always get to put on my propeller hat as much as I used to when I was a tech integrationist.