Think Fruity

Since my current job has me working closely with graphic designers, animators, producers and other such black-beret-wearing creative types, it was perhaps inevitable that one of them was eventually going to slip some wacky psychadelic substance into my Grande Soy Caramel Latte, and warp my mind into liking Apple products. I haven't rushed out and bought three iPods and an Xserve RAID yet, but I've been eyeing the Mac mini with a certain interest, and I think the iPod shuffle is pretty cool. Bear in mind however, that I may be saying this while under the influence of some type of rogue hallucinogen.

Doing computer things outside of Windows is rather refreshing though, as Apple-land has a whole bunch of weird, new and interesting tools which are totally different to the crusty old Windows ones I'm used to. It's also quite pleasant to ignore 95% of all viruses, trojans and browser hacks (since they're pretty much all written to attack Windows systems) but quite annoying to miss out on 95% of all games, since no-one really bothers porting them across. It's nifty that under all the Apple chrome and transparent rotating cucumbers, the system is BSD Unix, with enough cron jobs, awk scripts and bourne shells to keep even the most ferociously-bearded Unix patriach from fingerpainting Ken Thompson 0wnz J00 on the side of the local Lotus Notes server in rendered goat fat.

They are nipple-piercingly expensive though. I'll happily play with them for free at work, but actually throwing down four figures for one of my own really starts thinning out my drug-induced bliss haze. Still, if one fell into my hands without me actually having to pay for it, I'd be happy. I might sell it and buy a mountain bike, but it would be generally cool.