Powerbook. So beautiful...it's invisible?

[steeveage]

I just purchased a new 17" Powerbook G4 a few weeks ago. My first Mac ever. I love it. I'm sure all you Powerbook users enjoy the satisfaction of owning one of the most beautiful laptops on the market. You've probably become accustomed to receiving compliments on how nice your Powerbook looks. What I want to know is, has anyone ever experienced the opposite?

I have. I am a developer, and lately when other developers come to discuss something in my cubicle, the vast majority of them notice the new Powerbook sitting closed on my desk. Today, however, was different. I was diligently debugging a piece of code with another developer, and notice in the back of my mind that he didn't really comment on the laptop that was sitting right next to him. Odd, I think. I glance over, and he's happily turned my $2500 laptop into a handy elbow rest, elbow on laptop, head on hand and all. GASP! I quickly blurted out something to the effect of "get off" and yanked my laptop to safety. Unbelievable. Thank goodness for that solid aluminum enclosure, it escaped relatively unscathed.

In retrospect, I came to realize a few things. One -- anyone who lacks that kind of attention to detail, i.e. what I'm leaning on is or is not breakable, should not be developing software. Two -- the Powerbook's enclosure is so svelte and understated, it practically blends in with its surroundings. Now that's some good design. But beauty can definitely be dangerous.

[tech4all]

Dang, that would irritate me! Who puts their elbow on a laptop?! :rolleyes: Good thing it didn't get any damage, isn't aluminum suppose to be really soft, at least compared to the old TiBooks?

[virividox]

what a dumb ass

[steeveage]

Actually now that I think about it more, the "softness" of the aluminum may have helped -- it has a nice even flex so that if it bends, it doesn't STAY bent. I was actually surprised myself that there was no visible dent in my laptop, given how much weight your elbow takes when you're standing up and leaning on a flat surface with your elbow and head.

[dotnina]

(...) I was actually surprised myself that there was no visible dent in my laptop, given how much weight your elbow takes when you're standing up and leaning on a flat surface with your elbow and head. (...)

Well, sounds like his head wasn't too heavy ... doesn't really weigh anything when nothing's in there, you know. ;)

[Counterfit]

Please please please tell me you punched him.




If you didn't, can I? :o

[edesignuk]

what a dumb ass
You summed my thoughts up rather well there :)

[yoda13]

Please please please tell me you punched him.




If you didn't, can I? :o

....what I was thinking..... :D

[t300]

Since I can't blame the guy who did it, I blame you. Why would you have your PB out in the open in the first place. Protection wise, either from theft or damage, it is very important that it does not happen. Be wise man. Next time (don't let there be a next time) make sure you lean your elbow into his jaw...real hard.

[WinterMute]

It's an aluminium alloy in the PB case, it's harder than pure Al, and more resistant to deformity, unlike your co-workers face would have been had it been my 17" he'd leaned on.... :mad: ;)

I've got so used to the Windoze crowd getting all schmoozy when the PB comes out, that I find myself hauling it out in meetings when I don't really need to, just for a laugh...

If you've got it, flaunt it.

[bubbamac]

Thinning of the gene pool is warrented...

I specifically do NOT close my PB unless it's going into its bag. The keyboard leaves marks on the screen when it's closed. Yea, I can clean them, but the less I have to do, the better. I do put it to sleep when I'm not using it, to give the processor a break.

If you're closing it to put it to sleep, there's another quick way, without closing it (there are more, this is the fastest for me). Press (and release) the power button, then press "S." It's quick, and when you get back, hit any key to wake up.

[Abstract]

I've got so used to the Windoze crowd getting all schmoozy when the PB comes out, that I find myself hauling it out in meetings when I don't really need to, just for a laugh...

If you've got it, flaunt it.

Actually, I do the opposite. :o I'll regularly be at the library with my 12" PB and iPod, and people will always look over. It makes me feel weird, so I try not to pull out my PB unless I need to. I even try to hide it by sitting in one of the cubicle desks against the wall so that there aren't too many people who see it.

[Coolvirus007]

He's jealous. Nothing to it. He's not stupid. If he 'sucedes' (spell?) in denting your pb, he'll just say it was an accident and laugh about it. Or if you tell him to stop, he'll try to spread a rumor that your too sensative about your laptop and so on.

I hate people who do stuff like that.

[Chaszmyr]

isn't aluminum suppose to be really soft, at least compared to the old TiBooks?

The aircraft grade aluminum alloy casing used by the current PowerBooks is actually much more stable than the TiBook casing was.

[kylos]

Actually, my roommate leaned on my ibook recently. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him doing that. He also knocked it off a chair once. I think that scared him quite good. But it an ibook, these things are tough with their "bullet proof" poly carb shells and rubber mounted hds. I was able to forgive him after he performed some emergency soldering on my logic board, though, when I broke some pins upgrading my hd.

[TDM21]

My 12" Pb has done some head turning before. I was at a department store with my family and I was having to wait for my mom and grandmother to finish shopping for clothes. To pass the time, I pulled out my laptop and played some StarCraft. While I was doing this, one of the employees walked up and had to ask me "is that the laptop from the commercial where Yao, and the little guy are setting in the airplane? You know, Yao has the small laptop and the other guy has the huge one?" I say yes and she has to hold it and look at its beauty.

Being a shy person, I was a bit uncomfortable with her coming up and right out asking about my laptop.

Now that I'm at college, I have people stop by my room all the time. One guy on my floor had to print a paper and he came to see if we could print it for him (it cost $0.05 a page to print from any of the schools computers). He sees my laptop and can't believe how small it is. What really makes my laptop look small is the printer that is setting beside it. I have a Lexmark X5150 and I think if I tried, I could fit my laptop completely in it.

[hcuar]

Actually, my roommate leaned on my ibook recently. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him doing that. He also knocked it off a chair once. I think that scared him quite good. But it an ibook, these things are tough with their "bullet proof" poly carb shells and rubber mounted hds. I was able to forgive him after he performed some emergency soldering on my logic board, though, when I broke some pins upgrading my hd.


Yeah... i witnessed some mad soldering skills while at college. I personally leave that to other people. ;-)

[wPod]

everyone who sees my laptop notices it and i usually get lots of questions. or the occasional M$ dumb a$$ that says 'thats a dumb computer, mine is faster. . . what speed is yours? mines a 3.0GHZ' i hope your co-worker isnt a mac hater :-/

but i got the best compliment yesterday. i was over at my friend's house setting up his new dell laptop. i pulled out my 12" pb (rev A) so i could transfer some music onto his new laptop (er. . . music i made myself :-/ ). and then while marveling at the size (compared to his 15.4" wide screen 5inch thick bohemoth) he suddunly asked 'what speed is your processor' i replied '867 mhz' then he asked how much ram i said '256' then came the shocker (which i loved hearing) 'how does your computer that has half the ram and slower proccesor than my 2.8Ghz P4 run faster than my brand new computer?' i laughed and explained it was a mac. went into the details of the difference b/w a G4 and a P4 and got a wierd confused look from him. but i was still happy that he realized that my one year old G4 was faster than his brand new P4 !

[varmit]

I could care less what type of laptop it was, but if someone put and elbow on my laptop, I would planly ask, "Do I come to your cubicle and put my feet up on your keyboard. So get your damn elbow off my laptop." I could careless if it was my coworker or boss. If the person doesn't have the sense in his head to not do something like that to a laptop, they deserve to be belittled.

As for my iBook, I love taking it out in public. In college I use to sit out in the middle of the library and have everyone's heads turning. Had some stop and look over my shoulder from a distance. Hell, 2 of my roommates ended up getting PBs about a year later because of me. I was willing to show off anything it could do to anyone that asks, and I did get asked many times.

When people ask why it goes so fast for a 600Mhz processor. I tell its a tricky thing, but to make and analogy I tell them like they were going on a truo. You can get to a place a short distance away in a short amount of time while going to, say Japan (I'm in the USA, NJ), can take awhile. Well my chip has a pipeline, roadway so to say, in it that is only about the distance from here to the 7/11 down the street, while the P4 has one that is like the trip to California. I, aka something that needs to get processed, can get to the 7/11 quicker at my slow 600Mhz walking speed than doing that speed going to Cal. So, for the Pentiums to stay ahead they make myself go quicker, take a plane that goes 500 mph, like them stepping my speed up to that 3 ghz they run at. I get there quicker, but its still a long distance to go. Thats why my 600Mhz can compete with the Pentiums. They need to go fast to stick with Apple computers better made processor.

I also have that video they did comparing a G4 to a Pentium back a couple of years. And yes, my 600 Mhz can't really go as fast as a 3Ghz, so its kind of a bad analogy, but it just gives an idea of what is different between the processors.

[FuzzyBallz]

what a dumb ass
Referring to the OP for flashing his jumbo fruit all over the place.

Personally, I'd use it as a foot rest/warmer. They are quite toasty.

[Dandaman]

man, no respect.

hope you having fun with your pbook steve :)

daniel

[puckhead193]

I love getting positive comments of my pb...everyone comments on the looks but what about the power and whats inside... o well...
Some times i get "A mac.... i hate macs...... and then i just leave it cause there no point in arguing with a dumb person..... :D

[realityisterror]

When people ask why it goes so fast for a 600Mhz processor. I tell its a tricky thing, but to make and analogy I tell them like they were going on a truo. You can get to a place a short distance away in a short amount of time while going to, say Japan (I'm in the USA, NJ), can take awhile. Well my chip has a pipeline, roadway so to say, in it that is only about the distance from here to the 7/11 down the street, while the P4 has one that is like the trip to California. I, aka something that needs to get processed, can get to the 7/11 quicker at my slow 600Mhz walking speed than doing that speed going to Cal. So, for the Pentiums to stay ahead they make myself go quicker, take a plane that goes 500 mph, like them stepping my speed up to that 3 ghz they run at. I get there quicker, but its still a long distance to go. Thats why my 600Mhz can compete with the Pentiums. They need to go fast to stick with Apple computers better made processor.

excellent analogy! i've often been plagued with this question at school and don't know how to answer it other than "it's a different architecture"... i too have seen the megahertz myth video, but i'm curious: did they "lengthen" the pipeline for the G5 to make the numbers seem faster??

reality

[stillwater]

Aluminum is great stuff. However, it does have an arch-enemy.

Check out this article. There's also a link on the same page to a Quicktime video of the aluminum "rusting".

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/h20/article/0,12543,693558,00.html

[solvs]

Some times i get "A mac.... i hate macs...... and then i just leave it cause there no point in arguing with a dumb person..... :D
I usually ask why. Then they say something like "it doesn't run (insert some doom rip-off) game" or "you can't even upgrade the RAM" or "I used one once in 7th grade". Things like that. Sometimes they don't know why. Those are fun.

[bousozoku]

Dang, that would irritate me! Who puts their elbow on a laptop?! :rolleyes: Good thing it didn't get any damage, isn't aluminum suppose to be really soft, at least compared to the old TiBooks?

I would imagine that he's the kind to put his shoes on the dashboard of a $60,000+ car without a thought or the antique table or...

Sad, isn't it? Wonder if he's on time for his pay.

[kilpajr]

everyone who sees my laptop notices it and i usually get lots of questions. or the occasional M$ dumb a$$ that says 'thats a dumb computer, mine is faster. . . what speed is yours? mines a 3.0GHZ' i hope your co-worker isnt a mac hater :-/

but i got the best compliment yesterday. i was over at my friend's house setting up his new dell laptop. i pulled out my 12" pb (rev A) so i could transfer some music onto his new laptop (er. . . music i made myself :-/ ). and then while marveling at the size (compared to his 15.4" wide screen 5inch thick bohemoth) he suddunly asked 'what speed is your processor' i replied '867 mhz' then he asked how much ram i said '256' then came the shocker (which i loved hearing) 'how does your computer that has half the ram and slower proccesor than my 2.8Ghz P4 run faster than my brand new computer?' i laughed and explained it was a mac. went into the details of the difference b/w a G4 and a P4 and got a wierd confused look from him. but i was still happy that he realized that my one year old G4 was faster than his brand new P4 !

I had a similar experience. I received my PB a few classes into the semester. In one class I have, one of my friends who has a 2 year old 15" PB noticed that our professor kept looking at his computer. After class, the professor started asking questions about it. My friend answered his questions and then mentioned that I had a brand new PB. The professor then asked if he could see it and I said, "sure" and showed it to him. He was very impressed and said it was "beautiful". I doubt many PC guys have received this kind of compliment.

This is the best part. When I decided to get a mac, my parents asked if I would be able to do everything I needed to with it. I told them yes, hesitantly, this being my first mac and all. In the class I talked about, we are designing an e-commerce web site. Almost everyone has to use the cramped lab using Red Hat. That is, except the three of us that have macs :). Also, I have another class where we are programming in VHDL. We have to use a program on the sun computers to do this. However, do I have to spend hours in the lab getting things to work? No. I use X11 forwarding and ssh into the sun computers so I can work from off campus (this is surprisingly simple even though I am new to the mac).

It is wonderful to be able to have this kind of experience on a computer. Anyone who doesn't appreciate the mac just hasn't had the kind of experiences we have. Just show them the benefits and see what kind of response they have then. Sorry for the long post.

[Dandaman]

I usually ask why. Then they say something like "it doesn't run (insert some doom rip-off) game" or "you can't even upgrade the RAM" or "I used one once in 7th grade". Things like that. Sometimes they don't know why. Those are fun.

Haha, I love the 7th grade one. I get that all the time. I guess it's kind of like saying, "I'm not gonna buy a brand new [insert car name] because I test drove it 12 years ago and didn't like it."

daniel

[kilpajr]

Haha, I love the 7th grade one. I get that all the time. I guess it's kind of like saying, "I'm not gonna buy a brand new [insert car name] because I test drove it 12 years ago and didn't like it."

daniel

I had an "I hate macs" attitude from 12th grade until a couple years ago. I was in chemistry and we had these old mac laptops for doing labs. I was bored and started playing a game on one while our teacher was talking. The game started making a really loud noise and I couldn't make it quit. I quickly pressed the power button to make it cut off. The computer cut off but the sound didn't! I was panicking by this time and pulled the power cord. The sound didn't stop! What was there left to do but pull the battery? I did this and when my teacher came over to me, she told me I had screwed up the computer and they would now have to get it repaired. This had to be the stupid computers fault :). I'm glad apple has improved their computers or I guess I would still hate macs.

[Seanb23]

I used to like getting the oldschool 17" pbook out on flights...though the battery life is only about 2.25-2.5 hours on "Highest Performance" with a lot of useage and that humongous, beautiful, power-suckin screen...for the very looks of envy that the corporate PC-using 'droids would give me ! Then some overzealous (and probably malicious) retard in Airport Security managed to put a little dent in the side of the thing when it was out of the bag and I was picking through my shoes and belt and stuff elsewhere, thus making it impossible to trade up (plus $$$, of course) for one with a more robust processor/bus when (or if) they ever come out. Didn't notice it for a day or so, so legal action is out of the question. Hell, in another thread on this someone recommended pounding out that little dent with a rubber hammer, and I probably will, but this much is certain : that powerbook is NEVER out of it's Marware case nowadays without my direct and hyper-vigilant supervision !!! Even my room-mate chides me for scowling at her like an overprotective parent when I let her use it...

[varmit]

excellent analogy! i've often been plagued with this question at school and don't know how to answer it other than "it's a different architecture"... i too have seen the megahertz myth video, but i'm curious: did they "lengthen" the pipeline for the G5 to make the numbers seem faster??

reality

The pipeline in the G5 is longer than the G4. Thus why it could step up its Hz speed to the 2.5Ghz. I think physics draw into this somewhere, where a longer pipeline can give you faster speeds. Thats why its so hard to get the G4 to go faster without burning up, and this is why the Pentium PCs could get higher Ghz speeds then the Macs.

You can put more instructions over a longer pipeline, making the instructions easier at each stage of the pipeline, making each stage quicker, making the processor go faster, thus longer pipeline can go faster, aka more Ghz. I don't know, I just drew that up in my head right now so its probably not right.

[NusuniAdmin]

I woulda punched the dude for vandelising my laptop!

[Quobobo]

Okay, I can't believe someone hasn't said this yet, but who cares. He put his elbow on your computer, which is made of Aluminum. It can handle it. Besides, if you're not paying attention (which I imagine he wasn't), a closed Powerbook just looks like a metal box. If anyone did the same to my 'Book, I wouldn't overreact to the point where I need to post online about it.

He's jealous. Nothing to it. He's not stupid. If he 'sucedes' (spell?) in denting your pb, he'll just say it was an accident and laugh about it. Or if you tell him to stop, he'll try to spread a rumor that your too sensative about your laptop and so on.

I hate people who do stuff like that.

If you're both posting here about it, and getting that worked up about it, you are too sensitive about your laptop. The original poster even mentioned that it blends into surroundings.

[Mord]

my ibook is the bigest investment i have ever made in my entire life (i'm 16) as is the purchaceing of powerbooks for some people for somthing so very very cool it is easy to get over protective of it.

[wide]

i use my dell 600m as a placemat sometimes. i rest my elbows on it too, but then i can't use the keyboard, so i only use it as an elbow rest when i'm reading stuff, not typing.

[iSuck]

At school
we have 12" G4 ibooks. We can only use Office and Internet explorer. I hate the IT guys...so you know what I do with the school ones....
When im usin them in the library for research, i use it to write on, example, i lean on it when im drawin on paper, i use it as a foot rest and I make expose go nuts!

The IT Guys love it...LOL!

They can't tell me off....they arn't authorised.

[Manzana]

Quit bugging troll.

At school
we have 12" G4 ibooks. We can only use Office and Internet explorer. I hate the IT guys...so you know what I do with the school ones....
When im usin them in the library for research, i use it to write on, example, i lean on it when im drawin on paper, i use it as a foot rest and I make expose go nuts!

The IT Guys love it...LOL!

They can't tell me off....they arn't authorised.

[aswitcher]

I use a crumpler school book hymn to protect my PB but for elbow incidents it would be nice to find something on the market like the school hymn but with alumnium strengthening but not a full blown brief case...

[Coolvirus007]

Aluminum is great stuff. However, it does have an arch-enemy.

Check out this article. There's also a link on the same page to a Quicktime video of the aluminum "rusting".

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/h20/article/0,12543,693558,00.html

I never knew this:
“Anodized” aluminum has been treated with acid and electricity to force it to grow an extra-thick layer of rust, because the more you have on the surface, the stronger and more scratch-resistant it is.

Thanks for the article :D

[toughboy]

I love getting positive comments of my pb...everyone comments on the looks but what about the power and whats inside... o well...
Some times i get "A mac.... i hate macs...... and then i just leave it cause there no point in arguing with a dumb person..... :D

I worked at a tech fair this month, and believe me, half of those "dumbs" get convinced when you show the "dock" of the panther and the other half needs to see "expose" to get to buy a mac :D

[Mord]

I worked at a tech fair this month, and believe me, half of those "dumbs" get convinced when you show the "dock" of the panther and the other half needs to see "expose" to get to buy a mac :D

it's true people have bought macs just when they looked at my ibook while i was working, i use exposé allot so i look very flashy while working.

[iSuck]

lOL

Mac can make the easiest things look cool