speed!=driveshaft length
For all of the G4 owning my-Mac-makes-me-flacid-'cause-it's-not-the-imaginary-G5 poseurs:
i was one of the lucky people who bought a top-of-the-line 9600/300 when it was released just before the reintroduction of Steve Jobs and the G3 desktops. Months after i got my delicious machine, the G3's hit the dektops and everyone started singing Oh Halelujah!, but the truth was that my machine was comparable to the originals (at least in Pshop/Quark) because of the 128 bit 2D card that it came with... Well, then came the Yosemites, then the beautiful G4's.... and all the while i'm still using my 9600 which i payed $4000 dollars for (no monitor w an upgrade from 64 to 128 RAM... it was killer when it was new
) .... Now my computer isn't worth crap, but it runs sys 8.6 (i had 9.2 on there, but it used too much RAM for the negligible advantages) just fine. It surfs the net, does web graphics, makes Quark documents, Illustrator Documents, plays (don't laugh) Star Craft, scans, prints, word processes, and it hardly ever crashes.
At my workplace (newspaper ad office) i started out using a modified G3 desktop in Jan of last year. i hated that computer. It bogged down, it crashed often. Basically i had to learn to play it like an intrument if i wanted to get my work done and go home on time. Then came the replacement: a G4 766! Sweet. This was noticably faster than the G4 300whatevers that were the "Apple" of the office's eye before. It wasn't perfect, but i got whipped that computer into a frenzy and before i knew it, i had become so efficient that instead of getting 80 hours, i was turning in between 65 and 70 in a work week. Not being a big fan of mindless web-surfing i went home instead. i got a better workstation, and i got penalized financially for it. The main difference in time saved with the new computer was primarily on one weekly document, a TV guide with about 25,000 little grid boxes in it. That's it.
And while i'm trying to put the funds together for a tibook (i've returned to school so that i can put myself in a place where i WILL need to have all the speed i can get, so portability balanced with power is my main objective) i'm having to deal with my wonderful 9600 museum piece.
But the point is that it does work. Sure the Zip drives are both death-clicked, and the floppy disk is as rare now as the common Mississippi Snipe, it doesn't have any USB support yet, just a good old-fashioned ADB keyboard with a Kensington Pro-mouse.
ON BEING A PRO
i consider myself to be a professional. Although i am a student, i believe that i carry off the projects which i'm assigned in a professional manner: i get the job done to the best of my abilities and call upon my specialized skills to find solutions to the problems i am presented. Everyone should know that tools are what we as humans use to create, but how many times have you seen one of those people who has the latest, greatest socket-set or fishing rig, or whatever and instead of putting grease on the torque-wrench or hitting the lake everyweekend to fish, that person's telling you how excited they are to get the TIVO box that they've ordered (only to be superceeded by the need for a HD TV that never gets watched because of.... ).
i admire the people who do what they do no matter what tools they have to start with. They don't sit around and make excuses like: i would do this or that if only i.... That's utter BS. Weak people surround themselves with material goods to satisfy their egos, not to accomplish tasks or goals. Strong people create and rise to greatness within themselves. If others see and recognize it, so much the better...
