In response to this query, I ended up with a 15″ powerbook. It’s a pretty sweet machine even if they did just replace it with the “4-times more powerful MacBook.” I tried an Ubuntu install, but it failed to recognize the Superdrive as a source for the CD — apparently Apple made some change to the drive with the October(’05) model updates. There’s a patch in Gentoo, but not (yet?) in Ubuntu. Between that and iffy (at-best) support for the “airport” card, I decided to just deal with the Mac OS, and not chop up the drive for dual boot. I finally got it set up reasonably. My monitor has both DVI and D-Sub inputs, so I had the Mac in the DVI, my dual-booting Ubuntu/XP machine into the DVI, and (almost) all of the peripherals switching with just a switch of which machine had the USB connection to the monitor. Just when that happened, Penn State took back the loaner laptop that Carolyn had had. To be fair, she’d had it a good long time — longer even than scheduled. So, the powerbook had to move out from being entangled on my desk to where it could be easily accessible for Carolyn during nursing sessions, Carolyn for school work, and either of us for SamTrak updates. So, I still use it little bits, but not nearly as much as before. I’d even started playing with Objective-C and X-code thanks to a book I got from my sibling-in-laws for Christmas. So, I guess I need at least a little more work so I can at least get a Mini. But maybe this time, I should wait until the mini has made the Intel transition. Then, maybe I can tri-boot it with Ubuntu and XP.
Because a friend of mine made the Windows -> Mac switch, he replaced his Windows copy of Neverwinter Nights with one for the Mac, giving me his Windows copy. I’ve been playing it some, but recently decided I should step back into Diablo II to keep my characters alive — I have (well, had) some pretty advanced ones. Blizzard (creators of Diablo II) clears out accounts that have been inactive for 90+ days. I didn’t think it had been that long, but apparently it had. All of my D2 characters are gone, gone, gone. I’d had some of those characters for over 3 years. Now, it had been a long time since I’d had any of my friends online to play with, so I was only occasionally exploring. Mainly trying to find new and interesting magic items. I lack the passion to now build up a character again that’s actually worth playing. So, maybe it’s time to retire the D2 CD from it’s honored place in the top CDROM drive. Elder Scrolls IV — Oblivion has been getting a lot of hype, and I’ve been a big fan of the Elder Scrolls series. I just hope it’ll play on my ole PC. 🙂