The Old Black Apple Laptop



  • I recently got a call from a client wanting help with their computer:

    Client: "Hey, can you help me connect this LaserJet 1012 to a Apple Laptop"

    Me: "Sure, about how old is this laptop?"

    Client: "Eh...it's about 6-7 years old...black...we got it from a student"

    My mind: "I didn't know that Apple made black laptops 6-7 years ago...oh well"

    Me: "Bring it into the store, with the printer and I'll take a look at it"

     -----

    15 minutes later

     -----

    Client: "Here's the computer"

    In the box they brought was a printer, cables, and a Compaq laptop in a very bad state (case was cracked in several places) with a large white apple sticker placed on it upsidedown...with a 8GB Hard drive, and running XP. Probably was purchaced the year XP came out...



  • Perhaps the logo sticker was a crude way to make the student feel better about being unable to afford the preminum hardware alluded to.

    Either way, it managed to fool at least one person.



  • Steve Jobs's magic aura is so powerful that even an Apple sticker can make a computer better.  That's why he's looked so gaunt lately; it's not pancreatic cancer, it's all those iPhones draining his energy.



  • That old black MacBook has me in its spell,

    That old black MacBook that you broke so well,

    Those useless cables dangling out the back,

    That same old Apple from before they made 'em black.



  • The old PowerBook G3s were phased out around 2001, so it's almost feasible that it could've been a Pismo. Wouldn't have been as funny, though.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    That old black MacBook has me in its spell,

    That old black MacBook that you broke so well,

    Those useless cables dangling out the back,

    That same old Apple from before they made 'em black.

     

    I see a Compaq and I want to call it "Mac".

    No Compaqs anymore I want them to be Mac.

    I see a black laptop dressed in some Apple clothes

    I have to shake my head lest my annoyance grows.

     



  • @tbcpp said:

    My mind: "I didn't know that Apple made black laptops 6-7 years ago...oh well"

    Oh my, so all Apple hardware is now white? Geeze, our last PowerBook was black, I actually liked its looks.

    Sticking Apple stickers on non-Apple hardware reminds me of those guys putting Ferrari logos on their VW Beetles (the Type 1 Sedan, not the Barbiemobile of recent times). I still laugh at the memory of seeing a VW Beetle with a "TURBO" badge placed on the back.



  • Actually, there is a very good reason to put an Apple label on a non-Apple PC.

    If you check the OS X license you are only permitted to run it on a computer that has an Apple label - strange but true!

    @http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosx104.pdf said:

    This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.



  • @Someone You Know said:

    That old black MacBook has me in its spell,

    That old black MacBook that you broke so well,

    Those useless cables dangling out the back,

    That same old Apple from before they made 'em black.

     

    FTW



  • @jpaull said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    That old black MacBook has me in its spell,

    That old black MacBook that you broke so well,

    Those useless cables dangling out the back,

    That same old Apple from before they made 'em black.

    What the fuck did you change?  It's generally courtesy to highlight or boldface what you changed.

    If you didn't change anything, WTF did you post for?

     

    FTW

     


  • @belgariontheking said:

    @jpaull said:

    @Someone You Know said:

    That old black MacBook has me in its spell,

    That old black MacBook that you broke so well,

    Those useless cables dangling out the back,

    That same old Apple from before they made 'em black.

    What the fuck did you change?  It's generally courtesy to highlight or boldface what you changed.

    If you didn't change anything, WTF did you post for?

     

    FTW

    What the fuck did you change?  It's generally courtesy to highlight or boldface what you changed.

    If you didn't change anything, WTF did you post for?
     

    FTFY.

    Also, I believe his "FTW" is equivalent to "quoted for awesomeness".



  • @Quietust said:

    @belgariontheking said:

    @jpaull said:

    FTW

    What the fuck did you change?  It's generally courtesy to highlight or boldface what you changed.

    If you didn't change anything, WTF did you post for?
     

    FTFY.

    Also, I believe his "FTW" is equivalent to "quoted for awesomeness".

    Oh shit.  I thought he put FTFY.  That'll show me to post while I'm tired awake alive.

    I apologize, jpaull.



  • var magicLaptop = CompaqCache.RetrieveByYear(2000);

    var yourPC = new HpDesktop(Colors.Blue);

    var myPC = GatewayCache.RetrieveByYear(2003);

    magicLaptop.CastSpell(yourPC); // prints "FIRAGA" and inflicts 500 GB of damage to your hard drive - HAHAHA!

    magicLaptop.ImageSource = new VmwareImage("MACOS9.ISO");

    magicLaptop.CastSpell(myPC); // prints "CURAGA" and increases my HDD capacity by... wait a second, WTF happened to my Master Boot Record?!?



  • @tbcpp said:

    My mind: "I didn't know that Apple made black laptops 6-7 years ago...oh well"

    I acquired an old, black Apple laptop about 3 years ago.

    Admittedly, it wasn't new, and my mission, regardless of whether I accepted it, was to get it working and upgrade it to Mac OS 10.3 or dispose of it.  If I've managed to properly identify it, it was a 333MHz Lombard, whose PRAM battery had stopped working some time earlier.  Of course, that didn't particularly matter much, as the mission had been to upgrade it to 10.3 or dispose of it, and only one of those two was possible.


  • :belt_onion:

    @tgape said:

    @tbcpp said:
    My mind: "I didn't know that Apple made black laptops 6-7 years ago...oh well"

    I acquired an old, black Apple laptop about 3 years ago.

    Admittedly, it wasn't new, and my mission, regardless of whether I accepted it, was to get it working and upgrade it to Mac OS 10.3 or dispose of it.  If I've managed to properly identify it, it was a 333MHz Lombard, whose PRAM battery had stopped working some time earlier.  Of course, that didn't particularly matter much, as the mission had been to upgrade it to 10.3 or dispose of it, and only one of those two was possible.

    And did it destroy itself properly?


  • @bjolling said:

    @tgape said:

    @tbcpp said:
    My mind: "I didn't know that Apple made black laptops 6-7 years ago...oh well"

    I acquired an old, black Apple laptop about 3 years ago.

    Admittedly, it wasn't new, and my mission, regardless of whether I accepted it, was to get it working and upgrade it to Mac OS 10.3 or dispose of it.  If I've managed to properly identify it, it was a 333MHz Lombard, whose PRAM battery had stopped working some time earlier.  Of course, that didn't particularly matter much, as the mission had been to upgrade it to 10.3 or dispose of it, and only one of those two was possible.

    And did it destroy itself properly?
    Right after this message was displayed.


  •  I visited bletchley park last month, home of the enigma code breaking used during the war. 

     

    I was told there that the famous Apple Computer logo (a profile of an apple with a bite out of it) was in homage to Alan Turin.  Turin had committed suicide at the age of 42 by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide.

     


    ?????????



  • @Helix said:

    I was told there that the famous Apple Computer logo (a profile of an apple with a bite out of it) was in homage to Alan Turin.

    I have never seen evidence to support this.  Most likely the logo refers to Isaac Newton.

     

    @Helix said:

    Turin had committed suicide at the age of 42 by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide.

    This is true.  After helping his government crack the Enigma code and halt the murderous advance of the National Socialists, he was harassed and "medicated" for his homosexuality and forced out of Military Intelligence.  Sadly, he eventually committed suicide in the manner you described.  An almost-poetic, tragic ending to the story of this marvelous, brilliant man who did more than possibly any other single human being to destroy National Socialism.



  • [url]http://www.kelleyad.com/histry.htm[/url]

    [i]That is, Rob Janoff designed it -- an Apple with a bite out of it, indicating the acquisition of knowledge.[/i]



  •  i thought it sounded far fetched at the time, and a quick search shows no evidence. so why do they keep pedalling this story - they could end up in some proper trouble......



  • @Helix said:

    so why do they keep pedalling this story

    My guess would be because there are still people stupid enough to believe it and even recite it on public forums as fact.



  • @Farmer Brown said:

    @Helix said:
    so why do they keep pedalling this story
    My guess would be because there are still people stupid enough to believe it and even recite it on public forums as fact.
     

     

    o really?



  • @Helix said:

    o really?

    Apparently.



  •  I always thought his name was Turing.



  • @Farmer Brown said:

    @Helix said:
    o really?
    Apparently.
     

     

    why would they want to do that?



  •  @Eternal Density said:

     I always thought his name was Turing.

     

    true ... just ....er .. broken g on my keyboard.




  • @Farmer Brown said:

    @Helix said:
    o really?

    Apparently.

    Interesting, and quite nicely irrelevant link. Go back, read the first post about this rumour again, closely. In fact, get it here;

    I was told there that the famous Apple Computer logo (a profile of an apple with a bite out of it) was in homage to Alan Turin. Turin had committed suicide at the age of 42 by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide.


  • @stewieatb said:

    @Farmer Brown said:
    @Helix said:
    o really?
    Apparently.
    Interesting, and quite nicely irrelevant link. Go back, read the first post about this rumour again, closely. In fact, get it here;
    I was told there that the famous Apple Computer logo (a profile of an apple with a bite out of it) was in homage to Alan Turin. Turin had committed suicide at the age of 42 by taking a bite from an apple laced with cyanide.
     

     

    Nice find 


Log in to reply