Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory / Ram for your Mac. Top Quality, Competitive Prices, Lifetime Warranty. Expert Support and Video Installation Guidies too! 4.0GB Matched Sets from $87.99, Options up to 32GB. Click here

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

The Lite Side

The Little Mac That Could

- 2003.10.28

Ever wonder what kind of bedtime stories Mac fanatics tell their kids at bedtime? I'm sure you've spent many sleepless nights, like I have, pondering the answer to this fundamental question. Well, Gentle Reader, put your mind at ease, because you're about to hear one of those long-forgotten childhood stories we here at the Lite Side call

The Little Mac That Could

Once upon a time, in a building far, far away, there was a little computer called Mac. He only had a nine-inch black and white screen and sported a boxy little mouse. Years ago, he had been brand-new and exciting. He did many important and interesting jobs. He published articles in newspapers, printed flyers for yard sales, and made funny noises when little pictures on the screen were clicked.

Everyone thought he was cute. For the most part, though, he was pretty lonely, because there were no other computers like him in the building.

As the years passed, newer and bigger computers were brought into the building. Some had shinier parts, others had plastic doors on the front to hold shiny new CD-ROMS, which the little computer could not read.

Gradually, all of the things the little computer could do were taken away by bigger, faster computers, and eventually the little computer's only job was to print multipart forms on an old printer that was not compatible with any other computer in the building.

One day, the printer broke, and the kindly Engineer who had kept the little computer running for so many years could not find a replacement part to fix it. The Big Boss commanded the Engineer to retire the little computer and move on, since better printers were available and multipart forms were being phased out in favor of Web-based documentation.

"Now I'll just fade away, forgotten," thought the little computer. But the Engineer had fond memories of the little computer, so he set the little computer in a corner of his office, where he would occasionally boot it up and play a game or show young workers what computers used to be like.

One day the Engineer did not come back to work for a long time. The little computer heard coworkers talking about the Engineer, who had been "downsized." Now there was no one to pay attention to the little computer.

Several days later he was removed from his beloved office and put into storage. For the longest time he sat in a box, collecting dust. His hard drive slowly degraded from cosmic rays causing random data fluctuations in his platters. Particles of air leaked into his vacuum tube, a few at a time. He knew if he ever booted again, the picture wouldn't be quite as crisp as it was when he was new.

Then, one day, he heard some people talking in the storeroom.

"That virus has shut us down completely," said one.

"Too bad we don't use Macs any more. We could finish that document the boss wanted done today."

"I thought there was an old Mac around here somewhere..." said the first.

The little computer heard rustling noises and suddenly saw light for the first time in many years.

"There is is," said the first voice. It belonged to another Engineer!

Soon after the little computer felt electricity shoot through its circuits. It struggled to boot up, but its hard drive was stiff with age and didn't spin as fast as it should.

"Go, little guy, go," said the new Engineer.

"I think I can," said the little computer to itself. "If I think I can, then I will. I think I can, I think I can."

Soon the little computer's hard drive was spinning and the operating system was running. Even though the building's network was not supposed to be compatible with the little computer's networking protocols, the young Engineer found an old Farallon LocalTalk-to-Ethernet adapter in the storeroom and got the computer online.

Fortunately, there was an old printer on the network that was still Postscript compatible, and so the little computer was soon printing out view-graphs in black and white, just in time for the Big Boss's presentation.

Now the little computer sits proudly on a shelf in the young Engineer's office, and visitors often hear the tale of how the little computer saved the company from losing an important contract when all of the other computers were broken because of a virus.

The young engineer always ends the story the same way, too.

"Just because it's old, doesn't mean it isn't useful. Newer isn't always better."

The End

Recent Lite Sides

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.

Custom Search

Amazon.com

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
B&H
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.