Apple ® section

Doing it the hard way

A stunning technological achievement was announced yesterday: hackers have been able to make Apple's Mac OS X and Windows XP co-exist on an ordinary Jefferson nickel: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4816520.stm.

Apple executives had previously opined that this would be difficult: "On a quarter, sure, but not on a nickel". Reached for comment last night, an unnamed Apple chief executive officer and co-founder sniffed, "Yeah, but it was one of those new Jefferson nickels with the buffalo on the back - big deal".

Waving his hands frantically in the back of the room, someone with a Red Hat kept yelling "We have our own money! You don't need nickels!". This seemed to upset several shady looking characters who were trying to pitch electronic banking.

Another wild-eyed person yelled "Give me a roll of quarters and I'll give you cake!". Cornered by an angry crowd of hungry people, he admitted that you actually have to buy the cake mix and bake it. "But I give you the oven! And some cookies!", he insisted.

While reporters jostled each other trying to get their microphones closer to anyone who looked sufficiently geeky, a large search engine was observed to be sitting with his arms folded and grinning widely. Just above a whisper he said, "All your base are ours".

Bill Gates was reached at his favorite ice cream stand. Informed of the news, he wiped his glasses, appearing flustered and confused. "What's a nickel?", he asked.

Meanwhile, this reporter was playing poker when his new MacBook suddenly froze its mouse. This has happened a few times, though only while playing poker, and usually closing the screen briefly or command-tabbing will restore it, but this time it did not.

Undaunted, I hit the power button and confirmed that I really did want to shut down. The new Intel Macs shut down and boot very quickly: the actual boot time seems to be about 20 seconds, and I can go through a complete shutdown ("You are about to close 16 open tabs..", etc.) and be back up with all my Firefox tabs and Terminal windows open in less than 180 seconds. I did miss one hand, but that was all.

I am eagerly awaiting the next shoe.

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