Upgrade blues: Newer Technology seems to be shutting its doors. What made this interesting to me, I recalled talking with my Dad about this, just over the Xmas break. Newer Tech had the only G 3 upgrade for my favorite computer to date: the Apple PowerBook 2400. I’ve still got mine, sitting on the desk. It’s really a subnotebook computer, weighing in right at 4 pounds, no floppy in it, no CD drive, a relatively big color screen, good enough battery life so I could work for most of a cross country flight on one charge, and a full size keyboard. The mouse clicker is broken, had it fixed under warranty once, but I never bothered after I got the current notebook (G3). The deal was this, Newer Tech had an upgrade for my trusty 2400, but the price of the upgrade wasn’t really worth it. G3 processor, still slower than the current book, and it’s not like it’s an upgrade I can do on my kitchen table — not like the earlier upgrade I got from Newer. I was pleased with their G 3 upgrade for my aging 6100, and that one is still clicking along — albeit 200 megahertz and change is pretty slow these days. What made this more poignant, the news piece online, when I last checked, also had an ad for a new Apple iBook. New computer, faster than the upgrade, for less. Do the math.
There were thin sheets of ice, remaining fragments still clinging to shadows on a south bound freight. The ice was a perfect setting as I had stumbled on to a text about Nordic mythology, history, and the epic literature about the history and the myths. Rolling north on the train, a short portion of the track splits, then parallels Austin’s Mopac freeway — one of the local versions of the Autobahn (Texas style). Its name derives from the railroad right-of-way: Missouri — Pacific. The rails, from the Midwest to Southern California. The “parental unit” of all highways: Route 66 (“It winds from Chicago to LA…”) All these migration routes cut through the American Southwest – where I’ve lived all my life. Maybe that’s why life along these routes seems so transitory. Migrations figure in those Norse myths, the part where history, oral tradition, and good old gripping, ripping yarns get commingled.
Shoot — I was supposed to do a “year in review” — just like everyone else.
