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iBook 500 MHz (2001)

The most recent addition, Bish also is the first new mac I've ever bought entirely with my own money! wooo!! I must say, I couldn't be happier with it... I got it because I was about to embark on the Islandless project, which entails a good deal of travel... and traveling with a g4 tower and a 19 inch monitor is decidedly more difficult than with a 4.9 pound laptop :)

The name was coined by piston, as he is the mastah namer of all things. I think it's perfect... I love infusing "every day life" with references from the online world, and this is a great example. It's also nice that, even if you don't get the reference, it still sounds like a perfectly valid name for something... additionally, I'll surely have the chance to say it in a somewhat formal setting without batting an eyelash :) The runner up name was Butters (also piston's idea)... then I'd theme it out to be like Butters from SouthPark, perhaps my fav SP character. The only problem is that it usually doesn't take me long to tire of such themes / desktop pics / startup sounds, etc... so I went with Bish :)

It was quite a financial squeeze to purchase Bish before I left Seattle (9/6/01), but I managed to pull it off... made a bit easier by piston, who sported my broke ass the occasional Chai / subway / Quizno's ;) In deciding which one to buy and how to config it, I had a couple restrictions that limited my purchasing options: 1) must have the 20 gig drive (10 just won't cut it); 2) must have warranty. The problem here is that installing a drive myself would void the warranty (it was quite a task just to upgrade the RAM, on account of the extremely tiny screwdriver necessary), so I had to buy an iBook with a 20 gig drive. At the time of my purchase, the only way to do that was to buy from the Apple Store, and then build-to-order the larger drive... so that's what I did. While I was at it, I went ahead and added an airport card as well... seems to make sense for the network administrator of a wireless ISP to have 802.11b action in his portable ;). All told, I paid a bit under $1,800 for the whole thing, making it the most expensive thing I've ever bought. I don't like going into debt, so I saved up the cash and bought it outright... worth every penny, let me tell you :) I got a 256 MB RAM chip for like $65 from Trans International (2-2-2 speed code, thank you very much ;), leaving me with a pretty badass little laptop for under 2 grand... I'm very happy with it :) And now for the specs...

OS Mac OS X

Processor

500 MHz G3
RAM 576 MB
Drives 20 GB ATA
Atapi 24x CD-ROM
Display 12.1 inch TFT XGA Active Matrix
1024 x 768 @ 24 bit color
Size and Weight Weight: 4.9 pounds
Thickness: 1.35 inches
Depth: 9.1 inches
Width: 11.2 inches
Grahpics Rage Mobility 128
8 MB VRAM
2x AGP
Ports 56k Modem
10/100 Ethernet (auto-sensing)
2 12 Mbps USB
400 Mbps Firewire
VGA Video Out
AV Port for stereo audio or composite video out

Change log
  • September 4, 2001 - Bish is delivered via FedEx!!!
  • February 13, 2003 - He's still kickin' it. bish was *awesome* in the BVI - especially before all of our stuff made it out there, I am so glad I had him. Last month or so I swapped the 256MB so-dimm for a 512, and felt the difference :)
  • December 14, 2004 - Bish returns from Nick's, where he alternated between wireless router and workstation duties for several months. I've been using a company-issued laptop (12" 867 Mhz powerbook) for quite a while now.
  • January 28, 2006 - Okay, Bish is now illigible for social security. I no longer have a company issued laptop, so Bish is all I've got when I'm not at home or at work. I plan to buy a new laptop... currently I'm waiting for more intel apple laptops to be announced.

Here's some (dated) screenshots :)