The Hybrid

This was my very first iBook, from 1999. (That is, unless you count the one I borrowed for about two weeks while waiting for this one to ship. Waiting took forever.) This was my very first portable computer (and my first computer to use a wireless network, technology Apple had introduced to consumers at the same time this model was introduced), and this convenience changed everything. It would be several years more before I bought another desktop computer, and even then, this was only because I needed a larger screen size for the type of work I do. Otherwise, I might have never gone back to using one.

I haven't actively used this iBook since it was replaced by another model — same design, different color, this time a brilliant electric green — about a year or so later, but it still has enormous sentimental value to me.

It was lent out to someone for a few years, and some time after it was returned, I replaced the internal hard drive (mostly because I had another hard drive from another iBook that I couldn't find any productive use for), and that was no mean feat. I had thoroughly detailed instructions to follow, of course, but there are approximately 3500 tiny screws that need to be carefully unscrewed and even more carefully kept track of. I did all right, I suppose (I had only a few screws left over) but in the process of doing so I somehow damaged the logic board — everything worked except the speaker output.

So I bought a second-hand logic board. It came with the bottom of the computer attached, and that was blue (or "Blueberry"), instead of orange (or "Tangerine"), but it cost next-to-nothing, and that made all the difference. So I put everything in the bottom of my office closet for, I dunno, I suppose it's been three or four years.

Today, anxious for an excuse to avoid doing actual work, I decided I ought to finally replace that logic board. (I'd been putting it off as a project to do with my eight-year-old — he had watched me replace the internal hard drive — but I decided it'd just be easier to keep count of the 3500 tiny screws in peace and quiet.) Four hours and a few questions like "where does that tiny spring that I've never seen before go?," I have a somewhat refurbished hybrid Tangerine-and-Blueberry iBook.

It's almost achingly s-l-o-w-w-w-w by the standards I've become accustomed to, almost twelve years later, and amusingly, the screen size isn't wide enough to fit my photo blog, and I had to set up an ad hoc network because the hardware can't handle the more recent encryption standard my wireless network uses, and the battery will no longer charge, so it's a portable computer only in the sense that it has a handle — but somehow, despite everything, it still works. This delights me no end.