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editorial An iMac
floppy for $49 ? Sound too good to be true?
I could see that "pioneer" look in his eyes: (this is the guy who once flew under the Eiffel Tower). I knew he'd mentioned the iMac floppy drive on Friday to Ric Ford of MacInTouch. Already Bob had been emailed a gazillion questions about it and had promised Ric that he'd write up a nice piece about it and solve the world's iMac no-floppy-drive problem and be a Hero. I put my hand over my mouth and smiled when he mentioned FedEx Saturday delivery (already this $49 floppy drive is a $79 drive, I thought to myself, but that's not the point, and it spoils the story). Bob will be Bob.
My heart sank when I sneakily read the instructions and realised there was soldering involved. He'd never said anything about soldering. I couldn't imagine Bob soldering, it's not his sort of thing. Bob is very knowledgeable, and he knows more about everything than anyone I know. But he is not what you'd call 'handy.' like soldering handy. And he doesn't have any soldering gear anyway. Already this episode was starting to smell of disaster; disaster that would need a helping hand (me), and be costly, both in $$s and in tempers. And off to the hardware store he went, all puffed up and clutching his credit card, but as my mother used to say "Pride comes before the Fall." And the floppy drive just sat waiting and winking at me on the table. I ignored it. Two hours later I could hear the rustle of big packages, and he said 'hello' in that funny way that always signals that he's done something I may not approve of. So I immersed myself in my usual pile of weekend paperwork, and acted small in the hope he'd forget I was there. .........."Come and look, Barb. People will really go for these kits."
I wish I'd listened when Bob had offered to show me how to use the digital Nikon Coolpix, surely this deserved pictures for the website story. Our table looked like a bench in the workshop of the Maker of The Crown Jewels. There were more jars and pots and gadgets on that table than on my daughter's dressing table. I pretended I hadn't seen the several credit card slip 'corners' poking out from under a book. He'd bought the gear alright, but the whole point of all this was the $49 floppy drive. How on earth could this be seen as an inexpensive exercise? Anyway, the long and short of it is that it didn't get installed on Saturday, despite all the "right tools for the job." Saturday was a day of aggravation; a total write-off both mentally and physically. Bob was so bad tempered that he wouldn't answer the door to any of the trick-or-treaters. We ended up barely speaking. His iMac was down for hours and it took him all Sunday to get caught up on his email.
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| Cost.......... | I haven't been shown the credit card receipts yet :) |
| Time........ | Down time of iMac so far is about 7 hours. |
| Results..... | None, yet. The iMac floppy drive sits on the table. The iMac still works, but I've noticed a few Bondi Blue 'bits' scattered around. |