I begrudgingly dragged myself to the Apple Store this morning, since they got the new iMacs in today. I didn't want to look at them, and I certainly didn't want to buy one. But some otherworldy force, lets call it "consumer lust," compelled me to get the new 20" iMac. Being a student [ ;) --ed.], they threw in a free iPod and printer. Score! My apartment has that new mac smell now. I may buy another one when that fades.

At first blush, the monitor is a hell of a lot brighter than my 17 incher, but thats probably 4 years old now. At the time I bought the old monitor, I heard that LCDs lost half of their brightness every 2 years, but who knows if that wisdom is correct then or now. Syncing my data from my old computer was a breeze, using a firewire cable. It's worth the $5 cable to be on the ground running, rather than having to go through the tedium of starting from scratch.

I do wish they would package new macs w/out the mighty mouse. My mighty mouse at work is already having scroll ball difficulties after about a month.

So, now I'm trying to figure out what to do with my mini. I could always sell it on eBay, but isn't there a better way to treat old hardware? I wish it could automate my appliances, but my coffee maker already brews on schedule and my clapper works fine. I don't really shower, so there would be no point scheduling that. Does anyone have any ideas how to teach an old mini new tricks?