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— this is where I’d put my random quote… IF I HAD ONE!

Cult-o-licious

Photo Matt recently joined the cult of the Mac. I’ve considered doing this before, but it’s hard to justify the expense of a PowerBook—or even an iBook—when I already have a perfectly usable laptop. Also, I’ve heard many nasty things about problems with Apple’s hardware and tech support, plus the whole shamozzle surrounding Konfabulator/Dashboard, plus the whole scary cult thing. I’m no Windows advocate, but XP Pro seems pretty stable, and you can hack it to make it look almost exactly like OS X if you want.

Even so, I’d still want a Mac laptop except for one stupid, little thing: they only have one mouse button. If a computer doesn’t have two buttons and a clickable scroll wheel, I can’t use it. Command-click is not a right mouse button. Click and drag is not a scroll wheel. The arrow keys are not a scroll wheel. I know, this is absolutely the oldest and possibly dumbest reason people give for not using a Mac, but you can’t just replace the mouse on a laptop, and a mouse without a scroll wheel is like a keyboard without a space bar. I can handle Mac OS X and find hacks to make it work how I want, but I can’t change the hardware, so I’ll stick with my current laptop for now.

While I’m on the topic of computer hardware, I’m considering replacing my old Samsung SyncMaster 950p monitor with a new CRT or LCD. The problem is, I happen to be a fairly avid computer gamer, and I play first-person shooters a fair amount. These games depend on the ability to react quickly to what you see, and to do that you need a very responsive monitor that doesn’t have smearing issues, which rules out all but the most expensive LCDs, and I can’t really afford the models that are left over. However, instead of dropping a lot of money on a high-end LCD, I could spend a lot less on an even higher-end CRT which would be a better monitor and would definitely not suffer from the quirks of an LCD, but it would take up a huge amount of desk space, be difficult to transport, and be very heavy. Does anyone know of an LCD under $500 that is a 4:3 aspect ratio (remember, 5:4 ratio is bad), does at least 1280x960 resolution, and can handle a modern shooter like Unreal Tournament 2004? If not, it looks like I’ll be looking for someone with a forklift to borrow.