Farewell old friend, but I remember our good times together

When I first arrived in the USA in May 2005, the only computing device I had at the time was a Sun owned Toshiba Win XP laptop. Having been heartbroken at needing to sell my 18 month old Powermac when I left the UK, I quickly bought two new Macs, an iMac for putting in my new living room to watch movies and listen to music (also later functioned as a recording studio) and an eMac for work.

I'd always thought of laptops previously as being machines that you used when you traveled, so I didn't think much of needing my own laptop at first. But I soon discovered that the combination of a laptop plus wireless internet (which I had for the first time when I moved to the USA) was a pretty useful combination and made the myriad of things you could do with computers all the more interesting, if you were not chained to one part of the house on a desktop. So this Sun Toshiba began to get used more and more in my new house.

Sadly though, after suffering a series of bumps and bashes, it's hard drive failed in the Summer of 2005.

Having already bought two Macs, it seemed profligate to go and buy another, but the laptop was simply now too useful to live without, so I went off to the Apple Store to buy another - this time an iBook.

This became my most used computer for around two and half years, before it got replaced with an Intel Macbook Pro in November 2007. I think, although this is a difficult statement, that this machine may have been my favorite technology purchase ever. It was super reliable, rugged and was lugged around so many places that I have lost track, but the places include - at least five trips over the Atlantic to the UK, Atlanta GA twice, India twice and so many times up and down the SF Peninsula, that I have lost count. I even forgave it's keyboard for partially failing, it was worth it for the comic value of me not realising for weeks that it's "3" key was broken, so I was busy typing out erroneous numbers as anything with a "3" in it got missed out.

However, having sat about since the Macbook Pro's purchase, and as I'm undergoing a programme just now of turning excess possessions into money, I reluctantly decided last weekend it was time for the iBook to go. It managed to sell around 12 hours after being posted to Craigslist, which I thought was pretty good, particularly as for most of those 12 hours it was the night!

But of course, being a boy, I always feel a tinge of sadness when a piece of technology I bonded with so much goes, so I began to think about how many pictures the iBook ended up in (accidentally or deliberately), and I ended up with quite a gallery of good times with the iBook!

Molly the Dog watches David Jackson with Van Der Graaf Generator in Friokheim Scotland, October 2005.

Downloading pictures whilst camping near Aviemore Scotland, July 2006. I had invested in a gadget that allowed me to re-charge the batteries whilst driving and with my spare battery and the large battery life of the iBook, I was able to enjoy my sister's DVDs of most of Series 2 of the new Doctor Who whilst under canvas. A truly bizarre experience and watching those episodes again takes me right back to Aviemore in '06.

Writing my very first blog entry in my home office in San Jose, March 1997.

Hotel room in Chennai India in July 2007.

Hotel room in Bangalore India in August 2007.

Working away on my website, www.kirkcaldybands.com in Fair Oaks Street San Francisco on Labor Day 1997.

Working from home (kind of) using the garage's WIFI whilst waiting for my car to be serviced in Sunnyvale in October 2007.

The iBook's last long trip, over to Scotland then a stop off where it was pictured here, in my hotel room in Atlanta Ga in October 2007.

So although my old friend was getting a little slow with all the software I was running on it, it never did this! Having bought a new Macbook Pro, I then persuaded my employers to buy me an identical machine for traveling purposes, but it did this and needed to go to Mac hospital. It's taking me rather longer to bond with my Macbook pro.