What kind of computers do you have in your office?

I ask because ours are terribly old -- Pentium IIs from 1998, according to the sticker on the back. And our paper bought them used, and they crash several times per night. I just wanted to know if, in lean economic times, this is normal or if the paper really is just that f-ing cheap.

 

We just bought Mac minis for the whole newsroom about a year ago. The things are pretty nifty.
Before that, we had iMacs that we had gotten sometime around 2001 or 2002. We do pretty well, I think, for a small paper as far as upgrading goes.

 

If you're using decade-old software and hardware to word-process and paginate, I suppose it would get the job done just like it did in 1998.

But checking e-mail and Teh Interubes would be quite the adventure, given the orders of magnitude of increased bandwidth and the number of versions of Flash that have come and gone.

 

We've got whatever G the Mac's up to now. G5s? Not sure. I got a new one last fall when they updated the computers as we moved from OS9 to OS10.

 

We're running G4s and G5s.

I have worked in Mac shops and PC shops and either can be fine as long as the networks are well-administrated.

 

The RAND home computer in that photo has a ship's steering wheel.

It also said the monstrosity could be in homes in 2004, if I can read that tiny type correctly, but the technology would not be economically feasible for the average home despite the teletype interface and "Fortran legacy."

 

No more G models because Apple doesn't use that processor family anymore; uses Intel chips instead. Power Mac G5 has been out of production for two years tomorrow.

 

Oh, OK, so we have whatever they're calling them now, you, you Mac nerd!

 

Macs ranging from the big'uns (G4s and G5s) to the little'uns (Minis). Pentium IIs from 1998? Holy cats.

 

Frustrated user: I don't know, it's just frozen.

IT Guy: Have you tried turning the wheel aft?

 

Try to heave-to and strike the mizzen staysail.