Yellow was the new white, white is the new black

As much as I like new technology and gizmos of all kinds, I’ve been using an aging G3 Powerbook as my primary computer for almost 6 years.  It was top of the line when I got it, and as far as Powerbooks go one of the sturdier models.  Back in the day I was using it to run Final Cut Pro and edit video.  Today, it runs OSX Tiger and all my essential apps just fine, but it’s been getting really sluggish and its 20GB hard drive is about to overflow.  Editing video, even watching a video, is pretty much out of the question.

This Friday I received its replacement, a brand new white MacBook!  I didn’t like the idea of moving to a smaller screen and having a glossy one at that, but so far I’ve loved it and it should meet my needs just fine.  (It’s also great that I didn’t have to pay for this, although at the end of the day it belongs to the university.)

The first thing I realized is that I had gotten used to a really crummy display.  What looked white to me on my old Mac is definitely a shade of yellow next to my new screen.

This reminded me of that old preacher’s tale about two frogs.  One was dropped into a pan of boiling water and jumped out immediately; the other was placed in a pan of cool water that was heated until it reached a boil.  The frog didn’t notice the gradual change and so it eventually croaked (eh hem).

I don’t think my case was as dire, but I have needed to amp up my glasses prescription with each passing year.  It’d be nice to be able to blame that on my old screen instead of getting older.