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New PCs from manufacturers like Compaq, Sony, and Gateway have
gained some stylish design elements. Even the horrid eOne, with its
copycat design and upgradeability (limited by how big a
sledgehammer you have), looks better than a beige metal box.
However, these PCs all share a common trait: the optical drive.
(I'm calling the CD-ROM drive, CD-RW drive, DVD-ROM drive, or
DVD-RAM drive the optical drive for simplicity.) All these
computers' optical drives seem to have come from the very same
manufacturer.
Lets take a closer look at such a drive.
There is the tray, sometimes covered by a flimsy flap. There is
the headphone jack. There is the rectangular eject button. There is
the volume dial. There is the "Busy" indicator light.
All in all, it looks dull and geeky. Why am I mentioning this in
reference to stylish new PCs? Because they all have dull optical
drives!
Apple, on the other hand, insists on making the entire computer
look good. Ever since they started using optical drives, even when
they had iffy CEOs, Apple still made internal optical drives look
good on the outside. The new iMac's slot loading optical drive
proves Apple's commitment to a good looking drive has become even
more extensive.
Finally, Dell has introduced the WebPC - possibly the first PC
that has a good looking optical drive. Could this be the major
turning point in computer design? Probably not. A small touch that
shows how PC manufacturers are finally adopting Apple's concept of
relentless attention to details? No. They're not that smart. But at
least the people ignorant enough to buy a PC will have computers
that don't look as bad as they used to.
Modding Your Old Mac to Make It More Useful, Phil Herlihy, The Usefulness Equation, 10.09.
If your old Mac is too slow, too noisy, too plain looking, or has too little room for expansion, you might want to mod it.
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