My old iBook gives me the finger. This is maybe the third time I've seen this screen since I bought this computer in December, 2001, so I should have known that seeing it wasn't a good sign. In the two weeks or so since I saw this screen, my computer started behaving a bit strangely, locking up completely for no reason, and without even giving me this friendly little "black screen of death." That also has never happened, except when the hard drive started failing in the summer of 2003. Apple replaced the drive and I had no further problems. Now, I think that computer is mostly dead (not completely dead), and so I've taken its advice and restarted—completely. ambivalent images is now coming to you from a new iBook G4. My pocketbook is still in agony, but the rest of me is very pleased.

Now I'm just wondering: Should a computer have a name? And if so, what should it be?